happy

I am in a happy, fulfilling stage right now.  I am loving my busy life that is full of so many rewarding opportunities and happy times with my kids.  Emerson has been a super happy baby and has added such a fun spirit to our family!  I always felt there was one more cutie meant for our family and he reminds me every day of what a good choice we made in having him.

Having five children has been busy but rewarding.  There has been a huge difference this time as the oldest two kids have turned into great helpers (with the proper incentives :)) and we've had so much support from our family and neighbors.  We've still had our moments, as I will blog about later, but we've had a wonderful time with our new little guy.

Here our some pictures of our summer in rough chronological order:

Ava put diaper creme on Emerson's head.  She's been a busy girl, as I'll expound on later.  :)

Emerson has loved the swing!  This is the first time I noticed him really "noticing" his toy and batting at it. So cute!

BLESSING DAY!

I love these pictures with my grandparents:

Emerson was blessed on Isa's eighth birthday, so she got a little party too.  She enjoyed sharing the special day.

Summer fun:

 My cute nieces!

Kaedon is loving having a brother.


Grandma has been such a life saver!  Grandma time is enjoyed by all.

Maia graduates from preschool!

Emerson at 3 months:

Isa's blessing day was so special.  I opted not to have a big get-together after the baptism, and I was so glad!  It kept the focus on her and the actual ordinance instead of me worrying about my house.  (plus, we had just had a get-together for Emerson's blessing)

Tried to take pictures at the temple of Isa in her dress.  The gates were locked, but I had just spent a bunch of time getting my kids ready and I was not going home without some pictures!  The kids could squeeze through the gate, but I couldn't.    So all these are through the bars of the gate.  It was wild. 
Ava was running all over and I was threatening like crazy, ruining the mood.  :)  I had to hand Emerson through the gate to Kaedon.  Kind of limited as to where I could take pictures, but better than nothing!

The background is unposed...I was threatening them again to get them to come :)  Notice Maia skipping. 

I LOVE Ava's face in these! Obviously she is having a good time unhindered by Mom.

I'm still such a rookie at this... I noticed so many times I wasn't paying attention to where I was cropping.  Oh well.

Emerson at 4 months.  He is a big boy!  My biggest yet.  96% for length and 91st for weight.  17 lb 10 oz at his 4 month check!  Crazy. SOOOOOO cute!

Isn't he delicious?

Kaedon turned 10!  We had a gross things birthday party.  Very fun and wild.  We just read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (loved it), and this is our graveyard cake.  Very easy!  Got the stuff from Michaels, the graves are just ground up Oreos.

First day of kindergarten!

With her friend:

Emerson doesn't stand much of a chance.  Already being dressed up like a princess.

 Isa's long awaited Daddy daughter date to Mary Poppins.

 We've had a sad occurence in the family since I started drafting this post-- I'll have to write about it later.  If there is anything I've learned the last few years, though, happiness isn't something that happens to you, its something you choose.  We may not be able to control what happens to us, but we can control our attitude.  We can be happy even when things don't always go the way we plan.