it's a.....

We have great news (especially in Ian’s opinion) we are having a baby BOY!  I know we would have been happy and it would have been great news either way, but Ian truly is relieved that he’s getting a brother (and since he is, so am I).  I felt 90% sure it was going to be a boy, and would have been pretty surprised if the doctor had announced otherwise.  There were just some signs and feelings that I can’t quite explain that led me to think of when I was pregnant with Ian instead of the girls.

We don’t have any names picked out for sure, we just have a few that we are throwing around.  Unfortunately Ian and Austin still Dragonslayer would be a great name.  Today at church I was joking about it with one of my friends and she shared that her husband wanted to name their 3 month old Cobra Axe.  It was nice to know that this seems pretty normal for a guy and that someone understands what I’m up against.  Our little ‘Dragonslayer’ is due near the end of June.  It’s going to be a great time to have a baby.  Spending time at the park and lazy summer days with the kids.  I’m looking forward to it.

Fiona had a great 5^th birthday.  I made some sparkly princess skirts and we found a box of dress up shoes.  She and Lydia have had a wonderful time playing in them.  We have glitter all over the house.  She had friends come over for a party yesterday.  They all dressed up in their favorite princess dresses.  I made felt crowns that the girls decorated with beads; they are so creative, and the crowns turned out wonderfully.  We played ‘kiss the frog’ like pin the tail on the donkey, but with a picture of a frog and paper lips.  When I told the girls about this first game, they were so funny.  I got a lot of ‘ewwws!” and “I don’t want to kiss a frog”.  It was a lot of fun and lots of laughs.  We also played ‘the princess and the pea’.  The girls sat on pillows in a circle.  One girl would go to another room while we hid a ‘pea’ (one of the boys’ balls) under one of the pillows.  The girl in the other room would come back in and try to guess under which princess the pea was.  This game also created a lot of laughs and they kept playing round after round even after all of them had had a turn.  We had pink cupcakes with little pearl sprinkles on top (the girls thought the pearls were very fancy and were quite impressed).  I love how easily children are impressed with the small simple things.  It makes it so much fun to be a parent.

and the princess cake made another appearance

boy or girl?

okay, just a heads up for everyone.  this week we find out whether baby #5 is a brother or a sister.  Ian is very optimistic for a brother.  During church I overheard him having a conversation with one of his friends.  The other boy said, "you have 4 kids in your family just like us."  And Ian replied, "we're going to have 5 kids, 3 boys and 2 girls."
I'm also leaning toward boy based on my 'mother's intuition', which turned out to be wrong in Lydia's case.  The doctor, who is notorious for being wrong whenever he guesses, guessed girl for the first couple of months, but this past appointment changed his mind to boy.  So make your guesses and I let you all know next week.

it's a zoo around here

so last night we had one of those moments when we were trying to get the kids up and moving, outside or anywhere just to get them away from the tv and video games. it was really windy outside and the kids did not want to go out to play (can't say I blame them, I think wind is the worst kind of weather). I tried bribing them out the door, but Lydia gave her treat back and asked to be let back in the house with big tears in her eyes. I just couldn't say no to that and I dare anyone else to try it either. They were whining and moaning when an idea finally hit. I told them to go make a zoo with all their animals and I would come visit and take pictures. It worked out great. They all worked together to sort the animals and find the best habitat for all of them. Wesley even decided on getting tickets for everyone so they could be admitted into the zoo. I just had to watch out for the tiger hiding behind the couch, they forgot to put him in his cage and he was hungry.

the bear cave (though I think a dog got thrown in there as well)

the giraffe enclosure, they were tired from a day of eating acacia leaves.  oh no!  there's the tiger, better move to a different area of the zoo.

the horse arena

Fiona said this was the 'white' group.  It's a pretty interesting group: sheep, cats, even a snow tiger cub.  Maybe that's why the tiger is on the loose, she's looking for her cub.

