Halloween

Halloween was COLD here - about 30 degrees when we went trick or treating. So they just tossed on some dress up clothes from the basement (low-maintenance halloween this year!) and some coats and fleece pants and off we went!





And some pumpkin carving:

This is so typical

of my life right now!



Multi-tasking...

I really just needed to bring him and the basket upstairs.. :)

The Many (baby) Faces of William

Happy Baby!



Sad Baby..

(I don't think he likes that hood..)


Calm Baby




I just love this one.



5 weeks old!

Three weeks old!

This time flies by SO fast, but it's so precious - I just want to hold him and look at him all day. (But instead I hold him all NIGHT!) :)

He's getting longer and fatter! Most of his 0-3month clothes are getting too small already..



awwww...



Have you ever seen a cuter face?



A little half-smile.



"How's my hair?"


One of Jason, Micaela, & Lizzie playing on the couch - aren't they cute?

2 weeks old already!

Why is it that the last 2 weeks of pregnancy go on for 6 months and the first 2 weeks of the baby's life are over in about half an hour?? So not fair!

William is 2 weeks old already. At his 2 week checkup he weighed 9 pounds 11 ounces and was 23 inches long. (I knew they didn't measure him right at the hospital - so he was more like 22.5 or 23inches at birth..) Anyway, I would like to say that he's sleeping longer stretches here in his old age, but sadly that's just not the case. This adding 10% of your weight per week thing takes a lot of eating to maintain, apparently!

He's still a sweet baby and we still love having him here!
And honestly, I'm just impressed that we're all still alive! That is an achievement.

And now for a pic overload!
Four days old:


Four days old with dad:


First "bath":


Five days old, with Lizzie:


With Micaela:


Rachel loves him, too!


Andrew loves having a brother!


A bit jaundiced, but still cute..


One week old:


Cute little toes!


8 days old with Rachel:


10 days old:



I love this one - cross-eyed!



Time flies! I'll be back with another onslaught of pictures soon..

William is here!

Our baby William was (finally) born Friday, September 21st at 11:10pm! My water broke at 3pm, but I wasn't in labor. We checked into the hospital at about 6:30, still not in labor. At 9:00 they decided to start some pitocin to get things going. And things definitely got going!

Contractions started about 9:30, and he was born about an hour and a half later!! It was a fast, crazy, all-natural (besides the pitocin) childbirth - aside from that, everything went great! :)



He weighed 8 pounds, 7.4 ounces and was about 23 inches long, and the nurse was kind of freaking out about his head being 14 1/2 inches around - I'll have to look up what the average is..



William is a total angel - sweet, happy, and always hungry. We are loving every minute of having him. Our kids all LOVE him to death! (almost literally..) Even Andrew got so excited when he saw him and loves to pat his head and put blankets on him.




Here's our family before: (right before we left for the hospital!)


And AFTER: (at the hospital)


We LOVE having William in our family!!

Summer update

The summer was pretty good to us - no major traumas, everyone's alive, and we even accomplished a few things here and there!
Everything worked out well with my mom - her surgery was successful and we had a few good weeks together before she headed back out on her mission - this time to Pennsylvania! So far she is loving it there! Here she is at the airport with Micaela:

We took a trip to Utah for a week or so in the end of July and got to visit with lots of friends and family. We took the kids up provo canyon and let them get their feet wet in the river, and then up to deer creek reservoir for a muddy romp on the receding beach line - it was disgusting, but a lot of fun.
Our friends Bryce and Lisa (and their adorable daughter Sophie) came to visit for a few days this month - it was SO fun to see them again!
We tried to keep homeschooling through the summer (just a little bit each day) but that quickly fell to the sidelines.. But we started up in full swing last Monday (Aug 20) having school time from 9-12 each day. We're learning Ancient History, math, some Chinese, Spanish, some science, and a bit of spelling here and there. So far it's going really well! Here are a few pics of our first day of school "party"






And one more recent picture that I snapped during Sophie's photo shoot - pretty sure I didn't brush their hair that day.. :)


And last but not least we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our fifth baby who could make his appearance any day now! (But who will probably wait it out for a few more weeks..) He's looking pretty big in there:

Everything's all set for him to make his big debut.. Except we haven't found a babysitter yet.. hmm - anyone interested? ;) (minor details..)
That's all for now. Stay tuned for the big birth announcement post, hopefully coming soon!