Can you even believe it?

Wow, sweet baby A is 8 today! Well, just since 8:19 this morning anyway. :) She was glad to set me straight about that on the way to school today.

I can remember the moment they set her on my chest-- I was so tired from such a long labor that I couldn't even hold her, but she was the most incredible thing I had ever laid eyes on. She was welcomed into the world by Lewis and I as well as my mom and dad, my sister Jordan, and my Aunt Terri. How lucky for her to be welcomed by so many people who adore her!

And here she is today, all ready for school. I can't wrap my mind around the fact that she is really 8 years old. It's so wonderful to watch her grow and learn every day. Aiden is smart, sensitive, funny, really helpful, and a good friend. She is a reading machine and loves school even when she has TWO TESTS ON HER BIRTHDAY!!! I feel blessed to have her in my family.

And now, how about a fun game to celebrate!?!? That's what I'm talkin' about!
It's called A or B and you can't scroll down and look at both pictures before you guess. Look at this first picture (sorry it's creepy, but it's the school eye test picture) and guess if it is A or B. Then scroll down to the second one and see if you were right. When you see both you will be able to tell who is who ( I think) but just look at one first and see if you are right. It tricked me and Lew so don't feel bad if you don't know either. Plus, you have a 50 50 chance of getting it right even if you just guess!
Picture 1:

























Picture 2:


PS Cate is watching me post this and she thinks those pictures are her! She keeps saying " I funny!!"

23 weeks

I've never done this before but it's so fun to share with the world my big belly, so here's week 23:


See, I might take a while to show but I make up for it by getting big really fast. Daily there is a difference.

Sweet Baby D

Well, here she is in all her glory! Baby D. Scheduled to make her grand entrance sometime around May 19. (I'm going to make an executive decision here and change that to May 25 when my kids are out of school). We are open to name suggestions for sure. This alphabet naming system seemed like a good idea at first but it's a little bit stressful at times. Ok not really but maybe it would be if we actually sat down and talked about names from time to time. However, my husband is never here and when he is he is either asleep or awake but not really. Anyway, here are some pictures. I realize that they are probably the worst ultrasound pictures you've ever seen and this is why-- the child does not sit still for even a second. Not like "wow, she's moving her hands and feet a lot" kind of not sitting still. The kind where her head is going from my right side to my left side and back again non stop. Literally doing flips the entire time. The kind where the ultrasound tech (who has been doing this for a very long time) can't even get a picture of her face or profile. Not a picture at all. Well, one but it's blurry from her moving so much. Heaven help me. I don't think I ever felt Cate move once in utero unless I sat down, drank some orange juice and focused on feeling her move. Am I totally doomed?!?!


We're thrilled to be adding another sweet baby girl to our clan. To say we were shocked would be an understatement, we were all convinced it was a boy. But girls are so fun to dress! Don't ask me how I feel about it in 10 years when the hormones are raging. I was worried that Brooks would feel bad about not having a brother but this is the kid who is in a Primary class at church with 7 little girls and hasn't ever even mentioned being the only boy. His only concern was that the baby still gets to share a room with him because he hates being alone. And that I get him and Lewis some matching clothes since he has no one to match and I always love to match the girls. It's a deal. These 3 girls are super lucky to have him for a brother. He's such a lover.


And this one is going to wear me out if she keeps this sassy attitude up. She is cracking us up though with the things that she says now that she has started talking. Just since Christmas she has opened up and is talking up a storm.

Oh, and my little A is turning 8 at the end of the month. Can you even wrap your little mind around that? Cause I can't. It's almost too crazy. 8 is great and she will be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Jan. 30 after church. Family and friends near and far we would love to have you come and celebrate this wonderful occasion with us!

22 weeks

This is what I looked like last week and now I think I've officially "popped".
There's no hiding it anymore! Not that I want to hide it but it's sort of weird looking chubby for a while...

Hello booty!!


