{ Brooke’s 11th Birthday }

I don’t know when this girl decided that she was going to get all grown up on me, but I feel like I have blinked and she has.

In our efforts to try to make it a little bit of a party even though I was still trying to take it easy after Ethan being born, Aaron took Brooke out to breakfast at Chick-filet, then rented some really fun games from down on Ft. Benning. There was a life sized Connect Four game and a big Jenga game. The kids had fun trying to beat each other on them, and then had fun building big towers out of the blocks. After we let her open her presents, Aaron took the kids swimming and then we had some late night cake afterwards.

    

    

 

Brooke has been looking forward to her birthday for weeks-everyday asking me why she couldn’t have been born on March 25? or 26th? or 29th? or the 1st? Anything to make that birthday come a little bit sooner. She made a birthday list Brooke style-meaning a couple of drafts until the writing was exactly written perfect, a draft typed out on the computer and printed out, and then put in a page protector and hung on the bulletin board in the hallway. There may have also been a couple of notes left for me too, just to make sure that I was absolutely sure that I knew what she wanted. I did. It involved LOTS of American Girl doll outfits and accessories to go with her new doll that she got for Christmas.

  

    

11 Things We Love About Brooke at 11

• Your quirky sense of humor
• The way you do your jobs without being asked
• Your beautiful singing voice
• The way that you love to organize everything
• I love seeing you get your scriptures out to read and being dedicated in doing your Faith in God book goals
• You are hands down our best diaper changer around this place!
• Your pretty smile (when you don’t get shy and give us a big teeth grin, it’s so beautiful)
• The way you take Scott under your wing and do crafts with him or organize your stuff together
• The honest and meek way you bear your testimony to us-it always makes me feel the spirit so strong
• You are super creative and are always coming up with cute little things that you have made out of almost nothing. If you can’t find something to fit your needs-you make it!
• Your super sincere hugs. You aren’t a real touchy feely person, but when you give us hugs and kisses they sure are strong ones from deep down. I love those hugs so much!

We love you Brooke! Happy Birthday!

{ Visiting OUR Baby }

It’s funny how ownership works. Usually you buy something with money and it becomes yours. Or you earn something-like a grade, and it’s yours. Occasionally you may own up to a choice, and that makes it yours too. Little baby Ethan wasn’t bought with money, or earned through any good merit of his brothers or sisters. He wasn’t necessarily their choice they could own, but they have claimed him as their own since they knew of his tiny little existence almost nine months ago. Every time we talked about “the baby” he was always OUR baby. And not the Aaron and I kind of OUR, but the whole Starbuck gang kind of OUR.They bought him with love and take that ownership so seriously. His every little movement and need is looked on with love and care. There are usually three people deep in line to hold him, or change a diaper, or sit next to him. Yes, ownership for this little guy is a group effort, but never was there anything quite so nice to share as OUR baby.

  The first little glimpses of Ethan were looked upon with complete wonderment and amazement for this tiny little creature that just days before they had to only imagine what he would look like. They seemed to hang on my every word as I talked about him being born or what he was like already at just a few hours old. The nurse had come to take his temperature a few minutes before they arrived at the hospital and his temperature was a little low, so she had me hold him skin to skin to warm him up a little. The kids loved to see his cute chubby little body as I played momma kangaroo for awhile.

    

Our tradition of holding a new baby still stands as youngest to oldest-and our former youngest Ryan was SO excited to hold Ethan. I think the sweetest thing though was that he immediately wanted to come sit on my lap and he asked me, “How are you feeling?” He had come up with that sincere little thought all on his own with no older sibling prompting and it was just what I needed to hear. He was so gentle holding Ethan and kept stroking his hair lovingly. So cute to see this brother to brother interaction already forming-or maybe just picking up where they left off in heaven a few years ago.

He was very interested in my IV in my hand and wanted me to “open it up” and show him my tummy. It took a little bit to figure out baby Ethan wasn’t in my tummy anymore. He decided he would just push on my stomach a few times to make sure and then he declared, ‘'”It’s just kind of fatty.” Ha! Love his candidness! And yes he was right, it’s just kind of fatty still. He was happy to give others a turn holding Ethan too, but after his last time holding him before leaving he said, “Can we put him back in your tummy?” I asked if he loved Ethan and he said “Yes, I was just joking”

{I just noticed how appropriate that he has a number 8 on his shirt for our little number 8 being born. Good job me for picking out that shirt beforehand and not even realizing that. I guess my pregnancy brain wasn’t that non functional at the end.}

Scott seemed almost the most nervous to hold Ethan. He was completely taken back by how little he was and kept saying, “I want to hold him, but I am just afraid I am going to brake him!” It was very sweet-and he did great! He held him close and Ethan even stuck his thumb in his mouth as Scott started holding him, so that made Scott just beam even more. He is going to be such a good older brother to those two younger guys.

