Happy Birthday, Eliza!

One of the first things I woke up to was Ali coming in my room and whispering, "Mom!  I looked at Eliza and her legs are even longer today than they were yesterday when she was only one!"  The kids were also convinced that she would start talking in complete sentences today.  They kept testing her all day with new words to try like, "hyena," "blueberry" and "diaper."  They were pretty sure she could say a lot more words today than yesterday.  I agree; she's been getting better about talking, but only to the trained ear.

We started off the celebration with presents first thing this morning.  That's how we always do it - who wants to wait?!  I found this old play high chair at an antique shop at Christmas and wanted to fix it up for Eliza then, but I really couldn't add one more thing to my plate.  I went back to see if they still had it and they did!  So it went from this:

To this:

I am very happy with it and hope it lasts a while.  It's big enough that by the end of today Eliza was climbing up and sitting in it herself.

Then it was a breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and sprinkles, complete with a candle and a little "Happy Birthday" song.  She got to go on a date with Daddy while the other children stayed and did all kinds of artwork birthday presents for her.  One of the pictures included Eliza sitting on a throne holding a golden cup with everyone else bowing to her, because she was the princess today.  Lunch was her favorite food - "Tillas!" (tortillas), then birthday cake and another song.  We watched the video of the day she was born, played, read and napped.  By dinner, she wanted the candle back in her cake, we sang to her again, she was finally able to blow out the candle herself and we had another slice of cake.  Rather than eat it, though, she just wanted the candle back in her cake so we could sing to her again.  She was a little upset that we were done with that for the day.  All in all, a great day.  The kids were nice to her all day (mostly) and even let her have the coveted middle seat at the bar.  I'm so lucky to have the kids I have.

When I think back about Eliza coming into our family, I'm so happy.  I had two miscarriages before finally being able to have her and realize what a blessing it is to have as many children as I do, but especially for Eliza.  She brings me so much happiness and I thank my Heavenly Father for sending her to me.

  

Blessing Day

We had Sophia's blessing this past Sunday.  With all our family, we took up most of the chapel in our tiny trailer of a ward building.  We had quite a houseful afterward, too.

 She wore the same dress I was blessed in.

Plus, we had a combination birthday party for Eliza & Samantha since we were all together anyway.

Just had to share this picture. 

It was a great day.  Thanks to everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a little house update

Just a little update....
http://youtu.be/_Bl1hL85liw


and if you don't remember what it looked like before....
http://youtu.be/lflGYZKKClQ

Taking A Breath

While the older children are entertained for a moment & I have one hand free for typing, I thought I'd post a few pictures.

These were taken with my fantastic new camera - thank you Jay and Sherrie.  You are the best friends a gal could ask for.  More to come on that later when I have two hands.

New Baby & New Crib

IT'S A GIRL!!!


I went in for my c-section early January 2.  Things didn't go quite as smoothly as they usually do, but in the end it all worked out.  My spinal block didn't block, so as they were scrubbing me preparing for surgery I realized I had an itch on my foot and was wondering about asking someone to scratch it for me when I remembered that I shouldn't be having an itch on my foot.  I tried wiggling my toes and they wiggled.  I said, "I can feel what you're doing.  And I can move my feet."  Everyone just stopped and after some testing they concluded that, yes, I could still feel and move my feet.  So, back to my room to wait another hour so they can try again.  The second time worked like a charm and a few short minutes later we got to meet our little girl.

****WARNING****  Some of the following pictures might be a little graphic of the c-section delivery.

Look at all that hair!!  

Anastasia Sophia 

January 2, 2012  10:32 am

8 lbs.  21 inches

Exactly a week before she was born, though, we were able to move in to our fabulous new house with the amazing help of some pretty WONDERFUL people.  The day after Christmas Tyler's entire family plus a good friend of ours and HIS brothers, dad, and father-in-law helped finish packing our house, loading everything on a truck, unloading everything off the truck and setting up furniture.  I am so blessed to be loved by so many people.

There are some "after" pictures coming, I promise.  Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us get so much done in so little time!  We are so grateful!

Pigs, Paint and Pretty Cabinets

In the brief moments before I go pass out in bed from exhaustion, I wanted to post some more updates!

First, the day has finally come to take our pig to the slaughter.  For the last two weeks he's been escaping from his pen, ever on the search for more food.  We decided it was time.  Originally we were planning on having a gigantic Christmas party where we roasted him out on a spit and had everyone we know come and share in the feast, but apparently we forgot how much we have going on right now and decided it would be best for everyone's sanity if we just took him in somewhere and then picked him up ready for the freezer.

So, here's a before shot of the day we got him:

 Tyler and Mario.  Their family wanted to go in on it with us to get the "farm" experience since their yard is too small.  :)  

Shortly after this day Cade decided he was a vegetarian.  He did not want to eventually eat this cute little guy.  

And then that cute little guy got really big and loud and stinky in 6 months.

It took just under an hour to get him into the trailer.  We thought he would be easily coaxed in with a bucket of food...

Then he got smart.  

We tried tying things around him, we tried wrapping him in a tarp, we tried bribing him with carrots and apples.  The only thing that eventually worked was trapping him in a cow panel (fencing) and scooting him to the trailer and chasing him in.  If only someone was there to video it all.

So, we're all pretty happy now.  And we'll have some awesome ham for Christmas dinner.  

Now, more house updates.  As of now, all of the rooms except the kids' bathroom are painted.  We still have some work to do in there, so I've moved on to painting door frames.  I attempted the base boards for about a minute and a half and decided my 36 week pregnant body can't handle that.  

On Monday we got our kitchen cabinets in and it's looking great!  We still have the crown molding to go on the top and the countertops to come in hopefully next week sometime, but I'm THRILLED with how it's coming along!

Here are a few shots of the living room:

I'm doing a board and batten look on the bottom half, so that's why it doesn't look finished yet.  We'll hopefully be starting on the floor tomorrow!