He is the Gift

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Natalie Virginia Helms

Natalie Virginia Helms was born at 2:10 pm on Sunday, November 2, 2014.  She weighed 7lbs. 14 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long.  We are so glad to finally have her here.  Grammy and Pop Pop were here to watch the children while Brent and I were at the hospital.  They took the children to church to help pass the time. Grandma and PaPa waited at the hospital with us.

 This is before the real labor started.

 Natalie was so alert when the children came in to see her, she was looking at them, taking them all in.  The kids were very happy to see her.  They immediately asked to hold her.

 Haley kept telling me how she couldn't wait to meet her new sister.

 Allie is holding Natalie for the first time.

 Joseph is so loving  with Natalie.  He's always asking to hold her or he's kissing on her and rubbing her head.  He says Natalie is, "the cutest of us all."  A couple of weeks ago he was rubbing her head and said to me, "She is sooo cute.  I'm so in love with this baby!"  I expect he'll be a good daddy.

 Sarah Kathryn looks so proud of her baby.

 Rachel thinks Natalie is her baby.  She screams if we don't let her hold the baby.  She tries to say her name. It comes out more like "Nattie."  We're working on it.  I'm sure they'll be good friends.

 Emily asks to hold Natalie more than anyone else.  She likes to pick out her clothes, help dress her, burp her, feed her.  She's a great big sister and so loving.  Every little while during the day, I'll see Emily get up from what she's doing and walk over to Natalie just to check on her or she'll talk to her if she's fussing.  I'm sure Natalie will be crazy about Emily.  Children always know who love them.

 Papa and Grandma

 Grammy and Pop Pop

 Aunt Callie

 Allie couldn't bear to watch the nurse stick the big needle in Natalie's thigh for the vitamin K shot.

 The kids followed Natalie down to the nursery to watch be bathed and put under the heat lamp.

 The kids and Grammy came back Monday morning to visit Natalie and I in the hospital.  They brought balloons for Natalie and cooed over the little bow the nurses put on her hat.

 The kids each picked out a balloon for Natalie and Grammy made the adorable "diaper motorcycle" with the bear.  Grammy said she knew she did a good job on the motorcycle when our nephew, Grayson, tried to ride it.

We're so grateful for another healthy baby girl.  Natalie's been such a blessing to our family already.  Haley said she thinks Natalie will be a gentle spirit.  I agree that she's a great addition to our family.

Allie's Baptism

Allie was baptized on her birthday, April 20, 2014.  Brent performed the baptism and confirmation.  We had mostly family in attendance.  Our friends the Torontos were also there.  Allie was really excited for the day. She was interviewed by the bishop the Wednesday before, which she was a little nervous about at first.  Right before the interview she said she had a good feeling.  Allie said the water in the font was cold, but when Brent said the prayer she felt warm all over.  Mamaw, Grammy, Pop Pop, Nana and Aunt Kathy came to share the day with us.  Allie was given special gifts to help her remember her special day.  We are so proud of Allie's decision to be baptized.  Everyone who meets her can feel her happy spirit.

 Family photo:  our children seem to consider these a painful experience, but I'm glad we get one occasionally.

 Family photo with the grandparents.

 Now everyone knows where Allie gets her good looks, her handsome daddy.

 Allie with Mamaw.  We're so glad she could come.

 Grammy, Mamaw and Aunt Kathy.

I love this picture.  Allie looks so happy.  You can tell how excited she is.  All the kids were really excited for her.  They're all asking when it will be their turn to be baptized.  I'm sure it will be here before we know it.

Congratulations Allie!  We love you!

Happy Birthday Brent and Allie!

It's always been a fun thing that Brent and Allie share a birthday.  It's hard to believe that they've shared 8 birthdays now.

As usual, we had family dinner with cake and ice cream.  Papa, Grandma and Great Gran were able to join us.  Brent and Allie wanted a jello cake this year.  It was a happy day!

"I love you, Stinky Face"

One of the ladies at the probate office loaned Brent this book today to read to the children, so we read it at the dinner table for Family Night.  The idea of the story is that the little boy's mother will love him no matter if he's a stinky skunk, meat-eating dinosaur, dangerous alligator and so on. Brent asked the children what the moral of the story is.  Haley said, "Mom will love us no matter what."  Brent confirmed her answer that we love them no matter what and the following family conversation ensued:

"What if Dad is really tired, and right when he's about to lay down, Joseph sprays himself in the eye with the air freshener?"

"What if the little kids bury Mom's oven mitts and cooking utensils in the pit (a dirt pile in the back yard where the children play)?"

"What if Sarah Kathryn hides the Wii remote in the bagger on the lawn mower?"

"What if you stuff a whole roll of toilet paper down the bathroom sink drain?"

"What if you clog the toilet with large paintbrushes and Dad has to remove the toilet to get them out?"

"What if you flood the back of the house twice?"

"What if Rachel poops in the bathtub almost every time you bathe her?"

"What if you borrow Dad's iPhone, forget to return it, the baby finds it and throws it in the toilet?"

"What if you ruin a whole load of laundry because you forgot to take the crayons out of your pocket and the load of laundry happens to be Mom's new clothes?"

"What if every morning, when Mom says, 'Get your shoes on,' you never know where they are?"

"What if Emily had a secret stash of M&M's as a baby and woke up every morning with chocolate on her face?"

