top o' the mornin' to ya

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. Natalie is one month old today, and this bonny wee lass slept for 6 hours straight last night. My other kids better watch out because she is putting in a serious bid for favorite child status. Just kidding, kids, I love you all the same. (But I may be open to bribes.)
And speaking of St. Patrick's day, as I was picking out my clothes and everyone else's clothes this morning I wondered if maybe having a fear of not having something green on today was a little irrational. I am not sure who would be pinching us should we fail to look festive. I am wearing green though, in case you wonder. Somethings you just have to do.

daylight schmavings

As someone who has recently lost many hours of sleep, I would like to thank the government for taking away one more hour. It is always so fun every six months to readjust all of our children's sleeping and eating schedules. I should have expected it, but everyone was quietly sleeping-in this morning and I had to drag myself out of bed to go get Cali off to school. Someday my sleep will come.

keep scrolling

I had a few posts to catch up on so make sure to keep scrolling down.

Natalie at two weeks old

Six and sick

It's hard for me to believe, but Cali is six! Last week was a pretty miserable week for the three oldest kids with high fevers and terrible coughs. Luckily the fevers broke on Friday in time for Cali's birthday. Cali was feeling good enough to go out to eat with Grandma Colton and get a "Tini Puppini" (I didn't know what it was either: see picture below.) After these pictures and a tiny bit of cake and ice cream they were back downstairs curled up under blankets. Thank goodness we had Grandma McCracken here to take care of everyone while I have been keeping Natalie away from them in my bedroom.

bucket brigade

I was working in the kitchen and heard Kimi talking and saying "Roger that." in a robot voice. I turned around and found this. Kimi told me that they were being astronauts. It was pretty entertaining.

5 days old

Here's the new little lady after bath time today in her outfit she came home in.

Natalie Hope

Welcome to Natalie Hope! She came on Tuesday at 3:38 pm after a short labor. You can ask me for details if you want but I will say one thing: epidurals are a glorious thing. She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz, and was 18 1/2 inches long.

A content and quiet girl.

A very happy Mommy.A comfy cuddle with Daddy.Meeting the sisters.A new family photo.

windows of heaven

Okay, so the title may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, but not to me. Friday was the day that I had been wishing for since moving into this house. WE GOT NEW WINDOWS! We didn't really expect to notice an immediate difference, but we have. It no longer feels like a breeze is blowing through the room. I got up this morning to a blustery rainy day and didn't know it until I looked outside, it is SOO much quieter. Here are some before and after pics.

After: (I didn't take a "before" inside picture because I didn't realize how different it would look.)

BEFORE:

AFTER:BEFORE:AFTER: BEFORE:AFTER:

moving to the state of denial

I decided to do something that I have never done before, take some belly pictures. I usually think about it the day after having the baby. So here we are at 36 weeks. Thank you to my wonderful photographer, Cali.

I also wanted to report that today is my 29th birthday. Don't worry, I am not expecting any calls, presents, cards full of cash . . . I am just reporting the events as any good blogger would. I have decided though that this is my first 29th birthday. I think that for at least a couple more years I will be having 29th birthdays, until I feel like my twenties are really over. Though driving a minivan and having 3.9 children have been kind of hinting to me that I am not as young as I used to be.

slow news day

Let me apologize in advance to those of you who are a bit more refined than me. I just had to share this because it made me laugh so hard. I went to ksl.com and this news article caught my eye with this description: "Mourners will gather today to pay tribute to what workers say was a reliable and well-liked toilet."

Here's a link to the rest of the article that includes phrases like "On Carl's Jr.'s Facebook page, a spokesman says, "Our thoughts go out to the surviving men's room urinal and porcelain sink." I almost wish I could be there for the services and get my own "Kaboom" toilet wand. Brilliant.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5459925

bowled over

Our ward had family home evening last night at fat catz. The girls have been counting down the days ever since they found out about it. When we were on our way home Scott said, "Pizza and bowling, what more could you ask for?" Cali said, "More bowling." So true. Ian had a hard time giving other people turns to bowl so we had to take him over to the arcade most of the night. That seemed to be just as good to him as he spent his time running from one thing to the next every few seconds. Here he is trying out the racecar. Kimi probably won't be happy that the picture I managed to get was her gutter ball. Cali got a strike on her final turn, she thinks thanks to all of her practice on the Wii.

Ian's other love

You know what they say about animals being able to predict earthquakes and such? I think Ian's spidey sense is telling him something is going down soon with Mommy, but he is not sure what. He has begun to cling to me like a life-preserver. I am the only one he wants to change diapers, put him to bed, get him up from bed, feed, sit on laps, read stories, etc. He has started to go crazy when I leave his sight and has to get in between me and the girls when I try to do things for them.

So how do I cook meals and shower with out a major meltdown? Wall-e. I know it isn't the greatest thing to plunk him down in front of, but Wall-e keeps him happy, so I do what I have to. Thank you, Pixar, for helping me stay sane. The weeks to come may get a little interesting.

little ballet west

Cali came home from school on Monday and told me that they had an assembly line at school that day. I was a bit confused until she told me it was Ballet West. "Oh, an assembly"

So anyways, she was inspired by it and decided to give us a little taste at family home evening complete with an outfit that she assembled herself. Note that she wore a tight tee over a big tee in order to have a tutu. It was quite the dance number, sorry I couldn't post the video.

on christmas day in the morning

Well, I am finally getting around to posting about Christmas. I didn't realize until I got the pictures off of my camera this morning that I only took about 5 pictures and videos. We were just having too much fun. (That and the lighting stunk because I couldn't convince them to wait for the sun so we would have better lighting. Silly kids.)

Kimi got the latest singing Barbie from Santa. Just ask me if I can sing all the songs by heart yet.

Once Ian opened a big pack of Hot Wheels cars (Choo-Choos) he wasn't interested in opening anything else. He used the other presents to drive on.

After we got our presents opened at our house we headed over to Grandma's house. Here's Cali and Kimi opening presents from Grandma C. with some of their cute cousins.This is where Ian spent most of the day once we got back home. So many choo-choos. He is watching me write this post right now and is going crazy about the picture of all the choo-choos.

Scott and I both agree that this was our best Christmas since we have gotten married. It is great to have the little people around to make everything 100 times more exciting.