Sidney Ann

Here is our new arrival! Sidney Ann ! She was born on Monday, December 17, 2007. She weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and was 18.5 inches long.

Here I am getting ready to go the night before and the morning of the delivery. I wanted to document these times since I know I will miss the time with her in my belly every once in a while (when I am feeling crazy) then be reminded of how terrible being pregnant is. I'd really rather have her in my arms than in my body!

My mom and sisters visited me in the hospital every day while I was there. Knowing the timing was absolutely awful (right before Christmas), it meant a lot to me since I usually stay the min. amount of time before they will release me, but this time I was talked into staying three days and was pretty antsy at the end!

Ben's parents came into town the day after Sidney was born and spent time with us in the hospital! Ann made the cute fleece blanket in the picture. Thank you again, it's perfect!

Only two days old, all soft and warm. I can't get enough! I just hold her all the time and smell her! She is perfect! I want to remember this time, she may very well be my last and since I love babies so much, I don't want to take it for granted. I remind Ben the time is being wasted when she is not being held, because I always chunk up my babies so big, so fast, I just don't want to miss out on any time we can be holding her.

She is our Christmas baby, at least as close to Christmas as my sanity would allow! I worried about when would be best to have her (before or after Christmas) and now I'm glad it worked out like it did, it was great to have her with us Christmas morning!

She seems so small, I tried to get a good perspective putting my hand next to her feet and putting her in the crib, but the carseat was the most obvious to me. It really doesn't do her any justice, she is very small to me and I love to hold her all day!

I have all these hopes and dreams for her. Just like I do for each of my kids. I hate the idea that any of them is a number in a family, I really want them each to feel their own identity and importance. They are so perfect! I am outrageously happy and feel very blessed.

snowy snow snow

The first snow of the season! A perfect Saturday if you ask my kids. Who cares if it doesn't completely cover the ground, there was plenty to have fun in!!!
I started to find all our snow gear while Jane sang, "snowy, snow, snow" and her own version of "Once there was a Snowman". It seemed like it took forever for me to get them all ready to go! To find all the gear and fight through the cries, "I'm hot!" and "This doesn't fit" was quite a project. In the process I came upon a broken Princess umbrella which quickly became Jane's new obsession. All in all a great snow day!

2 year-old fun!

So Jane is officially potty-trained (1 month and counting) and for some reason I think her bottom in Princess panties is just great fun. She has to dress herself and now the war is on! Most days a dress-up skirt and a purse are all she chooses. It is a battle to get her dressed when we leave the house and any "sleeves" shirt is completely shunned. I have outsmarted her on that by hiding all her short sleeved shirts and just pulling up the sleeves of her long sleeved ones. But now I get to continually pull them back up as she cries and stamps her feet whenever either slides an inch or two.
Wow! I wanted her to be potty-trained before the baby comes (December), but now find it to be a curse since she has found a real independence which seems to clash with the schedule I have sometimes with three children. I know, four is not going to be any easier, but too late now!

Dad...

Ben came home after taking Alex with him to Home Depot and told me about all the funny conversations he had with Alex. He was amazed at the things Alex thinks about and where his imagination takes him.

Alex: "Dad, how much water does a plant need?"

Ben: "Not that much."

Alex: "Can you use tears?"

Ben: "Probably, I'm not really sure"

Alex: "How many tears would it need?"

Alex has been so fun to get to know as he gets older and develops more and more personality. He has been involved in a few sports so far this year, and though Ben really wanted him to love flag football, Alex has treated it like he does most sports; as though its a new playing field for his imagination. He asks lots of questions and on the side lines when he is not playing, he acts like a superhero or a ninja practicing new moves! Right now in wrestling that is very apparent!

Alex: " Dad, when I get older, if I own a grocery store, I would make sure the shopping carts get inside all the time so they aren't cold and they won't blow away. "

I love my son and that he has a dad who thinks he is funny and intellectual and just a great boy!

Alex: " Dad, you know those sand pictures you see in the stores?"

Ben: "Yeah."

Alex: "Why does the sand take so long to move?"

I hope for Alex's sake, that one day he will find the person with all the answers, so his curiosity can be satisfied and he can finally get some real answers in life. But until then..."dad..."!

Look Mom, we look like you!

