Random, but that's my life these days. . .

It's been three weeks.

(Soren 5 days..give or take)

That's it.
Just three weeks.

(Soren 3 weeks and 2 days)
Look what happened!
Seriously this kid is growing like a weed.
(cutest weed I've ever seen)


Miriam had a "dance demonstration" today. She is in a dance theater class, so her performances are a lot of free form pantomime-ish type stuff. Her teacher wanted to show the parents that she really is teaching technique along with the "free movement" stuff.
It was actually very reassuring to me, because I had wondered.

Bub entertained us by finding these sweet shades and doing some pantomime himself.
That DVD remote is not really a DVD remote...it's an "ibog" of course!
He turned me into a pickle with it yesterday morning.

For your enjoyment, a little of that "free movement" I was talking about.
(the crazy backdrop is from the theater's Steel Magnolias performance, not part of the dance demonstration).

Bub Turns 3!

I wish all birthday parties could be as nice as this one.
Beautiful weather.
Special guests who traveled 2 hours to spend the evening (thanks mom and dad! Uncle Mark was a special guest as well, but he only drove 20 min).
The birthday boy was delightful, excited, and sweet.
The cake was awesome (peanut butter chocolate ice cream!).
My dinner turned out well.
Perfection, I tell ya.

This boy melts my heart.
He is seriously the sweetest little guy, and hilariously funny if you can understand his "bubese".
He has started carrying around one of Miriam's old boy baby dolls since Soren was born. He is so gentle and sweet with both the doll and Soren.

Bub usually saves half of his food in the fridge for later. He just loves knowing there is half a sandwhich, half a piece of gum, or some juice waiting for him whenever he wants it.

Bub is very cautious. He evaluates situations before jumping into them.
He is however, all boy, he loves jumping off furniture, throwing things, kicking things, and getting dirty.
He likes bugs in theory but not in real life.

Bub is very passive, he avoids conflict when he can, and if he is fed and well rested he lets things go easily.
He is enthusiastic, easy to please, and easily entertained.

He loves his sister and trusts her completely (she bought him the gift above with her birthday money).
He gives the best hugs.

I love this boy!

Happy Birthday!

I love having babies in the Spring (and luckily we've been able to plan em' that way!).
One thing I didn't plan is having Darin's birthday so close to our son's birthdays. I actually believe this is a gift in and of itself, and will be so fun in the future.

This year though...and three years ago when Bub was born...not such exciting birthdays.
Darin doesn't seem to mind as much as I do, but honestly, neither of us have the energy to plan or do much of anything.

So, although he doesn't want to go out, doesn't want a big gift, doesn't want to make any fuss, I really want him to have a great birthday THIS YEAR because....

because.....he's always been my hero, but the week Soren came home...well, he has just rescued me this time around. There were moments I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to do it

because...I have been reminded how tender and loving he is as a father.

because.....he has been extra patient with the children, especially when my patience has run out.

because....he gave me such a thoughtful and wonderful mothers day gift

because....although he wasn't as excited as I was about having a baby naturally, he was there with me the whole time. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, and it was no cake walk for him either.

because....there is so much on both of our minds at this moment.

This birthday will be be low-key....but someday, when there are no babies, Darin's birthday is going to be amazing!

Mark my words.

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived"
-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

My heart is overflowing this mother's day.
As grateful as I am to be a mother for the third time, it's not my motherhood that I am focused on. My mother has served me a million times over this week. It goes beyond watching the kids for 3 days, doing my laundry, making meals, and cleaning my house - all of which she did do.

She was here. She listened to me. She encouraged me. I just needed her more this time around, and it happened to be an awful time for her to be needed.
She came anyway.
I love you mom.

I have had a fantastic Mother's Day. Miriam made me breakfast on couch (which is where I end up in the morning) and then she asked for oatmeal, and Bub requested eggs...those cute demanding things. There was also a gift from Miriam...full of carnival trinkets, and sparkly things. So sweet. But really it's Darin who has made my Mother's Day so great. He has been the saving grace over this last week. Maybe someday I can write in detail the ways he has served and blessed me...it's all too current and fresh at the moment. Suffice it to say I married a wonderful man.
To top it all off, he gave me an amazing Mother's Day/early birthday gift (anyone else going to be at Spark?) Something to look forward to on my most overwhelmingly homebound days. Those days are worth it...but having an upcoming break is a breath of fresh air for me.

