OUR Little Liberty

Disclaimer: I haven't updated in a while, but I thought I would start now and try to work my way back before I have to print a blog book for our family Christmas present. But, what post to welcome us back to the blog world.
Introducing...drum roll please...Liberty Pack. Born on August 18, 2010 at 7:55am weighing 8 pounds flat and coming in at 20 1/2 inches long. The labor went as well as could be expected (apparently my doc didn't want to break my water for three HOURS because he hadn't had any sleep all week). New developments with this labor: mom's low blood pressure, having to be on oxygen most of the labor, puking up my guts the whole labor in front of everyone (very embarrassing), and having a 7 hour labor instead of a 4 hour labor because of the above mentioned information. Of course after my water broke she came out a mere 40 minutes later. Other than that it was pleasant having my mom and Nate as company. I didn't suffer any pain and Liberty came out in one big push (she has a tiny head!) The verdict is in and we all think that she looks the most like Miles, but we'll have to see how things develop. Could I finally have a brown-haired child? I have waited for like 5 kids now!

This is a rare cry from Liberty. She didn't even cry when she was born. The nurse took forever trying to get some squeal out of her so we all new she was alive. She has been a huge blessing to our family. I need to knock on some wood and hold my breath as I say this, but if she continues to be so peaceful and happy I think I might be able to raise six kids! I have to wake her up to eat. When she does wakes up on her own, she just opens her eyes and stares at all of us. I wonder if she is so overwhelmed by our crazy hectic family that she has decided to just come and enjoy the ride. By the way, don't you just love the scrunchy nose! I keep thinking that she looks like one of those wrinkly faced dogs.

I have to share this little tid bit because I am scared for Liberty's life. The minute that Nate handed Liberty to Ella for the first time these are the words that came out of Ella's mouth: "Dad, don't touch the baby. She is MY baby." Yep, we are all in trouble!

January -- New Announcements

A new year is bringing new announcements from the Pack family. First of all, we have been prompted to home school our kids. We have been exploring and praying about the idea for the last several months and about the beginning of November we decided that it was what the Lord wanted us to do. I'm still freaking out about the idea, but trying to have faith.

The other announcement is that we are expecting a new baby to be due in August (right when school starts)! So, January wasn't so fun at our house. I was pregnancy sick 24-7 the whole month. I've never had it this bad. Also, poor Ella did catch the chicken pox from the Whitmore home. At first it didn't look so bad, and then after a few days the pox quadrupled. Literally only these 3 pictures were taken in the whole month.
Here is poor Ella with her chicken pox in full force. She got them the worst on her face and in her hairline. She was a trooper throughout the whole thing.
Here is Grace organizing those drawers that become a catch-all for everything! Look at all of that garbage on the floor. It all collects in those drawers!
Moses' new fascination is Indiana Jones. He has come up with his very own costume out of his own closet. Not a bad job! Everything is Indiana around here right now.

St. Thomas, Nevada

Another historical site close to Overton that we visited was the flooded city of St. Thomas. Nate's brother-in-law, Dennis, had an ancestor who was the postmaster of St. Thomas back in the day. He was one of the last ones out of the city before it flooded, apparently trying to get all of the mail posted. The city was flooded with the building of the Boulder Dam in the mid 1930's. Most of the people settled in nearby Overton after their city was covered in water. That is how Dennis' family ended up residing there.
This is the sign that tells you something is out there. You would never know there was ruins of a city down in the valley below. I guess the area is only dry during drought seasons, which apparently is now. It has only been dry, not covered with the waters of Lake Mead, since 2002.
Here is what it looks like from the parking lot. Not much down there, I was thinking.
Here our some of the ruins. We had a map of St. Thomas and were trying to guess what the ruins were. I think we thought this was the hotel, or the school house.
We believed this to be a well, which was behind someone's house.
We were searching for the post office the whole time. I can't remember what we presumed this to be, but I think it was a residence with a soda shop in the front. Our kids were trying to look for lost "treasure" the whole time we were there. That's what kept them going on this long adventure. The only thing the kids found that they thought was of value was some glass.
The hike got a little long for Ella, so she hopped on her dad's back. Actually mid way through the hike Nate took her back to the car because she still wasn't feeling so great.

