And It's a........

Here are the latest pictures of our healthy baby BOY!





That's right--another little boy. I'm thrilled to be having another boy, but I have to admit I've shed quite a few tears since yesterday at the thought of not having another little girl. Most of all, I'm relieved to find out that he looks HEALTHY. I have been so worried with this pregnancy that there would be problems with the baby. I mean, I've had 5 perfectly healthy babies, I feared I was running out on good luck and we might have problems this time (plus I'm older, on medications, was sooo sick in the beginning, etc.). But, he looks great. My doctor (who I LOVE and has delivered all 5 of my kids) was very good about talking me through each step of the ultrasound to reassure me--"This is the brain, it looks good. This is the heart, it has all four chambers. This is the stomach, it's dark, which means there is fluid in it, which means it can swallow. This is the bladder....".

Scott's mom and dad came here and stayed with the kids while Scott and I went in for the ultrasound, then we came home and showed them all the video. When it got to the part where we could see that it was a boy, Savannah cried. She really wanted another sister. I told her I was sad also that we weren't getting another little girl, but that I was really excited that we get to have another little brother (her little brother Nathan pretty much has her wrapped around his little finger). It took her a few hours, but she came around and is excited with the rest of us. Now we just have to pick a name.

It's starting to really set in for me what another little boy means. It means I don't get to use all my little dresses and bows and pink blankets again. I don't think I'll start going through them and getting rid of them for another couple weeks because I'd be too emotional. It means our days of barbies and dolls now have an end in sight. It also means that my days of washing empty peanut butter jars to be reused as bug cages are never going to end. It means 8 years of having a missionary (with 6 of the years being consecutive). It means more piles of sand in little pockets every time I do laundry. It means three little boys in a row age 4 and younger. It means all those little cars, trucks, and trains that I'm constantly picking up from around my house will be around for a long time. It means a LOT of cooking when they are all teenagers (I can't even imagine what our food budget will have to be then). But most of all, it means that in 19 more weeks, I'm going to have a sweet little baby boy to hold and cherish. I can't wait for that.

Father's Day

Our kids had been impatiently waiting for Father's Day for a while, so when it finally came, they couldn't wait to give Dad his presents. Literally, they couldn't even wait long enough to get dressed, so they are all in jammies in these pictures. You'll have to excuse Aaron's jammies--he's into wearing his siblings clothes, and since two of them are girls, he's in girl jammies every other night. Here are the kids with all the presents ready to bring them to their dad.


He got 4 new camp chairs, a sleeping bag, and drill bits.



Savannah made a present for him in school, and had been saving it since school got out. It's a little bug that can hold pictures in it's antennae.

And then the present I was most excited about. Scott has an old mission buddy who has gotten on a health kick. He did P90X and loved it so much he decided to start selling it. He's been talking to Scott about it, and Scott decided he wanted to get it and start working out. Problem is, it's rather expensive and completely obsessive (they have shakes, equipment, 12 dvds, etc). I told Scott that there were enough opportunities in the summer for us to get exercise (family walks, bike rides, etc), that he didn't need to buy all that stuff. I told him that after I had this baby, then he could get it and I'd do it with him to get back into shape. And then....I contacted his mission friend and bought it for Scott without Scott knowing. He was so surprised when he opened it! So, everybody be on the lookout for a new leaner, meaner Scott soon.





And then it was time to get ready for church and pose for a picture of Dad and his 5 kids. As you can see, with our unruly group, it's difficult (if not impossible) to get that "perfect picture".




Happy Father's Day Scott!!! Our kids couldn't ask for a better father!!!

Preschool Writing

I didn't enroll Sara in preschool this year. I've yet to bring myself to actually pay someone to teach my children preschool. With Savannah and Josh, I found enough other moms to do a preschool co-op, but I couldn't round up enough to do it with Sara. So, she and I have done preschool just me and her (and sometimes Aaron) at home this year. She's a smart little thing, and picks up on stuff very easily. Her latest accomplishment is reading and writing. Here's a letter she wrote for her dad. Just in case you can't make it out, here's a translation:
"Dad I like you. Your the best. Your the best daddy. We love you forever. I will make you pictures. I will love you forever forever."

Not What They Used to Be...

