Andrew

My cousin, Andrew, was tragically killed in an accident at the age of sixteen. It's always hard to lose someone and especially at such a young age. But if you could be happy about anyone moving on, that's how I feel about Andrew. He was such a good kid that I have no doubt he is in a much better place and will receive every possible blessing Heavenly Father has in store for him. One of my favorite memories of him was from the year I got married. It also happened to be the year he got baptized. Grandma Bair lived in California at the time and was only able to travel to Utah for one family event. She chose to come to my wedding and Andrew was a little disappointed. My punishment for Grandma having to miss his baptism is that he asked me to speak at his baptism. It was so cute. I was more than happy to oblige and ended up really enjoying my preparation for the talk. That's the kind of person he was, good-natured and kind-hearted and he lived a gospel-centered life.

Haircuts

Kali and Sadie have been growing out their hair for quite some time now. But I have said that the minute they say they're willing to get it cut short, we'll be at the salon getting it cut. That's because Kali has such a tender head that just combing through her hair is a nightmare and Sadie's hair is still so thin that it looks better short than long. Well, today Sadie said she would be willing to get her hair cut. At first she said she wanted it done by Josh's aunt, but then she decided she didn't want to wait and we went straight to a salon. I wasn't sure what Kali would do, but the minute we got to the salon, Kali decided that she wanted hers cut too. I couldn't have been more excited.

And the finished product is quite cute!!!

Emmalyn's Pictures

Not only do I have a beautiful daughter, but I have a fabulous sister-in-law. She did Emma's first photo shoot and did such a good job that it's hard for me to chose a favorite. Here are just a few.

If you need a great photographer, google Raspberry Branch Photography.

The Dentist

Ashlyn had her first dentist appointment today. She just barely turned two and it's the youngest I've had any of my kids see the dentist. I just thought that we may as well give it a try because she does a pretty good job at keeping her mouth open for us when we brush her teeth. When I told her where we were going, she was pretty excited. I think it was mainly due to Kali's and Sadie's excitement about her going. But as soon as we got there and she had to sit in the chair, she got very nervous and wanted down. She did, however, let them take x-rays, but she wouldn't let the dentist look at her teeth until I climbed in the chair with her.

It's a good thing that we went though, because she already has a cavity. Now we'll just have to see if she'll keep her mouth open long enough to get it fixed.

Utes Gymnastics

We got free tickets to a U of U gymnastics meet and decided to take the girls. You can't really tell from this picture, but Kali was in heaven. All she could talk about was how she wanted to do what they were doing. I must admit that Kali would be an amazing gymnast. Not only does she have a knack for that kind of thing, she has no fear of it either.

And Ashlyn was in heaven that we got to ride on Trax. We only rode it for one stop (from Rice Eccles to the Huntsman Center), but ever since then she has been talking nonstop about how we rode on a train.

Two and Mischievous

Our little Ashlyn is now two, which most anyone would be able to guess after being around her for a few short minutes. She's exactly what you'd expect any two year old to be like--silly and full of mischief. She likes to try and make us laugh by putting things over her eyes or on her head and saying, "Look at me." She can often be heard saying, "Knock, knock. Who's there? Cock-a-doodle. Cock-a-doodle-who?" She loves to sing. Some of her favorites include: all the Mary Poppins songs, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam, Down By the Bay. She also loves to color, but unfortunately uses her artistic abilities on toys and books too. She still loves lip gloss and chapstick, as well as glue sticks because she thinks they're supposed to go on her face too. She uses stools and chairs to get anything from scissors to water and she thinks she's old enough to do things like use Clorox wipes or pick up Emma's vibrator while she's in it and move it. And even though she seems to be in trouble all day long she's quick to say she's sorry and gives hugs.

For her birthday, we made sure to go to the park. She loves being outside and can't get enough of slides and swings.

And while she had fun opening and trying out all her gifts, one of her favorites had to be the Care Bear that Kali and Sadie gave her. It's grumpy bear and when we asked her to show us her grumpy face, this is what she gave us:

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is always a fun event at our house. Every year we're lucky enough to have a little Leprechaun come and leave gifts for our children. We never see him, but he leaves footprints on the wall so we know he was there. This year he left the girls a movie, green cups and straws, some sand toys and kites.

He also turned the milk green which allowed us to have some interesting looking meals. Our breakfast was green french toast.

The day just happened to be quite windy so we spent the morning trying out the girls' new kites. The wind was blowing so hard for a while that I wondered if Sadie's kite would lift her off the ground. Hers was the only one that we successfully got in the air.

Kali's kite whipped around in the air until it got caught in our neighbor's trees. We finally pulled out the ladder to get it down, which was no simple task.

Ashlyn really wanted to fly her kite but with the struggle we had with Kali's, we didn't even attempt it. She had to settle for using chalk instead.

Emmalyn

I just wanted to write down a couple of thoughts about Emma since her birth. She was born with much more hair than any of our other girls. Hopefully that's a promising sign and she won't be bald until she's two. We often joke that she looks like a little hound dog because she'll make these faces where her eyebrows droop so low that they practically cover her eyes. She had a rough time sleeping at night until we started laying her on her side with a blanket rolled up behind her. I think she would sleep very soundly if I were able to lay her on her stomach. And the poor little thing has had to have her bilirubin checked about six times since she was born. She just can't get rid of the yellow, but it's not serious enough to put her under lights yet.

    

Big Sisters

I can't believe how anxious these three were to see their new baby sister. I felt kind of bad that she was out of the room having her vitals checked when they arrived. Thankfully they each got their chance to hold her in the hosptial because Ashlyn came down with a fever the next day and then everyone got sick including Josh and I. It has been pretty tough making the girls keep their distance, but so far Emma has remained healthy.

     

Labor and Delivery

Because of my high blood pressure, my doctor decided to induce me early. I couldn't have been more happy. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am after a poor night's sleep. The nurses got me hooked up to the pitocin and the group B strep antibiotic by 6:30. My doctor came in and broke my water around 8:00 and I got my epidural about an hour later. Unfortunately it didn't work on the right side. But it was much more doable than with Ashlyn where the epidural didn't take at all. When I was fully dilated, my doctor wasn't ready to come in because another patient of his was also fully dilated. Eventually I won out because Emmalyn's vitals were declining--she had the cord wrapped around her neck. He quickly delivered her at 11:49am and everything was fine. Emma did cry quite a bit though. Josh and I couldn't seem to find a way to console her for quite some time. But eventually she did calm down. You would think it would become routine by baby number four, but every time I hold that new precious child, I'm overcome with a feeling of happiness. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.