Family Photo Shoot

Taylor has dreamed of having a matching outfit with her sister since she found out she was having a sister so while my mom was here we went and found some adorable navy dresses that Carter's had in Taylor and Brooklyn sizes.  And since we had an extra set of hands here we tried to take a few family photos.  Of course the morning we picked to do it was the first cool morning we have had this fall and the wind was blowing like crazy but everyone, except Brooklyn, had a great attitude about it.  I think it was nearly impossible to get all 5 of us looking in the same direction with some sort of a smile on our faces but we did the best we could.  Ethan and Taylor both fought over who could hold Brooklyn and did such a great job (which you may not believe when you see how mad Brooklyn was).  I sure do love these cute kids. 

Brooklyn is about a week old in these pictures and I can't believe how much she has already grown.  By her two week check up she was 9 pounds 14 ounces and now she is almost 4 weeks old and is continuing to grow like a champ.  There is another baby in our ward that is 2.5 months old and Brooklyn is bigger than her.  She is a healthy girl!

Brooklyn Kathleen is here!

We have all been enjoying the first few weeks of Brooklyn being home with us.  It seems like forever that we have been waiting for her and now we already can't imagine our family without here.  Brooklyn was born on Thursday, September 12th at 11:33 PM.  It was just 30 minutes before her actual due date and she seemed to be in quite a hurry to get out once she had made up her mind.  With both Ethan and Taylor I was induced but nowadays they don't do inductions, unless there is a medical reason, before 41 weeks so I was starting to wonder if she was going to come on her own or if I was going to have to wait until past 41 weeks for an induction.  At my 39 week appointment the doctor said she didn't think I would make it to my due date so that gave me the idea that she would come early and made for a long week of waiting and wondering.  I started to wonder if I would even know what going into labor felt like since I had always "gone into labor" in the hospital and there was no doubts.  On that Thursday night Abe had gone to a work function and I had warned him about not staying out too late just in case.  Thankfully he listened and came home around 8pm and around 8:40 I felt the first contraction and I was pretty sure this was the beginning of the end.  But they were probably 10 minutes apart so we didn't feel sure they were going to last.  Since the doctor had told us to wait at home until the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour we didn't feel in any hurry to head to the hospital.  We did start the process of getting ready to go and told my mom not to expect us to be there in the morning.  But still we were in no hurry.  I went to finish packing my bag and get a shower.  I started to realize that the contractions were coming closer and closer together but I hadn't looked at the clock.  Finally Abe came up and started counting them again and we realized they were only 2 minutes apart and then we realized we better get moving.  By the time we got to the hospital they were 1-2 minutes apart and it was around 10:20.  Thankfully the nursing staff decided quickly that I was really in labor and didn't make us wait in triage so we went straight to the delivery room.  They started the million questions that they have to ask and got me all hooked up to monitors and all.  There is nothing more annoying than people peppering you with questions during contractions at the final stage of labor.  I had finally made it through all the basic workup and the nurse finally told me that I could move around and find a more comfortable position.  I had sort of decided to not have an epidural again but I was really regretting that decision (like I always do) while laying there and had almost made up my mind (in my head) that if I didn't feel better once I moved around that I was getting the epidural.  But the nurse wanted to check me once more before I got up and quickly decided that I was not getting out of the bed and she was going to get the doctor to deliver this baby.  And when I say "the doctor" I really mean get the 12 people that they felt they needed to have around. Oh the joys of delivering at a teaching hospital.  There was the OB staff, the resident, the intern, and the medical student and then because of some issues that Brooklyn had they had a full pediatric team with the staff, resident, intern and medical student.  Even the nurse had her own trainee in there.  Oh and did I mention that there were some other people restocking the room during the whole process too.  Thankfully the delivery was just as quick as the labor and after a few pushes she was out.  Unfortunately we couldn't hold her immediately because they wanted her checked out completely but we could hear her loud screams and knew she was just fine.  No one could believe what a big baby she was.  The doctor had guessed earlier that week that she would be 7.5 or 8 pounds. So when a chubby 9 pound 4 ounce baby came out they were all shocked.  She looked so much like Taylor with her chubby cheeks and dark hair.  It felt like an eternity while they stitched me up and I waited to hold that sweet little girl.  It was a long night as we waited in recovery until 4a.m. and then we finally got to "sleep", if anyone really sleeps with all the monitors and nurses coming through. 

We have been trying to decide who Brooklyn looks most like.  I think in these early pictures she looks like Taylor's twin.  But as she has gotten a little bigger she looks more like Ethan. i guess we will have to wait and see.

And School Begins Again

I can't believe summer has ended and the school year has began again.  It was a whirlwind of a summer and I think we were all ready to get back to the school routine.  Ethan is so excited to be in First Grade (which he figured out quickly last year was much cooler than Kindergarten).  His teacher is much more outgoing and fun and he really likes her.  Unfortunately I think she is going to be way too easy and he will take full advantage of it.  It was nice to hear him come home on the first day of school and say it was "awesome".  It is so easy when so many of his same classmates are back for the second year.

