Merry Christmas!

The little dude shows his moves

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Baby heaven

With four kids, it has made me truly appreciate and love having a newborn. I am certain that with my first, she couldn't get big fast enough or to the next stage quick enough. But I have learned how fast they grow that I appreciate it more. I know that Kyler will change and grow each day so I have to hold on to each day that he is so tiny and precious.


These little newborn outfits and socks that are swimming on him will fit him in a week and be too small in another week. His newborn smell and little lamb cry will vanish. His little squeaks will also disappear.


I had a rough pregnancy and at times, especially in the beginning, it was hard to imagine the reward I would get at the end. But as I hold my little baby boy I know it was worth every minute of nausea, heartburn, or random aches and pains. I could never trade him for those 9 months of my life back, and now it seems like such a small price to pay.


Aubrie was the only one of the kids who was able to meet Kyler in the hospital (because of the visitor policy with H1N1). She enjoyed helping give him his first bath.


Teyah affectionately calls him "Dady Dodder" (baby brother) and enjoys giving him his binky, diapers, blankets, etc.


Ellie was so surprised at how tiny he is. She wasn't expecting him to be so small and at first was kind of afraid. She didn't want to hold him. But then, she held his finger and wouldn't leave his side after that.


As I'm sure you've noticed, Kyler has WILD hair! If I slick it down, as soon as it dries it sticks straight up again. But the funniest thing to me is how curly it is when it's wet. If you click on this picture, you can see better.


One of the first things I learned about Kyler is he does not like to be cold. Poor guy... Being born in the winter in the great north is not going to work so well for him! This hat is really NOT as big as it appears to be!

Finally, another man joins the fam

Kyler Kent was born at 4:05 pm and his big sisters couldn't be more excited. He stands 20 inches tall and weighs 7 lbs 7 ounces. Everyone is doing great, and we will post more soon.

Waiting for blue

My favorite color has always been blue, so it has been especially fun receiving gifts that are blue and purchasing clothing and blankets that are beautiful blue for this little baby boy! With my due date just around the corner, and the car seat and clothes washed and ready, it's just barely starting to feel real that this is actually going to be happening! I had forgotten how special it is to be anticipating the impending arrival of a new baby. There aren't many things we count down to that we know will make such an impact on our lives forever! I am still having a hard time picturing myself with a baby boy, but the clothes and blankets have been helping.

My sweet friend Brittney gave me a super fun and big baby shower! How lucky am I to have such a huge shower for my fourth kid?! Yeah! Thanks Brittney. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take pictures until everyone had left (top picture).


We've had some busy, busy days these past few weeks. It's an interesting time preparing for a fourth kid because there's not much time to rest! But it's fun and exciting nonetheless! I don't really enjoy posting these big tummy pictures, but I realize it's important to have them for the baby's sake if nothing else.

After failing my first gestational diabetes test -- and throwing up the yummy orange drink on my second test -- I have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This pregnancy has been totally different than my others and has definitely been a bigger struggle for me overall. I have been pricking my finger four times a day and watching my carbs, which has been managing my blood sugar levels just fine. As a positive result, I have gained the least amount of weight this time around. And, I have had a few extra ultrasounds which are fun too.


My Edward -- I mean my hubby -- has been so supportive. I seriously have the best husband ever. He's been pounding through my "to do" list and even scoured my horribly dirty fridge the other night while I was gabbing away at book club. He's been so patient with my mood swings and pregnancy complaints. And, when none of my friends could join me to watch "New Moon" last night, he willingly came and endured all the junior high screaming girls in the theater (even though he says it was the most out of place he's ever felt!). And, he kept my rule of not complaining about the movie. Wow. I'm so lucky! Dave loves to tease me by putting on my "Team Edward" shirt that my sister gave me for Christmas last year (don't worry he didn't really wear it to the movie, but actually neither did I because it doesn't quite fit me right now!).


This morning Dave took Aubrie to the county H1N1 flu clinic. They decided to distribute the vaccination to all 4-9- year-old kids for free this morning. The county administered the shots in three locations, and fortunately it was well organized, but look at the line just to get into the parking lot! We can't help but think if this is the future of health care -- lots of lines, lots of waiting, but no other options. Dave is now the only one in our family not vaccinated. This flu epidemic has been somewhat unnerving with all of the "high risk" categories covering the majority of my family. We feel fortunate that we have stayed healthy and now almost all of us have been vaccinated. Hopefully, Dave can get it soon too.

