Yes, it has been a little over seven months since updating my blog. I do think about it a lot and want to update, but I would like it to just update all on its own. Well, since it hasn’t updated itself for a while I figure I would help it out.
So the past 7 months are all a blur. Life with 5 kids is insane, busy, busy, and insane! Summer came and went all too fast. The kids and I had a blast doing swimming lessons, trafalga, playing at different parks, picnics, play dates, and just hanging out. School started all too soon although sometimes it seemed it wasn’t soon enough. Sage is now in 2nd grade and loving school this year. Braxton and Jayden are in Kindergarten and seem to like most of it. They are a little bored, but I figure in the next few months they will be learning new things that they don’t already know. For Jayden this might be hard since she already reads well. I do wish Kindergarten was a full day here…4 hours just isn’t enough time to get everything done that needs to get done. Caleb is in preschool with two friends from the neighborhood. He loves it and I am so glad I decided to put him in it. Two days a week is just right for him right now and he is learning so much. Abigail is my little buddy. She helps me out by making messes for me to clean up. I will be cleaning one room and she will be off in other room destroying it. Nothing stays clean for long unless she is down for a nap. She is so fun at 15 almost 16 months. She is walking, running, jumping, and almost talking. She can currently say: Mom, daddy, bye-bye, ball, dolly, duck, Grandma, Papa, uh-hu, and shakes her head no. She sleeps great at night and takes good naps most of the time. Now, if I could come up with a way to slow time down or stop kids from growing up so fast life would be better!
Here are some recent photos…you can click on them to actually see them! (No the actual picture does not cut off anyone’s head.)

Things have been crazy around here for….almost 7 years…ever since I had kids.   I feel like they have taken over my life and I just can’t seem to get anything done.  O’well…the kids are awesome and I love doing things with them and having fun with them.  The last few months have been a blur.  I can’t believe Abigail just passed up 8 months old.  She started scooting/crawling on February 27th and now pulls herself up to standing with the help of baskets, stools, the girls dollhouse and anything else she can find that will work for her.  She cut her first tooth on March 10th.  I had no idea she was teething…I just thought she was having a couple ruff nights of no sleep and being cranky during the day.  She is my earliest teether out of all the kids.  Today she tried rice for the first time and loved it.  She eats baby fruits, graham crackers, puffs, crunchies, small pieces of dried fruit, bread and a few other things I am drawing a blank on.  She still nurses and won’t take a bottle.  She loves water and lemonade out of a straw that I feed to her but other than that it is all me for the liquids.  She is so fun and loves to give kisses, take baths, be held, play outside, play with toys, read books, and she loves her daddy.   She still has red hair and blue eyes although I am not sure the red hair will last through the next few months.  It seems to be growing in blond/light brown.  Sad since it is so fun to have a red head and have everyone ask where it comes from.

Other things happening around here…  Kids and I took the kids sledding one days as a surprise to them and they loved it.  Sage lost three teeth in November and December and has been toothless for a while.  As you can see from the picture one tooth has started to come in.  School is going well for Sage and she seems to be coming out of her shell a little more.  She is becoming a great reader and loves to help the twins with reading.  I love that I can have her read a book to the baby or Caleb and she thinks she is helping me out when I am just trying to get her to read without making it seems like homework.  Sage is also a big help and loves it when I ask her to big the big sitter and help with the baby, help me cook, hep Caleb, help her daddy or just spend alone time with Kip or me.  Sage is a great big sister. Caleb is my little handful.  He is constantly causing problems, getting in to trouble, always hungry, constantly wanting milk to drink, and it a totally funny kid.  I potty trained him in February.  It took him 5 days and he had it down.   He does have an accident about once every other week although he is doing great.  He is even night time trained and has only wet the bed once.  It has been so nice to only have one in diapers and we have cut way back on the wipe usage as well as diapers.  Braxton and Jayden are doing well.  About 10 days ago Kip took their training wheels off their bikes and they have learned to ride a 2 wheeler.  They love it and worked so hard for about 5 days to get it.  They are constantly begging to go and ride bikes now.  We have even taken them on the bike/walk and they did great.  Braxton was discharged from speech in January.  He was too good with talking to continue in the program.  He is doing awesome and I can understand just about everything.  He has started reading and loves to pick out site words.  He is having an amazing year in preschool and loves his teacher.  He wishes he could stay in preschool next year instead of moving on to kindergarten.  Jayden was just at PCMC last week for a check up and all her doctors say she looks great.  She gained 2 pounds in a matter of a month.  Her body mass index in looking great for her and they were so excited about her PFTs (lung function tests).  We got a green light and a pass for three month.  Jayden has loved preschool so much this year. She is reading well and amazes me every time she reads.  She loves her teacher so much and wishes just like Braxton to stay in preschool next year.

