FAQ

Grace has started asking the question that seems to be on everybody's mind: Are we having more kids? Although, Grace asks if there's another baby in my tummy and tells me that we need more boys, while other people tend to phrase it, "So are you done?" And believe me, Rob and I have asked ourselves and each other this question.

Here is the answer: We don't know. So far, all of the kids have come in their own way and their own time, and never at the time we had in mind. And that has worked out pretty well.

Deep down, I think we are not done. Maybe it's just hard to kick the habit of wanting to be pregnant. But I've already magically forgotten the hard parts, and have started to get jealous of all those cute little bellies and sweet floppy newborns at church.

We will wait and see what God has in store for us!

All about Grace

It's hard to believe Grace is 4! She is quite the grown-up little girl. We waited a long time for her to join our family, and it was SO worth it. Grace has always been very cheerful and enthusiastic. The older she gets, the more we see that she has a strong personality and strong emotions. She is very independent and also very caring. She loves to take care of people and is a great hostess. Grace has great leadership potential, and likes to be in charge. She has taken to calling her room her "house" and she thinks this means that she doesn't have to let Vivian in. Ha ha. I have discovered that Grace does really well with being sent to her room "until she is ready to... [be nice, follow directions, etc.]" rather than just being sent to time out until her time is up. She usually stays for about 30 seconds, but when she comes back, she really does do better. She loves to help out with things. She loves to play with friends. She is very generous by nature. She is an amazing little person, and I am so lucky she's mine!

Lower standards

This was our Christmas card picture this year. I still have a few cards left, so if you didn't get one, I apologize, and I'll send you one if you want. But now that you know what it looks like, I'm sure you're glad you didn't get one! Ha! I had all our addresses stored on a computer that died, and so I pretty much sent cards to relatives and people who sent us a card with a return adress on it :) That doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about other dear friends!

Anyway, we didn't have much of a chance for a family picture after Sam was born and it didn't seem right to leave him out, so this is what we got. Me in a swimsuit with frizzy just-went-snorkeling hair and no makeup. Does anything make hair look worse than snorkeling??? Why oh why didn't I throw on a t-shirt? And then there's Grace sticking her tongue out. Lately she just refuses to look at the camera, or makes a weird face. I like this one because it's a pretty genuine expression, even though it's not very polite. The other 3 look cute, so 3 out of 5 isn't bad. Right? I will try to do better next year.

Happy New Year to all!

Looking forward, looking back

Just 18 months ago, Rob, Grace and I were in Hawaii. We had just put in our papers to adopt again and Rob was about to finish his first year of residency. We figured we'd get a baby about the time he finished his second year. Life was busy, and simple (though I didn't realize that at the time!)

That July, Rob started his 2nd year, which turned out to be horrendously awful. Bye-bye post-call days! We rarely saw him. And in August we found out that we had been chosen to adopt a baby girl. Two weeks later, Grace and I moved to Kentucky for a month. We came home, Viv got colicky, it was the holidays, had a whirlwind trip to Utah. A few weeks later, when Viv was 4 months old, I realized that I was pregnant. And Grace turned 3 and got a whole new personality.

So 2008 began with me adjusting to what felt like a whole new life. Almost-single parenting 2 kids while prego. Also I was the Enrichment counselor, which was WAY out of my comfort zone. The months flew by and then of course, Sam was born and all of Fall I was basically out of commission. Then it was the busy holiday season again, and here we are at the beginning of 2009.

All of this is to justify why I feel like I have been off-kilter for the last long while. And why I am looking forward to an uneventful year, knock on wood. This year I am going to make some resolutions. Here's a start:

• Spend quality time with each child every day
• Take more videos
• Write in my journal
• Do more service
• Sew the valances and pillows I bought fabric for 2 years ago
• Don't procrastinate
• Go to bed before midnight
• Read the Doctrine and Covenants

Things to look forward to:

• Vivian going to nursery!
• Vivian learning to talk
• Sam reaching all kinds of milestones
• Grace going to a closer preschool
• Dance lessons
• Rob starting a year of research
• Rob has most of his vacation time left for this year
• Having valances in the kitchen :)
• Remodeling the bathroom at last!

Bring on 2009!

Kiddos

Sam is fun because he is SO ticklish, which neither of the girls were. He is also trying to roll over already, which will probably be easier for him, because he is a skinny guy. He looks big, but it's just because he has a huge noggin. He was laughing a ton the other night, and I have a video but I can't get it to upload. Darn, that was kind of the point of this post. Oh well.

Vivian has started climbing, and she is an absolute danger to herself! She keeps me on my toes. She has also started to fold her arms when we say prayers. It is adorable. And she finally seems to have caught on to sign language! She signs more all the time, and now the problem is that I'm not sure what she wants more of.

Grace is hilarious as her language skills keep improving. One of her new phrases is, "What a shucks." She mostly says it when you give her a compliment. She also makes up her own little songs and sings them to herself. The other day she was singing "I spilled my milk, and now my mom is cleaning it up for me." Well, she got to join me in cleaning it up after that! And then one day we were riding in the car, and from the back we hear a song about Shamu and dolphins helping baby Jesus, who wants us to be nice. I wish I could remember the exact words, it was so funny.

Life is good

I am really enjoying being a mom of 3. Much more than I thought I would. That sounds horrible to say, but honestly, I was scared to death. Luckily my kids are amazing, which makes my job so much easier! Sam is pretty darn nearly perfect, which is also kind of scary to me, because it makes me wonder if something is going to go wrong. Does that make sense? He is saying "hi" already, I swear. The pediatrician even heard it. He talks up a storm.

I love the place my life is at right now. I wouldn't have asked for kids this close in age, and there are certainly times when it makes things logistically complicated. But I love watching them together, and I feel like they will be good friends. They seem to really love each other already. Vivian is so sweet with Sam, it is adorable. She gently bumps her little head against his and kind of rubs it around. She follows Grace around and tries to copy things she does. And Grace, well, she is learning to be much more gentle with her little sibs. She is just so enthusiastic, and she REALLY wants to be able to carry them around.

Maybe it's just getting the pregnancy hormones out of my system, or maybe it's that being in the hospital gave me a subconscious new outlook on life. But I feel like I appreciate the kids a lot more now, and I want to enjoy them while they're young. I thought I did before, but it just feels different lately somehow. I am so grateful for my good life!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

I have been back home for a week now, and it has not been as bad as I feared :) The kids have not yet eaten me alive. Although I did go to church without a shower today, ewww! It's those kind of things that fall through the cracks... It has been so nice to be home, to feel better, and to start getting back to normal. Utah was great, and my in-laws were just wonderful! I was so glad that we were there while I finished recovering. But it had been 2 months since I had been "in charge" of my own life, and it is nice to be able to do things for myself again. And of course it is fantastic to be with Rob! The girls are getting back into their routines again, which is good. Their lives have been a little topsy-turvy, and Grace especially was just not herself while we were gone. I am relieved that she has gotten back to normal. I am afraid blogging is also going to slip through the cracks, but I will try to post every now and then.