June has flown by!

We've been gardening and finally back to working on our front parlor room and entry way. We've got the drywall ALL up in the parlor now!! So it is now insulated, wired and dry-walled! YAY! now on to the fun stuff- the taping. haha. Apparently it isn't fun. And it is tricky.  So that will be interesting, but yay for progress and almost being able to use our front door again! (pictures of it next time)

The most delicious strawberries I've ever had. No joke. From our garden but we have no clue what kind they are or where they are from! They were starts that were given to us from someone else who did not know. They are SOO good!

Willem finished 2nd grade and this is the letter he wrote to thank his teacher at the end of the year. It was so sweet!

"...I would have had the best year ever without the i-stuff. The reason is you."

Grant is such a sweet kid and he loves his brothers so much!  He loves to point at their pictures on the wall and have us stand there and name them over and over and over. He'll say things (maybe their names??) while we do it.  He still loves the chickens and chases them if he gets the chance.  He is our drummer. He loves to drum things and make noises in that way or shaking things. These adorable faces are the ones he makes when he gets excited after putting something smaller inside something and shaking it to make noise.

typical one year old cuts and scrapes

I love this kid!! and his cute curls!

The boys and Adam.

Kip's friend from Tennessee came for a visit. He helped Kip cut a tree and some big branches and stuff down. The boys had a fun time with him too. And they loved making a secret hideout with all the branches.

There are children in there.

  


Hide and go seek is a game that we all enjoy in this house. There are a lot of places to hide.  It's great.  This month Kip finally did something he's been thinking about for a while. He climbed up in our linen closet and into a secret cubby that is technically outside of the closet. It is a triangle of space that is over where you stand when looking into the closet or turn and looking into our bedroom.  So he climbed in and hid up there (because there are 10 foot ceilings even in the closet) for the last round of hide and seek.  I'll try and post the video of their reaction when they finally found him. :)

This picture helps a little to understand the hiding spot. He was sitting right there in that corner (triangle space) at the top of the picture.

We all still love to read. And when it is hot at night our boys enjoy sleeping dressed like so.

And lastly, we just finished a week of Cub Scout Day Camp for Willem. I volunteered and was a leader of Willem's group so Carter and Oliver got to come to camp as tag-a-longs. They had a separate group for all the young kids of the volunteers that got to do a lot of the things that the Cub Scouts did and just have fun.  Grant came along with me the whole time. He did great. I'm glad that he loves it outside! It helped a TON.  

Grant hanging out with me and making an awesome fish face.

Willem's first time shooting a bow and arrow. It was his favorite part. Even more than the BB guns.

Watching a sword fight.

The boys (Willem is at the back) being Knighted at the end of the week of Cub Scout Day Camp

The boys (Carter and Oliver) being Knighted at the end of the week of Cub Scout Day Camp

My little trooper. Dead tired at the end of the last day of day camp.

So that's what we've been up to the past few weeks.  Until next time! 

After a very long silence...

I have finally decided to make the effort and plan a certain day a week to rededicate to blogging for all our friends and family. So here goes nothing... :)

Last month Grant started walking just days before his 1st birthday. He would walk but feel it was too slow and drop to his speed crawl. He is a very fast crawler.  Now he walks a majority of the time. He loves it and he loves his brothers.  He also LOVES to be outside. He would stay outside all day if we let him. He only says about 5 words but one of his first words was "Chicken." It always amazes me when my children chose harder words to be their firsts or second words ever but will refuse to say "done." haha.  Grant says Chicken and is always looking for our 3 chickens. He is fascinated with them. As well as our neighbors little cat that practically lives at our house (outside).  He is a fun kid and keeps us busy and on our toes because he puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Really, everything.  It's kind of frustrating. But he is very good at spitting things out when we ask him to. He got tired of us digging our fingers in his mouth to fish things out. He is a cutie and has awesome curls! We love them!

Oliver and Carter are quite the duo when they are getting along. They sure get into trouble sometimes. They are both good kids though.  Cute as can be too. Willem is almost done with school and we are excited to have him around for the summer. 

We are getting things done on our house slowly but surely. It's coming along.  Life is pretty busy but we are good.  We've got our chickens and our garden.  The garden seems to be doing really well. Right now my strawberries are starting to get red! I'm thrilled. 

So we are keeping busy with our 4 boys, working on the house, garden and caring for our chickens, clearing our yard of junk (literally, from previous owners), church callings (volunteer work), staying in shape, and trying to have some fun too!  Life is good though. So, we're back. :) I'll be updating with pictures of our cuties and what they are up to each week.  Enjoy! 