Here's the cows.  Yeah, our zoo doesn't just cater to the exotic.

the monkey house.  the big monkey on the left was separated from the little monkeys on the right.  i think he was a trouble maker.  this also seems to be a good spot for my monkey, Lydia.

the fantasy creature paddock, we have two dragons and a cyclops.  not every zoo has such bragging rights.

this was my favorite part, the babies.  I guess I say that our house is a zoo enough that this group just made sense to my own little ones.

good day

yes, it was a good day.  lots of loved ones, lots of good food, and lots of laughs (with Austin's family that is just a given and I am very grateful for it.)

so where do I start?

this is Wesley's first pack night, those crazy scouts and their wacky traditions had me a little nervous right about now.

no snow for new years, but we did get a little sledding in

my favorite pic over the holiday was of kamry and her purple chicken

we had a great time bowling

ian had great form

our new favorite place to celebrate birthdays is Jungle Jim's

i just loved this picture and thought I'd include it for a smile.  and I wonder if this is the look I have when Austin brings me Ben and Jerry's phishfood icecream.

I thought I was keeping up on this better and again I was shocked when I checked the date on my last post.  So I guess I'll just start where we are at.  For those of you who don't already know, we are expecting our 5th child and I blame a lot of my forgetfulness, disorganization and overall insanity to that fact.  We have had another birthday and Wesley will soon be baptized this coming Saturday.  We even went on vacation to St. George and played on the rocks.  this are going well for us and I will try to get back again next week.  Here's some pics to keep you updated on our current cuteness.

just updating

I was really surprised when I saw the date on my last post.  then I thought "should I be surprised?"  so for those of you who have faithfully checked in on our little family I have some updates.

we finally got our family pictures done and we even used Fiona's idea (see previous post)
Halloween was fun and everyone was pleased with their costumes:

unicorn, viking, ladybug and Frankenstein's monster

red riding hood

and we've celebrated two birthdays:

Ian turned 7.  He had a really fun 'drive-in movie' party with his friends.  We borrowed a projector, popped popcorn, had licorice and soda and sat in our own little cardboard box cars.  Unfortunately, the day we planned for the family to come over and celebrated the flu hit and we had to have a quiet little celebration with cake and ice cream a few days later.

the next week was Lydia's 3rd birthday.  and I guess we are starting a new birthday tradition of being sick on your day.  She loved her cake and by the end of the evening she finally felt better to enjoy some of it, too.

In the midst of all these fun celebrations we also discovered that we are expecting our 5th children.  Yes, I'm pregnant!   woohoo!  we are very happy and the kids are excited they have even picked out names.  Ian and Austin are both voting for Dragonslayer, Fiona and Lydia want a sister so they can name her Fluttershy, and Wesley likes Angus (I think he had just watched a hamburger commercial).  It's been a rough couple of weeks.  I've had morning sickness for the first time, and I'm not sure how much of it was the baby and how much was the flu that camped out at our house for over a week.  I've also felt exhausted and very, very unambitious.  Naps have been a daily event.  It seems to be passing now and the last couple of days I've been catching up on Christmas projects instead of sleeping during quiet time.  We are still quite a ways away from finding out the gender and I'm not due until the beginning of summer, but we will be finding out this time and I will let you all know how it goes.  Just keep your fingers crossed that the rest of the family will agree to a more normal name, I'm just not too sold on Dragonslayer.

yeah, really!

surprised bean plants in the garden

the flowers were caught off guard as well.

yeah, it's really snowing!  I was supposed to be out picking the last of my beans this morning, but I think that will have to wait until it's above 38*.  At least now I can get my apples, they should be nice and sweet after this snowfall.

we're going to get our family picture taken in a couple of weeks.  This is fiona's idea for the picture.  Ian is holding her hand, she is holding Lydia's hand and Lydia is holding Wesley's hand.  I thought it was so sweet.  The brothers both said NO WAY! 

a lot to catch up on

this month consisted of:
labor day fun

the boys went with Austin for a four wheeler ride up to the tower, while me and the girls went to the onion days parade in payson

a preschool field trip to the spanish fork airport

a birthday party

a surprise visit from some old and dear friends

playing with cousins

lots of canning.  I've done pears, peaches, salsa and beans.  good stuff.

The middle of this month also brought the passing of my grandfather a month before his 93rd birthday.  his funeral was beautiful and full of great family memories as aunts, uncles, and cousins all gathered to celebrate his legacy and the way he touched our lives.

now that October is here the mountains have suddenly become adorned in red and yellow.  it really seems to have happened overnight.  one day it was just a few lone trees here and there, now they've all joined in the pageantry.  cold nights are wonderful and the kids are outside more than in. it's a beautiful time of year.

now we have general conference.  hope that you are taking time to enjoy it, too. 

goodbye summer

Fall is coming fast. The night and mornings are chilly, the boys are wearing a jacket to the bus stop now. It feels so wonderful, fall is definitely my favorite time of year. We are starting to look forward to Halloween already. The girls both have their costumes already. Mom found them at a yard sale and the girls are thrilled. Fiona is going to be a unicorn and Lydia will be a ladybug. The boys are still trying to decide what to be. Wesley has said Captain America or a vampire. Ian has too many ideas to list. This year I’m going to try to be little red riding hood. I think that would be really fun and easy to put together.


