Weekend with Olivia

Olivia came to stay this weekend and the kids loved having her here. We had a blast. 

Cupboard time

While we were in PA if we ever couldn't find jane, all we had to do was look in the cupboard. She would take her snacks in there to eat for a little alone time. 

Diaper.... Not!

Went in to get Jane from her nap and this is how I found her, without a diaper. She is one silly girl and we sure live her. 

Back to preschool.

The day has come for Luke's second year of preschool.  He is getting so big and loves to learn. 

He absolutely loves his teacher miss Mary, and asked me this morning during breakfast if I would write a note to her that says he loves her , what a sweet heart. 

Loving summer

The kids love having the backyard finished to play in, and it has been a lifesaver for me during naptimes when I can't take them out to parks and such. We love being home and enjoying the summer sun. 

Mascara

Please excuse the blurry pictures but I had to capture her first massacre with my makeup. She was so proud of herself I couldn't get mad.... Or let her look in the mirror to let her see it wasn't so "pretty"

Buggies

We are in Lancaster again, and of course we had to take the kiddos on a Amish buggy ride. They loved it to begin with but once they got tired and hungry it was a major draw back we couldn't stop at a drive through or speed up the horses 😆 haha it was very fun and quite the adventure with 3. 

Bumbo baby

Sara is growing so fast, and looking so grown up in her chair. She is so good at sitting there quietly while I cook or clean. She is such an awesome baby:)

Captain America

We went camping in kolob this weekend and had a blast!

While getting ready for bed, Luke climbs up to his bed, closes his eyes and begins to fake snore..... You may be wondering how super heroes snore. It goes something like this: haaa captain America  haaaa captain America haaaaa captain America ..... Chris asks him if he is dreaming about captain America and he says with his eyes still closed, nope, just snoring about him.

I just love my little super heroe who says the funniest things!

Sara

Wow how time flies! Little sara has been in our home for 4 months now and I have yet to write down the story of the day she came into this world. All I can say is having 3 kids keeps me busy... but I love it.

Here is her story.

A week and a half before her due date we went to my routine dr. appointment, I had really bad sciatic pain that made it so I couldn't walk very well. Dr Lunt could tell how much pain I was in and offered to induce me the next day if we wanted to... YES, Finally, we couldn't wait to meet this little girl. so we went home and packed our bags. 

the next morning Mckensi and Olivia came down to watch luke and Jane in case we got called in early in the morning.  at 11 am the labor and delivery called us to let us know we could come in to have our baby.  We were beyond excited and jumped in the truck to go ( not literally jumped... still 9 months preggo). 

They showed us to our room and I asked to immediately have an epidural to avoid any unnecessary pain :) I was a 3 when we got there, after the Epi they checked me again and I was a 6! this was 1 hour after we got to the hospital. they gave me an antibiotic for group b strep through my I V.... it felt like someone was cutting my arm off. I started to cry which I was embarrassed about until dr. Lunt came in and slowed the the drip so it didn't go in as fast (they were trying to hurry to get it in because of how quickly little Sara was coming) this helped tremendesly. after that everything was a breeze. they checked me again and I was an 8. 10 min later I began to shake, which my Mom recognized as going into transition to deliver. they checked me again and I was a 10 and ready to go. Luckily this time Dr. Lunt was there waiting. I asked if we needed to start pushing before he came in, and the nurses just laughed and said the baby is ready for the Dr.

Dr. Lunt came in and the very next contraction they told me to push for a count of 10 seconds, i took a breath and began to push again and Dr. Lunt told me to stop, that the baby was out, at 4:00. I asked if he was serious and he held up beautiful Sara and I instantly fell in love with her. I could tell immediately that she had a very sweet spirit about her. Chris cut the chord and they handed her to me to hold after 9 months of waiting, it was a perfect moment. 

She weighed 6lbs 15 oz and 21 inches long, such a tiny little thing. she didn't look much like Luke and Jane, she looked more like me. I always thought I wanted all of our kids to look like chris because of his beautiful features, but when I saw her I was secretly very happy that I got one who looked like me. 

  Luke and Jane came in to meet her a couple hours later, Luke had been so excited for the Dr. to pull her out of my tummy that he asked me several times a week if today was the day. it was so cute how excited he was for another little sister.  Jane on the other hand was too young to care ( I wonder why). when they met her they were so sweet, the nurses warned me that the kids usually want nothing to do with mom when she was in a hospital bed. nope not my kids they climbed right up with me to cuddle, and rode with me as they pushed me to our new room. from the moment they met Sara they were smitten and wanted to be by her all the time. I keep waiting for that to change but 4 months later they still treat her as if she is the center of their world. in Janes case, that makes for one nervous mom... and for good reason:)

We sure do love sweet Sara and the great baby that she is. I cant believe how much the Lord has blessed me, and how much he has trusted me to be the mother to 3 of his choicest spirits.  for the rest of my life I will never stop thanking him for the joy that is mine because of my children. my cup runneth over, what an amazing job I have on this earth, and I wouldn't trade motherhood for any other calling.

JANE

Jane is now 16 months and has been so funny lately.
here are some memories from the last 6 or so months of things we just love about her.

