Family Pictures

Thank you to TOMAS MENDOZA PHOTOGRAPHY for the great pictures. Please visit www.kntmendoza.net to see his other work and set up a photo shoot.

Batter Up!

We signed Gin up for T-ball this Fall. At first I think she was pretty bored - she was more interested in finding grasshoppers than watching for the ball! I thought it would be a dud when her favorite part of T-Ball was the snacks at the end! But, as the season drew to a close she really seemed to enjoy it and expresses interest in playing in the Spring. She really did great and even made contact with the ball without the tee a few times at the end!

First Days of School '09

Ok, so I know, this happened like 3 months ago, but here I am dutifully posting a pic of my FIRST KINDERGARTNER! Doesn't she look cute? She is having the best time in school and I love hearing about all her adventures. We started a tradition of sharing snacks right when we get home and telling all about our days. I absolutely love it! One of my favorite comments from Gin was that her teacher had gotten mad at everyone in the class, everyone except Ginny. Funny!

And here is our sweet Audrey on her first day of Preschool this year! We do a co-op preschool with some mom's from church and I think it's the best! Audrey really loves going to preschool and she is doing so well at all her projects and is really improving in her ability to write!

Summer Snapshots

Well, all of these things really deserve a post of their own, but who am I kidding? It's November for crying out loud! So, here's a Reader's Digest version of our summer:

Swimming lessons: Ginny and Audrey had a blast with their swim lessons. They loved the last day when they got to go down the waterslide over and over again

Cabin weekend with Gandy's:

We went to stay at a cabin down by Dinosaur Valley this summer. It was BLAZING hot, but we did manage to see some cool dinosaur tracks and take a dip in a swimming hole. We played a lot of games inside and ate some yummy food. Good times!

Trip to Utah Take 1:

We took a quick trip to visit Rob's Grandma who was very sick. We had such a nice visit with her and had a chance to say good-bye before she left this earth. She was an elect lady and I am so grateful to have known her and partaken of her spunky spirit!

Zoo with Chris and Tara:

Our friends took us to the zoo while we were up there (thanks again!) We had a blast with them and especially enjoyed the little cart thing we rented - I think that was my most memorable zoo trip!

Dance Classes:

The girls took a dance class from my friend Wendy. They really enjoyed it and Audrey still loves for me to turn on "ballet music" (aka - classical) as she sways and romps around the living room.

Trip to Utah Take 2:

We headed up again to Utah for Grandma's funeral. It was a wonderful service that strengthened my testimony of God's love for each of us and the true miracle of the atonement of Christ.

We had a full and fun summer and feel so grateful to have such great family and friends!

I NEED CANDY!!!!

So, those of you who know me know how much I LOVE candy and sweets! What you may not know is how I've resolved to be healthier. I made this resolve once before I was pregnant with Sydney, but when I was pregnent I let myself eat in moderation the sweets I had restricted before. So, now that Sydney is 6 months old (yes, time flies), I am again making my no sweet resolve. I do allow some sweets on the weekend, but M-F I'm sugar free. So, after the Halloween weekend, it's been extra difficult. I had to tell the kids I couldn't get them any candy for fear of eating some myself, so they have to wait for Daddy to dispense the goods. Well, yesterday Lily really wanted some candy. She's also a very hard girl to say no to. She just won't take no for an answer. So, she persisted asking for candy after I had told her no many times . She started getting really upset and angrily yelling over and over again "I NEED CANDY!" I had to laugh because that's exactly how I felt, too! I hear ya!

4 months already?

Well, I can't believe it's been 4 months! Sydney is such a delight to have around. By far she has been my trickiest baby! She has such a small window to get to sleep before she melts down. It sure is a little more stressed around here! But, she's a GREAT sleeper at night which makes the days so much easier. And I do have to say we are in quite a good routine now.

Sydney has made a lot of developmental leaps in her short 4 months of life! She can roll over and pretty much does as soon as you lay her down! This girl sure can get around! She is always ready with a smile if you can just catch her eye! She's always looking around trying to take in every detail of her surroundings. She is such a "talker", too. She doesn't really babble, but she'll coo for quite a while if you catch her in the right mood.

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful children and to have added this sweet little angel to our family!

No More Diaper Ditching!

Yes, that's duct tape holding Lily's diaper on (bet you can't guess who's idea that was!). My days had been full of finding random diapers throughout the house, which of course led to the hunt for it's owner. I'm not fond of bare bottoms hanging around here. I do have to give the girl credit, though. She finally got to the point when she ditched her diaper, she went to the toilet. Was it a sign? Who knows, but the girl is potty trained now. We do have a few accidents, but it's much better than the panic of finding a stinky diaper on the floor without knowing where the other half of the mess is!