Abby-aka “Little mommy #4”. I tell you those girls have been planning and plotting how they are going to care for this guy for months! A real live baby doll is just about every 7 year olds dream-and boy did Ethan not disappoint. After two younger brothers she has perfected the baby hold, and cuddled him like a pro.

Little mommy #2 and #3 were equally happy with their new roles as big sisters. They were pretty pleased that they were chosen to stay extra long that night and hold Ethan. They made sure that everyone got exactly 10 minutes of holding time and that he was constantly being passed to the next person so that they could get in as many turns as possible before Aaron came back to get them. Brooke amazingly seems to call all the diaper changing. I don’t complain at all, and am secretly doing air high fives about that fact. That girl knows just what this “service love language mom” needs sometimes. I love that!

      

And then there is this guy. I don’t think that smile could have gotten any bigger. He is pretty positive that Ethan and him are twinners and he couldn’t love it more. Austin and the girls got to stay a few extra hours with me at the hospital that night when Aaron took Brianna and the little boys home, and then Austin got to come back the next day and spend the whole day with me at the hospital. It was very heartwarming to see him loving hold Ethan and get just as excited as the girls at every little sneeze and yawn he made. It’s times like this that I feel bad for some other families that never get to experience bringing home a new baby and seeing what that does to your other children. It is pretty priceless.

    

Brianna was the one that most opening declared ownership on Ethan. He will probably eventually share a room with her for a while, and she has assured me that she will be overjoyed to fetch binkies in the middle of the night and calm him down. We will see about those latter promises, but as for the loving part-she already has that down pretty good. She loves on him and he just stares and stares so intently at her-it’s quite special to see. Brianna was happy to go back with the little boys instead of staying extra at the hospital that first night-with promises that she would get a chance the next night. After Aaron came down to get the other kids later that night though, he was SO tired and maybe rethinking the three trips down to the hospital the next day. At 30 minutes each way, it takes a lot out of the day and being in the car. She was bummed when she left for school the next day thinking she may not get a longer chance to be with Ethan. Aaron then decided to bring Austin to the hospital during the day to help me, and when he brought every else after school bring Brianna down and let her spend the night with me at the hospital. That text reply was filled with a resounding YES!!!! and lots of smiley faces.

It was nice to have some one on one time with my older kids and let them have some alone time with Ethan. Once he gets home and their busy schedules get quickly filled there aren’t always as many hours of uninterrupted baby holding time for them.

We are so glad that you are OURS Ethan. You have been waited for for a long time and we are so glad you are in OUR family. We love you so much!

{Seventeen for Sunday-Baby Edition}

Yes, I am still pregnant. I am thinking/hoping that this will be the last Sunday before I can actually breathe/see my feet/bend over/walk up my stairs/sleep at night/…have a beautiful little baby in my arms. In celebration of that little fact, I decided to compile all the funny or notable things that the kids have said in regards to this little guy and me being pregnant. I had forgotten about some of them-SO glad I wrote them down when they happened because some of them made me laugh out loud when I read them again, and some are just fun to remember what the kids thought of all of this baby stuff.

