Another Recap

We signed up Austin for basketball this year. This is the first time he has been on a basketball team. He has had so much fun.. He really looks forward to his saturday games. He is so into athletics right now.. He loves sports and being active.. He wants to try football next but I'm not to excited about that.. There seems to be many more injurys associated with football. Owell I guess you have to try everything once.

Look what we recieved in the mail over the weekend.. A good friend and co worker of Steve's sent us this gift as a going away gift.. Can I just say these are the best cookies ever... There were about 5-6 diffrent cake slices, 3-4 diffrent types of brownies, 11 diffrent types of cookies.. Yummy!!!!

So I got a Bosch mixer for christmas and I finally decided to try it out and make some bread.. After my last attempt to make bread I was a little nervous on how they would turn out.. I was very impressed with myself.. They turned out heavenly.. It was a really good recipe. And I spent about 15-20 mins kneading the crap out of it and it ended up having a great texture..

My mom wanted a recent photo of the kids so this is what we came up with.. Seems I can never get all the kids to cooperate or not fight or be crying in group photos so I snuck one really quick before school and it turned out ok.. Of course we had to try 3 times because someone would not be smiling or be pulling some crazy face..

12 years ago on Friday my precious Allie was born and I became a mother. What a sweet little bundle she was. After 32 hours of horrible labor, an infection from my water being broken so long and being utterly exhausted to the point my poor hubby had to wake me and hold me up to push through my contractions and with some help with the forceps she finally made her entrance into this world. And it's been like that ever since. Everything is always on her own time.. There is no rushing her. She is not about to do anything until she is good and ready.. She is my sweet angel, and I am so glad she came first. She is so gentle natured, She has a heart of gold, she is sensitive (a trait that often drives me bonkers) she wears her heart on her sleeves. She is very loving and kind. She loves her brother and sisters and helps me take very good care of them.. She is becoming a great babysitter.. Hooray finally!! She is so easy going.. I cant believe I have a young woman already..1 more year and we hit the crazy teen years.. Why cant I just keep them little?? Of course I am looking forward to having more mother daughter outings with her now that she is getting older and can relate a little better.. We have alot of catching up to do.. Being our first she was born under hard circumstances. Steve was going to work and school full time and what little time he had left he was doing homework or trying to sleep.. He was working graveyard shift and going to school during the days, and being a new mother and not knowing what to expect and not having him there to help me was extremely difficult. On top of everything else I developed a horrible case of the baby blues that didnt go away and took many months to overcome. I never got to bond with her the way I did with my other children. We have always put a lot of responsibility on her and have expected more from her then the other children. I'm not sure why we do that.. I hear alot of people do that with their first child. They kinda have to grow up way to fast and dont get to enjoy being a child.. Anyways enough babbeling.. I just cant imagine my life without her and I am so lucky and blessed to have her as my daughter.. I love you Alligator!! Happy Birthday...

A little friend get together for her birthday..

It's a crazy week for me.. I'm trying to get my house organized and clean for the upcoming weekend. I have my best friend from utah flying out on Thurs. to spend the weekend with us.. She and I are going to have a girls weekend out and go to NY friday and Sat and do some sight seeing and go to dinner and go see the play Wicked on broadway. I cant wait.. It will be so fun to see her again. I think she is my sister I never got... And my moms coming out on friday to help watch the kids while we fly out on monday to go house hunting for 2 weeks.. So lots to do.....