Baby pictures!!

I may be two months behind, but our baby is here!! She is such a cutie, sweet baby and all I want to do all the time is snuggle with her and curl up and sleep next to her and hold her.

She was born about 45 minutes after we got to the hospital and the doctor barely made it there in time. Good thing, too, because I wasn't waiting!!

She was born with with very loud lungs, but she doesn't really cry at all now. In fact, every night we can tell when she is ready for the night and Danny wraps her up really tight and puts her in her car seat and rocks her. Once she is asleep, she sleeps until 5 or 6 am, which is wonderful!!!

The kids are loving having her and she loves them, too and gives them lots of smiles, even if being around them sometimes means a bonk in the head. 




Look, here she is, already crying at Alex. It's like she knows......

Here she is sleeping in my bed at the hospital. I just love having them snuggled next to you. Especially when they are as big as she was!! 

 

When Tristan first saw her, he was so sweet and started singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her spontaneously. I think for him, it was the only way to express his emotions.

Emme is sooo baby obsessed, even before the baby was born. Now she just has a real baby, too. But she likes to love, love, love- hit! So we have to keep a close eye on her. Alaina is so motherly and now she also nurses all of her stuffed animals. So, of course Emme does, too. She drops things like small toy spiders, down her shirt and says, "Baby!" and then makes sucking sounds.

This was our first week back to church. We were doing pretty great, and then Danny found Emme in the sink, in her dress, with the water running. Then we were a little late.

Our little baby is already two months old, and now I need to put up newer pictures of her! Sometimes it is pretty interesting with 5 kids, and a little crazy with a newborn baby, but gosh, there is something so heavenly about a baby in your home.

I should probably mention, too, that we are calling her by her middle name, Irelyn. I swore I would never do that again after having Alex go by his middle name, but as she has gotten bigger her hair has gotten redder and she just looked more and more like an Irelyn. And it sounded right, like it fit in our family.  Mmm... just looking at this picture almost makes me want to go wake her up and hold her. Almost.....   :)

BABY's HERE

This is Danny. We had the little piggy, ie 9 pounds 2oz @ 3:53 pm Mom & baby doing great!!! Say lots of prayers that she can come home ontime :-) we just saw the doctor and so far so good. We love Mountain View!!! Sooooo much better than the other one. Send pictures later. This was done on my i-touch at the hospital. Technology rocks!
Danny & Melinda & (patent pending) Lauren

Dear Alex..

Ahhh... my dear Alex. Living with you is so interesting. I have often said that you could push Mother Teresa to the drink, but you also keep life very interesting. There is never a dull moment with you around.
  Like today, when I noticed that you and Alaina were nowhere to be found, and I realized that both of your bikes were missing, too. Uncle Justin found them at the Darrington's house, down the road, but no one answered there when we called. So down I went to investigate. And yes, you were there, with Alaina. Too bad the Darringtons weren't there, too. You had just helped yourself into their house through the garage and basement doors. I'm sure Alaina was a willing accomplice, but whereas when she was caught she was shaking in her boots and kept saying how sorry she was, you happily showed me the toys you were playing with and seemed oblivious to the fact that you were in someone else's house without them there.
  Ahh.. and then tonight at Danny's work party. Everyone was gathering at the park where there were hot dogs and chips and toys, but most of all for you, inflatable bounce houses. But the one you wanted to go on the most was the super tall one with the slide that landed in water. Much like this one here.We tried to get you to wait. But then we heard cheering and Dad said, "That's Alex!" and pointed to the slide. I was fully prepared to see you in your clothes, drenched and wet on the slide. But, no. You were still climbing up that huge ladder. Completely naked. I will never forget the image of your backside going up while you were cheered on from below. What does a mother do? I ran for a towel just as I saw you reach the top and turn and give everyone a big wave, before your joyous ride down to the bottom. You landed in the water to much applause and cheering, while one of Dad's bosses beside me said, "Now it's a party!" You were so happy you ran across the lawn to meet me and tell me all about how you had gone down the slide.
  Being the good mother that I am, while putting on your swimming trunks and trying to scold you and explain to you that we don't go around naked, I think you missed the point, since I couldn't stop laughing.
  Yes, today was probably one of our proudest moments as parents. And to think, this may never have happened if we hadn't left our camera at home.
  You are crazy and impulsive and will probably kill us off early, but at least you do know how to have fun. And, how to get a party started. We love you for it.
                                                                                              Love, Mom and Dad

Start of Summer- Part 1

 

I am going to try to do a quick rundown of our summer, a few parts at a time.  We had such a fun, busssy summer and I don't want to forget so much of it!!

So, going really far back, our summer started with graduations. Alaina from her first year of pre-school,

 and Tristan from Kindergarten!! They both had soo much fun and made great memories.

This is Tristan's teacher Mrs. Blackburn

and her helper Mrs. Misty. Tristan loved them both!

They had activities and games for the kids and siblings after the graduation.

Alex and I both had our first paino recitals!! This was a big deal for both of us. It was a real challenge to get Alex to grasp the concept of written music, etc. but now he is really coming along.

He was very excited to play on the "big piano" and wanted to take it home. But what I really loved was that while he played he kept looking out at the people in the audience and smiling, and he sang along with his last song. You can't hear it in the video, but after his last song he stood onstage for a second and then said, "Excellent!"

