Happy 1st Birthday Rebecca!

Our beautiful Rebecca Michelle turned 1 year old on April 19th! She is our little Angel Baby and we have felt so extremely blessed to have her in our family. We celebrated with Grandma and Grandpa Lay and the Lay cousins in town. She looked gorgeous in her new pink birthday dress (I know it's a shocker that I didn't put her in purple!) and got many compliments at church on her cute pigtails!

Checking our the new pink duckie from her siblings

More presents!

Pretty Girl

Rebecca's new Giggle Baby. She loves to laugh with this and give it big hugs!

Looking pretty in her dress

Rebecca's First birthday cake

Before the cake

Taking the first bite

It's gettin' good!

Ahh! That was tasty!

Party!

Cleaning up

All clean and playing with the new present

The loot!

What a cute tongue! (And by the way, Mom, I am SO done with pictures!)

To my cousin, Luke Adam Sanburg

I've been thinking about you all day and I can't believe today marks 17 years since you were born. I'm still amazed at how you and I were such kindred spirits from day one despite the nearly 15 year age difference. We just loved each other and had a bond. You were such a cute baby and I begged your mom to let me baby-sit you. Even when I came home visiting from college I told her I needed to get some "Sanburg kid time" in.

I was always impressed with what a little smarty pants you were and what a funny little boy you were too. I will forever remember what positive, negative, and neutral buoyancy are thanks to you. And I remember being shocked when you started explaining how if you have two X's you're a girl and one X and one Y means you're a boy. I didn't learn that until high school!
You made me laugh when you showed off your "8 minute abs" and the story of you getting your head stuck in the rocking chair is still told today.

I remember once when you wanted to share with me what you'd written in your journal. I really loved that. I also remember thinking how you were writing things beyond your 9 years.

My mom told me once about how you told your mom and her the name of the man who held baby Jesus out of a Bible story they were having trouble remembering. You knew it because it came from the Book of Luke! How good you were!

I have wished that I'd seen you more before you left this world, but I was living far away and newly married and having babies of my own. I was taking things in life for granted on some level, I guess. But, as I shared with your parents once, I found comfort in a passage from the book Anne of the Island that I picked up one night around the time of your memorial service. Anne is reunited with an old student whom she loved and it says:

"Paul was almost grown up, too. He was sixteen, his chesnut curls had given place to close-cropped locks, and he was more interested in football than fairies. But the bond between him and his old teacher still held. Kindred spirits alone do not change with changing years."

Kindred spirits alone do not change with changing years. Isn't that beautiful? I know that you still loved me the same way I loved you. I know that is how it remains. What an awesome thing to think of the work you must be doing in heaven now. The Lord needed someone as special as you to do it.

I continue to keep in a drawer the poems that you wrote that I was priveleged to read at your memorial. My favorite is "Where do I fit?" because it shows what a mature, righteous young man you were, again wise beyond your years.

Where do I fit?
Where do I go?
Should I do this?
I just don't know!
I'm good right here
I'm good right there
Where should I be?
Oh, where, where, where?
It's all going forward, and no turning back
I'll go where life leads me and stay on the track.

Thank you for being all you were to me and for meaning so much to your parents and siblings, Aunt Vonnie, and so many others that you touched in your 13 years here. I have missed you these past four years and I so look forward to giving you a great big hug when I see you again. I hope and pray I can raise my own little Luke to be as wonderful as you.

Love, Janet

"Oh, you young mothers...You have no idea!"

These are the words I heard author Dean Hughes say at a Time Out for Women conference that I went to in Spokane a few years ago. He was relating a story from his book of reflections, "All Moms Go to Heaven" and telling us about the summer he spent as a mom in 1973. When he got to the part about having to change his baby boy's cloth diapers the above subject is basically what he said. In his book it's written as, "You young mothers don't know what we used to go through." I am here to say...HOORAY FOR DISPOSABLE DIAPERS!

Rebecca has been struggling with diaper rash recently and a few weeks ago it was really bad. No matter what I did or what remedy I tried it just wasn't clearing up. The expensive diaper rash cream wasn't doing it's job. Letting her little bum "air out" was only resulting in accidents on the carpet. So I tried something I'd done with Samantha before.