We are starting to settle into our routine and this past week wasn’t nearly as hectic as the one before.
Fiona has moved up to the older vaulting class now. Her coach said she was doing so well that she was ready to be with the older girls. She will be 5 in February and the girls in her new class are mostly 5 and 6 year olds, so she is the youngest. But she had a great time with them and made many new friends. She has a showcase (sort of like a recital) coming up in October and I’m so excited to see her perform.

Lydia was able to start kindermusic this past Wednesday. She loves it and she’s such a good little singer. She and Fiona sing all the time around the house, they take after their daddy. His family is always singing and whistling, I love it. Starting kindermusic has really made her feel better about her sister leaving for preschool, she really misses Fiona.

Friday Austin and I went to the Timpanogos Story Telling Festival. We only attended one of the events. It was so much fun. The story tellers are amazing, they are truly artists. Austin would like to one day participate; I think he would do an amazing job. Ian is really good at telling stories as well. They have school-based storytelling festivals across the state and it would be fun to have him compete in one when he gets a little older. Next year I think we’ll take the kids to the festival as well, we found out that they have a session specifically for little ones and they would really enjoy it.

Yesterday I went to Swiss Days with Mom, Katie and Cheide (my nephew). I look forward to going every year. They have so many booths, hundreds, filled with crafts, paintings, gifts, art, and clothing. I get so many great ideas. This year I took a paper and pen so I could write it all down. There are so many that I often forget them before we even get home. Now I just have to find time to get all my projects done. I’ve bought more yarn to make a beautiful cardigan that I bought the pattern for last year. So I know I won’t be getting bored for lack of things to do any time soon.

Today in church they had a lesson on faith and charity. I’ve been thinking a lot about being a mother. I want the best for these children and I have so much to learn. But the lessons helped me realize that I can lead with patience and kindness. I don’t have to let them run all over me and I don’t have to be brutal in disciplining. There is a fine balance with love and example. I’ve been trying hard to not raise my voice and make sure that what I say is encouraging and kind even if I have to correct them. It is hard some days. And I hate hearing those mean things that I have said carelessly to them coming out of their sweet mouths as they repeat them to their brothers or sisters. That’s a slap to wake me up for sure. And I know I haven’t ever said anything horrible, but I could definitely do a lot better. I just always pray they know how much I love them.

hello! it's been a full, whirlwind couple of weeks

 this post is a little scrambled but I'm very short on time.  I tried to pack in the last 2 weeks in very few words and a lot of pictures.  I'm still running like crazy, probably until the end of next week.  but we are having a great time

the week before school started we packed in as much fun as we could

wednesday we went to the zoo

friday austin & I went to the demolition derby

2 cars rolled, it was AWESOME!

monday we went for a hike

and found a great place to play in the river

it had wonderful mud to squish

tuesday was pool day

thursday we did park hopping and caught 2 water snakes.  with snakes in my hand it made it hard to get any pics, but the kids were very impressed.

friday we had a back to school party at the ranch, so much fun and sun

last night we went to the ranch again to celebrate austin's 35th birthday!  I got him a zombie cake.  I got it from SIMPLY JUICY (I couldn't find their facebook page, I'll try to set up a link later) here in salem and they did an fabulous job.  the chainsaw is made of rice krispies and the cake was chocolate with a chocolate mousse layer, very very yummy.

this is 32 years of being buddies, and they never run out of things to talk about.

the boys started school this past Monday, just me and the girls all day.  it's fun, but we miss the boys, too.

this is how we found wes sleeping the night before the first day of school.  I think he was pretty excited.

this is how wes eats a pear, that skinny little thing on the top is where he's eaten all the way to the core, ALL THE WAY!

today fiona started preschool.  she has a 'my little pony' backpack that she is very fond of.  she had a great time, especially because her cousin milo is in her class and he always makes her laugh.