Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving everyone came to St. George. It was nice for us to not have to travel with the kids and I think I am discovering that I love being the hostess! Not that I do much other than provide a place to sleep, but I just love having everyone around. We had the actual Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents house so luckily I wasn't in charge of the whole thing...just the thought of me doing the turkey by myself immediately stresses me out. We had so much fun staying up late, playing lots of games, eating lots of food, and doing lots of shopping. And whats great is that they will all be back in a few weeks for Christmas! Yay!

My mom really wanted to take a quick family picture. Bless her little heart for even trying...this is the best we got.

And I thought I would try to get one of my kids while they were all dressed at the same time (usually at least one seems to be naked) and of course it didn't work out:(

And just to remember what I have been thinking about this month:
While visiting teaching we talked about President Monson's talk on gratitude. I guess I must be complaining a lot about my kids lately because I have had so many people tell me to be grateful for this stage, because I will be so sad when it is over and really miss it. This of course is always coming from people whose kids are older and I think "you must not remember how hard this is!!!" I have three kids under the age of four, including a daughter who is a total diva, a son who is still being potty trained, and a newborn who I am up in the night with. So somedays it is really hard to be grateful and I find myself fantasizing about the day when they are all in school!! But then there are those moments that really do make it all worth it, as cheesy as that sounds. Evie is smiling now and it melts my heart, especially when we get her to full on laugh! When we hear Ella and Kash who sneak into each others room at night and we can hear them playing so dang cut together. And when Ella says something so smart or Kash says "I lub you mom" for no reason. So I realize that I really do need to be more grateful, and live in the moment and try to remember these sweet moments (as rare as they might seem some days). Who knows, maybe I will look back and smile at the thought of me cleaning poop out of batman underwear and hosing Kash down in the backyard? I just don't know.

Sleepy

Liked how this little girl fell asleep on my lap...

Neighbor Girls

We have some of the cutest neighbor girls around. I was worried when we first moved in realizing that there are not a ton of kids Ella and Kash's age. We are actually the youngest family in the neighborhood. Most families are done having kids and here we move in with 2 babies and now a newborn! We definitely stand out a bit. Anyways, these girls that live on our street come to our door almost daily. I love it because they entertain my kids! They are mostly around the age of 9, so it is nice to know they are capable of playing with them outside and can watch them for the most part. They love to ride wiggle cars, give rides on their scooters, play in our backyard, go in the playroom, etc. They are really cute with Ella and Kash and often want to come over to hold the baby. There have been days around 3pm when I am wondering if they are home from school so they can take my kids away and give me a break! I am hoping that the day they become "too cool" to come over and play never comes!
Carly, Lacy, Robin, and Ella came downstairs all dressed up. They walked around the neighborhood showing off their cute outfits!

Staheli Farm

This was our second year going to Staheli Farm. The kids always have a really good time, so this is a fun tradition for us. This year we went with the Harris family, they are our cute neighbors that live right across the street from us.

Here are all the kids, minus Evie who stayed nice and warm in her car seat the entire night! Macall, Olivia, Ella Kate, Ella Grace, and Kash

Here is Dave leading the kids to the corn maze.

Kash on the train ride.

The Ella's wanted to ride together of course!

Dave about to sit on Macall!

Climbing in the play house.

Riding the horse swing-I think this is always the favorite.

Sliding into the corn

This is where you pump the water and see who can get their duck to the other side the fastest.

We ended the night with the animals. Kash kept hugging all of them, and I kept telling Matt they would have to get a bath as soon as we got home!

Surprise!

Saturday night I was in the kitchen talking to a friend when the doorbell rang. The kids ran to get it as they always do, fighting over who gets to open the door. I knew it was the neighbor kids again so I kept chatting and eating. And then I hear this voice...could it be?? Are you serious? I threw my quesadilla on the counter and ran to the door. PAPA!! Ella and Kash were both jumping on my DAD! Surprise! I had NO idea he was coming. He said he got off work early and decided to come at the last minute. He has not seen little Evie yet so he has been dying! I was in shock and trying not to cry my eyes out! We were all enjoying the moment and a few minutes later the doorbell rang again. Now here come the neighbor girls. Then I hear, "NANA NANA!" And then there is my mom at the door, who had been hiding in the car haha. Of course I start tearing up again...:) Can't believe it. And a few minutes later the door bell rings AGAIN. And there is my littlest sister NIKKI!!! Now I am crying. The first thing she said was, Dad made me wear this!! I could tell she was so embarrassed as she stood there with her crown on her head and her Homecoming Queen sash on. The week before she was crowned Homecoming Queen and I was the ONLY sister not there to see her and I was so depressed about it. I guess Dad wanted me to see her in all her glory, much to her dismay!

