My Blogging Hiatus - What you missed

I know I said you didn't miss much during my 5 months of zero blog posts, and I know I said I wasn't going to fill you in; but after receiving dozens of emails begging me to update anyway, I finally decided to relent and just do it. Ok fine, I really didn't receive any emails asking me to update. I'm doing this all out of the goodness of my heart. And because I can't, for the life of me, think of anything else to blog about. So here you are. August - December 2010. Here's what you missed...

AUGUST

2010 was the year of the wedding! Between Brandon and I, we had only 3 siblings who had yet to be married. All 3 said their "I do's" in 2010. What fun, eh? Aleisha was the last of the three and we all spent the latter part of August celebrating her wedded bliss to Rory. On the day of the actual wedding, I was (once again) fantastic at ignoring the happy couple completely and managed only to get a picture of my own little family. Who says I don't have my priorities straight??



The reception was held the day after the wedding, and all sarcasm aside, it really was beautiful. Dave and Susan (with lots of help from others) turned their incredible backyard into a dream setting for a reception. It was truly breathtaking. In spite of a bit of rain (and frantic moving of reception food and decor in and out of the house), the night was fantastic. Pictures? I've got plenty from the reception. Here's a few of my favorites...





And, you won't believe it, but this time, I really did take a picture of the bride and groom. See??



And for my last picture of the wedding events, I offer you this... When the heavens decide to rain down upon your wedding/reception day, the least they can do is offer up a beautiful rainbow for an apology.



Moving on...

SEPTEMBER

The month of September brings us McKenna's 9th birthday. Due to McKenna and her friend Savannah having the same birthday, it's always a party. A big thanks to Amanda for coming up with the idea of how to celebrate this one. The day began with taking lunch to the girls at school, like always.



Followed up by a girls night that rewarded Amanda and I just as much as the birthday girls. That beats hosting a late-over for 8 screaming girls any day of the week!



The four of us enjoyed pedicures, dinner, mall shopping, and a movie (with lots of popcorn and cherry coke). Seriously... this is how to celebrate! McKenna can have a birthday any day of the week! Well, provided I can have another few months to save up plenty of cash for the occasion. The best way to wrap the whole day up, is by copy & pasting the facebook status I put up at the end of that day:

I know this is so overused, but I have to do it - taking lunch to McKenna at school $10, birthday treats for her class $10, pedicures $40, shopping at the mall $20, dinner out $12, movie tickets $14, movie snacks $10, frostys $2, calories consumed... let's skip this one, tucking her in and having her say, "Mom, thanks for the most awesome birthday ever"... Yep, you know it's coming... PRICELESS.

Next up...

OCTOBER

October is, by far, my favorite month of the year. The weather is usually perfect and there's just something extra fun about fall festivities. While I didn't get out nearly as much as I would have liked to, we did manage our annual trip to Gardner Village to enjoy the witches (along with every other stay-at-home mom and her 4 children within a 50 mile radius... or so it seemed).





We also paid way too much money to take a trip up the Haunted Canyon on the Heber Valley Railroad. Too much money... but lots of fun (and mostly worth it) all the same. It was dark, and my camera is only one step up from the cheap disposable kind you buy at gas stations. My apologies, these very low quality pictures are all we captured. Still, memories are memories, so up on the blog they go!



In the 1st picture, the flash is (obviously) unbearably bright. In the 2nd picture, the flash is almost non-existent because I'm... uh... covering it with my thumb. Needless to say, I've never won any awards for photography.

This brings us to the main event... Halloween Day! Or technically, the day before Halloween Day-Day! Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, we Utahns like to celebrate on Saturday instead. We're cool like that. We braved the rain in pursuit of candy at both the neighborhood Trunk-or-Treat, and your typical door-to-door "Trick-or-Treat!" We got lots of candy. That's all I'm going to say about that. Here's pictures!

May I present (in no particular order)...

Indiana Mathew! *insert Indiana Jones theme song*



Nathaniel Mouse! (and Dad) Em-eye-see-kay-ee-why-em-o-you-es-ee!



