Loving lots of family time!

These last couple of weeks I've been settling into the fact that Claire has entered the family... we love her! After having her for this short time, we've decided that we'll keep her. haha. I can't say just yet that I'm successfully juggling the demands of 4 kids, because Ben doesn't start up his first full day of work till tomorrow - he's had the past week and half off and has been taking on a lot of the cleaning tasks and keeping the kids entertained. He's taken them on an outing everyday since the baby arrived, a couple of which Claire and I joined in on, but mostly he's been doing it alone... even taking the 3 kids to church by himself the past couple Sundays. I love my Ben! Since Claire arrived, I've been accumulating lots of pictures on my camera... I'm finally unloading them onto the blog...

Emma had her last day of Kindergarten last week. I can't believe she'll be starting up 1st grade in a couple of months! Time is really flying by! I asked Emma what she would miss most about Kindergarten and she immediately said "Mrs. Western". She really loved her teacher...


She's also loved having her good friend Sarah in her class...


Since she's been in half-day Kindergarten, she comes home on the bus with just 5 or 6 other Kindergarten kids that get brought up to our neighborhood. So, she's gotten to know her bus driver quite well! Here's a pic on the last drop off day... :)


Right after school, Ben took all the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2... they all loved it! Ben is so nice and even took a picture for me... this picture made me laugh... they all look rather blinded by the sun, wouldn't you say?


After the movie, I decided I wanted to do a little outing with my Emma... just her and I. So, we went to Krispy Kreme and got free donuts! I learned from my friend Donna that if you take your report card in, they will give you a free glazed donut for every A on your report card (up to 6)... lucky for me, Emma had plenty of A's to get lots of free donuts, so the 2 of us had a very tasty outing :)


Ben's been being great about getting the kids out of the house each day for little outings... but we've also been spending lots of time all together here at home - when we first moved into this house, there was a half-finished, not working fountain in the backyard... we decided to keep the brick work in place and just fill it with some sand so it can be a little sandbox for the kids. We didn't put a ton of sand in there, but Ben added enough that the kids have really enjoyed it. And anything to help keep the kids busy when there is a new baby in the house is great!


And the girls have been spending a lot of time loving on Claire...




And Ben assisted them in playing a little trick on mommy... this is what I found on Emma's bed...(which one of these things is not like the other?)


On Friday I was getting anxious to get out of the house, for something other than a doctor's appt with Claire... so we decided that we'd all head out together as a family for the first time. We went to the Anthem outlets (one of our fave places!) for a little shopping and ice cream...

Really starting to get some good use of the van right about now- ha!

I'm laughing at how Claire isn't shown in these pictures, but you know she's there because of the car seat... she spent the entire outing in her car seat... but she didn't really seem to mind and slept most of the time :)

We headed home for some lunch, and then hopped in the car again to go to the pool! The kids had swim lessons back in April, but this felt like the first real swim of the summer! I stayed on the side in the shade with Claire and Ben braved the crowded pool with all the rest of the kids.


Action shot of Ben coming off the waterslide!... hehe


And here comes Emma!...



Claire at the pool :)
On Saturday we spent the day with Ben's family. They all wanted to see Kung Fu Panda, so Ben and the kids got to see it a second time! haha. I was thrilled though, because I didn't think I'd end up seeing it till it came out to rent. Very fun movie! After the movie we went out to lunch and then to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Claire and her cousin Caroline hung out together. How cute are they?!...


We brought our slip and slide and even though it was malfunctioning, it was still fun! Jake was freaking out not wanting to get squirted by the hose, but he did love the little pool. :)

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With Ben starting up work for good tomorrow, I guess I'm going to have to start settling into some sort of summer routine to keep ourselves busy and sane. But I've been so thankful for these past couple weeks to just snuggle my Claire and have my hubby home to help. :)

Antiquing and Graduating

In the previous post I mentioned that we spent much of our Saturday on an antique shopping adventure in downtown Glendale.... which later sent me into labor.... haha. Well, it was a great morning! We went with the goal of finding a rocking chair and possibly some artwork or something fun to frame for Claire's nursery. We didn't find any art we liked but we did find a big old framed mirror for 8 dollars! We hung that on the wall in the nursery - it's unique and attractive and was CHEAP - all good things. And surprisingly we DID find a GREAT little inexpensive rocking chair, that is successfully meeting my nursing needs. I should have taken a before picture - the seat was covered in a dreadful fabric - so on the way home from antique shopping we stopped into Hobby Lobby to get batting and a cute fabric. The end result is a pleasant place for me and Claire to hang out while I feed her...


