Holy Cow! He's 10 months old!

For Goodness sake, a year ago you could not have convinced me I needed a baby no matter what you did, and I was 7 months pregnant! I really struggled with the reality of having Rowan and I was one unhappy girl for most of the pregnancy. I don't think too many people liked me much then. Even up to the morning he was born I was not ready for a baby. They always say things change in that first moment and that is when you fall in love with your children. It always happened a little different for me, I bonded with my three previous babies when I was carrying them and was prepared for them and excited to meet them when they were born. I loved them before they were born, having them was like icing on the cake, but I already felt I knew these little people. My emotions toward this baby before he was born terrified me, I really feared that I was not going to like this kid. While I was laying in the OR waiting for them to announce the baby had been born (most nerve wracking 20 minutes of my life!) I tried really hard to come to terms in my own head, not sure if that worked, then he was brought around the curtain and showed to me I remember being a little shocked, I had never seen one of my babies so fresh, he was soaking wet still and covered in blood and vernix, the sheet the nurse was holding him in had fallen in his face so I could not see what he really looked like, he was fussing though and he looked really tiny. I knew then he was about the same size as Maddox. It didn't take long for me to feel emotions start to fall into place, the next days and weeks were very different from the other boys and it's been much more of a journey for me to have this little boy in my life.
So, one day Ben and I were sitting there watching Rowan play on the floor and Ben said, "I wonder if Rowan would fit in the sleeping bag box?" I stuck him in the box and he liked it quite a bit, he played in there pretty good for a while.

It worked well as a car or a sled, is that little smile cute or what? He did not get the Sass eyes, those eyes are from my side of the family, not me though, I think they came from Nana ;-)

He stood and waved the flaps back and forth for a while and just laughed, he thought that was the funniest thing ever! This little boy has personality just oozing out of him, he is so hilarious, he's a complete ham and he cheeses everybody up. He is always smiling, but very sensitive and emotional. He is so sweet and he loves to snuggle. He is definitely a handfull and keeps me on my toes way more than any of the older ones did, everything goes in his mouth so I am always doing a finger sweep and pulling various (sometimes really gross) things out. I fell in love with Rowan pretty quickly and have only enjoyed him more and more as he gets older and grows into a toddler. He's certainly made my life more challenging and tested my ability to handle everything going on. He's also made me laugh and brought a lot of joy to our family, he's forced me to take things less seriously and relax. Rowan is the best gift I never knew I wanted. I needed him more than I knew, strangely enough, he has made me a better person. I know all of my kids have changed me in some way and I really do love them all the same amount, but the relationship I have with each one is different and they are all such individual people. They are each amazing in their own right. I am so happy that Heavenly Father blessed me with these wonderful boys.

He finally decided he wanted out and tipped the box over on its side so he could crawl out. I really thought he would be walking by now, guess he REALLY likes to crawl. He is super quick too, makes a Bee line for the back door as soon as he figures out the baby gate is down.

Semester End Celebration

After all our hard work this semester Enny decided that we all needed to relax a little and unwind. So, she set up a party at the Cotton Bowl in Casa Grande. I took Deacon and Rowan to Maggie's house, where she had a babysitter already lined up (and she lives like a mile from the bowling alley) and we met up with Enny. Kerrie came later.

Me, Maggie and Enny. Actually, reverse that order. Kerrie showed up later and Kerri had to be at Drill with her husband. Maggie is single and has 4 kids, all 3 of us are headed for Nursing Programs. Maggie struggled the most this semester with obstacles coming up outside of school. Poor woman had 2 different kids break their arms, a major car accident, flooding throughout her house, legal issues with her grandchild, you name it, Maggie had to deal with it. She is so cool, calm and collected, she never freaked out or fell apart, just kept going. And she still ended the semester with a B! I am telling you, these are amazing women!

