Balance

My baby is beautiful, of course. And, I can't believe she is already one month old. I want to just sit on the couch, hold her and watch her sleep. But, unfortunately, my other children and my house don't really cooperate. My mom had a needlepoint on the wall when we were little that read,

Cleaning & Scrubbing can wait til tomorrow,

for babies grow up we've learned to our sorrow,

so cobwebs & dust mites just go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

So, now, I'm in the struggle to reclaim my house (not easy with a 1-year old) but still enjoy my baby growing up. Kira thinks she needs to hold her all of the time and when her turn is over she usually tries to get in a good hit or scratch. So, if you notice scratches on Morgan's face, they are from Kira. That's a battle for another day.

Happy New Year

Todd and I love to go to bed early on New Year's Eve. We try to downplay it so that our boys don't know that they might be missing out on something. It always feels good to get up on time on New Year's Day and get lots of things done. And, we really had a lot to do to get ready for the arrival of our new baby. She had different plans.

I spent all day New Year's Eve wishing that the contractions I was having weren't happening and that they would go away. But, that didn't happen and we decided to go to the hospital at about 7:30 p.m. We did get a little nap sometime around midnight but at 4:29 a.m. our cute little Morgan Elizabeth came into the world. So, we were up all night long and went to bed sometime around 7:00 a.m. She was the first girl born at St. Mark's Hospital in 2009 (3rd baby). She weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has a lot of hair and she is doing really well.

Kira is still pretty happy with the new doll that she thinks she got. She wants to hold Morgan and put in her binky all of the time. The boys love to hold Morgan but they would also rather play their Wii or wrestle. Morgan and I were at Jonah's baptism the day we came home from the hospital. We thought it was planned well in advance of having the baby but two weeks apparently wasn't far enough for Morgan's early arrival.

Christmas

December came and went way too fast. I knew it would but I still wasn't prepared. Christmas was good this year. We got a Wii for Christmas and that has provided many hours of fun. Kira got some dolls and animals so she is still happy with that.

Jonah's birthday was the day after Christmas and it was pretty uneventful. We went out for pizza and he got some more presents. No pictures, of course. We are the worst at that.

Here is a picture of Kira with one of her dolls. Kira was an angel in our ward nativity program. However, she absolutely refused to cooperate and instead spent the whole program trying to steal the baby Jesus doll.

We've had tons of snow. And, the boys spent most of their school break playing outside in it. They built forts and snowballs and tried to sled down the little hill in our front yard. Also, here is Jonah with his dad at his baptism.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Luke's Birthday

Luke turned 6. He was really excited to invite a school friend, a couple of friends from the neighborhood and AJ and Landon to his party. We went to Classic Fun Center. They played in the big playland and laser tag. Luke didn't want any pictures at his party. If he saw the camera out, he would take off and I couldn't find him. He got a lot of fun new toys and he's still playing with all of them. Kira stayed home and took her nap during the party but was so excited to see the cake and kids when we got back.

October

I have been busy lately and haven't had much of a chance to write on here. Todd turned 34 on the 24th and he had an uneventful birthday. Then, Halloween started. We don't do that much for Halloween but Todd and his brothers took the 7 kids to Hogle Zoo for trick or treating on the saturday before Halloween and they got a lot of candy. Unfortunately, Jonah put his bag down somewhere so he had to share with Luke.

They carved these pumpkins while I was gone one night. Luke did Batman (until he cut his hand), Jonah did the vampire (with help from Uncle Tim) and Todd made the smiley face for Kira.

On Halloween, we got really busy. As Todd was walking out the door for trick-or-treating in his mom's neighborhood, I handed him the camera and told him to make sure that he got pictures of the kids in their costumes. Well, he got lots of pictures of Kira in hers but the boys were running as fast as they could with their cousins and so we still need to hit up Tim to get pictures from his camera. Hopefully, he has some. Kira loved trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treating and knows which candy is hers. She likes the suckers the best.

Today is Election Day and so my neighbor offered to watch Luke & Kira so I could go vote in peace. But, there was absolutely no line when I went to vote. Anyway, my neighbor, Jill, really just wanted to get her hands on Kira's hair. Kira wanted to be behind the camera and not in the picture. By the way, she would never hold still this long if I was trying to do her hair. And, it looked really cute.

Todd is going to Minnesota first thing in the morning. He will only be there for a day and a half and apparently he has will be about an hour and a half from Minneapolis and so who knows if he will be able to see Reed, Allie and Jensen. Hopefully!

September

September came and went in such a hurry. We are just getting in the routine of school, homework, dinner, and bed. For most of the month that's all we had time to do. But, we're getting it down and so now we can hopefully get out of the house again. Todd has been in Wendover during the week since August but he should be done this week. Keep your fingers crossed that he'll get to do a job in SL because I am very tired. We went to the zoo with Allie & Jensen while they were here. And, we had so much fun. I didn't have my camera with me. My kids love Jensen. So, he managed to leave Utah with the sickness that we shared with him. Souvenirs from Utah don't get any better than that?

1st Day of Kindergarten

Here is Luke before his first day of Kindergarten. I was very worried that he was going to have a hard time. It wasn't great but he did pretty good for him. We went to meet the teacher last week and he didn't say one word to her so him talking to the aid on the first day is huge. He wants to walk home every day after school with Jonah but Jonah hates walking home. So, we'll see how that goes. I have had quiet afternoons to myself so far. Kira takes her nap while Luke is at school. I am enjoying having time to read and sew while everything is quiet at my house.

This is a cute picture of how creative he is. He is always thinking of ideas. He got this bat and knew what he wanted to do when we got home. So, here is Batman thanks to the cape that grandma sewed him two or three years ago for Halloween.