All Hallows' Eve 2012

This year was a small victory for me in that we actually carved our pumpkins  - something I usually put off because it is so low down on my "like-to-do" list.  But the kids loved it and they had a really good time drawing the faces (mom and dad cut) and made some cute pumpkins.  Annica made the batman jack-o-lantern and I liked how Grace's wide-eyed pumpkin is looking down at the bat in fear.  Clara's is the pumpkin with the eyebrows (nice touch I think) and then Benjamin's looks just like all his drawings these days - monsters with "scary mouths."

Annica is in the background here sorting through stringy pumpkin muck (the stuff my mom accidently used to bake my dad his first homemade pumpkin pie, two months into their marriage - she's improved, thankfully).  After picking out a huge pile of seeds, we roasted them in the oven.  They were delish!

 

 

Halloween morning, I took Benjamin to preschool in his fireman costume with Max (his side-kick Dalmation puppy) in tow.

 

Then we went over to the elementary school to watch Clara in the costume parade.  Here she is with her wonderful aide, Mrs. Daniels.

 

 

Our first trick-or-treating stop was Grandma and Grandpa Shippen's house.  Grace (along with her friend Ireland) was a biker chick.  Annica was some sort of last-minute gothic witch/vampiress.  She had decided not to dress up this year, but then couldn't stand it when she saw everyone else getting ready and she quickly threw something together.  She seems to go with the white-faced, eerie, witch theme often. What does this mean?

 

Clara was my cute little pirate girl.  She looks pretty good with black hair!

 

Grace and Ireland ran around frantically gathering candy until they were sure it was close to bedtime - turns out it had only been an hour.  So they spent the rest of the night passing candy out on our front porch.  With blankets over their heads.  And a weird mask Scott once found on the ground in Greenfield Village.  They had fun scaring trick-or-treaters.

 

 

You gonna share that with Mommy?  Good Dog, Max.

Hello, baby!

Lots of stuff happenin' around here...most importantly, a baby shower for my little sister Cathryn.  I never thought in a hundred years that she and I (being almost 15 years apart) would have babies close in age.  Max will be only 18 months older than her little guy (Colby is his soon-to-be-name). 

 

I have had fun planning a shower here in Utah for her.  Too much fun!  Scott says I should be a party planner but I think that could be a dangerous career choice for me given that I become slightly addicted during the process of planning and may have a tendency to ignore little things like, oh, my kids!  Last week as I was looking online for more supplies and ideas (gotta love pinterest) I hear Max eating something.  It took a full minute or two to register in my brain that I didn't give Max food so whatever's in the child's mouth probably isn't welcome in there.  I peeled my eyes off the computer screen to look, and it was a gross, bruised piece of banana that he'd dug out of the garbage.  He had literally taken matters into his own hands and was just trying to fend for himself, poor guy.  Once again, I am not on this year's list for the "mother-of-the-year" award.  Maybe next year...

 

 

Today I'm working on a little project that will be part of the shower decorations and hopefully something Cathryn can use in her baby nursery too.  I love the chevron prints - my friend and neighbor owns Riley Blake fabrics and I love their designs.  Both the chevrons and navy dot are Riley Blake. Gotta get to work now (oh and take care of kids too)!

Happy Easter!

What? It's already Easter?!  I haven't posted since Christmas!

This was Max last November...

And this is Max now...

A whopping 22 lbs and in the 90th percentile for size.  A brick.

Today after church we took a few Easter pics since I managed to get the kids in coordinating outfits this year.

Max isn't the only one growing.  Annica is looking like a little woman these days...a beautiful little woman.  Have a great Easter today!

Merry Christmas!

The stockings are hung and the kids are now in bed (wearing their new christmas jammies) and excited for the morning.  Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!!

My Happy Haunters This Year

Here's the kids this Halloween:

Annica - a gothic ghost

Grace - a vampiress

Clara - an Autumn Fairy

Benjamin - Zorro (or "sword guy" as he refers to himself).  Personally, the stash is my favorite part.

Max - Maximus Decimus Meridius, leader of the armies of the North (Gladiator).  I knew as soon as we named Max that this was what he would be for Halloween! He looks like he's trying to wave at the camera.

In keeping with tradition, Scott was "weird wizard guy on an electric wheelchair" that scared all the kids in the neighborhood acting creepy/crazy.  It was even creepier when he was holding the baby.  There was a lot of frightened little trick-or-treaters - no joke.

Annica stayed in character for every picture I took (couldn't get her to even half-smile).

Clara was a blur in every picture, she was so excited.

One of the best treats of the night came late after we were home.  Uncle Steve (the storm trooper) and his family came over to show us their costumes.  Benjamin was in awe.

HUGE thanks to my awesome mom for shopping, and sewing and re-sewing costumes!!! She spent hours working on them and they turned out great!

a picture to tell a thousand words...

I know. My blogging frequency has dropped recently. In fact, it's been nonexistent.

To explain, this picture sums up my life since my last post in August. This unique piece of art is actually a big accident. Desperate to get Max to take a pacifier and hopefully help him be happy, I bought a half dozen pacies that seemed to be acceptable to him. As soon as I got them home from the store, I threw them in a pan of boiling water to sterilize. Two hours later, as I am putting the kids to bed, holding a fussing baby, I kept smelling something. I wondered if something in the dishwasher was burning or maybe the oven was on. I seriously couldn't figure it out. FINALLY I remembered - AUGH the pacifiers!!! The water had completely boiled out of the pan, leaving these to burn on the bottom. The house stunk for days. I blame it on sleep deprivation, and a house full of kids, including one very NEEDY baby.