Samantha had a horrible case of diaper rash once as a toddler and my mom recommended trying some cloth diapers to let her skin "breathe" a little better. We were visiting Montana at the time and figured anything was worth a shot to help our visit go better. We bought the cloth diapers, put one on Samantha, and then it came time to change her. AAUUUUUUUGGHH! I about died when my mother helped me get my squirmy girl out of the soiled one and then proceeded to tell me that what happens next is taking it over to the toilet and swirling it around in the water to clean it off! WHAT?! You mean you don't just fold it up and get rid of it? You've got to rinse it and flush multiple times to get it all off so you can wash it? Eeeeew. Gross.

Anyway, as you can see by the pictures, Rebecca also got the cloth diaper treatment. I had to remember how to get it on her so it would stay securely and without poking her with the safety pins. She peed through that one in no time and the process was repeated. I had to get the icky diapers into the next wash load I could before they got yuckier than they already were. Not fun.

It helped a little and Rebecca's cute little behind is doing much better thanks to time, perseverence, and plenty of baby powder, which seemed to help the most this time. (Cures always vary for my kids...)

In his book Dean Hughes talks about all this in greater detail. He mentions dealing with the smell of ammonia that builds up from the wet diapers, the times his other kids flushed a soiled diaper down the toilet before he could finish putting a clean one on the baby, having to decide whether to drag all the kids out or not to the clothes line to hang the clean diapers up to dry, forgetting the soiled diaper on the floor before he got it rinsed out and the unfortunate mess that happened as a result, and more. Blech.

So, I'm sorry if it's bad for the environment to use the disposable diapers nowadays and that all the diapers I've used on my kids could stretch to the moon and back hundreds of times. Just the same, it's a beautiful thing now to take care of the diapers "quick and dirty." ;o)

And to all the mothers of the former generation, including my own, bless you for doing that. Sainthood is deserved.



Isn't she adorable?

Capture your most precious moments with Photography by Logan

The other day Luke went down for a nap, Samantha was at school, and Rebecca was in desperate need of a bath. I asked Logan if I should go get the camera so I could take some bath time pictures of her. He said no. I was a little surprised until he told me that he would take some pictures of her. Well, of course. Why didn't I think of that?
I kept my four year old as far away from dropping the camera in the water as I could and let him be the photographer for this session. Rebecca was very cooperative and happy and he managed not to completely miss getting her in the shot. Here's his best work!


(P.S. Don't be alarmed at what looks like a razor hanging within the kids reach. It's just pretend and part of a CARS grooming set with a mirror, shaving cream, gel, shampoo, etc. Logan got it for Christmas!)

2008 -- Year in Review (AKA: All the things I didn't blog about)

Okay, I know it would have made more sense to blog about all these things individually. I realize that. And yet, I still want to share them. I'd intended to get this done around Christmas time for an end of the year report. Hmmmm. It's February, so that didn't happen. And I this point, I don't care! I'm just finishing up what I've been working on and calling it good! So, for me, for you, for whomever cares, here's a few things that have happened to us! (WARNING: Looooooooooong post!)


REBECCA MICHELLE WILKINS IS BORN!
Our fourth child and second daughter was born in Great Falls, Montana on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 10:13 PM. She weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce and was 19 1/2 inches long. We got to the hospital early Friday morning and I was induced around 6:30 AM. So yes, it was a 2 labor, but really not too bad all things considered. We had decided to drive 90 miles to Great Falls from Helena so I could avoid another c-section. The Helena hospital changed its policy on prior c-sections since Luke was born, but thankfully everything went fine and no repeat c-sections required! Besides, Logan (who was the c-section baby) was born 90 miles from where we lived too, so we're old pros at this traveling to have a baby thing.

