Roadshow

Last Saturday, our stake had road shows for the first time in a long time. Our ward did one where each auxiliary did a different dance (it was "Ward of the Dance"). The kids did the Hokey Pokey, but I couldn't really see my girls doing anything (they were in the back). My favorite was the men. They did "Irish Dancing" (really just the main guy who had done all that kind of stuff at BYU did Irish dancing, the rest of the men just stomped around a little bit), but it was really fun to watch. I know this picture doesn't show much of anything, but I just have to document my great husband (he's the last one on the right) participating. He kept saying, "I can't believe I'm doing this" and most of the men in the ward didn't do it. But he did, and they did great.

Caroline was nine weeks last Monday. I'm still a little more jiggly than I'd like to be so we try to get out running every once in a while and I couldn't help but snap a picture of her all ready to go. What a cutie!

A Few Favorites for the Week

Favorite request from one of my children:

"Will you take a picture of me with the poop?"
-Brynn

*A little background on this one: it was a balmy 50 degrees on Friday afternoon and the kids were all celebrating by putting on short-sleeved shirts and flip-flops and going outside to play. After a little while, Brynn came back in looking for our book called "Who Pooped in the Park?" (a picture book about a family's trip to Yellowstone and the different types of scat, or animal poop, they identify along their hikes - yep, we're all about good, educational literature at our house). So Brynn planned to use the book as a field guide to identify some scat she found in the yard. She triumphantly declared that it was rabbit poop and asked to have her picture taken with it. But we got side-tracked while looking for a magnifying glass in the playroom, and, alas, the picture was never taken.

Favorite YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4

We are somewhat Harry Potter crazy at our house lately and this video has kept us laughing. We all walk around saying "Snape...snape...severus snape" and usually someone else chimes in with a "Dumbledore." We've even made up different variations of it. I think Hubble said he and the kids were making one up with the names of cereals in it ("loops...loops...fruit loops..., Applejacks!") Check it out!

Favorite bumper sticker:

Alright, I didn't get a picture of this because I didn't want my neighbors to think I was doing some weird stalking nonsense, but this is what I noticed on their bumper the other day and it gave me a chuckle:

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?

Loved it!

Sweet Caroline

Caroline Louise was born on Jan. 18 at 8:01, weighing 6 pounds 4 ounces, measuring 18 inches long. She has added such a sweet spirit to our home. She's usually pretty content when she's awake and is even smiling now, which makes all the newborn work and exhaustion worth it. People have asked who she looks like and I have no idea. She looks like one of my newborns (I have a hard time telling who my kids look like - they just look like themselves to me; I can tell a lot easier with other people's kids).

The girls love holding her, giving her hugs goodnight, kissing her, smiling at her and Jonathan is completely indifferent towards her.

At the hospital...Hubble was Mr. Mom that week while I was in the hospital. He did a great job balancing everything that was going on. He even did the Brynn's hair one day in a pony tail - I was very impressed.

Caroline around four weeks.

Caroline at six weeks.

Caroline hanging out with her big sisters, watching the Olympics. We had a lot of nights like this during those two weeks of the Olympics - we loved watching them!
Here's the crew. Notice Brynn's missing teeth. She lost both of them last week - it was very exciting!

Time for the hospital!

I didn't go into labor this week, so I'm going in for my 4th c-section tomorrow. You'd think it would be old hat by now, but as I've reminisced with some friends about all of the pleasantries of c-sections, I've started to be a little more apprehensive about it all (mainly the needles part and a few other things). Oh it'll be lots of fun, I'm sure! But on the other hand, we're excited about a new little girl joining our family. We still haven't agreed on the name, so hopefully we'll figure that out tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.

The girls are taking ski lessons on Saturdays for about 6 weeks this winter and they're both really enjoying it. We've been taking Jonathan too and Hubble will take him up and down the little hills around the ski area. He loves it! Thankfully, yesterday the weather was nice and it was in the 20's (which also meant it was pretty crowded). Two weeks ago, it was 1 degree and I worried so much about the girls being warm enough, so I really bundled them up (including the little foot warmers and all). Afterwards, I asked if they were cold and they both said, "no, we were so hot!" I guess I went a little overboard!

