Merry Christmas!

Service

I am surrounded by such good, wonderful people. I have great friends who are always so willing to lend a helping hand and have gone out of their way to help me while I was pregnant and now that little Nathan is here.

Mom

My mom and dad and Caleb and Abby came to visit for Thanksgiving with the hopes that our little baby would arrive while they were here. I am grateful that Nathan acquiesced to our plans. My mom stayed an extra week to help us. She was an awesome help, and I just love having her company. I was amazed at how much she could get done in a day. She made us dinner every night and froze a couple meals too. She washed clothes, changed almost every one of Nathan's diapers and took care of his circumcision, shopped for the things I needed, helped me make a million JOY blocks I wanted to give as Christmas presents, serviced and fixed my sewing machine, dressed up Nathan's burp cloths with fabric and ribbon, read a few books, and even knitted a bunch of scarves for her young women for Christmas. I am grateful for her service to my family. I would be a mess without her, and I'm so glad she got to be with me when Nathan was born.

River of Lights
Another "empty-nester" family in our ward took my kids out for a night on the town on Friday. They gathered all but Nathan into their Suburban and first took them out to eat and then to see Albuquerque's River of Lights. When the kids got home they had cotton candy and a couple bags full of magnetic rocks as souvenirs. They had so much fun, and I guarantee if Scott and I had taken them they would not have received such special treatment. Scott and I reflected on this couple's readiness and willingness to serve in all sorts of capacities. We want to be just like them.

McDonalds
On Saturday another lady from our ward called to see if she could take the kids to McDonald's to get a Happy Meal and play on the play place. Aren't I lucky to have such wonderful people around me?

Explora
Another good friend took Jared and Ellie to the children's museum Explora on Monday. She has four kids of her own who are all in school, and used her precious "kid-free" hours to help me out by entertaining Jared and Ellie. They LOVED it! I am so grateful for her friendship and all the things she does for me and my family.

I am incredibly blessed and feel so loved! I am awed by the goodness in people, and am grateful for their example of service and love. I hope I can emulate those qualities as well.

More Little Nate

Beware to all my friends who think they are "done" having children. Do not come to my house and see Nathan. You will fall in love instantly and will find it hard to resist the urge to add another baby to your family. He already has everyone of us wrapped around his finger.

Nate has the sweetest spirit. He is the most perfect little person. After every feeding he wakes up and looks around bright eyed and quizzically. I've never had a newborn that looked around as much as he does. When you talk to him you can tell he gets excited and that his cute little mouth is trying very hard to smile. He is so peaceful and has been easy going so far. He endures being passed constantly from one person to another and is not the least bit phased by the chaos of it all. I already don't know what our family would do without this special little one.

Nathan eats like a champ. There will be no discreet feedings with him as he gulps every taste down like it may be his last feeding. My mom could even hear him eating while I was talking to her on the phone. I love a good fast eater.

I want to share this bundle of joy with everyone I love. It makes me miss living by family. It makes me miss the fact that I have a nephew and a niece that I've never even met, and that my parents and Scott's parents get no more than mere glimpses into the lives of my kids when we see them. I want them to be able to hold and smell and love and snuggle our little Nate and feel the joy he's brought into our family.

Our Baby is Born by Brynn

On Thanksgiving morning Ellie and Jared ran in mine and Kaitlyn’s room. They asked us if we were awake. We said yeah. They told us Mom had the baby! I got out of bed and I kissed Ellie! We went downstairs and saw a picture of him. They baby’s whole name is Nathan Porter Esplin.

We couldn't go see him in the hospital because it is flu season and kids aren't allowed in the hospital.

Thanksgiving Day Addition

We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving Day as we welcomed Nathan Porter Esplin into our family early this morning. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Sarah was amazing. The labor lasted only two hours or so -- short enough that Sarah didn't have time to get an epidural. She seems pretty happy about that feat now but not so much this morning just before 12:14am.

The picture above shows Nathan already flexing his muscles just after I taught him how to do his first push-ups. There is no doubt he is a perfect fit for our family.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thoughts from a VERY Pregnant Woman!

Today is my due date.

There is still hope...the day is young!

