Pictures from our Picnic with the Veenendaal's

I was lazy and handed the camera over to Kelly, and that turned out to be one of the smartest things I did all week :).  She got so many cute pictures of Annie and her girls.  And some of Erika too :).  Kelly's getting really good, and I'm benefitting :)

I know it's cheesy to say this, and I hope I'm not driving Annie crazy, but I LOVE seeing her as a mom.  She is THE cutest Mom, her girls always look so pretty and all done up, and of course she looks just like she did 10 years ago, all skinny and beautiful.  I don't know how she's doing the Mom thing right now with such a crappy work and school schedule, but she is!!  I'm just so impressed.  She's always amazed me and been someone I looked to for motivation to keep going, and now, that's even more so.  She's an inspiration.  I love that she has prioritized her family and stays home with them as well.  ANyway.  I could go on.  Annie is one of my idols.  I wish we could get together more often.

This was our first time meeting Jocelyn.  She is such a doll!!  

Even though Erika was feeling totally baby-hungry for OUR baby to come, she gave in and held "a girl baby" just for a few minutes :).  She looks like she's ready what do you think?

Journaling

- I got to hang out with two of my favorite people today.  First we met up with Sherry at McD's.  That was a blast!  Just sitting and talking to Sherry is therapeutic for me.  The kids did well, even though it was only 10:00 in the morning, so all we had was ice cream cones.  It was hard to tell them we were going to LEAVE McD's to eat at the park later.  But that was a really nice time.  Then we met up with Annie and her girls at Taylorsville Park.  That park brought back a lot of memories.  It was SO good to sit and chat with Annie too.  She is amazing!  I can't believe she's doing what she is almost on her own with the schedule the way it is.  She's doing it though, and I just can't help but admire her!  I just love my friends.  I wish I could get together with more of them, more often.  That's life though I guess.... to everything there is a season.  Kelly took tons of pictures of Lillian... I will have to post those later.  8-20-12

- Today was an interesting day.  We met with the Ivory Homes people and looked at some of their houses.  It's a new idea, Ivory Homes and all.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  But I realized that 3,000 sq ft, if we want to stay in it forever, is really not enough!  We need more room than that.  So who knows.  Some interesting thoughts on building a new home up in Syracuse in one of the communities up there.  I love the thought of having a pool so close and convenient, but hate the thought of HOA "covenants".  So we'll see what comes of all of this.
After dragging the kids all over the world and back in the car all day, we decided they needed some fun.  We drove down to Sandy and spent a couple of hours at Classic Fun Center.  They did the bouncy stuff and then the Blast Zone.  That was a lot of fun.  It's really fun to watch them all play.  They all have such different styles of having fun, and different ways of showing it.  Erika squealed and screamed with excitement for the first hour or so... she liked the bouncy stuff better.  It's more geared toward her age anyway.  She had a few hang ups, but Kelly and Charity showed her around most of the time.  She looked so adorable with her little pigtails... I wish I hadn't been so lazy and gone and got the camera out of the car.  Noah seemed to be having a fun time, though he's less vocal, and he did get hurt a few times.  He was hilarious when he was beating up on this possibly 12 year old boy (the kid was totally trashing all the little kids, so it was warranted, and I don't think he was actually hurting him), but Noah went to town on him, and when I asked him if he was playing or if he was mad at the kid, he said, "I'm mad at him, because he pushed me off."  We had a little talk about better ways to handle the anger, but really.... I just couldn't believe he'd had the nerve in the first place.  Tough little boy these days.  He seemed to enjoy a little time on his own.  Luke was gone and having fun the WHOLE time.  We saw very little of him :).  But he was giggling and laughing so hard any time I did see him.  He really knows how to have fun.  Bradley was a tough little kid too, that same 12 year old that Noah experienced, was testing Bradley's limits too.  I was surprised to see Bradley stick up for himself and grab the little "wrecking ball" and stand his ground.  He's a tough kid!  I was proud of him.  At least I feel like he won't let himself be bullied, and that is a positive.  He was giggling and laughing so much too, I think he was actually having fun when the kid was knocking him off of the platforms.... who knows ;).  Kelly, like I said, took Erika around a lot.  She's such a good friend to her.  She's so sacrificing of her own fun, but I think that she actually has a lot of fun in the process.  They would climb up to the top of a big slide and scream at us to wave, then they'd go down together.  It was cute.  I loved that she would come tell us the latest on how Erika did on each slide, and while she was talking Erika would be mimicking everything Kelly did, like brushing her hair out of her face (even though Erika's wasn't :) ).  Such a cute little sister/big sister moment.  Kelly even made the blast zone fun for Erika from what I could see.  Counting down to the rocket launch.  Cute girls.  Charity was EVERYWHERE!  She had fun with everyone it seemed.  She spent a lot of time with Kelly and Erika and then some with the boys in the wrecking ball thing.  She's a tough little girl, stood her ground with the big kids too.  She likes to fill us in on all the latest, so she was over by us a lot.  I think she and the other older ones enjoyed the Blast Zone most.  I wish we'd had a better view of them in there :).  Fun stuff though.  I love being able to do those things with our kids.  We saw BJ Denison there, and in his snobby little way he announced that the only reason he was there is because his kid got invited to a party there.  And that he "would never bring his kids to a place like this".  What a bummer of a Dad!  It's such a fun place!!  Kids love it!  I'm so grateful that Nate can look past the craziness of it, the dirty, stinky, loudness of it and be a fun Dad for our kids there.  I just think those are the best times!  Watching your kids be kids!  Anyway.  Good Times.  We remembered that this is where we spent the last Tuesday before we had Erika too.... funny stuff.  I guess that makes it a tradition :) 8-21-12

