Old and New

People often ask me who so-and-so looks like, and most of the time I say, oh, I don't know, I see similarities, but they all have their own looks. Here are pictures of each child at 1 year old....

and here are some family pictures down the line....

april 2007

may 2009

June 2009

December 2009

March 2011

December 2011

playdoh

I try to do planned activities. It helps us all stay on a schedule and helps the kids stay occupied and out of trouble. Playdoh is one of those activities that everyone enjoys! We have a set of rules that the girls are very used to, and Drew is getting better with.  No mixing colors, everything stays at the table, pick up things that fall immediately. They can play for at least an hour. Then we put it all away high in the laundry room cabinet until next time. After the crumbs dry I brush use my dustbuster and vacuum them all up :)

 Kate stays well contained in her high chair and has a lot of fun smooshing, squeezing, and cutting with animal shapes. 

Emma (above) and Ella (below) love to make food. Ice cream, pizza, green beans, and many other unidentifiable items. 

Drew was too busy to stop and look at the camera :)

emma getting kate out of bed

emma and ella have been helping kate get out of her crib for a long time. probably close to a year! when they first started this, i watched emma climb in the crib and lift kate over the rail to ella waiting on the floor with stretched up arms. well, their method has evolved as they've grown taller, stronger, and smarter.

most of the time i don't mind EE getting her out of bed. they like to help take care of her and entertain her!

going to the dentist!

emma and ella went to the dentist for the first time in august 2010 after they turned 4 years old. they did really well - emma shed a few tears when the dentist "pushed on her teeth" but they loved the t-shirt and goodie bag with little toys afterwards! although the staff raved about how pretty their teeth were, they each had a tiny little cavity (on the same tooth!) so we had to schedule another appointment. we talked a lot about what the dentist does and why we take care of our teeth and what to expect... i think they were pretty prepared for what was going on.

this is ella.

today we went back for the fillings. i think i was definitely more nervous than they were! emma wanted to go first - i'm not sure why - and even though they called ella in first, emma reminded everyone that she had decided to go first. so we switched.

this is emma with some tears in her eyes. she really tried to be brave.

our dentist is wonderful! he talked with her the entire time, often making her laugh. they numbed up her mouth first with a gel before the s-h-o-t and she didn't even know she was getting it! they gave her a little bit of laughing gas too, which probably helped. he showed her how all the tools worked before he put them in her mouth, like the "whistle" (drill) that sprays water and blows air while it whistles. she was in and out of the chair in less than 10 minutes!

then ella's turn. they started her on the laughing gas and numbing gel, then the dentist looked at her and decided she really didn't need a filling! so she was done! we stopped at the park to swing for about 10 minutes (waiting for happy hour to start) went to sonic for blue slushes, then home! fun day!

we went back to the dentist in march 2011 for checkups. they did great! they got new toothbrushes and even picked out one for drew. they brush their teeth almost every day and floss about every other day.

emma is in the turquiose, ella is in pink.

   

Playing at home and the farm

Being silly on the stuffed dog I made in high school!   Drinking milkshakes at home after a hot day outside.

Drew learned quickly to help with the laundry. I would drop the wet clothes on the dryer door and he would push them into the dryer and close the door. One day I left the room to get more clothes for the next load, and when I came back Drew was gone! Then I heard his cute little giggle and found him in the dryer! And yes, he has his second black eye. His first was when he learned to climb and fell off the little bench swing in the backyard onto the concrete porch. Then this one... which I'm sorry to say I can't remember how he got it... and currently he is recovering from his 3rd black eye that he got when he walked too close in from of Emma swinging.

Next are some fun-at-the-farm pictures. Kels giving dirt bike rides. Drew discovering his pockets! He had one hand in his back pocket and the other in a front pocket. So cute! Glad he didn't trip and fall on his face without his hands to catch him!

   

Playing in the suburban with Aunt Mandy, riding with Aunt Emily and Sammy, horsieback with Aunt Ashley.

Kate's first bath

It is a tradition for us girls that have kids for our Mom to give the babies their first bath. It wasn't really on purpose, just happened that way! It is so wonderful to have Mom there to help with everything after a new baby is born, and the first bath is definitely one of those things! Thanks Mom! 

Halloween and Christmas 2010

These posts are going backwards, trying to catch up on some important events...

 Grandma and Poppa sent several huge boxes of Christmas presents this year since we couldn't be in Washington with them. We opened those at home before we went up to my parents for Christmas. One of their gifts were cute matching pajamas for the kids that they wore on Christmas morning. We spent almost a week in Kansas at Christmas time. My mom came for a week when Katelyn was born, then Emily, Ashley, and Mom were here again the weekend of the 19th to see Kate and got to sing with me in our church Christmas program! They asked us to sing again next time they are here :)  Then Mandy came from California to spend almost 2 weeks at home.

