I am a Child of God

I know I just posted a long old thing, but I did not want to forget this. Last week we had family home evening and Eli did the lesson on having a new baby in the home and how it is a child of God. It was such a great lesson and at different parts he had the boys sing her the verses to "I am a Child of God." The boys couldn't sing without holding and hugging and kissing Alexis. She just laid there and stared at them the whole time. They love their little sister so much and she loves them right back. It was so nice to have some time with just our little family to be reminded of how blessed we are and that our children are the most important thing to us. It is amazing how much easier it is to realize that when they aren't throwing mud at the neighbors house or throwing the cats off my dad's deck.......somewhere inside of the little devils are sweet little angels.

Our lucky & loved little girl. She looked so cute at the wedding.

Ok, this is exactly what I mean when I say little devils. I think Tyler is morphing into one right now...

Another great self portrait of Tyler and his sister, I'm starting to think I don't ever pay attention because I never see him with the camera anymore and everytime I turn it on there are at least a dozen of these.

And last but not least, Allie got to take a big girl bath with Zach the other day. I usually have her in the tub, but this time the water was pretty deep and she loved it. Her not so little belly makes her look like a frog and she was right at home in the water kicking her legs and smiling.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Peña

Last Friday Eli's brother Jared got married. It was such a busy week but everything turned out so great. We got to have their rehersal dinner at our house Thursday night too, so we have had plenty of good food, friends and family over the last few days. It got a little chaotic a couple of times (but it's a wedding, right!!) but everything was worth it. The ceremony was beautiful and their bishop had such great words of advice. I'm so excited for them to start their life together, and to have another member of the family. Jared and Maquel are both so laid back and seem like such a good match. Good thing for co-ed softball or they might not have ever met!! Anyway,

we had a lot of fun. Eli was in the line and Tyler got to be the ring bearer. He was so cute...and so well behaved. We need to put that boy in a tux everyday! You could tell he knew he was important and it was so cute! I do have some handsome boys (and a man) in my family. How did I get so lucky!! Zach was so excited before things got started that he couldn't sit still. I don't think he knew what he was excited for, but he knew it was a big day. I think most of all, he was excited for his pink tie. Somewhere along the line during the last few weeks he decided he had to have a pink tie for the wedding. I ordered one from some crazy place in Canada that took my money, said it was on it's way and then disappeared. Every day he'd ask me about his tie. It showed up in the mailbox 2 days before the wedding and saved me from a bucket full of tears. He had to show it to everyone at the wedding. It was so funny. The best was at the reception after the happy couple had their first dance. They played another song and everyone else started dancing. We had each of our boys grab their grandma's to dance with, and about halfway through the song Zach dropped my mom's hands and ran across the gym, found the 3 yr old flower girl and started twirling her around. It was so cute! Sorry mom, but he had to get his moves on! It was so funny because he is usually shy. This little girl is packed full of personality too and obsessed with Cinderella. After the song she went up to her mom and said....."I think I found my Prince Charming!" What a fun night. Now that it is over, we are on to the next big adventure.....Thanksgiving at our house. We got the vote to do it here again with both of our families. I know, I know....everyone keeps telling me I'm crazy. But this is one of my favorite holidays, and I am an anal freak when it comes to the turkey. I love to cook it and have issues with letting anyone else. It really is a problem. If any of you watch Everybody Loves Raymond and you've seen the episode when Deborah cooks fish for Thanksgiving. I would be the annoying, overbearing character of Marie (Raymond's mom). Even though dinner is taken care of she makes and brings a turkey anyway...... Oh yeah, and I'm a loser because the only pictures I have of Jared and Maquel are when they cut the cake. What kind of photographer am I?

Our happy little family

The extra-handsome ring-bearer

Prince Charming and Cinderella at the ball

And this was too good not to post. Eli's Grandpa Phillips. The best thing about this picture is that this was the day before the wedding, when we had the rehersal dinner. Even better is that it is before anyone else had shown up, before the dinner even started. Check out the glasses...now that is a good nap. We love you Grandpa!!

Blessing, garments and boys

We blessed Alexis yesterday and it turned out to be such a special day. All of our family came to church and we had everyone over to the house after. It was so nice to see my sisters and have my granpa there. I love that having a baby brings everyone together. She looked so beautiful in her dress and was such a good baby through the whole day. I'm so thankful for how blessed we are to have such great kids. We couldn't ask for better. And I'm especially thankful for such a wonderful husband who honors his priesthood and sets such a good example for his sons to follow. It is such a comfort to me to have him around and to make me want to do better myself. Thank you so much honey for everything yesterday. You made the day perfect!