I'm signing off. I have a hospital bag to pack (I know, I know...you're supposed to pack that at 36 weeks, just in case. But that's not how I usually operate. I'm a last-minute kind of girl.) Wish me luck!

Just waiting...

I have one more week until I'm scheduled for a C-section, but I've never made it that long. So every day, I wonder "will today be the day?" Meanwhile, I'm trying to get a closet organized here and there and soak up time with my kiddos (I know in my after-baby haze, I won't be focused on that as much).

This week, we had our first real snow fall and the kids were thrilled. That meant a lot of sledding after school and a lot of eating snow for Brynn (this is her on all fours, lapping up the snow).

We hardly see Julia these days. All she does is go to school and read Harry Potter. She's almost finished with the fourth book and loves it. She wakes up early in the morning to read, reads in the car if we're going anywhere and as much at meals as I'll allow her.

Jonathan loves to do tricks and funny faces. This one is his favorite "cool trick" which he shows friends, home teachers, guests and anyone else who'll watch.

Where does the time go...?

I can't believe we've started a new year. Every year, we sit around and make goals. I tend to make huge lists of goals (fantasizing about all the great things I'll achieve) and then usually abandon the list after a couple of weeks. So this year, I decided to make a short list and see if I can get those things done. One of my goals is to blog every week. I'm making this public so that maybe I'll feel accountable and do it. So if you don't see a new post on a Sunday night, please, someone, write me and tell me that I need to do it. Maybe I'll respond to peer pressure, since willpower hasn't done it for me in the past.

Also, as I was going through my memory stick from the camera I lost for a few months this fall (did I mention that organization is on my short list of goals?), I realized what a great year we had and how much I didn't document. So here are some of the highlights of our last year that I missed blogging about.

Strawberry picking - one of our favorite things to do in June.


Grandma camp in Salt Lake City last summer where my parents were serving a mission in the Family History Library. We had a great time being with cousins and grandparents.


Papa camp with Hubble's parents in Montana. Again, more great times with cousins and grandparents. We are so blessed that our children have such loving grandparents who put in so much time and effort into making wonderful memories with them.

My sister, Aunt Adrienne, came to visit and we all love it when she comes. We rented this bike and rode along the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee one day.


We took a wonderful trip with three other families to a lake in northern Wisconsin in August. It was so fun - kayaking, tubing, skiing, fishing, hiking, roasting marshmallows. We all loved it!

Christmas time

We had a lovely Christmas. My parents and brother and sister came into town and we had a wonderful time (except now I'm realizing how few pictures I took). Last year I realized how much more fun Christmas was when I was little because these days Christmas usually means a lot of work. So this year, I was determined to make it a little different and try to get things done earlier in the season so I could enjoy the holiday. I wasn't completely successful in my endeavor (I was still up till 1 in the morning the night before Christmas eve sewing pajama pants for the kids), but we were able to fit in some service activities which brought the season back for me. I was so grateful to have family with us and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

On Christmas Eve, the kids opened their Star Wars pajama pants and were very excited about the next day. Julia had such a hard time falling asleep because she was so excited, but was so worried that Santa wouldn't come since she was still awake - she was in tears by 11:00. She finally settled in after that.

Christmas morning included a lot of opening and playing with presents. Jonathan got most of what he had asked for (thankfully he didn't ask for too much), but he kept saying he didn't get the rocket ship with the man in it. We still haven't figured out what he was talking about. He's planning on getting it for his birthday...we'll see.

The day after Christmas, the girls all went down to Chicago for a morning at the American Girl store. Julia and Brynn had some Christmas money to spend on new outfits for their dolls and then we went to the cafe for lunch. I don't know if there's anything more girly to do and my two little ones loved it!