Deja Vu?

They were supposed to be downstairs cleaning the play room when Clay comes upstairs looking like this!

Even in his ears!!

AAHHHH!! I first thought this 'art work' was done with markers until I tried to wash it off. Yeah, no. Clay kept saying over and over "it's ink, it's ink." Well, yes, it's ink, but not markers? "It's ink that you stamp, mom." Ohhh. Luckily, after some serious scrubbing (and serious scolding), it came off their faces. Their legs and feet are not so lucky (nor the carpet either!)

Check out their legs and feet too. UGH!

What a day - a not so fun day! It reminds me of this post - what's the deal??

And, for my mom. Sorry mom, you can't see much of her face. I'll take a better one soon!

Getting Ready

Last night, for FHE, we carved one of our pumpkins. Thank goodness for Ryan's artistic abilities as it would have turned out much differently had I done it. The kids enjoyed scooping out the 'guts' but as soon as Ryan took the knife to it, Lucy freaked! "Don't hurt a pumpkin - stop, Daddy, stop!" While we appreciate her sensitive nature, we quickly reassured her the pumpkin was okay.

Lucy exclaiming "no"

As you can tell it turned out great! Again, though, once the lights were off and a little tea candle was put inside, Lucy freaked. "It's scawee, it's scawee." The lights were turned back on and the pumpkin - now jack-o-lantern was ready to go back on the porch. Apparenltly, in the process, Rylee, Clay or Kaycee, made a comment of hoping the house wouldn't burn down leaving the candle lit. So while the jack-o-lantern sat outside, Lucy was so concerned and kept exclaiming that the pumpkin was going to burn the house down. Poor Lucy. We'll see how the carving goes next week with our other pumpkin.

While Ryan sketches out the design, Lucy decides to take a couple licks...uh...

Loving her

There are so many things I seem to forget about a newborn baby until we have a new one in the house. These are just some of my favorite things (in no particular order):

1. When their pacifier seems to take up half their face.
2. When you pick them up and they arch their backs and stick their little bottoms out (love love love it!).
3. When they finish eating and have milk on their face.
4. When they're startled and their arms are 'frozen' upward.
5. When they're laid down and their little arms flail about honestly believing they're going to fall. (so sad)
6. When they get worked up so hard that their little voice starts to tremble and shake (so sad too)
7. Their sweet little smiles when they're dreaming.
8. When they're fast asleep yet they open their eyes and roll them around.
9. The sweet smell of their baby breath.
10. The smell of their little heads.
11. Little bug or crossed eyes with their mouths in a perfect little circle.
12. Their tiny little bums and the tiny little diapers that go over them.
13. And finally, how perfectly their little body fits on my chest with their teeny head nestled under my chin.

Whether they're your own or not, there's absolutely nothing like holding a brand new baby, fresh from Heaven!

What are some of your favorite things?

A baby girl

I have been the biggest slacker with our blog lately, and I'll update soon, but we wanted to give a shout out to Jason, Christina, Joshua and Delia and congratulate them on their newest addition.

Isn't she adorable?! Look at all that hair and those luscious lips!

We're anxious to hear all the details and find out what you name her .
Congratulations you guys, we love you!

A Tasty Treat

I made this for Ryan and myself last night and then again today for the kids. So simple, so yummy.

This is what I've done:

2 cups milk
2 (6oz) cups of blueberry yogurt or any flavor
6-8 large frozen strawberries
1 cup (crushed) ice
*1/2 tsp- 1 tsp lemonade drink mix powder - optional

Mix in the blender until everything is mixed well.

It's been great. We get our yogurt (and most of our groceries) from Costco and it comes in 3 flavors. None of the kids will touch the blueberry yogurt, so this was a great way to get them to eat it. I also defrost the strawberries a bit (1:30 in the microwave) and use crushed ice so I don't blow the motor out on our cheap little blender. I also preferred less (or even none) of the lemonade powder. It was way to tart last night, so I put in less today and couldn't taste it, so I'll probably not use it next time. You could also 'hide' some other things in there like flax seed or protein powder etc. Give it a try. A Tasty Treat!

Baby Olivia Reece

Sorry it took so long to get these pictures up. Enjoy!

I love this expression on her face. So curious.

Getting some sun with Dad. Notice her little grin too - loving it!

Her cheeks are starting to fill out nicely, just like her brother and sisters did. She'll be a chunky monkey in no time! :)

A New Look for Fall . . . or Life

There's nothing like getting a note home from your child's school to let you know that he/she may have vision problems. At least someone catches it though right? Luckily, the school does these screenings and last Friday, Clay came home with a note. To be on the ball, we scheduled an appt the next day. Sure enough, our little man gets to (gets to - like it's something fun..?) to wear glasses. I had Ryan text me the options of the glasses Clay wanted to get. Rylee had gone along also, so I knew Clay and Dad weren't going to get some crazy pairs. Anyway, here is the new look Clay is sporting now.

