Hailey hit 2

Hailey has become quite the independent woman since Ashley came. She has explored even nook and cranny of our house. She has destroyed plenty. But she has also been hilarious to watch. Fitting, since she just turned two! We started the day doing her favorite thing - playing outside!

We got some baby time in :)

Made our minions. Her favorite movies are despicable me, toy story, and tinker bell. Although her attention span lasts 3 minutes on a good day.

Blowing out the candles. Which equalled half spit/ half air

She loved opening her presents. There was no hesitation to rip right into them.

She loved her new dress-ups, swimsuit and towel.

All ready for the surprise activity!

Since we are homebound with Ashley only being 2 weeks old I decided to have some fun in the unfinished basement. I think the kids had a blast!

Halfway through the swim Hailey ran up the stairs stating that she needed her "new one towel"

Things I love about Hailey:

-She calls herself Hailey Hoopes

-"Hold you me" means pick me up

-She knows every nursery rhyme - especially Sally go round the sun, itsy bitsy spider, hickory dickory dock, humpty dumpty, and twinkle twinkle.

-She loves to sing songs, especially if they have actions. I'm shocked how much she has picked up from nursery.

-She loves running around, doing crazy things, water, and being outdoors

-She's a tease

-She loves to talk

-She is a serious actress/drama queen

-Her eyes light up when she smiles

-when she blows me a kiss good night

Happy Birthday Hailey! Our family is definitely more exciting and chaotic with you in it!

She's Here!

So, three weeks ago today I started feeling like it might be my lucky day. After my doctor telling me he wouldn't induce me I decided most activities were now free game. On Saturday me and Travis played almost every sport for a big tournament. Basketball, soccer, football, tennis. I think it was the football that did it :) My stomach was tight the rest of the day. Around the middle of the night contractions started. Which made me happy :)

I took a long walk with the kids Sunday morning hoping the contractions would continue . . . and they did. By 1:00 I went to church with contractions about every 15 - 20 minutes for around 40 seconds. I was happy it wasn't back labor and the contractions were very doable. After church we visited a YW and I decided to walk home - that did it! Boy did I feel it after that. About an hour later we called a friend over to watch the kids until my mom could come and headed for the hospital.

Everything went amazingly well and smooth. My epidural was the best yet. Ashley did awesome. She arrived at 12:55 am monday morning. 7 lbs. 8 oz. 19.5 inches. It feels so great to have her here - healthy and happy!

We had fun visitors that made the hospital more exciting. My personal favorite being my kids coming - although Lindsay and Jared bringing me candy was a close second :)

Whitney was anxious to hold her and is still my second mom.

So glad you are here Ashley!

Pregnancy

Warning: boring post for journal purposes

Since the last couple days have been filled with uncomfort and contractions, I felt like I should write down some of my feelings/memories of being pregnant, while I still am. I know if I don't, I will forget. I'm very good at suppressing unwanted memories :)

I know pregnancy is a huge blessing. I'm grateful for each pregnancy and the blessing that has come from enduring the long nine months. Sometimes that thought was my only comfort during the 3 and a half months of sickness. knowing that feeling sick meant a healthy baby inside. But honestly, I know that despite the blessing that it is, it is hard.

I don't enjoy being sick for 14 weeks. I really don't like being restricted in my physical activities! I'm not very good at slowing down and accepting others help. Which means pregnancy really isn't a glorious stage for me.

However, I honestly do appreciate the experience. It has broken me down, only to build me up stronger and make me appreciate more of life. It has made me grateful for a healthy body. For the ability to run, jump, roll-0ver in bed :), and play with my kids.

This pregnancy has felt easier. Almost as easy as my first. I don't know if it's so I'll talk myself into doing it one more time. I have felt very blessed to feel healthy and have no complications. This pregnancy has gone faster I think for two reasons. Because I'm so busy taking care of kids and life, and because I was able to run/ workout the longest into this pregnancy than my others - giving me a stronger, abler, body to cope with life. I really didn't have any back or hip problems with them going out on me randomly when I walked, and my sleepless nights were shorter, less frequent, and tolerable.

