The Farmer Family

2012-02-10T12:09:00.000-08:00

My Lincoln turned 4!!! It finally happened. He's been talking about it for months. He knows when it's cold is when his birthday is here and so back in November he started asking about his birthday. He got two parties. One with the whole fam on Sunday night. Hawaiian haystacks and dirt cake in a tractor. Big hit with the kids.This four year old boy takes his birthday very seriously. I didn't see many smiles the night of his huge pirate bash. That's pretty rare for him to not be smiling and full of mischief. He's concentrating on making the most of his party and all the benefits that come with it being his special day. I did get a small grin from his pirate cake.

Here he is after he opened his presents. Barely a smile during the whole process. Very business like was he. You would think he didn't like any of it. That was until he held them all in his arms and quickly yet awkwardly went in to the front room to hide them in a secret place so no one could play with them. It was like he had it all planned out from last year. Like I said...very serious about the whole thing.

I have to say though, it was quite the party even if the guest of honor wasn't being a party animal. Pirates were everywhere, we had the kids walk the plank over a shark pool, a bukaneer pinata, a treasure hunt and balloon sword fights. It was only an hour and a half but boy did it seem longer. Three and four year olds are loud!

This was the biggest expression he gave for his presents. The light saber...always a pleaser.

Lincoln is such a funny, quirky kid. He tells me all the time that he doesn't want to grow up. When you grow up you have to go to school and you don't get to play all day. It's just not fun to grow up. He loves to talk. If you sit down and talk to the kid you just can never guess what he might say. He's got such a funny brain. He loves pretend and dressing up. He's always in a new costume acting out some new adventure. He loves to be a stinker too. Always trying to push people's buttons and see what they will do. He has a particular grin that if he is wearing it you just know you need to beware. He's got a sweet tooth and a potty mouth to my utter dismay. He does love veggies though and will eat a whole pan of puffed pancakes. He has a high sweet voice that when he's really confused goes to an octave that only dogs can hear. He is now in primary and is missing nursery very badly. He spends primary yelling my name (I'm the chorister and am trying to let his teachers handle him.) "Mommy, mommy. Why aren't you talking to me? Mommy!" He's the oldest one in his class and he is by far having the hardest time with the transistion. He can be so sweet and cuddly and will let you hold him for forever if you wanted. He soaks up any attention from anyone that is willing to give it. He talks to strangers and whoever will listen to him. He is a fish in the water and wants to go the pool everyday. He's my best shopper out of all the kids. I could go on and on about this kids. I love his shiny bowl cut and his smile. He's free with the kisses and I take as many as I can get. Happy Birthday my Linky Dinky who no longer has a binky. (We used to call him Stinky Linky Dinky who loves his itty bitty binky.)

Snow!

2012-02-08T07:44:00.000-08:00

It snowed last night. Just a dusting but enough to get the kids up out of their beds early to peek out the window. They love snow days. This winter has been super weak. We've had nice weather for the most part. You won't hear me complaining especially with six kids in the house. Nice days they go outside and play. Snow days are spent bundling kids up to the max and then having them come in wet and cold 5 minutes later asking for hot chocolate. Boots are scattered all over the floors along with the snow and mud they picked up during their five minute adventure outside. Hats and gloves and coats are thrown off wherever and babies just love to crawl off sucking on a wet glove never to be found again. The kids get their hot chocolate only to get a second wind and want the whole bundling process to begin again. Now where did that glove go? Plus winter hats just make kids hair crazy for the rest of the day.
My kids who are so tough most of the time just are weaklings when it comes to the snow. They think they love it but it's the hot chocolate they love.

Here's what mine would rather be doing...Lego ships! These kids make them morning, noon and night.

This was the 100th day of school project. Claire made an igloo out of 100 marshmallows and Preston the puzzle king made a 100 piece puzzle. So cute!

December things I forgot

2012-02-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

So I forgot to post about a whole bunch of happenings in December. SO here they all are in one post.

Louisa loves to fold her arms during prayer. She is probably the best at it during prayer time. She also does it other times just to show off.
We made snowflakes out of pasta for an ornament exchange. Very fun and my ornament always looks the most elementary.
The big kindergartners learned how to tie their shoes!!!
Love this pic!

We made fires almost every night. Dried up our tree real fast but it was too great to stop.
Preston's school had a breakfast with Santa that we all went to. It was great! That made Santa making Louisa scream her head off three times before Christmas.
They made this breakfast so fun for everyone. My favorite was the Santa's workshop. Give the kids a couple bucks and they get to go inside and pick out a present for mom and dad. The boys put so much thought in to my doggie coming out of a chest nick nack.
Love these smiles!!!

So many kids in our baths lately.So before Em took off for her Christmas in Louisana and Switzerland we had our family Christmas. My boys LOVED the costumes she got them.
And her kids loved the bow and arrows we got them. The whole hour that they lasted.
Isn't she the cutest?

Louisa put this skirt on and pranced around. She loves clothes!

2012-01-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to Tyler...and who are we kidding...me!!!! A humungous thank you to Emily for watching our kids and keeping them alive and happy. We had a blast on our trip to Miami and cruise to the Bahamas. I could cry when I think about how many naps we took, how much food we ate, how many conversations we had that weren't interrupted and the memories we made.

Miami was so interesting. When we got to our hotel we thought that we were in a different country. Nobody speaks English. We were by far the palest, and most clothed people we saw our entire trip. Tyler was very excited to share the little spanish he knows. He told a little girl on the elevator, "Ocho" when she was pushing the buttons.
We stayed one night at an airport hotel and then we got straight on our boat. Here I am boogyan down as we took off on our cruise. So much fun!
Cruises are so awesome and so relaxing. We ate and played and ate and slept and ate and relaxed. Couldn't have been better.
We had one full day in the Bahamas. Quick trip so we could get back and make sure Emily survived our kids. We had big plans for this one day to just kick it on the beach the whole day.
We played in the water, sunbathed and people watched all day long. So many interesting swim suits and lots of brave people strutting their stuff down the beach.
This was my favorite part of the whole trip. I love jet skis!!! Tyler let me do all the driving since it was my idea to rent one. I haven't done this kind of thing in so long. It was a rush for this stay at home mom.

We walked the entire south beach and saw lot's of interesting beach scenes. Six miles of walking on sand made my feet sore for a week after. Worth it though.
South Beach is really cool looking. I love the art deco architecture.
We rented bikes our last day and cruised around and did some shopping. It was an ideal trip and if we didn't miss our babies so much we would have had a hard time coming home. Thanks again Emily!!!

2012-01-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas we had Tyler's sister and her family from North Carolina come stay with us for a week. It finally snowed their first morning with us. It was a wet nasty snow but snow none the less. Then the party really started. We had trips to museums, Cahokia mounds (ancient Indian ruins) lot's of dinners and games together and so much cousin fun. My boys were in older boy cousin heaven. I love making the holidays last until after New Years.
We will never forget New Year's eve. Lincoln went with one of his aunts to the church to enjoy a little bit of the ward party. He apparently forgot about us not being there with him and so he went to look for us. He went outside and the door shut behind him and locked him out. The whole ward ended up looking for him and couldn't find him. Then they all prayed together and the finally found him curled up by a big truck fast asleep. So many reasons to be thankful that night. It wasn't a very cold night which is pretty rare for a St. Louis December night. He fell asleep which kept him calm and then after the primary kids prayed together they were able to find him which the kids say they will never forget. I just thank Heavenly Father for keeping our little boy safe.

2012-01-18T07:39:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning was great! Louisa woke us up an hour before the boys so we had some time to relax and I gave Tyler his big present. His big present was a trip to Miami Fl. and a cruise to the Bahamas. Emily came up with the idea that we should go on a trip and she would watch the kids for us. He was as excited about this present as he's ever been. It was pretty great!

Then the boys woke up and we came downstairs to find...
So many presents!!!

Louisa was a pro this year at opening her gifts.

Here's Lincoln trying on one of my gifts.
Here's Louisa opening up her stocking. Bottles and oranges. Her two favorite things.
Preston got three things of legos. He was pretty stoked. He had most of them done before we even went to church.
We went to church and I led the kids in a Christmas song. (I'm the primary chorister now.)
After church the whole family came over for my favorite breakfast that I will only cook once a year, biscuits and gravy, eggs, and Nutz cocoa. We then opened up more presents from Nonnie and Grandad. Nonnie got the baby girls some homemade owl hats. SOOOO cute!
Tyler had already changed out of his church clothes so he got booted from the pic. Ahhhh...such happy children.

We then played games, did puzzles, took a walk and ate the rest of the day. It was so great! Love Christmas!

2012-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

After the crazy nativity we had our annual visit from Santa, a.k.a. Grandad. This is a confusing part of the night for the kids. They are ecstatic to see santa but he looks and talks a lot like grandad. To Val's credit he did a lot better this year. With some suggestions from the adults of maybe dropping the russian accent, not trying to scare the kids, to be jolly not grumpy, to not call the kids by grandad's favorite nicknames, and to stick to ho ho ho-ing. I heard some of the kids saying it was grandad in a good costume and I heard some die hard believers say that Santa just looks and talks a lot like grandad.

Santa gave out some very fun presents.
Louisa was super excited to sit on Santa's lap and chat for awhile.
After Santa left the moms and most of the kids went Christmas caroling and handed out cookie plates.
We then came home and opened one present each. New pajamas is always more exciting than I think it will be.
These boys were pretty excited about their matching, warm pajamas. They were also super excited to go to bed because by the skin of their teeth they both had made the nice list and knew santa was on his way. We took pictures for a long time trying to get it just right. They were actually letting me drag this out since they were in great moods and didn't mind posing for 20 minutes. That was my Christmas Eve present.

2012-01-15T13:39:00.000-08:00

Our nativity is always so nutty and wild. I love it! This was my favorite moment of our Christmas Eve festivities. My second favorite was when I was comforting an inconsolable Preston because it was Christmas and there was no snow on the ground. "It can't be Christmas with out snooooooowwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!"

Mary and Joseph...things started out well enough.
Louisa didn't have a part. But she managed to still play a key role in the production.
uh oh. She spotted the baby Jesus.
Someone snatched baby Jesus out of the manger with no regard for the show. Lincoln was passed out from the shock of it. Chase was super concerned with the comatose sheep.
The brazen thief wasn't even trying to hide the fact that she stole the baby Jesus.
Chubby baby Mitchell filled in for baby Jesus...to Mariah's utter dismay.
Lincoln was revived and back in to his part with full vigor.

Cue the wise men and now it's just madness. Joseph has the manger on his head, Louisa is in the middle of the stage loving on the old baby Jesus and the wise men were doing acrobatics.
And throwing the gifts around.
Mary fair can hardly lift the enormous baby Jesus.
The star comes in on the scene a few minutes late only to introduce the old baby Jesus to the new baby Jesus.

Preston had to end the show with an encore of his jumping off the couch routine.

2011-12-07T06:42:00.000-08:00

So November was a fast and furious month. My mom came to visit and we did projects and planted a flower garden and put in fruit trees and watched old movies and ate momma's cookin' and talked story and garage saled it up and shopped and just had a great time! I do love her visits so much and it takes me a long time to recover when she leaves. I wake up for a week after she's gone and my first thought is, "What are we going to do today?!" and then it's so sad when I realize she isn't sleeping next door over. boo! Anywho, I didn't take any pictures of her while she was here (Shame shame I know your name) but here are some that were taken while she was here. Here is Louisa playing in the leaves. She loved doing this and there was a lot of raking to be done this year with our new yard. It's a huge yard with lot's of old oak trees. The kids loved playing in the huge piles!

Here's another one taken while my mom was here. We did a lot of sitting around talking while we watched this little missy be funny, grumpy, silly, sassy (and that can all be with in a couple minutes of each other.)
Right before Thanksgiving my mom left and we celebrated in our normal fashion. Lot's of cooking, family and cleaning up and then hitting up the black friday deals the next day. Here's something I picked up for Louisa on black friday. LOVE!
The day after black friday we went to my favorite tree farm so that we could cut down our own tree. Trouble was they didn't have any new good ones this year. So we picked one out that they have shipped in from places where pines grow a bit better and sat on Santa's lap and even had a pony ride in the rain. It wasn't the experience we usually have out there but it would do.
See how this baby sits on Santa and doesn't freak out...hmmm....wouldn't that be nice?
The plus of not cutting our own down was we really got a gorgeous tree this year. It smells amazing and it just makes this room feel just picture perfect Christmasy.