Rebecca was born at the height of a horrible spring blizzard, so we couldn't get her siblings up to see her in the hospital the next day. They were thrilled to see her when we got home on Monday though. She's been such an easy baby. I so often forget she's even in the room with me and taking her places has been no problem! One of my favorite memories, and I hope it will be Samantha's, is the day Rebecca ended up being Samantha's show and tell in Kindergarten. Rebecca was only about 2 weeks old at the time and I took Samantha to school after lunch because I'd kept her home sick that morning. Samantha ran ahead of me into her classroom and announced, "Everybody! This is my new baby sister!" So I walked Rebecca around the room and showed her to the class. It was fun because I took my baby sister Wendy for show and tell when I was in Kindergarten too.
We have also had fun watching her eyes change. Her siblings all have beautiful brown eyes, but hers look navy blue to me a lot and sometimes gray. Maybe they'll be more hazel than blue, but it's a kick that she's doing her own thing instead of following the pack.


THE LAY FAP
On July 4th through the 7th we had the Dennis and JeNae Lay 40th anniversary party and family reunion, or for short, the Family Anniversary Party, or FAP. (Their anniversary was actually June 7th, but we waited for a while.) It was a fun, memorable, very happy experience. All 7 kids were there. Seven, you wonder? Yes! Because even though you think there's only 6 kids in my family, we have had a French "brother" for 24 years! Cyril Bez came from Bordeaux, France to stay with my family for the month of July in 1984 when I was 7 years old. We lived in Kalispell, Montana at the time. Obviously we've stayed in touch with him ever since and he and his two children, Benjamin and Melodie, came to Montana to see us! It was so great.


Cyril's 15th birthday with us in Kalispell


Cyril's 39th Birthday with us at Gates of the Mountains

On the 4th of July, while most of the family floated the Missouri River, my little family stayed home and got ready to have everyone over to our house for a barbeque in our backyard. (Too bad it was so rainy!) After that, we went out to my parents new home and set off our own little fireworks. Lots of fun.




The next morning Ross took Samantha, Logan, and Luke to ride horses with their cousins at the home of some of my parents' oldest friends, the Lythgoes. My parents set this up because our little French cousin Melodie really loves horses! The kids got to ride a girl horse named Elvis and one named Sassy and they had tons of fun. Don't we live in beautiful country?

That night we had a talent show at my parents' home. It was a kick to see all the fun little things every family did. My mom helped me make puppy dog ears and tails for my kids and we danced to a song called "The Shaggy Dog Cha-Cha-Cha" off an old album Ross and his siblings grew up with. Ross was silly enough to write a haiku about hoping he wouldn't have to move stuff into my parents' new home again. Cyril played drums for almost everyone, including his kids singing the theme song to a show called "The Saddle Club" which is one of Melodie's favorites. I also sang "New Soul" with my sister Wendy, while Cyril and my sister-in-law Celina played the drums and piano for us. My brothers all sang "Hey Jude" at my mom's request and the finale was the six of us singing "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

(This is a picture of Samantha and Melodie watching "The Saddle Club" with French dubbing. I guess Samantha didn't mind not being able to understand it.)

On Sunday, we went to church in Boulder, Montana to the branch where my parents had just started attending since their move. We went back to their home afterward for a "luau" of sorts and had lots of yummy food and pineapple and all the Lays wore leis! We gave my parents their anniversary gift of a wooden rocker bench from all of us and then my sister Wendy took a HUGE (30 people plus 3 on the way plus Cyril and his kids) family picture of us all with her new camera. It was nuts trying to get all the kids to sit still, but worth it. (Just an FYI, Wendy set up the shot and ran to get in it while Chris, a teenager from Holland visiting with my brother Jeff took the picture.)



Doesn't my mom look cute in her hat? ;o)


Not sure, but I think Ross is actually trying to turn Luke's head, not keep him quiet!



Our grand finale was a trip out to The Gates of the Mountains for a ride on the tour boat. I love going there. It was named by Meriwether Lewis on the Lewis and Clark expedition and it's gorgeous. We stopped and had a picnic and a birthday party for my French brother Cyril who was celebrating his 39th birthday with us. It was so fun because he also celebrated his fifteenth birthday with our family. It was so fun to see him and his children. Melodie even started to cry when they went to get on the plane to fly home. What a wonderful bond to have!
It was really fabulous to spend that time together and celebrate 40 happy years for my folks.