Friday evening we took the kids to the Meridian Dairy Days Parade. We had attended the Eagle Fun Days parade last Saturday, and the kids came away extremely disappointed at the lack of candy thrown. I had high hopes for the Dairy Days parade because they always give out chocolate milk--and who doesn't love chocolate milk. Well, once again, the kids came away disappointed. They ran out of milk, so we didn't get any (we just got to wave at the Marigold truck as it drove by). They also ran out of the string cheese they were handing out. And candy? Our kids each came away with just two tootsie rolls and one jolly rancher. Seriously! What happened to the good old days when you came away from a parade with sackfuls of candy? To make up for the lack of sweets collected at the parade, we stopped at Albertsons on the way home and bought some ice cream, then went home and made milkshakes. The kids thought that was a pretty good substitute for candy.

No Visitors

So, much to my children's disappointment, my parents decided to drive on through to home last night instead of stopping. Linda and my mom didn't pack enough medication and ran out, so they needed to get home. The kids (and I) were really planning on another night with Grandma and Grandpa. But, my dad only has 4 1/2 more days of work till he is officially retired, so he gave me his word that they'll be back to visit very soon. On the plus side--my house is clean (for now).

Cute Aaron

It appears Aaron was paying all sorts of attention in church today. Earlier tonight he very seriously told me that Satan was real and that he was a bad guy and that he had killed Jesus. I tried to explain the whole thing in a way a 4 year old would understand, but he was pretty uninterested in any explanation I had to offer. Much later he was gazing out the window at the black night sky and announced, "Sometimes lightening is angels up in heaven bowling. I learned that in church today!" I love the things little kids say.

A Little Fun and a Lot of Work

We did finally make it to the park like I promised the kids on Wednesday. The sun finally came out, so we headed to Guerber park to play. Scott picked up dinner (chicken nuggets) and met us at the park after work. I also took the kids to a park (DeMeyer Park) on Friday afternoon and once again, Scott met us with dinner after he got off work. The weather is still hit and miss on when it's nice, but we have had a few sunshiny days this week. Friday morning I took all 5 kids with me and we went Father's Day shopping. I love how everybody we pass just has to ask, "Are they all yours?". To their credit, they were very well behaved, and we can't wait for Father's Day next week so we can give Scott his presents. Yesterday we went to the Eagle Fun Days parade. The kids were rather disappointed because there wasn't much candy thrown, but they still thought it was fun.

Now for the work. I'm trying to get the kids on some sort of work schedule this summer. During the school year, I go pretty lightly on Josh and Savannah because they have school. They don't get home till after 4, then we have homework, dinner, and early bedtime--not much time for chores. And I go pretty lightly on the younger three because they are little and don't think they can really do work. So, all the house cleaning falls back to me, and I'm getting a little tired of it. So this summer I'm hoping to get the kids used to actually doing work around the house. I've made them help me with all sorts of things this week--picking up toys, putting dishes into the sink, putting the clean silverware away out of the dishwasher, making their beds, gathering and folding laundry, etc. I'm hoping that with more practice, the complaining will start to diminish a bit more.

Friday night Scott and I went on a date. We went shopping for some maternity clothes for me. I'm on my 6th pregnancy, and all my maternity clothes are looking more than a bit worn. So, we added two new shirts and a pair of capris to my collection. After we got home from our date (with the little day light that was left), Scott went next door to our neighbor's, the Masons, house to help with their sprinkler system. He went over again early Saturday morning to do more work. We stole him away for the parade, then he went back to do more sprinkler work. The kids played outside with the Mason's kids most of the afternoon while the two dads worked on sprinklers. I did some much needed cleaning inside the house, mowed our lawn, then took Nate grocery shopping at Walmart. When I got back from grocery shopping, Nate and I joined the older 4 kids (who were playing in the Mason's backyard while I was gone) and Scott till almost dark. Then I brought all the kids (who were very tired and dirty) home for baths and jammies. Scott came home just after dark. We all were exhausted and were very happy to just fall into bed. We were so tired, that we all slept in till 11 this morning! That's the only good thing about late church--getting to sleep in. Our church is from 2:30-5:30, and is so hard on Nate (who has to go without a nap most weeks). But, we survived another week of church, which is always a big accomplishment.

Tomorrow I (and the kids) get to do more house cleaning. I swear, it's a constant around here. It's never done because as soon as it's done, it gets undone. My parents and sister are coming home from the Oregon Coast tomorrow and will be stopping over again for the night, so I'd like to have the house looking good when they come. I always wonder why I do that--it just stresses me out trying to get everything clean. And they never notice when they come, and it immediately gets messed up with luggage and beds all over the floor and kids playing. But, it makes me feel better knowing that my house was clean for my company.