- Thursday was our big shopping day.  We finally got Wormie's car seat and his bed.  That was a huge relief for me.  I don't know why I was being so picky about what kind, but I guess after six kids, you learn what you like and don't like about those things.  I'm happy with what we found and they were relatively inexpensive too.  We also took Noah to his first birthday party!!  His cute little friend from his primary class, Jalee, had a birthday and invited him.  He was so excited!  I think he felt cool.... at least that's how he acted.  And to see him with his OWN little goodie bag... that was just a little piece of heaven :).  He's witnessed so many goodie bags from his sibs that this was just too awesome that it was all his.  I was surprised at how much he shared with his little sis, but very impressed.  I'm so happy with how my kids are treating each other these days.  They have their moments, don't get me wrong, but they just seem so sweet a lot of the time.  He was cute picking out the present, he was very picky, had to have the most expensive toy and then wouldn't budge.  We were too tired to talk him out of it and in a bit of a hurry, so he won.  But it was cute to hear that Jalee had liked it and that Noah had given her the complete run down of how cute and fun it is :).
That night, Nate and I escaped for one last date.  We went to Texas Roadhouse and then Walmart to pick up the gifts from the baby to the other kids.  It was a nice time.  I love being able to sit and talk uninterrupted.  I love my sweetheart, he's always so good to me, listens so well, and helps to comfort me with all my worries and insecurities.  I don't know what I would do without him.  And I sure wouldn't have 7 kids if it weren't for him (besides the obvious reasons) he is an AMAZING Dad and husband, and he has made this journey, and the raising of our family a much more pleasant one than I think most men can claim.  He really outdoes himself.  I love him.  8-23-12

- Our last day as a family of eight was a nice one.  We did a lot of cleaning up, had a picnic in the park with Uncle Steve.  Gave Nate a haircut.  Played a LOT.  Got all packed for Aunt Jen's and the hospital.  I did about a million loads of laundry (And I'm finally "all caught up"- you know what that means- to get behind for the next 4 days :) ).  I was so proud of myself ;).  Nate made an amazing dinner... I really can't thank him enough for all the meals he's prepared during the last 8 months.  He has done most.  It's been incredible.  Embarrassing for me to admit, but definitely incredible, and I can't wait to get back into the swing of life and return the favor.  We got some fabric for Kelly to make the baby a blanket- she was really wanting to do something for him.  Went out for ice cream at our favorite, Baskin Robbins.  Laughed!  It was a fun day.  I am glad we got everyone showered and clean for our big weekend.... and I think we're finally ready for our baby boy to join us!!  It's gonna be good!!  Wish me luck!  I am hopeful that I won't die.  8-24-12

