November

As you can imagine November has flown by for us. Brad was a little sick the first week after Melina was born, but luckily my mom was still here to take care of us. By the end of the week Brad was feeling better and even designed and obstacle course to keep Ian and Lani busy while I napped.


The kids have been doing great with Melina. For better and for worse they always want to be near her and give her kisses. I definitely have to be careful when I leave her alone. People have been asking me how I am doing with four kids. My answer is: I have about the same amount of patience that I've had for the last nine months which isn't much. Hopefully, that improves with sleep. I did cook Thanksgiving dinner and we had my brother Ben and his wife over. It wasn't too much work because Brad cleaned and hung out with the kids so I could just cook. I was gong to take a picture of our beautiful setup, (I decorated the table from some ideas online) but as soon as I thought of it, it was over-four kids now you know. We wrote what we were thankful for and I was surprised by Aaron's long list. I hope some of that carries over to this month. On Black Friday the only thing we bought was a Christmas tree. We finally turned on the Christmas music and started decorating. All in all, November was a great month, but I am really excited its December. We've already started planning our Christmas crafts and baking! Brad would say I'm so domestic...

More Melina

Just adding a few more pics of our new baby girl...

Halloween

Here's a quick review of our Halloween since I kind of skipped that. Since Ben's wedding was the week before it took a back seat to other things most of the month. But don't worry, somehow we got in the cookie making, pumpkin carving and of course trick or treating. We were lucky to have my Aunt Jane and my mom here to help with the carving and we finished in record time. The highlight was when the two broke out in song about the hypotenuse of a triangle. This year we had Minnie Mouse, Wolverine, and Iron Man and also the Mad Hatter who spent more on his costume than any of the others and a rabbit because I could pull it off being pregnant. Brad and I were invited to our first couples only Halloween party which was really fun. The kids had party after party the week of Halloween (3 total) and also their friend Jordyn aka Raphael came trick or treating with us.

Baby Melina

If you're hoping for a nice introspective mommy post I'm sorry to disappoint - no mommy insight here. Tara's still in the hospital so you get my world view here.

Today Tara was induced and this afternoon delivered our newest addition, Baby Melina. Don't ask about a middle name...just know that we're working on it. The baby specs are 6lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. As you can see from the pics below, she has dark hair and eyes. This may sound a little "dad-like" but honestly, if you've seen one of our newborns you've seen them all; she looks just like the other three did. (The lone exception was Ian, who looked a little more Viernes than the rest - gets it from his Tutukane.)

Tara's doing well and she sailed through the delivery with flying colors. I knew she was doing well afterwards when she supplemented her hospital dinner with a honey-do: McD's cheeseburger, McFlurry and a movie from Redbox - you can always tell when everything's right in the world. She's welcome to phone calls - call me at our cell number and if I'm not already at the hospital I'll give you the number there.

Ben's Wedding

Ahhhh. That was a sigh of relief because soccer season is over and Ben's wedding is also over. I can now breathe and impatiently await the birth of my next child. The reception was pretty much a disaster with the bride and groom making their entrance around 8pm instead of 7pm. Most of the food was ready by 7:30, but we did have a few punctual people who either mulled around wondering where Ben and Mariela were or they were recruited to help in the kitchen. Here's a few pictures that captured the good moments.

Strike 3

Well, as some of you may know, Brad has in recent years had trouble with his esophagus. Strike one was in January '08 when I was accused of trying to off my husband with roast beef that became lodged in his esophagus. Strike two occurred in Oct '08 when Brad tore his esophagus while enjoying some ribs (that I did not cook) at BBQ house in downtown SLC. The last strike was Wednesday night spent in the ER again because of some chicken that got stuck in Brad's tiny esophagus. Luckily, the third time is a charm and we finally got a diagnosis for his problem. He has something called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Basically, he has some allergy and will be sent to an allergist with the hopes of figuring out what it is. Also, I have been told that I never have to cook again because it may hurt my husband. I think I could deal with that, but somehow we have to eat...

More Stress

So, I sewed this in 5 days. Okay, it was a one hour easy sew pattern, but I am a little busy with other stuff too. I am quite proud of myself because I told the girl I couldn't do it at first and she told me no one else could do it for her (it's for her cousin's wedding luau/reception this Saturday). Unfortunately, I don't have much of a backbone says Brad and I couldn't say no even though I have a lot of other things on my plate right now (like 5 kids). I had to take a picture of it before she comes to pick it up because I am so amazed at my talent:)

Preschool

So, yesterday Ian started preschool. I'm glad I got him in because this was much needed in our lives (mine and Ian's). It's really not for very long, but luckily it still tires him out a little:) Here's some pics of the dropoff:


One bonus because I waited until this year to send Ian to preschool (we skipped it last year) was that while other kids were crying for their mommies, Ian was pushing me out the door. Did I mention he was ready?

Brad's Accident

So, Friday night Brad made a new friend at a church bbq. Brad takes the longboard everywhere so he's skating around the park and his new friend is real impressed and wants to go skating together after the kids are in bed. As Brad is leaving I remind him that he is old and to be careful, but he still comes back pretty scraped up. They took a hill that cars actually drive on (Brad does not usually go this crazy). Brad's excuse is not that he is old, but that his longboard is not made for that kind of skating. It's true, it picks up speed way too fast.