Happy Anniversary!

9 years ago I married my love in the Salt Lake Temple. Life sure has changed for us through the years but our love has only gotten stronger. I am so grateful for Robert and for his efforts to make me happy and take care of me. He is always on my mind and I love him greater every day. Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart!

Audrey's Birthday!

We celebrated Audrey's fourth birthday last month - what a big girl she is! I wasn't sure what kind of a party we would have - she kept dreaming up these ideas - a rock star party, a princess party with makeup and such. I don't know why, but she finally decided on a Little Mermaid party. We had a ton of fun with a bunch of kids! We are so glad to have Audrey in our family. She adds such spunk and smiles and is so giving and affectionate. She sure is wonderful!

The cake - the fabric underneath was used later for her new personalized pillowcase!

All the kiddos - it sure was wild!

This is Audrey and Rob getting ready to go on their Daddy-Daughter birthday date.

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July at Rob's parent's house. Good old brisket and fun times! Rob is always a good sport about playing with the kids- they had a blast in the sprinklers!



We really enjoyed the fireworks show!

Catch -up

Hey all- It's been a busy and fun summer, but I have totally slacked off in the blogging department! So prepare yourself for quite the catch up! I'll try and space it out over the next little bit!

Another one bites the dust!

So, if you haven't noticed, we're Previa People. That's what we drive. When we upgraded from a sedan, we "purchased" our white van from Rob's parents. It was kind of a dud - it leaked oil like no tomorrow and there was always something to fix. But, we enjoyed it and loved having all that space! We drove it for 2 years when over Thanksgiving at Rob's parents house it just quit.

So, Rob's parents came to the rescue with our next family car. Rob's mom had driven this for a while and was trying to figure out what to do with it since she had bought another Previa to replace this one. We started driving this in December with 323,000 miles on it. Sad to say that it finally bit the dust this weekend. I drove it home and was pulling in the driveway when the "dreaded white smoke" started consuming my yard. Sigh. It was half-way in the driveway and half in the street. My good neighbor lent me a hand pushing it into the driveway. That car had earned it's rest - it had 325,000 miles on it. So, Friday afternoon our search for a new family car began...

...and ended Saturday morning with this:

Sydney's Blessing

We blessed Sydney last Sunday. It was such a sweet occasion and I feel so grateful for my husband holding and being worthy of the Priesthood - the true power of God. I know our children and their children will be blessed because of it. I'm also grateful for my beautiful daughter. Even though my life is full of restless sleep and chaos at times, there is nothing more important for me than to love and care for my children. I feel so grateful to be a mother and can't wait to see how this new little girl turns out!

This blanket was made by my great-grandmother and was finished just months before I was born. Since then it has been passed through countless numbers of new babies in my father's family. I feel honored to continue this tradition by blessing my fourth girl with this blanket.

Her blessing gown was made by my dear mother. All of my girls have been blessed in this outfit and I am so glad that regardless of the miles between us it still felt like she was here.

My grandparents made the trip from Utah for the occasion. We had such a nice time visiting with them and want to thank them for making time for this event. Rob's parents came up too and his sister was there (thanks for enduring 2 church sessions!). I missed my family but know they would have been here if they could. I love you all and am so grateful for eternal families!

Too tired!

Lily gets really tired. She tries to stay awake but sometimes just can't resist the temptation to fall asleep wherever she is. Shortly after I had Sydney, Rob's mom was watching the kids and noticed how tired Lily was. It was close to lunch time, so she tried to feed her real quick before naps. I guess Lily was too tired to even eat - she fell asleep right in the middle of a bite of yogurt! Once after she had fallen asleep in a chair, I stood her up and took her hand to walk her to bed and she just gave up, plopped down on the floor and fell back asleep.

First Bath

This is Sydney's first sponge bath. This is the look she was born with - a little confused and mad all at the same time. It wasn't a pleasant experience and she still freaks out when I bathe her. Hopefully it will turn into a more pleasant experience for her soon!

Another Church pic

I just thougth she looked too cute to not take a picture. Here we go into the world of ridiculously large bows - I can't seem to get enough of them!

First Day of Church

So I'm 3 weeks behind, but this was Sydney's first day of church. She's wearing a dress that I had when I was a baby. All my girls have worn this dress in their debut Sunday. These are her "big eyes" that she puts on when she's got a lot to look at.

Aspirations for Awesome-ness

Sometimes I do something CRAZY with Ginny's long hair - like not put it in a normal pony-tail. Wow, now that's adventurous! Today I put it in crazy and she's pouting about it.

