Grandma Selin

Grandma Selin came when Riley was born to help out with...well...everything.  She stayed for two weeks and was such a big help!  She would burp the baby after I fed her, put her to sleep, if I needed her in the middle of the night she would come upstairs and take the baby so I could sleep, she cleaned, she took the other kids out etc...

Then on Saturday we had to let her go back home.  She had been gone for about a month since she went to New york and Connecticut the two weeks before she came here.  I always have a little bit of a panic when she leaves because I don't know how I will be able to do it without her.  Now it has been two days (almost) and we have survived.  So that is a good thing.  ha ha.  

 Miss Riley loved her of course.  

 Grandma and all the kids.  

 Silly picture.  

 Then Grandma took our first family photo.  I should have done my hair first...oh well.  ha ha

 This is a picture of Riley at two weeks and two days old.  That is a size 6 month outfit.  Fits her pretty well huh?  The pants were just a bit too long.  :)  Time to put all the newborn and size three month clothes away.  

Grandma was such a good sport...she had to squeeze in between the two kids carseats in the back of our van whenever we went somewhere together.  I sat back there the other day and it is NOT comfortable.  ha ha.  

We miss you already Grandma!  Can't wait till you come back!

Parachuting

 I have never ever thought it would be fun to jump out of an airplane.  It terrifies me to even think about standing in a plane next to an open door looking down.  No way.  Not for me.  But I do think it is cool that other people do it.  This year for the 24th of July, there was a little rodeo/concert/program thing going on really close to our house.  It was really neat because we got a great view of the fireworks and the skydivers from our front porch.  The only downside was that it went on for three nights and the fireworks didn't start until 10 and Emery was terrified of the "boomers" as she called them.  So it made for a long few nights.  My favorite part was watching the skydivers jump out of the plane and float down to the arena where the show was going on.  Here are a few pictures of the cool view we had. 

It really is amazing how these guys can be so precise in where they land.  They circled around and each came in one after the other and landed right where they were supposed to.  Pretty cool!

Our first artichoke

We harvested our first artichoke this week!  Rob was so excited and cooked it up and ate it that night.  I had a taste and it was yummy.  He said the heart of the artichoke was really yummy.  I'll have to try the next one (which we cut off the plant yesterday.).  

 Here he is cutting it off of the plant.  They are kind of in the very corner of our garden, hidden by the corn, cucumbers and sunflowers, but he managed to crawl back there and get out without getting much dirt on his white shirt.  :)

Here he is talking to his dad on the phone while enjoying the artichoke. 

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!