Marcus and Cami Bluth

2012-01-18T20:00:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Hakes came to visit on Columbus Day, October 10th. They were able to come for a day trip and see Clayton and Daivd play in their soccer games. We're so glad they live close enough to come for these kinds of visits. It means a lot to the boys to have their grandparents come to their games.
Here's Lucas with Grandma and Grandpa

Cora Swinging it was a beautiful day so we played a lot outside.

Lucas swinging

Grandpa was hiding behind the playhouse and would grab Lucas and Cora as they went swinging by.

Grandma and Cora playing catch with her doll at the soccer field

My dad and Marcus

Pretty Grandma and Grandpa watching the games.

2012-01-18T14:50:00.004-07:00

The Fruits of our Labors

Garden 2011

Tomatoes

Squash

Green Beans

Acorn Squash

Okra

Show Low Cabin Trip

2011-10-09T17:54:00.010-06:00

For Labor Day this year, we went to the Hakes family cabin in Show Low, AZ. It was so nice and cool in the mountains, and we had a great time with all the family. My whole side of the family was able to go, minus Cassi and Kelly. All the cousin kids had a good time playing together, and the adults had good times talking and playing games at night.
Our family went off to the go-kart place for some fun racing. Here's David and Marcus on a double: Cora's waiting patiently for her turn:

She was swinging from the bars waiting for her turn. I love this straddle position. I used to teach this to kids at gymnastics, and here she is doing it all on her own. I'm sure she loves having this angle of her posted on the Internet, but I'm such a proud Mommy I'm putting it on anyway.Lucas got to ride the 3 and older go-karts all by himself!

I had to work really hard to get this shot. It's Marcus and David sharing a double and Clayton driving a single right behind them. That was not an easy pic to get since they were moving so fast!

Clayton going solo:

They had a trampoline with bungee-type cable hooked to it so you could jump really high. Clayton was the only boy brave enough (well, really tall enough) to do it.

He tried so hard to do a back flip. Got really close.

Playing around by the cabin.

Meesa, Cora and Carrie going for a 4-wheeler ride. Lucas is trying to jump on. Looking lovely ladies!

Joe, Nathan, Meesa, Lucas and Clayton plus back of Hailey and Cora. The 4-wheeler was really fun for the kids. Meesa was really good about giving rides to her nieces and nephews.

Kalli and Melissa on the swing with baby Alyssa.

Emily with Katy.

Cora and Meesa. Just love that outfit! Me and my Cora.

Cora wouldn't give me kisses for the camera!

Grandma and Grandpa Hakes coming back from a walk Sunday afternoon. A little PDA

Dad, Meesa, Kalli, Carrie and Mom at the Mogollon Rim overlook.

Our family getting organized for our picture turn. Managed to get mostly everyone normal for the picture. Let's just say this isn't going to be blown up and hung somewhere! Cora, David and Lucas are making sure of that.

Joe and Katy and family.

It's really pretty at the Rim overlook. It's a nice, short hike near the cabin.

Josh and Melissa and fam Another picture of Cora. I know, I'm obsessed.

Sweet picture of Kalli hugging Cora

The big boy grandkids. I think grandpa Hakes was making them laugh!

On our way home we passed the giant satellites outside of Socorro. This is the same place they have in the movie Contact. Pretty cool. I should probably mention the incredible gas mileage Marcus got on the way home. Where our Honda Odyssey is rated for I think 25 mpg, he pushed it to 29 mpg? I'm thinking that's the right number. It really was impressive. If only I could learn to drive like him....

Snowflake Sweet Tri

2011-10-09T17:40:00.002-06:00

Kimball, Josh, Kalli and I did the Sweet Tri in Snowflake, AZ. I did it as an individual and the others did a relay. Josh swam, Kimball biked, Kalli ran. They did really well. It was really fun and I'm glad they did it with me. I didn't do so well. I had an unfortunate wipe-out on the bike. I couldn't get my shoe to unclip from my pedal when I lost my balance on a turn/water station. I was really trying to steady my

self and almost had it until I looked up and saw a small boulder in my path. I crashed pretty good and still finished, but without much enthusiasm. Here's a shot of my road rash: Lots of fun!

Marcus's Birthday August 18th

2011-10-09T17:26:00.002-06:00

Marcus got a tractor cake for his birthday. Lucas picked it out.Happy Birthday!! We love our dad!Cora and cousin Brynley liked the green frosting!

Cora's 2!!!

2011-08-16T15:07:00.005-06:00

Cora had a birthday party for turning 2 on August 12th. We dressed her up and did her hair and she was so excited. Sorry, but there are a lot of pictures! It's really hard to do 2 fingers when you're only 2 years old! She came close anyway with 3 fingers.

Cora singing the Happy Birthday song. She's been practicing for weeks!

She's been practicing the blow too. I love her wrinkled up nose! Eating cake and ice cream.

Bethany and Brynley

Clayton, David with Trey

Cora loved opening presents.

She got pretty gloves from Brynley!

Thanks to our friends for coming. It was fun!

Roswell Vacation

2011-08-16T14:50:00.004-06:00

We decided to do a family vacation to Roswell this year. Cora is still too young and doesn't travel well, so a day trip to Roswell is just the right size for her. Even then, she made the 1.5 hour car trip kind of hard at times. But, we had fun in Roswell. We shopped, ate yummy food at Red Lobster, the boys and Marcus (since Cora's no fun in a movie theater) went to see the Smurfs while Cora and I shopped some more. Then, on the way home, we drove by Bottomless Lakes. They're really cool looking lakes created by large sink holes. We stopped and took some pictures. It was a fun, family bonding, low stress day. That's what vacations are for, right?

National Night Out Fun Run

2011-08-16T14:34:00.003-06:00

For Family Home Evening on August 1st, we participated in the Carlsbad National Night Out Fun Run. The whole family, except Cora, got signed up to run the mile race. It was really fun, and the kids loved the free donuts at the end of the race! Lucas showing off his number on his back.

Clayton finished first in the family. Way to go Clayton!

Alyssa Hakes's Blessing

2011-08-16T14:15:00.002-06:00

Josh and Melissa blessed baby Alyssa so we went to Las Cruces. All of the family was there and it was great. Here's the cousins all together: I like this picture of Meesa and my Mom smiling about something.

All the sistas with Kimball. Woohoo!

This is my favorite picture of all the sisters, mostly because Cora's peeking through if you look between Kalli and I!

Cassi, Kelly and Daphne came all the way from Georgia.

Clayton Scout Camp

2011-08-16T13:46:00.002-06:00

Clayton had scout camp every evening for a week in July. We carpooled with Payson Norton which was a big help, and a lot of fun for the boys.The last day was parent day and they had a big kick ball game.Clayton and his group sang silly songs for us.At the very end, it started POURING! It was the first rain Carlsbad had seen in 10 months so I had to take a picture. Unfortunately, even though it rained and poured in Carlsbad for a long time, the rain never made it to our farm. :(

Peach Pie

2011-08-16T13:27:00.002-06:00

Out of our 53 fruit trees, this was our crop for the year:

That's actually more than I thought we'd get since we had a horrible freeze in February that killed the unsprouted fruit. The success of the peaches was a family effort, but a big thank you to Clayton and David for helping water the trees!I made a peach pie out of the peaches. It was fun to do it all from scratch since they were homegrown peaches and I felt very "Little House on the Prairie-ish". The pie turned out great and we all enjoyed it. Our real life version of the Little Red Hen.

Pretty Carlsbad

2011-08-16T13:17:00.002-06:00

Sometimes it's hard to call this place a dirty little town, especially when it looks like this:

Carlsbad Caverns

2011-08-16T12:53:00.005-06:00

Joe and Katie came to visit! They were in the process of moving from Ft. Worth to Farmington and made a pit stop in Carlsbad. We were so happy to have them! We don't get to play with Nathan, Julia and Emily as often as we would like.
We took all the kids to Carlsbad Caverns. That means there were 7 kids, 3 adults and a lot of steep, dangerous pits to fall into. So,We sat the kids down and Uncle Joe gave them a safety meeting before we started.And here we all are. The kids did a good job of being careful. Cora was strapped to my back, thanks to Katie's awesome Ergo, so that solved a lot of safety problems!

The caverns really are cool. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I've seen them.David acting like a goblin in front of the goblin stalagmites. Remember me talking about fires? Well, the caverns had a fire burn right up to the visitor's center a few weeks before we went. Notice the burnt landscape.

First Mother Daughter Activity!

2011-08-16T12:44:00.003-06:00

Cora and I had our first mother daughter activity at the church. It was a luncheon with some dancing activities. Cora really liked the dance they taught all the girls. She was being a bit of a ham.

Brynley was there too with Bethany.

Family Walk

2011-08-16T12:29:00.003-06:00

We went on a family walk one night and took pictures at the end since it was a pretty evening. The kitties were there with us.

2011-08-13T16:15:00.004-06:00

For Fourth of July weekend this year we split our family up. Cory and Lindsey were blessing baby Zane in Utah, and we all wanted to go. But, our little almost-two-year old Cora is not fun to travel with right now. As I pictured 2-14 hour car rides, I just couldn't go through with it. My respects to Cory and Lindsey and all the long car rides they've taken to come see us. So, we split our group up. Marcus, Clayton and Lucas jumped in a truck with Grandma, Grandpa and Avie and took off to Utah for the blessing. Since it was a long 4th of July weekend, I took David and Lucas (and the camera) to Las Cruces. Thanks to Lindsey, I have a picture of everyone in Utah: SSince I had the camera, here are the pictures of Las Cruces:
We played tennis, here's Melissa:

Here's my dad and mom: Me with Cora, Carrie with Troy: (notice how patriotic we look)

Love, love, love this picture of Josh and Troy. Troy and Cora were playing really cute together by playing peek-a-boo with each other.

It was my Mom's birthday so we had a bbq. Dad did great with the chicken:

Here's the pretty birthday girl!

David looking really tan.

Melissa had just barely had baby Alyssa. Such a sweet cute girl.

Cora and Hailey eating together. David had been scared of diving boards before this trip, but got very comfortable on this diving board and became a great diver for the rest of the summer. Even doing somersaults off the natatorium diving board. Way to go David!

Carrie and Cora in the pool. So fun! In conclusion, I'm glad I didn't have to make that car trip, but we miss our Utah cousins. And, sorry to everyone that had to clean up Lucas's throw up when he got sick. I know I enjoyed cleaning up throw up with fireworks going off in the background!

2011-07-24T16:02:00.007-06:00

Cora's telling us something exciting is going on in the corrals!So exciting, she's running over there!There's a whole bunch of sheep!See? Pretty exciting!AJ, Lucas, Marcus and Chuey are giving shots and things to the baby lambs.Lucas looks on as a lamb gets its tail cut. I think the cutting was a bit much for him, because he left to hide by the truck.

I just showed this post to Lucas, and he wanted me to write that he wasn't scared. He was thirsty and really wanted to get a drink, but he was waiting for the right time to run to the house since he didn't want to scare the sheep. Glad we cleared that up!

Pictures of Summer

2011-07-23T16:05:00.009-06:00

We were really busy doing all sorts of things this summer. Here's what we did:
Clayton would get up early a lot of mornings and go hunting for birds for the kitties. This day though, he managed to get a rabbit! I just love this picture of Lucas. They were messing around with handkerchiefs one day and Lucas pulls off the best "future biker" look!

Blocks were cool at our house this summer. It's fun to see them play together. Not fun to step on a stray one after they're done playing though.

