Donut Making

My sister is out visiting for a bit and she brought her trusty sourdough starter along so that we could make donuts. The kiddos convinced her to make a double batch, so we were cutting, rising, frying and glazing all afternoon. I believe we ended up with over a hundred donuts and donut holes to eat. They were delicious, and we may have all eaten until our tummies ached. I sure am grateful to have such a fun sister!

 

Lacombe Tournament

 Today Mike, Joe, Cooper, and I drove Camilla to her basketball tournament in Lacombe.  It was a beautiful early morning drive! Hyrum held down the fort at home with the littles and Gramma and Grampa helped out with meals for the day.

The girls played well, considering they were missing a few of their key players. Camilla ran hard and gave it everything she had, as per usual, and was able to get more baskets than she ever has in a game before. She was recently switched to point guard, and is doing so well! She is good at seeing the whole court and finding her lane.

In between her afternoon games, we took a trip to Red Deer to test drive a Cooper that Mike has had his eye on for a while.

I nursed the baby while the boys took it for a quick spin. They said it was a lot of fun! 

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We come back next week to pick it up!

Slow Friday Mornings

I can tell we've made it to the end of another long week because everyone was moving extra slow this morning. 

The fire was turned on for warmth during our early morning study, and Joe sweetly bounced his baby brother while I made breakfast.

The sunrises have been dreamy this week and I love being able to catch them each morning!

 

A Good Life

When Mike and I were first married, we both knew we wanted a home where I was able to stay with our children each day. This meant a lot of sacrifice over the years as we juggled university, pinched pennies, welcomed new babies into our family, paid off student loans, and established a career that has helped Mike provide for our needs. There is never a day that goes by where I don't feel blessed to be a homemaker thanks to the hard work and efforts my husband puts in each day. Thanks to him, I get to stay home and stare at this sweet mug all day.

When I sent this photo to Mr. Stannix at work, his reply was, "You have a good life, sweetie!" 

I smiled.

These days I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch, staring at this sweet little face. I'm certain he's going through a growth spurt because all this little man wants to do is eat and sleep on repeat all day long. 

I've resigned myself to the fact that nothing else is getting done, so I may as well enjoy it! I do indeed have a good life. I wouldn't change it for the world!

A Place for Everything

Today the house was probably the cleanest its been in a very long time. And since it probably won't be this clean again for a very long time, I decided to snap some pictures to remember my sparkly counter tops and organized living spaces. It's not easy to keep a home spotless when ten people inhabit it. Once, when Camilla cleaned the kitchen to surprise us when we came home, one of the little kids said, "She wouldn't even let us get a glass of water! We had to go over to Gramma and Grampas!" and I totally sympathize. Cleaning can feel so useless sometimes when the cups end up scattered all over the countertop again, and the dishes end up in the sink...again. But it really does feel good when it's all tidied up at the end of a long day!

 

The evening brought us to the highschool for Camilla's basketball game vs Camrose. One of her sweet friends made up a few posters and gave this one to Lily to hold.

Lily is Camilla's loudest cheerer and felt quite proud to hold this poster up for her big sis!

"Go WEBELS!" "Go Camilla!"

It was a tough game and the outcome wasn't quite what everyone wanted. The girls played sooo hard and sooo well!

I think seeing her sweet little sister cheered her heart a little bit after the game!

And Runnin' Runnin'

Cooper finally had a few decent stretches of sleep in a row. After two blowouts and a bunch of feeds, he finally fell asleep around midnight last night. I was only up a few times in the night and woke in my own bed. He woke so close to our normal wake up time that I just snuggled him in with us and nursed him back to sleep. He stayed snuggled in our bed through most of breakfast prep and then cuddled Daddy before he left to take the big kids in early.

We all gathered for Come Follow Me, ate pancakes for breakfast quickly, and then Camilla headed to Seminary and Hyrum went to early morning Jazz rehearsal. I spent the majority of my day nursing, but when I had a few moments I did dishes and tidied up. We have a photographer coming to take pictures of the build for our builder tomorrow so I have been cleaning and tidying and hiding junk all over to make the house look presentable. 

In the late morning I made bread as well as some cookies to bring to the basketball game later. I picked up Camilla and Fin and Ollie and headed to the Catholic school to watch Joe play. Hyrum walked to the school with some friends and met us there. 

I came home on a practically empty tank of gas to have spaghetti for dinner and then we headed back to town to play basketball at the church with the missionaries. Hyrum brought a few friends along (they joined us for dinner too) and they all had a lot of fun together. When they were done, we drove his friends home and prayed we had enough gas to make it back to town. I fueled up, grabbed some snacks for school lunches and finally arrived home shortly before 10pm to locked doors and a quiet house. Cooper was still sleeping in his seat, so I unloaded groceries and helped the older three make ham sandwiches for their lunches in the morning. Camilla will be off to seminary and the two boys have an early morning basketball skills practice at the school. 

The circles under my eyes just keep growing. The running never stops. But we have such good conversations in the car and I love how funny my big kids are! They are so fun to be around and have such great, polite friends. I really am proud of each of them!

Naptime Moments

This morning, after breakfast and before the sun came up, I noticed Joe sitting on the couch with Cooper, the puppy, and his Book of Mormon. 

He decided to kick his Monday off by catching up on some reading, and the scene was too precious not to photograph for later. 

Joe is going to make an incredible dad one day! He has such a big heart and adores his little brother.

The day passed slowly and I spent a lot of time nursing and snuggling. The afternoon brought me another sweet scene as Lily and Cooper briefly napped together. I have a picture of Sawyer and Lily in the same position when she was this tiny that I cherish.

This season is filled with a lot of feed the baby, nap the baby, and watch the baby nap. Productivity (and sleep) is at an all time low, but joy is at an all time high.

Cooper's Blessing Day

Today was Coopers blessing day! The morning went relatively smooth for a Sunday morning, and I was even able to snap a few pictures before leaving the house. The family that we were counting on coming weren't able to make it due to the flu and the birth of a new cousin (I guess those are acceptable reasons), so it ended up being just our crew and Gramma and Grampa! I may have felt a tad sad about that, and the fact that I hadn't had enough time to crochet Cooper a special white blessing blanket, but I tried my best to make it through the day.

He wore the same blessing outfit that all of his older brothers wore, which was pretty special! It was a little bit big for him, but I think he still looked quite handsome in white.

With Daddy in the bishopric, we weren't able to snap a family picture at home, so we got one quickly before going into the chapel (thanks to a sweet friend for snapping it). It's crazy to me how many bodies are in this photo, and how many baby blessings Mr. Stannix has performed for our growing family! They are all getting so big and I am cherishing this time when we are all still living under one roof. Together is my favorite place to be!

As Mike gave our sweet son a name and a blessing, I quickly jotted down as much as I could for Cooper to read later in his life. 

Here is some of what Daddy said in the blessing.

I bless your body that it will grow and perform its functions. I bless your mind as you observe that it will be absorbed and that you will be attentive to all of the blessings in your life. I bless you with compassion and the spirit of discernment. As you recognize the needs of those around you, you will be able to reach out with love. I bless you that you will have a strong relationship with your mother and learn from her humility and faith in Christ. I bless you to be a giver of peace and joy to those around you. I bless you with the knowledge that you are a son of God with an eternal destiny of promise and hope as well as callings of leadership. I bless you with hope and enthusiasm and a zeal to help your fellow men and an energy for the work of the Lord.

How blessed we are to have this boy in our lives. He has already filled our home with immense joy and gladness. It was a beautiful blessing and a wonderful sabbath!