Ok, now for the fun stuff. Saturday night Eli was getting Alexis in her pajamas and changing her diaper. She was only in a little white onsie and Zach came in and said..... "is that her garments??" This coming from the kid that during sacrament yesterday got sick of his bright blue gum so he took it out of his mouth and looked at his Uncle Spencer and asked him if he wanted it (after it had been chewed on for about 30 minutes). When Spence said no, he said..."but it matches your shirt!". Makes sense.

And just to finish up...this is what happens when boys get sick of having their sister get her picture taken and get a hold of the camera......how can you not love those little faces??

6 weeks old

Our little Alexis is already 6 weeks old. She is such a fun little girl to have in our home. She found her smile about 2 weeks ago and loves to flash it around. She is extra smiley in the morning. (Maybe she'll be a morning person.......definitely not like her mama!!). She is still so little but getting some chubby Peña cheeks in a hurry. We love her so much!

Happy Halloween!

Our ward had it's Halloween carnival last night and the kids had a blast. I think it took me longer to get them ready than it did to play all the games, but it was worth it. Tyler was so mad at me because we missed his school carnival. He was so bummed because he didn't think he was going to get to dress up. Anyway, dress up he did, and it was a hit!

Our scary little werewolf. Everyone at the carnival loved his fur.

Zach insisted on wearing Tyler's Darth Vader costume from two years ago.



Our little angel...little girls really are so much fun.

LUVING MY FAMILY

Tyler, Zach and Alexis right before we left for church. She loved church so much she had her first blowout, clear up to her hair.....and you'd think after 2 other kids I'd remember to pack extra clothes in the diaper bag....nope!! Our pretty little 3 week old. Her cheeks are getting chubbier and cuter by the day!
I tried all day to get a picture of her smiling, but every time she would grin I'd be a second too late.....this was as close as I got.
The last couple of days I've caught her holding her binky. I finally got the proof...what a smart little girl!!

I can't believe that Alexis is already 3 weeks old. I swore when I was pregnant that I couldn't make it one more week, I was so ready to be done. And here it is 3 weeks later already. The time is already going by so fast. I really have been trying to enjoy every moment that I have with her because I know that time doesn't slow down. Even doing that it is still blowing by me. Having the boys running circles around me all day long might have something to do with it. And as much as I have been a big fan of spud harvest break since I was a little kid, I think I've decided after the last 10 days that kindergartners probably would be better off at school (at least their moms might be better off). The kids have had a blast being at home, running wild, disappearing while I nurse the baby, slashing our couch/end tables/entertainment center with a utility knife, playing in the mud and snow, riding around the farm with their dad, drawing on our dining room table with a sharpie, learning to change diapers so their wives will appreciate them even more when they have kids of their own, having "sleepovers" almost every night on the bottom bunk because they don't have to get up, making cookies to take to the farm, making cinnamon rolls for the first day of snow.....did I mention I'm kind of tired??? Yes, Tyler slashed our couches, I should take a picture but I still don't know how I feel about it. He wasn't mad, jealous or anything else I can think of. He just saw the knife and thought it might be fun. I'm pretty sure he has decided that it wasn't very fun at all. I don't think it is possible for my head to get any closer to exploding than when I discovered his little art piece. Thank goodness for once in my life I remembered to excercise some self control.....after a little bit of yelling. I just keep reminding myself that our furniture is just "things" and that I am thankful for the real "things" that I have. I do love my family so much, even my crazy, independent little boys. I have been reminded of how much I love being a mom and how important my role is to my family. I know I still don't have enough patience, and I realize that might not ever change...and that's ok. What I get to wake up to every morning is a blessing. I'm thankful for a husband that is not afraid to work hard to support our family, that is still so helpful when he is home, that he honors his priesthood and sets such a good example for his boys to follow. I'm thankful that now I have a little girl that I can set an example for, that she may grow up to be a good mother some day too. I've got my work cut out for me, but I'm grateful for the extra responsibility. I know this is a loooong post, but I have been filled with the knowledge of the blessings I've been given, and since this is the closest thing I have to a journal this is where it goes.

MORE OF OUR WEEK

Just some more pictures to finish up our week. The fun never stops! My cousin Michelle had a little boy a few months ago and her sister and mom made some letters for her to put in his room. I thought they were so cute so I decided to take on the project for Allie's room. It took me longer than I thought thanks to nursing every two hours but I'm so proud of how they turned out. If anyone wants some for themselves, I'd love to do some more. It was a lot of fun and I think they turned out pretty cute!