The kids were pretty good about spreading the ornaments out this year...but I just couldn't help rearranging the whole thing and adding the finishing touches.

2011-11-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

We took pictures out in the leaves as per tradition. This was the worst round yet. Note to self...don't do pics right after church when kids are hungry and tired. We bribed and pleaded and offered things we never could have delivered...to no avail. A hundred pics taken and not one was decent of all of us. One kid would look up and the other down and then switch. So aggravating! These are the only passing ones. I do love the one of just the kids and of Ty and Louisa. She's learned how to do a big cheesy grin for the camera...it's the only time she smiles.

camping trip

2011-11-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

Right before Halloween we were invited to go camping with a bunch of families from our ward. We were all pretty excited and not at all worried about the lateness of the season. It was warm during the day but it froze us all to the bone during the night. Unfortunately, Tyler got sick right before the trip and he braved it anyways but ended up going home early with Louisa after the first day.

The first night was a rough one. A dirty diaper in the middle of the night, frozen wipes, frozen kids that kept waking up, feverish Tyler...but the next morning when I sent the sick hubby home and the grumpy baby girl home...things improved 100%.
The food was so good. A little bit of planning and three accomplished cooks = nice full bellies and no hot dog dinners.
We went hiking all over this place that had a dam that broke and left a treeless and rock filled crevis. The kids were in love. Lots of things to climb and caves to explore.

When I sent home Louisa and Ty I got to keep three cousins. It was a great trade. Cousins are the best.
The adults enjoyed the hike as well.
Lincoln won the slowest hiker award. He's my little explorer which makes keeping up a difficult thing. He and I were always about 50 yards behind everyone. He's too cute for me to leave behind though.

Here is the favorite cousin Trevor. This kid is loved by all and loves all in return. He's so patient and sweet that the younger kids just idolize him. Preston wanted to hold hands with him the whole hike. Trevor was so sweet to oblige.
Can we fit anymore?
Here we are again at Johnston Shutin's. The parents were asking, "Should we let the kids climb or just have them look at it." I was the one that told the kids to go run and climb.
Of course it was my kid that fell in the first two seconds. Oh well, just his feet wet. No biggy.
And then he fell in all the way. I was right there too. Trouble was he knocked my keys out of my pocket as he fell in. I went after the keys and he fell all the way in the freezing water. Luckily the keys and Preston were saved. Stripped down in front of everyone and left to warm on the rocks. He wasn't too happy about it. My nephew fell in too and bumped his mouth. Needless to say we didn't stay too long.

We had a great time and came home dirty and tired. I love camping!

2011-11-17T19:46:00.000-08:00

Halloween 2011...carving pumpkins while watching Arsenic and Old Lace.
Louisa looked so cute that when she got this outfit dirty the boys were so sad that she had to take it off. "But she looks so cute in it!" p.s. the girl doesn't smile much so no it doesn't bother me that she isn't smiling in this picture. This is how she looks.
Here we are with our friend Skelly. He handed out the candy for us this year so that we could go trick or treating and to our old cul de sac party.
Here's the whole gang. Poor Lincoln. He loved his costume but he really couldn't keep up in it. He wore it for a whole 45 minutes and then couldn't take anymore waddling around in that thing.
Here we are at the cul de sac party. Val loves to show up in a wild costume of random things he has at home and embarrass Tyler in front of his friends. He always impresses the kids though.

Too many Halloweens!

2011-11-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

Does anyone feel like there are so many Halloween parties that the actual day of Halloween is like, "Wait...are we still celebrating this holiday?" I mean don't get me wrong, I love love love Halloween and we go all out. We go all out so many times that by the time the 31st comes around we are looking a little rag tag in our costumes and we are so sick of candy and cupcakes. o.k. now I'm just sounding old because you know the kids aren't tired of candy nor cupcakes. Anywho, two school parties and one church party later we were still a week before the actual Halloween. And here's what we looked like.

So here we are in all our glory. We've been talking about Halloween ever since Christmas time when we let the boys watch Star Wars. They decided right then and there that our family theme for next year was going to be star wars (tear...it was finally their idea to do a family theme. One tradition engrained in them 100 more to go.) Preston wanted to be the Emperor (not even Darth Vader was evil enough for him) and Lincoln wanted to be Luke Sky Walker. Well almost a year later and they changed their minds a thousand times and we finally settled on these lovely characters. The boys wanted me to be Princess Leah but I told them last year that I wanted to be Chewy. I always like to use my big frizzy hair in my costume choices. We won best family costumes at the party. My kids are getting big heads.

Someone in the ward grabbed my camera and took this lovely shot.

Now here we are at Preston's second school party. Emily and I volunteered to help so we got to be there to embarrass and enjoy.

It was so fun to see him in his classroom and meet his friends and teacher. We took the kindergartners out to lunch afterwards. I love our two big kindergartners! They come home before lunch everyday. The bus pulls up right in front of our house and the leaves outside are all bright red and yellow and they run inside so excited to be home. It's just a Norman Rockwell moment everyday...until they all start yelling at me to make some food or start fighting over the bar stools. Got to appreciate those moments though.

Fall happenings!

2011-10-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

We've been up to lot's of fun and projects lately. This house has been very consuming of our time and attention getting it just the way we want it. BUT we also have six kids to entertain and it's fall and so the weather and the pumpkins beckon us to put down the paint brush and have some fun family time. This blog is of us doing it all. We are crazy but it's fun!
Ty took the boys swimming with their cousin Chase. They came home stinky and very very happy.

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and apple farm. Such a fun way to spend a Saturday together.

So happy sitting on a pumpkin. Love this shot.

I love this boys face and I want to stare at it all day long.
We ate lots of apples while we picked and picked. The crop was mostly ruined this year by storms and heat but that just made finding a good one even more exciting.
Do you see Louisa in the back ground feeding Ty and apple. She's so thoughtful that way.
Preston can be a machine when his mind is set on something. Most people couldn't find many apples. Preston found a bag full. He was determined...and just try to stop him when he is determined.

There were some good apples way up high.
After our tractor ride, picking apples, picking out a pumpkin and drinking enough apple cider to make ya want to puke we then spoiled the kids with a camel ride. If daddy hadn't been on a couple camel rides in Mongolia then maybe we could have passed the camels with out dropping a bunch of dough...but alas they just had to do it!!!
Claire and Preston can be the best of friends sometimes. This is one night where they decided to switch clothes. So funny. We were all rolling!
Painting the pumpkins for family night. The kids loved this!
Preston spelled dad, mom and everybody else on his pumpkin. He's getting so smart!

One day when Louisa was outside with the kids Preston put her on the swing...I screamed and ran out there and she was just in love with it. She held on tight and did great...until she fell.
Projects, projects, projects. We put shutters up, seeded the front and back lawn, painted the balcony and front doors. That's just the stuff that took place on the outside of the house.
Most of the kids wanted to help us paint the balcony and so they were all sporting some paint on their heads and hands and feet and bellies...etc.
Another huge project we did was do the kids halloween costumes. We had Preston's elementary school party last weekend. The kids are all star wars characters.
Guess who won FIRST place in the Halloween costume competition. Yoda and his little brother R2D2. That's right baby! The boys were so excited and as a prize they got a gift card to Target. Then I was excited too!

So here's the house now. Shutters up, door painted, balcony painted. The neighbors are very much appreciative that be fixed up the house that was dragging down the neighborhood. I'm loving how it is all turning out.
Ty is so proud on the lawn that he put in. He laid down new dirt, seeded and the put hay down on top of the new seed. He worked his butt off but now he's out there counting every blade and watering it so tenderly. It was just a bunch of weeds and dirt so we are thrilled with the results.

All right now I'm off to take pics of Ty being the coach for Preston's soccer team. We are co-coaches and it's been a lot of fun.

2011-10-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Things have been so busy and I'm so behind on blogging that I never posted about mine and Tyler's 9th anniversary! It was the day before school started and it we had only been home from our summer vacation for a couple weeks. We were trying desperately to enjoy the last of the summer and cram in as many projects as we can on our new house. So this is probably the first anniversary of ours that snuck up on us majorly. There are usually big plans and lot's of thought go in to them. This time was like, "What the heck! Our anniversary is in a couple days. What are we going to do!?" Emily was very sweet and babysat the kids so that we could go to the temple that morning. We loved that and had a very special time and will be making that our new tradition. We then spent the day together but that night we had to go to the parent meet the kindergarten teacher meeting and then get everything ready for the big day. So that weekend we were suppose to run away together. There wasn't much time to plan and with lot's of going back and forth we finally decided to go the cheap way out and go camping to a place we had been dying to see. So then when the tent went in to the back of the truck and the camping gear came out the boys got so excited and started getting ready themselves. It broke our heart to tell them that this was a just mommy and daddy camping trip....so we didn't. We took the boys and left Louisa. It wasn't the most romantic trip ever but we had so much fun with the boys and it was a real adventure never to be forgotten.

This place is called Elephant rock. The oldest rocks in the U.S. They are very cool to hike up to and climb on.
Here's Lincoln holding one up. He's so strong!
Here we are at the top.
In the morning we were up bright and early and it started to pour. That's how we found out that our tent wasn't water proof.

So here's the place we've been wanting to see with out a baby. Lot's of water and rocks to climb and it was so cool. It hurt us a bit to leave Louisa...until we were having so much fun doing things with out her. Sorry baby girl!

Can you get the picture of what this place is? It's called Johnston shutins. It's basically a bunch of rocks coming out of a lake...making lot's of water slides, pools and cool places to climb. It's a boys paradise.

Here we are finally whipping out the propane grill since it was taking an hour to make a fire. Seriously there is no risk of forests fires in Missouri. The wood is just too wet. Too much humidity in the air. We were burning everything we could think of and putting lighter fluid on it but it just wouldn't light. Finally when it was time for bed it had dried up enough to roast a couple mallows. Whoo hooo...what a party we had.

The Oneils moved in!!!

2011-09-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

So in the beginning of August my cousin and her three kids moved in! So this new house of ours now has 6 kids 5 and under. Whew! We have two five year olds, two 3 year olds, and two babies! If you are wondering what it's like...it's pure madness! The kids are either between having a blast with each other of trying to kill each other. So very many fights. So very many parties! I think I'm suppose to learn patience or die trying. I have to say that things are always exciting and full of activity. I treasure the happy times when they are all playing and smiling. I also treasure the time when they are all asleep. Emily and I get along great and we help each other out everyday. Her life is so full of excitement and learning new things...it brightens up my monotonous day to day. So overall our new life in this house is full, fun, dramatic, crazy and always interesting. Got to go. Always a list a mile long to accomplish. Today it's Costco (so many runs to costco), Aldi's, and clean the house. Tyler is finally coming home from being in Asia for two weeks. Hallelujah! We love daddy and can't wait to see him!

2011-09-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm done with Oregon! On to what life has been like around here since school has started!!! Preston started Kindergarten! What a studly boy he is. Smart, handsome, silly and oh so mature. He thinks he's mature anyways. I still love it when he gets sad and needs his mommy.

He still makes the goofiest faces when the camera is on him.
Here we are waiting for the bus to come. I just loved this morning. It was a little cooler outside and the everything was green and pretty and it just looked like the first day of school.
So here's our Claire with Preston. She and Preston are in the same half day kindergarten class. The live together and go to school together. I bet they never get sick of each other.
Tear :( He didn't even look back. He got on that bus with so much confidence.

o.k. now he's really getting annoyed of the camera. We followed the bus to school and saw him in his classroom with his own desk and everything. He was doing great and wasn't interested in mom and dad being there. Lincoln got in to the swing of things and was asking the very busy kindergarten teacher where his seat was. She was looking frantically for a chair for him until I finally realized what was going on and saved her from my Lincoln. Lots of pictures and kisses later we finally left him.
So then we went to a breakfast thingy for the parents and on our way out of that we saw his whole class lined up getting a tour of the school. I couldn't help it...I got the cameras out again. By this point I knew I was bugging him and suspected that the teacher wasn't appreciating me either. I got a great video of Preston telling me that I was suppose to be outside with the other parents. I'll never forget his face when he's trying to head nod me on out of there and still trying to pay attention to his teacher.

2011-09-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

So here is the last of the Oregon stuff. I promise it's going to be the last and that it's stuff I just can't leave out. By the way could you just die...this kid's hair is awesome!
So look where I found Preston and Addie one day. I knew that Preston loved climbing trees but this is crazy! The sweet thing was that Addie got scared coming down and Preston had to help her. He was very patient and brave.
Zack just loved my Louisa and she loved him right back. Doesn't she look like him in the pic. Apparently I look like my brother...hmmm....not sure what I think about that.

