Christmas

This year we had a really good Christmas. Starting the night before Christmas Eve we went to my big family Christmas party in Roy. The girls got to meet Santa and even got a pre-Christmas present. Sophie was really excited, Zoe was too, that is until she had to sit on his lap. Lily even got a chance to see Santa. Here they are on Santa's lap.

Christmas Eve we spent with Tyler's family having a party. We cooked a menagerie of wiener dishes (Bratwurst, pigs in a blanket, even some lamb bratwurst). We also had fun playing games and visiting.

Then we sent Tyler off to work and the girls and I tried to go to sleep. Sophie and Zoe were both so excited for Santa to come that they had a hard time going to sleep. Sophie ended up falling asleep around 10 p.m., after many ventures out of her room to tell me to go to sleep so Santa would come. Zoe on the other hand fell asleep pretty quick but woke up again around 9:30 to get a drink and dance around the kitchen. I had fun staying up until almost midnight making sure two little ones were asleep so Santa could leave her loot.

Christmas morning, Tyler got home and we had to wake the girls up at 7 a.m. so that we could open stockings and get to church by 9 a.m. Here they are opening their stockings. They were very excited about the notebooks and finger puppet that they could take to church with them.

Here are us girls in our new Christmas dresses. It took a couple of shots to get all the girls looking at the camera....now just to photoshop the two together. If only their was a way to get them to all look decent at the same time. Granted, Lily not being propped up enough in the second picture was my fault.

After church we came home and let the girls open their presents. They were super excited and also super spoiled by family....well and me! They got oodles of toys, coloring supplies and clothes.

Lily wasn't sure what to think of all of the chaos, she was a little overwhelmed and had a hard time calming down to take a nap.

Sophie and Zoe both loved what Santa brought them. Zoe got a doll house and Sophie a guitar and microphone (so she can be a rocker girl as she likes to call herself).


Aunt Natalie probably spoiled them the most by getting the girls a Jump-o-lene. They were so excited about it and love to jump on that thing. We set it up in Zoe and Lily's bedroom but it was so big that we had to move it to the basement. Now they are always wanting to go down to jump.

Don't they look happy!

After all the excitement of opening presents, we packed up the van and headed to Elko to see my parents for a couple of days. The girls had fun playing with their cousin Cardon and Grandma and Grandpa!

Now we are home and getting back to some semblance of a normal routine. But that won't fully happen until Tyler goes back to work on Jan. 3rd, but we are having fun playing together in the mean time!

Temple Square

The Monday before Christmas we made it to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square. The girls had lots of fun looking at all the lights. Even Lily, she didn't complain one bit, we bundled her up and she wasn't even cold when we got back to the van. Zoe was especially excited that I was cleared by the doctor to start lifting again. She wouldn't let me put her down the whole night.

Poor Lily, you can't even see her in this picture because she was covered in a huge blanket.

Oh, there, you can just barely see Lily.

1 month

My baby is one month old. Oh, how the time flies! She is getting bigger, but she still hasn't topped 8 lbs yet. Yesterday she gave me her first smile. The moments that she is awake and alert are coming more often, which is nice and difficult at the same time. Having three sure is a juggling act sometimes.

Here are some pictures of her at one month!

Lily's First Days

Here are some pictures of Lily when we first got home.

This is just a day after we got home. The hat she has on was from the hospital and was the only hat that would fit her and it was still a little big.

All the girls enjoying tummy time.

Zoe loves her little sister. Although Zoe claims she is still the little, not the big sister.

Lily has been a really good baby. After the first week her jaundice started to clear up and she even started eating better. We had to go into the pediatrician a few times the first couple of weeks to get her weight checked because she kept loosing weight. She went from 5 lb 8 oz down to 5 lbs within her first week of life. Which is a big deal for such a little baby. But at her 2 week checkup she was up to 6 lbs 1 oz. so she is doing awesome! I am still having to wake her up for most of her feedings around the clock but at least she has started waking herself up for a couple of the feedings.

Lily is here!

Well, the picture of me in the last post was the last belly picture taken of me before this cute little thing decided to make an early entrance into this world!

