Corinne's Baby Shower and Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor Day weekend Larissa and Rusty were in town for a friend's wedding so we thought it would be the perfect weekend to throw Corinne a baby shower.  It was also Mykelti's first week back from their summer in North Dakota and it was SO fun to be reunited as sisters!

Corinne's shower was on Saturday of Labor day weekend and our Aunt Jennifer was sweet enough to host the event.  She has a really nice party house.  Corinne was glowing and such a darling pregnant mama even after working a 12 hr. shift the night before with no sleep!  Newborn feedings in the middle of the night are going to be a piece of cake for her.

Larissa took was the main party planner for this event and did an awesome job with everything.  For the shower we had mini sandwich melts, two salads, fruit cabobs, and dessert.  We also played one matching game with words that were baby themed and everyone was encouraged to write down their advice for the new mom to be.

Other then that we just watched Corinne open gifts and visited.  Adalyn loved being a helper while she opened her gifts (and hopefully she did not get in the way too much!).  We love getting together with family and spending time with lots of girl cousins and aunts is always such a treat.  We hope Corinne felt the love and we are SO excited to meet her little man in a few short weeks!

SO so grateful for my sisters and mom!

Ok maybe we look a little bit alike ;)

I also have a quick addition that I wanted to add to this post.  At the end of Corinne's shower a I was given a few baby gifts.  All of which were not nessesary, but so sweet.  Thank you everyone!  I wanted to note the one that my grandma gave to me since it has a background story to go with it and I don't want to forget it...  

My grandma handed me a baby gift.  Inside the box were three little girl dresses and a cute blanket that were obviously not new, but well kept.  Along with the sweet baby girl outfits were two photographs of my mom.  One when she was 3 months old and one when she was two years old.  She was such a cute baby!  Although the photographs are black and white you could easily tell that the little dresses that she had on in the photos were the same little dresses in the box.  My grandma had saved them for years and now it was my turn to put them on my sweet little baby girl.  Such a special gift for me since I adore vintage dresses and these mean even more to me because they were my mom's.  I am still amazed that my grandma has saved them all these years.  My grandma also added in some special facts about how my great grandma was the 2nd girl in her family, my grandma is the 2nd girl in her family, my mom is the 2nd girl in her family, I am the 2nd girl in my family, and this sweet new baby that will be joining us soon is also the 2nd girl in our family.  That fact alone was so cool to know about!  It also made me feel an extra attachment to my heritage and the amazing women that go on before me.  I am very grateful for the baby dresses and you know there will be lots of pictures coming as our little girl re wears the same dresses that my mom did.  Thank you grandma for the thoughtful gift!  

      

After the shower we got to have some special family time with my sisters, their husbands, my parents, and cute baby August.  August was turning one that monday so we got to help him celebrate his first birthday.  August is just the cutest little nephew and while he only lets me love him from a distance these days it was SO fun watching him crawl/walk around and explore life.  Happy birthday August boy!

  

We had a great labor day weekend with everyone.  It was our last weekend together with my family before two new babies join us and the "crazy"level goes up a notch.  haha!  We already miss baby August and can't even imagine how big he will be next time we get to see him.  So sad!    

34 Weeks- Baby #4

Here we are at the final countdown of this pregnancy.  6-7 more weeks to go (unless I get lucky and she comes early).  I am not going to sugar coat things and say they are going easy and smoothly, BUT we are surviving!  I had a little meltdown around 31 weeks and even my doctor could tell I was not handling things well.  As I left her office that day I told her "I will try and work on my attitude and come back with a better one next time."  Pathetic, yep!  The end just felt SO far away at that point and I was so uncomfortable.

Luckily things have improved in the past few weeks and while I am still a hormonal pregnant lady I am more cheerful about it.  :) And now the end actually feels too close!  haha so back and forth these days.  We have A LOT to do in the next few weeks.  I have never left this much prepping for the baby so close to the end before.  Yes you know it is stressing me out, since I am normally over prepared for these kind of things!  We have lots of house projects to finish up and we are trying to get creative with our time so that things can get done.  We had a really busy summer and not a lot of weekends were left for house stuff.  The garden needs attention, the lawn hasn't been mowed in two weeks, and the baby's room isn't even close to being painted yet.  So while I would love to just sit and wash cute little baby clothes there are definitely some bigger things that need to be tackled before that.  Hopefully we can get through a few projects before she arrives, because something tells me that they won't get done after either.

Four kids is going to be a big job for a while.  We are definitely in full blown juggling mode these days and trying to be realistic in what we can and can't do with so many little ones.  Just dinner, dishes, bedtime, and keeping the house clutter down fills up our evenings very quickly.  I am so grateful for McKay's helpful attitude and how he wants to be as involved as possible.  So adding a fourth little one will be interesting, yet I am excited to get my energy back and the ability to bend over ;)

Today I was thinking about her birth day.  There is not a better moment in the world then when they set that new baby on your belly.  I cannot wait to see what she looks like and see how big she is.  Oh what sweet and tender moments are coming and I can't wait!  We have narrowed our name choices down to about 2 names that I really like.  The only problem is that I cannot decide which one I like more!  Kind of frustrating so we will probably decide in the delivery room after we get to meet and see her.  This was the way that we decided on Declin's name and it worked well so I am hoping that it works again.

She has been moving tons the last few weeks and I love it!  Nothing calms me down more then to feel her movements.  She was head down and in a good position for birth last time we checked so hopefully she has stayed that way!

