I'm Back

So I am going to make time to blog again. I can't believe it has been two years. I still need to figure out how to down load pictures though because I really think it makes the posts come alive and it makes me be better about taking pictures. The kids have grown so much I can't believe I have an 8th grader and Abby goes to pre school. We have also moved since I last blogged. I really can't go back and cover all that we have done in the last two years but I am going to push forward from now and blog from here on out.

tender mercy...

This is just a quick tender mercy moment that I wanted to share. All summer long the kids did swim team and it was alot of fun. Grace in particular did very well and was the best in her age group, usually getting first in her age group at whatever she swam. We did do a few invitational meets where they give each swimmer points for what they place in each of their events they swim. Well we never swim on the Sabbath, so at each meet she never ranked high point because of receiving zeros for all the sunday events. The very last meet was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday meet and the NVAL championships with literally hundreds of kids there and several in each event. We decided to go because usually butterfly races on Sunday, but this meet it was on Saturday and that is Graces best event. Well right off as she started to swim she forgot what she was doing and did a free style stroke before starting her butterfly. An automatic DQ. I was so disappointed but later we found out the judge had been DQing everyone so they threw out all her DQ slips including Graces. She won the event. She didn't get high point because of our not swimming on Sunday but she had accumulated enough points in 2 days to get 4th high point and receive a trophy. Practically impossible for not swimming all days of the meet. Had she been DQed for he butterfly she would not have even had a chance to get high point. Just a tender mercy from heavenly Father for our sweet Grace. (this was in the draft box from 2008)

Abigail is 2

Abby turned 2 on June 4th and I like to do a birthday post for each one of my kids birthdays and I am finally getting around to Abby's special birthday post. Looking back on the day she was born a few things stand out in my mind. She was a scheduled cesarean so I know it was a Wednesday because that is the day Dr. Ainsworth, our doctor does C- sections. We didn't know if she was a boy or a girl and we only had a boy name picked out which was Christopher Ian after my nephew Chris, Leah's son and of course Ian. The anesthesiologist was named Christopher so he was really rooting for a boy. When you have a c-section there is a big sheet between your head and stomach probably to keep you from freaking out but you can actually feel all the pulling and tugging that is going on. Really it is quite a strange experience. When they were pulling Abby out, one of the nurses said, "oh it looks like a football player.........no it's a cheerleader." And she was here all 9.4 lbs of her. I was so happy to get a sister for Grace. I was really wanting to name here Ruby before she was born, but Ian would never agree to it, thankfully because she has turned out to be a red head. My dad had been doing lots of genealogy and there were all kinds of Abigails and that just seemed right so we went with Abigail Kathryn as her name. Now she is Abby and every so often Abs and Aunt Leah throws in a Gail to mix things up here and there.
There are some definite thing I adore about Abby
Her crazy curly red hair, sometimes in the morning before it has been wet and brushed, it cracks me up.
Her big brown eyes that she talks with sometimes, it's hard to explain but she does this kind of blinking thing that is so cute.
She wants to do things herself, I often hear,"Abby do it" from her and she usually surprises me with all she can do. You have to love independance.
She loves to give hugs and usually will greet people she knows well with a big hug.
She is tough, it seems since she broke her arm and then was in the hospital with an IV and all the needle pokes there, that all the day to day ouches don't bug her a bit.

It is so fun to hear her learning to talk and all the funny things she does. I'm thankful the Lord trusted me to have her. I know I fall short as a mom so often but truly there is nothing else I would rather be than a mom.
Happy Late B-day my little red caboose.

Life

I know, I know I'm way behind but it has been a couple months of craziness. Not just the end of school, baseball and swimteam have been consuming our lives but we have had sickness after sickness. It first started with Abby in the middle of May when she could not keep anything in and got very dehydrated and had to spend a night in the hostpital and was sick for two whole weeks. It then moved to Bradford but luckily he was only sick 5 days and seemed to handle it much better. Then it moved to Ivan who was also very sick for 2 whole weeks and lost alot of weight for his already skinny body. Poor Ivan missed some practices for All Stars baseballand went to practice for a week while still being sick. He just now seems to be getting his strength back and looking more like the old Ivan. So enough with all the excuses, That's life and I will do better!!