We took the kids to Big 5 one day and they each got to pick out something to spend their money on. Lucas picked these super cool orange goggles. David, acting crazy in the background got a whole pack of flashlights. Clayton picked a new BB gun, which helped him get that rabbit. Cora picked a tennis racket.

This is Lucas in his swimming lesson. All the boys did swimming lessons, but it worked out that Lucas did two swimming sessions while Clayton and David went to art class. Lucas with Henry Folsom.

While we waited for Lucas, we played on the swing set at the Elks Club. Here's Cora!

Clayton, David and Cora playing on the swing set. For 5 weeks, we had tennis lessons. All 3 boys were in one class, and Cora came with me while I did the Mom class. I'm really bad at tennis, but I think I got a little better from the class. It was fun to try anyway!

Boys after tennis lessons. Apparently "bunny ears" are cool if you're 8 years old. Clayton did a basketball camp for 4 weeks at the high school. Between basketball, tennis, swimming and hunting, he was wore out at the end of everyday. Mission accomplished.

While Clayton did his basketball, we went to the gym or played outside by the basketball courts. Here's Cora wearing an awesome mask she made during library activity day.

The boys were playing by the courts with their light sabers one day.

Someone inevitably gets hurt with a light saber. Here's the inevitable makeup hug:

Clayton lost his two front teeth at the beginning of the summer. We're still waiting for those to come in....

Friends Todd and Tessa came to play.

We went to swim at the Elks or the Natatorium or the beach a lot. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of swimming pictures. But, I don't feel it would be very responsible for me to try and take pictures at the risk of one of my children drowning since I'm not paying attention to them.

We had to water the farm. This is the 4 acre farm we purchased on Muscatel. We have cut it down to two acres after working a deal with the neighbors, but this is where we plan on building a bigger house. 4 kids feels a bit tight in our current house.

Here's the farm, and if you squint you can see Marcus in the middle heading down to the ditches to check on the water.

Fires

2011-07-23T15:50:00.002-06:00

This year has been so dry. Southeast NM went about 10 months without any rain, and some places still haven't seen any. Plus, it's been very hot and windy. So, there have been an incredible amount of fires all around us. Carlsbad Caverns had fire come right up to the visitor's center. This is our view of that fire from our house one night: Plus, Lincoln National Forest had huge fires and closed. I drove through Cloudcroft with David and saw a lot of our beautiful mountains were burnt. :(
And more locally, we came home from swimming one day to this giant cloud of smoke. Basically, one square mile was completely burnt and this was located one mile from our house.

We've been doing a lot of praying for rain!

Kip and Clarissa and the Triplets Visit

2011-07-23T15:21:00.004-06:00

Is it just me or is Blogger being difficult when it comes to moving pictures to where you want them to be? So, in no particular order, here are pics of Kip and Clarissa and the triplets visiting in June. This is Sunday afternoon where we had dinner at AJ and Bethany's house.
I like this pic of Avie, and if you look in the background you can see the reflection of Marcus taking the picture in the mirror:

I'm add this pic to who that I've dyed my hair. I told the guy I wanted something golden, honey colored. What I got was totally bleached white blond. But, it's been fun for the summer.

Clariss and Alyvia look so cute together!

Lucas with Ryder and Kip. These kids really played well together this time.

Alyvia, Cora and Brynley: The Girls. It was really hard to get this picture!

AJ and Bethany have baby lambs in their barn. Cora got brave and stuck her hand in side the fence to touch one.

Lucas, David and Ben.

Lucas and Cora

2011-07-19T15:43:00.006-06:00

Some cue pictures of Lucas and Cora

They love the kitties!

Sleepy

Showing off the curls

Getting so big!

Lucas is getting big too!

David's 6th Birthday

2011-07-17T15:21:00.008-06:00

David turned 6 on May 2nd. For his birthday, he wanted to go to the skate park so he could try out his new helmet that he got from Grandma Bluth. David invited his friend Trey to come too. They had a lot of fun!Cora and Lucas.I'm going to interjet a picture here of Brynley and Cora at David's birthday party. For some reason, this picture will not relocate to it's appropriate place in this post. But, Cora and Brynley love each other very much, as long as we hide a certain baby doll that they always fight over.

Here's Clayton at the skate park with his new bike that he bought with his own money. David opening his birthday presents. David got a new guitar! He's so excited about it!!! Grandma and Grandpa Bluth and Avie and Clayton

David blew out his candles on his tractor cake. Happy Birthday David! We love you!!!

10 Year Anniversary

2011-07-17T14:17:00.008-06:00

Marcus and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year with a cruise. We sailed out of Galveston and went to Cozumel, Mexico. It was great to have all that time for the two of us to be together. Thanks to Grandma Bluth and Grandma Hakes and Grandpa Hakes and Meesa my sister who made it happen. We really appreciate you!

This is us in San Antonio. We stayed the night here on our drive over to Galveston. I realized yo couldn't see any of San Antonio.So I adjusted my flash and was able to get some of San Antonio lit up, just all blurry. I bring this up because this trip would mark the end to my huge, out-of-date dinosaur digital camera. I realized that my camera needed an upgrade big time. Anyway, it was fun to walk the riverwalk and go to Fogo de Chao.The boat was so amazing. We enjoyed the whole departure from the top deck where we could see everything as we pulled out of Galveston and headed out into the Gulf. The farther south we went, the bluer the water got. I could/did stare at the blue water for long periods of time. I'd have to say that that blue, blue water was one of my favorite things we experienced.

Here's me on the pool deck. It was fun to relax and lay out. Notice how blue the water is! On "Elegant Night" we dressed more formally. Marcus looks handsome despite being slightly sunburned. That was my fault. I insisted we stay in the sun longer than we probably should have.Here's me on Elegant Night with a view of the inside of the ship. The whole ship had an party, "Vegas" atmosphere.

Here we are pulling into Cozumel, Mexico. It's a small, flat, tropical island off the southern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. It's considered part of the Caribbean. Me in a hammock with our ship in the background.

We saw an iguana.

And a crocodile.

And ancient ruins. This particular ruin was something like a hurricane detection system.

We climbed a narrow, steep staircase to the top of a lighthouse. Look at that gorgeous ocean view from the lighthouse window!

Here we are on top of the lighthouse. A very fun and memorable trip!

2011-05-11T12:42:00.002-06:00

Some fun pictures from our Easter egg hunt. We went to the ranch the day before and we decorated several dozen eggs. It was an interesting day with egg decorating and cow butchering going on simultaneously. But, we managed to keep the two areas separate and the eggs weren't contaminated! Bethany and Brynley with their eggs.

Clayton showing off an ow-ie.

Cora threw this egg back down. It was a hard boiled one. She would only pick up the plastic ones because she knew those were filled with candy.

Cora's pretty Easter dress. This isn't on Easter, but I didn't remember to take a picture of our whole family dressed up in cute Easter dresses and matching ties. :(

Kalli's Back from Russia!!

2011-05-11T12:18:00.002-06:00

Kalli came back from Russia on March 31st. We came to her homecoming the 2nd weekend in April. She is so awesome. She is such a wonderful person, and I can tell she was a great missionary. Kalli came home so confident, with a wonderful and shining testimony. Sorry to get cheesy, I'm just so happy for her!It was the first time for all 5 sisters to be together in a really long time. We stayed up late talking and watching old family movies until 1am. We heard some complaints in the morning from people who were trying to sleep in the other rooms. Apparently all our giggling was too loud!

Clayton loved Carrie's keyboard. He's getting good at the piano, so this was fun for him to play with. He liked adjusting the tones and sounds that the keyboard does.

Cousins Cora, Hailey and Daphne: the Girls

Carrie and my Mom had an awesome idea to pamper Kalli and all the women. They hired 3 girls from a salon to come to my mom's room and give massages, facials and pedicures. Even my grandma Hakes was there to get some TLC.

More cousins, Troy and Lucas.

Cassi and Daphne

Cora and I after church.

Marcus playing Cora's favorite game: push-ups

Grandma Hakes with Cora. Grandma was a big help babysitting and making food and helping with my kids. It's always fun to visit Grandma Hakes!

Bonfire

2011-05-11T11:52:00.003-06:00

We had a huge bonfire back in April. Marcus heavily pruned the orchard this spring. So, the boys and I gathered all the sticks into a giant pile. After they dried out, they were perfect for a bonfire and marshmallow roasting.

Things We've Been Doing

2011-03-26T15:46:00.004-06:00

All I want to do for this post is throw a bunch of random pictures together and put on a few captions. Here we go:
I love this pic of Father and daughter reading "One Fish, Two Fish" together. She LOVED it. Cora loves her baby. She put it in her high chair and is feeding it. Notice the bowl and spoon.

Cora doing the splits. (She actually can go down a lot farther, but was not performing for me)
Lucas doing splits. Love this kid.

He likes to wear this wherever we go: (superman cape, belt, gun, cowboy boots)

We took a quick trip to San Antonio. Here are the boys at the Alamo. Going to the Riverwalk and Alamo was really the only fun we had. The rest of the time, the kids were very bad: throwing fits, crying, whining. They knew they were being bad too. We drove around Six Flags and showed them all the fun roller coasters and told them they were missing out on things like that because of their behavior. They totally agreed. Still, it was good family bonding and gave us good family behavior analysis.

David and Cora on the riverboat.

Cora and I on bridge that goes over the river. On the river.

Clayton finished his basketball season. His face tells you how he felt about this season. He ended up on a team that wasn't good. They never won a game. They came close on the last game, but lost at the last second. This picture was taken right after they lost for the last time. Poor Clayton. He doesn't like losing, and he really hopes things go better next year.

But, on the bright side. This 8 year old finally lost his first teeth. He had his bottom two teeth pulled in the dentist office because they were NOT coming out.

Notice that the permanent teeth were growing in behind them.

And that's it!

Cora's 18 months!

2011-02-25T14:30:00.003-07:00

Cora hit the big 18 month mark this month. I'm struck by the idea that soon I may have no kids in diapers.... Such a sweet thought.
Cora is becoming a very cute, sweet, motherly, spunky toddler. She likes to be involved in the domestic things I do around the house. She helps with the laundry or dishes (sort of!). She even takes care of her babies so well. Here she put her baby in her stroller and she's washing it's face with a baby wipe. (This is the sort of behavior my boys NEVER did. I love it.) Her hair is getting long enough that she can barely get it into a pony tail.

Being silly for the camera

Don't judge me. I can't help but teach her all things gymnastics and dance. Here she's in a pretty nice straddle kissing the floor. She thinks it's fun, so I'm NOT forcing anything. Promise.

And of course the biggest that happens when you turn 18 months is you go to Nursery!!! Here's Cora on her first day of nursery. She did so well. In fact, I'm the music leader so I go to nursery for about 10 minutes to do music. I was afraid she would cry and have a hard time when I left. However, the whole time I was there, she was supposed to do singing time. I wouldn't let her play with the doll and stroller. So, she was ecstatic to see me leave and be allowed to play with her toys again.

I absolutely love this girl!

Snow

2011-02-03T14:59:00.004-07:00

Snow!!! We haven't had any precipitation here since last summer, and we really needed some moisture. We feel so thankful for this snow that fell yesterday! The boys are thankful that school has been cancelled for two days now. It's been fun to have them home. Since we're pretty much stuck inside, I let them watch a couple of movies. We just put on the Swiss Family Robinson on VHS. I had to explain to my kids how to use a VCR, and they kept complaining about how slow it rewound and other things. That's pretty funny if you ask me.

We tried to go outside and play, but it was too cold.

So cold, Cora was NOT happy. She did not like it one bit.

