My Baby's 1st Birthday/haircut

Matt didn't want to cut Zaccheus' hair, but I finally just did it! As you can tell from the before picture it was just way to long for a boy! Here is a before and after picture (I guess it's after and before). It doesn't seem like we waited this long with any of our other boys to cut their hair, but I don't remember for sure. He sure is cute though, isn't he!!!!!

Once again this posting is very late. It has been hard to find time to post. I know that is always my excuse, but it is always true. The past few weeks Matt has been working out of town a lot. We are VERY thankful for the work, but it is harder taking care of all the kids without him!

Anyway, Zaccheus turned one. Honesty it has been so long ago since his Birthday I don't remember who all was there, but there were quite a few that came over to celebrate with us and eat some cake and ice-cream. Zaccheus had his own little lady bug cake that he made a mess with. By the time he was done he was actually crying because he was getting frosting in his eyes! I put him straight into the bathtub after that. After getting all the frosting off I felt so sorry for the little guy. His skin was all splotchy and red. He has very sensitive skin and he was having a reaction to the frosting, poor little guy! If anyone has advice on what kind products are best to use for sensitive skin please let me know. (things such as shampoo, laundry detergent, lotion, etc.)

Zaccheus started walking at about 13 months, which is pretty close to the time my other kids started walking. Maybe because we have stairs and he learned how to climb them at a pretty early age; he is now an expert climber! He climbs down the stairs very well (Which is a relief, since I don't have to worry so much about him falling), but he also climbs onto the table, and pretty much anywhere he can get to! Yesterday morning he made quite a mess with some unfinished cereal bowls that is dear siblings left on the table!

Zaccheus is still very even tempered. There are times I get frustrated with his climbing, and getting into things, but he is very good. Even when he's not feeling good he's not too fussy. He gives sweet little baby kisses sometimes, and it's so wonderful when he puts his little arms around me and pats my back! I've even noticed when the other kids are crying that he goes over and tries to comfort them. He has been having some separation anxiety. When our other children were his age we left them with Grandma's to babysit fairly often, but not so much with Zaccheus; so he gets pretty upset when we leave him. It's nice to know he loves me, but I feel sorry for the babysitter!

Well, I've got lots to do; so that's it for now! I sure do love my baby!

Holiday Pictures

Garrison opening one of his gifts at home.
Anthony excited about opening his present from Gramma.

Daddy helping Zaccheus with his present from Gramma.

The cozy crowd in Gramma's living room.

A picture from the Brownsville Sister's party.

My crazy hair for Sis. Marisela's party (I won the prize by the way!)

Christian & his cousin Dale got the same thing from Gramma.

Ruby trying on her gift from Uncle Joel & Aunt Mary.

Zaccheus Pictures

I decided that it's been a long time since I posted more recent pictures of Zaccheus; so here they are...

In the wagon with his big brothers!Everyone comments on his bright blue eyes!
Yes, he climbs the stairs on a regular basis now. This was taken when he first started.

You can see all his teeth! He has 5 teeth, and for some reason hasn't gotten any more for a few months now. Five seems like kind of an odd number. Usually they come in pairs. Oh, well, I'm sure they will all be here soon enough!

This is a picture of his first couple of teeth. He did like his big brother Garrison, and they came in opposite of each other.

I just love his beautiful smile!

I love pictures like this of him with his Papa!

All About Ruby

Well, I've noticed how some of you give a whole post dedicated to your child when their Birthday comes along. I'm such a follower that I've decided that would be a good idea! I'm going to try to do this to. Considering that Ruby's Birthday was over a month ago, I'm not doing to well! Let me tell you a little about my one and only girl and then you can look at all the many pictures of her that have been piling up for the last couple of months just waiting for me to post them on my blog!
Ruby is now 6! She's already started losing her teeth. When her first tooth was loose Matt had us rush to Wal-Mart to get her picture taken before she started loosing them. He was worried she would look funny. I think a child with missing teeth looks cute! Anyway, here is her most recent professional picture (pre-tooth gaps). Sometimes Wal-Mart pictures are kind of mediocre, but I think they did a pretty good job.

