Eden Lyn Grover

Well, after a 10 hour labor, we finally got to meet Eden Lyn. She gave us a little excitement after being posterior, having the umbilical cord around her neck, and retracting when she was breathing once she was born. We were glad once things slowed down a little and we could just enjoy holding and loving her!

Okay, maybe things are just starting to feel like they are slowing down. We have been to the doctors office or the hospital almost every day until today. Eden has been on a bili bed until today. She has been such a great baby, hardly crying at all. We could only take her off the bed to feed or change her.


We just laughed bringing her home. She is so tiny! I think the girls dolls take up more space in the carseat than Eden does.

And then there were five! The kids have been great with the new baby. They were very patient with waiting to hold Eden, and they have been so gentle with her. Hannah has even done pretty well (although she can ocationally get REALLY loving) I hope Eden is a strong one!

Eden Lyn Grover

6 lbs. 9 oz

20 1/2 in.
September 7, 2011

Random, but yay my pictures work!!

Loved, loved, loved Goblin Valley. The kids had soo much fun! It was a perfect family camping trip. The ride home was pretty quiet since the kids were so tired from all their running, climbing and jumping around.

My sweet little girls eating their rainbow cupcakes on St. Patrick's Day. Sander had one too, but he was asleep under the kitchen table when we took this picture.

We took our kids to a 3D movie forever ago, and these were the favorite part of the movie! Hannah especially cracks me up when she puts these on.

You wouldn't think it to look at him, but Evan can make a killer cake. Sander wanted this cake so bad, and I told him it was a little too much for me to handle. Have no fear, Evan was here! He came home early from work so he and Sander could work on this master piece!

(Thanks Sue for solving my picture problem!)

Happy Fourth?

I woke up early on Monday and it was cloudy! I jumped out of bed and hurried outside to work in the yard before it got too hot. Sander came out with me and picked up rocks while I filled in trenches. Evan finally came out,saying he had no idea we were already outside working. (Sweet Ev, sleeping past 5:00 is sleeping in for him, so we didn't mind when he came out around 8:30 to help)We worked and worked, and finally Sander realized the neighbor kids were headed for the parade and we should have been in the car on our way too! He finally said, "working isn't fun, when are we going to have any fun?!" I thought it was fun when we finally finished our retaining wall and smoothed out our front yard, so grass at least looks like a possibility! We got all cleaned up and the kids put on their red, white and blue and we headed to pick out fireworks. (Evan decided that we need to teach the kids to be more patriotic so he bought the girls red, white and blue bows and then bought a flag to hang on our house. - still having the picture uploading problem...sorry). We headed over to some friends for a BBQ which was tons of fun... even when the rain started. We quickly covered the food, put up a shelter, and got ready to shoot off the fireworks. I am not sure who had more fun, the dads or the kids, but there was a lot of laughter and smiles while sparklers and fireworks went off. They have legalized the fireworks that shoot into the sky, so Evan had to buy one really good one. It was worth every penny watching the kids react to that! What a fun night!

Go Owlz

Summer has officially started! We took the kids to an Owlz game last night. (Sorry no pictures, but I still can't get them to upload..any advice anyone?) I never thought I would be one to drag all my kids to watch baseball... but they LOVE it! It was a fun night complete with fireworks. When they were turning off the lights, I handed Hannah to Evan while I got the other kids situated. Then I turned to Evan and asked him where Hannah was, just as the final light went out. He doesn't even remember putting her down! It was a moment of complete panic. How was I going to find my baby with no lights?! After what seemed like forever, but was really only a minute, my neighbor started yelling to me that Hannah had walked over and sat down with her to watch the fireworks. That lasted until the first set of fireworks went off then Hannah started screaming. Addie jumped right in with the crying. What a fun night right? Well, Addie pulled it together enough to watch the last part of the fireworks as long as she was right next to Evan, and Hannah would look occasionally, but for the most part looked like she was trying to pretend nothing was happening. Hopefully the kids will look back on these experiences with fondness!

sleep walking

Evan and I were talking in bed last night when I thought I heard one of the kids get up. (This is after hearing a loud thud and walking in to find Gracie looking a little dazed on her bedroom floor.) I kept waiting for the little one to walk into my room so I could see who was awake. No one came. Then I realized I could hear someone playing with a door knob. I told Evan there was someone at the door ( Evan was a little out of it by this time ) so he JUMPED out of bed and started running towards the kids rooms. We couldn't figure out where the little wandering body was. Sander wasn't in his bedroom so we went back to look in the garage just as we heard the screaming and crying start. Sure enough there was little Sander standing in our dark garage, going to the bathroom. He is such a sound sleeper, when he gets up to go to the bathroom he often ends up in the wrong place. I have found him with the pantry door open, the fridge, and between the bookcase and our couch. I have always caught him in time to redirect him to the bathroom, but no such luck last night. I have to say it was pretty funny. We did a quick wash off and put him back in bed where he promptly stopped crying and said "love you mommy, goodnight." When I asked him this morning if he remembered anything he said no, but he had a good laugh about it!

