Our sweetheart is 11 months old!! (tomorrow)

She has her first tooth with a second breaking through. Her hair is getting long. She eats like crazy, both solid foods and nursing (still lots and lots of nursing because she refuses all bottles and cups and because she’s a big comfort nurser as well). She weighs about 15 1/2 pounds or so. She is sleeping through the night sometimes now, which is awesome after almost a year of getting up every 1-3 hours, but it’s also a little sad because I really miss seeing her on the nights that she sleeps.

She loves to be in the middle of the action with all the kids around, and she loves to be outside. She really loves people, and she’s always lifting her hands and reaching out to people to try to engage them. She loved touching faces. She brings such a feeling of peace and love to our home! She truly has a special little soul.

It’s almost been a year since she joined us. I still get emotional thinking about what a sweet, precious miracle this baby girl is! I’ve learned a lot with each of my pregnancies, but I think I learned the most before, during, and right after my pregnancy with Allie. What a blessing and a gift she is!

We love you so much, sweet Allie Cakes!!

Heading to track practice with her cute mis-matched socks.

He was so proud!! I didn’t make him change.

Dress shoes with no socks, blue plaid shirt, brown and white plaid shirt that is inside out which is why the buttons are sticking out funny and with the collar popped, and his brother’s hat on sideways.

We play hard, and it’s always a blast! There’s nothing like energetic little boys to force a mommy to be energetic herself! The trampoline is a great place to burn up energy playing, giggling, tickling, and jumping together!

I love this line up: Jacob with his inside-out-and-backwards shirt, Asher as Spiderman, Braden in Josh’s old football “cold gear” (when it’s 90 degrees out), and Drew with his crazy trampoline static hair!

Love that hair, Drew!!

And my second little girl, with her beautiful brown eyes:

Smiley:

And…

Not-So-Smiley

It has two secret compartments. I’m not allowed to photograph the system for unlocking these compartments because Braden doesn’t want that information to get into the wrong hands. But the compartments are large enough to hold a lot of loot:

I love this creative boy!!

It’s been a long running joke that someone always throws up on Mother’s Day! Most years find me cleaning up barf at some point. Last night I joked with Rick that I was just waiting for someone to throw up… And sure enough, little Drew did this morning, right as we were leaving for church.

I had a few other boys not feeling well so I ended up keeping four little ones home from church. Drew threw up several more times today, poor guy.

When Rick and the other kids got home from church, he sent me straight to bed. I spent the entire afternoon resting and relaxing. The kids gave me chocolates and little cards.

I’m grateful that Rick can cook!! He’s amazing, and he made the most delicious Mother’s Day dinner. I loved it!!!

Jacob wasn’t as impressed. He poked at his stuffed chicken and groaned, “Ew! There’s yucky poop in this!”

I spent all afternoon relaxing and resting. It was wonderful. Rick gave me a very sweet blessing in the evening. I loved it!

Other than feeling bad for my sick Drew, it was the perfect Mother’s Day!!

Drew has continued to throw up all day today, poor guy. I think/hope that he’s finally starting to feel better. He sure is cute!!

Rick took Joshua to the AAU state championships while I took everyone else to Maddie’s track meet. The weather was perfect and Maddie was ready to RUN!

Her form has improved a lot since last year. I was very impressed! And she has figured out how to find a “kick” when she needs too, which was also cool to see. She ran the 1500m, her favorite race, in 7 minutes and 23 seconds. This is her personal best and about 45 seconds faster than last year.

She is still “famous” for her mile. She’s been known as “that little girl that runs the mile” for going on three years now and everyone loves her, knows her name, and cheers for her. She’s still the smallest one running the 1500m. She’s so short, so determined, and so cute too!

She also ran the 100m and the 800m and did great in both races. She took 3rd for her 1500m and 2nd for 800m.

At the end of the day, after running hard and spending all day in the sun, my little track star (she grins whenever I call her that) asked if she could run a “goodbye lap.” So off she went, to run just one more lap, and she smiled the entire time. She just LOVES to run! I’m so proud of this sweet, determined, hard-working little girl!

Joshua wrestled so well, and took 1st in Greco and 1st in Freestyle. He added more wins to his tally (on the road to meeting his goal of 100 wins this year), claimed two more state titles, and qualified for Grand Nationals in June. Go Josh! Rick and Josh were able to make it in time for Maddie’s last race of the day, which meant a lot to her!

It was a great day!