Mother's Day 2013

For Mother's Day this year we had the stomach bug but the kids (and Rick) did their best to "shower" me with gifts.  Each kid made something in a class for me.

Rachel's preschool class had a special Mother's Day Tea Party for us. 

Anson's 2nd grade class also had a Mother's Day event for us.  We played a cute BINGO game and they sang songs.  Aaron made a cute bird picture in school.  Andrew even made a cute plate in nursery that I had lunch on that day.  He was so proud of putting stickers on it!

Rick cancelled meetings, yeah Bishop, so he could make me breakfast and dinner.  I also got a 2 1/2 hour nap in there, which was amazing!  We had his parents, Medalith, Alex and Isabella over for dinner and my parents over for dessert. 

I love being a mom.  It is the hardest and yet most rewarding thing I will ever do.  These past couple months as a mom with a newborn have been difficult but I remind myself of how many years I prayed for this exact experience.  I am so lucky to be mom with such full arms!

Baby Jaina is born!

The day we, especially me, had been waiting for, for 9 months finally came Monday, April 8, 2013.  Jaina DeMille was born at 2:57 a.m. weighing 8 lbs, 1 oz and 20 inches long.  The last few weeks of the pregnancy and of course since have been a blur of inactivity on my part.  We are trying to get relatively back on course since the baby was born.  Every week we seem a little more normal, even if very sleep deprived.

Just a few labor details...my water broke, unlike all the rest of my kids, here at home.  Usually I have crazy long labors and they have to break it at the hospital.  So Rick called my mom at 9:30 Sunday night and told her to come over.  My labor started at the hospital about 11 that night by itself.  I watched a movie and Rick did some work until about 1.  He suggested I get the epidural since I've had terrible epidurals in the past.  I was concerned about slowing the labor down since I was between a 2-3 when I was admitted.  They administered the epidural at 1:30 and I was a 4.  At 2:30 I told the nurse I wanted the meds increased because I was having to breathe through each contraction.  She checked and told me it was time to push, no more meds.  So the epidural didn't really work, for the important part, bummer.  Good news it went really fast because I could feel every part of it.  So my normal 24+ hour labor was only 4, yeah!

Here we are right after she was born.

The kids came later that morning with Grandma Blackham to meet Jaina. I have to mention Andrew's first impression of her was to ask why she wasn't talking to him.  He was so excited to meet her.

Rick brought me home from the hospital on Wednesday.  The kids, especially Andrew, were really excited to have me and Jaina home.  They were all itching to hold her and play with her. 

Rachel can't get enough of her.  She is always in her face ready to hold or play with her.  She loves her to pieces!  She has increased her hand washing 5x just to be ready to hold her if Jaina is available to be held.

Aaron was a little more reluctant to hold her just because he was worried about not doing it right.  It took a few days and a prod from his school teacher for a picture and we got one.  Funny part was a soon as he held her she filled her pants.  She has since been held and again filled her pants only for him.  That's love!

Anson is always wonderful with babies.  He has a gentle and quiet way about him when he's around them.  He has proven to be a big help with holding her so I can get things done.   

Here is Andrew holding Jaina.  It is a continual "taking turns" around here to let the big kids hold the baby.

 

And Jaina a week old having some wake time.  "Hello world!"

 

We love our new baby girl.  It has been very hard with 4 plus a newborn but hopefully as she gets older we'll get better at everything.  I try to enjoy every newborn stage because I know it goes by so quickly.  Even still it is exhausting and so time consuming.  Rick has been a help as much as his schedule permits.  He has been great to take her whenever I need sleep, even if that means no sleep for him.  We've also had a lot of Grandma help trying to juggle the big kid schedule and running errands.  Our ward and a few friends have also been so much help from running kids around to helping with meals.  I don't know how people do it otherwise.  We look forward to resuming life in the coming weeks.  We've tried to keep her home and healthy as much as possible but it can't last forever.  We'll just have to do the best we can and have low expectations of everything on the homefront.  

It is such a blessing in my life to be a mother to such beautiful children.  There were so many years I didn't have this blessing.  I remind myself of that on a regular occasion so I don't get too overwhelmed.  They are each such a blessing from God.  I love being their mom and being able to bring them into the world.