In fact, this is how cold it was: (Read: 2.2 degrees, and -21.2 with windchill, windspeed at 11.4 mph).If your icicles are yellow, then you know it's been a LONG time since it rained last. I'm so excited for this city to get washed clean a little bit.

Since it was so cold, the water line to my kitchen sink froze up. That means no dishwasher either. I've had to handwash all my dishes in the small laundry room sink. That has me thinking about my sister, Kalli, on her mission in Russia, pretty much in Siberia. In Russia, weather like this is no big deal. Plus, I bet a small sink to handwash dishes in is pretty standard. So, as I've been washing my dishes, I've been thinking about how I'm a spoiled American girl, and I've been trying to count my blessings. And for the record, I'd like to add that I'm thankful for running water and two tubbed kitchen sinks!

Clayton's 8th Birthday and Baptism

2011-02-03T14:09:00.006-07:00

There are a lot of pictures here so beware!!!
It is so amazing to see your oldest child turn 8 and be baptized. It's a great age, and Clayton is a great kid. He is growing up so much and so fast, but I love who he's turning into. I'm so proud of this boy, and how hard he tries to do what's right.
Here's Clayton blowing out candles on his rice krispy treat cake: Got the standard 8-year-old present: journal and scriptures

Got a not-so-standard present of a scope for his BB gun. He was sooo excited. Lucas ruined the surprise though by telling him a day earlier- right after he saw me wrap it. Oh well.

Now that he's 8, he gets to go to scouts. This is father and son building their first pine wood derby car. Dad wasn't thrilled that I snuck up and took this picture.

Grandma Hakes came early with Carrie and Meesa for the baptism. It was fun to have them there. Cora loved snuggling Grandma this morning while Grandma fed her pancakes.

Clayton opened presents before his baptism. Grandma Bluth made him this Spiderman blanket.

After the baptism, we had refreshments. We had so many family and friends there. Thanks everyone for coming and supporting Clayton. It meant a lot to him. He told me on the way to the church for the baptism, (after seeing people come in from out of town and things get loaded in the car to take to the church) "Sheesh, I didn't know getting baptized was such a big deal." If you couldn't make it though, we understand!

Cora got a new dress from Grandma Hakes at Delmonico's baby boutique- such a cute store. Thanks Grandma!

Now pictures of family who attended in all sorts of combinations!

Father and Son. Thanks to Marcus for doing such a good job and being such a good dad. Meesa, Carrie and Grandma Hakes- thanks soooo much for all the help!

Coltrin, Clayton, Trey, Hayden, David, Lucas

Ryder, Clayton, Cora, Lucas, Alyvia, Ben, David and Brynley. Such cute cousins

The Nortons, Us, G&G Hakes, G&G Bluth, Avie, AJ and Bethany

Grandma and Grandpa Hakes with their 1st baptized grandson

Clayton and I. One of my favorite things that night was that Clayton sang a song with me, and he did such an amazing and perfect job.

Grandma and Grandpa Bluth with their 3rd baptized grandchild

And that's it!

Christmas at the Bluth Ranch

2011-01-19T15:15:00.006-07:00

We spent Christmas at the ranch with the Bluth family. Everyone was able to come.
Cora LOVES Brynley! She's giving her kisses. And helping her swing

David hit a big milestone at the ranch. Riley had brought her bike and we dared David to ride it, even though he's still on training wheels. He took off with no problem and earned a fruit-by-the-foot. I really am surprised that he had no problems considering how the last time we tried it didn't go very well. He's now an official two-wheeler! Way to go David!

It was weaning time, so the horses were out a lot. Lucas spent this whole day on the back of Joe, this horse, holding onto his dad. He came back so happy, told me he was cold, and had a sunburn on the cheek that wasn't pressed up against Marcus's back.

Lucas loves to open and close gates. Now, if he could just close his zipper!

Cora and I. We cut Dad out because he had food in his mouth!

Clayton, Lucas and Bailey watching the Grinch, a Christmas classic.

Christmas Day opening presents.

More present opening. Gotta love that the Christmas Story movie is on in the background!

David opened his remote control jeep

All the kids gathered around Grandpa tending to the fire.

Clayton got the BB gun he was DYING for

Lucas with his new cap guns.

Clayton spent Christmas day out hunting for birds. He actually got one! Target practise for Lindsey w/ bun in oven:

and Clayton on the 22:

and Lucas on the cap gun: The men did some actual hunting and came back with a bunch of quail. Here's Marcus bbqing them, and they tasted soooo good!

Grandma Bluth made the kids all shirts with their names on it.

We finished the get together with Christmas on the Pecos, which is a boat ride down the river that goes through Carlsbad and the decorate with Christmas lights. Here's David, Clayton and Isaac.

Hakes Christmas at Buffalo Lodge

2011-01-19T14:10:00.004-07:00

We went to Ruidoso for a couple of nights at Buffalo Lodge to be with the Hakes side of the family the weekend before Christmas. It was such a nice place. It was great to be with everyone under one roof. It was fun to have it snow a little while we were up there.

Deer near the cabin A buck sitting under a nieghbor's tree Cora loved the little babies Emily and Daphne. She would have kissed them the whole time we were there if we let her!
Party in the hot tub!Relaxing with a Popeye movie (Cora, David, Clayton)

the littler ones too (Lucas, Nathan, Hailey, Julia, Troy)

Lucas sitting on a tube at the tubing place we all went to. I was having too much fun to take pictures, but the highlight for me was riding on a huge tube with all my boys and a handful of other people and going over the ramp!

Cassi and Daphne look so cute. Gotta love Daphne's Phoenix Suns outfit!

Back at the Hakes House in Las Cruces, we acted out the Nativity Scene. Joe is playing the Donkey for Mary (Hailey) and Clayton is Joseph.
Here are the sheperds (Lucas has a baseball bat for a sheperd's crook!), Cora is a duck (we had duck stuff instead of sheep) and David is the Angel.
Here's everybody for a nice picture. It was great having Grandpa McCuistion there for a couple of days.

Clayton Piano Recital

2011-01-19T13:59:00.002-07:00

Clayton had his Christmas piano recital. He did really well. He played "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." He had fun doing it so he decided to play the same songs in the school talent show. He joined these other brave kids at Sunset: He's doing so awesome on the piano!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

2010-12-06T14:20:00.015-07:00

We went to Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. Specifically, the Mesa area. Marcus thinks it's presumptuous that I think everyone knows where in Arizona I'm talking about when I simply say we went to Arizona. He's probably right. Anyway, we broke the trip up into 2 days on the way there and stayed overnight in Safford. On Thanksgiving, we went to the Haught's house for dinner. It was so nice to catch up with cousins and family we hadn't seen in a very long time. Here's Meesa, Carrie, Grandpa and Grandma Hakes. It was cold, so everyone's huddled together. All my kids loved the wagon.

The men shooting the breeze. There's Grandpa Hakes, Kimball, Marcus, Uncle Butch and Dallas. I love how everyone has a pained expression on their face. I wonder what they were talking about....

David found a toy gun and really had fun playing with Cody.

Clayton and all the cousins (Tilie, Ami, Clayton, Cajun and another boy I don't recognize. Not sure if I spelled these names right, sorry!) I swear that was me 20 years ago playing with my cousins in that exact same spot on Thanksgiving Day.

Beautiful Grandma Hakes and Cora looking worried. She eventually warmed up to Grandma, but this was still the first day.

Tasha, Carrie and I. If only we had Becca and Kristin there too. Everyone still have their Millennial Contract?

Marcus and I.

We stayed in a hotel for the trip and this is why (see below of Kimball wrestling boys). It was nerve racking having Kimball and my boys surrounded by my Grandma's breakables! Oh, and Cora too. She was just as destructive. For Black Friday, we did some shopping, but after that we went to the Phoenix Zoo. Here's Grandpa Hakes walking in with David and Clayton. This giraffe was reaching way over the fence and eating the bark right off that tree. He has such a long tongue.

The prairie dogs were a crowd-pleaser.

Grandma Hakes couldn't refuse the boys wanting a camel ride. They loved the ride, but mostly Lucas. Everywhere he went for a week he told everyone about the camels, and he kept asking me when he would get to ride one again. In nursery the next Sunday, his teacher told me that he went on and on about the camel ride to her. The camels actually tied nicely into teaching him about the Three Wise Men. Yep, that's Marcus on the Merry-Go-Round.

And Cora and I were on it too. She was really nervous and didn't really like it until it stopped.

Lucas and the boys loved this play area. We went to see the Christmas lights at the temple. The Arizona temple is so special to me since it was the temple I grew up with, so I loved that my kids got to see the Christmas lights there. Here's Clayton, Kimball, Meesa, Great Grandma Hakes and David as we walked in.We went into the Visitor's Center so the kids could see the Christus. It was a fun night. The lights were beautiful. Here's Grandma Hakes walking with Clayton.

That's it for the Thanksgiving pics. Sorry, I know there was a lot. It was fun, and I'm so thankful for my family!

Lucas turns 3!

2010-12-04T20:35:00.001-07:00

Lucas turned 3 on November 20th. We've been talking about his birthday for a long time, so this was a very exciting day for him. We had friends over for a little party. It was such a gorgeous day. Here are the kids after hitting the spiderman pinanta. They didn't manage to break it, so I manually dispensed the candy for the kids.

Lucas requested a tractor birthday cake. I'm really getting my money's worth out of that tractor cake mold!
That evening, Clayton and David put the pinata back up, and with the help of Dad, we finally broke it open.

At the ranch, David wrote this sign for Lucas. He's getting pretty good at writing!
Here are the boys.

I love the expression on his face. At least he's figured out how to make the number three with his fingers. That's a hard one for a little kid.

Waiting and waiting to open presents!!

Finally, Lucas got to open his presents! Here he is playing with his new tractor. He was quiet and played happily for quite a while with his new toys!

We love you Lucas!

School Success

2010-12-04T20:30:00.004-07:00

Clayton's class put on a Thanksgiving play. He played a pilgrim. It was a really well done play, conisdering it was a 2nd grade class on a low-budget. David got chosen out of his class to get a "Responsibility" award. Way to go David!

11:00 Church

2010-11-03T14:56:00.002-06:00

Lots of you will know what I mean when I say 11:00 church is such an awkward time for kids. This is what we look like on the way home from church.
Cora's passed out.
Lucas really needs a nap, but it usually doesn't happen since it's too late by the time we get home.And the big boys are usually starving or silly or eating on candy given by desperate primary teachers to keep hungry kids still enough for a lesson. Know what I mean?

2010 Soccer Season

2010-11-03T14:20:00.004-06:00

Clayton and David had great soccer seasons this year.

David played for the coyotes. He finished really strong with one incredible game where he scored 5 goals. Here's his very own trophy!Here's the whole team. They're little noses were pink this night because it was so cold.Good job David! I'm so proud of you!Clayton played for the chameleons. He learned a lot about strategy this year. He's turning into a great athlete. Clayton has amazing stamina!Here's Clayton at his post-season party. They were giving every player a name. Clayton's teammate is taking his hat off to show off the red hair. They named him "Red Thunder."Way to go Clayton!Now about the fans. Lucas and Cora were a great fan club.... sometimes. It was nice to be outside and enjoy the great fall weather. Gotta love this sunset!Lucas put on David's extra jersey and had a great time running away from me. Cora was a good sport. But, then again, sometimes she got sick of soccer. Her favorite was to run out onto the field, and she didn't like it when I didn't let her.
Here's Grandma and Grandpa Bluth and Avie. They came for the last games. It's great to have family nearby!