Friday the 4th, I started having pretty regular contractions that were not painful. I worried because I was only 36 weeks and it was pretty early for Lily to come, though not improbable since I had already had labor stopped at 34 weeks. I took it easy for most of the day. Around 8 p.m. they were coming 5 to 6 minutes apart, were still not painful, but Lily was breech and I have had two previous c-sections, so knew that I needed to be to the hospital in time to get prepped for a c-section. Tyler called his mom to watch the girls and we headed for the hospital. Good thing too! When we got there I was 3+ cm dilated and within 2 hours had dilated to a 4.

At midnight they started prepping me for the c-section and at 1:03 a.m. my beautiful baby was born. She gave us quite the scare. When they pulled her out she was blue and not breathing. I panicked! I just wanted to hop off the table and help, but of course, I was numb from the chest down. Tyler went over with Lily and the nurses got her breathing but she still hadn't cried. Worst feeling ever!!!! Not being able to get to my daughter, who is not crying....that first cry is so important to me, it signifies life....

A short while later she ended up giving a little cry, and that was probably the only cry she gave the entire time at the hospital. She is a really quiet baby and only cries when she is hungry. But it is like only one little cry and then she waits patiently for her needs to be met. She is the easiest baby I have had!
Here she is weighing in at 5 lbs 8 oz. and 18.5 inches long.

She is definitely my smallest baby by a pound. At the hospital she gave us another scare by not being able to maintain her temperature and her blood sugar levels. The poor girl, luckily never had to go the the NICU, but the heels of her feet were poked so much that they still have scars on them 2 weeks later.

We were able to go home 4 days later. She ended up having jaundice and loosing 8 oz, which is a lot for a 5 lb baby, so she had to continue getting her heels poked for blood and was watched closely by her pediatrician. Now she has gained her birth weight back and is doing well!

Here she is being doted on by her sisters.



The day we went home. I bought her a newborn outfit and it ended up being big on her, but she looks so stinkin' cute anyway.

We are so grateful that the Lord blessed us with another little girl that made it safely here!!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, I made the girls costumes fairly early, mainly because I didn't want to be bending over the sewing machine with a huge belly. Mine, however, was a last minute project. Sophie wanted to be Belle and Zoe started out wanting to be Ariel, then an alien, but finally settled on Minnie Mouse. I was glad because I could just see the tears that would have followed had she chosen to be an alien and having her see Sophie in a princess dress.

On Halloween we went to our wards Trunk-r-Treat. The girls had a good time but an even better time once we got home and Tyler took them around the neighborhood. They thought that was so much cooler than going around to people's cars. I can't blame them, trunk-r-treats seem greedy to me. The kids go around multiple time loading up on easy candy. When they go door to door they really have to work for it, and although they don't get quite as much, I think they appreciate it more.

Anyway here are some pictures of the night.

My pregnant belly dressed up:

The girls waiting for the trunk-r-treat to start.

Grandpa Kraig and Grandma Cheryl came for Sophie's birthday party and stayed the night and went to our ward party with us. The girls dressed up and had a blast running around and playing the games. Zoe even won second place in the costume contest for her age group.

Sophie is 5

Last month Sophie turned 5! I can't believe my baby is getting so big. She is smart, beautiful, outgoing, helpful and a spitfire. It is hard to believe that 5 years ago she was dependent upon Tyler and I for every little thing and now she can do so much by herself. She loves preschool and playing with her friends from school and church. Lately she has shown an interest in learning to read and surprises me when she sits next to me and picks out the words she knows from the book I am currently reading.

She is definitely a girl, she loves to play dress up, wants to wear my make up, has her own stash of jewelry that she guards with her life and loves to sing and dance. A couple of months ago I gave her my old iPod and speakers. A day doesn't go by that I don't hear the music coming from her room and go into find her singing and dancing!

Like I said, she is a spitfire. She is bossy and lovable! I love this little girl!!!!

Here are some pictures from her birthday party.

