We Really Had a Girl.

Pre- baby

Displaying the baby blessing dress from my Madre at the baby shower.

WOW - I grew many things this go around - a belly, extra chin... thighs... pretty sweet.

Farewell photo shot to an only boy Fam -
dropping the boys off at the Andrus family's abode before we embark to the hospital.
Little C hung out with his Dad so we're missing his cute face from this picture.

Our kids playing their hearts out while awaiting the arrival of their new baby sister.
Thank you Candice and Timothy for taking such great care of our chillens!
(photo by Candice Andrus)

Getting the party started -

She's here - and the first words out of the doctor's mouth to ease my uncertainties were "and there's no penis".
:)
Wow. No penis.
It's true then.... we really have a daughter.
I'm in love.

Chunko baby - just how we like 'em.

Proud Papa cutting the chord.

We meet.

Then introduce her to the rest of her family -

Little C

Lou

Ruckus

The (former) Baby - but two is still a baby right? There's my baby holding our new baby.

Daddy

A bow!!! Can you believe it?

Cuddling with my oldest baby.

And giving love to my youngest boy baby.

Flowers from Buckabu and Papa

Aunties arrive to meet their new niece and man the fort while The Beloved and I are away.

Aunty A 

Aunty E

Trying to get the perfect photo.
I love my sisters! Thank you for traveling all the way to ID to take care of my kids and to gush over this new little girl.
I adore you both.

Ruckus and Cousin G at the hospital

My sisters made some great memories with my kids -
here's one example of letting them have a picnic underneath the table.
Plus, they decorated my house with beautiful flowers, delicious meals and new soft white towels and wash cloths.
They did take Little C to the movie AustinLand which made him throw up in his mouth a bit... but he learned his lesson.
Sometimes 10 yr old boys don't want to do what the aunts are doing.

Isn't that the best kind of sleep? Mouth wide, jaw hanging open. I sleep almost identically - regular Sleeping Beauties up in here.

Some mini doctors in our midst.

I had a gorgeous view of downtown Boise from my room. What made it even better were the dozens of finger prints covering the window left by my little humans while peering out.
I love those fingers more than any view.

Back Home -

Fell asleep while trying to read my children a story -
made me feel close to my mom as this was a usual occurrence with her when we were growing up.
Tender.  Miss you Mom.
And I miss you too Little Poppy.

The Beloved took two weeks off of work. I loved it. He was an excellent Mr. Mom and it was fun to have my best friend around to talk to all day.

More help -

Aunty S arrived to maintain the peace and help out with the work load.
Her and the baby became fast friends.
She worked her BUNS off - doing LOADS of laundry, dishes, stocking my fridge with frozen meals, taking six kids to church by herself - and being my pal.
I love you dog.

Our first trip as a family in public -

The (former) Baby dining with Cousin AR

 The boys all wanted colored mow hawks - cousin DR was the instigator.
I think they look smashing. Our sweet little baby isn't photoed but she did great - hiding safely away in her car seat.

She's Perfect.

I'm not going to lie - we did come directly home and try all of the bows on her head.

Welcome to our new family of 7 Little Girl! 
I can't believe you're real.

Your Dad told me a few years ago after hearing over and over again the opinion of others - being that we would never have any daughters - that he felt very strongly we would. At least one. And that her and I would be very close; the best of friends. 
This idea was great and strange me to at the same time. 
I love your brothers. Adore them. They're totally my buds - but it's funny how one doesn't realize something is missing until it finally arrives.
You.
I love you sweet girl.
There's a softness and a gentleness to your spirit that comes from being female.
I love that boys and girls are different.
They're meant to be.
Each having different roles and responsibilities to fulfill.
I'm looking forward to our journey together.
You make my heart melt and you do make pink look so good.
When the doctors were pulling you out your father kept saying,
"Oh she's so cute. She is so cute."
Instantaneous love.
From all of us.
Your brother directly older than you calls you honey.
"Hi, honey" he says, then plows his full two year old body onto yours while trying to bestow a kiss.
Danger.
But we'll keep you safe.
We all will.
You were born into a family of protectors.
Four older brothers - wow, good luck.
But how they adore you.
It's been a wonderful two weeks being the mother of a daughter.
Thank you for coming to our home.
Love,
Mama

I had to turn to a bowl of my favorite cereal... at 3 a.m....  for my last meal before this little girl is born. I have two favorites. Really, I only have two kinds of cereal I like.

