Birthday Boy!

This last weekend we had a fun time celebrating Eli's 4th birthday!  I can't believe it's been 4 years since he was born.  He is such a wonderful firstborn child.  He is smart and responsible and funny and snuggly and we love him!

(showing off his new Lightning McQueen sunglasses)

We decided to get him a new twin bed for his birthday. I was thinking of waiting until we moved, but I thought with all the changes of moving, it might be better to do this now.  Moving him out of his toddler bed also meant moving Connor out of his crib and into the toddler bed, so it was exciting!  We found the bed frame on Craigslist for $15 (looks brand new) and we then we bought a new mattress.  He was very excited when he woke up and came out to see it that morning.  Jeremy waited to put the frame together because he knew Eli would love to help and of course he was right.  They had a great time taking down the crib and setting up the new bed.  And Connor seems to be very pleased with his new big boy bed.

 Playing a game on his new mattress.

 Helping Jeremy carry the slats into his room. :)

 I think they like them!

That night we had our friends the Arnetts over for dinner.  We're trying to get lots of time in with them before we all leave!  They take off in just 3 weeks, and we won't be too far behind them.  We grilled hot dogs and veggie skewers and had watermelon and it was delicious!  Then, at Eli's request, we had chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and chocolate ice cream.  It was a little intense. :) He didn't even end up eating the ice cream, but it was fun anyway.

 Cute babies!!!

He's having fun being a "big 4 yr-old".  There were a few things he kept saying he would do "when he was four", and he's already made a few changes.  No more sippy-cup of milk while we read scriptures before bed (that's the only time he's used a sippy cup in the last year, but he was really holding onto that one.  Glad it's done!)  AND, he said he would try eggs again when he was four.  He's never liked them, but he finally gave them another try this morning and what do you know?  He liked them!  (dipped in ketchup of course)  I was very happy.  I've been waiting 3 yrs for that one. :)

So that's our fun!  Jeremy's last day of class is Thursday, then he has a final on Monday, and then he's done with school forever!  I can't believe how the last 2 years have flown by.  We're excited for Jeremy's parents to come out for graduation and Anna's baby blessing.  His mom's first time here was in March and we pretty much stayed inside the whole time with the new baby (and awful weather), and his dad's never been here, so we should have a great time!  The weather is amazing this week too, so hopefully it will stick for when they come.  Yea for Spring!

And not to be forgotten, here are a few pics of Anna in her pretty church dress on Sunday.  My sister Wendy gave her that dress and it's so beautiful!  I didn't think she'd be able to wear it until summer since it's size 6 months, but she's pretty big!  And Jeremy's grandma made the flower for her hair.  She sure is loved!

Three Kids

People have been asking how life is with three kids.  A friend of mine described it well when she said as parents you have to move to zone defense instead of man-on-man.  Even with Jeremy around a lot, we're always busy in our "zones" either helping the kids with something or doing some household duty (laundry, making meals, cleaning up messes, etc.).  It's constant.

Here's what I would have said about three kids last week:  This is so hard!!!  Even with two of us, we are exhausted and it's non-stop around the clock.  We finally get the boys in bed and Anna is fussy and crying from 7-10 pm and then we fall into bed right after she does and get up in the morning tired after a night full of interruptions from 1 or sometimes all 3 children.

BUT...this week has been SO much better.  I still have 3 kids ages 3 and under (for a few more days) so of course it's exhausting and busy, but it's been so much more manageable - mostly because of Anna.  I've made some changes to my diet and Anna has made a complete 180 degree turn around.  I'm still blown away.  She used to fuss almost constantly when she was awake and she'd have to be rocked just the right way forever before she'd go to sleep, with long periods of crying every evening.  We'd finally get her to sleep and the only way she'd stay asleep was in her bouncer on her side wedged between rolled up blankets to keep her in place.  If she was on her back she'd spit up and cry.  Even on her side she'd still often wake up after a few minutes and we'd have to repeat the process over again.  It was so tiring!

NOW... I feed her, she's happy and awake for a little while, and then she starts to fuss a little bit to let me know she's tired, and I wrap her up, stick her flat on her back in her bed, and she goes to sleep on her own.  It's ridiculous.  I have to do a little more than that sometimes, but it's just so amazing!  I know it probably won't last forever - babies seem to change constantly - but we're really enjoying it for now!  Jeremy and I just keep looking at each other in amazement - is this really our baby???

So yeah, three kids is a whole new ball game.  I feel so grateful for Jeremy's help.  I'm trying to wean myself off of my dependence on him since I know once he starts working he'll be gone all the time, but for now it's really nice!

Oh, and I read this hilarious article today about new moms and all the contradicting advice out there about getting your baby to sleep.  Click here if you want a good laugh.

And of course I can't post without pictures!  Enjoy.

  I thought Anna would be the one to eventually get into my makeup...

They don't like the vacuum (and our camera randomly puts lines in the middle of pictures, whatev)

 Love those rolls!

 Attempts at a sibling photo...

 (cropped the random line out of the middle of this one...)

 Oh, and here's our multipurpose room that became even more multi-purposed.  It's always housed our computer desk, piano, and a bookshelf, but now we moved Anna's bed and the rocking chair in there too. :)

And the winner is....

