Oh, Walker.

The other night at dinner, Walker was being especially "Walkerish." Mark looked at me and said, "You made him." I responded, "well, you made the silly part." To that, Walker said, "yep Dad made the silly part and Mom made the serious part." Probably true. That wasn't enough, though. He then said, "no, Dad made the silly and fun part of me, and Mom made the boring part." Thanks kid!
I like to think I made the sweet part of my children, but I guess I was wrong. Time to spice up my mothering now that I'm 30 whole years old!

10:30 pm, "Del Time"

This is Del 2 nights ago playing with Mark and me. He is really a sweet boy. As soon as anybody talks to him, he starts trying to talk back. He's already getting so big! He's 3 1/2 months old here. Enjoy!

Trip, Part 2. We love Utah!

What a great time we had in Utah! It has been way too long since we've been there. We left 5 years ago this summer and this was the first time I've been back to visit! We stayed with our favorite Utah friends, the Jones'. Marcie and I became dear friends during the 5 years we spent living in Utah. I've found that my dearest friends in life are the ones with whom I have very similar values and priorities. Age, background, station in life, geographical location and such don't really matter. I really love Marcie and was so excited to spend a few days with her! Nice to know that it feels like no time has passed since we last saw eachother. We just both have a few more kids...

Abby and Lauren Jones were two peas in a pod. Abby loves to play and pretend in her own little world, and Lauren is the same way. They both LOVE the color pink. For 3 days, they played and skipped around with their arms linked, beaming. That alone makes me want to move to Utah!

Greens and Penwells at the Temple Square Visitor's Center.

Abby and Lauren at the Church History Museum. They have a great room for kids!

Walker, the wise man. What a handsome boy!

Alyssa is quite the architect, building her own temple!

A real Angel Moroni! It used to be on the Washington DC temple. The kids all wanted to try to be just like him.

Me and my Alyssa Jane on top of the Conference Center.

There is lots and lots of water on top of the Conference Center.....it was really hard for Walker to resist.

Walker, Abby, Alyssa and Lauren on the Conference Center roof. Behind them is a 1 acre wildflower meadow....on the roof.

This is sweet Roo. She is a darling Jones, and was insistent on wearing her own back pack. It's not quite as effective this way, but she was really cute walking around the roof like this!

Go Greens! Me and my bouquet of really tired kids on the Conference Center roof. You can see the SLC temple behind us.

Driving from SLC back to Provo I had 5 Greens, 2 Penwells and 3 Jones kids. We were the party bus! Matt and Marcie had a nice quiet drive, just the 2 of them and Roo! I like having a van all the kids want to ride in.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House....hitching a ride out to our car.

Me and my kids with the Oquirrh Mountain Temple behind us.

Abby and Lauren, sweet friends.

Me and Marcie.

We had such a nice visit! Unfortunately, my camera was dead for part of the visit, and I wasn't feeling very good for some of it. We had a great time eating out on the back porch, playing, hiking and splashing at Bridal Veil Falls, exploring BYU, eating ice cream from the Creamery (Earnestly Chocolate!!!), visiting some of my old Beehives (they're graduated now!), and hiking the Y at practically midnight. Marcie and I could have stayed up all night if we didn't know that there were a whole bunch of kids waiting for us to be up in the morning. I loved the visit and I'm already dreaming of the time I can get back there....Thanks Jones' for letting us stay in your beautiful home and for treating us like family! You'll always be our favorite Utah friends!

Trip, Part 1: The Baum's!

OK, these pictures are backwards, but it will have to do! The first part of our fun roadtrip adventure included a 2 day drive to Rapid City, SD to visit our favorite friends, the Baums, who just moved there for internship. They were looking for a way to get to UT to buy their parent's mini van, and we were really excited for the excuse to go see where they live now and see some neat parts of this country that we've never seen! So, after getting to South Dakota, we drove a whole day to Provo with a full load of 12 people in our van, plus Peanut, their very well behaved yellow lab. Lots of fun memories were made and we loved every bit of it.
Me, Amberly and the back of my buddy Decker

At Independence Rock in Wyoming with Del and the best friends, Alyssa and McKinley.

Decker and Alyssa in Lindon enjoying a beautiful Utah summer day.

Alyssa and McKinley, friends forever!

Decker, thinking about something really profound, I think.

The Baum's- We love you guys!!!

Me and my sweet kids and a lot of green grass at Independence Rock.

Water to play in at the rest stop at Independence Rock.

Run free while you can!

The real thing. It looks just like the postcards and pictures you see in books.