These are the flowers my sweet friend Amber brought over this morning to cheer me up. She said she'd still been pregnant on her due date and knew what it felt like. I'm so thankful for such a great friend.

Every night I feel contractions and feel crummy all over. I always have a glimmer of hope that maybe the baby will come, but I always wake up still pregnant!

Sometimes I wonder if this little one is waiting to come because we haven't decided on a name. Well, I think Scott and the kids feel pretty decided on a name, but I don't. For the record, here are the names I like that have been shot down: Cason, McKay, and Micah.

Jared ran to me and put his face to my tummy and exclaimed, "Don't worry baby! I won't let Mom name you Micah!" He was very serious about it.

My parents come to visit tomorrow and my mom is staying for only an extra week. This baby HAS to come soon! Wish us luck!

If I'm still pregant on Sunday I may stay home from church. I'm not sure I could handle another "You haven't had that baby yet!" comment.

Forgotten!

Scott took the kids swimming at his work last week. I appreciate when he does this. The kids love it, and it gives me a chance to get other things done while they are gone. I'm always a little uneasy though until they are home safely. Kaitlyn and Brynn are great swimmers, but Jared and Ellie need constant supervision. Scott is a great dad, but sometimes when you're not used to dragging four kids along you don't realize the effort it takes to keep track of everyone. And keeping track of everyone at the pool is essential.

So, when they all arrived safely home I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I heard the story of the forgotten little girl. Another family joined our crew this time so there were more kids than usual as they clamored out of the cars and rode the elevator to the swimming pool. Luckily this is as far as they got when Scott realized there was no Ellie around. He quickly turned around and rode back down to find Ellie crying, still in the van. Someone had unbuckled her already, but she didn't make it out of the van before the doors shut on her. When I asked her what she did she told me she honked the horn. I don't know whether that is true or not, but Scott did say she was sitting in the drivers seat.

Apparently Ellie has not completely forgiven Scott for this mistake. Several times she has brought up the fact that "Daddy, forgot Ellie!" I'm just grateful he remembered her so quickly after she was forgotten!

Let it Snow!

We received a package in a HUGE box. Scott and I laughed when we realized that the huge box was filled with two smaller boxes and TONS of packing peanuts. We filled up three garbage bags full of the peanuts! Ellie and Jared had a blast burying themselves in the box. I didn't think much about it until about twenty minutes later when I came down and saw little pieces of packing peanuts ALL OVER the floor.

I don't have a picture of the mess. Just imagine a blanket of snow inside. I tried to sweep up the stuff on the tile but the static made it jump out of my dustpan before I got it to the garbage. The mess got bigger the more I tried to clean it up. I finally brought in the shop-vac from the garage which did the trick. It took me about an hour to get it all cleaned up!

Candy Fest 2009

Another Halloween with LOTS of candy. It makes me sick to look at it! We carved pumpkins from our own garden this year...none of them were very big but worked great for the little people carving them! I had to drag Scott down with us...he had snuck away to read the paper. Of course once he came he created the very cool star-eyed/sun mouth jack o' lantern.

Brynn was a witch. She has been a witch for several years in a row and loves it. This year we sprayed her hair orange. That spray stuff is a mess!

Meet the Jar-Bot. Jared wanted to be a robot. I got a box and spray painted it silver and then had no idea what to do next. I left it in Scott's hands and once again his creativity pulled through...pie tins around the arm holes, spray painted pvc pipe, a remote control, old cords and some other random things from the garage completed the costume. The blue thing in the middle was a light that blinked. Jared loved that and the flashlight on the top.

Jared got more comments about his costume than anyone. Everyone thought it was so cute, and Jared loved hearing it! Sometimes the cheapest things are the best!

Kaitlyn was a ballerina. We made her tu-tu. She mostly wanted to be a ballerina so she could wear make-up and loved putting it on!

Ellie was a pumpkin. We have several costumes that would fit her and I wasn't sure until the last minute which one she would wear. Today at dinner she was saying that Jared was a boy. We have this conversation frequently. Jared is a boy, but she is a girl (often she insists she is a boy too). Today after I affirmed that Jared was a boy I asked her what Ellie was. "Ellie's a pumpkin!" she said.

No one take my candy!

