Our lovely lovely home

What a beauty, no?  I distinctly remember checking out our home to see if we wanted to buy it right before Christmas and falling in love with it then.  It's like living inside a forest.  The logs make me happy every single day I look at them and at Christmas it's even more breathtaking and don't even get me started on the stone fireplace!  One of these days, it'll work again but even when it doesn't now it still completes me.  I cannot believe I actually live here and with my sweet husband and darling kids.  I have to pinch myself.  I wouldn't want my life any other way except this.  And with a great snowfall, it just adds to the beauty of it all.  I am so happy to be where I am and I humbly acknowledge my Father in Heaven for giving this life to me.  I pray I can sufficiently give back to Him.

A baby story - Maxwell Joseph

Oh man oh man it's only been a week and I'm already forgetting, noooooooooooo!  It was a beautiful labor and birth so I must record it before it goes whoosh out of my memory.

Oh dear.  He just started fussing!...Be right back....  Ok I'm back.  But he is a good baby.  A really good little champ.  I am a big big fan of his.  I think he's gonna like it here.

So two Thursdays ago I woke up in the middle of the night and thought oh boy this is it!  And then I walked around and it was just Braxton Hicks.  Then on Saturday, Dec 12 I got a pedicure and about 1 a.m. the next morning I started getting contractions regularly.  Oh man this is really it.  Wahoo!!  I woke up Paul eventually and by 4 we were in the hospital and I was still getting them steady.  I got my good ole epidural and for some reason I was more freaked out than ever by it this time.  I am so so grateful for Paul who is the best birth coach ever.  I could not have done it without him holding my hand the whole time.  I love you Paul.  So then our great doctor came in and broke my water and then I think he went to church for a few hours and we kinda rested and then he came back and after about 3 pushes baby Maxwell was born at 11:34 a.m. on Sunday, Dec 13.

He came out crying and we snuggled right away doing skin to skin for about an hour while he rooted around and drank my colostrum.  He had an apgar of 9 and is a tiny little thing for our family.  7.13 pounds and 19 inches.  Moses was 8.13 and Lizzie was 9.1 and Grace was 9.  But now we are out a week and a half and I am pretty sure he has gained some wait.  He was a bit jaundice-y to begin with but I think he is on the mend from that as well.

So, yeah that's it in a nutshell.  No drama and pure bliss and I am so so grateful for modern medicine and hospitals and healthy babies with no complications and smooth pregnancies.  You just never know.  In the meantime, the kids have really taken a liking to him.  Grace looks gigantic around him and just flops around all cute and fat and says "baby!!!" whenever she sees him.  Adorable.  And Moses is intrigued and Lizzie loves him and maybe is a little insecure about her status but seems to be moving forward from this already.

So it's Christmas Eve today.  Not a creature is stirring cause Moses and Grace AND Maxwell are all sleeping for naptime and I will be doing that in a second cause Maxwell was up a bit at night but it's to be expected, right?  Now I know.  I laugh so hard at the terrified look I had on my face with my first little one.  That was baptism by fire I tell ya.  I was completely clueless.  Anyway, Paul and Lizzie are out doing last minute Christmas shopping and Paul says they are having ball which makes me very happy and life is good if a little fuzzy since it's newborn baby time.

People have been so kind to us this month; so many neighbor gifts and dinners from neighbors.  Even tonight our friend Amanda Sorenson is bringing us dinner.  So wonderful.  I am in heaven and so grateful to our Heavenly Father for my blessed state and to the Savior for His atonement for me.  What a blessed gift He gave us.  I LOVE Christmas so much it hurts and I am so grateful to the Lord for this season.  Merry Christmas!!

