First 6 weeks & New Blog!

Talmage turned 6 weeks old on Sunday! It's crazy how fast it has gone. He is a cute, good little baby. Everyone says, he looks like a boy. :) That's a good thing. I think some people must have questioned whether he would look like a boy since we have so many girls... I am enjoying Talmage more than I have any of my other babies because I know they only stay little for such a small amount of time. He has started smiling and I just love it. It always makes me happy when I can make him smile. I'm thankful for being blessed with baby Talmage.

We are going to be starting a new blog that is private. I feel I can share more of my personal feelings that way, so this will be the last time I post on this blog. If you would like to keep folllowing us just send me an e-mail at jennifer dot L dot pratt at gmail dot com. If you have any ideas for our new blog address we'd love them!

A Daddy and His Boy

Everyone comments that Talmage looks just like Jared. I don't see it all the time, but the other day I was taking pictures of Talmage. The picture of Talmage on the BYU blanket looks so much like Jared to me. I guess Talmage will be a BYU fanatic too :) Talmage is even wearing a football shirt! Yay for Jared finally having a buddy to watch sports with :)

Talmage being loved

The girls love holding Talmage. Rachel and Amaya probably love it the most. I never really talked about my mom coming up to help after Talmage was born, but she was a great help and I'm so thankful for her. It was really fun being able to spend a week with Grandma Smith at the house. Thanks again for coming up. We love you Grandma!

Exercising with 5 kids

My family is doing our own version of the Biggest Loser in order to lose weight for my sisters upcoming wedding. I like working out anyway, but that gives me more of an incentive to exercise right now. Yesterday I exercised to a video. This is what the kids were doing while I was exercising: Madeline was working out with me. I was impressed that she was able to do the v-sit. She stuck with it for most of the time. Aliza laid on the couch and fell asleep. Rachel held Talmage and did a great job. Amaya laid on the boppy and watched us. It was fun and worked out surprisingly well.

Kingergarten Graduates!

Last Monday Madeline finished her last assignments for Kindergarten! What an exciting day for both of us! Probaby more for me than her :) I told her when she finished all her school work we would have a celebration, which included a family dinner at McDonalds and a Cupcake Cake. She was so excited about the cupcake cake and talked about it all week leading up to finishing school. She kept coming up to me and telling me the colors she wanted her cake to be. (It actually was different than what she wanted, but she was still happy) On Tuesday we had our McDonalds dinner because it was half price night for happy meals. The girls chose toys over lots of food, much to Jared's dismay :) but the toys were cute and the girls were all so happy. That night I was suppose to go to a Relief Society Activity for our church at 7:00 but we got home from McDonalds and I didn't really have time to frost the cake. The girls REALLY wanted to have the cake that night though. I decided it was more important to quickly frost the cake, and I'm really glad I did. It was a horrible frosting job, but Madeline didn't notice and was just so happy. It made me happy.

Whew! I'm glad we're done with home schooling for now. Notice the plural in the heading- Graduates- I feel like I've graduated from teaching! Whoo!! :) It was a good experience. I'm glad we did it, but we do plan on having the girls go to public schools next year. It was very nice having Madeline home for one extra year. It was fun seeing her learn and grow. I think homeschooling has good things about it and I am nervous to send our kids to public school, but I also don't know if I would do a very good job being totally in charge of teaching my children with 5 kids.

Talmage and Family Photos

While we were at the hospital a lady came in and took "complimentary" pictures. She said she could take pictures of whoever was in the room. It was just Talmage and I, but I told her that my family would be there soon, so she said she'd just come back later. She did a great job taking pictures. It was really fun. The lady said she had never had so many kids in a picture before. She also said it was one of her favorite photo shoots ever. I wonder if she says that to everyone :) Well anyway, the pictures turned out great. Unfortunately we don't really get any for free, but that's okay.

Baby Talmage is here!!

