Blessed.

We blessed our sweet Everly on February 3rd.

She was pretty excited about it.

We made sure to have a little talk beforehand....I politely requested that she refrain from the "I'm freaking out and what the heck is happening to me" cry.

She thought it over for a few minutes.

And then she gave me her pirate wink.

Grandma Kathleen was still in town.

And Grandma Jean and Grandpa Joe came up from Arkansas for the special day.

The blessing was beautiful and I felt so strongly the love that I have for my family.  I am sad that this is the last time that I will hear my husband bless one of our new babies....but I'm excited for all that our future holds and for the fun of growing up!

Around the house....2012

When I organize my photos, I always have those pictures that defy a label. They just.....are.

So I put them all in a folder called "Around the house" followed by the year.

Here is a sampling of "Around the House -- 2012"

I give you:

Our fervent love of cereal.

Our misguided attempts at fancy FHE treats. I ended up eating this ENTIRE fruit pizza myself.

Enjoying a beautiful spring morning.

Chess with a brother.

Green finger!

Drinking from the soaker hose.

The TV is broken....

A Saturday morning.

Killing time on a Sunday afternoon.

Stockings on the head.

Family push-ups.

Mathew's ability to relate any gospel principle to various cups of water.

And lest we forget....the sleep wars of 2012...

MCADD testing day

One sunny Saturday we took all the kids in to get tested for MCADD.

I was feeling stressed and overwhelmed with the prospect of having every single one of my children poked with needles.  And with the idea that we had 5 more possible disorders to worry about in our future.

But there is something to be said for not really grasping the gravity of what we were doing.

And there's something to be said for the baby that slept through the entire event.

There is something to be said for the fantastic Dad that took each one of them in and helped them to be brave and coached them to cheer on their siblings. I seriously love him.

And there is something to be said for sharing the experience with your best friends.

And there can't be enough said about driving behind coordinated arm flapping....all the way home.

The hair.

Remember Anna's haircut?

Let me remind you....(click here)

I really think it's working.

Don't you?

Survival

Let's be honest here.

Baby's are so wonderful. They are 7 lbs of pure heavenly joyification.

They are also ridiculous hard.

Make-me-cry-to-myself-as-I walk-around-the-block  HARD.

So I'm just gonna tell it how it is.

Because someday my kids are going to have kids.

And I want them all to know that they aren't the only ones that aren't in blissful happiness all day when their own little babies are keeping them up all night and forcing them into the hallways for 3 hours every Sunday.

It's all of us.

I promise.

So, just hold that baby.

Feed him/her as much as he/she wants to.

Take a shower if you can.

Don't. If you can't.

It's going to be O....KAY....

The other kids know where the loaf of bread is....

They won't starve and they don't have to wear shirts.  Or pants.

You are not required to answer the door.

I promise you that they will watch WAY TO MUCH TV.

Possibly while sitting on a jar of mini marshmallows. It's O...KAY....

It isn't going to last forever.

Even though it honest-to-goodness feels like it will.

It won't.

There are plenty of electric devices to go around.

Oh....and don't be upset if your child formerly know as "the baby" has a bit of a hard time.

It's normal.

And yes, she will probably want to suck on one of the baby's binkies.

Or maybe ALL of her binkies.

Don't sweat it.

It won't last forever.

Even though it feels like it will.

And if you promise to buy a house right next to me, I'll come over and help you.

The waiting room

It's been 3 months since Everly's diagnosis.  Last time we were here, I was crying and feeling very unsure about the future. 

Now we are feeling like we can manage this disorder and we will learn and do anything we need to to help Ever live a happy life and feel as normal as possible. 

We are feeling grateful.

And we are done crying.

Glam

Why does this make me feel like a good mother?

I can't put my finger on it....but every time I see them trail through the house with wacko combinations of clothing or glamming it up with sequinned scarves, faux fur hats and plastic shoes, I know something is going right that day.

This is the good stuff.

And I just can't get enough of those poses. I mean, c'mon...that leg!

Halo

Sometimes I imagine that there is an army of little cotton candy elves that have lost their way in the night and somehow stumbled upon Anna's sleeping head. 

How else can you explain this.....this....

MASTERPIECE?

Watch me...

There was this one time that I told Mark that I was gonna take the van and go get some free dirt from the city and he said I would never do it...maybe because he had just hauled two loads and it was...quite a bit of work.

So I said...

Watch me.

General Magnussons

One of the reasons I miss Arkansas is that the Magnussons still live there. Jessica Magnusson is one of those people that I look forward to just parking myself on the couch and talking about everything or anything that pops into our brains. She is irreverent and hilarious. She is extraordinarily cool and has style to spare. I admit I idolize her a bit...

I am always thrilled when they come to visit. And despite my tendency to want to just hang out and chat with her, we tried to find some fun stuff for the kids to enjoy. 

We popped into Deanna Rose for a look around. I didn't realize that it was opening weekend, so there were lots of extra people...dressed up as school marms. 

It was the boys' job to guard the door and the baby. You can tell that they are really loving this schoolhouse presentation.

I took Anna to feed the "baby" goats while the others went fishing. I've learned my lesson when it comes to who is really expected to put worms on the hooks and take poky fish off the hooks.

Me. That's oo.

Then we settled in for General Conference listening.

Saturday session:

Sunday session:

In between absorbing the words of the Prophets and Apostles, we did a bit of eating. 

It's surprising how quiet it is at the dinner table when all the crazy people eat outside. 

To recap...

I miss the Magnussons.

I prefer bossy goats over worms and fish.

We fall asleep during conference because we are flat out sleep deprived and living on the brink of total exhaustion.

Picnic tables are a viable option for a peaceful meal.

Best kind of lesson

Monday night is Family Home Evening night. We come home from school, get the homework done, try to play outside for a few minutes, make dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner (ha ha ha) and then if we can pull together the last few drops of energy left between us, we have Family Home Evening. 

If we are especially perky, there is a lesson and a song and a scripture and a homemade treat, with somebody to announce the whole shebang.

If we are inches away from collapsing from exhaustion and overstimulation, we read a few scriptures while we munch on graham cracker/frosting sandwiches. 

But if your really lucky, dad will do the cookie lesson. You know the one....it's the awesome one where each ingredient represents some part of the gospel and in the end you mix it all together and put it in the fiery furnace of tribulation and you get....COOKIES! Oh, and a testimony. 

We get to sit back and be adorably chubby.

Because soon we will have cookies.