Good Times

Last Sunday Russ was sitting on the stand during sacrament meeting. That meant I got to sit alone with all four of our children. No sweat, right?

I tried to prepare. I made sure baby was well fed before the meeting began, and I strategically placed my family on a side pew at the very back of the chapel, so that if I needed to stand up with McKell I would still be able to hover over the other three girls.

Everything started out fine. Baby was content. Older girls were eating snacks. No problem. Then Ashlyn decided to lay down on the bench and put her feet on Kaylee's lap. After she refused Kaylee's pleas to remove her feet, I just had Kaylee move over by Brenna and I sat next to Ashlyn's feet. That was fine until Kaylee and Brenna began arguing over the snacks and I had to move to sit between them. Unfortunately, I didn't make that move quite soon enough and the cereal they were arguing over ended up all over the floor.

McKell decided to get fussy right about then, so I grabbed Brenna and made my way out of the pew and around to the back to rock the baby and keep the toddler from bothering the other girls. Somehow Ashlyn and Kaylee still found a way to annoy each other, even while sitting on opposite ends of the bench. Ashlyn ended up kicking the hymnbook holder attached to the pew in front of ours and knocking it to the ground.

My favorite part of the meeting was when I was rocking the fussy baby and trying to keep Brenna from escaping the chapel while leaning over the bench to tell Ashlyn to stop using the head of Brenna's baby doll to hammer in the screw that came loose when the hymnbook shelf fell down.

The five of us did survive though. And from Russ's vantage point on the stand he thought everything was totally fine.

This and That - in random order

Baby McKell is doing well and growing fast. When babies are born they lose some of their body weight, so they end up leaving the hospital at a lower weight than when they were born. Ideally, they will return to at least birth weight by their two week check-up. McKell was 7 lbs 7 oz at birth, 6 lbs 15 oz when discharged from the hospital, and up to a whopping 8 lbs at her two week doctor visit. A+ for weight gain! No other issues to report at this point either.

Big sister Brenna has gotten the raw end of the deal this time around - having to adjust to a new baby at the same time her two older sisters/playmates returned to school full time. She's been a lot more moody and ornery than ever before, but is beginning to get used to this new normal. She does love McKell though and frequently asks, "Where's that baby?"

 

 Ashlyn decided it was time to chop her hair, and here's the result. Super cute length for her, and SO easy to keep it looking nice. Random side note, after her hair was cut I went up to the cash register at the salon to pay and was informed that some lady who had just left had paid for Ashlyn's cut. Hopefully she just thought Ashlyn was really cute, and not that I was some poor single mother who could use a hand-out (if the latter, I'll have to work harder to be more presentable when going out in public).

Russ has been extra good about helping out at home and taking on extra jobs - like painting fingernails - since McKell was born. (P.S. Brenna is in the buff only because Russ thought it would be easier to get stray polish off her skin than off her clothes.)

My parents came to stay with us for a week, which was super wonderful. They cooked, they cleaned, they shopped, they played, the rocked - basically they just took really good care of all of us they whole time they were here. Best. Parents. Ever!!!

Still lots of baby love going on around here.

And here's our new little princess - Sunday 09 September 2012.

Baby Love

There is no shortage of love for baby McKell around here.

If you missed our Facebook posts, she was born Tuesday, 21 August 2012 (11 days early!!!) at 10:02 PM (about 15 minutes after Russ arrived at the hospital - close call there). She weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20 in. long. We absolutely ADORE her!

New Specs

SOOOO adorable in her new glasses. The smile, unfortunately, is deceiving. She's not a fan of having them on full-time. And keeping a 2 1/2 year old's glasses clean is a nearly impossible endeavor.

Progress!

Monday, July 23rd: First Day of Swimming Lessons

Kaylee is spotted crying at the side of the pool - terrified to fully submerge.


Friday, August 10th: End of Week 3 of Swimming Lessons (with 1 more week still to come)

TA DA!!!

Pretty cute little bunch of swimmers, huh?

Not the baby anymore.

Brenna was pretty excited to try out the new infant car seat when I took it out of the box this morning.

Hopefully she'll be even more excited when there's a little sister sitting in it (you always wonder how the reigning "baby" will react to being dethroned).

And here's a fun picture of Kaylee doing the same thing just before Ashlyn was born.

They're all growing up way too fast.

Ashlyn came to us last Saturday evening with not one, but TWO loose teeth. Kaylee lost her first tooth a few months after turning 5, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was anyway. Isn't 5 too little to be losing teeth?

One of them was pretty wiggly, so Russ asked if she wanted a little help (i.e. dental floss) getting it out. She agreed to give it a try, but stopped when it started to hurt. But by then the tooth was literally dangling in her mouth. The next morning she had a hard time when she tried to eat breakfast, so she asked Russ to get the floss out again. Success! Here's the video. Tears turn to joy pretty quickly.

And here's the darling little holey smile. :)