Like a Freight Train...

Ahhhh....comfy and cozy on the couch. And snoring like a freight train. How Bella doesn't wake herself up sometimes I will never know, she is just that loud.

Still Here

 I've been busy. I know, it's a lame excuse, but I really have had my hands full lately. Reagan turned 1 in May and we had a little family party for her, even giving her a cupcake of her own to demolish and eat, all for her big day. She loved it. While she isn't walking yet, she can, and has taken numerous steps by herself from point A to point B, but just isn't ready to walk all over. She cruises all of the furniture, and can also crawl like a speeding bullet, especially if she's trying to get to something she knows she's not supposed to have, and her sweet face lights up at the mere sight of Mama or Daddy. I can never resist her cute smile with all of her tiny little baby teeth, she is too cute!
 Summer is blazing by us it seems, with the kids enjoying their time off from school and me enjoying having the house full of them every day. I miss them when they're at school, the house is far too quiet with just the two little babies at home. I'm so excited that Craig is half way finished building the shelves in my sewing room, and I can't wait to put everything away and actually be organized and have everything out and ready to be used. I'm ready to be done with the endless stacks of totes filled with who-knows-what-sewing-notion. My goal of organizing and simplifying my life has been a work in progress, but one that has paid off in more ways than I could have anticipated.
 Life is peaceful more often than not, and I love that it's not hard to come by. Simple things done daily pay off with less stress and lots of clean spaces. Love it! My biggest goal was to get a handle on the laundry, it was so overwhelming. Every day I dreaded it. And ignored it. And wanted to cry over it. But no more! My laundry baskets are empty or half full most days, rarely over flowing, and I'm caught up with folding/putting away the clean clothes most days too. Miracles do happen folks:) Now to work on a way to continually have a clean and organized fridge.

A Dog for Mothers Day

Her name is Bella.

She's a 3 years old Boxer.

We picked her up this afternoon.

We are so in love with her sweet squishy face <3

Happy Mothers day to me.

Family Seder

 This year, my sister Holly decided it would be a fun idea to have a family Seder. Yes, I realize we're L.D.S. and not Jewish, but we figured that since we have quite a bit of Jewish ancestry, and we enjoy learning more about other faiths, and the entire thing is really a great way to tell the Exodus story, that we would just go ahead.
 Everyones hard work paid off, and we had a great time. We sang an opening song, then my Mom lit the candles and said the opening prayer. My Dad told the story of Moses, Pharaoh and the Hebrew slaves, and my sister Holly explained when to taste everything on the plates in front of us and when to drink from the little cups too.The kids did pretty good sitting through everything (only about 30 minutes), and it was fun hearing my Dad tell the story of Moses. For the meal afterwards we tried to stay as closely as possible to the Kosher requirements, which my sister made sure to give a list of the do's and don'ts to us beforehand to make it simpler.
 My assignment was Matzo Ball soup, which i had never made before, nor eaten. Being totally unsure of where to start I of course googles it and read through numerous recipes online and watched several Matzo Ball how-to videos and realized it wasn't as hard as I thought. After quite a bit of reading I ended up combining several recipes into the one I used and it turned out delicious. I was surprised at how simple it really was to make. I am a total fan of Matzo Ball soup now, and frankly, I think I will be making that instead of Chicken Noodle from now on. It was so good, and so easy!
 I was amazed at how many people we seated at our house today, there were well over 40 of us! and yet we were able to seat everyone in my kitchen and dining room. Small miracles:) It helped that Craig and I now own two full size dining tables and 26 chairs just by ourselves, so my sister only had to bring two folding tables and chairs to round us out. Perks of a huge family? Yes, definitely.

four month catch-up

A quick look back at March, April, May & June...

