Maddox Meeting His Brothers and Sister

Sunday my sister brought the kids to the hospital to meet their new baby brother. They all loved taking their turn holding him and looking him over. Gracie was still trying to understand the whole "baby coming out of Mommy's tummy" thing. She wanted to touch him the whole time.

My sister took some pictures of all of us together on the bed. I was already starting to get a little anxious because all the kids kept climbing on the bed and talking at once and then I looked on the camera at the pictures she took of the whole family and I started to freak out a little. I just kept thinking where did all these kids come from and how am I ever going to be a mother to all of them. And how am I going to ever give Gracie enough attention as the baby she's been now that I have another baby who needs just as much attention.

It was a little stressful but they didn't stay long and luckily neither did those feelings. Some how the Lord blesses us to be all we need to be. I'm still not doing a very good job but it will come in time. I feel so blessed to have the children I have in all the different ways they have come to us.

Jace Maddox Howard

Well it's about time I blog about Maddox's birth. I was not going to get induced with this pregnancy until a few things changed my mind. One I was getting miserable but two, I turned 39 weeks on the Sat. of Memorial Day weekend which gave Scott a 3-day weekend off work and made it possible for my sister to come up and take care of my kids while I was in the hospital. So I agreed to get induced again.

We went in Sat. morning September 4th and they got things started around 10:00. My doctor was fairly aggressive with the Pitocin so by about 1:00 I was at a 5 and could finally get my epidural but I was having such strong contractions every minute or so and was in full-blown transition while he was trying to stick my back. I think it took about half an hour to finally get the epidural in and by then I thought I was going to die. That warm tingling feeling slowly going down my body and erasing the pain is the best feeling on earth.

So after the epidural settled in they checked me and I was almost to a 9 so I called my sister who wanted to be there and Missy also and they rushed up thinking we'd have a baby within the hour. However, the epidural slowed me down a bit and so he wasn't born until right before 5:00. He came out with the cord around his neck which we had expected but I pushed him out so quickly that it didn't have time to do any harm.

He came out kicking and screaming but has hardly cried since. He weighed 7lbs 2ozs and was 19 1/2 in. long. He is just beautiful and such a sweet baby. He has the most tender personality already and loves to snuggle and kiss me. I love it! I feel so blessed to have little Maddox in our lives.

Gracie Turns Two!

Gracie's birthday was so fun this year. My brothers Nate and Dana came to town to attend Jackson's football game and her party. Since her birthday was the same day as the game and I was so close to delivering Maddox and couldn't travel all the guys went to Morenci to the game Saturday morning and Gracie and I went shopping with Nana for her birthday.

I decided she needed a new dress and since there aren't many places to shop in this town we went to Stage. I finally found her a dress that was ok but not my favorite. She also got a new purse and some necklaces and Nana got her some new shoes and some paper dolls. She had so much fun shopping and had to wear her jewelry like Mom and Nana and carry her purse too. I was tempted to take her and all go get pedicures but decided I better wait one more year. Can't wait to do fun things like that with her.

Saturday evening the guys got back and we had cake and let her open her presents. She loved all the attention and all the new toys, including a new bike from Mommy and Daddy. It was a pink birthday and she loved it.

First Day of School

This year all three of the boys are in school all day. I can't believe it but I do love it. I have a 5th grader, a 1st grader and a Kindergartener. They were all so excited for their first day of school and had to pose by the front door for the annual pictures.

I hope they have a great year. Jackson has Ms. Allred, Joey has Mrs. Collett and Jake has Mrs. Ullrich. They all like their teachers which is so nice.

Howard cousins

At the end of July Cami and Wendy came to town and Dhanni was baptized. This provided us with an opportunity to get a picture of all the Howard cousins together for the first time in a long time. This is all of them except Wendy's step kids and for the two that Stephanie and I were pregnant with.

Auntie Po and Family Visit

In July my sister, Heather and her family came to visit for the weekend. My kids love playing with her boys. One of the days we went up the mountain to Wet Canyon for a picnic. The kids enjoyed hiking with Brian and then we all enjoyed dipping our feet in the water and playing in the creek. I was pretty big and pregnant at this point so soaking my feet in the cold creek was just what the doctor ordered.

I WANT TO GO TO NANAS!!!!

Gracie loves her nana and loves to go visit her. This morning she had just gotten out of the bath and I had to grab the phone before I could get her dressed. She decided to get herself dressed and go to Nana's on her own. She threw a huge tantrum when I told her she couldn't go.

You'll notice she did put her panties on even though they are around her waist, and she made sure to grab her purse and shoes.

Jake & Scott's Birthdays

Yes, I really am this far behind. In June we celebrated Scott & Jake's birthdays. We were down in Mesa so Jake got to choose to go to Amazing Jake's. He thinks it's named after him. We also had a little Morris family get together at my sister, Heather's. We had skateboard cupcakes at Jake's request and he got the skateboard he'd been begging for for months. I think he enjoyed himself!

Baseball, Baseball & More Baseball!

Baseball is another huge part of our summer and spring around here and also. Jackson starts us off in March playing for Graham County Little League and by the time that is wrapping up when school gets out the Thatcher league is ready to start up and the little boys join him. This was our first year where all three boys were on different teams and Jackson overlapping and playing on two teams at the same time for a few weeks. So a lot of our weeks we were attending 6 games. It was pretty crazy and pretty hot but the boys all love it and that makes it worth doing.

Jackson started pitching this year and developed a great arm. By the time he was finished with Graham County and starting the Thatcher league he had gotten really good. He also got lucky enough to get on Brandon Lunt and Dustin Seale's team and Dustin used to play semi-pro ball and was able to give him some good coaching. His Thatcher team went on to win the league.

His best game was played the night before the championship game where they were trying to win a chance to play for the championship. They were tied up with a team and it ended up in an hour and half of extra innings. Jackson ended up pitching all but one of the 8 innings and also hit the winning run. It was an amazing game. He was so proud when they let him keep the game ball.

Jake excelled at hitting and is going to be a good little ball player and Joey is such a fast runner and did really well too. It was fun to let them play.

Championship Team!