1. Ryan is obsessed with seeing my belly-the big naked belly. It doesn’t count to feel the baby kick through my shirt, he wants me to lift up my shirt and show him my belly. His thing he says is, “Open it up!” Really cute, except when we are in the middle of church or some other public place and he thinks that everyone in the world would like to see that big white belly hanging out.
2. Sometimes I will say something to Scott and then say,”Do you think that the baby can hear that?” He’ll always say back to me, “Duh, your mouth is open!”
3. Erika is CRAZY obsessed with me being pregnant and along with the other girls can really barely contain themselves until this kid is born. After sacrament today, she says on her way to Primary,” If you start having contractions during Relief Society, come get me!” The whole labor process is pretty much lost on a 9 year old, but man does she sure want to not miss a bit of it. She feels to need to be constantly updated on any contraction activity happening at any time.
4. Austin likes to remind me as of late that I look like I am going to pop.
5. I went back to read up on when Ryan was born (really glad I wrote that down too, I felt like a pretty bad mom when I was reading it and couldn’t remember half of it) and had Ryan next to me playing. He got excited to look through pictures of himself when he was little. I said to him as we looked at one picture, “That was when you were one and a half.” He looked at me and said, “I was one at a time? Then two at a time, and now I’m three at a time”.
6. The kids were asking how big the baby would be. We were taking guesses, and they were coming up with some great ways to tell how big he would be. Austin looked over then with this stroke of genius on his face, and with that great math brain of his said, “Wait, how about we just weigh you at the beginning and then weigh you now and subtract it!” It was a great idea in theory, but I am pretty sure that I am not having a 35 pound baby. Wouldn’t that be great if the actual baby was all the weight you gained? In a perfect world…He suddenly realized the error of his ways, and agreed that yes, that may not be the best way to calculate it. I’m glad because a 35 pound baby is sounding like a bit of a struggle to push out. I am amazing..but superwoman I am not.
7. The kids (mostly Erika, Abby, and Scott) think it’s so funny that the baby is naked right now. We are pretty immature I know, but it just gives them the giggles every single time.
8. Scott thinks that I am always sick and that I am always contagious too. He likes to remind me of that so I won’t even think of sharing a cup or sometimes kissing him on the lips. “Why won’t you kiss me?” I’ll ask. “Um, you’re sick-you have a baby in your tummy!”
9. Not funny.Not even cute. Just a reminder to me of what life was like just a few days before Ethan was born. Ryan and Scott get sick last Wednesday night throwing up every 30 minutes. I wish I was kidding about that fact. But every 30 minutes! That was rough. They were sick Thursday and Friday. Friday night Erika threw up. We slept with three kids on our floors, and everyone else was sent to bed with bowls and towels lining their floors making a little path to the bathroom. Saturday the boys feel better. Sunday morning Ryan throws up again. I feel like my body just aches and can’t sleep at night because my legs have restless leg syndrome and I am having contractions from 10:30pm-3am for the last three nights. Tuesday we pick Austin up from school-that night he throws up. Brooke says she is sick-goes to bed with a bowl. Aaron throws up during the night-repeatedly, while he happens to be on call that night. Lucky for him there weren’t any calls after he threw up-serious tender mercy. Wednesday Abby has to be picked up from school because she is sick and ends up throwing up that night. Brooke sleeps all day Wednesday. That night both me and her finally break our fevers, and by Friday everyone is back at school and work. Brianna is the only one that walks away whole. Lucky girl.
10. The kids love to watch my belly bubble up as the baby wiggles and moves all around. He puts on a seriously good show for us most Sunday nights. Ryan loves to rub lotion on my belly for me. LOTS of lotion. I have a very well moisturized tummy.
11. Little baby diapers are seriously so cute. Weird I know. But seriously they are SO little. We look at them and we all break out in the high pitched squeal of cuteness voices. We are way excited around this place for this baby.
12. I finally got around to washing up all the boy baby clothes. I forgot how little babies are. Those little clothes seem just so tiny! Our little tiny cuteness obsession clearly crosses over from the diapers to the clothes as well.
13. Brianna is in love with driving with her permit. She loves to drive more often that I love to have her drive-it’s nothing personal, just a little stressful at times. She assures me it will be easier for me to just sit back and relax while she does all the driving. If it’s not, she is sure that it may just send me into labor-either way I win. That’s her rational at least. It worked in part after church because I gave in and let her drive home. We made it-and no contractions.
14. When are you going to have this baby?! You need to have this baby tonight! When is he coming?! Are you having a contraction right now?-all key phrases at our house right now. Most mentioned by those age 15 and younger. Multiple times a day. Every day. Multiple times a day-did I mention that one?
15. Brooke, Erika, and Abby like to constantly remind me how fat my stomach is. Like ALL the time. I can’t wait until all these daughters of mine grow up and have babies of their own. I will sometimes walk out with a new outfit on-one that doesn’t camouflage the fact that I am nine months pregnant as much, and I hear, “Wo, that is one big belly!” Love the honestly around this place.
16. At preschool the boys talked about goals, and Ryan wanted his goal to be to go potty in the toilet. He is trying really hard, and is wearing pull ups. We used up our last diapers-besides the few straggler's hanging out in random diapers bags and the back pockets of the vehicle car seats. He does okay some days, and others he just feels a little lazy-kind of like me. He is really trying to reach his goal before this baby is born. I am pretty sure that we aren’t going to be breaking that 15 year straight streak of having someone in diapers though. 15 years. Wow, that’s a lot of diapers. I am super proud of him for trying so hard though. I think after the baby is born, and with a few incentives he will be potty trained all the way in no time.
17. Brooke is really concerned about what the rules are about who gets to stand up and walk around holding the baby. She asks me very often in hopes that she will make the cut, and be on the stand up, and hopefully walk around list. Lucky for her, things are looking pretty good in her favor.