This was the best surprise ever!! We were all so excited and had such a fun weekend together. Oh how I love my cute family! The proud Papa holding his newest grandchild.

One Month

I can't believe Evie is already one month old! She is actually just over 5 weeks now and time is going by so fast. I hate that she is already so much bigger, I want her to stay tiny forever! She is just so sweet. I could kiss her cheeks all day, and I do because she can't fight me! Ella and Kash don't cuddle with me very much so I am getting my fill with Evie before she has a say:)

Here she is at 1 month:

These pics are of her only a few days old, she looks so small in her crib and car seat.

People are always asking who I think she looks like, and I think she just has her own look. A lot have said Ella and Matt, but some even think she looks like Kash. What do you think?

A long day

This is my son at the end of Day 1 of Potty Training:

Bless his little heart! It has been a rough week, and this first day I think he was especially traumatized. He clung to his diaper for dear life, not wanting to part with it. Yesterday however he did not have a single accident! I am starting to think this potty training thing might just work after all! Although... he is not allowed to leave the kitchen so he is constantly right next to his little potty, so venturing out of the house or even upstairs for that matter is something else entirely. Baby steps right? I am just so excited to see some progress!

Halloween 2010

Ella and Kash were so excited for Halloween this year. They talked about their costumes for weeks and couldn't wait to go trick or treating. Even little Evie walked around with me in the sling before it got too dark. It was fun for us to go around our neighborhood together and talk to neighbors that we hadn't really met yet.

Here are my cute super heroes! Ella as Bat Girl and Kash as Spider Man.

Kash had no interest in wearing this costume when he got it for his birthday but luckily a few weeks later he was all for it! Matt ended up cutting the eye holes bigger because he kept running into things (the worst was when he ran full speed into our neighbors BMW...how do you not see a car??).

I had to try so hard to not laugh when I told Ella to strike a pose and she did this total bat man move!

Trick or treating

Oh how I love my bat, cat, and spider. I know you can't really tell that Evie is a cat-Matt insisted she was too young for face paint:(

Too bad she started crying right when I took this picture! Oh well, two out of three is pretty good I guess.

Carving of the pumpkins

This year we carved pumpkins in Cedar City with our cousins. Everyone had lots of fun carving, painting, and power drilling! Matt got the drill out to use on his pumpkin and it quickly became the favorite tool, I think every pumpkin ended up with a ton of perfectly round holes!

Here is everyone hard at work.

This was Matt's pumpkin with nasty cockroaches climbing all over it!

It really grosses me out every time I look at it.

Ella always gets so into this kind of thing, she could have painted all night.

Kash was more interested in driving the wiggle car around. Here he is getting a ride from Julia.

Sydney, Lauren, Madeline

Lauren's finished product.

If Kash wasn't riding the car, he was using the drill!

All the kids:

We love hanging out with these guys! Although next year we will have to do it in St. George because Cedar is already freezing! (I used Evie as my excuse to stay inside)

So loved

You are loved baby Evie! This little girl has had so many visitors and been held by so many people that love her. I have been such an awful picture taker so I have unfortunately only captured a few of these sweet moments.






I guess its true what they say...your first born has their entire life chronicled day by day and with every additional kid you get the camera out less and less. At least this has been the case for me. I feel so guilty, I need to try to be better.

Their Reactions

I was worried about how Ella and Kash would react to the new baby, especially when they came to the hospital to see her for the first time. I just kept remembering when I had Kash and my mom brought little 15 month Ella to come see us. She wouldn't go near the baby, and worse, she wouldn't come near me! It broke my heart. She would cling to my mom and would hardly acknowledge me.

Well, this time Ella was absolutely ecstatic. I could hear her coming from down the hall. She was so giddy, jumping up and down and clapping her hands. The first thing she said when she first saw the baby was, "Mom, IT is SO cute!" She quickly climbed into the bed with me and wanted to hold her. It was fun to see her so excited. She is always talking about how we are such a big family now, and how there are THREE girls and ONLY two boys.

