Coming Home

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when my doctor came to check on me. After asking how I was doing he asked if I wanted to go home. I excitedly replied, "I'd love to." He told me I was doing really well so I could go home anytime. That was around 10:30 and everyone else was at church so I knew I would have to wait until after church but I was so excited. Originally I was told I wouldn't be able to come home until tomorrow sometime. I called Joel to let him know he could come and get me after church. It was fun to bring Joshua home to the family. The kids were so excited to have him home. They had made signs and hung them around the house welcoming Joshua home. Thomas and Spring also cleaned their bedroom, Sammy and Mary's room, and the bathroom for me as a surprise. It feels so good to be home again. Thomas and Spring want to hold Joshua all the time. They love being able to burp him. Sammy was trying to feed him pancakes at dinner and apples later in the evening. We told him that Joshua couldn't eat those foods. Sammy responded, "Him not like milk. Him hungry. My baby brother wants pancakes."

Hospital Visitors

It was fun to have the kids come and see Joshua at the hospital. Joel brought them to meet their little brother about 10 hours after he was born. They were so happy and excited. Thomas and Spring are so wonderful with him. Sammy keeps calling him, "My baby brother." He wants to always be around him. We have been surprised how soft and gentle he is with him. Mary isn't quite sure what to think of him but she likes to be near him all the time. She likes pointing out his eyes, nose, etc.

We were also fortunate to have Joel's parents come to later in the evening as well. They came to the hospital with the kids and Joel in the evening to see us. It was a big party in our room! The kids are excited that Joel's mom is going to stay with us for a couple days because of the fact that I had a C-section with Joshua. I am not supposed to lift anything heavier than Joshua for at least 4 weeks and there are some other restrictions as well. We will see how well I do at obeying all these restrictions! :)

Joshua Earl Biggs

Joshua was born on this morning at 12:06am. We are excited to have him finally here with us. He weighs 8 lbs 1 ounce and he is 19.5 inches long.

Thomas' Newest Piano Pieces

Thomas is still loving the piano. We were really blessed to find him another piano teacher when we moved here. She is continuing to encourage him and give him the challenge that he so wants. He is constantly playing and learning new songs. Last Friday he asked me if I could print the sheet music for "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" so he could learn that song. So, he started to teach himself that song. I recorded him this morning. He still has a ways to go but he is making quick progress with it. Spring loves to dance around in the background whenever he plays the piano.

He has also been working on "Minuet in G" by Bach so I also took a video of him playing this as well. Now he is working on "Minuet in G" by Beethoven.

Company Picnic

Joel's company had their annual family picnic yesterday. It was held at Adventure Park in Hanford. It was nice that it was only about 15 minutes away. The entire park was open and all the games, rides, and attractions were free of charge. They also provided a BBQ lunch and ice cream. We had a great time and it was nice to meet some of the people Joel works with to put faces to the names he tells me.

We played a round of miniature golf when we first arrived. The kids all loved this. Sammy would hit the ball and then he would raise his hands above his head and say, "Yea Sammy" and go around giving high fives. Mary loved walking around the course and was so enthralled by the water features. We were sure she was going to just jump in at some point. Thomas really did quite well with the game as well. He got a little frustrated that we weren't real formal in the game so we told him one time he and dad could go miniature golfing just by themselves. Joel also took Spring and Thomas on the race cars. Spring said this was her very favorite part! She loved the speed. Thomas really enjoyed the bumper boats and enjoyed spraying those of us watching him. There was also a fun bounce house that Spring and Sammy loved. They also got to play some of the racing video games which they loved because we never spend money on arcade games. We all had a great day together as a family and came home tired.

Happy Birthday Joel

We were able to celebrate Joel's birthday today. The kids were really excited for him to get home from work. When they saw the car pulling into the driveway they ran and hid in their bedroom. As soon as Joel walked into the house they ran out yelling "Happy Birthday, Daddy!" and smothered him in hugs. Joel requested french toast and watermelon for his birthday dinner. Again, the kids were very excited about this request...they love breakfast for dinner. We then surprised Daddy with a lemon cake for his birthday. Spring and Sammy helped me make it earlier in the day. It was a fun day to show Joel how much we love and appreciate him. We were really hoping to have our baby for his birthday present but, obviously, the baby wants his own birthday!

I am so grateful for Joel. He makes my life so wonderful and always thinks of his family before himself. Our family is so blessed to have a worthy and honorable priesthood holder leading our family. His love and care for us is ever evident in all that he does. He works hard to support our family and yet always comes home with a smile on his face and excitement to be home. He even lays down for the kids to wrestle on him even though he is tired from work. We love you, Joel. Thank you for being my eternal sweetheart!

