Hannah's song

we love hannah

(sing to the tune of 'go, diego, go')

deep inside the boyce house

where kids are running wild;

coming to our family is a very special child.

crying all the night long

eating all the day--

she's such a cute addition that people stop and say:

(chorus): we love hannah, banana, hannah. go, hannah, go!

adam's on a mission

with caleb by his side;

liam's playing legos

and seth goes off to hide.

katya playing dress-up is always so much fun,

and j protects the house with his big double-shot nerf gun.

(repeat chorus)

our lastest arrival

the long awaited arrival of baby hannah

hannah cosette was born on jan 6 (katya's half-birthday--and yes, we planned it that way). she was 7 lbs 14 oz (our smallest single baby) and 21 inches long with huge feet and long fingers. labor was induced and lasted a depressing 14.5 hrs, but she came easily after just 2 pushes.


she's a wonderful baby--our easiest so far--sleeping up to 7 hrs at night, feeding like a champ, loving to be held (and there are a lot of us to hold her!), and just generally a good girl. it's also a bonus that i don't get peed on in the middle of the night.

here are pics of everyone/everything that likes to hold her:

the laundry

the katya (notice her lovely black eye!)

the twins (although in general they don't seem to care much about her)

the human train (jeremy and caleb)

the master holder (seth)--he's great at keeping her asleep

the big brother (jeremy)

the awesome aunt who babysits alot (courtney)

the liam

the princess couch cuddle time

nathan has an amazing 6 weeks off of work, so it's been nice having him home to do everything that i can't/don't want to do. he took all the kids to the science center last saturday. i just thought this picture was cute.

on sunday, the boys all spontaneously decided that they wanted to wear ties to church. it took a little time to get them all gussied-up, but it was worth it! they are so handsome.

i had to throw this in. adam and caleb (in red), just randomly fell asleep this way. even though they may fight a bit, at least sometimes they show affection (even if it is subconscious!)

um, has it really been 4 months???

okay, so i've been thinking for awhile that i needed to update, but just haven't. blah, blah, blah. i was gonna make it cute and funny. blah, blah, blah. so, i thought i'd just bite the bullet and make another one cute later. also, i'm a dum-dum b/c i forget to upload the pics in the right order (so now they are backwards), and i only have from easter back. (too lazy to get the camera out and upload the others.) aren't you glad to have such friends as us?

the kids at our annual easter-egg hunt


the whole easter-egg hunting crew
my sis (steve) asleep after a long day of walking around over easter

my dad and liam walking at shaw nature reserve

taking a breather at the nature reserve (easter weekend with my padres and sis)--and yes, nate is hiding from the camera behind the babies

daffodils and kids at the nature reserve

i think they look so cute they should just stay there!

walking through meramec caverns (a hideout of jesse james!)

the babies only would say "wa-wa" the entire time we were there, whether or not there was any water to be seen. i kept trying to get them to say 'rock' or 'cave' but they never went for it

how i found caleb asleep one time

part of my bedroom (the 'library' part) that nate so graciously let me decorate in all things wonderfully giraffe

one day when i was blowing leaves off our back porch, adam decided he liked it. i'm so happy i mangaged to get the perfect pic!

since i always have to have a project going, i decided (with the kids approval, of course) to try sleeping them all (well, the 4 older ones) in room and putting everything else in the other room. it's working out pretty well, but was pretty awkward moving the beds about. luckily, they still had fun playing on everything!

4 little monkeys swinging on the bed...


J got baptized early march. such a milestone! (thanks to all our friends who helped watch the kids so nate and i could actually savor the moment!)

j and nate before the big moment!

and, last but not least, is there anything in the world more felicitious than a banana and bacon sandwich????

way behind

so, this i've needed to update for quite awhile--but life just keeps moving and blogging keeps getting pushed to the rear.so, here's been our lives for the last few months...(and probably completely out of order--or at least reversed-- since i think i'm too lazy to make this organized...)

J's 8th bday--he'll be getting baptized in a couple of weeks. i feel like i've passed a significant landmark in my parenting life--my kids are getting old! he wanted a 'thanksgiving feast' for his dinner (minus the turkey, plus steak) and an ice cream pie for his 'cake'. it's fun to see the kids developing thier own personalities and preferences...


J had used this ladder to keep the younger kids out of his room, but when he shut it, the ladder wouldn't budge. i finally just kicked the door in. another project on the way...

with the advent of J turning 8, he is also now in cub scouts. i know it's a great program, and i love his leaders, but it also means the beginning of really running around for the kids for the next zillion years or so. i wish i could put all the boys in it right now and just do everything at once. the babies would make it to eagle scout by the time they are 6! he also did the pinewood derby--came in 5th. pretty good for parents who don't know what they are doing--and had to paint it while dealing with ladder problem mentioned above 10 minutes before he had to leave...

the kids on a frozen pond. we went on a hike and the kids wanted to try and go out on it...

caleb enjoying his first snow experience...adam didn't have a fun time. i haven't let them go out since then b/c it takes an hour to get them both prepped to go outside and they don't stay out long enough...maybe next year!

the boys with "spikey" hair--it never lasts very long...

after christmas, we went to visit my family in TN. here we are at the chattanooga aquarium looking at some big crab. it's a very nice place and the kids had a blast. after that, we went to a children's museum a block or two away, which was also great. we'll have to make it an annual thing!

the older 4 at the aquarium...

Jess and Steve cuddling with the babies. we plopped on a movie at night b/c by then we were too fed up with them getting into things. oh wait... that's every second of my life...

just a quick scene from the chaos that is christmas--everyone had a good one and it's more fun as the kids are getting older and enjoying it more...

we kept up with my tradition of making gingerbread houses with friends--always a holiday favorite. they didn't leave me much good candy at the end to make a good house with though. oh well!

you don't get much cuter than this...

this is how we found K one night asleep. i thought it was pretty gross, but had to get a pic anyway

classic babies--why we keep all the chairs on the floor and why i have to knwo where they are constantly...

they always find a way to get into trouble (that's Adam getting in the craft cabinet)

seth turned 5 in november. he was very excited about it. i just signed him up for kindergarten and am so stoked for him to go! i love his personality...the other day nate said that he was secretly wolverine, and seth said that it wasn't a secret anymore since he just told him...not what we were expecting, but then again, it usually never is...

anyway, more to come hopefully soon... i just repainted my bedroom (with the help of Mom Boyce) and now only have one room left to redo. hopefully this means that we won't be moving soon after. so, i'm doing a lot of reading, running kids around, trying to take on more projects than i actually get around to doing, and just trying to keep up with life in general...