We finally have a REAL BOY!!! :) Talmage was born on Sunday night at 7:09. He weighed 6 lbs 8 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He has a pretty good amount of strawberry blond hair. The girls all had fun holding him, but I think Rachel is in love. She wants to hold him every second she can. It's so sweet. We're excited to have 5 kids. Yikes! Jared is already dreaming up all the sports Talmage can be in :)

Rachel and her clothes

 

Rachel knows what she wants :) She is very particular about the clothes she wears. She has 2 pairs of purple legging/pants that she will wear, and numerous skirts. She hates pants. Good thing it's starting to be nice outside. All winter long she managed to wear a skirt or dress, I just made her wear thick tights or her favorite pants with the outfit. I had to laugh one day when she came out dressed like this. Hello 80's. She hardly ever matches, but I've gotten to the point where I say, well, I guess it's okay as long as she's warm. She is full of spunk and so much fun to have around. I can't believe she is so particular with her clothes at 3... Yikes! :) Oh, and if you notice her shoes, those are a special thing in and of themselves :) I got them at a garage sale, Rachel was actually with me, last year for 50 cents. She has worn them almost every day since and many times without socks. They stink :) That's another reason it's good it's spring- flip flops and no socks :) I'm sure Rachel's sparkly white shoes will stay her favorite for as long as she fits into them.

Fruitloop Necklaces & General Conference

 
 

During conference weekend I tried to have activities planned for the kids to do during General Conference to keep them quiet and occupied. It actually worked really well. I think fruit loop necklaces were one of their favorites. Madeline made a rainbow pattern, Rachel worked very hard on hers for at least 30 minutes, and Aliza (and Amaya)enjoyed eating the fruitloops. Aliza wasn't quite patient enough to make one :) I also had church coloring pages for them and a bingo game too. Conference was so nice this year. It was especially nice that the kids are getting older and weren't as much of a distraction. I'm excited to listen to the talks again. I'm glad we have living prophets to guide us.

Friend Collage

 

Matching Friend Pictures

One of my best friends, Tristan, and I made matching skirts and flower bows for our girls and then took pictures of them. The girls LOVE wearing skirts. I've tried to hold off as long as possible during the winter, so thank heavens it's starting to get nice :) It's amazing I actually got one of all of them looking! Trinity, Izzy, and Tilly are some of my girls best friends too, so we all love hanging out! We're definitely going to miss them when we move!

The Bun is Almost Done!

Madeline took this picture of me a week and a half ago. Baby boy #1 should be here soon and we're all so excited!!

Happy Birthday Amaya!

I always let the kids lick the bowl of batter for their birthday cake. Amaya was nice to share with everyone. Usually the other kids do not share :)

It's hard to believe that Amaya is already 2 years old!! She is getting so big. She is so much fun to have in our family. She is at a really fun stage right now. She repeats everything everyone says. In the morning the girls like to lay in bed with me and have me tell them stories from when I was a little girl. Amaya has started saying, "little girl" and waiting to hear a story. She also loves one of Madeline's school books called "Cows in the Kitchen". Frequently I will hear her saying different parts of the story, "ducks in the dishes, quack quack quack". It makes me smile.
She also likes to run around in circles in the kitchen saying, "clap your hands, clap your hands" while clapping her hands. I think that is one of my favorite things.
She is definitely the most cuddly out of our kids. She loves sitting on my lap. Jared says she can hold her own with her sisters though. She isn't usually bullied around too much, which I guess could be a good thing :)
We love our little Amaya. Soon she'll be a big sister!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I saw this fun idea for rainbow pancakes on the blogosphere the other day and thought it was the perfect dinner for us. My kids don't know that pancakes are suppose to be for breakfast :) One day I asked Madeline if she wanted pancakes for breakfast and she laughed and said, "Pancakes aren't for breakfast Mom". Haha I don't think I've ever served them pancakes at breakfast, so anyway. The pancakes were a huge hit (just use food coloring). I also made scrambled eggs for the "golden treasure". I was planning on making a green smoothie using spinach, but didn't get around to it.

I've always really liked St. Patricks Day, and I really like the rainbow theme. I think I started a new tradition :)