This is Enny Bradshaw, she is from Indonesia and is a former model. She had lived in the US for about 3 years and is married to a man from Indonesia as well, she says he is very "Americanized" though. She is a fabulous cook and I think she can make anything. I am surprised she does not weigh more. She brought food to class every single day and I think she ate at least something every time I saw her. She has a ton of energy and she is very sweet, sentimental and caring. Enny is smart as heck, she was the other A in the study group. I cannot imagine trying to go to school in another country with the language barrier. She is not afraid to ask questions though and she makes sure she knows what she is talking about. We had some pretty hilarious incidence of misunderstanding between the 5 of us in study group this semester, there were a few times we ended up in tears from laughing so hard. When I first met her, she told me I could remember how to say her name because it's like "Anytime, Anywhere, Anyplace, Anyone." She adores Rowan, calls him her little "boyfriend," I took the boys with me to several study groups that she attended and she would always scoop up the baby and talk to him and offer him food (she knows how to speak Rowan's language Lol He loves Enny). I am trying to make it to her house one day this week to hang out, maybe tomorrow....

Don't Ask...

After Kerrie G showed up. She had a wake or something like that to attend. She is wearing the necklace I made for her, I ended up having to lengthen hers, I knew it was gona be too short! I am also wearing the one I made one for me, mine has all of their colors on it, the only one I left out was black because it really did not match.

Last Day At CAC!

I can't believe that this day actually came. Unfortunately I was not able to walk away from Central Arizona College with a diploma in hand as I would have preferred, however, my schooling is not complete and will continue in Minneapolis. (I have a hard time writing that out, it makes it too real and it sounds way too much like a fictitious city from a comic book, like "Metropolis") The last day of school for me was last Thursday, May 13th, I had one final to take that day and that was it.

This was after my business final. I seriously considered skipping the thing all together, but somehow, as simple and logical as this class was, even with me getting A's on literally every assignment, the way she did grading I would have gotten a 'B' if I had not taken the final! Don't you love it when there's a catch like that! It took me a total of 25 minutes (50 questions), I went into it without studying at all (woops!) and still got an 84% on it! So, I ended the semester with all A's again!

This is the clock tower that you see as soon as you get on campus, told me every morning if I was late or not. Fortunately, the one place I am very good at getting to on time is school, I did not miss a single class this semester! Can't learn it if you are not there!

I saw commencement set up and couldn't help taking a picture. I wish I had looked into getting a certificate or something at least before leaving the school, I am sure I even had enough credits without taking any more classes. :( I like CAC's logo and their colors are not too horrible. I will miss this school, I started my college education here and I learned a lot about myself sitting in those classrooms. Found out what I am made of and met some really wonderful people.

I had to get a picture of this. This is at the entrance to the campus, when you turn off of Woodruff onto Signal Peak, there is a 'Central Arizona College' sign on either side, one has an LED sign behind it, the other has this Saguaro Cactus. I won't see a single one of these in Minnesota, they only grow in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Five Non-Blondes Exchange Gifts!

This is actually supposed to go at the end of this, but I can never get it to upload pics anywhere but at the top of the post, so sorry! This is the necklace I made for me that matches the other girls. I have all their colors accept the black and I added green for me. Would have done ruby cuz that's my birth stone, but you got any idea how expensive rubies are? Yikes!

So, the story behind this Chemistry study group that I was in this semester. I usually don't do anything school related in groups. I tend to stick to myself, study when I get time and work at Michelle pace, which is a bit scattered and full of multitasking and interruptions. So, after the second Chem exam the girl sitting next to me saw my grade (I got a 103% on that test and at the time I was ranked #1 in the class) and said she was going to drop because she had gotten a 33% on the test. I managed to talk her out of it and convinced her that if she would let me I could help her bring her grade to at least passing, that late in the semester I knew I couldn't get an F to an A but I could probably get her to a B. (I know, cocky of me, huh!) She agreed she would come to study groups and I agreed I would do everything I could to make Chemistry make sense to her. The other 2 members of our lab group had been struggling as well and unbeknownst to me, had been meeting with her to study all semester. They had not asked me because they thought I was antisocial (I felt bad about that but they were right! I was still crabby about the baby then) and they thought my name was Melissa. Our teacher had always referred to me as Tuttle and they had never heard my first name. So, we started that week and met 2, 3, sometimes 4 nights a week. I sometimes took the kids, sometimes didn't. We arranged and paid babysitters, juggled schedules to accomodate, tried to appease men who got mad at us for being gone so much (love you Benny!) and studied our little butts off. I spent hours standing at the white board writing out and balancing equations, asking questions, reinforcing information. We had one test where they all got every single equation worked out perfectly, they missed silly questions, but those equations they had DOWN. It was extremely rewarding for me and helped me to gain back some lost self esteem, I learned a lot about myself and I gained some loyal friends in the process. I will always remember these four strong women! Kerrie Gordon, Kerri Lyons, Enny Bradshaw and Maggie Espinoza. And the woman leading us all, Marilyn Edelman.

