Patch and Such

Pumpkin slingshot

Bulls-eye!

This is Mia's signature pose. "SUPER BABY!" We have quite a few Super Baby shots.

Where are those fingers headed, Mia?

Pumpkin Seekers

Pumpkin Inspector- a cute one I might add

Eager for Carmel Popcorn

Our Baby Pumpkin

On the Move

Ellie had mad skills at scraping out her pumpkin. She loved the pumpkin guts and wanted to feed it to Mia.... nice. She is also sporting Mia's clothes, I guess it was only a matter of time. Her favorite pair of shorts this past summer were pink, size 3-6 months.



Jense requested a spoon but we turned him down. No guts no glory! I've created somewhat of a monster in the hand cleanliness department. Once given the go ahead- he dove right in.

What to expect when you're unexpectedly expecting

# 1- expect to be shocked that despite all of your prevention somehow you're still "expecting."

# 2- expect to keep it a secret for as long as humanly possible.

# 3- expect your husband to breech protocol and announce it on facebook months before you were ready share the news.

# 4- Expect to pep talk your self for weeks that everything will be OK despite what you went through the last time you were expecting.

# 5- Expect everyone who finds out to say things like, "NO WAY!" "Seriously?" "WOW, really?" and my personal favorite.. "I didn't see that one coming."

# 6- Expect your cardiologist to be very reassuring that the blood pressure medicine you were taking isn't a huge concern.

# 7- Expect that you will still think about it non stop.

# 8- Expect to have multiple echo's scheduled to check out your baby's heart and your heart.

# 9- Expect family to be loving and reassuring that everything will be fine.

# 10- Expect to start getting excited about the new life growing inside.

# 11- Expect to break the news to your children and have your daughter immediately commence her mauling of your belly.

# 12- Expect to lie awake wondering how you will handle a heart baby and a newborn.

# 13- Expect to be pregnant with a sister, a sister in law, and 5 other girls from your ward.

# 14- Expect to be obsessing about the swine flu now for yourself , and not just your transplant baby.

# 14- Expect to ad a slew of appointments to your already appointment rich life.

# 15- Expect to be angry at your husband despite his elation over the fact you're expecting.

So, it's true! We are expecting our fourth little one. Crazy I know! Believe me all of the thoughts you could possibly be having over this news have already gone through my head. Yes, all of them.

We are of course really excited NOW and here is why....

Monday we had an appointment to find out the heart status of baby #4 and to see how my heart was doing. I have been counting down to this appointment. I tried not to get too preoccupied with the possibilities, but sometimes it all caught up with me. Pregnancy hormones coupled with my experience with Miss Mia... bring on the tissue.

Monday was a fabulous day to say the least!!!

When the sonographer started scanning and found the babies heart my heart stopped for a minute. This was the moment of truth... I can't really describe it, but you can imagine how it would have been. The very first frame was a four chamber view and I could see those baby valves pumping away. Having viewed an insane amount of echos in my 28 years I knew that this heart was a healthy one. I looked at my husband and said, "that is one perfect looking heart." He agreed. He said it was nice not to see one side "crazy dilated." My cardiologist (who is great) knew I was a basket case going into that appointment and came in to confirm my conclusion. He gave us a big thumbs up.

NO HEART DIAGRAM!!!!

It's about time we got some good news from him- I wish I had the camera ready to snap a picture of those thumbs!

While checking on the heart we also found out that baby 4 is a.............

BOY

I could not be more pleased! A healthy heart AND a little man to even up our fam. I was hoping for a boy- and I am extremely excited that we get to grant Jensen's wish for a little bro. He is going to be a good buddy, with the amount of kicks I feel Jense will have a difficult time keeping up. Now for a name.... hmmm.

There you have it- We feel so blessed!

Wasn't this unexpected???

The Trick

Ellie Trick

Jensen Trick

Jensen Trick

Baby Jensen Trick

Baby Ellie Trick

Big Boy Trick

Mia Trick

Baby Mia Trick

* mommies trick= sorting through six years of pictures looking for photo's of past tricks.

Mutton Bustin' and other adventrues of JEM

This is my little mutton buster! I have been wanting Jense and Ellie to ride them some sheep- so I prepped them early. When I talked about the fair I hyped up the part where they get to ride on a sheep and see how long they could hold on. I even showed them clips on you tube so they would know what to expect. I can still feel the eyes burning into me when I fell off my first sheep. I'm unsure if I ever rode a sheep again... I can't remember, but that first ride was an unforgettable one.

