Brynlee is finally here!

Almost 2 weeks ago Tim and I headed into the hospital, little did we know that she would come so fast! We got there at about 8:00 PM, my doctor broke my water at 9:00 and I got my epidural at 10:00. Tim thought she would be born at 11:00 and when it got close we joked about how we were missing his deadline... not more than 4 minutes later out she came. For the last 2 months she had been camped out head down with her feet kicking my left side... I could tell she was going to be very patient and it must have been just the right position because all it took was one contraction. I told the nurse I felt "heavy" and when she checked me she said "oh it's because she's crowning, don't push". She then got on the intercom to ask for the doctor and any other hands available, 2 or 3 nurses ran in and all said "don't push" to which I responded "I'm not!" Without pushing, and without my doctor in the room, out she came beautiful and healthy. She weighed 7lbs. 7oz. and was 19 1/2" inches long and her official name is Brynlee Pauline Jones. Everyone is loving her, she's a lucky girl to have so many great brothers and sisters here for her already! The picture above is just after she had her first bath at the hospital.

These pictures were taken about a week after she was home, we think she looks a lot like Sydney... but she also makes some faces that look like Mackenzie and Ella. So far none of the other kids have had such dark hair, maybe she'll have black hair like both her Grandpa's, we do know she'll probably lose it all here in the next few months and be just as bald as everyone else has been.

To top off our 4th of July weekend Mackenzie lost her first tooth! She realized it was loose on Wednesday, the 2nd. After eating she came to me and said that her tooth felt funny, just as she said that she touched it and got a suprised look on her face and squeeled "it's loose!" From that moment on she couldn't leave it alone (sound familiar Unlce K.C.?) she kept at it and gave us hourly updates on how loose it was getting. After having a BBQ with Nick, Kati, the boys and Mom and Dad we came home and found that our neighbors were going to be lighting off fireworks... so we went over to watch. She sat in her chair watching the fireworks and wiggling her tooth, after a little bit she turned to me and said I think it's going to come out, I realized I had a burp cloth just sitting on my shoulder, so I handed it to her and told her that sometimes it's easier to pull out a tooth if you have something to hang on to it with. Sure enough she went to town and not even 30 minutes later came to me with her tooth in hand and a hole in her smile! We went home, put it in her tooth box and put it under her pillow, the next morning she woke up to find 4 quarters in the place where her tooth had been... she is so proud to show any and everyone where her tooth once was, it was a fun milestone for all of us!

Ella turns 1!

Ella turned 1 last month and we actually had a really nice day, nice enough that we had her party outside and ran through the sprinklers with the cousins. Tim thought Ella's swimsuit made her look like one of those old women at the beach that give you the heeby-jeebies... but us women know that at this age it's the only time that rolls are cute!
Ethan had a great time running around, after seeing his diaper I decided it was time to start the potty training. So far so good, he tinkles like a champ... I'm just hoping he gets the hang of #2's soon 'cause it's bad enough dealing with it in a diaper.

O.k. so the sprinkler basically spits water and all the kids were afraid to run through it at first, Tyler was getting brave here...

and then we had the others joining in. If you notice in this picture Sydney, Mackenzie and Carson have their eyes closed, they were lucky not to collide in mid-air!

Since Ella's birthday is the day after mine she got my favorite cake, angel food. At first she didn't want to get her hands dirty, but then she figured out it was good eatin' and dug right in! Happy Birthday beany baby, in a couple weeks she won't be the baby anymore - that seems weird to me. I'm ready for this baby to come, but I think she'll hang on until July, for awhile it seemed like we would be lucky to make it to 34 weeks. I'm just hoping my hips make it through 2 more weeks... my sanity too!

Fun games that we play!

A little while ago we discovered a new game. Our kids all have pretty fine hair and Ethan has a thing with putting blankets on his head, that's why his nic-name is Boogie Man. These were taken after FHE one night a few months ago... since then we have played the "blankey game" from time to time along with some others that now include Ella. At the time we found this rousing game she didn't have any hair, but since she's bulked up we've discovered the joys of zerbits on her very ample tummy! The kids all think it's so funny to take turns blowing on her tummy and the goal is to see who can make the loudest noise and make her laugh the hardest. After a few rounds we have to stop to de-slobber Ella, but she doesn't seem to mind being spit on. It's so funny to see what entertains them... Tim and I are never at a loss for laughter and they never seem to get bored with each other!

