Snow Games

    Last Week we were able to enjoy the winter wonderland. The snow this year has been pretty scarce, until just this week. Over a 2 day period we got roughly 18" of much needed snow. In the last 2.5 years that we've been here we usually get 3-6" occasionally and it doesn't accumulate, so the kids haven't had very many chances to play in since there isn't enough to do anything with. It also wasn't frigid temperatures, so  we could stand to be outside for an extended period.
    On Friday Ashley build a snow fort with the kids, and Adahleigh, Charles and Keisha tried to make a snowman but got the balls too big  (a good 2.5-3' around) for even Ashley to stack, so they just left them unstacked in the yard. Jerrick was sleeping during their adventure, so he didn't get to participate at all.
    On Saturday, I had the day off, so we spent half the day in the snow. Amazingly, everyone stayed and played in the snow, unlike the usual spending 15 minutes getting them dressed and then them deciding they're too cold after 2 min. I went out and dug a maze out in the snow so everyone could get around easier (I remember my dad doing this one winter in Salem and we played fox and geese in the maze). We ended up playing tag and having a snowball fight.  Once everyone but Adahleigh decided they'd had enough and had gotten cold, we went and built a couple snowmen on our street. Adahleigh bailed out just before finishing the second snowman, so we didn't get any photos of her with the finished product.

Update

     We haven't been very good at keeping our blog updated, in part due to being busy and not setting time apart and also because we ran out of space on our hard drive to be able to load pictures. We've resolved those issue and now will try to be a little more diligent in keeping everyone updated on our lives.
     Things have been going well for us, both temporally and spiritually. We have the opportunity to attend two baptisms yesterday. It was great to go and feel of the spirit that was there. The first baptism was the spouse of a member that moved into the ward a couple months ago. He has been prepared by the lord over the course of several years and now just happened to right time in his life. He will be a great asset to the ward along with his wife and son. The second baptism was girl in Adahleigh's primary class, it reminds us of how close she is to being baptized, even though it seems like just yesterday she was born.
     As far as calling go in the ward, I'm still the Elder's Quorum President and Ashley had the privilege of moving up from nursery to Sunbeams with Keisha, although if you ask her it might not be such a privilege. The one perk is she is team teaching which makes things a little easier, and her partner does show up regularly. Jerrick on the other hand hasn't handle nursery well since Mom left. He would get to go in occasionally while she was in there, now he wants to leave when we drop him off and usually cries for 10 minutes, according to the nursery leaders. He's funny about going to nursery, we well tell him lets go to nursery he gets all excited and actually runs straight to the class door and even goes in, but once he looks around he remembers that he doesn't want to be there and starts to fuss and try to leave. If we get toys out to try and distract him while we leave he picks them up and puts them back in the toy closet, all while crying (tears and all), he knows you have to clean up to leave.
Adahleigh
    Has been growing like a weed, we can barely keep her in clothes or shoes. She continues to love going to school. Currently we're trying to get her double promoted from kindergarten to 2nd grade by the end of this year. Her teachers are both on board (she's in a K-1 split), and have been bringing her up with the 1st graders in most of their activities. She has also taken to reading and picks up books just to read through them, and usually can make it through most of them with little or no help from us. It's been amazing reading the scriptures as a family and letting her read everything she can which she doesn't need a whole lot of help doing. While the others are repeating, she'll try to read for them and have them repeat her.
     For her tooth count she's down 2, which have come in and is now also getting at set of 6 yr old molars.

Charles
     Continues to be our instigator and problem starter. He definitely has a very independent personality, there is very we can do to get him to listen if he doesn't want to. He can stand and stare you down for hours if you tell him to do something he doesn't want to, no matter what consequences he's informed his decision will cause. He still tend to be pretty shy in public, but is slowly coming out of his shell. Now in primary he will sing, and sings loud too. He'll also participates.
      After a year of telling us he's not going to school he's finally onboard with going. On his 5th birthday he actually demanded to go to school and we had to explain that he now needs to wait till fall to go. He got the mindset that once he turned 5 it was time to go to school. It was probably from all the time we told Adahleigh that she had to be 5 to start kindergarten.

Keisha
     Lately she has stopped being her sweet self all the time and now likes to throw fits and not listen. Just today at church she decided it was acceptable to stand in the isles instead of staying in the benches. Up till now we've been lucky and the kids don't try to leave the bench unless they were too small to understand. She also doesn't like to listen in Sunbeams with Ashley, which is adding to the grief of Ashley being moved up with her.
      She still loves to dance and sing all day long, which all the kids do, but she puts an extra flare to it. Jerrick is right alongside her most of the time.

Jerrick
     Continues to grow like a weed also, he'll definitely be in competition with Adahleigh on who ends up being tallest. His personality is now in full bloom. He lets us know exactly what he wants even if he doesn't say anything. He has his favorite shows (Jake and the Neverland Pirates), he dances/sings along to their songs and participates in the activities. He also has favorite songs that he insists on being played several times so he can sing to them (even though its more mimicking sound and not words). He has started to talk quite a bit and likes to repeat everyone, although he isn't stringing words together yet.