However, I am quite irritated with the hospital where I am going to deliver. They have instituted a policy where they accept no visitors into the maternity wing under the age of five due to the swine flu. I called to see if they would allow my kids to come visit the baby when he's born because they have been vaccinated. I was told that they will not allow Teyah and Ellie to visit because they can still get the flu even with the shot and plus H1N1 is starting to mutate. I think that's taking this a little too far! They told me it was for my own kids' benefit, but I'm pretty sure that I can make decisions of where to take my kids and how to clean their hands on my own without someone telling me what's best for them! If the kids had flu-like symptoms, or we were entering an area of the hospital where they were treating people with the flu, this policy might make more sense to me. But if they are healthy, have been vaccinated, come straight to my room and nowhere else, I think everyone is going to be OK!

See, I'm telling ya. Mood swings! I just feel so bad that Ellie won't get to visit the baby and I in the hospital. She cried when I told her.

We are anticipating a fun Thanksgiving with family in town and the possibility of the baby coming this week! We have much to be grateful for at this time. We will keep you all posted on any news.

Daddy's Toys

Here are some of the fun memories we made this summer with daddy's interesting birthday presents...

Halloween 2009

Introducing, Rod Blagojevich and his three ladies: the witch who puts her hands above her head and sings at the top of her lungs "WICKED!!" (but it sounds more like "Dickded!!"); the beautiful bride who was so excited to be holding mommy's wedding flowers; and the Diva (not a singer, rock star, but a DIVA. Get it straight people).


And, don't forget Humpty Dumpty in the background there.


There's another picture of the egghead at our church trunk-or-treat.


We started the day with Daddy's spooky breakfast which included scary green Halloween waffles, pumpkin "ghoul-gurt" (yogurt with orange food coloring), and "vampire blood" (applesauce with red food coloring) .


We then carved our pumpkin -- one is plenty in this family since Daddy ends up doing all the work.


We did some Mall of America trick-or-treating until it became insanely busy, and then we came home and hit the neighborhood. Notice the costume switch on Teyah? Pocahontas is much warmer in the 38-degree temperature than a thin witch costume.


Teyah definitely enjoyed the "candy snacks" as she likes to call it.


The neighborhood trick-or-treating didn't last long until everyone was freezing even with coats over their costumes -- so the girls warmed up with some hot cocoa.


Does anyone else look at this picture and think 'sugar overload!!'

Monster Mash

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It's officially over

I suppose we better post these remaining summer pictures that we keep meaning to put on our blog.














Because this morning we woke up to this. Somehow we never got a fall this year. This is the earliest end for our garden too. No more fresh salsa. No more Slip N Slide. No more shorts. Sigh. We are hanging our sad heads today like our poor sunflower.

Daddy....this is boring!

We thought we would share a little Old Faithful memory...

Aubrie the artist and poet

Aubrie has been impressing us since she was very small with her creativity and drawing. But, about six months ago (so, I'm a tad behind here!) I was surprised when she brought her portfolio home from her Kindergarten poetry writing. I'm late in doing this, but I was just so amazed at her talent as a poet in Kindergarten that I wanted to keep these on digital record. I'm not sure if her great writing is a testament of her excellent school, or if it's just Aubrie. I scanned them all, but then realized I should probably type a few so they are more readable on the blog (the ones I didn't scan can be viewed better if you click on them first). How does she know to write metaphors like the one above?! So cool!




My Heart, by Aubrie
My heart is a great place.
You might think I'm ugly.
But inside I'm a great beauty
Almost like a clam
How you at first think it is ugly,
but when you put sand in clams it grows a pearl inside it!




She brought this artwork home from school the other day. She explained that it is an airplane in the sky that wrote "MOM" in the clouds. The rainbow is coming from the sprinklers that are on in the yard! Cute!



She explained this portrait is made out of her favorite foods (blueberries for eyes, lemons for cheeks, raspberries for mouth, etc.)

School, By Aubrie

School is the best thing in town.
It is better than the store with a crown.
We learn how to read and that's one of the needs
We learn Spanish
and sometimes I get a little tanish!

Back to School

I'm a bit overdue on posting these as we are starting our third week of school. But, back-to-school pictures are just so important!


Aubrie is a first grader this year. It actually doesn't mean too much of a transition though because she attended all-day kindergarten starting in January.