McKenna the Pirate...ess! (and Dad) *insert Pirates of the Caribbean theme song*



And finally, Gracee the baby chick! (and Dad) *insert... uh... a chick chirping... I guess...?*



For the true night of Halloween, we spent the evening at Grandpa Dave and Grandma Susan's for their traditional Halloween party, which always includes delicious soups, trick-or-treating down the hallway (at all the best and most prestigious bedrooms in the house), and "fishing" for prizes. We all love it. More pictures? Why, yes!





And that, my friends, concludes October. Onto...

NOVEMBER

In November, McKenna's grade put on a Veteran's Day program that made me cry...



It snowed... A LOT...



And my brother, Lynn, and his unusually productive wife, Vicki, hosted a fun and very delicious Thanksgiving Dinner. (Sorry, no pics. Or by this point, maybe I should say, "No pics... you're welcome).

And last but not least...

DECEMBER

Ah, Christmas. It would be such a wonderful time of year if I didn't have to work until 3:00 in the morning (yes, literally) pretty much every night. And wake up to feed a baby at 5:00 am. And get up to get kids off to school at 7:30 am. Yuck. I don't remember much, but judging by the pictures I took, here's what we did!

We saw Santa...



McKenna created her own Santa costume and provided us with an excellent blackmail picture for the future. (yes, the sheet of lined paper hanging from her chin is indeed supposed to be a beard)



We decorated the tree...



On a side note, I should mention that we decided to buy, for the first time, a real, live Christmas tree this year. The result? Branches that wouldn't support our ornaments, pine needles EVERYWHERE, and worst of all... nearly a dozen baby spiders hatching while we hung ornaments. Needless to say, it was a fun idea in theory, but I highly doubt we will ever do it again. If I ever start thinking about it again, maybe several years down the road, someone please be sure to remind me about the spiders.

We met up with fun friends and saw lights at Temple Square...



Nathaniel turned THREE...



And, dressed in their Christmas jammie best, the kiddos received a very generous visit from Santa...
(My apologies for the hazy pictures. I must've had fingerprints all over the camera lense, courtesy of one - or more - of my 4, grubby fingered children)



The stockings were hung from the partition wall with care...



(Stockings provided by the amazing talent of my fabulous Mother)

Well, there you have it! Five months of posts in one! I have been working on this dang post for nearly 3 hours! (You can find the point I started becoming restless with it by noting the lack of commentary through November and December). If you made it through all that... cookies to you! I really hope you didn't have anything better to do with the last 20 or so minutes of your life. In the future, I vow to try my best to be better about frequent, normal size posts. Rather than twice yearly mega posts. Until then... BYE!

And.... We're Back!

Well, hello! Apparently I have a blog, and even more surprising is that there are a few people who still read it. Who knew? And here I thought the entire blogging world would simply crumble and fall as soon as I started losing interest. I guess society really doesn't adjust it's courses to meet my fancies. Ah, well. It's a new year, and what better time to aim for improvement than the month of January? So here I am, for better or worse.

I'm afraid this post will be picture-less (and a bit pointless). I'm sure I have a few photos stashed away in my camera from Christmas. But quite honestly, I was too sleep-deprived on Christmas to remember if I took any pictures. And I'm too lazy right now to go find it and see if I did. Because really... what if there are some cute pictures? Then I have to download them, add them to this here blog, write clever little captions... Honestly, it's just way too much work. I assure you, we had a delightful Holiday season (at least, I think we did... Did I mention I was sleep-deprived?). There's really no need to bore you all with specifics. We'll sum it up with: Brandon worked too many hours and went to bed before me most nights (this is unheard of any other time of the year). I worked too many late nights and can't recall much of December, though I'm sure I ate too much because I'm several pounds heavier than I was a couple months ago. The kids were giddy and excited and surprisingly content and well-behaved. As a family, we spent way too much money, but sure had a lot of fun doing it.

Not much has happened in my 6-month blogging hiatus. Or at least not much that I feel like talking about at 10:30 at night. I'm mainly here to say I'm still here, and to make vague and most likely empty promises that I'm going to try to post more often. Who knows, if I get crazy ambitious, I might even have a picture or two to show off next time. Until then, Happy New Year to you all! Best wishes for meeting all the goals you made last year and weren't able to reach! (Please tell me I'm not the only one who's just recycling resolutions from years past...) It's never too late! This is the year of the fresh start - I can just feel it!

