A few firsts...

We survived the first few weeks of school, barely. After all the "meet the teachers", back to school clothes shopping date nights with each child,

school supplies from 4 different lists...

so approximately 1 million dollars later... we started school!

Look at this, WHAT could this be, MY child in highschool??!

Ashlin is a freshman!

Dallin is the big man on campus, 6th grade

Emma is in 4th grade
(and ofcourse has a coordinating purse)

Logan, my big man, in 1st grade
(minus a few teeth)

...And what is this??! My Little Lily, WHAT, in school?!

Lily, who just became the BIG SISTER.... started preschool...
sniffle sniffle....

Last week I was at the bus stop, with my cute new baby in her stroller, chatting it up with all the women in my neighborhood who have children my childrens ages, (but whom have all stopped having more children)... when one of them points out that I have been tagged, and sure enough I had a big chunky white glob of spit up on the shoulder of my brown shirt.

Oh the glamour of being a mom.

So the cute thing was yesterday before school Emma was all about holding her little baby sister:
(like so)
...then as we were walking to the bus stop, pushing our cute baby in her stroller, Dallin points out what is oozing down Emma's shoulder...

a big glamorous white glob of spit up as well.
Oh the glamour of being a helpful big sister!
My cute fashionably coordinating Emma wasn't upset,
and maybe even a little honored at the sweet gift.

And look at my little 6 week old baby who has started lifting her head up...

...how can you not want to kiss her...
(my mom says my babies get baby acne because I kiss them too much)

And thanks to Ashlin and my sister Chrissy for making Sophie all her cute flower bows!

Love the baby!!!!

(and what choice do I have but to try and love

the new and even crazier busy life with a baby!)

Toyland

Clearly Bruce and I have a different idea as to what qualifies as "reverent" things to bring to church for the children.

On sunday my 4 year old daughter whips out her hot pink princess backpack that she, with Bruce's approval, loaded full of things to do in sacrament meeting: 12 My little Ponies of various sizes, a Lightning Mcqueen car collection, hot pink heart sunglasses (that she wore in sacrament) a cell phone, etc... I was so embarrased, becuse these toys didn't lend to quiet play... and it did not add to the reverence to try and take all these things away, I attempted that, it was not a quiet protest she put up. It was too late...so I was relieved to leave the meeting and nurse my baby so I no longer had to endure the embarrassment of the playland toy collection we had going on during church... ha ha, lesson learned again, go through the church bag beforehand!

These are the kind of things you give up control of when you keep adding babies to the mix, the packing of the church bag, I am going to try and regain control of this for next sunday though.

End of Summer

Hooray for Emma, who found my camara in the stroller compartment from when I took pictures on the first day of school... it has been missing for 2 and a half weeks!! Now I can post pictures...

My sweet baby below who is sleeping AND actually in a basinet and not my arms! She sleeps pretty well at night too, but ofcourse that is if she's in bed with me in my arms... I am loved!

Look at the tender moment below...

...so I walk in the family room to the above scene, Logan just laying on the couch staring at his new baby sister when she was like a week old... After laying there a while he says to me:

Logan: "Mom, do you think Sophie is cutest when she is asleep or awake"

Cherryl: "I think she is cute when she is asleep and awake"

Logan: "I think she is cutest when she is sleeping"

Then he just kept on laying there staring at her. It was such a sweet moment. It has been so tender to see how much all the kids love their new baby sister!

And below is my youngest and oldest daughters... Ashlin is trying to calm a crying Sophie. Ashlin's getting pretty good at the bouncing and "sh"-ing to get the baby happy... I might even say sometimes better then the dad has it down...

must be a gender thing!

I think this picture captures pretty much how I feel...
happy, but don't I look really tired too?

And I think this picture pretty much sums up how Sophie feels:

tired, but happy because she's asleep with me.

So when Sophie was just 2 and a half weeks old Bruce's family had a family reunion in Utah. I thought it was a little much for a new baby, so he took the older 4 kids and left Lily, Sophie and I home for 4 days...

Here are some photos Bruce took of their stay at the cabin with the Vernons:
The boy cousins all slept outside in a tent
You notice the pink shirt Dallin is wearing above. Him and Ashlin ran in the 5k in Monticello and the free t-shirts they got said, "tough enough to wear pink". Dallin called me after the race to tell me he got first place for his age group... I was like, WOW, good job!! Then he told me he was the only one in his age group... ha ha, but he still got a prize!

Ashlin is WAY excited about the family games above!

So below is Lily and I back at home. While the older kids were gone I was looking forward to some much needed rest. Big problem... Lily doesn't nap anymore. But one afternoon I was nursing Sophie and Lily was playing alone in the playroom. I had planned on laying Sophie down then going to snuggle and read with Lily for some one on one time. But when I layed Sophie down someone called, and shame on me for answering the phone, but I did, and talked too long, and when I came out to the playroom this is what I found:

Poor Lily had gotten a pillow and blanket and her backpack of toys and quietly put herself to sleep. It actually broke my heart, she was so sweet laying there alone in the play room. I felt so bad I answered that phone!! She was so patient and sweet waiting for me... :( But since both my girls were sleeping, I went and had myself a nap too!

So one family tradition we have is "THE LIST". Every summer, the monday night before summer starts, we make a to-do list of all the fun things we want to do that summer. Then we mark it off as we go. It was especially challenging this summer, since we had our 6th baby in the middle of it... but don't you worry, my kids still did plenty of fun things!

The week before school started, we had a few things left on our list, one of which was a BAKING PARTY, and we had new neighbors move in with kids my kids ages.... so my kids made invitations and we went next door and invited them over for a pie baking party!

