::our easter::

We had a busy weekend.

We started out with our annual coloring of eggs @ Grandma Snowman's on Friday.

We had fun. Bubb wasn't in to using the little egg holder thing, so he just used his hands; and they were yellow for two days :) He spilled the pink dye, and got Port's butt all wet! We made a Yoshi egg (actually it was backwards-supposed to be white with green dots, and I made it green with white dots-oops). Chloe made some princess ones, and Port just liked seeing how they would turn out after they soaked in all the colors.

Saturday afternoon, Matt's family (on his mom's side) had their annual Easter party. There was lots of family and food. They do a swap meet type of thing where everyone brings things bound for good will, and if anybody wants it they take it. Chloe made out with lots of jewelry :)


Uncle Brandon likes to hold Baby Ava :)


We had a candy hunt...



They got lots of candy!!

Then we were headed to our friends', Carrie and Brad, house for a bit. She helped me make a video (more on that later), and I love it! The kids played. They have 2 little boys right around Port's age, so all the little boys had fun together. I wish we got together with them more often...

Then Grandma & Papa Kitty's. We usually do our Easter dinner on Easter Sunday, but not this year. The dinner was SO good! Mom does not disappoint when it comes to making a great dinner! They had some Easter treats for us, and we played some games. Then we headed home. It was a long day and a late night, but really fun.

(Our dinner. Baby Ava just laid on the floor and wiggled while we ate :) )




(Playing "hot and cold" is a new favorite for us. We played with the plastic Easter eggs. Portie hid them all in the same spot)

Easter morning. We had our egg hunt in our house. That Easter bunny is pretty tricky. He hid eggs all over, and hid the baskets. Port's was in a closet he likes to hide in, Bubbs was behind some suitcases and under a table, and Chloe's was in the dryer! Ava's was just out on the table. He gave the kids some play-doh, sidewalk chalk, sockies, and LOTS of candy. Baby Ava didn't get any candy. She got baby things (binkies, baby soap, hangy toys for her car seat). The egg hunt is pretty fun. The kids love it! They get so excited every time they see an egg. It's fun to watch.



(emptying out all the candy into a big ol' bowl. We ended up with 2 of these bowls full of candy! I hope we don't really eat it all!)

We went to church later in the morning. It was our first time as a family of 6 to go to church (all 3 meetings, all 3 hours). It was a little rough. We were late, of course. Part of that was because Chloe had a couple of nail polish fiascoes in our bathroom. First she spilled the remover all over our tub. So we had to scramble to clean that up (because it can eat up the plastic, right?). Then she set the bottle on the counter, and Bubb climbed up there to watch Baby Ava's bath, and knocked it off and it broke. Nail polish everywhere! Bright pink too. I didn't even know what to do! I stood there looking at it just frozen-what do I even do? We didn't have any nail polish remover, because she had just spilled it all in the tub 5 minutes earlier! Matt came in and helped. The tile's still a little pink, but we'll get some more remover, and hopefully that'll get it out.

At church the kids were not great. Usually they're pretty good. They were so loud yesterday! Bubb couldn't whisper to save his life!! He tried though. It came out as a whisper yell. The big kids were playing games on the iPad, and were a little too enthusiastic. I was a little disappointed in the program yesterday too. I guess I just wish there would've been more emphasis on Easter. I'm still glad we went. Hopefully next week goes a little better :)

We're grateful for our families, and for all the work they do on occasions like this. We appreciate the parties and activities so much. We appreciate their love and support. We're so thankful for a loving Savior and his atoning sacrifice.

Happy Easter!

::1 month old!::

Time flies when you're havin' fun!!

Look who's already a month old!


Ava is a month old today! She's changed a bit in a month. She's awake a little more, getting less hungry during the night (I usually only have to wake up once to feed her, burp her, and change diapers), she's trying to smile. Her eyes are really smiley, but her mouth's not quite there yet. She LOVES to be talked to. I goo-goo at her and say "ohhh" at her and she makes noises back, and it's precious! We had her into the dr. earlier this week, and she was a little over 10 lbs. She's starting so get some chubb on her, and I LOVE it :) The double chin and chubby cheeks are my favorites right now. She's already outgrown her newborn sized things (diapers, clothes, socks), and is too long for her 0-3 month sized clothes. Her 3-6 month sized things fit her in length, but not so much around the waste. She seems to be focusing on things better. I can tell she sees me when I talk to her, and she LOVED laying under her little thing (pictures below) the other day.

The little boys were kind enough to "babysit" while I took a shower.
(Most who know my boys would get a little nervous at the thought of them alone with Ava, but they're SO gentle and sweet with her!)



(loooove that tongue!!)

