Shyla's Photo Shoot

My friend, Allison, who takes the wonderful pics of my family, needed a baby to practice with. And me, being the nice person I am, happily volunteered my baby. It was a win/win. So here's the adorable pictures she took of my super sweet little Shyla baby. =)

Shyla's First Joke

Background Story: Growing up, all bodily functions were taboo. We didn't burp, fart (not even armpit farts), have b.o., etc. And even to say the words spelled certain doom. I'm not really sure how, but in the 11 years of being married to David, our family word has become "poop". Believe me, it was very uncomfortable for me to join the game for quite awhile. Not so much anymore. Dave and I ask our girls questions like, "What do you want for dinner? What do you want for your birthday/Christmas? What's your favorite subject in school?" and a lot of the time their answer is simply, "Poop." They ask us the same kind of questions: "Where are we going? What's for dinner? What movie are we going to go see?" And they get the same simple answer. "Poop." Or if we're feeling creative, "Poopoo McDoopoo. Poop Sandwiches. Poopie McPooperton." Weird, I know. But it's our family thing.

Fast forward to this morning around 2am: Shyla's wide awake. Me? Not so much. She's on my chest, eyes wide open, picking her head up, practicing push-ups, kicking with her legs, squirmy-mcsquirmster. Both amused and aggravated, I ask her, "Shyla, where are you trying to go?" She looked right at me, and pooped. "Poop, Mom. I'm trying to go poop."

Adjusting

It's been a full week since I came home with Shyla now, and we've had to make quite a few adjustments around here. The first, and hardest, is that I'm not able to do the housework. It's been driving me a little crazy. Not that I love cleaning....cause I really, really don't....but it makes my day so completely empty not being able to do the things that need to be done. Plus, I was bitten by the organizing bug and can't unleash it on anything worthwhile. Boo. Another pretty rough adjustment is I can't pick up Paisley. She's actually done better with this than I thought she would. She hardly ever even tries to make me hold her. Maybe once a day and that's when she's half asleep and needs to be taken potty. When she does try, I just remind her of my ouchies and she will just hold me hand and walk with me or climb on the couch and sit next to me instead. Such a big girl. She's also back to taking herself potty which is nice cause I was sick of accompanying her when she doesn't need any help at all. The most major adjustment in our home of course is Shyla herself. But she makes it pleasant and easy. All her big sisters adore her and volunteer to hold her for a minute so I can go get dressed or whatever. Even when she's peacefully sleeping they beg to pick her up to snuggle. School starts on Monday and I'm not really looking forward to losing my two big helpers. Especially cause they're so great at entertaining Paisley. She's gonna be one sad cookie when they leave Monday morning....

My girls helping get the house cleaned up after a week of destruction

The extent of Paisley's regression. I'll take it!

Catching the last rays of afternoon sun - soaking up some good ol' Vitamin D

Happy New Year!

We had a fun New Year's Eve here at home. David took Amber and Jade to see "We Bought A Zoo" during naptime, then came to pick the rest of us girls up and headed to Target to spend the girls' Christmas moolah. Amber and Jade ended up not having enough $$ for what they wanted, so they are saving up. Paisley bought some play-doh and I helped Shyla pick out a cute puppy toy. Once home, David helped me make our traditional chow-mein dinner. We then had fun with sparklers and firecrackers while the girls had unlimited access to all treats in the house. Paisley probably ate about 1/3 of the big bag of M&M's I opened up. haha She didn't want to hold a sparkler and she hid behind Jade in the "car" during our firecracker show. Silly kid. She got to stay up till 8:30 - lucky girl! Jade played her new computer game and Amber played on the laptop. David and I watched Star Wars. And we all made it to midnight - well, except Paisley and Shyla, of course!

We can buy firecrackers in any store here, but we're not allowed to set them off in Peoria city limits. We do anyways. lol

Church moved to 1pm this year so I have an extra 2 hours to get myself and all 4 girls showered and ready. We totally would have been on time, too, but David likes to wait for the last minute to get ready and then underestimates how long it will take him to dress. *sigh* At least I did my part! We only stayed for sacrament meeting and that was enough for me. Maybe next week I'll be able to make it through all 3 hours.... After church, the girls - and even David - helped me "kill Christmas" and now our house looks so empty. Paisley very kindly shared her now one-color play-doh with Amber and Jade. And that's how we started the new year here. =)

Jade was snuggling Shyla before bed, and apparently Shyla was hungry. She actually "bit" Jade and tried to nurse! Hahaha