Five kids sure keep me busy and cleaning all the time.  I do about 10-15 loads of laundry a week, clean the house a million times a day, run the dishwasher 7-12 times a week, gives baths more than I care too, read numerous amounts of stories, cook and eat way too much food, sleep little if at all, but it is all worth it.  I love my family!!!

Abigail was 6 months old on the 8th of this month.

Here are her 6 months stats:

Weight: 14 pounds 6 ounces  (10th percentile)

Height: 25 3/4 inches (50th percentile)

Head: 42 1/2 cm (50 percentile)

According to the doctor she in one skinny little munchkin although she doesn’t look like it.  The doctor told me to feed her more and try to get her to eat food.  She doesn’t really like baby food and only wants to nurse.  She is my only kid that has ever been like this.  Nice for her and me since finding time to sit down and feed her with a spoon seems impossible with all the other needs around here.  Abigail is doing well and finally figured out how to roll over the week before Christmas.  She also loves to play with toys, jump in her jumparoo, play with her feet, have books read to her, and is totally cute when she giggles.  She sleeps well and through the night and is a pretty content baby although when she is hungry all she does is cry until she gets what she wants.  The last photo of Abigail shows the face she makes when she is hungry.   Abigail is a joy to have in our family and the kids love her to bits!

Okay, so Kip and I tried our hand at taking our own family pictures again this year.  Some turned out and other did not.  It is hard to tell what it is going to look like when you are sitting in the picture and not looking at it.  My face in most is funny, but I guess everything can’t be perfect.  We will probable try to do a Christmas photo sometime.  Here are the results of our effort.  You can click on each photo to see it bigger or to just see the entire thing.

October 9th was Abigail’s special day.  Kip’s dad was in town so we decided to bless Abigail at home.  We had family and our close friends over for the blessing.  Abigail did a great job and was very quite during the blessing.  Kip gave her a wonderful blessing and even remembered her name (Now that she is three and a half months old he doesn’t ask me what her name is anymore. ).  She wore the same dress Sage was blessed in.  It was a beautiful day and everything turned out great.

I am not sure about you , but the second Caleb tried on his old halloween costume I was on the floor laugh really hard.  It totally does not fit but sure makes me smile at him!!

Abigail arrived on the 8th of July.  I went in the hospital around 9:45 am and my doctor broke my water at 1o:oo am.  My doctor wanted to hold off on giving me petocine (sp??) to see if my body would just start into labor on its own.  I progressed well and labor started on its own.  I got my epidural around 3 or so and was at a 3 or 4 by them.  My doctor came in at 5 and was going to put the probe on the baby’s head when he announced the baby was coming right then.  I had no idea since my epidural was working so well.  They got every thing set up super fast and I pushed three times.  Baby Abigail was born at 5:14 pm weighing in at 8 lbs. 1 oz.  This labor and delivery reminded me of when I had Sage.  Not too painful and everything went smoothly.  We were able to keep Abigail with us for the first hour or so.  This was the first time we got to keep the baby right after birth.  Sage was taken from us due to pooping during delivery and having her heart rate drop very low.  The twins were born at 32 and a half weeks and were rushed away to the NICU.  And then Caleb came out with a fever so he was taken to the nursery right away.  It was nice spending time with Abigail and Kip for a little bit.  The kids and my parents came to the hospital later and see the baby.  I left the next day right at 24 hours.  I figure since I wasn’t getting sleep in the hospital I might as well get no sleep at home in my own bed.