Ok, now this is what I usually walk out to after I'm done nursing, or changing a diaper. Usually Zach has run off to one of the neighbors because he knows I can't come and chase him down, but if he sticks around, he does something like this. This is his flag football uniform. He stole his brother's flags, and I still haven't figured out why he doesn't need clothes to play.

I laid Alexis out on our living room floor while I was cleaning the other day and this is what I came into. Zach was laying by her copying all her faces. He was having a ball, and it was pretty cute. She kept him occupied forever.

This is Tyler's new routine before he takes off for school in the morning. He has to hold his sister and give her a hug and kiss. He really loves her so much and loves watching over her. She is such a lucky little girl. (We'll see if she still thinks so when she hits about 16).

WHAT A WEEK

Well, we have already had Alexis home for more than a week. It will always amaze me how fast time flies by once they get here. She is such a good baby and still hardly fusses. I'm sure she is saving it for some time down the road. The boys are really enjoying her and are even better helpers than I thought they'd be. Tyler loves to hold her and has even tried picking her up and packing her around a few times (yikes!). At least he remembers to hold her head up. Zach watches over her every move and gets so concerned when she cries. He loves to help me put her bows in every morning, it is so funny. He'll go and get the container I keep them in and bring me her brush, the "sticky stuff" and baby gel. All I have to do is stick it on her head. Her dad loves coming home and "bonding" with her over a game of NFL Blitz every chance he gets. She really is so much fun just to hold and watch. I had forgotten how much I love babies. I didn't think it had been that long. I forgot what they smelled like, how sweet they look when they stare of into nothing, how comforting it is to hold them. She has reminded me how much I love being a mom. I knew I would like having a little girl, but I didn't think I would enjoy it this much. I have loved everything about my boys... their rough and tough attitudes, the balls, bats, trucks and dirt. Now I have something new to enjoy. I get so excited to get her dressed every day and match her socks and bows to all of her little outfits. I love the pink and purple and flowers and all the little girly things she already has. She has truly been a blessing to our family and to have in our home. I never thought she would make it here after all we went through at the beginning of the pregnancy, and I never want to forget the miracle she is. We love our little Allie so much! Here are some pictures from her first week home.

Zach and his little sister, what a pair

I thought this picture was kind of neat. It is Tyler letting Alexis hold his finger. He has really taken on the role of big brother with flying colors.

Right after her first bath (that she hated!!!)

Ok, she wouldn't be a Pena if she didn't like the Broncos. So we dressed her up for last Sunday's game to show her support. The orange and blue bows were so cute but we all decided she does look better in pink.

ALEXIS NICOLETTE PENA

She's here! Our 9 months of waiting are finally over. Alexis arrived on Tuesday the 23rd at 11:08 in the morning after too many hours of on and off labor. She is such a pretty little girl, and so tiny. She weighed 5 pounds 11 ounces and was 18 inches long. I never thought I'd have such a teeny baby, but I love it. She is already such a good baby. She doesn't cry, and hardly even fusses (unless we change her clothes and she gets cold). It didn't even take a second for her to melt her dad's heart, and her brothers love her more than anything. They just want to hold her all day. Tyler has been singing her lullabys and Zach loves to hold her hand and tell her "it's alright" when she's getting changed. We are so thankful that she is here and a part of our little family.

I just like this picture because you can tell a little bit better how small she is.

A whole lot of catching up

FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!




The big day finally came! Tyler is finally a big boy. The week before school started he got a little nervous and decided he wanted to stay home with me forever, even if he was "breaking the law!" But once the day came, he woke up somewhere around 6:00 in the morning just to make sure he wasn't late. It was great though because it gave me plenty of time to make him a special breakfast and get myself ready for the walk to school. He loves his teacher and his best friend is in his class so that made it even better. The next day he was excited until he realized we were walking again and not going on the bus "with all his friends." Needless to say, I wasn't his favorite person for a couple of days until we got him signed up and on the bus with everyone else. He thinks he is so big now. I guess I'm not much of a mushy mom either because it has really turned out nice for all of us so far. It amazes me how quiet things are around here while he is at school. Zach has really missed him, but it has given us a lot of time together, and they are even better friends when Tyler gets home.














MY THREE YEAR OLD IS A HILLBILLY!















