October 12, 2010

Dustin had fall break on October 11th and 12th, so we went to Chicago and went here:
We drove up Monday night and stayed in a hotel. Dustin got up early and went to the temple, and then he came back we all drove over to the temple. I went in and did some work while Dustin stayed with the girls and walked around the temple. As I walked in the temple, it was hard to believe I hadn't been for about a year. I immediately felt peace from the Holy Spirit and I knew I was in the House of God. I am so grateful for that peace I felt and I am anxious to feel it again. I hope Dustin and I can go back next month, instead of next year. When I finished the temple work I went outside to find my family. And this was where I found them:

Beautiful girl:

Sleeping away, what an angel.

This I love, love, love:
We love to see the temple! We are so grateful for our family that will be together forever because of the covenants we have made in the temple, and for our Savior that makes all things possible.

After the temple we drove into the city and went here:
The Rainforest Cafe!

We ate this yummy "Volcano" cake:


And took pictures by the waterfall: (Amy was too busy to get in the picture)

Need I explain more?

The aquarium gateway was awesome! Lots of beautiful fish:

These last two pictures are of a fish that literally swam past the baby and then backed up and stared at Aurora for a couple of minutes before it got scared and swam away. It was really fascinating how entranced it was with Aurora.


So I totally recommend taking your kids to the rainforest cafe if you go to downtown Chicago. There is also a gift shop with plenty of overpriced toys and things, but still fun anyway. However, I recommend that you go only for dessert. The entrées run around $20 each, so the bill adds up quickly! The volcano cake was delicious. It was slices of fabulous brownie-cake stacked over ice cream and had the most delicious cream (I've ever had), on top drizzled with chocolate and caramel. And then they put a sparkler in it. There was plenty for our family, probably could have shared it happily with another adult. It was worth the $14 that it cost. Despite the high cost, the atmosphere was a lot of fun.

When we began our drive to Chicago we took highway 43 to the 65. The 65 is the main highway you take to get to Chicago from here. The drive on the 43 is about 5 miles before you get to the 65. We didn't even make it to the 65 before Adelynne started asking "Are we there yet?" Dustin and I chuckled and told her we had a long way to go. Its about a 3 hour drive. She asked us if it was longer than Indianapolis? (The drive to Indi is 1 hour). We told her yes. She asked is it longer than to Grandma's house. We told her no (Grandma lives a 3 day drive from us). We told her we would get there when it was dark. Then she was quiet for a few minutes. And then she asked, "How far are we?" "Is it very long yet?" "When will we get there?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we far away from home?" "Are we close to Chicago?" etc. Pretty much any way she could ask, "Are we there yet?" she asked. When we convinced her to quit asking us if we had arrived, she began asking us other questions like, "What is that?" Why does this do that?" "What makes this?" and on and on. It sure is fun to see her mind learning and growing BUT I can only take so many questions in so many minutes. When did my 5 year-old go from cute to annoying?! Seriously. I guess we have reached a new point in the life of a 5-year-old. But I love it. Seriously.

5 weeks!

Aurora is 5 weeks old! I really don't like that it has flown by. Aurora, or Rory, as we sometimes call her, is a pretty good baby. She fusses, but not too much. And she's either nursing or sleeping most of the time. She usually goes to sleep at about 1am and then wakes up again to eat at 4:30am, and then again around 7:30am. She tolerates the swing for a short amount of time, and her sisters for an even shorter amount of time. On Wednesday she looked at me and smiled for the first time. She has an adorable smile that seems hard to get when you want her to smile. She does lots of sleepy smiles and random smiles. Rory is not too fond of the pacifier, but she will take it sometimes.
Rory had a check up yesterday and she weighed 11lbs 2oz. (97%) and she was 22inches (75%). I knew she was at least over 10lbs, but I didn't think she would be more than 11lbs! She's a big girl and sure loves to eat!
Adelynne loves to be a big helper and will often call out, "She smiled!" Amy cannot get enough of Aurora. If I walk into the room with her, Amy says, "Oh! Look at that cute little baby. Let me see her cute little face!" Amy says this multiple times throughout the day when she comes into the room and sees Aurora. And then Amy is always giving her hugs and touching her. We are working on Amy not touching Aurora when she is asleep. We all love having Aurora in our family!

Me and Brek

October 5, 2010
My sister and Brek left on Tuesday the 5th. I hadn't taken any pictures with Brek, so my sister snapped a few. Brek is such a fun baby with the cutest expressions. He also has a really cute, pathetic cry. His hair is so soft and curly and fun to touch. I loved every minute of holding him and getting him to smile. My girls really loved him too, they loved giving him a bottle.

