Line Upon Line Greeting Cards

I love this line of greeting cards! They're Mormon-y without being too lame.

Here are some of my favorites: I think Cheerios under the car seat should count as a 72-hour kit.

You're such a good mom.

Families are Forever.

I hope you like your in-laws.

I heard that Latter Day Saint women stop having kids after 35...

I guess they think having 36 kids is just too many?

Born of goodly parents

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby. If I were still in the pre-existence, I would have chosen you, too.

I am convinced that of the ten virgins five of them had callings in Young Women and that's why they never got the announcement.

We miss you in Relief Society!

Elder's Quorum Movers and Shakers

Thanks for the cheap labor.

Count your blessings - name them one by one

1.) me

Birth Announcement

Tia insisted I put some pictures here of the announcements for Mary that we put together on Saturday. But, here are the numbers, folks: I have 8 brothers and sisters, 3 sets of grandparents, in-laws, parents, friends, and concourses of cousins and distant rellies. And we only made a mere 12 announcements. If you actually get one of these beauties in your hot little hands, consider yourself blessed. If you never see one of these in real life, who cares? It's just a super-cute birth announcement. Tia did most of the work, obviously. I only printed out the pictures and announcement while she did all the artistic aspects. She's a 2nd-gen stamper.

Mary Fiona

It happened, but only because my midwife showed forth mercy.

I went to my appointment on Wed., May 7th and asked when the soonest would be that she would induce me. "We'll induce you anytime after 39 weeks. So, we could induce you tomorrow."

That was all I needed to hear. We scheduled the elective induction for the next day and voila! We had a baby on Wed., May 8th at 12:48 p.m.

She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and measured 19 1/2" (and that's our smallest baby!)

She's obviously gorgeous! Enjoy the pictures.Just minutes after she was born:

That shiny stuff on her eyes are antibioticsI feel better already!I think Joel is still overwhelmed. He keeps exclaiming to himself, me, the kids, and people over the phone, "We're a family of six now!" Take deep breaths, honey.

This is my favorite picture. Good photog, Joel!Here's a photo shoot a couple of days after she was born:

We have a tradition that started when we came home from the hospital with Asher. We laid Asher on our bed and Lincoln, still just 1, ran into his bedroom and brought out Ralphie, Joel's old cabbage patch kid and laid him next to Asher. It was like Lincoln was laying his baby Ralphie next to our baby Asher. We also snapped pictures of Clara with Ralphie (and Ed, seen here) Mary enjoyed her photo op with these guys, as well.

New Jedi Math

So, at Lincoln's first SEP his teacher showed me these great pictures that Lincoln had drawn of tigers, snowmen and holiday-themed motifs. They were the kind of pictures a mother could frame, journal and dedicate a shrine to on her refridgerator. Mrs. Gunn gushed about his abilities to really put in the time to make a quality picture regardless of whether he was the first one finished or not. Awesome.
Lately in his notebook and journal, I've noticed a thematic shift to everything Star Wars.
This week he brought home a complex math problem that further leads me to believe that the Force of the Green is still strong in him. Let me sum up: If there are 2 Jedi fighting and then 3 more come, that makes a total of 5 Jedi. Obviously the quality of work is above kindergarten par both mathematically and artistically.
I'm just glad that these abilities are not wasted on trite, pop-culture-driven money-makers like Hannah Montana or Dora the Explorer.

Man with Flying Machine (or Tarp) Attempts High Flying Stunts

So, we took a trip to the sand dunes last week.Other than being a titch windy, the weather was perfect.Obviously, so was Clara in her moviestar sunglasses. Orville Wright, seen here, spent CONSIDERABLE time trying to get his flying machine to...fly.
His mouth stood agape at my lack of faith in attempts, theories, and engineering abilities of aforementioned inventor.
His intentions were purely scientific and thrill-seeking.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day his dream of flying,
soaring over the sand dunes, remained unrealized.Fortunately, there was plenty of sand to dig through, drifts to jump from, and other family adventures to pursue.
It was a really fun day!

Wild Nights

Basically, the favorite song of every kid in our house is I’m So Glad When Daddy Comes Home. And here’s one reason why: at least twice a week Joel makes up some game, obstacle course or adventure for us all to participate in. Here are two from this week:
Episode 1: Football Camp Meets Track Meet
Round 1: High Jump
All cushions from two couches and all blankets under side table got stacked up on the living room floor.

Then a rope was held by Joel while the other end was tied to the slide.

Then kids took turns perfecting their high jump skills/acrobatics.

Round 2: Tackle Practice
Two couch cushions were stacked on top of each other and kids run from kitchen into living room to smash them Utes to pieces!

Episode 2: Trapeze Practice

Joel, without regard to homeplace safety, held a kid by one arm and one leg, swinged/swang/swung them back and forth for a bit, and then launched them onto the couch.

The kids LOVEd it.

Then he teamed up with one of the kids and launched another bean onto the couch via holding onto both hands and feet.

Hilarity ensues.