One-Month-Old Photos

Every month of each of my kids' first year I take a picture of each child by a teddy-bear to see how much they grow. It's so amazing to me how much they change during their first year. This morning I got out the scrapbooks and loved looking back on Kyler, Lexi, and Porter's first year. I decided to blog them for all you lucky people! Actually I thought it would be fun to have them all together and compare them each month. So here we go with our first month:

Brenner, June 2008
(in a lucky moment when he wasn't crying, poor fussy baby)
Porter, June 2004
(As a preemie baby he was still in the hospital. Seeing these photos always makes me cry, but also grateful that he's done so well!)
Lexi, June 2003
(I really really loved all her hair and putting in clips, bows, and pigtails. I'm not sure why I didn't for this picture?))
Kyler, September 2002
(My attempt to get him to take a binky, which he spit right out after the picture and never took again. None of my kids have been binky fans.)
Kyler was sitting by me while we were looking at their baby scrapbooks. All their pictures are so darn cute and in an overwhelming-nostalgic-motherhood moment I said, "Oh I just wish I could pick you up out of the picture and kiss you!" Kyler looked at me and said, "But Mom, you can do it now." That's right! I need to take advantage of having them close to me now! So I hugged him tight and kissed him, kissed him, kissed him on the cheek until he backed away in giggles. Oh I love my kids!

On a Summer's Day...

Hooray for sunshine! My kids have really been enjoying the hot weather. What is better on a hot summer day than sliding down the slip-and-slide? The water from the hose is freezing but they still played for over an hour and loved it.















I loved these pictures of my sweet Porter blowing dandelions. I love carefree childhood moments and his huge smile as he was giggling...











Then they put the sprinkler under the trampoline and I got some great pictures of them jumping with these gorgeous clouds in the background. Hooray for the joy of a summer day...

JOY
/noun/ a feeling of happiness, bliss, delight, enjoyment or pleasure



Brenner is already 4 weeks old. He still loves to be held all day long. I hope someday he's happy and content just to be awake and look around. He's a great eater and is getting heavy. I can't wait for him to start smiling and gooing, I just love that. Even though he's a cranky baby he's still so lovable and kissable! We just can't help ourselves from being so in love with him.


And now to end this long post - I came across this and really like it. Isn't it a great reminder to enjoy and make the most of this brief moment in time when our kids are small?

How to Love a Child

Be there. Say yes as often as possible.
Let them bang the pots and pans.
If they’re crabby, put them in water.
If they’re unlovable, love yourself.
Realize how important it is to be a child.
Go to a movie theater in your pajamas together.
Read books out loud with joy.
Invent pleasures together.
Remember how small they are. Giggle a lot.
Surprise them. Say no when necessary. Teach feelings.
Heal your own inner child. Learn about parenting.
Hug trees together. Make loving safe.
Bake a cake and eat it with no hands.
Go find elephants and kiss them.
Plan to build a rocket ship. Imagine yourself magic.
Make lots of forts with blankets. Let your angel fly.
Reveal your own dreams. Search out the possible.
Keep a gleam in your eye. Mail letters to God.
Encourage silly. Plant licorice in your garden.
Open up. Stop yelling.
Express love a lot. Speak kindly.
Paint their tennis shoes.
Handle with care.

Children are miraculous.


I also read a quote last night that said something like, "If a child is a handful he's not often enough an armful." A great reminder to hug my kids a little more often, which I've tried to do today and I can tell it's made a difference to them. Our home has been a little happier today!

Parade of Homes

Dave and his brother, Mitch, built a house for their brother Brett and his wife Kara and their family. It is a gorgeous house! It was in the Parade of Homes last weekend and won the "Builder's Choice Award" and "Best Kitchen Award." I hope Brett and Kara don't mind if I post a few pictures of their home. Thanks guys! One of my favorite parts of Brett and Kara's kitchen is this awesome rock arch over their cooktop. Isn't it amazing?
It was also fun to walk around some of the other houses in the Parade. I love seeing the different kitchens and all the beautiful decorations. So fun! Here are my cute kids at the Parade of Homes banquet at the Airplane Museum. They were pretty excited about all the real airplanes, and Kyler especially loved the blueberry cheesecake we had for dessert. It was fun to go to the banquet with Dave and the kids, Dave's mom and dad, Brett, and Mitch, Ashley and Peyton.
One more picture... My baby at 3-weeks old. Are't his cheeks getting chunky? I just wish he wasn't such a cranky baby... sigh... But I'm sure pacing the floor with him at all hours of the day and night is a good post-pregnancy exercise routine, no? I can only wish...