-Celebrated Dylan's birthday. My oldest baby is now 19 years old. I remember marveling at how beautiful Dylan was as I held him for the first time.
-Haven started horseback riding lessons at the end of May and she loves it! And I love watching her while she rides, she is just so cute.
-Another birthday was celebrated, and I sewed a fun and ruffly outfit for my cute little birthday girl to wear to school. Gracen loved waking up to the surprise and wearing it on her special day.
-On my 39th birthday I snapped a quick picture with a nearly 5 month old Jensen.
-Finn, Gracen, and Mathes all dressed up for Easter Sunday, 2011. Mathes looks shocked he's getting his picture taken, even though this is actually one of his "smiles" for pictures. Punk.
-For Finn's birthday this year I made him a Super Hero cape and mask....
....and he is off to save the world!
-Mathes got a turn being "Super" too.
-Ciel had all four of her wisdom teeth removed and a small crowded tooth in front pulled. Poor kid. But she recovered incredibly fast, and had little to no pain afterwards. Here she is with a mouth full of gauze. Next up for her, braces!
-Also...Dylan quit his day job to work full time managing local bands and moved out into his own place, and we turned his bedroom into a guest room. (Wanna visit? We now have somewhere for you to sleep!)
-Finn is pedaling a two wheel bike with training wheels, Jensen was 25 3/4- inches tall and 17lbs. at her 6 month check-up, I'm trying to figure out a way to own a horse again, Craig is planting a garden nearly twice the size of last years, we got a pair of zebra finches, and we have peaches growing on all three of our little peach trees.

Ok, all caught up? Good.

she’s an animal

I took Jensen in for her 4 month check-up today and she measured 23 inches long and weighed 12 lbs. 13 oz. putting her almost in the 50th percentile for weight. Her Dr. was surprised that she hasn't been sick yet (yay!), and how strong and physically active she is. Seriously, it was like trying to examine a wild animal. She was in a constant state of motion as she kicked, pushed, bucked, and scooted all over the exam table. She was determined to keep moving, there was no way Jensen was going to stay in one spot, she wasn't at all interested in holding still. Her Dr. got a good laugh out of it as she almost managed to launch herself right off the scale. He wasn't expecting her strength and activity level to say the least. Ah yes, one healthy and very active baby.

4 months and growing

(photo taken by her cousin Adler)

Jensen is 4 months old today, and after a slow start gaining weight, she has turned into quite the little chub. She weighed only 6 lbs. 10 oz at her 2 week check, so you know we're thrilled to see that at her 2 month check-up she weighed 9 1/2 lbs. , at 3 months she weighed 11 lbs., and now at 4 months she weighs 12 1/2 lbs. Pretty sure it's all in her cheeks too, their totally chubby and completely kissable! Here is a rundown of her "baby stats"....

-Sleeps from about 10pm-8am in her own bed (a co-sleeper in our room) without waking in the night (heaven!)

-Refuses to nap in her bed during the day though, only sleeping during daytime hours if she is in someones arm (punk!)

-Loves the pure entertainment her siblings offer her at every waking moment.

-Is a very happy, content, and smiley baby

-Loves to stick out her tongue.

-Is a true "Daddy's Girl", is happy to fall asleep in his arms and loves the sound of his deep voice.

-Loves to "talk" with all of her baby sounds.

-Giggled and laughed for the very first time Friday night (3-25-11).

-Currently fits perfectly into 3-6 month size clothing (which means she is close to outgrowing that size very soon)
-Still sporting a mohawk since her hair refuses to lie down. No amount of styling can tame it into submission, it's been this way since birth.

-She rarely spits up, and rarely has diaper "blowouts" (hooray!)
-She still has her hands up to her face all of the time. Just like she did right after she was born, and even before as seen in her ultrasound pics.

-Still the most popular person at our house.

Jensen’s blessing dress

I had a lot of fun sewing Jensen's Blessing dress, and I love how it turned out. I apologize for the wrinkled dress and bad lighting/pictures, but I have little to no time these days with most of it taken up in caring for the baby along with the rest of my busy brood. I had to just get them taken 'as is' if I ever wanted to get this post done. Oh well, you'll just have to forgive me.

