YEAH!!! Novella is a BIG SISTER!!

So here is something new!! I am an Aunt again BUT I actually get to live near my new one and play!!! YEAH!!! LOOK at this awesome big sister!!! She is all ready to work here!
Here he is Koa, my new nephew!!

Can you say heavy load, Dan and I are his only Uncle and Aunt! We better step up and do a good job!!

He is SOOOO cute!!

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It has been great being closer so that I can actually help Mary, having a nursling of my own makes it a little trickier, but much more easily done than from Connecticut! :)

But as long as I have my trusty ergo (thanks Cynthia!!), then no problem!! Mary took this photo and named it "Baby Mule"!

So there I was walking a fussy Koa (Mary and Novella where getting a little time together), when Leili realised I was walking SOMEONE ELSE!!!! Oh the injustice!!! And then she just fell apart and wanted to nurse. So instead of disturbing Mary and Novella we plopped down and nursed and bounced these two cousins to sleep! :) Mary had another good laugh! :)

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We gave Mary a little recoup time before we brought the gang over to meet baby Koa!

Fern was so excited to hold a little baby (Leili is not so little anymore)! What a sweet little mommy we have!

Gosh Jake looks TOO old in this picture! He has been growing too much!! And Koa is wrapped up in the cowboy blanket Jake (and I) made for him. It is out of the same fabric Jake's "night-night" was made from.

Riley is so easy going, babies love him (as do animals, he's our Dr. Doolittle)! Koa may not have a brother but he has two boys who will just relish in being his "big brothers"!

Beware of the green monster lurking!!

Nursing, surprise surprise, there is alot of that going on theses days!! :)

So there we are sweet Koa pictures, don't worry there will be plenty more!! :)

PHOTOS!!!

And just a few words!

Sorry the photos are small I did not realize it until I had loaded quite a few! Opps!January 23 - Leili's first flight!

January 23 - Still under the same moon, just on Mars now.

Oh no, I have to remember how to drive on Calif. freeways!!! They are so big!!

Silly cousins enjoying each other!

The view from Mary's deck, yeah that makes it a little better!

So fun to see Novella!

Had fun at Mary's shower (I'll post sweet baby pictures soon)!

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And then thankfully my family FINALLY arrived, after everyone having the stomach flu and a few snowstorms!

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Grandma's Beach...

Jake.

Caves, I use to play in them too.

Ahhhhhhh.

All together!

Sweet Fern's footprint.

Jake got his very first, very own library card!!!

A little trip to see the San Diego temple!

Party at Aunt Mary & Uncle Ryan's!!

MMMM!

Adventure!

Nap time.

I use to catch these, I can't wait until the boys get quick enough!

Getting ready for love day, but it all got eaten before I snapped a photo! :) Yep I did alot of the eating!

We've been doing some gardening.

Lots of gardening.

MORE adventure!

Home, these hills make me smile.

Portrait of grass. :)

Yes we almost had a few wet people after crossing this! Leili had a good nap. :)

Fern hit 30 lbs. and graduated to a booster seat!! She is SO happy!

We've bought a couple nature guides...

Riley harvested some fern to try...

he's a great cook...

Maybe edible but...

Maybe not desirable!

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So here we are and now I am mostly up to date! Hope you enjoyed!

More From...

My deep thinking, watch out! :)

So obviously things have been pretty stressful in our lives lately, and it has been different for Dan and the rest of us to have him home all of the time. So one thing that an and I have discussed, thought about, prayed about, fasted about... is disciplining our children. We have had attitudes crop up, life is far from "normal" and who knows when it will return, but we still all need to enjoy each other and live together. I figured this is something most other parents have to think about from time to time as well so I thought I'd share a couple really helpful links.

One is just a short post that I really enjoyed the other day from Parenting Passageway. I think it is something we all need reminding of. It is HERE! She also has a whole section full of gentle discipline links on her blog here.

The other is a link that has sat over there on my side bar quietly for a while. I have always meant to highlight it but just never have! Now that I have this time to share crazy thoughts instead of pictures your finally hearing about it! :) It is from the David O. McKay School of Education at BYU. It is called YOU CAN DO THIS! A little awkward to navigate though, I wish I could print out a pdf of it, but it is all fantastic information. I hope you make the time to read it.

Still no photo to go along, but thats ok I think the picture in my header up there fits well for my thoughts today!

Things are different on this side of the country, REALLY different. I could write a million blog posts and still find more differences I am sure! But one difference is that there are just not as many big families here, and it seems with Leili's birth we were propelled into the category of "Big Family". I am sure some of it is the cost, it is expensive here, but I think most of it is the culture and overall view. As we are a homeschooling family, the kids go everywhere with me, plus we have already had some fun adventures that I promise to share once I get the pictures off my camera. So already I have heard quite often, "Wow, are these all yours?" or, "You have your hands full" and even, "Your busy". :) I usually always try to respond with something about being very blessed, or that they are all blessings. I have also started with things like I enjoy it or we have alot of fun too!

I also hear pretty often well meaning people who suggest that I need a break or sanity time. But really I had 4 children because I wanted to, and I homeschool because I enjoy having my children around (most of the time), plus I know I have found that if I start spending much time away from the kids then I seem to have less patience with them when I am with them. It is like a vicious cycle!

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my date night with Dan, and even other times I have by myself. But I don't need to be rescued from my kids! Except maybe after Dan has been on a long trip! :)

I am not perfect, I have bad days when I wish I was a teenager and could sleep all day. But overall I really enjoy my kids we have fun and I know they are truly a blessing from my Heavenly Father. And I know that this is my most important calling/job!

I recently found this blog post that I thought I would share, this gal is alot more eloquent and I agreed with her on this one!

I hope you all are enjoying your children today, if not ask Heavenly Father to help you enjoy them, He will help! Children are to be a joy! It also helps to peek at them when they are sleeping, there is nothing so angelic as a sleeping child! :)

9 YEARS AGO...

I became a mama, and here we are back to the same place again, San Diego, and the same address, my dads'. This is my favorite early photo of Riley I shared a bit back, what a sweet little one he was. Leili seems very similar to Riley as a baby except Riley slept, really slept. I miss sleeping. I miss quite a few things. But not the sun, I am enjoying the sun right now it is WONDERFUL! So having Leili has sent me down memory lane as I gaze at her and remember those first gazes as a mama with Riley, 9 years ago.

Sorry there is no picture of him today, I took one but you'll have to wait. I have a camera full of pictures to show you, but I have no clue where my camera cable is and I don't even have my computer. Not anyones high priority I guess, and well I am just not into computers enough to figure out all those wires. So I wait and dream of having a laptop (I dream big so it is a macbook in my daydreams!) so that I am never computer less again, that sounds blissful. :)

So eventually I will have something to blog again, but I could not let today slip away without sharing my nostalgic feelings.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RILEY!

XOXOXOXOX