Stuff about the Duff's

October 2014, still blogging!

2015-10-02T14:12:00.000-05:00

I'm officially a year behind in updating my blog on our family activities. Sigh. With instagram and facebook, is a blog a bit redundant? Maybe. However I like the archive aspects of it and making a family book out of it at some point as a family record. So I'm going to keep plugging away at it for now. But moving, working, homeschooling and having babies really makes the blog a low priority. I should be doing something else right now in fact. Anyway... on to October 2014.

First lost tooth!

We had a first lost tooth for Princess and many school projects of course. Dinoguy went to a merit badge fair for scouting and earned First Aid.

Building graham cracker houses for a school project.

Checking the family first aid kit

Mentos coke experiment for school project

He can make his own sandwich!

Newly 4

Brothers!

Happy dancing baby

October is still sports season and we had two sets of soccer games each Saturday to attend. Trainboy and Princess loved playing soccer and had a lot of fun. Dinoguy chose to do wrestling this year and so only had practices in October. It was nice to not have meets yet for him honestly.

Princess is in Orange on the far left

Watching his little sister play

One of my favorite pictures of him all year

As part of soccer, Trainboy, Dinoguy and I attended a women's soccer game at A&M. Trainboy helped escort the players on the field at the start of the game, earning us free tickets. The boys enjoyed seeing the game, it was fun to watch people who know what they are doing play the game. However during the game I realized both boys needed updated glasses prescriptions as neither could see the scoreboard.

My little guy had his 4th birthday. He is growing up way too fast and I don't think I'm cherishing it enough. He's pretty wonderful. It is hard not to compare him to his older brothers though. He has a similar temperament to my second boy which is endearing most of the time. He spends a lot of time asking if he's big enough for things the older boys do though. Since he has older siblings his childhood is very different from theirs. I am a different mom too. I'd like to say its all improvements because I'm more patient and loving but I also believe I probably don't spend quite as much time with him as I did them at this age. We do preschool activities and play games but I have so much else going on...well he plays well independently and with his sister at least. I find comfort in the fact that kids left to their own play are doing important work and developing creativity.

Breakfast in bed

Great candid photo of him!

Cupcakes on his birthday

His official birthday cake two weeks later

My oldest boy turned 12. His birthday was on trunk or treat day so we did cupcakes on his birthday and a cake two weeks later after we all came out of our sugar comas. This birthday was equal parts exciting and terrifying to me. He gets to go to youth group at church now instead of children's classes! He gets to go on more camp-outs and do more with the scouting program! He is getting so old though! He is growing nicely overall and I am really lucky to have him around, he is a huge help to me in so many ways. How do you have lots of kids? You have older kids to help with younger kids, that's how.

Every kid got to paint a pumpkin this year.

Two kids to a pumpkin this year. They were still happy!

Traditional pumpkin face and Lord Business from Lego movie.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We did our first (and probably only year ever) themed family costumes from Despicable Me 2. Fixitman was on board because it meant shaving his head to be Gru. I was Lucy, and we had two good little yellow minions and one awesome little purple minion. The older two boys chose literature themed costumes that I didn't really know much about, but made them happier than being minions! Dinoguy was a dark elf named Drizzt and Trainboy was Cadderly from the Cleric quintet. We went to a costume contest at Fixtman's work and won 2nd prize. Fixitman took the older 4 trick or treating for a little bit and they collected plenty of candy, in addition to all they received at the trunk or treat at church.

A co-worker was Dr. Nefario being carried by a minion. Natural grouping!

Minion family!

September 2014

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The biggest thing to happen in September was baby started walking. At 9.5 months! I was not prepared for it! Additionally there was the Improving Birth Rally, the beginning of a school year, visits from family, trips to museums, the beginning of soccer for Trainboy and Princess and wrestling for Dinoguy.

Mmm, homemade minidonuts!

