One week old

Now that Miss Riley is almost two weeks old, I guess I will get around to posting her one week old pictures that I took.  Obviously...I'm not a photographer!  ha ha

 This one totally shows off her adorable chubby face.  I love it.

 A little closer look.

 Then Emery wanted to play.  Just look how big Emery is next to Riley!  It's like Emery grew into a big kid while I was at the hospital with Riley.  

 All four kids...still can't believe we have four!  I love them all.  I mean just look how cute they are!

 She really enjoys being on her tummy.  None of my other kids liked to be on their bellies but she is pretty content to just lay there.

 Big sister Sadie.

 Big brother Zac.

One week old Riley!  We are so happy you are here!

First Bath

 When Riley was three days old, I had to take her in to the doctor to do a weight check and to check for jaundice.  Since we didn't get a picture of her weight at the hospital, I took a picture of her weight at the doctor.  She lost half a pound (then I had to take her in two days later to check for jaundice again and she was 10 pounds 6 ounces).  It will be interesting to see what she weighs at her two week check up.  :)

 The next day, the kids and I decided it was time to give Riley a bath.  So we got everything ready and the kids helped me wash her off.  Riley of course screamed through most of it...all except when I was washing her hair, but we got through it. 

 Here is Emery washing her foot.

 Here is Zac washing her other foot.

 Poor Riley!  She was not very happy with us!

 Sadie helped me wash her hands.  Then I did the rest really quick so we could dry her off and get her warm.

 All done.  

Here she is all clean and smelling fresh.  She is such a cutie!

Pioneer day parade floats

 Emery was just so in love with Riley when she first got home.  She still is (as are the other kids) but it is not such a new thing anymore so it has kind of died down.  But when she first got home, Emery was always wanting to hold her and give her kisses. 

 Here she is holding her when she was about 2 days old.  So cute!

Even when she sleeps Emery keeps her company.  Here she is reading her a book.  So sweet.

 Here is grandma with the kids before they left for church.  Check out Zac's face.  Silly boy!

On the 21st, we went to check out the floats that were going to be in the pioneer day parade.  I like doing this more than going to the actual parade because it is indoors, you get to look at the floats up close, and some of them have fun activities for the kids to do.  My most favorite part was the high school marching band that was marching around the room playing music.  It was fun.

 Here we are in front of the kids favorite float!  It was really amazing how big this dinosaur was.

And of course we had to take a picture in front of the BYU float.  It was funny because a few floats down from this one was the Utah Utes float.  They were handing out suckers and inflatable beach ball type things.  So we got some.  Then when Sadie blew hers up, she noticed that it said Utah Utes on it.  She looked at me with a concerned look on her face and said "mom...this is a Utah ball!"  Ha ha.  I told her it was ok to play with even though it wasn't a BYU ball.  She knows who we cheer for!

Uncle Scott

 This first picture is just a silly one of Emery.  After dinner one day she went out in the backyard.  I was keeping my eye on her through the window but I forgot the pool was still full of water.  When I remembered I went outside to watch her and this is where I found her.  The other kids the proceeded to follow her lead and play in the pool in all of their clothes.  No wonder I always have tons more laundry to do in the summer!

 

 I snapped these pictures a couple weeks ago when my brother Scott and his wife were in town.  The kids love having aunts and uncles around.

And of course, we had to do a silly picture!  Come back soon!

Our Garden

Here is a picture of our garden a month or so after we planted it.  Maybe a month and a half...I'm not quite sure.  But I just wanted to document how much it has grown, because it seems to be doing great this year!

This is what Rob is most excited about.  I'm excited too, but if you know his love for artichokes, you'll know what I am talking about.  This is the smaller of the two artichoke plants we have.

This is the larger one...it has four (at least) artichokes growing on it!  So exciting!

These are our cucumbers.  We have already canned some pickles from the cucumbers that we have picked.  Looking forward to many many more!

Here are our sunflowers.  They are getting pretty tall!

Carrots and weeds.  :)

The tomatoes are bigger than the kids!  Crazy.

Here are the pole beans we planted.  They look healthy, we will see if they actually produce any beans.  

Here is Sadie in the corn.  It is getting really tall too...but we will see how much corn we actually get.

Here are our pepper plants.  We have jalapenos and red bell peppers.

Marigolds.

Yellow marigolds.  The amazing thing about these yellow ones is that by the time we got them in the ground they were practically dead.  We didn't have much hope for them...but look at them now!  They are so pretty!

Bike Parade

 Our neighborhood is great!   They do all kinds of fun little parties/activities for families.  Around the 24th of July they have a neighborhood bike parade for kids.  The kids go to someone's house and decorate their bikes and the next morning they ride their bikes around the neighborhood.  They end up at the Bishop's house where they have a big breakfast for everyone.  It is a fun tradition.  This year I was still in the hospital when the kids were supposed to go decorate their bikes, but thankfully grandma volunteered to bring them so they would be ready for the parade the next morning.  Thanks grandma!!!
 