Lincoln got his teeth worked on by uncle Matt. I was so nervous about the whole thing but it was kinda fun to watch. This is him saying to me, "Mom my tongue feels funny!"
Here he is going to a happy place.
The nitrous oxide relaxed him so much that he fell straight to sleep. He was the perfect patient and Matt did a great job!

o.k. I thought I liked Oregon before but then Matt started keeping bees and I'm now beyond in love. So there's the garden and the fruit trees and the canning and the chickens and the farmers markets and now BEES. I just love love love the bees.
The whole process of making honey and extracting it is so fascinating to me. I love it! I love the honey, I love the wax (I made like 20 lip glosses with the wax) I love it all!

Uncle Trace who was doing an internship in Forks, Washington (this from the guy that everyone thinks looks like Edward) came down one weekend to visit us. I hope we showed him a good time. We sure enjoyed having him.

We took him to a wild animal park and it was such a cool place. You could drive your own car and you were inches from wild animals. Here's how close we got to the grizzlies.
We got a car wash from an elephant. Definitely a favorite of the park.

We literally drove underneath the giraffe.

Louisa looked so cute in her wagon with her first piggies.We took him to my very own Dorena lake.
Last but not least my baby girl Louisa started walking while we were in Oregon. We did that traditional game where you make them walk in between you back and forth. When I did this with the boys they got tired of it fast and never wanted to play it again. She liked it so much she did it over and over again until she knew how to walk.

2011-09-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

After the most of the fam left I still had plenty of time in Oregon so the fun continued. We went on a hike to see this awesome waterfall. Absolutely magnificent! The trail even let you walk behind the waterfall. So cool! The kids and I loved it!

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

So we headed west to the coast to see a gorgeous Oregon beach. I mean spectacular views and a lighthouse. We were all in love.

Playing in the sand.
Walks down the beach.
Caves to climb and explore.
Trash to collect and cherish...for five minutes.
Sand castles to build.
Holes to dig yourself in to.
Louisa was a hoot on the beach. She had a love hate relationship with the sand. She loved to shove it in her mouth but hated the feeling of it on her feet.
I love that we were just all together.
Most of the pics I took of this girl was of her crying and wanting to be off of that sand.
Lincoln don't you throw that rock at mommy.
Duck!!! Little stinker.
I tried to have a photo shoot of the kids but my oh my were they uncooperative. None of these will be blown up and put above the mantle like I was hoping.
Me and my girl. I dipped her toes in the water and I don't think she will ever forgive me.

Bahen Reunion

2011-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

So while we were in Oregon all of my brothers and sister and sisters in law were able to come up and stay a whole week. What a reunion it was! So much fun. There was good food, so many kids and so many things to do to entertain the kids. I didn't have my camera during all of the activities but here are some things I did catch.

Jenessa rocking the towel head trick. I knew when she could do that trick that she had really become a lady. The kids had so much fun on the bounce house slide thingy. There were two of them at this party. I know...Bahens know how to party.
We played some fun back yard games with the kids. There were lots of laughs and lots of tears...depending on who was winning and who was losing. I guess the Bahen grand kids can be just as competitive as the Bahen big kids.
This was one game that only brought laughs. Anna trying to make everyone crack by making her silliest face.
Besides the bounce houses and the games the rope swing was another huge hit.
Can you believe this man is about to have his 8th child? What the?!?
This girl's mom is a dental hygienist. Can you tell?
They are still quite the sappy couple these two!
Ham!
Hug the balloon race. I don't think this one left anyone bawling!
Are you kidding me with those eyes?
These girls are growing up no matter how much I tell them to stop it!

Momo has died and gone to heaven. She had all of us there for a whole week...and we were doing the cooking and cleaning.
His hair had got ridiculously long while he was staying with momo and pop so this is what Zack did to him. He certainly can rock the mohawk!
Our lovable and freakishly flexible Gavin.
Prego tiny Amy. I mean she is 4'9" and she's majorly pregnant. Where does she fit that baby cause I'm not seeing it.
Mother and daughter...so sweet.
We tried so hard...and yet I hate all the pics that we took as a fam. The lighting or the angle or just that fact that we are all chubby and old now. So sad but I know it's only going to get worse. Getting old sucks ya'll.
My first child...Parker or also known as Bubba is now a handsome, smart and too cool for smiling for the camera dude.
Lori and Matt played scrabble against each other on their phones the whole reunion. What nerds...jk. I'm totally jealous because it gives them an unfair advantage for when they really play scrabble against me. I'm old school and like the actual board game.
My boy Link was in hog heaven at Momo and Pop's. He loves to be out doors and dirty and in search for adventure. We were forcing a lot of the kids to go out and play...never my Lincoln though.
Mom and Dad have a tiny puddle pond but it provides tons of entertainment for the kids. Lincoln especially spent hours down there throwing rocks and getting muddy and catching frogs. Pretty cool huh?
All the men on Zack's old Carman Gia. If that's not how it's spelled than oh well...it's a stupid name for a car anyways. I love this pic of all the men...so macho!

There are more to come. I had to stop somewhere!

4th of July

2011-08-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

I don't know how to do one blog on our one month in Oregon...so I will break it up a bit.
Our first day there was the 4th of July! And what a day it was. A parade in the morning in my parents cute little town, playing with the cousins outside mostly doing sprinkler time and hide and go seek for Lincoln and Ellie.

At night we had a yummy dinner and then went outside to roast marshmallows and do our own fire work show.

Then when the sun went down we could see the fireworks from our little party on the farm. Then we all went inside and had homemade ice cream and apple pie. Can you see why I love to go to my parents house??? The Mallory kids were there too which was such a happy bonus. I love my sister's kids!

2011-08-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

We moved in to our new house in June and then in July we packed up the car and kids and headed west to Oregon. It took three days of driving but we broke it up with some fun. Honestly it worked out great and I preferred the driving there over the flying home. We stopped in Nebraska and stayed at a cool hotel with a indoor water park.

Which the kids were ecstatic about!
Then we drove another day and stopped in Salt Lake for the weekend. Tyler took the kids to his sister's house in Logan and I got to have a BYU Hawaii reunion with my old roommates. It was so great! A great break to prepare for a month with out Ty.
We had a great time shopping, eating out, catching up, and reminiscing. Love those girls! Thanks Dodes for putting up with all of us.
After Salt Lake City my dad picked us up and we said goodbye to Tyler. He headed back east and we continued the trip out west. The kids watched lots of movies, ate candy from the gas stations, and colored and played with legos. They did really well and it was a fun trip! I loved watching the landscape change from midwest to mountains to desert to forest. Our month love stay in Oregon is coming up.

Louisa is 1!

2011-08-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned one! My sweet and beautiful and cuddly and sometimes sassy drama queen turned one! Her birthday came while we were on the road to Oregon. So we celebrated it the Sunday before we left. Not the first birthday party I've always dreamed about for my baby girl but it was sufficient...since she didn't even know what was going on. To make it worse she wasn't feeling that great so she didn't have the most fun day ever. Oh well. The cake was cute and I got to buy her some gorgeous church dresses and a couple swim suits.

Here she is doing what she loves best. Taking everything out of the cupboards that she can reach. Such a sweet helper.

Baby girl birthday cake made by yours truly. This one was one of my hardest to get just right but I loved it!
We gave her the whole cake to play with for a bit and she was disgusted. Get this thing off my tray! Wouldn't put a lick of it in her mouth.

Present time was really for me. I loved all of the dresses I bought. Have I mentioned I love dressing that girl?

Louisa Darlene Farmer. Love the name love the girl. She's named after my mom and Tyler's mom. Two special and great women. She was such a sweet and easy baby girl. She is just now realizing that she can run us all around this house. She's the queen bee as of late. She's sassy and dramatic and reminds me of what my mom and dad say I was like. She's not easily impressed and makes you work to be her friend. She can look a little serious most of the time. But for me and Tyler she is quick with the smiles and kisses and demands and squawks. I'm still just thrilled to pieces that I have my girl and that she's my little pal.

2011-08-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Preston had his first crush on a girl named Kayla. Kayla liked Preston when they were in nursery together and I couldn't believe how early that girl had a crush on my boy. Well then the very next year my boy was crushing on that same girl. They were both kinda wild and crazy together, they are both blondies and I think that's about all it takes when you are that young. So the sad thing is that in the same year he lost Taj (his BFF) he later lost Kayla. Kayla's family moved away and this was their last time together. Seriously aren't they funny?

2011-08-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

The day after we moved in to our new home...Preston turned 5!!! Oh yeah it was some good timing. He of course insisted we needed a party with all his friends and games and a volcano cake and decorations. This in a house that is full to the brim with boxes and mess. So in the morning he went to jump start to kindergarten and Tyler and I frantically unpacked and cleaned up and cleared out one room to have this party in. The kids played outside on the new trampoline that we bought for Preston's birthday and swing set and Tyler led them in some games. I was icing and decorating on the inside and then all the kids got bored and came inside. This was so last minute and very unplanned so i sat them all down and we played charades. Thank goodness kids are so easy to entertain.

Then Tyler took the boys to Bounce U and I cleaned more and baked his volcano cake. So when almost the entire Parkway Ward showed up at 5:00 there was one room cleaned up and balloons were up and the cake was almost ready.
The kids played outside on the new trampoline that we bought for Preston's birthday and swing set and Tyler led them in some games. I was icing and decorating on the inside and then all the kids got bored and came inside. This was so last minute and very unplanned so i sat them all down and we played charades. Thank goodness kids are so easy to entertain.
The only thing that was planned was the cake and it was a major success if I do say so myself.

Preston loved it and even helped me ice it.

Here's the best part. Dry ice and red jello water.

Hot lava made a sticky mess but the kids were all so thrilled with it.

Preston loved all his presents and was extra psyched about his star wars lego set. That thing was mixed in with all his other legos by the end of the night and he was so upset...but painstakingly we remedied that situation.

5 sounds so old to me. I can't believe my baby boy that was so bald and fat is now a big five year old going to kindergarten. In fact, today is his first day of kindergarten and I'm feeling quite emotional about my little guy growing up.
5 things I love about Preston:
I love that he loves puzzles and legos. He is really good at both and they're the only toy he's ever played with longer than five minutes.
I love that he is the kid in primary that always answers the questions and sings all the songs. He takes learning pretty seriously.
I love that he's a super huge eater. He eats more than me and that's saying something.
I love that he is so darn sweet with his baby sister. He just loves her so much. Lincoln is his best buddy too...he just doesn't always know it.
I love that he is growing up to be my big helper. He's getting old enough to really help me out.

I have to say one more...I love that he is adventurous and brave and loves to climb trees and get dirty and play hard.
Happy Birthday Prestonio

2011-08-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

I am posting these against my will because of the many requests. The outside of the house needed all new siding. The inside of the house looks great though and the backyard is just humungous. The pictures don't do it justice. So these are all before pictures. We moved in and had boxes everywhere and couldn't quite unpack due to the fact that we decided to finish the basement so Emily and her fam could live in it. We were in the house for just a couple of weeks before I left for most of the summer to see my family in Oregon. While I was gone contractors finished the basement and sided the house. What a difference to come home to. I will post pics in a little while after all my decorating adventures are finished. Maybe I will have to do room by room. It's taking a while to do anything these days now that I have six kids living in this house. Life is good and full right now.

2011-08-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

So we have been off line for a couple months because of the move and then we went on a long vacation to Oregon while Ty was traveling in Asia yet again. I have much to catch up on.

To start off...we moved! Here is the last day in our old and yet beloved house.

Here is Louisa keeping herself busy by pondering the joys and sorrows she has experienced in this house.
Preston had to be entertained while we were packing or he may have gotten shoved in to a box and taped up.

Love this girl. She was such a saintly child as we packed and cleaned and painted and packed some more.
A TON of time was spent sliding down our back yard slip and slide. Kept these kids happy for hours and kept mom and Emily happy doing the moving stuff.
Preston posing on daddy's truck in the cul de sac that we have so dearly loved.
One of us was usually sitting a rocking a baby watching the tots ride bikes and play with the millions and millions of secadas. (The year of the secadas and it was a doozy.)