Lets have a look at the fella causing all the ruckus around here.

The ever growing and changing Soren.
(cute blanket made by Julia...Thank you!)

Here he is at one week.
Last Dr. visit he was almost 10 lbs. in the 95% all around (height weight head). He is a proportionately perfect big guy, but to me he seems so tiny!

We had one scary trip to instacare, but other than that smooth sailing with this fella. Our friends Jamie and Kevin came to watch the kids till 11:00pm that scary night. I can't say thank you enough. I don't want anything remotely similar to happen to them, but I do hope we can repay the service someday.

These two monkeys are kind of getting the run of things around here. 8:30 am on a Saturday and they are out playing to their hearts content only coming in to feed and poke the baby a bit. Actually, they are really good with Soren. A bit loud, but very gentle.

The babe is awake. Time to feed.

Our New Guy

He finally came!
The wait was well worth it, he is 9 lbs and 21 and 1/2 inches of darling.

Check out those chubby cheeks!
(and those parched lips...I worked hard for this little guy. That is another post all together)

It was love at first sight for all of us.

Byron threw his hands in the air and did a little dance when he heard it was a boy.
Miriam is content with either because she knows how great a little brother is.
She did mention we could have a girl next time.

Thanks for all the well wishes on facebook, phone calls, and texts!
We feel blessed in so many ways for so many reasons.

For those waiting for news...

We are waiting too.
Disappointed? Well, at least you can tie your own shoes!

Four days over due today, and the baby wasn't looking ready to come so we decided to wait a bit longer. It's not easy to be patient, but really I have to admit these last 4 days have been very mellow in a good way. We have made no plans, started no projects, are taking things day by day and have found it's an extremely peaceful way to live.

I think I am at the surrendering stage. I can't make this baby drop, I can't bring on contractions. I just monitor movement, and wait. I will be given a stress test on Thursday (7th day overdue) if the baby doesn't come before, and then we will make our next move.

(Yes, I am walking....yes we have tried just about everything the internet has to offer to induce labor, the things we haven't tried we don't want to try)

Our mellow Saturday was spent at the zoo. I think 70% of the women there were pregnant.

We saw the rhinos Princess and George try to do some bowling. Princess was being a baby, but George got a pin down.

Then M and I went to Costco, and Jamba Juice, and I cleaned the kitchen and did laundry.
(See? I am being very active...not a slug just waiting and napping although I did take a nap, it was glorious!)

My husband, Mr. Macgyver, helped the neighbors with a minor plumbing emergency. He went to his cub scout meeting, then he rigged up our broken garbage disposal so I can run the dishwasher while we wait for the replacement to arrive. He's so great. He is the one who has been amazingly patient through the last 4 days. Living up to his childhood nickname "mellow fellow".

So we wait...and keep walking.

Names and things

Upon seeing my huge belly, people inevitably ask two questions.

Is it a boy or a girl?
and
Do you have names picked out?

We don't know if it's a boy or a girl. Darin wanted to be surprised when we were expecting Miriam but I couldn't handle it. If it was a girl, I wanted the cute clothes, bows, and shoes given at baby showers. I wanted to know with Bub as well but, with two genders worth of baby clothes at my sisters house (ready to be sent down when the call is made) I figured it was a good time to go old school. I am so rarely surprised in life this may be one of my only opportunities!
Although, I believe most people think it is a girl, I have no feeling at all one way or another.
We shall see!

As for names, we are working on it! Darin suggested that this baby may not come until we had some idea of what the name will be. That was enough motivation for me. We were up till midnight on Familysearch.org looking at our family genealogy charts searching out names. Both Miriam and Bub have family connections, which is important to me. An added benefit is it cuts down on our choices which is good for Darin and I because it takes us sooooo long to make decisions.
Here is our list:

Girl Names

Lanice "Lanie" or "Lana"
Margrethe "Meg"
Lucy
Esther "Essie"
Adelaide
Nicholine
Maren
Rebecca
Clara


Boy Names:

Soren
Anders
Martin
Peter
Issac
Jens
Sven
Merritt
Clinton
Frederick
David
Henry
William


Possible middle names:

Wilfred
Linnell
Erastus
Howard
Egan
John
Cooper

Pretty exciting time for us!

