4th of July

Yes, I know. I've been MIA for a month. Sorry. There really aren't any excuses besides it being summertime. We're trying to get out and do stuff because I hate it when the summer's over and you feel like you didn't do anything. So we've been going to the library a lot. We go to the nearby elementary school for lunch almost every day and then play on the playground afterwards. Keith unexpectedly had someone want to use his scaffolding and surprised us with season passes to Lagoon that he bought with the money he charged the guy for "renting" the scaffolding from him. So we've been to Lagoon 4 times already. We've spent time at the farm with the animals and Keith's family. And we're spending a lot of time in the front and back yards...on bikes, running in the sprinklers, playing soccer, etc. And I've done quite a few more scrapbook pages since I last posted, but I'll put those up later. Today I just wanted to come on and post some pics from the weekend. I always think it's been so long since I've posted that I need to recap EVERYTHING and that would take too long so I just don't bother. I've decided not to feel guilty today and just post what I want. :P

We woke up around 9 on the 4th and rushed to get dressed so we could run over and see the parade. We found a pretty good parking spot at the end of a block that had cars quadruple-parked down the whole block. I mean there were rows of 4 cars going down the whole block (I felt bad for the people parked way at the end of the block - I'm sure it took forever for them to get out) and because we were so late getting there we were able to park right at the front of the block and were the first car to leave. Anyway, then we walked down to the beginning of the block where the parade was. It had already started but we hadn't missed too much. Keith and I stood at the back with the girls, but they eventually made their way right up to the street and sat down in front of some other people already sitting there! But those people were in chairs and the girls sat on the ground out in the street in front of them, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I went up to join them later and asked the people if it was okay and they said it was. So because I was in such close quarters with the girls (I still didn't want to take up too much room in case those people got annoyed with us) I couldn't get very good pics of the girls. But I was able to get this one of Mari. Since we were so close, the bands with their drums were really loud and she covered her ears every time one passed by. I thought it was cute.


Then Elena got up and started walking into the street during a gap in the parade. I was wondering what she was doing, where she was going, and was about to start yelling for her to come back when I realized why she was going out there. Her eagle eyes had spotted a piece of candy that hadn't been claimed and was retrieving it. My girls are candy freaks!


We took these pics of Noah while we were relaxing in the front yard, waiting for it to be time to go watch the fireworks. Noah LOVES to stand up and fusses if we don't let him. He's actually standing next to me right now while I'm typing (I have my arm around him). I love the look on his face in this first picture. He raises his eyebrows like that all the time - he's been doing it since he was born. It used to make his forehead crinkle up more than it does now that he's grown in to his skin a little more. And in the second picture you can see that he's pulled one hand away from me. Already showing his independence. Isn't his outfit cute?


Earlier in the day, after the parade, we parked Keith's truck up on the mountain in the parking lot for the "Y" trail. That way we'd have a good spot for watching the fireworks without having to sit and stake out our spot for 5 hours. So we headed up there around 9:30 and waited for the show to start. This was the only picture I took of (almost) all of us. The girls enjoyed watching the fireworks while Noah slept through them. We had a wonderful time spending the whole day together.



I hope your July 4th celebrations were just as fun as ours!!! And if you also celebrated in Provo this weekend, check out this blog. She's having a little contest for people who post photos of them/their family/whatever, enjoying the 4th of July weekend in Provo.

P.S. Yes I still plan on changing the name of the blog. I just still haven't come up with one that I REALLY like and will be a name that I wouldn't ever have to change again.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Since we were up after midnight last night (this morning) Keith was the first to tell me Happy Birthday today. Then when I woke Elena up for school, the first thing she said to me was Happy Birthday. She's normally a little grumpy in the mornings and I hadn't thought she'd remember, so I said "Elena, you remembered!!" And she said "Of course I remembered your birthday, Mom. I would be bad if I didn't remember your birthday". (Of course I assured her she wouldn't be, and then thanked her for remembering!) Then when Mari, Téa, and Amya woke up, they all came into our room and sang Happy Birthday to me with Keith. Then Keith took them to the kitchen to make me some breakfast - yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Probably not the most nutritious breakfast, but very yummy. Mari keeps walking up to me and singing Happy Birthday - it's very cute.

And the mail just came and it was ALL for me! A birthday card from Memmie (to which Amya said "She always sends pretty cards"), one from Sally&Ben (to which Amya said "They always send cute cards...usually with dogs" (and this one was no exception)) and one from my mom (to which Amya said "Is my money in there?" (long story, but it was)). Oh and I got a card from Ceci on Monday...the first one to arrive. After I opened the card from my mom and pulled out the 3 gift cards to Target, Bath&Body Works and Old Navy, plus a little cash (THANKS Mom), Keith had something to say - "Hey, is she trying to outdo me or what?" :) Thanks for the cards guys!! Love ya!

