What we've been up to the last two or so weeks.

We have been busy adjusting to our new life around here lately. Matthew has been a great joy and addition to our family but he also keeps us on our toes. Even with a new adjusted schedule we have been able to do a few things.

One thing we were able to do was two fold, since June half of our front lawn started to die. We couldn't figure it out. We tried watering longer, buying a sprinkler, and fertilizer. I was ready to spray paint it but labor and baby put a halt on that project. Then one day, during an early morning feeding, I figured it out. We had one station of sprinklers that were not working. Thanks to a bit of poking around by my brother-in-law we are now bringing the lawn back to its former glory. The kids are enjoying the extra sprinkler time!


Of course a huge part of my life has been taken up by Matty. He is a cute kid but requires a lot of work and time. He did get his first bath though. At first he wasn't a fan at all and commenced his screaming act.

He decided after a minute that this was one of the best things that he ever experienced. He also has decided that he likes showers.
We did say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa this week, they left on their mission to Germany on Tuesday. On Monday we went over to say goodbye and snap a few pictures.

Matthew continues to grow. He gave us a bit of a scare his first week home losing a pound in a few days from his release from the hospital. He has regained that pound and we are hoping to get him back to his birth weight soon. Other than that he is a growing, healthy boy with a growing healthy appetite. We have been lucky that he sleeps a good chunk of the night. I can usually get a good four to five hours before he wakes up so I almost function as a human being.

After being cooped up in the house for two and a half weeks, only leaving to see one doctor or another we took Matthew on his first outing to the Farmers' Market. He slept the whole time so I am sure he enjoyed it.

Introducing Matthew Brian

After 2 weeks plus of contractions 2 minutes apart, two trips to the hospital, countless walks around the mall, late nights, numerous shaved ice, 12 hours of induced labor at the hospital and two hours of pushing Matthew Brian joined our family on July 6th at 10:07 pm.
He was a big boy, born a day after his due date, weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces. He is a mellow child who loves to be held or swaddled.

His name was a surprise to most of us, Matthew had been my earlier choice but it had been vetoed by Christian. He did, thankfully, put the name back into the mix after the delivery so we were able to name him after his dad and after my dad.

The other three kids fell in love with him the next morning when they came to visit.



They are excited to have a little brother around and still all take turns wanting to hold him.
Grammy also thought that he was too cute to let go when she came to visit.

Because Matty didn't make it up to the nursery until after midnight on July 7th we postponed his bath until the next day. Because of this I was also able to attend the first bath. He was a little angry about being stripped down to nothing and exhibited his Hulk like abilities by turning completely lobster red.

After he was warm again he became our mild manner mellow boy.
I was against having any pictures taken of me while at the hosptial. I didn't want a picture of a haggard me smiling for the camera. But I did give in and let Christian snap a few pictures of the two of us.
We had a lot of visitors while we were at the hospital. And Birdie gifted him with a new nickname Baby Matts or Maths.

We love having him in our family and look forward to getting to know him over many, many years to come.

Fourth of July Fun

The Fourth of July is my all time favorite holiday. Not quite sure why, I think I may just enjoy the BBQing, the fun food, the community spirit, the fireworks, or just being with family. This fourth I was very pregnant, contracting every two minutes, and hoping at any moment that things would progress.

In order to take my mind off things Christian and I took the kids to go and see Cars 2, they loved it and Christian and I thought it was a lot of fun too. After we went to visit the new pizza and ice cream parlor in Holliday. The best thing about this place was they had the Dole Pineapple Whip ice cream, the same that you can get at the Tiki Room in Disneyland.
I love the ages the kids are right now, they don't mind when I dress them in the exact same shirt. In fact, they thought it was fun. Christian and I also had matching red shirts, yes sometimes we are the geeky family.

After enforced nap time for everyone, including mom and dad, we headed over to my brother and sister-in-law's for dinner. I brought my traditional flag cake, this year I felt a tad more authentic using 13 stripes on the flag. The cake was a hit!
I was amazed we got all the kids sitting for this picture and even better they were smiling.

After dinner of course everyone had a fun time playing with the pop snaps while the adults got some of the fireworks ready.
The kids loved the smoke bombs, they thought it was one of the best things ever.

James enjoying the last bit of his cake.

The adults hanging out waiting for it to get a bit darker. The best thing about Adam and Amy's is the live a few blocks up from Sugar House Park and you are able to see the firework show from their front yard.We got the sparklers out for the kids and they were a hit. The only problem was they didn't like to catch fire so well. It took three adults forever to get them all working correctly.
Eve shows off her super sparkler skills.
The kids anticipating the next firework in the street. They had a little to much fun with all the fire power we had.

After wrestling Uncle Bart for twenty minutes they found he made a great bench to sit on and watch the fireworks.