School's in

The kids started school yesterday.  The house is so quiet all day long- it will take some getting used to for me and Abram! We have kids in every school now - Isabelle and Nolan in the elementary school, Maddie at the middle school, Caden in 9th grade at the Jr. High, and Kami a Sophomore at the highschool.  It is taking a good chunk of the morning to make five lunches!

spoiled

We have been spoiled rotten with all of the gifts and meals that people have brought in after Pace's birth!  My mother-in-law, brought all sorts of frozen meals and treats, which we haven't even used yet because my mom was here cooking for us and wanted us to be able to use the freezer ones when she goes.  But as soon as she left, the Relief Society started bringing in meals.  It's been so nice to be able to enjoy this little baby and not have to set him down to fuss while I make a meal. It just makes the new baby transition so much less stressful! Today was the first day of school and Pace was sleeping so I decided to make a quick after- school treat to greet the kids with when they got off the bus.  Pace had to cry for a little while so that I could finish it (as Abram tried to calm him down by stuffing a binky in his mouth every few minutes.) It was really a super fast treat to make - rice crispies- so it made me appreciate all these meals even more!

Caden's been taking some more pictures of our cute little baby:

A bouquet that our neighbor, Sister Morris, arranged and had her husband bring over for us.  It is huge and so fragrant!

No one's quite like mom

Mom left yesterday after being here for over a week helping me and helping with Pace and helping with all the other kids.  I love having her here - I loved having her here to talk to during middle-of-the-night feedings and having an extra person to hold a baby during the night so that I could squeeze in a little extra sleep! She also always finds things to do to help out around the house.  She canned my green beans and froze a lot of my leafy greens, cleaned, and cooked. She manages to spend time with all of us, talking to the kids and making them feel special. She always gives me a second opinions on how the baby is doing - jaundice is always a big worry around here- and helps me feel more relaxed about things.

It was sad to see her go - even sadder than usual because if we can't make it up to Oregon in the next couple of weeks, I won't see her again for two years.  TWO YEARS.  I tear up every time I let myself think about it.  She is one of my very best friends and I take for granted being able to talk to her at any time.  My mom is such a GOOD, SWEET lady - I hope I can grow up to be just like her:)

Pace

We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 Monday morning and Pace (Elijah?) Gee- we still aren't sure about the middle name, was born at 3:43pm.  He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long- so glad that we had him a week early! He came out crying louder than I have ever heard a baby cry and kept it up for some time and I thought for sure that he was going to be a hard baby, but he ended up sleeping all night and all the next day. Now that we are home he is acting like a regular Gee baby - good as long as he is being held, but crying whenever he is set down.  The good thing about that is that there are a lot of kids trying to hold him all the time, so he pretty much sleeps the day away:)

I was worried about having a baby in the house again - I haven't had one for almost four years - but it has been so great!  We are really enjoying his sweet, cuddly, cuteness. Picture at the hospital:

Grandma and Grandpa Gee came to visit before their shift at the Visitor's Center.

Since we had Pace at the hospital in the next town, the kids didn't get to meet him until the next day when we brought him home.  Shawn had called to tell them all that he was born and how much he weighed, etc. and everyone was cheering so loud that they thought he had said that he weighed 6lbs 6oz.  So they were surprised to see that he was bigger then they thought - they had been telling everyone that he was the smallest baby we had ever had.

 My mom and Eli arrived to help out with everything - mom is staying for at least a week, but Eli had to leave Wednesday.  Note to self:  get a picture of mom with the baby before she goes.  She has been slaving away for us as usual!

Kami had all the kids showered and in clean clothes so that they would be "germ free" before the baby arrived:)

A couple of days before I went to the hospital, Shawn gave us all blessings and two of the blessings - mine and I think Abrams - stated about how this baby had been SO EXCITED to come to our home.  That made me even more excited to get him here!  And no wonder he was excited - who wouldn't want to be the apple of everyone's eye?

This is one handsome dad, too!:

I was having Shawn hold him while I snapped pictures so that he could put into perspective how small this little guy is!

This is what Pace looks like when no one is holding him!:)

I don't think he'll stay tiny for long!  He is eating non-stop, and we have had to supplement with bottles to make sure he's getting enough fluids because he is a little jaundiced.

Ohhh baby!!!

Well, tomorrow I will be heading to the hospital to deliver/meet our new baby! We are all super excited - I keep thinking that I should be feeling more nervous, but the reality hasn't set in yet.  I guess perhaps that will happen about the time they put the IV in?

Abram has had severe seperation anxiety for the last two weeks and he is very nervous about having Shawn and I go - he has a terrible time when either one of us goes anywhere, and when we go at the same time he goes completely berserk. Today Maddie said, "Abram, how about if I am your mom on Monday?"  He said, "Okay!"  And seems very happy with that arrangement.  He came and told me, "Mom, I will have a skinny mom while Maddie is my mom."

So here is a picture I took today:

Tomorrow my mom will head over to help out for a week, give or take.  It's always great to have her here to help get a new baby going!

Generally I NEVER take pictures of myself when I am pregnant, but I always end up wondering just what  I looked like, so this time I decided that I would take a picture every so often:

I think that in reality I  look a lot bigger than these pictures show - or maybe I just feel so huge that they don't look accurate to me. However, I actually ended up doing great on my weight - for me- this time.  I gained 36 pounds.  Once I figured out how to eat, these last two pregnancies have gone so much better!  I have felt so much better and more energetic, haven't had the "border-line gestational diabetes" not as much pain walking, etc. Sure beats the 50-60 lbs I gained with my first five.