Ellie LOVED trick or treating. We took the stroller in case she got tired but she insisted on riding it from house to house and then jumped out at each drive-way as quickly as she could. After we did the couple of streets in our neighborhood I asked if anyone was ready to go home. Ellie was the loudest, "No, nope, no!"

Little Muffy

One day I called Ellie "Bub." She looked at me and yelled, "I NOT Bub! Jared Bub!" True. We do call Jared "Bub" sometimes. I apologized and then asked her what her name was. "Ellie is Muffy!" I started to laugh. Scott started calling her "Muffy" or "Little Muff" awhile ago, but I was surprised she recognized it as her name. It fits her though it doesn't really make sense--she is just such a little muff!

For example. She is queen of eye rolling at all the right times. How can a two year old know when to do that? When she is exasperated or doesn't like what I've asked her to do she rolls her eyes. It is so cute and funny and she gets such a reaction from everyone that she does it sometimes just for laughs.

The flu is rampant around here. Ellie is doing her part in trying to keep it away from our family by washing her hands a MILLION times a day. I have several bottles of hand sanitizer around the house. If it is in plain sight Ellie will find a way to it. "Need bacterial antibacterial), Mom." And then she gives a big squirt to her hands and to each of her three babies hands. She's a good mom. She also likes to give her hands several pumps of the hand soap too. Almost every time it's quiet around her I suspect she's found the hand soap and is cleaning away.

In Sacrament Meeting on Sunday it was like 100 degrees! Someone had turned the heater on and it wasn't even cold outside! Being eight months pregnant I thought I was going to faint! Jared was wearing a long sleeve button down shirt with a sweater vest (he looked very handsome), but he was dying of heat too so I helped him take off his vest. The next thing I knew Ellie was stripping off her dress. "I hot too, Mom!" Ellie exclaimed. "I take my clothes off too!" I couldn't convince Ellie that she needed to stay dressed. Scott even had to walk out with her to get her mind off of it.

This girl gives us so many laughs! She's a bundle of energy and joy. I wonder how she's going to take our new little addition soon.

Balloon Fiesta!

I've posted before about how much I love the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. There is nothing like seeing hundreds of huge hot air balloons in the sky at once. I am excited every year to see the balloons. Scott thinks if you've seen it once, you've seen it enough times. Bah Humbug!

I was so happy that Betsy and Russ and their family and Hannah and Kendall and their boys came to visit this year to share in the excitement. Unfortunately the balloons didn't fly in our direction while they were here. We had to do a little work to chase them. I led the way to follow the balloons until I had no idea where we were and let Russell lead out so he could stop when he wanted to. We finally stopped where two balloons landed, and I was so happy to see someone as excited as I was about the balloons. Russ pulled over, jumped out of his car, grabbed a couple of kids and headed off as fast as he could to get down to where the balloons were. We even had to cross rail-road tracks and climb over a barbed wire fence!

Unfortunately being seven plus months pregnant and carrying a two year old through the rough terrain made it nearly impossible to take pictures.

The Energizer Bunny was right out our front door on one of the days! How could you not love that!?

We Love Soccer!

Ever since the first day Jared saw Kaitlyn and Brynn play soccer he has been waiting until he was four and could play on his own team. Finally this season his turn came! He could hardly sleep the night before his first game because he was so excited.

Some of our kids are naturally more aggressive than others. While we were playing a family soccer game for Home Evening Scott mentioned that it was okay to use your elbow a little. He was mostly trying to help the less aggressive children know it was okay to have a little contact and they didn't need to be afraid of hurting the other kids. I've been worried ever since that the message was taken a little too much to heart with some of the kids. Jared takes after his dad and talks a lot of smack before a game. "I'm gonna win this one mom! I'm gonna score lots of goals and if a boy gets in my way I'm just gonna kinda push him with my elbow!"

This kid is tough! He scores lots of goals and is a great defender. It's always fun to watch him play.

Joys of Motherhood!

I have been reading the Harry Potter series to Kaitlyn and Brynn. We just started the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. When we came to the chapter titled "Horace Slughorn" with the above picture Brynn said, "Hey Mom! This guy looks like you!"

Honesty

Today I had several encounters with some very honest people. Let me explain.

