I'm back!! (at least I think I am!)

So after a 3 year absence, I started thinking about my poor neglected blog and how much fun the posts were for my family to read, and how I had ideas for pictures and recipes I wanted to share...and how honestly, Facebook isn't really the place to share all that I have in mind to share. I mean it's great for keeping in touch with friends and family, but let's face it, most of my FB friends don't want to see as many photos of my kids as I'd like to share :). Plus, in this digital age, my blog is almost like a photo album or family yearbook for my kids (and it's a good thing, since they're my main readers!). So, what's happened in 3 years?

Jacob has grown into an adorable "pre-schooler" and we've added an 8th baby to our family! Among many other things, of course.

My beautiful Adrienne was at Caroline's home birth, which was special. She's also about to graduate from 8th grade and start her 9th grade year at Paradise high school!

And this handsome guy will begin his senior year at PHS in the fall! Where did the time go? Seriously! It seems like a minute ago he was starting junior football and I was worried about him getting yelled at by coaches. Now he's beginning his last football season while he lives at our house! I've been meditating on a recent Ann Voscamp blog post about living backwards from the knowledge that things really do have an end. Trying to keep that in mind as I purpose to enjoy the 7 children still living at home! Now I'm going to figure out why I can't access some of my more recent pictures from my picasa account, and get back here!

A Bit of Fun

We went to One Mile pool for the first time (this summer) last week, which the kids loved...

Jonathan hamming with Jacob (post hair cut).

This is a "before" picture of Jacob's hair before his first hair cut. I put it off for a while, but finally had to do it--especially since he hated having his hair brushed!

My mom came out to visit for a week in May, which was a real treat. Here she is with just Lydia, Simon, and hamming Annie...

Of course I had to include at least one picture of Jonathan playing basketball :). He's the one in the middle, shooting. He had lots of fun playing for the Chico Blazin Heat (A.A.U. basketball team) this spring.

Simon and Jacob just goofing. It's so sweet how protective Simon is of Jacob; he takes his job as big brother very seriously :).

This picture was taken during the first part of our spring break! We had such a weird winter--a little bit of snow in March, and then this in April.

I thought this was a sweet picture of Elijah and Annie walking together at Table Mountain. We try to go every spring, when the wildflowers are blooming like crazy. It's so beautiful up there, and the kids really enjoy it. The next few pictures were taken there...

I managed to catch Aaron in a rare playful moment sitting in a tree...

Jonathan, however, is almost always playful, and specifically requested that I take this picture!

Annie just couldn't get over the wildflowers everywhere, and always lagged behind picking them for her bouquet :).

This year the kids got a trampoline for Christmas from their grandmother, and absolutely love it! I love it, too, as they really enjoy being outside and play in the backyard happily for long stretches.

Jonathan getting air; he loves to shoot hoops...

Here is Jonathan holding Annie up to the basketball hoop so she can "dunk". He's a pretty sweet big brother...

Here is Jacob, back in February (he was 8 1/2 months old here). He is our first baby who has had top teeth come in like this, and I wanted to make sure I had some pictures before the middle ones came in (which they did soon after this picture was taken).

Since I FINALLY installed the software for my new camera (that my sweet husband bought for me back in February!!), I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from the past 5 months. Although I did post some on Facebook, these are kind of an addendum, and for anyone not on FB. I thought I'd put more pictures up here, but blogger takes FOREVER to upload pictures, so I pooped out finally and just did these.

a late August day

I know it's the end of October, but I was looking at these pictures of a fun Saturday our family spent together (well, mostly together--Adrienne was at camp) in late August, and decided to post them. Above Lydia is showing her new snaggle-tooth smile in front of the Chico farmer's market. And by the way, California farmer's markets are awesome!!

Simon and Annie are running around in the fountains in the downtown plaza. This was spontaneous, which is why they're wearing clothes instead of bathing suits.



Jacob hung out in the shade while Simon and Annie played in the fountains (he's 3 months old here).

Annie and Simon love to squeeze themselves into the bars around the trees, and I thought Annie hugging this tree was great--she is from California, after all :).

Jacob's birth

For anyone who is my Facebook friend, this post will be redundant, but I did want to stick a few pictures from Jacob's homebirth up for the (few!) friends who aren't on FB! The above picture was taken a few minutes after Jacob was born. As you can see, he's already sucking on his fists (it was the first thing he did after he was born--seriously within 2 seconds!).

Aaron and Jonathan seeing Jacob for the first time...And BTW, the reason I'm not in any of these is that I was totally naked! Didn't want to show those pictures to the world ;).

Here is our wonderful midwife, Paula, and her assistant, Genesis, doing a newborn exam...

Look at all that vernix!

still sucking on his fists...


he weighed 8 lbs, 4 oz.

The proud daddy :).

Baby Jacob (and family)

So I've finally gotten to my neglected blog :). We've had a very busy four weeks, but here are some pictures of what's been going on in that time. As you can see, my little Jacob is the sweetest baby ever (oh, well I mean since Annie, anyway!). This picture was taken when he was three weeks old, and I swear he has been smiling since birth. He's probably the "smiley-est" baby we've ever had. I wasn't able to catch his ear-to-ear grin with my camera, but of course his "open mouth" smile is adorable, too.

Here he is before the smile--I should add that this post is "backwards", it goes from Jacob at 3 1/2 weeks (above) to him two days old (it was just quicker and easier for me to upload the photos like this--I'm blaming my tiredness!).

Aaron has really enjoyed Jacob...

Annie, Jacob, and me hanging out in my bedroom. Annie is utterly fascinated by Jacob and doesn't want to miss a minute of his waking life!

And her favorite thing in the whole world to do is hold him...

Jacob just waking up. I think he was less than two weeks old in this picture. And yes, I do sometimes use Annie's pink blankets for him!

Here's Jacob looking a whole lot like Aaron and Simon when they were this age...

Jonathan loves his new brother...

Sweet sleeping boy...

Adrienne loves holding Jacob and has been a tremendous help to me with Annie since he was born...

Annie, Jacob, and me in my bedroom again! This is what I spend most of my time doing these days (Jacob was two days old in this picture). I really have enjoyed nursing all of my babies, and am so grateful for the time I've been able to spend with them. Oh, and yes, Annie is wearing a Christmas gown, because it still gets pretty cold at night here (plus it was clean--clean laundry is hit and miss around here these days!).

A little bit of what we've been up to...

Things have been busy around here! I've barely kept up, but wanted to post a little bit (I actually haven't been taking that many pictures lately, due to a combination of exhaustion and busy-ness). But anyway, I couldn't resist including at least a couple of pictures of my boy on the court :). Jonathan has been playing basketball with an A.A.U. traveling basketball team this spring, and is thoroughly enjoying it...


Here are Jonathan and Annie on a field trip we took to a local farm--he was so sweet to let Annie ride on his shoulders because there was a lot of walking and it wasn't stroller terrain...


Our three youngest kids on Easter morning...

And me at 37 1/2 weeks along in my pregnancy! There has definitely been some growth since the last picture--only about 2 1/2 weeks till my official due date, but of course who knows when this baby will actually come! We are all really looking forward to meeting him or her and having a little baby in the house again.

A couple more pics

OK, strangely this picture was taken about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and my belly looks larger than in the one taken yesterday--I'm thinking different shirt and different angle?? With most of my pregnancies, my belly hasn't gotten very big (relatively speaking), although everything else on me does!! The other picture is obviously of Annie and Elijah sleeping, I just thought it was sweet.