Always good for a laugh

Addie has really kept me laughing these past few days. She was one sweet girl to keep telling me happy mother's day, but it always came out like this..." 1, 2, 3 HAPPYS MOTHER DAY!" She just couldn't figure out how to say "happy mothers day."

When I was driving home from the gym the other day, the radio was playing and it was the country song "I Get Carried Away." When the song was over she said. " I really don't like that song. If someone carried me away, you would start yelling 'Addie, Addie, where are you?' And you would be really sad and it would be really scary, right mom?"

Then this afternoon, I could hear her singing "follow the prophet" and it went like this..." follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet don't go away follow the prophet follow the prophet follow the prophet he won't go away!"

The kids were really on one today. I fixed a nice dinner and none of them would eat it. Evan finally sent them all to their rooms, so they all ended up sleeping. By 5:30 they were all awake and fighting and driving me crazy, so we loaded up Charlie ( the dog ) and drove out to the lake. On the way, Charlie jumped out of the truck, almost got hit by a car, and hopefully learned his lesson! Grace was really worried about going out to the lake, because it might be dangerous, but we finally got her to get out and throw some rocks into the water. It was nice to get out away from the hustle and bustle of town and just enjoy some peace and quiet. The kids had a great time, even Grace admitted that it was a nice night. The kids are all FINALLY in bed! (Don't worry that it is almost 11:00! )

It's Official

After 22 weeks of wondering and waiting, the verdict is.... it's a (another stinkin- (the boys wording)) GIRL! All I can say is Sander better be really aware of what a girl needs after growing up with so many sisters. ( Evan thinks it won't make a difference because a boy is a boy- no matter how many sisters he has)

Tender

These past few weeks have been REALLY crazy!! Talk about LOTS and LOTS of stress, but it all kind of went out the window when I found out my neighbor had her baby who passed away after 18 hours. Watching this sweet family go through this experience has been so tender.
Love is real. Family is real. These are the things that matter the most. I am grateful to have witnessed their strength and their love for and faith in the Savior.

I'm reading a book

My sister showed me this and I just had to share!!!

Women of Service

During our lesson at church today, they were talking about service. We went through the scriptures and talked about women who gave service and then we focused on the Savior's life and all that He did for us. I started thinking of the examples of service I have had in my life.

When my aunt was two years old, she got a rare virus that basically "ate up" her brain, causing severe brain damage. She had to be cared for as a baby would for her entire life. She lived to be in her 40s. I watched as my grandparents sacrificed daily to care for her. They never complained and they always showed a great amount of love for her. Not only did they have this daughter, but they also had a daughter who was diagnosed with MS. Her case was very severe, and she also had to be cared for around the clock. I feel that I was able to witness something very special in the love and service they gave their daughters, and I will be forever grateful for their example.

My other grandmother died when I was very young. I do remember her as someone who was quite stern and no nonsense. I also knew that there were people who loved her very deeply. When I was in YW's there was a guest invited to come speak to us. The lesson was on service. As she began talking I was touched that the person she said she wanted to be like was my grandma. She talked about how she was someone who truly "rejoiced with those who rejoiced, and mourned with those that mourned." The lady said in all the years they lived in the same town my grandma never missed a funeral or a wedding reception. That was her way of showing she truly cared about the people in her community. As I have grown older, I have heard precious stories of how my grandma would take someone "under her wing" and give them love and encouragement when it was needed most.

I feel so grateful for these wonderful examples of service and love and hope that in some small way I can continue on their legacy.