Taylor had to wait a week until her preschool started and it was a long week for both of us.  She went from a house of 3 playmates to just me in a very short period of time and it has been a hard adjustment.  And she was so excited about starting school that it was just hard to wait.  But finally preschool started again for her and it has been good.  I should have done a better job of explaining how "pre-K", as she likes to call it, will be different from last year but I didn't. So she was very disappointed in the amount of play time they have compared to last year where it was 90% playtime and 10% learning.  It doesn't help that the learning time is spent on ABC's and very basic skills that she isn't thrilled about.  Just like Ethan, she came home from the first day of school disappointed that she wasn't reading yet.  She did tell me that on the first day of school one of the boys told her that she was his girlfriend.  I asked her if he was nice or cute or anything and she just shrugged her shoulders pretty unimpressed.  I asked if he was as cute as Keaton (her crush from preschool last year) and she just got a silly grin on her face and said "of course not".  I guess that crush continues.

Taylor has been amusing me lately with how grown up she can be.  She is so logical for her age.  We were at a playplace and she was annoyed that Ethan wasn't playing with her.  I suggested that she go and play with some of the other girls that were there.  She walked over to them and talked for a minute and then came back.  She said "Mom, they are going to play freeze tag and I think that is a bad idea.  We are inside and someone is going to get hurt.  I don't want to run into anyone so I'm not going to play."  It was really hard to argue with that.  I just love that cute, sweet girl.





Summer Vacation

I can't believe it is already August and summer is coming to an end.  We have had a fun summer and managed to stay busy.  Abe has had a very busy June and July so I think that made the summer fly by.  In June he worked in the ICU and worked long hours six days a week and we barely saw him coming and going.  Then in July he went to NYC for a month.  So we knew we better have some activities to keep us from going crazy without him (well mainly to keep me from going crazy with 4 kids under the age of 6).  I signed Ethan and Taylor up for volleyball camp at the YMCA and they had a great time making friends and playing volleyball.  It was totally worth the money to see them having so much fun (and it gave me a good excuse to work out a lot that week).  After a few weeks of playing with friends, going to the zoo, playing at the park and going to the pool it was finally time to go on our family vacation. Since Abe was going to NYC the kids and I planned a trip to Virginia to see my parents and spend 2 weeks with them.  There was lots of drama leading up to the trip because I had been told earlier by the foster agency that they had respite providers that could watch the foster kiddos while we were gone and a few weeks before the trip I found out that we had to find our own person to watch our little wild extra children because there was just no way I could do 6 hours of flying with 4 kids by myself, especially when 2 of them have some "challenging" personalities.   Needless to say we didn't have a long list of friends willing to take on this type of crazy for 2 weeks.  But after a near meltdown and threats to leave them on someone doorstep they were able to find someone willing to take the extra kiddos while we were gone.  And it was a much needed break. 

It was so wonderful to reconnect with my sweet kids again.  They were angels in the airport even though we had to wait almost 5 hours in San Antonio before we could leave because of delays and being rerouted.  They were troopers as we had to run through the Dulles airport pulling our suitcases because their mother is too cheap to check them and just making it as they closed the doors behind us.  Even though it was WAY past their bedtime when we made it to Richmond they still were able to have a good attitude and be my helpers and I couldn't have been prouder of them.

 Here they are passing the time in the airport. Gotta love free wifi in the airport and Netflix on the iPad.

 Ethan is such a super reader.  I couldn't believe he finished this chapter book within 2 days.  I think we might need to work on slowing down for comprehension but he does amazing.

 Of course no trip to Grandma's house is complete without some time at the park by the lake.

 Mom and Dad treated us to a wonderful trip to Myrtle Beach while we were visiting.  The condo was right on the beach so the kids loved being able to play there every day.  Even though the weather wasn't always the best we always found some time to play in the water.

The kids had a little patience for posing for pictures on the first day since we got there too late to really play in the water.

 It is always a family tradition since we lived in Myrtle Beach years ago that we eat at least one meal in Calabash, which is a little town on the NC/SC border with amazing seafood.  I still remember eating at this restaurant as a kid.  It was delicious.

 Taylor and Ethan talked Grandpa into helping them boogie board in the very rough surf.  They had so much fun!

 One of the highlights of the trip for Ethan and Taylor was a dinner at Medieval Times.  I had never been to the knight themed dinner but I had a feeling it would be right up Ethan's alley.  They had Ethan hooked when they pointed out that there were no utensils and they would have to eat with their hands.  The kids loved cheering for their knight and really got into it all.

Our knight started throwing flowers at the crowd and Taylor caught one of them.  She was so excited about it and couldn't stop talking about how sweet our knight was.

 It was so fun to see how excited they were and how they couldn't wait to tell Abe all about their adventure.