Things I loved about today:

It's about time I had a more positive post right?
I had a really nice day today and even though I have this lingering SIX MORE DAYS (meaning that's a long time :), in case you were reading that wrong)... I was able to really enjoy a lot of the sweet little moments that occurred.  I'm very grateful for these tender mercies right now.
1. When I came up the stairs this morning, I looked outside and saw my sweet Bradley outside, in his church clothes (like a cute little missionary), taking his sister's dog out for his morning potty break.  What a cool little brother, and what an awesome helper!

2. Sweet little Erika looking for me first thing in the morning to give me her morning hug.  Love that.

3. Bradley helped his little brother with his bath, and Noah (who never does this) got dressed all on his own with no tantrums!!  YAY!  That's progress that I feel is necessary for the new addition to join us.

4. Kelly changed her bad mood into a good one in record time!

5. Charity stops to rub my tummy every chance she gets.... it's so sweet how much these guys love this little baby!  Never ceases to amaze me.

6. I got to hear my ol' Primary kids sing one of my favorite songs to us the ol' Presidency, and receive a sweet little goodbye gift.  Very precious.  And I held back the tears for the most part!

7. Watching Bradley assist Noah on his scripture.  They worked on it all morning, and did SUCH a great job!  All their idea, and all so wonderful for me.

8. All six of my beautiful children did fantastic in Sacrament meeting.  They were all happy, entertained, and generally quiet.  It was spectacular.  Made me feel like life will go on (in the church without Nate world) when this baby gets here.

9. Heavenly Father blessed me with a full ENOUGH tire to get to church.  I didn't have to walk.

10. My adorable big girls decided they were going to fast for the delivery.  They had forgotten about it until after breakfast, but they fasted lunch, just for me and the baby.  So awesome.

11. Then to top it off, and while they were still fasting, Charity and Kelly made dinner!

12. Playing Monopoly with my little Lukey.  He is a fun little kid.  And smart too!  I will never get tired of playing Monopoly with him.  He won.

13. Awesome lesson in Relief Society.  Reminder for me: follow the promptings you receive.

14. Noah let me comfort him when he fell on his side off the bunk bed.  Just another new one for him.  I was grateful.

15. My last Sunday was a good one, we left on a good note, now going back after the baby comes will not be too hard :).

16. Watching Erika's gentle big brother, Noah, walk her to her class.  He even put his little hand on her back.  Such a sweetie.

17. Watching Noah sing the new song with the Primary!  He even got to go up in the front to show his "scriptures" with his hands... he did great and totally got into it!  He's not normally like that either.

18. Erika showing me the crazy way that Bradley lifted her up to get her drink from the drinking fountain.  What a fun big brother he is.  She loved it.

19. All the sweet little cards Kelly wrote to me, and to all of her siblings during the meeting.  Erika just cherished hers!  She kept showing me the picture and saying, "This is Kewwy.  This is me.  And I'm hoding duh baby!"  Meant a lot to Erika.  Meant a lot to me.  I think it meant a lot to all of them.  I loved listening to Luke read his.  She is a very thoughtful little girl.  What would we do without these kids?!  My life would be so incomplete.

20. Having Nate home for evening scriptures.  I know that it's only 2 nights a week that we don't, but that makes having him here, that much more of a blessing.  I'm not whole without him, and neither is our family.

21. My kind neighbor bringing over some extra veggies from his garden.  He's so generous and so thoughtful.

22. All the warm wishes from all the sweet women in the ward.  I can't believe anyone remembered I was delivering this week.  So thoughtful.  All of the offers to help.... just unbelievable.  I'm blessed.