"OK kids, when you fall off don't put your arms out to catch your body, just fall" This was advice I probably should have kept to myself. Ellie turned into poutville and decided she didn't want to do it. It would have been nice to know BEFORE I paid for her to ride.
Jense tried to turn that frown upside down. It worked. When Jense got on the sheep it got down on it's knees which totally scared him. He had to take a few minutes, then he got right back on- ok ok I had to bribe him, but it worked. After he fell off and got his high fives he was on cloud nine. He is all fired up for next year. Ellie too. After she saw Jensen's prize I think she is prepared to ride many a mutton.
A boy on a shiny motorcycle

A sweet smile

Best of Friends

Two kids of summer

The highlight of our day was meeting up with Mia's first heart friend Sophia and her family. They flew in just for the fair!! Not really. Remember Fia?

I loved visiting with them, and seeing Fia run around. I watched in disbelief that she was born one hour after Mia. She is darling- these girls have had quite the journey.

Family Photo Shoot Halloween Style

After seeing Mia's fang teeth Ellie insisted we make the whole family spooky. She got a big kick out of giving everyone vampire teeth. I kept my favorites- Wuaah HA HA (deep Halloween voice)




Don't let this innocent little face deceive you!



Daddy Monster!! This one is my personal favorite! It was quite gratifying to distort his face and the kids were full of belly laughs and squeals.



Jense's isn't that exciting. I should have given him a face bulge huh? The most difficult part of the Halloween fun was finding pictures that would work.


Ellie's expression was perfect! I guess her extreme smiling came in handy for once- only once mind you. I can't get her to tone it down. We did this a few days ago and she laughs as hysterically today as she did when we made them. I aim to please!

Happy Halloween!!

We have CRAWLING!!!!

The magnificent event occurred approximately three hours ago. We were cleaning up and I came across a bag of dum dum's that my aunt Lani had given the kids and thought Mia would sure enjoy one of those puppies. I sat on the floor with her, gave her a few tastes, then put the sucker on the floor (on the wrapper of course) a few feet away. She looked at me, grunted/fussed and reached for the sucker, but didn't move that bootie. Repeat the above a few times and I realized she just isn't that motivated by sweets because she is not even army crawling for it. I set it across the room and went to go outside. Just when I turned my head to see if she would go for it, she was jammin- well slowly jammin, but jammin nonetheless. I ran out to John and told him to come quick- and to get the video camera. With tape rollin, I put the sucker way out of reach once again. She looked and me reached for me and started to cry... not the performance I was hoping to show daddy. Then I realized that it is me. I am the reason she wasn't crawling. So I left the room and hide behind the couch. Immediately she started to crawl hand, knee, hand knee, hand knee... I was overjoyed!! Mia's auntie even stopped by to get some forks (don't ask) and got to witness the milestone months in the making. While John was filming her new talent he commented, "Mia, you did it sis... not a lot of fifteen month old's can do that!!" Mr. funny pants. He's got jokes.

Well there you have it- she crawled- she crawled!!! Woo hoo!!! Who knew it was such a quick road from clapping to crawling. She also has a few more words and hand gestures. Her waving is priceless. Mia is a huge fan of identifying parts of the face, and has a mean eye gouge. I am just soaking up her babyhood...not the eye gouging part.

Still no teeth, but I just switched her drug from cyclo to tacro and we'll see if she can cut a few. If you are lost, I'll explain. The drug she has been on has two main side effects: gum thickening, and hairy larryness. Some kids really have a difficult time cutting teeth through the rock solid gums. I feel like her solid food intake would increase when she can chew on something, and I just want her to get a few teeth- they have been at that bubbly stage for months now (you can kind of see it in the above picture). I was/am nervous to switch because we have had such a good experience on cyclo, I would hate to mess anything up. The Jury is still out as to which drugs are "better" but her docs think cyclo is better for infants.

In other Mia news- she is stepping it up a notch in the violence department. For some reason she is extremely slap happy. She has a little V-tech drum that she beats, but it crosses over to faces. Not so much faces in general, just my face. John gets a kick out of her rapid slaps to my face. I think all of the positive reinforcement encourages her to "slap a mom." She slaps rapid fire, then turns to look at her dad and smiles. It was cute, but now I am starting to have to tell her "no," or put my hand in front of my face and surrender saying, "fives, fives, fives Mia, fives." It doesn't help that Ellie LOVES it, and obliges Mia's love of the slap.

