Eden's Turn

I'm a little behind, but I can't forget to do a post about my Eden girl.  She turned 6 years old on September 16 and I can't believe the time has gone so fast.  Eden is such a sweet girl and we're so lucky to have her in our family.  She started first grade at the end of August.  It was a rough week for us (school started on Monday, we moved into our new house Tuesday, and things were just kind of chaotic that week).  She was nervous to start "full day" school in a new school where she didn't know anyone but she did such a good job.  She loves her teacher, has made new friends and has even been brave and tried school lunch (some days are better than others).  Her favorite things to do in school are music and art, and although she complains about having to run laps in P.E., she loved learning to play soccer and said she likes to be the goalie.  She's getting really good at math and her handwriting is improving a lot too.  Her teacher told us she is the best reader in the class, which isn't a surprise to us, but it's nice to hear anyway.

We went to Utah the weekend of Eden's birthday and she got to celebrate her special day with our family.  I think she really enjoyed having so many people there for her birthday.  She has talked about it a lot since then.  It was nice because she has never had any of our extended family visiting us on her birthday before.  She had a lot of fun playing with cousins and she even got to miss a couple days of school for an extra long weekend.

Eden loves to do art projects and she is always asking me to let her help with sewing projects too.  During this last general conference I showed her how to do some basic embroidery and she sat by me on the couch and worked on her sewing.  She was very proud of what she did (I was too) and she had a lot of fun. 

Eden is such a good big sister.  Andy and I love watching her and Rachel play together.  They like to giggle together and play house.  I can tell they are going to be good friends as they grow older and Eden is a good example to her little sister.  She is also really good at helping me take care of Liam.  She loves to hold him and she can get him to giggle more often than anyone else can.  He lights up when Eden walks into the room.  It's really cute.  

She is still growing like a weed.  She's going to be taller than me before I know it.  When we took her to her doctor last week he told us she is the height of an average 8 1/2 year old!  We're so glad to have Eden in our family.  She is so much fun to be with.  We love taking her on mommy and daddy "dates" each month.  Any has taken her to the aquarium and mini golfing and to the pumpkin patch and I have taken her to see "Brave" and to get pedicures and frozen yogurt.  We have a really fun time and it's nice to get a chance to have some one on one time with her.  I'm so proud of her for the things she does and I'm so glad to be her mom!

Rachel Elizabeth Willemina Jimmy John Franklin Delano Craven

Rachel is my crazy, wild, curious, daring child.  I've never seen a kid who moves as much as she does.  Shortly after she learned to walk, she learned to run and I don't think she has stopped since.  She climbs and jumps and runs and dances everywhere and even though it is exhausting, she is so much fun to be around.  I have a hard time photographing her because she doesn't stand still long enough to get a good shot.  I've learned to set my camera to a faster shutter speed if I want to get a good shot of her.  For every good picture I have of her, I have about 20 that didn't turn out.

How to make Rachel hold still for a picture: 

 She loves animals (even large dogs that she has to look up to see) and she checks on our "kee-kee" (kitty-kitty) to make sure it has food and water many times a day. She loves to wear shoes (hers or other peoples) and Eden recently introduced her to dress-ups, so now she spends a lot of time each day dressed like a Disney princess or a ballerina or Dorothy, complete with whatever shoes she can get her feet into.

Rachel has changed so much in the past few months.  At first I thought she just seemed older since we have a new baby in the house to compare her to, but she really has grown up a lot lately.  The past few weeks she has really started to talk more (something that didn't interest her much before).  She has been jabbering for a long time but we couldn't understand most of it.  Now we are beginning to understand more of it and she is stringing words together into sentences.  She's very polite and she always says please and thank you when she asks for something.  She's got such a sweet little voice and big blue eyes, it's hard to resist her. We love our Rachel girl!

Oh, and the post title?  Rachel's full name.  You know how you get the full name when you are in trouble?  Rachel didn't have enough middle names.  We had to come up with a few more.  Don't let that innocent face fool you. 
And everyone in our family has a "full name".  But that's a post for another time...