Should that be in your mouth?

Here is Ella eating cherios with a runny nose... YUM!

And this is Ethan eating the giant caterpillar at the Science Center, I tried not to wonder how many kids hands had been touching it.

O.k. I don't know what it is about kids and putting things in their mouths... it drives me crazy!! I've got one who puts boogers in her mouth, one who puts her shirt in her mouth and sometimes her thumb, one who will put anything and everything in his mouth and when asked if it should be there replies "no only food goes in there" because we've gone over and over it so many times, one who WON'T put anything in his mouth unless it's been fried or is purely made of sugar, and one who thinks that if it's still under the table and Mom and Dad haven't swept it up... it's ALL GOOD. I know it's all part of being a kid, but man there are days when I wish they couldn't put anything into or have anything come out of any holes in their little bodies!

How you doin'?

A little while ago Ethan started asking "what you doin'?" all the time, even when he knew what we were doing he'd ask. So then Tim and I would ask him what he was doing and he'd say "nuttin'" really fast. Then he figured out that it was funny, so he asks now just to see if we laugh and we ask to see if he'll catch us. He sounds like Joey from friends, so I started asking him to say HOW you doin' insead and here's what we get. The first one on here he hiccups in the middle, but the second one is pretty good!

Wishes

I'm sitting here trying to outlast my heartburn, I really don't want to take anything but it's getting late. I'm afraid that after I post this I will be heading downstairs do drink some baking soda and water... yum! So tonight I was giving everyone a bath and Sydney looks up and asked if dreams come true. I thought for a minute and said "well yes some come true, why what do you mean?" She said that the other night in her dream Sleeping Beauty was her mother and they lived in the castle. I'm not sure how to take that... I'm sure Sleeping Beauty would make a fine mother, but I thought I was doing pretty well too. I couldn't tell if she was excited by the idea of having Sleeping Beauty as a mother, or whether it was something odd to dream about and wondered if there could be a slight chance it could actually happen. Mackenzie piped in with the fact that if you tell your dreams they won't come true. I asked her if she had some dreams and with a little smile she said "yes, and one has already come true". I asked her if it was that William was her boyfriend, and she giggled and said yes. I love some of the conversations I have with my kids, they are so cute and innocent and funny! A spider just ran down the wall behind the computer so I'm out!!

Birthday's Birthday's Birthday's!

So we have had birthday madness this last month at our house! The picture above is Mackenzie's 6th birthday party, on the left we have Nick and Kati's boys Carson and Spencer and next to Mackenzie is Taylor our cute neighbor who my kids adore. We asked Mackenzie what she wanted to do for her birthday and she requested eating teriyaki chicken at the restaurant near our house... so that's where the party started and then we came back for cake - but she was very clear that there was to be no ice cream... sorry dad! As you can see a couple weeks later on April 1st we had snow, Sydney thought it was pretty cool that it snowed on her 5th birthday. Later that day we went and got her ears pierced, she was a champ and didn't even cry or flinch or anything... I was suprised because she's such an over-actor! We had pizza and cake and ice cream at our house and Sydney, in true fashion, ooohhhed, aaawwwed and even squeeked over each present she opened.
About a week or so later we had an 80 degree day and decided to play outside, wash our cars and have a pic-nic. From left to right it's Sydney, Tyler, Mackenzie and Ethan... Ella was cruising around outside and dove for some sidewalk chalk and ended up with a little road rash instead...
So she ate her lunch sitting in her seat inside where I knew she would be safe. (Notice the nice red smoosh on her eye and cheek) Just this last week she started walking, we'll have pictures of that up soon! Many of you have asked why I don't have pictures of me up, mostly it's because I'm usually the one taking the pictures, but also because I'm not in the mood to plaster a big ol' picture of me on my blog... maybe I'll get one up here soon since we haven't had a family picture taken lately. We love you all and I've been so blessed to have found some of my really great friends from it's seems like forever ago... blogging is fabulous!