It's a............ baby!!!

Here he or she is!! Our fuzzy little bundle of joy. Baby #5 is on its way to the Roberts family and we are all SO excited! If you look closely (and perhaps use a little imagination) you can see a tiny head on the left of the picture, and little arms and legs on the right. This was at my first appointment, about 3 weeks ago, and I was about 10 weeks along. My OB/GYN has been so great-- he says he'll do ultrasounds frequently to put our minds at ease after having two previous miscarriages. What a blessing to see the heartbeat and the baby moving around!! We are so grateful for our future new little one!!

Feeling Grateful

Today I had a million places to be at once. I had choir practice for the community's Handel's Messiah this morning from 9-12. I had forgotten to get Ashlee's shirt for her basketball game and needed to get it before I went home after the practice. Lindsey had a basketball clinic at 12 and Ashlee's game started on the other side of town at 1. As I was contemplating how in the world I was going to be several places at once, a thought struck me. With the pregnancy before last, I had lost the baby at this point. With the last pregnancy, I had injured my back at this point and was completely down in bed, then lost the baby 3 months later. Wow. Suddenly I was filled with gratitude that I had a million places to go and that I COULD go to them!! And that I am 11 weeks pregnant and everything is well! (I guess this would be my first official announcement on my blog-- I'm pregnant!)

With Tim's help we were able to get everyone where they needed to be and everything turned out great. This was the first practice of the "Messiah" with all of the solos and the orchestra. I cried from the very beginning as the orchestra played because it was so beautiful. Then I cried again when I heard for the first time one of the soloist sing, "I Know that My Redeemer Liveth". The Spirit was very strong the entire time, and bore witness to me again of Christ's divinity. I am so grateful that He is my Saviour! It is so amazing to be able to shout, "Wonderful, Councelor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace!" and feel the power of those true words. Handel was truly inspired! I am grateful for people with amazing God-given musical talent who are willing to share with the rest of us! (And I'm hoping that I got all of my crying out so that I can keep it together for the performances tomorrow and Monday nights!)

It was fun to cheer Ashlee on in her first ever basketball game of the season, too. She is a go-getter! Ever time she is out on the court she gives it her best effort. I am very proud of her!

It was a great day overall. After a hectic morning, I came home and took a nap. :) I'm also grateful for a family who will let me do that and has been super patient with Mom's nausia, mood swings, and exhaustion. Not that I'm complaining about those symptoms, in fact, I'm thrilled at every reminder that I'm pregnant and that the pregnancy is viable. I had my first doctor's appointment this past Thursday. With my history of miscarriage, my wonderful doctor went ahead and just did and ultrasound. There was my precious baby, its heart beating like crazy and its body wiggly wonderfully! Tears ran down my face, and the nurse wiped at her eyes. The doctor was excited about how great things looked as well, and he had a hard time taking measurements because the baby wouldn't stop moving! Hooray! He was finally able to get the measurements, though, and baby is right on track. What a huge miracle and blessing! I'm like a giddy first-time mom with this pregnancy, showing anyone who will indulge me the fuzzy ultrasound pictures that barely even look like a human. Funny how much you can love a fuzzy little sorta-human looking blob!! I even tried to scan the ultrasound pics to post here, but couldn't get the scanner to work for some reason. I'll have to try again later, since I'm sure you're all very anxious to see the fuzzy little thing as well! :)

Thanksgiving/ Lindsey's Birthday

We had lots of reasons to be thankful and celebrate yesterday! First, because it was Thanksgiving, of course, and second, because it was also Lindsey's 8th Birthday! This was the first time her Birthday has fallen on Thanksgiving Day, and I wasn't sure how it would work out, but it was great. She had her party last week. It was a flower-themed late-night party. Her friends came in their p.j.'s and they all played games, decorated candy bags, and destroyed a flower pinata. They even got to stay until 9 p.m. (Lindsey thought that was wonderfully late :)).

The cake was Lindsey's idea. The "grass" part is chocolate cake baked in a loaf pan and sliced in a half length-wise. The "stems" and "leaves" are licorice and candy fruit slices, and the flowers are cupcakes with marshmallow petals.