Halloween

2010-11-03T13:58:00.003-06:00

Here's all the kiddos in their Halloween costumes. We had a good time at the church trunk or treat and at the city of Carlsbad downtown trick or treating. This year, the kids actually ate all their candy by the next day. That's for 2 reasons:
1. We didn't get very much because it was too hard to take 4 kids trick or treating (Marcus was home very sick), plus it was getting late.
2. They were very sneaky and very fast about eating their candy.
Clayton was the black spiderman.

David was the red spiderman.Lucas was Dash from the Incredibles.
Cora was the cutest litte pumpkin. This pumpkin costume was worn by all 3 of her brothers.

David and Lucas got vampire teeth at the church party.

Cora having fun at the cake walk

Random Fall Pictures

2010-11-03T13:45:00.002-06:00

Here are some random fall pictures that are too cute to not post:

Lucas was so proud of this structure. He had a hard time figuring out how to build with Lincoln Logs. After being quiet in his room for a long time, he came out and told me to come to his room. He showed me this and was so happy that he had figured it out. Good job Lucas!Here are all the boys hanging out. It's kind of dark, but I like how they were all playing so well together and having a good time.My flowers "mums" were in full bloom this day. I love perennials! A couple of pictures showing how our baby girl is getting so big.

She runs with the boys!

Pre-engineer

2010-11-03T13:40:00.002-06:00

For Clayton's 2nd grade class, they put together a book where each child talks about what they want to be when they grow up. Each child then turned in a picture representing that occupation. Clayton says he wants to be an engineer so we dressed him in a reflective shirt like his dad wears at the mine and gave him a calculator and some plans. Quite a good looking engineer!

Cotton Country Triathlon

2010-09-20T10:50:00.004-06:00

Clarissa and I did another triathlon together this last weekend. It was the Cotton Country Classic or something like that in Levelland, TX which is just west of Lubbock. It was supposed to be in combination with a temple trip since it was my in-laws regular temple weekend. However, after I finished packing, I checked the recommends to discover that they had expired in July. So, we will have to go to the temple another time!
It was a good experience at the race for me. In my first triathlon, I realized I would need a better bike and some other equipment. So, fully loaded this time, I was able to drop over 20 minutes off my time. It's a sprint distance, which in this case was a 5K run, 13 mile bike and 300m swim. My time was 1:14 and Clarissa was just behind at 1:16. It was absolutely perfect, windless, cool weather.
Here's Clarissa starting the bike leg. It was reverse order so she had already finished the run. I wanted to run with Clarissa to help me keep a good pace, but she was too fast for me! I finished the run a couple minutes later. Here I am heading to my bike. I was so wasted after that run. My time was 28 minutes.Here I am starting the bike. I felt really good during this leg. It made me think the money I spent on bike and cycling shoes was worth it. My split was about 36 minutes, much faster than last triathlon where my time was 53 minutes! Mountain bikes are not built for speed I guess.The swimming leg was in a pool where we went up and down all the lanes, switching from one lane to the next after a lap. Does that make sense? It made passing a bit interesting, especially since I had to pass a 70+ year old guy in a speedo!
Finished! I was so tired, but it felt good to have pushed myself all the way to the end. I dropped onto that bench there and felt like passing out!

Feeling really satisfied, and happy it's all over (let's move onto the cheeseburger reward kind of feeling). At this point I thought I had won the overall for the women, but as it turns out, another girl had finished a few minutes ahead of me. I'll take second though!
Kip and Clarissa. The dad's deserve a shout out for being good baby sitters and putting up with travelling to these things.
Me and Marcus
Clarissa and I with our first place trophies. We got first in our age division. Don't you love the crazy, frizzy hair I have?

That's it! Anyone want to join us for another one? They are soooo fun!

Father and Sons Campout

2010-09-20T10:40:00.002-06:00

Carrying on the tradition of Grandpa Campouts (referring back to Grandpa McCuistion), all the Hakes men met in Cloudcroft for a Father and Sons Campout. I heard about it being rainy and tin foil dinners and shooting guns and deep conversations. I imagine that a lot of the world's problems were solved that night! The boys had a great time going camping with all the men.

Sick Lucas

2010-09-20T10:16:00.002-06:00

Poor Lucas! Lucas got really sick with diarrhea, vomitting and high fever. After 8 days of being sick and seeing the doctor in his office already, we took him to the emergency room. He was dehydrated so they gave him an IV. Poor guy screamed and cried while he was getting stuck, and it didn't help that it took two tries to get it. We were in the hospital most of the day. They said we could go home at one point, but when they took his temperature it was 104. They gave him tylenol and said we had to wait for the fever to go down. Finally it did, so we went home. I hated to see him so sick. You know a two year old is feeling bad when he voluntarily lays on the couch for a week. I think the extra fluids helped because he started to get better after another day of so. He's better now though, and after two weeks of diarrhea, we celebrated his first regular stool!

Crop Duster

2010-08-31T14:54:00.004-06:00

One final post and then I should be all caught up after a long stretch of no posting. Summer was just too busy with all my kiddos at home so something had to give. I'm afraid blogging just didn't make it to the top of my priority list. However, having spent a good portion of my day today making up for lost time, I think I'll try and stay on top of it in the future.

The crop duster is something worth documenting. It sprays our farm and surrounding farms with pesticide every now and then. It flies so low over the fields and around our house that it's very loud and exciting. It feels and looks like it may crash into our house. Lucas is very fascinated by it, even says he wants to be a crop duster pilot when he grows up, but screams in terror and runs inside if he hears it coming, or anything else that may sound like a crop duster.

School's in Session!

2010-08-31T14:40:00.003-06:00

After a fun-filled summer of swimming and playing, school's back in session. Clayton started 2nd grade at Sunset. He has Mrs. Martinez and we're really excited for him and all the fun things he'll get to do back in school. A few days later, David started Kindergarten at ECEC. Clayton's excited to have someone to share the long bus ride with. It's only 20 minutes in the morning, but the afternoon is longer at about an hour.

Luckily, the bus comes right to our house. David was a little nervous, but he was excited too.

He made it all the way to school on the bus and here he is standing in line with his class. This place has 400 or 500 kindergarteners so it was a zoo! David's teacher is also in our ward so he knows her good enough that he wasn't too scared. These girls are also members and we're happy they all go to be in the same class.

David loves school now and isn't too scared and doesn't cry anymore. Although, he would hate it if he knew I mentioned that he cried. Good thing he doesn't read yet!

Cora's Birthday!!

2010-08-31T14:19:00.003-06:00

On August 12th, we celebrated Cora's 1st birthday! Cora had a beautiful chocolate birthday cake.Lucas and Cora were being really funny by feeding each other. She LOVED the cake and ice cream!We were so lucky to have family come to her party. Grandma Bluth was there,and Grandpa Bluth,and Aj and Bethany and Adam Blackwelder. Adam, Marcus's cousin, visited the ranch for a month this summer from Florida. The boys fell in love with him and miss him so much. We love our baby girl! Cora did really well walking around on her birthday.

I am so proud of that tutu. I made it and it cost me 8 dollars and only an hour or two!

Clayton's Piano Recital

2010-08-31T14:14:00.003-06:00

Clayton's been taking lessons since November, and he's been doing really well on the piano. He has an ear for music. For his first piano recital, he played "Turkey in the Straw" and "Beethoven's 5th". He did really well and we're very proud of him! His buddy Coltrin was there too.

No sweat, right Clayton?

Amarillo

2010-08-31T14:06:00.002-06:00

We have a sweet spot in our hearts for Amarillo, TX. We lived there for two years 2003-2005. It's such a cute, family-friendly, Christian place, and only 4+ hours away. So, spontaneously, we went for an overnighter. We ate good food, went to church, the Discovery Center and drove around looking at beautiful, cheap houses for sale. It's a house hunter's paradise there.

Hakes House Summer Vacation

2010-08-31T13:37:00.003-06:00

We left our poor Dad at home and went to Las Cruces to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hakes. It was really fun to see them for a few days. Cora loved the pink jeep! Cora and Troy having fun in the jeep. They came over and played and swam a lot.

David pushing Hailey in the stroller.

Lucas loved pushing Cora around in the stroller. She loved being pushed too, so it worked out great!Carrie and Melissa and Troy. We hung out one night as just girls, with my Mom and Meesa too. It was fun to be with them!

Then we went to Elephant Butte Lake to go on the boat, but it was thunderstorms and windy weather. So, we waited out the bad weather for about an hour. Kimball and Josh amused themselves by having a rock throwing contest. I was just glad they didn't seem to mind waiting too much.Clayton and Carrie waiting it out on the boat.We finally got on the boat and had a pretty nice evening of tubing and skiing. I got to tube with all my boys, and they did really well. Lucas was scared and only did it for a little while. Hailey was a champ and went a long time making cute remarks like, "Yay! This is so fun!" David did really well too, but Clayton was amazing. When he went with Carrie, Kimball took him for a real ride. He was slung shot around and knocked over huge waves and never fell off. Good job Clayton! Here's me skiing. That was so fun. After being pregnant or having a baby for so many summers, it felt good to get on the skis again.

Bluth Reunion

2010-08-31T10:12:00.007-06:00

Bluth Family Reunion June of 2010 at the Sacramento Mountain Retreat near Mayhill, New Mexico. It was great to escape the heat, and go to the beautiful, cool mountains. It was such a wonderful reunion. The theme was getting back to our roots so we got to hear stories about ancestors and talk about our heritage and eat meals that were Bluth traditions: beans and rice and steak, enchiladas. There's a tons of pictures!
The kids would ride these scooters up and down the hill for hours.
And I mean hours. I sacrificed David's new shoes to this activity, as they were dragged on the ground as brakes so much that they got holes in them.AJ entertained Alyvia and Ben by letting them fill his hands with rocks. Notice Riley going down the hill in the background!Nicholas with Tyce. There were a lot of babies there.
Cora and Dad snuggling. So sweet.
Bethany and Cora and baby Brinley (not named yet) inside. Then it was time for pictures in every combination and lighting we could think of. The men were good sports, but we almost lost them for the big group picture, which I don't have a copy of yet.
Here's the Bobe and Cheryl family with grandkids. My boys had a lot of fun with these boys. Here's Dave and Yvonne Tutt and family. They sure came a long way to be with us!

Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Bluth.

Cora and Isabella. These two are only days apart in age.

All the siblings.

The whole Tito and Margie family. Not a bad picture, huh? It's so beautiful there.

Our family.

Me and the baby girl.

The traditional pinata with candy pouring out. The kids love this!

We did a craft and made bags. I actually really enjoyed this one which is great because I generally don't like crafts.

Poor Clayton. He had a lot of bumps and scrapes from playing so hard, but this one was the worst. There was a softball game going on, and a flyball was hit way out into the trees where all the spectators were. We all yelled, "heads up!" Clayton was walking away, but turned around when everyone yelled out. The ball smacked him right in the face.

The last day was Sunday and we had church. It was a testimony meeting and it was really neat. I feel so blessed to belong to such a wonderful family.
Tito and Avie. Avie's actually in a picture mood!Here we are getting ready to go to church too.
And last but not least, a funny face from Cora:

Lightning

2010-08-31T09:52:00.003-06:00

On Father's Day, our house was struck by lightning! After our ususal Sunday dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Avie, AJ and Bethany, and I think Kip and Clarissa, we were sitting in the family room chatting and enjoying the thunderstorm going on outside. Then, there was a very loud thunder that sounded like a gunshot, and everyone saw a bright flash in our hallway. The lightning had struck our house, ripping up some shingles on our roof and somehow wound it's way to our hallway thermostat where we saw the bright flash. I'm just glad noone was standing there or they would have been hit. The damages were the thermostat was fried, the roof needed repairing, the internet server needed replacing and the speakers to our computer didn't work for a few days. Luckily, the speakers did start working again, the internet equpiment was replace free of charge, my awesome husband repaired the roof with leftover shingles from when we built the house. The thermostat was more complicated to rewire and replace, but once Marcus figured it out, we had the A/C running and there was no damage to the unit itself.
Here's the fried thermostat, the place where the bright flash came from.
The roof shingles blown up. Marcus fixing it.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-08-31T09:40:00.002-06:00

For Father's Day, I dressed all the kids up to look like their Dad in his different activities. There was a lot of wiggling, but I think we ended up with some good shots.

