Thanksgiving

SO BEHIND CAN'T CATCH UP.

Here's Thanksgiving. Was three weeks ago, can hardly remember stuff. What I do remember- food was excellent, people MY FAVS, cousins aplenty. I did not appreciate the terrible colds we all had. Actually it was miserable for a few days- someone please invent something that helps nursing mothers with congestion. Yes I tried the neti-pot. Anyway, we had such a fun week with my sisters in town. I miss them when they are gone and I love when we can all be together again.

Thatcher. Such a sweet happy baby. We love him so much, he makes everything else better. Look at his little gummy smile!

I mean! Really!

Grandpa with 2/8 of his Grandsons

Thanksgiving- we made it! 

Archer was HYSTERICAL with Thatcher. Called him "Fatch-uh" and every time he saw him he said, "awwwww" like with this concerned little eyebrow face, it was my favorite. Always wanted to hold him. 100% sure he has held Thatcher more than Lincoln has.

No Thanksgiving is complete without Auntie Leigh

We watched the Macy's Day Parade, we had some rest time, and then hopped over to Mom's early afternoon. Grandpa has a bounce house so the kids spent most of their time upstairs jumping around on that thing. I pretended to help with dinner but mostly just nibbled stuffing and fed the baby on the couch. I am great at those things. My contribution was sweet potatoes.. can't mess those up so I felt pretty good about that. We all sat down to eat- like 11 adults and 13 kids? I think? The volume alone was immense... we are a party, that's for sure.

carbs with a size of carbs.

Best part of Thanksgiving is always Grandma's Bingo right after. Prizes for everyone and things get competitive with the "steal" feature. (#Scott) I wish I took more pictures, but my hands were full and I was enjoying everything. I LOVE the holidays, the traditions, the family time, it's the best.

Two Months

Well I better post this before Thatcher hits three months (yikes).

Two months already! What! Stop it!

Thatcher is 11 pounds 9 ounces, 24 inches long, 75 percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. Why do we even measure that last one? Size two diapers. He eats every 2 1/2-3 hours during the day, and usually does a good stretch of 5-6 hours at night! YAY! The other night he did eight hours in a row. I felt like a new person. He catnaps during the day, twenty minutes here, forty minutes there, but he sleeps so well at night I don't even care. His thighs are getting so round and chunky! He has the cutest little double chin. Totally going to have blue eyes, once again I don't have a brown baby.

Thatcher loves bath time, he's just about to graduate to the big tub. He sort of loves being swaddled? Like he sleeps better swaddled but he works HARD to get that one little arm out. For awhile he just slept with his arms over his head which was so cute but I felt bad that his little hands were cold. He is starting to reach for things and hold onto little toys... he will sit under the little playmat thing for a few minutes while I do my makeup or something. He is my first baby that doesn't love the carseat. I mean it's almost funny, as soon as he is in it he CRIES until we go and then sometimes he falls asleep, sometimes he does not. He still doesn't take a paci. Lincoln was a paci monster, seriously he was addicted so it's weird this kid won't take one. We tried the mam brand? And that kind works a little bit? Would be so convenient sometimes though. The other day I used the sentence "Me and the boys" when I was talking to Jazz about what we were doing and it made me happy. Me and the boys. Plural.

Thatcher is smiling. Big gummy open mouth smiles. And when he did that for the first time I just exploded. Today he giggled! Real giggles! I died. I want to know what kind of insane chemical God created to make us forget about being pregnant. I'm not sure what it is, but I've already forgotten how miserable and uncomfortable it feels there at the very end. Totally need/want ten more babies.

This has been so fun... I've always loved the newborn stage and wish it would stretch just a little bit longer. For so long we were so focused on having a baby. Getting pregnant, staying pregnant, having that baby and bringing him home-- I sort of forgot about the rest of it. The smiling, the cooing, milestones. Seeing him with his siblings. (Well, let's be honest, it's just Isabelle. Lincoln is like peace out homey.) Anyway, it's just been so fun to enjoy all of these things that I forgot about, the things that come after the delivery. Just thinking of his whole first year and a birthday party at the end of it. Makes me excited.

I did have a little bit of a breakdown the other night....probably overdue. The more I experience with Thatcher, the more I am reminded what I missed out on with Max. It breaks my heart again and again, and it's hard. My time with Max was SO short, it's hard not to compare.

The most important thing I want to remember about Thatcher after two months is how much JOY has entered our home since he was born. I just keep telling people we are so happy! So happy. I've shed so many joyful thankful tears and know our prayers have been heard and answered. He was sent to heal my heart, that's for sure.

Sometimes he falls asleep nursing and I put him on my shoulder to burp him and his little cheek is squished against me and I can hear his breathing all slow and happy and I say outloud UGH I LOVE THIS BABY SO MUCH I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. He's perfect.

Blessing Day

Our little sweetie pie was given a name and a blessing at church a few weeks ago. I was determined not to have a repeat of Lincoln's blessing day (horribly rushed morning, hilarious snafoos, almost missed it completely) so I made sure I was prepared to be there ON TIME. Without yelling. Or crying.

