{ March Month in Review }

Monday March 3-Since I haven’t had the baby yet Aaron officially started leave from work to help out with the kids. Scott and Ryan have been begging to go to play at the Playplace in McDonalds and I promised them that when the baby is born that daddy will be home for lots of days and he will take them. (Nothing like passing the buck, huh? I am not a big fan of trying to chance around the boys being nine months pregnant). Since Aaron was home they convinced him to go have lunch there. I enjoyed an uninterrupted nap-it was nice.

Tuesday March 4-Last doctor’s appointment before Ethan was born. Brooke and Erika went ice skating for Activity Day Girls. The rest of us go to eat at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I watched a Dugger’s marathon on Netflix since I can’t sleep too well.

Wednesday March 5-Ethan is born!

Friday March 7- We come home from  the hospital.

Sunday March 9-Aaron comes home from his morning Bishopric meetings early to pick up the kids for church. It is their first week sitting alone. The little kids (basically everyone but Austin and Brianna) are pretty wild. We decide to spread out the love throughout the ward next week and have them sit with different families. The girls were NOT happy about that. Ryan insists that he is not a Sunbeam anymore. He follows Aaron around after Sacrament meeting talking to people and then Aaron takes him to class and he goes then.

Monday March 10-Ethan has his 2 day appointment 2pm. He weighs 7lbs.14oz. Aaron and the boys take me to the appointment. They get a little restless waiting for the doctor so they go climb on all of the big rocks out in front of the hospital until I am done. Aaron takes the boys and Simon to go hiking in the woods behind our house. They find the “chair tree” that they climbed on, and also a tree they named the Rainbow Tree.

Tuesday March 11-Brianna spends some time cuddling with baby Ethan.

Thursday March 13-Aaron takes kids to Lake bottom park to play while Brianna is at school soccer practice there. Brianna had a field trip that day to watch Les Miserable at the Springer Opera House. Aaron gets new iPhone 5 and gets me a new iPhone. Yeah! No more prepaid phone anymore! Made homemade pizza that night.

Saturday March 15-We give Ethan his first bath. Aaron takes the kids to the Columbus airshow.

        

Tuesday March 18-Boys eat lunch with baby Ethan on their make shift stool tables. Our dog Simon has a vet appointment. He weighs 89lbs-the vet says he is a little chubby and he needs more exercise and less food. Big surprise, that dog LOVES to eat!

Aaron takes the kids to go play in the woods by our house.

Wednesday March 19- Ethan’s 2 week appointment 8lbs 14 oz.Erika school field trip to Oxbow Meadows at school. Aaron and Brooke and Erika have daddy daughter boot camp at church for Activity Day Girls.

 

Thursday March 20-This is what the kids look like most mornings when they come down for scripture time. They pretty much crash on the couch until Aaron comes out from getting ready for work. He started promising them that if they were at the table awake and ready for scripture time at 6:10 and Brianna and him left by 6:40 for seminary that on Friday he would take them all to Chick-Filet for breakfast before he took Brianna to seminary.

Friday March 21-Aaron goes back to work. We have a date night with Brianna and Austin and we go to see the Saratov Approach movie that night. SO good, made us all cry and feel the spirit strong in the middle of the movie theater. Its about two Mormon missionaries that are kidnapped in Russia, and was amazing to watch.

          

Saturday March 22-Austin 12/13 year old activity at church. Brianna 2-4pm dance at church. Abby slept until 3pm this afternoon-she is sick with a fever and cough.

Sunday March 23-Abby stays home from church with me and Ethan. Our home teachers come tonight. At dinner we tell the kids that the home teachers are coming and Brooke makes a huffy breath because she has plans of finishing some crafting project upstairs after dinner. Her comment is, “What?!Why do we have to have the home teachers come over. We know enough about the scriptures!” We are evidently not doing a great job teaching our kids the purpose of home teachers.

Monday March 24-Brianna has a soccer game at school. They win 6-0. When I go pick her up I get a flat tire and Aaron has to come bail us out and fix it. Scott officially moves out of Austin’s room and him and Ryan share a room. We move Ethan’s big crib into Brianna’s room for in a couple of months when they share. We are trying to get the boys to go to bed good and make promises of getting bunk beds for them if they can stay in bed at night. They are super excited, but still aren’t going to bed good. It took two hours to get Ryan to go to bed tonight, and that was with no nap. This is going to be a long road I think.

Tuesday March 25-Abby is home from school sick yesterday and today.  We missed preschool today because the boys slept in. No preschool and Abby home sick meant another day with the spare tire on.Ryan is so gentle with Ethan. He loves to come over and rub his face and talk in a cute baby voice to him. He loves to hold him and be the big brother. Ethan is obviously impressed that Ryan is a super hero too.