Because her Birthday fell on Thanksgiving day, we had a cherry pie with candles in it instead of cake again. A wonderful part of Lindsey's Birthday is that Grandma Langford is here for a few weeks! Grandma made the cherry pie at Lindsey's request. :) The girls also enjoyed helping with the cherry, apple, and pumpkin pies. Thanks to my mom, Thanksgiving dinner was really wonderful and not stressful at all. We had most of the dinner ready the day before. Everything was delicious!! We thought a lot about all of the amazing things we have to be thankful for, including family, the gospel, our home, freedom, food to eat, and clothes to wear. (Taylor just kept saying he was thankful for basketball . :))

We look forward to the most important part of Lindsey turning 8- her baptism next week. It will be a wonderful day, with Grandma Langford, Aunt Kristine and her family, Grandma and Grandpa Roberts, Aunt Tami and her family, and Uncle Ken and his family all coming to celebrate Lindsey's special baptism day.

Blogging

Okay, so I don't update my blog very often. But that's because no one EVER leaves comments, so I assume it's not being read at all. So why bother? Then again, I started this to be able to keep a better history of our family events. So, I guess I will continue on....

No pics today-- gotta load all the latest and I'll do it after Halloween so that I can include those pictures, too.

We're doing well, aside from battling being sick. Luckily it was the regular flu and not H1N1, but it's still not so fun. Lindsey was sick first, just in time for Fall break (poor kid!). Taylor got it that Saturday, so it's a good thing we had cancelled our trip up north for him to participate in basketball for the Special Olympics. Breanna has been sick for the last few days, but seems to be doing much better today. They've pretty much just had fevers for a day or two, then a lingering cough. It's already been a pretty yucky flu season, and it's just begun. I don't know how I've felt about the flu shots for the kids, but maybe it's not such a bad idea.

Breanna's First Day of Kindergarten

This was Breanna's first day of Kindergarten, September 1st. She was so excited to start school after having to wait for a few weeks after the other kids started. Her teacher is Mrs. Ekker and Breanna loves her! She goes in the morning, and her cousin Logan is in her class. I just asked her what favorite thing about school is and she said, "recess"! :)

Breanna and Logan are famous! (kinda...)

This picture was in the local newspaper about a month ago. Breanna and her cousin Logan are crossing the street to Logan's house after getting off of the bus. This was Sept. 2, I think, the first day they rode the bus home from school. Below it was a paragraph about how volunteers from the Safety Solutions Coalition helped Kindergarteners learn how to safely cross the street after getting off the school bus. They were so excited to be in the paper! Breanna and Logan are in the same Kindergarten class and are great friends. Breanna spends about an hour at Logan's house everyday after school while I'm at work. Half of the time when I go to pick her up she wants Logan to come and play at our house! They are cute cousin-friends, and have practically grown up together since we moved here when Breanna was 2.

First Day of School

The kids are back in school! Or at least the oldest three are. Breanna will start Kindergarten a week from Monday. Taylor is now in 8th grade. He was SO excited for school to start and asked about going to school everyday the week before it started. He loves riding the bus and seeing his friends in Miss Billie's class. I'm enjoying him being in middle school this year. Next year we have to do the big scary transition to high school (yikes). Ashlee is in 6th grade and started middle school this year. She was really excited and a bit nervous about the big school change. So far she really loves it. She has a great core teacher, and she'll start going to her other teachers on Monday. Lindsey is in second grade and was also excited and nervous about the new school year. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Whetman (who also happens to be our bishop's wife), and had great first two days of school. Breanna will have Mrs. Ekker, and she's so excited about that. Lindsey also had her for kindergarten and Breanna would go with me to help in the classroom, so she's familiar with her new teacher. Her cousin Logan will also be in her class, so she's excited about that, too. The kindergarten teachers here spend the first 7 days of school doing one-on-one assessments of their students, which is why they start classes 7 days later. A first day of school picture of Breanna will be coming next week!

Tim also started school, of course. He's teaching fourth grade again this year. He has 31 kids in his class (yikes!), and a new principal, but so far it's going well for him, too.

So after a really great summer, we're ready to get back to a schedule again.

I need to finish updating our summer activities. Tim's brother Ken and his wife Nancy and their 7 children came to visit in July. We went to the Green Show at SUU, the 24th of July parade, and hiking in Zion's National Park. The cousins had a blast playing together, and it was so fun to have them here! I'll have to post pics of our fun time together when I get the camera back from Tim (it's in his classroom). We also went back to Zion's as a family and took a little hike to Weeping Rock. Then a few weeks ago my brother Greg and his family came through Cedar City. We went to the lake with them and my sister Kristine's family. The following week they came back through on their way home and we had a back-to-school luau in Kristine's back yard, complete with yummy Malibu chicken, hawaiian music, tiki torches, and hawaiian potato sack races. The back-to-school luau has become a yearly tradition with our family and Kristine's and is always a great way to end the summer!