Littleguy was not happy that he was not also starting soccer. I heard about it at every practice and game. I think a large part of it is this year he began thinking of himself as a "big boy" and therefore he should do all the things the big kids do right? Ah well.

Oh, and I got a horrible itchy rash all over my arms and legs and wanted to pull all of my skin off for most of the month. After two doctors and a steroid shot, it appears I am extremely allergic to poison ivy that our dog Sarge must have accidentally rubbed on me after playing in the park. I also lost pigment in my skin where the rash was in several places so you could see where the rash was for months. (no pictures!)

Baby walking! Since the older four kids walked between 11.5 and 12 months, I thought I knew what to expect. But this kid took his first steps this month and just kept going. He was walking all over the place by the end of the month. At the beginning he held out both arms like Frankenstein for balance. It was adorable. I have two videos, one from the beginning of the month when it was just a few steps and one from the end of the month when he was really getting good at it.

The birth rally...I was not as excited to do it this year but felt it was important and no one stepped up to take over. We held it on a Saturday instead of Labor Day hoping for bigger attendance at the rally and we did get it. But we also didn't get media coverage because it was an A&M football game day. Oh well. I had fun overall trying to bring awareness to a cause I believe in and I had support from friends and my sister was there!

Face painting at a party...he says it is something from Lord of the Rings

He loves all things dragon!

My brother, sister, brother in law, and nephew visited! So they actually came for some football game between BYU and Texas over in Austin but I was excited to have them visit. We went to several museums and had a great time. My sister also helped me re-cover my kitchen chairs and bench. She's awesome.

Picture with Uncle!

My sister came and helped me recover my chairs.

New shiny bench cover thanks to my sister.

I got in trouble for letting him touch this thing.

4 kids all engaged in the same part of the museum? Take a picture as proof!

At the Texas History museum, trying on armor is something my kids always love to do.

We started "official school" in the second full week of the month. Even though we homeschool and learn year round, it is nice to have a small celebration for the beginning of a new school year. I also like taking the pictures. I often don't realize how much older kids have grown until I look back at old pictures. Also, Princess is officially school age this year. I can't believe she is so big!

This year Dinoguy decided to try wrestling instead of flag football. He enjoyed it from the start. He would come home exhausted from practices. He lost some weight and gained some muscle from all of it. It seemed to be a sport that was right up his alley. Princess was excited to begin playing soccer like Trainboy. She loved it from the start. She isn't shy at all on the soccer field. She goes for it! It's fun to watch her age play, they are mostly all learning the basics. Trainboy was on a good team that won most of their games. He ended up getting lots of time playing goalie which he says he enjoyed.

She's the tall one!

August 2014

2015-03-15T22:41:00.000-06:00

My sisters, my daughter and me

August should be more than one post! But being more than 6 months behind, its just going to be one long post.


Trainboy is standing behind the block waiting for the previous event to end.

The first of August found Trainboy participating in the State Swim meet which was held in our city. He had qualified at regionals and enjoyed the experience. We also played in our yard; the kids quickly learned to climb the tree.

He loved his fire sunglasses!

For most of August, The kids and I took a long three week trip. The goal was mainly to remove ourselves from distracting Fixitman from working on his dissertation. Unfortunately he didn't really get anything major done while we were gone. We had a great time on the trip anyway!

This is her lego version of a bewilderbeast from How to Train your dragon 2.

First we went to visit my dear friend in Oklahoma who it has been far too long since we had a good visit. She has 4 kids and so if we were sane we probably would have just stuck to visiting the park. But why be reasonable when you can have fun? We went and visited several fun places in Oklahoma including a botanical garden with a splash park, a military museum, a wild west ranch, and a big park that would have a beach but the drought had caused the lake to shrink up. Two women and nine kids! I'm sure we turned some heads. Oh it was so much fun.

She introduced me to Zumba, we had a blast

Splash pad that is art. It was beautiful and fun! Baby isn't sure about the water flower.

Helping his brother to stand and escape the mist.

Cheese, now can I go play?