Here's Church Dad:

Here's Engineer Dad. This is the reflective shirt he has to wear around the mine (Marcus works at a potash mine), plus a calculator: Here's Farm and Ranch Dad:

Here's Basketball Dad: And here they all are!

Playing in the Dirt

2010-08-31T09:07:00.002-06:00

David and Lucas love playing with their tractors in the dirt. They have a whole area behind the garage dedicated to this. They will spend lots of time out there building all sort of things. Here David is pointing to a mound of dirt that he says is a temple. They're good buddiesBut they're still boys and can be stinkers to each other too!

All that hard work makes Lucas thirsty!

So dirty!

Cora Growing Up

2010-08-31T08:42:00.003-06:00

Cora has been having a lot of firsts lately.
Back in July, we did her first pony tail! You can see all the products I had to use to get it to stay, but we did it! As long as she doesn't pull it out, it's a great way to keep her hair cute.The bottom of her hair is pretty curly these days:
Cousin Alyvia came to visit and brought Cora an early birthday present of jammies. Alyvia picked out these ones because it had Ariel on it, even if it was a 3T. However, the 3T wasn't exactly big on my little chubbster!Cora's also beginning to walk. I'd say she became a walker at 11 months.Although it's hard to see, these are her first pig tails. It's so fun to do little girl hair! Here in the bottom drawer of the oven is a favorite place for her to play.Love this picture of her trying to lift my weights!

Sigh...

2010-06-18T09:38:00.003-06:00

I was just reading through other peoples blogs. I love catching up on everyone's lives. One thing though is that I keep seeing people post really beautiful pictures of their kids. It's almost like artwork. Sometimes the children are in black-and-white, sometimes there is a really cute expressions captured very clearly. Then I started thinking that I used to do that too. Well, once or twice anyway. Lately, it seems like there's already too many children and bottles and food and diapers and clothing and toys and all sorts of things that I have to carry. My entourage is very high maintenance. The camera just doesn't get brought along all the time. And if the camera is there, it's too hard to actually take pictures because my hands are too full of too many things. So, I'm trying to keep up with the pictures, I just wouldn't expect any artwork anytime soon! Keep up the beautiful pictures all you other people though! I love it!

Milkman Triathlon

2010-06-13T16:22:00.005-06:00

My sister-in-law Clarissa talked me and my mother-in-law, Margie, into doing the Milkman Triathlon in Dexter, NM on June 5th. It was a sprint which meant a 500m swim, 20K bike, 5K run. It was a lot of work training for it, but it was worth the good feeling I got when I crossed the finish line.
Here's Margie and I before the race. We were a bit nervous. (Notice we stayed in the RV since the race was held at Lake Van and had an RV park.)It's hard to see, but that's me sporting an awesome bright orange standard issue swim cap running up out of the water. The swim part was intense at the beginning where I got kicked a lot and had a lot of water sprayed in my mouth when I was trying to take a breath.Here's Margie finishing the swim. It was an out and back swim in the lake. It was the perfect temperature of water, which was nice since I was worried about it being cold.Here's Clarissa finishing the whole thing! She did awesome and beat me by a couple of minutes. Here's me finishing the race. It was soooo hot on the run. The temperature was probably over a 100 degrees and the run was mostly on a hot gravel road. My total time was about 1:36.It felt sooo good to be done. This is me looking very tired and very relieved and very satisfied.

Way to go Ladies!
Does anyone want to doing this next year?

RV!

2010-06-13T15:59:00.005-06:00

Slowly, year by year, kid by kid, we've been growing out of hotel rooms. And tents. And it's a always a hassle trying to travel and unload and load baggage and food. Basically, we talked ourselves into needing an RV. For Memorial Day weekend, we headed to San Antonio where we bought this one. It is so fun to have and we're really happy with it. Plus it matches our truck! It has a kitchen and a master bedroom on one side.

And a bathroom and four bunk beds on the other. Perfect for our four children.
We stayed at the Buckhorn Lake Resort RV Park just outside of San Antonio. It was so beautiful and had all sorts of amenities: swimming pool, fishing, playground, even fireworks on the last night in celebration of Memorial Day. It doesn't get much cuter than this at an RV park:

Cora was being bad and got out of her car seat on the trip. She had fun sitting with Lucas!

Throwing Rocks in the Water and David's Graduation

2010-06-13T15:27:00.005-06:00

There's a ditch next to our house that a neighboring farm uses for irrigating. We like to go throw rocks in the "wa-dees". Lucas says he likes to make the rocks go "bu-loop." I think the boys would throw rocks all day if I let them. I tried to get Lucas to pose but he wouldn't look at me.David gave me a much better picture.We went on a pretty walk along the ditch on Grandi Rd.

Down the road is a waterfall- sort of. The boys are mesmerized watching the water.

David graduated from preschool back on May 25th. I'm so proud of how far he came this year. He didn't even want to go to school on the first day because he was shy and now he's a much more grown up and confident boy. He's learned a lot about playing with other kids. He had some good days where his friends played so well with him, and he talked on and on about how much he likes his friends. Then he had some bad days where his friends wouldn't play so nice, and he wanted to talk on and on about why people weren't nice sometimes. He would listen so intently while I talked to him about that and about why it's important to treat other people the way we want to be treated.

These are things David learned this year:

Memorized the Pledge of Allegiance

How to write his name and all the letters and numbers

Lots of really cool songs (my favorite song: Halloween's Coming! David's favorite: She's a Grand Old Flag)

Friends are pretty good and fun to play with

He definitely doesn't like friends tricking him

Here's David at graduation rehearsal with his buddies Ethan and Logan.

Cora looking miserable and sucking on her thumb with all her might at the rehearsal. She's wondering why her mom could be so cruel and forget her bottle!Sweet, handsome David in graduation rodes with his coveted trophy.

Good job David!

Today

2010-06-09T22:27:00.002-06:00

Today was one of those days where a lot of things happened that are worth recording:
First, Lucas made progress in his potty training. After many false alarms, he finally went "pee pees" outside on the dirt. He was rewarded with a handful of Starbursts which made him so happy! He doesn't like using his toilet seat and he's told me- in a very matter-of-fact way- that he "no likes his potty train seat!"
Second, and I loved this one, was when the boys were doing their chores this morning. David was dusting with Pledge and had just sprayed and wiped down the couches. Clayton was vacuuming and a little upset with all the toys and shoes and things he had to move. I was in the other room and I heard them making comments like: (David) "Don't sit on the couches, I don't want to have to clean them again!" (Clayton) "Why do you guys leave your shoes out?!" And other things like that. I laughed to myself to hear them feeling my frustrations. Maybe these chores will help them learn some accountability!
Third, I joined a club called the Elks club which has a kind of country club atmosphere around the pool. There were a bunch of people at the pool today, but I couldn't help but notice some ladies that were probably late 30s, early 40s. They looked like they spent all their time making themselves look good. They were reclining on some of those pool chairs that you sunbathe on and looking fabulous. One lady's husband was there in the swimming pool and loudly telling his wife how hot he thought she was. He was doing all this while I had a fussy baby crying in my ear and clawing me with her sharp nails and the kids were yelling at me for their attention. It made me think that I was silly for envying those women when I had so much more meaning in my life than worrying about looks all day.
That's it for today's observances!

Carrie's Graduation

2010-05-27T11:52:00.006-06:00

We went to Carrie's graduation. She received her Masters in Social Work from NMSU. I am so proud/jealous of her. That is a really cool accomplishment. Way to go Carrie! Here's the sistas after the big event:Marcus and I- we got to go just us and left the kids with a babysitter. It was pretty fun. Clayton showing me how low he can dribble the ball- he aspires to be a Pistol Pete after watching the movie about Pete Maravich.He came up with this pose himself! I think he looks so grown up! :(Lucas had so much fun at the Hakes house. He thinks that place is so special.We got Cora all dolled up for her picture session at Sears. Doesn't she look pretty? Grandma Hakes looks pretty too!It was a long wait at Sears. I don't know if I want to go back there. There's got to be another option for getting cute and cheap kids pictures. Cora amused herself by "talking" on the phone. She'll jabber away while she hold my phone to her ear. So cute!We ended up getting some pretty cute pictures: I took one with my daughter since it was just about Mother's Day- it's so wonderful to have a daughter!On our way home, we went out of our way to a restaurant outside of El Paso. It was an amazing place! It was a whole huge hacienda style place with a zoo and all kinds of grounds to walk around which was good because they told us we had an 1.5 hour wait for our table. Luckily it didn't end up being that long. It had the best food too. It was one of those satisfying experiences where the kids were starving and feeling like falling apart they were so hungry, and then they gobbled down their food and were so happy afterwards. It was good food too!

David's 5!!

2010-05-27T09:23:00.004-06:00

David's birthday was on May 2nd, and he turned 5 years old! I had such a hard time comprehending David turning 5. In my mind, David should still be 2 or 3 because he's my "little David" who's so sweet and cute and loveable. But, a month or two before his birthday, David had a growth spurt that made 5 years old seem just right. He grew a few inches and got a lot smarter too. He recited the Pledge of Allegiance for me the other day!
Some of his favorite things are his scooter, luncheables, baseball stuff, 4 wheelers.
Some of the things he doesn't like: kissing (he hates it actually), kids that are mean to him (doesn't happen too often, but sometimes he'll get his feelings hurt by kids at preschool), getting into trouble at home.
We had the Millers and the Nortons over for Sunday dinner/ birthday party. David loves those boys so that worked out perfectly for a party.Clayton, David and Trey are good buds. Trey being Batman!

Lucas enjoying having friends over, and playing with his dump truck

David loved his new scooter. He likes to do tricks on it.

Cora hanging out with Grandma Bluth.

This was David's birthday cake. It was a strawberry cake and strawberry frosting, but David didn't want his cake to be pink. So, we added yellow food coloring and got an orange color. It was yummy, but the frosting was so runny we called it a volcano instead of a cake!

David's presents.

Just a few inches under Clayton, who's standing on his toes by the way.

The Babies are Growing Up!

2010-04-16T11:55:00.003-06:00

Cora and Lucas are growing up so much lately. With David at preschool and Clayton at school, I get to hang out with these babies, just the three of us, 3 days week. They're becoming buddies a little bit.Now that Lucas is 2, it's about time he has his funny naked moment. All the other boys seemed to have theirs around this age. Lucas took all his clothes and diaper off and put on his Superman cape so I tried to have him hold still for a minute so I could get a picuture.But, he didn't stay very long and was off again! Lucas says the cutest things right now. He's not supposed to say stupid, but he started saying "stupid, stupid, stupid" in the cutest way lately that we try not to laugh when he does it. Marcus and I even imitate him when he's not around. I had a discussion with the boys about temple marriage the other day and afterward, for review, I asked Lucas where we're supposed to get married. He thought for a moment and said, "Ah.... zoo?" I guess that lesson didn't sink in!
Cora is 8 months old and crawling. She does the army crawl though. She gets around pretty fast!

She's got enough hair to do a curly-cue on the top of her head now. I think she is so wonderful.