And now that the puking slash complete and utter exhaustion have somewhat subsided (seriously though how do people keep having baby after baby after baby?!?! I have no idea since I've been scraping by these last 5 or so months) I have been feeling a little "nesty".
So I made some roman shades for my kitchen and it is amazing how much more light comes into my kitchen. I wish I had a before picture for comparison but I don't.
And I guess you'll just have to believe me on the "looking lighter" thing since I never remember to take pictures until it's night and dark.



And another cool thing I figured out a while ago that I wanted to share--- the rug in my family room smelled like pee or rotten milk or a nasty combo of the two. I was this close to throwing it out when I read somewhere that you can take them to the car wash and just hose them down with that high pressure water hose thingy. Well, I couldn't find that kind of car wash anywhere around here, so I just hung the stinky thing on my fence and hosed it down. And let the filth run out. Honestly. Nastiness. It was brown and it took forever and ever to dry (hello humidity) but it finally did and now the smell is gone. I can't recommend this for everyone because I don't want to be responsible for ruining your favorite rug, but if you get to the point where you're ready to throw it out (and you've tried every carpet cleaner in Target and rented those steam carpet cleaners from Lowe's a million times already) then it's worth a try!
Here's my rug hanging inside to dry. So fresh and so clean, clean.

11 years

Dear Lewis,

Happy anniversary! I thought I'd take a minute to say it here on the ol' blog while Cate is NOT SLEEPING but at least she's sitting pretty quietly in our bed listening to Mimimaid (aka Little Mermaid) sing "part of your world" over and over on repeat on my ipod. That girl just did not feel like taking a nap today. I partly blame it on you. See, we're all real glad that you've been home more at bedtime this month, but you've spoiled her by laying next to her every night while she goes to sleep. But anyway back to the anniversary message...

I wish I was sitting somewhere on some remote warm beach alone with you instead of here alone with that little monster who refuses to sleep, but I'm not. Instead, you are on call and won't be home until tomorrow afternoon and I have youth conference this weekend and will have a house full of silly 14 to 18 year old girls staying here tonight. Such is life. Someday we will celebrate an anniversary somewhere fancy or remote or wonderful, but this is our real life now. We're in the thick of it and I'm sure glad I've got you to walk through it with me. Time to wrap it up, sweetcheeks herself just came walking out of the room. I'm pretty sure she's trying to see if she can get me to pull my own hair out.

So here's to those future trips to far off places and here's to real life. Cheers!

I love you Lew! (Can't wait for you go enjoy those new running shoes!! ahem)

JJ

Probably the greatest thing that's ever come home from school

Don't you agree?

500th post Christmas pictures

This is my 500th post, so I guess the right thing to do is fill it with pictures from our Christmas trip that were all taken with our old junky camera!
On the trip out Cate made sure Ariel and Eric were safe.

Working on the snowman. I see a future camp director developing here...
Visiting temple square to see the lights:
Then the Panda afterward. I would like to say it's changed for the worse but I actually think it's always been that much of a hole.
At Incredible Pizza they have lots of games as well as bowling, go karts, mini golf, and laser tag. As usual, the dads had at least as much fun as the kids!
Sledding at Mountain Dell, Lewis broke his tailbone so don't ask him how it was.
Christmas morning. I couldn't even get the whole tree in the picture.
Cousins minus Porter and Finn who were still asleep, lucky guys. We let the kids get up whenever they wanted and look at their stockings (Aiden and Brooks were up at 5 in case you were wondering). They were allowed to come get everyone else up at 7:30.
Trip to the Bean museum was as creepy as I remembered it. My favorite part was Fischer saying how sad he was that all these animals had to die. His hunter dad wasn't excited about that.
Afterward we went to the creamery and fit all 11 of us in one booth meant for 4!
Skiing on the last day of our trip might not have been my brightest idea yet. But it was warm and sunny and the kids had lots of fun. Thanks a million to Jordan and Matt who helped Brooks because I kept getting a charlie horse in my right calf. Now both A and B can ski greens by themselves.

On the flight home I gained a new love of in-flight satellite tv, specifically nickelodeon. Thank you Dora for keeping things sane for a whole hour.
I didn't take a lot of pictures this trip, but Brooks got a camera for Christmas and wanted to share his pictures too so look for that post coming soon!