Never having worked with silk dupioni before, I worried it would be a repeat of my nightmarish first experience with velvet. As it turned out it was a dream to work with and I am planning a few more projects using silk dupioni again. Anyways, back to the blessing dress. I used a simple pattern as a jumping off point, and I just made it over to my liking. I changed the sleeves from short, puffed and gathered to a 3/4 length with a ruffle at the sleeves edge and no gathering at the shoulder.

I then shortened the length of the bodice, lengthened the skirt portion of the dress, and added an underskirt ruffle to the bottom hem of the dress that made it look like there was a second layer underneath, and then added pintucks on the bodice front and on the skirt of the dress. (I wish my pictures did the dress justice, they lighting is bad and the wrinkles are really doing more harm here than needed, but I am just going to have to stop fretting and just let it go. I don't have time to do any better right now, again, I'm sorry.)

I kept the bonnet simple by adding a row of pintucks along the crown and added a ruffle all around the edge so that it framed her cute face and tied it off with velvet ribbon.

I love, love, love the end result of the entire outfit, it was perfectly classic, modern, simple, and girly enough to suit little Jensen to a "T".

And to top it all off, Craig's Mom crocheted the most beautiful pair of little shoes for Jensen to wear with her Blessing dress on her special day. Here she is after the blessing in the little pink dress I changed her into for the family gathering at my house afterwards. I wanted to make sure her pretty little shoes could be seen, her Grandma's hard work needed to be shown off on her cute little grandbaby.

I made sure to get a quick shot of Jensen with Craig and I right after church, because I knew I would forget to do it later once I got busy. Jensen was ready to be done but humored me just long enough for this shot.

The next picture we took has her howling. Oh well, we were done anyways.

Jensen had a lovely Blessing day complete with gorgeous weather for those traveling from far away to attend, and lots of family, food and fun at our house afterwards as we celebrated her special day.

getting somewhere

So, after much testing, it has been determined that my son has ADHD and PDD-NOS. Not sure what that second one means? Basically he isn't Autistic and he doesn't quite meet all of the criteria for Aspergers either, but he is somewhere in the spectrum (this link on PDD-NOS explains it better than I can). We are feeling very relieved and happy to finally be getting some sensible answers for him. He is an incredibly smart, sweet, and tenderhearted little boy that has a great sense of fun, a deep imagination, and a lot of love for his family. And while he does great at home and seems to be thriving here, school and church are both a drastically different story, and a constant challenge for him and his teachers. So we are hopeful that we can gain the necessary tools and methods to better help him and to understand him more now that we know what we are dealing with. Although none of this changes the fact that he is still my little boy, as sweet, cute and funny as ever. He is just going to face some extra challenges along the way.

newborn photoshoot

Melanie has an incredible natural talent for taking beautiful pictures. So of course I totally exploited the fact that she's my sister-in-law and asked her to take some pictures of my new little babe Jensen. And boy did Melanie deliver. Seriously, take a look at her handy work...

This one is my absolute favorite, I love that she's smiling. I know, totally involuntary, but still completely adorable!

And I love how this one turned out just so simple and sweet.

These look so good in B&W.

Cannot get enough of the ruffly bum.

Ruffly and bummy, so cute!

Mel knew just how to place everything to get the best shots. Love the colors in this one, perfect!

Of all of the nakie shots, this one is my favorite, it's so cute and looks just like my Jensen.

She's so cute, all curled up and sound alseep.

Ok, so the fact that Jensen is darling doesn't hurt, but seriously, Melly is awesome! And she not only took the photos, but she has mad editing skills too. So a very big thank you to Melanie for taking these gorgeous pictures of my sweet new baby Jensen, and giving me some wonderful keepsakes of my little girl as a tiny newborn. Melly has lots more of her awesome camera work posted on her blog, so make sure to stop by!

our new little one

Our new little one has arrived, safe and sound, and as cute as can be.

I made sure to get at least one belly shot right before we left for the hospital. Talk about procrastination.

I had a very quick labor, only 2 1/2 hours start to finish, with our new little baby arriving in a very big hurry.

Jensen Catherine Anne

November 29, 2010

11:06 am

7 lbs. 6 oz.