One month

October 2, 2010
Here is Aurora at 1 month old! How time sure flies when they are so tiny. These pictures show her grumpy side, or maybe she was just mad that I was taking her picture:

She really is

September 30, 2010
I couldn't resist taking pictures of this cute baby last week:

Children's Museum

September 28, 2010:

We went to the museum with my dad, mom, sister Amy, and nephew Brek.
Adelynne ditched school-- she didn't seem to mind.
The girls dressed up as dinosaurs and sat on eggs.
They dug for bones.
Adelynne pretended to be the secretary for Barbie.
Amy played in the Science Works room for HOURS-- she didn't care about Barbie.

My Dad helped Amy build an arch way.

Brek took a nap. So did Aurora.

My Dad built the keystone arch all by himself. It was hilarious to watch.

Adelynne knocked over his archway.

Amy built herself a chair.

The girls rode on the carousel all by themselves. Adelynne does not like the ones that move up and down, so she picked the giraffe.

My sister, Amy, and I played Jenga. I won.

At the end of the day the museum does a parade (so the kids don't cry about going home). My girls were fooled until the parade was over. Then they cried and whined and my Amy said, "I don't want to go home! Home isn't fun!"

That made me feel like a great mom.

Then we bribed them with ice cream. We went to Silver Dipper. THE BEST ice cream EVER.

THE END

Babies

A photo shoot with Aurora and Brek. His expression tells it all:

What am I supposed to do with this girl?

Oh yea, I've got this down

This chick is starting to bore me

Maybe I'll just take a nap myself

Gah! Girls just make me want to pull my hair out!

But not this girl. She's awesome.

Aurora's Blessing

Aurora was given a name and blessing by her father, Dustin, on September 26th, 2010 during our church services. My Dad was able to come out and participate in her blessing too. Also in the blessing circle was our bishop, Ralph Munguia, and our good friend Nate Bench. Unfortunately our friend Hans was unable to attend due to his son having a severe allergic reaction to cashews earlier that morning. In attendance was our many ward friends and also our close friends and neighbors the Josh, Sarah, Dylan, and Elliot Iddings. I am grateful that we could bless our sweet Aurora in front of our wonderful ward and friends. I grew up my entire life surrounded by grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and when a baby was blessed, a child baptized, an award received, then family members were always there to support each other. Rows of pews were often taken over by all my family and the priesthood circle for a blessing was often so large that the brethren were turned sideways with their hands barely reaching the baby in the center. This was the first occasion for me in which so little of my family have been able to participate and where the priesthood standing in circle to bless the baby had space to stand shoulder to shoulder. During Aurora's blessing I was wishing that so many more of our family could be there, but I was grateful for those that were there. Dustin gave a sweet and simple blessing to Aurora. She was blessed with patience for those around her, for the opportunity to one day go to the temple, to be an example and help to her family, to have physical strength and health. Despite the small amount of family that came, I am ever so grateful for the amazing and supportive friends that came that day. I cannot think of all my friends and what they have done for me and my family through the last four years, and especially the last 5 weeks without tears pouring from my eyes. My heart is full to the brim of love and gratitude for my wonderful "family" here in Indiana. After church we went home and did some picture taking, and then we went over to Nate and Doreen Bench's house for a "family" dinner with my parents, sister, nephew, and friends. It was a great evening spent with our wonderful friends. Here are all the blessing pictures we took with my family before going to dinner. My Dad was loving the quick shutter on my camera and took so many pictures, it was hard for me to narrow them down.

My parents with Aurora: (Amy wasn't supposed to be in the picture, but she got a little offended when we tried to kick her out of it).

My parents with 3 (of their 6) granddaughters:

Dad and Dustin with Aurora:

A side of Dustin most people never see:

So sexy!

Aurora with her Daddy:

He is so good looking!

Aurora with her Mom and Dad:

Family photo:

Me with my darling princesses! All three of them wore the blessing dress. My sister and I also wore this dress:

The white afghan Aurora is wrapped in was made by Dustin's Grandma, Bertha Spann when Amy was born.

My mom and I with the girls:

My Mom, sister Amy, me and the girls. We are just missing the other 4 girls in our family.



My sister Amy and I with Aurora:

Amy and her son Brek with me and Aurora:

I put this picture in because it shows Aurora's little tongue. The doctor's called it a heart shaped tongue (my sister calls it a butt tongue). She doesn't have a pointy tip on her tongue-- I assume that is how a normal tongue is shaped:

I like this one:

With my wonderful parents:

Nap time/Snack time

September 26, 2010
The Amys take a nap... maybe

My Dad was a huge hit with Adelynne all weekend. She loved being with him, and it was so cute to see her favor him.