JewelImage Photography

A few days after Avery came, my sister came down from Calgary to take photos of her. She's a prof. photographer and is amazing! She just posted some of the pics on her website. Check them out HERE and let me know if you think they are as amazing as I think they are :-)!

Chubby Arms

This morning when Annie and I went in to check on Avery, this is how we found her. She was sound asleep and had tried to wriggle herself out of her burrito wrap blanket. She succeeded at getting her chubby little arm free but left the sleeve of her nightie tucked warmly in the blanket!

The Newborn Baby Phase

Avery will be one month old tomorrow and I'm getting so sad that time is moving so quickly! When I was pregnant I couldn't get time to go fast enough and now that she's here I can't get time to slow down.

The other night, as I sat gazing at my baby girl, I started to think of all the things I love about having a newborn baby! Avery is our last one and a little part of me is sad that this is the last time I'll ever have this experience. I don't want to forget...

...her smell. The smell of a brand new baby! In the hospital I couldn't get enough of Avery's smell. So fresh, clean and new! Mmmmm, I love the smell.

...her sounds. The little grunts and sqeaks she makes when she's sleeping. Avery is the squeakiest of all my kids and I love it (even if it does prevent me from sleeping at night :-).
...her snuggles. She just folds up into a little peanut and rests her head against my chest.
...her little diapers and little bum. Little tiny diapers wrapped around little tiny bums! Oh how I love little diapers!
...her poopie diaper smell. I know it sounds gross but that smell means the baby is eating well and growing well, and if I'm going to have to smell poop, that's the kind I'd prefer. A few months and that poopie smell will be much much worse!
...her baby burps. It amazes me the burps that can come out of a small little baby.
...feeding her. Nursing. I know a lot of women don't enjoy it, but I love it. I love the time I get to just sit, be still and snuggle with my newborn. Their clucks, and gulps and gasps are so sweet.
...her baby stretches. I love when Avery wakes up and stretches her little arms up above her head.
...her yawns that are so big I think she may just turn inside out!
...her little eyes peering up into my eyes as she snuggles against my chest.
...her little perfect mouth making funny little shapes.
...her soothers (pacifiers) being sucked as hard as possible with the "I'm hungry" sound she makes.
...her tiny little feet and hands.
...her bathtime. I love getting her clean, lathered in lotion and smelling soooo yummy.
...her little button nose!
...her breath. Love that smell on my face when we're snuggling!
...her tiny fingers clasped around one of mine.
...her hand resting on my chest when I have her cradled in my arms!
...her little head bobbing around on my shoulder when she's still hungry.
...her face when she is so relaxed and in a deep sleep. Chubby cheeks, tiny little mouth, and her steady breathing.
...her dependence on me to love, adore, teach and guide her on her journey through this life! What a privilege, honor and blessing it is for me to have that responsibility and I don't ever want to forget the role I need to play in her life!

I'm so amazed each time I have a baby at how much I instantly adore, cherish and love them. I feel so blessed to have my five beautiful children. Avery has brought such a feeling of added love and joy to our home. I look so forward to watching her grow and seeing my older kids continue to adore her. But, at the same time, I wish it wouldn't happen so quickly! I'm trying to do all I can to enjoy and cherish every single moment!

First Day of School 2009

This week the three older kids had their first day of school and boy was it eventful! With a new Principal, new teachers, seeing friends and CRAZY new bus route issues (the news was even at our bus stop after school), it made for a memorable day!

SPENCER

Spencer is in 6th grade this year and excited to "rule the school". He was excited to learn that he got the teacher he was hoping for and so far she has not disappointed! "My teacher is Awesome!" were his words after the first day! With lots to look forward to this year, Spence is already off to a great start!

ANNIE

Annie is in 4th grade this year! All the fourth grade teachers this year are fabulous and she got one that she had part time when she was in 2nd grade and her teacher went on maternity leave. Quite a few of her friends are in her class and she's thrilled to be back to learning! Seriously, I don't think there is a child in the world who loves to learn as much as Annie does!

GARETT

Garett is in 2nd grade and was SOOOOOO excited for school to start! Last week we went to the school for "Lemonade on the Lawn" to meet his teacher, see his classroom and drop of his school supplies. His two best friends are in his class again this year as well as a little girl who has a huge crush on him. She sits right next to him and when he saw her name on the desk next to his he put his hand over his face and shook his head while turning bright red! I wish I'd had my video camera. It was the cutest and funniest thing ever!

NEW PRINCIPAL

After 5 years of being less than thrilled with our principal, this year we have a new one! The whole community is ecstatic and so far we've been impressed. Let's hope this year brings a lot of positive change to our school!