19 inches long

Jensen is absolutely adored by all of her brothers and sisters. In fact, they can't stay away, with most of their time spent begging to hold her or even just touch her. It's hard being the most popular girl in town.

a baby story

4:30am- Craig and I get up, shower, and get ready to leave for the hospital. It's baby day.
6am- I have Ciel take a few belly shots with my camera before we leave, we make sure to leave the last few instructions, then we head out the door.
6:10am- We arrive at the registration desk, and for some reason, the girl has trouble getting my information entered in properly. She keeps mixing me up with another woman named Brooke that is already admitted to Labor & Delivery. Finally we get everything straightened out after about 20 minutes, and they take us back.
6:30am- They take me to my room, one I have never been in before, and my nurse, Connie, gives me my gown to change into, and a stack of papers to fill out. She is very sweet, and I know instantly she will be an awesome delivery nurse.
6:45am- Connie gets a call that she is needed to help wit the other woman there in labor, Brooke, her delivery is imminent. I finish filling out the pile of papers, and Connie lets me know she will be back shortly. In less than 5 minutes we hear a newborn baby crying. I am happy for Brooke. It suddenly dawns on me that I know who Brooke is. She is about my same age, about the same number of kids, is in our ward and our due dates were 3 days apart. When Connie returns, I ask her a few questions and I confirm my suspicions. I was right. So fun!
7:15am- I send Craig home to get the kids off to school, Finn on the schoolbus, and then drive Ciel to school on his way back. I knew we had time and he wasn't going to miss anything, so off he went.
7:45am- Connie tries to insert my IV so that she can start my Pitocin. After two sticks in my hand she stops, afraid of hurting me, and calls the other nurse on duty in to see if she has any better luck. Nope. Instead the anesthesiologist is called to do my IV and my epidural at the same time.
8:10am- The anesthesiologist arrives, gets my IV line inserted in less than a second on the first try, with his eyes closed and both hands tied behind his back. Not really, but I swear he probably could have.  He then moves on to my epidural. He gets it in but when he flushes the line, it doesn't work. So he has to re-do it. Connie and I talk about my past labors and when I mention that I have given birth 4 times without any pain meds, the anesthesiologist asks me why I would ever do that. He felt that if we have the meds to make birth less painful, we should use it. I tried to explain, but he was kind of irritated with me. Oh well. He gets a call from surgery saying he needs to be there asap. He gets the second epidural in and dashes off. He calls over his shoulder that he will return after surgery to dose me with the meds to numb me since I am not contracting yet and he has only inserted the epidural catheter in my back in preparation for the meds for later. Connie and I have been chatting away the entire time, and I am so thrilled that she will be my delivery nurse, she is the best.
8:30am-My Dr. arrives, checks me (I'm a 3 still) and decides to break my water first thing (the nurse noted the time it was broken at 8:33am, and they consider this as the start of labor).I tell the Dr. I will deliver this baby in about 2 hours time. He laughs and says he's not so sure about that, every labor is different and not to get my hopes up. Then the nurse starts the Pitocin. It takes mere minutes for my contractions to start and become regular. Mild, but regular.
8:40am- the Dr. leaves and minutes later Craig is back. The kids are safely off to school, and we settle in for labor.
9am- I call my best friend Jodee and make arrangements for Finn to be dropped off at her house just in case my Mom is held up and doesn't get to our house in time to get him off the bus herself. Once I know everything is settled, arranged and the kids will be fine, I totally relax and stop worrying about it.
9:30am-My contractions are  getting stronger. Connie checks me and I'm a 4. I ask for the anesthesiologist to come and give me the numbing meds. He arrives and doses me up, then another tech brings in a epidural pump, my first time using one, and sets me up so I can dose myself as I go. The tech tells me that when I am ready to push to hit the button to give myself one last dose to make things easier at the end.
10am- the epidural meds have kicked in, but only to take the edge off of the contractions. My feet feel kind of numb and tingly, but I can feel everything else. Not wanting to be a whiner, I don't mention anything. I figure it will kick in soon and I won't be in pain anymore.  I try to get some rest. Connie turns out the lights and I lie down for a bit to see if I can take a little nap.
10:30am- My contractions are getting stronger and my epidural is still not working on my contractions and I can't sleep. Rest is out of the question. I finally break down and tell Connie I'm hurting, and she helps me to breathe through the contractions. They are very strong and reminiscent of my drug free labors. Connie pages the anesthesiologist immediately to see if he can help. She helps me continue to breathe through them, they are really getting  hard. Connie is a so kind, and the breathing is getting me through.
10:45am- I ask Connie to check me again and I was a good 5, almost 6 cm dilated.  I am disappointed, I was sure I was at least a 7 or an 8. Ugh. More contractions and breathing.
11am- I get hit with a whopper of a contractions. It took my breath away. I instantly know. This is it. I tell Connie she needs to check me again. Now. She does. She looks at me in total shock and says I am 10cm. I'm complete. It's time to push. She runs to call the Dr.
11:01am- The anesthesiologist arrives, checks my epidural to make sure it;s still inserted properly. Asks me how much I want to feel while I push, totally numb, or just enough to feel some pressure. I opt for the second one. He doses me up and within one minute I am pain free. Oh sweet relief.
11:04am- My Dr. dashes in, throwing on a gown in a quiet panic.He says I was right after all, it was only about 2 hours since he broke my water. Connie and the other nurse Jamie are prepping me, raising the bed, and scurrying to ready everything.
11:05am- The Dr. has me push on the next contraction, counting to 10. A deep breath, and push again counting to 10, but I only make it to 8. One tiny push. The Dr. tells me to look up, look up, and I see my baby's face as he delivers her and lays her on my stomach.
11:06am- She's born. Our sweet little babe is here, safe and sound. She looks like a little chub, and she is barely making any sounds. The nurse is rubbing her off, and I am staring at her in disbelief and total adoration.
They whisked her over for assessment since she was struggling the tiniest bit to breathe at first, but within minutes she is totally fine. They weigh her and by her looks Craig and I both think she will be an 8lb baby at least. During my pregnancy I was convinced she was going to be around 7-7 1/2 lbs. Turns out she only looked chubby, she weighed in @ 7lbs. 6oz. instead. The nurse cleans her up and hands her to me, and I can't get enough of her sweet face. And she has hair. Lots of dark hair. And big dark eyes too. What a little doll.
The Dr. told me later that the reason I was feeling my contractions, even though I had an epidural, was that my labor has progressed too quickly. Simply put, the epidural just couldn't keep up with the speed and intensity of the contractions. But, regardless, it was a fantastic labor and delivery, one of my best. As much as it hurt, the epidural still took the edge off of the worst of it, and I was fine. It took us until the second day to finally decide on her namne, but she suits it. And Jensen she is.