So he has a few injuries and some lortab to help with the soreness. Luckily no broken bones, mostly bruises. Unfortunately, somehow this trumps my pregnant invalid status so that we have to take care of daddy. We did learn a valuable lesson:

Helmets and padding are a good idea!

First Day

When Aaron went to kindergarten last year I took his picture and I worried about him opening that big door all by himself. This year I believed I was prepared and ready for him to be gone all day long so I could have one less child to cater to. I was wrong. I had nightmares the night before and I woke up early, anxious about my little boy making friends. As we walked to school on the big day I wondered if I had prepared him enough for the tough days ahead. After I kissed him good-bye I remembered I never taught him to tie his shoes by himself. And at lunch time I worried that he wouldn't be able to open his fruit roll-up by himself. Finally, 3:15 rolled around and I could find out how everything went. When I picked him up I excitedly asked how his day was. This was his response: "Mom, we get two recesses!" What was I nervous about when he gets two recesses? Here's some shots of my first grader.

Monster Jam

Okay, this deserved a post all it's own. Brad told the boys on Thursday that he had a surprise for them on Saturday. They knew they were going to take the train, but had no idea where they were going or what they would be doing there.



Just a little background-Aaron, so of course Ian, loves anything that has to do with cars or trucks. For three years he has checked out nonfiction books about drag racing, Nascar, and monster trucks from the library. I do not encourage this, but it seems beyond my control at this point. Anyway, he's begged us to take him to the Rocky Mountain Raceway, but neither of us feel real compelled to go so we tell him no. Anyway, Brad's work was offered these discount tickets for the Monster Jam at Rio Tinto Stadium and he couldn't pass up the chance to take his boys. What a good daddy! As Ian said when I picked them up from the trax station, they had a great adventure!

Gymnastics, Babysitting, and Lani

I am way overdue for a blogging update, but we've been busy and I've been tired. I do need to document that Lani had another birthday-oh, 2 months ago. She turned two and we had jello to celebrate because Ian's birthday was the week before and we had Ian birthday cake, then Father's day cake and we were all caked out. Lani didn't seem to mind.

Fast forward a couple months and here is our Lani after school shopping looking her usual cute self. She's our little chatterbox and her favorite things are care bears, babies, and telling her brothers what to do. (She got the great dollhouse for her birthday).


Things have been a little busy here because I am watching my nieces everyday while their mom coaches the Murray High Soccer team. It's been a lot of fun for the kids and I'm glad to have this time with them. Soccer season will be over just before my brother's wedding, then I'm pretty much due to have my baby. So I figure I'm booked til Christmas and I'm sorry if I can't remember anything these days:)
(Arie and Zoe are on the right).

And finally, Ian's summer gymnastics ended and I had to post a few highlights. He looked so forward to this every week that we may have to find another class:)

Summer Fun

So, I've been a little bit lazy with the updating. This is our summer in a nutshell:
As soon as Aaron was out of school we headed up to Idaho.

"Sister Week" with Brad's sisters involved kids, Ian's dinosaur party, a little bit of shopping, and lots of fun! Despite a lot of rain, the kids had a blast and I did too! Thank goodness for nearby playgrounds when the rain took a break and even if it wasn't summer hot, the kids still loved the waterpark.








A week after recovering from our first two week long vacation, we set out for our long drive to California to see my parents.
I'm not great at the picture taking so (none of the Idaho pics were actually from my camera) I don't have any of the swim lessons, or the fourth of July parade or even of mema and tutu man. But I took a couple:





So since I've been back, we have been trying to relax. I'm trying to stay out of all the heat, but for some reason the kids won't let me. Next week is another Jones family reunion as Jana gets married, then I register the boys for school again. Wow, summer has gone by fast!

It's a girl

It's a girl! I am a little relieved. I'm pretty sure I can only take two little boys who love potato bugs and wrestle every chance they get. Yes, I know this can happen with girls, but it is so different. The drama from girls you can just roll your eyes at, but the fist fighting sometimes gets a little out of control and since I have three brothers I know it gets worse. Okay, yes, my sisters and I fought as well, but my parents never had to repair drywall because of us. So in order to avoid disappointment I have only thought of boy names. Any ideas for girls? For some reason those are harder for me to think of.
Here are my kids reactions to "you'll have a new sister soon":
Aaron, "Let's name her..." (all kinds of suggestions like Frosty and Frosted...???)
Ian, "Huh." [Turn back to his movie]
Lani, "Let me see it." "It's in my tummy, Lani." "Let me see it now."

Picture Time

Because of our busy last couple of months, and my laziness, I have not put pictures up for awhile. After I uploaded what was on my camera, I realized I had pictures there since Easter. Oops. So here's a little collage for you guys.









Okay, before I post these I get script instead of pictures to move around so I can't edit. Anybody know how to fix that? Anyway, so that was Easter, Wheeler Farm, the Hutchings Museum fieldtrip in Lehi, and bowling last week.

That's about everything. We'll have more outside playing in our baby pool soon!