update!!

we bought our farm, daniel grew his hair out, i broke my nose, we found out george is a baby boy farmer, madge the puppy joined our family, frances sucks her thumb, we went to connecticut, family camping on the farm, stadium of fire family picture, and we bought a green gator.

life is good. and flying by!

too fast

frances is two months now and everything is back to normal it seems. but as her sweet, tiny body falls asleep in my arms i remember that maybe i dont want "normal" to happen quite yet. i just want to sit and cherish the newborn-ness as much as i possibly can. she is already slipping out of this perfect stage and i miss it already. oh frances! mama loves you!

The day our Francie was born

it happened! we have a baby girl! she is the most most perfect little spirit and we are all so grateful to have her in our family and in our home. she brightens my day every.single.time i hold her. it really feels like christmas each time i look at her. i remember my brother sam saying that to me after his little hannah was born and it the absolute truth! newborns are such a beautiful thing. wow. their purity and goodness fill every part of your being when you hold them. sleep, house chores, laundry, make-up and all the hustle of life seem to fade away when a new life comes into your home. and when i say fade away, i mean don't get done :))

frances' due date was feb 18th and i was certain i would be with a day or so of that... if not earlier because i had a huge "UGE" belly and things were feeling pretty ready if you know what i mean. buuuuut she wasn't having any of that and stayed in a week longer than expected. friday the 24th was sunny and beautiful! it had snowed a lot the day before and everything was covered in a white, sparkly blanket of white . i had woken up the night before around 2AM with real rushes (we call them rushes instead of contractions-nicer ring to it) and i knew that we were going to have a baby within the next day (or so). when i was making the boys breakfast i noticed that i was bleeding a little bit which alarmed me a bit since that had never happened to me. i called my midwife and told her about the rushes and the spotting and she assured me that that was in fact "normal" and all was well. so we went about our day, wobbling around and stopping about every 10 minutes to breathe through contractions, i mean RUSHES! 

after lunch we decided to go for a drive and get out of the house to blow the stink off. we were headed to costco when my parents called and invited us out to dinner. I was relieved at the invite because i wasn't really feeling up for Costco, i was getting tired. I started to bleed more so I stopped by my Midwife's house so she could check on baby girl. She said baby was healthy and happy in my belly and that I was at a 4 and 90% effaced.... whatever that means! So off to dinner we went...! But all the restaurants in springville had over an hour wait so we decided just to have dinner at my parents house. Fried potatoes and eggs and then for dessert... MOANA! We put the movie on and sat down and that's when things started getting more intense. Rushes were happening about every 5-7 minutes now and they were much harder. I could feel when they were coming on, so I would stand up and hobble into the dining room to and sway and breath through each one by myself. 

After about 45 minutes of that, I told Daniel we needed to go home. He was just getting into the movie so he suggested we stay to finish. But it was time. I needed to be at home now and start getting into the zone, the rushes were too strong to be watching movies with :) 

We packed up the kiddos and off we went. It was a blizzard outside and everything was covered in snow. By the time we unpacked the kids, got them dressed for bed and asleep, I was in full blown labor. One of the sweetest parts of my labor was when I was waiting for Daniel while he put the kids to sleep and all the lights were off in our apartment. I was quietly singing "a Childs prayer" through each rush and the lyrics were more than just words, they were my prayer. I felt heaven all around me and I knew that everything was going to be just fine. I really do feel like heaven is so close while I'm in labor. When the boys were finally to bed I told Daniel to call the midwife, Micka (my sister)  and my mom. It was go time. He told me I should wait and that I was rushing it... (turns out he was probably right) but he obeyed and called in the troops. 

Before everyone arrived I was really feeling like things were getting close and maybe even wanted to push. But soemohow when everyone showed up, midwife setting up all the plastic on my floor/bed, everyone whispering etc,.... I lost focus and got out of my zone. My midwife suggested she check me and told me I was only at a 7 and that I was not ready to push- that made me mad! I completely lost focus and the next hour was really hard. I was laboring lying down because I just didn't have the strength to stand anymore. It was about 1AM at this point. After what seemed like eternity of really hard labor, (45 minutes) I decided I needed to pee and went to the toilet, as soon as I sat down the rush of all rushes hit and boom! My water broke. At this point it was either die or have a baby. The rush was not stopping so I decided to push that baby out and ride that rushhhhhh! I screamed and yelled and with every last bit of my being pushed the most perfect baby girl out of my body. Holy smokes it was hard. When they put her sweet little body on my chest I could not have been any happier. 8 pounds 14 oz of perfect and healthy. 

After the birth I had some blood clots which led my midwife to injecting pitocin into my thigh to stop the bleeding. Those next few hours were painful but we got through! The midwife and her assistant left at 6:30 am. 

Grandma Donna

We just walked in the door after celebrating the life of my sweet grandma Donna Wright. My heart is full of joy and gratitude and a bit heavy as well. The spirit was so strong and I felt the love of my Savior very strongly at the funeral. Yesterday I was able to dress her with my sister and mother and it was a very sacred experience. One I will never forget. I felt so strongly throughout the whole weekend how important family is. Siblings, cousins, parents and especially spouse and children. We have been given family for a reason and it is the most important work we do on this earth. I feel like I need to treat my family as a precious, eternal gift... because it is, and that includes extended family as well. God is kind, good, and patient. I love my Savior. I love my sweet grandma. I will forever be grateful to her for raising my daddy and teaching him to love his God. God be with you until we meet again.

this family of mine is forever!

because i turned 26

yesterday i turned 26. it was a wonderful day and when i finally went to sleep i was charged up on that this is what life is all about feeling. like most mornings, george woke up full of giggles.  we threw him into bed with us where he took his happiness out on our sleeping bodys with well aimed face slaps and baby body slams. daniel tapped out after a few minutes and went downstairs to make birthday omelettes. of course the other boys wanted toast and george preferred what had fallen on the floor. 

what came next was yard work wars. us vs yard. whats great about yard work is that its a team sport. one at the rake, other on wheelbarrel duty, and your little offspring mimicking your every move.  you put leaves in to the wheelbarrow, they take them out.  you put your rake down, they drag it away. children want to do things. often it ends up being in the wrong dirrection but doing makes them happy. it makes me happy to see them do. just when i needed a cheerleader henry told me next year he would turn FIVE and would be big enough to marry me. daniel told him to find his own girl. a devastated henry then walked over to me and said, "but mama, i want to marry you!" 

after 7 hours of battle we put up the white flag and stumbled back to the house tattered and beaten for a late lunch of homemade pizzas of cheese and fresh tomatoes. my mom sent me a text asking why hadn't called her to thank her for giving birth to me. i always forget! 

for dinner we had sushi because that is my all time favorite food in the whole world. we took all three princes and got a table on the floor. the boys loved it and tried everything including octopus, mushrooms and raw sushi. they used their little chopsticks and kept commenting on how delicious everything was. really?! i'll take it! 

happy birthday to me! 

lets do this 26!

xo