How it All Began

I wanted to write down how our family grew to have 6 kids in 6 years. I have not written anything down yet and I thought it would be a good idea to have a record of of it. I have had many people ask about our journey to having our family, so we are happy to share with those that read this blog.
We were married on March 15, 1997 in the Los Angles LDS temple. We decided to try for a baby about 9 months after we were married with no luck. I did get pregnant early on and had a miscarriage and then nothing even close after that. We went to the doctor and did a few tests and tried some different medication. I asked Kenny and my dad to give me a blessing before we started any treatment. Kenny was supposed to bless me that I would become pregnant and that is what he planned on saying. During the blessing he felt prompted to say that we would have children someday. I didn't really understand this because I wanted children now. Nothing seemed to be working and the next step was exploratory surgery to see what was going on in there. At this time we were also thinking about adoption. I was teaching at the time and in my class were 3 foster children. There was also a couple in our ward that was doing foster care. We began to both feel that this was the right thing to do for us. We talked to the couple in our ward and they led us to the foster agency they worked with. We went through the home study process and told them that we wanted to do foster care in hopes to adopt. They told us not to get our hopes up because we could get a few placements that were not adoptable before something worked out. We still felt that this was the way to go.
At this time I was also going to go ahead with the exploratory surgery. I had a Laporoscopy performed in Late May 2001. They found that I had ovarian cysts, endometriosis, and a fibroid tumor. Each one by itself can cause infertility. This was a kind of a closure to me. A couple of weeks after the surgery I had some follow up blood work done. On my way out of the office I got a call on my cell phone from the Foster Agency. They had a 6 year old girl that needed a home. And so our jouney began.

Yummy Peas

At Jackson's 4 month doctor appointment the doctor said to start solids. I have been slow at doing this because I have read that it is better to wait until they are 6 months and I have been a little lazy. He will be 6 months next week. Over the last couple weeks I have feed him solids here or there, nothing real consistent. I first started rice cereal and he didn't really take to that. Then we tried pears. He seemed to like that okay. Today I feed him peas and he loved them. He was reaching for more. In the picture his arm is blurry because he was reaching. ( I had the camera on the wrong setting) I hope this means that we are off the a good start because Lucas is so picky. He basically will only eat dairy, snacks, or sweets. The older kids will eat everything.

Jackson looks like he has had enough peas for today.

Here is my picky eater Lucas licking the M&Ms on his cookie.

Saving Money

I have a new hobby of saving money and seeing how much I can buy for as little money as possible. I have always liked to shop and find deals, but now I am really into it. It may not be a cool hobby but it is saving my family money and keeping me away from to many Target trips. Monday I went shopping and only spent $30. I had to take a picture because I was so proud of myself. I went to Alberstsons and CVS and with only $30 out of my pocket I bought:

13 boxes of cereal, 3 boxes of granola bars, 1 bottle of vinegar, 2 bags of yummy chocolate candy, 3 packages of pull-ups, 2 swifter duster refill packages, 8 bottles of hair care products, 4 lip glosses, 3 make-up products, 4 boxes pain reliever, 1 shaving cream, 1 candle, and 1 febrezze fabric spray. This was all done legally with sales, coupons, and CVS extra care bucks. The pull-ups alone would have cost $30 dollars. Target used to be my addiction and now I think CVS has taken over.

Jackson Rolled Over

Jackson really rolled over today and he did it a few times. He has accidentally rolled over a few times before but he really did it today. He figured out how to get his arm out from under himself and be fully on his tummy. Now he needs to work on rolling from his tummy to his back because he hates being on his tummy. I thought it was strange that he would roll from his back to his tummy first since he does not like his tummy.

Lucas Communicates

I taught Lucas a few word in sign language at about 1 year of age so that he could communicate what he needs. He learned the words rather quickly and they came in handy. The main words that he signs are milk, eat, help, please, sorry,and thank you. Lucas still does not talk much and relies on the signs a lot to communicate. When I first started teaching Lucas the signs I bought a children's book of signs. Well a lot of the signs in the book were wrong. So to say dog he pants like a dog. If he hears or see a dog he will pant. The other day he did something that cracked me up. When I need Lucas to get out of my way I say "beep, beep". Lilly our dog was at the bottom of the stairs and Lucas wanted to get by. He was standing by Lilly saying "beep, beep, ha, ha" over and over trying to get Lilly to move.

There is a cartoon that Lucas likes to watch called Max and Ruby. It is about a bunny sister and brother. The show remindes me of Lucas and Susie's relationship. Susie is very good with Lucas and they are very close. Well when the opening song comes on we like to sing Lucas and Susie instead of Max and Ruby. Well Lucas has started singing it too. He says "Zee and me".

We have been trying to get Lucas to say his name. If you ask him what his name is he says"Me". If you ask him who me is he will say "mama" or whoever it is asking. So we try to have him sound it out. We say "Lu" and he will repeat. Then we ask him to say cus, and he kisses. So his name is Lu-with a kiss.

Just the Boys

Nathan and Matthew have been great big brothers to Jackson and Lucas. Here they are letting the little boys sit in on their game of Monopoly. I love it when Mr. Cool 13 year old Nathan gives his baby brothers hugs and kisses. Nathan always rushes at the end of church to pick up Lucas from nursery. I'm so lucky to have such loving boys.

Pine Wood Derby

Matthew's scout troop had their yearly Pinewood Derby. Matthew had to bug Kenny many times to work on his car and he almost had to use his old one from last year. But Matthew and Kenny started the car a couple of days before and finished it that day. Matthew's car came in 2nd place. Way to go Matthew!