We took our time wandering in and out of the antique stores, including a stop for lunch, and also a stop in one of the stores for Emma to buy some candy - she earned 3 dollars early that morning weeding the backyard with daddy... she decided to buy candy necklaces, candy lipsticks, rock candy, bubble gum, and sugar daddy suckers... all of which she shared with the rest of us... here's Ben with the girls taking a little rest amidst our shopping adventures...


After our shopping, and on the way home, we took the kids to play at the splash park... it was hot that day! Definitely a good time to play in the water...







So, within 24 hrs after this outing, we were at the hospital having a baby, so it definitely turned into a very eventful and fun weekend! :)

The day after getting home from the hospital was Becca's preschool graduation. Ben had to go to work, and I definitely wasn't up to taking my day old baby and myself to the event, so my nice friend Krishawn, took on the job of being the mommy support to 2 preschool grads and being photographer on my behalf. :) When I was getting Becca ready that morning, I had no idea it was rainy and cold outside... at the last minute I grabbed her a little sweater to take when I realized I hadn't quite dressed her appropriately for the weather. Here in Arizona, we always expect the weather to be warm and lovely, so it seems that this outdoor graduation party got a bit tricky with the windy, cold conditions.... but not TOO cold for popsicles... :)



Becca says that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up so that she can fix people's owies :)

Becca with her preschool friend and carpool buddy, Landon

Becca with her teachers- Miss Lorene and Miss Carolyn

I'm sad I had to miss Becca's preschool graduation, but I'm SO proud of how much she's grown this past school year! She's become more outgoing, and her academic skills have really blossomed... she's such a witty, fun, and smart little girl... I'm so proud of her!

Claire is here!

Claire Booth Dangerfield
Arrived Monday, May 16th at 12:45am
7 lbs, 6 oz
20.5 inches long

























I would currently describe Claire as sweet and sleepy. :) I'm SO happy she is here with us now - I'd been aching to meet her! I love our darling baby girl and know she will add something new, special, and needed to our family.

The story of her arrival: Saturday we spent most of the day antique shopping in downtown Glendale - we got some great finds for Claire's nursery... I'll discuss further about that in a future post... anyway, the bottom line is that I was on my feet and walking for several hours as we shopped and I think this was the tipping point for me actually going into labor. That evening after we got home and ate dinner, contractions began... they were not easily ignored and were sometimes somewhat painful - they came routinely every 20 minutes. Ben and I were definitely anxious that we might be needing to head to the hospital during the night - but I did sleep much of the night - every once and while I would wake up and would be having a contraction, but for the most part they weren't strong enough to keep me awake. So, Sunday morning I woke up and felt completely wasted - it was probably because of all the contractions... I decided I needed to stay home from church... Ben's mom wins the gold star for the day because when Ben called that morning to tell her that we were going to have to pass on coming for Sunday dinner because I was uncomfortable and exhausted, she insisted on driving the hour to come get the kids from us - she was convinced that I was going to have the baby today. I was pessimistic that would happen just because contractions weren't getting any closer together from the night before. But we let her come get our crazy little ones because a day of rest without them sounded sublime! Contractions continued to come routinely every 20 minutes... by 2pm I was emotionally and physically drained... I told Ben that even though they weren't getting closer together, I thought we should go to the hospital and get checked. When we got there they settled me into a bed and hooked me up to monitor contractions... the nurse checked me and I was at a 4 and half... she told me she'd like to see me get to a 5 before admitting me to the hospital, so she had me walk the labor and delivery floor for an hour. After an hour of walking, I was dilated to a 6! yay! So, we called our families to tell them we were definitely going to have this baby today - I was officially admitted to the hospital at 7pm - Ben's mom left the kids with grandpa and Aunt Emily and Uncle Peter and drove back across town to be with us during the birth. I got my epidural shortly after she arrived - things went well with this delivery, but it wasn't quite as pretty as the last one - I had an oxygen mask on during most of the time and I may or may not have thrown up all over myself shortly before starting to push that baby out. sigh. But I was well cared for and I was glad to have Ben and his mom there to try to keep me distracted and for their support. Claire ended up with a May 16th birthday because she didn't want to show her face till after midnight. :) Our hospital stay went well also - Ben spent the night with me that first night after the baby came, while the kids spent the night at Grandma's house. Uncle Peter and Aunt Emily took charge of the kids all the next morning, since Grandma and Grandpa both had work to go to on Monday morning. Rumor is that Uncle Peter showed up early on Monday morning to make our kids pancakes for breakfast and to take over with babysitting! Gold stars all around to our wonderful family and friends! :) Carrie and Lindsie were oh so kind and also took a turn watching our crazy kids while we finished up our hospital stay and so that Ben could spend most of it with me and Claire.