We welcome refugees

I've been wanting to blog post for a while now...  A lot going on...  A lot... I'm trying to figure out the worth/importance of this blog.  I've been going through some things emotionally.  Growing experiences.  Good things.  Thinking things.  I'm not sure how much I want to post about my family anymore.  They are so precious to me.  So so precious.  On the other hand, there are some incredible Mormon blogs out there where their stories of their families inspire me and further me along in my life's mission.  So I guess it's out on the table.  Anyway, that's why I haven't posted the usual stats on the kids lately.  So what can I post about?   Hmmm.  So much.  Here are some titles I'd love to post on:

• Reasons why I love my husband
• Special memories of sweet things my husband has done for me
• Why I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints
• Syrian refugees.  Oh man, that is on my mind tonight and it's sobering. 
• Why I love my family and why they are my most precious possession
• Why I understand and am so grateful for the Atonement more these days
• Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude

I think I'll do gratitude tonight.  Tonight, I sit here in the warmth and comfort of my lovely wooden home.  I LOVE my home so much.  I feel sometimes ensconced in a little forest, a cradle of sorts.  But I sit here and I could have been born somewhere else.  I could be shivering now in some cold, wet place in Europe hoping to find some shelter for my children because I am a refugee whose fat is ISIS and frying pan is the great unknown.  I pray for those mothers tonight.  My mother's heart goes out to them.  Dear Lord, please bless and comfort them.  Please guide me to know how best to help those mothers.  I just cannot even fathom how they are even coping.  Are diapers changed once a day only?  Are there a bunch of little babies with awful rashes?  Do they have any clean water?  Are they burning up in the sun or shivering in the wet rain?  Oh those poor mothers.  I want to hold and hug them and welcome them all into my home.  By accident of birth, I am not them but I love them.  I empathize.  Dear Lord, please guide me to help them as best as I can.  Please accept my sincerest gratitude for having a safe and warm and loving home and family where we are not only surviving but thriving too.  I am so blessed.  So, so blessed.  I thank THEE.

WE WELCOME REFUGEES

The "Bumblebees game" and other Lizzie stories

Morning time when I wake up Lizzie (about 8 a.m.):

"Mom, I'm tired."

"Why are you tired Lizzie"

"From the last day (read: yesterday, she call it the last day, so cute) when we went to the bumblebees game (Salt Lake Bees game)."

Tee hee.

Here are some lovely pics of Moses too at the game.

In other news about Lizzie.  She is great.  Never has had terrible two's or anything.  She is so sweet and helpful to me and helps me put away toys and dishes and is getting so good at violin and she is even seriously helping me potty train Moses.  Oh yeah, I'm doing the three day potty training with Moses this week.  Day 1 and it's not actually so bad.  Only two small accidents.  This morning I had to run and get something in the basement and when I came back, Lizzie had taken Moses to the potty in time for him to pee.  So grateful for my darling girl.  Oh I love her so and need to give her more hugs.  Yes indeedy.

Oh and the funnest news of all - she can bike now without training wheels!   So so proud of my little cupcake!  You go lovely girl.  It only took her 5 minutes with the bike my mom gave her when we went to visit her in Colorado last week.  The balance bike truly works cause it was almost a no brainer.  We just needed the right bike.

Also, she loves her siblings.  She is so good to them.

Grace you are 14 months!!

Lil mutton chop is what I am beginning to call you!  What a big month of growing this has been for you, dear one.  You are really developing in every aspect.  Here is what's new with you.

• You said "yuck" the other day after I said yuck because your little baby shoes were all muddy
• Speaking of shoes, you wear shoes now and you seem to like it and they are Lizzie's old shoes and so so cute on you!!  It makes you look like a life size dolly.
• You are developing a stubborn streak.  More so than I have ever seen with the other ones.  You are the only one who has ever torn of their bib and then stared at me.  
• You are so cuddly still but not as cuddly as you were last month cause you are growing so fast.
• You love tickles. 
• You are just a happy little pumpkin.
• You are still napping a bit in the morning but probably not for too much longer, right?

Grace, you are so dear to my heart and to your daddy's too.  He loves to hold you and cuddle you and who wouldn't right??  Thank you for being a wonderful person.  I love you sooo much!

Itza boy!!!!!!!!!!!