My kids thought they were prophets up there!

The Baum's really awesome house in South Dakota. They live on the top floor with that fabulous deck.

Betty Ford, the Silver Rocket. Our transportation for 5000 fun miles.

Home, Sweet Home

So, 12 states, 5000 miles, lots of wonderful friends and family, about 400 pictures, and too many incredible memories to count later, we are home in our own beds tonight. Our summer vacation was so fun.

I am humbled that we were able to make such a long, fun trip without any accidents or problems on the road. I really felt like I was helped in my hours and hours of driving. Not once did I get sleepy. The kids were champions. Abby and Samantha Penwell were very good sports, even when they were sick of being in the van with 5 little kids.

And this is me. This is what I looked like as I drove and drove and drove and drove! I love having a van big enough to load a whole bunch of people in and just go. This picture was taken while driving back to Provo from Temple Square in SLC. We were with our dear friends the Jones'. On the way home, 3 of their 4 kids wanted to ride with us. That meant 11 in our van, and they had a nice peaceful drive with only their little Roo.

I loved going on vacation, and I loved arriving home tonight to see my sweet husband. He happens to be a great GPS as I'm travelling through confusing interchanges, or trying to find the cheapest motel to crash in at 11 o'clock at night.

For now I am grateful and exhausted and can't wait to get a chance to update this with so many fun pictures and vacation memories! Now for some sleep, and getting a structured summer schedule going for my kids....

Memories....

This post is dedicated to my favorite Kaylani sister! I have other favorite sisters, like Jen, Jen, Janee, Em, Louisa, Gena, Sherry, Sharon and Annie, but this one is for Kaylani mostly.

Kaylani and I are the "little girls." We always will be.

Well, when we were really the "little girls" back in the late 80's, we had these really frilly Sunday slips that we would wear under our dresses to church so that we would have the fluffiest dresses. Anyway, as soon as church was over and we got home, we would take off our dresses, tights and Sunday shoes and run out the back door to jump on the trampoline in just our frilly Sunday slips. There is something really wonderful and magical about jumping in a really fluffly slip. Especially in that beautiful Arizona sunshine!

A couple of weeks ago, right after we got home from church there was a knock on our front door. When I opened it, there stood Sammi, our 13 year old neighbor with her arms full of 2 frilly Sunday slips! They looked almost identical to the ones Kaylani and I used to wear. Apparently her Mom was cleaning out the basement and was wondering if our girls would be able to use them. I think she was a little confused about why I seemed all of the sudden giddy to see 2 old frilly slips.

So, I thanked her and closed the front door and quickly told Alyssa and Sadie the story about Mom and Aunt Kaylani and how much we loved to jump on the trampoline in just our Sunday slips when we were little girls.

And now, the tradition as been passed on to my next generation! I wish I knew where some copies of the original "little girls" jumping in slips are, but here are my sweet little twin girls having a ball. They're not really twins, but I get asked daily if they are. Kind of like Kon and I when we were little...

Enjoy Konnie Lonnie! Love you!

Sadie is 2

Every other year now for the past 8 years, I have had a baby, and then a couple weeks later I have had a child turn 2. It's been the same routine around here each time. I wonder how many more times we'll go through this ritual. Maybe not many more, who knows!
Anyway, my sweet Sadie girl turned 2 on 5/6 and we helped her celebrate and feel very special. She is a pure delight to have as a child. Even as she is sitting here screaming at me, demanding to hold her Del Baby with every ounce of her determination! My mission daily right now is to protect this little guy from his 2 year old mommy.Sadie loves "D-D-Dora" and got a cute little Dora purse and phone and sunglasses for her birthday. The purse came with earring and a bracelet. In this picture above she is concentrating very hard on not moving so her earrings wouldn't fall off. For some reason she was very concerned.

Sadie is very content with her place in our family. She knows she is loved and has no problem keeping up with the other big kids. She can communicate perfectly with them and loves to do anything and everything that they do- it's driving me a little nuts when she needs to go potty every single time somebody else goes. Mark and I joke that we should have named her Sadie Equal, not Sadie Elizabeth!

I even managed to make her the Snow White cake she requested!!! She was thrilled. We are so blessed to have Sadie be our sweet girl. She makes me smile every day. One of my favorite things she loves right now is singing "On a Golden Springtime." I taught it to our primary for Easter, and she knows the entire first verse and LOVES to sing it. I keep wanting to record her singing it. If I do, I'll post it. It's priceless!

