Broken Collar Bones, Brand New Babies and Birthdays

 Do you remember what I said about taking photo's?  When I'm totally stressed out, I don't take ANY.  Lilah was born 6 days ago.  While I was in the hospital having Lilah (the very day) Grace decided that she wanted to break her collar bone.  She totally fell off her bike and broke it in half.  Her x-rays are pretty crazy (I'm still trying to find a photo of them.....if I do, I'll post it on here).  It was seriously broken in half.  On the plus side, it healed great.  She doesn't even have a bump anymore (as of May 2012).  

So we were dealing with that, with a newborn, and to top everything off, it was Gage's birthday.

Needless to say, it was kind of thrown together.  We made some cake, sang a quick happy birthday, and let him open his present.  These 4 photo's are all I have from that day.  I'm sorry Gage.

Happy 2nd birthday!!!

We sure love you and are so happy that you are a member of our family

 He loved this thing.....and had to fight off his older 3 siblings to even get some playtime.

 There's Grace with her arm wrapped.  Poor little girl.

announcement

Welcome Home!!

 Have I ever mentioned that we have the greatest friends EVER?  Their names are the John's....and we really think they're pretty darn cool.  I actually went to high school with both of them ~ but didn't really "meet" them until about 4 years ago.  They are so much fun.

The day I came home from the hospital, we found THIS.  I could NOT believe how much work they went through in order to decorate our yard like this.  Seriously.

I.

Loved.
It.

Check out all those pink balloons.

 

 And these balloons?!  They make me smile every time I see these pictures.

Hospital trip #5 ~ before and after

 It's crazy to think that I've been in this same situation 5 times now.  I was so excited to have our little girl.  It's funny because we haven't found out what we were having (gender-wise) with any of our kids.  During my ultrasound, when I was about 20 weeks, the ultrasound tech accidentally said, "Well, it looks like it's a girl."  Chance and I were in shock because we totally didn't want to know!  Well turns out, it's really FUN to know.  I shopped, I bought, and I got excited.  Our baby was no longer an "it".  It was a little girl.  Chance and I decided to keep this knowledge a secret though.  We didn't tell anyone what we were having...we still liked the surprise idea. :)

After being SOOOOOO done, and postponed for about a week, we arrived at the hospital on July 22, 2011.  We got there early, I was a little late in getting started, but then we waited.  Our little Lilah was born  later that afternoon.  

We were thrilled, and still are.  She is such a cute little girl, and we experienced the miracle that we've experienced with all of our other children.  We haven't been able to picture our family without her.  She fits right in, and we don't know what we ever did without her.

Enjoy the photo's!

Chance waiting at the hospital.  Do you like the white board he took hostage?  Our poor nurses.  Oh, and that pigeon?  Chance took over my camera, and naturally, he was drawn to any kind of wildlife he could find.  This was the view out our window.  Purdy.  Also, that paper on Chance's lap?  They're maps of Utah.  He wanted to "scope out" places to hunt.  Nice.

 

My comfy bed...

K so I loath this photo.  L-OATH.  The only reason it's in here is because this is how dang huge I was, and I suppose it's for posterity's sake.  Just look away quickly.  Thank you.

 Meeting Lilah for the first time.  Chance took these....and I think he did a pretty good job!

 

 Hello!!

 I took the rest of these the next day ~ because of our cruddy insurance, I was only able to stay a full day at the hospital.  I seriously mourned this fact because I LOOOOOVE the hospital.  Where else can you get someone to cook, and clean after you with no other distractions?!

As one more side note.....check out Lilah's dark hair!!  She has the most hair, by FAR, than our other kids.  Plus, it's DARK.  I think that her name was totally inspired, because Lilah means "dark-haired beauty".  Pretty cool, right?!

 The cute nurses made that crib card for Lilah.  I thought it was very nice....and cute. :)

Look at that wrinkly face.  I love newborns.

 We love you Lilah!

Camping ~ Huntington

 Our yearly camping trip with our friends did NOT disappoint yet again.  We were in charge of finding the campsites and planning everything.  We google-mapped it out, it looked like it had an AMAZING beach, trees.....you know, pretty much anything we could have hoped for.

Guess what.

It didn't  What it DID have was a cement foundation around the grass and then water.  No beach.  Period.

Oh well, we were going to find other ways to have fun, right?!

Day #1:  We showed up, it rained.  We cooked dinner in our trailer and then herded our entire camp in and out of there to eat.  We then just hung out in the trailer for the rest of the night.  Yipee!!