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry! Do I really look like this??? Ben seems to think so, because he chose to laugh!
The best part of course is that Alex played a part and that Jane always looks like this, a purse on her arms and a pair of my shoes on her feet...perfect!

great day

My sisters Chelsea, and Cami, and I try to get together once a week usually to do a project for each other. A few weeks ago Chelsea's kids were "off track" since they are in year-round school, and my kids happened to be on Fall Break, so we decided to take the kids to the Thanksgiving Point Farm! Jane is to the far left, then Eden Clark, Rilee Clark, Shailee Clark, Ashlyn, Alex and Lily Humpheries in the front.
So who lets a two-year old wear flip-flops in the fall with a coat? That would be me! Sometimes that's the trade off to get her to wear the coat.

Some of the animals were more intimidating than others. Jane got too close to one of the roosters in a pen and got her finger "bit" by one, so Alex was practicing some caution!

Pony rides were part of the fun. Ashlyn and Alex have had this experience before, but it was new and quite exciting for Jane, she talked about horses for days afterward!

Seriously, those flip-flops are a perfect example of how Jane and I have to compromise everyday just to get her dressed! I never had to deal with this with Ashlyn, but Jane has her own sense of style and is not easily persuaded to change.

Lily and Jane are holding hands and trying to give their moms pictures by the goat. This is why whenever I am pregnant, I try to enlist everyone else to join in! Especially family members. I absolutely love the idea of having cousins the same age; they get to be built-in friends! So now that my sister-in-law Meghan had her baby, and since Cami, Chelsea, and I are all pregnant, I am perfectly happy!

All in all a great day with some of our cousins.

Champion Ben!

So my perfectly wonderful husband can finish marathons with mostly no training (he does not suggest doing so), thus in my mind is a complete champion!
He is just that rare person who has accomplished every goal he has set for himself. Unfortunately, he just gets more creative with the goals he sets, and for some reason they seem to cost much, much more than I am willing to part with!
A few of his new aspirations include:
* getting a pilot's license
* getting his MBA
* having a lake house
* ...
You get the picture! Lucky for me, he is mostly sane with his goals and they don't usually involve too much danger. I don't mean to make it seem like his goals are not worthwhile, I just like to joke about the ones I am not fully "on board" for!

Apparently great friends run marathons together. Ben helped raise quite a lot of money for the Eagle Condor Humanitarian foundation with this run and by enlisting his buddies Steve and Brian to "run for a difference" as well, they made a good-sized contribution.

I absolutely love my champion husband!!!

kissin' cousins

This perfect kiss is the picture I accidentally erased from my last post. When I came across it again, I had to post it! This is Jane's cousin Carson saying "sorry" at his second birthday party. I guess I better watch these two in the future!

i am going to miss...

Today has been overcast and rainy and I am already nostalgically thinking about all the fun of summer! Some things I will especially miss are...

Our garden has been quite a family affair! Ashlyn watched it daily and gave us progress reports. We each took many turns weeding the garden in the earlier stages and we all loved the things that came out of it. The corn was a bit of a disappointment, but the zucchini never failed to amaze me. My ultimate favorite was the tomatoes. We are actually still getting those, maybe they were late bloomers, whatever the cause, I am very pleased with my tomatoes. I am up for sharing with any passersby!

Friends over for snacks! Jane's friend Lyza is supposed to be moving into our neighborhood soon and she is quite happy about it (I am more than a little happy myself since Lyza's mom is my friend Shaundee)!

Summer birthday parties! This is McKenzie Gillen at Carson' s birthday party (I accidentally erased the picture of Carson kissing Jane).

Ben's four wheeling adventures with his friends

oh wait, that is a year round event!

Bike rides with the kids (not to mention green grass) and sunny days.

Summer nights with the kids and Ben jumping on the trampoline. This is my real favorite summer time event! I love the evenings right after the sun goes down. It cools off and we neighbors get outside and talk, jump on the trampoline and enjoy the night. Sometimes we adults try to show off for our kids and do tricks or just jump really high!

i think it is worth it!