Mary's Barbies

Who needs barbies when you have rescue heroes? Mary loves to play rescue heroes with Sammy. She also loves cars, trucks, and dinosaurs. When Spring is home she will play dolls with Spring but during the day it is all the boy toys that she loves to play with. It really is cute to see how different she plays depending on who she is playing with!

Spring Reading

Spring is doing so well in school. Her teacher is constantly telling us how impressed she is with her abilities. The class has learned about 4 sight words so far so her teacher was assessing the students the other day. She emailed me later and told me that she decided to test Spring on all of the high frequency words for Kindergarten. Spring already passed off 16 of the 34 they need to learn in Kindergarten. Great work, Spring!!! I know a lot of it comes from our nightly scripture reading. She follows along on her own and reads the words she knows when it is her turn and repeats after us the ones she doesn't know. She knows big scripture words too now from reading the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for the scriptures and for the admonition for us to having family scripture study. Not only does it bring a feeling of peace and the Spirit into our home, but it also exposes our children to reading and gives them great opportunities to learn. Here is a video of Spring reading one of the books she brought home from school.

Just for Alanna

My sister, Alanna, has been on me for months telling me that I need to post pictures of me pregnant. I do not do the whole belly picture thing at all. I think it is silly. She has never let up on this request; however. Finally, in a moment of weakness, I told her that if I had not had the baby by my due date then I would post a picture. Well, my due date (which was the 15th) has come and gone and she has called to remind me that there is not a picture on my blog. So, Alanna....this is for you. You should be grateful that I am a woman of integrity and that I keep my word! :) Enjoy it while it is here, because I never said how long I was going to let it stay on the blog!

Saving the Family

This is an incredible video. We have been really involved in promoting the Yes on Prop 8 campaign here in California. Joel and I have spent 4 hours every Saturday morning for the past 5 Saturdays walking precints informing voters and trying to gain support for this proposition. We have also been making calls to voters throughout the week. It has been inspiring to meet so many wonderful, good people that want the best for our state and nation as a whole. There really seems to be a strong majority that support this propostion; however, it seems we are the quiet majority and are afraid to take a stand. We must not be afraid and we need to stand up for our values and for those things that will be best for our families, children, and nation as a whole. I know that family is central to God's plan and it is also the foundation on which our nation will be strong. If this proposition fails there will be tremendous impact on our children and the nation as a whole. (You will need to pause the player at the bottom of the page while viewing this video.)

For Aunt Emily

Emily....I hope this works for what you needed. We will work on getting the other video added as well.

Loving my Big Brother

Mary is often asleep when Thomas gets home from school but as soon as she wakes up and sees that he is home, she gets so excited. She does this thing when she is excited where she flaps her hands and arms really fast and bounces up and down on her feet like she is about to take off for flight. She will do this when she sees him until he picks her up to hug and kiss her. She also loves it when he will lay on the floor, pick her up, and make her 'fly.' Another favorite thing of Mary's is to have snack with Thomas. I snapped a picture of them today having an after school snack together. The kids all love the new barstools and Mary has decided she is old enough and big enough to sit at them now too.

Baby Shower

A friend from our ward gave me a baby shower this morning. When she asked me about it a couple weeks ago I told her we were set and really didn't need a shower. This is afterall our 5th baby! She said she knew I would say that but she wanted to do it anyway. She told me that it would be more of a get to know you thing. She just told people to bring diapers and wipes if they wanted to bring anything. I had a good time and I was able to meet a lot more women from the ward and learn their names and a little more about them. We came away with a lot of diapers and wipes. We are so grateful for that. I am grateful she took the time to do this so that I could meet more people. We are so excited for this new little guy to join our family. I can't wait for him to come!

Petting Zoo and Grape Picking

Well, you would have thought we had our fill of grape picking after last night but we did more today. Today, however, we brought home what we picked. For our playgroup we drove to Kingsburg (about 25 miles away) to a family farm. They had a small petting zoo for the kids which was free of charge. Sammy loved to see all the animals and kept trying to scare them saying, "Boo!" Then he would tell me, "Me boo the cow, horse, sheep, goat, pig, etc" It was fun to listen to him and to see his smile on his face. Then he found a swingset and that was all he wanted to do for a while. Mary liked the animals from a distance. She would pick up grapes off the ground and start to hand them to the animals and then pull away at the last minute. She never cried but she often had a concerned look on her face.

