8 weeks old!

Okay, techincally Piper isn't 8 weeks old until tomorrow, but while I am updating my posts, I figured I better just do it before another month passes me by.

Piper is my amazing baby. She still sleeps most of the time, she is hardly ever fussy, and she never complains about the abundance of love, hugs , kisses, etc that she recieves from her brother and sister. She is so mellow and sweet. I still feed her every 3-5 hours during the night, but I really don't mind. I enjoy my time alone with her. I haven't had her two month check up yet, but I think she is about 11 lbs.

It is so funny when people see her and they tell me that they think she looks like Lincoln, or Hazel or Tommy (nobody has said she looks like me). Everyone thinks something different. To me she looks like her own person. She doesn't remind me of either of my other babies. Her eye color looks different too - think maybe she will have blue eyes???

her brother and sister are never far away. They love to jump into photos with her.

since I am the picture taker in our family I hardly ever have any pics of me with the kids. Last night I made Tommy take one of me with her so that when she is older she will remember that I was always there.

I love my baby!!

Holidays

Over the Holiday's Piper was able to meet all of her Great Grandparents. Here she is over Thanksgiving weekend visiting with my dad's parents - Great Grandma Lang (& Grandpa Lang is in the background). I was so happy we were able to spend a couple of hours over at their house. I know my grandma was disappointed that Tommy and the other two kids didn't come, but I welcomed the break and was happy it was just the two of us. On Christmas Eve we went over to my mom's house for dinner and spent some time with my Grandma Reay and Grandpa Reay.

This year the Santa tradition got a little tricky. We went to RC Willey to visit Santa about 2 weeks before Christmas. The kids were so excited!! Lincoln ran right up to him and told him all about how they were learning lots of Christmas songs at school for their program. Hazel was a little unsure, but did end up telling him what she wanted. Lincoln had told her earlier that they could only ask Santa for 1 thing, he asked for a football and she wanted a baby that eats. (I didn't tell him he could only ask for 1 thing, so whoever did - Thank you!)

Closer to Christmas we went to two paries where "Santa" showed up agian. Both times Lincoln held back and said it wasn't the real Santa. I explained how Santa has to have "helpers", but he didn't care. He didn't want much to do with those Santas. I am so sad because I don't want the fun of believing to be quite over yet - hopefully he will believe for a few more years. we made Gingerbread cookies...

my mom and grandparents came over to visit us on Christmas day

Here is Lincoln with his favorite gift of the year: the Nerf Stampede (the coolest automatic nerf gun you have ever seen! We have darts flying around our tiny house like crazy!!)

Hazel with her "baby that eats" that Santa brought

Hazel and Piper wearing the adorable hats my mom made them

and here is Hazel with her favorite present: A vanity complete with makeup and styling accessories...

We had such a wonderful holiday this year. We are so lucky to have so much family living around us and are grateful we were able to spend a little bit of time with everybody. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Hazel's 3rd Birthday

Hazel's birthday was over a month ago and I am just getting around to posting it. I am so behind!! I never even mailed out Thank You cards - (sorry everyone - she loves all of her gifts, so THANK YOU!)

Winter birthdays are so hard up here, especially since our house is so small. This year, with the baby and all, we decided to make it a little easier for me and had a swimming party. Hazel was so excited to go swimming she didn't really even care to eat lunch and open presents.


I recently found out that neither of my kids really like cake. I was very surprised at this and wondered why I had spent HOURS decorating cakes for their previous birthdays. When I asked Haze what she wanted instead of a cake, she said doughnuts. Wa-lah - the doughnut cake! (and of course a Hello Kitty one!)
After lunch and gift opening the kids swam for 1 1/2 hours and they had so much fun. A few of the kids were super sad when it was time to leave, including my two. I took a few pictures of the kids swimming, but they turned out kinda blurry so I didn't post them.

This was probably Hazel's best birthday ever - she had so much fun swimming and playing with her friends. Thanks everyone!

Newborn Photos

When Piper was 5 days old we drove down to Am. Fork to have the kids pictures taken. I am so happy with them! I don't have all of the photos back yet, but here are a few I do have (I can't wait for the rest!) Tommy couldn't go with me because of work and I was a little nervous to go by myself, but luckily my sister was nice enough to drive down and pick up my older kids after they were done with their pictures. If it wasn't for her I probably would have ended up in tears! Right after Linc & Haz left Piper decided to be wide awake (which she never was and still isn't). The photographer was so nice and patient. We experimented with some pics with her wide awake and then she gave me some time to try to get her to fall asleep. Piper kept waking up throughout the session and we had to keep coaxing her back to sleep. I think I ended up being there for about 4 hours! Good thing I am happy with the results, right??!!