My morning sickness has made its way back into my life again and I get nauseous quite a bit throughout the day.  Sitting at the computer or looking at my phone makes me extra sick so I haven't been able to keep up on somethings that I wish I could.  I have to eat frequently and often sit down and just rest till the nausea passes.  With my other pregnancies I got a little bit sick in the 3rd trimester, but never as bad as it has been this time.  I have pretty much stopped going to Zumba at this point and have just been walking in the neighborhood and doing a little bit of weight lifting at home.  I am trying to come up with my exercise plan for after the baby comes and am considering getting a treadmill or eliptical for indoor winter workouts.   I have never owned either of them so I am trying to decide if they would be worth the money.  But I need something to do on non zumba days and workout videos just aren't always my favorite.  We shall see...

Overall everything is looking great this pregnancy.  I am once again measuring exactly on schedule for my due date of Oct 20th and I am praying for a smooth and calm delivery.  Can't wait for this sweet one to join our family and I know the kids are REALLY excited as well!


ps. This 34 week picture is as "real" as it gets around here.  I didn't dress up for it or fix my hair.  It was taken this evening right after I ate a big piece of cake so I was feeling huge.  I was in the middle of giving the kids their baths and I told McKay to snap a few pictures.  This is what I look like everyday and yes even I can't believe how big a belly can get!

 


     

     

Family Pictures August 2016

Guys I feel like we have come to the point that I can no longer hide my obession with having our family pictures taken.  haha!  But seriously, I love having them done so much and McKay is a good sport to go along with my plans.  Even my kids are starting to pick up on my love for pictures and they often talk about taking pictures with our photographer and point out our family pictures on the wall several times throughout the day.  I just love having high quality photos that will last a lifetime.

This stage in my life is one that I have looked forward to since I was a little girl, dreaming of being a mommy with a baby.  While it is different and definitely harder to be a mom then I ever expected it is also very rewarding and special too.  I really want to cherish these moments and caputure them in a way that reminds me of the happy moments that I will be able to look back on as I get older.

So here are our latest family pictures.  The kids all have fall birthdays so we decided to do their birthday photos together in a family session.  It also ended up being a little maternity session since I was 7 months pregnant when we took the photos.  I have never been drawn to having maternity photos done, but it turned out nice and I am happy to have some photos of my sweet baby belly.  :)

Our photographer this time was Racheal Cook at rachealcookphotos.com.  She did awesome with crazy Declin and I am very happy with how everything turned out!  And we get to spend some more time with her soon when she does the new baby's newborn session next month!

This year Adalyn turned five on August 10th
Declin turns two on September 24th
Jensen turns four on December 27th.

Love this cute family of mine and I love seeing their smiling faces on my wall everyday.  :)





  

Adalyn Starts Kindergarten

Such a big milestone in our lives happened last week.  Our first child has entered the wonderful world of school.  Adalyn's first day of school was last Thursday.  She is in afternoon kindergarten at American Heritage Charter School.

I really feel like this was a family event even though Adalyn will be the only one actually IN school.  But our life focus shifts a bit now.  For the last five years our lives have been centered at home and we ran our own schedule.  Now we have a set time and place that we have to be everyday for the rest of our parenting lives.  Ok so this is starting to sound bit dramatic, but it was a big moment for this mom.

Anyways, originally we had planned on just sending her to our regular public school, but in late July I recieved a phone call from American Heritage Charter School saying that someone had moved and that Adalyn was the next child on the wait list to get in.  Back in March I had randomly decided to fill out a form for her name to go into the selection pool for this Charter school.  I didn't think about it much after that.  I was not really expecting her to actually get in.  There are not many charter schools in Idaho Falls yet so getting in seemed a bit out of reach.  So I was pretty surprised when the phone call came in July that she got in (another child had moved).  After talking to McKay it felt like a good choice for our family so we decided to try it out.  Internally I had questioned at times over the past few years about whether I wanted to try homeschooling or whether I just wanted to send my kids to public school.  I could definitely see pros and cons to both sides.  So when this charter school option came up, it felt like the happy medium between homeschool and regular public school.  It will be interesting to see how the year goes and hopefully it is a good experience for her.

Leading up to the first day of school I kept asking Adalyn if she was nervous or excited to start school.  Her answer was always "I don't know".  So I never could tell what she was thinking or how she felt.  Honestly being the oldest child in our family and never having attended a formal preschool I think she truely did not know what to expect.  Her only experience with "school" was what she saw on her little movies and TV shows so she really did not have much experience with the real thing.

Finally her first day came and I could tell she was a little nervous.  But we got there, waited outside for her teacher to come out, and then she lined up with her little class (there are 3 or 4 boys and 8 girls in her class) and they marched into the school.

At the end of her first day she seemed happy, but still nervous.  She said that she did not meet anyone new and that she didn't have any friends.  She did really like her teacher which was great, but you could tell she was still pretty hesitatant about the whole school thing in general.

The second day came and she did better!  She felt more comfortable wearing her uniform and she was looking happy when she got in the car after.

Since then things have only gotten better for her and I think she is really going to enjoy it.

 (the boys wanted their pictures taken on the first day too)

As for mommy's first day of school experience... lets just say that I am glad I never have to go through another "first day of school" with my oldest child ever again.  haha!  Going into her first day we didn't know a single person at her school, we had never seen her teacher, and I did not even know where her classroom was.  So I was a little on edge about the whole experience while trying to act calm so I did not stress Adalyn out.  By the end of the day I am pretty sure I had a small nervous breakdown from all of the emotions (pregnancy hormones didn't help).  But since that day we have slowly figured things out and I really like the school and her teacher.  Driving her to and from school each day has also added an interesting twist to our day, but we are happy to make it work and show our kids that education is important.  Although I won't lie... homeschooling has been on my mind a few times during my daily drives since that way I wouldn't have to drive her anywhere.  But I think we will stick with her school for now :)