Daddy's Girl

Adam is such a good daddy! He is so good at helping her calm down and he doesn't get stressed out if she is fussy and cries. He just holds her and loves her until she feels better!






I also have to brag about what a good husband he is!

Last night I was tired and grouchy and Maura was fussy and it was a bad evening. When he got home Adam got Maura calmed down and asleep and let me go to bed. AHHHHHHH bliss! I was in bed and asleep by 9pm!

Maura should have gotten up at about 10 to eat again before going down for the night and Adam said he would wait up for her and feed her. He waited up until 1am when she woke up!!! Then he fed her and put her back to sleep and let me sleep until my body said I absolutely had to get up and feed her! I got so much sleep I almost feel human! What a super guy!

Poor Adam is paying for it today, being so tired and he even had to to go to work early...what a great guy I have!

The Sweetest thing...

Wednesday night the YW surprised me (and the other leaders who have or will be having new babies) with a baby shower! There were fun games (guess the chocolate in the diaper) and yummy treats and cute gifts! Thanks so much!

One of the gifts was the cutest little idea! This flower arrangement made with baby clothes-I can hardly make myself take it apart and use the clothes it is so cute!


What a super fun idea! I'll have to remember this for future baby showers!

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa Russell

Phillip and Linda were able to come visit us for almost a week! It had been over a year since we had seen them and the boys loved having them around. Grandma played games (this was hide and seek), took them on walks, fed the ducks, read stories and spoiled them rotten! They loved it!



We were all sad to see them go, especially Parker! Grandma has a soft spot for him and would probably have taken him home if the boys would have let her. She gave him special treats, took him on walks several times a day, and every time I sent him outside, grandma would take pity on him because it was so 'hot' outside and let him come in.

It was a fun to have them come!

Maura-two weeks old!

She is such a cutie! She has some funny expressions that I tried to catch, most of them were blurry but these are the best.

Pouty lips (my camera is doing funny things, I can't get the picture centered-it's probably just the technologically impaired person trying to run the silly thing).

Talking to me. I LOVE this one!


A little confused at the bright light.

No, her clothes are not too short, grandma just thinks the waist of all children stars just below the armpits. Dallin and Garrett ran around like little old men this week-dang-didn't get a picture!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a happy Thanksgiving at our house! We began a new tradition. Adam volunteered to make the big dinner. What a guy! We made a list of what we wanted to have that day, I went shopping and he cooked it all up. We will have to continue this every year.


Master Chef Adam in his domain.


It was a great spread! Although it was a small party we had a great time! The food was plentiful and delicious.

I think the real reason Adam wanted to cook, is that the rule at our house is those that cook don't have to clean and he knew what a job that would be to clean up!

10 things I am thankful for today (not in any particular order):

1. My husband. The master cook, master mason, father of the year, and best darn all around guy I could ever want!
2. Dallin. He is a helpful, kind, intelligent boy who gets cuter by the day.
3. Garrett. A crazy, active, tender little guy who loves to sing songs and play games.
4. Maura. She is so sweet to hug and cuddle and is healthy and happy (most of the time).
5. Friends and neighbors. We are so blessed to live where we live and have such great people around us. It makes us want to be better people.
6. Family. My sisters are the best! They have become my best friends in the last few years and I am grateful for that! My brothers are pretty cool too, David has so many talents and Trenton has great toys! My dad has a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and shares it with us often.
7. I have all that I need and many things I want. My home, food, transportation, clothing, and many luxuries.
8. This beautiful world. I love looking out my window and seeing the beautiful trees and green grass in my back yard.
9. Health and safety. We are so blessed to have healthy bodies and have been blessed with safety.
10. Finally, and most importantly, I am grateful for the knowledge I have of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the happiness it brings to me and my family.

Garden: Part II

Okay, so yes this is a posed picture! I really wanted to help-I love doing outdoor projects, but I had a baby to contend with and Adam wouldn't let me lift more than one brick at a time (what a protective guy). I did put in about a dozen bricks on the top...I can empathize with my hubby and his sore back!


The almost finished project! Now all we need to do is paint, get top-soil, till, get a sprinkler system put in and plant! Okay, so no, we're not almost done, but it sure looks beautiful!



This is my garden made with love-most people would say it is crooked, but I say it has artistic flare! My adorable husband worked his tail off for two days and it is beautiful (especially considering the help he had ;-)).

It's our version of "The Great Wall of China". I is just as strong and will last as long!

Garden Project: Part I

We finally found time to work on building a raised garden in the back part of our yard. We've wanted to do this for a long time. This week with Adam's parents here was a good opportunity for the boys to 'bond' while doing some work together!

The crew that built the raised garden (we picked them up on the street corner-luckily they speak English, hee hee). Phillip Russell (the grandpa), Garrett (the boss), and Adam (the muscle).