Well, Sadie is just the beginning of birthday season around here. We go 6 months of the year with no birthdays, and then from April to October, we backwards in age order. Aren't we great planners? Just kidding, it just happened to work out that way!

Introducing Del!

Delmar "Del" Stephen Wyatt Green was born Friday April 17th at 7:21 am by scheduled c-section. He weighed 7lbs. 10oz. and is 20 inches long. Everything went really well with the surgery and Del and I are doing great recovering at home. It was pretty funny, the Dr. turned on a mix CD to listen to during the surgery. As I was being prepped in the operating room, the cd started with the Eagles which I thought was pretty nice and relaxing. Mark was brought in the room when they got started with the actual surgery and Music Of The Night from Phantom of the Opera came on. We were kind of laughing about that. The next song was Think Of Me from Phantom, and that's the song that he actually came into this world hearing. For the rest of the surgery, and as they were cleaning up, we listened to a little Beattles, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Maria from West Side Story. After the Dr. left the room, the nurses were laughing about the ecclectic mixes my Dr. always puts together and just how loud he plays them. Mark video taped the whole thing which is pretty fascinating, and the background music I think will always make us laugh.

Del is such a cute little guy. He definitely fits right in with our other kids. He's our first baby without an even head of hair. He has a old man hairdo, bald on top and longer around the sides. I like to think that my Grandpa Layton sent him here with that look since we named Del after him.

Del gets his name from a few different great people. Delmar is my oldest brother Kimball's name, my Dad's name and my Grandpa Layton's name. My Grandpa is the only one of the three who went by that name. He was a wonderful man. I hope we can teach Del all about what an incredible Great Grandpa Layton he has. We like to call our little guy Del for short. Stephen is Mark's middle name and is Mark's Dad's name. Two very nice people, I think. Wyatt is his second middle name. When we were thinking of names, we liked the name Wyatt, but ultimately settled on Delmar Stephen. Walker LOVED the name Wyatt. He felt like his little brother needed a "W" name just like he has, so he just added it in his name. Walker also loves that Wyatt means "little warrior", and thought that Del would love having that name. So, we just decided to give him 2 middle names! He is officially Delmar Stephen Wyatt Green, and we think it suits him well.

Del is a great eater and sleeper so far and has the squeakiest little cry to tell us what he needs. I'm sure it won't be long till he figures out that being child #5 might mean that he needs to raise his voice a little bit more to be heard. He has been a bit jaundice, but nothing major. All of the older kids just love him and can't get enough of him. At the hospital, we took him on a walk in the halls, so I could try to get my stiff body moving, and it was really sweet to see all 3 of his big sisters pushing his bassinett. He definitely will have plenty of little Moms! Walker thinks he is awesome and even came in to our room twice last night to help me feed him and just to say hi. What a brother.

We'll get more pictures posted as we take them and time permits. Granny is here running things while Mark is so bogged down with end of the semester demands and I lay in my bedroom. We are so grateful for her. I'm glad all my siblings and Dad in AZ could let me have her for a couple of weeks.

Oh, one other important note. Del got to watch his first Lakers game when he was 2 days old, wearing his Lakers hat in Dad's arms at the hospital. He is a true fan. Don't worry, he'll be a Suns fan too as soon as he gets the chance! I'll make sure of it!

For my BFF

Dear Mark,
You are my very best friend. I love spending time with you more than anybody else in this whole world. This past week we got to go on a date with some friends to a Pacers game in Indianapolis. Even though we really aren't fans of the team, we love basketball and more importantly, we love spending an evening without kids hanging out together! I had so much fun with you that night and LOVE every chance that we get to hang out.
Her are just a few reasons why I love you so much right now:
*You work SO hard right now with both school and work. You do both full time, and even commute 4 days a week to work 1 1/2 hours away. You never complain. You even manage to send me the occasional love note in the form of a text.
*You are the best Dad EVER! Our kids are in heaven when you're around. You are so patient with them and love to hang out and get to know them better all the time. It helps me remember to appreciate our kids more and not get so frustrated with the little things.
*You have been a trooper putting up with these end of pregnancy mood swings! It's probably good that you're not around very much, but when you are around, you just say my hormonal ranting and raving is "cute." I am usually quite a stable person, but man oh man I hate the end of pregnancy!
*You are funny. I have a really happy life full of laughter being married to you. You are a very sincere person that can find the funny in any situation and that makes life really great.
*You love to go on dates with me. I am not a very fun date right now. My idea of a good time at this point of pregnancy is going out to eat and then finding a nice comfy place to sit down and chat. Not so exciting. You have been so sensitive to that and have been so accomodating. The couch in the student lounge, 15th floor college of ed. was really quite comfortable to sit and relax on!
*Nothing gets you flustered. I love being married to somebody so level headed. Our motto is "No Drama", and man does that make life simpler! You are so much better at following our motto than I am.
* You are so talented. I love to hear you play the piano (very seldom these days), sing, or public speak. You're really good at everything you try. I'm always very inspired by you.