She still sleeps a lot. I took her blanket off so I could get a picture of her whole self, and she was stirrin' a bit. She finally decided on a binky (after trying 4 different shapes). She's still not a big fan, but she'll take it if she feels like she needs it ;)



Don't you love when they sleep with their arms up?
I do.
:)


Things are great around here!
We're getting along well, adjusting well, and are just loving our new baby sister. We all call her "sister" all the time too (except Matt, he mostly calls her "baby girl" and "princess" and "doll" too. Cute, huh?!) As for me, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm so so so so so glad not to be pregnant anymore! How great is sleeping on your stomach?? I'm trying to exercise, and have been since about the start of the 2nd week after she was born because OH! I want to wear my clothes again!!! I started out walking for an hour, then after about 5 days of that, I had to listen to my body and backed off to 30 minutes, then had to stop all together for a while. I decided to pick it back up again this week, and did about an hour of cardio yesterday(which is not my first choice in exercises, but the weather is too cold and wet to go run-well walk...can't run yet), and felt SO good-until this morning when I realized I had strained ALL of my ab muscles! I guess taking it slowly is good advice. I get a little tired. Less now that Ava's sleeping a little longer at night. My headaches are my new best "friend," but I'm sure lack of sleep has something to do with that. Napping is IMPOSSIBLE! I've never been one for naps anyway, but when you have 2 other kids at home with you most of the day plus a new baby, extra sleep is pretty rare. It's okay though...I'm makin' it, and hopefully Ava and I can both sleep through the night here in a few more weeks :) Other than that, I'm doin' good too.
:)

Oh, and Happy Easter weekend!

::a regular occurrence::

This is pretty normal around our house...

(I love Coop's sneaky "I'm gonna get the iPad" face)

What is it about Dada that makes these boys feel like they have to jump on him? Matt can hardly sit or lay in their sight without both of them completely attacking him. They don't hold back either...they climb on him, jump on him, head butt him, step on his face, etc etc. I guess sometimes boys just need to wrestle. I don't think Matt minds too much though :)

In other news...

Portie was asking me about dying the other day. He started out by asking if we were all going to die. My first thoughts were how careful I needed to be in answering his questions. I didn't want to scare him, but I wanted to be honest. I remember for a little while when I was little, I was terribly scared of my mom dying. I would worry about it a lot, and any time she was late or didn't answer the phone, I would get scared that she died. Anyway...I told him that yeah, some day we all would die. He asked how we would die. I tried to be really careful about that too. I didn't want him to be scared of accidents or diseases or anything. I just told him that people die in all different ways, but that hopefully we would die of old age because that meant that we lived a long long time. He thought for a minute. I watched him ponder the things I had told him. I waited for his next sweet little question, anticipating how I would gently answer it. And then he said "or we could get hit by a bus tomorrow and die." So much for a sweet, meaningful conversation! That's my boy! Always a surprise, always making me laugh.

::a little celebration::

Saturday night. 6:00ish.

Big dinner with (almost) all of Matt's family. I think there were 21 of us.

Matt's mom and dad decided to take us all out dinner for a little celebration for his dad's, sister's, and niece's birthdays. He recently retired too, so we gave him some golfy gifts :)


The little boys liked the cheesecake.


Chloe and Port played a few games on my phone.


Baby Ava was there too, sleeping in her car seat the whole time (what a good baybay).

::draggin'::

Today I'm pretty tired.

I feel like we've had kind of a busy week so far. Monday was preschool and gym for Port (we watched him for about 30 min after we got done at the store and the dr.(Ava's 2 week check up)-and Bubb was NOT good while we were watching Port). Tuesday we had to go to the store (again), then I picked Chloe up from school early so we could get her hair done for pictures that afternoon. They were Ava's newborns, but I wanted a few of the big kids with her, and I really love when Chloe's hair is triple barreled, so we did that. Then we did pictures for about 2 hours, then we came home. Today we had Port's preschool, Chloe had early out, as soon as she got off the bus, we all headed right back to her school for Port's kindergarten "meet the teacher" thing (which was SO boring, I think poking myself in the eye for an hour and a half would've been more fun). Then Chloe had gymnastics. Friday Chloe's playing at a friends house, but we don't have anything special planned for tomorrow, and I'm glad.

Also, Miss Ava likes to eat every 2-3 hours during the night, so that makes me more tired...

And I guess it all caught up to me today.

(Her fave sleeping position. I don't mind it either :) )

We were watching the Lakers tonight, and I thought I'd make some clicky noises with my tongue at her. She was pretty interested in it.

(Ava-2 weeks old)


This picture has nothing to do with this post, I just thought it was cute. It was taken a few weeks ago when we had good weather. The kids are all wearing their t-shirts Grandma & Papa Kitty brought back from their cruise to the Bahamas. They change color in the sun (you can kinda see on Chloe's).


In other news
Port's pretty excited about kindergarten. He kept saying "my school" when we were walking in today. He had his assessment probably 3 weeks ago, and met all the kindergarten teachers today (they did some activities while the parents had to listen to the literacy lady talk about reading and math for an hour). He's did awesome at his assessment. I kept telling him how smart he is and that I didn't know he was that smart. He loves that. Today he was all kinds of excited to tell Dada about what he did at his new school.

::times 4::

What a week (and a half)!!