Here are the boys making their pies:
And here are the girls:
They got to choose any kind of pie they wanted for their mini-take home pies:
chocolate cream, cherry, blueberry, banana cream, or apple

Everyone and their finished pies:

And then a few days later, since we had leftover pie stuff... and since it was sunday, and I love a little dessert on a sunday, but I was busy nursing... I informed Ashlin she was going to have her own pie party.... and Ashlin made us a chocolate cream pie
ALL BY HERSELF!

She was very proud of herself and actually asked me to put her on my blog! She made the pie crust, rolled it out, formed the pie, made the filling and made the chocolate shaving curls for the top all herself! And it was YUMMY! (and actually, she sewed the apron herself too)
Go Ashlin!

Feeding Time

Let me give you a snapshot of life with 6 kids.... I cannot find my camara. That is the state my house is in. I wish I could, then I would upload some precious pictures of the last month with a new baby home... hopefully soon I will find it... and hopefully soon I'll find my clean, organized house again, I can't find that either... ugh

Today was so routine that it wasn't until Bruce called and asked what I'd been up to that I realized that for...
THREE AND A HALF HOURS straight I had been feeding my family.
How do you spend that much time feeding your family?? This is my glamorous life, and in no way am I exaggerating... at 10:30am Lily, Sophie and I got in the car to go grocery shopping, and it was a good trip as I stayed UNDER $200.00 AND fit everything in ONE cart (barely). We got home and unloaded the whole car for 10 minutes... during which I had a screaming baby who wanted to eat... so I left all the groceries on the counter and fed her until 12:25. Ashlin and Emma were both home sick from school, and were asking to eat. After feeding Sophie, I hurried (as my groceries have still been on the counter for 30 minutes) and made them both Lipton noodle soup and served them lunch, then had to get grapes and a hotdog for Lily, which we negotiated, she had really wanted fruitsnacks. Then I finally starting putting my groceries away, which I always dread. Then just before 1:00 I finally got myself lunch, which was leftover taco salad from last night. Then I started loading the dishwasher with the dishes that were left in the sink from last nights dinner. The sink was overflowing. I brought my girls drinks, because I wanted to make sure they were getting enough liquids. And then I cleaned the counter from breakfast and realized I had potatoes that needed to be used, so I decided to quickly put the stuff for potatoe soup in the crockpot, since Sophie was still asleep. I looked at the clock at 2:00pm when I finished and realized that for 3 and a half hours straight I was gathering, fixing, feeding and cleaning up food!!! Seriously, I tell Bruce this, and he says, ofcourse, what he always says, "your the one who wanted so many kids!". I was seriously doing everything as fast as I could too.... but 2 minutes ago Sophie started crying, so I have to go so I can FEED my sweet baby again!! :)

Sophie's photo shoot

So, our friend Sara came and took newborn pictures of Sophie. They are all taken at my house. She did a GREAT job! She is so talented, wow. I am finally posting them.

First, here are a few with Lily:

Poor Miss Lily has had her "youngest" position in the family taken away from her... She handles it some days better than others, bless her heart. It must be hard for a child to have to change identities. Some days she likes Sophie more than others...

But how can we not adore our darling Lily, look how cute she is!

Then, here is the photo shoot with just Sophie....

saracoralphotography.blogspot.com

Sophie Marie is here!

July 10, 2009

Sophie Marie Vernon

was born!

My wonderful doctor, Dr. Huish, scheduled me to be induced the day before my due date, so here I am below, in labor, but in no pain... hooray!

We got to the hospital and they started pitosin at 1:50pm, and 2 and a half hours later, Sophie was born! So amazing, my epidural did wear off a little, and when I was pushing, it hurt...

She came out blue as ever, so cute, covered in gunk and they put her on my tummy and I just cried and cried! They had to give her a little oxygen at first, but it was never too stressful.

I really am happy below, I just couldn't stop crying! What an amazing experience it is, words cannot even describe the intense feelings of joy and gratitude you feel.

I feel bad that Bruce was taking all these pictures, so there are only a couple with him in them. But, oh man, do I feel thankful for such a wonderful husband and dad for my kids! He is so cute with Sophie and I love to see him kissing on her and loving her to pieces!

I LOVE YOU BRUCE-
THANK YOU for letting me have another baby!!
Worlds BEST Dad EVER!

So, I'm handed this little baby, and some of my first thoughts are always like, I don't even know you, this little angel is a stranger at first, I don't recognize her yet, because we've just met. The 2 days in the hospital are this amazing bonding experience where your baby becomes yours! I just held her and stared at her for 2 days... my little baby!

So, ofcourse all Sophie's brothers and sisters couldn't wait to come and meet her either. My wonderful sister Chrissy had my kids friday to saturday and did all kinds of fun stuff with them. She brought them to the hospital that night. So here they are, 1 at a time, meeting their new sister:

Lily

Logan

Emma

Dallin

Ashlin

And then, look at me and my beautiful children, how could I be so lucky?? It's all I ever dreamed about when I was younger, having my own family.

We don't look like that big of a family, right?

Oh my goodness, look how cute little Sophie is. She hardly cried. And I held her almost the whole time. My favorite part of having a new baby, is sleeping with them in my arms and my face next to their face. Heaven.

And here is where Sophie and I lived for 2 days. So precious, just getting to know my new baby girl, my new friend, my new sleeping buddy!

As much as I LOVE the hospital for 2 days, we were also excited to take Sophie home!

As we drove home, I warned Sophie that it was just her and me in the hospital for 2 days... but that is NOT what it would be like at home. I told her about all the other little kids that live with us and how excited they are to have her home. She took the news very calmly. I think she was disappointed at first to hear it wouldn't just be me and her forever, but she handled it very well! See what a good girl she is, she's perfect, and she's mine! (well, Bruce's too)