Here we are. The actual move. We swore we would never have the Elder's quorum move us and yet here we are. They moved the big stuff. I think this elliptical was the most annoying and cumbersome.
We waited for a warm and humid day and the very peak of secada season. Made for a fun night. Can't you tell?

Emily comes to stay!

2011-06-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

My favorite kind of picture. She has a good zerbert face.

So my cousin came to visit me after I went to visit her. I only went for a week and she got to stay for a month. Some may say that sounds long...I on the other hand was panicking the closer it got to the end of her visit. I just enjoyed her so much and we had a great time while she was here. During the day it was so nice to have someone to entertain the kids with, someone who actually likes and eats my cooking with out a fight, someone to help say, "don't do that!", someone to talk to all day while you do the mundane things that consume a day, and an extra pair of women's hands doing the mundane things. At night it was staying up late with Ty talking and playing games and watching movies. The month flew by and we enjoyed every second of it. She also kicked butt packing, painting, cleaning. She was my super star during the move. Don't know how I would have done it with out her.
Best zerbert face ever!!!

Here's her first born Claire. LOVE this girl!!! She's sweet and patient and all the good things about having a girl with out much of the drama.

Isn't she lovely? Anywho, she's had some stuff happen lately and she is now moving away from Houston and making a new life plan. I found out about her new life plan and wanted my two cents put in. I told her I thought she should live with me so that I could help watch her kids while she finishes up school. She laughed and thought I was crazy. I thought I was a bit crazy too since we lived in a little house and she has three kids. SO then Tyler sent me out there to see her and I convinced her to come visit me for a big chunk of time. Right before she got here we decided we were going to move to a bigger house. I hoped that she wouldn't think that we were too busy for her long visit. She thought that would be no problem and that she could even help us in our move (and boy did she.) So then we got to show her the wonderful place that St. Louis is.

Free zoo, phenomenal botanical gardens, Purina farms, butterfly house, Magic house, parks and food. Seriously we had some fun!

Preston didn't realize there was a pond here until he took a step in it.

Here is her youngest. Best baby ever. Here is a very rare moment of when she actually fusses. Love this wild haired, sweet faced baby girl.
And here's Jakey. He's a very sweet boy that is deathly afraid of this cow. He is a momma's boy through and through and I just love his broccoli eating, sensitive, and silly ways.

So anywho, during her visit we started moving and it hit me. I wanted her to move in with us and yet it wasn't really possible in our little house. BUT we just happened to be buying a bigger house with a huge basement. So I kept dropping hints about moving here...it took a month and some of my best cooking to convince her...but she was finally convinced!!! She's helping us finish the basement and then she's going to live in it. We are going to help each other out. I'll get to go shopping kidless, and go on dates and have her wonderful company. She will get to go to school with out putting that baby of hers in day care. YEAH! Win win win!
So that's been a pretty big thing I would say. Can you see why it took so long to post the rest of my spring break?

2011-06-21T11:25:00.001-07:00

So we came back from vacation to lots and lots of exciting new things.

Preston graduated from preschool.

Louisa grew two new teeth...vampire style. LOVE it!
She started pulling herself up....on everything.
This one isn't a new and exciting thing. She just looks too darn cute in this sink bath.

We also decided that we were going to buy our friends house. We weren't looking for a house but one just landed in our lap and it was too good of a deal to not snatch up. Our good friends the Checketts had fixed up this huge older home that was such a wreck when they bought it. They spent all winter cleaning it up and fixing everything and making it really nice. They planned on living in it for years and years. Then they decided to quite their job and go back to school in Georgia. Boo for them and us....we really like these guys. The only silver lining I could come up with for our friends moving is that we could buy their house. Tyler thought I was completely nuts!!! I called him on Friday at work and told him how the Checkitts and I were plotting and how I wanted to buy their house. He laughed out loud and told everybody at work how his crazy wife just dropped the bomb on him of wanting to buy a new house. By Sunday night I had found renters for our house and had Tyler convinced that it was a great idea. So then he went to work doing what he does best...executing my big plans. I'm the dreamer and he's the do-er. While all of that was going on I was busy entertaining my cousin and her three kids. Oh well that's for another post.

2011-06-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

The rest of our trip to Vegas was fun. Ty's brother Trace came out from Provo to hang with us. We walked the strip and saw lot's of the sites. Holy Moly was it a lot of walking with three kids and only an umbrella stroller. Little bit stressful but cool.
Frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity's. So Yummy!

Bellagio was my favorite.

The kids were loving this. I love the looks on their faces in these pics.
Finally I'm done with the spring break vacation. We've been a bit busy with a lot of different things. Posts to come:
1) We moved! Bigger house, bigger yard, bigger everything! Love it!
2) My cousin Emily comes to stay and stay and stay. Miss and love that girl!
3) Preston turns 5!!!

2011-06-06T06:46:00.001-07:00

The Nutz Reunion! The whole reason for the big trip out west. Such a worthy cause. We had such a wonderful time catching up with all the Nutz aunts, uncles and cousins. We all got to meet each others kids and man oh man have we all done some procreating since the last reunion. There were so many little people walking around with their parents features on their faces. It was a constant game of who belongs to who. My aunt Jana's house in Logandale, NV was such a kid friendly, fun spot for everyone. She had enormous amounts of food (mostly out of her food storage), a water bounce house, a tree house, craft table, and swing. I didn't see my kids for two days. They were far too busy to check in with me.

Here's Mike Nutz shooting off bottle rockets to start the whole reunion off.
We were all sitting like this catching up and someone grabbed a camera.
Anjie and Steph Hunter.
This baby girl grabbed her blanket and crawled up on daddy and fell fast asleep.
Amy and Bridger. Come on Bridger, that helmet is as big as you.
People gabbing, preparing food and eating food.
momo and her girls.
Such handsome boys.
I'm not even sure who this is but so cute!
Heman game with Matt and Ellie.
I love this picture of my mom doing what she does best, telling stories, with lots of expression and lots of fudged details.
Tyler and Addie. The five year olds.
Her is the angel Celeste and her new baby angel.
Preston did check in with me once to tell me someone flung mud on his face.
The swing always had a line going. And I'm happy to report there were only two toddler casualties with this swing. No matter how much we tried to warn them there was always a toddler walking between the slide and swing. Lot's of close calls and lots of panic attacks...but also so much fun.
Madison spraying Jennessa.
Tyler was praised this way and that way by my aunts and uncles and cousins. Such a good daddy, such a good husband, so handsome, successful etc.... I told them they had to stop filling up his head. Although all those things are true I also like that he's humble...He is handsome though isn't he?
Tree house with Preston and my first boys, Parker and Morgan.
Look at how happy Mike Mallory was in this picture. Oh yeah! He's talking to Pete. No wonder.
Beautiful Nessa.

The swing in action.
Pete and his latest
She kept making this face whenever I put a camera in front of her. Can you say future cheerleader.
Told ya!
Sam and Steph who are now grown ladies. Who knew?
Easter morning bright and early. The bunny knew we were in a whole in the wall hotel and brought some fun stuff.
Easter egg hunt. I love that face.
Addie and Preston are good pals when they aren't trying to kill each other.
So happy!
It's sad that everyone had to head back home after the the hunt. It was short but oh so very sweet. Love to all you Nutzs out there. And a HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Jana and all the Leavitts involved with putting it on. We had a great time!

2011-05-18T08:37:00.001-07:00

First view of the Grand Canyon was right at sunset and it was...WOW!

Does Lincoln look scared. We talked a lot to the kids about being so careful not to fall down the huge hole that is the grand canyon. There have been incidents of falls so we really freaked them out.

We walked and walked and walked a lot on this path that wound all around the edge of the canyon. Tyler wouldn't let the boys even close to the edge. Probably a good call.
Loved the squirrels too much. Come on guys we see these all the time in our back yard. Can you say rabies?

So much walking was done and so there began to be fights on who was in the baby stroller.
Lots of talking about rocks and what kind of rocks there were.

Oh yeah that's me with my three year old on my back. Whew. Is it funny to anyone else that kids never think about how tired mom and dad are?
Preston had his camera and was entertained a lot of the hike by taking pics of the canyon and of us.
This was another hit of the day. Maps! What can I say? They are their father's sons.
After our long day hike we rested up a bit and then hiked around on another side of the canyon and watched the sun set.
Sunset.
The kids said they were too tired to walk and yet climbing trees...well there is always energy for that.
Here we are in our tiny/dirty cabin. It was sufficient and pricey but we were in the actual park. Coolio! We entertained the kids with legos and food and t.v. cause we shared a wall with the neighbors. Oh I bet they loved us!
The morning that we were heading back to Vegas we drove to another part of the canyon (this canyon is never ending.)
This side of the canyon had a watch tower.

So we had a blast at the Grand Canyon. Was it stressful? Yup. Was it tiring? Oh yeah. Was it a visit never to be forgotten? Heck yeah! Why are there not more Americans that visit this awesome place? It was crawling with Asians and Europeans and very few Americans. I mean I grew up not too far from it and I had never been before. What is up? So here's my plug. You should all try to visit this place. Such a fun family memory.

2011-05-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Farmer Family Desert Vacation part 1: We planned a whole weeks vacation around the Nutz Vegas reunion. We thought if we were going to fly our whole family out to Vegas to go to this reunion we best make a whole vacation of it. I'm so glad we did too. We pumped the kids up about seeing the desert and all the cactus and what not. They couldn't believe there are places where there's no water or trees. We also got them excited about the Grand Canyon and a little freaked about being super careful not to fall down the big huge hole.

Here we are in our first hotel. Man the boys loved staying in our "new houses." Pools, big beds to jump on and t.v. in our rooms. They are still asking about when we are going back to our old house.

First on the agenda was to drive to the Grand Canyon. On the way we got to tour the Hoover dam. Way cool!

So although the kids were awed by the fact that we were in the desert they weren't huge fans of the blazing sun and how it felt on their skin and eyes. We got them out to tour around the dam and they were pretty miserable. What is all this sunshine about?!

See told ya. Pretty miserable.

They were fighting over the one water bottle. The sad thing was that it was only like 80 degrees. Pretty darn pleasant. They just aren't used to the sun and dry air. Parched they were.

Louisa was happy enough.

All right now they are feeling it. The sun is down and they found an ugly mater car. We are on our way...next Grand Cayon.

2011-05-02T14:03:00.000-07:00

My kids have a favorite place to go in all the world. Now I have to say we have taken our kids to some cool places. In order to keep our sanity we pretty much get our kids out of the house and take them to kids museums, the zoo, parks, malls...anywhere where we can run some energy out of them and return home with tired but happy little guys. Out of all the fun places we go to they have a favorite. Their favorite place in the whole world is the St. Louis Children's Cancer center. We go there a lot to check up on my Lincoln's blood platlettes. Everytime we have to go my boys jump up and down and squeal with excitement. It's better than Disneyworld to them. I'm so very grateful that they have made this place so fun for my kids. What would I do if I had to go hang out every week at a boring old office and keep my kids contained and quiet while I wait for Lincoln's results? Instead we actually look forward to these appointments and have a ball the whole time (well maybe not when Lincoln is getting his finger pricked...but he's gotten pretty use to that part.)

They love this swing in the waiting room. You twist it all the way up and then let it go and they spin out of control. They love it.

This is when Preston said, "This is the best day ever!!!"

The waiting room is full of video games, air hockey, and dance dance revolution.

While we wait for the nurse my boys love to play with the gloves blown up to be balloons.

Here's my Link getting all checked out. The nurses are awesome and know just how to deal with a squirmy little guy.

They've made the whole thing look like you are in the Cardinal's stadium. So many toys and games to play with and yet my kids zoned out for a bit on Toy Story while they ate treats and a slurpy from the snack table.

Fun with my new camera

2011-05-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

It's been busy around here. Came back from Houston to just get packed and ready to go to Las Vegas for our family vacation/family reunion. I had a few days to clean up, play with my camera, take Lincoln to another Dr. appointment, have a playdate at the park and pack. We also were dealing with a strange rash that Louisa started breaking out with in Houston. We thought it was mosquito bites but they kept spreading and swelling and making her completely miserable. She had two doctor appointments and they determined it was just a reaction from an infection. She looked terrible and got lots of sympathy. Poor baby girl.

So here is my trying out the new camera.
Doing his own pumping.

Lincoln loves his sticks.

Here she is with the sad rash on her face. She sure loves the swing though.

This is one of the days where she was feeling pretty terrible. Everytime I picked her up she would scream because her rash was all over her legs and they were so tender and swollen.

