School and Scouts

Over the next few months we had a lot of school programs and scout advancements.  To start, Morgan had her state program and she chose to do her project on Wisconsin, like McKenzie did.  We love the Badger state.

 Masie trying to join in on the singing.

 Next was Malia's patriotic program.  She's the one leaning back on the step.

 She was chosen to do the dance part of the program, I may or may not download it, we'll see how ambitious I am.  The cast she is wearing happened about a week before the program.  She was playing at McKenzie's best friends house with her little brother.  While they were on the see-saw, she was bounced up too hard and when she came down to catch herself on the handle, her wrist buckled and fractured.  Luckily it was a quick heal, she only had to wear the cast for 3 weeks, and oh man, did she love the attention.  We felt really bad for the friends family though, they felt so bad that it had happened and even got Malia a present as a peace offering.  It was an accident, and let's be honest, Malia is a clutz :)

 McKenzie had two more concerts on the docket before school was out.  This one was the spring concert at Mt. View High School.  They combined a few schools together for a huge concert.  It was pretty cool. 

This was last concert of the year.  They have improved so much.  I love kids learning music.

 Morgan had her shot at Rad Kids.

Then it was time for Morgan's turn with Hope of America.  I love this program and think it's so neat to see these kids get together to honor our nation.  

 Morgan was in the top of the yellow to the right of the flag (not above the flag)

 I seem to remember being very pregnant the last time I went to one of these.  Oh well, I guess it's a tradition now, good thing that was the last one we'll be going to.

Micah's 3rd grade report was the Ocean Ecosystem.  He really liked making the diorama.  We found out that this project was due on my due date so we tried to get it done before then, but we are prcrastinators, I was sick all the time and Randy had been out of town for most of April, so it got done the night before.  But hey, it got done and Micah wrote the paper all by himself.

His program was a couple of weeks later.  They sang songs about what they had learned all year long.

 He wanted to wear his suit for the program, so dapper.

And lastly. . .
 Micah earned his bear with his bud KC.  His mom Kelly kept encouraging me to help him get it done so they could get theirs together.  It was pretty fun to see them up there.

 Micah getting his pin ready to pin on a very pregnant me.

 It was also the pinewood derby and this is the car he made.

 He got 3rd place which was great.  

 And he got the award for the fiercest design :)

All of this fun really wore out this little girl, haha.  Actually this was taken after church.  She has a problem with 1 o`clock church and has been falling asleep in the weirdest places around the house on Sundays.  This was just one of them.

We've had a productive and busy school year.

McKay's Arrival May 2, 2014

So to give a quick synopsis of McKay's birth...Randy had been out of town working at his new job at Eli Lily in Indianapolis leading up to his birth and we only had 10 days for this bambino to join this family so we opted for an induction.  I don't really like inductions because my body knows how to go into labor on its own and has delivered many babies naturally so I knew it was not going to be pleasant to force my body to do something it really wasn't ready to do.  But I wanted to have as much time with Randy and McKay at the same time so we went for it.  I was induced at about 7 AM and it took 12 hours for him to make his debut.  It would have gone faster if I had waited but such is life.  He was a perfectly healthy 8 lbs 9 oz bundle of joy.  The special thing about this birth is McKenzie's desire to be in the delivery room with me to see McKay being born. I was hesitant because if I didn't have an epidural, which I was trying to do again, I would have been a little out of it potentially a little frightening for a girl of 13 to watch.  So we played it by ear and when she got out of school, grandma brought her over and by that time I was done and had gotten the epidural so we let her in.  She stayed for the rest of it and got to experience it all.  I was really impressed with how well she handled everything and she told us when it was all over that she was thinking about being a nurse when she grew up.  Apparently I didn't traumatize her enough, lol.  Here are some shots we got over the first couple of days of Kader's life.  Well except the 1st one is obviously before his first day ;)

 I know it's blurry, but oh so cute!