About a month ago I decided I needed to do something for these girls to thank them for giving me so much emotionally. They all kept thanking me for doing study group with them (it eventually became mine, I was the one deciding on times and places and dates, sometimes going to the school 4 nights a week to meet someone for chemistry study group) and I kept thanking them for coming. They are all so unique, I wanted to do something that was related to them as individuals, so I asked for birthdays and went from there. What could I do with a birthdate? I could get a sun sign, a birthstone, a birth flower, chinese zodiac, numerology...hmmmm....so, I asked for a favorite color and preferred metal. I was thinking about a collage for each one of them, play to your strengths, right? I came up with the idea for a necklace one day when I put on my "ice" necklace from my Mom. It's got these great fat glass beads that look like partially melted ice cubes, I wear it as a source of strength. Like she's rooting me on in the background. I thought that is what I need to give these girls, confidence in themselves. I used their favorite color, their birthstone (or as close as I could get to it) color and their zodiac sign on the necklace. the large pendant is all 12 of the zodiac signs. That is a nod to me, I am an astrology girl. I wanted it to mean more than just beads on a string, I wanted them to know I thought about what went into it. So top left is Maggie, favorite color is pink and sapphire is her birthstone (that is actually cobalt though, sapphire is EXPENSIVE). Top right is Kerrie G, favorite color is purple, birthstone is torquoise or blue topaz, Bottom left is Kerri L, favorite color is black and her birthstone is yellow topaz, she also prefers gold over silver. Bottom right is Enny, her favorite color is also pink, but yellow and green are also favorites, her birthstone is diamond (she got crystals instead).

This is what each girl got in her gift bag. The frame has their zodiac sign and their purpose written out, their birthstone and what it means, their name and birthdate and their birth flower. I gave them each music that I study to, I chose an album for each girl that was by a band they probably did not own but fit their personality. They all got Lady Gaga because I have been studying to her consistently all semester, Maggie got Beyonce "I Am...Sasha Fierce," Kerrie G. got One Republic "Waking Up," Kerri L. got P!nk "Funhouse," and Enny got Flyleaf "Memento Mori." They all got their necklace, an index card box with a package of index cards in it as well as a little bag of paper clips, a mechanical pencil eraser and mechanical pencil lead. They each got a nametag that said "Hi, my name is Melissa," I gave them each the same kind of mechanical pencil I have so they can have their own "magic pencil" and a sharpie to make notecards with. The little boxes with the bows are baby food containers from Rowan that I cleaned out, they are lined with tissue paper and filled with werther's chocolates or hershey's cookie's and creme kisses.

This one is Kerrie Gordon's. She got one extra gift from me, the Spin Pins. I found them and I love to use them for school and studying and she's the only other girl with long enough hair to need them. She was the one that started all this and worked the hardest for that B!

A close-up of Miss Enny's. She is such a darling girl. She is from Indonesia and she's just amazing. She gave me Tiramisu last night, it's delicious, I am keeping it all for myself! SOOOO GOOD! She's a fabulous cook, she really should go into culinary, the only other person I know who cooks more and better than Enny is my mother and you just can't touch my mom, she's the best cook in the world to me!

This one came out really cool. I was not expecting it to be quite so pretty. I have learned that you trust your gut when it comes to color, let it work with the other colors in the pallet and you will be able to see how to buffer them, hence the silver, the black and white in back and the cream of the roses are really not complimentary and right up close they look awful together, but throw that silver in and they both pop and they look great together. Her necklace surprised me too, it looked really good on her and the colors worked.

This was the gift I got from the 3 girls in my lab group. They made me cry, this was so sweet of them. They were just as thoughtful as I was. Everything in this basket is meant for me to be able to use it only, not for my family! =) I love that. My favorite perfume (that I have not had in 5 years) is in there, there's a $50 gift card for Victoria's Secret (that box is SOOO cool, I'm keeping it!), several different hair products that Maggie is going to teach me how to use (I also get a hair cut), a picture frame and a big mug full of hershey kisses. I also got 2 movie passes from Enny. (Gona take my man to see Iron Man 2, I think). What a great group of women, this really taught me the power that we have and how positive interactions can change your whole outlook! Thanks for believing in me, ladies, and showing me how to believe in myself!