At our last appointment, she weighed in at 19.9 lbs--- SAWEET!!! I decided that qualifies as 20 lbs and I turned that car seat around. I love looking back and seeing her sweet face and watching her discover a whole new world of car rides.


And just for fun... I gave Miss Mia some teeth!

My Boy

Jensen is so grown up now. His birthday might, just might have been over a month ago. Six years old is soooo old!

I know I am not alone in wishing I could just freeze my kids for awhile, and take in their little selves just the way they are. When I look back even six months I can see a difference- and I long for that little goofy smile... complete with ketchup in this instance.

Jense is my planner boy. He is ultra organized and prepared for any task. He had his monster truck party planned out for months. He requested a Chuck E Cheese party, complete with a monster truck cake, and six candles. I wasn't too keen on the location 1)germ-ville 2) I really enjoy planning the games, but he had his heart set. The party was fun, and he was delighted with his guests and gifts. We got him a Bumblebee transformer costume for his birthday. Is it bad that his present was his Halloween costume? Nah!

The other day I asked him who his friends were at school. He sweetly responded, "my girl friends or my boy friends?" I am clinging to his innocence and do not look forward to the day when the term "girl friend" means something else. He proudly listed off some names, and then reported how one boy told him not to be the friend of another boy. We had a good talk about that!



Jense melts my heart almost every day with his sincerity. He is the boy that is encouraging and complimentary to his moma and I often wonder where in the world he came from. He constantly tries to outdo himself with the "I love you as big as a _____" game. His answers are pretty creative, but when he is trying to trump anything John or I say it always defaults back to skyscraper. I think he just likes the word. When I say "All the sand in the sea," or something I deem as some crazy amount he gets wide eyed and says, "woah, that's a lot." Can't get enough of this kid.

He is still my little man, but he has grown up a lot this year and is aware of the not so fun things in life. He loves his baby and she loves him. Jense can get Mia to laugh at just about anything- he is very proud of this. He keeps asking for a baby brother and talks about teaching him how to do stuff. We often tell Ellie how she gets to teach Mia to play dress up, and do her hair etc. Jense is ready for a little buddy. He does have one request though. Every time he mentions a baby brother, he always follows it up with..."but without a heart transplant." Poor kiddo.

Happy birthday to the sweet, responsible, table setting, bathroom cleaning (he thoroughly enjoys it) note writing, rocket drawing, picture taking, car washing, breakfast cooking, battery charging, Narnia loving, tongue rolling, book loving, mole trapping, cookie making, back scratch requesting, dessert insisting, tool utilizing, bike maintaining, water bottle carrying, fast running, transformer wizard there ever was!

Here is a look back to his first five birthdays:

The big 1

2 years old! This picture cracks me up.. Jense looks afraid, John looks like a new kid on the block, Ellie ate the michelin man, and my eye brows were on vacation.

4 years- I can't find a picture of his 3rd party. It was a superman party, and I can't for the life of me figure out where those pictures went.

Five years

Jensen, you made me a momma- my very most favorite thing in the whole wide world!

Utah take Dos

Meet the Family. This is my side- all girls. I am the blonde in the sea of beautiful brunettes. One of these girls is doin her own thing- go ahead, sing along! I got the crazy genes... blonde hair and bum heart.

Our fam...gotta love Jensen's white socks- I do!

The reason for the photo shoot was this little darlin's blessing. Sydney Sellers was blessed the weekend we were in Utah and I'm so glad I didn't miss it. She was named after her papa. It's interesting how you can love your sister's kids almost as much as your own. She slept the entire time I was around her, but she is just precious!

The "spitfire" club

Uncle Nathan throwing his son...yes this 2 year old did a back flip mid air.

Another crazy trick- the wagon wheel, or so I'm naming it. This one is my personal favorite. The kids lined up for uncle Nathan tricks and he did not disappoint. Ellie actually showed nervousness on her face- it was a spectacle for all to behold. I think she is turning a corner in her thrill seeking ways.

Well maybe not quite... at least not at the expense of her sister anyway.

Jense joining in the fun. It was trick day that day.
Mia's favorite trick is "circus trick"-- pictures to come.

The whole clan minus two husbands, a son, and four doggies.