I had to throw this picture in to talk about Ella's hair (which she did herself). She has been pinning her bangs back any way she can telling me that she doesn't want bangs anymore! I have been hiding the scissors and living in fear that she will chop them off herself! For those of you who know my beautiful daughter know the size of her forehead and therefore know she MUST have bangs:)

Anyways. Kash had a slightly different reaction. He came right to my side and said, "Mom, are you going to be ok, now?" He seemed so concerned about me! It was the cutest thing. He pulled up a chair and sat right by me and kept asking me if I was okay. The next day when I came home he rushed over to me and asked again if I was ok, if I felt better, and then, "are you hungry, Mom?"
At the hospital he stared at Evie through the plastic bassinet and when we asked if he wanted to hold her he said, "NO!" and quickly backed himself into the corner. He kept his distance and wanted nothing to do with her. Even once we were home we would try to get him to hold her or kiss her head and he wouldn't. He wasn't ever mean about it, he just stayed away. After about 2 weeks Whitney rushed into my room to tell me that Kash was holding Ella! He just decided he was ready I guess. He is always very concerned when she is crying and will run to find me and inform me about it. He will give her the binkie and is very proud of himself when she stops crying. I think he will be a protective big brother.

I had gifts for them at the hospital from Baby Evie that they had fun opening. And it was cute because they had brought cards that they had made for her.

So far no one has killed anyone so we are doing pretty good! We are adjusting to this life with 3 kids the best we can. It has actually gone a lot more smoothly then I thought it would. I just keep having nightmares about trying to take all 3 of them to Walmart...I don't think we will be trying that anytime soon.

She is here

Evie Lyn McLaws

Our sweet little girl arrived October 2, 2010 at 11:43 am. She weighed 7 lbs 1 0z (my biggest baby yet!) and was 20 inches.
The Story:

The labor went really fast-she was here in 4 short hours! Everything went really well except for the epideral. For some reason I kept holding off on getting it thinking I could handle the pain for a little longer. Why did I do this you might ask?? I don't know! I knew I would eventually get it so why suffer? I am such a wierdo. So by the time my creepy anesthesiologist came I was at an 8 and that is when the scariest part of the whole ordeal happened. He took forever to find the spot to put the needle and when he did he actually hit a nerve. My whole right side went tingly and then I had the most painful electric shocks start shooting down my body. They were so powerful that I couldn't control my leg kicking straight out and hitting Matt! The pain actually made me scream out loud. I started panicking thinking I would be paralyzed while Matt tried to calm me down. Through out all this my contractions were getting stronger and stronger. The Dr. kept saying, "hmmm this is odd....hmmm I don't think I feel comfortable with this....this is unusual...." HELLO! Get it out of my back!! He finally threw everything away and started over. To shorten the story he finally got it in when I was fully dilated and ready to push. I probably had it for about 20 minutes (what a waste of $1200) and the numbness kicked in AFTER I had the baby.
My sister Whitney who is pregnant with her first decided to come to the delivery so she would know what to expect. Luckily she wasn't there for the epideral part:) She was thinking this labor thing wasn't too bad because everything happened so fast. The only part that scared her was when she saw that little Evie was blue and the cord was wrapped around her neck. She quickly rushed to my side to not be "down there" and gave me the thumbs up sign and a really nervous smile trying not to freak me out. I heard the dr. say to give him the scissors but I didn't really know what was going on. He quickly snipped the cord and finished the delivery. They gave her to me and she was completely BLUE but crying. I kept wondering why they were not rushing her off to work on her....umm excuse me I'm not sure if you noticed that my baby is blue? But she was completely healthy and her color kept getting better and better.

She has been such an angel. She is really such a good baby (she is still in the sleepy newborn stage so we'll see if things change) but she only cries when she is hungry and she is always so mellow and content. My prayers were definitely answered! I was so nervous that she would have colic and I would turn into a crazy lady with 3 kids.

The Name:
Evie is pronounced EV, not like Evelyn. It actually came from Whitney. She reluctantly told me her girl name that she liked, and I fell in love with it, much to her dismay:) I knew I couldn't have it so I forced myself to not think about it but a few months later she told me that her husband didn't like it and they were not going to use it so I could have it! Matt and I literally did not come up with a single name so I guess it was meant to be. Her middle name is Lyn, after my Mom, Stacey Lyn. I am still trying to get used to it but when Ella and Kash say it it is the cutest thing. Ella sweetly calls her Baby Evie and Kash says BeeBee E-B.

We are just so grateful for her and feel so blessed. She just fits right in and I couldn't imagine our lives without her!