So far this is shaping up to be a pretty good birthday. And since it's my last one (I don't plan on getting older than 29), that's a very good thing.

Here's Mari singing to me....


And this is totally unrelated, but we think it's hilarious so I'm including it. We like to play a game we call "Who Says? Who Says?" (Amya made up the name when she was 2). We say a quote from a movie and the first person to correctly name the movie it's from or the character who says it, gets the next turn. Last night Téa came up to me with this gem....

I didn't think to have her say it again and tape it last night, but we got it this morning. I think it's SO funny how she changes her voice for the different parts. In case you can't figure it out, she's singing a line from the "A Whole New World" song in the movie Aladdin. She says "Don't you dare close your eyes (Aladdin's part) and then "A whole new world" (Jasmine's part). Oh and that's chocolate frosting from the cupcakes all over their mouths.

silly boy

Keith made these delicious and wonderful cinnamon rolls for the second time last night. He started around 9 and I think the first batch came out of the oven around 11:30 pm. They looked so light and golden. I was looking at them and wondering why they didn't look exactly the same as last time. Then it hit me. "Keith, did you put cinnamon in these?" I asked him. "No...why?" was his reply. I waited. A few seconds later, "Aw, man!" Yes, he forgot to put the cinnamon in the cinnamon rolls. I think we'll forgive him though - they still tasted wonderful. Here's a pic of the ones that he made the first time...before baking. I never got around to taking a picture of them after they came out of the oven because we were too excited to eat them.

7 weeks

Ack!! I keep meaning to get on here and post, and then I get too busy with everything else and forget. But our cute little boy is now 7 weeks old! We can't believe how much he's already growing. He is getting quite good at holding his head up and is SO alert. He loves to be up on our shoulder so that he can look around at everything. When someone is talking, he's trying to find where they are. He's turned into quite the expert pooper, gracing us with blowouts almost every day now. And he's starting to make little noises. I LOVE it when babies are first starting to "talk"- I think their little coos are the sweetest things ever. We are loving our time with our little Noah boy (that's what Mari likes to call him). Here are some pictures of what he's looking like at 7 weeks.

I think we all know where he gets that double chin from. :)





And here are two scrapbook pages I made for him...

weeks 17&18

weeks 15&16

4 weeks?!?!?

How can it have already been 4 weeks? It seems like we JUST came home from the hospital and now he's 4 weeks old today and will be a month on Sunday. I just can't believe how fast time goes by....especially when we haven't been doing much of anything these last 4 weeks. I knew a newborn didn't do much but sleep, eat, and poo, but I forgot how much time those things actually take. I am on the couch almost all day long...I'm either pumping, changing him, feeding him his bottle, burping him, holding him while he sleeps (I know it spoils him, but sometimes I just can't help it), holding him while he's awake, or helping the girls hold him. He is a really good baby....he only cries if we don't get him his bottle in time. :P

On the bottle subject...I'm pumping and then he gets the breast milk in the bottle. We started doing this to monitor how much he was eating to make sure he didn't get too jaundiced (as he was falling asleep almost right after he started to nurse and then didn't eat enough) and have continued to do this as I'm pumping out twice the amount he eats and would DIE (after I exploded) if I was only nursing. Keith and I figured it out the other night. I have over 100 6 oz bags of milk, frozen in our deep freezer. That means over 600 oz I've frozen, which is over 1200 total pumped out. Do you know how much 1200 oz is? Over 10 gallons. 10 gallons. In 4 weeks. I feel like a freaking cow.

On to other news.... :) Noah is super sweet. He smiles a lot, sleeping and awake. And not when he's tooting. He's just happy. He holds his head up really well already and is really alert. He's always looking around and has recently starting really looking at things. He will hear me talking and start looking around till he finds me and then stare at me for awhile. I LOVE it. Today was the first rough day we had with him. I don't know if it was something I ate or he wasn't burped enough or what, but he had bad gas pains. He was crying and fussing and couldn't lay down. I had to hold him up on my shoulder to get him to stop crying and he was tooting like there was no tomorrow. He would fuss, toot, calm down, and then fuss again right before he tooted again. I felt so bad for him. I let him sleep on me all day today so he wouldn't be in pain. I've never had a baby have gas problems before...it was so sad. I think he's finally feeling better, as he's asleep in his bed and not crying. I sure hope this doesn't happen again. I know I wouldn't be able to hold him all day long, all the time, like I did today (Keith was here and able to help out), and it would be sad to have him crying and not be able to give him all of my time and attention (as I have four other kids who do need me every now and then).

And now it's time to pump again. The cycle goes on. :P Here's a sweet pic I took of our little Noah today.