FINALS Week!!!!!

Finally, here we are! Last week of the semester. This is always the weirdest week for me. It's so stressful, there's so much going on, I pull at least one all nighter during the last week, there's all that review and then panic when you realize you don't remember everything! I only have one final, thank goodness. But that does not mean the week has been any less busy or stressful. It's always kind of a bittersweet week for me because I like school so much, I don't mind going or being there, but when I am in school my whole house goes to crap and I have a hard time balancing the kids so it's a relief when the juggling ends. I need a break for a little while, althought I am not really sure that is a break either, sounds like more work...

This is what I look like at 4 a.m. after studying chemistry alone for 6 hours and working out every equation again and again. After all, I promised Mrs. Edelman I would get the other girls in my study group ready for the final even though I don't have to take it. I think I am way too nice! :)

This would be what the table looks like at 4 a.m. after I have been studying chemistry for 6 hours straight. And no, the other stuff on the table is not clutter, everything there came right out of my backpack or the fridge (the redbull). Right there I have 3 different homework assignments, a quiz, my chemistry book, my study guide and the solutions manual. Whew! That's a lot of thinking. That green pancil is known as the "magic pencil" to my study group, Kerri claims it knows all the answers. ;) I wish.

My Mother's Day

I had a pretty good Mother's Day this year, some of the past ones have not been so great. I got chocolate first thing in the morning from my guys and I was planning to go see my Mom as soon as she got out of church (initial plan was to go to church with her but I got all messed up on my assignments with school so I had to catch up before I could leave for her house.) I didn't end up leaving until almost 2:30 p.m. because the kids kept pulling me away from school. I talked to Cambria on the phone before we left then we went to my parents house for a little while and just kind of hung out with them. We got to talk to Marx and Maddox on skype and Cambria's family as well. We saw the fat baby Lydia, she's absolutely adorable and as fat as a baby should be. Apparently she is being pretty nice to her Mama too, which is wonderful. From Mom and Dad's house we went to Travis and Brook's and had dinner with them, watched the Suns game (yes, they won) and then we played the Wii for a while.

Rowan crawled around in the back yard for quite a while, he was delighted with the grass. At one point he had a rock in his mouth, one in his hand and some grass in the other and he was happy as a clam. Little weirdo.

YES!! That is Rowan standing all by himself. This is his favorite trick right now, I really don't like it. As cute as he is, he is way too little to start walking and guess what comes after standing.....

Deacon being his usual, adorable self. Love that little face.

Oh, that little Jack-Jack is so stinking cute! He has the most pinchable cheeks. He's such a fun little boy, it seems like Jack laughs all the time.

Rowan fell asleep snuggling in Daddy's arms. This is incredibly rare, he never falls asleep anywhere but the carseat and his own bed.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....The rest of us were watching Will show us how to play the ski-jump game on the WiiFit that lucky dog, Travis won at the gym.

Will was actually pretty good at it. After watching this game being played by both adults and kids I could see how this video game console could be a real benefit for family activities in this techno-age we live in. Everybody who tried it seemed to have quite a bit of fun and it was fun to watch.

It was great to have Ben there, he usually can't make family gatherings because he has to work. This time we were super close to his work though and he got off right at dinner time. For having such terrible balance, he did pretty well with this game. I love that he's still in his work uniform. :)

Travis and his beautiful wife and kids. That's Brook and Will in back, Jack on Brook's lap, Miss Charly in the middle up front and Travis on the right, trying to ignore me taking his picture.

OK, I admit, this is my favorite picture of the entire night. I love that he is on his toes! He totally got into it! You are the best, Dad! This was so much fun. The other great thing that happened that night was me and my Mom bursting into a rendition of "Oh, Lonely Peas!" at the exact same moment in the middle of dinner. Great Mother's Day!!!! Thanks, guys!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I got Mother's Day cards from Marx and Maddox a few days ago in the mail and I got one from Deacon and Rowan today. It's Deacon and Rowan's on the left, Maddox in the middle and Marx on the right. I am keeping them forever. Absolutely precious and invaluable, those are Maddox's lip prints on the front of his, how cute is that? Marx put a little pile of "M&M's" inside and the front says Happy M & M Day and that's an M & M on the front. :) I sure did get some good little boys. Love those kids.

