Our household's happenings

Somebody around here turned 3 yesterday! This cute little boy is as naughty as he is adorable most of the time. He's our spicy one and we love every bit of him. Sam is very strong willed, determined, focused, and independent! Never a dull moment with this one :)

 Mr. Sam is very into Paw Patrol or "Patrol" as he refers to it. We celebrated with just the 7 of us last night. It was relaxing, quiet and very enjoyable. He loved all of the attention and sang "Happy Birthday" to himself. When he opened up this gift, he threw his arms in the air and shouted "Oh My Gosh!" It was precious. I soaked him in last night...he also told me "Mama, I love you so so much" when I tucked him in. Oh my heart.

Wow! All of our kids!!! I'm a lucky mom.

 This was a few weeks ago but it's too cute not to share, he looks like a little bird ready to eat :)

 Maddie is enjoying being the only girl...she's a great helper and loves all of her brothers and they think she's pretty neat too.

 My football/baby loving boys. These two are really good buds, their relationship is pretty awesome most of the time.

 Cade celebrated his 9th birthday a couple of weeks after Luke was born...he enjoyed having all of our family over, playing some football with his cousins and of course, building with his new lego sets. He's a master builder for sure...Caden is kind, serious and smart. I receive lots of compliments on how nice he is, he's an easy kid to have around.  

 Luke is now 5 weeks old! He had a little procedure yesterday at the ENT's office...had to get his tongue clipped, which will hopefully make a difference with his nursing! Out of our kids, 3 have been born with very tight tongues, 2 have needed clipped. He weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. yesterday! 

Last Saturday night, the boys had their "Black & Gold" Football Game...it was a cold evening but fun watching all of our Royal football players. I love that Bryan coaches- he does an awesome job with the offense and really enjoys it. Football in our community is kind of a big deal, I'm glad he's invested in it and thrilled that the boys love to play. We are starting basketball now, they'll overlap with their football schedule for 2 weeks...life continues to march on for us!

No. 5

Finally a post!

I can't believe our caboose is already a month old...

Luke Bryan (not named after the country music star, don't even know a song that guy sings) just minutes old... he weighed 8 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20.5 inches length, born by a scheduled c-section at 8:03 am one month ago today. A healthy baby boy, what a blessing!

 Love at first sight...Luke and mommy meet

In post-op recovery, getting to hold him for the first time

 What a sweetheart! We are IN LOVE with him. The kids have loved having a baby in the house, they're all really helpful, fight over who's holding him and thank God, Sam has finally warmed up to him ;). He was on ignore mode for the first couple of weeks! Maddie is quite the little mother and it's such a joy watching the older ones interact with him.

So far, fingers crossed, Luke is a really good baby. He's had some trouble nursing and lost quite a bit of weight that first week so I've been both pumping and nursing. He's quite a combination of all of our kids, we see glimpses of each one in him but he has his own look as well. The little fuzz of hair that he has is brown, darker than our other babes. I hope he continues with his laid back nature as being the last one in this crew of kids, he's going to need to be easy going! Things can get crazy around here!

I've enjoyed stepping back from everything I am usually involved in, staying at home and just lapping this little guy in. I was quite emotional that first week at home, my hormones were going crazy. So glad that has passed! Recovery has been smooth for me, just some sleep deprivation that goes with having a newborn, all is great!

 Our lives are full! Besides school and apple harvest, there's football for the older boys which  Bryan's coaching, dance for Maddie, bible club, 4-H for the boys, and scouts. Our plate is always full. We've had lots of help and have been spoiled with wonderful meals, visits and gifts for this sweet boy. Our family of 7 feels complete (I can't believe I have 5 kids, a basketball team!) and I am so, so thankful this little man has joined our family. More to come...