Catching Up

The biggest reason I haven't posted much on the blog lately is because my laptop died. I have another old laptop that I am using for now but it doesn't have a card reader and for some reason it won't read when the camera is connected directly to the computer. It means I have been storing pictures on different computers and hard drives so when I have access to those I will be able to start putting them on the blog.

Life has been busy but fun. The girls love school and Taylor thinks Kindergarten is the best! She's a pro now. She's fortunate to have fantastic teachers and she really does love each one of them. It's great when they love school so much and have so much enthusiasm for learning.

Leata is very independent. She loves her teacher. Her teacher is a first year teacher and very enthusiastic about teaching. She eats lunch with each scholar on the day they celebrate their birthday at school (she eats with the class that day and sits with the scholar). The girl's school is just great and we are so lucky to have the choice to send them there.

The boys and I are busy every day with carpool. We pick Taylor up at 1130 and Leata up 4 hours later. I am glad that they are pretty patient most of the time and are good at entertaining themselves. They do spend a lot of time in the car these days.  I am glad that I can do the driving most of the time so the girls can go to the school that we chose.

A.J. is busy with work and being Young Men's President. Those along with all of us keep him plenty busy though. We are grateful that he has had such a wonderful job for the last 10 years that has been so flexible and he loves, most of the time.

I will try and updates with photos soon!

Jack-O-Lanterns

We carved our pumpkins tonight for Family Home Evening.

Leata did not like taking the "guts" out. She said they were the grossest thing ever. At least she tried though. Taylor stayed as far away as she could!

Leata also said that she wanted to carve pumpkins for every FHE. I told her that pumpkins don't grow year round. She said that we needed a year supply of pumpkins. :-)

Luke went to bed while we were working on them. He was just way too much trouble! 

This was Mark's Thomas pumpkin. He kept saying "My daddy made this Thomas pumpkin for me!" He was SO happy!

Leata's Jack-O-Lantern. 

Taylor's zombie flower pumpkin. It's a zombie flower because it is "funky". 

Sarah's Birthday

My birthday was October 14th. I turned, well, I am plenty old. :) On the Friday before my birthday, A.J. and I went to see Odyssey Dance Theater's 'Thriller'. This is the third year in a row that it has been at The Covey Center for the Arts over my birthday weekend. We have gone all three years. It is such a fun show and we enjoy it every year! If you get the chance to see it, go! It is unlike anything you have ever seen before.

On Sunday we had my family over for chili and cake and ice cream. Kendall made a dirt cake for me. My big present for the year was my new camera and so I asked not to have anymore presents. A.J. did get me a black BYU T-shirt (they played their homecoming blackout game the day before my birthday) and the girls each got me a candle.
I think the only picture I have is of the dirt cake though.

Taylor's First Day of Kindergarten

Taylor had her first day of kindergarten today. She went to bed at 8 last night and was well rested and happy to get up at 7 this morning. She had breakfast (her favorite yogurt) and then got dressed, hair fixed and pictures.

Oops! Something is missing!

That's better. :)

There must always be jumping. They love jumping pictures! :)

Taylor with Mommy. She is ready to go!

Walking to class.

When we got to the school it was almost time to walk to her classroom. When Leata went to Kindergarten the parents went to the classroom with the kids. This time they took them from the gym and told us they would see us at pick up. We will leave in 45 minutes to pick her up. I hope she loves school as much as her sister does!

First day in the Second Grade

Leata started second grade last Monday. Her teacher is Mrs.Jackson and she really likes her. She has a lot of good friends in her class. She had a fun first week. We will see what the second week brings.



Taylor starts kindergarten tomorrow so when Leata started school last week they had to say goodbye at home. They are such sweet sisters. :)



More to come soon about Taylor's first day of kindergarten, TOMORROW! She's VERY excited. Then the next day Adrienne and her boys get here from England. We have an exciting couple of weeks!

School

Summer has gone by quickly! In 8 days, Leata will start 2nd grade! How did that sneak up on us so fast? The week after that, Taylor start Kindergarten. She is SO excited to go to school this year! Both girls will be attending Noah Webster Academy. We have loved having Leata there for the past 2 years and we are hoping that this year will be great for both girls. There are going to be some pretty big changes this year so that makes us a little nervous but we hope that things will go smoothly and both will enjoy this school year and learn a lot.

Having one going half day and one going full day is going to make for busy days this year. Another thing I am not excited about is homework. I can only hope that Taylor will easily and willingly do her homework. That would be so unlike her sister who doesn't understand why she has to study and write spelling words that she can spell in her sleep. Leata is VERY difficult when it comes to homework. This is the 1st grader that was testing at a 5th grade level for most things by the end of the school year. Some of it's boredom, some personality and she really does get distracted very easily. So homework and multiple pick ups a day are my two least favorite things about the school year that is coming.

I am excited for Taylor because she is so excited to go to school and learn. I am excited to watch her learn and grow and discover. They grow and learn so much in Kindergarten and it's a fun process to watch. She will most likely (we will know 100% for sure tomorrow) have the same teacher Leata had for Kindergarten. We are very excited about this because we just adore Ms.Thompson! She is the definition of a perfect Kindergarten teacher.

Leata says she's ready to go back to school but she is not as excited as Taylor is. It's not all new to Leata like it is for Taylor. Leata is excited to find out more about her teacher and see what friends will be in her class this year.

Uniforms are ready. This year they are having families donate $10-20 per child for school supplies. This is nice because all the kids will have the exact same things and I don't have to go shopping for it and while I am good at finding deals, I don't know that I could be $20 per child when buying specifics on their lists.

