More happenings. . .

My parents came and had Thanksgiving with us (yay!).  It was very simple.  Turkey (by my mom), mashed potatoes (Bryson) and gravy (mom), veggies, rolls (me), apple pie and ice cream (Costco).  It was great! 

Me and my busybody. . . 

Grandma and Ella

Grandma and Grandpa and Ella

Sisters. . . 

And. . . our Christmas card picture!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any Christmas cards sent out this year. . . 

Growing girl

Lily turned 8 and started going to Activity Days at church.  She learned to sew and went crazy on her little nativity scene.  She loves to sew. 

Lily was baptized on December 14th

We blessed Ella right after the baptism.  It was a very special day for Lily and Ella to share!  We had lots of my family come (unfortunately, things were crazy enough that I didn't get many good pictures!

And She's Here!

I waited all the way until my due date for this baby!  I was so sure she would come early, but nope.  Here I am at 40 weeks.

I was having a contraction every once in awhile all day.  In the later afternoon, they seemed to come a little more regularly, and by about 5pm, I knew this was the real thing.  I let a friend know that we'd be going to the hospital that night and she offered to come and watch the kids.  We were able to get the kids in to bed by 8pm and then we headed to the hospital. We were there and checked in around 8:30pm.  By the time I was in the room and the nurse checked me I was dilated to a 6 (about 9pm).  I was pretty shocked because I had been dilated to a 4 for at least a couple weeks and had had many contractions.  I was thinking that this was going to take forever!  Over the next hour, the contractions came harder, longer, and then all of the sudden they were literally one right after another.  At about 10pm I called the nurse to ask to try out the Stadol.  I didn't get an epidural, but I was ready for any kind of relief.  My doctor came in to check my progression before the nurse gave me anything and I was ready to push!  I was slightly disappointed because it was soooo painful, I kind of wanted something to take the edge off!  :)  Luckily, this little lady was NOT a 9 pounder like Sadie. She popped out after about 4 minutes of pushing.  Halleluia!!  Ella June was born at 10:15pm on November 8th.  She was 7lbs 6oz (eek, I should check that, I have forgotten already!) and was I think 19 1/2 inches.  Now I am just making up numbers, but they are close. . . 

As you can see, the kids just adore her and we have loved having this sweet little spirit in our home!  Sadie gets so excited around her and one of her first words was "baby."  I still can't believe I have six kids. . . 

Playing Catch-Up!!

Wow!  Time has flown by and life has gotten crazy busy.  :)  I've wanted to post some pictures of our happenings last fall. . . 

We met again with our Make-A-Wish granters and donors.  This sweet girl chose to grant Kayla's wish in honor of her best friend's sister who was killed in a car accident.  She and her family came to meet us and brought the Kayla some special presents (including the Cinderella dress she's wearing) and some things for all of the kids.  

We celebrated Sadie's 1st birthday on October 6th!  She is super cute and super busy and was a huge fan of her chocolate cake.  That's my girl!

I spent a good amount of the fall canning salsa, peaches, pears, jam and applesauce.  My parents (and whoever else can come) help out each year and we have a massive applesauce canning day.  If I remember correctly, we canned about 400lbs of apples in 2 days.  We have our groove down!

 For Halloween, Sadie was my little sack of flour (she weighed 25lbs then).  I got to use my prego pumpkin shirt again.  

And we have Fancy Nancy (love that Lily could throw that together 5 minutes before we went to our church trunk or treat), Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear, and a football player.  

(Out of order) Kayla's birthday was on the 30th.  I was hoping to have the baby any day, so we were throwing together parties at the last minute when I was still here. . .this picture was taken at school.

 And we can't forget Lily's birthday!  November 2nd.  Thanks Grammy and Pa for the warm jackets, they love them!

  

Nathan and Kayla played soccer in the fall.  Kayla was quite the little player!  She would go right after the ball and scored lots of points.  It was her first time playing and she loved it.  Here is a fun action shot of her right after she kicked the ball.  She always kicked with her left foot and did this little hop.  It was kind of funny, but it sure got the job done!