Trying

I have been really bad about keeping this blog up to date and even though I know that nobody really reads this, I am bound and determined, for my family's sake, to keep this going.  It has been almost 2 years since I last posted on here and so much has happened in that amount of time.  As I look back I realize that I haven't even recorded poor Kader's birth.  Guess that's what happens when you have a half dozen kids, things start to fall by the wayside.  Regardless, I want to slowly update this, even if it's just a few pics at a time of the past two years, just so they are on here.  So bare with me as I add a slew of pics, most of them have not even been edited and I apologize but something's gotta give :[ So without further adieu...Our Life!

Easter 2014

To start this post off, you know how Randy graduated a long time ago. . .like right before Masie was born?  Well during his last year he started looking for a new job.  As much fun as BYU is to work for, he wasn't happy there and wasn't able to utilize his skills.  Don't get me wrong, we are so grateful for our time at BYU, it helped him finish his Bachelor's degree and get his Masters, it kept us afloat for so many years but we knew it was time to move on.  Over the last 2 years, there have been many interviews, some job offers, many close calls for us to move on but things just never panned out.  He was given blessing that there was a job being created for him and I kept praying for the right job to come along and that when it did, there would be no doubt in our minds as weather or not we should take it.  After the beginning of this year, I told him that maybe we should take a job searching break till this baby came.  I wasn't really in the mood to move either a billions years pregnant or with a newborn (trust me I've done both) so he kept looking but kind of laid low not really pursuing a ton of stuff. . . and then it happened!!!!! Like a ton of bricks!  The right job DID come along and there was no question of weather or not we should take it.  

Here's the quick version:  

The company that moved us to Utah back in December of 2006 and then laid him off  4 months later almost to the day (which gave us Utah residency) called him on a Wednesday in early April.  They interviewed him on Thursday and Friday and then flew him out that next Monday to Indianapolis to give him the chance to see what he would be facing and letting him decide if he wanted to take on the challenge.  He stayed till Thursday and by Friday morning had a job offer on the table.  He then gave his 2 weeks notice to BYU (which wasn't a big deal cuz everyone knew he was looking to move and encouraged it).  He was to start on the day after Easter, work for two weeks, fly home in time for me to have the baby, stay home for 10 days and then fly back to Indiana till school was out to pack us up and head out.  It was a crazy 8 weeks to say the least.  I was very stressed wondering if he was going to make it home in time for the baby or if I was going to have to do it alone, or beg someone to help me during the labor.  There were so many unknowns and things I couldn't plan for and I hated it.  My only saving grace was that the company was going to move us so I didn't have to pack a thing, HALLELUJAH!  We did try to dejunk as much as we could during his 2 week notice and then once he was gone I did nothing hoping that the baby would cooperate and stay in till he got home, which he did and I will do a whole `nother post on that. . .trust me!  Anyway, so Easter was our last day with him till he started his new job.  We decided to head up one last time to Grandma/pa's and celebrate with them.  We had a lot of fun, and Masie discovered the sandbox for the 1st time.  She was in hog heaven.

 She pretty much lived in there except when she saw the Easter candy.

 As you can see here.  This is before the egg hunt.  We were hiding eggs and she was following behind "finding" them very quickly.  

 We let the babies go out first and have a crack at egg hunting, at which point they got bored and headed back to the sandbox. . .

 and the swing set. . . 

 while the older kids had a shot at it.

 On Sunday we went to church and took a couple of shots before we had to take Randy to the airport and say goodbye for 2 weeks.  This pregnancy really was not kind to me as far as weight gain.  Probably cuz I was so sick that all I did was lie around.

 Then we tried to get one of the kids and grandma but the only way Masie would cooperate was if she was actually swinging so this was the best we could do.  Hey, it's a picture. . .with the kids. . .and grandma. . . you can't ask for much, lol.

It was a short weekend, but fun nonetheless.  

Micah's 9th birthday

Micah wanted a Lego cake again for this birthday and so I decided to try something little different and stack cupcakes and square cakes to make it look like a Lego creation.

 He liked it :)

 For Christmas, we got a new waffle maker that makes zoo animals, so we decided for go the usually birthday pancakes and try out the animals.  They turned out really cute.

 Then we celebrated with his class and went to his family presentation.  He was really happy when we got there.

So glad this little man is part of our family.  He's our little thinker.  He loves to create things and learn new things.  Masie absolutely loves this kid.  His was the first name she learned to say.  We love you Micah!