It had a cycle including rain, heavy rain, mist, water flowers and fountains.

In the children's botanical garden tunnel, all 9 kids!

At the military museum. Very cool.

Friends!

A game of favorite vehicle outside the museum

On a tower at the wild west house

Seeing herds of buffalo

9 kids and I after an old house tour. My friend took the photo.

An old merry go round you power with your feet. Reminded me of my great grandpa's happy go round.

The next part of the journey was to make it to Atlanta. Normally I drive straight thru to Atlanta but I decided to break the journey into two pieces and it was a good idea. I hate driving two days in a row but Princess threw up on the first day making it a long slow drive and I was exhausted by the time we made it to Memphis. I wish we had time to visit some of the sites there but we just crashed in a hotel and continued our trip the next day!

Crawling break at a rest area!

This tree heart wants you to remember its all about love

Kids running around at a rest area

game of red light, green Light

In Atlanta we visited lots of family. I have lots of extended family in the Atlanta area. My sister recently moved to the city to attend Physical Therapy school so she showed us Emory campus. I had wanted to visit some of the cool Atlanta museums but then I looked at prices. Not this trip! We did go hike Stone Mountain though, tradition!

Meeting Dooley at Emory.

Part of a huge awesome medical history mosaic wall

On the way up the mountain!

There are creatures in these pools on top of the mountain that don't exist anywhere else.

Tired from the hike. Nap with Auntie

Two beautiful flowers

We drove to South Carolina and started a week of wearing my mom out. I had a plan! We went to the beach three times, we went birding, we went to the battleships. We visited my grandma and we went to a plantation! It was fun to do touristy things and it was also fun to spend time at the beach. I love the Charleston area beaches. They are generally well maintained and the beach dunes are preserved enough to have beautiful nature as well. There were additional things I had planned that didn't happen but being flexible with a plan is important right?

Beach selfie with mom!

These two were instant friends.

Mom what is this taste?

We had a great visit to a plantation with my bro-in-law as tour guide. Free roaming sheep!

Kids loved seeing cebu. Thanks to a Veggietales song.

SO ROMANTIC! Loved this bench in this picturesque location

Tired gramma

Birdwatching in the morning!

Beach fun in the afternoon!

I asked him to pose for a picture since I almost never get one of him at the beach. He squeezed his brother.

My mom snapped this photo, it shows how Baby travelled. He didn't usually look worried like he does here though!

Everyone wanted to fly the plane!

Pretending to be captain of the ship was a great game

I had no idea how cramped submarines were!

More beach fun!

Aww, my sweet nephew!

Without his hat, his head is very white and reflective!

Helpful LittleGuy walks Baby around the beach

Baby nap time at the beach

Sisters!

Driving around the yard, they are adorable. Scared for when the truck is real though!

Family swim party!

Mommy help me! Helpful cousins keep bouncing me!

Trying to get all three littles was not a success

Cousin babies!

I think he's tired of pictures now

My sister and her sweet boy

Handsome!

Love this pose in her new dress

Uncle's tie matches my shirt!

Seven grandkids for my parents so far!

1000 miles to go to home!

It was a wonderful trip!When we returned, it was almost time for the school year to begin. We went to an opening social for Fixitman's department and the kids got the opportunity to ride some gentle horses. Then being helpful, Dinoguy locked the sliding doors on the van not knowing that BOTH sets of keys were inside. So we were the very last to leave and the kids went to bed quite late after waiting over an hour for a company to come unlock our car doors out in the country. Ah, adventure!

(Somehow I didn't get a picture of Trainboy on a horse, oops!)

July 2014

2015-02-27T23:14:00.000-06:00

Okay I am going to catch up at some point I hope...Here's an attempt!
July 2014 was our first month in our new house. You would think that means I spent the month unpacking and moving in. Well, I did some of the time. But I'm not fast at that process and its hard so I prefer distractions. Fixitman was also working a ton all month. So here are pictures of some of the things we did.