PORTLAND, OREGON!!!

Yippee!!!  We're moving to Oregon!  We are so super excited.  This was Jeremy's #1 choice of a job - and my #1 choice of location :) - so it is a win!

We have lots to do and I have lots more to say about everything, but I need a nap...so more to come later!

And for all you geographically challenged, here's a little map...

Hello!

So Anna has been smiling a lot the last week or two and I've been trying to capture it on camera, but our camera is quite slow and it's been difficult.  But I finally got a couple that are good enough.  I also got an adorable video but it won't load!  So frustrating.  Sigh.

This was after church when she was getting changed.  She always smiles when she gets a diaper change - weird!

Not the best angle, but she was facing the wall, so I did my best.

Hehe, I loved the scrunchy eyes and the fat neck!!

Anyway, so our little chunk (and I mean that as a good thing) is already 6 weeks old!  She is smiling a lot and even throws in the occasional coo and we love it!  It makes up for the hours of screaming we've heard this week.  Yeah, not sure what's going on there.  We had 2 nights this last week where she cried for 3-4 hours straight in the evening.  I have been completely off dairy since last Monday, so I know that's not the culprit, so this week I'm going to cut out a couple other things to see if that helps and also keep track of everything I eat to see if we can find a pattern.  Who knows, maybe it's just growing pains.  She is certainly growing!

She was a complete angel today though.  I think she's on an every-other-day thing, because last night was a bad one and today she slept ALL the way through Sacrament Meeting (she never stays asleep in her carseat, it was amazing), ate and was awake a bit through Sunday School, and then slept all way through Relief Society plus another hour when we got home.  It was AWESOME!  It was so nice to really enjoy church.  It had been awhile and I needed it.

In her pretty church dress today:

 In other news, this week we finally find out our fate of where we're moving!  We turned in our top 3 choices (two of which are on the west coast! crazy!), so now it is out of our hands and all we can do is pray. :)  I'll be sure to keep everyone posted when we find out!  Jeremy starts his job in just over 2 months, so we will be very busy trying to find a place to live and get ready to move once we find out where we're going.  I'm mostly very excited, but I will be sad to leave our good friends.  We had two families over on Friday and as 6 of our combined 8 kids (ages 3 and under) were playing and giggling together I got sad thinking how much I would miss them!  We've had such a great time here and I'm so grateful to the good friends who have been our support through this whole thing and made our lives so wonderful!

(this pic was from a couple weeks ago at Jeremy's school.  Not all are pictured, but there's Eli - 3, Joey - 3, Tessa - 3, Moses - 2, Connor - 2, Dayton - 1, and babies Naomi & Anna.  It's always a party when we get together!)

And here are some other random pictures from the past couple weeks.

Such kissable cheeks!

Fort.

Silly Connor. :)

A Month!

I can't believe Anna's already over a month old.  That month was a blur!  I feel like we're starting to find our new rhythm...somewhat.  Newborns are a lot of work!  And somehow you never really remember how much until you have one again.  But we sure love our adorable girl.  I took her to her one-month check-up today and she is already 11 lbs. 11 oz.!  I couldn't believe it.  She's gained almost 3.5 lbs in the last 4 weeks.  Impressive, especially considering the buckets she spits up every feeding.  So that puts her in the 93rd percentile for weight and she was 23 inches, which is 100th percentile for height!  I'm so proud!  Someone finally got my long genes. :)  Actually, the boys were always big as babies too and then kind of averaged out around one year, so we'll see what happens.

(A lady in my mom's ward sent these onesies that have a number for each month.  The one-month one was a size newborn and barely squeezed on her!)

(Making bread and holding the sleeping babe)

Anyway, so that's what's going on here.  I obviously spend a lot of time nursing and the boys are doing remarkably well considering that fact.  It is sooo nice that Jeremy doesn't have a lot of classes and is around quite a bit still.  I'm still amazed at the perfect timing of this baby and I'm very grateful.

(Jeremy tastefully captured this pic of me nursing Anna and reading to the boys.  Pretty common sight around here.  Don't mind the pile of diapers on the couch!)

We had a very uneventful Easter this year.  It was my first Sunday back to church (and Anna's) and I directed two choir numbers and Jeremy spoke in Sacrament Meeting, so we were pretty spent just surviving the day.  We didn't have anyone over and I was just fine with that.  I actually fell asleep on the couch that night at 7:30pm.  The boys were in bed but they hadn't even fallen asleep yet.  Pretty pathetic, but I felt great the next day! :)  (Of course, I was up nursing plenty of times in the night, but getting a head start really helped).  We had a fun Easter activity at the church last Saturday, so that was the extent of our Easter festivities.  It was nice just focusing on the spiritual aspect and not any of the fluffy stuff.

Our attempt at an Easter photo

In other exciting news, we should finally find out where we're moving in the next couple weeks!  Hooray!  Jeremy got his list of positions and locations a week and a half ago and will submit his top three choices on Friday, after which he'll be assigned one of them by April 15th (we're crossing our fingers it's actually by then) and then he starts work on June 17th!  Exciting!  I'm getting very anxious to know so we can find a place to live and start the next chapter of our lives!