The bigger transition for her is that she ended up with a new teacher, Mrs. Franzen. Because of her combined grade level school, she was supposed to have the same teacher this year but with budget cuts, things were changed around a bit. After a little bit of drama this summer due to this, things are going quite smoothly and Aubrie truly loves her teacher. It's fun to already see her growing up a little and having more confidence at school.


Elliana is in her second year of Joy School. Her schedule hasn't changed much this year either, except that her school is 30 minutes longer.


Here she is with all her cute Joy School friends on their first day!


As we dropped the girls off on their first day, Teyah said, "I want to go to class!" Even though she thinks she's ready for school, the two of us have been enjoying a little one-on-one time. And, even though I miss the girls immensely while they are away, it is quite nice only having to take one to the grocery store!

Summer in 3 1/2 minutes

During my second trimester, we entered 11 states! It was tough to fit it all into one song, but here are the highlights nonetheless.

A reason to celebrate

These two love-birds (my sister Toni and her new husband Darin) chose to get married Labor Day weekend in Utah. We hadn't anticipated much travel at all this summer, but with all these important family events that were unexpected, it made for a ton of travel!


Toni was a beautiful bride, and I enjoyed spending lots of time with her the week of the wedding. I am so happy I was able to be a part of it. We love Darin and couldn't be happier for these two.


About three years ago, we experienced a driving trip to Utah from you-know-where, and swore we would never make that drive again. But with Dave completely out of days off and our travel budget more than exhausted, we didn't have much of a choice this time. David drove the family to Utah one weekend, flew home on frequent flyer miles home so he could work, flew back the next weekend for the wedding, and less then 24 hours later turned around and drove us home! What a patient and nice husband I have!


We decided that if we were going to make the 21-hour drive, we would try to make the trip there somewhat of a vacation; we'd do it in three days; and see some things our kids (and David) hadn't seen before.


This picture is fun to me because I have such distinct memories of this dinosaur (and the slide in the picture below) from when I was a very young girl.


That slide has got to be about a thousand years old! What a flashback!


I enjoyed going back to the "cowboy culture" I grew up with and realized what a distinct culture it really is. Growing up, it just seemed so normal!


Returning to Mount Rushmore as an adult was fun too, because as a kid I was so unimpressed by it. Isn't it great, when you realize you have gained some perspective on something? Our kids, were not so enthused.




However, we stopped at this adorable storybook village park in Rapid City, SD, and they were mighty impressed by it.


Teyah especially loved this "choo, choo train." After seeing the trains at Carpinteria this summer, she has been totally obsessed (our first kid to like trains). So, when she got to ride this little train all by herself she was more than thrilled!


We kept our path due west and stayed a night in my hometown. It was a total trip taking my girls to the Wyoming Dairy Queen I basically grew up in! It has hardly changed and they sat on the same saddle chairs I sat on when I was their age!


This gorgeous pic, doesn't exactly evoke the best memories. It was taken right in front of the Antler Motel that we stayed in. The motel was fine until we woke up in the morning and realized Dave had been eaten alive by bed bugs! The bites quickly grew into large blisters and after several medications, and two weeks time, they have still not completely disappeared. Did I mention I have a trooper of a husband?


We enjoyed our drive through Yellowstone too. The only scary part was when Teyah's carseat buckle broke in the park. We weren't quite sure how to proceed, but after my impressive husband messed with it a little, he rigged it so we could safely continue on.


The trip from memory lane continued on to Idaho. This is the first house we purchased and the one we brought Aubrie home from the hospital! It was the same owners we sold it to, and they let us see inside, the backyard and updated us on the neighbors! What fun!


I am going to explain further why my husband is so patient. We made it to Utah just before midnight Sunday night. Then, he arose at 4 a.m. to take the early flight back home Monday morning to be able to work. Around 8:30 a.m. he called and said he was still in Utah because Northwest/Delta had canceled his flight due to mechanical issues, and re-booked him on a non-direct flight. After even more delays in Denver, he finally arrived at work at 4 p.m. Needless to say, our plan of him not missing work, didn't go over so well.


The week the girls and I spent in Utah was great fun! We spent time with cousins, Grandma, aunts, great grandparents, etc. Everyone was healthy until the stomach bug started to hit one-by-one.

Unfortunately, I had it the day we drove home. But despite the bed bugs, the flu, and the canceled flight, I still think the trip was worth it! We loved being there with family and seeing Toni so happy. Congrats Toni and Darin! Thanks for giving us an excuse to travel again.