Happy Halloween

Attention family and friends

We are planning to bless Charlie next Sunday, Nov. 2nd. This is a good step for us since we put off Lizzy's for like 4 months. I have a lesson that I have to teach after sacrament meeting, so I'm planning to send uninterested parties to or house while I do that and then have a late lunch/early dinner at 3:30-4:00ish. We'd love to invite anyone interested in coming, assuming that I have actually met you in real life and you aren't someone like me, who reads random peoples' blogs (I flatter myself that I would be that interesting). In that case, I'm not sure you're invited, but if I've met you in real life, we really would love to have you come. Just let me know and I'll send you the details.

Success!

I know that I haven't been my usual post-happy self lately. I believe it to be largely related to Charlie. He's started to become a little more high maintenance than I would prefer. He seems to have something wrong with his tummy, I don't know if it is bubbles or reflux or what, but he always wants to be held and bounced and cuddled. He really is just the sweetest thing and he doesn't really cry, he's just fussy, which means that I generally only have one hand free... and typing with one hand takes a really long time! Today, I finally got new batteries in the swing and you know what?




He loves it! Hooray! I get my life back! No more sitting and bouncing the bouncy chair with my foot for hours. No more carrying him around the house in the baby sling. I'm not sure what took me so long to get the batteries for it, perhaps I've just been in denial over everything, but whatever, he loves the swing! Jane lived most of the first few months of her life in this swing. Johnny B called it her "mechanical mommy" because I just pawned her off to the swing's care most days. Lizzy didn't like it, it was a total disappointment, but Charlie and the swing seem to be a match made in heaven. Today, I'd like to thank the genius that came up with the mechanical baby swing.

Tagaroo

I was tagged by my friend, Kriss. You are supposed to open your tenth folder of photos and click on the eighth photo in the folder. This is what was in mine. Sorry it's so creepy.



Believe it or not, that is actually Jane. It was just minutes after she was born and Brent is holding his first child. I love how suspicious she is of Brent. It's awesome. Just be glad we landed on this one instead of one of the notorious "alien baby" photos that I wish didn't exist. You would all be scarred for life.

Now I get to tag people, but the people I usually tag never do it so I am tagging any of my cousins that read this or their wives. There are enough of you that at least a couple should do it, right?

One year older and wiser too

This week was my birthday. I'm old. Not as old as a lot of you :) but old none the less. Jane seems to think I'm practically on my death bed. It was a good day and preceding weekend that included a new fancy coat, a date with my husband, Rainbow Chip cake, homemade potroast, more pumpkin picking, a delicious lunch at Red Lobster (yummmmm... biscuits), dinner with friends and this morning, breakfast with friends for me and another friend with a birthday this week. Why do you eat so much when it's your birthday? Maybe it's just me. Food is good.
I thought I'd share the photos that we got at the second pumpkin patch we've visited this year. I know, we go to a lot of pumpkin patches, but it's a great place to keep your kids entertained and aren't the photos with the pumpkins so charming?







It was pretty cold, so it was a quick trip, but our mission was accomplished.


Ben was there too as well as Charlie and I. He was covered under a heavy blanket in his car seat and I was behind the camera. Hooray for birthdays in October. It really is my favorite month, for lots of reasons.

I am the fire starter

Fact: Brent and I love fires, and not the "flip a switch insta-fire" but actual wood that is burning. For my part, I think its my parent's fault. They had a wood burning stove built into the home that we grew up in (in LAS VEGAS) and kept the fires going most of those bitter 50 degree winter months. It seemed really cold when we were growing up. Now Brent and I have an insert in our fireplace that acts like a stove and we use it to heat our house in the winter. The only problem is that wood up here is really expensive, so we regularly make trips down to Summit to get (mooch) wood from my dad. My dad really likes firewood too. So this last weekend we went down to relaxing Summit to visit my parents and get some wood and have a nice time, generally. Here are a few photos from the trip.



There are several fruit trees that my Uncle Alma planted years and years ago that have, by default, ended up on my parents' property. They really can't take credit for the delicious apples and cherries, but we're glad they're there.



If Grandma is around, this is generally how you find Lizzy... holding on to her and refusing to let go. Lizzy made her first trip to nursery in the Summit ward. It was deluxe.



My big, strong Charlie. He went to the doctor yesterday and has already gained a pound and grown over an inch.