Man we feel blessed.  What are the chances - two boys, two girls?  We went in for the ultrasound on Monday and I had the feeling it was a boy but couldn't be sure.  My heart was pounding (as it always does) when we saw the little cutie wiggling on the screen and Paul and I held hands and suddenly the tech told us it was a boy and we were thrilled!  Now, for names, wow, who knows?  I really like Joseph and Daniel and I'd love Gabriel as a middle name but part of me wants to pick a really unique name like Moses so that Moses feels like he's part of a cool, unique clubs name.  Make sense?  Guess we have time huh?  Yes and no.  Time flies.  I'm learning that more and more with how quickly Lizzie is growing and learning, how rapidly Moses follows in her footsteps and how soon Grace seems to be talking these days.  She said "more" the other day cause she wanted more blueberries. I couldn't believe my ears.  Anyway, we are so grateful to Heavenly Father for a beautiful baby boy on the way due December 14.

Grace you are 13 months old today

My little baby girl is now 13 months.  She is growing up so fast and doesn't seem like the baby she once was.  Sniff sniff.  Good thing I have another one on the way.  Four more weeks until we find out the gender.  So here's what's new with Gracie Lu.

• She doesn't just take steps now, she fully walks.  I have the hardest time getting it on video but she does.  
• She is a laugh-er and chatter
• She loves to "sing" along with me when I sing
• She is a smiler
• She loves to dance and bop around
• She says Mama, Dada, and "nana" for banana and nods her head vigorously when I bring over a food she might like
• She cuddles us in the morning now when she wakes up and Paul and I just LOVE that.  She is becoming a cuddler
• Still not much interest in books
• She adores Lizzie and likes rough-housing with Moses
• She fits right in to our family and we are so grateful for her!

It was terrible, it was wonderful, it was epic and it was totally worth it!!

So today is Friday, July 3 and we went on an incredible (for us) four mile round trip hike to a lovely place in Sundance called Stewart Falls.  We've wanted to go hiking there for quite a while but Paul had a day off today and he (bless him) was as excited as I was to get out there early with the kids and get out into nature.  It was fabulous!!  We went through so many different areas of nature.  There were lovely grassy areas with ferns and rockier areas with gorgeous views and then, finally, we made it to the waterfall where we (along with many other visitors) were blessed with nature's air conditioning (waterfalls and water spraying gently on us cooling us from the very hot sun).

Oh the hike itself was hard, especially on the way home.  I started off by carrying Grace (and the baby in my belly - four months now) in a carrying pack and then Lizzie (that trouper!!) walked the whole way and only fell once and whined very little.  Then Paul carried Moses for a lot of the time.  We were so relieved when we finally arrived at the waterfall and ate all of our snacks but wow the trek back was really hard at first.  That's when I kept thinking.  This is nutso, Nelda.  Halfway back, we traded kids.  I carried a fussy Moses cause his naptime came up and Paul carried Grace and it was still quite hard.  Paul had a bunch of water in his camelback but a lot of it leaked on the way and so we had just enough water to carry us all through.  Oof!  Would I do it again?  Most certainly, but maybe when the kids are older, or get a sitter for the younger ones, or just me and Paul on a date.

I was telling Paul that I think my favorite part of it was the mindfulness of it all.  I felt very alive and completely in the moment.  No thinking about past or future at all.  That's something I've been trying to work on but that has been tricky because I tend toward, type-A, I gotta do a list, stuff.  But this was so good me to just completely be there.  And I was thrilled that Paul was so on board with it as I was.  It would be so tough to have a husband who just wanted to stay at home in the cool air and watch TV or football or do something lazy.  I am so grateful for Paul's energy and joy for life.  He is such a good friend and partner and we are really on the same page when it comes to activities and having fun (which might be my love language, haha).  The other day, I read on IG that food is a lady's love language.  That made me laugh.  Maybe for me fun, then.  Well, here are some pics to make your day.  It sure made mine and I hope the kids remember it a bit.  I love my family.

Look at that daddy.  Such a trooper and great helper.  And Grace did great too.  And Moses did great until the end. 

Lizzie is so brave, getting right in the water.  Reminds me of me when I was a kid. 

Paul and I both dipped our heads in the waterfall to cool off.  Felt great!

Finally we reached our car again.  It was so nice when we saw the parking lot!

I love Lizzie's pose here. 

My two favorite guys