Family in Town Part 4 Samantha's Blessing Day

Having 8:30 church makes for a rushed arrival on such a big day. 

The below picture was such a precious moment for me. They all wanted to hold her and lover her and be a part of this important day.

 I don't recall getting emotional with any of the other baby blessings but this one was really touching to me.

I watched my husband careful hold our precious daughter in his arms and then he was assisted by my dad and his dad and our Bishop and our home teacher, my heart was full.

I felt so grateful to have been blessed with 5 beautiful children to love and teach and care for. I felt the trust of my Heavenly Father and his love for me and our children especially Samantha. 

She is a precious daughter to him and he wants me to make sure she knows that.

I realized that my heart had truly become a mother's heart. My children and husband are my everything and all of my actions and energy are devoted to them and their well being. I would not have it any other way. This is my purpose "to care, to prepare, to nurture and to strengthen all of my children," I will "teach them to obey to pray, to love and serve in the family."  This means that I must be an example of these things and try each day to put my best efforts in to doing this. 

Each of my children has taught me something new about being a mother (they teach me daily truthfully) but on this special day, I was taught through Samantha (my last) that this is my purpose and that Heavenly Father wants me to succeed and will help me because he has entrusted me with these sweet spirits. 

 

 "What, you put Samantha down where we can reach her and we can smother her with love and adoration?  Okay we will gladly oblige."

 I missed getting a picture of me with my parents that day, my mom has one on her phone but it did not turn out very well. So, the below picture of my dad will have to be my cherished memory of their efforts to be a part of these important events in my children's lives. I am so thankful that we had so much family here to celebrate with us!

Family in Town part 3 continued

Saturday night we had a celebration!

It was Max and Lanell's 40th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday and we surprised them with their favorite BBQ - Hard Eight- as well as some yummy bbq type side dishes.  We also served a few treats they had served at their wedding reception.  Eclairs, strawberry frappe and we put yellow flowers on the cake to be like the yellow flowers that adorned their wedding cake. Max went and got flowers and balloons for Lanell because he saw the cake and figured out our surprise.

The kids were so excited about this party! 

 We are not really surprised that the feeding each other a bite of cake turned into this, are we?!

But in the end this is what it is all about, their love that has lasted the test of time and many amazing and challenging things along the way! We are so grateful to be a product of your love! 

Family in Town Part 3

Saturday while family was here we headed to a beach park in Little Elm on Lake Lewisville.

We had a great time!

 Same face, don't you think?

 The water was the perfect temperature.

 Joey dug and dug in the sand. He ended up burned even though we lotioned him twice.

 Grandma Rabner built the best sandcastle which was happily destroyed by some of the little people with us.

It was so fun to watch the kids play together and work together. 

I don't have a copy of the picture but at one point in the water I was on Peter's shoulders and Arabella was on my shoulders - it was awesome!

My parents caught up with us at the beach and Peter's parents left from the beach to go pick up Uncle Jared at the airport.

The fun for this day was not over yet.

Family in Town part 2

Friday was the last day of school and I checked the boys out early and we headed to the Arboretum.

Jon had said he was not feeling well and I learned just how he was feeling when we were about to the parking area of the arboretum and he said he might throw up.  I looked at him in the rear view mirror, frantically reached behind me to find the car trash, dumped it, and threw it back just in time to catch most of the throw up, all while driving the car.  I had gratefully packed a change of clothes for the kids in case they got really wet in the water.  He changed, Grandpa bought him a sprite and he was good the rest of the day. It was really hot so by the end of the day he was not feeling great again but none of us were because it was sooo hot! 

 The Petting Zoo was a hit!

 I learned just how sweaty we can both get while nursing in high humidity.

The kids loved the children's area! We left in time to catch happy hour at Sonic and it was much needed!

We will visit again!

Family In Town (part 1)

We had family come into town on June 5th to spend the weekend and celebrate Samantha's blessing with us.

Thursday was a full day of class parties, Kelsey and girls arrived about 10 am and then we headed to a splash pad, G and G Rabner arrived about 9 pm and Lindsay and boys about 11 pm. 

Here are a few pics from the splash pad.

 I was about to take a picture of Joey who had climbed to the top of the slide but wet feet on a wet slide led to him slipping down just as I took the picture. 

 Arabella was so proud of herself for climbing to the top!

 The 2 above and the 2 below got along really well!

We were going to try for a group shot but shortly after this was taken there were a lot of tears. 

Arabella was on the swing, Allie was pushing her, Jon was chasing Joey (though they had been asked to stop at least a dozen times), and Joey ran into the moving swing.  The chain swung into Arabella's face and it smashed her lip and cheek and Joey was scratched on the chest by the swing.  Joey felt terrible so I believe his tears were mostly for that but he was upset that Jon is "always bugging" him.  Samantha started crying and we decided to call it a day. 

2 Months Old

So I am a week late but I wanted to get this in here anyway!

Samantha is getting so big 

11 lbs 11 oz and 22 inches long to be exact.

 She sleeps like a champ at night. 

Sometimes she does not settle down until midnight though but then sleeps until 8.

Last night she slept from 9 pm to 6:45am!

 As you can see she is smiling more and more. At first she seemed to only be smiling for Peter and it made me sad, I admit it.  But now, she smiles a lot and for lots of people.  

 She is cooing more and more and I love that. We have graduated her to the next size of clothes since things were getting tight.  After her well check we are going to be better about tummy time since she is getting a bit of a flat spot and we took her to an eye doctor to check her goober eye.  We will follow up with the eye doctor again in 2 months if there is not a change.

We love Samantha! She gets tons of love from everyone.  Arabella has changed several diapers and is my biggest helper (Lily sure tries hard).

Same outfit as above when she came home from the hospital. 

End of School

The boys had end of year parties the day before the last day of school. We did shaved ice for both parties and it was a total hit.  We promised both classes that we would do it again next year. 

I did not get a picture of Jon, oops, but here is Joey with his two teachers- Mrs. Barentine and Mrs. Tallas. He has learned so much and grown so big!

Sleeping Lily

I love to catch my kids in random moments.  Lily has some great sleeping random moments.

 Arabella wanted in on the photo op.

A little bit of Samantha

She is a great sleeper!

 She is learning to smile and I am learning how to catch it on camera.

I love baby toes!

 Samantha the baby binkicorn.

It has been warmer here and we have spent more time outside so she has developed baby acne or as my kids call it baby agony.  It does not seem to bother her but if she has acne as a teenager she will probably feel like she is in agony.  We love our little Samantha!

Random memories

It is not unusual at all to find all 4 of the big kids gathered around the laptop or Joey's ipad watching a show or someone play a game.  We have a pretty good sized tv but maybe it is better compact and sitting close. 

And in other news, a few weeks ago, Elder Lilo left our ward to go serve in the Waco area. He was an awesome missionary and an awesome example of missionary work.  He helped me to remember that missionary work is not always about baptizing and not always a fast work and sometimes it will feel like a fruitless work but it is always a rewarding work in terms of personal growth and testimony.