Help...

I'm not sure how much more sleep deprivation I can take... I was hoping Brenner would get better during the night. For the last 3 weeks he's been waking up every 3 hours like clockwork. I've been averaging 4 hours of sleep per night and it's been so super hard. The last few nights it's been shortened to 3 hours of sleep each night. I just don't know what to do. Any ideas? He's starting to stay awake for longer periods of time, I just wish it wasn't at 4:00 in the morning. And he has so much gas, he burps constantly and the minute I lay him down he squirms and grunts and is just plain miserable in his sleep if it doesn't wake him up or give him hiccups. I've paced the floor with him for hours at night trying to get out all his bubbles so he doesn't gag and spit up in his sleep (which he's done a lot of). It's just so draining and I want to be getting enough sleep myself so I can be a good mom. I hope these dark circles under my eyes aren't permanent and that one day I can see straight again and do more than drag my body from room to room. We have those mylacon drops and they don't seem to make a difference to him. I've also tried feeding him formula at night to hopefully get him to sleep longer and that hasn't helped either. Ahhhh.... Help... Brenner is 3 weeks old today. Good thing I'm so in love with him otherwise I don't know if I could endure. I love him so incredibly much!

"Be Still My Soul"

This was on my friend Heather's blog, David Archuleta singing at a fireside. How can we get him to make a CD of hymns? Wouldn't that be the best? We're Archuleta fans. Hope you enjoy!

And I have to share this to die for peanut-butter chocolate pie my friend Kim brought over the other day. The peanut-butter chocolate combination is one of my favorite things ever!!! I sat down and ate almost the whole pie myself. Mmmm!

OREO crust
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 of an 8 oz block of cream cheese
1/3 cup powdered sugar
4 oz cool whip
4-serving box of instant chocolate pudding
1 1/2 cups milk

Let cream cheese thaw and mix together with peanut butter, powdered sugar and cool whip until smooth. Pour over Oreo crust.

Make pudding using 1 1/2 cups milk. Pour over peanut butter mixture. Top with extra whipped topping. Grate chocolate candy bar on top. Chill. Store leftovers in fridge (if there are any!).

Lots of Love

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. The kids and I ventured to ACE Hardward to get him a few presents on Saturday. My first time out with 4 kids and it went surprisingly well. The kids loved picking things out for Dave, they weren't exactly things he's always wanted but he was a great sport. He's such a great Dad and the kids were so excited to draw him pictures and watch him open his presents. We also had a nice drive to visit each of our Dads later in the evening.

Brenner's belly-button finally fell off so we got to give him a real bath yesterday. It was a whole-family-affair. The kids kept asking everyday when his belly-button would fall off so when it finally did on Saturday night it was quite the event! He really liked the warm water.

Everything Brenner does is so amazing to the other 3 kids. They LOVE him so much and are always surrounding him. It's kind of nice that they are old enough to hold him while I pick things up or fold laundry, etc. They think having a baby at our house is pretty fun. Kind of like Christmas morning every morning when they wake up and remember he's here and they all race in to look at him sleeping. The other day poor Brenner's head smelled like strawberries because the kids had been kissing him while they were eating strawberry Go-gurts. Sometimes he gets a little too much love!












I think Brenner looks a lot like Lexi. She said this morning, "Brenner smells so good, like heaven." She used to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to my stomach when I was pregnant and now when Brenner cries she sings it to him and he always stops crying to listen. It's really cute. We love you Brenner!

Kindergarten Graduation

Kyler graduated from Kindergarten the day Brenner was born. After the C-section Dave and his parents brought Kyler back over for his graduation. I was very sad to miss it but loved watching it on video at the hospital. Kyler did a great job singing the cute little songs. They each got a chance to tell what they learned in kindergarten and Kyler's favorite thing he learned was "How to do math." What a smart boy! Here is a picture of him with our cute carpool group (thanks Christine, I stole it from your blog!). I love that their hats were stuck on with duct tape! Congrats to the Class of 2020!
Today Brenner is 2-weeks old. Isn't this a darling outfit from a cute friend? I've decided boy baby clothes are just as fun as girls! This outfit is so so soft, I love it. I can see him growing and changing already. It's amazing how fast babies change. Adjusting to a newborn's schedule has been a struggle for me. Even though I knew they were coming the sleepless nights have hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel like I'm in a constant fog. It seems like all we do at our house is sleep, eat, and poop. I hope it gets easier one day. I can't wait to feel like me again, to be able to be a better mom to my other 3 kids and do normal things like go to the park or even the grocery store. But I know in time it will come. I've just become a little too familiar with our couch the last couple weeks! I'm just so TIRED! I get about 4 hours of sleep a night because poor little Brenner is so gassy and gets the hiccups and I burp and burp and burp him but it takes forever to get all his bubbles out, etc. Or just when he's finally fallen back asleep he'll poop and I just can't lay him down with a dirty diaper no matter how much I want to sleep and I know he'll be up again for awhile if I change him. But I love holding him and need to be grateful for that because he'll keep growing too fast!

