One Month Old

Can you believe it's been a month? Actually, it feels like Justin has been with us forever. We are all so in love with this baby.

(We can't find the card reader so I can't put pictures on right now. I will add them as soon as we find it)

Some things to remember: (for his history)

*Justin is now weighing in at 8lb 6oz and 21 1/2 inches long. This is almost the size of Matthew when he was born. He's still so small.

*He smiled the first week after birth all the time and then stopped for a couple weeks and started smiling again. I love his smile!

* He's starting to lift his head a little. He didn't seem interested in lifting his head until last week.

*He makes very good eye contact now and his eyes don't go cross eyed so much.

* He is getting better control over his hands.

* He likes to be held all the time. It's hard to get much done but I know this time will pass and I will miss it.

* He loves Savannah. She is his second mom. She can calm him almost every time (unless he's really hungry).

*Savannah says his favorite song is "Breathe" by Taylor Swift. She says it calms him every time. She's tried other songs but he prefers this one.

*He's a pretty content, happy baby and cute too : )

Homeschool!!

Our school starts on Monday!! I'm excited to get back to a schedule. I miss those days being all snuggled up reading about whatever we're learning about. I've home schooled my kids for 11 years now (going on 12) and have loved every minute of it. Well........ Maybe not every minute but I'm thankful for what I've learned through the years. I love it when they "get" something. I love it when they start reading. I love it when they have time to pursue their passions. We're ready to go!

This is the first year that Matthew will not be home schooled. He is working on his associates at the high school. He takes the UVU distance ed. classes there and is really enjoying it. He's ready for something else. I'm so thankful for all those years I was able to home school him. I will miss them and it's hard to think that this time is over. I'm also glad that he has the opportunity to further his education. I'm just glad to be here and to watch my kids grow and learn.

This year Savannah will be taking the classes we hold in our houses. We will be doing Marine Biology with dissections, and a Literature class. Our class will be doing a super trip to Sea World and the Ocean. We have a good group going this year. My father, who has a Ph.D. in French and has taught at BYU for 15 years, will be teaching a French class. Savannah is very excited for these classes to start. She will also be taking voice lessons and doing her other classes at home.

Tanner and Brady will be doing most of their school at home. We will be taking is easy for a while until the baby gets bigger. They are taking an art class with my niece once a week and will be doing science, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, with our co-op.

I'm so thankful to live in a country where we can choose our children's education.

Tennage Boys?

Matthew is so easy to get along with. He sweet, good....well I can't say enough about him. BUT lately.....

The other day Matthew wanted to hold the baby. He took the baby and went to rock him in my bed room. I finally had a minute to try and get something done. I think I get 15 min of work done a day now-a-days. I run to the kitchen and try to find the counter (or clean it) before the baby wants me. About 10 minutes later, I hear, " Mom, help!" I panic and think the worse. Has the baby stopped breathing, is he choking, did Matthew drop him on his head? I run to the bedroom to find Matthew with a dirty wipe in one hand and him holding up the baby's legs in the other, baby bum in the air, poop everywhere. "Help, Mom, how do I do this? When I wipe it gets everywhere." After I laughed my head off I thought, hey at least he tried and he'll get better with practice.

Yesterday, I get a call from Matthew telling me that the car is dead and he needs a jump start. Matthew is now taking the college classes at the high school. When I get to the school, I find that Matthew is parked across the street a few feet from a sign that says NO PARKING ANYTIME. I asked him if he noticed the sign and he said he didn't see it until he was ready to go home ( he was feeling pretty sheepish). The car doesn't start so we had to leave it there until hubby can get home from work. Luckily, we never got a ticket. Matthew was sweating it until we got the car that night.

Funny Matthew :) Got to love him.

Catch Up

Wow! It's been a crazy summer. I can't believe it's almost over. This is going to be a very long post about all we've been up to.


Savannah went to girls camp the first week in June



Then Matthew, Savy, their friends, and I went to the home school convention.
We had fun! The kids learned dance, went to ice breakers, motivational speakers, etc. I learned a lot and it help motivate me for this coming school year.