The healthy one - Grape Nuts

The better choice - Peanut Butter Captain Crunch

Yum!

I am one of those people who worries about getting hungry. Me, hungry - not a happy time for anyone around. I set my internal clock to 3 just so I could enjoy this moment, not that I wouldn't have woken up anyway to go pee. This little human is sitting right atop my bladder. She has been for the last 30 weeks I believe. I'm pretty sure I visit the lavatory every 15 minutes.

Delightful interruption.

We have been showered with an out pour of love from those around us in anticipation of our new arrival. A couple weeks ago I innocently showed up at our regular Wednesday night YW activity where they had secretly planned a surprise Baby Shower. (because surprises are secret - but I feel in my odd verbal brain both words are necessary in that sentence)

It was such a fun night and what warmed my heart the most was the homemade gifts each class has made for the baby at previous activities.

The Laurels made the impressive diaper cake.

Miamaids - darling baby blanket.

Beehives - creative scrap fabric stuffed animal.

If I was a crier - I would have cried.

Such a special, thoughtful night.

Jed's employees, like always, have been taking care of us as well.
The day after my surprise shower they had a surprise "pink day" at his office where they bestowed the delightful diaper cake above.

Adorable.

And so kind!

I love kind people. Love them.

The ladies in my ward also threw me the loveliest shower.

I grew up in the ward we live in so it was super special mingling with the ward family I grew up with and the new family I have made. I love these women.

Even though my mom is far away she made sure this little girl had a present from her at the Baby shower. She had contacted my dear friend Elann, who took charge and went and purchased a breath taking blessing dress at my loving mother's request for me to open.

You rock mom.

This non-crier cried.

When I was growing up I never imagined by the age of 31 I would be the mother of 5. I didn't know if I would be a mother at all.

I'm about to have more kids than my parents did.

This is whole new territory.

And I can't wait.

I adore my children.

Each of their individual, unique personalities completes the puzzle that is my life.

I love loving them with my husband, The Beloved.

Knowing how much I love our kids and understanding that his love for them matches mine brings such a connection into a marriage. It makes our love stronger.

Oh barf  - I know - but I have this thought often.

This last Sunday was our ward Primary Program.

My three oldest boys did such a great job sharing their memorized parts in front of the whole congregation.

Ruckus said,

I am a Child of God and He knows my name.

Dash -

Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave us this beautiful Earth and Amazing bodies.

Little C - 

quoted D&C 112:10

  Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers. 

He then shared his feelings about prayer and how he prays before he goes to  his Dad's house because his biological father doesn't use the best language or watch the best movies.

As he's prayed it's gotten better.

Cool kids.

As they were singing we observed their little personalities.

Ruckus was singing his heart out like a soul brother. Moving his head from side to side expressing his joy through movement.

Lou was smiling as tears ran down his face. Being touched by the spirit, relishing in the moment.

Little C was stone faced - doing his very best not to smile. This is what he does when he is excited. 

The Beloved and I took turns catching his eye and were usually rewarded with a deep gratifying smile in our direction.

The Baby wasn't part of the program but his personality still shined. 

The Beloved and I were sitting on the second to front row with nobody occupying the row in front of us.

We allowed The Baby to sit in the very front as long as he was reverent and folded his arms.

His desire to "be big" and watch his brothers helped his follow through with our instruction and he sat in the row by himself for the whole meeting. Dedication and determination. That's the Baby.

I am so glad I have the opportunity to be a mother.

It is a gift.

A hard, put your game face on, wouldn't want it any other way, gift.

In a few hours I get to meet the next member of our family.

I am so excited to get to know her.

For her to fill another piece of my heart with her perfect, unique self.