Hey Head, I look forward to an eternity of more dates, more laughing, hopefully not too many more pregnancy hormones, and lots of kissin'!
You're the best and I love you!!!!
Love, your Lady

That's My Walker!

Walker all prepared to run fast with his goggles "so his eyes
don't pop out" and his mask so he has "enough oxygen to breathe."

This evening we had family home evening. Thursday is the only night of the week Mark is home this semester, so this is when we do it. Anyway, we had a great lesson on the Word of Wisdom. The kids really enjoyed categorizing all the laminated food items into ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, and NEVER groups. We then talked about how Heavenly Father made so many "always" foods that are so healthy for our bodies. There are really only a few "never" things. It was neat to talk about the promises of "health in our navels, and marrow in our bones" and "running and not being weary and walking and not fainting" that we receive when we keep our bodies healthy. They actually paid attention.

Anyway, when we were finished, we had our usual "talent show" where Alyssa pretends to be an animal and then we guess what she is, Abby dances around like a ballerina, and then Walker (after making Mark announce him as "Last the Best, the Amazing Walker") does a really wacky form of break dancing that I think only he is capable of. After the show, we all went and sat at the table to eat our treat (a "sometimes" food, ice cream). While we were eating we were discussing the fact that tomorrow was Friday and that meant that Walker got to dress up as his favorite Fairytale Character to finish off their week of fairytales. I asked him who he wanted to be, and he said, "I pretty much love them all, so I'll just pick one and be it." I told him that I needed a little notice so I could see if we had stuff to dress up with and he said, "OK, maybe Robin Hood." I wasn't quite sure how to make that happen so I said, "Maybe you could be one of the three little pigs." (I had thought overalls and a pig nose made out of one section of an egg carton would be easy. Maybe even a little curly tail made out of a pipe cleaner.) Without even missing a bit, he says to me totally exasperated, "Noway. Why would a big tough guy like me want to be a little weeny, flimsy, not strong at all, small little sausage pig?!?

I was laughing so hard that all of that came out of him! Honestly, I don't think that my nonexistent abdominals have had that good of a workout in 9 months. I thought he would put me into labor. I think he must have known that after the last few weeks of his rascal behavior, I really needed to laugh at him!

Walker is one of the coolest people I know and I am so glad that he so much takes after his awesome Dad!

8 More Weeks!

Sugar Cookie Dough Freddie by Alyssa

Freddie the Fetus 21 weeks

And so, the countdown begins....only 8 more weeks till our baby "Freddie the Fetus" will come out of my tummy and play with us! We are all pretty excited. Being #5, life has been a bit hectic and we really haven't had much time to dwell on the fact that there are only 2 short months left, but I am well aware of the reality. My belly is getting bigger everyday, and he is getting very strong!

Last week, Mark and I went out to dinner and we had a long wait for a table, so I told him maybe we should go walk around Babies R Us and focus a bit of our attention on this little guy. It was fun to walk around the store and see all the cute tiny baby things. It's amazing how new and cool all the baby gear is after having the same stuff for 4 kids! There are probably a couple of things that we will replace, but for the most part, we are ready for #5.

For those of you who have not heard the story of this baby's nickname, it goes like this. Early on in my pregnancy Mark said, "Hey, let's make this one a boy, ok?" I responded laughing, "ok, but that's really your department. I'm pretty sure you're the one who decides." His reply, "I know, and I decided this one's a boy." So, since then, he has been calling him Freddie and it has stuck. I told him I didn't think it was that easy, but I've humored him and he obviously knew what he was talking about! (Lucky guy!) The kids all call him Freddie which I think is fun. When he's born, he'll be getting a different name, but I'm pretty sure that Freddie will end up being a lifelong nickname. Last month at our Layton family reunion, he was even listed as #58 on the t-shirt by the name of Freddie.

We are so excited to have another boy around the house. It's been 6 years! Walker is thrilled. Abby loves to get excited about holding him. Alyssa, my best helper, says she wants to learn how to change poopy diapers. Sadie just likes to whack my belly and say "baby." Don't think she really understands what's about to happen.