Ginny: Could you make my pony-tail straight? I look terrible!
Me: You don't look terrible, you look AWESOME!
Ginny: I just don't want to be awesome.

So much for my aspirations of AWESOMENESS.

Is it Time Yet?

After we had Lily, I was so anxious to potty train Audrey. We did it about a month after Lily was born which felt like forever. But I think it was too close, Audrey got really stressed and it ended up taking a lot longer than expected. I just hate having to buy diapers for more than one kid. Anyway, fast forward a few years and here we are again. I vowed I'd wait until Sydney is 6 months old, but seriously, Lily is SO ready. I'm not ready yet, but I'm not sure if I want to wait for 6 months. I'm getting really tired of our little Houdini always finding a way out of her diaper! So, tell me - how soon after a new baby have you potty trained? Any words of wisdom?

Ode to Grandma Bastian

Rob's mom has been a lifesaver. She has come to my house (or taken my kids to hers) nearly every day since Sydney was born. She has done loads of laundry and dishes, vacuumed my floors, cleaned the girls room, took care of the baby while I slept, swept and mopped my floors and brought a craft or something fun to do with my kids. These are pictures of them making bottles of sand art. I appreciate all the help I've received and wanted to put a special message in about my Mother-in-law. I am so grateful for her and her unyielding efforts to serve. Thank you!!!!

Hungry?

One of the many things I hate about hospital stays is the food. Especially right after giving birth when you haven't eaten for hours, but still have an appetite like you need to eat every 2 or 3. Not to mention you are exhausted and famished from expelling a tiny body out of your own! Needless to say the thing I always want most after labor is a good meal! I'm afraid the hospital food is...ummm...less than appetizing. Yes, this really was a meal from the hospital. And sadly, I did eat most of it (I couldn't gag down the spinach). Robert was the champ of my day when he went out to 2 different places and picked up some pizza and a milkshake! We're not usually so spendy, but man it really was worth it for me!

Welcome Sydney Lynn!

She's Finally Here!

We welcomed our new little girl into the world this week! We did end up getting induced (I know, surprise, surprise!) and after 6 short hours (which weren't quite so short at the time...) we have our newest angel.

She weighed in at 7 lbs and 11 ounces. Her hair is a nice red color. I am humbled by the experience of caring for another one of our Heavenly Father's children and am so grateful that He has trusted us with another sweet girl. Every time we welcome a little one in our family my testimony of where they came from is renewed. What a sweet experience!

Update

Hey everyone-

I know you've all been waiting for some baby news! In typical fashion, there is none! I am just approaching my 42 week mark according to my most conservative due date. So, this is the week! We're going in for an induction tomorrow! We'll post pictures as soon as we can - and thank you for all your support!

My Obsession

So this has been my latest obsession. I've totally procrastinated getting everything ready for the baby. One of our projects was to turn our office into a nursery. At first I had not planned on decorating it, but realized we had some leftover paint and we could probably find some cute way to decorate... The result? One full week of working every day on this tedious wall! Of course I should have known it would have taken longer than expected...but what is reality for anyway? Despite the crazy amount of time I spent on this, I am pretty pleased. So, we've cleaned out the office/junk room (including the closet that has always been packed so high you never know what might fall out when you open the door), painted, decorated and now all we have left is the crib and changing table to stick in there. All I have to say is it's really great this baby isn't on time!

Baby Shower

We had a meal shower for me this last week and I have to THANK all of you that put this on for me! I am so grateful to have my freezer stocked up! Thank you! And for those of you that have been requesting preggo pics, this is me so far. I know I'm technically past my "due date" but that's pretty normal for me. We'll try and keep you all posted when our little lady arrives!

Don't Touch the Toad

After discovering this toad peacefully hiding away in our overgrown weeds, I instructed the girls to leave the toad be. Here's an example at how obedient they are when irresistible temptation arises!

The Tooth Fairy

We had an early visit from the Tooth Fairy this week! Ginny was trying to open a tupperware with her teeth and pulled her first baby tooth out. She came running in to me pretty freaked out. I was a little freaked out too when I noticed a big hole where her tooth should be. I knew they were supposed to lose their baby teeth, but surely I didn't think we were ready for that! So, after some inquiry as to where the tooth was, I found that Ginny had noticed it in her mouth, took it out, and chucked it across the room! Luckily we found it and after a visit to the dentist were much relieved to find that it was close to coming out anyway. So, we sent it to the tooth fairy (who nearly forgot!). Here's to growing up!

I never did the tooth fairy growing up, so I was wonderif what memories do you have of your tooth fairy? What made it special/memorable for you?