I know the picture is kind of out of control, but this was the best one I could get of him smiling. A couple of weeks ago I took the kids to Rigby Lake. We all had a great time, but on the way home Zach started acting like he didn't feel very good. He took 2 naps that afternoon so I figured it was the real thing. When he woke up the 2nd time his whole upper lip was fat. He was crying and saying it hurt so we gave him some tylenol to take the pain away and hopefully make the swelling go down. I didn't think it was much of an emergency so I hoped it would go away during the night or we could wait it out to take him to the doctor the next morning. Well, he was up all night crying and miserable and when morning came it was a little worse. I took him to the doctor but he couldn't find anything more than we could. No bruise, bump, sore, cut...only a fat lip. He figured it was probably an allergic reaction to something he put in his mouth at the lake, sent me to the store for Benadryl and told me to keep an eye on it. Well, a half hour later, I was dishing up the medicine and took a look.....where nothing had been was now a sick looking purple and yellow bubble above his tooth! So I hauled him back to the doctor, he sent me to the dentist, they x-rayed him, wiggled his tooth, and gave me the look. I knew it was coming. I guess he bumped his mouth a few days before and knocked it loose enough that it got infected. So I had the choice of a root canal with a 50 % chance of losing it anyway, or letting them yank it right then and there. He was in a lot of pain, but was super brave and 5 minutes later we were on our way home with a bloody mouth, bawling boy and a tiny blue treasure chest filled with the longest baby tooth I've ever seen. He was upset, but ok until the next morning when the tooth fairy left him "five monies." That was great, until he realized the tooth was gone. He was so mad the tooth fairy took it away because he wanted to show it to his Uncle Spencer. So we made a phone call to the tooth fairy and she delivered it back to the house just for him. Good thing he is a cute kid because he's going to have that crazy little smile for a long time!
















FLAG FOOTBALL RULES!

Tyler started flag football last week and is having a blast. He is the youngest kid on the team and is pretty clueless on what is going on, but he loves it. He gets a funny little run that he has been practicing because it makes him super fast. They have 2 games a night so his attention lasted through about half of the first game. After that he was more interested in having a kicking war with another kid on the team, or randomly running to the sideline to give one of us a hug. At least we know he loves us and he was happy. Oh, and at the end of any place where one of his teammates would grab a flag he would give the "rock on" hand signs, or play his air guitar...in case you were wondering what he's trying to do in the last picture. He is such a funny kid and is so fun to watch. Zach loves going to the practices and kept trying to go and play with him during the game. He did score a touchdown right at the end on about a 1/2 yard run but it made his day. Summer was great, but it has been nice to get back into another busy routine over the last couple of weeks. I just don't think it has quite set in yet that this will be our lives for about the next 22 years...............

They're off!

So after two months of Zach begging me to take his training wheels off so he could "kick dust like his brother" I finally had Eli do it. Both of us were sure he'd be putting them right back on since he is only three, but to our surprise the little fart took right off. There was no fear! At least from him. We just watch him tear down the street and whip around like it was nobody's business, just waiting for him to wipe out on the turn. It took him a few minutes to figure out how to get on by himself but by the next afternoon he looked like he had been riding without the training wheels forever. He is such a fearless kid. Now the biggest problem we have is that he thinks everyday he is in the x games. He wiggles his bike back and forth and him and Tyler built a jump on our sidewalk out of a log and a piece of plywood. He just can't seem to get enough air. So they build it as high as it will go, and now he thinks it's a good idea to try and kick his legs out from behind him as soon as he's airborn. Somehow, he has managed to get them back down before he lands and hasn't crashed yet. I know it's coming...the gravel in the chin, the compound fracture to the forearm. He is just happy that he can do huge jumps and ride his bike in the empty lot across the street without getting high centered on his training wheels anymore...and oh yeah...now he can go super SPEED!

Signs of the times

It never ceases to amaze me the things that come out of our kids mouths, but today Tyler caught me off guard a little. I had just put all the little kids to bed and he was following me downstairs and I half heard him ask me what something was. I thought he had said "dragon" but knew that he already knew what a dragon was. So I asked him what he had said. This was what came next. "Mom...what is a dragqueen???" In a split seconds time, I had already thought to myself...WHAT???? You're five for crying out loud!!! I don't remember for sure how old I was when I realized what one was, but I'm pretty sure that I was somewhere close to getting out of high school. So I asked him where he had heard the word before. Of course, it was off just another one of the great DVD's we have in our home. This one came from the Bee movie. Before I could say anything else, he explained to me, what a dragqueen was and wouldn't you know it...he hit it right on the mark. Being smarter than his mom seemed to satisfy him and he went on his way. At least he didn't ask why any man would want to dress like a woman. Anyway, I thought I had been being pretty careful with his movie watching after the few weeks we had of taking the Lord's name in vain...thanks Monster House. That movie has been broken and half and thrown out with the trash and we've been watching a lot more of Toy Story. But it seems that more and more, no matter what we do to protect our kids, they find and hear things on their own. Anyway, other than that we haven't been up to much of anything exciting. I tried to load a slideshow from the 4th of July but my blog won't take slideshows, or videos...help!!! Anyone have any ideas for me? The most fun today happened when the fire department showed up across the street to check the hydrant.