These pictures aren't in order; so I guess I will tell you about her Birthday first and then her first day of school, even though it really happened the other way around. We didn't do anything really big, we just had some people over for some cake and ice-cream. I made the cake. We only got her one gift because it was really BIG! (and expensive). Sadly I don't have a picture of her with her new dog biscuit, but here she is opening the gift. You can imagine by the size of the box how big the dog is.

She wanted Biscuit for Christmas last year. When we saw that he cost $180 we sadly had to tell her there was no way we were going to be able to buy her Biscuit! Biscuit is a life sized, I believe Golden retriever, He is mechanical and has certain commands that he hears or feels and he will do them. He is very neat, but definitely not worth that much money for me, even to please my daughter! A month or so after Christmas last year Matt found one lonely little biscuit on clearance at Target. I believe he was 75% off. He was still pretty expensive, but we decided to buy him! He has been stored up in our attic ever since then waiting for Ruby's Birthday! She loves him!

Here she is posing by her gifts!

Getting ready to light the candles.

Since Ruby started school I've been consulting that web-site for new hair ideas. I've tried out quite a few of them, sadly I haven't taken very many pictures, but here is a few pictures of one particular hairstyle that I tried. It's similar to a french braid, but you only take hair from the bottom. This makes the braid kind of stand out, and it makes the hair on top flatter.

For this time they had me take the braid all the way around. Since then I have done 2 braids from each side, and then continued to braid them for a ways, then connected them together with a rubber band. I liked this way better, but I don't have pictures of it.

Ruby never went to pre-school. This year she is in Kindergarten, and she really likes it! She is in afternoon Kindergarten. She catches the bus in the mid-morning and then rides home on the bus with Christian in the afternoon. Anthony is actually in pre-school this year. He goes in the afternoon too. So for a couple of hours in the afternoon I only have 2 children. It is very nice!

Here is Ruby getting on the bus for the first time!

Look at that adorable gap in her teeth!

Here she is all dressed up in her new school clothes, and back-pack waiting for the bus:

Ruby is only 6, but she is a pretty good helper. I think she does a pretty good job of being Mommy's only little girl! There are times that she whines about the chores I ask her to do, but when she does them she is a big help to me. She is showing signs of wanting to help me cook. I've been trying to find ways to introduce her to cooking, and helping me in the kitchen that are appropriate for her age, and not too hard or dangerous. It is easier to just shoo her away and do it myself, but I want her to learn the things she should learn. I know I should take advantage of her eagerness now because in a few years she might not be so eager. I just pray that I can be the Mother I should be to her; so that she can grow up to be the woman that God would want her to be.

Did You Know...

I was racking my brain for some blog worthy material when I thought of this...

Many people who know me do not realize that my left hand looks like this:

When I was 2 (so I don't remember, but people have told me) we were visiting my Uncle Gene & Aunt Nadine. At that time they lived out in the country, and they had a bonfire. I guess the fire wasn't going, but there were hot coals. I was walking on the rocks around the fire and slipped. My cousin Brenda had some fast reflexes and grabbed me by the shirt before I could fall all the way in. These pictures show the scars from that fall. I'm sure the burns were bad, but I'm very thankful that the Lord watched out for me as a little child. If I had fallen all the way in it would have been so much worse.

Even people who know about the scars forget that I have them because they are not that noticeable. The scars have given my fingers a web look. They really don't affect me very much, except that I can't grasp things that are very big around, like large cups.

Anyway, so there's a little bit of information about me. If any of you are running out of blog worthy stuff, maybe you could post about some little known fact about yourself!

"No More Baskets!"

"MOM!", he said frantically!

His mom whipped her head around to see what was wrong.

This is what she saw (minus the smile):

"I don't have any more baskets", he said!

She laughed at him hysterically as she fixed his hat for him!

Craft Project pictures

Well, I finally got done with the camp out quilt, and sent it on it's way back home. I think it looks great! I plan to buy some tickets at the camp out in hopes of winning it! Here is a picture of the whole quilt...

