What a Week!

We've been busy! Well, it feels like a lot has happened anyway. My brother and his wife (actually - just all Karina!) had their baby this last Tuesday. She's a doll! I haven't seen her in person, but the pictures are adorable. From what I've heard, she sneezes very cute. :) Anyways, they named her Natalie and were able to come home from the hospital on Wednesday. My parents came up to visit us on Thursday for Abby's birthday this weekend (more on that later) and got here around 6:00. Just in time for dinner! Well, around 10:00 Tyler called and said they had Natalie in the NICU at American Fork hospital because she had stopped breathing, so off my parents go! That's a long drive for dinner and to deliver a birthday present! They had to life flight Natalie to Primary Children's (because they can't transport newborns via ambulance apparently - good to know!) and kept her there until yesterday afternoon for observation. As far as I understand, they never did quite figure out what was wrong with her, but treated her for a few possibilities. She's doing much better now and was able to come home. How scary! It's always scary to have a child in the hospital. An interesting little tidbit: all of my siblings have had their second child in the hospital when they're close to newborn. Including us. Tennille and Chet were in there for about 12 days (?) with Nichole for RSV, we were in there for about a month with Adam for botulism and Tyler and Karina were in there with Natalie. Hmmm. There's something about those second kids! :)

It's a little fuzzy, but here's Natalie!

Amber found out about 4 days ago that her first tooth was loose. Maybe 5 days. She was so excited! She wiggled the snot out of that poor tooth until finally yesterday morning it fell out. Wow. She's usually full of energy and jumping beans, but when she gets that excited - watch out! She couldn't wait for the tooth fairy to come visit her and had to get up in the middle of the night to let us know that she couldn't find her tooth but she found a dollar! She says the tooth fairy only gave her $1 because the tooth still had a little root on it. I told her that the tooth fairy always only gives a dollar unless it's Christmas or a birthday and then she pays double (which we have done.) Either way, she got a visit and was SO happy about it.

Amber's new lost tooth. She loves to stick her tongue through the hole! :) Who doesn't though?

Today is Abby's 10th birthday. I can't believe she's that old! For her birthday Ben and I decided to let her get her ears pierced. We'd originally agreed on 12 years old, but I just felt like Abby needed a little extra "something" and I knew that she would be so happy, so Ben finally agreed. :) She had a volleyball tournament yesterday afternoon and we told her we were going to take her to Idaho Falls for a dinner date afterward. Just us and her. She didn't have a clue about getting her ears done. So I made her a card and in the car on the way down I gave it to her and at the bottom I put "p.s. now ask me where we're going". And she said, "Well, I already know we're going to Idaho Falls." so I handed her another note that said, "We're going to get your ears pierced!" You should have seen the look on her face! I wish I would have recorded it. It was priceless! She was so excited and so nervous the whole way down. And they don't do it the same way they did when I was a kid. They used to use an earring gun and shoot the earring in, but at this place they just used a little hand-held pincher thingy. Apparently it hurt because after the first ear she looked at me and said, "That HURT!" After all my telling her that it just pinches a little. Oops. But she's so, so, so happy and she feels so beautiful. She's such a sweet, kind girl and I don't tell her often enough how proud I am of her and how much I love her. We're so lucky to have her in our family! We'll be celebrating the rest of her birthday after church today, but she's already said that this is the best birthday she's ever had. I'm so glad.

Abby right after getting her ears done. She was still a little in shock I think.

We had a wonderful Easter last weekend. Tennille and her family were supposed to come up to visit but they found out that Chet had to work at the last minute so they weren't able to. We still made the best of the weekend though (even though it snowed about a foot!) The Easter Bunny left the kids' baskets and the eggs to hide in a big basket on the table for Ben and I to hide. He didn't want the dogs to find them in the middle of the night. What a nice, smart bunny to look out for our animals. :) We absolutely loved listening to Conference on Easter. I thought it was so fitting & I didn't want it to end. They should plan Conference for Easter Sunday all the time!

Here's the beginning of the snow. I didn't get a picture of all of it, but in total there was about a foot. It's melted now though!

The kids in their cute Easter clothes this morning. I think they're such good looking kids!

As for me and the baby situation, it's progressing. I'm still really, really swollen and puffy, but everything is looking okay as far as my blood pressure goes. I'm kind of hoping for him to be born on Friday, but he'll for sure be here by the 21st. I'm not going a day longer than I have to with this one. It's been painful!!! But we're really excited and can't wait to have him here. So, the next post will probably be to tell you about our new little baby boy! Wish us luck!!!