Here are just a bunch of pictures from May. 

Sleeping on the floor is more exciting than beds.

Some of our garden (a few weeks ago)

Cutie Grant-11 months

Having "school" outside 

Happy to be outside

On a school field trip

looking at the boats and playing at the park

Playing with his cake

I love this smile and his little curls!

He didn't really eat much but he sure had fun playing with it.

Elm seeds. We had thousands and thousands of them. It was like a second Fall.
 They still are everywhere. We even find them inside.

Silly Carter

At Carter's preschool graduation

4 in a tub is kind of crowded!

At Deception Pass... I think some of them were nervous.

Enjoying the sunshine while playing in the pool.

'Til next time! Have a great week!

Grant Ross joined our family Tuesday

Because of the upcoming move and everything else (and the fact that my due date was on Monday (13th)) I was tired of waiting for the baby to come. My midwife said she would break my water, so that is what we did. We schedule it for Tuesday morning.  After multiple attempts and being unable to break it (I wanted to cry!) she had one more idea.  Luckily she ended up being able to break my water. That happened at 11am (and I was dilated to a 4).  She reminded me that labor still often takes 10-12 hours to start after the water breaks. I came home and did the usual routine (kids, lunch, etc) and we drove to the bank real quick to deposit some money. It was beautiful outside so the boys and I walked to the nearby library (about 0.05 miles away) and on our way back to the car  (at 12:45) I started feeling super crampy & uncomfortable. 
We went home and I put the boys down for a nap and called my midwife at 1, telling her but not knowing how far apart, etc so she said to call back in 10 or so minutes. I got off the phone and called Kip to have our amazing friend, Bonnie, to pick him up at work and come get the kids. I called my midwife back and she said to meet her there at 1:30.  It took longer to get the kids off on their way and so we didn't arrive at the birthing center until 2pm. I was already dilated to a 6. I labored in the awesome tub- which was wonderful to help me relax... Contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Before leaving the room, my midwife told Kip what to watch for so he knew when to go get her. Maybe 5 minutes later he had to go get her.
The planned on assistant didn't make it in time- my midwife had to call out down the hall & get a different lady who was already there (not a random lady!!) to assist instead. After 10 minutes of pushing, Grant was born! He was born just under an hour after arriving, at 2:57pm.
Kip helped deliver Grant and he put Grant on my chest. I held him for about 15-20 minutes, then Kip cut the cord. After that, Kip had skin-to-skin time for about 15 minutes while they took care of me (during which Grant marked his territory by marconiuming (pooping) on Kip).  Grant was passed right back to me and Kip, Grant & I  were able to just sit on the bed and relax while I fed him. Grant even decided to look around at us for about 15 minutes, too, even though he was only about 30 or so minutes old. He managed to marconium (poop) 3 times (twice on me-once on Kip) and even peed on my midwife within that 2 hour period.  And even after that, he weighed in at 8.0lbs and he was 21" long.  We went home to a peacefully quiet house a little after 5pm and our other boys stayed the night at our friends' house.  We ate Chinese food for dinner and enjoyed some adjusting time before bringing in the boys the following afternoon. It worked out really well. We are so excited to have Grant here finally and the boys are loving him, as our we!  
Oh, and Oliver gets so excited when Grant is awake and "moving his hands!"  It is adorable to watch. We are so glad that so far, Oliver likes Grant too.

Not the best picture but you get the idea of the belly size and how low I was carrying him. Right before going to have my midwife break my water.

 

Grant 47 minutes old and alert as can be.

 

Weighing in at 8.0lbs

Checking his vitals.

Clean, dressed, fed and in Daddy's arms.

Awake again. (1hr 40min old)

Getting ready to leave.

At home, just after 5pm. Beautiful sunny day.

3 hours old

My delicious dinner! (I was hungry but couldn't eat it all.)

Just hanging out with Daddy & Mommy, 4 hours old.

Long tiny feet!

Meeting Willem- just under 23 hours old.

Meeting Carter- just under 23 hours old.

They love him!

(Practicing sight words with Carter.)
Tired Daddy after night 1 with Grant (not quite 24 hours after Grant was born.)

Meeting Oliver- he was pretty excited.

Wide awake

Checking out baby Grant. He loves it when Grant moves his hands. haha

These 2 are always are saying hi and checking in on Grant.