I'm so behind on reading all of your blogs but I've been working on catching up. I've missed seeing what you are all up to. Thank you for all your kind thoughts!

Our Baby Boy

I have really been wanting to find time to post about our sweet new baby boy!

We named him Brenner Maxwell. He was born at 7:45 am on May 29 and weighed 8 lbs 12 oz.

I have really been enjoying every spare second just holding him and soaking it all in. It has been so much fun having a new baby in our home. I know it seems impossible to forget how precious and fun new babies are but I must have forgotten because all these feelings are so wonderful and so strong and I love him so indescribably much! He is such a good baby and I just love him so much it makes my heart ache. I love to hold him every minute, smell him, kiss him, watch the facial expressions he makes while he's sleeping, feel his soft rooster-tail hair on my cheek, listen to his noises, rub his little feet and toes, how he curls up into a stink-bug, and just every single thing about him. A few months ago I was surprised to find out we were having a boy instead of a girl but I would not trade this precious baby boy for a million girls! He fills the spot in our family and in our hearts that we didn't even know we were missing. It seems like we've known this little boy forever. I'm so thankful for him and I hope and pray to just be the best mother I can be to him, and to all my kids.

The C-section went well although it seems a lot harder to recover this time than it was last time. But I know it will get better and I'm grateful our bodies heal even though it takes a little time (I can't wait to get out of these housecoat/bathrobe-things and into regular sweats! Oh, I just have to tell the first thing Lexi said to me on their first visit to the hospital: "Mom! I thought there was only one baby in your tummy!" She thought my stomach was still so big there must be another baby inside.) I was in the hospital for 4 days. I loved when my kids came to visit. I love this picture of my 3 boys in the hospital the day he was born.

All 3 kids so love this baby! I don't know if any baby has ever had his head touched or his hands held more than this little guy has in the last 48 hours. I hope they don't rub off all his hair! All three of them are such great helpers and are so interested in everything he does. We have to set the timer all day long so they don't fight over how long each other gets to hold him. They could each sit and hold him for hours. We sang 'Happy Birthday' to him this morning at 7:45am because he was 1 week old exactly. Hard to believe it's already been a week!

I am so lucky to have the best husband in the world. He has been so much help especially with the three older kids. He took them swimming yesterday and to their T-Ball games, etc. He's taken lots of time off work to do fun activities with them to give me some quiet time to rest, not to mention all the cooking, dishes, and laundry he's done the last few days! I'm so thankful for him and all he does for our family. Our wonderful parents kept our kids for a week and took such great care of them and helped them have so much fun. We can never repay all they have done for us. And thank you so much to wonderful friends and family who have called, come to visit, brought gifts and DELICIOUS dinners. It has been so fun to see everyone and visit and just know how kind people are and how much they care! We love you all.

Baby = Laundry!!!

Holy smokes! I know this is not very interesting but I just have to say I haven't remembered how much laundry one baby can produce! We just have 5 or 6 newborn jammies and he goes through all of them every day. I have to wash them all again each morning because they get soaked or pooped on, etc. And I can't believe how many diapers he goes through. I will barely get him changed and then hear him poop again! I've also been re-reminded how fast you have to be changing little boys. A couple days ago while I was changing him he pee'd straight up and came down right in his ear. Yikes! I hurried to turn his head and dry it out as he sneezed and poop shot out onto my leg! It was a crazy couple seconds with it all happening at once. Dave and I burst out laughing. He is definitely worth all the extra diapers and laundry.

T-Ball and Dandelions

Our kids had a T-Ball game last night. I looked out the front window before they left and saw two turquiose shirts out in a field of dandelions picking as fast as they could go. I grabbed the camera and opened the front door as they were running across the yard to give them to me. It was so sweet. As soon as they got home from their game they picked me some more and we put them in a jar. Kyler held them out to me as he asked what my favorite flower was? How could I say anything but "Dandelions for sure!"











Kyler was telling me about their game and told me he played "Pit Stop." He got mixed up between short stop and pitcher. Isn't that funny? Anyway, those two things are summer to me... T-Ball and fists full of dandelions.