The funny thing was, they melted into the shape of a heart. A good keepsake I guess.

Now back to the store for more pacies...

All Things Max

Ok, ignore the title for now.  First, a few pictures of Clara because last week, she turned 7!  She got a cute new haircut, and had a swim party with a few of her friends.

A week before her party, I saw an idea for a Candy Land cake in a magazine.  Clara loves playing the game and HAD to have this cake, so I simplified it (a lot) so it was do-able.

Clara and her friends swimming...

 Blowing out the candles (the wind actually did half the job)

(Transition to Max...) 

Aunt Kat and Max at the party



I love these pictures of Max with his Grandma's.  Neither of them were here in town when he was born so it was about a week later that they met him.

Grandma Carla has been here for almost 2 weeks helping out and has impressed us with her "baby whisperer" skills.  She's good at getting him to take a pacifier and rubbing his feet til he falls asleep (with a big smile on his face).

Aunt Cathryn was a hit!  My kids LOVE her.  Benjamin especially does and would cuddle up to her whenever he could.  She flew back home on Friday and ever since Benjamin has been asking where Aunt Cathryn is.

I love taking pictures of the little man sleeping.  He does a lot of deep, profound dreaming...

"hmmm...I wonder what I'm gonna eat for lunch."

I like his baby toes too...my babies have the long, skinny foot variety.

I like watching him get droopy-eyed just before falling asleep.

I also love dressing him up.  Actually, this was Scott's funny idea.  It was midnight and Max was still wide-eyed, and ready for the fiesta...

I love watching him dream.  He dreams with his eyes open a lot so it's sometimes hard to tell if he's awake or asleep.  He must have some really funny memories from his earlier life, cause he laughs a lot in his sleep.  He laughs so hard, that he startles himself awake.  It's hilarious to witness.  I grabbed my phone and caught the last little bit of a dream episode he had (missed the laughing though):

My favorite though is when he smiles.  He smiles a lot in his sleep.  Just once though, I got him to smile when he was wide awake laying in my lap.  I was talking to him and tickling him and suddenly he did the hugest grin.  Luckily I had my phone next to me and caught it!

As fun as Max is, he's fussy and hard too and Scott was sweet enough to kick me out of the house the other night during Max's witching hour and send me off to shop and get ice cream with my mom and sister.  It was heaven.



It's a Boy!

Max Reed Shippen

born July 19

8 lbs. 2oz,  20.5" long

Monday night I wasn't feeling too good.  It didn't feel like I was in labor, just sore and cramp-ish.  I was really hoping I would have the baby soon though because I was sick of feeling so big and my due date was the next day.

Sweet Annica and Grace went around the yard picking flowers and gave this bouquet to me to help me feel better.  Around 1:30 am my contractions started and they were heavy from the start.  At 6:00am I woke up Scott and told him I was going to have this baby and we needed to get to the hospital.

When we got there around 7:00,  I was dialated to a 5...not as far as it seemed I should be.  My contractions were fast and hard and I was again going natural so I had hoped I didn't have much longer.  Scott took this picture just after I'd been checked in.  We thought we had a while until the baby came, but everything happened really fast after that.  I got checked again an hour later and was at a 7.  Ten or so minutes later the doctor left the room and Scott asked if I wanted to walk around the halls to speed things up.  I stood up off the ball (those exercise balls work great for sitting on during labor) and told Scott we better not leave the room.  I could tell I was close and I knew better after Benjamin's birth...he was almost born in the hallway.  I had another huge contraction and told Scott to hurry and get the doctor back in.  He came and 2 mins and 3 pushes later, the baby was here, an hour and a half after arriving at the hospital.

Weighing in...Max is a pound heavier than my other babies...my biggest and strongest (he's got major thigh muscles)

As soon as he was born, (as soon as all my baby's are born) I just feel total relief and tune out for a minute.  I started to do that this time, but as I glanced over at the baby they set next to me, I realized I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl.  I looked again and saw something between its legs and told Scott, "It's a BOY!"  He was so happy, he started to cry and kept saying, "It's a boy, it's a boy!"  It was an unforgettable experience.

Talking to my mom soon after...I was so excited to tell my family!

The nurses give Max his first bath.  They loved how he kept making these pouty faces.

Proud Dad.

Scott is so in love with this boy.

The next morning, we came home and the kids met Max for the first time.

I have a brother!  Benjamin was right all along.  He said from the beginning he had a brother - in my tummy.  I asked him, "What if it was a girl?"  He said, "It's not - I already have enough sisters."

Max likes the pacifier the hospital gave him...takes up half his face.

Scott had fun posing him for this picture. Is that a turban you're wearing, Max?

Max's favorite sleeping position...hanging half over my shoulder.

Sleeping on my bed today...he sleeps so well in my bed of course, and wants nothing to do with his own bed.  We're having lots of fun with this guy.  This kids all love holding him and taking care of him.  Benjamin will frequently run into the room and ask, "Where's my baby?"  Scott's parents just got in town and met him for the first time today.  My mom and sister, Cathryn come on Thursday.  Can't wait for them to meet him!  We love Max !!!