adeline's first birthday

One of the best things about having older kids is their excitement when it is someone's birthday. Of course Adeline had no idea what was happening, but she woke up extra happy in the morning when all her brothers were gathered around oohing and aahing, saying Happy Birthday, and just smothering her with loves.

We loved celebrating her all day. We went to church where she was acknowledged in Relief Society (she is like the mascot of the ward since she was born right when our new ward was organized). She fell asleep on the way home so we transferred her to her bed where she only slept for about 15 more minutes. Unfortunately, that caused for an emotional girl the rest of the day. (the million pictures ahead will show that)

We went to the store the day before with the intent of buying a couple of books for her gifts, but when we walked down the doll isle, we died. She was obsessed with all the babies and wanted to hug them all. Justin was blown away since he had never seen anything like it. So we bought her a doll. :) 

We had pumpkin cake, opened her presents, and loved and rocked her the rest of the day. We lover her so.

halloween costumes 2016

This years costumes were a success. We mostly didn't leave costumes to the very last second, everyone had their minds made up weeks in advance and no one changed their idea. 

I really wanted to do a Wizard of Oz theme this year, so I showed them the movie in September hoping that they would get on board with my idea. Nope. But Adeline and I had fun with it. Well, I guess I had fun with it. Adeline would get a little frustrated with her big poofy skirt. Woops. Justin was going to try being the tin man or the scarecrow, but somehow he must have forgotten :)

The pink, the tulle skirt, the crown and that poor ear, and the wand. This was definitely the costume I was most giddy about.

 1. We bought the facepaint kit for Corbin's face and when Rudger saw the sample of a person with a pumpkin face, that's all he wanted to be. He would carry around the package and stare at it for the longest time. And for Halloween night, he insisted on circle eyes with no nose and lines going down his face.
2. The werewolf mask made us both so happy. Levi was worried we would never get to his costume; so the afternoon we set aside to just focus on the mask, gloves, feet, and tail - he was so very happy!

 1. Taylor saw this skeleton costume at the store when the Halloween stuff first came out, I don't know why but we didn't buy it, probably the price tag. As Halloween got closer I started to panic a little so I ran to the store and there it was 40% off.
2. As a family, we loved watching Once Upon a Time. Corbin thought the idea of being Rumpelstiltskin would be awesome. I tried making a yarn wig, eh, but he was happy with it. But the face and hand expressions is totally what makes this costume.

 :: this picture totally cracks me up ::

adeline's birth story

Adeline has turned one! We still can't get over the fact that it has been one year. These pictures here will forever be treasured. Mandi dropped everything last minute to come and take them for me. I love her.

My contractions started late on a Thursday evening. I usually go slow at first, so we just put the boys to bed (warned Corbin that during the night we might have to leave), and I told Justin to go to sleep. I spent that time in the middle of the night trying to lay down and rest, cleaned the house, packed the last of my things, took a shower, painted my nails. By about 5:45 I told Justin it was probably time to go. We woke Corbin up to tell him we were ready and what he needed to do to get everyone ready for school. He had been so concerned about the contraction from the night before, so he asked me if this meant my contractions would be over. *happy tears* This kid seriously stepped it up. He was amazing and so reliable.

As we drove off, after letting family know we were heading to the hospital, I touched base with amazing friends who were so willing to help out with getting kids to school and take Rudger before Grandma could come. Then it sunk in for the millioneth time, we were having a baby. Our fifth baby. Our fifth baby would be a girl.

After getting to the hospital and settling into the birthing room, they prepped me for an epidural. I was definitely not in the mood to go natural this go around. They stuck the needle in, Justin passed out, the anesthetist cleaned up, Justin woke up. It was all very eventful.  

It never felt like the epidural was really working so I kept pushing the button every little bit, but still the contractions were felt strongly. Mandi got there snapped a couple of pictures of me on my side, then asked me to roll on my back for another angle. As I was rolling over they started to panic, Adeline's head was out. Her Head Was Out. I freaked out, but the nurses were AMAZING. They got me situated and Adeline just fell the rest of the way out :) (I guess that's what happens with the 5th baby)

I knew this would be an extra special delivery for a few reason, but I was not expecting the wave of emotions that would come over me. After calling out "is it a girl? is it really a girl?!", they handed her to me and the tears came. I felt so so very happy. Our family felt complete. And it has been one of the happiest years of my life.