I'm not sure how much of pregnancy I will miss. Yes, it's cool to feel her move inside me, to feel a foot, hand, or butt slide around under my skin. It's really wierd, but cool. I love the excitement of what is coming to our family. The thought of a child that has chosen to come to our home.

That being said. I'm at the end. I'm uncomfortable. I can't completely recall what it's like to wear normal clothes, have a normal choice of fashion, or move freely. I'm an active person, and I look forward to being active again!

Truthfully I think I'm the most anxious about this baby. Not necessarily the delivery, although, not really looking forward to that pain/process. but the aftermath. I'm totally intimidated by the thought of 4 kids. I feel like I'll be spread too thin to really give what each child needs from me. I'm nervous how I'll handle the sleep deprivation and groundhog day"ness" of the first couple months of having a new baby. This is when I wish I was a calm, relaxed, nurturing, easy going parent. If only. So, if you don't hear from me in the next couple months, know that I'm just swimming and praying I don't sink.

This last week I really have had the impression of how "rich" my life feels. Definitely not a financial rich, although I've been given plenty there. But a richness that comes from having an amazing husband and kids. My life feels so complete with them. They are my life. So, I guess, motherhood is a hike and this week I stopped for a quick intake of the gorgeous views. What a rollercoster! And there you have it, my very brief random thoughts right now on pregnancy.

february fun

We had a great weekend. We went up to my mom's house to play with Lindsay, Jared, and Trae before their big move, and also to help Jeff and Selly move to Utah. Lots of change going on in my family right now with two big new jobs/moves and four families having babies.

We are going to miss this one. Trae is such a cute kid and my kids love playing with him We celebrated Travis birthday a little on Saturday also. Here's his star wars cake

and of course, his usual visit to chuck e. cheese. Don't really care to go to that place on a Saturday ever again!

Jeff and Selly arrived late Saturday night. They were troopers the next day after a big drive. But it was too funny how much Hailey's bed head and Jeff's bed head resembled each other. The back view was even better :)

We finished off the weekend going to my sister's baby blessing. It was great, but I still don't understand why we do that to mother's. Honestly, you've just endured 9 months of pregnancy and 2 months of no freedom/ or sleep. Now what do you get to do? Host a multitude of people in your home. Can I just bless my baby when she's 9 months old?

It was a fun weekend and it was fun to think back five years ago when Travis was born. He enjoyed listening to his birthday story. And it's a lot more fun to tell now that the delivery is over :)

Jedi Travis

Travis has been planning his birthday party since the night of Christmas. He likes looking forward to the next adventure :). I lucked out that we were hosting playgroup the same week as his birthday - so we got a 2 for 1.

It's an understatement to say Travis is into starwars. His reality is a mixture of life and starwars right now. The last two days I watched episode 4 and 5 with him, and yes, they are definately as anti-clamatic and boring as I remember, however, travis is as excited as if he were at Disneyland watching them. We had to pause the movie today to pick up Whitney from school. On the way Travis said "Mom, it's important to listen to Yoda and Jesus, huh." Glad he's getting such amazing insight into life:)

Anywho, back to the birthday party. Travis came up with a genius idea all by himself. We should make a Darth Mal (I'm not star wars smart, have no idea on spelling) pinata. I've never seen him so into a craft.

I was very pleased with the results.

We made hard core noodle light sabers for the Jedi's coming

And the day of we prepared light saber snacks and Yoda soda.

One reminder with boys, they don't really care about details. If I didn't point out the snacks looked like light sabers and the juice was the same color as Yoda they wouldn't have even noticed. Here's a few of the Jedi's celebrating their snacks. They earned their snack by completing Jedi training. Which consisted of me (Darth Vader) throwing play balls at them while they practiced blocking with their sabers.

They beat up Darth Mal pretty darn good and then it was off to play dress-ups. Travis was in heaven with his captain America dress-ups. He rushed to get his matching pajamas to complete the outfit.

This was my kind of party! Easy, fun, and only a handful of boys.