 

38 weeks pregnant, and prepping for thanksgiving

Nope. Still no baby. Yet. But it won't be much longer. So...I am currently preparing as much of our Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time as possible. This way, even if I am still totally pregnant, I can enjoy the day and meal without knocking myself silly getting the food made and onto the table. I want to be able to enjoy the day as much as I can. I made the mashed potatoes using a make-ahead recipe with potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, and milk. They will keep in the fridge and only need to be re-heated the day of, and they still taste like you made them fresh that day. The yam casserole is a new recipe I am trying out since I can make it ahead of time and store it in the fridge until the day of, where I just have to toss the pecan topping on top and then bake it. I have a turkey breast defrosting in the fridge that I will be cooking in my crock pot so as to free up the oven for the other dishes, as well as make my life, and day, that much easier. I made three pie crusts and tossed them in the freezer, and all I have to do is pull them out to defrost, throw the fillings together and bake them up the day before. I have a bag of Rhodes rolls that will be thawed and baked the day of, and some veggies that are simple to throw together, the recipes take next to no time, and they're all prepared on the stovetop so the oven will not be overcrowded. And the stuffing is half way prepared and I will only have to wait until the day of to mix together the onion/apple/celery base with the cubed bread, season it, and then heat it all up. I am so ready. This little baby has the green light to arrive anytime she wishes. Like now. Right now. This very minute. Tonight would be perfect. Please? I am so done with the waddling.

