Family

This is us. Boy, there are a lot of us now. We walked into a restaurant last week and they nice lady said "how many?" My first thought was, too many. Too, too many:) Here's to lots of years of craziness as a family of six!

Repentance

Sam and Max love each other so much. Sam is usually so patient with him, as Max likes to sit on him, hit him, and show him a lot of tough love. Sam always forgives (he forgives Pearl too, who most of the time is a little less deserving...) and is happy to play with Max.

Except for tonight. The boys were showering together, and Max wouldn't listen to Sam, so he hit him. For which he got in huge trouble, well, a spanking and a 30 second lecture. He burst into tears. I went back to check on him and tell him that I loved him a few minutes later, and he was still so sad. I asked him why, and he said he just felt so bad that he hurt his little brother. Never have I seen such remorse for sibling violence. Once he got out, he was still upset, so he got dressed and gave hugs and was still a bit teary eyed, so Jared helped him say a prayer of repentance, and when he got to the part where he said he was sorry for hitting his brother, he teared up AGAIN.

Now, Max is sick, so this could just mean that Sam is on his way down, but I think it shows such a sweetness of spirit. Sam holds a special place in our family, and though he never listens and he's such a poky and I'm very afraid of how he's been behaving in school, he has such a tender, loving heart. We're so lucky to have his little spirit in our family.

He says he'll never hurt his little brother again. Here's to hoping! And actually, I think he really will. Try, at least:)

Max

I have a lot of blog catch up to do. And I will do it, I really don't want to let that slide.

But Max is in the ER with Jared. And I'm worried. It's also 10:48 pm and I'm very tired, so I think I will TRY to get some sleep. He's not breathing well, they're checking for pnemonia now because he has a pretty high fever for a little guy. So so sad and pathetic.

So, as I was downloading the 600 pictures on my camera to add to the 400 pictures I still have to go through, this one caught my eye. It's one of the reasons I love Max. He is always SO HAPPY!!!! I think that 2 year olds are my favorite, I haven't had too bad in the terrible twos department, so I still like that age. Well, I'd have to, I work almost exclusively with 2 year olds for my job. And I still like them.

Some things I love about Max are: he is always happy, he is SUPER cute when he says "love you mama" when I put him to bed, he always says "thanks" unprompted, and I love watching him try to keep up with Pearl and Sam. Every once in a while he can be on the fringes of their game (for example, if it involves a chase of some sort, he gets that part), and he loves it so much!

Love love love my boy. So glad to have a Max in the family.

Trunk or Treat

This was again another year of TONS of halloween parties. The last one was the church trunk or treat with our friends, the Larsens. It was great, they did it early, so it was light enough to see the kiddo's costumes and to not have to worry so much about where the boys went. We got to have Maya with us for some our Halloween festivities this year, which was super extra fun:)

As you know, the big kids had He-Man and She-Ra themed costumes. Well, we couldn't leave Maya out, so she became Swiftwind, She-Ra's trusty steed. In preparation, John and Lora let her watch a few episodes of She-Ra. We had them watch one together, in fact, and she spent the entire time pointing at the screen and saying "SHE BAAA!!!!" Funny. I'm not sure that she ever pointed out Swiftwind, or even totally made the connection, but her costume was awesome. And she liked the candy.

This is Maya... what? I'm her sidekick?

Tornado spin? Count me in!!!!

Pearl and her bestest friend Makayla. Aren't they getting so grown up?
Sam and Evan. I can still never figure what it is they're talking about, but they seem to be communicating...
Chow time for the Masters of the Universe.
And sweet Ruby... rockin' the Baby Legs:) But no candy for her.
Super fun. Thanks, Larsen family, for inviting us!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! Ruby looked adorable and slept through most of the experience:)

Three Weeks

She's three weeks old. And I haven't taken any pictures in like two whole weeks. Poor fourth baby. Max escaped the curse because I had JUST gotten a new camera... and I still love it, I do, it's just all I can do to fold 3 loads of laundry every day:)

Anyways, here she is. She's still SUCH a good baby, sleeping in 5 hour chunks at night (bless her!) and she hardly ever cries. Really. I think Heavenly Father sent her as the fourth baby on purpose, so we would all survive the experience.

And Max? Well, he's decided that this baby thing isn't quite so bad...

Rocketship

The kids have been playing rocketship on the couch with Jared. He told Pearl to punch in the coordinates for the alien city on Jupiter.

Max misunderstood and punched his brother in the face. Apparently we're still working on words with multiple meanings.

Good day.