 Everyone ready to go for a bike ride!  Emery got to ride in style in her stroller- Thanks to grandma!  They held up the rear.  :)

 Rob and Sadie ready to get started.

 There were quite a few participants.

This is Sadie and her friend London.  Apparently London's bike pedal kept falling off so they had to keep stopping to fix it.   I was watching out our window to wave to the kids when they passed by.  It was fun to see them ride by.

Hooray!  They all made it to the end.  And they ate their yummy breakfast and even brought some home to me!  Hopefully I can be there in person next year!

Riley is here! (warning...long post with lots of pictures!)

 Baby Riley made her debut on July 17 at 5:02 pm.  The story starts about a week before that though...

I started having contractions a week before and they were coming every ten to fifteen minutes for about four days.  I thought for sure I was in labor, but then after those four days, they really slowed down.  So I was really disappointed.  Every time I emptied the dishwasher I thought "this is the last time I am going to have to do this with a huge belly" and then the next day almost in tears I would be emptying the dishwasher again.  Not fun. 

So I went to my doctors appointment on the 17th in the morning.  I was so desperate that I asked him if he would induce me that day.  He said he would try to get me in around 11 am so I was happy about that.  So I went home and got some things ready and waited for the hospital to call and tell me to come in.  I waited and waited and waited.  This whole time I was having contractions but I didn't really think anything of it since I had had so many days of contractions that I figured nothing would happen.  Then I started timing them and they were about 6 minutes apart.  So Rob told me to keep walking and moving and suggested I mow the lawn.  So I mowed the back lawn and then went inside and walked up and down our hall.  The contractions were about 4 minutes apart now so I was hopeful, but I didn't want to stop moving for fear that they would disappear.  It was about 2 by now and the hospital still hadn't called, but we dropped our kids off at some friends houses and were heading in. 

We got there and by the time I was in a room and everything it was 3:30 or so.  Everything happened pretty quickly.  The doctor broke my water to speed things up (although I think they would have happened pretty fast anyway...) and within thirty minutes I was ready to push.  Now, I had prepped Rob for this because I was planning on an unmedicated birth.  I told him that if I was ready to push and they told me not to, that he would be catching the baby because there was no way I was going to wait for the doctor to get there.  So of course, the nurse told me not to push which is pretty much impossible when you don't have an epidural.  Your body just takes over and does it.  ha ha.  Fortunately the doctor got there just in time and was able to take care of everything.  I just remember the doctor saying "wow, that's a big baby!" when she came out and Rob agreeing with him.  She tipped the scales at 10 pounds 9 ounces!  I was shocked!  And I wondered why out of all my babies, this was the one that I decided to have without an epidural!  ha ha  But I survived and Riley is healthy and happy and very very loved.  Now on to some pictures!

 We took this right before we left for the hospital.  Last picture as a family of five!

 Yeah...I guess a ten and a half pound baby could fit in that big belly of mine.  :)  No wonder I was so uncomfortable the last month or so of my pregnancy!

 It was pretty funny because the birth was so intense for both me and Rob because I didn't get the epidural that he was kind of out of it after she was born.  The nurses asked if he wanted to come get a picture of Riley on the scale and he said "sure!" and started walking over there without the camera.  So I told him to get the camera and he took this picture.  Missed it by that much!  ha ha.  He cut off the part that showed the weight!  We laughed about that for a good long while!

 It was funny because when Zac saw her for the first time he was really nervous about her "belly button".  He kept telling us he didn't want to see it.  ha ha

 I love that they took this picture...this must have been in the nursery.  The nurses were so great about everything.  They let me keep her for a good couple of hours before they took her away to clean her and do whatever tests they do.  That was different than the other hospital.  

 We had the best view from our window.  This was the next morning and we just watched the sun rise over the mountains.  The night before I saw the big beautiful moon pop over the mountains.  It was great.  

 THe traditional first daddy diaper change picture.

 Then Rob went home and picked up grandma and the kids so they could come meet their new sister!  Look how big she is in Sadie's arms.  ha ha

 Zac's turn.

 Emery needed some help.  

 I love this picture.  She is showered with love and kisses and hugs all day long!

 Finally grandma got her turn.  

 Then Uncle Luke and Aunt Taylor came by to visit.  We cant wait to meet their little guy who should make an appearance soon!  They are going to be such good parents!

 Us leaving the hospital.  We were so happy we got to leave after only 24 hours!  

Sadie and Zac wasted no time when we got home to love on their new baby sister!