Our new back yard is nice. It has grass and a large Live Oak the kids like to climb. Here are the kids playing in their boat. A few weeks after moving in, we learned it was good to have a boat here - we are in a flood zone!

Baby boy is starting to be interested in other foods besides mama milk. Love these first feeding type pictures.

These three being cute on the bed.

He started pulling to standing! What is happening?

Eating Watermelon on Independence day. Such a handsome little guy. He does have pale blond hair, I promise!

Jumping on a trampoline at a friends' house. Look at that tongue!

Watching the fireworks that night.

Doctors appointment random photos

Daily walks in the neighborhood meant seeing the road crews repair and replace roads! The kids found this quite fascinating to watch.

The ditch behind our house was dredged out. If I'd known they were going to do it, there was a little baby palm tree I would have salvaged first!

Princess received a half-birthday party this year. A great way to enjoy the new splash park almost across the street from out new home!

Her cupcakes with blue frosting! She picked them, helped make them and decorate on them.

She received a bunch of fancy dresses for her dolls as a present. We ended up playing for hours together. Here is her collection all dressed up. You can see the guys have lower standards for the fancy dances. These are the same dolls I used to play with at my grandmas house when I was a little girl, and their wardrobes were definitely falling apart. Grandma gave them to Princess when she was 2, but now she's started enjoying them.

Being in a flood zone and with a ditch behind the house, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at all the frogs I run into outside at night!

Summer and picking tomatoes in a friends' garden. Yum!

There was a regional swim meet. Pictures of swim meets are difficult. Here's a picture of a sweet sleeping baby instead.

Okay one picture of the swim meet. What? You can't see one of my boys immediately?

Look at this guy stand!

He still loves crawling though and has started coming to get the camera.

This boy went to a math camp. (At his request!) He had a blast and made a short computer video.

Summer is hot. Of course we went swimming!

I let the kids pick my new sunglasses. Purple!

We went to the Houston museum again. It's another fun way to keep cool in summer.

All the kids with their friend Sloth-zilla.

How can I say no to this face?

Lastly, a picture of my haircut. It's a rare enough thing that I had a picture taken. :)

June 2014 Activities

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Princess and Little Guy petting a bunny rabbit at a Summer library event

June was mostly spent packing and preparing for a move at the end of the month! But Trainboy had cubscout camp to attend and Dinoguy received his first pair of glasses. Princess took swim lessons for the first time officially and did awesome. Little Guy was upset he didn't get swim lessons also. Baby learned to crawl forward and sat independently. Both older boys had swim meets and we tried to make decluttering and packing as fun as possible. We also went blueberry picking and baked up a storm of blueberry goodness. Oh, and just to make the month as busy as possible, I had a genealogy based trip planned so Dinoguy and Baby went with me to Oklahoma for the Chenoweth Bi-annual reunion. Faster than we wanted, the move arrived and we transported all our belongings 12 miles up the road to our new home.

Happy baby on a walk

Having fun pushing baby at the park

Little Guy made "dragons" out of his duplos

Trainboy getting sorted for a race at a swim meet

Dinoguy up on the blocks at a meet

Get ready to swim!

Handsome boy who can buckle himself up (with a little bit of help)

Trainboy waiting for his race

Getting ready for backstroke!

We decided not to take Princess' cardboard castle. But instead of throwing it out, her dad filled it with fireworks and we had a fun burning party.

We took pictures of some art work before letting it go. What a nice elephant!

Trainboy became pretty good at Indexing names in Family History

Picking delicious blueberries!

Yum!

Baby discovered the joy of pizza crust

The only picture I can find from the Chenoweth reunion trip. We had a great time.

Fixitman and his handsome red tinted beard

Father's day breakfast and Baby trying to grab some food

This guy was able to sit up and crawl forward this month!

Dinoguy prepares to eat his delicious banana bread

The handsome new glasses

He believes all water bottles belong to him.