Zach and Brylee were out riding their bikes and thought it was the coolest thing.
















All Zach could say was "that was a LOT of water!" Then he had to ride his bike in it for the next 20 minutes.

















This one's for you Amber. When Eli came home for lunch your kids were having a ball with him. Payson was laughing so hard. We took a couple of pictures but this one turned out the best. Brylee had just given him a big kiss on the forehead. (They were hiding from Eli under the piano).

Our Not-Camping trip

How hard can it be to camp in this place???? I have been wanting to take our family camping for over a month and we finally got things lined up to go last weekend. I packed 10 tons of crap into our Tahoe while Eli was at work. All the gear, hot dogs for dinner, all the stuff to dutch oven for breakfast, and about a million other things. As soon as Eli got home from work we took off. We had no idea where we were going but headed toward Ashton. We both decided that Cave Falls would be a good place to go and took off. We found one nice spot by a creek with a fire pit but the mosquitos were pretty bad already so we went farther down the road. We got to the Cave Falls campground and decided that running water and bathrooms were the way to go. We got everything unloaded. Eli went to work on the fire and I started on the tents. There were a few bugs, but that's camping...right??? Little by little there were more of them...and then more....and then about a million more. We had two tents set up, all the sleeping bags and blankets laid out, the fire raging and the hot dogs ready to put on the sticks and decided enough was enough. The mosquitos were SWARMING all over us. If we stood still there were so many on us that you couldn't see our clothes. They were up our nose, in our mouths and everywhere else bugs should never be. What took us about an hour to set up only took 10 minutes to get down and thrown back in the car. We hauled our butts back to Ashton and had dinner at Big Jud's. After that we ended up at home and sleeping in our own beds. It was so rediculous. How can camping go so wrong? On the way there the kids kept saying they just wanted to go to the hollow and make s'mores.....MAYBE WE SHOULD START LISTENING TO OUR KIDS!!!! I'm really starting to think they are smarter than me.

What a deceiving camping spot

Yes, I let my kids play in the fire

At least the kids were still happy

Spray Park Fun

Well, we finally bit the bullet and went to the spray park. I swore I wouldn't take the kids this year because I'd rather let them swim in a ditch than run around in the park's disease-infested water, but somehow I was convinced to give in by one of our friends. It was a short trip but the kids had a ball. Tyler would have stayed all day if I would have let him. Zach had fun but somehow kept getting cold, even though it was scorching hot outside. He would come and wrap up in his towel and curl up in the blanket I laid out. He was melting me, but still kept saying he was freezing. We went with the Walker kids and their mom had threatened them that if they opened their mouth and let the water get in, they would have diarrhea for weeks. Her little girl just kept walking around saying "poop." We'll see if we end up making any trips to the doctor. I still think I'm a bigger fan of my dad's pond water. You just have to wonder how some parents can let their kids run around and sit in a pool with a dirty diaper on and not think twice about it. Sick, sick, sick. I know I need to relax, but something about it just grosses me out! Next week, I call the sand bar or Rigby Lake. As long as the kids have sunshine and water, they'll be as happy as little clams.

Cuz that's what you do!!

Tyler had his first t-ball game yesterday and it was so much fun! He was so excited and has waited so long to play. It was the most fun thing I've been to in a long time. All of the kids were so cute and funny and clueless. Tyler was ready to go though and his team had first bats. Before anyone was ready he grabbed his bat and walked right up to the tee and swung away. I didn't even have the video camera going yet so I missed his first hit. He got a triple and was so excited. The highlight came at his next at bat though. He smacked it past first and all the little kids took off after it. He just kept running and running. When he got to third he looked to see where the ball was and all the kids were still chasing it down so he kept going. When he got there he Pete Rosed it into home plate! It was so awesome and we were all dying laughing so hard. I asked him later why he slid and he just looked at me and said "cuz that's what you do!" Maybe he's seen a few too many of his dad's and uncle's games. Our little homerun king was finally in baseball heaven. It was a day I had waited for long before I even had kids. I'm just glad our boys love sports as much as we do.