^^ I loved this lady. I had several of the other nurses tell me how lucky I was to get her. The doctor never even made it in and she handled everything beautifully ^^

tuesday tidbits

:: corbin ::

1. Corbin is in a college and career class at school and right now they are on the cooking section. The class had a pancake war and his group of four boys won first place! So naturally, he made breakfast for us the next morning. Since we didn't have parsley for the final touches, he went outside and cut off the green tops of our carrots.
2. There was a huge science test last Friday, which is one of three that is worth 90% of his grade! Justin and I felt like he had not studied enough and were on his case BIG time Thursday and Friday morning. When I picked him up Friday afternoon I was dying to find out how he did, he casually mentioned that he got 100%. 
3. Last night, after I gave the little brothers a bath, I came into the kitchen and the island had been cleaned off and wiped down. Corbin had a tender smile and I gave him the biggest hug. Service is definitely my love language :) 

:: taylor ::

1. Taylor has a group of friends at school that love to sit around at recess and make up funny lyrics to songs. I am so happy he has found some good friends at school.
2. Some of the very best hugs are given by Taylor. They feel so genuine. 
3. Taylor was the first to get his Halloween costume. I laid it on his bed and when he came home from school I told him to go downstairs to put some things away in his room. He came upstairs so excited (I even got one of those really good hugs) and he wore it the rest of the day. 

:: levi ::

(he got into the fancy pancake decorating too)

1. Not sure if it's a third grade thing, but Levi is starting to get into Pokemon. We haven't bought any, but he has had a couple of generous friends who gave him one or two. We also printed off some pages of Pokemon to color. My favorite though, is when he and Rudger opened a pack of fruit snacks and they turned the Halloween characters into a Pokemon game :) 
2. Levi is a spunky one and sometimes I am exhausted by it, but I have had many people from teachers to coaches that tell me Levi is one of their favorites :)
3. Out of the three older boys, Levi is the only one that really enjoyed Soccer...and will be the only one that continues after the spring season. He scored his first goal last week and I think the smile stayed on his face all day. (he also told me that it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be)

:: rudger :: 

1. Rudger is obsessed with little stuffed animals right now. 
2. Four years old is one of my favorites right now. Almost every word that comes out of his mouth, I just die. Like when he said "Mom, strong is adorable and I'm adorable." 
3. He has a bad habit of staying up a little later with mom and dad. We really need to end it, but Justin and I love the time with this boy.

:: adeline ::

1. Oh this girl, to say that we are all head over heels in love with this girl is definitely an understatement. She is learning new things everyday and are favorite right now is every time someone says hi, she waves. Also, clicking her tongue.
2. She is walking everywhere!! She started taking a few steps just over a month ago, but that was about it. Then two weeks ago while I was sick, she decided she would just take off. The boys were so excited when they held her doll out and she kept walking for it around the island. She made it to 64 steps and they told everyone.
3. For almost her first year of life she was the biggest mama's girl. But in the past week things have changed. It's all about dad. As soon as he gets home, she walks as fast as she can, and as soon as she is a couple of feet away, she gets down and crawls backwards to him. Yesterday I was standing next to him, so when she backed up, she backed into me. She looked up, crawled forward a little and then  tried again to back into Justin. We were dying laughing. And he of course picked her up and gave her the biggest hug and they both went into the kitchen to eat something, because that's what they do.

this weekend

 I feel like this is the weekend I finally caught up on life. Still so much to do, but I think I have my head floating above the water now. And that feels really good.

I work with the scouts in our neighborhood and we went on a lovely hike up in the mountains. I won't deny, I wasn't looking forward to leaving my kids and spending Friday afternoon with a bunch of 9 year olds (it's kind of funny that I have an eight and ten year old in scouts and I got put with the age right between them) But when we were up in the mountains, it was a good place to be.

Friday night we watched Frankenweenie and got a surprise visit from the missionaries. (unfortunately our house was a giant mess, kind of embarrassing.) 

Saturday we wrapped up all boys soccer games for the season. Wahoo! We were in charge of treats for Taylor's game and the whole time I was trying to keep Adeline from attacking the cookies. Eventually I let her have one. :)

We enjoyed the rest of our Saturday celebrating Grandma Morris's birthday. We made her Beef Broccoli, roasted veggies, spinach salad, and apple cake. It was a very happy visit!

Sunday was exactly what we needed. In the late afternoon the boys played out in the the cold and thought it was the greatest ever. They played some adventure game (Corbin was the harvester, Taylor was the hunter, Levi had technology powers, and Rudger was just stinkin cute) and they can't wait to play again during our fall break this weekend!!

roller blade training

A couple of weeks ago Rudger and Justin came upstairs from hanging out in the exercise room. Rudger was so excited to show me something he had been working on. Rollerblade training. He put on the blades, grabbed onto the couch, leaned over, put his game face on, and pushed off towards the kitchen island. And then he did that everyday for a week. He went around and around the kitchen, each day getting better and better. (I probably should not alllow this inside, but life's too short.)  

Justin decided it was time to graduate to the sidewalk outside. Yikes. But, I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was just about the cutest thing ever.