I'm so grateful for all my kids. I'm so lucky and blessed.

More Spring Break

2010-04-16T11:47:00.002-06:00

We went and visited Kip and Clarissa and the triplets at the end of Spring Break. We had such a good time. I only have these two pictures though. I don't know, I guess taking pictures seems so hard sometimes. Sometimes you want to live and enjoy life and not worry about recording it, right? So the absence of pictures in this case means that we were having a good time.

The highlights:

The guys went snowmobiling at the cabin all day Saturday.

The city park in La Jara is amazing! This tiny town has one of the best parks I've ever seen.

Playing a dance game on the Wii, the kids were really cute.

Going on a run with Clarissa in the freezing wind!

The 2 year olds crying most of the first night.

Cora screaming most of the 2nd night- turned out to be two infected ears. :(

Spring Break in Las Cruces

2010-04-16T11:31:00.003-06:00

We went and visited Grandma and Grandpa Hakes in Las Cruces for a few days over Spring Break. It was a great way to break up the week and have fun. I could only imagine how 9 days in a row with all 4 kids home all day would be like if we didn't go anywhere. So, I said goodbye to Marcus for 3 days and 2 nights and loaded everyone up. I'm so glad it's only a 3.5 hour drive to my parent's house. That's about how long it takes to watch a movie and chat with my kids. They were so wonderful travelling over and back. Cora slept mostly, but when she did wake up, she didn't mind babbling in her car seat for the rest of the trip. She's such an amazing thing!
We went to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch one day and the kids were spoiled with tokens to play all the games to their heart's content. My dad was able to join us too and give Clayton a few pointers on basketball:Grandma was so fun to hang out with, Carrie too, but I didn't get a picture of her! Cora was amazed at all the bright flashing lights that she did a lot of staring and contemplating.

Wrestling

2010-04-15T07:45:00.002-06:00

Clayton finished his wrestling season a few weeks ago. He really loved wrestling. His poor little brothers have had to put up with Clayton practising his moves on them. There is a lot of technique to wrestling that I wasn't aware of. I'm glad he enjoyed it.Cora came with me to this match. She seemed content to suck her thumb and try and figure out what was going on. Here's Clayton on the medal's podium, he got 4th place in his weight class which was 55lbs.

He couldn't have been happier with his medal- good job Clayton!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

2010-03-17T06:43:00.008-06:00

Whew! I think we're finally pulling out of the sickness that we've been fighting since my last post. It's been about three and a half weeks now. We went through colds and ear infections and stomach bugs and more ear infections. Luckily, right now it's down to just Cora having an ear infection. I feel like our family's been put through a lot. I'm looking forward to less laundry with kids not puking on everything and also more sleep!

Clayton just finished his basketball season. He played really well this year. He was the best player on his team by far, even if that's not saying much! Clayton was the oldest age on his team so the little ones had no clue what was going on for a while. Clayton made most of the points for his team, even if they don't keep score. He even got a fancy spin move down that he used a few times in his last game where he made 4 of the probably 20 shots he took. Good job Clayton!

I have a few random pictures of Lucas. He continues to be a full-blown 2 year old. He is so cute and cuddly and making me smile and laugh one minute, and then it's the complete opposite the next minute!

David and Cora are roommates now and they have turned into great buddies. It's actually really cute. Cora prefers to look at David more than any of the other boys. It's probably because I hear them in their playing together early in the morning. Cora can pull her crib bumper down so she can stare out at David and they laugh and it's so cute!

Cora's weighing about 20 and a half pounds these days. She's a real healthy girl! Here's Cora after eating her cereal and she's covered in it. I think Cora looks like Clayton when he was a baby. So I pulled up a similar picture of Clayton, what do you think?

Sick

2010-02-26T15:01:00.003-07:00

Just the other day I was commenting to Marcus about how healthy we had been this winter. We have had a few runny noses is all. Marcus told me I should knock on wood, which I didn't, and instead I made some remark about it being a pointless superstition. Well, sure enough, we all got sick last week. Everyone stayed home from school or work one day and people slowly got better after that. I guess I should respect the old superstition after all.
This is Lucas and David under the influence of cough medicine: Poor David is still a little sick.Cora was up a lot at night which is unusual and made me remember just how lucky I am that she sleeps so good under normal circumstances. In addition to being sick, she also popped out two teeth. I am looking forward to her getting back to sleeping good. I think I've noticed a direct relationship between the amount of sleep I get and my joint pain.

Cora's 6 months!

2010-02-11T15:17:00.002-07:00

Wow! Cora's already 6 months and growing so big. She's more and more fun and lovable everyday. I absolutely LOVE the fact that she sits up like this:

Maybe my little gymnast in the making? No pressure though, Cora!

Cora is my best sleeper out of all the babies. She eats solids really well and sucks her bottle down. I only feed her 4 times a day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime) and she's usually really hungry every time. I get a kick out of how she sucks on her thumb to get comfort when she's sad or tired. She drools like crazy and may produce teeth at any time, but we'll see.

Rainy Day

2010-02-03T14:26:00.002-07:00

It's a cloudy, rainy day. I just love these wintery days. The funny thing is that yesterday was sunny and beautiful and I had a million places to go and a million things to do. On days like that though, I also have NO time for myself. So, the day that I was out in public all day, I was in sweats. Now, today, the day that I will spend at home enjoying the beautiful rain outside, I have showered and fixed up. Oh well...

You're Not Going to Believe This!

2010-01-28T21:11:00.003-07:00

Bear with me. I'm a little mad. I'm wondering what kind of person does this sort of thing:
On Saturday we were at the ranch. I put Lucas and Cora down for a nap and then had Clayton and David join me going down to the cattle guard which is a mile away. I was going to run to get some exercise and the boys were going to ride their bikes. We had a lot of fun on the way there because the wind was at our backs and the road was gently going downhill. We turned around to go back to the ranch house and the wind picked up and was worse than we thought. It was only a few more minutes and the weather turned really bad. The winds were, I don't know, 4o mph maybe and it started snowing. Not the best weather for riding a bike uphill. So, after a while, I told the boys to park their bikes on the side of the road and we'd come back in the truck later to pick them up. They didn't want to leave their bikes but finally gave in when I told them I wasn't going to push them home. They parked their bikes next to the road, but David was worried about them getting stolen. I almost laughed at that. For those of you who aren't familiar with the ranch, it's out in the Middle of Nowhere. The nearest neighbor is maybe 15 miles away- I'll have to check that number. Point is: There is no one else out there! So, the boys and I managed to get home and out of the cold. After warming up by the fire and drinking hot chocolate, the sun came out again. I decided to go down to the cattle guard again and get a little more exercise. So, I headed out. Now, about halfway down the road, a white pickup passed me. It's not too unusual that someone's lost and ends up on that road so I didn't think much of it. And, when they went flying by me a few minutes later I figured that they had realized they were on the wrong road when they saw the ranch house, had turned around and headed back. But, when I got to the spot where the bikes were supposed to be, there were no bikes.... The bikes were definetly gone. These guys stole our bikes! These bad people saw two little kid bikes and actually stole them, even though they saw me on the road and saw the ranch house. Who does that? And what are the odds of that happening out in the middle of nowhere within the space of a couple of hours?
I guess I just don't understand some people.

Happy Birthday Clayton!!

2010-01-28T20:54:00.002-07:00

Clayton is 7!!! I can't believe he's getting so big! He is such a great kid and we're so proud of him.

He got to have a couple of friends over to celebrate. They had pizza, cake and ice cream and a little Wii.

What a crazy 7 years it's been since Marcus and I became parents! Time flies when you're having fun I guess.

MLK Snow Day!

2010-01-28T20:26:00.004-07:00

We had a fun time in Cloudcroft for MLK Day. We met my parents and Carrie there which is about the halfway mark between Carlsbad and Las Cruces. There was still plenty of snow to play in and the mountains looked so beautiful.
First we went ice skating. The rink was outside- I had never done that before. It was fun for a while and then we were really cold!Cora and Grandpa hung out. She was all bundled up in blue so that she looked like one of the boys! She was cold after a while too and wanted to go sit by the fire. Even Lucas got to go ice skating. You could tell he was amused by the whole thing.

Here we are ready to go tubing. The tubing was really fun and we figured out how to go down really fast as a group. Everytime we hit the fence at the end, Lucas would say "Again!"

Creative Idea

2010-01-15T15:16:00.003-07:00

Here's a really creative idea. An "old timer" in our ward died a couple of weeks ago and he loved tractors. So, the Relief Society President was in charge of the flowers and did this for his flower arrangements. She borrowed a whole bunch of our tractors and stuck flowers inside of them and put them as the center pieces for the funeral luncheon. How about that?

Playing in the Crib

2010-01-15T15:10:00.002-07:00

All the kiddos played in the crib shortly before we took it down. This crib was a loaner since we needed another one for a short period of time. Lucas is now sleeping in a big bed and he likes it. I would like it if he wouldn't get out quite so much, but that will come with time I guess. It was cold that day so we were being creative with ourselves.

New Years at the Ranch

2010-01-15T14:54:00.002-07:00

We had our cousins visit at the ranch for New Years. We sure love playing with Riley and Bailey.Lucas absolutely loves the ranch right now. He loves the trucks, the cows, the horses, everything. He asks all the time to "go ranch".

Christmas at the Hakes House

2010-01-15T14:27:00.004-07:00

We went to the Hakes House the days before Christmas. It was so fun to be all together. My Mom put on the "Hakes Family Inn" which meant that everyone stayed in their house for one night, including the people who live there in Las Cruces. It was fun at night when all the kids were put to bed that night and all the adults got to be together. We had a good time wearing the matching pjs provided by the "Inn" management. I found Carrie reading Harry Potter to Clayton and he was eating it up. Cassi and Kelly broke news that they are pregnant! She's due in August and I am so excited for her to have her first baby. She has quite a journey ahead of herself!!!!Cassi and Kelly also brought their XBox and Rock Band. We had so much fun playing it and here are Marcus and Clayton on the guitars. Meesa was a hit on the drums!And here are some pictures of my cute little Cora. She is soooo fun!
One more of Cora with Grandma Hakes. She's wearing her Christmas present which was a nice warm outfit.We exchanged presents before we left on Christmas Eve. Lucas really liked it and wanted to do more.
We like Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

2009-12-20T21:10:00.006-07:00

The snow in early December got us in the Christmas mood. So, here's how we're getting ready for Christmas:First, we got the Christmas tree. Here it is decorated.Then, you need to tell Santa what's on your list.Next, David's preschool had a Christmas program. He played the part of Joseph. He did really good and we're very proud of David.The next day, Clayton's whole first grade did a Christmas program too. Can you tell who got to play Santa?It was Clayton! He was a good Santa- especially since he was filling in for the original Santa who was sick that day. Then, we got all dressed up in Christmas clothes to go to church. Clayton sang a duet with Danica Kilton in sacrament meeting. He ended up singing the 2nd verse because he had a meltdown and was crying for the first verse. It was a combination of stage fright and being upset that he couldn't go get a drink of water because it was time to go sing. Lucas is my little buddy and cried for me when I went up to play my violin in a musical number. But he's really cute, so I'll forgive him.Cora had a beautiful holiday dress.Last, Grandma and Grandpa Bluth came over to exchange presents before we go to the Hakes house for Christmas.

Boys on the Farm

2009-12-20T20:56:00.002-07:00

Here are the boys enjoying a beautiful day on the farm. They looked so cute! Clayton:

David:Lucas:

All the boys:

Plus, we still have that turkey hanging around. It's been here about a month now. We've been feeding it so I think it's here to stay. The boys love chasing it!

