Easter

We had a great Easter this year. 

Of course we did dye some eggs.

We did Easter baskets on Saturday, Oliver was the most excited, he woke up bright and early and he had to wait for his brothers to wake up.

Then we had an Eater egg hunt with family and friends.

I didn't get an Easter Sunday picture because one, Elizabeth and I didn't go to church and I ran out of time between making Easter dinner and we always had at least one kid taking a nap, so maybe next year...

Birth Announcement and Newborn Pictures

I had a lot of fun taking Lizzie's newborn pictures! Dustin's sister is a photographer who hooked me up with some amazing props and gave me a link of photography workshops, so the last few weeks of pregnancy I watched about ten hours of photography classes and I was excited to practice what I learned. 

Lizzie is growing so fast! She is one loved girl.

Elizabeth Claire

Elizabeth Claire is finally here!

It took her long enough!

She was due on March 31st but she had no desire to go anywhere. There were a few times where I thought it might be the day, regular menstrual-like cramps and a lot of good contractions, enough to wake me up at night or make my body really sore, then it would stop and I would feel fine; it was very frustrating. 

Every time I went to the doctor I barely made any progress, again, very frustrating. I really didn't want to get induced yet again, but I feel like that's just how it's going to be, Oliver must have been a fluke since he's my only one that I went to labor naturally. 

I ended up getting induced a week after my due date, I was really hoping to go into labor before then but I had no luck. 

So we went to the hospital 5 in the morning to get all set up, they started giving me Pitocin(sp) around 7, then later the epidural. The nurse said when they gave me the epidural they stopped the pitocin for a little bit, and my body just stopped going to labor (when usually it will keep going) which made me think it was going to be a long day, she just didn't want to come to this world. After a half hour or so they started the pit again and the Doctor broke my water around 9ish. Then it was waiting time, Dustin started to get hungry so I told him to go eat because it wasn't happening anytime soon. Not too long after my nurse went to check me and I was around 5 cm, and that she would check me again in an hour but if I feel the urge to push to let her know. Within the next ten-twenty minutes I felt the urge but I thought it was in my head because she just told me about it, but after three good long desires to push I called her in and I was already 9 and almost ready to go, I couldn't believe it! And Dustin was still no where to be seen, and they were getting things ready, I called him and luckily he answered and was close by, for a second I thought he was going to miss it. Then I had to wait for the doctor to come,  I had to really concentrate and not push until then. 

Then it was go time, after three pushes I asked why she wasn't here, my last two were here in two pushes, but after six she was here. She had her hand on her face so I blame that ;) I had to push a head and a hand, and that she was 9lbs 2oz. Also, I just remembered she was still pretty high up.

Then she came to this world at 11:11, she came here screaming, and screaming, and screaming. I looked at Dustin with a nervous look and wondered what we were in for. My first thought was she was hungry. I would tease that she loved food because I was always hungry when I was pregnant and that's why she stayed as long as she did. Well after all the screaming and the nurses cleaning her up I decided to try and nurse her, she latched on right away and nursed for a whole hour, and ever since then she has been the easiest baby. The girl loves her food, she never turns it down and eats ALL the time.

When she was born she had low blood sugar which is normal for bigger babies, but after she eat it went normal. But then they tested her again after they took her for a bath, and it had been 3 hours since she last time she eat and it was low again so they had to test her every few hours, it was very annoying because of course her sugar was low after that long. I really didn't like the first nurse, she gave me this pep talk of having to feed her all the time to keep it up, this is after her having her for so long for no reason, then she wanted me to supplement with formula which is fine, but I wanted to try on my own first since in the past I have never struggled with having enough to feed my babies, but she said they would take her to the NICU if it didn't go up, and the thing is it was always going up. And when the boys came she got after me for not feeding her when she came to check it again, it had only been an hour and she said she would come in two,  but she made me feel like crap, so I send the boys away and fed her, then she came back and she was like "where is your family? They didn't have to go." I was very annoyed, ha ha can't you tell? I hate hospitals...ugh

Anyway, the next nurse was great and said Elizabeth was fine, go figure.

Anyway the next day we tried to leave as soon as possible and to make a long story short another nurse tried to give us a go around, I swear they are there to get money out of you and stay as long as possible, with that being said, most nurses there I love and are great we just had two annoying ones this go round. A funny side note, when we were leaving Dustin said."See you in two years!" and the nurse was like "Really?" and was probably thinking we already had enough kids ha ha.

Anyway, we are so happy she is here, the boys fight to hold her, Peter is the worst he's always like "Can I hold it?" and some times it's a no because she is sleeping, and one time he threw a major tantrum, and anytime another sibling is holding her he gets mad. Ha ha I wonder how long will she be a novelty in this house. Thomas when he gets home from school, the first thing he does is to find Elizabeth, it's pretty adorable. 

And I'm finally sure it's Elizabeth, even after we named her I was questioning if we got the name right, I don't know why I had such a hard time deciding, I went with Elizabeth because that has been my "favorite" the most when I was pregnant with her, and when she was crying when she entered the world I thought she wasn't afraid to voice her opinion like Elizabeth Bennet ;)  But not until yesterday I was like "yeah, she's an Elizabeth" I was still playing with names in my head the last few days. 

So far I've been the only one to call her Lizzie, Thomas is too literal and only calls her Elizabeth so the other boys have followed suit. 

Anyway we just adore her and she fits perfect in our family, I almost said little family but, we aren't so little anymore. 

Armor of God

Last week for FHE we talked about having the armor of God, and it was a big hit with our kids. We are very lucky to have Dustin, he's always been good about scripture study and teaching our children about the gospel. I feel like our children know a lot about the scripture heroes, way better than I did at their age.

Also another cute picture...

 And a little update:

 So obviously, no baby so far. It is hard not to get frustrated and want to hate the world, ha ha my poor children and Dustin. But I have been filling my time watching a lot of photography workshops, because I have been lacking with that a lot this past year, and I'm hoping to take some fun newborn pics if our little girl decides to come. I have also been reading a lot, unfortunately I haven't worked much on my art, there just isn't enough time in the day for all my hobbies ;)

As for Dustin, he just signed another contract to continue to teach in Melissa for next year, for a while there he was thinking about looking at other school districts but decided to stick with them. It's been a challenging year not having a classroom and moving art supplies room to room. He's also looking into starting his masters this summer! 

Anyway, I know I said this before, but hopefully this is my last post before our little one decides to join us.