Minivan and More Shyla Pics

Here we go - another incredibly creative blog title. Goooo, me! On Wednesday, I was released from the hospital with strict rules about what I can and cannot do for the next 2 weeks. When David picked Shyla and I up, he also brought the other 3 girls. Well, we drive a small suv with only 5 seats. So Amber and Jade were forced to squish into one seat. I literally had to shove Jade in and slam the door before she fell back out. It was a very tight squeeze. For the past month, David has been trying to sell his Saab on craigslist with no luck. We were relying on the sale of his car for the money to buy a minivan and since that didn't work, David and I decided we were just going to have to trade in the Santa Fe and deal with keeping a car payment (we were soooo close to paying it off!). After dropping all of us girls off at home, David went to find us a good deal. And he did! He came home with a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country Touring model - my absolute #1 dream van! I about screamed from excitement! And not only did I get my dream van, but our payment is actually about $70 less than what we've been paying on the Santa Fe. Our interest rate went from 14.7% to 4.5% and it's only a 4yr loan. David got a warrantee to cover the length of the loan - one that covers absolutely every part of the van: the ac, power seats/windows/doors, transmission, everything, free oil changes for 2 years, and free exterior detailing every 6 months. Town and Country is known for their awesome stow n' go seating and it does totally rock! Since we need all the seats up for our family, we can use the seat storage to hold whatever we need it to. I'm so very excited to actually be able to drive it in 8 days!

David and I have owned around 13 vehicles total throughout our marriage - 7 were white. I'm sooooo glad my dream van is NOT! =)

And here's some more ultra-adorable cute pictures of our new sweet baby sister:

The nursery used something sticky - probably karo syrup - to stick the red bow on her head when they cleaned her up for me. I wish they hadn't though cause it made it difficult to breathe her baby smell... You can see in this pic how red her fuzz looks

The tail-end of a yawn

Can you see how looooong her foot is?? It's pretty hard getting them into her footie jammies!

Paisley thinks she's big stuff cause she's the only one touching Shyla =)

Baby Shyla

Early this morning, David and I snuck out of the house. Though we told Amber and Jade we were going shopping first thing in the morning, we were really headed to the hospital for a scheduled c-section! I was originally scheduled for the 30th, and when I rescheduled for today, we didn't tell the girls so we could surprise them with a new baby sister. We arrived here at the hospital at 7am, got all checked in, did a bunch of paperwork, some bloodwork, and the waited. And waited some more. Finally at 10 the nurse walked me back to the surgical room. I got my spinal and laid down on the bed. And thankfully, my arms were not strapped down nor did I have an oxygen mask on my face. I did still have a moment of panic as the spinal spread through my body paralyzing me and making it difficult to breathe, but David had given me a blessing beforehand and I think that helped a lot. I felt more focused and lucid throughout the proceedure. Especially once they let David in the room. Once I was cut open, my doctor said it's a good thing I didn't have a vbac as my uterus was "eerily thin" and could have easily ruptured with the intense labor contractions. So as frustrating as it was to not be able to go into labor myself, I'm glad in this case that I didn't. Shyla was pulled out at 10:30am and is just the sweetest baby. Her hair has a definate red tint to it and she really doesn't look much like my other 3 babies. She's so precious!

Sweet baby girl weighs 7lbs 14oz and is 22in long

After some time in the recovery room, I was taken to post-partum with Shyla. David went and picked up the girls from home, took them to lunch - I think he told them I was shopping with my friend - and brought them to the hopsital to "do a serve". He brought them into the room while I was holding Shyla and it took half a minute for them to understand what was going on. =) Paisley let out a classic Paisley squeal of delight and climbed right up on the bed to meet Shyla. It was adorable. She kept stroking Shyla's face and giving her kisses. Hope the love lasts! Amber and Jade took a turns holding her as well once they got over their shock.

So now we are officially a family of 6. Welcome, baby Shyla Beth!

Christmas Eve and Day in Pics

Here's a ton of pics from our wonderful holiday weekend:

The adults had a chime concert

Santa's elves delivered Christmas Eve pj's

We read The Night Before Christmas and sang Christmas songs

We must have been extra good this year cause Santa brought a LOT of fun stuff!

Like dum-dums...

A hermit crab...

Cologne...

Disney Princess dolls...

And baby things for Shyla!

Jaders got a Nintendo DS with some games

Amber framed this gorgeous artwork for David

I got a couple homemade Christmas cards from the girls.

Grandma sewed matching jackets for all the grandkids

Paisley's shopping cart

Nikki got repaired and cleaned

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Amber got her own camera! It takes stills and video!

We had a terrific time with family! Everyone got what they wanted - except Jade who did NOT get a puppy (lol) - and was very happy opening gifts. Thanks, Shelley and Greg for spending the weekend with us! We always love when you are able to. Merry Christmas, all!