Dinner and Entertainment

Tonight was our annual ward chili/chowder feed. (Does having the word feed instead of cookoff, party, or dinner make anyone else kind of cringe, like we are all expected to walk up to the crockpots with our spoons and dig in? I thought so.) At the party there are prizes for the best chili (or two, one regular one spicy), best chowder (thick and thin), best bread, and best dessert. Because Andy and I have both tried to make chili and completely failed, we just stick to the bread and dessert. Andy made his cousin Sunny's awesome French bread (I just went over to my food blog and discovered that I haven't posted that recipe! What's wrong with me? I like to share recipes and help others try them and tell me how great they are!) Anyway, Andy made the bread and mixed in little pieces of roast beef and cubes of pepper jack cheese. He made two big loaves of it (like French bread it's as long as a large cookie sheet) and we were the last people in line because I was feeding Abigail and we took the very last two pieces of it. Everyone kept telling me how good it was and then I'd tell them that Andy made it. I like that he wants to make things sometimes. It was yummy! I made my mom's recipe for mud pie which I just went over and checked for and found....nothing. I haven't made that for my food blog either. I need to work on that. I have plenty of time for that. Expect it soon. We all have our own definitions of soon and urgency. The mud pie was fantastic as you may expect; however, neither of our dishes won. =( They just had three judges to pick the best this time instead of having everyone vote. I think I like everyone voting better because people kept telling us how good ours were and Andy's bread was gone and the winning bread was not. People vote with their mouths in this case, right?
Abigail at the party while she waited for us to return to our table.After eating (I had a little cup of the one remaining chili and nearly all the desserts because that's how I like it), we did a little karaoke. The new ward that was created in November with the South part of our ward and the neighboring ward had their chili/chowder feed (ugh!) a few weeks ago and had karaoke and their bishopric performed so the lady in charge of ours was trying to get our bishopric to do a song too. The bishop would not do it, but they finally convinced the counselors to sing (one was willing, the other took some convincing.) They picked "Born to be Wild". It was funny. They had big afro wigs and everything. The lady in charge picked a song to sing and then didn't want to sing it alone so she asked (from the microphone at the front) people to come and sing with her. No one had agreed by the time she got to me, so I asked what the song was and joined her. Then several other people came up too. The song was "You are my Sunshine", but it was a different version of it that was much slower and didn't have the "dear" in it like, "the other night, dear, as I lay dreaming..." It was terrible and we were all off and so we looked in the book and found the better version and sang much nicer. A few more people sang and then it was our turn. Andy likes karaoke and I like it too, once I got over those nervous things that make me think I'm going to do awful....I already got that over with during the first song, so I was all set. We sang Yvonne Ellison "If I Can't Have You". It's a fun, fast-paced song that we like to sing in the car. It's one of my favorite in the car songs. Here is the video of it:

I did mess up, but I don't care. It was fun anyway. Everyone liked it, especially because Andy's so fun. After a few more people, everyone was cleaning up and so we finished the night off with Lenny Kravitz "American Woman" without the swearing. We like that one in the car too. After we were done there we went to the store to get a present we forgot so we can give it to them tomorrow at the Ransom family birthday singing/cake eating party for the end of February/beginning of March birthdays. We ran into several people from our ward (two who didn't come to the "feed") and my cousin and her husband and we visited with them for a little bit until Abigail made it obvious that she was hungry and we needed to go home.

Taco Bell

We went to Taco Bell for dinner and after the girls finished their tacos, we looked over (they were next to us at a tall table) and Olivia was pulling an awful face and hurrying to get a drink of her water. And then we saw the packet of mild hot sauce in her hand and one in Elizabeth's hand.
Elizabeth was telling her that it wasn't very spicy and kept up her eat the hot sauce out of the packet/drink some water routine for a while. The things big sisters do to little sisters...
I made my sister do all sorts of things too...like I'd pretend to be falling off my bed at nighttime (when we should have been sleeping-payback is ROUGH!) and make her rescue me and then she'd do the same and I wouldn't rescue her and she'd... really fall off (2 feet). Or the time we were having a family reunion at Fishhook park and she walked across the boardwalk thing at the outside of the swimming area and I told her to jump in when I waved and she did and then freaked out and one of my mom's cousins jumped in to rescue her....you know, normal older sibling stuff, right?

