Blessed

This sweet baby boy was blessed on July 1st.  He was given a beautiful blessing by his dad.  Our whole family is so very blessed to have Ellis Graham in our lives and Mark and I look forward to watching him grow into the special man that we know he will be.  

 This blessing outfit was made for Mark when he was a baby by his Grandma Johnson.  All four of my boys have worn it for their blessings.  Thanks to Mark's mom for keeping it in such great shape.  Now that we can retire it till the next generation I am going to put it in a shadow box for safe keeping!

 This baby will smile and talk to anyone who looks at him.  It's the sweetest thing.  

 Is it possible to get a really great picture when you are dealing with 5 kids?!   I sure do love all these kids though! Look how grown up Colb and Cam look.  How is it happening so fast?!

Life right now

 Life at our house is never a dull moment.  Clara makes sure that we are busy every minute of the day.  She loves helping with everything and there is nothing she won't try to do. 

So far she has been pretty sweet with the baby and likes to share her dolls with him and try's to be the mom!  She even bosses Hayden but he doesn't take it as well as Graham does.  Lately Clara has picked out her own clothes, usually a skirt and likes to have her toe nails polished with sparkly polish. 

 This sweet baby boy, who looks like every one of his siblings, is already almost 8 weeks old!  He is a sweet heart and loves all the attention he gets from his brothers and sister.  He is always ready with a big smile and lots of cooing!  We all love it and can't get enough of this sweet boy.  Except for when he is in his car seat in the car and decides that he wants out. He has cried all the way home from Provo more than once.  He is our first baby that really hates being in his car seat.  It does not put him to sleep like most babies. 

I never get tired of watching Clara play with her dolls.  She knows how to be a little girl without me even telling her! She is starting to love skirts and dresses and pink and princesses, and pig tails.  I didn't exactly expect her to act like a boy but since boys are all I've ever had it's all new to watch a little girl play like a little girl.  I love it!  She is going to be so spoiled for the rest of her life!

The last 2 weeks & more

Baby Ellis Graham will be 2 weeks old tomorrow, fastest 2 weeks of my life! (I'm pretty sure I say that every time, but it's always true. The time with a newborn goes by so fast.) He is a sweetheart but is kinda fussy/gassy and hasn't figured out yet that night time is for sleeping and day time is for napping!  I still stare at him and try to figure out who he looks like, it changes everyday but he really doesn't look much like our other kids did as babies.

Hayden and Clara helping mom take a few pictures of baby.  They are dang cute with him and love him lots.

They also love each other lots and are each others best friends.  It may look like she is trying to bite him but she was actually giving him kisses!  She did have him in a pretty good head lock though and didn't want to let him go!

Now for a few pictures from Easter, before baby was born.  These were last minute hurry up and take a picture, but I'm at least glad I have them.  I can't believe how big my kids are getting, especially my older boys.  Who said they could turn into handsome young men?!

The weather has been a little undecided this last week so we take every opportunity to get outside when the warm sun is shinning.  And we eat lots of otter pops too! 
Don't you just love the blossoms on the trees?  I do.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out how I even managed to care for a baby without Clara's help.  She wants to be and is, involved in every single thing that has to do with caring for baby.  So far she has been pretty good with him but is just super involved!  She still calls him "mom's baby" and loves to buckle him in his car seat or the swing.  She does diapers & wipes and baths and burping, you name she can do it.  Why didn't I have her 1st?!  

And why use just one purse when you have 4 or 5? 

 

Taking a nap on the stairs is also something we do around our house.  I guess he was just too tired to make it all the way up! 

And when it's Sunday and you have a craving for chocolate cake what do you do?

You make a chocolate cake (it will have frosting before long).  This is my favorite cake ever and is as easy to make as pancakes. 

One last picture of baby.  He is sooooo darn sweet!  

side note: Clara just walked up and saw this picture and said "OHHHH!!!  SOOO CUTE!"  She is definitely older than her 2 years, she amazes me. 

It's A Boy!

The Davis Family would like to introduce the newest arrival to the family.
Ellis Graham Davis born April 16th
weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 7oz!
He is perfect in every way and is doing so great. 

The delivery was fast and smooth.  Only three hours after getting to the hospital we had baby in our arms.  I'm still in shock at how big he was, totally didn't expect that!

We are having a debate about what to call him.  I want to call him Graham and Mark wants to call him Ellis.  So we'll see what sticks after awhile.  Both are family names from Mark's side of the family so we really can't go wrong with either one. 