Cora at Four Months

2009-12-20T20:44:00.002-07:00

Cora is four months old now and is almost 17 pounds. She eats about every 3 hours, but I guess she eats a lot and I produce fattening milk because she looks like this:Her eyes have stayed blue so far. She loves baths. She's almost outgrowing the sink. She is a thumb sucker! I can't complain too much though because the thumb sucking has enabled her to sleep through the night. She is the best baby I've ever had! I love getting full nights of sleep!

She's my buddy!

Winter Wonderland

2009-12-03T22:08:00.003-07:00

Tuesday morning we woke up to snow. That's especially fun because it didn't snow at all last year. There was probably 4-5 inches at our house. Clayton was so excited because they cancelled school. He got to stay home and play in the snow with his brothers. We also put on Chistmas music and decorated the house and drank hot chocolate. Pretty fun!

The neat thing is that it's 3 days later and the snow hasn't melted. Tonight it's already snowing more. It's really beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Odds and Ends

2009-12-03T21:43:00.002-07:00

You know what I've learned about a child who is acting up and not able to hold still? They're probably trying to keep from falling asleep. David was one of those acting up at church and on the way home from church so he served a "time out" on the couch. Not long into his time out, he looked like this: We decided to enjoy the nice fall weather and Clayton's Fall Break by taking a walk.Clayton really wanted to help out and carry Cora so I let him. He made it to the barn which is not very far, but it was fun for him to try!I've given a lot of hair cuts with our set of clippers and I've always enjoyed sweeping the piles of red up and cleaning tufts of red hair out of the razor. It's usually when I clean up a haircut that I notice and remember just how red my children's hair is and how unusual that is. Well, I had to clean up another shade of red when poor Cora had to get her head shaved. Her long hair had been falling out for a couple of weeks (something my boys all did too), and it looked really funny with the few long hairs that were still left. So, we had to shave it. It was sad to do, but she looks much better now. Lots of babies have no hair, right?

Lucas's Birthday in Lubbock

2009-12-03T21:13:00.003-07:00

Lucas turned 2! He is such a big, smart boy that says all kinds of cute things. He's grown up a lot in the last few months and I love him to pieces. We went to Lubbock on his birthday, Nov. 20th. We had a chance to meet up with Kip and Clarissa and the triplets there along with Grandma and Grandpa Bluth and Avie. We made a temple trip out of it. It was really fun to see everyone and then it was very special to do sealings with Grandpa Bluth and Kip and Clarissa.
Here's the big 2 year old boy. Isn't he handsome? We had a birthday party in the hotel room (sorry these pics are fuzzy)Complete with balloonsand presents (Elmo)and cake.and swimming which I didn't attempt to take pictures of, however he keeps talking about "swim suit". Happy Birthday Lucas- we sure love you!
The next day we went out to eat. I think the whole staff of the restaurant was nervous to see a group of 4 adults and 8 children (5 of them 2 years and younger). It wasn't the most relaxing experience, but it turned out to be pretty fun.Clayton and Ryder waiting for their food. Cora showing off her fat cheeks!

Baby Blessing in Las Cruces

2009-11-15T21:35:00.004-07:00

We went to Las Cruces to see Chris and Francisca's babies be blessed. Callum and Rachel were the miracle twins and we wanted to celebrate their safe arrival and Francisca's safe recovery. Here we are at their house:

And here's the proud family. That's got to be a lot of work!Here's me with my niece Rachel. She's so tiny!On another note, we had friends over on Veteran's Day and the boys had tons of fun with Todd and Trey:Lucas couldn't get in on the light saber duels so much so he played with the hose and ended up getting his clothes all wet as usual. So, I stripped him down and here he is telling me he's "Coad" which is how he says "cold." On yet another note, today we had a turkey on the farm. I don't know where it came from, but it was here today.Clayton was a little bit nervous around it!

Halloween

2009-11-05T12:54:00.004-07:00

Halloween pics:

Here's the whole Star Wars gang:

Clayton went as Plo KoonDavid went as a Storm TrooperLucas went as R2D2.Cora went as a ballerina, but I think she's not going to get a job with chubby arms like that!I was a Hawaiian girl, Bethany was "Sleepover Barbie" and Grandma Bluth and Avie were the Bobsy twins in their 1920s costumes.Bwtween the donut eating game and the candy, Lucas is coverted to this whole Halloween idea!

Surgery

2009-10-28T10:53:00.004-06:00

Last Tuesday I had surgery. It was a tubal ligation/double hernia repair. My mom came over and helped with kids. It was so great to have her since I was completely out of commission for a couple of days. I never had too much pain, just nausea and discomfort. The hardest part of the whole thing was the kids. Cora couldn't nurse all day because I was in surgery and then had to wait until the medication left my system. She wouldn't take a bottle until several hours had gone by because she hates bottles. When she finally did get to nurse after almost 12 hours, she was the happiest thing you ever saw. Her eyes were rolling around in her head and she was gulping it down. The other kids just had to put up with a Mom in bed for a couple of days. But, it was fun to have them come and join me:One memorable time was when we were trying to feed the kids dinner. They weren't eating and Lucas was being loud and messy (these are his only big negatives- he's an absolutely cute boy except when he's loud and messy because he's REALLY loud and REALLY messy to the point that I question my sanity). My mom and I were becoming very irritated and the tension in the house was high. So, we bagged dinner, I needed to lay down and my Mom took the kids on an emergency anti-wiggle walk. She looked stunning in her shower cap which was to protect her hair from the wind and humidity. We'll always remember that walk!
Thanks for all your help Mom! Thanks too to Marcus and Grandma Bluth and Bethany who were also a ton of help. I'm feeling much better now and just about back into the swing of things thanks to all the wonderful help I've had.

Cora's Blessing

2009-10-22T11:26:00.004-06:00

Cora was blessed on October 18th. She was so beautiful in her long white dress.She seemed to know it was her big day. She didn't want to go to sleep the night before or nap the morning of the blessing. She wasn't fussy or anything, but simply wanted to lay there and coo and laugh and be excited for her big day. Marcus gave the blessing with Grandpa Bluth, Grandpa Hakes, and AJ. Clayton's job was to hold the microphone and did a really good job. Right before the prayer, Marcus whispered to Clayton to not hold the microphone too close, but of course that was broadcasted over the closely held microphone and made everyone chuckle. At the end of the blessing, Clayton could finally drop his arm and said, "my arm's tired!" which was also broadcast for everyone to hear and caused another round of chuckles. Marcus did a great job on the blessing and said wonderful things for Cora's life. I'm so happy for a great husband who can perform those blessings for our kids.Me with my baby girl. This is Cora, Grandma Hakes and Clayton in primary. Lucas hates nursery and cries so much that I feel bad for the nursery workers and let him come hang out with me in Primary. He sits so quietly in there because I threaten to take him to nursery if he doesn't. Here's the whole gang now. Our first pictures with everyone in our growing family. (Left to Right: Lucas, Marcus, David, Me, Cora, Clayton)

Grandma and Grandpa Hakes came that morning. My dad had to leave that evening, but my Mom stayed to help me for the week since I underwent surgery. More on that later!

We splurged on steaks since it was just a small group getting together. So, if you missed the blessing, you missed out on some good eats!

Cora was getting a kick out of my dad. He was making her smile and laugh like crazy!

There's no pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Bluth because Avie was really sick and they were not wanting to hold Cora to avoid spreading germs.

Musical Beds

2009-10-15T09:25:00.005-06:00

I've been playing musical beds ever since my baby girl was born, and I wanted to document it so I can look back and laugh someday. Someday far away when I am sleeping so well that I can barely remember these days! I am so wierd about sleep it's not even funny. I'm taking 20mg of Prednisone a day which is a steroid that "wires" you a bit, so sleep can be elusive. If I take the proper steps I can usually have a decent night, but it doesn't take much to trigger my "sleep paranoia." Then I lay awake for a long time and don't get any sleep. I usually start the night off in my bed:
This bed was already made this morning by my sweet husband. David and Lucas wanted to jump in the picture. They're wearing their new Star Wars costumes that they got in the mail yesterday.
Once Cora cries around 1 or 2 am, I head off to nurse/sleep in the bed next to the crib:

I stay there and sleep with her until 4 or 5 when she usually wants to nurse and starts her fussy/gassy phase. She's not very lady like about grunting and passing gas in her sleep and she seems to do it every morning about this time. If things don't work out right, this is the end of my night. But, if she's asleep enough that I can sneak off, I go to the couch in the "orange" room. R2D2 wanted to be in this picture:I don't want to go back to bed because there's a small chance I can sleep a little longer than Marcus's alarm will allow for. That doesn't happen to often though because my kids, especially Clayton, don't know how to sleep in. They're usually up by 6:30 or 6:45. The moral of the story is to go to bed early. There's no other way to get sleep around here!

Here's my Cora now that she's 2 months. She's cooing and smiling so cute! She weighed in yesterday at 12 lbs, 2 ozs.David and Lucas playing on my bed. These two are getting to be better friends now that they spend more time just the two of them while Clayton's at school.

New Swing Set!

2009-10-07T12:46:00.003-06:00

When Marcus went to Lubbock over a month ago to get the window fixed on his truck, he came back with a new swing set. We've never had a swing set and I've been wanting one so bad since we have so many kids and they're starting to get older. I mean, shouldn't every kid have a swing in their backyard? I've had my eye on the one at Sam's Club for a LONG time now, and it's always been hard to spend that much money. But, Marcus took the plunge while he was in Lubbock and brought this baby home. Well, not only was it a lot of money, but it turns out that you have to build this whole thing- every nut and bolt and screw of it. It came as 4 huge boxes full of wood; pretty intimidating. This project pretty much fell to me. So, with the help of my boys and occasionally Marcus, we got this thing put together over the course of 4+ weeks working on it during naptime for Cora. It was a good learning experience for me. I feel very aquainted with our power drill and wrenches and things. It was good bonding for me and the boys because they liked to push the button on the drill while I held the screws, etc. Plus, I got a tan and heightened spirits from being out in the sunshine. Here's the swing set as it's going up. At this point I thought I would never finish!Marcus was a big help. He did all of the things I couldn't do physically- you know when I need some manly muscle. One thing was to anchor the swing set into the ground with stakes. I went to a soccer game and when I came back he had done that part for me. I was so excited that he did it. However, after looking at the instructions and the swing set for a while, I realized I had the whole thing backwards. The way it was, the kids were going to be going down the slide straight into the fence! So, I meekly had to ask him if he wouldn't mind unanchoring it and rotating it around. I think I will be made fun of for that one for a while. Here he is hanging the swings. That was a big deal.Here's my good friend the power drill. This was such a beautiful evening. It was one of those moments when your kids are being cute and the weather and the scenery is so beautiful that you feel so happy. Disclaimer: Cora is in her baby carrier because we just went on a walk. I don't normally operate power tools with my baby there!There's the finished product. Pretty cool, huh? So, with the swing set and the trampoline having been replaced, I'd say our backyard is more kid friendly.

David's Hair!