Abigail One Month

Today Abigail is one month old.
We spent the morning running errands and came home about 1:30 to relax (and for Abigail to feast.) After dropping off the girls at school, Vincent, Abigail, and I came home, I showered, fed Abigail, and then we were off to the library to drop off a movie that was due, the bank, a store to get something that they were out of (couponing Oreos for cheap), picked Olivia up from her early Friday, off to the Pasco WalMart to get Vincent's picture taken for his three year (his last professional picture was when he was 18 months old.....oops), grocery/toiletry shopping at WalMart, then 20 minutes at Costco, and we were done in perfect time to go home, drop off groceries, and get Elizabeth at school. It's nice to get all those errands done and relax for the afternoon until Andy gets home from work.
Vincent is still doing well with potty-training and has only had a few accidents, which really just happen now because I forget to make him go often enough sometimes. It's almost like I'm distracted or something. He is doing well though. He keeps calling his poop little rocks. We've started pushing apple juice. =)Here are a few more cute pictures I took of Abigail just now at one month old. Today she rolled over (tummy to back) and smiled back at me when I was talking to her. We'll see if she keeps the rolling up. It might have been a fluke because I was out of the room when she did it and there was a blanket under her that wasn't quite smooth.
Her eyes are still blue. At this point she hasn't lost any baby hair either, so it's still really dark. Elizabeth's hair wasn't really red until she was four months old, so we'll see on that too.She's looking at the camera much better here and almost smiling. Abigail sleeps at night for five hours straight most nights, but she often doesn't start the sleeping until 1 or 2am. It makes it a little hard, but I'm doing pretty good since I'm pretty used to not sleeping much anyway. I sleep after Elizabeth gets home from school some days before (or after) Andy gets home from work.
My mom made these fun pants for Olivia when she was this size. Elizabeth had a matching pair. I love them! She's still so little, but she's getting really strong.Enjoying life and all it's fun times over here.

Potty-ing

So we are finally starting to work on potty training Vincent. I know, I know. He's three now and we should be done, right? Well, on the ball early trainers, we aren't, but he will go to kindergarten without a diaper. I'm sure of it. For one, he's nearly growing out of the biggest size diaper now and he's doing pretty well with the potty training too.
Reasons to wait to potty train:
1. He's a boy who wasn't interested at all.
2. Newborn nursing baby sister.
3. Mom recovering from c-section.
4. No reason to revert after all that excitement.
5. We are just lazy and didn't want to train yet and have to force it and yell and be stressed out about training, honestly.His face is all dirty from his cinnamon toast crunch cereal. His very favorite food these days...
So, I bought cool Toy Story underwear for him a year ago (when I found some for $1.60 for a three pack at Kohl's.) I got them out on Saturday to wash them and told Vincent we'd start on Monday. Then, he wanted to try it right away, so we started. Well, Elizabeth started. Andy was working on something and I was taking care of Abigail. I bought some pull ups for when we go out and we are all set. He goes when he sits on the potty and even wants to go again after he dumps it into the potty and flushes the toilet. It's hard to make him get out of the bathroom. I guess that's better than crying that he doesn't want to go. We haven't even had to give him any kind of reward. A benefit of waiting? I think so. He has only had one accident when he was busy playing and we forgot to make him go. (He doesn't tell us that he needs to go yet, so we have to just take him in there every 30 minutes or so.) Andy told him that when he's all potty trained he can pick out a toy he wants at the store.
I'm excited about this new adventure and this should be busy, but wonderful, especially when he figures out how to do it all by himself. I see some light, unfortunately, he'll still be wearing a diaper to bed for a while, I think.

Vote for my picture!

