Gracie's Hair

I’ve always thought of Gracie’s hair
As crazy and unique
And like her hair, she is as rare
A person as you’ll ever meet.


Some days she is wild
Some days she’ll yell
Some days she is quite mild
And will sit and listen well.

She has a million questions
She loves to organize
She loves to help others
She loves a good surprise

Sometimes, like her hair
When it is straight and smooth
She is gentle, calm and quiet
And really gets the groove

On other days, when her curls are tight
It won’t go quite that way
She’ll work hard and do her best
But it might feel like a long day

Whether straight or curly, short or long
Gracie has spirit plus
She is sensational, fantastic, strong
And its KINDERGARTEN OR BUST

My little Buttercup has the cutest smile...

Annie aka Buttercup has blessed our family for the last 33 months or so. She is one sweet girl. There are so many things I love about her. She is dog-loyal to Gracie. When Gracie gets in a tight spot, Annie is the first to back her up, like a few days ago when Jackson took her toy and wouldn't give it back, here comes Annie, 35 pounds of spit and fire, telling Jackson where he can hang his hat if you know what I mean.
I love all her little phrases, like "I pinky promise..." or "I want my sister GRACIE" or "This is saalmoon (salmon) and it's nummy! Try it Grace." She says words like "actually" and "I cryin". She is very expressive especially concerning potty training. "It's very, very hard mommy."

I also love so much her big, blue, beautiful eyes but I suppose my favorite thing about her is that lovely smile. Big, bright and all teeth! She is a sweetheart and we love her!

Olivia's big day!

We blessed Olivia on June 7th. What a beautiful day. We had friends and family there to see our sweet baby recieve a wonderful blessing. Her dress was lovingly made by Grandma Hill and she had gorgeous blanket crocheted by Grandma Jackson. We have recieved so many blessing in our family and Olivia is the cherry on the top! It is so fun to watch how the other kids love and protect her. She brings such a calming and loving spirit to our home and helps us realize how blessed we are. Thanks Livy! We love you!

Ladybug

Here are a few pics of my sweet Gracie otherwise known as Ladybug. She has the most amazing personality and the biggest heart. She also has a huge desire to to the right things. She has this amazing will of steel, like Cody. She also is sweet and loving and she adores Livy and Annie. What an amazing child I have. Our family, especially me, needed her!

Olivia is born!

April 29, 2009 dawned like any other day for me. I woke up to find the kids eating breakfast in the kitchen, Cody off to the gym and someone hollering for a diaper change! I changed the diaper, made sure the kids ate something other than cookies for breakfast and sent them off one by one to school. Once they were all on their way and Annie was safely tucked away in front of Dora, I knocked on Cody's office door and said, "I'll be back from the doctor in about an hour. Annie is watching Dora and I have my phone if you need me." He waved to me and I headed out the door to what was to be my last pregnancy appointment.

When I got to the doctor, she hooked me up to the monitors to see how the baby's heartrate was doing. We talked about induction. She was firm in saying that she never induces before 39 weeks unless necessary and I being 38 weeks thought, "oh great...one more week!" It was then she took a look at the tape from the monitor and said, "Why don't we go ahead and induce you today." What!!! Of course I was a little frantic that something might be wrong with the baby. She told me that the baby's heartrate wasn't tracking like she liked to see and thought it would be best to go ahead and have the baby.

I called Cody as I walked over to the hospital and told him today was the day! He didn't believe me at first but eventually said, "Well, lets have a baby!" Dr. Webb broke my water at noon and Livy was born at 5:01 pm. Almost waited to long before I got the epidural. Wow! How do we forget that kind of pain! I was glad to finally feel that blessed numbness and enjoy the last part of labor. About an hour after that, the doctor came in, I pushed for 5 minutes and Olivia was born. Even though it was #5 for us, we loved every moment (minus the 20 minutes before the epidural when the pain was pretty intense). She has been such a beautiful addition to our family and now, 11 days later, I can't remember what our family was like without her.

Waiting and waiting...

So, it shouldn't be long now I keep telling myself. The reality of it is that with each day that passes, I feel my sanity slipping. Oh there are many things I could be doing to pass the time, clean my house, do my laundry, get ready for my mom to visit. (Why is it I always feel the need to deep clean when mom comes?) The problem with doing all these things is no matter how much I do, it never gets completely done! Just when one room is put in order, Annie has dumped the cereal on the floor in the kitchen or Jackson comes home from school and drops books, backpacks, coats on the floor in the living room I just spent 1 hour organizing. Nope, too exhausting for this prego woman to keep up with right now! (It must have something to do with the fact that I CAN"T BEND OVER!) Still, I try not to just sit around and WAIT! and WAIT! The truth is that I truly can't wait to not be pregnant anymore, to get my body back (it would be great if I could tie my shoes without having to practically do the splits sitting on my bed), but most of all to see this little one who has been kicking me for the last few months. I am most curious about her hair. Will it be red like Sara and Jackson or a blondie like Gracie and Annie. She will be the tie breaker. Will it be curly like Gracie or stick straight like Annie's. Will she come out wide eyed (Sara, Jackson) or screaming and her hands in fists (Gracie)? Will she be mellow and laid back like Sara or a little crazy like Jackson? Will she have bits and pieces of all the kids or something competely all her own? These are the things that cross my mind while I wait and wait and wait...

I'm back

It has been a while since I last posted. When I became pregnant, I just hibernated for the winter but now that spring has sprung...(mostly) and there have been some warm, beautiful days, I think I'll come out of my cave and post some thoughts.

First of all, only a couple of weeks left (hopefully), until little Olivia gets here! I, for one, CAN'T WAIT! The kids are excited too. Not sure what Annie will do. She might have a bit of an adjustment to make.

This last year has been a good one. In September, Cody started a new business called Positive Momentum. That has been an interesting adventure! We enjoyed a trip to Nauvoo to visit Cody's parents on their mission. We went in December and it was COLD! Those pioneers were sure made of tougher stuff than most of us today! Wow! We had a great time despite the cold. The temple is beautiful! We also took the kids to Disneyland in February. What a fun time that was. The kids were really good. Now, we are waiting for the little one to get here! All in all it has been an eventful 9 months!