"What if you ate a dead cockroach?"

I think you get the idea.  This conversation lasted about 10 minutes because the children were having so much fun coming up with all these "what ifs" that are not hypothetical at all.  All of these things have actually happened at our house, just as the children described them.  I almost think our "what ifs" are more unbelieveable than the scenarios described in the book, unless you've lived with children, and then you understand that nothing is impossible.


 

Kid writes the best letter from camp EVER

My dad e-mailed me this article.  He said, "I can see you getting a letter like this one day. Cracked me up."  

I can see me getting a letter like this too.   Click here: http://living.msn.com/family-parenting/kid-writes-the-best-letter-from-camp-ever#scpshrjmd

She's At It Again...

Sarah Kathryn found a tube of lip gloss I gave to Haley for play make-up.  Her face reminds me of an old cheesy western where the Indians are about to massacre the settlers.  I eventually had to use the olive oil to clean her face.

Happy 4th Birthday, Joseph!

My little man...he's so cute.  Brent told Joseph he can't be "cute", "cute" is for girls.  Joseph came to me and said, "I'm pretty awesome!"  I said that was better than "cute."

Joseph got a lot of boy stuff for his birthday.  He picked out a Nerf rocket, that we had to keep retrieving from the roof of the house or the branches of the oak tree out back.  Mamaw gave him a batman helicopter, Grammy and PopPop gave him a batmobile, Nana and Grandpa gave him golf clubs and Grandma and Papa gave him a skateboard.  It was a great birthday.  When I asked Joseph what he wanted for dinner he said, "Cake!" So we had jello cake, ice cream and chicken tacos on the side.  We also had a playdate that morning with all of Joseph's friends from church.  It was a "pretty awesome" day!

Happy 1st Birthday Rachel!

Rachel had her 1st birthday on Wednesday.  We made her chocolate chip cookies and put a candle in it.  She couldn't hardly play with her gifts because the other kids were too busy playing with them.  A birthday for one is a birthday for all.  Luckily, Rachel doesn't mind sharing.  She also started walking a lot this week and she is talking to us more.  When the kids get noisy and they're all talking at once, Rachel raises her voice and starts babbling as loud as the rest.  She was blowing me kisses from her high chair today while I cooked dinner.

We went to a missionary farewell yesterday for Brent's aunt and uncle.  They will be serving in downtown Salt Lake.  Uncle Ken is serving an archive mission and Aunt Melanie will be doing real estate (acquiring land for Temples and other projects.)  Brent's cousins and their children were at the farewell and it was fun to see all the children playing together.  There were a lot of people there from the ward I grew up in, so it was funny to see my kids playing with their kids and feeling like it wasn't so long ago that we were kids ourselves!

Emily is enjoying school more.  I don't have to fight her to do her work and she actually looks forward to it.  A few weeks ago, Emily said she is going to serve a mission and speak Spanish.  Then she found our scripture stories in Spanish and has me read them to her everyday (we read scriptures as part of school).  So, everyday Emily picks the story and I read it to her in Spanish and then interpret it for her in English.  A couple of weeks after we started reading scripture stories in Spanish, Emily asked me to teach her to pray in Spanish.  I had to get some help from Brent with that one, but we got it down.  Emily now says the morning prayer, school prayer and blesses the food in Spanish.  I figured if it interests her, I should go with it and we'll keep it up as long as she wants.  The other great thing is that the other children are intrigued and want to pray in Spanish, but Emily  is the only one who reads scriptures in Spanish.

Our friends, the Torontos, have four boys the same age as our four oldest daughters.  They joke that they're Lehi and we're Ishmael.  JoAnn, the mom, told me that on the way to church today, her 3 year old Dalin said, "Mom, I looooove Sarah Kathryn."  JoAnn told him, "I hear she's a little crazy, but I approve."  Sarah Kathryn is a little crazy, but it's just some of the "terrible two's" mixed with a firm determination to do whatever she thinks is right.  She's highly intelligent and I think all those smarts in such a small body gets a little frustrating.

Haley, Allie and Joseph are all doing well.  Brent helped teach Haley's Activity Days lesson on Wednesday.  The girls' fathers came to teach them about using tools.  Brent's always so good with children.  Allie sang at Sam Lunsford's ( a friend from Sunday school) baptism today with the rest of her Sunday School class.  Joseph seems taller this week, but I think I'm just realizing that he's getting to be such a big boy.  He's a good boy too with a BIG imagination.  On the way home from church he pointed out some goats in a field.  I asked what color they were and I'm not sure he told me, but he made up all kinds of stories about them ramming each other from behind and other crazy stuff.  He loves to tell me stories and then laugh heartily at them all.  Apparently, Brent was much the same as a boy.  Can you imagine?

I'm still training for my half marathon.  My long run this week was 6 mi. and it felt good.  In total, I ran 20 miles this week. I'm trying to double up on the long runs for each week so I'll be ready for a race at the end of March, but I'm not sure if I can pull it off.  My training schedule includes only one long run each week and I'm afraid there may be a good reason for that.  My alternate plan is to build up to 10 miles and just maintain until another race comes along.  In the meantime, I'll strength train and work on my speed.  Either way, it will be fun.

Brent is judge for a couple more weeks until Judge Enslen returns.  I think he's enjoying having more free time now that the bar is over.