So today I was thinking about how good it feels to accomplish. I got Ashlyn off for school and I even helped her get her whole “job chart” done before she left. I changed my sheets and started a load of laundry. I took Jane on a walk /jog along with Alex riding his bike for just over 2 ½ miles and then let them play at the park. I swept out (part of) the garage and replanted a couple of my bulbs. Alex started his own job chart and I helped him with some educational games on the computer while I was folding some laundry. Then it was time to make lunch and I promptly got Alex off for kindergarten since it was early day. He rode his scooter while I pushed Jane the ½ mile each way to and from the school (that’s 3 ½ miles all together). Finally, I made my own lunch and sat to read a little out of the paper. I got Jane down for a nap and was about to fall asleep myself, when my neighbor called and asked if I could watch her kids for 45 min. I gave them a snack while I scrubbed toilets, then played with them for a while (most of the time the 1 year old cried - tired I think). Right when my neighbor came to pick them up, my own kids stepped through the door (early day). After snacks and talking about their day (Ashlyn played with new friends on the playground “MacKenzie and Hailey”, and Alex played with “the two Tylers” again) we focused on finishing Alex’s jobs and going through backpacks. I finished the bathrooms by cleaning sinks mirrors and counter tops and even cleaned the inside and outside of the two side light windows in my entry. I scrubbed our bathtub and mopped the floor, and vacuumed and dusted the whole level including most floor boards and doors. Finally it was time to start dinner. We had chicken tacos (Ben couldn’t get home until 6:30, so we ate without him around 5:30). Time for homework. Alex had a few pages in a workbook to color and write on, Ashlyn had some cutting and pasting along with two questions to answer. They went up to watch TV, and suddenly I felt tired (imagine that). I sat down to watch a previously recorded show and got about 20 minutes into it when Ben walks in. I feel so tired and “done” I didn’t even get up. After the shows we all sat in the family room for a few minutes and talked. Ben got to catch up on the school news and expressed his want to read a chapter book as a family like Harry Potter or something. Then he was off helping a friend with something on his house. For the rest of the night I am pretty spent.
So knowing my health has not been up to par and the pregnancy is already slowing me down, my question to myself is, “Is it worth it to accomplish and feel drained the rest of the night or should I have taken it easy and just kept feeling bad about all the things I should have done?”

I think it’s worth it!

p.s. This is not a typical day, so I am not bragging, merely stating that on these rare occasions I can actually recall what I did during the day and feel good about it, it is indeed worth noting!

Jane is 2

Jane's second birthday! She was a little jipped since her birthday was on Sunday and Ben and I were just getting back from a trip that night, so unbenownst to our little lady, we celebrated a day late (which just happens to be my mom's birthday).

Jane was surprisingly excited for the cards and presents to open from us and her Grandparents. I loved to see her face when she knew it was something to be happy for but wasn't quite sure what that something was.

Ashlyn and Alex liked Jane's new toys as much as she did. They all played together for a while and the older two were good at convincing Jane it was their "turn".

We had a few neighbors over to celebrate. Jumping on the trampoline, eating cupcakes and playing with balloons. This one was Jane's favorite. It is a punching balloon and she played with her brand new Care Bear like it was the best bouncing toy ever!

If you must know they are "frog" cupcakes. I always seem to have these great ideas that don't quite pan out like they do in my head. I also had pigs and then some chocolate sprinkle ones I thought I may turn into bears, but after seeing the actual product of the others, I decided to quit while I was ahead!

Lucky for me Jane loved them and this morning Ashlyn asked if she could have them for her next birthday party! I love that my kids play along so well. They may not be a perfectly decorated cake with parachute guys or my little ponies, but they made Jane happy for her birthday and after all isn't that what it is all about?

I seem to be hard on myself when it comes to the details I struggle to get right, but I am blessed with children and a husband who really feel that its the thought that counts! I am glad Jane is two. She is acting so much older and saying more and more each day. She told the checker at the grocery store yesterday that it was her "happy birthday to me" day. She was found singing the song all day long (that and "I am a Child of God") . I just love to see her work things out for herself and show her independence. I know it is "the stage" she is in, but we all seem to think she is quite funny in whatever she does and says and we all love to try and teach her new things. It is funny how as soon as I finally let myself believe I was pregnant, Jane instantly aged in my mind. Suddenly I am worried about how long the transition into a "big bed" will really take and if potty training is possible before the new baby comes.

Jane is learning so much I barely beginning to think, "Okay, I can do this!"