Dinoguy at the regional swim meet

Baby pictures while we wait at the swim meet

Trainboy preparing to swim

An old clay creation picture before we left it behind. It is a Garfield sculpture that he carefully created many details and painted. But it is broken and wasn't going to make the move well. So a picture before saying goodbye.

Tape hair! We purged some old cassette tapes

Princess had a blast at swim lessons. She learned all the skills they teach 5 year olds.

Before moving out we let them hit the walls with hammers a bit since the house was being demolished. They had too much fun and did way more demolition than I wanted.

Helpful missionaries who helped us move.

Goodbye old house. But the baby in the basket is coming with me!

May 2014 Trip to Utah

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My sister had her first baby in April and I was very excited to see the sweet new baby. We decided to have just Baby and I fly to visit her because then I could actually be helpful to her instead of bringing my entire brood and overwhelming her little house with noise, germs and craziness. Also, it was too long of a drive for me to do by myself with 5 kids and Fixitman couldn't take time off. So at the end of May, sweet Baby and I got on a plane and headed for Utah. It had been almost 10 years since I had last been on a plane. Not much has changed besides security being more annoying. However the miracle of transporting myself to Utah from Texas in just a few hours made it well worth it.

It also meant I was able to take lots of pictures of two sweet baby cousins together!

My sister is a loving mom. She is very considerate and thoughtful of her sweet baby. My brother in law is also awesome and always thinking of his wife and baby. I loved seeing their sweet family together. I attempted to be helpful and give them more tools for baby care while I visited. Our mom had been there right after her baby was born. However now that he was 2 months old I thought there might be things with which I could help.

Baby asleep in a swaddle, on his side with dad. (The 5 S's are fabulous!)

In Utah you can put babies on the grass without fear of fire ants!

They are holding hands - sort of.

Love this guy and all his hair!

Baby turned 6 months in May, so he was experimenting with new foods. Watermelon was a favorite.

Helping his Aunt learn how to wear a baby was a fun adventure!

Fixitman's parents came down from Idaho to meet our new baby. They also brought fun genealogy things for me to look at!

Mmm, yummy celery!

It was a great trip! I enjoyed spending time with my sister and her family very much. Playing with a new nephew was awesome.

Here at the end is my brother in law dribbling the soccer ball with his feet and knees. We made this video for my son who likes soccer. I think this is so impressive!

Photos from May 2014

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May 5 is the day we learned we'd have to move away from our country house that summer. It was not a planned or desired move. However when you rent, unexpected things like your home being sold out from under you happen. As a result, I spent many hours in May searching for a new place for us to live. We did have some other fun activities though.

I ran in another 5Kwith a friend. It was my first trail race and I was worried most of the time that I was going to fall and twist my ankle. I managed to finish without that happening. I even got a faster time than the last race!

Dinoguy came with me to the race. He passed out water cups and cheered for me. That was fun!

We ordered more butterfly caterpillers. Princess requested them but we all really enjoyed watching the butterflies grow, make chrysalises, and hatch. We learned lots about nature from it. I love seeing their tongue uncurl to drink juice!

Trainboy had a few more soccer games to play in at the beginning of the month.

Baby started cutting his first teeth! Trying to take a picture of it was not easy.

Little Guy wearing a bow tie for church "just like dad"

I had fun on a cub scout cooking project with this sweet boy.

Dinoguy earned ranks and merit badges at a court of honor.

Trainboy got new glasses.

He picked them out and when we got home they were similar to Dad's new glasses!

Baby started moving backwards. This means he got stuck under the couches!

Swim meet season arrived. Both older boys participated.

Trainboy participated in a piano recital. His piano playing skills are progressing nicely.

This kid kept me laughing. He's a sweet one.

And I took lots of pictures of this sweet baby.

That's a quick summary of May!

Things we did in April 2014 Part 2

2014-12-10T09:46:00.000-06:00

More snapshots into our April.