fondue fun

For dinner tonight, I decided that fondue sounded like a fun idea. The cheese fondue recipe was simple and fast, and I paired it with steamed veggies and cubed bread from a baguette. Seriously, my kids were crazy for it. You never saw little ones so excited to eat their veggies. I used a bag of frozen broccoli florets, a bag of frozen cauliflower pieces and a bag of baby carrots, which made my prep time even faster. I steamed the veggies to a crisp tender stage so that they were cooked, but not mushy making it easy for the kidlets to dip without everything falling apart. I also bought a 2-quart mini crock pot at Wal-Mart for $9.88 that was the perfect fit for the fondue. Seriously, this little gadget is the BEST for keeping hot dips hot, I love it!

friday and saturday were…

...busy. I had lots of family over, held a small birthday party for one of my children, had another child celebrate a birthday and turn 16 (no!), sewed myself a skirt, sewed an outfit for the baby, sorted through clothes and got rid of a lot of outgrown and seasonal stuff, caught up on laundry, cleaned out two cabinets and dressers to make room for baby clothes, helped my best friend get some background info on her sister's date to make sure he was not a creep (he's not), made my bed, and folded the world's largest pile of clean clothes. Needless to say, I am nesting. I wished that I had gotten more done, but I stupidly managed to over do it anyways on Saturday. In the end though, Craig was the one that REALLY worked the hardest. Seriously, the family room was deep cleaned, all of the toys are organized and put away in perfect order on their shelves, the floors are vacuumed, the kitchen is sparkling, the dishes are done, the trees in back are pruned, the garage is perfectly organized, the carpets were spot cleaned, the storage room was organized, the boys dresser is fixed, the computer is running smoothly again, the floor is swept, five small children bathed and fresh as a daisy, a Scout project with Noah is nearing completion, and the kitchen counters are totally clean. And he didn't have to sit down every five minutes to get any of that done like I do. I spent Sunday paying for my stupidity with swollen feet and contractions. I stayed home from church and from the family dinner at my parents and I put my feet up, drank lots of water, laid on my left side and I stopped being an overactive idiot. I have got to stop forging ahead all of the time thinking that just because I feel ok, does not mean that the the trip to the store for marathon grocery shopping is a good idea. When will I learn.

32 weeks

So, things are good. My last Dr. appointment was on Monday and the baby is head down, growing as she should, and as active as ever. And even though I have been having some bouts of contractions that are causing concern, I have managed to keep them in check for almost a week now. When I told my Dr about it, he seemed more concerned than I was. He was ready to immediately administer a test that would determine whether or not I would go into labor in the next two weeks or not. I declined the test. Seriously, I'm not going to go into labor anytime soon, as long as I continue to take it easy like I have been the last little while. And I have been very good. I cut way back on my activities which means that my house is not as clean as I would like it and my laundry is not only winning, but poised to overthrow the government, but I'm making sure that I am resting a lot during the day. It gives me lots of time to catch up on "Maury" since you never know which of the 8 men they tested is going to turn out to be that baby's daddy. Fo sho.