Christmas in Kansas at Nana and Grandad's (my parents) house. Katelyn was just a few weeks old!

All the kids acted out the Christmas story - so fun!

Kate was so mad in this picture, but it's the only one I have in her cute outfit! See those little Santa feet? :) Mandy added her twinkling Christmas lights necklace too. Then Nana putting Katie to sleep at the dinner table. After this Christmas trip Kate quickly decided that she likes to be held. Took some adjusting after we got home again, because unfortunately I can't hold her all the time!

Putting up the Christmas tree at our house right after Thanksgiving. Each of the kids took turns being lifted up by Daddy to put the start on the top of the tree. :)

The girls decorated almost the whole tree! They did a great job and were very proud of themselves. I did some reorganizing some when they weren't looking, and some had to be rearranged to avoid getting broken by Drew, who managed to break several anyway. Good thing he is so cute!

Christmas party at church, just one week before Katelyn was born. Drew did NOT want to sit on Santa's lap! The girls were so cute and helped direct the Christmas carols.

Halloween 2010

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating! These super fancy drangonfly and lightning bug were gifts from Grandma and Poppa. They sent a catalog and the girls picked these out. Emma is the blue dragonfly and Ella is the green lightning bug. Drew was going to be a bumblebee that one of the girls wore, but then I found this adorable green dragon at a second-hand clothing sale right before halloween and couldn't resist. It was nice and warm too for the cold halloween night. They got to wear their costumes 3 times! First at our church halloween trunk-or-treat party, then trick-or-treating at the downtown business walk-around, then the traditional trick-or-treat halloween night in our neighborhood. The girls walked, Drew sat in the stroller, and Dad stayed home studying and passing out candy.

Emma helping Drew walk up to a door. Sweet kids!

Katelyn is here!

It has been a while since I blogged, which I was never very good at anyway! But I have some great friends that keep up with amazing blogs, and I wish I could do that! So I am going to try to do better. We always have so much going on in our lives and I often feel overwhelmed when I think about where to start. For now, I will start with the birth of our newest beautiful addition to our family - little Katelyn Elaine.

This little sweetie was born on her due date, December 11, 2010, at 4:10 p.m. Because Kelsey's exams began on Monday, December 13th, we decided to induce on the due date. My doctor is great and she was on call that weekend anyway. This was the first time that one of our babies was going to be born by a schedule! Even our twins were spontaneous when I went into labor at 36 1/2 weeks. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that last night! I kept hoping to go into labor on my own to avoid being induced, but we knew it would be better having her born before exams started and risk Kelsey not being home! I was not looking forward to using Pitocin, and still hope to someday have a child all on my own. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I've read and heard that Pitocin makes the contractions much more painful. More on that later....

We checked in that morning at 6 am. I wasn't sure if we had taken any pictures of me pregnant (I didn't want any of course) and wanted Katelyn to see herself in Mom's tummy later, so we took a quick photo before heading to hospital.

I had been toying with the idea of not getting an epidural this time. This was my 4th child, yet I felt as though I really had no experience or at least nothing to give me any trends of what to expect and prepare for. The girls were born via C-section after I went into labor (they were both laying transverse), then with Drew my water broke first before I was even feeling any real contractions. Then when my labor wasn't progressing they started pitocin and I had an epidural shortly after that. I gained 50 pounds with my first and second pregnancies (yes, the same amount with one baby as with the twins :) and then only 30 with Katelyn, which I am still pretty proud of myself for that. Anyway, I thought that maybe I would like to feel what regular labor is like. And since I was dilated to a 3 already, I was hoping that maybe they would break my water and see how it went before adding the pitocin. But no. They started the pitocin immediately around 7 a.m. and didn't break my water until noon. Then things started happening really quickly! I got an epidural around 2 pm and it never really went into affect. All the medicine must have gone to my right leg, because it was numb for almost a day! And my right arm felt like it was asleep. And even more strange, I felt like I was slurring my words. Extremely uncomfortalbe. I still wonder if it would have felt better to not have the epidural at all. So ironically, I was able to get my fix of what natural childbirth feels like! It was pretty bad! But of course now, 4 months later, I hardly remember the intensity of the pain. Then came our gorgeous little princess. She was very purple when she came out, which was a little scary, but she was fine. Drew had spoiled us because he was a fairly easy labor and birth, and scored a perfect 10 on the apgar scale, which is very rare! Kate scored a 6 at first, then they bumped her up to a 9 after five minutes.

She weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Since it was scheduled, we were very prepared, and my sister Emily came friday night to stay with the kids. Then my mom came down and brought everyone up to see us Saturday night. Drew was so sweet with her!

And so were the girls of course. We didn't get any pictures of them holding her at the hospital, so these are right when we got home on Monday evening. Ella is in the red shirt.