BUS ISSUES

Last year the school district announced that due to budget cuts they'd be combining bus stops throughout the county. When they posted the bus stop locations online parents went nuts. The first day of school I walked the kids to the new bus stop and it was CRAZY!! There were at least 150 people at the stop (both kids and parents) and no place for anyone to stand to wait. The street where the stop is is a busy street so there were cars everywhere. Some parked, some whizzing past... After a few minutes 2 busses showed up and kids started piling on. It was a zoo. That afternoon when I walked up to the stop to meet the kids, there were 3 news stations there doing a story on the situation. The districts solution to the budget cuts was to combine stops but still have the same number of buses. Hmmmmm, what???? What is the difference between 2 busses at one stop and 2 busses each at their own stop? Makes no sense. Anyway, after much media, many phone calls from parents and pressure to keep our kids safe, we just found out they will be adding another stop to our neighborhood! Yeah!!!

A Visit from our Newest Cousin (and her parents :-)

Cute Little Zoey- 4 1/2 months old!

In the wee hours of morning this past March 23rd, Adam and I received a phone call that his sister, Laura had given birth to her first baby. We were thrilled to find out that they had a baby girl! They didn't know she was a girl until she was born but we had already had our ultrasound and knew our baby was a girl. We were so excited that our little girl would have a cousin her age to play with! That was 4 months ago and this past weekend our little girls were finally able to meet! Kevin, Laura and Zoey flew in on Thursday night (a little later than planned due to airline issues) and we spent the weekend having lots of fun!
Friday morning dawned and the kids first order of business was to FORCE :-) Uncle Kevin into making another movie. The last time he was here he made "The Flipped Around Fairy Tale". The kids had such fun doing it they could hardly wait for him to come back and make another one. ALL DAY LONG, Kevin and the kids worked on their newest film. Kevin was probably completely worn out by days end but didn't complain a bit. The kids had a blast and we all can't wait to see the finished product. (We'll be sure to post it once its finished!) Laura and I hung out, watched some of the filming, held our babies and visited! When Adam came home the adults and babies went out for a yummy dinner and then came home to watch a movie but ended up crashing early instead (such fun us oldies are)!

Saturday dawned and after Spencer's football practice we loaded up the cars and headed down to Colorado Springs to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We had never been there before but had heard great things about it. The zoo did not disappoint as many of the animals were out front and center to entertain us. Our favorites were the Gorillas, the Grizzly Bears and the Mountain Lions! SOOOOOO cool!

Our first family photo (sort of-Avery is in the stroller) outside the Zoo

"Lovely" Laura, Kevin (Zoey in the stroller) - outside the zoo

Annie and the Wallaby
Laura, Adam and the kids- the view from the zoo was amazing1

Adam and Lovely! - Who woulda though these two would get along so great in their adult years. As the story goes, Adam caused endless torment for Laura by teasing her constantly when they were growing up! :-)

Annie feeding the Giraffe's- This zoo is sooooo cool cause you get so close to the Giraffes that you can pet and feed them!

One of the Giraffes coming in for a cracker. (see the hand in the bottom left corner holding the cracker?)

That evening we came home where our friends Kevin and Athena and their 2 kids came over for a bar-b-que. Kevin was one of Adam's best friends in HS as well as one of the groomsmen at our wedding and Adam was one at his. He and his family moved here a few years ago. We don't see them often enough so it was fun to have them over and for Laura to catch up with them too.

On Sunday we all got up for church and then came home for a fun afternoon of playing games and having visitors come to meet Avery.

Avery and Uncle Kevin

Avery and Auntie Laura

Lovely, Me and our baby Girls!

Avery's first day at church

Such a CUTE baby! :-)

Cute Cousins! - Laura had a hard time believing that Zoey had ever been as small as Avery and I'm having a hard time believing Avery will ever be as big as Zoey!

After a yummy dinner Adam gave the kids fathers blessings as school started the next day. I am so grateful that Adam holds the priesthood and can bless our children. Each of them look forward to school and having a blessing from dad helps them start the year off with confidence and excitement.

Once the kids were all in bed, the four adults had a rousing :-) game of Trivial Pursuit! It was close but in the end Adam and I beat the PhD student and the smarty pants :-)! The most surprising part was that I even answered a few of the questions correctly. (Anyone who knows me knows that Trivial Pursuit is not my favorite game, mostly because I don't know anything!)

Kevin, Lovely and Zoey left our house early this morning. We were all sad to see them go. As much as we love living where we do, it is hard that we are not close to our family. We LOVE having visitors but it makes us miss them even more after they leave!

Thanks for coming Lovely, Kevin and Zoey. We love you and miss you already!!!!

Big Sister Biggest Brother!!