THE WILKINS FAMILY REUNION
We also got to celebrate Ernie and Ruth Ann Wilkins' 50th anniversary this year! Even though their actual anniversary date is August 22nd, we celebrated a little early. We left on July 24th for a loooong drive down to Garden Grove, California with the 4 kids in tow. We were so grateful to have loved ones along the way so we didn't have to make the 18+ hour trip all at once or have to pay for hotels. We stayed with my brother Jeff's family on the first night and then traveled to Las Vegas to stay with my sister Wendy. My cousin Michelle and her family were driving up from Cali to Utah and we managed to meet them in Beaver, Utah for all of an hour. Quick, but fun!

Michelle meeting Rebecca Michelle!

Samantha and Logan playing at a splash park in the ever hot Las Vegas.

While we were in Vegas, we decided to go see a couple of movies with Wendy and Mike. So Wendy and I went to "Mamma Mia" while the guys babysat and then went to "The Dark Knight" when we got home. I think that arrangement worked out great for all of us! :o) After a couple days there, we drove to California on Monday and got there around the same time that Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins got back from Grandpa's family reunion in St. Johns, Arizona. We spent a day or so with just them.
My nephew Tyler was visiting ahead of his family's arrival and he was out with Grandpa on Tuesday, July 29th when the Chino Hills 5.4 earthquake happened. He gave the best almost-11-year-old reaction to it when they got back. No worries for him. Just, "Did you guys feel that? That was AWESOME!" I was feeding the baby when it happened and at first I thought that the kids had gotten upstairs and we jumping around up there. Then I realized what was happening and I dashed out of the bedroom to ask Ross what to do. Ross had been watching cartoons with the kids and they had gotten up to find a safe spot the same time I came out, but by that time it was pretty much over. We didn't really even feel aftershocks. That's the only kind of earthquake I want to experience!

Ross and Samantha dancing in the waves

Samantha and Sara

As more family started getting there, the fun cranked up. We went to the beach with Ross's sister Brenda's family on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we were so excited to take the kids to Disneyland for the first time! We expected excitement and running from ride to ride, but when we first got there the kids were just so in awe of it all they just walked around with a mesmerized look on their faces. We kept Luke and Rebecca with us until about 4:00 and then drove back to the grandparents' house and dropped them off. When we got back we rode a few more rides, had dinner, and decided to go on "The Pirates of the Carribean" ride. We were so excited to run into Brenda and her family while we were in line! We knew they were there somewhere, but hadn't seen them yet that day. (They can squish more people into that park than live in all of Helena, after all!) We were so happy to spend the rest of the evening with them since they live in New York state and we hadn't seen them in 3 years. Samantha and Logan were troopers and did well despite how late we were there. They loved watching the "Fantasmic" water and laser show (or as they call it "Mickey's Dream" because they still talk about it ALL the time). Our final fun for the day was waiting in line after 11:00 at night to ride on the "Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage" that the kids had been asking us to take them on all day. Ross's good friend works for Disney Imagineering and helped with the design of that ride, so we didn't want to miss that one no matter how late it was! The park closed and we still took the time to shop on Main Street. I was thrilled to find out that getting the kids' names embroidered on their Mickey and Minnie hats was free because not a lot at Disneyland is! Ross was willing to pay the money for the hats because he said for as many times as he went to Disneyland growing up he always wanted a mouse ears hat and never got one. We also bought our Christmas ornaments for this year at about 12:30 in the morning. So many hours, rides and dollars spent later we went back to Grandma's and Grandpa's and crashed into bed!!!

Giggling with Mickey!


The rest of Ross's 7 siblings showed up on Friday and we all enjoyed a yummy meal of his mom's delicious enchilada casserole and chile relleno! Yum.
Grandma and Grandpa Wilkins with all 21 grandkids!


We got to get a HUGE (37 people and one on the way) family picture at the Newport Beach Temple grounds with everyone on Ross's side. After that I was so excited to go to a little place in San Clemente that I always hear about when we go to California. It's called Pedro's Taco's and it was yummy! We went with Ross's brother Curtis, his brother Blaine and his wife Charity and their kids. It was great!