Here's a close up of the center.

The quilt was sent to a few different assemblies to make a border. Each assembly put somewhere on their border, their assembly name. Ours didn't show up real well on the big picture so here is ours:

For our border we decided on the dark brown, and since there are so many children in our assembly we decided to outline our children's hands in different fabrics and sew them onto our border. I think it turned out really cute; so here are some close ups of the corners where we put our hands...

Here is the other project I made. I made this diaper bag for Sis. Cherrie as sort of a going away gift, but I remembered to take some pictures of it before I gave it to her. I was very happy with how it looked. I think it turned out to be a good size. There are lots of pockets for all the little do-dads that mothers need to haul along with them everywhere! I have plans to make one for myself. I thought about waiting to post until I got that one done too, but I wasn't sure when I would get around to it; so here are these pictures. The first one is a view of the inside. I have some ideas of some different embellishments for mine rather than the bow. We will see if they work out. When I get it done I will try to make another post.

An a slightly different note, I sold 2 of my blankets through Maminko, and got my check! The woman in charge is away on her honeymoon, when she gets back I will find out if she wants me to make more to replace them!

I have other pictures to make some more posts. Hopefully you all will be seeing them soon...

Happy 4th Birthday Anthony

Of all my children, Anthony is the most quirky. He definitely dances to his own drummer, that's for sure! I think it's the aspects of his personality that make him extra special also make him the most aggravating sometimes! He seems to be very creative. I've blogged before about pattern making. He's also very creative in his play. He'll take ordinary things and say that he's making things like a Birthday or a circus. He'll also bust up laughing about the weirdest things! I've applied to get him into head start. I think this might be good for him. Here is a picture of him being his little quirky self!

I would like to draw your attention to his hair cut. I've always thought this kind of hair cut looks really cute on little boys. For some reason this haircut won't work on Christian, but I gave Anthony this haircut and I think it looks very cute on him! I call it the "mushroom" hair cut.

For Anthony's Birthday we went to Shari's. On the weekends kids eat free; which is an awesome deal for us with all of our kids! On the actual day of his birthday we just had cake and presents by ourselves. Anthony got to pick out his own cake. I thought he would want a dinosaur cake, or something else that seemed more exciting for a boy his age, but this is the one he wanted. He definitely knows his own mind. Which is good, except for when what he wants is contrary to what I want.

Wow! My oldest is 7!

It is hard for me to believe I have a 7 year old! Christian is in first grade. He seems pretty smart for his age, but maybe I'm his mother and a little prejudice! I am amazed at the big words he can read. There are 6 students in his class that have harder spelling words than the other kids; and he is one of them. When we practice his math skills, he comes up with the answers pretty fast. I'm pretty proud of him!

As the oldest of 5 I feel like we expect more out of him. In some ways I feel bad about this, in other ways I feel like it is good for him. He's pretty good about helping around the house when he's not at school. Yesterday he gave the baby his bottle and I think that was one chore he didn't mind doing! I'm just amazed at how grown up he already is. I feel like he's a pretty good boy & I hope that we can do our part in bringing him up to be an excellent young man.

Christian's Birthday was actually last month, but it has just taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer.

Christian was actually pretty sick on his Birthday; so we celebrated it late. We took him to Chevy's for his Birthday. Here is a picture of him eating his ice-cream:

They gave him a cool hat that he got to keep and sang him Happy Birthday. It was a nice family outing together. We all enjoyed it. As the oldest of 5, I think Christian isn't the center of attention very often. I think it was nice for him to have this time in the spotlight. Our camera went dead so I didn't get a picture of him with his hat at the restaurant, but I just took some later:

Christian also had a party with Levi M. All the brethren here came over for cake and ice-cream. The boys opened their presents and then we all went skating. It was fun to spend the time with the brethren. I really enjoyed skating! Last time we all went I didn't get to skate because I was pregnant. My feet and back were sore, but I had a good time, and I think everyone else did too. Christian tried roller blades and did pretty good I thought.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!