Pair #1

Sorry for the fuzziness, here are pair #2 (You know, he reminds me a little of the boy in Meet the Robinsons - especially when his hair is spiked up a bit.. Don't you think?)

From Ryan's phone, these were the ones he actually really wanted to get. Unfortunately, after a good laugh, Mom said "no." Poor guy, to have such a mean mom!

What do you do when Mom's in town?

EVERYTHING YOU POSSIBLY CAN!! Seriously! Mom L came out Monday night, two days before Olivia came, and just left this morning. Here's what we've been up to:

Tuesday, we go fabric shopping to create this adorable quilt that was just finished last night. (Of course Mom did all the sewing, I just had to pick out the colors and tell her what I wanted.)

Just waiting for the binding

Lucy keeping herself busy

Mom didn't stop at the quilt though. She picked up some tulle also to whip up these cute tutu's for Kaycee and Lucy while we were at the hospital. Too cute!


Webkinz, webkinz, and more webkinz! Who loves Webkinz more than Gma L? No one!! Aside, from running the kids to school and keeping down the fort, the kids loved to spend time with Grammies playing their Webkinz.


Feeling ambitious the Saturday after Olivia was born, I really wanted to bottle peaches since they were on sale. So, I sent Ryan over to Sunflower to pick up a box. Not too big, as I only had 11 jars. So with Mom by my side we quickly bottled about 15lbs of peaches. So speedy with two, unlike the all-day event it took me the last time I did it by myself.

Love it!

Then this past Monday, we headed to Hobby Lobby to buy fabric to make curtains and pillows for the girls (Rylee & Kaycee) new bedroom downstairs. Again, I just had to pick out the fabric.

(the window isn't square with the wall, so that's why the bed isn't lined up with the window...I know, it bugs me too!)

Feeling ambitous again, (I swear nesting kicked in AFTER Olivia was born) I wanted to make some wheat bread. I didn't have any wheat flour on hand, but I did have wheat and my good ole grinder.

I didn't grind that much (pretty tedious), but did just a little more for this bread recipe. Waiting for the bread to rise etc., I felt like making some muffins and found this fabulous recipe. The muffins turned out so moist. I think the next time I make some though, I leave out the strawberries as it altered the texture enough that when my kids got a strawberry in their mini muffin, they chose not to eat the rest. So yum though! (I'm not so sure about my bread though. I just can't seem to get it right.)



You're probably thinking that I've exhausted my mom by now. I really hope I haven't, but I really wanted to take advantage of her talents and skills while she was here. There was one last thing that we needed her to show us - how to seam together and lay carpet. (Isn't she amazing?! Truly a jack of all trades!) We had the carpet just rolled out for her stay so she wasn't walking on concrete downstairs, but she had the tools (and skill) to show us how to lay and put the remnants together. Again, she and Ryan were so speedy. Just last night for about 2 hours, they cut out the pad, carpet, laid it, kicked it in and seamed the two remnants together!

Getting ready to seam/glue the pieces together

The actual glueing/seaming. It turned out incredibly well. You'd never know there were two pieces there.

Other than baseboards and closet doors, this is definitley a girls room! Now, we just hope that the girls will actually sleep down there...

A HUGE thank you to my mom for coming out here and doing SO MUCH!! I've told several people this, that she truly is Superwoman. There isn't anything she can't do. We love you, Mom. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I'll hopefully get some more pictures of Olivia up here...as soon as I figure out why every picture I take of her is fuzzy....arg!!

Isn't she precious - we love her!

The Deets..

Our Brood!

Everything went really well. I got plenty of antibiotics (although not much sleep) Tuesday night and then started the pitocin at 5 am Wed. The dr. came and broke my water at 8:50. It wasn't until about 11am that I started having regular 'productive' contractions. I labored as far as I thought I could go, and luckily got the epidural just in time to start pushing. I had just gotten the epidural and was adjusting myself back in bed when I had a feeling I hadn't ever had before - the actual urge to push. It seemed so fast. I had Ryan push the button for the nurse. Sure enough, her head was down and I was complete. After about 10 mins waiting for the dr, we were ready to go. About 4 pushes and Olivia was here!

I am really happy with how everything went and honestly, so glad that I was able to relieve most of the pain, even if it was for only 30 mins. GLORIOUS!

We came home yesterday to a bit of chaos as everyone wants to be near and hold baby Olivia. I think it was after about an hour of being home - I almost (almost!) wished we'd stayed at the hospital another day! (is that bad?) Little Olivia is such a doll, and although she had a rough night last night, she seems to be doing better today and will hopefully sleep tonight!

Olivia, ready to come home!

Meeting the fam:

SHE'S HERE!!

Introducing:

Olivia Reece Hunt
6lb 7 oz
20.5 in
2:15pm Wed Sept 10, 2008

more pictures and details to follow - hopefully soon!