Jazz had to teach second hour, I had to teach Relief Society after that, so we prepped our lessons in advance. Saturday night I made sure I got out anything that needed to be ironed, and after I got Thatcher to bed I got the iron out to press Lincoln's white shirt. Of course, as soon as I touched the iron to the white, it was horribly stained from the dirty iron and I had to throw the shirt in the washer, dryer, clean the iron and THEN iron Lincoln's shirt. I had a terrible cold and a face headache and I just wanted the day to be over.

And then morning came. And Thatcher had slept so well. We got everyone ready. No one cried. I had time to wash my hair. And put lipstick on! We were there early, it was a blessing-day miracle. Jazz got the baby dressed while I did Isabelle's hair and lol I went to put the baby in the carseat and I noticed the outfit was on completely backwards. Love you honey. 

Anyway. We sat down and a lot of our family was there. The cousins were trying hard to be reverent but were sort of hopping between a couple of pews. Thatch was fussy and I took him to the back to shush him before handing him off to Jazz for the blessing. A few of the important men in our lives stood in a circle, and using the priesthood, laid their hands on this little miracle baby of ours and Jazz gave the most beautiful blessing. Sweet and thoughtful. Of course I just sat and cried. I could hardly keep from ugly sobbing, just SO THANKFUL for this day and for this baby and for this family I couldn't contain it. 

And I thought of my Max. Who never had a blessing day. We buried him in his white blessing outfit- a one piece long sleeved cable knit jump suit. It was the last time I saw him and held him, all dressed in white. 

I wasn't sure we would ever get a happy day like this again on this earth. But Thatch looked happy and warm and pink, so different but so similar. 

Thatcher James- we are so glad you are here. We love you SO much. Our hearts are full. We had such a good day celebrating your little life. 

his little face!

half smile!

Ghostbustin'

Isabelle and her little ballet pals had a fall dance review a couple weeks ago. It's just the best. You go and watch them do class and then they have a performance they have been working on for weeks and weeks. Maybe when I get more organized I'll upload the video, because it's SO CUTE slash funny. They were so proud of themselves, as they should be. It's 3+ minutes long, and they are 5-8 years old. 

Then we had spooky donuts and cookies. 

I think the girls love ballet because Grandma is there. She makes everything more fun- she picks them up on Thursdays... they go home and change, have a warm homemade cookie, then they go to dance class. It's a pretty sweet deal they have. Isabelle is so funny at class- she yawns, she hugs grandma, she chit chats. It's social hour for her.

best cousin friends

I believe Grandma told them to make a "stank face"

general odds and ends.

Here is the junk drawer of blog posts. Things you need, but don't necessarily require their own drawer.

End of season soccer pictures. Soccer was just so hilarious. Four on four, no goalie, just a pack of kids running amok. I think Linc had a good time? He scored one goal the whole year, and I'm serious when I say I'm pretty sure they didn't win a single game.

his "frophy"

Not to be left out, here is Isabelle's first grade picture. Love her. Just had her parent teacher conference today and it was excellent across the board. So proud of her! She has recently turned the corner on reading and loves to read chapter books and check things harder things out from the library.

Our standing Friday morning date at Target. He snoozes, I shop.

He refused to wash this off before bed.

And she insisted on washing this off before bed. 

Sunday best. I love their different skin colors.

his cheek all squished!

this happens a lot.

not enough dad pictures here

stretching

We voted! In the rain with two kids, but we did it.

Our neighborhood is full of these big trees with the best leaves. We took it upon ourselves to stomp around.

 That is all. We are happy.

Halloween n stuff

Halloween! It was on a Monday. Not ideal, but it worked. We actually crashed the trunk or treat across town on Saturday with our cousins which was really fun. The kids loved running from car to car getting all of their treats.

this is my favorite costume ever. the blow up pack was hilarious.

all about the sword.

They are the cutest.

A rare paci sighting at the trunk or treat
I am so happy to have a little baby this year for all the holidays. 

baby slimer

sabs photobomb. and baby chinssssss.

Mom is the skeleton from Hocus Pocus - I Put a Spell on You. 

can you see how soft his skin is. it is so soft.

best one we got. blurry, half looking, and we'll take it.

Me and thatcher lasted about twenty minutes outside and then it started raining so we abandoned ship for Mom's house. She always does a big sloppy joe dinner and people come by and take pictures with her and it's so fun. Halloween is her favorite holiday and you can just tell. Her house is bedazzled, she has skeletons on her roof, and she always comes up with a great costume. My favorite part of Halloween is after it's over and the kids sit down and sort their candy. That was for sure my favorite part as a kid. Prioritize, trade away nuts, eat the peanut butter.

Morgan snapped this and I stole it because LOLOL. Morgan as Esmerelda from Hunchback, possible the worst disney movie ever created. Sean as a woman? Scott as the phantom? The 90's were so cool. Of course you can't miss me as the cowardly lion (some friends went as the wizard of oz peeps), pretty sure I won that medal from some sort of dork event such as odyssey of the mind or DARE camp... and Sabrina as a witch. Does Isabelle not look exactly like Sabrina? Just me?