Grandma's Funeral

Today was my grandma's funeral. It was up in Fort Collins. We had some friends watch Emmaline, Josiah and Jeremiah for the day but we decided to take Elijah with us. And of course Micah has to go where ever I go. :-) Elijah did pretty well with the whole thing although we're not sure he completly understands that great grandma is gone. He put a flower on her casket at the grave side along with all the other great grandkids. I was an honorary pallbearer so I walked along behind the casket. My sister and her husband were able to come from California for the funeral so it was nice to see them even though it wasn't the best of circumstances.

Boys and their toys

Mark has recently started building and flying model airplanes. His current project is a T Craft model airplane, fairly small, relatively speaking. :-) The last one he completed was a piper cub which is really big, the wing is taller than me! He spends lots of time building them and the boys love to come and help or work on their own planes. On Sunday Elijah was working on his airplane, made out of scraps from Mark's plane, and Josiah was working on a little airplane that Mark made for him while Mark worked on his plane. It was so cute I just had to take a picture of them all together. :-)

Little helper!

Every Sunday evening we have tea and snack type foods, usually cheese, crackers, and cookies. Last night Emmaline got on the counter, pulled out some bowls and my mixer, and procedded to pretend to make cookies for us to have with our tea! It was so adorable! Whenever I cook or bake she loves to come and help and yesterday she just decided she would do it on her own. It won't be too many years before she is able to really cook, and what a blessing that will be! :-) I didn't think to take a picture of her cooking but here is a picture of her playing dress-up. She loves to say that she is "God's little princess"!

A rough week . . .

This has been a rough first week with Micah, not because he is a hard baby but because we have all been sick with the stomach flu! Josiah was the first one to get sick on Tuesday, followed by Jeremiah on Thursday, me and Elijah on Friday night and Mark and Emmaline today. It has been pretty miserable for everyone, trying to adjust to a new little one and being sick all at once. Mark got it the worst though. He has spent most of the day in the bathroom, poor guy. :-( In addition to being sick we have had a terrible time trying to find a doctor to do Micah's circumcision. We went to 2 doctors and one refused us care because we don't do all the vaccinations and the other said he wouldn't do the circumcision unless Micah had a Vitamin K shot (We did vitamin K drops since he was born at home). We ended up having to get a prescription for the shot, having our midwife administer it and now we have the circumcision scheduled for next Tuesday. What a major headache!

Our new little one!

Well, the baby finally decided to be born! I went into labor on the morning of Thursday, February 11, at 12:30 a.m. and the baby was born at 3:50 a.m. I had a home water birth and it went really well. This was almost my longest labor and I have decided that long labors are easier than short fast ones. :-) We had another little boy, so now we have 4 boys! We named him Micah Elliot. He weighed in at 8 lbs 3 1/2 oz. and was 20 3/4" long. He is our biggest baby yet, the next biggest one was Josiah at 7 lbs 5 oz. The kids love him, especially Emmaline. She is quite the little mommy, she has spent a lot of time holding him and just looking at him. The kids were a little disappointed that we didn't have a girl but as Emmaline keeps saying, "maybe we'll have a little girl soon!" I don't know about that! I would like a little break...

New Clothes!

The secretary at Mark's work has a little boy a year older than Elijah and she went through her sons clothes and gave us all the ones he had outgrown. Elijah was so excited! We know lots of people with girls so we are often given girl clothes. Hardly ever are we given boy clothes, and clothes for Elijah is even more rare. He had a great time trying on all his "new" clothes. :-) Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, no...no baby yet, I'm still very pregnant. 11 days overdue now and counting ...

About to pop...

Just an update... no baby yet! I feel huge and look it too! My first baby was almost 3 weeks early, the second was 2 weeks early, the third was 6 days early and the fourth was on his due date. It seems I'm still following this pattern as I'm 4 days overdue, but hopefully any day now this baby will decide to be born! We'll keep you posted when the big event happens!

Mark's Birthday

Last week we celebrated Mark's birthday. He took the day off so it was very special. We were able to sleep in a bit (7:30) and then I made him his favorite breakfast, french toast. He opened gifts and then we pretty much spent the day relaxing. Mark worked on his model airplane that he started shortly after Christmas, the kids played outside and I just puttered around doing laundry, surfing the internet and generally having a nice easy day.

The end is in sight!

We are finally all ready for the baby's birth! We are having a home birth and are hoping for a water birth. We got the pool all aired up last night and picked up a faucet adapter so we can hook up a garden hose to the kitchen faucet. We got out the basinet and got that set up. I put together the box of birth supplies (towels, washcloths, large plastic sheets, etc.) so now all we have to do is wait for this little one to be born! :-) The due date is January 30 and we are all starting to get a little anxious. The kids keep asking when the baby will be born...

Christmas three times over!

This past week has been busy for us as we celebrated Christmas with my family, Mark's parents, and had our own family Christmas too! On Sunday, December 20, we went out to my parents house and celebrated with my parents and two brothers. It was a great day! Each of the kids got one gift from Grandma and Grandpa that they loved! Mark took out his model airplane and flew it around my parents property (120 acres). On his second flight we had a major mishap, he was flying the plane upside down too low and when he went to turn it back right side up he couldn't climb fast enough and ran the plane full speed into the barbed wire fence. :-( It was a very impressive wreck, the whole plane blew up into a bunch of little splinters of wood. Needless to say, the plane was beyond fixing. It was great to spend time as a family, even with the plane crash. On Monday Elijah and Emmaline went out to Mark's parents house to spend a couple of nights. Then on Wednesday Mark's parents brought the kids back, had dinner with us and opened gifts for our Christmas celebration with them. I made the dinner and they brought dessert, a fabulous French Silk pie. Yum! Again, the kids had a great time! The weather was beautiful and snowy with icy roads so it was very festive! On Christmas day we stayed home and celebrated with just us, it was sooo nice. This is the first year that we have been home and alone for Christmas since we got married. We slept in a bit (as much as you can with little ones), then opened our stockings. I wrapped the stocking gifts as well this year and the kids had a blast opening all the little things. :-) Then we had a special breakfast and after cleaning up the kitchen and dishes started our present opening. We take turns opening gifts one at a time, going from youngest to oldest, so our gift time lasts for quite awhile. The kids had so much fun! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing with all the new gifts. It has been a great holiday season!