I'm also thankful for Peanut Butter Captain Crunch - and my internal clock waking me up in time to enjoy one last bowl before we meet our new daughter!

New and Old

My callings at church for about the last five years have taken place with the Young Women.

I love working with these young girls - they are amazingly cool, strong, valiant disciples of Christ.

Their diligence in living the gospel amidst such adversity everyday is a testimony builder for me - I love and respect them immensely.

The first couple of pictures were taken at a fashion show the girls were modeling modest dresses in -

My lovely Laurels

My friend Kelsey being a ham while I try to catch a photo of her daughter - another one of my Laurels.

I have had the next pictures on my camera for YEARS.

Three to be exact. But they HAVE to be shared :).

When we lived in IL I also served in the YW, serving as the 2nd counselor in the presidency - allowing me to mostly work with the Beehives. Now they're like 16... crazy!! Anyway - loved them!

In our stake we not only had stake girls camp but ward girls camp as well.

The weekend of ward girls camp we headed up to the mountain... if you could call it that - and began setting up tents, doing the regular routine of getting settled. There had been weather advisories all day, but what's new in IL? There are always wind, rain, flood, tornado, advisories in affect and this weekend was no different -

except -

this time the weather followed through and it looked as if a tornado would soon be in our midst. 

One minute the sky was clear and the next we had crazy winds and rain from every direction. We rushed the girls toward the cars and drove down the mountain as quickly as possible. Half way down we spotted one of the girl's fathers who was coming to retrieve us and lead us to safety.

And lead us he did.

This particular family had quite a large business that dealt with creating machinery to sell to other businesses in order to produce cereal cuts out and other random things (I am probably remembering the specifics wrong so forgive me) - anyway we were led to safety as we followed him to their production warehouse. Huge garage doors lifted at our arrival and car after car flooded in to safety.

I felt like we were car thieves arriving at our meeting point after a hefty job.

The girls had fun walking around the warehouse and then going inside the office area where they were introduced to a prince from overseas that the company was doing business with.

We stayed there until the weather subsided enough for us to travel to the Bishop's house where the girls camped out on the basement floor and we tried to pass off as much camp certification as possible. 

Memorable event for sure :)

Beehives putting up the Leaders tent

Sunny weather...

All is well.

And then storm approaches.

Still smiling as we're headed back down the hill in the storm

Arriving at the ware house.
Does it scream the movie Fast and Furious or that other show with Nicholas Cage?

Doing a little warehouse touring

Traveling indoors to the office areas

Conference Room Time

Free pop from the vending machine  - Hurrah!

Hanging with the prince from a foreign land

Fun memories for sure!

BSU!

So, we all know BSU isn't having the most desirable season and have lost some games.... their first game being almost unbearable to view -

 Ouch.

Serious Ouch.

And even though they are far from #1 - maybe even in their own conference -I enjoy watching their games more this season than I have in a long while. 

They're good, intense, let's get dirty, football games.

In the past I've become almost bored at games because we were killing our opponent so horrendously. 

My favorite game thus far was against Air Force.

The Beloved and I went on a hot date together and were not prepared for the rain that began right before half time.

It started out as a sprinkle and then dark clouds rolled in and covered the sky.

The Beloved, being a lovely spouse, went out in search of some rain ponchos to purchase.

Half time arrived and both team bands combined in performing America the Beautiful on the field.

It was HEAVENLY.

Soft rain was falling all around me, rolling down my face - I loved the way it felt. I loved the patriotism bursting from the field - I basked in the unity and love for our country flowing forth from the crowd - stemming from the beautiful music below.

At that instant I looked up and saw a rainbow framing the stadium.

What a moment.

Sounds a little cheesy now but no joke -

it was breathtaking.

BSU vs Air Force

Both team bands performing America the Beautiful during half time.

Rainbow framing stadium

Enjoying the rest of the game in our ponchos. :)

And it didn't hurt that we won.

I definitely don't want to lose :)

but I do enjoy a good game.

Random Life Photos

The Beloved snapped this picture at church after telling the boys to stand against the wall reverently while they waited for Mom to stop chatting. 