Hiking in Overton

This was our second annual trip to Logandale, Nevada to visit Nate's sister, Erika and her family. We have made quite a few after Christmas trips down to see her, and we decided this year to make it an annual thing. The kids have so much fun together and look forward to spending a whole week together with sleepovers and everything! Logandale is about 45 minutes away from Las Vegas. Typically we go to Las Vegas to entertain ourselves throughout the week, but this year we just hung around the Logandale/Overton area. There's not much to do, but there is a lot of hiking in the Valley of Fire State Park.
If you know my kids you know they love to climb. They climb wherever we go, even if they are not supposed to (like on the temple grounds!) We've had so broken limbs from climbing at our house, but rock formations like these are the perfect place to get the climb out of them!
Here is Grace and her sweet cousin Eden. The are inseparable the whole time they are together, and they email regularly to stay in touch.
Here is Miles climbing up high. He looks kind of scared way up there!
Here is Nate with all of the kids. We make quite a scene wherever we go because between the two of us we have 11 kids. Not a good adult to kid ratio when you're out on the town!
The kids spent the majority of the time at this park trying to catch chipmunks that were running around. They found these holes, which they thought the chipmunks lived in. Nate told them if they caught a chipmunk they could keep it for a pet! This is what drove their obsession to catch the darn things. They did get pretty creative in their contraptions to catch the creatures. They also used left over lunch scraps to lure the chipmunk into a chip bag, which they got pretty close to catching!
Here is Ella with her cousin, Brigham. They had a fun time together this week too. Ella actually wasn't feeling good this day. She ended up throwing up that evening. Poor thing. Also, Erika's 3 kids had the chicken pox this week. Ella was exposed, so we'll see if anything happens. The rest of us should be safe.
After lunch we headed over to another hike through Petroglyph Canyon. It lead us to a famous site called Mouse's Tank. It was really cool to look inside. First, we past all of these petrogyphs on our way up to the site. When we got there the rock formation was such that it looked like a "tank." The rock was surrounding a huge hole that went pretty deep. We explored inside too and had a hard time getting back out. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the actual tank. Our batteries ran out of our camera.
The legend has it that a Paiute Indian named Mouse hid out in this area from the "white man." He was apparently very upset the the white people were taking over all of his people's land. I guess he stole a knife from one of the whites in the area and became a huge target of whites in Southern Nevada. It is fun to learn a little history on our trips!

Christmas Day!

Welcome to Christmas day at the Pack's. We don't take many pictures because the video camera usually gets all of the footage, but I happen to take a few pictures of the kids with some of their presents!
Here is Isaiah with his new skateboard. One of Santa's "elves" painted the bottom to suit Isaiah's interests. He loves it!
Here is Grace in her Hannah Montana getup. She also got 2 web-kins and gave one away to Miles who decided on Christmas morning that he really wanted one too. She is such a sweetie!
Miles really wanted a lot of Lego's for his birthday and Christmas and Santa didn't disappoint. He also got a camera and some books.
Moses was a hard one to buy for this year because all he asked for for Christmas was a black bow tie. He got that plus a camera and a "light-up" light saber.
Little Ella was surprised with Wonder Pets stuffed animals. She played with them all morning and was so giddy and excited. Tuck immediately went for a swim in the toilet. I had to wash him right away. She was very creative and found a little shoe box that became the Fly Boat. Such a big girl with a BIG imagination!

Traditional Christmas Eve Pictures

One of the traditions that we have is to get pajamas for our Christmas Eve present! We have our little Christmas Eve program and then open up a gift from mom and dad. Surprisingly it is always PJ's.
It has become increasingly difficult to get a good picture with 5 children in it. Here was our best one. Moses and Ella are just constant little movers, especially with all the excitement of Santa and presents.
Just wanted to show that events in our house are always filled with drama...
and someone always gets hurt!

Miles' Birthday Party

Miles' birthday is always a hard one for me. It is 5 days before Christmas and it is very easy to forget it is coming with all of the other festivities going on. This year Miles wanted to invite his friends from school and have an all out boy party. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to invite 12 little 7-year-old boys over for a 4-hour late night! Things got very crazy. Did you know that when the birthday boy gets like 5 Nerf guns for his birthday, no boys are going to sit down and watch a movie? I know now, and I'll plan accordingly next time!
Here are most of the boys eating dinner. Miles' dinner of choice? Mac and Cheese and hot dogs, much to his mother's dismay! It was an easy dinner though.
Apparently, the kids were singing "Happy Birthday" very loud!
Miles blew out his 7 candles all in one breath. Isn't that good luck?
Isaiah and Grace made this birthday sign for Miles. I love seeing the kids do things for each other. I spend most of my time breaking up silly little fights all of the time, so to see them serve and love each other is a mother's greatest joy! Now, if I could only get them to do that when it wasn't some one's birthday!?