Last the Best of All the Game!

Whew! What a relief? We blessed our sweet baby Owen yesterday, and can now say that we are finished with that era in our lives. Cameron did a great job blessing Owen.

Some highlights were:

Strength
Be a leader by example
Stay righteous
Temple blessings

We feel so blessed to have our little Owen here safe and sound.
He is growing so quickly.
I can't believe how much I love that kid.
He is a joy!
He was the missing piece.
We are now complete.

With 5 kids, we're lucky to have had everyone sit still long enough to get these few pictures.

Wow!
That's a big family...
and you know what?
I love it!
I love that my kids get to grow up with lots of siblings and friends to play with.
I love that they have fun together and watch each other's backs.
(See how they have to touch each other in the picture... they adore one another).
I LOVED growing up with lots of siblings.
I can't imagine life without each of them.
They are the BEST!
They married great people too.
I am lucky.
I love my siblings more now than ever.
I adore their kids.
I am excited to start this new phase of our lives.
I think we are officially out of the "cute new little family" stage.
We are moving on...
On to bigger kids and exciting things.
I just hope my kids don't grow too fast.
I love squeezing them and will be sad when they stop letting me do that in public.

BRRRRR!

Katelyn had her first soccer game the other day.
It was REALLY cold.
REALLY
But she REALLY wanted me to bring the little kids to watch her.
I did.
We only made it through the first half.
I even tried to distract with snacks.
That worked,
but just for a few minutes.

This is Spence saying, "Mom, I'm preeeeezing!"

So was I.
Just after this picture, I gathered the little ones.
We watched the rest of what we could from the front seat of my car.
We hope for a warmer game next time around.

This kid seemed to be doing fine despite the cold.
She did great!
She's my competitive one.
She was the smallest on both teams,
but was FAST.
And, because she is aggressive,
she wouldn't back down from the ball,
even with people running straight towards her.

Fun Happenings

Cameron decided that for Valentine's Day he would take the girls out on a date.
They went to dinner and a movie together.
A daddy and his girls.... so cute!

Well shortly after I had little Owen, I was released as the 2nd counselor in the Primary.
I am now an Activity Day Leader.
It's been fun hanging out with Camille and her friends.
We taught the girls about modesty last week,
then went on a walk through the mall.
We looked for modest clothing.
The girls all got to try on a dress.
They loved it!
Here is Camille's pick.
This is most of the girls posing in a store window.
I'm sure the workers were loving us!

Camille had her best friend Sarah come with us.
Oh how I love these girls.
Sarah has been such a great friend for Camille.
She might move.
I'm sad about that.
Camille is even more sad.
I forgot how special it is to find a real best friend.

Daddy got to come on a field trip with my/Camille's class.
Camille chose to be in his group, not mine.
That's ok.
It's more cool to be with the cool dad, then the teacher.
It was fun to have my husband on a field trip with us. A little weird too.

Oh, and this kid is still growing like crazy.
I adore him.
He is such a nice boy.
I love to kiss his cheeks.
I love to snuggle with him.
Camille likes to dress him up a bit.
Like the glasses?
He didn't mind them being on.

Emmy's First Hair Cut

This cute kid has CRAZY hair... we lovingly refer to it as a RAT'S NEST.
So, we decided it was time to see if there was anything we could do... here is her first hair cut.

She wasn't so sure about the whole thing...

That poor girl who was cutting her hair... she kept moving around.

This is a slight improvement... Can't wait till it grows a bit more so she looks better.
She is still such a cutie, and I need to kiss and squeeze those cheeks every time I see her.

Flashback!

I found these pictures Cameron just scanned in from our senior year.
I know we look so young.

A Whole New Kid

My cute little guy started anti-biotics

on Friday for a double ear infection (poor little dude)...
WoW!
Am I ever grateful for modern-day medicine?
He's like a whole new kid.
Look!
And I thought for sure he'd lost weight
while feeling under the weather,
but NO,
he gained a pound in a week!
He's almost 13 pounds this little (not so little) guy

Side view of the cute CHEEKS. Don't you just want to kiss and squeeze them?
I do.
I must do it every time I see them.

Just can't get enough of this guy.

Emmy can't either.

So happy that he's feeling better.
We are loving learning
more about his personality.

This is what we've been doing...

My poor baby hasn't been feeling so great, and of course,
I just went back to work,
so I can't stay home with the poor little guy.
Cameron has had to give up a few jobs to be with the little guy (not good for us!).
This is what I do when I get home from work.
Then again in the middle of the night.

And of course (cause we love to share the joy),
Emmy decided to get sick too.
So she got to do breathing treatments too.
She kinda liked them... at first.

And then again with the little guy.
He also got deep-suctioned at the hospital.
They said there wasn't much to pull out now.
He's past the worst they say.
If we could just get over this DARN cough.
Cameron says it sounds like a machine gun.
Man, I'm in trouble.
I'm gonna have a hard time getting this guy out of my bed now that he is my sleeping buddy.
(I need to hear him to make sure his is breathing ok...
and so that I can elevate him).

After a few treatments, this kid is feeling better (wish I could say the same for O).

And these two beauties have been spared the illness this go around
(Spencer and Cameron did too).
I got pretty sick.
I think I was sleep-deprived, so it was easy to get sick.
Camille and Katelyn danced at their school talent show.
They did great.

California

Last weekend, I enjoyed my last few moments of maternity leave by heading to my cousin Thi-Anh's wedding in California. Thi-Anh was like a little sister to me growing up, so I was so fun to be able to join her for her special day.

Her reception was on a yacht
It was pretty cool.

My arms were DEAD from carrying around this carrier with my little (but heavy) guy. I was in serious need of pain-killers when I got home after lugging this thing around for 3 days. I was REALLY missing Cameron during these moments. But, it was well worth it.

And I do have to say, the Vietnamese food is California is killer! It is almost worth going just for the food. We ate as much Vietnamese food we could squeeze into the few days we were there (as evidence by the many empty plates in the following picture).
It was funny that the waiter kept asking us if we really wanted to order all that food... see all the plates stacked on top of each other, we had no table room left. Oh, it was so yummy. Now I'm going to crave it until I go back.