She really wanted a flower cake, and since my belly was extremely large at this point I didn't end up making her cake and bought it instead. I was sad, but she loved it!

Aunt Jamie delivered on the umbrella that she has been wanting for FOREVER!

She is such a poser when it comes to pictures.

Odds and Ends

This summer we have had a lot of fun. In August we went to Discovery Gateway with my sister and her daughter. The girls had so much fun and it was so nice that Tyler was there to help. Sophie spent most of her time in the Market, buying groceries. She loved that she was big enough to walk around and pick out her food and then pay for it! Tyler was able to stay with her most of the time so that the two littler ones, Zoe and Cardon, could explore a little more.

Here is Sophie paying at the cash register:

Zobug zooming around:

All the girls plus Tyler, taking a ride...ahhh two drivers, I hope they are communicating well!

Sophie loves to watch the news with me and loves how they talk to us. She especially loves the weather segment. So when she saw that there was a newsroom, she was beyond thrilled. She anchored and gave us the weather.

The other morning I went in to wake Zoe up for the day and found her clad in boots! What a silly girl, she must have done it after Tyler and I went to bed because when Tyler checked on her she didn't have them on.

Here is the famous Pirate Princess who loves to color at the kitchen table:

Last week Sophie started her first day of preschool for this school year. Man has she gotten so big. She was so excited to be back with Mrs. Natalie! Here she is on the big day:

Sophie's Dance Recital

Sophie took dance again this summer. She really loves to bust a move! Last month was her end of season recital. She danced so well and loved it. Here she is before getting up on stage...man, oh man, she is getting so big. And please disregard the mounds of makeup she had on, once she got on stage she looked so much better!

In this one she is the second one from the right.

Bear Lake and Camping

July, do you remember those hot, middle of the summer days? Yeah, I try to forget them too, but way back in July, we went camping in Logan Canyon and then spent an afternoon at Bear Lake. It was quite the adventure.

We got to Logan Canyon about midday and let the girls play around the just barely open (because of flooding) campsite. We were the only ones there until towards nightfall when two other "groups" showed up. The girls had fun playing horse shoes, looking at the extremely full and swift river, playing with bubbles, looking at bugs, roasting hot dogs and enjoying s'mores.

Around bedtime, Tyler was cleaning things up and I was getting the sugar-high girls into their sleeping bags for bed. I heard Tyler talking to someone and looked out of the tent and he was talking to two police officers. Wondering what could be wrong, I hunkered in the tent until Tyler came in. Apparently, someone had called the cops because there was a strange man sleeping in his truck at our campsite. They said they had checked him out and he had no outstanding warrant. However, if we had any problems in the night to give them a call. But the only place we could get cellphone service was about ten miles away at the point of the mountain before you dropped down into Garden City.

I was concerned....okay...maybe a little freaked out. Here we are, two hyped up girls, a freaked out preggo woman, and my manly man who so lovingly packed up all of our camping stuff into the van at 11 p.m. We drove down to Logan, confident that we could find a hotel room. Well, how were we to know that there was the Opera Festival AND a soccer tournament in Logan that weekend! We drove around looking and calling hotels until 1 a.m. Finally we found one!!! And at 1:30 a.m. we all sunk into bed and slept until 9!

The girls would not be swayed though. They still wanted to go swimming at Bear Lake. So we headed back up the canyon and into Garden City. The only beaches open were on the North and South shores because the water was so high. We ended up at one of the South side beaches along with 50 million other people. We couldn't even get our canopy close enough on the beach to have easy access to the water. Not too much of a bummer since the girls would go into the water because of all the weeds on the bottom. So we ended up playing on the sand for a few hours, having lunch and then heading home.

Who said every vacation has to go smoothly??? Here are some pictures of our trip:

Zoe, tuckered out after playing in the sun for a while.

So excited to get in the water only to be disappointed by the "yucky bottom" about 2 minutes after this picture was taken:

Enjoying their s'mores:

Playing with bubbles at the campsite before our 11 p.m. exodus:

I just realized I never got any pictures of us living it up in our hotel room...oh well! Hopefully they will believe the story in 10 years.