Anson's 8th birthday and baptism

Yesterday was such a wonderful day I couldn't wait to get the pictures up and blog about it.  Anson turned 8 and in our church that is the age we believe God considers them old enough to make their own decisions about being baptized and knowing the difference between right and wrong.  Anson was so excited about getting baptized.  He had an interview with our Bishop a couple weeks before and could not sit still the whole time.  He came right home and made this adorable lego setting of him and Rick in the baptismal font with people watching .

As the day approached he became more and more excited.  He got us up before 7 to get going on presents and festivities.  (Originally his plan included sleeping in.)  We gave him some lazer tag guns, a DS3 game and a book.  I think we'll need to invest in more lazer tag guns, they were a hit for all the boys in our home!

The baptism was yesterday as well at 4 pm.  Here he is with Rick before being baptized in their whites.  

Here is our family at the baptism.

Anson has a wonderful 2nd grade teacher this year, Michelle Kubiak.  We had invited her and she had called earlier that day to let us know she had a conflict and would not be able to come.  She miraculously made it and we were so glad to have her.  Anson lit up when he saw she made it.

We had Grandma and Grandpa Somers, Grandma and Grandpa Blackham as well as Rick's cousin Larry, Amy and their kids Lucy, Jane and Annie at the baptism.  We all went to Culvers after the baptism so Anson could get shrimp for dinner.

Grandma Blackham is our family historian currently.  She made Anson a beautiful binder of his family history including pictures of several generations. 

Grandma and Grandpa Somers just got back from Peru the day before Anson's birthday.  They brought him a YELLOW jacket.  He LOVED it; his favorite color has always been yellow.

Anson wanted a chocolate cake with mint frosting.  We were not quite sure how mint frosting would go over so we split it and had half chocolate frosting half mint.  It was yummy!  Anson had gone out to find a new tie for his baptism.  It was tough finding one to fit him, but not look babyish.  This one had yellow so win all the way around.

We had a wonderful turn out at the baptism.  Anson was the only one being baptized and yet we packed the room of friends, family, and teachers.  We love Anson so much.  He came to our family through inspiration and has truly blessed our lives.  He is a great big brother and is full of so many wonderful qualities.  I couldn't be more excited and proud of him for being baptized.

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas to all!  The Christmas season is the best time of year to have kids.  Everything is wonderful and magical and it is so much fun to see their reactions to everything.  We had several events in the month of December that were fun and new.  

Our neighborhood and school friends, the Conoboys always invite us to go to their Christmas party.  We were finally able to although Rick had to leave early to get to a church baptism.  Santa visited and gave presents to the kids.

Here we are with Santa.  Even Andrew got into it and overcame his stranger danger fear and accepted his present from Santa.

As part of Rachel's birthday present Grandma Blackham took Rachel and I to the Nutcracker in Naperville.  Rachel loved it and it was fun to have a girl time.

Every year Grandma Somers makes some kind of Gingerbread creation with us.  This year we made two so one could go with Grandma and cousin Andrew back to her home.

Rachel also had her Preschool Christmas concert.  It was adorable but not many
pictures turned out well.

Christmas morning was great.  The kids still let us sleep in on non school days.  We finally woke up at 7:45 and asked them if they were ready to see if Santa had come.  Luckily he had come!

Andrew got a Captain America shield, which is hysterical to see him work it.

 He also got a bat cave and yes a few more cars.

Rachel's favorite party of Christmas is getting and giving hugs to everyone who gives her a present or she gives a present to.  That doesn't happen often in a family of boys!

Anson and Aaron got DS3s and a few games.  They were thrilled and were able to bring them on our road trip after Christmas.

I love Anson's face as he opens his gifts.

After a morning of opening presents, Grandma and Grandpa Blackham and Kristen came over.  For dinner we went to the Somers.  It was great to spend time with all of the family there.  It was great to have Aundrea, Andrew, Rob, and Laura home for the holidays.  We missed having Dave home as he is deployed right now.  It's great to be around Grandparents for the holiday to be able to spend time with all our family. 

Rachel turns 5!

Rachel turned 5 in December.  She counted down the days all year and was so excited to finally be 5.  She got to have her first friend party and was thrilled to pick a Pinkalicious party.   She loves the books and LOVES pink.  We opened a few presents on her birthday.