Anytime now....

Now that I have my pedicure taken care of, the baby is welcome to come anytime. I told the woman giving the pedicure that I needed happy birthing toes and she suggested this wild pink color. I like it, I may not have picked something so bright, but I already feel like I am on display so I might as well live it up!
(Please don't make fun of my toes...it hurts their feelings)

We have been gone since Easter so this is the first week the kids wore their new Sunday finery.
Anticlimactic to wear Easter clothes 2 weeks after Easter, but they did look cute. We had to purchase Miriam's first slip for this dress, and she couldn't be more excited about it. You could tell it made her feel pretty and mature as she pranced to church...that was until she saw the neighborhood boys running and took off running after them to catch up!

Spring Break

What made this Spring Break so great?

Darin and Grandpa took the kids on outings 2 of the 3 days we were there!
"Sweet fancy Moses" (as Jill would say) I love it when the men take the kids on adventures!

Miriam loved climbing, you can read about her adventures HERE.

It's been a good long while since Darin has done any climbing. I was glad he got a chance to get back to it, since it's going to be even longer before I get back out there with him. Although, I should go belay for him because I would make a fairly secure anchor at this point.

Grandpa has been putting the rock climbing pass we gave him for Christmas to good use.

The men took the kids to a migratory bird refuge, while the "older girls" went to lunch.
My father-in-law joked about how we were welcome to go out to Wendy's or MacDonald's, but of course we were treated to one of the nicest restaurants in town. It was lovely!

That night we drove a few miles north for Casper's ice cream. Soooo good, and such a cute place. Bub was so excited about getting "2 goops!" of ice cream.

Sunday I had not one but TWO naps after church, and I got to watch Ace of Cakes. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and fun conversation.
That's a darn good day.

You know your 6 year old has been watching too much food network when she tells you how many different ways there are to make shrimp and grits.

Easter Morn...and day...and then Monday night

My kids of course, were the first ones up that morning. Whether my kids go to bed at 8, 9, or 10 pm they almost always wake up before 7 am. Don't you feel sorry for me? On the other hand getting up for school is easy.

General Conference Break

then....

The Hunt and The Loot!
I have to thank my sisters for scrambling around to make room for my kids in the hunt. We weren't planning on spending Easter with my parents but had a change of plans the day before.

Sharing the spoils and being together. The kids think they ate a ton of candy (and they ate plenty to be sure) but what they didn't realize is there were at least 5 adults scavenging from baskets without them noticing! I ate my fair share of peanut butter cups!

General Conference Break

We had a wonderful ham dinner at my brothers house to celebrate his birthday ( I am still dreaming about those rolls Kelly). I love being invited to dinner at Erik and Kelly's house.

The next day we broke in those new Easter swimming suits. Thank you Dad for taking my kids in the water...I so didn't want to wear a swimming suit at this point in my pregnancy. People are kind, and most of them, even complete strangers, want to talk to me about my "delicate state", but the stares and the conversations while in a bathing suit...well no thank you.

I also completed 10 freezer meals and some pesto sauce for when the baby comes.
So, we may not have a name, or clothing washed, or spot for the baby, my house may turn into a complete sty as I live in a state of perpetual exhaustion and hormone craze, my kids may be neglected and turn into TV junkies but we will not starve!

(I am hoping if I expect the worst, I will be pleasantly surprised when its not so bad)

Friend Hunt

A fun hunt with friends, and lunch after wards. What could be better?


Spring here is so fickle, you never know if you will be hunting eggs in sandals or snow boots!

We are getting ready!

We were all fooled in turn, and no one cried...that's a darn good April's Fool Day!

*the kids cereal turned blue when they poured milk on it
*I had salt on my toothbrush
*Darin had jelly beans in his shoe
*I told Darin I was in labor after going to my doctors appointment, but he wasn't, even for a second, fooled.
and....we have tons of snow just in time for Easter Egg Hunts!

