Baptism Day!

Can you believe my Aislyn Francis is eight years old?! I certainly can't. She has been more than excited for this day to come. Baptism Day! She's been telling everyone she meets all about it for weeks. It was extra special because she was able to be baptized on Thanksgiving Day. Here she is with her very most favorite person in the whole world, her dad! She is wearing the dress my mom made for me to be baptized in and her sister Marley wore it too. She thought that was pretty special.

She asked Townsend to give the talk on baptism because he is "a very good talker". He did a great job. I was so proud. I know I would never have gotten up to speak in front of people at the age of 11.

Aislyn, you are so very loved. Our family is so blessed to have you be a part of it. We learn so much from you, especially how to just love everyone. I am always amazed at your capacity to give and show love. Thank you, my beautiful girl! Happy Baptism Day!

He's Six!

OK, so the photo quality is not the greatest this time around. But can you even believe that my sweet little guy is six? I certainly can't. Jairus has always been my special boy. He loves me SOOOO much and always tells me he loves me and that I'm pretty. I hope he keeps that up forever! I don't like him growing up. Time is just flying by.

He requested carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. A fantastic choice if I do say so myself. And I didn't even have to make it. It's great having a Marley around who loves to bake!

Happy birthday Jairus James! We love you.

The Big Four!

Ephraim Isaac....oh how I adore this beautiful boy! Can it really be that four years have flown by since he was born? For his birthday he requested a HUGE chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Marley and I made this bad boy all from scratch. It was delicious although very, very rich. And I think three layers might be a bit excessive. As you can see Ephraim attacked his cake with fervor and determination but in the end could only eat about half his slice.

Townsend might have filled up on frosting before it was even cake time.

Happy birthday sweet Ephraim boy! I could not imagine the world without you.

It Was Bound To Happen Sometime....

Ephraim, my sweet little guy!(I promise he is wearing underwear in this photo) With this many kids running around it was inevitable and so it was Ephraim who  managed to be the first Judd kid to break a bone. And all because of a trampoline and as he tells it one GIGANTIC SUPER BOUNCE! The super bouncers shall remain nameless, although I'm sure you probably have a good guess as to who they were. It has been a fun adventure full of x-rays and Spider Man stickers. Ask Ephraim and he will tell you how cool an x-ray is, you get stickers AND you get to see your bones! The first few days were a little rough. But now my little invalid can get around with the rest of them unless of course he's in the mood to milk it for all it's worth, at which he's become quite skilled. One week down and three to go until the cast comes off!

Oh How Happy

I heard this song today while driving home. I have to admit it brought a little tear to my eye. Way back almost sixteen years ago Thomas and I had just started dating. He came over one night to pick me up, I was getting ready in the bathroom and didn't know he was there. He caught me singing this song at the top of my lungs. Kind  of embarrassing for me, but he know that the song just described how I was feeling. Sixteen years, and almost seven kids later the words couldn't be any truer! And it's got a pretty catchy tune to boot.

MINE!

Ada LOVES her some chickens! She gets giddy with excitement every time she sees them. She is also quite fearless. She has no problem chasing 'em down, picking 'em up and transporting them to wherever she sees fit. It's really the funniest thing to see. She is also very possessive. Don't even think about taking her chicken from her. "MINE!" is a new word she's picked up that seems to be pretty helpful in protecting her new found property.

It's Mother's Day! Here I am with all the beautiful people that made me a mother. Marley, Townsend, Aislyn, Jairus, Ephraim, and Ada. Seems like a lot. And yet, it doesn't. It's probably time to add another to the bunch.

I've been shown quite a bit of love the last couple of days. Yesterday we got the garden all beautiful and ready to go. Townsend and my sweet husband worked their booties off all to make me happy. This morning I woke to a lovely breakfast of cold toast with hard clumps of butter and little blobs of honey, a beautiful card and and some watered down grape juice. It was one of the best breakfasts I've ever had!

I'm such a lucky girl. I was the mom with the most flower hair pin presents in church today. Having four kids in Primary really has it's perks sometimes.

It's funny how life happens. I have six kids. Weird/Wonderful.

Art&Fashion

You may not know this about me...but almost every night as I lay down to do to sleep I "see" things in my mind. It's really not as creepy as it sounds, I promise. I see clothing. And not just your everyday jeans and T-shirts. I see the most beautiful, colorful, indescribable designs of perfection. Sadly I am severely lacking in the ability to translate what I see in my head to paper. And I always tell myself I'll remember in the morning and try to sketch it then. Somehow I never do remember. I love sewing and learning everything I can about it. It's hard to squeeze it in with everything else I should be doing. But whenever I do, I feel so happy. OK, I'm weird. Although you wouldn't know from looking at me I have the heart of a fashion designer. So, you can only imagine the delight I took in finding these two creating "dress designs" the other day! They were so cute concocting ideas on how they were going to sell their paper dresses and where they should hang them up for people to see. Children after my own heart!

Uh....Ya, It's Been Awhile

Can it really be?! Christmas was my last post? Life of course continues to march forward. Ada turned one. Marley turned thirteen. We wrestled a bit, snuggled Ada a lot. I feel like I've spent an eternity in the car driving to and from various classes, sports, activities. Aislyn started going to school at Hidden Creek Elementary. Marley won the part of Hermia in her Shakespeare class' production of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Townsend gets to play Egeus(aka Hermia's father). They both think that's pretty funny. Jairus is learning to read. Ephraim is officially potty trained.YAY! Thomas had surgery for a spot of skin cancer on his nose that ended up being a much bigger than we first thought. Aislyn started Occupational Therapy. And so much more.

It's funny how my definition of "busy" has evolved over the years. It's funny how I have evolved over the years.