I entered a picture in the Winkflash contest to win 100 dollars to spend on pictures on their site. I'd LOVE to win! Will you vote for this cute picture of Olivia? The theme is Spring.What says Spring more than a cute little girl in a dress and sweater with an umbrella?
Just in case the link doesn't work, you can go to www.winkflash.com > think spring photo contest on the bottom right > and browse/vote for contest entries.
I guess you do have to sign up to vote. They have 4x6 prints for 6 cents each right now. It's a great time to sign up! It's free. They offer 6 cent prints all the time. It's totally worth it and they print your file name on the back of the picture so if you save your pictures by date, you can organize them easily without having to write the date on them. They also save your files for you and you can share them online with people or ship them somewhere else. I only use Winkflash!

Not all bad...

Sorry about the grumpiness of that last post. Now you know why I hadn't posted anything for a few days. Just assume that if I'm not posting that I'm super busy (always!) or that I'm sleeping or that I can't handle telling my blog readers what life really is like with four kids (or discourage them from having ANY kids at all!) Most of the time the kids play nicely and will eat their dinner and love being kids and helping each other (GAG!) Then there are the other times with fighting and a little meanness. I really am glad I have children to take care of and the blessings they are in my life. I promise. I'm working harder to not yell so much and to be more fun. I need to get out of this tired and crabby funk. I overdo and I'm tired and don't sleep much lately, so bare with me while I turn myself into a nice mom for more than just when I'm in public. =) You know you do the same thing!

In other news, today was Morning with Mom (donuts for kids and their mom at the school before school started. Yum! They had Donuts for Dad last month), so Andy stayed home for an extra hour this morning with Vincent and Abigail so I could go with the girls and see their classrooms too. Olivia looking at her Kindergarten Memory notebook with Elizabeth. See? They like each other.It was also the 100th day of school for the kindergartners, so they had a party, of course!
Singing the 100 day of school song. Olivia is in the red shirt in the front next to the-boy-who-never-stops in the blue. He's such a cute, fun kid. He just has a TON of energy! They are all wearing their 100 day crowns and picked up 100 treats (10 each of 10 different things) and they wrote the 100 numbers. Vincent likes to go and find things to show me in the classroom. He takes it back when he's done though. He was making this Nemo fish move to the music. Clifford the Dog had been dancing just before this. He played with the magnets in the corner behind him and the blocks in the opposite corner for a while.It was fun and Abigail slept right through it. Now on to other things. I'm going to go help the girls clean up the leaves outside next to our side door. They have this chore because of their behavior going to sleep (ie: not going to sleep) at night. I'm going to do my best to not yell at them. I've done pretty good so far today. Calmmmmmmmm....

My Baby Valentine

This week has been a whirlwind of eating, feeding, and cleaning and it's not over yet!
Abigail is so sweet and is getting to be a great sleeper (except the occasional too much sleep during the day and wanting to stay up until the wee hours of the morning-like her mom-to feast until passing out for five hours in her food coma).
Valentine's Day. I made some heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. The girls went to school. Andy went to work. I took care of Vincent and Abigail. I also made sugar cookies (dough made Sunday night) and frosted them and met with the sister missionaries (I'm a ward missionary) a little to look at the schedule and missed my nap and picked up Elizabeth from school and failed to plan dinner (or get someone to bring us one) so we went to McDonald's with a play place where the kids played after they ate their dinner. It was actually kind of nice. Andy brought all four of us girls some pretty flowers and put them in vases for us. I found an awesome Kool-Aid man shirt for Andy and gave the kids some of those M&M valentine boxes.Tuesday was my dad's birthday. Also the worst day I've had in a long time. Those two things are not connected. I was tired because Abigail was up late/early on Monday night. I took Vincent and Abigail with me to the library and Albertson's to use some great doubler coupons to get free/cheap stuff. Then the fun began. Vincent spilled orange juice in the kitchen and it went under the fridge so I had to move the fridge and mop the floor really good, even though it was on my list to get Andy to do that in the evening even without the orange juice spill. Luckily, Abigail napped until I was finished cleaning up the mess and I put Vincent into bed as soon as it happened (he had been walking through the house with the cup held between his teeth and it was lunchtime). It was nice to have the floor cleaned up. Laundry was already going, so the towels were tossed in at the right time. After I finished, Abigail woke up and I called a lady from church who I used to visit teach with (who also had nine kids!) who offered to bring me a meal when I need one, knowing of course that some days are harder than others and she answered on the first ring and all I told her is that "today is a hard day" half choking back tears and she asked to bring a meal and what my kids hate. She is fabulous. She brought us dinner and even some frosted cupcakes. Even so, I was still at meltdown stage without a nap, so I slept on the couch for a little while when the older kids wouldn't go to sleep very well. I'm glad for rescuers. After I woke up, I scrubbed down the entire bathroom. It SO needed it! I took Abigail to the doctor for another weight check to make sure that she's growing better now and she had gained six ounces and is now (after three weeks) just one ounce less than her birth weight. I've been feeding her two ounces of formula in addition to my milk this past week, so I guess it worked. She's just so tiny still.

