February

February was a great month, and of course flew by faster than can be believed. Here are the highlights - or at least things that we took pictures of so we would never forget them... now if only I can remember all that went on. 

We celebrated Sammy and Bekah's 3rd birthday, and Grandma bought all three girls matching outfits.  Lauren got her birthday present a few months early.  All three girls loved the outfits, and wore them every chance they got.  Lauren wore her outfit probably four or more days every week for a while.  She would wear it, I would wash it, and she would put it right back on.  She absolutely loved it!

Austin took a few selfies with my phone.  He loves to take pictures with it, and I am constantly having to go through and delete pictures of the ceiling, his thumb, or random pictures of everyone.  Sometimes he gets a great one like this.

Lauren loves all the baby gear.  She wants to not miss out, and I am constantly finding her in the baby bathtub, in the crib, in the bouncer, in the swing... everything for the baby.

This is what happens when I try to take a picture of Ashlyn.  Everyone in the room suddenly wants to be in the picture too.

Lauren always dresses herself.  Some days her choice in clothes just doesn't work.  This outfit is probably the most memorable one.

We gave Devon's Dad a surprise birthday party with just the adults.  That was a lot of candles!

Ashlyn is just so sweet and a wonderful baby. She is really letting me enjoy every moment with her.  Ashlyn is starting to get into a schedule a little more. She goes to bed around 7 or 8, then wakes up around 1 or 2.  She is smiling and cooing at us.  It is so much fun!


For Family Home Evening one night, Devon had the boys write a story to illustrate a Gospel principle.  First there is Jayden's, then Ethan's, and then Dylan's.

A family favorite at our house is Swedish Pancakes.  One day I accidentally made a giant one.  Jayden thoroughly enjoyed it!

For Valentines day, Dylan's teacher had me fill out a paper about him.  He is such a great kid!

Ethan gave this Valentine to Lauren.

Ashlyn has also discovered the fun of reaching for toys.

Ashlyn has started to sleep in her crib, and sometimes sucks her thumb.  We will see if the binky or the thumb wins.

I also celebrated my birthday, and Austin told me I could have these for my birthday.  What a sweet boy.

We had many perfect kite flying days, and the kids had a blast taking advantage of the weather.

Or... Maybe not yet...

So, the morning after that last post, Lauren woke up and wanted to wear diapers and has been in them pretty much ever since, and not even trying to use the potty. I figure, this is her thing.  If she's ready, she will do it.  It is totally not worth a battle, when I know she can do it if she wants to.

 Then, yesterday at church she wanted to use the potty, and I told her no, since she was in a diaper. She put underwear on after church, and is still in her underwear.  She stayed dry though the night.  I guess we will see how long this next run goes...

Potty time!

Shout out to the girl who decided to potty train herself!  No joke!! She started to want to wear underwear and use the potty, so on Friday I said go for it! I sat back and watched her run back and forth to the potty. I do have a new baby, so let's be honest... If it's going to take a lot of effort on my part, it's just not going to work right now. Of course it's only the fifth day, but this has been fun potty training her, especially since I'm not really the one doing the training. Other than my occasional question of whether her pants are dry, I haven't had to do much of anything. She has only had a few accidents each day, and they have been at the times I have had a pull-up on her, or on hard floors- thank goodness!!  She even stayed dry during her nap yesterday, and during the night.  It has been so fun to watch her enthusiasm.  At church it got a bit tiresome.  We hung out in the mini bathroom they have in the nursery during almost all of Sacrament Meeting.  Lauren would go potty, wash her hands, come out, then say in her characteristic way, with a cute expression on her face (I'll have to try to catch it with the camera sometime) "I have to go potty!" And back in she would go.  I helped her the first ten or so times.  After that I took a seat and let her do it all herself because she totally could.  I just hoped the novelty would wear off before nursery started. I'm pretty sure this process was repeated two or three DOZEN times! When the leaders came in and pulled the puzzles out, she came and sat down to play.  I told the teachers what was going on, and that she could handle it herself (and she did have a pull up on just in case).  I never did get a chance to find out after class how she did because the kids picked her up after class.  I worried during my classes that she might be causing trouble going back and forth, since nursery kids are curious and like to follow.  Oh, I hope that didn't happen! Either way, I'm still so excited for this girl.  Hooray for Lauren!  And hooray for me - after potty training four boys, I deserve an easy one, right?