Day#2:  It rained.  It wasn't just a steady rain, mind you.  It would rain for about 30 minutes, stop, and clear up.  You'd walk outside, hang out for 20 minutes and then run for cover because here comes yet another storm.  This lasted ALL.  DAY.  LONG.

After spending the entire morning in our camper, and everyone else cursing their wet-logged bedding, we decided to head out.  See, Huntington also sports a dinosaur museum.  

What?!

Now THAT'S excitement.

So we loaded up, headed out, and stayed there pretty much all day.  I was so ticked off I didn't even bring my camera along.  You can tell when I get in a good mood because I then will start taking photo's.  You'll notice we nigh have ONE photo until Day #3.

HOWEVER.  When we got back that night, the rain had let up, so we all got out the ol' camping chairs and a harmless game of "duck duck goose" broke out.  Let me say that "harmless" only applies to BEFORE the men decided to join in.  Once that happened, we had overturned chairs, some tears, and even bribes.  At least it got interesting...haha..... 

So Day #3:  Waterday.  We decided to spend the entire day in the water.  We played in it, the boys caught craw-fish and then we ate yogurt so that our kids wouldn't get all sick from the stagnet water they played in all afternoon.  Our kids also found that there was a bountiful supply of cotton floating all around the camp.  You'll see Crede playing in it down below in the photos.  It was fun for them at least.

Day #4:  We packed up, took our traditional photo's (yes there are bear photo's in there....some silly faces, and even a "sexy pose").  We then decided to all go to lunch before venturing home.  I was so mad at lunch when our order was messed up each time, it was crazy busy and we ended up spending like 40.00 for our family's meal.  Bah!!

Oh, and did I mention that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant?  I think that MIGHT have added to my ornery-ness.  Just a guess.

Anyway, enjoy the photo's.  There's a LOT of them.

Our camp ~ such a pretty night.

The awesome game of 

"Duck Duck Goose".  See that photo of Chance almost at a 45 degree angle?  He totally pulled over that chair around that turn....and knocked Moses Pack off of it.  Afterwards, he felt so bad that he bribed Moses with an entire package of cookies all to himself.  I'm SURE Sara really appreciated that.

 Yep, here are those cookies.

Do you think Moses liked 'em?

 

 All the cute kids sitting around the circle waiting to be the Goose.

That picture of John and Alan cracks me up everytime.  I can almost hear John yelling......it makes me laugh.  And then there's calm, content, Nate sitting with Liberty.  Sara and Nate are such good parents.

 

Cute Liberty.  I love that line across her nose when she cried.

 

Gage pretty much spent the entire camp in that stroller.  I was so impressed because he didn't care.  He sat in that thing a LOT.  Adalynn took pity on him though and decided to walk around with him one night.

 

 

Crede enjoying the game...

 

These are the 4 boys that wanted to catch Craw-fish the most.  Ian, Dallin, Miles, and Tyler.

 

 Gage, Adalynn, and Owen all spent an entire afternoon in this playpen.  It was so hard watching our kids when we were RIGHT next to the water....with NO beach.  They at least enjoyed each other's company....

 

Cute Adalynn napping amongst all the noise...

 

Doesn't that water look so clean?!

 Yep, this is where the kids played all afternoon.  No beach, no sand....but yet they still were able to play with the sand-toys.  Nice.

 

Goggles!!  They crack me up every year.

 

 I loved Adalynn's hair.

 ha!

 Aaand there's Chance playing on the innertube with all the kids.

 

One of the things I love about camping.....naps where and whenever you feel like it.

 

 

Check out that Craw-fish.  NASTY!!

 

  Mmmmmmm....chocolate milk.

 

 This is when the kids figured out how to hook all the cotton onto branches, and then transfer them to Rachel's hair.  She was so cute with them.

 

My dream dog.  Some of the other campers up there had some really cute puppies.  I LOVED this one.

 This was a common view.  Me, on the reclining chair (Did I mention that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant here!?) and Gage in his stroller.  Doesn't he look thrilled?

 

 Gorgeous sunset.  Chance was so thrilled to take this photo....he could barely contain himself.

 Here are all our group shots.....sorry, these are my favorite, and there are a few.

All the kids doing their best "bear".

 The whole group...

Yes, more "bear" faces

 Silly faces...

 My closest friends.....being...uh ~ sexy?

 Cute, smiling one...

 Aaand another "bear" one.  These crack me up.

 Oh, and one more silly-face one. HAHA!