2011 School Pictures

My Cooper Started Kindergarten this year. He's 5 years old and already smarter than me. His favorite thing to talk about is numbers. It seems like I'm getting math questions thrown at me all day and in the most random of times. I'm stopped at a red light and Cooper wants to know what's infinity plus infinity. Yay... lots to look forward to (I'm not a math lover).

He is extremely social just like his dad and has kids knocking on the door to play all afternoon. If he's not out playing (with Ocean, Micah, and Token) then he's inside playing the Wii. Amanda taught him how to play Super paper Mario and he's beaten level after level ( I certainly couldn't have done that when I was 5, heck, I struggled to beat a level on old-school Mario when I was like 8 or 9!).

We read a chapter in the Fablehaven series every night and he loves it when the character's don't talk with correct grammar, ie: when the ogress declares: "I smell peoples! Peoples been eating my stew!". I think we'll read The BFG next. It's chalk full of that stuff.

His teacher says he's responsible and bright and plays well with the other kids. Not a huge surprise really... he does that at home :) Lillian loves him so much her little eyes light up when he walks in and she gasps and starts bouncing.


I was a little worried sending my Leila to 3 yr old preschool. She's so different from Cooper and doesn't take to following directions and stuff as fast as he does. But she loves school for different reasons. She likes buttering up her teachers and loves the positive attention she gets from them. She's made friends with another girl in her class who recently asked me if Leila could come over for a sleep over. As I drove away from the school I asked Leila what her name was, she didn't remember. And that is Leila :)

When she is at home she plays with Marshall, or fights with Marshall, or reads with Marshall. I can't get those two apart! Even when they are fighting they would rather be together than apart. Marshall plays the prince to her princess, the army guy to her barbie, the boy puppy to the momma puppy and so on. When Marshall is supposed to be sleeping he calls out under his bedroom door, "Lala! Lala! Come 'err!".

Leila will read anything but she mostly enjoys, what else, princess stories.

She talks to herself in the mirror, sings to herself, and makes funny faces. It reminds me of me waaay too much :)

The Babsies

These two really deserve their own separate posts but this is as good as it's gonna get until they give me a little more free time!

Little Lillian continues to be a perfect angel baby. I'd like to attribute it to my excellent mothering skills, but since only 1 baby out of 4 has been perfect so far, I just assume it's luck ;)

She really enjoys sticking her tongue out as far as it can go. We call it her happy meter, the longer it sticks out, the happier she must be!

She gets startled very easily, especially by the camera. I mostly have pictures of her like this:

Sometimes she gets brave and smiles despite the scary camera:
Ah... what can I say about chubby? The kid simultaneously melts my heart and drives me insane (I never knew about this feeling until Marshall). He's *almost* potty trained and he's done most of it himself. He likes slobbering all over Lillian and still (at 4 months) calls her Ailee!

He is, in fact, a copier. If I can get Cooper or Leila to do something first, Marshall will soon follow! Here he is copying daddy while he was putting together a loft bed for Cooper:

Under the Sea

Anyone who knows Leila, knows that she IS in fact, a princess. So obviously she identifies with other princess quite well. Other princess, like, say, Ariel from the Little Mermaid at Tuacahn!

Maddie fit in quite nicely in her little mermaid costume :)

Maddie and Elyza got caught up in the spirit of performance when the mist came on during intermission:

Amanda found the very muscly king Triton to take a picture with, perhaps we'll see a sculpture of this in the future :)
Ariel was so sweet to Leila, she commented on Leila's pretty pink dress and how Ariel had worn a pink dress earlier in the show too, but now she was wearing her wedding dress:


I loved the show, but even more loved watching Leila love the show. It was one of those things that you never want to forget how it felt :)

Summer's End

And here we come to the next chapter in which the summer draws to a close and we cram in all the stuff we meant to do all season and didn't.

Veyo Pool... Perfection:

Inviting over the entire neighborhood for s'mores... a great idea from Cooper :)

I'm ready for next summer already!

Cooper Goes to School

I think most moms get really emotional on this day and cry and stuff. It's not that I don't love him enough to do all that, it's just... he is sooo ready! He craves the schedule, the friends, the recess, the bus... everything about school is so Cooper! He's not nervous or scared... so I guess I'm not either! (please excuse the pant-less Marshall in the picture, potty training:)

Grow Too Fast

I remember last summer when Marshall was just barely toddling around and Lillian wasn't even in the works yet! Now look at us a whole year later and even park day is so different!

Dream Dad

This guy told me once that he's dreamed of being a dad his whole life.... I think the job was made for him :)

Bathtime and Wave of Babies!

Little Lillian's not quite sure about this bathtime thing yet, I think she preferred her own bath in the sink. The water may have been cleaner anyway :)


Marshall is delighted to have his baby in the tub with him, he tries to help wash her and he yells "Ailee" at her. She gets scared of him because he's so loud! Little girl loves the water though, she smiles and wiggles her little leggies!

Jesse wishes I could have this many babies at one time! (Lillian is the one on the left) These are all the babies from our Bradley class. It may be hard to believe, but all of these babies were born using the Bradley (husband coached) method of birth, with no epidural or any other anesthesia! In fact little Alice in the middle wearing purple was born on the same day as Lillian! Our poor Bradley teacher Trisha Baird only slept a few hours that day!

Fun with Babies

Many people have asked me how it's going now with 4 kids. I'm not gonna lie: it's rough. It's lots of unnoticed, unappreciated work. Motherhood, no matter how many kids you have, tends to be that way.

That said, I have to also acknowledge the blessing it is to watch these 4 little people develop their own personalities, likes, dislikes, talents, and sense of humor :)

Cooper has been an amazing brother with the coming of Lillian, Marshall and Leila have adjusted, but still demand my time and energy in very taxing levels. Lillian is a blessed angel from heaven and gets better every day :) you would think the newborn would be the most work, but she's absolutely not. She's very mild and sweet and requires only a few things to make her the happiest girl around. She has slept through the night since she was a few days old and when she does need something, the most you get from her is little squeaks and grunts until she's satisfied.

The brightest spot in our week is always friday/parkday:


Sometimes I'll turn around and see this:Did someone leave the laundry baskets out?

Nope.. just the little turtles creeping down the hall:


Leila is the sweetest sister, this morning she was asleep in my bed when I had to suck the snot out of Lillians nose so she could breath while I nursed her. She woke up to Lillian screaming (after all... who likes to get snot sucked out of their nose, right?) and drowsily said "It be okay baby, don't cry." She kept repeating that until I was done and Lillian had calmed back down. She then rolled over and went back to sleep. Sweet girlie :)


Cooper often asks if he can hold the baby and will do so for long periods of time. He's better than having a bouncy chair or a baby swing because he sings songs to her and shush's her way better than a battery powered machine ever could. Almost every Sunday at church he wants to hold her and asks if he can till the end of the meeting... I hit the jackpot with this kid.