Good day so far. I stayed up after the 530 am feeding to shower and put makeup on. I didn't yell at my kids when they were getting ready this morning. We were running late, but I read 5 verses of scripture to them anyway. Baby nursed when she was supposed to, right before my first client. Got to do some therapy, then off to my first weight watchers meeting (this go round...). Maybe I should have eaten more yesterday... Oh yeah, I had pumpkin pie for breakfast and a box of trader joes maple leaf cookies for lunch... Making it through piano lessons with all 4 kids (thanks to 2 sleeping babies and a video player). Good, good day:)

Random thoughts

Yesterday I asked Sam if he had a good day at school. "well, it was kind of a good day and kind of a bad day."

"did you get your name on the board?"

"yes"

"Oh, were you not listening again?"

"no, Joshua said something mean to my friend so I threw his boot at him"

"WHAT!!!! You threw a boot at someone's head?"

"No, it hit his hiney(sp?). Then he pushed me on the ground and I fell on my hiney."

I'm very afraid of parent teacher conferences this year.

Having a baby girl to dress up is so much more like playing dollies than having a baby boy. It just is. She's pretty much perfect, she's sleeping 4 hours at night, and for the last 4 or so nights she's been on the same schedule, which is nice for me. I like schedules and predictability. Today she took her naps in her cribs (she has one in Max's room and one in my room) and she ate only every 3 hours all day. Love her!

Somehow, when I was 6 1/2 months pregnant, I decided it would be a good idea to plant an entire bed of pie making pumpkins. Well, today Jared started cleaning out the garden, so I harvested a wagonload of the little beauties, and decided to roast and puree a batch. I'm smart enough to try to bake something with the first batch before I decide to puree the rest of the 100 pounds of pumpkin... so I made pumpkin pie tonight. Which means my kitchen is a mess. Which means I had to get in the big bathtub with Ruby tonight because her sink was less than sanitary. (I totally didn't mind that part, though, we like our baths:) Where do I come up with these ideas? Oh, yeah, too many cooking blogs. Pies just out of the oven, so I don't even know the verdict yet... we'll find out tomorrow morning at breakfast time. Mmmmmm. I hope. The puree was a bit watery... I'll have to strain the rest. See? I'm totally crazy. I GAVE BIRTH like not even two weeks ago, and I'm talking about pureeing pumpkin. Somebody, stop me!

Pearl loaded the dishwasher tonight. Love having a big girl around! She complains about how hard the exercises are at taekwondo, but I've caught her doing extra sit ups and pushups every night. Last night she told me she did it because she wants to keep her belly slim and trim, because she thinks it would be hard to carry a big belly around. Really? Thanks, Pearl:) Did I make it look that terrible?

I miss Taekwondo. I haven't even gotten to wear my green belt yet. I think I'll start again next week, and hope I don't tear any stitches or anything.

Ok, I must go to bed so I don't fall asleep and drop the baby at midnight. Or at 4 in the morning. And maybe it will be easier to roll out of bed and be kind to my children in the morning if I try to get enough sleep tonight...

In the mind of Sam...

This year for the primary program, (a program where the children all speak in the main meeting at church), the presidency asked us to ask the children about a topic and e-mail them the responses, so that the children could have parts in their own words. My children were asked to comment about the topic "my body is a temple."

Pearl said lots of normal expected things...

treat our bodies with respect, take baths and keep our bodies clean and brush our teeth and floss, and don't get tatoos or piercings, wear modest clothing, go to bed on time, and eat healthy food.

Sam, on the other hand, had a not-so-typical response:

the same thing as her, except for different stuff, important stuff like don't try to die and don't break rules and tell the truth and if you want to go for yourself don't listen to your mother and father. Don't hold your breath for too long because you might do it forever and die. Try to keep your balance, try to get out of mischief becuase you could get a spanking and that would get an owie. Think smart thoughts. If you need glasses, put them on. Save your dessert for after dinner. Don't do too much screen time because your eyes will get swirly.

I was furiously typing on my phone at the time, and may have missed a word here or there, but you get the gist. Seriously, this boy kills me. As in, tears streaming down my face trying to keep the laughter in as he was talking. "important stuff, like don't die" Where does he come up with this stuff! He's so smart, just this week I realized that he reads well enough to read scriptures with us in the morning, and yet, most of the time, I feel like his mind is a million miles away... though I guess the advice about not holding your breath forever is timely for some:) I am very curious to see just what poor Sister Seymour comes up with as a part from this raw material. At the very least, I hope she gets a good laugh out of it!

These Days...