Summer Vacation (or the lack thereof)

It seems it hasn't even been a month since the kids got out of school... Oh, wait... probably because it really hasn't been a month. What kind of summer vacation is only 3 weeks long?? The summer vacation of a kid in year round school, I guess. In any case, I thought I'd quickly document what little we did manage to do during this little window of summer freedom.

First up... D'Ann gets married!!
My sister and Antone decided it was high time they made things official - and they did it in style! Party style, that is. What a fantastic way to do a wedding. D'Ann and Antone said their "I do's" in the shade of a clump of trees at a family park. It was a beautiful ceremony that literally brought tears to my eyes (and Gracee's eyes. She chose this, of all moments, to have her very first inconsolable crying spell... of course). After being pronounced husband & wife by a military chaplain who has performed many a wedding in our family, D & Antone were showered with a million cliche bubbles - and then it was barbecue time! What a spread we had! I'm starting to sound like a broken record by saying this, but my family seriously rocks the house when it comes to party/food planning. My Mom, my aunts, and my super-woman-of-a-sister-in-law, Vicki, had an incredibly impressive mass of food for the countless family and friends who came out to celebrate.

My Dad and my brother, Lynn, manned the barbecues, dishing out hundreds of hot dogs and tiny hamburgers (which were washed down with homemade root beer). It was all delicious, and I enjoyed the excess food in comfort while wearing shorts and a t-shirt. That's my kind of wedding! Thanks to those of you who came out. It was so fun to see so many family and friends. I told D'Ann she needs to get married every year... but to the same guy, of course. You could see how that statement might be taken the wrong way.

For the two weeks after D'Ann's wedding, I'm afraid we did a whole lot of nothing at all. You see, in the summer, it's hot. It just is. And I'm not a huge fan of being outside in the heat. I'm just not. I wish I could say we went swimming to cool down, but I'm not squeezing this stretched out, postpartum body into a swimsuit this summer. Sorry. I think I'll stick to cooling down, fully-clothed, in the cool breeze of my central air. We did manage one exciting camping trip... in the backyard. And I think we even went to a movie! And we played some intensely competitive games of Mario Kart. And then we... crap... I got nothing.

The weekend before school started back up (Pioneer Day, to be exact) we did venture out of the nicely air-conditioned house, and made our way up Millcreek Canyon for a fun little cookout and overall day of getting dirty. Mmm... tinfoil dinners and s'mores. (I think it's a little disturbing how much my enjoyment of life revolves around food right now. No wonder I haven't been losing any of this baby weight!)

Pictures of my adorably dirty children and their cousins...





It's amazing to me the level of filthy these kids can reach in such a short amount of time. After we were all stuffed to the point of illness, and our limit of patience with our wild children was met; we went home for showers before meeting back up at Lynn & Vicki's for a spectacular fireworks show. Well, as spectacular as any show can be when the fireworks were purchased at a local grocery store.

The following Monday, it was back to school. McKenna started 3rd grade...



And on Tuesday, Mathew started 1st grade...



McKenna thinks her new teacher is the nicest, funniest teacher around. She also thinks 3rd grade is super easy so far. Oh, and she has officially chosen her 3rd grade crush... I'm keeping my lips sealed, now that's she's old enough to get embarrassed about it.
Mathew merely nodded his head when I asked if he liked his teacher (he's not my most vocal child). He did give me an earful about how much he likes eating lunch at school though. Way cooler than eating at home, apparently.

Even though I got a little pang of sadness in my heart watching them take off on their bikes for school, I have to admit that it is quite nice spending the day at home with just Nater and Gracee. Especially at nap time, when I get a full 2 hours of uninterrupted "me" time (which usually includes a nap of my own).

So, that's pretty much our summer for ya! Better luck next year, right?

A Day of Blessings

What a wonderful day I had yesterday! Seriously, it is a day I will bookmark and place on my shelf of great memories. Despite all the stress I had the day before, while preparing food and my house for Gracee's blessing, I woke up in the morning feeling excited, yet peaceful. As I dressed Gracee in her beautiful blessing dress (made by my talented mother), I was overwhelmed by how much I love my little angel. And how could I not? Just look at her!