The first couple of days were tiring and getting up every 2 hours to feed the baby was hard.  It was nice to have Abbi in town a little after that because it got me up and around faster than I probably would have myself.  My mom was also a huge help with the older kids and keeping the house clean.  The kids still to this day can’t seem to leave the baby alone and constantly want to hold her, cuddle her, lay right next to her, check on her when she is asleep, and just be a little mommy.  Sage is the worst at this but also the biggest help!  She loves the baby so much and will hold her and watch her when I need help.  Jayden loves to talk to Abigail and try to keep her happy.  She talks just like I would and acts like a little mommy with the baby and also with Caleb.  She is a big help as well.  Caleb loves to tease her by taking her pacifier out of her mouth and then putting it back in a million times until her just gets way too upset.  Braxton loves to sit with her on the couch and it a big help when I need anything for her.  We are so glad to have Abigail in our family.  She was not an easy baby until about two weeks ago.  She started sleeping through the night somewhere between 4 and 6 weeks, but she would cry most of the day.  Kip and I would take turns with her from about 7 at night until 10 pm while she wailed her little lungs away.  It was awful and frustrating, but we made it through.  She is now a pretty content baby.  She goes to bed sometime between 8 and 10 at night and gets up around 6 or 7 to eat and then back to sleep until 10 or 11 if I don’t bug her.  She then eats again and is awake for a couple hours, eats again and takes a nap.  She eats about every 2 hours or so during the day and takes cat naps.  No big deal to me as long as she lets me get my sleep at night.  Abigail hates to be left with Kip.  Every time I leave her and she is awake she cries the whole time or until she falls asleep.  What can I say…she is a mommy’s girl!

Here are some pictures of Abigail from birth to 3 months olds.  You can click on the pictures to see the whole picture or to make them bigger.  Enjoy!!!

Previously in the Lawrence family

Sage did a patriotic program at school in March.

Easter came and went right in the middle of trying to move.  Egg Hunt at Grandma’s house, the Easter bunny visiting, and coloring eggs are a few highlights.

We finally finished painting and redoing the floors at the new house so we could move in on the 16th and 17th of April.

Sage Celebrated her 6th birthday.  Because of moving we had her family party at Grandma’s house.  A few weeks later we had a party at our new house with her friends.

Caleb celebrated is 2nd birthday.  All he wanted was rockets and airplanes.  He loved it.

Sage finished up her first year of soccer which we were glad since it is very cold in the Spring.

The twins graduated from preschool in May and Sage graduated from Kindergarten also in May.

Then all our fun summer activities started:

Visiting the baby horses.

Going to the bean museum

Children’s Garden at Thanksgiving Point.  Too cold to play in the water this day.

Feeding the ducks by BYU. There were also ducklings and turtles.

Playing in the Canyon.

Playing in the water at the Children’s Garden at Thanksgiving Point.

Holding hamsters at Grandma’s house.

More water fun in Cedar Hills.

Fourth of July with Abbi and her family and Grandma and Papa.

Baby Abigail arrives and is home just after 24 hours in the hospital.

Grandkid pictures with all 11 grandchildren.  Ages 1 week old to 7 years old.  Craziness!!

Lunch at the counter while Abbi was still in town.  Good thing the counter is so long.

4 Weeks of swimming lessons.  Caleb took lessons during the last two weeks and loved it!

Lots of large spiders found around the outside of the house.  CREEPY!!!

Braxton and Jayden celebrate their 5th birthday.  Fun in the Canyon on their birthday and then a swim party a week later.

That ended the summer fun and then it was on to the start of school.  Sage started 1st grade (cannot find the pictures I took) and the twins started another year of preschool.

Now that you are mostly caught up from here on out will be things that are happening now or pretty recent.

She was born at 5:14pm on July 8th, 2010.

She weighs 8lbs 1oz.

She is 19.5 inches long.

Mom and baby are doing great!