We had our baby girl on Monday, March 21. We went into the hospital just before 6 in the morning. By the time all the paperwork was done, blood drawn, IVs run, machines turned on, it was 6:45. We were hoping to have a baby by noon. Then, as time went on, we pushed our guesses further and further back. My dr. didn't break my water until 1ish, and by about 5 I was only 5 cm. By that time, I was just hoping she'd be born sometime that night! Then in about 45 minutes, the nurse did an exam, and started laughing. I said "what?, nu uh." She said, "you're complete." I said "stop it!!" It was funny because there were twins being delivered at the same time, and they'd been saying all along that luck would have it that I would be ready at the same time as the twins, and we were. So we had to wait a few minutes for my dr. to get done with the twins. The nurse told me not to cough! The labor was long, the epidural was not great (I blame that on the anesthesiologist), but the delivery was perfect! It was so easy and quick.

(whoa I was big!)

It was a looooong day! Chloe was my little buddy all day. We had all the kids there with us for most of the day, but the little boys got bored of the iPads and Vsmiles, so Grandma Snowman took them to her house for a while. We called her while I was waiting for my dr. to get done with the twins, and they got there right after she was born. Chloe didn't leave my side the whole day! She didn't go to school, and didn't even want to leave to have lunch. She was so excited to meet her sister.

(I love this picture. My face describes how "fun" it was to sit in a hospital bed for 12 hours. And Chloe laying by me is just precious)

And here's our girl!! As soon as she was out, I felt the best relief in my stomach! I could breathe for the first time in months! She cried right away. I asked if her cord was wrapped around her neck-I was pretty worried about that. It wasn't, by the way. When they handed her to me, she was just perfect! 10 fingers, 10 toes, and completely perfect! She has dimples-one of the very first things I noticed about her, she had lots of dark hair (especially in the back), she has the LONGEST feet (they're skinny and flat just like mine) and fingers. She is completely beautiful!




Our whole family is pretty in love with her. We all think she's beautiful and sweet and can't imagine life without her. Matt was holding her in the hospital and was a little teary eyed at the whole experience, and he said "aw, are you sure we're done? Look how sweet she is!"


There are SO many pictures of Chloe holding Baby Ava. She just can't hold her enough. She just loves her so much. She was so sad at the hospital when she had to go home with Da-da. She cried. She wanted to stay there with me. I would've let her if there had been a bed there for her (even a couch bed would've been fine), but all there was was a big recliner. She'd had a long day and needed some sleep. So she stayed while Matt took the boys home and got them bathed and in bed, and then he came back to tell us goodnight and take Chloe home. They came back the next morning-no she didn't go to school Tuesday either. She mostly stayed at the hospital with me ALL day. She even ate some of my hospital food! Anyway, she just couldn't bare being away from her new sister.




Portie is a sweet big brother. He love baby sister too. When I was holding her right after she was born, he said "Mom! She likes you!" He's learning how to be gentle and how not to prove how strong he is by lifting her up off his lap. He gives her lots of kisses and likes to touch her hair. He holds her a lot. He's pretty curious about nursing too-hmmm I guess we'll have to figure that one out.




Cooper-what a sweet boy. He calls her Bee Aevuh. He likes when she squeaks. He loves to hold her, but he tells her not to touch his foot/jammies/mumma or whatever. He talks to her a lot. He likes to honk her nose-gently. He tries to show her stuff too. He loves when she doo-doos and always wants to see her diaper. Our first morning at home, he came into our room just before 7 (which is pretty normal-he does that a lot). He cuddled up to us. Baby Ava squeaked, and he said "whassat??" I said "I don't know, what was that?" He sat up and looked in her little bassinet. I guess he forgot about her! When he saw her he said "BeeAevuh!!" It was cute.





She's a pretty good baby. I think she's the spittin' image of her big sister when she was teeny. It's so fun to look at her and watch her because she reminds me SO much of Chloe. Her stretches, squeaks...she was even "baby snake" (where she sticks her tongue out over and over) when she was born just like Chloe. Ava's hair and skin are darker, like Port's was, but other than that, she's Chloe-part 2 (we tell Chloe that a lot, and I think she likes it). She sleeps a lot. She likes to eat every 2-3 hours during the day; except for sometimes when she wants to eat an hour after her last feeding. She's not a huge fan of the binky (also like Porter). She'll take it if we really make her, but she's not a fan. She's really cuddly, and I just want to hold her all day long!

It's weird that it's already been almost 2 weeks, but at the same time, I can't believe she's only been with us for that long-it feels like she's always been here. Does that make sense? Probably not. These last 11 days have been pretty great. I feel so good! I can breathe, going to bed is relaxing and nice (even though I have to wake up and feed her about 3 times during the night), and I just feel so much happier. Matt was home all week the week she was born (which was really nice), and I've been on my own this week. It's been good though. I got the big kids everywhere they needed to go on time (for the most part), and life's been good.

I'm so thankful for my "little" family. I can't properly put into words how much they mean to me. I feel so blessed and lucky to have 4 beautiful, fun, healthy kids, and a supportive, loving husband. I'm so thankful and appreciative of the help we've gotten from family in the last week and a half. We've had lots of support and lots of visitors. Thanks, we love you all!

::hello world::

Ava Mae

8 lbs 1 oz 21 inches.

All is well :)