Here's our group of teens that went. The picture is fuzzy but they all look like this.

Patrick took the Brady and Tanner fishing while we went to the home school convention.


Then my brother and his family came up to visit.
We had a party at Rachel's house.

They came to visit at my house.

At the party we played games. Tanner and his cousin looked so cute that I couldn't resist

We swam and relaxed.

Matthew thought he could get on this tube without falling in. He just didn't realize that it would float away from the edge. Lucky for him that his cousin came to the rescue rather then Savy because she would have pushed him in.

We had a barbecue and ate lots of food.


Father and Sons!
The boys love going camping with dad because they get to do what they want. No mom to keep them in line. The other boys were burning insects, starting sticks on fire with no dads in sight. my two younger boys were kind of traumatized by the insect burning.



Starting fires without a match.
Matthew contemplating life.

Tanner waking up.


In June we went on a couple field trips for the Biology class that we had
during the year. Here is the trip to Bridal Veil Falls.

The kids enjoying the water at the falls.

Savannah and a couple friends.

Here we all are inspecting a really cool spider web.


Then we celebrated Father Day!

We gave Patrick a cool seat for him to use on his canoe trip with the YM.


Patrick on his Canoe trip with his scout troop.

They're off!

Then we went camping for a few days with some friends of our's. It was nice and relaxing.

Savy and A getting some rest after a very long raft ride. They got very burned!

Brady getting ready to catch something in the water.

Matthew is getting the coals ready for tinfoil dinners.

The boys taking off to go fishing. I sure hope they don't tip over.

More canoeing.

The kids were playing king of the hill here and pushing each other off. Matthew kept winning the girls so Patrick had to join in and get Matthew.

Matthew enjoying the sunset.

Tanner and his cousin at the 4th of July parade.

One month to go!

My parents and family.

Then we went camping with some other friends. We rented two wave runners and had a blast.

The younger kids loved being pulled behind the wave runners with this tube.

Matthew and Jared. What HUNKS!!

Myra and I getting some food ready.

The knee board rope got stuck in the motor. Luckily, we were able to get it out.

Here we go!! Don't worry, I went really slowly. It was hard because I like to get crazy on these.

These three went out together most of the time.

Savannah got her own tent. In the night it blew over and Savannah was sleeping on the side wall. We didn't hear her but our friends did and put some rocks on the tent to keep it from blowing off again.

Matthew's 16th Birthday Party!
We threw him a big pool party at my sister's house.

They had chicken fights!

They chilled in the jacuzzi.

They ate cake, pizza, fruit, ice cream, and cinnamon rolls.

They played volley Ball.

They also had belly flop contest (the boys did anyway) and kept knocking each other off this tube. It was a fun time for all.


The Liechty camp out!
We didn't camp out this time. I couldn't take another camp out and little did I know that I was going to have the baby 5 days later.

This is a game to see who can pull the other off the rock.

The whole Liechty crew!

Patrick was all tuckered out. We hadn't been home on the weekends for the whole summer.

The kids were all playing in the creek and down came a rattle snake. It got out a few feet before it reached the kids and crawled up the bank. Scary!!

A water fight!

Savy and I are making bracelets.

My Birthday.

Savannah went all out and decorated the house in Hawaiian stuff.

Lovely, Matthew.

They gave me a bunch of key chains in hope that, if I have that many on, I won't loose my keys.

They made me a fruit shake and I had to try and drink it through these glasses that Tanner gave me. It was hard.

Banana Splits with lots of chocolate..YUM!

24th of July
We went to my sister's and swam and did fire works.

Here's my beautiful niece and her friend.

The younger kids love to run around the fire work and make all sorts of noise.
And last but not least Brady's birthday.
Brady chose to go to Jump on it!

Savannah kept jumping over Matthew.

Basketball!

Brady chose Brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Fun stuff! Whew I'm tired.
and then the baby came and life got even more insane.