These are some of our favorite pictures. You take a picture while someone is zerberting their lips. It's always a crowd pleaser...especially for Farmers and their big lips.

Karate kicks. He's pretty serious about his karate.

Ice cream face...can't get enough of this smile.

2011-04-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fabulous trip to Houston to visit my cousin Emily. She just had a baby and I was going out there to help her with her kids and house and wherever I could make myself useful....or so I thought. I soon found that I should have been making this trip as much as possible in the last three years. Emily spoiled spoiled spoiled me and we had a great time trying out all the international restaurants and what ever else satisfied our fancy. When I got there she had stalked her pantry with baby food for Louisa, diapers in my closet and presents on my bed. Then she cooked fabulous breakfasts and took me out to eat for every other meal. I left with my feet looking beautiful, my belly looking full and lots of good memories. Can I just say how beautiful, smart, strong and amazing my cousin is. She's my new hero and I can't wait for her to come out here so I can try and spoil her.
I fell in love with these two while I was there. I could do a whole post on just how smart, silly, creative and sweet these two are.
We loved this restaurant that has a covered patio play area for the kids. So relaxing.
We went to the Botanical gardens right by her house. I love gardens and Houston is a beautiful place.
Pretty huh?
Fat girl playing with fingers and toes.
Took us a few tries but we got a decent one.
kMan oh man the Indian restaurant was a great success. So yummy I'm still dreaming about it.
Shopping.
Photo shoot. Love it.

2011-04-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

So my birthday came and went and lots has happened since. I loved loved loved my birthday. Tyler went all out and spoiled me rotten just the way I like it. I got taken out to breakfast, a massage, a long luxurious hair cut/highlights, out to eat just me and Ty, then a small gathering of friends and fam for cake and presents. Perfect day already...then Ty dropped the bomb! He bought me a super dooper nice camera that I totally was NOT expecting. I'm not easily surprised and he's not the best surpriser so this was something special. We have been having fun with the camera ever since.

Old camera took this one. Ooey Gooey butter cake and donuts. I wanted the Nut's homemade donuts but had no idea how to make them. This was a good substitute.

The rest of these pics are from Conference Sunday. We had a great weekend with food and fam and lots of wonderful conference talks from the Prophet and apostles.

Love this new camera of mine. Look at that clarity.
This is a common sight around these parts. Lego and cousin heaven.
Here is introducing a new cousin...Mitchell Val Kesner. Tawny had her baby a few days before my birthday and we got to hang out with him a lot conference Sunday. Isn't he a doll face?

Darlene and Louisa Darlene.

2011-03-28T18:56:00.000-07:00

Tyler went away for a week to Korea (boo) but my parents came to play for my Dad's Easter break (Yeah!) This was especially great since it's my birthday tomorrow and I believe in celebrating for a the week and not just the day. We had a great time doing projects, cooking yummy food together, going to a play, shopping, playing with the kids, and just talk talk talking. All of my favorite things. They left today and I hate seeing them off at the airport. I seriously wish they could live with me. Think of the things we could get done together. ahhhh...we got a lot done while they were here and my house feels a little more organized and happy. Crazy week of weather though. Hot 80 degree days where I was worried we were going to skip spring and go straight to summer, spring flowers springing up at an alarming rate due to the extra warm weather...and then a huge snow day with four inches of big fat snow.

Among other things we recovered the piano bench. It had a terrible floral pattern on it that I just had covered with a blanket all this time. Now it's much better.A lot of time was spent in the garage working on this baby. Got it at a thrift store. I had been watching it for awhile thinking over the price and then one day I showed it to Ty and they were having a 50% off sale on all furniture for just that day. We got it for 30 bucks! Originally 75. Been wanting a dresser for the boys room that is big enough to fit all of their clothes, short enough so they can reach all the drawers and boyish looking. I'd been doing research on how to redo an old dresser. I love the look of old stuff and they are so much more sturdy and better made than anything in the stores these days. Plus you can't beat the price. In my research I came across so many cute ideas...mostly on blogs...mostly from mormon mom blogs. Ha! I had no idea what I was doing was "in" in the mormon world. I guess we like to craft and do things on the cheap, so it all fits.
We decoupaged the inside of the drawers and lined the drawers with cute boy craft paper. Even the boys were able to help with this step. p.s Mauge Pauge does not come out of clothes.
Painted it, decoupaged the drawers, glued fabric on the drawer fronts and spray painted the hardware silver. LOVE IT!

The boys like it too! It fits all of their clothes and man do they have a lot of clothes.
The boys also got a bunk bed this month! Now they fit nice and snug in this little room of theirs.

2011-03-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

Happy St Patrick's Day! We had a fun morning with spinach green waffles shaped in to a four leaf clover, green honey, and spinach milk. Honestly my kids did love it! Then it was off to the park to meet friends for a very warm day and celebrate that it's warm again after a snow day on Monday. (Well it wasn't right off to the park...first it was a fight with Lincoln to wear something green because he really wanted to wear his Star Wars lego shirt...he's wearing a green shirt under his lego shirt, then it was another fight to get them to pick up their legos that were threatening to take over the entire house, then just when we thought we were off...Louisa exploded all over her green outfit and the carpet. grrr....THEN we were off to the park.)

Louisa liked the waffles too and then she had a sweet potato breakfast. I wanted to get a pic of her sweet little toofer that came through awhile ago.
It took a couple shots...But we eventually got it! Isn't she the dang cutest thing ever?

February

2011-03-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

So um where did February go? I would say to heck with it! It's March! It's almost spring...but I still have to blog about February. So first things first.
Louisa started getting in to the launch position to crawl. She get's up on her knees and does funky yoga positions, rocks back and forth and then...nothing. She finally started army crawling about a week and a half ago. She also cut her very first tooth! Yeah! That meant some sleepless nights but man does that tooth look cute! So then everyone got sick. I mean really sick! Lincoln got sick then Preston got sicker and then Lincoln got sick again. That meant a lot of kicking it around here. Books were read, naps were taken, bread was made, and movies were watched. The boys watched then entire series of Star Wars. Now they are diligently becoming Jedis and trying to use the force on me.

This was the day that Preston slept all over the house where ever he landed. He would sleep for an hour then find a new place to lie down and fall asleep again. It's so sad to say but I love sick kids. He was so sweet and mellow this day and I just held him and stroked him and loved on him all day. I have to say I also got the house clean and dinner done really early...when Preston isn't running the show then life is a bit less chaotic.

After we were all well again Lincoln had a Dr. appointment again to measure his platelet count for his ITP (blood disease.) After being sick for a week his numbers sky rocketed in to a normal range!!!! Best news!!! This may be the sign that he's over this whole thing. Also, Preston had lost weight and he looked so strange with long locks that I buzzed him. It didn't start out as a buzz but he couldn't stand the hair cutting process and it was taking too long...so he got the fast version. I won't be doing it again and am anxiously waiting for it to grow out again. I was in charge of Preston's preschool Valentine day party. It turned out o.k. I think I may have stepped on some toes being a newby and all. I have never had to deal with over ambitious PTA moms before and I may have ticked a few off...but the party was fun and I learned not to volunteer to be in charge ever again. I like every other mom in the blogisphere did the picture of the kid holding a sucker valentine. So picture him holding a sucker. Also, I got a massage and flowers and candies for Valentine's day. Love that day all about love.

Then our friends the Katzoffs came to town for a visit. As you can imagine this was exciting news for our clan. Preston was pretty happy to see his best friend Taj again and we got to have two sleep overs with him. Miss you guys!
Then we of course we had Tyler's birthday!!! 31 and still unable to smile normal for the camera. Still we love this guy around here. The boys get sad every morning when they realize dad is not home but off to work again. Preston tries hard to wake up at the same time as dad in the morning so that he can have cereal with him before he leaves. Louisa is starting to babble, "Dadadada," and Tyler loves it. He had a pretty special day...wait week! His favorite dinners and desserts and homemade bread. All his favorite snacks for work. Then his parents took us out the night before his bday for some Mexican. Yum! Then we had presents and cake with the whole fam. The next day Tawny took the kids all day so that we could do whatever we wanted. All of Tyler's favorites were done in one day. Gym, hot tub time, nap, BBQ ribs, movie and popcorn, cheesecake and no kids to put to bed and sleeping in the next morning. Thanks to Tawny for helping with that great day! Thanks to Tyler for being born and just being himself.

p.s.
Preston has some amazing puzzle skills. He's better at them than I am. He now can do 100 piece puzzles all by himself.

2011-02-22T19:14:00.000-08:00

So my Lincoln boy turned three. What a crazy day that was! I remember when he was born we had a huge snow storm and I remember watching it fall outside laying in my hospital bed. His birthday always has some crazy weather. This year they were calling for the storm of the century for St Louis! First we were going to have two days of an ice storm...leaving us with 2 inches of ice on the ground (BAD stuff) then we were going to get a blizzard (haven't had one since I moved here) for two days. It all started on Lincoln's birthday. We had a big party planned at Chuck E Cheese's as per his request months in advance. His day was finally here and everything was shutting down. People were racing to the stores to get supplies and everything was being closed early. We went to McDonald's for lunch (his favorite place and my least favorite) and watched the ice freezing on the cars and trees and poles...and hoping it wasn't freezing on the ground yet. The place was empty except for this one 5 year old kid that instantly engaged my kids in wrestling and throwing their toys and all kinds of wildness. I kept looking at his mom for help but she was too involved in her texting. I finally packed up our stuff after this kid talked Preston in to putting his head in the urinal and flushing. So this whole time I'm debating on whether or not to call off the party. I'm thinking no one is going to want to brave the icy roads just for a three year old's bday party. But Ty drove home on them and after some super dooper analysis of the temperature decided the roads were fine and that we should persevere. Ty's mom was telling us that the national guard was being called in and the Mayor was declaring a state of emergency...so I had my doubts. So last minute I put the crocodile cake together and we head out in the storm. Almost everyone we invited took Ty's advice and came along and the roads were absolutely fine. We got to Chuck E Cheese's (which I couldn't believe was still open...by now the mall had even closed it's doors early.) We walked in and the place was deserted. Not one other customer! It was like we booked the whole place just for my Lincoln. It was perfect. Pizza, all the games with no lines, cake, presents...we all had a good time. And then we went home and were cooped up in doors for the rest of the week. Good thing we got out when we did.
Wish we had more pics but we were having too much fun.
Lincoln is such a delightful boy and I hope that I always remember what a cute two year old he was. He learned to talk early so it was so fun for the past year to hear what he could string together and come up with. Honestly Ty and I are always laughing about little things Lincoln says and does. We just adore him.
Things that are unique to this little guy:
His voice. It's high and sweet and a little scratchy. I imitate him all the time cause I just love the way he sounds.
He's way long and skinny and we have no idea who that came from.
His face is all daddy's. Sometimes he gives us a look and Tyler and I just laugh cause he couldn't look more like Ty.
He's no stranger to Doctors. He has had to go to the Children's Cancer center for the last 6 months because of a blood disease he has. He also goes to the dermatologist a lot to get steroid injections in to a keloid scar he has. And then of course his pediatrician. He's always asking if he has another dr. appointment and he's so brave when he gets his shots. He immediately asks for his sucker after a shot.
He's still quite the hoarder. He goes to bed with a pillow pet and a huge stuffed bear and 5 binkies (don't judge), and whatever favorite toy he has been playing with all day.
He loves to shop with me and I him. He just helped me pick out all of Ty's bday presents.
He loves avocados and broccoli and chocolate milk.
He's very dramatic. Seriously you don't want to tick this kid off. His tantrums are monumental. He loves his baby cousin Aubrey and his best friend Enoch.
He also just loves his brother Preston. They play all day and laugh and fight and wrestle and rile each other up. It's fun and it's crazy...but I'm so glad they are buds.
Happy birthday Lincoln boy. I love you so much and want to always remember the way you are right now.

2011-02-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

My Mr. Lincoln turned 3 on Monday! We had a family party on Sunday for him with some of his favorites. Pulled pork sandwiches, broccoli salad, sweet potato fries, and chocolate cupcakes (that had dirt and worms on top.) He got a gift bag full of just some fun stuff to play with and the kids had a blast with the bag of balloons and the silly string. His real party was the next day...and that was quite the ordeal. Another post for that one. I love this sweet little guy. Terrible twos never really applied to the kid. Now he's very proud to be a big kid and not a little kid anymore.

