She's here!

Hardly anyone reads my blog anymore except for a few of Alan's sisters, a sis-in-law, my mom, and a handful of loyal friends.  However, it is a place for me to "scrapbook" and dump pictures.  :)  

I don't have time to post much now, but our dear sweet Abigail joined our family recently after my scheduled induction.  She was completely healthy despite having a 2-vessel umbilical cord.  Wow, we feel so blessed to have her in our lives!  

She was 8 lbs, 5 oz and 20.5 inches long.  My biggest baby!

7. Out of the Mouths of Babes

• When Maggie was being wheeled away to surgery during her recent appendectomy, she very bravely informed the nurses and doctors that "I didn't even cry when I got my flu shot." I'm sure they were relieved to know that they had a veteran on their hands.
• Jared commented that it's "definitely not a walk in the park to have your appendix out."
• Pregnancy-related items:
• Maggie asked whether the baby would be born with clothes on. Nope. 
• Maggie asked whether the mommy ever gets to take a nap during the labor and delivery. "Then the mommy would wake up and say, 'Hey, why is my baby out already?'" Yes, if only it were that easy. 
• We explained that Jenny would be in labor for at least a few hours, that it's very hard work, and that Jenny would have to push to help get the baby out. When Jenny further explained that she would be sore for a few weeks, Evy literally started crying: "I don't want to have a baby! I don't want a sore bottom!" 
• Evy did something mildly mean or annoying to Jared, and he commented that she had "turned to a life of bullying." He made it sound like she was already well down the path toward a life of crime and prison.
• I was recently teaching my brothers and sisters how to play a new card game, and I was explaining the concept of a trump card. Jared took that opportunity to tell the following joke, which he made up on the fly: What's a trump card? It's when the cards come to life on the table and say, "It's gonna be huge!" (You have to imagine the cards saying this in a little kid New York accent that was a pretty good impersonation of The Donald.)
• Please enjoy this adorable poem that Jared wrote Jenny for Mother's Day:

• Most amazing mom
• Oh, I love you!
• Teaching me piano
• Happy all the day
• Each day, you smile
• Really amazing

• Dragging sadness down
• Each day, you are my mom
• Amazing person
• Reaching to my heart

• When Jenny told the kids that we were having potato bar for dinner, Maggie exclaimed, "Potato barf!? What's that?"
• After the kids and I got back from a hike to Donut Falls, Jenny asked Evy if she had had a fun time. "Yes, but the pit toilets were very, very, very, very scary!" They were so scary, in fact, that I could not convince her to go, so she held it the whole time we were on the hike and the whole drive back!
• We've recently discovered the yummy cakes at Nothing Bundt Cakes. They also have miniature bundt cakes called bundtlets, but which Maggie calls bumplets. 
• Evelyn always yells at me when I try to kiss her when I haven't shaved for a couple of days:
  "No! You have a scratchy face!" I was then joking with Evy and Maggie that they had scratchy faces too. Maggie patiently explained to me that she did not, in fact, have a scratchy face. "When I'm a mommy, I'll just have scratchy legs, but I won't have a scratchy face."
• Maggie learned this lesson tonight: don't ever grab your little sister's hand and bend her fingers backwards to test whether she's double-jointed. 

Early Birthday Party

This kid is almost nine!

Last week we had an early birthday party for Jared.  His birthday wasn't for a few weeks, but our baby is going to be born around the same time.  We decided to embrace the earliness and have Jared invite just a few special friends to go see "Finding Dory" in the theater while it was still brand new.  Jared invited two friends from our ward, Kincade and Lauren, and a friend from school, Jace.  The movie was super awesome (everyone got to pick some concessions, as well), and then we came back to our house to have cake and ice cream and open presents,  I forgot to take a picture of Jared with his presents, but they were just perfect for him: a new strategy game, a build-it-yourself solar robot, an R2-D2 bubble machine, and an animal balloon kit.

This party was way easier to plan and carry out than the Fancy Nancy party that I threw for Maggie in May.  I think that he had a great time, which is the most important thing.

We'll post pictures of his REAL birthday when it comes.  :)

Fairy Tale Festival

 I realized recently that I haven't intentionally taken one single picture of my baby bump this entire pregnancy.  So here is a token picture at precisely 36 weeks.  Just to prove I was actually pregnant.  Ha Ha.

 This past week we went to a local garden for their Fairy Tale Festival.  Here is the "umbrella garden."

Monet Pond

 We were pleased to meet many of the Disney princesses as we walked around!  We saw Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Ariel, Mulan, Elsa and Anna, and probably a couple of others.

 I was thrilled to see the princesses, too!  I thought, "We should go to this festival every year and never, ever stand in line to see princesses at Disneyland!!!!"  Now that sounds appealing.

 Maggie and Evelyn also met a real mermaid, who said she was Ariel's cousin.  She gave them some mermaid treasure.

 Jared's favorite part was playing Wizard's Chess with Daddy.

Bear Lake

Earlier this month we went with Curtis cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma up to Bear Lake for a long weekend.  The lake itself was pretty cold, but we had to plan the trip for June for not only my upcoming baby but also to work around other vacations and girls' camps for the families.

 Jared had to get pretty wet to swim out to the trampoline we rented, and then he was so cold he didn't want to get back in the lack for the rest of the day.  He enjoyed reading under our shade umbrella.

 This is the closest that Maggie and Evelyn have ever been to a beach.  I feel kind of guilty about that.  Maybe one of these days we will go to a beach in California.  Jared, at least, has seen the ocean and a real beach when we traveled to Mexico last October.

Evelyn and Maggie enjoyed spending most of their day at the beach getting all sandy with their cousins.

I had to get this cute picture of my niece Eve, who was rather obsessed with eating sand that day.  

 It looks like I only snapped pictures of our day at the beach, but we also had lots of fun playing games, going on a walk to a natural spring, and eating at a delicious truck stop late at night.  :)  We are grateful to my sis-in-law for playing hostess for all of us in her childhood home!

Goodbye, Angela

Earlier this month we said goodbye to Alan's sister Angela as she left for the MTC to prepare to serve her full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You can't actually see my HUGE belly very well in this picture!

 She gave each of my kids a little gift as she hugged them goodbye--I had no idea how she even had time to plan that!

Maggie got a new Elsa necklace

Evy got some new nail polish

Jared got $5 worth of state quarters for his quarter collection!

We will miss her while she is gone, but we love to write her letters and emails!

Here are also a few pictures of the local splash pad from that same week.  Jared likes to pretend he's getting too old for the splash pad, but I think he has fun when we get there.  Usually my kids like to play in the river, but this day they were enjoying the spouts of the ground.

Maggie's Dance Recital

Maggie with her teacher, Miss Korrin

Maggie finished up another year of ballet.  She has improved so much since last year!  We had a good experience with her ballet studio this year (I especially loved that she had a morning dance class before PM Kindergarten), but I am excited to put her into an even better studio next year where hopefully she can improve her technique even more.  

Maggie in her recital costume

Maggie is 2nd from the left

Taking a bow

Maggie loved receiving a medal after her concert was over