Me and my April 28th birthday buddy! This is my niece Natalie. Isn't she beautiful?

Ernie and Ruth Ann's 50th anniversary open house was that night at their home in Garden Grove. It was so nice. We got to see a lot of extended family that we don't often see and Ross made his parents a DVD of their life together from pictures his siblings had sent. We also made a coffee table book for them from the same pictures. They both turned out beautifully. All of his siblings worked so hard to make it a special night and I think his parents enjoyed it a lot.

Samantha decided to play chess with some guy she didn't know at the open house!

Logan bonding over a video game with his cousin Evan


Our nephews Joseph and Tyler goofing around with the skateboards

After church the next morning, everyone piled into cars and we drove about 9 hours to a tiny place called Antimony, Utah and spent the rest of the reunion at the Rockin' R Ranch. We were there until Thursday morning and spent the time riding horses, tubing down the river, taking a hay ride, sitting around a campfire, doing archery, learning to line dance and having our own little family rodeo. I have to admit I didn't participate in everything, but a lot of the activities required the kids to be a least 8, so obviously our four kids ages 6 and under didn't qualify. But we made do and had a fun time anyway. We got celebrate our niece Nicole's 13th birthday and we also had a family talent show on our last night there. We did a repeat performance of the "Shaggy Dog Cha-Cha-Cha" and because it was the Wilkins family that grew up dancing to that song, they got an even bigger kick out of it than mine had.
Doing the Shaggy Dog Cha-Cha-Cha!

Luke and his cutie cousin Della

Ross and his hoss

Samantha roping

Ross roping

Logan and Daddy getting tangled in the rope!

Is Uncle Curtis trying to rope a runaway Tyler? :o)

Scowlin' Luke looking adorable in his hat

How Rebecca spent her summer vacation

Logan is ready to ride the sheep!

Samantha doing some Mutton Bustin'!

The Ol' Cowboy

Ross and Janet back from a trail ride (My horse was named Apache just like my favorite horse that my Grandpa Lay had!)

Baby Becca and Aunt Kim hanging out
The morning when almost everyone else had left we were still there and Samantha lost her first tooth! She was excited and so were we. It was her bottom left front tooth. I was grateful to talk to my sisters-in-law Amy and Charity when we showed them. Samantha's top left tooth had been loose since the prior Halloween, but they said they had had kids with loose teeth for 8 months to a year, so it must be genetic. Good to know!
We drove back to Provo, took the kids to Wall-E that night, and finally went home after a very fun 2 weeks away.

Hooray for moments like this

Samantha loses a tooth!

Logan wanted me to take a picture of him too. Nice teeth, buddy!

LOGAN TURNS 4!
Logan was very excited for his birthday and we've been so happy to see him growing. (Well, at least a little. He's our short guy right now!) I had to take Rebecca for a check-up and when I got back home that morning I found myself putting all the kids in the car and picking Samantha up from school to take them all out for lunch at Applebee's! By myself! I'm not sure why I got so adventurous, but we had a blast! All except for the part when I realized that I'd left my purse in my car! I didn't want to pack the whole brood back outside, so I asked two ladies sitting close by to watch my kids while I dashed outside. They were very nice to help me and then they were SUPER nice when I had to ask them to do it again so I could take Logan to the bathroom! When Samantha later announced she had to go I just sent her on her own. (Is that bad?) Logan loved it when the waiters came and sang to him and he got a free shake of his own.
That night we had a party with some of our family in town. Logan got a Lightning McQueen pinata and we played "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". I improvised on his cake and used the Lightning McQueen toy from his cake last year by putting it on chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles and calling him "Dirt Track Lightning". It think it worked and Logan had a very fun day!

Logan thoroughly enjoyed his birthday shake at Applebee's!


HALLOWEEN 2008
This year on October 31st we had a little SuperGirl, Batman, Thomas the Train, and a pink and white bear. All the kids looked adorable! We went to the "Trunk or Treat" at our church and a few other houses and it took until almost Thanksgiving to finish all the candy. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should just let the kids gorge themselves on the candy all at once or continue to drag it out the way I seem to...


