Annoyed.

My littlest one is finally taking a nap.  The other two are playing in the pantry with a flashlight, and I need to blog about Grandma & Grandpa Thomas' visit, Aunty Liz's visit, the state fair, our trip to San Francisco and LA, seeing Elder Keeler, etc.  But blogspot just informed me I have to pay $5 so that I can upload more pictures.  I'm annoyed.  extremely so.

So instead of that I should be sweeping, mopping, dusting, cleaning bathrooms etc. for Heather's baby shower here tomorrow morning.  No time later because of the MWU Halloween party and cousins coming over to carve pumpkins and watch a spooky show and eat ghost food.

And then I'll be even more behind.

But instead of doing any of that I'm going to go lay down next to my sweet baby and snuggle him in and take a nap.

Dancing in the rain

It's fall!  We have been loving the cooler weather.  Some of my favorite things this fall have been. 

1. Running around in the rain.

2. Running with Callie while the sun peaks over the eastern horizon

3. Pondering in my quiet house in the early morning

4. The birds chirping

5. Wilson, after hearing his dad explain why we use the term "running around like chickens with their heads cut off", say excitedly "Ya, and then we suck their brains out huh?!"

6. Canadian Thanksgiving.  I love thanksgiving.  Wish I had taken some pictures. 

7.  General Conference and re-listening re-listening, re-listening.

 Rain....and hail!  During this storm Zina ran through the house exclaiming over and over, "Oh my heck, oh my heck, oh my heck!"

 Dance class.

 Zina is loving her dance class. It is a combination of ballet, tap & tumbling.  She is lucky enough to take it with her cousin Ellie & her friend Ellie.  

 Zina & Ellie Thomas

 Zina and Ellie and Ellie!

 On Sat. Ellie Larsen had a fancy Nancy birthday party.  It was pretty fun to get Zina all dressed up and ready to go. This was the ensemble she decided to wear.  (Just her fairy halloween costume from when she was 2! It's a little short. :) She had a blast and Tiff (of course!) did such a fun job of it all.

Sam the Blam

 

Is 6mths old today.

This little boy is a dream.  

The proof?  Mark and I already had "that" conversation about having another baby.  

And the answer is yes. We'd love to.  Except it's impossible while nursing - for me.

But really that MUST be proof that this little guy is so so sweet.  

He just adores everyone he meets.  

He is still wiggly wiggly and is on the move.  

He has been army crawling everywhere for about a month now.

I have to be extra careful to keep things off the floor because he loves to gnaw on everything 

Wilson and Zina are very good sheriffs and make sure Sam doesn't eat shoes, rugs, dirty socks etc.

 He can sit up on his own with supervision.

He's got two cute little teeth on the bottom. 

He giggles when he's starting to get tired.

He is starting to screech when "talking"

He doesn't really like rice cereal, but likes bananas 

(and I can't even remember if I'm allowed to give him bananas yet - 3rd child = who cares)  

 he LOVES to sit at the big table with us.

He has brought such a sweet peacefulness into our home.  

The older two still gravitate to Sam when they are sad.  They wrap their arms around him, rest their head against his and immediately stop crying and just hug him.  

He's pretty good to put up with it for the most part. 

He loves to be rocked or bounced to sleep. 

Or snuggled and nursed to sleep. 

And I love rocking, snuggling, bouncing, nursing, kissing, loving everything about this baby boy.

Yesterday as I was rocking him I had the thought.

"I don't ever want to stop having babies - ever"

And then I remembered that I have been promised eternal increase if I keep my covenants.  

It was a beautiful moment.

Rocking my sweet baby and thinking about all the babies in my future.

Whether here or there.

I'm grateful for that moment.

Because I know that it gets harder the older they get.

And sometimes I'll just need to stop and remember.

How much I love them.

Camping/Grand Canyon/Flagstaff/Picture Overload

This past weekend marked the end of Mark's psychiatry rotation and the beginning of his 2hr commute to Camp Verde for his rural family practice.  We had to throw in one last camping trip and weekend get-away before real life started again.  Thursday morning we headed up to the East entrance of the Grand Canyon and set up camp at Desert View Campground.

Everything was going quite well until Mark got a headache and Wilson fell in the fire!

He tripped and fell in backwards (thank goodness).  Luckily we had just put in a really big log that protected him from the hot coals in the bottom.  Mark (who was holding Sam) leaped over, grabbed him out and starting swatting his bum/back (becuase he's supposed to be on fire right?) Of course Wilson's bawling, Sam is bawling because he is sliding down to the ground, Zina's is bawling becuase she is so scared and I'm sure that all the other campers are wondering WHAT the heck is going on.  It was dark out so it was just a bunch of wailing in the dark. :)  Anyways, turned out Wilson only got a small burn on his back.  We were very thankful for that prayer we said before we drove out of our driveway early that morning. 

And the Grand Canyon was grand!  We loved it.  We explored the whole south rim (well, upper south rim... :) and were very tired when we headed down the road to flagstaff. 

Mark woke up early (lets face neither him or I got much sleep that night) to the sound of elk right outside our tent so he got up to catch the sunrise on camera.

Yes, there were a few moments when I had to just not look.  I think I told Mark, Wilson & Zina to be careful one million times.

We spent Friday night in Flagstaff so Mark could get a good nights rest before his first rugby game.  The kids were super excited to jump in the hotel pool and it was nice to just relax after such a busy day.

I'd say this is about how we all felt. :)  Only some of us aren't quite as adorable as this. 

Mark's game wasn't until 1pm

 Thunderbird vs. NAU

So him and the kids hit the pool again while Sam and I hung out.

Love these bright eyes.

The game was HOT and we were not prepared.  The only clothes that weren't filthy were the extra warm ones we had taken which I was kind of glad for since we also didn't have sun screen. I know.  I'm such a good mom.  So all of our cheeks were sunburned but not our arms and legs!

The kids and I played tag, freeze tag, simon says, 20 questions, photo shoot and everything else we could think of while we waited for the game to be over.  Watching wasn't really an option with a 5yr old, 3yr old and 5mth old in tow. 

These two are either beating up on each other or having way to much fun together.  I prefer the latter.

And the long drive home. 

We were sunburned, tired, and happy.

I love playing with my family!