Jared
I was running a bit late this morning so instead of straightening my hair like I normally do, I just diffused it quickly and let the little bit of natural curl show. I haven't worn my hair curly for years, mostly because it's usually too short. Now, as I was getting Jared ready he reached up to grab my hair (which he has done since he was a baby...he loves to run his hands through my hair). He looked shocked as he felt the hardness from the spray gel. I explained to him that I decided to wear my hair curly since we were running late and it only took a few minutes to fix.

Jared's honest reply, "Yeah, mom. People at church are probably going to laugh at you."

Brynn
Later in the day Brynn told me that she thought my hair was beautiful. I thanked her and then she said, "Well, it's kind of beautiful. It kind of looks like Kaitlyn's does when she wakes up in the morning." Trust me, this is not a beautiful sight.

Needless to say, I'm a little self-conscious of wearing my hair this way again.

Four Different People at Church
The honesty continued at church. Apparently I am huge and look like I should be having my baby within a week or two. I shocked four different people today when they commented on my soon-to-be arrival and I let them know I still have 10 weeks left! Trust me, I will get bigger!! I can't believe it myself. I can hardly move right now and I swear I can feel my stomach growing bigger every day.

Does everyone have to be so honest? It's making me too self-conscious!

Kaitlyn Can See!!

Kaitlyn came home from the first day of school with news that she couldn't see the board. I took her to the eye doctor and the poor girl REALLY needed glasses. Kaitlyn couldn't believe how clear everything looked with her glasses..."I can see the outlines of the leaves and the branches!" she exclaimed. She looks darling and loves her new glasses.

Don't you just love this picture...and the blue tongue!

Jared & Ellie

It has been a joy to watch Jared and Ellie’s brother/sister relationship. Despite only being four and two years old, they often look out for each other and show concern about the well being of the other. Here are some recent examples:

A couple weeks ago Ellie went down and grabbed a few rolls left over from dinner and brought them upstairs (against the rules but Ellie seems to get away with these kinds of things). She had one roll in her mouth and handed one to me and another was quickly taken by Brynn. She realized she only had one left and when Kaitlyn tried to take it she said “no, Jed roll”. She wanted to make sure her buddy Jared was taken care of. Only after convincing her that Jared was already asleep in the other room did she finally relent and give up the last roll.

The other day Jared was quietly playing with legos before school. Ellie started breaking his lego towers, guns, and swords, which made him frustrated. Jared tried to hold Ellie back and she started to hit him. Jared got a smile on his face and leaned his body away to lessen the blow from her petite punches. Then he said with a chuckle, “its ok Ellie if you want to break my legos”.

A few nights ago we were attempting to read scriptures together as a family. Instead of a little squabbling we are accustomed to among the kids—this evening we struggled to read over Jared’s giggling due to Ellie hugging and kissing him.

Yesterday Sarah and the kids came home from Jared’s soccer kickoff meeting just after I arrived home from work. Jared was the first in the house and was wearing a brand new bright red soccer sock on one leg. He rushed to me and very excitedly pointed out his new sock and rattled off some things about his soccer coach, team, and uniform. Soon the other kids came in with Ellie bringing up the rear. She was decked out in Jared’s brand new soccer shirt, shorts, and Jared’s other bright red sock. Ellie had both hands holding up the shorts and she showed as much excitement as Jared did. In fact she got to talking and showing me her outfit and forgot to keep holding up the shorts, which fell to the floor two or three times in mid sentence. I love that Jared was Christ-like and selfless and let Ellie enjoy this moment as much or more than he did. Rather than see her actions as taking away something from him, he shared in the excitement with her.

Of course Jared has lot of opportunities to practice being selfless with his little sister. Almost every night she prefers to wear “Jed’s jamis” rather than her own pajamas. She has some very nice looking pink pajamas that make her look so cute—but she prefers to wear dark blue shark pajamas or deep red Mr. Incredible pajamas or even his green frog pajamas. Some nights not only is she selecting which of Jared’s pajamas she will be wearing but also setting out which ones Jared will be wearing as well.

Another example of Jared’s selflessness happened the other day. In preparation for school Sarah bought Jared some new socks. He started running around the house breaking them in and testing out his speed. Almost immediately Ellie appeared wearing some oversized brand new socks too.