THANKSGIVING 2008
We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year. We got to enjoy the day with my brother Russell, his wife Carmen and their kids and also Carmen's brother Micah, his wife Nicole and their son. The food was obviously yummy and it was great to see my little brother being weird by putting cranberry sauce on his mashed potatoes as he's done since he was a kid. We were joined for pie by Carmen's parents and her younger brother, Matthew, his wife, Alyssa, and their son. Her mother brought a homemade huckleberry pie and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven eating it!!! I LOVE HUCKLEBERRIES! I had the kids make little pilgrims' hats out of striped shortbread cookies, frosting and Reese's peanut butter cups. So easy and lots of fun for them. All made for a happy and grateful day.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I usually get excited for Christmas in about July, but I did manage to hold back the Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. We started off our Christmas activities by going to the Nativity scene display out at the valley church. The kids loved looking at (but thankfully not touching!) all of the beautiful creches, many from different countries. I do think their favorite one was the Peanuts characters in the shepherds, wise men, and other roles though. :o)
I helped with Samantha's Christmas party at school this year and loved it. I've never done that before and it made me feel like I was checking off one of my "mom duties" or something. The next day our whole family went to see Samantha in her Christmas program at school and it was wonderful for so many reasons. One of the music teachers there is a lady named Mrs. Berg who has been there since I was in third grade. She can be leading the kids in the actions and playing the piano and motioning the next kids out on stage all at the same time. She's so talented, and even though Samantha hasn't been in her class yet, I'm glad she gets to experience that amazing woman somehow. Samantha also made it all the way through the program without going into sensory overload because of the lights and motion and huge audience and noise. It was such a big triumph for her and we were so happy! It may not seem like a big deal, but it really was.

Samantha is on the second row on the end singing WITH the other kids! Hooray!

Samantha and her teacher Mrs. Dundas

That same night (December 19th) we attended our 3rd Ward Christmas party at church. The sister in our ward who is in charge of the activities committee had seen Rebecca and I in the hallway at the beginning of the month and asked if Ross and I would play Mary and Joseph in the little skit to be put on before the dinner at the party. Ross wasn't there to say no, so I said yes! Okay, so there's four babies in the ward and ours in the only girl, but Rebecca was a great baby Jesus. She's so good. I couldn't help myself and I dressed the other three kids up too as soon as the skit was over. Samantha was an angel and the boys were shepherds. It's already a fun memory and I'm glad I did it even if Ross felt a little silly when I made him prance back into the cultural hall still in costume so that we could get the picture!

Rebecca's first visit with Santa Claus


Our Christmas was wonderful. We had our own little Christmas Eve with the kids at our own home for the first time. First we drove out to the live nativity at our stake center and then we drove around looking at the neighborhood lights. When we got home we read the Christmas story from the Bible and let the kids open up new jammies to wear. Ross surprised me with some purple penguin pajamas that light up too. Then it was bedtime. We don't have a chimney, but a few years ago Ross's sister Kim gave us an awesome "magical" Santa key that we hang on the door so Santa Claus can get in. The kids were excited about that. Santa Claus got some peppermint bark and a glass of milk because we forgot to make cookies and the kids went to sleep.

I know this looks like any old meal, but it's actually our "fancy" Christmas Eve Taco Feast!

The best "Family by the Christmas Tree" pictures we could get this year!

We had a fun morning opening presents and the kids didn't even wake us up too early! Fun toys and clothes were opened and we had a yummy waffle breakfast with huckleberry jam that was in my stocking.

Our cute, scrawny, wonderful Montana Christmas tree


My sister flew in with her family to Helena that morning and so we all drove out to my parents house on a very snowy day and had Christmas dinner there with my brothers Ryan and Ken and their families. We had the traditional Martin's Ham and tons of other good food. It was a great day.

SO THAT'S IT FOR NOW! I now vow to myself never to get this behind on things I want to record again. It's a long shot, but I can dream!