the help

kai skipped school today to have a turn being mom's helper.  he bathed vivian and read to her.  he loves her!!  i mentioned a few things he could do with her and he said, "and then we can play stats."  he loves that stat app on my phone!

one week

can't believe vivian is one week old.  it is so much better having her here than being pregnant!  today we had all kinds of subs at the house finishing things up, so...sadie and i had a photo shoot with little vivs.  

action shots

max takes loves to take photos of viv with my iphone. especially action shots....some have more action than others.

in love

we can't get enough of our vivs!!!

i love hearing kai walk in from school and say, "where's the baby?"

and.... max making up songs (singing with vibrato, of course), "there you you are, there you are, there you are, little guy. i love you, i love you, i love you, you know."

all i want to do is hold her and stare at her... and soak up her smallness.

#5

baby #5 has arrived!!!

introducing...

vivian sophia

8lbs 4 oz 21 inches

born at 12:08pm

it was an eventful delivery (i will give details another day), so we are so happy to have her here and part of our family.

we decided on the name vivian because it means full of life. sophia was my great grandmother's name and it means wisdom.

what could be better than to be full of life and wisdom?

plus, i caught abe looking up the name vivian and he was so cute about it, it sealed the deal.

fourteen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

SADIE!!!

my little girl is growing up. i found these pictures of her when she was little. once sadie asked me if i liked it better when she was little. i explained that having her as a baby was an amazing experience. then she learned to walk and that was even better, then she started talking and that was even more incredible...and so it goes.

every phase gets better. sadie as a teenager is inspiring to watch. i love her courage, determination, the choices she makes. i love the friend she is to everyone around her, including me. she is seriously a treat!

so......HAPPY BIRTHDAY

my amazing, sadie!

the best part of the birthday table was dave and i setting it up. dave went on a late night run for wrapping paper---i knew he was tired when he returned with cellophane wrap (see through wrapping paper) he thought it was silver:)

we woke everyone up bright and early to open presents. it was a fun start to her day.

her friends had each written her a really nice note. they took turns giving them to her with a candy treat in each of her classes through out the day. dave and max delivered pizza to her at lunch.

(notice: i love vivian's leg all curled up. she is so cute!)

she got home from school and vivian sidetracked her while dave and max finished setting up her new bed, with new sheets and pillows. she was so surprised.

then...

dave took sadie and her friend to the outlets and gave them each $20 and let them loose to see what treasures they could find. then he dropped them off at a movie (he was slightly offended they didn't care if he stayed or not) then he took them to dinner. it was quite the day for quite the girl.

WE LOVE YOU, SADIE!!!!!!!

a treat

my cute niece showed up to clean my house. she and sadie vacuumed, mopped and cleaned bathrooms. all the things that are hard to do when you are days away from having a baby. i came home from abe's soccer game to a clean, ready for a new baby, house. it was a treat.... and it made me feel so grateful!

another treat.....fresh flowers on my table. love them.

2 days until baby girl arrives. 6:30am induction. can't wait to meet her.

happy easter

dave and the boys decorated eggs.

it was pretty basic egg decorating so they tried to add

a little excitement by making a few into planets.

the easter bunny found us, which was a good thing. i only had my iphone and so these pictures are terrible quality, but i love them anyway.

max wanted to leave out THIS HUGE basket for the easter bunny.

it makes me laugh every time i look at it. go big or go home.

the easter bunny didn't disappoint. he filled it right up.

we found all the hiding spots in our new house searching for our baskets. abe finds his last every year. dave was on call, but luckily, didn't get called in until all the baskets and eggs had been found...except for that egg that always shows up a few days later:)

my parents brought dinner to us and i was so happy they came. dave even snuck home for a little while, which was a real easter treat!

kite flying

sadie helped max fly his birthday kites.

he had a fantastic time.

she took this picture.

we agreed it was perfect.