8th Birthday with Friends

Elizabeth has been planning her eighth birthday party since the end of December (I made her wait until after Christmas to really start planning). She planned out the "pin the tail on the Zuzu pet", made some party favors with Halloween candy, made invitations that I added the essential details to, toilet paper rolls, paper that she decorated, and tape-a lot of tape! She invited several friends, including boys since she gets along so well with them (this was her first party with boys since she was three). We planned it for naptime for Vincent (Abigail decided to nap too!) and on a Saturday when Andy could help. Olivia was included in the party plans and games and had a fun time teasing Elizabeth. Her cake was the one that my mom won for Vincent from a local country radio station. He won last year too. We didn't have time to go and pick up the coupon for his birthday, so we used it for Elizabeth's. It was free. My favorite thing.When they arrived, they played with the Zuzu pets that we have acquired since Christmas (Vincent got two and the girls each got one for Christmas and then one of our friends was unloading toys her kids don't play with anymore and sold us a few more and a big cool track for them to play in.) Then once they all were here, they had a race to see who could blow up their balloon the fastest (I tied them for them). Then they tried to keep the balloons in the air and it turned into a beat each other with the balloons event. They all seemed to like it and no one got hurt since balloons don't hurt much. Elizabeth blew up her balloon the biggest. She was so excited.There were a few popped balloons, but we had extras. At one point Olivia's balloon popped and I was confused until she popped Elizabeth's balloon (big tears!) and I saw the pencil Olivia was holding. A sharp pencil. Here's Elizabeth with her second balloon. Too bad Elizabeth totally deserves a popped balloon or twenty since every time she pops her balloon or lets go of it outside and Olivia and Vincent still have one, she pops their balloon. She did it on Wednesday morning after Vincent got a balloon at Red Robin and Olivia came home from a birthday party with a balloon. Why are balloons such a huge deal to this kid??? We gave her another balloon anyway.
By then, the pizza was ready. I made some berry Kool-Aid to go with the pizza. More balloon terrorizing (fun) started as soon as they finished. Then they played Elizabeth's pin the tail on the Zuzu pet that she made. She drew the picture and made little ice cream shapes that each person stuck on where the ice cream symbol is on her Zuzu. Andy spun each kid around the number of times that their age is (5, 8, or 9) and then they stuck it on the Zuzu picture. Elizabeth was first and could totally see, so I took hers off and made her go to the end. (I'm mean like that.) She's a little competitive.
Andy spinning a friend.
Elizabeth placing her ice cream on the Zuzu sign.
Time for presents and then cake and ice cream.
Somehow I've managed to run out of candles. I haven't even used them since August, so I guess I forgot to check the supply since then. I just haven't even thought about it. We had five sparkly candles. Elizabeth said five were fine and blew them all out.Right after this picture the friend across from Elizabeth blew the smoke in her eyes. (Not on purpose.)
We got out the Twister game for a little while before parents started coming to pick up their kids and while I fed Abigail. It was a little crazy with six kids 8 or 9 years old and the boy/girl teasing/flirting stuff was a little much (yes, already!)
Andy left for a church meeting just before the party was over and Abigail woke up (Vincent woke up just after the cake and ice cream). We cleaned up and then I took a good nap. So did Abigail. I'm thinking now (after midnight) that she may have slept too much today. Shoot. I don't think of it when I'm getting stuff done. Abigail has been sleeping really well at night for the last week or so with one five hour stretch of sleep each night and then an additional few hours. It makes it so much easier to take on the day's agenda with decent sleep.
Here is a picture of Abigail today in an outfit Andy's grandma gave to Elizabeth when she was born. There's a little smile there too. She was great running errands with me tonight too. A man in one of the stores I went to told me "good job" after looking at her. I guess it's a good thing I made her and didn't adopt her? People are funny.
In the store Friday, some guy asked Vincent if he liked ice cream and then gave him (me) a dollar so he could go eat some. The guy said he can't eat ice cream anymore and wanted Vincent to eat it for him. Cute, right? A little weird too... Vincent decided he'd rather have a KitKat when we went to pick up Elizabeth's cake. I was happy with that because we didn't have time to go for ice cream Friday with all of our errands to run before picking Olivia up from a friend's Valentine party.
And a picture of Abigail and my little sister, Janessa, on Tuesday at Red Robin while she and her son Jackson were here visiting for a week. We saw them Sunday at the baptism, Tuesday at Red Robin, and Thursday night at my brother's house with my two brothers and parents for dinner and crazy cousins playing. Janessa is due with her second boy in a few months.
Here's to a slower week! Maybe....