and that leaves us with three…

After much conversation and discussion, Craig and I managed to find several baby names we're considering. Four to be exact. And for the last few weeks we have felt good about the few we had picked out. That is, until now. A few nights ago while watching some of the new season premieres on tv, we heard one of the names on our short list used for a currently recurring character. On a seriously popular show. Uber popular. Ummm, how did we miss this? That character was there last season. We must not have been paying attention. Well, Craig must have been unconsciously storing that info because the name was one of his choices, although he swears he never remembered hearing the name on that show. Sigh. They were really using this name a lot. Not just once or twice, this character is quite prominent so the name was being said repeatedly. And it was really bugging me. And I'm not sure why. I think I just don't want my baby's name tied to an uber popular tv show. It's happened before. My oldest child, Dylan? Yeah, you cannot believe the amount of "90210" comments we got when we told people his name when he was born over 18 years ago. Remember "Dylan McKay"? Luke Perry's character? Yeah, him. For crying out loud, I have never even watched 5 minutes of it, let alone an entire episode, so why did everyone think we were naming our baby after that dumb show! Totally annoying. So this is really bugging me now. We aren't trying to find a name that no one else has, that's not the idea. It would just be nice not to have my baby's name tied to a show unless I am a die hard fan (so if this baby was a boy we would HAVE to name him 'Lenny'). So, we are down to three name possibilities. And sorry to say, but we're not telling what any of the names are because, as has happened before, we may chuck all of those names out and go for something completely off the list at the last minute. So you will just have to wait. The good news is we are down to mere weeks now. Eight and a half if you're counting. And no, I'm still not feeling ready, but I am feeling more at peace with my non-ready state.

thirty weeks

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant (yay!) and I am so very grateful. I know, I know it's only going to get harder from here on out, but I don't care. It's so exciting to know it won't be much longer until we get to meet this new little one coming to our family. They are so worth it. I have even been able to sneak in some sewing here and there and I made a few blankets. The fabrics I am hooked on consist of a lot of blacks, whites and grays mixed with color. Yellow and gray, black and white with turquoise, black, white and gray with lavender, but most especially gray and pink. They're all so fun. The only non-fun thing so far? Fighting off the heartburn and a seriously lame sinus infection. I'm winning against the sinus infection. The heartburn? Most days yes, some days, not even close. Thank heaven for Tums, it gets the job done.

the first day, minus pictures

Today was the first day of school. I had spent the day before baking mini cookies and making sandwiches so that I could pack their lunches and have everything ready, which made our morning that much easier. Once breakfast was done, the five little ones each donned their backpacks and we headed out the door. Finn was wearing his backpack only because he wanted to be just like the big kids, but school doesn't start for him until Thursday. I felt like a mother duck heading up the line and my little ones following right behind me on our short walk to the school. All of them were a bit nervous and wanted me to walk each of them to their classroom. Except Mathes. He didn't seem to care one bit whether I was there or not, and just walked in and sat at his desk without a single backwards glance at me. Funny boy. Gracen was not so ready for me to go, so I walked her into class, and helped her hang up her coat and bag and get her name tag. Once that was done however, the teacher came over to see what activity she wanted to do, and Gracen was off to play, looking quietly happy and excited to be there. I did manage to sneak in a goodbye hug and kiss beforehand, and then Finn and I set off for home. Yes, the house is very quiet, but I am tired enough that I am ok with it, the last few weeks have been so busy, I am ready for a break. Now to try and keep Finn entertained until the rest of the kidlets get home. Although I should make use of my time and start looking for my camera, since I can't find it anywhere. Which means that of course I don't have any pictures of their first day of school. Total stinksville.

a very good unltrasound and 2 days of cousins

I had a diagnostic ultrasound this morning and it was nothing but good news, with the baby cooperating just enough to get the measurements needed and a second confirmation that she is indeed a little girl. The tech was not only lovely, but so chatty and fun, we had a great time. Haven begged me to let her come, so I did, and she loved being able to see the baby on the screen. The tech was so kind and explained so many things to her, just to make sure she not only understood, but really knew just what she was looking at or what was going on. So very kind. Definitely getting a gold star. We got home in time for day two of cousin mania, since Korby had been out to visit for the day on Wednesday, and now my Mom and Heidi came for the day today with all of the cousins for even more fun. I don't think I saw Noah and Adler apart the entire two days, they were either drawing or battling with lightsaber arms. The universe is safe for tonight. And the girls were so funny, either off being girly-girls, or right in the middle of all of the boys games, with Haven ready to boss anyone that looked like they just might need some bossing. The kids, played until they were ready to pass out, in fact Isobel did just that within minutes of being strapped into her carseat once they were loading up and getting ready to leave later that night. It was a grand two days, and my kids didn't complain once about going to bed. They were played out. And frankly so am I. I'm calling it a night and heading to bed, good night!