January

This has been an interesting month! Not boring, not overly exciting, but just enough flavor that I feel I should journal. So . . . this won't be an overly entertaining post, but more for my memory sake.

We started off the year as usual - playing with Christmas toys and enjoying every last second of College football possible. The kids loved having a movie night in their new coloring house. We played in the little amounts of snow that we've had, and lived up any nice day outside possible.

Although that became impossible really fast. Whitney got sick, then, we all did. Ear aches, pink eyes, coughs, runny noses. You name it! And I'm still here writing with a cold! Poor Hailey got hit hard. She would NEVER fall asleep like this. But I let her rest on the couch while we ate dinner and this is what we found 2 minutes later.

Despite the sickness we still played games and had fun. The game of the month has definitely been our version of dodge ball.

Halfway into the month Whitney and Travis moved to their new room. That was slick. Hailey was the tough one. After a couple nights of falling off the bed I purchased a bed rail. SOOOOOO worth my while. Hailey watched me put it on and I could see a light in her mind go off thinking - sweet, this is just a bigger crib now. Needless to say, since the installation, she has slept like a champ.

In other news I have completely enjoyed serving in YW. We have tons of beehives, they are great, but still crazy! We played noodle hockey, which I got a little to competitive and was walking like a 90 yr. old the next couple days. We did baptisms for the dead, which I hadn't done in years and is one of my favorite things about the temple. And they also surprised me with a baby shower. The girls played a game where they had to put a huge balloon under their shirt and pick up stuff. I laughed pretty hard, because if those balloons were about 10 pounds heavier, they would feel even more like me!

We've enjoyed company - Aaron's mom and siblings came to play. Last Friday I really enjoyed a day playing/shopping with my family at the outlets. Family really is the spice in life.

In pregnancy news I'm definitely feeling closer to being done. However, compared to previous pregnancies this is definitely one of my better ones. I really can't complain that much. Part of me is so excited to meet this baby, and part of me is living up my last weeks of eating without interruption, naps, sleep in general, being able to somewhat exercise, having free time and free arms, and nice peaceful evenings.

Whitney's highlight of the month = crafts

Travis' highlight of the month = eat, dream, talk, about live lego starwars

Hailey's highlight of the month = swimming in mom's bath and learning nursery rhyms such as "sally go round the chimney pots", "itsy bitsy spider", and "bickory dickory dock". She also learned to say Jabba the hutt :) and randomly learned the scooby doo theme song.

What a month it has been. Good, fast and a great start to our year (except hopefully we've payed our do's on the sickness part!)

New years party in Idaho

We took off for Idaho for a couple days of Christmas Break. We got there Thursday night and enjoyed playing with cousins and seeing everyone again. The next day we headed out skiing. This is the first time Whitney and Travis had gone, so I wanted to be there to witness it happening.
Their ski lodge - well, there wasn't one, so me and Hailey spent the day playing around outside, watching, and exploring. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of her! She was in heaven, thank goodness. She danced to the music and found all the chaos exciting. So, what could have been a long miserable day was really as good as it gets. (Since I'm not a very good spectator).

Here's a ton of pictures of the midgets skiing. The gist of the day. By the second run Whitney was on her own and pro. Travis did good . . . but will probably get the hang of it more next year :) I'm just impressed he did it. Usually he talks a big talk and backs out ("not brave anymore") but not this time!

Whitney with her big cousins in the ski line. I thought it was pretty awesome that she was able to keep us with them on her first day. Aaron said she had a huge smile on her face everytime down the mountain.

The next day we packed in sledding and swimming. Sledding is amazing at Aaron's house. The hill is HUGE!

luckily they get a free ride back up!

We always love swimming at Green Canyon. It's a hot spring swimming pool, and ohhhhh, how I love warm water - even fat and prego!

We packed in so much. The grandkids enjoyed making and frosting cookies, we all played an amazing game of bingo with prizes, and Aaron got his new years eve midnight snowmobile ride with siblings! (And I got to sleep!)

It was a ton of fun and a great start to our year.