Ashlyn started enjoying her crib about 10 days ago. Can I tell you how much this has made a difference in my life? I have revelled in holding her and snuggling her, sleeping or awake. Truth of the matter is, while I'm still savoring those moments, I need some moments to spend time with my other kids and also do some cooking a cleaning. Before this newfound love of the crib, I would put her down, and she would give me a small amount if time before she would cry. Except on rare occasions, the swing didn't work, and neither did the bouncer. Usually those things are my saving graces. I've looked at the situation as a blessing- giving me lots of time to love holding this sweet girl. And now, I'm loving having time to do a wider variety of things, as she will give me a few hours, usually in the afternoon, to get something done. Of course, truth be told, with five other kids, I really can't get much done even with that stretch, or my time is spent cleaning up the bizillion messes the kids made while I was nursing, leaving all the other things I need to do (like clean the bathroom) undone.  BUT, at least she is starting to give me a good stretch.  At night it varies- one night she slept till 5!  Yay for the crib!

Ashlyn's blessing

We blessed Ashlyn on February 2.  We were bummed to miss a few family members (Rachel and David, Lance and Kim, Steve, and Ben), but it's impossible to get everyone, so I guess that's just how it goes.  I have still been feeling a bit overwhelmed with things so we just had the blessing, and didn't worry about doing a big get together.  I feel bad in some ways about it, but you can only do so much at certain times of your life.  The important thing is that she has been blessed.  

We were glad to have both Grandpas there to help bless Ashlyn, as well as Uncle Jon, Uncle Tony, Uncle Brandt, Uncle Jason, and Uncle Colby.  We sure missed the rest!  I wish we could have gotten a picture of those there, but that just doesn't work out as well when you don't do a big get together.

Devon gave Ashlyn a beautiful blessing.  Its always hard to remember what was said, but a neighbor, Hilary Weeks, was so kind and randomly emailed me the things she remembered from the blessing.  A huge thank you to her!!

• She will be blessed with a testimony of the  gospel and the Atonement. 
• As she develops and follows the example of her mother and other strong women, her testimony will grow.
• She will be blessed with a knowledge of a living prophet on earth and the desire to follow his counsel and direction.
• When the time is right, she will find a young man to take her to the temple and love and take care of her. She will be blessed to bring children into the world to praise and glorify thee.  
• Pronounce theses blessings and many others that are in store for her.

I actually took Ashlyn to get her picture taken professionally in her dress.  Its something I meant to do with all the kids, but the Walmart version I did with Dylan when we were poor college students came back with a flaw that must have been on the camera lens - and it was right on Dylan's face.  I was so distraught I refused the pictures - but looking back I shouldn't have.  I think with the coupon I had they would have only cost me like $3.  Silly me- I was so put out by the spot on his face, I told them I didn't want them.  Hello!! I could have photo-shopped them or something! Its funny what crazy things new Mom's do, and funny what you think is spending too much when you're a poor college student.

Since I didn't end up with professional pics of Dylan, I have just done at home pictures for everyone.  Well... I thought it would be fun to do Ashlyn's anyway.  And the tradition continued.  The pictures turned out awful! And I mean awful!!  I look at the pictures still and just want to cry.  I had such cute visions in my head of how nice they would be.  I tried to contact the company to see if we could even try just taking a couple more pictures, but they told me I had to email them any concerns, and they haven't responded.  I even tried filling out the form on their website, thinking maybe I had emailed the wrong address.  Nothing.  Honestly, I understand if they see it as a done deal, but it frustrates me that they just ignore me. It doesn't seem like very good customer service to me.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll go back or not. I have loved them in the past, but this just baffles me.  Anyway... I digress...

Long story short - I ended up just taking pictures myself, and they turned out cute enough.  ;)  Much, much, much better than the professional ones.  (Blah! Makes me kind of sick.)

These two expressions make me laugh.  Haha!