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.

Would you like a spot of tea?

For a few years now my sister and I wanted to have to have a tea party at our favorite tea shop Elizabeth's. Last week plans finally fell into place and we had our first tea party. The kids were so excited. They decorated hats and then put on spring dresses and then had a fun time pouring over what English pastry they would try and what yummy lunch they would sample. They also thought it was great we let them pick what pots of tea we would have. I was impressed that the kids basically drank three pots of tea and everyone sampled every kind. It was an ultimate success!


Three of the girls sitting waiting to order.

James and his top hat. He decided that his hat needed glitter after he put globs on the hat that would have never dried Aunt Hilary fixed the hat and made it into the masterpiece that he has. The best was when he decided that he couldn't wear a viking hat to the tea party because it was "too fancy".

Laine and her super cute hat.
Eve decided that jewels were the best way to decorate her hat!

All the kids found sipping their tea from spoons was the easiest way to "drink" their tea.

Our whole tea party. We were lucky to have my Aunt Cory and my cousin Carlie join us for this fun time!
James enjoying his cookie!

After the tea party we went to the church history museum. They had some great things for the kids to participate in. Eve loved the quilting exhibit.
James and Birdie liked playing with the shapes.
James then found computer games and was sucked in.

The girls found dancing and dress ups and thought that was some of the best stuff ever.

How we spent the first week of summer vacation

So summer vacation has finally arrived. The weather feels a like it should still be spring but that isn't too bad to this very pregnant mom. We had a great first week of summer vacation though here are a few of the things we did...

On Monday we went to the hospital to see our new nephew/cousin Felix! He is a darling baby and big. Laine was enchanted with him and didn't want to let anyone else hold him...though we did convince her eventually.
She is wearing her rhino horn on her nose, it seems to be the trend with the kids lately.
Aunt Natalie seemed to like Felix quite a bit too.
James didn't want to hold the baby but with dad's help it turned out that he was okay with everything.

There were a couple of baby showers thrown by some old colleagues and some great college friends. I wish I had thought to get pictures of the showers but I had a good time visiting with everyone. I took the girls to one of them and they learned how to quilt then when that was over they were a bit bored until they learned where the toys were then they were quite entertained the rest of the evening.

We also restarted Bellamy cousin outings. Our first big adventure- The Zoo!

James was really was excited as they had dinosaurs around the entire grounds. Some of them even spat water which made it even better!

Laine waiting to get sprayed by the dinosaur and James trying to decide if he wanted to get sprayed.
Spending some time by the elephants and beating African drums.
We tried to get a good picture of everyone on the t-rex that was a bit easier said then done. In fact, Boston wouldn't get near it.

Ezzie decided that he will be looking at a future career in dentistry.
Lu decided that she didnt want to be anywhere near the t-rex
We finally did get Boston to stop and pose for a picture though...right after we we saw a tiger.


We saw many animals

And then waited to ride the carousel which wasn't nearly as long as the train ride wait. That one was about an hour.
And everyone was rather excited to show how they measured up to the big monkeys.


We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to yet another wonderful week of summer break.

I can't wait until I'm eight!

Yesterday was a very special day in our house. Laine was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She was so cute dressed in her white and ready to go. We are just so very proud of her and the decision that she made. She was a little nervous but we talked as a family about the promises that she would be making and what they meant. She also has had wonderful primary teachers that have taught her.

Today at church she sprinted up to the stand when the bishop asked her to and was introduced as the newest memeber of our ward. She was all grins and smiles and it was nice to see. Later the mother of the other girl baptized yesterday told me that her daughter was nervous as well but knew it would all be okay if Laine was with her.

I was also very grateful that her Halmoni brought her camera and was able to share pictures. The first camera I brought ran out of battery and the second decided to no longer work after I took one picture. So thanks to Halmoni we have pictures of this very special day.

Christian, Laine, and Eve wait for the program to start

Laine and Christian all ready and dressed in their whites.

That is one happy girl



After the baptism and waiting for her confirmation. Thanks to grammy for taking care of her hair and helping us get her ready after.

Also thanks to the family and friends that came over to help Laine party after her baptism. We love you all and thank you for the influence you have had in her life.