Baby No Name

So, my sister was due to have her baby on or about April 15, 2010. Marx's birthday is April 5th and there are several other birthday's in our family within the month prior to "Tax Day," I secretly wanted her to have the baby on Marx's birthday (would have made them 9 years apart) but in light of how the last pregnancy and birth went for her I just hoped that she would stay pregnant as long as possible and have a nice big baby who was willing and able to nurse!! Little Molly was a tiny little thing (at least for our family) at just barely over 6 pounds and she had a bit of a rough (that's an UNDERSTATEMENT) start with nursing. She is still teeny but completely capable, she has got to have the fastest hands in the west, she can dismantle an entire room in about 30 seconds flat. Talk about T-R-O-U-B-L-E, that's Molly. She's a darling girl, smart as a whip and I absolutely adore her, she's also always dressed cute as can be. That's why Cambria has the girls, she's so much better with clothes and hair. Ok, I digress....I had study group on Thursday night. When I got home after I checked my email and found this:

Hello everyone---First of all this is not Cambria--If it was Cambria she probably would call everyone instead of write --however due to the limited amount of resources in my back pocket this will have to due---I am writing to let everyone know that Cambria gave birth to our third child ( no name yet) and further to be addressed as "No Name". The birth of No Name was yesterday wednesday at 10:24 pm. No name is female about 21 inches long and weighs a little over 8.5 lbs. No name's birth went well. We decide to have this one at home---(being that the first one was born in the back of a moving vehicle[(no hard feeling about the vehicle nana)], the second one was born half at home and half at the hospital---so this one we decided not to be so adventurous and just stay home) it went well---A midwife from Laberon named Jaylene (not sure if I spelt that right) helped bring No Name into this world. The birth went very smooth and we were very pleased with Jayleen(not sure if I spelled that right either) --No Name seems very healthy and both No Name and Cambria are taking it easy today--trying to spend every waking hour and asleep hour together. Thanks goes to Aunt Jennifer, My mom, Karen and Jaylean (really dont think I spelled that right) and all of you for your support, prayers and kindness. Greg PS. If this message was sent to you by error please disregard and have no ill feeling towards No Name. PPS ---No Name will probably be named Lydia(not sure if I spelled that right either)

Oh my Goodness, that is probably the funniest email I have ever gotten. I was cracking up by the time I finished it. So, I sent him one back telling him I wanted pics and the next day I got these (from Cambria, with an apology that they took so long! I tought 2 days after the baby was born was pretty quick!):

That's the beautiful Molly girl, I think she likes her sister. There was not one of Alan in the bunch but I bet that he is adoring this little (big) baby, he loves to hold Rowan when he comes to visit. He's really good with babies, I think he will be a big help to his Mama.

Baby No Name does not really look like either of her siblings, I think she looks more like a cross between her Mama and Daddy. I see way more of my sister in that baby's face than in the older 2. She looks fantastic, nice and fat and pink. If you saw pics of Molly right after she was born you would understand why I say that, Molls didn't look quite this good when she was born, I hope that means this baby will be a little easier for Cammi. I gota give her Props too, third baby born at home, I am so proud of her, I could never do it! She is an amazing woman! Love you, Cam! Congrats on this beautiful little blessing, you did a great job! I just have one question: How is she nursing?

He is Growing Up WAY Too Fast!

This is Rowan taking his first steps without anyone's help. This is a little scary. Deacon did not even attempt anything like this until he was 11 months old! Rowan is not even 9 months yet. He will be walking long before his is one at this rate!

Caught With His Hand in the Dog Dish

Mr. Rowan is on the move now, he figured out how to crawl a couple weeks ago and he's getting more and more adventurous. I have found him all over the house, he chases the dogs and Deacon wherever they go. It's pretty funny when he's coming after you, you can hear him squeaking the whole time. He does this funny little screech when he wants to get your attention, I think he's immitating Ben whistle at the dogs.

So, one afternoon I went on the hunt for Rowan and found him screeching and having a ball with the dog food bowl.

He just kept doing his thing even after I caught him.