Well, hopefully by this time tomorrow, our new baby will be here!  I will post about him as soon as I can:)

This and that

I have been having the greatest  time the last couple of weeks!  Having lots of projects = heaven for me!  I have been crocheting and sewing and making new wall groupings of pictures, and painting furniture and getting the house ready for a baby. Time is flying by and our new baby will be here before we know it.

Kami went to girls camp a couple of weeks ago and had a great time- I didn't go up with Shawn this year though, for bishopric night because 1) I had some little boys here that still weren't picked up when it was time to leave and 2) I am  very uncomfortable sitting in the car for more than 15 minutes.  Kami had a funny story from one evening while she was there.  I guess all of the younger girls had plans to stay up as late as possible and the leaders weren't very thrilled about it.  One of the leaders told Kami, "I don't know what to do - I am exhausted and I feel like a witch."  Kami responded, "well, I know just how to handle witches!"  Her leader laughed and said, "Oh, how is that?"  And Kami said, "You help get the kids to bed!!"  (She definitely knows what my worst time of the day is!!)So she gathered all the girls and told them all "Bony Legs", a story that I used to have on tape when I was a little girl.  She said that before the story was even over all the girls were sound asleep:)

Kami has been training hard for cross country all summer. On Mondays she runs a "long and hard" run, Tuesdays she runs hills, Wednesdays she runs at the track, running a lap at race pace and then one slower in between each fast lap.  Thursdays is hills again, fridays is stadium stairs and Saturdays is a long and slow run.  She increases her distance by 10% each week for each run, and each run is a different distance.  She averages about 35 miles per week.  Anyway, she didn't run during girls camp and didn't run every single day while she was in Oregon picking raspberries last week.  And this week she is wondering if she really wants to do cross country at all.  So we will see what happens, but she is still running every day.  Frankly, I don't know how she would fit cross country into her busy schedule...

While the girls were gone in Oregon, Caden started building lockers for our mud room.  They are looking great and I am really excited!  He is such a handy guy to have around - all these years of tagging along with Shawn are paying off! As he builds, I paint- we are spending lots of quality time together out in the garage:)  I remember as a teenager reading in the Reader's Digest that the best time to talk to your son is when you are driving somewhere and you aren't looking directly at each other.  The article said that boys will open up a lot more and do a lot more talking that way.  Well the same thing goes for working on a project together!  It's pretty awesome!!... Anyways...he put the swing that he built on Craigslist just to see if it would sell, and says that if it does, he will build me another.  I got onto Craigslist one day to look at his advertisement.  While I was on, I saw a great bookcase with cabinets underneath it for $20 dollars.   It was over 6' tall, so I called Jim, my father-in-law and asked to borrow his pick-up.  The boys and I drove to the next town and picked it up and then I painted it (because I'm really into painting furniture right now) and then I organized what we call our "scripture room" with it.  I  must be into the "nesting" mode because I want everything super clean and organized right now.

Besides going to Oregon with my parents for a week, Maddie also got invited by her Aunt Suzette to go to Yellowstone National Park with her and Maddie's cousin Abby.  She has talked about it a lot and had a marvelous time!

The only thing that Isabelle REALLY wanted for her birthday was a kitten... I know...I know....but yes we got her one.  We just made sure it was male:) She is taking care of it constantly and only lets it out of her sight for ten minutes at a time.

Nolan finished soccer and then started begging to be in flag football, so we signed him up for that.  He is constantly outside in the yard throwing or kicking a ball around.  I think we have a little sports lover:)

Abram has been having some serious melt-downs and separation anxiety whenever either Shawn or I, or both of us, have to go somewhere.  Is this normal for an almost four-year-old?  He gets so worried about something happening to us and just comes unglued and chases us down the driveway.  It's so sad! I hope he passes through this stage soon, as he won't even go to his primary class!  Maybe he senses the big change that is coming with a new baby brother?

transformations

We started with this old oak table that had beautiful "bones" but I had always been planning to paint it.

After I painted it the older kids glazed it for me because I wasn't supposed to smell the fumes:

The finished product

We had a lot of extra paint, so we decided to also paint this table since it's in a whole different room:

I am loving all the color!! I'll tell you what, I love to have tons of projects to be excited about at the end of a pregnancy.  It makes the time fly by so much faster!!

Caden's two weeks in Oregon

The night before Eli was going to be returning to Oregon, Caden got a phone call from his boss, Uncle Kerry, telling him that his water rights had run out in the basin, and therefore there was no more work for him.  Caden loved that job, so he was a little disappointed, but the call was perfect timing because the raspberries had just come on in Oregon, so Caden jumped in the car with Eli the next morning and headed off to make some money picking berries for the next couple of weeks.  Kami was unable to go as she had girls camp:(  We all missed Caden -  I think he missed us, too- even though it's hard to top all the fun with cousins to be found there!!  I thought I'd post some of the pictures he took while there:

Abby and Emmie:

A lovely creation by Caden and Ila:

He had thirteen pictures of Marjorie sitting on this same chair:) She is SO cute Ivy!!

Hiking to Van Patten Lake with a whole slew of cousins, some Aunts(Ivy and Katie) and one Uncle (Eli)

Jumping off a cliff into the freezing cold water, over and over and over!!!

Caden, Ila, Abby:

Isaac and Westley:

l-r: Josiah, Ila, Isaac, Abby, Jarom, Caleb, Emmie, Sadie, Leslie, Elijah, Westley, Eli, Ivy holding Marjorie, Gracie bending over Gideon and Kilynn:) and up front is David

Caleb, David and Jarom:

Ila,Abby, Eli, Emmie:

Gracie, Emmie, Eli:

Gracie, Emmie, Eli