Then we were able to go and pick some grapes. We were pros after last night! We had a coupon for 3 pounds of free 'u-pick' grapes. Normal price for the grapes was only 45 cents/pound if you picked them yourselves. We were told to taste, taste, taste, before we cut to be sure they were sweet enough. Sammy loved this policy! He was in his glory helping me cut the grapes and put them in the box. We ended up with 7 pounds of grapes to bring home and spent less than $2. As we were loading in the van to come home Sammy reached into our box and pulled out a huge bunch of grapes to eat. I thought they would last him the whole drive home. No such luck. He ate them so fast and really wanted more. He patiently waited, however, until we got home and I could get more for him.

We had a good time this morning. Two other moms came in the van with me so I was able to get to know them a little better as we talked and visited on the drive. That was a great thing for me, as well. There was only one drawback to the trip. After taking Spring to school I had about 40 minutes to kill so I decided to come home and vacuum/clean the van really well after our trip to the church vineyard last night. The care was so full of dirt and sand that it really needed to be done. Mary and Sammy just played while I cleaned it out really well. Not such a smart thing when we were going to another vineyard today. I will have to clean it all again now because it is full of dirt and sand again. Oh well, at least I hadn't put the vacuum away yet or rolled up the extension cord!

Grape Harvest

We had our first experience with the grape harvest this afternoon/evening. The church owns a grape farm just north of Fresno, about an hour away. Each ward in the area is assigned 3 rows of grapes for which they are responsible. Each row is 1/4 mile long. We spent about 5 hours at the farm tonight but were blessed because it was only about 98 degrees where the farm was located. Last year it was 108 degrees, they say. Tonight we had to cut the grapes off the vines and drop them into buckets. The buckets were then picked up and dumped onto 'trays' to dry. The trays are just sheets of thick paper on the dirt for the grapes to dry in the sun. Once dumped they had to be spread out so they weren't too thick and the sun could dry them. In about a week they will be turned. Then later this month we will return to roll the trays and then transfer them to a truck/tractor.

We were told it was hard work and to expect to get really dirty. Well, we were told correctly. It is very physical work but it was very enjoyable as well. The kids loved getting out and helping. Thomas and Spring liked cutting the grapes but they were also willing to help dump them. Sammy loved to help dump the grapes and spread them out. The entire time Sammy would say, "Daddy, I help. Daddy, I help." So Joel would cut a bunch of grapes and hand it to him and he would drop it in the bucket. We had to keep him from eating the grapes. When we first got there and he saw all the grapes his eyes lit up. He thought he was in grape heaven. Mary was very content the entire evening. Joel and I took turns carrying her in the backpack. She never made a sound. Sometimes she would grab onto the wire that the vines grow along while we were cutting grapes. We wouldn't realize it until we tried to move. There were times her face would be right in the all the leaves as we would try to get to the grapes on the other side.

We were filthy, sweaty, and tired when we were done but it felt so good to look back down the rows and see all that was accomplished. I am grateful for the opportunity it gave us to serve and for our children to work hard in a service project as well. They all said they had a great time. We didn't get a chance to take any pictures until we were finished because we were working so hard the entire time. We just never stopped. When I was taking the pictures Spring was off with some of her friends and Mary was on my back, so we just took some pictures of the boys.

Storytime

Mary has begun to really enjoy reading stories and having books read to her. Sammy likes to sit down and read to her but the reading doesn't last too long and they are soon wrestling around and laughing. Today, before naptime, I was reading stories to Spring (Sammy actually brought his blanket to me earlier and asked me to tuck him in). Mary would come over and listen for a few seconds and then walk off to play with something and then come back. After a while she climbed up on the couch and started a book to herself. It was so cute and then when she realized Spring and I were watching her she got kinda silly. So, I had to try to get it on video. This is something like she was doing, but of course once she realized the camera was on she had to ham it up a bit more. She is such a fun little girl and she really is so content and easy going. I love little times like this when we can capture the joy they get out of simple little things.

Time at the Temple

Joel and I had the opportunity to attend the temple again last night. I got quite a few comments and people asking when our baby was due. Most were shocked when they found out we have less than 2 weeks to go. They didn't think I was that far along and then they commented on how brave I was. I always think people's comments are so funny. We have really been enjoying being closer to a temple and only having to travel about 40 minutes to get to the temple. We don't even have to worry about traffic which is really nice. We have been able to attend the temple at least twice a month since we have been here and that is our goal to continue. The kids loved having a babysitter come to the house and play with them while we were gone. The kids were all sound asleep when we got home. It is nice to come in to a quiet and calm home after being in the temple. I am grateful for temples and the covenants we are blessed to make. I am grateful for the renewed perspective and feeling of hope and strength that we bring with us after attending the temple.