Elizabeth's Birthday & Baptism

This Sunday was Elizabeth's eighth birthday and her baptism. Saturday was Andy's cousin's eighth birthday and baptism in Kennewick, so we've had a weekend of family, spiritual pondering, cake and other food, and lots of dresses (for the girls of course).
Elizabeth and Chris after his baptism. This is back at their house after he changed out of his suit. Several people told me that they like Elizabeth's dress. Can you believe that I only paid $1.50 for it at my favorite thrift store?
Olivia holding Abigail at Chris's house waiting for dinner. She loves to hold Abby!
Andy's Uncle John is funny. He put on Chris & Brent's helmet and started making faces. I had to have a picture! Unfortunately, the camera focused on the person in the corner of the picture (I cropped her out) and he's blurry. When we first got to their house, our kids got out the play guns and handcuffs and kept going up to everyone (mostly John) telling them to put their hands up and telling them "You're Arrested!" Um, the kids like to watch COPS with Andy on Saturday nights. He explains it all to them and tells them why they shouldn't do drugs or break the law. =)
Brent was wearing his SWAT outfit. Andy decided that to look more official he needed a handlebar mustache and some cop sunglasses. No luck on the sunglasses, but Andy found an eyeliner pencil laying around and drew on this mustache. It only lasted for the picture and Brent wanted to wash it off. (Chris is helping Brent to look at the camera.) Incidentally, Brent was born on Andy's birthday almost six years ago.
While getting food for lunch, someone requested Black Cherry pop that wasn't opened yet, so Becky (Chris's older sister) opened the bottle and it sprayed everyone around the kitchen island, especially Olivia's face which was the exact height of the top of the bottle (or maybe the counter). We all just stood there trying to figure out whether it would make more mess to move or to just wait for someone who didn't have pop all over them to come with a wet rag. We waited. Olivia then told everyone that she had pop in her bangs and we saw how much pop was on her, but when the pop settled, hardly any of it was missing. All those little drops just made a giant mess. The pop got all over my arm and front of my shirt, but Shout got the pop out of my shirt. I love Shout.
Birthday cousins, Christopher and Elizabeth blowing out the candles on Chris's cake. Elizabeth wants people to know that she blew most of them out.
Sunday evening was Elizabeth's baptism at our Stake Center. Andy baptized Elizabeth.
Christopher and Elizabeth before her baptism.
Olivia twirling in the dress my mom made for me when I was five. My little sister, Janessa, had a green dress like this, but for a one year old. Olivia loves this dress!
Our family before the baptism. Abigail is 12 days old here and tiny!
My Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Zora (Elizabeth's middle name is Zora) with Abigail for the first time. Abigail is wearing the dress my mom made for Olivia when she was this size. Elizabeth had one Vincent's size, but obviously he doesn't wear it. =)
Elizabeth's baptism was nearly standing room only. It was just for her and in the primary room and it was packed. We have both sides of family local (or within an hour's drive), so a lot of family was there to support her and we have lived in the same ward for nearly ten years, so many people from our ward (and the ward that just split off of our ward) were there as well as a few other friends. Elizabeth asked her Grandma Shirley and Grandma Mary to give the Baptism and Holy Ghost talks, her Aunt Sara and Aunt Torrie to play and lead the music, Grandpa George and Grandpa Paul to be witnesses, and Olivia and I to say the prayers. Olivia prayed that "Elizabeth would get baptized safely". When we moved to the baptismal font room, several of the kids started talking to Elizabeth through the plexiglass, so we had to hush them before Andy could baptize her. They were saying, "Hi, Elizabeth!" Andy confirmed her after she was redressed in her baptism dress that I failed to get a good picture of. I think my mom took one. I'll get one on Sunday when she wears it again. The dress is the one that my mom bought for my baptism day (and Janessa's.)
Edited to add the dress picture my mom took.
The ruffled back.My mom made this super cape for Elizabeth. Her boy cousins all got "super me" capes years ago, but this year my mom is making them for the grandkids who didn't get them back then. Andy, his dad, my dad, my grandpa, his step grandpa, and a member of our Bishopric confirmed her with the Holy Ghost. Afterward, we had some cookies and rice crispy treats in the back of the room and Elizabeth opened some birthday presents when most of the guests other than family left. Elizabeth reported that she felt cold in the water (she came out shivering!) and nervous because there were so many people there. She did great though and we are proud of the special girl she is.
Monday we took treats to her classroom (more rice crispy treats with sprinkles on top) and they sang to her. She's going to have a birthday party on Saturday with a few friends. She has it all planned out. She made party favors, a party game, the invitations (I added a printed paper with the details), and says that she just needs a cake and pinata. I think we can handle that.