Look who is sitting up all on her own. She is finally doing it! She turned 7 months on Sunday!!! She looks so old to me in this picture. I love this little girl and the last 7 months have flown...way too fast. Wish she could be this little forever.

Mormon Mom Blogs

2011-01-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

www.salon.com/life/internet_culture/index.html?story=/mwt/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

Very interesting and entertaining article about mormon mom blogs. We are a guilty pleasure yo! Well, not me...but some of yous might just be.

Finally Christmas

2011-01-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas came and we were almost ready for it. Oh well it came just the same. It was pretty memorable. Things that stick out to me...
1) It snowed all day Christmas eve...the most perfect snow. It fell and fell and it made everything look so beautiful. I loved it and it was my calming grace during the stressful day that was Christmas Eve.
2) Tyler had pneumonia and wasn't able to help much. I was up super dooper late wrapping presents and doing stocking stuff while he slept on the couch trying to be apart of it.
3) This is the one night of the year that the boys go down with out a fight. "Santa is coming any minute and if we are up then he passes over our house." Preston kept telling us, "No brushing our teeth, no bedtime stories. We just want to go straight to bed!" This is my favorite moment of the whole season.
4) I stayed up way too late and then Louisa for some reason was wide awake at about 6:00 in the morning. The boys slept until 8:00 (a Christmas miracle right there.) So I had lots of time to stare at my tree, hold my sweet baby girl, look out at the freshly fallen snow, and feel the feelings of Christmas.
5) Had present time here then breakfast with the fam and then another Christmas over there. Breakfast was so good and so were the presents.
6) Went sledding for a couple hours in my new boots and had a great time with my nieces and nephews. My boys weren't feeling it. Wimps in the cold. Their girl cousins from Mississippi were barely dressed and stayed out there for hours.
7) Yummy food, puzzles, toys and games...and then I crashed for an hour towards evening time. So very tired.
8) Tyler and I had to write talks for church the next day. We had been asked a couple days before and there was literally no time until Christmas evening to write the talks. grrrr...kind of a sore subject for me. I didn't mind doing the talk just having to put Christmas on hold so that I could do so.
9) One more thing. Tyler took his brother Trace to a Blues hockey game for his Christmas present. They ended up being on national television because they were sitting behind a Santa Clause that was wearing a blue wig and beard. The cameras loved this guy and Tyler and Trace were right behind him. Yeah! I'm sure tons of people watch the terrible Blues team play and got to see my husband's chest over and over...and one good shot of their faces...well Tyler's face had Santa's arm right in front of it as he was cheering a good play on. If you play it in slow mo then you can catch a glimpse.
Here I am with Louisa before anyone else was up. The tree the baby and the snow. Loving it!

Tree and snow.Before we unwrapped.
Opening a Thomas train. So happy.
Louisa had lots of help with her toys. She didn't get to do much unwrapping.

The very anticipated Star Wars legos.
This kid was a tornado this year. Last year we had to beg them to stop playing with their toys and open up more. This year he was like, "oh that's nice. Where's the next one."

The days before Christmas

2011-01-12T17:01:00.000-08:00

These pictures aren't perfect but neither was Christmas. It was messy, tiring, fun, not fun, loud, full, crazy, busy. I guess it was perfectly Christmas.

The baby cousins. Christmas Adam (day before Christmas Eve) there was a cousin party at our house. We ate and made ornaments, and played games and had a sleep over. It was fun. Two parties in a row was exhausting though. We had a tacky Christmas sweater party the night before and were up quite late.

Here was Santa making a grand visit on our Christmas eve party. This was a complete riot. He was trying to sneak out of the house so he could knock on the door. The kids caught him leaving and thought they had caught Santa in the act of dropping off the toys. They were thrilled and jumping and squealing and Val (Tyler's dad) was a loud and crazy Santa and kept forgetting that he was grandad and was actually suppose to be santa. I was anxious to see what Preston thought about this Santa, wondering if he would figure it out that it was his grandad. All the kids were totally buying it which was a wonder cause grandad kept forgetting his character. Preston looked at me and asked me why santa's voice was so weird. Then you could see the light bulb turn on and he whispered to me, "That's Grandad!" hmmmm..."No it's not. As far as I know that is Grandad," was my response.
Yes he is a about to drop Louisa. Tyler caught her right after this picture was taken. Look at Lincoln. I think he was catching on to the whole thing too.

Here is Tyler struggling through the evening. He was so sick. Turns out he got pneumonia. See told ya it wasn't the most fun we've ever had.

Here are my boys opening up their Christmas pjs. We really got excited about them so that they would too.
And here was our little ones acting out Luke 2. Our Mary had a little stage fright and so it got a little out of control while we were waiting for her to appear.

Preschool Christmas Program

2011-01-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

I'm so behind. Preston's preschool Christmas program was a big hit! All I can say is my kid is a star. He was by far the most dramatic up there on that stage. He loved it! He sang loud and proud and did all the hand motions...but did everything bigger and bigger than was really necessary. At one point they were dipping their heads to one side to act as if they were sleeping. He dipped his body in half all the way down and was totally asleep. When he saw that we were enjoying how much he was getting in to it he just got more and more in to it. He's a ham and a half. I of course loved seeing his dramatic capabilities. He was also just so high after it was over. What a rush it is to preform for this kid. I only wish he could always have a big audience. It's a little daunting being his only audience most of the time.

Christmas ornaments

2010-12-30T07:48:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday before Christmas. My kids looked so cute I had to take some pics in front of the Christmas tree. We even set up the camera with the timer and got a pic of all of us. It's not the best but it will do. My favorite is to print out pictures of this years pictures and put them in to picture ornaments and deck the tree out with pictures from Christmas past.

Christmas stuff!

2010-12-24T08:31:00.001-08:00

Love the crazed smiles on these boys faces. Gingerbread day happened due to an ice storm and nothing else to do that day but stay home and cook.

Painting soldier ornaments.
Lincoln trying to put his shirt back on after painting his ornament.

Lots been going on this month. Among all the shopping, baking, parties and crafting we decided to finally give Louisa her first taste of baby cereal. She's been watching us eat with such devoted interest and every time a spoon got close to her she would convulse in her seat. Arms waving, eyes going cross eyed, mouth just willing that spoon to come a bit closer so she can pounce on it. I never saw a baby so prepared to eat. I put that first spoonful in her mouth and she knew just what to do with it but the face she made after she swallowed was priceless. She was like, "This is what I've been waiting for?! Yuck!" Love this girl and all of her eagerness.

2010-12-22T07:41:00.001-08:00

We started our December off with the Farmer Family Christmas tradition...no we didn't head out to get Tyler a stupid tie with a santa on it. We headed out to the wilderness to chop down our very own Christmas tree. We bundled up the babies in their Christmas best and headed out to sit on my favorite Santa's lap and take a tractor ride out to the trees and cut one of them down. All was well enough. Kids looked cute and the weather didn't seem to be too bad. Because of Tyler's persistence I finally grabbed a coat for myself even though I thought my sweater and scarf would do the trick. We had to drive quite a ways out there and the kids were complaining that the North Pole sure took a long time to get to. We got there and got out of the car and HOLY MOLY was it freezing!!! The wind was whipping up and making it unbearable to be outside. We rushed in to Santa's house and gulped down hot chocolate and sat on Santa's lap. The reason why he's my favorite is because he looks so real and because he really talks to the kids for a long while and tells them about baby Jesus. He tells them that baby Jesus wants them to listen to mom and dad and to not fight and to share their toys. He's great and he's free. Love it! So then we head back outside and decide to walk out to the trees and about 20 feet in to our walk both boys are crying and begging to go back to the car because it's so cold. All right! So we pointed to the nearest already chopped down tree and said we would take it and ran back to the car. I know it suppose to be all part of the experience but I think last year when it was a random 70 degrees was a lot more enjoyable. Oh well. We got a gorgeous tree and got to sit on Santa's lap. Preston even told Santa what he wanted for Christmas thus giving up on his not wanting Christmas presents and just wanting presents not tied to Christmas idea.

We came home and decorated the heck out of our tree. I love ornaments and I love a fully decorated tree. Tyler thinks I should stop about half way...but I just love it full and glittery and bright. I've been staring at it as much as possible. Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

2010-12-20T10:35:00.001-08:00

Life with three update. Still crazy and a little crazier with the holiday happenings. I'm tired and running on empty most of the time...but there are things that keep me going through the endless laundry, endless errands, endless bums being wiped clean, endless meals being prepared, endless fights being broken up...and here they are. The moments when I realize that these are great memorable days that I will miss eventually. I love my little guys and they won't be little and so darn cute forever. My two fun loving, dramatic, and crazy boys that love each other and make each other laugh and fight and cry and laugh some more. My darling baby girl who is happy most of the time and keeps me up at nights because now that I have three and life is so hectic...as soon as she wakes me up my mind wont turn off so...I'm up! Even if it is 4 in the morning. Her smile in those early hours melts my heart...even if it's three hours before anyone else will be waking...and right when they wake up she's ready to sleep again.
Found my boys like this sharing dad's pringles so nicely. Preston would fish one out and give one to himself and then one to Lincoln. Don't know why blogger is making everything I type underlined.

Lincoln came downstairs before I did the other morning. Never again!

Louisa is rolling and bouncing all over the place. She practically spends every waking minute in her Bumbo chair...but she's getting close to wiggling free from it. She also really likes the Johnny Jumper. She is a very bouncy girl. She's always kicking and squirming. I love every squirm and every bounce.

More Thanksgiving!

2010-12-16T18:37:00.000-08:00

How could I have forgotten about these??? I mean really?!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

What a great Thanksgiving we had this year. I was grateful this year for our new baby AND for just a great Thanksgiving weekend. We had family from North Carolina come in to town and our great friends the Hoggards came all the way from Florida to spend Thanksgiving with the whole Farmer clan. We felt very blessed!
We loved having the Hoggards. They are great fun...and I get completely nothing done when they are around. We just sit and talk and play games and eat. Thanks guys for coming out and seeing us. We truly loved having you.

Besides the stink eye that the camera is recieving from Lincoln...can you see the snow!!! We got our first snow on Thanksgiving day. Right when we were sitting down to eat. The kids went nuts and it was just so cozy and perfect.

Here it is. Food galore!

Here's everyones favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner. Rainbow jello! Isn't it beautiful?

The four year and one five year old table. Handsome boys.

Darlene ( my mother in law) was such a champ fitting everyone in her home. They put down carpet in the garage and covered all the tools up and put a t.v. and cots out there. The kids were able to have a giant toy room right off of the main living room so we could hear them...and not always have to have them under foot. It worked great.

So we had fun with the Stewart family. We made a huge puzzle (Preston was all about it) and played games and the kids had a sleepover and watched tons of movies.

Christmas is now here and we are super busy with preparations and activities...hence the Thanksgiving post in the middle of December. Just a little tid bit: Preston doesn't want christmas presents this year. We told him he has to be good because Santa is watching and he doesn't get gifts unless he's good. First off he said there's no way Santa can see him. Then he kept telling us he didn't want gifts on Christmas. What?! Yeah, he doesn't want christmas gifts, he just wants gifts that aren't tied to christmas and him being good or not. He knows himself too well. He knows he can't be good all month and so he just wants the presents in December not for Christmas. What an evil genius I'm dealing with. Love that kid.

Lincoln's favorite thing to do is make up gifts that he wants me to go out and find. Like right now he is asking for a giant that turns in to a baby, and a binky that has super heros on it...oh and a real gun. yikes! He's two by the way. He sleeps with a reindeer at night that I told him leaves at night and goes and tells santa how he is behaving. He's totally loving it and Preston is totally not buying it.

Happenings...

2010-12-03T09:05:00.001-08:00

So before I get to a Thanksgiving post I have to catch up on some happenings around here. Tyler has been able to take every Friday off for a month or so. Best day of the week! I get to catch up on sleep (haven't been sleeping much at night time with the baby girl always wanting me), and also do errands and cleaning with no "help" from the boys. He wakes up with the boys and gets them to their stuff...ie: preschool, Lincoln's Dr. appointments for his ITP...etc. Although we don't get to see each other until afternoon...it's divide and conquer in this house these days.
So one nap time I was off doing something and Tyler put the kids down in his usual easy going manner. Now you could call me the nap Natzi. I make sure everyone is in bed and asleep before I make a move to do anything else. Tyler puts Lincoln in his crib zips up the crib tent (yes we keep our two year old zipped up and unable to get out of nap time) and he tells Preston he needs to lay down...and then got busy doing something else. So 30 minutes later I'm home and we both find Preston has been keeping Lincoln awake, found our camera and was taking pictures of him and then proceeded to rip Lincolns tent apart.

