Time flies

I took my camera yesterday and took some pictures of Liam sitting in the sunshine . Then as I was processing them this morning it got me to thinking of how fast this year has gone by. It seems like yesterday I was taking him home. It was Thanksgiving day and we went to a friends house the Patterson's for dinner. He was so tiny and we were so happy to have him. Recovery was difficult but he was and is such a sweet little spirit, and is just happy all the time.

The ticker on this blog says that Liam is 10 months, 1 week and 3 days old today. I catch myself cherishing this time just little more than I did with the other boys, seeing as he is the last of our babies. He will be a year old next month and I can't tell you where this year has gone.

He is an amazing little spirit, he smiles constantly and is very patient with his brothers and his parents. Liam loves to eat, that is the only time he is not the most patient. He has started to cruse around holding on to everything. I am sure he will be running around the house with his brothers very soon. He hasn't quite started talking but he does babble a lot. I think he will be like his brother Shane and be talking all the time.

Liam has 6 of his teeth and I will miss his gummy baby smile so much. But I will not miss the teething phase of life at all. He is my little buddy and loves to snuggle with me, but he also loves Daddy. Daddy loves to get down and wrestle with the boys, I do believe that it what Daddies are for. Liam has learned that if anyone is on the floor with him they are there to wrestle and you had better believe that he is good at it.

Liam is definitely one of ours, he loves the water and will stay in the tub until he is blue and shivering if we let him. He loves the new bath, its big enough to swim in.

I am so grateful to have Liam in our family, I feel so blessed that my Father in Heaven would trust me with such magnificent spirits to raise up to Him. I know that He will help me to raise them His way.

Writing this gives me an idea, I will take pictures of my other boys and write a little something about them too. I look forward to this little project. It will be a good break from unpacking. :o)

~Christina

A look at the new house! Finally. :o)

I have been meaning to write on the blog for some time now. I have so much to catch you up on. The first is pictures of the house. We are so happy here, we have 1 1/2 acres to play on. The landlord is very nice and is going to let us raise some chickens. The boys are very excited about it. Aaron and I both agree we love it out here and we will not willingly live back in town anytime soon. Unpacking is proving to be a chore but as I do it I am getting rid of things that we no longer need. We were shocked at how much stuff had collected in the 5 years we lived at the other house.

This house is big and spacious and I think if the Lord is willing we can be quite comfortable here for many many years. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a large loft area that we are using as an office, a nice kitchen/dining and Living room area. The laundry is inside and the garage is large enough to park the car in and have space for all the tools we acquired doing construction. The Master is big and the bathroom nice with a large walk in closet. Aaron and I both miss our shower at the other house but this one has a jetted tub. So it kind of equals out. The boys are upstairs in two of the bedrooms and there is a guest room that has it's own bathroom that is just waiting for you to come and visit. It has a beautiful wrap around porch that goes almost all the way around the house. The one downfall to the house is that it has NO landscaping, the weeds have taken over. There is also an irrigation creek that runs right in the back of the house.

There are many different critters that live around here. If you look out the front you will see cows, if you look to the side the neighbor has horses, and at times when you look out the back there is a heard of Elk that graze in the neighbors fields. We have also seen fox, birds of all sorts, some really UGLY spiders, geese, tons of crickets, a frog or two. It is said that there are dear, bears, rattle snakes and even a mountain lion around here but we have not seen them.

The boys are adjusting well, they love their new school. The bus picks them up and drops them off right in front of the house. Dallin is pretty sure that is the best part of the day. They go to a little country school and I LOVE it. Jared is the 18th student in his 4th grade class and Dallin the 22nd in his 1st grade class. They study music and art and science and are loving it. They have field trips planned to go to the Rocky Mountain National park. They are loving it and we are happy.

Mr. Darcy is loving his new home, he rolls in the dirt and runs around chasing anything that moves. He is very interested in the neighbors dogs and horses. We hope he will be good with the chickens. And hope to someday soon get him a girlfriend, then we will have puppies running around.

As soon as I get the house organized and the boxes unpacked I will take pictures of the inside of the house for you. For now that is what I have to offer. I hope it is enough. :o)

Mostly thru all that has happened in the last few months I have a greater faith that the Lord has his own timing and plans for us. And as long as we do what we have promised then he will open windows that we didn't even see. I know that he loves me and my family and that he is blessing us even when we don't understand.