3 months

As promised, I am trying to keep up with this blog. So tonight I'm posting some new pictures of Liam because he looks nothing like he did in the pictures I posted the other day. He was long and skinny right after he was born but he has definitely changed since then. Apparently eating every 2 hours is great for gaining weight. At his one week appointment he was in the 20th percentile for weight but at his 2 month appointment he had jumped to the 90th percentile. He's a really happy little guy. He sleeps 7 or 8 hours straight at night and naps good as well. He loves his big sisters and I can tell they love him too. He's been smiling a lot and is starting to coo and giggle when we talk to him.

Skinny little guy a couple weeks old

On June 10, Andy blessed Liam in the same outfit he wore when he was blessed.  I'm not sure Liam liked the hat...

Liam at 3 months.  He's chunked up a lot- even more since this picture was taken.  Just for fun, here are pictures of his sisters at 3 months as well.  Who does he look like?

 Rachel

Eden

 

Let me 'splain. No, there is too much- Let me sum up

I've been feeling  (semi) guilty about not blogging for a few months.  I've been pretty busy with vacations and family visiting and keeping up with 3 kids that I haven't had a lot of time to blog.  Of course, when I'm busy like this it means I have a lot to blog about.  It's kind of a catch-22.  So I'm going to attempt to get (a little more) caught up on my blog.  I'm not promising anything spectacular, but I'm giving it a go. Hurray!

New Baby Liam

I just found this post I typed up a couple months ago but never posted because I hadn't gotten the pictures off my camera and I didn't want to do it right then.  So I just typed the post and then forgot about it.  I figure, better late than never, right?

It's been a busy month around here!  We've had a lot of fun visiting with our family and getting to know the new little one in our house.  I was scheduled for an induction on Friday the 13th (doesn't that sound like a great day to be in labor?) but a part of me was hoping I would have the baby before then.  The last month of my pregnancy was really miserable.  I was totally out of energy and in a lot of pain so I had a hard time doing anything.  I couldn't sleep well and even walking was getting difficult.  I wanted to wait until my mom came into town on the 12th so she could watch the girls while we were in the hospital but I wasn't sure I would make it that far.  My sister's family came to visit us on Easter weekend and we had a good time with them.  We played some fun games and they entertained Eden and Rachel and helped me out a lot.  My niece decided to spend the week after Easter with us just in case I had the baby before my mom got into town on the 12th, and I'm so glad she did! 

Eden dyeing eggs for Easter

I woke up at about 4:00 in the morning on the 10th because I was having some contractions that were pretty strong so I timed them for about half an hour and they were about 5 minutes apart.  I woke Andy up and told him I was in labor and we pulled some stuff together and headed to the hospital and got checked in about 5am.  Once I got settled into my room we found out my doctor had a surgery scheduled for 7:30 that morning.  I really wanted him to deliver the baby instead of the on call doctor because I hadn't had my doctor deliver either of my past babies.  I have pretty quick labors, so we were hoping I would deliver before 7:30.  They broke my water about 6:45 and I was dilated to a 7.  My doctor didn't want to give me any drugs at that point because they thought I would deliver quickly and they didn't want to give me anything the baby would have a problem with, so I went the all natural route with this baby.  I called the doctor back in the room about 7:00 and started pushing.  The baby was born at 7:15am and everything went really smoothly.  I love waiting until the birth to find out the gender and it was so exciting to hear them say, "It's a boy!".  I was pretty sure this one was going to be a boy and I'm so happy to have a son.  He weighed 7 lb. 10 oz. and was 21 inches long.  He has fuzzy blond hair and long fingers and toes and cute dimples.  We decided to name him William Andrew and call him Liam.  He had a hard time regulating his temperature for the first little while so he spent some time under the heat lamps, but since then he's been fine.
I was so glad Emily was staying with us and we could leave the girls with her while we went to the hospital. She was a huge help to us over the next few days.  Andy went home to pick the girls up later in the morning and bring them to meet their new brother.  Eden was so excited to have a brother because she had really wanted one and she loves to hold him and cuddle him.  Rachel also loves her new little brother.  I was concerned that she would have some jealousy because she is really a mommy's girl but she's been great.   She loves the baby and wants to give him kisses over and over again.  She's also been less clingy with me and is spending more time playing with Andy which I think he really enjoys. 
Liam is a really good baby so far.  He's had a couple rough nights but he usually does well sleeping at night and he's really laid back and relaxed.  He can sleep through just about anything (with two noisy, wild sisters he hasn't ever known anything different).  My mom flew in on the 12th and was so helpful with the girls.  My dad came down to visit as well and the day after they left, Andy's parents came to visit.  It's been really fun to see everyone.  Once all the company left and Andy went back to work we've had some adjusting to do (especially since I got sick at the same time) but we're slowly figuring out what to do now that our kids outnumber us!