(These pictures are cute enough to forgive my blatant bragging... right?)

Not only were we able to bless our sweet Gracee, but we also surprised everyone by finally blessing our charming Nathaniel.



(I love that he loves his baby sister, even when she steals his mommy's attention)

What, you ask? Why are we just now blessing Nathaniel?? Well, quite honestly... it's none of your business!
Ok, ok... I'll quit being snotty and acknowledge that inquiring minds want to know. Nathaniel was born within weeks of Brandon finishing up his months of chemotherapy treatments**. He was sick, depressed, and just not in a good place at the time. We always swore we'd bless him later. And then later turned into later and later and later, until we almost forgot about it. When it came time to bless Gracee, we saw a wonderful opportunity to make that moment even more special. And it was. I can't tell you how amazing it was to hear Brandon bless Nathaniel that he will use his "enthusiasm to serve the Lord." If you know our Nater at all, enthusiasm is the perfect word to use in reference to him. There's something good to be said about blessing your child after you already know what kind of personality they have!

More pictures...





This is what I felt like doing all day. Gracee was tuckered out. It's exhausting being held by so many people who love you!



Thanks to all of you who showed up to support us (and eat our food... you knew there had to be something in it for you!) Speaking of food, thanks to my mom and my sister-in-law, Vicki. I swear to you, I did almost nothing but clean my house and show up. My family put together everything: the food, the seating, the cleanup... And Brandon wonders why I'm so against the idea of moving out of state. Apparently I still need my family to take care of me, like the child that I am. I'm just trying to stay young at heart.

After the last of our friends and family left, we made our way to my brother's church to see him set apart as a member of the High Council. What an amazing experience that was. At the risk of sounding sappy to the point of eye-rolling, I have to say that I rarely feel that much love and Spirit in such an intimate setting. I'm so proud of my brother and his family. They are an amazing example of what mankind should be.

To wrap up this fantastic day, Lynn and Vicki had us all over to their house for a few family pictures and a lot of delicious food. Haven't I built myself a nice little family?



The weather was perfect and so was the company. I went to bed that night content and happy (and 3 pounds heavier. I think I overdid it on the whip cream balls.) My cup overfloweth.

**I guess there's some back story some of you don't know. I don't mind sharing the story in the least (especially since it has a happy ending). In 2007, Brandon was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (only weeks after we discovered I was pregnant - talk about an eventful year!) He underwent 4 months of chemotherapy and that did the trick! Thankfully he is in full remission and the doctors don't anticipate it ever coming back. We were very fortunate. It was a hard time, but we're just so grateful that he's healthy and still with us! Thanks to everyone for your kind words.

Getting back to good

I love my new baby girl... I really, really do. What I don't love is the anxious, weepy, grumpy girl I become after having a new baby. Call it hormones, call it exhaustion, call it excess fat and flabby skin... I just know that it takes me weeks and weeks (sometimes months and months) to start feeling like myself again. We've all been trying to find our own ways to adjust to the new little person in our lives. For me, the past 4 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions - the most common being the irresistible urge to throttle my 2-year-old. I fear I brought on his ultra neediness myself, through self-manifesting statements like, "I'm not looking forward to Nathaniel's reaction to me having this new baby" and "Nathaniel is going to have a hard time sharing his mommy". You know, it's not always a good thing to be right. But alas, how can I stay mad at a little boy who looks like this?



I'm afraid I'm a bit of a softy when it comes to this little monster, and he's always forgiven his tantrums and antics before I'm ever able to give into any violent urges.

As expected, McKenna is absolutely loving having a little sister to dote on. She holds her, sings to her, tells her stories, and is on a constant mission to be the first one to make Gracee smile. 8 1/2 years isn't too big a gap for these two to be future best buddies, is it?

I can't say Mathew has been incredibly involved in the whole Gracee scene. If it wasn't for his occasional "Hi Gracee!" I would wonder if he's even noticed that we added a new member to our little family. The only change he's really made is that he's now prone to carrying around one of his many stuffed animals, wrapped up in a small blanket. If you show the slightest interest in his "baby", he'll talk your ear off about his baby's sleeping, eating, and playing habits. Just a fair warning.