And proceeded to show me just how delicious that dog food is! The funny thing about this is that Deacon was a big fan of the dog food when he started to crawl too and we always found him with pellets of dog food in his mouth. Looks like Rowan thinks it's pretty good too. I am a little more reluctant to let Rowan eat it since I had an English Class where we read Fast Food Nation and I found out what is really in dog food. Yuck, you don't want to eat it, that's why it's DOG FOOD! Hopefully we can end this obsession quickly.

Skull and Crossbones!

Saturday, March 13 was like any other normal Saturday at the Sass house, Ben had just left for work and I sat down at the computer to work on school. I had 3 assignments due today (Sunday the 14th) and I like to get them in the day before the due date, just in case, then I at least have a 24 hour window to panic and still get things in on time. (Can you tell I've been a student for a while?) I sat down and started music which got me thinking about lyrics and I went off on a tangent looking for Breaking Benjamin something or other. So, IE froze. Not totally abnormal, I tried to get to task manager and couldn't get any response whatsoever. Then it started to sound different, like it was trying to think but kept getting stuck. It was almost like the clicking a battery does when you try to start a dead car. Then a black screeen, no warning, no nothing, just dead, all lights off. I sat there for a second wondering what to do. I was in disbelief that I had just watched my reliable computer go blank on me! And then suddenly I realized I had 2000 pictures on there that I had not exported off yet. I just purchased flash drives and transfered 10 gigs worth of music off the hard drive, pics were next, but I had not gotten around to it yet. OH CRAP!!! Maybe this was just the normal crash, that has happened a couple times before, we've restarted, recovered and been no worse for the wear, this would be just like that, right?! RIGHT!!! It certainly HAD to be! I couldn't lose all of Rowan's baby pictures in one shot could I? Oh goodness! What was I gona do? I tried pulling the battery out, (swearing) restarting, (crying) putting in recovery discs, (screaming) everything, (begging for it to work!) worked on it for 2 hours and finally gave in and piled the boys in the car, drove the 45 minutes to San Tan Village and enlisted the help of the Geek Squad. "Big D" took a look at it for me, as soon as he powered it up he said, "The hard drive isn't functioning." Fabulous. I was sure we were looking at dropping $600 to buy a new computer. However, Big D told me he could put a new hard drive in and the computer should be good to go again, that would be $80 instead. Thank Goodness! But at this point there was no way to recover anything we had on it! WAH! I really did lose all my pictures. SO, I went out to my Sugar Daddy (that would be Ben) and got his card and went back and picked up the computer. Deacon was going nuts by this point, he wanted to have some dinner and insisted that we go to In-N-Out Burger (he calls it the Arrow) so we stopped on the way home and spent the next 4 hours after we got home setting the cumputer back up, you forget all the stuff you have on a computer after a while, it's set up and it runs the wa you want to, I'm gona be tweaking for days, it really is like a brand new computer. The one bonus is that it's got about 100 more gigs of memory than it did before. Short story long, the hard drive crashed and we had to replace it. The pics at the top are the burned up hard drive. Big D said he had to give me back everything I originally came in with so I get to keep it, yay. I was surprised how small it is, it's only about 4 inches by 3 inches. All that information in such a small space, it's amazing what we can do with technology. I did lose all my pictures so if anyone has some good ones of my kids send them my way! Lesson learned, back up, back up, back up! My sister even tells me that all the time. Will I ever listen?

For Maddox

Mr. Maddox has been missing his little brother quite a bit lately, so here is a little video for Maddox to be able to see baby Rowan. He just started taking a bath without the liner in the tub, he loves to splash and make a big wet mess, it's pretty cute. We love you, Marx and Maddox. We all miss you tons.

The Rest of Christmas Day

After opening presents from Santa we went to Nana and Papa's house to open more gifts and spend the day with the whole family. Cambria and Greg made it up from Mexico and Travis and Brook were there so we had everybody. It was really fun to have everyone together, and really chaotic. I did a terrible job at taking pictures, we got into the present opening and kinda set the camera off to the side. This is what I did get.

Count them! There are 9 as of right this minute. L to R: Maddox (mine), Molly and Alan (Cambria's) Will holding Jack (both Travis'), Marx holding Rowan (both mine), Charly (Travis') and Deacon (mine). They range in age from 8 3/4 to 6 months. Cambria will add another little girl in April. My parents kept shaking their heads and saying, "I can't believe I have 9 grandkids." They are all modeling the pajamas that Nana made for them, except Charly who simply adores her nightgowns.

