Wax Museum and Other Things

The timing of the wax museum wasn't ideal but unfortunately I do not have control over when the 3rd grade wax museum is to be held.  Juia chose to do Georgia O'Keefe.  Thankfully, grandma saved the day and brought us this great apron and art tools for her costume.  Julia had to memorize a speech that I helped her write and we also made a canvas picture and put it on an easel that nana brought to us.  I did try and get as much of it done as I could before I had Grace but it was still crazy.  The actual night of the wax museum was even crazier but we made it happen.  We just left someone home with the baby and traded shifts.  Nana and Papa drove up to help and Papa was particularly great to stay with her the entire time.  It meant the world to her.  

Julia did such a fantastic job.  She is such a bright little girl and presented her speech perfectly each time.  She was really nervous but didn't show it at all.  

 The parents would walk around and put money in her jar and she would have to give her speech.  She said she had to do it "hundreds of times" throughout the night.  She totally nailed it though.  I was really proud of her for doing so well especially while things were a little crazy at home.

 My days are mostly spent with these two.

 The big sisters are a huge help with the baby.  They are able to do so much to make my life a little easier.

 I absolutely love this picture of Bryan with his little girls.  He is the perfect dad for girls and they are so lucky to have him.

 Lily is my entertainment during the day.  She is such a good girl.  I don't know if I've ever had such an independent little player.  She is off playing barbies or princesses all day.  She requires very little from me.  This has been a tremendous blessing.

 This baby is such a sweetheart.  I absolutely love newborns and am trying so hard to soak up every fleeting moment I get with her.  It just goes too fast.

 These snuggles are my favorite.

 Oh that face.  It just doesn't get any sweeter.

First Week Home

I really do love those first moments at home with a fresh new baby.  It's crazy and unbelievably exhausting but these fresh from heaven babies bring a special feeling into the home.  Unfortunately Bryan got food poisoning during all of this and was pretty much laid out for a few days.  I was so glad to have my mom there to help.  The most overwhelming part of having Grace was getting the other girls to school and doing homework on top of trying to keep a baby alive and recover from giving birth.  When you have other kids at home there is no "recovery."  I felt like the hardest part of it all was the after birth contractions.  Those were pretty painful.  Otherwise I tried really hard to let myself enjoy each moment and to get as much rest as I could.  That's when having help was invaluable.

 We gave her a bath and she did not think that was very fun.  Lots of wailing.

 Seriously it was so nice of my mom to stay with me for a few days.  The girls all had their little adjustments to our new life changing event and my mom handled them all beautifully.  She took and picked up the girls from school and fixed dinner.  Bryan didn't get to take much of a break and the break he had he spent sick so having her around was something I was very grateful for.

 Lily of course wasn't going to be left out.  Lily absolutely loves the baby.  Her big adjustment was her hair.  That makes no sense whatsoever but after I had Grace, Lily was very concerned about how I fixed her hair.  She would only allow me to do a braid in the back and I would have to take a picture to give her photographic evidence that her hair was fixed the way she wanted.  She also was really worried about her clothes and if they were cute enough.  It was rough getting anywhere for a few weeks.  She has since improved and I have a list of about five hairstyles I am allowed to do.

 Overall the sisters have done really well adjusting to Grace.  They love her very much and wish I would let them hold her more than I do.

 Isn't she the sweetest?

 I love this picture because she is all curled up just like she was when she was inside me.  I feel like they only do that for about a week and then their little limbs start stretching out more.

She's Here!

Our sweet little Grace Catherine arrived February 27, 2015 at around 4:30PM at 8lb 2oz.  It was my easiest delivery yet.  I was in labor for a while but the actual delivery was a breeze.  I arrived at 7:00AM and was put on pitocin.  My doctor started it slow because he was at a meeting.  It was funny because Bryan just sat with me and I could have watched television or looked on my phone but I just sat.  It was like the quiet was so enjoyable or I wanted to enjoy the moment.  It was so pleasant to just lay there and talk to Bryan and the sweet nurses that were in and out.  I got my epidural after a few hours and it was perfect.  Not too heavy and not too light.  It was slow progress until I was dilated to about a 6 and then it went really fast.  One push and out she came.  I have decided that Bryan has done so many deliveries that I like to have him just be the husband when my babies are born.  Our doctor is a great friend and colleague of Bryan's and did a wonderful job.  It was such a great experience and I was so glad to have her here safe and sound and to have it all go as smoothly as it did.  I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience from beginning to end.  The hospital was great, the labor/delivery was painless and I got to enjoy this beautiful new little girl.  I can distinctly remember every single delivery experience with each of my girls.  It is such a spiritual experience and I am so grateful Heavenly Father has entrusted me with these special little girls.

 We had a really difficult time coming up with a name this go round.  After three girls it was hard to find another girl name that felt right.  We finally agreed on Grace Catherine.  We just liked the name Grace and Catherine is my maternal grandmother's name.  My grandma was an incredible woman and I love the tie I feel to her by having this baby carry her name.

 Grace looks a lot like my other babies with lots of hair.

 Every time they would take her for shots, etc they would bring her back with an adorable bow or headband.  I thought they were so cute.  The hospital was so nice because I just snuggled that baby and had zero interruptions.  There is something about that new baby, her beautiful smell and the way she folds up just the way she was folded inside of me.

 She would give a few moments of awake time.

 This picture is dark but oh she looked so cute with that pink bow.

I have to get more pictures off of Bryan's camera.  He took a lot more of her when she was first born. I am just trying my hardest to get this blog all updated!

