Padme's Birthday Fun

We celebrated Padme's birthday on Friday, as hubby had that day off. We went to Colorado Springs and went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It is one of the nicest zoo's we have been to. We liked it much better than the Denver Zoo. The Denver Zoo is much bigger and sunnier, and hotter! We have been to the Denver Zoo three different times and it has always been hot and the animals are all sleeping. Not very exciting! The Cheyenne Zoo is very hilly and shady and although it was warm, it wasn't too hot and the animals were all up and busy. We had a great time. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Checking out the gorillas. Yoda was interested in them, too.

Checking out a tiger.

The kids got to pet a rare albino wallaby baby.

Goofing off with the grizzly statue.

Baby wearing his sister's new glasses.


Padme feeding a giraffe a cracker. She loved the purple tongue!


Posing by a giraffe statue.


Back at home, the party was started with a few presents. This one is from my parents. She loved it!
Yoda and Padme both love her new ball. I love the expression on her face!


A new stuffed puppy.

Her birthday cake.

She had a fun birthday and we all had a wonderful day. Happy Birthday, Padme! We love you!

Happy 5th Birthday, Padme

Our last summer birthday has arrived, and it belongs to Padme. Padme had the most dramatic entrance into the world of any of our children. God had his hand on her, and we are so blessed that she is alive and healthy and 5 years old today.


When Padme was born, she had an APGAR of 2. She didn't make a sound. She was in distress and they took her to the NICU. I got a brief look at my silent baby, and then she was gone. Hubby went with her. When he came back to see me, I was feeling very poorly. I had lots of pain, was lightheaded, and nauseated. They found out early the next day that I had a blood clot in my lungs, a pulmonary emboli, which are deadly, and later in the week that I had bled internally.

Padme was in distress, needed an oxygen tent, and all kinds of other equipment. They weren't sure what had happened to her, and they never really figured it out. We didn't get to hold her or feed her until she was 2 days old, and she just gradually got better and they discharged her when she was 6 days old. I think that God healed her. The pediatrician said we would know if there was any damage to her brain as she developed. Here is how she looked the first day. She also had an IV in her head that doesn't show up in the pictures.

Here she is at 3 1/2 weeks.

Her first Christmas

At her first birthday

She hit every developmental milestone right on time, although she was a bit of a slow talker. The doctor said it was because her siblings doted on her and never let her have a say in anything. Well, as soon as he said she should be talking more, all the kids ganged up on her saying, "Padme, say this and Padme say that," and pretty soon she was talking up a storm. And she is never quiet now. Ever.

Two years old

Three years old

Four years old

Padme is the feistiest of all our kids, combined. She is stronger willed, altho not a classical "Strong willed child". She is not of afraid of her teenage brothers and never has been. She stands right up to all of their 6 foot plus height and bosses them around. She is a go getter who loves her family, her baby brother, animals, reading books and snuggling. She has her own agenda every day, which never includes taking a nap. She has taken a nap almost every day of her life, and every day is surprised and angered when nap time arrives. I told her today that when she is 6 she can stop taking naps. Boy, was she excited to hear that!

My mom has always said that if Padme was quiet and withdrawn, we would always be wondering if she was OK: if she had any residual affects from her birth. She makes it perfectly clear that she is strong and healthy and just the way God made her. And we couldn't love her more!

Yoda's birthday in pictures

Yoda had a great birthday. Actually, he had a nice day, and his siblings had a great day, especially the younger ones. They have been so excited all day long. We are going to VBS this week, so here is a picture of him right before we were leaving the house this morning.

For dinner, he got his favorite spaghetti. This is the first picture we have gotten that show his top teeth coming in. They are not the middle teeth, but the ones next to the middle. Obi got his teeth in the same way. We called him Fang for awhile.

Yoda loved opening presents. He loves paper, so it was perfect for him.

Showing off his standing skills. I love how his toes are curled into the floor!

We have a tradition that our kids get their own first birthday cake to dig into how ever they want. Then we have another cake for the rest of the family. Here is Yoda with the family cake. He got a hold of it already! He grabbed Pooh's right hand just before this picture.

This is the cake he gets to dig into. He didn't know what to think of the candle.

He really liked the frosting.

He didn't like the feel of the cake on his hands as well as the frosting. He was digging in and then shaking his hands to get it off. Cake was flying!

And here, he was done. Off to the tub he went. I think he has done the best job of really digging into the cake of all of our kids. We had fun watching him.

Happy Birthday, Yoda! We love you!

Happy 1st Birthday, Yoda

Today is my baby's first birthday. I really can't believe it. He has four teeth, has finally decided that food is good to eat, although he still likes paper a lot. He is taking up to 10 steps on his own, loves balls, and water. He loves being outside and watching his siblings play. He doesn't say any real words. He sort of says Momma, but not regularly and he doesn't exactly call me that. He waves bye bye and very rarely gives kisses. He is still a bit of a cryer, a poor sleeper, and human Klingon, but we LOVE him so much. I can't imagine our lives without him. Here are a few pictures to highlight his first year.


With his big sister while in the hospital.

3 weeks old

First smiles

Christmas picture

First Christmas

Sitting alone

First food- not too impressed

Shirt his brother picked out

Sister reading to him

First Easter eggs

Swinging at the park

Trying to crawl

Likes to stand up

Fun with sister

Decided that food is good, especially speghetti!

Funny guy

Likes watermelon

Birthday Pictures

Here are the boys ready to leave for Elitch's. Notice that younger brother is now taller brother? Everyone except Han, of course, was very excited about that, for Obi's sake. Obi has grown four inches since Jan. He is hoping he isn't done. Han is hoping that he is.



We have a tradition of making homemade ice cream for the kids' birthdays. With birthdays a day apart, I try to do two different cakes for Han and Obi. This year I tried a homemade ice cream cake. I have thought about this for years. How simple it would be. Sounds simple. I put it in a springboard cake pan, and when I went to put it into the freezer, the spring part kicked in, and my runny ice cream started running all over. It was a bit horrifying. Leia helped me, we salvaged as much as we could, slopped it into a real cake pan, added more of all the ingredients, and into the freezer it went. The boys all declared it the best ice cream cake ever. But it was too ugly for a picture. Here is a picture of Han eating it, though.







Here is Obi with the second cake. However, I put their real names on the cake, so Obi is covering up the names with his hand. But is was such a good picture of Obi, I had to include it.





Obi with his new MP3 player. The boys like to listen to some music on them, but use them primarily to listen to books on tape.



Han, with his very interested helpers, with a Redwall book on CD.

Han is a huge John Wayne fan. My parents gave him this book after he has about worn out theirs whenever he is at their house.

His new dart board

Obi's compound bow. He is demonstrating his shooting form.

I took the boys to a local musical production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. The boys knew 7 or 8 homeschoolers in it, so we thought it would be fun to go. It was a fabulous production and we were so impressed with all the performers. We had lots of fun and really enjoyed the show.

Overall, the boys had two very nice days and made good memories of their birthdays. We are very thankful for both of them and the joy they bring to us. Thank you Lord, for blessing us with them.