girl's night (boys included)

dave's sister arranged all the girls in his family to spend an evening with me in honor of this little soon-to-be baby girl. we went out to dinner, ate treats, opened the cutest presents, and gave ourselves pedicures while we watched enchanted.

the boys couldn't stay away when it came pedicure time. max, kai and abe all somehow managed to get their toes done.

dave, on the other hand, only came in to paint my toes....what a guy!

notice my swollen feet. they are now lovely, swollen feet thanks to my awesome husband.

thanks ladies! it was a fun, relaxing night. just what i needed.

family updates

so much has happened the last few months, i decided to write a few journal entries about each of the kids and our family. i have been so pregnant and functioning on such a lower level than i would like. i have tried to make sure basic needs are met and that somehow my kids will survive and have prayed that Heavenly Father will make up the difference. these updates are partly for my sake to realize Heavenly Father has blessed them through this year of survival.

We live in a house!

it has been a long, long process. frustrating and exciting. i hope it is a great place for us to land after 15 years of adventures, hard work and wondering where we would end up.

max in front of the moving truck we hoped they would lose. we haven't seen any of our stuff for over a year and it makes you realize how much you don't need.

here are a few parts of the house that i really like....

even though being in a hotel was a little cramped, we enjoyed a lot of our time there.

the kids loved doing laundry. here they are rockin' the laundry room.

this is such a typical site, all three of my boys hanging out. they have a great time together. in the hotel they would kneel around the computer together since the computer was on the coffee table. for some reason, i love this picture.

....and this one!

some of our favorite things we did in the hotel:

playing pool and chess in the lobby

getting apple cider in the lobby

going to dinner or getting hot chocolate in the restaurant

our photo scavenger hunt for family night!!

here is an awesome picture of my pregnant belly. i have had so many contractions with this pregnancy!! i feel like i am in labor everyday. it has gone by fast, but has been hard with all of our moving around. i can't imagine how this will change our family, but i am sure when i see this baby i will fall in love with her. the kids are excited, although they will miss my very needed, almost daily, ice cream run to dairy keen after school. dave has been excited since day one and he keeps telling me he knows exactly what she will be like. i like seeing him excited about it all.

we did celebrate an anniversary somewhere in there. dave gave me cookies. after a lot of interesting comments, we have decided the only good thing to say to a pregnant lady is, "do you want a cookie?" i am really grateful for dave. life is better because of him.

this has been an interesting, good, and challenging year. i also know, the best is yet to come!!!

update-max

MAX TURNED A BIG 5!!!

he was so excited for his birthday!

i realized he had never had a friend birthday party, so despite being super pregnant, i decided this was the year. we decided to invite the kids in his preschool class and a few cousins and have a "BIG" party, since he is now a BIG five years old. this is a picture of his invitations.

we tried to make everything BIG. he had a big #5 cake that he wanted to look like a road. we added some huge candles and he was thrilled. we played some big games and opened presents. he gave everyone a huge bottle of bubbles to take home that said, "blowing you a BIG thank you! from, max"

it was a low-key party and he LOVED it.

abe and kai were so excited to buy him presents and totally splurged all their money on him. they did it so unselfishly. it was a happy moment for me as a mom.

other max updates: he still loves penguins.

he had tennis lessons this year and is really good!

he loves preschool and teaches or explains things to me constantly. it is always followed with, "get it, mom?" i must hear that ten times a day. he is a feeler and is really in tune with every one's feelings around him. one day i dropped kai off to school. kai was walking down the hall and i said, "kai...kai, see ya buddy." or something like that. kai was probably embarrassed and completely ignored it and walked into his classroom. max looked at me concerned and said, "sometimes i don't hear people when they are really close to me. kai just probably didn't hear you, so it's ok mom." he was trying to make sure i didn't feel bad. he is a joy to have around! he really likes our new house, wii wednesdays, and having dave home from work.

oh yeah!! and max learned to ride a two wheeler. he kept asking to try and it took him about ten minutes to get the hang of it. he loves going on bike rides in our new neighborhood.