We love you all!

The Pickers

Seventy and a Thousand

Walking home from picking up Dallin and his best friend Scott from school I overheard the following conversation.

Dallin: We have to keep our house clean so someone will give us money for it.

Scott: I know we had to do that too.

Dallin: Did you know that someone will have to give us seventy dollars for our house?

Scott: I think that houses are more like a thousand.

Dallin: Yeah, like a thousand and seventy.

Here are some pictures of our clean house. We are asking for a little more than $70 or even $1000. :o)

The House

Master shower

Master Bath

Kitchen/Laundry rooms

Front room

Living room looking into Master Suite

Entry

Sacramento Railroad Museum

it so happened that our great friends the Harrison's were going to visit the Railroad Museum, I thought that would be a great place to go before we left, so we went. It was a ton of fun all the kids loved being able to board the trains and touch everything. I am always so amazed at how huge the trains are. I love museums where the kids can run around and touch everything, its so much less stress as a parent.

Here are some pictures I took.

Rail road spikes

Mail bags in the mail car. The guy said that as they were passing thru a town the mail person would have to kick one bag out the train car and at the same time catch the one being tossed at him. Talk about stressful jobs.

The boys looking thru the tunnel, actually its a mural painted on the wall.

Each train would have it's own china design. This is the California Poppy design. I love it.

Here we go again!

So we are off on another exciting journey. Aaron will be changing jobs, and so we will be going to Colorado. As of right now we do not know when or where other than the job is in Loveland, CO. There is a lot to do and we are trying not to be overwhelmed with the idea of moving our home of the last 5 years. The boys seem to be excited about the whole idea, the only request is that we live in a house with stairs. That seems reasonable enough. Well when I know more I will let you know.

~Christina

Growing Fast

Liam Lawrence

My last little baby is 7 months old already! He cut two teeth while on vacation last month and has been very good with them. He does like to bite my shoulder every so often but has not bit me while nursing. He is starting to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth, it is so cute! And it can only mean one thing, that he will be up and running very soon. Liam is an adorable little spirit, he is calm and happy as long as he is fed and warm. He loves to watch his brothers, no one can make him laugh out loud as well as his older brothers. He is also loving the solid food idea, his absolute favorite is bananas. He has also tried peas, green beans, peaches, applesauce, and avocado. With the occasional bite of Mom's watermelon and chocolate shake. :o) I have to be sure to spoil him appropriately for being the baby in the family.

Well he just woke up from his nap so I can't write any more. Until next time then.

~Christina

Two Weeks Road Trip

3200 Miles &  3 States,

 1 Beach &  5 Perfect Sand Dollars,

 1 Wedding & 1 new Grandpa,

 1 Emergency Room Visit & 0 stitches (thankfully),

 1 Theme Park & 2 roller coasters,

 570 Pictures, 

 A great vacation!

 We started out our vacation with a trip  down south to Pismo Beach. It was a wonderful beach. The sand was super soft and the surf was gentle enough to let the little ones play. There were hundreds of sand fleas that kept the boys thoroughly entertained the entire time we were there. They would dig them up and put them into a bucket and let them go to watch them dig back down into the sand. The best part was that each time they found one it was just as exciting as the very first. There were also a lot of shells and Sand dollars all over the beach. We found lots of them and 5 perfect sand dollars. We even saw whales spouting off shore while we walked on the pier. We stayed in the very cozy Dolphin Cove Motel right on the beach and it was nice. We ate at a really good Pizza place for dinner one night and it was so good we went back for lunch the next day. We also rode a surrey around town for an hour or two. There is a great camp site there and we are definitely going to have to go and try it out. 

Building Sand Castles at Pismo, the sand was perfect for it.

All six of us in a surrey bike thing. Lots of fun and lots of peddling

Sand Fleas

Sand Dollars

After a couple nights there we headed out for the next adventure.

We stopped in Bakersfield and visited with some of Aaron’s Family. We stayed with his cousin Jeremy for a night. It was a great visit and Aaron and I are convinced that we ought to do it more often. Plus I didn't take any pictures. What was I thinking?