- she loves to annoy Luke and only wants certain toys if he can see she has them, once he notices she turns and runs laughing.
-  she yells alot instead of talking, it is very cute and loud.
-  she has to be as close to you as possible if you are sitting down... sometimes even sitting up on your chest. and is constantly switching postitions which results in her basically rolling across your body.
- really likes Sara, taking her binki, giving her kisses, laying her face on her, trying to pick her up and saying hi to her in a high pitch voice.

- stares people down... For a long time.

- picks random people to love.

- loves to torture Luke in the car when he can't get away.

- waves bye to me whenever someone is leaving and tries to go with them.

- She can say wow, uh oh, mom dad, hi, bye, and baby.

- loves to play with all the kids. 

- loves to cuddle and watch movies.

- hangs out with the neighbors cat... Literally they just walk around side by side with each other outside. 

Updates

We have been having a lot of fun at our house as of late. Jane has been learning so many new things and loving being around Luke, having a baby with a sibling is so much different and I love it! Luke has been going to preschool and is totally in love with it.
It is hunting season wich means Luke is in love with everything Chris does and wears including his boots:)
I love being home with my little family and enjoying all the little moments.

Look who's standing

I went in to put James binki back in for her nap the other day, and this is what I found! She was so proud of herself, I opened the door and was so shocked , she started to giggle when she saw my face.
She is so fun and growing up so fast I can't believe it! She is crawling, standing up to things and babbling like crazy.

Pine valley

We went for a quick overnighter to pine valley and had so much fun, it was beautiful!
Luke learned the different kind of animal poop, which I guess is essential for a boy to know. Overall it was a great family trip an the kids loved it:)

She's a girl!!

Yep, that's right we're having a girl! We couldn't be more excited to have to little buddies close to each other. Jane and the new baby will be thirteen months apart!
I thought it would be fun since we can't decide on a name for the new little girl, that I would put the ones I like and the ones Chris likes so in the future she can see what her name could have been.
Chris's picks are;
Jule
Annabelle
My picks are;
Reece
Daphne
Violet
Tess

None of these are favorites, but when you have 44 cousins all having kids and 8 siblings having lots of girls..20 or so, the names get very limited:) I'm sure we will find one we love, most likely none of the above because neither of us like the others:) we will see.
Anyways we are way excited and can't wait for her to get here!!

New York trip

Last week we went to new York with kensi and josh. We had such a fun time! The drive was supposed to be 2 1/2 hours but when we were 2 miles from our hotel it turned to four hours! Crazy traffic, I don't know how anyone uses a car there.
When we got to the hotel it was so cool, probably because I was ready to relax after the drive with kids... Whatever the reason we loved the hotel it was so fun and comfortable. The first night we only had time to go to dinner, so we walked to hells kitchen, when we saw the line.... We kept walking to a yummy Mexican restaurant! Haha the walk was a experience itself, it's just such a crazy city ! On the way home that night we stopped at a tourist shop and got all the necessary tourist items.... Plus a white elephant gift for Christmas.... And Luke's know gloob:) also known as a snow globe, he was so smitten to have his very own!
Sleep was very welcome that night and we all passed right out and slept soooo comfortably!

The next day we met up for breakfast, traded out car for the subway and set off for FAO Schwartz, for the kiddos;) after that we had lunch in a 90 sq foot Cuban restaurant with no windows with 48 other people ( the specifics are hazy ) and the food was sooo good despite the grumpy kiddos we had! As we go to leave there is a terential downpour, which we braves as we pushed our strollers to the nearest shelter! After aquiring umbrellas we continued walking to each destination and encountering many honery new Yorkers who would mumble under our breaths very mean things as we took pics of everything, made me wonder when they were gonna wake up and realize they decided to live in a tourist city:) rude awakening coming their way soon!
We saw so many cool things and had so much fun! Times square was crazy busy and cool. The cartoon characters walking around were very eager to take pics with us and we were so happy about it until they wouldn't give Luke back to us until we tipped them... Yep you heard right, woody temporarily kidnapped Luke !! And Minnie took off her head and demanded a tip! Definatly not Disneyland! Let's just say Chris didn't take too kindly to the ransom and took Luke back before any money was exchanged:)
During the walk back to the hotel Jane ( who was an angel the entire trip) was sitting up in her car seat and fell asleep sitting straight up!! Haha she was one exhausted girl but didn't want to miss anything so she faught sleeping till the very last minute! We had so much fun with kensi and josh and our whirlwind trip to new York, and we're so happy they came out to visit us!

The happenings of Luke

Luke has been very entertaining as of late, let me give a few examples.
Shaving cream picture: I was laying on the couch trying to catch a quick little nap as a reprieve from my nausea. Then I hear this sweet little voice coming from the bathroom saying " I'm sorry mom".... Never a good thing to hear when even he realizes this was not a good idea! I walk in and he uses his hands to showcase the bathroom and says," I made my very own snow day"!
Baby powder: there's no story to this it just happened, and it was very hard to breathe in that room!
Running baseball man; I just love the picture of him in his baseball gear! This is he and Chris on there way back from a baseball game, he LOVED it!! He slept with his baseball for the next couple nights.
Horse man: we went to Bree and Tyler's and went to a BBQ at dr nickels house. They had their horses out ready to ride and Luke of course would never pass that opportunity up.
Big boy underwear ; yep he's potty trained and loves his underwear he changes them every hour cause he likes the new prints and can't make up his mind which he wants to wear.
Firefighter Luke ; let's just say as of right now that's what he wants to be when he grows up. He loves wearing his dads gear, and seeing the fire trucks!