{ Valentine’s Letters to Our New Baby }

For Family Home Evening on Monday we talked about love, and told some stories of the prophet Joseph Fielding Smith and how he loved his family, then we wrote love letters to the new baby. The night before when Aaron said the family prayer he called the baby Ethan. All of the kids (especially Brianna) were all excited the rest of the prayer. He has been the last one to agree for sure on a name and usually just asks for the “baby” to be healthy and strong, so they were happy to have his approval, and write their little love letters to “Ethan” instead of just baby #8.

I guess we are pretty locked in with a name at this point-though Ryan and Scott still think that his name will be Jack Attack. They also think that he will come out with a cape and his arm will be up out straight like he is ready to fly into the sky. They have a little bit of super hero mania going on right now.

Ryan’s picture to the new baby

It was cute to see him color his heart (the left one) so intensely, and then the rest of his paper. He was very adamant about using “turquoise” his new favorite color I guess, and then would also grab his other colors in just the right order. He insisted that I color the other two hearts because, “I am too tired”.

 Scott’s Valentine to the new baby

He is super excited for Valentine’s Day on Friday, and even more excited that he learned how to draw a heart at preschool last week. He has been drawing hearts on every picture he has made since then (which is a lot), and after seeing Brooke cut out a heart, he insisted that he add a few to his picture too. It’s hard to see but he REALLY taped down those hearts good. He is one of my “tape thieves” around here-he really loves to tape up anything he can. He made sure that I wrote down exactly what he said on the paper too, “I love you baby. Happy Valentine’s Day”.

Abby’s letter to Ethan

Abby was a bit in a mood tonight and didn’t feel like writing too much. She made sure to tell him the most important thing she felt though-how much she loves him.

Erika’s letter to Ethan

Erika’s letter made me smile-it’s funny to see the kids different perspectives about how life is around here. She is so excited for this little guy to get here that she can hardly contain herself some days. She is going to be such a great big sister for him.

Brooke’s letter to baby Ethan

We had just read one of the hymns as part of the lesson-it was one that President Smith had wrote as a poem to his wife when he was away and feeling the loneliness and hardships she may have had to endure. Brooke decided she wanted to write a clever little poem in her Valentine’s letter to the baby too.

Austin’s letter to Ethan

Austin gets right to the point. He was the first one done, and as well had to put in his plea to the baby that he will be the “favorite” one.

Brianna’s letter to Ethan

Her letter kind of cracks me up-she is pretty confident that she will be the favorite too, and lists lots of great reasons for that. Makes me laugh!

Aaron’s letter to Ethan

My Letter to Ethan

And where is my handwritten letter? Unfortunately I got as far as Dear baby Ethan, and then was swiftly sidetracked helping the little boys with their letters and that’s about all I could muster by the end of FHE, so a typed version will have to due.
Dear Baby Ethan,
It’s hard to believe that 9 months have come and gone and it is almost time for you to be here. My heart is full this Valentine’s Day as I think of all the happiness and love you will bring to our family. It would be hard to pick who is the most excited to see you, everyone has been preparing in their own little way, and the wave of excitement hits them at different times. We wonder what you will look like, how you will act, how big you will be, and how sweet you will be to hold. We love you so much already!
I feel you kick all the time and can’t wait to see those tiny little feet in person. Your big brothers are helping me get everything ready for your arrival. They think those little diapers you will wear are as cute as I do. Ryan is very excited for you to have you new binkies that we bought you. We bought you a few new outfits and we all just squeal in delight at how little and cute they are. I know getting to see you in them will only bring more smiles on our faces.
I know since you are baby #8 that you must be patient, and one that will need lots of love. The abundance of love you will feel around here is by far the sweetest thing to see and for us to look forward to. I wonder how old you will be before you are actually put down for any period of time and not being held, there are so many arms just waiting to cuddle with you.
I hope when we bring you home you will be able to feel that love in our home, and every day after that. I hope you will grow with a strong knowledge of how much you are loved-both by us and by your Heavenly Father. I know that your sweet little spirit will bless our home everyday. I love you so much, and am so grateful to get to be your mom, and feel of your love too. We can’t wait to see you soon!!!
Love, Mom