I "ran" a 5K with my friend Rami in June. Here we are sporting our fashionable neon glasses.

My kids make their McDonalds garbage into body adornment creations on a regular basis. This is cool and gross to me at the same time. :) Here Lou is sporting his new recycled helmet.

The Baby wearing his favorite baseball helmet backwards - always backwards. :)

Ruckus asleep with a candy cane still lingering in his mouth.

Cuddling in bed with Daddy.

Ruckus is our most frequented bed guest. He especially likes to cuddle with his Mama - which I adore... except for the part where I no longer have any space left to fit properly on the bed.

New Beginnings

The Lou dog joined Little C this year in the public school education journey.

His enthusiasm for learning was enormous before Kindergarten and now, although I thought it'd be impossible, the enthusiasm has grown. 

He is ready at least two hours before school starts - packs his own snack - and has his backpack hanging on the front door.

He adores his teacher and made up his own permission slip form for me to sign with a list of different adventures his teacher could take him on.... he asked me to initial next to each activity stating my consent. 

What?! And no. I didn't initial :) - but we had a nice long talk about how great it was that he loves his teacher and he should soak up every minute being spent with her at school in the classroom.

He is determined to know how to read tomorrow and works on sounding out words even though he is unfamiliar with some of the combined letter sounds.

For example -

Anything that starts with an A followed by an S... 

he pronounces A S S. If he continued on to the next letter quickly this wouldn't be noticeable..

but tis not the case.

Little C was dying of laughter in the car one day when I told Lou to stop sounding out a word until I could help him at home because we had heard the word A S S about ten loud times in a row.

Shoot dog. 

Cute little Lou-dog on his first day of school

Little C is having his first experience with a male teacher this year and they are a match made in heaven.

Little C didn't know teachers were allowed to be SO COOL (his words) but I was warned never to tell his teacher how much Little C likes him because that is soooo embarrassing. 

His teacher was a skater in his prime and allows the kids to bring their skateboards to school and shows them how to do different tricks at recess. How could Little C not be happy? :)

Besides having fun he is being so diligent in getting his homework done, applying himself, and being accountable.

He loves introducing Lou to his friends at school... especially one particular little love interest named Lauren.

This girl is on his brain A LOT.

Oh dear.

I'm not quite ready for that journey. :(

Little C and Lou on their first day of school.

Two weeks after school started the boys participated in a 

lap-a-thon fundraiser. Ruckus, The Baby, and our little neighbor girl participated for fun, even though they weren't collecting money. 

At the beginning of the event they had all of the kids gather together in a circle to explain the rules. I had The baby with me (he started running later) and I was quite a distance away. All of a sudden the whole group broke into a stampede and starting running their laps.

Ruckus got separated from his brothers and was running as fast as his little legs could carry him, looking like a deer in the headlights. 

I wanted to rescue him -

but he continued diligently all around the track.

After his first lap I finally retrieved him so we could talk it through, explained it wasn't a race, to go at his own pace, and then partnered him up with our neighbor -

off he went.

The school kept track of the laps ran by placing a mark on the participants arm after every lap.

There were numerous adults giving out marks...

Ruckus decided it would be cool if he got marked by every adult possible after every lap. :) His arms afterward look like he ran a marathon. He was so proud.

The Lou dog approached the lap-a-thon as he does everything else. Pure determination.

He opted to run alone and kept a pretty impressive steady pace through the whole event.

Little C is a good little runner and ran his heart out for about the first thirty minutes. After that he still went around the track but was ready to chat with his buddies and slow his pace down a bit.

The baby was a hit.

He ran and ran but avoided the line of adults keeping track of the laps.

They totally freaked him out and he only blessed them with his presence once.

:)

Little C in the brown shirt running.

Lou smiling as he runs past.

Ruckus chatting and running at the same time with our neighbor.

The baby, trotting around the course.

supposed laps ran :)

He ran and ran but only allowed his arm to be marked once

Way to go Lou!

Awesome job Little C!

After ten laps were completed the kids were able to collect a free hot dog.

The true fundraiser participants.
Good job guys!