Dying easter eggs

Dinoguy playing baseball

Holding a Passover Seder dinner with friends

My birthday cake

Bathtime!

Swinging outside!

Seeing the Texas longhorns on a run

Loving this baby

Going to an 80's party and dressing up in silly clothes

Easter egg hunt!

Easter lilies!

Sweet sweet baby

Fixitman's birthday cake

Hatching butterflies. There is a chrysalis, a new butterfly drying its wings and one eating orange juice in this picture.

Going to Galveston beach with friends

Baby still had to nap!

Sand play!

Seaweed and sandcastles

Dinoguy was always in the ocean

Becoming braver at the beach

Digging a giant hole

Filling it with water

Hard work at the beach!

My girlfriend and I take a selfie

Trainboy had more soccer games!

Baby found his feet were tasty

Running the BlueBell 5K with friends and my brother!

Wearing tutus is for awesome people.

It was a busy, fabulous month!

April 2014 Things we did part 1

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April is a busy month. Here we go!

I was lucky to get to attend several exclusive concerts by these musicians:

Puzzles and games were played quite often. The game closet was a well used source of fun for the kids.

Baby continued to grow cute and adorable. His baby hair became blond and invisible to pictures. Siblings continued to love to hold and cuddle him.

Here's that castle Princess started coloring last month, now almost finished.

Dinoguy practiced beautiful music on his violin.

We enjoyed our zip line. Little guy found out he loved it once he was willing to give it a try.

We watched LDS General conference and did lots of crafts.

Baby was at the age to sit in a bumbo to be part of family fun. Here he is learning about his brother's silliness.

Family breakfast for conference of chocolate waffles with strawberries.

Examining the resemblance to mom in a selfie.

Dinoguy was in a small orchestra accompanying a choir. It was a long concert.

Wonderful spring weather meant lots of walks. On this one, the kids decided they needed pictures taken.

Pictures in the Bluebonnets (March 2014)

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We finally took pictures in our seventh year of seeing the bluebonnets here in Texas. It is a common tradition here and you will see people stopped along the road to snap pictures in fields during the two weeks they are in blossom. They are beautiful to see and I have meant to arrange for pictures during them for several years. However it is usually a busy period in the spring when they happen as well and they are usually gone before I realize it. This year I did arrange for a friend of mine to take some photos of us in the bluebonnets and they turned out so well!

March 2014 Activities

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March 2014 brought many fun things. During Spring Break week the kids and I met cousins at the zoo and went to the natural science museum. The weather is fabulous in March and so there was lots of outdoors play. The pinewood derby happened and of course we had lots of other fun projects at home. Soccer started up again, Baseball season got underway and Baby continued to become more interesting and interactive.We were also given a zip line for Christmas. We finally got it set up. Kids loved it.

Dinoguy on the zipline

Fixitman reading books to our babies

Dinoguy tries out a Texas style bolo tie.

Princess breaks out her coloring castle. It took her 2 weeks to color it and it lasted for months. Great toy!

Sweet baby kept growing!

Potty training success for Little Dude meant getting to eat an entire chocolate bar.

Handsome men!

At the zoo with cousins

Look at the buffalo!

Princess had a blast in the sandbox with cousins. Probably one of the highlights of the zoo.

It was a hotter day so the cool temperature in the aquarium was a welcome change. Group photos weren't a success.

My nephew was not happy about all the noise.

Learning about science at the museum.

Look at the dinosaurs!

Baby wasn't impressed.

Faberge eggs.

Look I can hold my head up!

Swinging at the park

Making a cake for a fun project with Trainboy. Had an oops with the frosting. He didn't care.

My soccer player after a good practice.

Lego creations

We participated in a co-op that included art time. Princess was in heaven. She loves painting!

Playing in a creek at a park

Self portraits by my kids. Love it.

Pinewood Derby fun!

He got third place overall with his "pi" car.

Haircuts! Always an event that I procrastinate.

First baseball game for Dinoguy.