2009-09-25T08:04:00.004-06:00

I was outside giving David a haircut the last week. I had scissor cut the top part and was needing to use the clippers on the side when baby Cora started crying on the monitor. So, I told David I needed to go take care of her, gave him a squirt bottle to play with in the meantime and went inside. I took care of the baby and came back a few minutes later to find that David had taken the scissors and cut huge chunks of hair off all over his head. He had cut all the way down as short as he could so that I had no other option except to shave his whole head. I couldn't even put an attachment on the clippers- it had to be bare in order to match what he had already cut off. I cried and cried while I did that because I love David's beautiful red hair. I thought he looked pretty bad at first and told him things like "You don't have to go to school if you don't want to" or "I'll buy you a new hat." The worst part was after the haircut and showering him off, I let David look in the mirror for the first time and his face fell. He made a sad face and said he looked awful. That broke my heart! I have rarely felt so bad. But, now that we're all used to it, I think he looks fine. It turns out that David's head is a nice shape under all that hair.In other news, we went to Las Cruces for a day while Marcus did the NMSU job fair representing Intrepid. It was fun to see the fam there. Here's my beautiful Mom with Cora.How cute and fat are those cheeks? Lucas throwing a balloon in the air.

Daivd playing with cousin Haley.

Carrie and Clayton:

Cora at 1 Month

2009-09-18T09:08:00.002-06:00

It is so fun having a girl! I could dress her up in cute outfits and take pictures all day! She completed her first month already and did such a great job. She weighed in the other day at 11 obs, 5 ozs and was 22 1/2 inches long. That means she gained 4 pounds and grew 2 1/2 inches! She's up in the 95/90th percentile. Let's just say this girl eats great! She has been really congested lately and a little fussy and the doctor checked her ears and found that both were very infected. So, she's on anti-biotics now, and she's already feeling better. She sleeps pretty good as long as Mom's not too far away- wakes up about 2-3 times a night. I have given up naps since it seems I never really get one due to interruptions or sleep paranoia (a term I have made up myself to describe how I feel when I lay there knowing I need to fall asleep NOW or I won't get a nap and then I worry about it so much that I don't fall asleep). So, I'm tired, but I'm doing good. My arthritis is acting up so I don't know how much longer it will be before I wean her and get back on my medication. Once it's difficult to hold her, it's time to take action don't you think?

I love the crossed eyes!

Soccer

2009-09-18T07:18:00.002-06:00

Clayton and David are on soccer teams this year. Clayton's team is called the Wizards. He's doing pretty good considering it's his first time playing. He has so much energy and can chase that ball all over the field! He scored a goal at last night's game and earned a milkshake since that's the deal I made with them. It's easy to spot the red head:

David's team is called Storm. Watching 4 year old soccer is a hoot! For example, last night during David's game, he ended up with the ball right in front of the goal. He only had to tap that ball a few inches and it would have been a goal. I was so excited to see him on the verge of scoring his first goal. But, instead, David leaned over and picked the ball up resulting in a "hands" violation! When I asked him later why he did that, he didn't want to talk about it. He seems to know that he blew a good chance.
Here's David kicking the ball:

David's First Day of Preschool

2009-09-12T07:05:00.002-06:00

David started preschool last week. He threw a fit and didn't want to go in at first, but when I picked him up he was all smiles. He loves going now and his teachers say he's doing great. I can already see that this is helping him not feel so bored from being at home all the time. Way to go David!

New Window for the Truck

2009-09-09T14:37:00.004-06:00

Last weekend, Marcus was going to take David and Clayton up to Colorado. They were going to meet Kip and Clarissa and AJ and Bethany at the cabin near Chama. They were pretty excited especially since they were going to go fishing, which David really likes. So, I had them all packed and loaded when Marcus got home from work on Friday. He loaded up his motorcycle and needed to tie it down. My job was to just balance the motorcycle so it wouldn't fall while he tightened the tie-down straps. Well, I thought he had finished and my job was over, but I was wrong. Marcus loosened one strap to position it better which knocked the motorcyle off balance. I wasn't holding tight enough, and the motorcyle went crashing through the back window. :( Needless to say, they truck and bags were unpacked and the trip never happened. Notice how you can see through the back window. I called around Carlsbad for estimates to replace the window. I got numbers anywhere from $550-$1100. Can you believe that! That's a small town with limited competition for you. I called over in Lubbock, since it's a bigger city, and found a place that would do it for $225. So, Marcus took David on a day trip the next weekend and got it fixed. It now has a fancy slider too. It's one of those things where you just want to kick yourself. It would have been a lot cheaper to just hold on to that motorcycle tighter!

This is my David. He hooked up the baby toy (his plow he calls it) and the fertilizer spreader to the hitch on the truck.

Cora's Baby Shower

2009-08-27T13:11:00.004-06:00

Cora had her first party when Bethany, my sister-in-law threw her a baby shower last Saturday. It was at Bethany's new house, just down the street. Her and AJ had just moved in a few weeks before. Bethany did a lot of work taking her house from a construction site to a beautifully decorated baby shower. Cora looked so precious all dressed up for the party. She was great and slept the whole time.I had a great time. Little baby girl things are so cute! I got a lot of great things thanks to friends and family. A bottle drinking contest between Vicki and Angela- it was hilarious!Notice the tutu looking table cloth. Very cute!Bethany with her Mom, Janet, and sister, Christa. They had come over for the shower from Las Cruces. Clarissa came too, but I didn't get a picture of her. Thanks guys for coming! Grandma Bluth with Cora. Thanks for your help too Grandma!
And thanks again Bethany!

Otherwise, we're doing great here. Cora's not exactly sleeping 8 hour stretches anymore. She's doing more like 3-4 hours, which is fine. I feel I can enjoy my baby a lot more since I'm not exhausted. Having 4 kids is crazy though! Every now and then I break out the tears, but that only seems to happen around bedtime. That's the time when everyone seems to need something or they're not obeying or they're crying and they really need to get to sleep so they get enough rest. It's my most stressful time of day. I'm just really glad I have a lot of help around here from meals to babysitting, etc. Carlsbad may be a dirty little town, but there are great people here!

Cora Bluth

2009-08-18T09:52:00.002-06:00

There she is! My sweet little girl was born on Aug 12 and weighed 7lbs, 7ozs. She's 20 inches long and has lots of reddish-brown hair. She is a wonderful baby. Her first two nights she cried and fussed a lot, but then I think I figured out the problem. She just missed my tummy and wasn't able to sleep unless she was snuggled right up next to me. Now, she's sleeping great. Last night, she actually slept 8 hours before wanting to eat again. I never thought I'd have a baby like that! I'm not sleeping all that great because it's not terribly comfortable having her right next to me, and she makes noises that wake me up all the time. However, I really can't complain! I love this picture of her smiling and notice the little swirl of hair on top of her head!She happened to be born on Clayton's first day of first grade. Luckily, Aunt Bethany came over in the night when I needed to go to the hospital, and she helped him get ready for school. I guess he had a good day and likes his new teacher. I was glad she was born on a Wednesday because now all of our kids have been born on consecutive days (Clayton-Sunday, David-Monday, Lucas-Tuesday, Cora-Wednesday). They are also born on all odd numbered years: '03, '05, '07, '09. We also have a child for every season. And they were almost all born in the noon hour. I tried to get Cora to come before 1:00 hit, but she didn't get here until 1:24. 1:00 is when I got my epidural, which is unfortunate that it was so late because I went to the hospital at 4:45 am so I wouldn't miss my chance for an epidural. Anyway, here's Clayton on his first day of school:David is so excited to have a baby sister. Grandma Bluth and Grandma Hakes and Marcus have been taking care of the boys a lot lately, so I feel like I miss my David.I feel this picture sums up Lucas's feelings about the baby. He knows it's something exciting and special and he's trying to be soft, but he's not really sure about the whole thing!I've had lots of help from everyone including Kalli who came over with my Mom to help out. This is the last time I'll get to see Kalli until she's home from her mission! And there's the proud Dad. He's been such a great help this past week. He was able to take off a lot of work and be around to help me and the boys out. I am so thankful for a wonderful husband who takes such good care of our family. Today happens to be his birthday too! So Happy Birthday Marcus!

Rotten, Stinkin Wind

2009-08-04T11:00:00.005-06:00

Last week we had two huge rain storms. They produced very loud thunder and a lot of electricity and a lot of wind. Both times it was late at night so it was dark, but the lightning was so incredible you could see outside pretty good. What we saw were sheets of rain coming in sideways in that incredible wind. I can't imagine a hurricane being much worse than that was. Just the way the windows rattled made me feel so grateful to have a house, and I couldn't help but cross my fingers that the house would hold together.
Tuesday was the first storm. We looked outside during the storm and saw that the trampoline had been blown down. That can happen in high wind and has happened before. But, after staring at the spot where the trampoline was supposed to be, we realized that there wasn't any sign of the trampoline at all. The next morning, we just saw this:So, we looked in the fields around our house and on the farm, but there was nothing. No sign of the trampoline. Finally, Marcus got on top of the garage roof to get a good view. What he saw was a track our trampoline had made as it rolled across the farm. It looked like the trampoline had jumped our back fence and went rolling like a huge tire. He got on his motorcyle and went looking for it. Apparently, it had rolled all the way across our farm- a half mile- jumped our fence and went another half mile across our neighbor's farm:

This is where the trampoline finally stopped, over a mile away with a handful of fences inbetween. Our house is not even in sight, but you can see the trees that are at the end of our farm in the middle of the picture. We're sad to not have a trampoline now. Thursday was the next storm, and had it's casualties too. We've been trying so hard to grow trees in this harsh environment. We had one star tree though. It was our apricot tree. It has grown the biggest and the fullest and was so beautiful. Well, that storm happened to blow in from the right direction and took the life of our apricot tree. It chopped it off at the bottom like an ax! It's hard to put to words what this blow means to me and Marcus.

36 weeks pregnant and other news.

2009-07-28T12:45:00.003-06:00

So I went to the doctor for my 36th week checkup today. At this point with my last two pregnancies I would have had the baby around today or even yesterday. However, the doctor said I was only dilated to a 1. And that's it. No effacement or thinning or anything. I was really hoping to have this baby around 36 weeks like the others, but I could be in for a lot longer. I've heard of people being dilate at 1 for a long time. Hopefully it's not too much longer though. I feel I've served my pregnancy time. I mean, how much longer does this little gal need to cook?

In other news, our summer is going by well. We're finding things to do here in Carlsbad since travel is not a good idea in my condition.

The boys tooks swimming lessons at the high school natatorium. That included me and Lucas taking a Mom and Tot class. Lucas really learned a lot. I learned that he's not afraid of the water. If I take my eyes off of him for even a second I usually find him at the bottom of the pool. He doesn't even care that he sinks to the bottom. His teacher taught him how to jump off the bottom of the pool and he can kick his way back up to the top almost. When he finally comes up with my help, he smiles and says, "More!" Here he is after he jumped off the diving board. He didn't have any problem walking to the end of the board and jumping to the lifeguard waiting at the bottom. David knows how to swim pretty good now. He's pretty cautious about where he goes, and sticks mostly by the side or shallow parts. He was supposed to learn to doggy paddle, and I asked his teacher one day if he was working on it. She said that he was, but was spending more time flirting with a girl in his class!

Clayton's a good swimmer. It's nice to have him big enough that I don't worry about him too much. He likes jumping off the diving board and wants to learn how to do a dive next.

For 4th of July, I made the traditional colored pancakes that I grew up with. Here's my red, white and blue (blueberry) pancakes:

We've gotten a lot of rain at our house this summer. This one rainy day kind of faked me out though. It was raining all morning, so I knew there would be a lot of water on the ground, but I was a little confused when the lawn filled up this much:

Then I remembered that we were irrigating and that was irrigation water perfectly timed to confuse me. I swear, I think straighter when I'm not pregnant. Lucas, loves the rain and wanted to play outside. Lucas also learned how to smile for the camera lately. I haven't gotten any good shots of him smiling ever, but now I should be able to get some. Here's the boys all sitting in our ottoman. They're pretending to be asleep.