Bub really got into the spirit of things. He ate Uncle Mark's jelly beans (actually Mark gave them to him, but he must of thought he was just suppose to hold them), he took a few drinks of my soda, and put apple seeds on my chair.
After each event he would say "I apell foo yoo! I apell foo yoo! ha ha...ha ha" while doing his signature Bub jig. I can picture him really getting into this holiday in the future.


Our big news of the day is that Miriam passed her swimming test! The goal was to have her swimming by the time the baby came, and she did it! I feel a little more confident thinking about taking 3 kids swimming....well besides my having to actually wear a swimming suit in public.
No more swimming lessons till next winter Hooray!!!

Bub's Photo Documentation of Daily Life

It's 10:49 pm and Darin is still at work.
It's going to be a rough work week for him. Bad for us too since we miss him so much, but he has the work, the exhaustion, and the guilt of not being here.
Hang in there honey.

I was thinking about how there are so many common place things I do during the week that seem monotonous, and mundane. I was texting Darin about one of these activities and he said "I wish I was there".....and then I remembered how lucky I am to be home with my kids. How lucky I am that I have a husband who works so hard to provide for us.
Darin usually has to hear about these activities second hand but since I had entertained Bub with my camera during M's swimming lesson, I have a slice of mundane daily life to share!

This is Bub, our photo journalist.

This is a Bub's eye view of Miriam's swimming lessons.

This is a Mom's eye view of a boy who will have a stinky diaper very soon.
Classic and unmistakable expressions.

After swimming, we stopped at the bouldering wall, where Miriam climbed to the top and kissed the ceiling, even though I have told her a million times how gross that is.
Bub and Miriam had the bouldering cave to themselves, so they ran, and flipped to their hearts content before we drove home.

Hope you get to come home soon!

Sometimes, I am startled that I am an adult.
I stop, look around, and think "Am I really in charge of handling this situation?"

Monday night was one of those situations.
Picture this....
A rainy drive through a construction laden canyon when I hear Bub's signature pre-throw up man burp. "He didn't did he Miriam?!" Then Miriam is gagging, and instead of rolling down her window opens the door (at 50 mph...slow, because of the rain, and construction thank heavens). "Shut your door!" I yell, then Miriam is crying (more nondescript noises from Mr.B) "Miriam say a prayer right now. Bub please don't move buddy...please be still".

We pull up to a cruddy gas station full of tatoos. Miriam opens the car and runs inside before I can stop her. I had to take Bub's clothes off outside in the rain (because "stuff" would be all over if he stayed in the car, and I couldn't take him in the gas station like that, people would be sick!) We ran in to wash his hair and body in a sink, and then dressed him in fresh (worn a day ago) clothing.

I won't bore you with the rest of the clean up details but Darin and I spent some quality time together last night taking apart a car seat.

Bub laughed and sang songs in his soiled car seat the rest of the way home.
Miriam sat with the "New Car" air fresher to her nose.
I drove home wondering what makes me qualified to be in charge of these types of situations.

I came up with nothing.

3/17 in a nutshell...

Our house, once again, was thrashed to the kids utter delight.
The kids ran around the chaos, laughing at the mess, finding shamrock stickers and golden coins.

I would have called the holiday a success with that, but when you have a daughter like Miriam things tend to get more involved. She SO wanted to try the Shamrock Smoothies, and she REALLY wanted to make the rainbow cupcakes (I wanted the fruit rainbow). She gets more excited about party preparations than the actual party and her enthusiasm is hard to turn down.

I do believe Bub and Mim enjoyed their rainbow feast. I was gone all evening so I didn't witness anything first hand, but the fruit is almost gone, it looks like everyone got a cupcake or two. They consumed everything multicolored and left a crock pot full of corned beef and cabbage untouched.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Shamrock Smoothie
1 peeled banana sliced and frozen
1 cup frozen green grapes
1 peeled kiwi
1 cup washed baby spinach
8 oz lime yogurt
1/2 cup limeade
blend it all up.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

My parents drove all the way up, in the rain sleet and snow, to see Miriam's final performance of the Tin Soldier. It was so great to have them come...Thanks Mom and Dad!!

It's been a fun play, but I am happy to have Saturday's back.

Go Utah!

Randomly, Darin's work offered U of U Gymnastic tickets.

Trax ride, close meet where the U pulled out the win, we got to see Uncle Mark and.........

an introduction to Dippin' Dots!