Spencer and Annie are as smitten with Avery as G and Logan are! They both love to sit and hold her for hours! They are also both HUGE helpers! With three big brothes and one big sister, this baby girl isn't lacking in the being held, smothered, kissed and loved department!

Goodbye Nana

It doesn't matter how many babies I've had, whenever I have to say goodbye to my mom after she's been at my house to help me with my babies, I cry! EVERY TIME!!! I thought this time would be different. After all, this is my 5th baby, I'm feeling great and I have a lot of help from my older kids.

The few days before she left everyone kept asking my if I'd be okay when she left. My reply was "yep, I'm fine". And I really thought I was. Even while we were driving to the airport after a fun lunch with the kids at Red Robin, I was fine. Even when we pulled up to the drop of lane and I got out to help with mom's bags while she gave hugs and kisses to the kids, I was fine! Then she came over to give me a hug and I lost it! In fact, we both lost it! I HATE saying goodbye to her but hate it even more when she has been my right hand for 2 1/2 weeks with a new baby! I cried all the way home and even a little once I was home! My mom is such a HUGE help in everyway and I always wonder how I'm going to do it without her here. Somehow I'm able to figure it out and after a few days life returns to somewhat normal and I realize I can do it on my own! However, without her showing me the ropes I really question if I would be as functional as I am after my babies are born. I hope when my daughters have their babies I'll be able to be as big of a help to them as my mom has been to me.

Here is a list of the amazing things she does to help me:

1. Helps take care of the kids who are at home when I am still in the hospital. She helps feed them, dress them, and love them.
2. Keeps my house clean while I'm in the hospital and when I'm out. My house is ALWAYS clean when mom is here. I need to be more like her at cleaning up messes after they happen. I LOVE when its clean!
3. Offers to stay up late at night, or to have me wake her up, if the baby isn't sleeping and has days and nights mixed up! Thankfully with all my babies except Spencer I've never had to wake her up. (When Annie and G were born my mom couldn't be here so MarJane and Aunt Peri came. I didn't even have to wake them up either cause none of them had days mixed up with nights)
4. Changes the baby every morning to get her ready for the day. She bathes, lotions, and dresses the baby. My babies smell SOOOOO good when Nana is here to help!
5. Gives the first bath after the belly button falls off. Tradition!
6. When MarJane is here, MJ cooks and Mom cleans up. Its a system they've had going since they were roomies in college and it works great! :-)
7. Mom cooks (after MJ leaves) and continues the doing the kitchen clean up.
8. Plans the menu and does the grocery shopping.
9. Does my laundry. I actually need to write this in capital, bold letters. DOES MY LAUNDRY!!! And when I say she does my laundry I mean she sorts, washes, drys AND folds all my laundry! I LOVE that!!
10. She gets me out of the house!! Yep, mom isn't one to let me sit around and wait for the baby blues to set in, she gets me up and moving, whether its a quick trip to Target or a lunch at a yummy restaurant, she gets me moving. I remember the week after Spencer was born she made me go to the Mall. It was the week before Christmas and we both had a few more things to get. I asked her to get them for me but she refused and told me I was fine and needed to get moving. Sounds a bit mean, but really was the BEST thing for me. It helps with healing and helps ward off the "down days"!
11. Makes me take naps and lets me sleep in. Even though she makes me get up and moving, she is also fantastic at taking the baby or the other kids so I can get the rest I need.
12. This time, with school starting so soon after Avery was born, mom took Annie school clothes shopping for me. She just needed a few things since the weather is still so warm but they had a great time shopping and going to lunch and came home with some adorable new clothes for school. (the next week mom came with me as I shopped for the boys stuff since they don't care about shopping and didn't want to come)
13. She is GREAT at keeping my house clean but she also leaves me with a "gift" of having a house keeper for a few weeks. It is FANTASTIC to not have to worry about cleaning my house when I have a newborn!
14. Reassures me that when she leaves, I'll be okay and can do this on my own!

Honestly, I could go on and on with all the things my mom helps me with! She is wonderful and I know things wouldn't be the same for me or my family without her. I think the best way to sum up all the things she does for me is to say that she has taught me how to be a mother. I'm sooooo blessed and sooooo grateful to have her and only hope I can be as wonderful a mother to my children as she has been to me. Thank you for EVERYTHING Mom!!! I LOVE you and miss you! (and still feel like crying a little bit thinking that you're not here anymore :-)

Two Weeks Old

Here are a few pictures of Avery at 2 weeks old. I can't believe how much she has changed already! SHe looks different almost every day!

