Updates

 Brooks has a little tumbling class he goes to each week. He LOVES it and did so great at his holiday performance :)

 Trace has been in Breakdancing for over a year now. He is constantly dancing and moving and has great moves!!

Festival of Trees

 This year I ditched the idea of having the entire family willingly and happily attend the Festival of Trees. It is one of my very very favorite things to do at Christmas time. I always have hopes of the family slowing walking up and down the seemingly endless aisles of trees, and wreaths, and doors, and on and on. NOT so this year I said forget it and just made a date of it with Brooks and Avery and it was fabulous! No whining that feet hurt or they were all hungry or bored or whatever. I loved it.

 We did meet my sister and her two kids there and the boys had a little dance off next to the stage :)

 Since I only had Brooks that cared we splurged the $3 and had a blast in play land doing games and crafts. He was sad to leave, and so was i :)

Random Happenings

 One of my favorite things to see the boys do is ready to their sis. She loves to listen to their voice and follows them with her eyes like crazy. They are all great pals.

 Brooks gets some good play time in during the day as well :)

Halloween

 The boys came up with the idea to go as Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Mr Smee and Tinkerbell about a month before baby was born. It came together really nice and was fun to have it all coordinated together!

 1 month old and already a party animal :)

 Chris and I taking our parent tax!!

Avery Jane

Avery - flash slideshow

So at 39 weeks I am done! Especially this time. I won't bore you with all my aches and pains of this pregnancy but I was done being pregnant. I went to my midwife appointment on Wed Sept 26th and begged for help :) She stripped my membranes, gave me 4 oils to use and we wished for the best. I went to lunch with Chris and came up and cleaned the house a little and tried to take a nap (ya right). Chris came home from work, we did the homework, soccer, scouts routine, had dinner put the kids to bed and then I started on the oils. My parents were headed here for a day on their way to Idaho-great timing!

I woke up about 2am with pretty good contractions but they were short and 8 minutes apart. I walked around the house for about 30 minutes then went back to bed. I was able to sleep on and off til about 6 when I got up and walked around again for about an hour. Still pretty strong contractions but short and 7 or 8 minutes apart. I went back to bed til about 8am. Then we got up and had breakfast and got the big boys ready for school. By this time I really couldn't talk through them so every time I had a contraction I'd just close my eyes and kind of zone out. My dad wasn't sure what was going on I think :) We sent the boys off to school with the hope that we'd have baby girl that day! My sister came over with her kids and we just kind of hung out around the house. I texted my midwife and she said just to relax and rest. I sat on my yoga ball for about 2 hours and they really picked up. Still about 5 minutes apart but they were longer and stronger. By noon I needed to lay down in bed and needed Chris's help to get through them. He started timing them and they were almost 2 minutes long! I really had no idea, I thought we were still at 30 seconds or so. We called my midwife and she asked what I wanted to do :) SO nice to be in charge. So I said 'I want to get in the tub at 2.' She said 'Great I'll see you then.' We loaded up and left about 1:40. My mom and dad I think weren't sure we were really in labor cause I'd been at home all morning and just hanging out with the family for the most part.

We got to the birthing center and they asked if I wanted to be checked or just lay down and relax. One of the midwifes started rubbing my shoulders and I just kind of walked around for a few minutes. I was nervous if I got checked and got a low number I'd panic. After about 20 minutes we decided to find out and I was at a 9!!!!!!!!! I got in the tub and really relaxed. The contractions were super super strong but I was still getting really long breaks in between-crazy. They had soft music playing, it was dark and calming. One of the midwifes would rub my back or hips during the contractions, Chris got me drinks and we just tried to relax. After about an hour they asked what I wanted to do. With all my other kids nothing really progresses until they break my water-then we have the baby within about 10 minutes. They asked if I was ready to have a baby :) Yes!!I did not want to be pregnant anymore. So they broke my water and little baby Avery Jane was born within about 15 minutes.

They got her all wrapped up and gave her to Chris (after I had snuggled with her for awhile), then they got me out of the tub and tucked into bed, and they went out of the room. Chris and I were able to love her and hug her and I was able to nurse for over an hour! No lights and machines and paperwork and people bustling around. It was wonderful. Then they came in and weighed her and measured her and did a few other things. They asked how long we wanted to stay or go or what. My mom and dad were still at home with my kids so we figured may as well go home :) We left and were home before 7pm! Crrrrazy and wonderful

Avery Jane
3:43 pm
8 lb 11 oz  20 inches
Lots of hair!

She is a dream dream dream! I love the sweet spirit of a newborn. More to come.....

Maternity Pics

Maternity Pics - flash slideshow maker

We are days away now!!!

Another new room :)

 I thought I took some before pics but can't find them. We are blessed with one of those super small bathrooms. I hadn't touched it since we moved in 9+ years ago and hated it so my amazing hubby tackled it a few months ago.I still have a few finishing touches but my focus is changing onto baby :) so I figured I'd just post it anyway.

 We had the walls retextured from the yucky orange peel spray to match the rest of the upstairs (we had done everything else 3+ years ago), he added beautiful crown molding and trimmed the mirror and door.

He did all the painting and everything :) All I did was pick out colors and go shopping! My favorite thing in bathrooms is towel hooks, no more straightening towels for me!

Laundry Room 101

 So we had a huge laundry room built in the basement when we built our house, really it's almost the size of a small bedroom :) Of course I had great dreams and visions of what it would be like and 9+years later we are very close to those dreams!! Thank you pinterest and THANK YOU HUBBY!!!

 This is before, just piles of  mess and disorganized yuck

 I was really lazy and even keeping it clean which is ironic since I expected my clothes to be clean after being in that room :)

 A few weekends later.................... Now I have a huge 6 foot shelf to fold on and everyone has a bucket.....

 with their name on it. The kids have been bringing their dirty clothes to the laundry room for quite some time but now they get to come get their clean clothes too! I haven't carried clean laundry to bedrooms in weeks :)

 Still a little paint touch up to do but I now can say I like being in this room :) hubby bought an in-wall ironing board to that needs to be installed and then I may bring my ipad and watch a movie and never unlock the door : JK I don't like laundry THAT much but I do love my laundry room that much now.

Make something Monday

 I took pictures of only 2 of our Make something Monday projects all summer, bummer! We tried to get creative every week and make something new. We tried zucchini bread and muffins and brownies from our garden.

 Homemade bread/rolls/scones were a hit because of the yeast and watching the bread dough grow

 Tie Dye shirts were super fun too!

 And of course our big garden :)

We also made light catchers, bird feeders, a few missionary packages, play doh, gak and a few other fun projects/experiments.

Last Summer Fun Friday

 Most of our outings this summer were on Fridays, not all the time but many of them. I had to have something to bribe the kids with and have something to look forward to during the week :) Of course Chris was always working hard and missed out on most of our summer adventures. So the last fun friday we decided to kidnap him and take him along :)

 We'd heard rumors about Nickel Center in Provo.  I found some coupons so we decided why not? Once you pay the cover (it's only $2.50 to get in but free is better:) all the games are yep, a nickel. How did I not discover this place with 3 boys earlier? It is a little run down but hey, for $5 each of nickels we were there for 2 hours and the boys almost lost their voices from screaming and playing and getting so many tickets.

 A little DDR competition was in order and yes, I did get on the mat and dance myself too!

 Kayden hit the jackpot and got 50 tickets off of 1 nickel. Can't really see it from the below picture but they went wild :)