Papa waiting for the kids to pass out gifts, Alan looks like he's ready!

Deacon insisted his picture be taken, he was even willing to push the button himself to make it happen .

Gee, I wonder where Deacon gets the cheesy grin! Couldn't possibly be his MOM! He wanted to sit on my lap so bad so he could "say cheese" for Daddy, then he didn't smile! Little stinker! And I look like a goofball but whatever, I was on could 9 cuz I had all my kids with me. I didn't want anything else but Ben did give me a nice pair of sunglasses (you can see them sitting on my head), he said since I managed to keep track of a pair of $10 ones for 3 years I was worthy of an expensive pair (he DID NOT pay the full retail price for them as he knows I would have killed him, thank goodness for Sport Chalet's employee discount and killer clearance sales!). It was a really good Christmas, one I was not expecting to happen at all.

Christmas Morning With Marx and Maddox

I was not planning to have Marx and Maddox for the Christmas holiday since we are broke and have been broke since before the rest of the Nation went broke with us. My Mom was not too happy about them missing Christmas with us since I am supposed to have them for any time they have off school. Finances were not going to allow for me to pay for it though so my wonderful parents flew the boys out about 5 days before Christmas and we were able to celebrate both Christmas and New Year's with them. I appreciate Kris for letting them come since I dragged my feet big time and we didn't get plane tickets till about a week before their flight. We spent most of our time at my parents house since they are in the city closer to everything and we would have been there anyway, but for Christmas Eve we had all the boys at our house in Coolidge. They left out some cookies from the ones we made with Nana and a glass of milk for Santa and they were gone in the morning. (for the record, Marx concluded that Santa must save most of the cookies he gets on Christmas Eve and freezes them so he can eat them throughout the rest of the year and he feeds the milk to the reindeer, otherwise he would get really sick from all that sugar and he would be super fat) There were presents under the tree in the morning and some individual cereal boxes in the tree branches (the tree is the one we bought last year at an after Christmas sale for $7. Not bad for a prelit tree!)

The boys examining the loot Santa left, they all passed out presents together. Both Marx and Maddox can read now so it was fun to let them be the little elves.

Marx was very organized in his gift opening. He was concerned that my gifts to him were wrapped in the same paper Santa used. I had the elves wrap his gifts along with the ones from Santa cuz I didn't have time ;)

Maddox had some interesting shaped gifts, Deacon just had a whole bunch. Marx and Maddox had Christmas in both Arizona and Florida so Santa broke up their gifts a bit. Deacons all came to his house.

Deacon tearing into his new Mack and Lightening McQueen (he adores the movie and got a whole mess of "Cars" stuff.)

We tried things a little different than I have done in the past, each boy opened a gift and then they all opened one at the same time. This was good since Marx and Maddox got some of the same gifts.

Marx got a Nerf Reactor Blaster. This makes more sense if you know the whole reactor blaster story but let's just say that Cambria started it with the Reactor Blaster she gave to Alan one year. Since then both Nana and Papa have aquired them, along with about 20 balls that Nana may or may not know where they are, Deacon got one for his birthday last year and now M & M have them. I think Will might have one too, not sure though. Great toy, BTW, lots of fun and no real risk of injury, plus you can get replacement balls for them and the balls are way more resilient than the goofy nerf darts. The guns are pretty sturdy too, Deacon breaks almost everything and the Reactor Blaster is still in tact.

Maddox with his Reactor Blaster and his transformer Bumble Bee. Once we transformed it out we could not figure out how to get it back to the car shape. I am hoping that Kris could figure it out, he's got a mind and eye for puzzles like that.

Ben helping Deacon open his new tool set. This was way cool, it has a hard hat, goggles and a tool belt! Nothing cuter than a 3 year old in a tool belt.

Rowan with the Woody doll from Papa Brad and sleepers from Grandma Patty. Woody came with a blanket, he also got a musical seahorse and a Johnny Jump Up. I'd say for bein a whole 5 months old he did pretty well!

Deacon really likes the tool set from Grandma.

Rowan loves Woody! Woody has velcro hands so he can hug the baby and he is made of all fabric so he's nice and soft. Rowan loves to chew on the hat brim and Woody's nose.