BIG BOY BRADFORD

Bradford had his birthday Monday, April 26th. I can't believe it has been 4 years. He was a planned Cesarean because Grace had been an emergency Cesarean, so the safest bet is to just go that way from then on out. He was about a week early of his due date because that's how they schedule those and Doctor Ainsworth, our doctor for all the kids only does those on Wednesdays, It was early in the morning at about 7:00am. Probably the biggest thing I remember besides Bradford's weight 10.9lbs. was that the Friday before he was born Ian had to get his appendix taken out. Prior to that happening I was so excited because he finally had a job where he could take some time off to help with me and the baby. With all the other kids he had to get back to work the next day so this was going to be a real treat. Wrong! He ended up coming home the Friday before the scheduled birth in pain and spent the next day getting his appendix out and in the hospital for a couple of days. Ian was there for Bradford being born and all but was really not feeling well and probably doing way more than he was supposed to.
I remember the weeks leading up to Bradford being born I could tell he was big and I kept asking the doctor how big he thought he was, he just kept saying, he'll be around 8lbs. Then when Bradford was born the doctor came back in to see me while I was in recovery and he asked how big I thought he was, of course I had no clue but he seemed to beam when he told me 10.9lbs. When I said "you told me he would be around 8lbs" he quickly replied, "that was a few days ago, he gained weight since then." Funny!
While I was waiting in the recovery room they gave Bradford some sugar water and formula because I wasn't there to nurse him and they said his blood sugar was low. This made for a rough start with nursing him. The nurses kept saying things to me like, "well since you are diabetic......" Finally when Dr. Ainsworth came to check on me a few days later I asked him if I was diabetic and he told me, "no, but people always assume that when you have a big baby." Bradford also had jaundice for about 6 weeks. His little eyes were so yellow and I was taking him to the doctor over and over because I was so worried. And setting him in the sun of the windows every chance I could, I would move him around the house as the sun moved during the day. I think all the stress I was feeling plus Ian having just had his appendix out and my expectations of how nice it was going to be to have Ian home for a while with this baby made for a very hard couple of weeks with lots of panic and crying on my part. Oh those early struggles of motherhood!
Now that my baby boy is 4 I want to share some things that are so funny and special about my guy.
He has the best sense of humor, seriously a very witty little kid.
He is soooo smart, if watched him do a puzzle, his favorite thing lately, you would be as amazed as I am. He also loves to color and comes up with some amazing art work, must be because he's left handed.
When he wants his way with something he threatens me with things like, I'm going to get unbuckled then, it's pretty funny and the way I can always threaten him back with things like, then Davis, (his best buddy and cousin) won't be able to come over then and his reply is always the same "Oh fine" So funny!
He has been the only one of my boys to ask me to marry him and is always bringing me things saying, "this is for you mom." He's so sweet. He also says thing to Abby all the time like you are beautiful and the other day in the car he said, "Abby your eyes sparkle like diamonds." Not quite sure where he got that but I loved it.
He loves for me to tuck him in and will always say,"lay down by me, it won't take very long." When I do he usually after a little while will say, " okay you can go now, I told you it wouldn't take long." So I guess he's a man of his word.
He is so tough. Saturday he was helping Ian and that night when I gave him a bath he had a huge scrape on his rear end, not just something little but like road rash the size of my hand. When I asked what on earth happened he didn't know. Now that's tough.
He loves to help his Dad and Uncle Erik outside and do all the kinds of things little boys love like hunting and riding the quads which is often included in his prayers.
I love that too, how he says what's on his mind in his prayer and they can be so funny , I'm sure Heavenly Father gets a real kick out of his prayers.
Recently he mentioned to me how Grandpa Warren has big ears and later in his prayer he said he was thankful Grandpa Warren has big ears. Funny kid. Speaking of Grandpa he said he wants to be like grandpa and have glasses but not a green toe.
Anyway I think I have written enough for posterity sake. I love my big boy Bradford and am glad to have him in our family.

Here is an example of some of the treasures Bradford brings me, what girl wouldn't want a "rock" instead of flowers, right?

Happy Birthday Buddy!!

Easter dresses

This year I didn't buy Easter dresses for the girls, we had some that we had been given and I just bought the ribbon so they would kind of match. I love these curly haired girls. I know I'm their mom but seriously, they are beautiful.

I got some good news and I got some bad news.....

hmmmmmm, what do you want first. I think the bad news then I can end on a high note. Ivan broke his finger at our family Easter Egg Hunt Saturday. He and some of his cousins were on the.... yes you guessed it.... trampoline. Ben who is 12 was trying to jump over Ivan's head, (a game called steamrollers, with a name like that what do you expect!!) but as Ben jumped Ivan stuck up his hand and it caught on Ben's clothes and snap. Ivan was really very tough about it, in fact we continued on with our day and I think I turned into my father because I told him we would wait a couple of days and if it still hurt we would take him in. As the party was drawing to a close I could see he was still in pain so we called Brother Cherry, a chiropractor in the ward to see if he would take x-rays. He did and yes it was broken, not just cracked it was all the way through. Ian took him to Urgent care and when the lady was rude about him bringing his own x-rays he left, we experienced with Abby that they just put a splint on and you go to an orthopaedic doctor the next day. He went to Walgreen's and got the goods to take care of the finger and came home. When Monday rolled around we took him to a Doctor and were told he would need surgery. Thank goodness Ian has the spirit and priesthood to know what is best for our family because he decided we should get a second opinion and this doctor along with his partner, who he consulted said there was no need for surgery. I feel much more at ease with this prognosis. So the bad news is that Ivan broke his finger and the good news is no surgery and he will get the cast off in 3 weeks. He will miss 6 baseball games but will still have 9 left.
Another bit of good news was Easter and General Conference. We were able to spend Saturday with my family and Sunday at Ian's sisters home. General Conference was awesome and gave me a desire to be a better mom. We shared the resurrection of Christ story with our kids from a book that mom Pietz gave us Easter morning before the kids, daddy and uncle Erik searched for their baskets. It was my favorite part of the whole weekend and will definitely become a tradition. All is well, all is well.
Ivan sporting his sea blue cast.

I love this picture from Saturday's hunt.

Davis and Bradford, best buds!!

Is Abby excited or what?

The younger Warren cousins, What good looking kids.



Erin and Charly's was WET, WET, WET, but FUN, FUN, FUN!!!