West Palm Beach, Florida

The entire Halversen Family visited West Palm Beach, Florida in May of this year and we had 7 days of blissful beaching! Of course, I wouldn't say that Dave and I received any R&R, but perhaps we will have some when we are about 80 or so years old.

I met an older gentleman there who was amazed that our entire family would WANT to travel together and that our parents would WANT to have a vacation like this with us. He seemed to think it was a novel idea. Well, sir, let me tell you that we've had our ups and downs over the years as a family, but by and large, we LOVE to vacation together (as long as each family has its own space). We get along so well and I am grateful for such a wonderful family. I hope that one day Dave and I and the kids will be able to share vacations like this one when they have children of their own. We loved it, even if we did need a vacation from our vacation when we got home!

And what an awesome picture to remember this moment in time for the rest of our lives!

photo update

We LOVE getting out of the house, even if it means we re bundled up so much we can harly move!

We got rocking chairs for Christmas from Grandma Tate. We love them!

Mommy reads us stories and we love it so much. Of course Eden wants to turn ahead to the next page, or back to the other page, or look at the cover, or...

This is from our birthday. It was on November 5, 2009 and we turned one. We loved the cake and balloons. Bella was a little leery of having so many people over, but Eden loved it! The award for the messiest eater goes to Hannah, and the tidiest eater...Bella!

Time is flying. It just is. These girls are growing up so fast and even though it's wearing me out I can't believe how fast it's going. They now give each other luvs and kisses and clock each

other on the head with cups, or toothbrushes, or whatever they have in their hands. They also climb up onto my desk and throw everything off, but I'll survive it.

I'm exhausted much of the time. The days are long and often I find myself counting down the minutes until naptime or bedtime. There is laundry everywhere--some clean, some dirty, some in the washer, some in the dryer. There are toys everywhere and the kids rooms are disaster areas. The sink is full of dirty dishes and the dishwasher needs to be emptied to make room for the next load. Vacuuming needs to be done. There are beads in the carpet from the necklace my girls broke today. I need to organize my back patio. I need to wipe the fingerprints off the TV. I need sleep--my eyelids are droopy.

I still consider myself the luckiest mom. I wouldn't trade these precious children (all 7 are precious to me) for anything.

We Love the Park!

Hannah is so happy to be out of the house!

"Here we go!" Hannah and Haylee about to slide

You can tell Eden has moved on and is ready to head to the next activity, can't you?! Tyson and Ben are such good big brothers! She's in good hands.

"Are you sure about this, Tanner?" asks Bella.

Eden is caught in the act of picking grass while Bella, the only one crawling as of this date, is marooned on a blanket, a little fearful of the grass.

For a family night activity we went to a nearby park and had a great time! In today's crazy, busy world where everything is so expensive and seems so far away or so inconvenient or requires so much planning it's a good reminder to us that we can pick up at a moment's notice and head to the park and have a fun time with free play! The kids loved taking their baby sisters on the slides, the boys enjoyed throwing the football (I even participated in that for a minute, reliving my powderpuff days, if only for a moment), Eden discovered grass and its smell, texture and taste...again and again and again. Bella thought it was so funny when I dug the grass out of Eden's mouth while saying "Gross, Eden, yucky! Ew! Yuck! Don't eat the grass!" And do you know what I enjoyed the most??? Watching my kids giggle and laugh and PLAY together without the interruptions of computers, video games, or cell phones! Oh, and of course the babies are getting so fun now! I think we're getting the hang of this huge family thing!

FAMILY!!!

Woolstenhulme family in Provo, July 6, 2009 (Me and the kids are on the far right in the picture, the triplets are being blinded by the sun on the front row)

I seized the chance to take the kids down to Provo for a reunion of sorts with many of my family on my mom's side (Woolstenhulme). My uncle Steve (my mom's bro) and his family were here from Texas and Arizona for a baby blessing and summer reunion of their own and invited us all to join them. Strangely enough, my kids accompanied me without struggle and we all went down sans Dave, who was working, to meet at a park in Provo and we had such a great time! Many of my cousins had never seen the triplets and my kids had fun playing with some of their 2nd cousins. They even gathered together willingly for a family photo. WOW! It's amazing how much fun you can have when your kids cooperate. Maybe someday they'll realize how much more fun THEY have when they cooperate! They played catch and badminton, ate yummy food, played on the playground, and enjoyed a summer evening. I cannot begin to express how my heart sang when I looked over and saw my four older children playing badminton TOGETHER and laughing and having fun! For a minute I was wondering if aliens had descended and replaced my children with lookalikes who didn't know that my children like to fight with each other. Not to worry, once we got in the car for the 30 minute ride home, the children I know and love returned so they could enjoy bickering and "one-upping" each other quite loudly while arguing over the radio station and seating arrangements. Nonetheless, for a couple of hours, we were engrossed in family bliss!

Warm Weather Finally!

Look out world...here comes the Tate family!

Tyson on his roller blades

Tanner pushing, Ben on his bike, and Haylee on foot

Dave, Tanner, and Haylee with the babies

We went for a family walk on Conference Sunday between sessions because the stormy Utah weather finally subsided long enough and the sun came out! We had a great walk and we finally snapped a picture of our ENTIRE family together! We are quite a sight coming up the road--traffic moves out of the way! I love this family to pieces. It's so much work to be the mom, but I adore all these children and wouldn't trade any of them for all the riches in the world! Dave and I agree that we have an AWESOME family!