Garrett was officially dubbed 'The boss'. He told everyone what to do and was in charge of the project. He would only answer if you called him 'boss' and was very insistent on being in charge!


Phil helped out by holding down the bags of cement-no, really he worked hard!


We know who does the real work around here! Go Garrett (I mean boss)!

Bath Time!

Little Maura had her first real bath! Big brother Garrett was a good helper-like always!

Maura loved the water, just didn't like the getting out part!

Keeee-Rash!

That is the sound of my hard-drive making a fatal error....bummer! Hence the reason for no recent postings! I am lucky to have tech-support at my house but unfortunately I lost a lot of information, including pictures!!! AAAACK! I have a back-up that is a month old and hopefully I can recover other pictures I haven't erased from my camera, but it's a sad, sad day...poor dead computer!

Baby Parts

Naked baby!!! She is so soft and cute...check out the big belly! We had a check-up on Monday and all is well. She is almost back to birth weight and happy as can be.


Cute cross-eyed look!


Cute toes!


Cute hands.


She's just cute all over!


Even Adam admits she is getting cute. He said she was just a wrinkly baby the first few days, but now he says she IS cute.

Hooray for Sisters!!

My sisters are the best! I'm so glad I have them! This week my sister Jennifer came to help out (Gina wanted to come, but little Maura didn't come at a convenient time) and we are having a great time. Jen holds her, changes diapers, rocks her and cleans my house!!! YIPEEEEEE! I will be so sad when life gets back to normal.

Garrett took this great picture of Jen and Dallin.


Jen is so good at holding and loving on Maura just like Grandma Jones would have done...

She especially likes the feet!

She spent the first hour she was here rubbing baby feet on her face-oh so soft!


Then came the teasing...gotta break her in and get her ready for the brothers!

Don't you wish you were this flexible??? Or maybe not. Adult feet usually don't smell as good as baby feet. ;-)

We're Home!

We are home! We just got home this afternoon and are happy to be here. We stayed a little longer than planned because Adam was sick and I didn't want to come home to house full of sickness, so I spent a little longer than I wanted in a very quiet hospital. I guess I did get some good sleep and had some quiet time to myself. Now back to the rat-race!!

As promised, some pictures of the cute little one! She is such a great eater and sleeper! She is content to sit and look around and rarely makes a sound.



I'm not a good one to ask who she looks like...she looks like a baby to me-any ideas who she looks like?? Is she a Russell or a Jones??


The two best brothers in the world! Dallin is soooooo helpful! If I would have known how helpful and obedient he could be I would have had a baby a loooong time ago! He is eager to help any way he can. Garrett is just crazy about her...and I do mean CRAZY!!! He gets a little excited about wanting to hold her and touch her and it makes me a little nervous!

The day she was born I spoke with Garrett on the phone and told him he had a new sister. I said he could come visit later that day and his response was: "Mom, I will so freak out when I see her!" Ha ha ha ha ha!


Adam started feeling really sick Tuesday a couple hours after Maura was born. I sent him home that day to rest and didn't see him again until he came to get us Today-but at least he is finally feeling better and now he can hold his little girl!

He was very conscientious about germs and not getting too close while he was sick-what a good daddy! He was very sad that he couldn't hold her as much as he wanted!


Such pretty flowers! Thank you so much sweet sisters, they made my day!

Also many thanks to all those who took care of my kids and hubby! So many people took the boys, gave us food and took such great care of us! We are so blessed to have such great friends!

Introducing Maura Lynn Russell...at age 1 hour. These were taken from my cell phone so we will have more coming...just thought I would post these for now.

Our Pets

Adam has a pet board at work where everyone posts pictures of their pets. He asked me to round some up to send to him so I thought I'd blog them too.

This is speedy, Dallin's pet bird he earned by being responsible. Speedy is not super friendly, but we are working with him.



Our devoted (and quite obedient) dog Parker. He sat and posed for me while I took this picture. OOOPS, caught him with his eyes closed!


Better pose, but a little blurry...It was hard for him to sit still long enough for me to snap a picture.

He was so cute and small when we brought him home-deceptively small!


Even as big as he is, if he is desperate enough he still squeezes through the tiny doggie door.


Other pets we keep around just for fun ;-)

Don't go calling CPS on us, they did it on their own, I just took the picture!!!!!

You know you do it....

The day after Halloween, as soon as the kids are off to school, you rummage through their Halloween candy and take the best ones... Yeah, you do it too!!!

Last night we had a fun time hanging out with friends. Luckily Leslie was prepared with her camera as I was all out of batteries!!! (Thanks for letting me steal these pix.)

Kids begging for candy...

Scary friends!!! (No, they are great friends, not scary.)

The great pumpkin and Adam.

We had a great night visiting with friends as they came by and neighbors sitting out on their front lawns. This is one of the reasons I love this neighborhood!