First Bath, Granddad and Welcome Home

It's tradition that Nana gives my babies their first bath after their belly button falls off. Avery's fell off when she was just 6 days old! The next day she had her first bath and loved it. She didn't even cry! We video taped the bath so I didn't get any actual pictures of it but was able to get an "after" picture of her and Nana!
Pretty Baby Girl after her first bath!

Granddad was able to come and meet little Avery this past weekend. Though it was a short trip, we're so grateful he was able to come!

I meant to take pictures and post them when I first came home from the Hospital with Avery but only just got around to it today! It was so cute to walk into the house when I got home and see this cute sign that all of the kids had worked on. Thank you for welcoming us all home!

Brothers

Avery is so blessed to have brothers who love her! All the kids are completely smitten with her, but Logan and Garett can't seem to get enough of her! Especially Logan. He is constantly asking about her, looking at her, kissing her and snuggling her. Its very cute to watch him be so smitten with her. Garett seems just as smitten and asks to hold her all the time! She's a lucky girl! Her brothers will forever take good care of her!

Garett
Logan

Jaundice, Doctors and Billiblankets!

Is she jaundiced or does she just have a really great mid summer tan???

The past few weeks have been filled with joy and worry! It's funny how when a baby is growing inside you there seems to be so much to worry about: are they healthy, are all the parts in the right spots, are there the right number of parts, etc. You think about how wonderful it will be once they arrive because you'll have all the answers to your worries. That is, of course, until a whole new set of worries develops once the baby is born!

Avery's arrival has brought such a feeling of joy into our home and we are all completely smitten with her. Her arrival has also brought a whole new set of worries! Starting the Friday after Avery was born, the particular worries have been over her constant state of "yellowness"! Avery, like all my children in their first days of life, was jaundiced. We layed her in the window to receive the ever important sun rays but it didn't seem to help. We took her to the doctor and after her poor foot being poked, got the results that her billirubin level was 18.2. The doctors like to keep them below 20 and anything above starts to get scary. Within a few hours of getting the results, a "Billi-blanket" was delivered and we had to keep Avery wrapped in it 24/7- except when we were changing her. Not ideal to snuggle a baby with who looks like a "Glo-Worm" but not the worst thing in the world either!
Our little glow worm snuggling with Daddy!

The next morning, mom and I took Avery back to the doctor for another billirubin check. Later that day the results came in that she'd gone UP!! WHAT???? Up to 19.8. I was trying to keep it together, but didn't do so well at holding back the tears and worry! My poor baby was looking more and more like a Lemon instead of a peach! When we got home it was back on the blanket and another 24 hours of her having a "tail" (mom started calling the machine and all its fixins that- and that's what it looked like). Sunday morning dawned and back to the doctor we went. Another poke to poor Avery's foot, more waiting for results. Finally the call came and she was down to 17.4. Yeah, we're on our way down. We kept her on the blanket and the next morning headed off to the doctor AGAIN! Another poke, more waiting and WHAT???? She'd gone back up to 18.5.

My poor Pediatrician had to spend some time calming me down and reassuring me that he wouldn't let anything happen to Avery, that we'd figure this out and she'd be fine. I was a wreck and of course in my post pardum state of hormonal emotion came apart! After such a difficult pregnancy, why couldn't she just be okay? It didn't make sense!

After pulling myself together, the doctor instructed that we keep her on the billi-blanket until Thursday, to save her poor little heels from being poked a million more times. Thursday came and again, she was poked, tested, and the results came back at 18! You've got to be kidding! Finally the good doctor told us to take her off the lights, and actually stop nursing her for 24 hours, supplementing with formula. He suspected that she had Breastmilk Jaundice, a rare, relatively harmless type of jaundice that affects only about 2% of babies. Something in the breastmilk blocks the liver from breaking down the billirubin. It eventually works itself out, but to see if thats what it was I had to stop nursing her for a day. As hard as that was to do, I pumped and fed her formula. Friday we went back to the doctor for what we hoped would be the last time. After poking her to test her billirubin, the doctor also tested her hematocrit (Red Blood Cells) to see if they were low, which would mean a whole different set of issues. If her hematocrits were too low she'd need a blood transfusion, which we did NOT want to have happen! Within a few minutes the hematocrit test came back at 55, which is really good. The doctor was relieved as he told us the result and though we didn't have her billirubin levels back yet, he was VERY confident that she had breastmilk jaundice. He told us to go back to nursing her, take her off the lights and her levels would eventually go down. That night the doctor on call called and told us her level had dropped down to 15.5 and that it was for sure Breastmilk Jaundice. She was in the clear and her levels would continue to slowly go down!

The Glo-Worm and her tail!

The relief and gratitude I felt was so wonderful. I am so happy that Avery is okay and so grateful for answered prayers! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her. She is gaining weight and slowly turning into the little "Peach" we have been waiting for!