Four kids... no big deal. Really, things are going MUCH more smoothly than I thought they would. I've even left the house TWICE to run errands (without Max, which helps). It helps that Jared is home... you know, to watch the sleeping babies while I take the kids to school, to make sure they brush their teeth when all the sudden I need to nurse, and to take one of the parent-participated bath times (they boys need a parent, and Ruby gets one all to herself... thank goodness Pearl is almost nine and can be semi-trusted with her own hygiene!) Actually, what I need him most for is early mornings and evenings, so we should be just fine when he goes back to work. I hope. For now, he's spending his vacation working on a computer program for his dad (NEVERENDING PROJECT) and doing his usually fatherly contribution:

We spend much time gazing at and adoring Little Miss Pinkness...

She's especially pink on her pink throne in the kitchen with her pink jammies and her pink blanket. Can we say I've embraced that my last baby is a girl? We have girl flavored everything around here, with no guilt or thoughts of "what if the next baby is a boy..." because there IS no next baby:)

The kids continue to adore her...
Max is even starting to tolerate her. He'll kiss the air above her head sometimes. That's about as far as it goes.
I have been feeling SO MUCH BETTER now that I'm not pregnant... really, I hate being pregnant. Even though I'm up at night feeding, I'm MUCH less tired now than I was last week. So, we've been out in the stroller every day this week. I'm in love with the rain cover, as we've had our first little winter storm, and some days have been windy/rainy, but I get to go out anyway with the kids in their "tent" as Max calls it:)
Max FINALLY got his hair cut the day after I came home from the hospital, a testament to just how much better I feel. If you refer to the video in one of the previous posts, you will see that he kind of looked like he had a lion's mane, but I was just too tired every night to fight him about it. Not so anymore:) We're also working on some unplugging... as you can see, it's going so-so. He usually just gets it while I'm nursing and daddy is busy sleeping (or right now while I blog... I know, bad mom:)

Thanks to Jared, the big kids have been able to keep their usual routine of school and taekwondo, and have adjusted to a little less attention just fine. They really are good kids and they make my life SO much easier than it could be:) Here's to 4 kids!

Announcement

Ruby Lu

Here she is. She's beautiful, and sweet, and doing everything she is supposed to like a champ. She loves her pacifier and her mommy, being swaddled, and napping. She doesn't like NOT having her pacifier (see last picture!) Here's just a few snaps I got today, I'll do another shoot in a day or so once everything around here calms down... I think she's pretty:)

Meeting the Fam

The kiddos didn't end up coming to the hospital to see the baby. They were busy with school and piano lessons (what a mean mom I am!) and we kept thinking we were going home soon, so they stayed up late and didn't get to meet her until we got home. They were SO EXCITED - I think Sam even more so than Pearl. Sam is the one who has been talking to my belly the most, asking me occasionally if she's going to be cute, and otherwise interested in the baby. I think they're going to have a special relationship... once, while we were at Target about a year and a half ago, he asked me where she was. I think he knew she was coming:) There has been a flurry of handwashing and holding her last night and this morning, I don't think she minds too much.

So the kids are happy to meet her... Max... not so much. His attitude hasn't changed since she got home, we're hoping for some progress in the near future, but not holding our breath...

Welcome Baby

So, on Wednesday, thinking I was never going to have the baby... I went into labor:) We got to labor and delivery at about 1 am after contractions every 3 minutes... and I was only 3cm:( But, lucky for me, the contractions were consistent enough AND I was group B Strep positive, so they admitted me so that they could make sure I got all my doses of meds before delivering baby. SCORE!!! After 8 hours of antibiotics, I was only at 4, so they started Pit. A few hours later, I got an epidural, and slept for a bit. Nice. By 6:00, I was STILL only at a 4, but she kind of thought she could feel baby's head. She kept saying that my cervix was so soft it was hard to tell... that baby just needed to come down! She was still afraid to break my water... so I was all settled in to wait some more when the attending came in and made the call to break my water. An hour later, I was ready to push! She was still a bit too high, but they asked me if I thought I could push her down, and I said YESSSSS!!!!! So, as with all the other babies (except this time I got to see it, I asked for a mirror) they said, ok, go ahead and try to push, and halfway through the first push they yell STOP!!! They got the doc all gowned and ready, and she was out in one push, well, one and a half. Which meant she spent almost no time in the birth canal, and that she has the most perfectly shaped head for a newborn:) It was bizarre to see it, I asked for the mirror because it was my last child... and I'm kind of glad I've never seen it before. It may be amazing, but it's not pretty.

We were able to have a short hospital stay, just barely over 24 hours, so I only had to have baby in there one night. Which was awesome, the second night is always the WORST because baby isn't sleepy anymore and you're stuck in a tiny room with nowhere to walk. She was still up all night last night, but we could move to different rocking chairs and look at halloween lights and just be happier in general:) The stay was so short, and she was such a good eater and pooper, I didn't really take many pictures... but you get the idea:) She's beautiful, I am SO GRATEFUL for all of my healthy children, truly, it is an amazing thing.