A little more talk.

So, I forgot to mention in my last post that Thursday I heard Abigail's little sleeping laugh for the first time. It was so cute. I love those little noises and faces they make when they are little, especially the little half smiles and chuckles.
Also, Thursday night Abigail slept from 1:30-7am and although I really enjoy sleeping in long stretches...as a nursing mother, ouch! I didn't even wake up in the middle. I love sleeping. I don't even hear Andy's alarm, but I'm tuned to the baby cries. When I heard Vincent I had to go and wake Abigail up to feed her. I'm glad she's a good sleeper and hope she keeps it up. Sure she wants to eat for a few hours before going down for the night, but I can handle that.
I'm so grateful for so many people around me willing to help me out. One friend has come over to pick up Elizabeth and Olivia for school every morning this week. A few other friends have picked the kids up after school and one of them even picked Olivia up from home after school was out on Tuesday and drove her to her dance class (Andy picked her up on his way home.) Others have brought or asked to bring us yummy dinners. One is picking up some bread at Costco for me and saving me a trip out there. One is going to watch my older kids after school so I can go grocery shopping to Winco or Walmart (not Costco!) More have commented on pictures on Facebook which I love to read. People have offered to watch the kids and our parents even took the three older kids for two nights each! I feel so loved and I'm grateful for that. Our tummies are full and our hearts are too.
Elizabeth is getting baptized on her birthday, Sunday. She had her interview with the Bishop and is excited about it.
Um, have I mentioned that I bounce back really fast from c-sections? I do. I don't expect it from others, but I like to get back to my busy routine and back to life quickly. I enjoy the rest for a few days and I'll still not all the way back into everything. I'm not vacuuming since Andy likes it so much he's done it every night since buying the vacuum.
I've been reading the book "To the Rescue" which is President Thomas S. Monson's biography. It is fabulous. I love learning about the prophets and apostles through their lifetime of stories and amazing witnesses of Christ. I'm already more than halfway through. I read while I feed Abigail about half of the time. The other half of the time I'm watching a show online or checking my email to see if anyone has commented on my blog or facebook or sent me an email or reading other peoples' blogs.
Anyway, I'm just feeling really good and thanks for reading my little rambling today. I hope your day is fabulous!