More Piper

Piper is one week old tomorrow and I can not believe how fast the time has gone by. She has been such a good baby and has made the adjustment so far pretty easy. I had forgotten how much I LOVE the newborn phase and I can't get enough of just holding and looking at her.

she loves to look at the bright light coming in the windows during the day

I was taking pictures of her just relaxing on the couch and while she was stretching and yawning she made this face - I love it because it looks like she is laughing to me :)

Lincoln and Hazel cannot get enough of her - they love to hold her, give her stuffed animals and try to entertain her. I have to keep telling them to not get so close to her face, she doesn't need toys yet, and she would probably rather they just chill out and talk softly to her, but they don't seem to listen or care. At least she will grow up very used to loud noises and chaos :)

Piper is here!

Get ready for picture overload! We are so happy and proud to introduce Piper :0) Below is the birth story (of my 1 hour and 52 min labor), so if you don't want to read it just skip down to the photos:

I was scheduled to be induced a week before my due date since my last delivery went so quickly and my Dr. wanted to make sure we had plenty of time. Well, Piper decided to spice things up a bit and not follow the schedule. We went to bed Wednesday night expecting to get a call between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. telling us what time to arrive at the hospital. Instead, I woke up at 2 a.m. with a start from a weird pain I had felt - turns out it was my water breaking, just more painful than my other two experiences. My contractions started immediately at 5 min apart and got strong quickly. I woke Tommy up at 2:25 and we called my mom to come over (we knew we couldn't wait for my dad to get there) to sit with the kids. By the time we arrived at the hospital my contractions were 3 min apart and I was in PAIN!! I have never had the desire to experience a natural birth, so I asked for my epideral immediately. Right when the Dr. finished I complained of pressure and they checked me, and sure enough, I was ready to go. The epideral helped ease my contractions, but unfortunately that is about all. I got more of the experience than I had bargained for. But it was all worth it - Piper was born very healthy on Nov 4 at 3:52 a.m. at 6 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches. So far the vote is that she looks like Tommy and he is so proud to tell everybody this :)

unfortunately Piper decided to come into the world so quickly that my mom didn't make it to the hospital in time. This was the first time it was just me and Tommy - I made him keep busy by taking tons of photos and he did such a great job. He got shots of everything I was wanting, plus lots more (we left the hospital with over 200 photos). He was such a great coach and it was a neat experience having just the two of us. Thanks honey!

Yeah!! She has hair!

I am so grateful to my dad for watching the kids from early a.m. to noon. I don't know what I would have done without you! My dad brought the kids to see us after Lincoln got home from school. Lincoln was so excited to see his new sister - he came in the room with a huge smile on his face and jumped right up on the bed to gush over her. Hazel on the other hand was more concerned with me and wanted to know why I had on "those" pajamas and why was I in "that" bed, mine was at home.

I love our first photo of our growing family...

we had a few visitors while we were there - Tommy's dad, stepmom and nephew

my dad...

and my mom..

and Lincoln came a few times :) My sister Charise and Aunt Ruth Ann also came, but we were so busy visiting with them we forgot to get pictures.

Tommy stayed the whole time with me in the hospital (thanks mom for taking the kids!) and he loved to just sit and stare at Piper (and she stared at him - awwwww, so cute!)

Getting ready to go home:

I am so glad to be home with my family and the kids are so excited to finally have there sister at home. Now I just need to teach them somehow that she doesn't need CONSTANT attention.

Piper has been such a good baby so far. She sleeps most of the time, even at night. She just wakes up to eat. The only time she has really cried so far is when I wipe her tiny bum with the cold wipes. She is so cute and I am actually looking forward to the adjustment of having a newborn again.

Winter already????

Lincoln was sooooooo excited to wake up to snow this morning. He was able to play in it twice at school today and couldn't wait to come home and play in it again. Hazel thought it was fun for a moment, then came inside and wanted to warm up. I am with her. Definitely not ready to freeze yet. Thank goodness it is almost all melted tonight (I am praying it stays that way!)