Dinner Conversations

We love having Evan at home with us. He tends to spice things up at dinner time. This was our conversation the other night.

kids: what is for dinner?

me: Deer

addie: oh, I don't like beer mommy

ev: not beer- deer

addie: oh, i still don't like it

ev: wow, bambi sure tastes good

kids: silence.....

grace: you can't kill bambi dad. he has a wife he needs to take care of you know

ev: well... he actually had about 10 wives

grace: you can't have more than one wife

ev: sure you can. haven't you heard of polygam

me: ( cutting evan off) wow it sure is nice to have you home to creat such a great dinner conversation! but maybe we should save this particular conversation for a different time.

ev: just stating the facts

Our Get Away

I shouldn't have even tried to show how beautiful it was but I just had to! Evan and I went on a get away to Island Park for a few days. It was so beautiful. There was so much snow! We loved every second of it. The trees were all frosted and there were hardly any people there. The was fresh snow to snowmobile in every day. It was awesome!!! Okay, let me explain. My sister and her hubby shared their time-share with Evan and me. So she kept our kids while we had some time alone together, which was super nice after Evan had been gone for five months. This was the day they came up to Island Park. We spent they day playing in the snow and sledding down the hill by the resort.
We brought the kids up to spend on night with us, so they had a chance to snowmobile and swim and watch movies by the fire. It was great fun.

What a hunk!! Evan and I spent a couple of days going on long day rides and soaking in the hot tub at the resort after. We were able to go to some nice restaurants and just talk and have fun. This was such a great Christmas present!

Thanks for the fun Evan!!
And thanks for making this happen Kristi and Terry. You guys are so great!

The countdown to Christmas

Before Christmas, we had a list of things we wanted to do. One was to go to Temple Square and look at the lights. We went last year, but it was so cold we pretty much ran through. This year we got together with some friends, took tracks into the city, looked at the lights, and ended with hot chocolate and donuts. It was a fun night.

It was a little crazy considering this wasn't even all the kids we had with us looking at the lights. But we hope they will have some good memories and remember how it felt to look at all the beautiful lights.

I was so sad this picture came out fuzzy, but Addie was so excited when Evan was showing her the nativity. The light of the star had just turned on when I took this picture.

We had to dip pretzels. I thought we did a lot until I talked to Kristi who made about 200 more than we did. I will admit, hers turned out better... I think we put too much milk in the caramel, but this will be our work in progress.

I don't know what was wrong with me, but I didn't take very many pictures of us putting up the tree. But we did get the tree from Dubois, and we only got a little stuck driving in to find the "perfect tree." After trudging through thigh high snow packing Sander on our backs, because he was just disappearing under the snow, we finally gave up on "perfect tree" and decided on any tree. It was fun and we had a beautiful ( if not a little charlie brownish ) tree. We loved it.

Happy Third

Although we were gone over Addie's birthday, she got in some good partying. We stopped by Sugar City before we headed back to Utah for a quick sing and eat. Addie was loving being sung to by Grandpa Gee. ( Sander was trying to blow out her candles for her) This was the party in Dubois. Nothing like rainbow chip cake! We had a great Sunday dinner- thanks Mary- and ended with cake and ice cream.

The kids get so silly together, but there is no doubt that Grace, Sander, and Hannah love Adelle. Well, Hannah loves her when she isn't being smothered by Addie.

We had to start Addie's birthday off right by driving around and looking at bunnies. :)

Adelle adds all sorts of excitement to our lives. I can't help but love her sweet little face. Happy Birthday sweet thing!

Thanksgiving With Mom and Dad

This was the first Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad since they have been back from their mission! It was fun to all be gathered together at home ( don't worry Nate... me missed you and the fam!) The grand kids all love playing with Grandpa and listening to him tell them how much he and grandma missed the family and how glad they are to be home. The kids put on their annual thanksgiving play. Kami wrote, produced and acted in it. The kids love that she is so willing to be the best oldest cousin ever! She has created some great memories for them.

Dad bought a four-wheeler so the kids piled on their snow clothes and huddled in the shop while they waited for their turns being pulled behind the four wheeler. Cold but really fun. Sander was the last kid in the house. He stayed out the with the "dads" to make sure he didn't miss out on any fun.

Evan took over baby duty while we put together humanitarian aid kits. It was a great holiday. We loved being with all the family!! So much to be grateful for.

Glad When Daddy Comes Home

This was the day Evan officially moved back home! He walked in the door and the kids started yelling and jumping on him and laughing. I think it was just about the greatest day EVER for them! ( I was pretty happy too!!) It took a bit for Evan to get back into the groove of things ( you know things like the laundry going in the basket not on the floor etc.), but the kids got used to Evan being home real fast. They would curl up with him at night while he read them stories and played games. Bedtime took a lot longer, but you could hear Evan and the kids telling stories and laughing, just loving every moment of him being home!