My dad always carved pumpkins with us growing up and I loved it. Looks like my girls love it too.





And a couple snow pictures for my dad. It was a great weekend to be in Summit, even with the snow since, of course, there was a nice, warm fire inside.

Good Thursday

After an unsuccessful attempt to get Ben and Lizzy to take naps this afternoon, Leslie and I decided to just get the kids out if the house. There is a fun pumpkin patch not too far from my house that a friend of mine turned me on to and we thought that it would be a good place to let the kids work out their baby fury instead of taking it out on us or (more likely) each other. Ben struggled a little with all the Halloween decor, he doesn't have what you'd call "nerves of steel," but all in all it was quite amusing and it made me feel like a pretty good mom taking my kids on an outing like that.



I tried to get a photo of me and my kids, but they move so fast!





I got my photos from Charlie's newborn photo shoot by Brooke of Oliverminie J. Photography. She does such a great job and I had to post a couple of my favorites.



She managed to capture one of us where we all look decent. I LOVE this photo...



and my girls love their little brother.





And of course, Charlie. (Can I say that the more I call him Charlie, the more I like the name. It really makes me happy to have a son named Charlie.) I'm a huge fan of my swaddling blankets (click here) that we got for him. It makes it so easy to turn him into a little mummy before bedtime and he sleeps so much better all swaddled up, and it makes a cute photo to boot. Ah, so many good things on a good Thursday.

My Favorite Ragamuffin

I try so hard to keep her cute. Honestly I do. She's just determined to make it look like I don't. Oh Lizzy Boo. Click on the photo to enlarge it and get the life like effect.

Living the good life

So... conference was good this weekend, right? I mean, I don't really know since my children successfully prevented me from paying attention to more than about 20% the 8 hours available to me. Next time, we're going to have to come up with something else to keep them occupied. I'm thinking a padded, sound proof room and a strong lock. I enjoyed what I heard, though, and walked away from the weekend feeling uplifted.

I wish that I had more to blog about, but alas, I don't. At this point, my days basically consist of

feeding the baby,
changing a diaper or two or three,
yelling at the girls,
changing a diaper,
feeding the baby,
loading up the children in the car and trying to save my sanity by getting out of the house,
yelling at the girls at the store,
yelling at the girls in the car,
changing a diaper,
feeding the baby,
feeding the baby and,
feeding the baby

oh, and I often try to fit in a good cry in my disastrous house before bed. Then I feed the baby.

All in all, I'm very happy. A wee bit unstable, but happy. I appreciated the reminders from conference about "enjoying the journey" since I have a tendency to allow myself to suffer through things instead. Funny though, how loving someone (or my whole family) can make you happy, isn't it?



Oh, I adore him in his little monkey suit.



He kinda looks like he's got 'monkey paws' in his monkey suit. Ah, the terrifying monkey paws, I remember you well.
Now, I'm going to go watch Dancing with the Stars in an effort to annoy my husband into allowing me to get cable. (I think it's working)

Vice Presidential Debate

Jane and I have been watching the debate tonight. Poor girl is being exposed to more serious matters than she should be thinking about. These are a couple of her thoughts as we've been watching...

"Mom, I heard a big word on TV. It was Al-Qaida. What's an Al-Qaida?"

"Mom, where is Israel? Can we go there?" (after I try to explain why we can't visit Israel)
"It's a good thing we live here, huh? I want to go there when they stop fighting."

"I want to be Jane McCain, is that so funny?"

about a week

So it's been a little more than a week since Charlie was born and I thought I'd post a couple of photos of him. I didn't have a clean "boy" blanket this morning, so he ended up in a girl one. It was just a matter of time.





Is it just me, or does he just look like a boy wrapped in a girl blanket? Of course, my photos can't compete with with Brooke's...



She took photos for us yesterday and already posted some previews for me. Thank you so much Brooke! I'm sure I'll be showing you all more later. She spent all morning with my 3 kids and Ben tearing apart her house while her little girl slept. It really wasn't fair of us to do that to her.

Charlie is about the sweetest thing in the world (knock on wood). He's still really sleepy and sleeps through the night pretty well. He'll sometimes want to eat once or twice, but he goes back down. He rarely cries unless he needs something and just makes me happy every day. I'm getting to the point that I'm trying to pull it together and start functioning like a normal human being for the first time all year, just with a lot more time spent at home. Loading up 3 kids and taking them anywhere is a lot of work!