Welcome to our World

For an only child, this is amazing.  After all those tears and prayers and adoption paperwork and fertility specialist appointments, I thought my world was perfect with adopting my little girl and boy.  Now, two surprises later, as I see the joy these girls bring to our family, I am super grateful to be the mother of four.   Super dad! My 3 oldest children enjoying a picnic during our April snow fall of about 14". Thinking her siblings are too loud? K insisted on taking a bedtime picture of us with my phone.  I thought it was pretty cute with D & M making funny faces. We have some walls to our house (the one on the left). N's reaction to her first walk around the block. Some notes I took on Apr 22 M's nose and ears and hair ( but longer) So alert like K A good sleeper like D Can't wait to know what color her eyes will be More pukey than M Seems strong and wiggly I've been singing Elizabeth Mitchell...

At about 3am Sunday morning (my due date) I woke up to contractions. On average, they were about every 20 minutes all day long.  Pacing seemed to be my best bet for dealing with the pain and laying down was the absolute worst.  So by the time Kaelah and Danny woke up and begged to ride their new bicycles Dan had bought them the day before, I was game for a bike ride to the park.  I had to lower the seat on mine, but all was good.  It was fun to see one of my neighbors from down the street and respond to her question, "When are you due?" by replying, "Today!" It was a General Conference Sunday, so we got home and ate breakfast just in time to watch the Sunday morning session.  This year we did a General Conference Train up on the wall and coloring pages such as coloring all of the Apostles ties and the children seemed to enjoy the train a lot.  It was a new record in how long we were able to watch as a family.   After lunch I packed the diaper bag ...

 I was super happy to spend Easter with my family this year.  If Natalie had come at the same time as Michelle, I would have given birth on Easter this year!  Yet, this little one seems super comfy and shows no signs of wanting to come out.  I love all the people who are asking me if I've had the baby yet.  Don't worry, my hubby will put something on Facebook when I do.  He's great like that. I had a wonderful time teaching the children the story of Easter.  They really seemed to get a lot out of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday thanks to crafts and a play set we made and showing some of the Bible videos on LDS.org.  I was so proud of Michelle, becasuse even though she is barely three, she can tell you everything that is important to know.  We do have to skip over the cross as much as possible, though, because it pains her.  That is totally understandable.  One day Danny decided to tease me by saying he didn't love Jesus.  Eve...

 We loved having more snow & I'm so happy to see Michelle's artistic talent coming out.  This was the first drawing of hers that the second I saw it, I knew exactly what it was.  Great job, hon!  The 4 of us went to the Butterfly Pavilion.  I have to admit, it is super scary to take 3 little ones there by yourself when you discover other school districts have spring break and it is more crowded than you have ever seen it before!  I did loose each of them at some point and at one time a mother of twins took mercy on me and watched the girls while I found Danny.  Not like they were misbehaving, it was just hard to see them in that huge see of people!  Totally worth the trip, though.  I love being a stay-at-home mom!  Here's Kaelah's first sewing project!  As usual, she was a natural!  This girl seems to have unlimited potential.  We are enjoying the weather lots too!  Warm enough to go to the...

 Meigo turned 9 this month and got to have a little party with her great friend, Aspen.  The rest of us at the house had a good time too.  (:  We continued our tradition of celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday with crafts and eating green eggs & ham.  Although they were a big hit last year, this year the children decided they were gross.  My mother loves St. Patrick's Day & I inherited that joy as well.  Below are some of the crafts Michelle did at Discovery Days while Kaelah & Danny were at preschool & a shot of our rainbow toes.  Kaelah & Danny had a great time at Teny's birthday party!  It's fun to see them enjoying their friends. And, after a week and a half wait -- a long time for preschoolers -- we attended Disney on Ice: Treasure Trove for Michelle's 3rd birthday.  She dressed up like Tinkerbell, Danny made a great Dash & Mrs. Incredible hammed it up with him during the show, and Kaelah was a ...

We're all getting ready for baby Natalie to come.  The children got a huge kick out of going to the fire station to have the specially trained fire fighters install her car seat and check on the others.  Michelle liked it too, I promise, but didn't want her picture taken in front of the truck. The first Sunday of March we were lucky enough to go to Cheyenne and see baby Henry get blessed (and Dan stood in the circle).  I was super impressed with how well Kaelah did holding the newborn baby.  She's a natural at this, as well as anything else she tries. They were also super excited about the "big brother" & "big sister" shirts we ordered and wanted to take a picture right away -- not that you can tell what their shirts say in the photo.  lol.  I had to hide them in my room because Michelle wanted to wear hers every day.  I think she feels like she waiting for a big promotion.  She is so sweet and gives the baby (my tummy) kisses everyday....

After a few days of worrying that she would turn into a boy like her brother when she turned 3, which was quickly solved by showing her Kaelah's 3-year-old scrapbook, Michelle was  super excited for her birthday.    She wanted princess balloons, paper ware, and  Rapunzel cupcakes.  Can you tell that's Rapunzel's hair going around the cupcakes?  Thanks, Grandma Karyl!  The whole family is pretty excited to attend Disney on Ice like we did last year for Michelle's 2nd birthday.  If something is that big of a hit, why not make it a tradition? I think one of the best parts of Michelle's birthday was to see how excited Kaelah was.  She was bouncing up and down on the sofa with joy and all smiles.  Kaelah truly loves her little sister so much and is very excited to have another one to take care of, especially since Michelle has gotten so independent in many ways recently.  We also had a bit of fun interviewing Michelle for her birt...