Then it was out of California and into Arizona. We headed into Casa Grande to see Jolene (Aaron’s mom) get remarried. We stayed in the only hotel in Casa Grande, it was also a golf course. Jolene was marred to John Price, it was a quiet little setting. It was great to see family we have not seen in a while and meeting all of John's family. Jared was so excited that his family just got so much bigger. We are too. 

With this ring . . .

John & Jolene 

Melissa, JJ and Jessica. 

Liam in his tie, He is so adorable!

Beautiful little girl. She is one of John's grandchildren, I can not remember her name. 

Then we headed to Las Vegas to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa Price, Shaylee and Aunt Melissa and cousin Jessica. We had lots of fun in the pools at the resort and then took a walk down the strip. (Something I do not advise for parents of young boys) We did find a couple of wholesome things to do like the M&M store, the MGM Grand had a Lion in the lobby and a pretty good buffet, and if not for all the revealing pictures it was a pretty cool site to see. Aaron and I were convinced that we were done in Las Vegas so we headed out a day early to visit with my brother Sean and his wife Lisa. (Back in AZ)On our way we stopped and saw the Hoover Dam really quick. Just long enough to get a few pictures.

 

They are building a new bridge to by pass Hoover. It was really cool to see it in progress. We will have to go back in a couple years to see it again. 

The Family at Hoover Dam, the wind was really whipping, it almost blew Shane away!

In some Hotel in Vegas. Liam was passed out we walked a lot that day. 

We got the boys matching shirts to keep track of them, the greatest idea ever! 

 

The visit with Sean & Lisa and the cousins Carly, Ridge & Ty was great. All the kids got along great and had a wonderful time. Arizona is not green but it is beautiful in its own way. We hiked, swam, took pictures, visited with Family, Carly was baptized, I cut my hair and we all just loved it. Lisa has one of the best families that I know and they welcomed us in just like we were supposed to be there. If the lord sees fit to put us near them I would not complain, except on days when it is over 100 degrees outside.       

Liam in the backpack I got for Aaron when Jared was small enough to fit in it. 

My boy, growing up to be so handsome. 

Crazy Cousins

Arizona rocks 

Cousin's climbing rocks at Camelback mountain. It was a good thing we had those spray bottles, it was a life saver. 

      

I was able to observe Lisa’s sister Cindy take pictures for a wedding book and she was kind enough to show me a few tricks with my flash. She also took pictures of my boys and I am sooooo excited to see them. Cindy is a Great Photographer.

Sunset at the farm that Cindy took pictures at. See there is some green in Arizona!

All in all our visit with the Rieman’s was too short. We had to leave on Tuesday.

We stopped short of LA on the way home and on Wednesday morning Aaron had a crazy idea to go to a theme park. We chose Knott’s Berry Farm. The boys loved it. It made for a very long day driving home in time for Aaron to be at work by 6:00 in the morning Thursday, but worth it. We got home around 3:00 am. Jared and Dallin loved the rollercoasters and Shane is looking forward to the day he is 46 inches tall so he can ride with his brothers.

Shane went on this ride 5 times before I had to pull him away. He loved it! All it did was go all the way up and then jump up and down a few times. 

Notice Dallin's one tooth that is still hanging on for dear life. It fell out a couple days after we got home. 

The Sidewinder roller coaster, Jared, Dallin and Dad went on this while Shane, Liam and I were riding Shane's favorite ride. 

The log ride, the boys loved it. 

Another kiddie ride. Jared was too tall to ride it.

There is a stage coach ride that takes you for a ride around the park. It was a lot of fun but very smelly as you can see from Jared's pose. 

This is the kind of picture you get from hanging your camera out the window on a stage coach ride. 

And here is the more handsome side of the horse. 

As far as being home we are glad to be here. Along the way I picked up a stomach bug. So recovery from this vacation will take a few more days then normal. I sure hope that we did not share it with the Riemans. Lisa I am really sorry if we did.

Thanks to a great friend here at home the house was sound and the animals happy to see us. My garden took over the back yard, I guess the drip system worked. Now I have another mountain of Laundry to do and Dinners to make.

It was fun, now back to reality.