New Roof

A bit of advice--if you are going to build a house, do not use the cheapest builder. He will use the cheapest subcontractors, and corners will be cut, leaving you with costly repairs further down the line.

The roof above our porch has always had a leak. We had our builder send out the roofers the first year we were here to fix it. They filled a few nail holes, and pronounced it fixed. Only it wasn't. This very wet winter/spring forced us to finally find someone who could fix it. It turns out that the roof was not done right in the first place, and it turned out to be quite the process to fix it. The last two days have been filled with the sounds of hammering, sawing, and footsteps on the roof filling my house. When they got the shingles ripped up, they discovered the plywood was rotting and had to be replaced.

So, we got new support braces on our peak above our porch (they were originally done wrong), new plywood, a very expensive water barrier (the roof was too flat for code to have just shingles on it), new flashing (this time installed correctly), and new shingles. We now have a brand new roof that doesn't leak. We had a builder friend in our ward head up the project, and he said it was pretty appalling to see all the things that had been done wrong originally in the project. Trusses weren't even nailed down to the house. And of course, our builder and original roofer declared bankruptcy and went out of business long ago, so we are stuck with the bill. SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Thankfully, we had two days of sunshine for them to get the roof finished (today it's back to raining). We also had two days of sunshine for the kids to get outside and play. I spent my whole time outside with them, trying to keep them at a safe distance from all the construction (they were so curious and really wanted to watch). Yesterday was the last day of school for Savannah and Josh, so we celebrated with a firepit for dinner last night. I had promised them we'd go to the park or the zoo today, but it's raining. So we are spending our first day of summer vacation trapped inside. Hopefully the rain clouds will clear soon so we can get out and do something fun.

A Little Freaked Out

This afternoon we had sunshine finally, so I took the kids out to play in the sandbox. I put the umbrella up (it had been down all week because of storms), so they could dig in the shade. After about 15 minutes, Sara looked up into the top of the umbrella and exclaimed, "Look! There's a mouse in there!". I heard the squeaking and looked up to see that it wasn't a mouse, it was a BAT! I rushed all the kids away and called Scott to see what I should do. He told me to take pictures and hope that it was still there when Josh got home. So I headed out with the camera to take pictures. While taking pictures, I realized that it's foot was caught in the poles of the umbrella (I must have smashed it in there when I put the umbrella up). So I called Scott back and told him that the bat was stuck. I kept the kids far away from the sandbox the rest of the day till Scott came home. He put on some heavy work gloves and went to work freeing it. He finally saved it and it flew away. The kids found the whole thing VERY fascinating. I was more freaked out than fascinated.

Busy Weekend

Friday night/Saturday morning, I was awoken at 4:00am by Aaron at the side of my bed saying, "Mommy, I frew up". I got up and cleaned him up and Scott cleaned up his bed, then we put him in our chair to sleep. He wanted me to lie by him, so I did. We turned on a movie, hoping it would help him fall back to sleep. After a half an hour, I was starting to get pretty uncomfortable, so I convinced Aaron to let me go up to my bed. He agreed, but kept chatting with me about the movie, so I couldn't go back to sleep. He and I finally drifted back to sleep around 5:30. He woke up Saturday morning feeling just fine, but I got to start off the weekend severely sleep deprived.

Saturday Scott had to go man a booth for work at one of his client's wellness fair/family picnic from 11-2. It was at a park, so we went along. They had inflatable bounce houses for the kids, gift bags of candy for the kids, and a yummy lunch. The kids had a great time. I left with the kids at 12:30 because we had a baptism to attend. One of our neighbors (who is Josh's really good friend) had invited us to come to his baptism. The kids and I rushed home, changed into church clothes, then rushed to the baptism. It was quite the adventure for me to try and wrestle 5 kids (who were hyped up on sugar from the picnic) during the baptism, but I survived.

We got home from the baptism about the same time Scott got home from the picnic. We turned the kids loose outside to play while Scott turned the tv on and watched golf, and I climbed up on my bed and napped. In the evening we took the kids with us to Zamzows and let them see all the animals (bunnies, guinea pigs, snakes, etc.). After we got back we all went for a bike ride, then ordered Dominoes pizza because both Scott and I were too tired to cook.