Grandma Somers made Rachel a beautiful pink, purple and beautiful blue quilt.

 We gave Rachel a new Leap Pad.  She loves reading ebooks and playing games on it.  

She was sick the day we were suppose to have her party so we were so glad all of the girls could com the following weekend, December 28th for our Pinkalicious party.

 Of course we had to read the "Pinkalicious" book to begin our party.  We had Ali Laub, Maddie and Catie Zafir, Lana Carlisle, and Lily Gliske at her party.

We played Pink, pink, pink, purple (Duck, duck, duck goose) to get our tiaras and wands.

We had a Pinkalicious pinata.

Aunt Aundrea helped us out with a Dance Freeze party.

We decorated our cupcakes and ate them after our lunch of pizza, grapes and pickles (all from her book-the girl turns pink from eating too many pink cupcakes and has to eat non-pink food to get better).

Here the girls are enjoying their cupcakes!

 It was a cute party.  We love our Rachel; she is growing up so fast.  She fills our home with joy as one of God's happiest spirits.  Happy birthday sweetheart!

Thanksgiving 2012

Our second big trip with our new van was down to Dallas to see Rick's parents and family for Thanksgiving.  Aundrea and Andrew as well as Rob came down so everyone was there but Dave, who is deployed.  We were able to skype him Thanksgiving Day and were so glad Aundrea and Andrew came.  Tracy flew up to help me and the kids drive down early.  We were there for a week.  The kids loved playing with Emily and cousin Andrew.  

Here is Rachel and Aaron playing with "Big Andrew" just to distinguish the two Andrews.

Here is Aundrea and I on Thanksgiving partaking in all the food we didn't have to make!

Here is Uncle Matt with Anson, Andrew and our cousin Ava at Thanksgiving dinner.  He was kind enough to share his room and bathroom with so many of us that week.

 We were so glad with Rick caught up with us on Wednesday so he could help wrestle the troops.

 

  Rachel was so glad to have some snuggle time with her Uncle Rob.  He's going to make a great daddy some day but in the mean time he's a great Uncle.

 We even snuck in a trip down to Houston to see Ashley's family before Rick got there.  

 We loved seeing Ashley in her home.  We are due on the same day but couldn't be more different in size.  Hmmm...who is going to go first!

It was a great road trip and we had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa DeMille, Nana, Emily, Matt, 7 dogs all those who joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa really wanted a grandkid photo for their Christmas cards but we had some non-cooperators.  Maybe next time!  Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Brinks, Hofer, Gilson, and Lione Homecoming

So before the great recession started Rick's work would hold a Prom every other year and invite all the attorneys and their spouses/dates to a formal event in Chicago.  We went to one of these when I was 7 months pregnant with Rachel.  It was hard to find a dress to fit then.  This year they again had an even that found me prego looking for a semi formal event.  The thing is Rick is a lawyer and so is everyone he works with.  This makes a semi-formal event FORMAL.  I looked everywhere for a dress but most stores have put their pregnancy section online.  You can't see them or try them on.  And because I knew I'd probably only wear this dress once I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it.  So after looking every where I found one online.  Mom helped me look for a dress and drape.  I ended up getting my hair and makeup done professionally as well.  I felt all dolled and pampered when we left. 

We decided to spend the night in Chicago so we didn't have to drive home late.  Diane and Dennis spent the night with the kids while we were gone.  So as in true tradition for me the commute took us 2 1/2 hours to get into Chicago and to the hotel.  We quickly checked in hurried over to the event.  We made it to the last few minutes of cocktails and then we went to dinner.  The tables were arranged for us to sit at certain ones.  We found our places and sat when I noticed an older couple sit right next to us.  Older couple in lawyer term means more seniority.  These people look like they could have retired a long time ago so very senior.  When they started they acknowledge Gerry Gilson for helping sponsor the event.  Guess who was right next to me, Gerry Gilson and his wife, Jamie!  It was a little overwhelming to be next to such an important person.  His wife is also an author of some 20+ kids books.  We had a lovely evening with them.  It was a great night out, a little scarey but it was nice to get to know the people Rick spends so much time with.