Wednesday March 26-Spent an hour and a half at the tire place getting the nail hole in our tire fixed. Luckily, Ethan was really good the whole time. Austin has a Court of Honor at church tonight. Austin earned his Star Advancement, and Aaron stood in for me to receive the “Mother’s Pin”. Good thing that you can’t see the front of his uniform because you would see that there are no patches or any merit badges sewn on yet.Really trying to work on this-the poor kid may be an Eagle before I get my act together.

Saturday March 29-General Women’s Conference with my girls. Such a strong spirit of unity was felt there. I felt like there was a big lump in my throat the whole night. It felt good to look over and see my girls there with me. We went out to eat afterwards and had fun laughing and joking and enjoying each other’s company. It gave me a glimpse into what life will be like in a few years when they have families of their own and we are going out to have a lunch date all together. I love my girls SO much!

{ General Conference Is A Party! }

We LOVE General Conference time at our house. Our family fun priority list is Christmas, Birthdays, General Conference-it really is that big of a deal around here. I love that we have two times a year to spend time together as a family listening to the words of the Prophet and Apostles, feeling spiritually uplifted, and having FUN! As I am trying to prepare for General Conference that is coming up this next weekend, I was trying to remember all the things we have done in the past so I could think up something new and maybe combine some of our old favorites. Here are some of the fun things we have done for our family in the last few years on General Conference Weekend.

2013 October-Social Media Fun

April-Aaron and I and our two oldest were in Europe at the time, but the rest of the kids used our General Conference Center board with the grandparents

2012 October-Our own General Conference Center Board

April-Conference Baskets and Easter Egg Hunt

2011-I don’t have any pictures of this year April or October. This was the year we were in the rental house while building our house so I am pretty sure that we did packets and had a few treats but that was about it. Crazy moving/building a house/life kind of took over and my creativity went by the wayside for awhile. I think I had gotten little clipboards from Target and a box of their own crayons that they used to write notes with?

2010 October-General Conference Trick-Or-Treating Fun

April-I didn’t have any pictures of this Weekend either-I was pregnant with Ryan at the time-enough said.

2009 October-Family Home Evening before Conference with Lego Lesson

April-King Benjamin Family Home Evening before Conference, Quiet free Conference Zone, and Special Breakfast

I am excited to finalize my ideas for this weekend-I am thinking of doing some kind of packet/notebook combination with maybe treats and things that are all BABY sized since we just had a new baby? We’ll see what this sleep deprived brain can come up with-either way I know that it will be a super fun filled weekend!

{ Silly Faces }

Brooke is my expert diaper changer around this place. She practically jumps at the chance, and does it every time I ask her to help out and do it. This day after she had changed him she was playing around with him, and he was super alert and making the funniest faces. Those double chins of his and his wild little tongue crack me up. He seems so grown up to me in these pictures, and that makes me so sad! Didn’t he get the memo entitled “Don’t grow too fast”?

He had his two week appointment on Wednesday and he was already 8lbs. 14oz. His neck is getting stronger and he is more awake during the day. He likes his bouncy seat, the Baby Bjorn front carrier, and being held. He is a super good eater, as his weight can attest to, and is the master of taking little cat naps.

{ Tiny Baby }

Weighing in at 8 lbs. 4 oz. I think hardly qualifies you as a tiny baby, but even now when I look at Ethan he just looks so little to me. He sleeps in our room at night, and by morning is usually in our bed. I look at him and he seems kind of lost on this big king sized bed of ours. I can’t help but think about how fast he will grow and before I know it he will fill my arms like Ryan does, and then my lap like Scott does, and then will be towering over me like Austin is. How I wish I could stop time for awhile and just keep him this tiny.

{ Sleep When the Baby Sleeps }

I have had a lot of advice given and asked of me in the last 15 years of motherhood. By far the one that has held the most truth in it has been the one that recommends that you sleep when the baby sleeps. Even after eight kids I totally forget how sleep deprived you can get with a newborn. After that first night in the hospital I remembered real quick. I was so lucky to have Aaron home for almost three weeks to help out while I recovered. He held down the fort so I was able to sleep when Ethan slept, since my night times were a bit lacking in the sleep department.

It’s funny how lots of other individuals have been taking that advice too, and grabbing a few winks when they can WITH baby Ethan. I think it’s just a good excuse to cuddle extra close to him-which I can hardly blame them for because he really is so fun to cuddle with. Here are some cute cuddle times they have had with him in his first two weeks.