about time

Okay, so here are some pictures of things that have been happening in no particular order. To avoid spending a lot of time at the computer typing I'll just say that the biggest events were that we moved to Idaho Falls and Nathan is currently working full time at Blackfoot Brass. He'll graduate in July along with his brother Ben and my cousin Brittany! Also... we had Levi!! Yes, he is cute and sweet and already sleeping through the night. He's a little under 4 months old right now. The birth went great except for a spinal headache from the spinal tap during surgery. He was in the nicu for about 2 days because he had fluid in his lungs which I was told was normal for c-section babies (although this is the first one that its happened to) since they don't get the fluid squeezed out of them from going through the canal. I wasn't worried and to tell the truth, I kinda liked sleeping through the whole night in my hospital room. They monitored and feed him all through the night. It was nice. 

 home from the hospital. This is the boys first time seeing Levi

 Our new apartment has a garage so Nathan has set up his art studio in there. He is teaching the boys how to make a pot on the wheel.

 The boys have made their own pinch pots

 They love watching daddy

 So cute

 10 minutes later

trying on my clothes for size

Benny is quite the big brother. He feeds him and soothes him, and loves to show him around the house.

These are the most recent ones of Levi just taken yesterday

Yes, those are Ephraim's feet. It seems that Levi is many times considered either a yoga mat or a bop it toy with the boys.

blessing day

Benny ran off to primary

At the hospital

Ephraim specifically wanted me to take a picture of him kissing Levi on the head

In the NICU

Got Levi in our room the 3rd day.

Benny is 5! He had a fun birthday, even though part of it was put together last minute. I'm 36 weeks pregnant and decided ahead of time that I really didn't want to tackle a friends party at that stage. I gave Benny warning and tried to explain that we wouldn't be doing a friends party this year. He accepted that at first but as his birthday drew closer and closer he started to talk about how he was excited to invite his friends over and which friends he wanted to invite. I explained once again that there wouldn't be a friends party but he was very disappointed. I felt bad, after all, this would be his last birthday party here with the friends he had made in Rexburg. I didn't feel bad enough though to actually plan a big friends birthday party. I didn't want to come up with games to entertain a group of kids for 2 hours, I didn't want to clean up cake all over the floor after everyone left or deal with breaking up potential fights after Benny opened his presents and all the kids trying to play with the new toys. I've been super low on energy as of late and moving is becoming hard so the very thought of all that made me feel a little overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, I normally would enjoy a fun, energetic birthday party, but not just now. So I came up with a compromise. I told Benny he could invite 4 friends to the "Craze." and they could just run around and play for an hour and a half but there would be no cake or presents. We would reserve that with just family later that evening. The Craze is just a little fun house kind of place where they have an arcade and lazer tag and mini golf. Among all that, they also have a kiddie jungle area where they have a little bouncy slide and a tangle of tubes that you can just let kids run around in. That's where we hung out. I asked the parents of the kids either the day before or the day of Benny's birthday if their kid could come and luckily all of them could make it on such short notice. Then later that evening we had Jana, Steve, Sharlee, and Ben over for a birthday dinner of pancakes, sausage, and hash browns (as requested by Benny) and ate cake. It was a nice day. This was the last big event to execute before Levi comes. Now I feel like it is the calm before the storm. All there is left to do now is wait. Just three more weeks but it is inching by so so so slowly. oh well. life is still good especially with Nathan by my side. He's been so caring and helpful. I love that guy.

This cake cracks me up. Benny just wanted to put a whole bunch of his toys on the cake, so I created his canvas. I made parts to represent grass, dirt and water and then let him create. I like the plastic grapes on there.

the next day, playing with all the birthday balloons

Christmas was great! We loved it but because I don't want to write everything again, i'll just copy and paste from my journal and post some pics. Happy Holidays everyone!