I love Clara's face in the picture above.  If the baby could talk he would be saying "Please pray for me, I'm gonna need all the help I can get to survive this big sister!"

Going home. 

At home and wide awake.  I'm sure he is trying to figure out just what this crazy family is all about. 

We couldn't be happier with our sweet baby boy.  I'm still trying to process having 5 kids! 

My 4.....

I'm still in denial that in about 2 weeks "my 4" will become "my 5".

My 5 kids!  With the arrival of this baby only 2 weeks away I have a lot on my mind and on my "to do list". 

Thankfully the biggest things on my list were crossed of this last week with the completion of our basement!  We got the kids all moved down into their new rooms and got upstairs all clean and ready for baby.  It's so great to have doubled the size of our house and have all this new room to spread out.  We really needed it with this new baby coming.  I owe so many thanks to my wonderful husband and his parents for all of their help in getting it done and to my parents who came this past week and helped move and clean.  What would life be without family to make it through? 

I'm feeling very thankful today for all of my many many blessings!  And greatly anticipating the arrival of baby #5. 


Slumber party in the basement on the day that we finally got carpet!  

Basement Family room before......

 Basement family room after.   I thought I had a picture after the carpet was laid but I didn't so I'll have to take one tomorrow and switch it out.  There are still a few detail things to get done but it's livable space now and we are loving it! 

She's 2!

On February 3rd sweet baby sister turned 2!  

She was so excited for her birthday, thanks to Hayden who talked about it everyday for weeks!  He would tell her, "Clara you are going to love your birthday and your presents!"  So Clara went around saying, "My birthday! I love it!"  We had a pretty low key day and just had family over later for cake & ice cream.  Clara pretty much had the happy birthday song memorized and was singing it all day.  I loved shopping for her.  There are so many cute little girl things that I have been waiting soooo long to buy.  I used some self control and kept the presents to just a couple.  Every 2 year old girl needs a new stroller and baby doll on her birthday right?!

 Thanks to this extra special big brother, Clara had a great birthday!  Hayden is her best friend and he really mad her birthday special, even playing with her dolls with her. 

Clara @ 2

-LOVES lipstick, chap stick, & makeup.  Will dig in my pockets just to find my chap stick.

-Has to have a purse or "back pack" every where she goes.  If she forgets hers she MUST have mine.

-Is so sweet to her "dolly's".  Sings to them, rocks them, wraps them up and puts them to bed.

-Talks non stop!  

-Insists on doing everything herself.  "My do it."

-Necklaces and bracelets are becoming necessary, especially on Sunday. 

-Has a nose like a bloodhound and can smell candy from miles away.

-She loves going to her nursery class on Sunday and talks about it all week. "My class, my class at church, my class!"  

-Still the busiest kid we have ever known.  It's amazing the things she gets into in a days time.  There is no rest with her around.  

-Singing and dancing are becoming quite common.

-She is more aware of things going on around her and where things are in our home than all three of her brothers and her dad.  

It's been amazing watching her grow up.  We are amazed everyday at the things she knows and does.  Having a little girl around the house has been such a blessing for all of us.  We are so very lucky to have her!

Eleven Years ago...

Tomorrow, the 30th is this boy's birthday! Can't believe he is already 11. Last week he graduated from Cub Scouts and received his Arrow of Light Award. He is really looking forward to Boy Scouts and all the fun to be had on camp outs and such! To celebrate our birthday Colby is going to ditch school and we're going to go to Provo and do whatever we feel like doing. Which for Colby will probably involve trying to spend all of his birthday money. Since it's my birthday too I think I will at least get to pick where we eat lunch but we'll see! Happy Birthday Colby dude, it's fun to share my birthday with you. We won't mention how old this mom turns tomorrow!

I guess it really is winter

So it's January 21st and we finally got some snow.   The kids had a good time playing in it but were bummed when we realized that the sleds are still in the storage shed!!  Oops!  We haven't needed them until today so didn't even think about it.  They were finally able to use the new snowball toys that they all got for Christmas.

When I was getting Clara ready to go outside I pulled these blue gloves out of the box and gave them to her.  She threw them down and said "Not blue. Cee Cee blue."  Then she went to digging in the box until she found a pink glove!  This little girl really is ALL GIRL!  It's amazing to me to watch, I love it.  (Cee Cee is what Clara calls Hayden)

This is what it looked like around here just a couple of days ago.  We played outside everyday and it was wonderful.  My boys thought that they didn't even need a jacket but Clara didn't have choice.  I can't really say that I missed the snow at all.  If it weren't for the fact that we need the moisture I would really have prayed for the snow to stay away forever.