Back to school night is Thursday. I can't believe it's already here!

Taylor's Glasses

When Taylor went to her 5 year well child check, we found that her vision was pretty poor. The doctor referred us to an Ophthalmologist and Taylor was able to see him just days later.
I took her (yay for having an second car and me finally feeling comfortable enough for me to drive) and We quickly found that she is extremely farsighted and had a lazy eye. We ordered her glasses that day (Saturday) and she got them Thursday. She takes after me with her farsightedness and lazy eye. I ended up needing surgery but the doctor is optimistic that Taylor will not although it is a possibility.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Taylor is five years old!

I can't believe that 5 years ago she was a tiny 4.5 lbs baby. She's grown so much and we love having her in our family! She is SO excited to start kindergarten in a few weeks. She really can't wait to go to Noah Webster Academy, just like her big sister. Purple is still her favorite color but she says all the colors are her favorite too. :)

Taylor had a Fireman Sam cake the Sunday before her birthday.

No one would ever guess now that Taylor was born early or tiny. It's fun having her birthday near the 4th of July. She's my little firecracker! 

Seven!

I honestly don't know where to begin this post. There are so many thoughts and emotions going on right now.

Leata turns seven years old today. She was born just shy of 2 weeks after our 5th anniversary. We had wanted to start having kids as soon as we got married. After taking a long time and many losses we finally found a doctor who was able to help us. With PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) my chances of conceiving were much lower than normal. PCOS also contributed to our losses. After three years we found our wonderful family practice doctor who diagnosed and treated the PCOS.
With the diagnoses and treatment for my PCOS I was able to change my lifestyle and eating habits and lose 40 lbs. At that point I was easily getting pregnant but losing each one after 10-12 weeks of pregnancy. Our doctor consulted with an OB/GYN to find out what to do next. He suggested that the next time I was pregnant, we test for clotting disorders. The next time I found out I was pregnant was October 2004. They tested for clotting disorders and I tested borderline positive and that is when they gave me heparin (a blood thinner). I got to 10 weeks pregnant and I felt optimistic. Then I hit the second trimester, things were going well. I got to the third trimester and right about that time the Perinatologist took me off of the heparin stating I didn't need it because I was borderline. Not too long after they took me off of the heparin, my blood pressure shot up. I was showing signs of preeclampsia. I felt strongly it was because of them taking me off of the heparin. They monitored me closely though and we were lucky that I made it to 37 weeks of pregnancy before preeclampsia took over and I needed to be induce.

Leata Marie Bobo was born at exactly 37 weeks weighing 7 lbs 1 oz. She was 21 inches long. She was very calm when she was born and didn't cry. That scared me at first but she was very alert and happy and quickly showed us her lungs worked, and well!

These last 7 years have been full of excitement and joy. Leata keeps us on our toes! She's always picking up on the little details of things. She's a very smart little girl. She loves learning and school and most recently, she is enjoying reading the Book of Mormon and hoping to finish by her 8th birthday.

Leata is a loving and fun girl! She wants to be everyone's friend and loves everyone for who they are. Her teachers have told me that whenever anyone is feeling sad or left out, Leata will go and try to help them feel better and wants to be their friend. Loving everyone seems to come so easily to Leata.

Leata has brought so much joy and love into our home. Our house is never quiet when Leata is here and awake! She has so much spunk and personality!  Life definitely would be a lot different without Leata in it. We have been so blessed to have such a beautiful girl to keep us going.

12 years

Twelve years ago, A.J. and I were married in the Huntingdon Chapel in Little Stukeley England. After that we went to the London Temple to be sealed as a family. It was a beautiful day in May. After we were seal we went back to the chapel and had a reception.

We spent our honeymoon in London, seeing shows and walking through museums and eating at great restaurants enjoying our time together and soaking up all the culture that London has to offer.

Soon we headed back to reality to good old Provo and back to BYU to finish school.

Since then we have spent more than 90% of our married time in the city of Provo (which was never in the plan) but we can truly say that we love living here.

It took many losses and 5 years but Leata came in to our lived just a couple of weeks after our fifth anniversary. When Leata was 2 her little sister Taylor was born 7 weeks prematurely. It was a struggle having her in the hospital and learning all the NICU stuff. Little did we know it was in preparation for more of a similar type of trial to come. When Taylor was 21 months old, little Mark was born at just 31 weeks. He had his struggles. His stay was much longer than Taylor's. He required a lot more care also. Just shy of 7 weeks of being in the NICU, Mark came home and is a happy healthy 3 year old now. When Mark was 21 months, Luke was born! He was born at 33.5 weeks gestation. We though his NICU stay would be brief. We thought it would be so easy. Having 3 kids at home means any NICU stay is difficult though. 17 days after he was born Luke was set to come home. Unfortunately while we were filling out the paperwork for him to come home, he started showing signs of being sick. My baby had to stay. He had RSV. He was just shy of 5lbs at that time. He was strong though and while they told us it could be another month in the NICU he came home 11 days after he was supposed to and 28 days after he was born.

Now that our family is complete we can look forward to the future as a family of 6. How very blessed we are to have 4 beautiful children. We love them and appreciate the love and joy that they bring to our family. They are all so different. If you would have asked me 8 years ago where we would be now, I probably wouldn't have been to optimistic about having any children but I would have surely said that A.J. and I would be having some great adventure celebrating 12 years of marriage. I couldn't have imagined the adventure we are having now though. :)

Just Pictures

I love taking pictures. I got a new camera. I thought I would share some of the pictures I have taken in the last week.