Brandon is a trooper. He continues to be patient and supportive no matter how many times he has to wonder in exasperation why I'm crying again. I'm still managing very little house work. Not because I'm still healing, but more because I'm exhausted and would rather escape real life by sleeping, reading a book, or watching Entertainment Television (hey, we all have our guilty pleasures). Brandon doesn't even roll his eyes (that I know of) when he comes home to a messy house and another non-existent meal. I have a feeling I'm pushing it though and should probably start stepping up my game a little. Almost every night, you'll find him and Gracee in this position. Once the older kids are in bed, Brandon has dibs on his baby girl.

My Gracee girl is a sweet little baby. She does a lot of this...



and this...




and this...



and very little of this...


(Don't you just love the outfit?? Courtesy of my bestie, Katie)

Seriously, this girl can SLEEP (except between the hours of 3:00 am - 5:30 am... the ONLY time of day or night that she feels like fussing... of course). I'm very in love with my little baby doll and can't wait for her to give me a smile or some sort of acknowledgement that she just might love me too.

The last 4 weeks have flown by in a tornado of laughter, yelling, and tears. I'm still feeling a little psychotic, but I think I'm starting to have more good days than bad. I'm slowly making my way back to good, and I'm sure my family will be ready and beyond thrilled to welcome back their mostly normal wife/mother with open arms.

Please give a warm welcome to...

Gracee Lyn Staten



Born April 26th and weighing in at 5 lbs, 15 oz and measuring 18.5 inches long. She's gorgeous, she's sweet, she's tiny, and we could not be happier to have her join our little family. Love to hear the birthing story? If so, read on! If not so, at least scroll down to look at the rest of the pics, because this 1st one doesn't really do her justice. But then, none of the others do either. You just have to see something this adorable in person to fully appreciate it! But then, I may be a little biased.

The day of Monday, April 26th dawned and we were on our way to the hospital for my scheduled induction. So, I'm a bit of a wimp and asked to be induced. I was miserable (for personal reasons you'll all thank me for not sharing) and I caved. I was stripped of my clothing... and my dignity (as all of you who have given birth before will understand), hooked up to an IV and the waiting began! The first couple hours were the usual misery, until the epidural. Oh sweet epidural... How I love thee! Then we waited another hour... and another... and another, and so on. At 4:00 pm I almost cried when they said I was only dilated 4 cm. I was starving, on the verge of a migraine, having my usual panic attacks at being so numb that I couldn't wiggle my toes (even the sweet epidural has drawbacks) and since the baby's heart rate kept dropping dramatically at every contraction, I was also stuck with a lame oxygen mask on my face... which sucked (or technically, blew... whatever). Thankfully, luck was on my side at 5:00 when they checked me again at I was ready to push! Hallelujah! Let the pushing begin!! Two little pushes later and my little baby doll was born.



The rest is history. Recovery the first night was hard (and may or may not have included me puking a few times. I'll spare you the details.) But each day got better and today I'm feeling pretty darn good for having just given birth.

The kids were so excited to meet their new little sister. Especially McKenna. Not that you can tell at all by the huge ol' grin on her face in this picture. Even Nathaniel has been quite enthusiastic and inquisitive about "Baby Geecee". We'll see how he feels when his morning chocolate milk/cuddle time with mama is delayed because I'm feeding her.

I seem to be doing this a lot lately, but I would AGAIN like to publicly thank my amazing parents for keeping and caring for my kiddos while Gracee and I were held up in the hospital. Gracee has no idea how lucky she is... yet.



As always, I loved the peace and quiet of my hospital stay, with just a short visit from my crazy kids.



Though, truth be told, this morning (day 3) I was missing those crazy kids and very ready to go home. So we took our baby Gracee, draped her in WAY too much pink, and took her home.



So here we are! It feels good to have our complete little family all together. More stories to come for sure. But for now, I'm going to assume my usual position on the couch (because if I'm ever going to lose this baby weight, I have to enjoy what little couch time I have left), and enjoy this incredible feeling... at least until my post-partum psycho crying begins.
Thanks to those of you who have already offered your congrats, visits, offers of help, gifts, and love. What would we do without you all?