Domestic Aviary?

It's as if the neighborhood birds have deemed my house their aviary. Today I walked in my room and found this!

Yes...it was on my bed! If you remember, we found a hummingbird a few months ago in our kitchen. I think the bird startled me as much as I startled it. It started flapping its wings, wildly flying in all directions. I knew it wouldn't hurt me, but my heart was racing and I was ducking to avoid being knocked in the face.

Notice the ankle tag...a homing pigeon of all things! I have to admit that I was grateful it was this nice looking, well kept pigeon instead of the nasty greyish pigeons that roam the neighborhood--but I still washed my bedspread and all my sheets!

I tried to open the door to our balcony so it would go outside. I'm sure this is how it got in--earlier in the day to let the cool breeze in it was opened a crack. I had shut the door hours before so I don't know how long it was roaming my room...long enough to leave bird droppings for me to clean up!

Unfortunately, instead of flying out the door to the outside it flew out of my bedroom door and into the foyer of our house. It perched itself on the landing about 12 ft high. I tried to get it to fly down by throwing socks in its direction, but it just flew wildly about knocking into the skylight windows. I feared the safety of the bird and my windows so just left it.

I called Albuquerque 311 (city information line) and told them my problem. They dispatched someone from animal control/rescue. The bird perched in that spot for three hours before someone came. The man from animal control climbed a ladder with a net in his hand and caught the pigeon within minutes. His bird catching skills were rather impressive. It was flying all over and I didn't think he'd ever get it into that net.

He put it in a cage in his truck and said they would use the tag to contact its owner. I'd really like to know how far from home that pigeon was!

Little Orphan Ellie

I guess when you're number four on the totem pole you have to take matters into your own hands sometimes. I found Ellie one summer afternoon bathing herself in our bathroom sink.

And the poor girl has to sleep in the bathtub!

Summer Swim Team

I signed the girls up to swim in our city's swim team this summer. They practiced every weekday morning from 8:00am-9:00am. I loved having something to do and get ready for every morning...not to mention the great workout the girls got every morning.

They proved to be amazing; I'm sure they could out-swim me anytime! Brynn's tenacity despite being one of the youngest on the team was endearing. She swam every stroke at the swim meets against girls a couple years older than her without a care of her placing at the end. She loved every minute of it and was a great example of doing your best and being happy and confident whatever the outcome. Kaitlyn was nervous to swim at her first meet, but once she dove in the water forgot her nervousness and came up smiling. She proved to be a speed demon, especially in the freestyle. She was almost always one of the top three.

Jared had so many little friends to play with during the hour practice that he loved it as much as the girls. Ellie has picked up some of the swimming lingo and likes to float on her back in the bathtub and exclaim, "Look Mom! Backstroke!"

An Apology

Summer is already over, and I failed to blog the entire time! Kaitlyn is appalled, and has been reminding me everyday for the last few weeks to post something. Sorry. I will try to back post a few of our summer outings. But for now....

Jared Starts Preschool!

Last year I did a preschool co-op with some other mom's. We all took turns teaching a couple weeks of preschool. It was fabulous, but I felt like Jared needed a little more this year. I got him into a program where he will be the peer model student for a developmental preschool. There are two peer model students and ten students enrolled with various developmental delays. For the most part they all seem like "normal" kids and I don't think Jared will ever notice a difference.

The cool part is that because this is a special preschool program the kids get to do a lot of fun things that they don't in regular preschools. They have five different specialists that come throughout the week to help the children where they need it. Although Jared doesn't have a specific area targeted where he needs help, I'm sure he will benefit from the extra teachers and attention. Jared is excited about the rope swing hanging from the ceiling, the basketball hoop in the motor room and Haley, the Golden Retriever who comes on Thursdays to help with literacy and fine motor skills.

Jared loved his first day, but was a little disappointed that he didn't get to go out to the school playground for recess (they did Yoga instead!). He told me he was trying and trying to get a chance to raise his hand and ask the teacher when it was recess time, but he just couldn't get that chance.

Ellie was so sad to leave Jared at school and kept saying in her little voice, "Ellie go to school!"