Dear Roman, Happy Birthday!

Dear sweet Roman Lawrence,

I am sorry I cried when I found out I was pregnant. If you are ever living in your in-laws basement and find your wife pregnant with your fourth child, 11 months after the third, and having just applied to graduate school you might have a better idea of how I was feeling. I hope you are never in that position but please don't take the crying personal. Never doubt that we love you!
You were my hardest labor. You did not want to come out. Maybe you sensed that our time together would be short as nine days later I would be starting school again. After seven hours you were convinced to come out. What a beautiful baby -- and Adelle was there to witness it all. You nursed for the first two hours of your life and let us know for the first 24 that you were not happy about coming out. But after that you were the sweetest baby.


You father blessed you in September in the adorable outfit from Grammy. You smiled up at Grandpa during the prayer.
You were content to have me carry you everywhere I went but we were so often apart that it made me very sad. Daddy and Grandma took great care of you while I was away though.
And we got to take a trip to Ireland together. Just you, me, and Daddy. It was such a wonderful time. You were a fantastic traveler.
You were not excited about baby food at first but have come around to it. Now you eat like a Remke guy-- non stop!
Our computer crashed and we lost a lot of photos. We did another baby blessing photo shoot. The outfit is a little smaller but your laugh makes it perfect!
We spent your first Christmas in St. George, Utah with the Dahles. You got to be baby Jesus in the Nativity play but you weren't excited about holding still on the manger. You had learned to crawl and there was no stopping you.
I am pretty sure we did not let you ride on the four wheeler but only pose for this photo. But my memory is pretty much shot so who knows-- you were the fourth child!

January

(sorry about that plastic box I left on the floor--that is quite the scratch)

February

We took you to New Jersey with Grandma Donna for spring break to meet your great grandma Jenneth. I carried you all over NYC. Too bad you won't remember it.

You started walking during General Conference weekend in April. You really wanted to keep up with Jude. All of your siblings love you so much. What a joy you are to our family.

We did it! I graduated and we walked down the hill together. And one week later you are one. Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Thanks for finally sleeping through the night, being willing to go to most everyone, taking a bottle without a problem, and giving me a big smile when I come home at the end of the day.

I love you Roman!

Boys

My little twins are so adorable! It is fun to watch them playing together now. Though Jude is teaching Roman all his wild tricks. Roman is climbing all over everything but at least he has learned how to climb down feet first instead of head first. I love that they are little buddies. I think that I handle energy better than drama as a mother. I am very grateful I was blessed with these two boys!

Easter Photo Shoot

I love Easter, Spring, pastel colors, my kids (especially when they are being cute and cooperative!) I really like how theses photos Joel took turned out.

Last Spring Break Post-- West Virginia

On the way home from New Jersey we drive through Morgantown, West Virginia. The pictures above are of the Baptist church where Joel's parents were married. She was a senior at WVU and he had joined the military. They got married over the weekend, then he shipped out and she went back to class. It was fun to drive around campus and see their old stomping ground. West Virginia is beautiful. Joel's people are from this part of the state and the southern part of WV. I thought the KU campus was hilly but WVU is amazingly hilly.

Here is the dorm where Bruce and Donna had their first kiss on the front steps. And look where they are now-- 5 kids and 12 grandchildren later!

Jersey Shore

This is a life car on display at the lighthouses. You climb in there with 7-8 other adults and ride a cable to shore after wrecking your ship on the coast. I cannot imagine how horrible it is inside this thing. I guess it is better than dying but I am not really sure.

Do you see Maeve in the background about to walk into the water? Can you tell how cold it is outside. Too bad I did not turn sooner and yell "STOP!!"
We visited the twin lighthouses. We climbed to the top of one of them which just confirmed to me that I have a serious fear of heights.
Yes I let my children climb on top of a cannon.
On our last full day in New Jersey we went to the shore. I love the beach and how relaxing watching and hearing the waves is. Unfortunately we were only there five minutes before Maeve decided she wanted to see how cold the water was and walked into the water up to her thighs. Since it was just above freezing outside you can imagine how cold the water was. She had to go to the van for the rest of the time and Grandma and I took turns sitting with her. You can find whole shells on the east but we never could find anything but tiny little broken pieces on the west coast. Why is that?

NYC Day 2

We went back to NYC another day. Uncle Dean offered to drive us around so we could just hop out of the car and see what we wanted to see without worrying about parking. I did not think driving in the city was that bad but of course I was not behind the wheel. We drove past the American Museum of Natural History, the LDS temple, and Rockefeller Center. We took the girls with us on this trip (and Roman of course-- Sorry Jude you never got to go to NYC-- maybe if you did not always try to run away in public :). We went to FAO Schwarz so the girls could play on the giant piano. They had this ridiculous Barbie foosball table that retailed for $25,000. Crazy. We ran into the Purl Soho. It is an amazing craft store, with a very creative blog that I follow. The store was so fun but everything was way out of my price range. It was great to finally see it though. And lastly we went to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. There are men in the park that try to sell you purses in secret. They carry them around in these big totes that are covered in fabric and whisper to you to come look. Apparently they are not suppose to be selling them but I don't think they are really fooling anyone. NYC was really fun. I did see one single mom with four kids (all about my kids age) who rode the PATH with us the first day and when we got off, hailed a taxi and loaded all her kids in. It was pretty amazing. Other than that I only saw nannies with one child each. :) I cannot imagine living there right now but it did make me sad we did not have an adventure like that before we had children. But I cannot say I would have done things differently ten years ago. I am glad I had children when I did . Besides we will be 50 when our children are grown so we can have adventures then.

NYC Met

Ever since we did artist studies during the years we homeschooled Adelle, she has been very interested in many of the great artist throughout history. She is particularly found of Pablo Picasso. I think she said that was because she liked his abstract ideas. She did a big report on him last year for her gifted and talented class. After walking through Central Park we gave her the option of going to the Natural History Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She chose the Met because they had original Picasso's she wanted to see. It was amazing. There were rooms full of paintings by Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Cezanne, Pissaro, etc. Basically several original works by all of the artist I know. We spent several hours there. Joel could have spent several days. It was like a candy story to him. Adelle enjoyed it as well but liked to move more quickly through the exhibits so I chased her while Joel strolled.