Valentines and Other February Happenings

I did the traditional "heart in the hair" for Valentines day.  I always think it looks so cute.  Audrey was sure every single person at school was going to think she was the cutest girl alive with her hair.  That's makes my effort all worth it.

 I made giant sugar cookies for an Activity Day's Valentines party and we had some leftovers.  The girls loved decorating the cookies.  On the actual Valentines Day my parents came down and we had steak and crab legs.  It was such a delicious dinner.  My only regret is I didn't take any pictures of our party.

 A close up of the cute cookies and hot cocoa.  What a perfect combination.

 For President's Day Bryan was home for the morning so we went and got breakfast.  The girls loved the hot chocolate with extra whipped cream on top.  It was a special treat for sure.

 I absolutely love going out to breakfast every once in a while.

 Lily wasn't feeling well.  It made me laugh to see her try to snuggle me with my giant belly.  There's just not a lot of room there any more.

 We had a hard time selling our home in Idaho.  For whatever reason I have the worst luck at selling homes.  We were literally number two on probably 10 different people's lists.  After many prayers, stress, dropping the price and every other thing we could think to do we ended up getting three offers in one day, of course.  I was so glad we could end up selling it to some of our very good friends that I knew would love the house as much as we did.  Having this finally behind us has been like an enormous weight lifted off our shoulders.  As if moving wasn't stressful enough with a new job, new friends, new school for the kids we always had that house in the back of our minds.  I am so glad to not make two house payments any more!  To celebrate, we met our family at a delicious BBQ restaurant and had milkshakes for dessert.  I really wanted to have the offer before I had baby number four and I am so thankful that it was able to happen.  I have felt so so blessed.

Lily loved playing with her cousin James at the restaurant.  He is such a funny little dude.  The big girls were at a play with their grandma.  Patricia took them to Pinkalicious the musical.  She is so sweet to do fun things like that with my girls.  They had such a great time.

 The day before I was to go be induced to have this new little one the Activity Day girls went ice skating.  I was obviously unable to ice skate but I loved watching the girls.  They are such a fun group and I just love all of them.  We have a great time together.

 Julia has made such cute friends in all of these girls and I have enjoyed being able to spend time with all of them as well.

The Rest of January

Lily got upgraded to an even bigger big girl bed.  We needed the crib mattress for the baby's bed and so Lily got a real mattress.  She was so excited to have a big bed like her sisters.  

 We met Grandma and Amanda and her kids at the Children' Museum when the kids had a day off.  It was pretty crowded and there was one point I was in a room where there were literally fifty kids hammering wood but otherwise we had a great time.  I was so thankful grandma was there to help chase Lily around.  My giant pregnant self is much better at sitting than chasing.

 Lily colored at this spot for a good portion of time.

 And so did Julia.

 They have a helicopter outside and we snapped a picture on the bench of all the kids.  We are so glad to be closer to all these people.

 I was so pleased I got these cute vests at a killer deal and had to take a picture of the girls before they headed off to school.  Julia, for the first time ever, really disliked this hair do I gave her.  She is usually really easy going about how I want to fix her hair but she was sure a mean girl at school was going to make fun of it.  I offered to change it but she just went with it.  I asked Bryan later and he said, "it is a little on the big side."  So needless to say we have never and probably will never fix Julia's hair like this ever again.

 I couldn't do another pink room.  The fourth girl had to have a new color.  So we went with purple.  Bryan called it Barney purple but I really do like it with the bedding and pictures hung up now.

 This Audrey lost another tooth!

 They have a big electronic billboard over at the hospital.  The girls and I go and eat dinner with Bryan whenever he is on call and we drive by it frequently while we are out and about.  For a while there they had this handsome man in the rotation.  The girls and I would get so excited every time we would see it.  We sure love that handsome M.D. of ours.

 Lily has a couple of friends that often come to play.  They love dress ups and babies.  I have been so thankful that Lily has such sweet friends.  I adore these little girls.

 It has been so warm outside.  Shockingly so.  This means that these three have basically been living in the great outdoors.  We have a large hill filled with scrub oak behind our house.  Bryan has been working very diligently to clear it out so the girls can use it more.  Julia all on her own went to the clearing at the top and made a little fire pit.  I was super impressed with it!  She gathered the rocks and everything all on her own.

 Here I am a little over 36 weeks.  I have definitely had some discomfort with this pregnancy so it will be glorious to meet this little one soon.

 Here's Lily with her best friend Daddy.  We get so excited when he comes home for lunch.  We have absolutely loved this backyard.  It is smaller than our last one as far as grass but there are so many things to explore and play on.  I never knew my girls would spend so much time outside.  My happiest moments are cooking in the kitchen and watching them play outside the window above my sink.

National Champions!!

I think my very favorite moment of January was the National Championship football game.  Ever since our time in Columbus we are very big Ohio State fans and this year was particularly exciting as Ohio State was by far the underdog and came out of it as champions. 

My parents, my dad in particular, has become a bit of Ohio State fans since we lived there for so long so we had them come up for a yummy dinner and to watch the game.  Of course we all had to get decked out in our Ohio State clothes.  The girls wore theirs to school and were so excited to show them off to all their friends.  

 They looked so cute.

 We had to get a family shot as well.  I don't know if I have ever watched a more exciting game.  Poor Bryan got so stressed at one point he had to go upstairs and watch it by himself.  We probably get a little too excited about all of it.

We even made homemade buckeyes for the night.  The girls loved them and had them all devoured by the next day.  

Even with the third string quarterback we were able to pull of the win.  O-H-I-O!!