 The kids played in the sprinklers a lot and one day Alex decided to strip naked and get completely covered in mud. You couldn't even tell he was naked, he was so muddy! And, he tracked it all through the house before I saw him. Thank goodness he stayed out of the living room!! This piture was after the water had already washed some off. Before that, there was no skin showing.

 We were making roast for dinner one Sunday, and so we seared it before putting it in the crock pot. After leaving it for a minute, we came back to find Emme helping herself to it. She had just climbed up there on her own and was going to town with that thing. (Sorry the pictures are blurry, but they were so funny that I still had to put them on here.) I don't know if Danny has ever been prouder. :)

And I think that's enough for today!! 

I Promise, we're still alive

You know you really need to post, when your husband keeps telling you that you need to. How weird is that?? So, I will start downloading some pics of our summer, but since that will take about 3 years, in the meantime here are some funny things the kids have said.
Tonight- Alaina- "Mom! Your belly is getting so big!"
              Me- "I know! Why is that?"
             "Because a baby is growing inside! And your bottom is getting big, too!"
             "Is it? Why?"
            "Because the baby is growing in there, too!"
            "Ummm... no, it's just growing in my belly."
            "But... it's getting so big!"
        
But just to even out the score, Emme, who frequently pushes on my chest and says, "Baby!" tonight also pushed on Danny's stomach and joyously proclaimed, "Baby!"

Recently as I was putting Tristan to bed, he was lamenting that he had to sleep alone in his own room. (Poor kid, has to have his own room.) "Mom, when will I sleep in bed with you? You sleep with Daddy every night!"

Tristan is very excited for this baby. But I think he would like to have another boy around here. He told me, "Yeah, and after this baby we can have a boy, and then another boy, and another, and then another one." Hmmm.... you keep hoping Tristan!

Birthdays

Well, I am so super behind on posts, this is going to take me a while to get caught up. But we've been doing some really fun things, and I want to write about them! So, I am going to try to just do a little bit frequently and see if I can get caught up!!

So here goes, with lots of pictures and not so many words!!

Tristan's Birthday!! This was his first year to have friends over, and he thought that was super fun. They made flubber and got to take it home. (And I used wayyy too much food coloring and it stained all their hands. I'll bet all the moms loved me!)

 Most of the time they all wanted to just jump on the trampoline!!

 Tristan wanted a red and white cake, and although it doesn't look very good, it actually tasted great!

 They did a superhero cake-walk, but they got to pick out prizes, instead of cake!

 He had lots of fun, and that night we did family presents, only we forgot to take pictures!!

He is 6 years old now, and very proud of it!!

Then a few weeks later, we had Alaina's birthday, but hers was just with family this year.

(Does anyone know how to rotate a picture on here?)

 Even though it was only family and low-key, for some reason I got all stressed out and got super annoyed when her cake started falling apart. Then Tristan came up and pushed on a candle and the whole thing collapsed. Something I would usually laugh about, but I got really mad. Sorry Tristan!! (I apologized later to him.) It still turned out fine, and Alaina thought it was the most beautiful cake ever!!

 There were cupcakes with strawberries, too.... Yumm...

 She got ruby slippers,

Barbie mermaids from Grandma, dress-up jewelry, a movie,

 a rapunzel dress from Grandma and Grandpa Campbell,

and this awesome wood horse stable with horses and rider (that I got for free from a friend!). She was ecstatic about everything!!

 And, even though this was in May and Emme's birthday was in February, we had her birthday, too!! We just couldn't get around to it earlier, and she really didn't mind. :) (And these are the most horrible pictures!!)  She got a dolly and a horsey from Grandma!

  So, everything turned out great and maybe next time I will not get stressed-out beforehand!

Yeah! One post done, only five-thousand more to go!!



New Couch Cushions!! Woo-Hoo!

 Sooo... I love our couches. But we got them 6 years ago, and they were used then, although in barely used condition. They get a lot of use, and I have washed the seat cushions too many times. They had gotten to the point that they had a few holes in them, the piping was totally coming off and unraveling, and they were disgustingly dirty. And I couldn't wash them anymore or they would disintegrate. 

Since I can't afford new couches, and I really like these and the frame and cushions themselves are all in great shape, I thought I would compromise and just re-cover the cushions and the pillows- the things that were the worst. 

I don't sew more than a straight line, so I put an ad on the BYU-I bulletin board for a sewer who could make the cushions and pillow covers for $100. 

I had bought some nice upholstery fabric a long time ago when it was on sale. And even though it wasn't the same fabric, I thought it would still look nice with it. 

 Anyhoo... I found a girl right away who was soo nice and did buttons on the pillows and made me four throw pillow covers for $25 more. 

Here are the before pictures, which are rather horrifying to even put on here.

Do you see how I turned the cushions "zipper out," because then you couldn't see the piping falling apart? 

Here are the "afters", and I think they look a whole lot better!

 Happy day!! I think they look even better in real life and it feels sooo much cleaner and nicer in there now. It makes me so happy!! And I don't have to feel so embarrassed when people come over. I don't know how much long we'll get out of them, but anything is better!!

Just a cute picture of Emme reading her books.

And I just thought it was cute how her hair curled this day. It reminds me of Charlie Brown's little sister Sally.

We spent all day today outside working to get our garden areas ready. We got most everything planted except the tomatoes. Whether or not anything will grow is yet to be seen!

Here is what happens after a day in the garden.

And this is why we had to put a little fence around this part of the garden!!