"We had the most wonderful Christmas! It was really great just being with our little family. It was less hectic and calmer but still exciting and fun. We were able to just focus on family traditions we want to establish in our family instead of going back and forth between families. We could take things at our own pace. On Christmas Eve we had a relaxing morning. We ate a nice breakfast together and then Benny and Ephraim helped shovel our neighbors’ driveways with Nathan while Asher and I did a little shopping for our shepherds’ meal and then I came home and made gingerbread dough. Next, we all went sledding and the boys had a great time. It was so fun seeing them laugh and enjoy themselves. Even Asher loved it. He went solo down the hill in fact. We just laid him on his back on the sled and let him go. He wasn’t scared or anything. Then we came back home and the boys watched a short BBC nature video while I made the gingerbread cookies and prepared our shepherds’ meal. We spread out a blanket and dressed up like shepherds in sheets and pillow cases. The boys loved it. I told stories about how I had fought off a wolf and lion to protect my sheep and tried to just have sheep talk in general. Benny was a shepherd at first but decided it would be a lot more fun to be a sheep. Ephraim was a sheep from the beginning and Asher was just excited that the food was on the floor at his level. Then I got a white sheet and pretended I was an angel declaring good tidings of great joy about the Christ child. Then Nathan took the boys “traveling” (to the kitchen and back) to see the baby Jesus. I snatched Asher up and positioned myself to be Mary holding the baby Jesus (Asher) and Nathan and the boys came and knelt pretending to worship Jesus. It was so much fun. I love that tradition of the Shepherds’ meal. Afterwards we got in the car and went Christmas light looking. Ephraim was so excited and pointed out every house that had lights, no matter how few. Our last stop was the nativity scene at the temple. When we got home, we told the boys that peek-a-boo snowman had left them a gift under the tree. Also, Kassie and Jared had left each of the boys a gift too at our door step. So they got to open two presents that night. Our gifts were Christmas pajamas to sleep in that night and Kassie and Jared had gotten them some cool Spiderman shirts and underwear. The boys were very excited. After we put them to bed, Nathan and I got to work wrapping their gifts and stuffing their stockings. It was fun just being together and preparing for Christmas, like a date. We ended the night by drinking a glass of sparkling cider together and talking about how excited we were to watch the boys open presents. It was truly a wonderful and magical day together as a family.

Christmas morning started with Benny coming into our room and telling us the night was just too long and he was tired of sleeping. He snuggled with me till Ephraim woke up and then we all got up and the boys changed out of their diapers. After we had changed Asher too, we were finally ready to go downstairs! The boys were enthralled at the sight of the beautiful Christmas tree with all the presents lying underneath. As I had planned though, I didn’t want to just go straight to opening presents. I wanted to take a moment to bring our focus to Christ. I could see that the boys were very eager to open presents though so I decided that it would be best to cut out the song. Their attention was waning fast. I bore my testimony first and then Nathan did. He then offered a prayer of thanksgiving for all our many blessings and then the opening of presents began. In no time, the floor was covered in wrapping paper and the content of stockings. It was delightful. The boys were excited about receiving all their gifts. They were so good and grateful. I was so happy that they were having a fun time. Nathan and I just watched them and soaked it in. Then when they were done with their presents, we opened ours. The boys also opened Asher’s presents since he really didn’t know what was going on. He just liked walking through the carnage and picking up whatever he fancied. We cleaned up a bit and Nathan made crepes while the boys played with their new toys. After our delicious breakfast, I went upstairs and tested out my bath beads that Nathan had given me. It was luxurious and so relaxing that I got out of the tub with a twinge of regret. It was time for us to go to the bishop’s house for our Christmas dinner, a very early Christmas dinner (he had invited us when we went in for tithing settlement). When we arrived we found Ceasar there to our surprise and delight. Apparently he had some kind of connection to them through one of his roommates or something.  Sister Lovell had cooked up such a delicious Christmas dinner. It really hit the spot. Another couple from our ward was there too, along with three of their children (two daughters and a son). After dinner we played games and talked and had dessert. The whole time was thoroughly enjoyable, every minute. The Lovells were such gracious and sweet hosts and it felt like being with family. When we left, Sister Lovell sent us home with crackers, and a cheese ball and a wrapped gift. They were so kind. Christmas day was truly as beautiful and magical as the day before".  

 Sledding!

 Our Shepherds meal

 Opening presents right after christmas light hunting on Christmas Eve

 Christmas morning!

 Trying to get a picture of all the boys with their dinosaur hats but Asher has other plans

 We gave up on Asher

 Asher's first chocolate Santa