My baby thoughts and a picture or two

I've decided a few things since becoming a mom of four. These may or may not apply to your babies.

1. I'm really glad I had the hardest baby first so I can appreciate the easy parts of younger siblings. (Elizabeth wanted to eat hourly during the day, which is not much different now when she's home, and cried a lot. I think she had some acid reflux stuff, but she wasn't a spit-upper. I was exhausted with her and it wasn't only because of the adjustment to having a baby to take care of. She really was a hard baby. She did sleep decently at night though.)

2. You won't remember your second baby being a baby much, especially if they are good most of the time. Easy-going and content.

3. Best baby ever, and I mean EVER! He ate, slept, smiled, and was a fun baby who went with the flow and was carried around all over to our activities. (Now he's a busy toddler BOY. All boy-except the occasional doll playing-See previous post.)

4. Good quiet baby (so far) who sleeps and sleeps. Thank goodness! She was having trouble for a few days, but now she has had a few nights of sleeping great.
Night #1 (Monday)-Sleep 2 hours, eat-repeat three times.
Night #2 (Tuesday)-Sleep 3 hours, eat-repeat twice.
Night #3 (Wednesday)-Sleep 4 hours (after feasting for at least two), eat, then sleep for 3 more hours.

Okay, so maybe those aren't all going to happen for everyone, but I think generally the first is usually the hardest baby and the one that takes the most work.
Today Abigail had her second PKU test done and I drove for the first time since having her. We picked Elizabeth up at school, went in and checked the PTA closet, showed Abigail off to the secretaries and Olivia's speech teacher, drove Elizabeth to musical theater, showed Abigail off to Elizabeth's class because she wanted to, stopped by Albertson's to pick up extra coupon doublers that are good until Wednesday, and then took Abigail to the lab to get the test done. Abigail slept through all of those other stops, so I figured that she'd wake up all hungry and sad and I'd need to feed her at the lab, but she slept and slept. They decided to take the blood from her heel (that's the test and they put the blood on a card covering five dots about the size of a dime) while she was in her carseat. She didn't even wake up when they poked her heel to make it bleed. (She did, however, poop right then and soon after. It was funny.) She slept though the whole thing and didn't wake up to eat until we got home.
I managed my first trip by myself with four kids. Yea me!
Thursday night was our Stake Relief Society Convention with the wives of the Stake Presidency giving talks, beautiful music, yummy fancy cupcakes, and displays of ways that we can be "steadfast and immovable". I sat by some friends from my ward/former ward and Andy's cousin Becky found me and sat by me too during the talks. I dressed Abigail up in this Raggedy Ann and Andy dress that my mom made when Elizabeth was a baby. Our nursery was Raggedy Ann and Andy then. The dress wouldn't even close in the back when Elizabeth was this age, but it fits Abigail perfectly. Elizabeth never even fit into my blessing dress. She was just huge. I blame peanut m&m's and prenatal vitamins.
One of the displays happened to have these Raggedy Andy and Ann dolls and one of my friends wanted to take a picture of Abigail with them. Cute, huh? She is making a funny mouth because I took her pacifier away just then.
I'm feeling great. I set the timer on the camera before I left to get a picture of myself. It's not the best ever, but here's what I'm looking like this week. If you think I don't look like I just had a baby, join the club. That's what I heard all night. Not gonna lie. I liked it. All you have to do is starve and be on the gallbladder diet for the first half of pregnancy, loose weight, and be hungry and then have your gallbladder taken out laparoscopically when you're 16 weeks pregnant. I don't actually recommend it. That surgery was a lot harder to recover from than the c-section. Really it was, and I didn't even have a newborn to take care of then.

Fun stuff

I know, third post in a day....couldn't resist.
Vincent and Elizabeth with the giraffe Elizabeth built with Vincent's new blocks. There was a giraffe on the bag.