Journaling

- We went bowling for FHE on Monday!  WAY FUN!!  The kids were ALL so excited this time, even Erika!  It was a very fun little outing.  The main reason I want to document it is because I miraculously broke 100 (I got 101, Steve thinks it's funny that I call that "breaking 100", but it is, so I say it :) ), AND I beat Nate for some crazy reason!!!  That never happens!  He was totally having an off night and I did see their lane not give Noah credit for one of his strikes, so maybe Nate's not lying when he says that it did the same to him :)..... jk.  Noah had several strikes, Charity got one as well.  Everyone did pretty well, pretty much the same.  And we didn't really focus on winning and losing this time, but it was a LOT of fun.  Kelly had her special little "thing" she did before each bowl, wiggling her bumb and such, it was adorable.  Charity went through several moods as she did not so well without the bumpers and then better with them.  Luke did that too, he's funny because he will not cheer and high-five if he doesn't get a high enough score for himself.  Cracks me up.  He's pretty hard on himself!  But he did a lot better with the bumpers.  Noah was ADORABLE with his swing (or stroke, or what do you call it? Form?).  He would run (yes, with the ball in his arms) up to the lane and the just drop!  The ball AND himself!  I totally thought he was going to injure something on most of his turns and one of them, he did smack his face on his ball.  Poor kid, but it was seriously adorable.  No ramp.  Erika was fun to watch too, she would go up and chant, "I. CAN. DO. IT!" With Kelly and then they would roll it down the lane together, she kicked it the first few times, which I thought was funny.  Bradley had pretty good form also.  He was TOTALLY into it!  He would bowl and then drop, and lean and bend and scream for his ball.... it was fun!  They're all so fun to watch and play with.  So much cheering and high fives all around the WHOLE TIME.  Everyone had a good time.  I love when that happens.  8-13-12

- Tuesday we went up to Grandma Russ and Grandma Ruthie's house to swim at their pool!  We had the pool all to ourselves for the first little while and then a few more people came, but it was fairly empty!  It was SUPER cold though!  I guess the boiler had been out.  I wasn't sure how Wormie was going to take it, but things went well I guess.  It sure wasn't as relaxing as I had imagined making my belly weightless would be.  I had hoped it would take more of the pain out of my pelvic bones.  It did relieve a lot of the pressure though, and that was noticeable when I got out.  Erika loved the water at first and then I think the temperature got to her after a while.  She wanted to get out and sit and cuddle with me.  Noah and Luke played to their little hearts' content, but got cold quite a bit and had to sit out to warm up :).  Unfortunately it wasn't that warm of a day either, the wind didn't help.  Charity, Kelly and Bradley played together the whole time, seemed like they had a blast.  Nate made it in up to his knees and then decided it was a good time to sit on the side and get some nice one on one visiting with his parents. :).  I love being able to spend time with Nate's parents when it's just our family.  It's fun with everyone else too, but there's definitely something fun about having them to ourselves every once in a while.  8-14-12

- I'm back on the Visiting Teaching Roster!!  Went visiting teaching today and I loved it!!  I have a new partner, new ladies to visit, and I'm feeling all rejuvenated and refreshed from my couple month break :).  jk.  I really didn't want that break to begin with and as soon as they released me from Primary I said, "Put me back on the Visiting Teaching list" and THEY DID!  Pretty nice.  I know this makes me even more dorky for saying it, but I love Visiting Teaching.  I love talking with people and having that time for myself.  Hopefully I can be of some service to these ladies and will be a more reliable Visiting Teacher now.

- While we were at the cute little yogurt shop on Main, Wormie started moving a LOT.  I was showing Nate how pointy some of his little body parts are and when everyone saw him getting to feel the baby, they all came over and joined in.  We were all pushing on different sides, waiting for the opposite side to pop out.  It was a lot of fun.  Felt like a total family bonding moment.  I loved it :).  I think Wormie enjoyed the attention as well.  I wonder how much time we will all spend just giving him attention in the near future.  I do love that about a new baby... brings us all together.  Hopefully everyone will love him and enjoy him.

