Looking forward to it!

I don't mean to wish the time away, but there are a few things that I am looking forward to:

• When watermelons are in season.
• Our trip to Disneyland (with our free tickets through Disney's volunteer program)
• Taking the boat out on the lake.
• Watching Anthony ride the speed boat for the 1st time.
• When the baby sleeps through the night!
• When my little brother comes home from his mission.
• Being skinny again. Although I don't see this happening anytime soon, I still look forward to it with longing.
• Home-grown tomatoes.
• Consistently warm weather as this spring has failed to deliver.
• Spending lots of time with family.

Yesterday and today we had Stake Conference and we were privileged to have Elder Johnson from the 70's speak with us. Amazing!! He has such enthusiasm and is so light and loving. It made me feel so good and have the desire to be so much better. We took the opportunity this afternoon to pack a little picnic and visit the Temple and spend some family time outside with the beautiful weather. I am so blessed with so many wonderful things.

I can't get the pictures to load, but here is a video of Tyson riding his bike without training wheels. He had a flat tire when I filmed this, so he can't go very fast. You can also see Tanner riding his wiggle car.

Happenings

For awhile I thought I wasn't ever going to blog again, but alas, here I am. Staying busy as a wife and mother. We are in the middle of a couple of projects. Mostly, I just wanted to get some pictures up of the kiddos.

Project one: paint the living room a lighter tan color. Check.

Our cutie pie!

Happy Easter Egg Hunt.

First time in a bathing suit. Check out those amazing legs.

Oh yeah, I'm officially off "sweets". 12 days and counting.

My Sweet Baby

Just as I thought we might get lucky and miss the sickness that has been going around...bam! Kate got admitted to the hospital for 2 days and 1 night with pneumonia and RSV. She responded well to the antibiotics and is getting better, but it was so sad to see her so sick and hooked up to all the machines. We are grateful that she is recovering.

And Just Like That...

...Two months flew by

Well, we made it through the holidays unharmed and fairly healthy, although I can't same the same for the rest of my family as I have had three nephews with pneumonia an two of them hospitalized for several days. The most we brought back was a severe head cold that knocked me out for a week straight and I am still recovering and feeling the effects.

Christmas was wonderful and everyone was home. We had a great time, I only wish there had been snow to take the kids sledding. I have to admit, it is nice coming back to warmer weather.

January holds a slew of celebrations for us. Our anniversary of 6 years, my birthday and Anthony's birthday all fall within 12 days and not even a month after Christmas. So we get all our partying out at the beginning of the year.

Kate is growing at a miraculous rate, weighing in at 10 lbs 6 oz. She is getting quite chubby and I think she will start looking like Tyson. In the past week her colic has gotten a little better. The best part is that she has started smiling a lot. It is so rewarding. The boys love her to death. They are not rough with her, but constantly want to touch her and rub her head and kiss her and get in her face. The poor girl doesn't have any room to breathe when they maul her. Three kids are definitely more challenging than two were for me, but Anthony is amazing and helps out so much. I also have some great friends and neighbors that have helped by taking the boys and inviting us to dinner.

The pictures above were taken by my cute friend, Kamill, when Kate was 4 weeks old. I think they turned out great. Thanks Kamill!

Barely Keeping Up

I've been a little more occupied than normal, what with a new baby and all, and I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water. My sweet neighbor took my boys for a couple of hours each day this week just to give me time to shower or clean up the house or rest. I forgot how time consuming it is to take care of a little one. Nursing alone takes hours out of my day, but I am really enjoying Kate. She is not quite sure what makes her happy yet, except she knows she likes being held. At her two week checkup this week, she weighed an ounce less than she did at birth, so her growth is normal. My boys love their sister, and are constantly rubbing her head and saying how cute she is and giving her kisses. Tanner loves to hold her and cuddle her. Although the adjustment is a little difficult and tiring, it is so fun having a new baby around.

Because I haven't had time, or an Internet connection, I haven't had time to post about Thanksgiving. We had dinner with the Anderson's on Wednesday night. This was the first time all the new babies had been together (keeping in mind Kate was only three days old). Suddenly, they all looked huge compared to Kate. It was so fun and Christmas should be even better.

From oldest to youngest: Jaeley, Bostyn, Bo, Colt, and Kate

5 sisters with 5 babies in 6 months. This will probably never happen again in our family. We sisters sat around arguing (not really) about who would win in a race between us all and never did anything about it because we are all too out of shape. Except Melissa and Laurie raced and that was enough entertainment to last the night. So now we have challenged each other to a race and set a goal of doing the 5K at the 24th of July!

We had Thanksgiving at the White's and the food and company were great. I spent the morning resting, so I wasn't around to take many pictures. We opted to stay home from the Howell family party so I could rest and recuperate and Anthony played on a flag football team. It was freezing cold. He managed to keep his knee in tact, but totally sprained his ankle and it is still healing. I think he must be accident prone. Overall, it was a good weekend.

Pics of Kate

Well, she is finally here. I don't think I could have lasted much longer because I was getting very uncomfortable. It is good she came three weeks early because she would've been pretty big had she gone full term. I had contractions all Saturday night, but I wanted to wait as long as possible before going into the hospital, and I didn't want to wake up my neighbor to come watch the boys. Finally at 5 am the contractions were getting really painful so we decided to go to the hospital. I was dilated to 6 cm when we got there. After having Tanner natural by default, I thought I wanted to try it again because I felt so much better afterwards. The nurses were very good to help me breathe and I was freaked out of my mind because I had made a conscious decision to go without an epidural and I wasn't sure if I could do it. Well, it didn't take long because she was born at 6:05 am. But I have to admit that it was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life and I didn't think I was going to make it through right there at the end. Anthony says I only had to push through two or three contractions. And I do feel pretty good now afterwards. However, I don't know if I will have the guts to go natural again. We'll have to see next time it comes around. You'll be happy to know that Anthony made it through this delivery without fainting. He is such a good guy and has been a huge help. It is good to be home now and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. Grandma and Grandpa Anderson came down to see Kate and they took the boys home with them so I can rest. The hospital is limiting their visitors because of the swine flu, so my boys won't get to see their sister until Wednesday. I am excited for them to meet. Thanks to all those who helped out. What a great little gift for our family to welcome this new sweet spirit. It really is something to be grateful for during this Thanksgiving season.

Waiting to be nursed for the first time, she went to town on her thumb. It was so cute!

Home at last. I know these pictures aren't very good to actually see what she looks like, but I will post more throughout the weeks to come.

Baby Kate is here!

Kathryn Holly White was born yesterday, Sunday November 22, 2009 at 6:05 am. She weighs 6.14 and is 20 inches long. She has dark hair (something new to us since our boys were bald) and and fat little double chin. She is a sweetheart and a cutie. Labor and delivery went well and mom and baby are doing well. I will try to post pics this afternoon when we check out of the hospital. Love you all!