Christmas Food Court Flash Mob Video

Really neat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Floresville Trip Take 2

Down at the creek fishing....

Swimming.....

and shooting.....

Card headed out on his first hunting trip with PawPaw...

Katie also went

Headed out.....

Jay stayed with us and took a nice nap on Aunt Yvonne's very comfortable couch..


Jack in Uncle Charlie's boots and the gun PawPaw gave him - he is ready to go next year :)

Katie's Haircut

Before

After....

Kiddos

JayBird - this is what Katie calls "moon eyes"

Thomas enjoying his first time in the walker


Shear Fun

For anyone who might question me when I say that Jack really enjoys his veggies :)

Thomas in his seat

And Now...

A baby moment...

This happy little chunk of love is such a blessing to our home - I cannot imagine life without him!

Jack and Thomas

Jay helping Katie make bread

Jay taking mulch to the new piglets.. I will have to post pictures soon

Bella reading

Katie just entered this picture into a photo contest - wish her luck :)

Jack's 4th Birthday

Our little Jack Jack (aka - Jacky Alpaca, Jackie, and Monkey boy!) on the morning of his 4th birthday. He wanted cereal for his breakfast and since they don't get that very often it was a treat for everyone.
For dinner that night we had our friends Caroline and Daniel visit. Jack wanted spaghetti for dinner and he had a gluten free chocolate pound cake and ice cream for dessert.

Blowing out all 4 candles!

This was actually the morning after Card's birthday.

Since we had a few extra kids (Ezra, Daniel and Hannah) I made a special breakfast.

These are homemade donuts and fruit. The donuts did not turn out as I expected and Hannah mentioned that maybe the reason donuts have holes is so they can cook on the inside - who would have thought that! Does anyone know if that is why? These did not cook all the way through but were burning on the outside.

Card's 7th Birthday

Well , another year has gone by in the life of Richard "Card" William Boytim - he is now the expert 7 year old (as compared to the "know everything" 6 year old he was a few mere days ago..). We had some friends over to eat dinner with us - the Allison Family, Ezra and Hannah Barrett (though Hannah was here as another girl for Katie to visit with in an amongst the boys!), Daniel and Caroline, Dad-Dad, Mom-Mom, and Little Mom-Mom. Card chose pizza for his birthday dinner and Katie and Hannah made all the pizza's that afternoon while Mommy took a nap - sweet girls!

Lewis, Card, Ezra, Jack and Jay making ice cream

Everyone swinging - I think they played "duck, duck, goose" after this :)


Hannah made Card this beautiful cake for his birthday gift. He wanted me to make something like this but I don't think I would have had the patience :)

It was so cute I hated to cut into it - I actually did not cut it, I made Hannah do it!

Excuse the "frosty" looking M&M's, they were not old candy but were cold from the fridge :)

Dad's Project...

Quick Update

Little Thomas is the best baby! He nurses great - he is over 17 lbs now :)
He sleeps all night - goes to bed around 9pm and wakes around 4:30am (usually Will is getting up then and I think that wakes him and he is HUNGRY!) and then falls back asleep after eating. He usually wakes around 8am and eats again and then stays awake for a bit cooing at us. Then he takes a LONG morning nap - sometimes not waking until 12 or 1 - we get a lot done in that time. Then he eats again while Katie makes our lunch, everyone eats and it is nap time. Thomas is up with me for about an hour while the other little ones are down and then he and I go in around 2pm and take a little nap. Up again at 3pm with everyone else and we just do dinner prep, snacks, etc...
He eats again around 5pm (he usually snacks at 2pm when we go nap). He eats a good meal at 8pm and likes to nurse again at 9pm when I lay him down, but not a full nursing... just likes to be by Mommy really.
So are days just kind of roll by - he is so cute and easy - all the kids adore him. What a blessing he is to all of us - thank you Lord!

Nanny with Thomas - This is my grandmother, so Thomas' great-grandmother

Jay, Bella, Jack and Card pose for a quick picture before digging in - ignore the construction zone behind them... we are working on that.

Been a long time

Quick update on the homefront! I will post more soon I hope!

The kids got these matching shirts from the Whitehills - they always buy them matching shirts when a new baby comes - right after this shirt everyone went to church and then the shirts came right off and got put away :)
You will probably see them again in Christmas pictures!