Since getting home we've had so many friends offer dinners, babysitting, and support and I'm incredibly thankful for how many people are quick to offer service to our little family. Although, I'm realizing that our family is not so little anymore! Somehow, in what seems like an incredibly short time, we've grown to a family of 6!! What?! I feel blessed and also a little overwhelmed. :)

Mommies Day!

Mother's Day was wonderful! The only thing that could have made it better would be if I could have spent time with my own mother - I miss you mom! I really do! My mom is the greatest and I'm thankful to have a day set apart to reflect on our our mom's and how they have shaped us to be who we are today. I learned a great amount from my mom on how to nurture my children. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to be a mother to 3 AMAZING little ones, and one more is about to show her pretty face - what a blessing!

The girls helped to make some Mother's Day cards for their grandma's. Becca was very excited to get to use the paint for this project. This is a very simple idea - probably did it in elementary school once... but got the inspiration from here. When Emma got home from school, she wrote Happy Mother's Day inside. She just loves writing and was happy to get assigned that job.






The girls went out with daddy on Saturday and helped pick out some Mother's Day flowers - I just love them! The colors make me cheerful. :)


Ben pulled off an amazing day for me on Sunday - he was busy busy all day making sure I was well pampered. We have church at 9am, so Ben got up before 6am and got to work in the kitchen. We had the most amazing breakfast! Ben made eggs benedict (my all time favorite breakfast) with homemade english muffins and hash browns! I was in awe and it all tasted delicious. I was VERY impressed as well at the girls cutting skills - Ben says they cut up the strawberries all by themselves, and I seriously wouldn't have known that kids did it - they did a great job! I also got to open some gifts - earlier in the week I had received all the sweet handmade cards and projects from the girls that they had made at school - I proudly display them on my fridge! :) On Sunday, I got to open two different types of chocolate truffles from the girls, some new jammies ("from Jake") - they aren't maternity jammies, so I'm excited to have something cute to wear after the hospital... and Ben got me a couple much needed baby supplies (a baby monitor and something else that will make nursing and preparing bottles SO much easier... I'm trying to avoid sharing TMI on my blog, so I'll spare the details... haha) - things I haven't had with any of our previous babies but will make this time around even easier! I love having such a thoughtful husband and kids. :) One of the best presents of the day, though, was that Ben happily taught my Primary class at church (the week before, they asked all the husbands to teach their wives classes... but even though he didn't really have a choice, he was extremely cheerful about it!) It was such a joy to get to go to Relief Society! After church, Ben made a delicious lemon cake... we took it to Ben's parents home for dessert.


It was great to get to spend time with family on such a memorable Mother's Day. I'm sad that it's over - now here's to another Monday - let's hope that the day of pampering will give me the energy I need to be a good mommy! :)

Enchiladas, Sangria, and Churros

We don't always celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but when we do, we usually go out to eat at a fun Mexican restaurant (this is a favorite) - I decided this year that the least I can do is make some mexican inspired food for dinner, and Ben picked up the most authentic Mexican drinks that Safeway has to offer (sangria and jarritos sodas). :) For dinner we had beef enchiladas (a favorite recipe of ours!), salad, corn, and refried beans. While we ate we listened to Mexican ranchero music (why does Ben own a cd of ranchero music?!), and Emma learned that the colors on the Mexican flag are the same colors as Christmas! It was an educational evening ;). The biggest hit, though, were the churros! They really were delicious - I was surprised how easy they were. We don't own a fryer, so we just used a big pot and kitchen thermometer to keep the temperature of the oil right. They were smaller and thinner than your typical churros - more like little fritters, but they tasted exactly perfect. We ate them along with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce - oh my! My new favorite Cinco de Mayo tradition! :) And as soon as I figure out how to make them look more like a traditional churro, I'm starting up a churro stand and charging $3.00 per churro (like at Disneyland! I'll be rich!).