They were goofing off and managed to make the tiny hole in the tent a huge hole and render the thing useless. See how Lincoln has his hand out of the tent? We used this hole to hand him binks or a small toy. This is a pic that Preston took of him before they managed to rip the tent in half. Lincoln was freed and was very shocked and amazed that Preston ripped his tent. He couldn't stop talking about it. "Mom! Dad! Preston ripped my tent!" Well, Louisa had been sleeping with us and was keeping me up all night with her grunting and moving...so we decided it was time to put Lincoln in his own big boy bed and move Louisa to the crib...minus tent...she won't need it for awhile. I got the nursery ready for her before she was even here and Lincoln has been sleeping in it this whole time. So we finally made the switch.
So then Louisa started sleeping SOO much better in her own room...but the boys were keeping each other up at night and then waking each other up at all hours. They are getting used to it and things are getting better.

We had Preston's preschool Thanksgiving program. It was adorable and I couldn't have been more proud. He was one of the loudest singers and he was one good looking Indian. He also had his primary program. His Aunt Tawny is the primary conductor and she did a great job. Preston had his line memorized backwards and forwards. He said it so often Lincoln even knew it...but he still asked for help once he was up there with the microphone. He did the songs well and only got a little crazy towards the end. He was sitting by Kayla who he says is his girlfriend. That's a whole other story.

TOES!

2010-11-29T08:46:00.000-08:00

I LOVE when babies find their toes. It's so cute! All of a sudden they find a friend that they didn't know they had. Here is all the babies finding there toes around the first time. One of these is not like the other huh? One is all daddy and I managed to mark the other two up a bit more. Can you guess who is who?

Halloween festivities.

2010-11-03T13:59:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun Halloween festivities this year. It was stressful fitting in all the fun. The most memorable part of this year will be me and Preston going head to head over his costume. Hours were spent debating what the little stubborn kid should be. This was so stinking difficult for me. Since he was born we have had family themes and I tell him what he will be and he is just happy to be a part of it. This year he's all about being scary and cool and wanted to be unspeakable things for a four year old. We looked online for hours and I refused to go to any costume store because he kept picking out the scariest looking thing he could find and would run up and down the aisles growling and screeching. This was especially hard since I was trying to build a theme around the gory kid. My sweet little Louisa would have been a bloody monster if it were up to him. So we compromised...Tyler thought I was being ridiculous and I should have let the kid be something scary and cool. Nope! He's got years of that ahead of him. So we talked it over and over and over and compromised with Grass Man. The idea came from Martha Stewart and he looked pretty great AND best of all he liked it.
So we had a ward party the same night that we had Preston's preschool party. Then we had another preschool party on Friday and then we had our annual cul de sac party on Sunday. It was a fun week and now we are hiding the candy and trying to get our kids to eat their veggies again.

If you can't tell I'm a beehive and Louisa is a flower.

Bye Katzoffs

2010-10-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

We have been so lucky and blessed for the past FIVE years to live by our best friends the Katzoffs. I mean really blessed! We met these great people in Hawaii and quickly became great friends with them. They were our first couple friend and we were so excited to have a couple friend. Then they left us to move to Chicago...sad but inevitable. Hawaii has to end some time...well for most of us. There were visits in Chicago and Washington D.C. and thanks to Denae catch up phone calls...we kept up with each other for a couple years. Then we got an offer for Ty to work in St. Louis and we snatched it up. Our friend Denae just happened to be from St. Louis and we would be able to see them whenever they came to see their folks. So we moved here and the Katzoffs even helped us look at houses and gave us tons of info on the areas around here. We of course tried to talk them in to moving here and they would politely laugh in our faces. SO after living here a couple of months we got a call from Denae and she said that they would be willing to move here if a house opened up in our little cul de sac. Fat chance! No one was even thinking about moving...but then the crazy lady that had just bought a house two houses down from us and had worked really hard to make it super cute had run out of money and was selling the place. What?!?! Still...it's a fat chance that Denae and Ben would actually move here. Well they looked at the house once and made an offer and moved here only four months after we had moved here. PLUS we found out we were both pregnant and due with in a month of each other! Turned out that we had baby boys four days apart. O.K. now you are seeing how blessed we were. Five years have flown by so fast and suddenly we have five kids running this little cul de sac wild. We have had so much fun together and I have loved watching our kids grow up together and always having them to depend on.
So that brings me to the news that the Katzoff/Farmer Era is coming to an abrupt end. A few weeks ago they came over and dropped the bomb that they are moving to California. Good job opportunity for Ben, the beach, warm weather...BOO! Bad for us good for them. It took me a couple weeks to stop crying and start feeling happy for them and their new adventure. I hate that they won't be there and that strangers are going to be in their house...but we knew one of us would be moving on some time. We have thrown them a hippy/cali going away party to show them that we love them and are going to miss them and we all pretended that we are excited for them. Bye Katzoffs!!! The cul de sac won't be as fun, loud or white trash with out you. You better eat some In and Out for me.

Life with 3!

2010-10-21T14:53:00.001-07:00

Preston was on his very first soccer team with three of his best friends. Lucky kid. It was fun to do the soccer thing for the first time with our friends. Standing around chatting while our kids are barely listening to their coach and every once in awhile telling our own kid to get off the grass and go kick something. Now we are doing the preschool thing and swimming lessons.
We are officially in a scheduled world and I'm not the biggest fan. It's a lot of driving around and gas and I am nursing a lot in the car or while I'm shopping. It's all about multi tasking. If I'm ever doing just one thing at one time I'm thinking...what else should I be doing right now. Anywho, three kids sure makes for one busy momma...especially when your baby isn't a fan of sleeping unless mom is sleeping with her. I've never known such mountainous piles of laundry, or such a list of to do's that can never get any smaller, or started so many workouts that stop 10 minutes in to it to settle fights or get a baby back to sleep for the 10th time. Thank goodness for the gym and for a husband that gets every other Friday off.

Training wheels

2010-10-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

So my oldest son is crazy!!! Crazy cool is what he would say. He was cruising on his bike with training wheels for a couple days with his friend and neighbor Brayden. He wasn't really in to his bike until he had someone to ride with. Then he decided he wanted to try his bike with out training wheels. Ty came home and took them off and went around with him for 2 minutes before I called them in for dinner. Next day with out any help he hops on the bike with no training wheels and starts pedaling around. Ahhhhhhhh!!! was my reaction. What are you doing??!?! He got a big kick out of that. No daddy holding on and then letting go while mommy nervously held the camera to catch the first shaky moments with out training wheels. Nope! He hopped on and started doing it like an old pro. It took him a good half hour of trying all the bumps and obstacles he could find and then he really was an old pro. He's obsessed now! He asks to go out and ride any chance he gets. He rides down huge hills and in fields and all over. Coincidentally bike safety week at his preschool was right after he did all this. He's getting as big as the whole world (his words not mine.) I told him the other day he better slow down and stop growing up. He told me he better stop eating his vegetables and start eating lots of candy and soda. Those things make you shrink!

Family Day

2010-10-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

While I was gone in Oregon it was family day at Tyler's work. The kids have such a blast every year. There's bounce houses, fire trucks, helicopters, games, food, and apparently this year a snake display. Tyler's sister's family was there and their kids wouldn't get close to the snakes. Our kids wrapped them around their necks and held them and were thrilled. Now Preston wants to be a snake tamer when he grows up. They are so entertaining these boys of ours.

3 months old!!!

2010-10-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

I know! I'm surprised too!
I am completely in love with this baby girl. Life is busy and pretty stressful right now and I get frustrated A LOT!...but then I get a look at this mug and I can't help but slow down, smile, and kiss those chubby cheeks.
Things we are lovin' about Louisa
Love to make her smile. She makes you work for them.
Still loving to dress her.
Love to tickle her and watch her squirm.
Love how many times this girl toots. She's way more tooty than my boys and they were kings of the toots.
Not so in love with my nights. The girl grunts and moves and keeps me awake all night.
Love to see her very dramatic frown and listen to her talk. She's a talker already.
Love her dainty hands and feet. She's so girly!
Love her rolley legs. She's fat and I love it!

Oregon trip

2010-10-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

Cousin Addie Rosie loves babies. She is a hoot and I can't get enough of her.
Pop and baby girl.
Uncle Matt meeting Louisa for the first time. They kinda look alike in this picture.

Louisa and her cousin Dallin who is big enough to swallow Louisa whole.

Best friend Chris drove me down from Portland to Eugene. Love that girl and her wild kids.

I was lucky enough to go to Oregon last week with just me and the baby girl. Here's how I finagled that one. Ty's dad bought him tickets to go to a BYU game in Texas and so he had to buy a plane ticket to get out there for a dad/brother getaway. "hmmmm...if you get a trip then I want to go see my family in September when my brother Pete is going to be at my parent's new house." I had been waiting for the perfect moment to drop that one on him. Ha!
So my parents house was just perfect. It felt like home instantly and I didn't want to leave. I had a very relaxing week and ate myself to sickness. Mom baked until we were all ill. I had such a good time that I barely took any pictures. Pete and Jessica were there with their three beautiful boys ( their newest Dallin is pictured above with Louisa.) I got to see my best friend Chris, and drove down to Medford to have dinner with Josh and his huge crew, and other than that there was the eating and laughing that always goes on in the Bahen household. LOVED IT!

2010-09-16T20:30:00.001-07:00

Haircuts!!! My matching bowl cut boys are now no longer. We debated for a long time whether we should cut the bowls off and it hurt me to even think about it. Then one day before church I just decided to do it. What a nutty thing to do with no help (Ty was already at church) and I won't lie, it got pretty ugly. Anywho, I hated the haircuts at first but they are growing on me. I am liking it on Preston but I would like to grow Lincoln's back out. He's still young enough to pull it off. Besides no one recognizes him in this new man hair cut. He spent the entire two hours of nursery with his teachers thinking he was a visitor Lincoln. Everyone has to take a double take to figure out who he is. He's still darn cute though!
Preschool started last week. It's been super busy ever since. We have a mom's group doing Lincoln's preschool and a real legit preschool for Preston. Here are the pics to prove it!

First week of Lincoln's preschool was at our house. It was nuts but fun! I love these kids. They are dang cute. Sorry Lincoln that Preston is upstaging you in the picture. Do you see the brother twirling his sister's pigtail on the right? So cute. Lincoln feels so important and big going to preschool.

Here we are dropping Preston off at preschool the first day. Lincoln wanted to wear his backpack even though he was only going to the store with me. Tyler even got to be there because we had dentist appointments.

And here we are picking him back up afterwords. He loved it and he is looking so grown up to me.

camping trip

2010-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a hick town with a lake, a street fair and a DEMOLITION DERBY to bring the Katzoffs and Farmers out to play. Thanks Katzoffs for white trashing up our weekend. We definitely had a trip to not be forgotten. My favorite parts were the beautiful lake, watching the trucks destroy each other, the smores, and the crazy lightsaber fighting. Guess I liked pretty much all of it...except for our loud tent neighbors making animal noises most of the night (if you catch my drift.) -k- maybe that part was funny too.

The kids loved the lake. Sorry Ben for my boys trying to drown you.

For the boys the demolition derby was exciting for exactly 20 minutes and then we had to buy them these swords to entertain them the rest of the time. I have to say it worked like a charm and the adults were able to enjoy the rest of the show...which was awesome. I do like myself some hick entertainment. Thanks to Ben for introducing us to it.

Besides our loud neighbors this part was pretty memorable. Our kids got in to a huge saber fight and it was very entertaining. I have to say this would never happen where we live. Parents would be too concerned about safety and what not. Here all the parents were letting the kids go nuts hitting each other and even cheering them on. It was fun to watch and I have to say...Lincoln was the smallest and fiercest fighter. The big kids were begging my little boys to fight them. They thought it was a riot!

ITP

2010-09-06T18:22:00.000-07:00

So remember how I said my little Lincoln is a klutz? That's a problem for us now. Here's the story.