Little Thomas is growing SO FAST! He is almost always smiling and cooing - really he is. He is the smilingist baby I think I have every had

He does get kinda serious at bath time - but he really loves it and smiles after I am done washing his hair.


Three of my boys - they love their little brother



and it RAINED in our part of Texas! For like 3 days straight!! YES!!

It's a......

BOY!!!

Thomas Jackson Boytim was born at home on May 13th, 2011. What a birthday gift for his oldest sister Katie, who turned 13 on the 13th!!
Thomas weighed 10 lbs and was 22 inches long... I will post the birthstory at the bottom, for those that don't want to read it but would like to see the pictures :)
p.s. - there are no "birth" pictures :)

Very first picture - just a few minutes after coming into the world!

With midwife Diana - notice his hat..it does not fit. None of the baby hats I had fit the boys head - he just had to do without :)

Katie's birthday cake. The Allision family was over for Katie's birthday (and turns out Thomas' birthday too!) I even got to come out to sing happy birthday and visit for a bit.

Katie and Bella waiting to eat cake


Katie greets her birthday buddy the next morning

he is a happy boy

Katie and Jay check out their baby brother

Jack wants to hold him all the time!

Jay too!

Bella likes to get in on the action just as much as anyone else - this boy is going to be LOVED!

and Card - he is REALLY enjoying having another little brother. He really likes having five boys in the family and only three girls...

Sweet brother love

and now - short birth story... just skip if you don't like to read them.....

Even though I was purposely trying "not" to have the baby on Friday (Katie asked me not to have the baby on her birthday because she was really looking forward to her dinner with the Allison family). I woke up around 4am with some back aches and kept waking up about every 15 minutes just uncomfortable. I finally got up at 5:30am and read my Bible a bit and then started Katie's birthday breakfast. During my Bible reading the contractions were every 9 minutes and about a minute long. While I was up cooking they were every 5 minutes but only lasting about 30 seconds. Will got up around 7am and decided to call Paula (he gets anxious about having her here - worries I will deliver with just him here). Katie got up around 8am and we told her the "bad" news - she was sad until I told here there was no reason the Allisions could not still come for dinner - we would have a baby by then - she was more excited then. Paula got here just in time to have breakfast with us (Katie got bacon, sausage, biscuits, gravy and eggs for her breakfast). Paula checked me and was 5 centimeters but still very thick cervix - so she said it would probably be today. I started walking around some more and even took some herbal "Start-up" to keep things going. The contractions were never really regular - I kept worrying that it was stopping. I would have good contractions every 4 minutes apart and then they would just stop. Paula said I was talking myself out of being in labor - every time they would get regular I would "panic" and think "there is no going back now!" and they would stop. Paula finally took Katie to town to get her a birthday gift (she was really leaving so things would start going - having her here was stressing me a bit...). She got Katie a very cute hamster...

She was only gone for about an hour but contractions picked up and when she got back I was at a 7. I got in the water - though I was not really uncomfortable yet, but the contractions stopped in the water. I got out again and went out in the living room and had 4 really good contractions in the rocking chair (my great grandmother's rocking chair - I wonder if she ever labored in that chair...) and then went back into the water. I was in the water about an hour and my water broke. I had no urge to push, which worried me - I have always (last 4 births) had my water break, next contraction a head was out and next contraction a baby was born. I was scared he was stuck. Thinking back, it probably would have been better if I would not have known in advance that he was a big baby - I really feared through the whole labor that he would be too big and get stuck. Paula checked me and I was a 9 and had a cervical lip. She said to wait to push... I finally had the urge to push a few minutes later but it took a good 3 or 4 pushes for his head - that worried me too because I have always been a one push girl :)

then the body came and I just kept saying "I am so glad you are here, I am so glad I am done!".

There was a true knot in the cord - meaning at some point he had tied a knot in the cord and there was a good possibility at any time that the knot could have gotten too tight in the uterus and he would have cut off his oxygen supply - the midwives kept saying he was a miracle baby - true knots are not very common... Even though he was almost 3 weeks past due date, he was covered in vernix. The midwife said that was seen a lot in babies whose mothers had blood sugar issues (that would be ME!).

So Thomas is here and nursing well :)

Thank the Lord for another beautiful little one (or... beautiful big one...) :)