He got the gameball for a helpful play that resulted in a rally by his team.

Baby Blessing (February 2014)

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Welcome to the family sweet baby!

Our new sweet baby was given a name and a blessing at our church in February. It was a long busy wonderful weekend. My dad flew in for the weekend and the kids loved playing with their grandpa. Many games of Uno were played and time was spent playing catch and eating delicious Texas BBQ as well.

Playing catch with Grandpa

Then on Sunday morning early I drove about 1.5 hours away to pick up Fixitman's niece who is serving her mission there! She was given permission to come up and join us for the day which was really neat. She also got permission to hold her new cousin!

Our niece and her newest cousin!

Missionaries usually serve in pairs and stay with their companions all the time. Instead of her companion coming with her though, a girl who was preparing for a mission and lived in their area served as her companion for the day while I served as a companion with our niece for the day. It was 1.5 hours each way so I drove for 6 hours that Sunday so she could join us and make it back to her mission service that evening. Gratefully Baby is a good car traveler and as long as he was fed regularly did not cry. My dad also helped me with the driving in the evening when I was really tired.

Blessing day

This is my fourth son and they have now all worn the same beautiful blessing outfit that my mom made back when Dinoguy was born. What made it extra special is my sister's son has also worn the outfit now and I have now sent it on to my other sister for the upcoming blessing of her new son. It's becoming a family heirloom! Baby was almost 3 months old when we blessed him and the outfit still fit but was definitely tighter than it has been on any of the other kids! We had tried to schedule a weekend when more of Fixitman's family could attend but things didn't work out, so that just made it more special to have my dad and our missionary niece there.

My sweet fifth baby

Baby blessings aren't required ordinances, but serve as an official naming ceremony of the baby and putting them on church record as part of our family. They are also a great chance to give the new child a father's blessing and welcome them into our family with a small celebration. We celebrated by making good food - my husband's special macaroni salad and delicious sandwiches made for a relaxed but delicious Sunday afternoon supper after church.

Cousins!

Our sweet new baby boy is named after a recently deceased uncle of Fixtman. His name has personal meaning from our genealogy on both sides of the family. All of my kids hold names from our family genealogy because I want them to remember their ancestors who came before them and gave them a legacy of faith and love. They also provide examples of good people who lived good lives as examples for my kids. So Fixitman and I put a lot of thought into the names we give our kids. We want their names to be someone from family history, someone who was a good person, a name we like the sound of and works with our last name, and when the baby is born that fits their personality. We had a different name in mind as a likely name before this sweet baby was born that did NOT fit him at all and we spent some good time choosing another name and seeing if it seemed to really fit him before settling on his name.

Baby and Grandpa

I now wish we'd tried for a family photo with all of the kids but I didn't think of it at the time. People sometimes aren't keen on all my picture taking plans and I'm just happy for the pictures I have. Ah well. He's sure a cutie. We love him bunches and are so glad he is part of our family now!

Love him.

Celebrating Easter all week

2014-04-14T12:59:00.002-05:00

Dying Easter Eggs 2013

It's almost Easter. In fact it is Holy Week and I want to do some nice activities with my kids to help them remember our Savior and learn about the significance of His actions this week. It is a little late to be planning but I made a simple plan for each day this week, trying to bridge the interest levels of my kids and incorporate family traditions and favorite activities. My goal is to celebrate and teach but keep it low key and reasonable.

The first thing I'm doing is downloading the Easter All Week booklets for the scriptures and simple summaries of what happened each day of this week. We did these before but it has been a few years and I doubt my older boys will remember.

Then in addition to the scripture readings, for my younger kids I'm reading an Easter themed story each day and for all of the kids we'll have a simple activity. While I wish I had started with something yesterday on Palm Sunday, I think it'll be okay to start today.

The books are ones I have in our personal library or have borrowed from the local library. I got ideas for books from this list.

Monday
Book – The Little Duck by Judy Dunn
Activity – Plan of Salvation puzzle