About two weeks ago I noticed that Lincoln had an abnormal amount of bruises on his body. Poor kid was looking even more beat up than normal when I took him to the dentist to check out his teeth. Little bruises on his arms and legs, broken blood vessels on his neck, and a couple odd bruises on the rest of his body. I googled it and got some pretty scarey information and started freaking out. We took him in to get checked out and the doctor wasn't worried. She said that his bruises were mostly in normal places and getting blood from a two year old is pretty tough business. I insisted that I just really had a feeling something wasn't right with him. So we bit the bullet and endured a terrible 20 minutes of them getting blood from one of Lincoln's tiny veins. The next day they were frantically trying to get a hold of me (our phone was inexplicadly not working.) Once they got me they let me know that Lincoln's platlette levels were extremely low and we needed to head to the E.R. as soon as possible and that we were going to be staying the night. Um...I'm so not great in these moments and Tyler wasn't suppose to be home all night (which is never the case) and I was pretty freaked out. With some help from friends and family we got packed and figured out babysitting and got a hold of Tyler. We were rushed through the E.R. and eventually got his diagnoses of ITP.

Here's info on that because no ones ever heard of this I'm sure. ITP stands for immune thrombocytopenic purpura also known as immune thrombocytopenia. ITP is an autoimmune disease—a condition in which the body attacks some of its own cells. People with ITP have low levels of platelets in their blood. ITP can be a serious condition, but help is available to treat ITP and reduce your risk of a bleeding event.

So his levels were so low that they were worried that he could bleed internally or bleed on the brain. Scarey especially with how often my boy is falling. So Lincoln who had no idea how sick he was because besides bruising there's no other outer symptoms, was bouncing off the walls. He was soaking up all the attention and loving the treats and stickers and t.v. He was adorable and I have to say besides being freaked out that something might be really wrong with my boy we had a good time with him at the hospital. Once we got the diagnoses of ITP and heard about the miracle medicine they have for it we were just chilling with our boy spoiling him rotten. He got an I.V. and spent the night getting his vitals checked every 15 minutes. He maybe slept 2 hours the whole night and they discharged him in the late morning the next day. We now have to go back to the hematologist every week and get his blood drawn to make sure the levels are still going up. He's looking great and his levels are high now after only a week.

Here we are in the children's cancer center. This is where Lincoln's doctor works. It's the coolest office in the world. Arcade games, dance dance revolution, train table, huge play room and snack table and a huge prize closet full of cool toys. He's actually very excited to go to the doctor which is good because we will be there a lot.

Louisa is two months and smiling!

2010-09-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Lincoln's beat up face after his big fall. Poor baby!

She's got the biggest double dimple chin you ever saw! I love to kiss her DD chin.

Our little baby girl is getting to be not so newborn looking. Who told her she could do that? She's filled out everywhere and I love her rolls to peices. This cucumber was hiding and got too big. But it was great way to see how big our baby has grown. She's two months now!

First smile caught on camera. She's got dimples in her cheeks too. Are you allowed to have three dimples on one face???

Klutzy Lincoln

2010-08-23T05:53:00.001-07:00

Louisa's first time in the pool. She pretty much slept through it.
Preston learned how to swim this summer. He needs his goggles on and then he's a little fish. Here we are at Denae's parents house in their sweet salt water pool.
Lincoln is still not the bravest in the water. He started the summer too brave and quickly became really afraid of it. It's a whole new experience for us to have such a cautious kid. I would be cautious too if I had experienced all the pain Lincoln has.
My Lincoln is a klutz. He is always falling and when he falls he does it with style. He has had way more accidents (a lot of them not his fault) than Preston ever had. In fact at this very outing he was walking up a cement step and tripped and slammed his face down in to the cement. He was bloody and had a fat lip but his teeth weren't loose and he stopped crying after about 5 minutes. I felt terrible for him...but had no idea how bad he was hurt. The next day his entire upper lip was swollen and black and blue. The next day he had a big bruise by his nose and the day after that he had two black eyes. He looked so beat up for a week and then when everything was fading and he started to resemble my sweet Lincoln again I thought I started to notice that a couple of his teeth were turning gray. Sure enough with each day his teeth got a bit darker and we took him to the Dentist and confirmed that his front tooth and the one to the right of it is dead. You have no idea how upset I have been about this. My sweet baby's face will never be the same. Here's to hoping those teeth don't just fall out of his head. Gotta go save him from something right now

2010-08-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

8 years!!! We can hardly believe it...until we remember that it's been:
7 different dwelling places
one home bought
4 pregnancies and three babies made
11 countries we've been tourists in
and countless more memories
I love that we fell in love in Hawaii and got to live there together for a couple years. I love that we started our adventures off with living in frigid cold Russia and then went running back to our beloved Hawaii. I love that we both want a big family since we are both 6 of 7 kids. I love that we both wanted out of crazy D.C. so that we could raise our family in a more traditional place. I just love the life we have built together...even if I am stressed out all the time. I wouldn't have it any other way.

First day on the job

2010-08-14T14:42:00.001-07:00

So Tyler was home for a month after Louisa was born. Ahhhhh...such wonderful bliss that was. Why do daddies have to work? The boys had so much fun with Tyler while I got to bond with Louisa and take it very easy. So who knew having a baby was like having a long vacation from being mom. Eventually Ty did go back to work and left me to figure out how to make life work with three. Louisa is a little more high maintenance than we are used to and believe you me...I already am super busy and barely sane with my little rascally boys.
So first real day on the job Preston woke up way early complaining of a hurting ear and Lincoln woke up with a nasty cough. Great! So it's not only going to be my first day with three it will be my first day with three at the Dr.s office. Picture this...We are off to the Dr.s office and Preston pukes up the few bites of breakfast that I forced him to eat. All over the car and a little on him. Super! I walk in to the office with my two adorable boys that are complaining of aches but their spirits are still very high and I've got the baby in the sling. We were received by a very crowded waiting room and lots of oohs and aahhs over the new baby and her adoring older brothers. I sat down in front of two teenage girls that just thought we were the cutest family ever...that lasted for about one minute. Preston started laying all over the chairs and whined loudly that his ear was really hurting him. Lincoln in between coughs was running around and around and around the office, climbing up in the chairs and talking very loudly to all the strangers in the room in his high sweet voice about his baby sister and how he's got a cough. While I was chasing Lincoln around the office and dragging him out of the front desk area...I touched the outside of the sling and realized the sling was wet. Louisa chose this perfect moment to explode out her diaper and get her outfit and my outfit covered in yellow poop. I got Lincoln to sit by me for a moment and I changed that baby girl's diaper on my lap in front of those teenage girls that just moments ago were cooing and flirting with my kids. Their faces now were showing complete disgust at my horrific scene and they were probably pledging never to have premarital sex. (at least some good came from this outing.) They finally called us in to a room and it was declared they both had raging ear infections and they wanted to do a strep test. You have to wait a good ten minutes for the results. By the time we were done waiting I was nursing Louisa and the boys had destroyed the room we were in. The nurse had given them crayons and tons of paper and it was a mess. Anywho, cleaned it up and headed to the store to pick up their prescription. Yes I even braved the store and got groceries done for the week.
First week on the job was crazy with sick boys and trying to get baby girl on a sleep schedule. Then....Tyler left for Japan for a week. I don't think we left the house for a week except to go swim at Denae's parents house. Tyler came home to an exhausted me, and to boys that wanted nothing more than to go hang out with dad again. But we made it! Barely. Man do I love my hubby!

What a nut!

2010-08-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Look who got a hold of my camera during nap time. I was a little perturbed at first but who couldn't help but laugh when you see about 50 pictures like this? Took a long time to delete them and wore out my battery.

As long as we are on the subject of the silly kid...He's starting soccer this weekend and couldn't be happier about it. He'll be on the same team as his best friends. He will be starting preschool next month. My baby boy is growing up. It's never more apparent then when we have to move him from our bed at night to his bed and put Louisa in his place. He prefers falling asleep in our bed and we move him once we are ready for bed. He's huge! (p.s. he usually makes it back in to our room with his pillow and blanket and camps out on the floor. The kid hates to be alone.) At his four year old appointment he was in the 93% for height and 87% for weight. He's really in to writing words right now and is always asking me how to spell something. He's sounding words out and is excited about reading. He is so in love with his sister. He goes from running around the house and yelling but when he sees her he slows down and strokes her face and kisses her forehead and says, "Hi baby," in a very lovey voice. Then he's back to running and yelling.

Yesterday he told me he didn't want to get married when he grows up because he doesn't want to get kissed. He says it makes his mouth dirty when he gets kissed. This from the boy that could care less about cleanliness. He put his cup on his dad's foot yesterday just to be weird and then went and filled it up and drank out of it.

He's such a nutty kid.

Farmer Family Reunion

2010-08-03T17:05:00.000-07:00

So we just had a ginormous Farmer family reunion. Two weeks of non-stop activity and fun. There was not a moment that was not planned and was not absolutely crazy. A ton of planning went in to it and my mother in law and sister in law did a fantastic job pulling it off. I wasn't much help due to the whole making of a baby thing...but I was able to enjoy most of it and I know my kids will never quite be the same. Preston fell in love with a couple of new cousins...that were twice his age. He didn't hang out with the kids his age but loved his 8 year old cousin Trevor and 6 year old cousin Elena. The cousins just had a blast together and I loved watching them play and get to know each other. So here's the run down of the two weeks.

Science center...and yes matching shirts with our names on them. I know we looked like dorks but we didn't loose any kids...well only one kid was lost but it wasn't mine and it wasn't for long.

We went camping at Jellystone Park. Very fun. We had a nice trailor with a kitchen and bunk beds for the kids (which they loved.) Lots of pool time for the kids where Preston stopped using floaties and started swimming on his own (he had to keep up with his big cousins.) Fun cookouts and great food and of course in true Farmer style...a program. The kids put on skits, the sisters performed a musical number, there was a slide show of the siblings all growing up, and some silly camp songs performed. It was lovely.

Birthday party at the painted zebra where the older cousins got to paint some ceramics.

We finished the party at the park and had dinner and cake and presents and playing.

Of course, Louisa's blessing.

I don't even know who took this one....but I love it.

Girl's night. There were two girl nights (family of sisters...yeah!) One was a night where we did all the little girl's hair and makeup and they dressed up in...wait for it...the old Farmer Family Singer's outfits. Then they coregraphed a dance and performed it for the big girls. It was so girly and fun and I had a girl on my lap the whole time. I officially can be invited to girl parties.

Sister's night out to Thai food and last minute shopping trip to Kohl's with a 30% coupon. They had to kick us out of the store because they were closing and we didn't care.
Movie and cake night at our house. Maren, Sophia and I made a cake with everyone's faces on it. It was fun.

The magic house of course and another birthday party at a bounce house. Can you see why my kids are never going to be the same?

Here's the proof that we were having too much fun. The first one was taken while 40 people were running around, playing games, laughing and kids screaming. Preston slept through it all. The second one was when Preston just couldn't take any more fun and layed down in Louisa's swing and went to sleep. Lincoln wouldn't dare slow down to nap...but man did he sleep in in the mornings.
We had a great time with everyone. I so enjoyed the company, food, and fun. Summer...I love you!

Louisa's blessing day

2010-07-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Louisa is a whole month old tomorrow! Now I know everyone says that it goes so fast...but it really has for us been a whirlwind month. I had one week to heal and rest up before Tyler's entire family came out for a two week family reunion. So it's been a lot of chaos and fun around these parts...and Louisa has just been wrapped up in all of it. Now everyone is gone and our whole family is sick. Ty went back to work on Monday and I had to take the boys and Louisa in to the Doctor (Louisa just tagged along...she's not sick thank goodness.) That will have to be a separate post all together. What a nightmare.
When Louisa was two weeks old we had her blessed since the whole family was coming to our ward anyways. 33 Farmers in the parkway ward that day. It was such a special day to have so much family witness this event. She was surrounded by uncles and her grandad and of course her daddy. Tyler gave a truly beautiful blessing and she didn't cry during it. She did fill her drawers though.
We had two special blessing dresses so she spent half the day in one and the family party in the other. Tassa shot these pictures of her and I love them. She really captured what she looks like. Isn't she a doll?
We are very much in love with our chubby cheeked, dimpled chin baby girl. She's a great sleeper and eater...but man if she feels that she isn't being held when she's awake she is not happy about that at all. Our boys were ridiculously easy newborns...so it's interesting having a baby actually cry around these parts. She doesn't cry too much...but we just aren't used to a baby crying at all. She still smiles in her sleep a lot, loves to be bundled or in the sling, not a fan of the swing or car seat, a champion tooter, and likes her showers and baths. The boys just love her to pieces and it scares us a lot.
Stay tuned for Farmer family reunion post and first day alone with three kids.