 

My parents also agreed to watch Ethan and Taylor for a long weekend so that I could go and visit Abe in NYC.  The kids couldn't wait to get rid of me.  They can't wait until Grandma can be in charge.  It doesn't take much to get them excited, just extra desserts, waking up early and watching too much TV.  But it is worth it to have two kids that have no problem with me leaving and are good for their grandparents so they will watch them again.  So I took the train from Richmond to NYC to meet up with Abe.  I didn't know what to do with myself with so much time to read and just be alone.  I definitely picked the wrong time to visit NY because it was around 100 degrees and miserable when you have to walk with a suitcase around town.  And the air conditioning in NY just can't keep up with that kind of heat so even when I got to Abe's apartment I wasn't greeted by fresh, cool air.  Our timing wasn't great since we really only had one evening and a Sunday afternoon in NY because we spent the rest of the weekend in Boston visiting friends.  So most of my time in NY was spent walking around rather than doing anything exciting.  But it was enough time to make me realize that I have no desire to live in a big city.





So Friday morning Abe and I went and rented a car and drove to Boston to visit with a wonderful group of friends from Virginia.  I can't believe how well it worked out that we had to be on the east coast during the same time that the rest of the gang had come up with a plan to meet up in Boston.  We had such a great time hanging out with some great friends that we hadn't seen in two years and their adorable children.  We spent lots of time eating wonderful food and being given a great tour of Boston from Elicia.  I think I came back a few pounds heavier at least.  It was also nice to be childless for a few days and not worry about any of my little ones complaining about being tired or about walking.  I hope we can do another fun vacation with our friends in the near future!

 

Our two week vacation went by way too fast and none of us were ready to get back to reality.  Ethan and Taylor weren't thrilled that we knew we had to go pick up the foster kiddos when we got back but they are troopers.  It helped that we knew Abe would be home just a few days after us and the kids were really ready to see him.  Now I can't believe that the summer is almost over and we only have 5 weeks until the baby is due to come.  Time will continue to fly I'm sure.   I have a million things that still need to get done so I should probably get on that now.

The Year Has Come to An End

I really can't believe that the school year is over and Ethan has finished kindergarten.  He had such an amazing year and learned so much that it even exceeded my expectations.  I have to brag about my smart little boy for a few minutes. 

 End of the Year

 

    Beginning of the school Year

His kindergarten was a Spanish/English class and it has been so fun to hear all the Spanish he has picked up over the year.  He has such a great accent that I can't wait to hear how well he speaks after next year. I definitely can't remember back to what I learned in Kindergarten but it blows me away with what Ethan knows now.  He loves math and is so good at it.  He has started doing multiplication and can do all sorts of math facts in his head.  We were talking about something and when someone asked what 60 plus 99 was he responded quicker than Abe and I with the right answer.  He is a great reader and is so sweet to read to Taylor and the other kiddos at the house when I need a break.  He reads chapter books amazingly well.  I hope that 1st grade will be able to find ways to challenge him like kindergarten has.  I was listening to him and Taylor talk in the car the other day and the discussion turned to what they were going to do when they grew up.  Taylor really just wants a job that makes a lot of money so she is hoping that a professional singing career will work out.  Ethan decided to explain to her the differences between jobs like being a police officer that didn't require a lot of school but weren't as challenging and how if she wanted a really good job she was probably going to have to go to school.  Ethan's plan is to become an engineer and own his own company.  So he told Taylor if she wanted she could come and work for him and they could see each other everyday.  He did clarify that she couldn't just sit around and do nothing at his company that she would have to work hard.  I love how they plan things and how they want to be together (even if it doesn't appear that way on a day to day basis).  Here are a few pictures from graduation.  I love just this little boy!

 

 

 

 

I have fallen behind

Life has been busy and there has been little time for blogging but maybe I will get caught up one of these days.  Long ago, back around Easter, we had a wonderful ward Easter egg hunt.  The kids were so excited about getting eggs.  It was like watching a swarm of ants take over the park as they ran looking for eggs and destroying any small trees that stood in their way.

 We celebrated Easter with some fun bunny pancakes.  The kids love pancakes in any shape but chocolate chip eyes make it even better.

 The weekend after Easter Abe had Saturday and Sunday off so we decided to take a trip to Dallas and visit the family.  We had such a fun time, as always.  We spent Saturday going to the Science Museum in Dallas, which was just amazing.  It is brand new and so high tech.  The kids loved trying to race the cheetah (you can guess who won that one) and fly like a bird with 3-D glasses. We finished off the evening with a great meal at a Mexican restaurant without the kids.

On Sunday the kids were willing to quickly pose for a few pictures before we went to church.  All our sweet cousins were so great about showing Ethan and Taylor around at church and making them feel welcome in their classes.



 I tried to get Ethan and Taylor to take a picture together since Taylor was sick on Easter and I couldn't take any pictures then but there was no cooperation from the troops so this is all we got.

 Sunday was also Abe's birthday so we had a delicious dinner and some marble fudge cake to celebrate before we headed back to San Antonio.  No one was ready to leave after all the fun we had.  We always appreciate our wonderful family in Dallas and how great they are to us.