Vincent in his new Super Vincent cape from Grandma Mary.Baby doll next to Abigail. See previous post about dollies.Abigail testing out the swing. Andy added the AC adapter when Vincent was born, so we don't have to replace batteries.Olivia was at ballet this afternoon, so there weren't more pictures of her. She held Abigail before dinner. Abigail was starting to slip here. She loves her baby sister. I arranged a lady whose daughter takes ballet to pick Olivia up after school today on her way to the ballet studio and then Andy picked her up. In a few days I'll be back to my normal driving self and won't have to make so many arrangements. It is kind of nice to just stay home though.

Tonight we were favored with another delicious dinner and a visit from my brother's family, we finally ate some pie, and put the kids to bed. Abigail just fell asleep, so I'm off to bed now too since tonight is set up for the three hours awake pattern. I'll watch any tv shows I care about online. Anyone know how to watch American Idol online?

Just like Mommy?

So, I think from this picture you can tell what I do all day now. Abigail is a week old. I use the yellow pillow though and I don't need that plastic baby. I'm glad he wasn't trying to pick Abigail up. Olivia carried Vincent through the house when he was just a few days old (and she was only 2 1/2 and smaller than Vincent. Yikes! I was sleeping and Andy was in charge of them.)
Here's a video of Vincent 'splaining himself. I walked past this little scene and had to grab my camera. It's too funny.

Sleep Pattern?

So, we went to church on Sunday...as in all of us....our whole family of six. Does that sound strange to anyone else or just me? I keep saying five still. The talks and lessons were so good.
Abigail in her newborn size dress someone in our ward gave Elizabeth when she was born. The shoes came from Andy's sister Torrie I think. They came off in the car because her feet are too tiny. She was yawning in this picture.Abigail and I all ready for church. Andy went to PEC before church with our neighbor across the street and the neighbor's wife drove us in our car to church since I can't drive yet (drugs+c-section) and then we all went home with our own families.
I felt pretty good through church and came home to feed Abigail, took a nice nap (and so did she), fed Abigail again, and then went over to Kennewick to eat dinner with Ransoms. I had been thinking that lasagna sounded good, but didn't say anything (even out loud to myself-yes, I talk to myself.) and then that's what dinner was. Yum. I fed Abigail another hundred times and then it was time to go home and feed her some more. It's almost like she's trying to catch up. She likes to stay awake and eat for three hours at night every other night from 3am-7am, which is right when the other kids start waking up. Then she sleeps all morning and I can't wake her up while they are all up. She likes to wake up to eat just after Vincent lays down for his nap and be up for his whole nap. She's got really great timing. I'm sure all of this will settle down soon....or I guess I sure hope it does. Last night was the nice kind of night. Abigail woke up three times to eat (2:30, 5am, and 7am) and went right back to sleep. It was wonderful to sleep in my bed. The night before I only slept from about 1am-3am and kept trying to go back to bed and then she'd cry and I'd suddenly have more milk for her like magic. I'm thinking it's a good thing I'm conditioned to being up so late, but it's still tiring and I'm recovering from my c-section. I'm feeling pretty good though and it's nice to have friends bring us dinners so I don't have to worry about that. =)
Monday was Vincent's third birthday. Here he is eating his breakfast.
After dinner he opened his presents from us....actually he opened one before Andy got home, so I only have a picture of this one. (The birthday boy shirt was $2 at Kohl's last year.)
He got a bunch of big blocks to build with.
Of course, he cared more about the box than the blocks. The box didn't survive all of the kids trying it out. Vincent pretended that it was an airplane and a bird. Andy was a little late in coming home from work on Monday night because he stopped by the store in Oregon (no sales tax) to buy this Dyson vacuum. He says it's for me, but he likes to vacuum, so I'll let him use it as much as he wants. I hated that our old vacuum, although bagless, still had to be so dusty and hard to clean out. The dirt got all stuck in the filter and I had to hit the filter on the outside garbage can to get it sort of emptied. The Dyson is awesome because you just hit a button and it lets go of all the garbage. And, you know, it sucks up more dirt too.
The next thing on our list to buy is a new big dining room table that has all matching chairs. We plan to buy that with a part of our tax refund.
Now on to the rest of the day dealing with a few grumpy kids....well, they weren't grumpy a few minutes ago, but now they are. Hopefully, we can fix their troubles. I know just what Abigail needs. =)