- Walking into Walmart, Erika was holding Nate's hand and skipping a little and singing as she walked, "Don't step on a crack, or you going to fall down on  your back and hurt yourself."  Nate and I both couldn't help but laugh :)  8-17-12

- Why didn't I take my camera?!!!  I brought it, but left it in the car.... unbelievable!  Bums me out.  Anyway.... we went down to Heidi's today to swim!!!  The kids have been excited for this ever since we learned that she has a pool :).  They LOVE swimming and even more than that, they love swimming WITH Heidi and John.  And Heidi and John did not disappoint :).  Nate had to work, so it was just me and the kids and them.  And while we all missed Daddy, I think we still were able to have a good time!  Charity, Kelly, Bradley and Luke all took turns standing on John's shoulders and then seeing how long they could stay on his shoulders while he took steps.  I think Kelly had the "world record" of 48 steps.  I will have to double check on that.  They LOVED it, and it went on for most of the time we were there.  Poor John's shoulders!  Erika, Noah and I hung out together for the most part.  Noah was having a rough day and couldn't quite find his niche, until the last little bit.  He was cold, or unhappy with his tube, or the location I was making him play, or how far away from him I was.... seemed to be something about every 5 minutes.  I wish he'd taken a chance to enjoy himself.  But it just wasn't his day.  I think it's hard when there isn't a real shallow place for him.  He doesn't do as well with being dependent on me.  We finally got him to cheer up in the "hot" tub though, that was his place.  Erika on the other hand, had a total blast the entire time!  She was hilarious!  I couldn't believe how daring she was being, jumping in from the side in her tube.  She would count and then scream and jump, pretty high too! into the pool, and then once she got the newly splashed water off her face, ask to jump in again.  Kept me pretty busy putting her back up on the side.  She was so happy though!  It was cute!  She's definitely not afraid of the water.  I wish I could get her in lessons right now.  I have to document that I beat Heidi in a freestyle race.  Even 8 months pregnant I still have enough speed :).  I shouldn't mention this, but I could hardly move my legs because it hurt my hips and pelvic bones so bad, but I still won!  So proud of myself.  Nothing against Heidi, she probably let me win, but swimming was always MY thing anyway.
After swimming we walked back to Heidi's apartment and waited for her and John to get some pizza while we watched The Land Before Time.  LOVE that show!  The kids seemed to like it too!  Erika especially liked the "Don't step on a crack" part.  So cute.  Everyone was tired, hungry and either too hot or too cold, so there was a TON of whining going on and I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but the pizza showed up and things mellowed out a little with the food in their tummies.  That was a relief.  We ate up the rest of Heidi's chocolate pie, finished the movie and then hurried out of there as fast as we could.  Mommy was tired!  Poor Erika and Noah were so devastated that we were leaving, but still didn't want to hug Heidi goodbye.... so weird.  They both cried for the first few minutes til we got on the freeway, and then konked out in the car.  Great way to end the outing :).
It was a lot of fun.  I'm very grateful for a sister (and her boyfriend for that matter) who will let us come and invade and be so fun and entertaining for my kids.  They really made our day!

Girls Night

Charity and her friend Ali next door are big time planners!  They are the best at planning.  It's incredible to me how well they can pull an activity together.  Well, last week, they decided tonight would be their Late Night.  They planned out every last minute of the evening for the four girls, Kelly and Elena were co-planners I believe :)
This morning we decided that it would be more fun for the boys (and the girls of course) if we sent the boys off to have some boy fun away from the late night.  So they left with Daddy, and the girls carried out their big plans!  They did nails and hair, had some pizza, then got all situated for their movie, The Lorax, with their Candy Store candy.  They've had a lot of fun from what I can tell :).  It's cute to watch them enjoy the fruits of their labors :).
I think my favorite part of the evening has been watching them involve Erika.  Once we decided the boys would go, they realized Erika would stay :).  They've done SO well at making it a fun time for her too!  They bought her some candy, and some other things when they were shopping, and set up her little pillow and blankie just like theirs.... it's just cute!  I'm so impressed with how loving they are to her, even though she's so much younger.  Makes me happy.  She's been on cloud nine and acts like she's just one of the big girls.  So cool.