Sunday we went to church, then came home and got dinner ready just in time for my parents and my sister Linda and her 4 kids to show up. They are going to the Oregon Coast this weekend, and needed a place to sleep to break the drive up a bit. We had dinner with them, then we all walked to the horses and back. Getting 9 kids (and 5 adults) settled down to sleep last night proved to be quite the process, and we all got to bed later than we should have. This morning we got Savannah and Josh off to school and Scott off to work. Then I got all of the extended family off on their long drive to Oregon. Then I mowed the lawn while Sara, Aaron and Nate played in the yard. This afternoon we are going to have one of Aaron's little friends come play while his mom helps out at school. I'm pretty sure by tonight we are all going to be pretty tired.

Tomorrow is Savannah and Joshua's last day of school. We are all very excited for summer vacation to start. We've got so many fun things planned this summer. If only the weather would start to cooperate with us. It has rained every day for a solid month (ok, maybe not every day, but pretty close). We are all ready for some sunshine.

Aaron's Gymnastics

Aaron's a bit of a loose cannon when it comes to gymnastics. He's good at it, but he has so much energy, there's no telling what he's going to do next. He loves his teachers and loves going to class each week. His favorite friend from class is a little girl named Hailey. You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but he's only one month older than she is (she's just really tiny and he's really big). They insisted on doing their floor routine together--pretty cute.

Sara's Gymnastics

Sara is my little quiet but confident gymnast. She never says a word, but has great skill for her age. She tries so hard to be as good as Savannah is. Those two are constantly doing cartwheels and handstands around my house.

Josh's Gymnastics

Josh's class is right after Savannah's. He had a little melt down right as her class was ending and his was ready to start. He sat in the corner and cried. Scott and I tried to get him to tell us what was wrong, but he just cried. The instructors each tried to talk him into coming in and doing his routines, but he really didn't want to. He did finally make his entrance, but then went straight to the wall and wouldn't do any of his routines (there are three). Finally, while the other kids in his class were doing their final routine, Scott figured out that Josh was worried about not remembering his routines. Scott pointed out to him that none of the kids remembered them, that the instructors were helping all of the kids. So, finally Josh agreed to do his last routine (the parallel bars--his favorite). Then he decided he'd be brave enough to do his floor routine also, but opted to just skip the uneven bar routine (because he was supposed to get up on the high bar and that scared him). We were proud of him for finally deciding he'd perform for us. He's been working hard all semester on perfecting his cartwheel. He does a great job of trying to keep his legs straight when he does them (he definitely has the best cartwheel out of any of the boys in his class). Great job Josh!

Savannah's Gymnastics

This was show week at gymnastics. All four of our little gymnasts have done so well this semester. This was their chance to show off their routines and show how far they have come. I'll do a separate post for each child (with four kids, I have a lot of little video clips). Here are the videos of Savannah.

The Weekend

Friday Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen arrived. They had told us they would leave early and be here in the afternoon, so I got to answer the question of "How long till they get here?" a gazillion times before they finally arrived at 7:15 in the evening. The kids love it when Grandma and Grandpa come. My dad instantly set in on his job of "tickle monster" and Grandma instantly went to work on the snuggling of Nate.

Saturday Scott, Savannah and I got up early to go clean our church while everyone else slept in. I was proud of Savannah for actually wanting to come with us. After we got home, I made cupcakes, then Scott and I snuck out for some grocery shopping. The highlight of the day (the activity that had been anticipated all week, well really all month) was Aaron's birthday party at The Little Gym from 4-5:30. It's all Aaron has been able to talk about, and it didn't disappoint. It was great--and so easy for me. We just showed up with cupcakes, and they did the rest. For the first hour, they played in the gym (and did a bunch of dinosaur games).













The last half hour was in the dance room where we had cupcakes and opened presents.








Aaron got some new sand toys, lots of new "kids" (he loves little figurines that he can carry around in his pocket that he calls his kids), a bike helmet and horn for his new bike, art supplies, clothes, some summer water toys, and more.






When the party ended, the instructors did all the clean-up and we just had to load up his presents. It was the easiest party ever! And Aaron (and all the other kids) thought it was the funnest party ever.

The rest of the weekend was spent inside for the most part, because of the rain. Grandma and Grandpa left Sunday evening. On Monday, Scott took the four older kids to see Shrek 3 at the movie theater. The showing they wanted was all full, so they ended up in the IMAX theater and watched it in 3D. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Nate and I stayed home and napped, and then took a walk when the sun finally came out. We ended the day with dinner and playing at Guerber Park (since the weather finally turned nice enough). All-in-all it was a great weekend. Now we just have to make it through this last week of school, and then SUMMER VACATION!!!!!