Meeting her brother: Love at first sight

Four days old- I love those dimples!

First bath at home

Where to start?

We're back in blogland (only 3 months since my last post).  I don't know if I have a good excuse.  We've just had other stuff going on.  Two busy little kids, another one on the way, etc.  But now I'm back and ready to start posting again.  I was going to go back and catch up on everything that's been happening since last October when we went to Disneyland, but that may take a while.  We went to Disneyland, we went to Utah for Andy's grandpa's funeral and Thanksgiving, we went to Utah again for the week before Christmas, and I went to Utah again for a few days last month for a baby shower (I love living closer to family now.  It's so much easier to make a quick (or not so quick) trips to Utah).  So in case I never get around to going into details of the past few months, here are a few pictures:

Christmas Eve with the girls in their new jammies:


The only picture I managed to get of Rachel in her Christmas dress.

Rachel loves the Curious George book she got for Christmas

And Eden loves her Lion King movie.  She'd been begging for that for months.

Rachel loved to stand on ALL the boxes.   They were as much fun as the presents.

Eden got a new doll and I made some princess dresses to go with it.

Rachel has changed so much since our last post.  About a week after she learned how to walk, she learned how to run, and I don't think she has stopped since.  Her favorite thing to say is "GO, GO, GO".  I have a hard time getting a good picture of this girl because she is moving all the time.  She's so different from Eden when Eden was this age (only partly because Eden wasn't even walking yet).  Talking is something she is only mildly interested in, but she loves to climb and explore and I sometimes feel like I spend all day just chasing her around the house.  She totally wears me out, but I can't complain because she is so darling.  I just can't resist this face!

Climbing...

And climbing some more....

This is a typical Saturday morning in our house:  The girls on their pillows with their cereal, watching the Sprout channel while mommy catches a couple more minutes of sleep on the couch.  This is the only time of day when Rachel is awake and holding still (and it never lasts very long).

Rachel loves to walk

More catching up to do!  Rachel had her first birthday on October 15, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  My parents came to visit for her birthday and it was really nice to have them here.  Rachel had a lot of fun opening presents (she's a pro- we're not going to be able to put any under our Christmas tree).  She got some fun toys that still entertain her a month later.  She also got a cute dress from Grandma Sha-sha and Grandpa Bruce.  I made her a cake based on the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and I thought it was delicious.  Rachel seemed to as well.  She ate all of her piece and then part of Eden's as well.  We wanted to take my parents somewhere fun while they were here so that evening we went to the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur.  It was a lot of fun and I was surprised how much Rachel liked it.  She clapped her hands and squealed and really had a good time.  Apparently she has a thing for jousting, or maybe she just liked having a meal where she wasn't the only one eating with her fingers.  Who knows.  I know she won't remember her first birthday, but she sure had a lot of fun. 

I couldn't get a very good picture of the cake.  That's what I get for putting foil under it... All that matters is that it was good.

 De-licious!

 What I wouldn't give for those eyelashes!

I can't believe how fast this girl is growing up!  She loves to read books and tease her sister.  She's definitely not the talker that Eden was at this age, but she has a few words she says, when she feels like it.  She likes to say BOO to people when they walk in the room and she likes to say Meow when I ask her what a cat says.  She can also say duck, dog, cat and quack (although they all sound about the same).  She's a very happy baby and we love having her in our family!

The day after her birthday she started taking some tentative steps around the house and would stand herself up in the middle of the room instead of pulling herself up to something.  We thought she would start walking right away, but she didn't get the hang of it for a couple more weeks and would only take a couple steps at a time.  On Halloween night she finally started walking a little more and once she figured out how to keep her balance, she was unstoppable.  Now she walks everywhere (or runs, if she can) and it is a lot of fun to watch her toddle around.  She always has a big grin on her face and I can tell she is so proud of herself.  This video was taken about a week ago.  I think she's gotten faster since then!