Something funny... As we were sitting down to dinner and Ben started up the music, Becca seemed to get rather excited, and yells "Happy Chinese!!". I fear this is a result of celebrating too many holidays - it gets a little confusing. :)

I love that I'm a mother!

This morning I had the privilege of attending Mother's Day Tea at Becca's preschool. :) Emma and I did this a couple years ago when she was in this preschool, and I sure do love it! Becca was so sweet the whole time catering to me and bringing me cold water and snacks and diligently helping me make my special tiara and bracelet. We also got to paint each other's faces, the kids all sang us a special mother's day song (and gave us a hug and kiss!), and we had a special story time as well. It was such a wonderful morning! Thank you to Lindsie for watching my Jake, so that I could get some much needed one on one time with my dear Rebecca! Becca also made me a cute book and a picture frame. :)

Look at my fancy tiara!

Singing us a mother's day song

Becca showing off her Mother's Day present for me :)

For the mother's day book, the kids all wrote what they thought their mom's favorite things and attributes were. Here is what Becca wrote (some of these answers are just crazy to me!):

My mom is 18 years old.
My mom's favorite thing to read is Pokemon (I don't have a single pokemon book or movie in my house... so this boggles me... haha)
My mom's favorite song is Twinkle, twinkle little star
My mom's favorite thing to eat is Macaroni and Cheese
My mom's favorite thing to watch on tv is Tangled
Our favorite thing to do together is sleep together (I have NEVER napped or slept with Becca)

So, bottom line is: I love my mother's day book! It makes me smile. :) Speaking of Becca seeming to believe that my favorite thing to do involves sleeping, Emma also came home today with a "word web" about mom's. They were supposed to fill in the word web with drawings of things that come to mind when they think of their mom. Well, one of the things Emma included was a picture of me sleeping in my bed. I asked her about it and she said "well, you LOVE taking naps!". So, I admit, I'm napping MOST days lately in the afternoon, and apparently it is not going unnoticed. haha! I'd like to think that my energy will return and my napping will decrease after I'm done being pregnant, but I'm pretty sure that a newborn waking up several times a night isn't going to help matters. :)

Getting ready...

So, there's not much going on around here other than I'm very very slowly trying to get things done to get ready for the baby's arrival (I say 'slowly' because every day I'm literally moving slower and slower... the past couple days have brought on even more sluggishness and baby aches and pains). It's exciting, but we're all stressed out too! I got our baby girl's bed all ready, which felt good to finally get done - for Christmas, Ben's parents gave us an antique bassinet, which is oh so cute. I finally got around to getting a mattress and sheet for it though and I'm glad to have it ready! Although, looking at it now, I may need to still get some sort of bumpers for the sides also. I'm definitely getting excited! I went to my doctor's appt yesterday and I was surprised to find out that I'm dilated to a 3 and 70 percent effaced - at my appt a week ago, there was absolutely no progress, so it was fun to learn that the baby is getting closer! :) It also has made me super anxious and I've started thinking that this baby just might come much earlier than the 19th... or maybe she won't... the unknowing is driving me crazy. But I'm overly planning and my hospital bag is all ready just in case she decides to make an early exit! :)


On Sunday, we somewhat unknowingly were matching in blue. :) After church, my cute friend Carrie, says "you guys are all cute and matching! let me take your picture!"... haha... so, here you go... a recent and spontaneous family photo.... We SO rarely get pictures of us all together. I've been thinking lately about getting some professional family pics done of us, but I really want to wait till the fall time I think, when I'm no longer big and pregnant and we have our new baby girl to include as well.