We had a very busy enjoyable july!

Waiting for the 4th of July parade to start!

The waiting tired lil man out.

Jer enjoyed chasing the smoke from the fireworks.

Watching the big firework show in the back of the truck, of course I couldn't get a good pic.

Charles wanted to see if he could cook himself in 85 degree weather.

In July we were able to meet up with grandpa and grandma w for the weekend in boise. They treated the kids to build a bear.

Our potato ice cream sundae! Delicious!

We also got to spend time with cousin riggen!

The view from the cabin we rented. We saw a bunch of elk and even got to see four black bears from a distance!

Cont.....

Jerrick is finally big enough to face forward, he loved being able to see out the front window watching where we were going, and being able to watch video with the big kids.

We finally decided to do a little sight seeing on the way to grandmas. We stopped by the dam so the kids could see what it was all about.

Just hanging out

Watching shows together.

 Lil man turned 1 back in June! 

Enjoying the warm weather while it lasted!

Summer in a nutshell

Here is some picture of our summer! They are off my phone so I hope this works! Riding the horse at grandma p's! Jerrick enjoyed it! 

We helped grandma put in her new swimming pool, the kids enjoyed riding on the tractor, actually swimming was a different story, the days we were there it never got quite warm enough to enjoy getting in the cold water. Adahleigh and Keisha decided to give it a try, they lasted a few mins.

The kids already to swim!

We also got to spend some time with grandpa and grandma W in Portland while grandpa had meetings up there!

Our little misses graduated from preschool back in June! 

Jerrick Desmond

I know its been a long time coming but....

Introducing Jerrick Desmond

He was born on June 14th at 4:23 a.m.

Weighing 8 LBS 3 OZ

21 Inches Long

Like all babies we had no idea when this little guy was going to make his debut. It really surprised me when the doctor told me that after 38 weeks she would be happy to get things rolling unlike my other doctor who wouldn't do anything till 2 weeks after my due date.  38 weeks put me right around the first of June, i wasn't extremely uncomfortable, and i didn't really want to be induced.  Besides Grandma W plane didn't get in until the 9th of June and i didn't want to have him before then. So i told her we could wait until my next visit and see how i feel. Besides being overly tired i felt really good, i have not had any contractions, a little bit of minor cramping was it. My next appointment was June 13th. Like before i still did not want to be induced so i let the doctor check to see if i was dilated. I for sure thought i wasn't because i had not had a single contraction. I was surprised to find i was already dilated to a four. I also let her do a light scraping just to see if it would help get things going. She told me she was on call tonight and that if i had the slightest contraction to come in. My mom and i went shopping for the rest of the day and even went for a walk when we got home. But still not a single contraction. I put the kids to bed and stayed up a while doing this and that. I finally gave up and went to bed. Told my mom i would see her in the morning cuz i still had not the slightest indication that i would be going into labor anytime soon. About midnight i woke up and went the bathroom, still nothing. I finally dozed back off about 1. At one thirty i woke up to some minor contractions within minutes they got stronger and stronger. I decided to time them, after the second one i gave up and went to wake up adam to time them for me. Still half asleep he took the watch, after the third contraction he jumped out of bed,  "were going to have a baby in the car". The contractions were less that five mins apart and very strong. I went upstairs to let my mom know we were leaving and to check on the other kids. I had to laugh by the time i got back downstairs i could hear adam showering, so i gathered all my stuff and waited for him to get ready. By this time we were both hoping we would make the 45 min drive to the hospital in time. I tried to call my doctor a couple times on the way but every time it would start ringing i would get another contraction, adam finally took the phone and called. By this time the contractions were 2-3 mins apart. When we finally got checked in and to our room it was right around 3:00. The doctor came to check me. I was dilated to a 9!! I knew then an epidural was out of the question. They got me hooked up to my antibiotics and were only able to push one bag through before it was time. By four o'clock i was dilated to a 10 and ready. The doctor came in and got everything set up, after only a few pushes our little man was here at 4:23 am. 

Yup i was only in labor for 3 hours! The nurses at least got a good hour and a half of excitement that night. (we were the only ones in labor and delivery that night). 

 Adam stays a constant 95 degrees so the little ones love to snuggle up with him. 

 The kids came to visit that afternoon and meet there new brother. They lasted about two mins before everything else in the room got there attention. There favorite is the buttons on the bed.

 We were ready to leave the hospital the following morning. We told the nurse the night before we were ready to go in the morning. We have gotten use to how long it takes the hospital to actually check you out. My doctor came in early that morning and released me. When baby jerricks doctor came in they took his temperature and decided it was too high to let him go home. They said they would be back to check him in a couple hours. by this time it was already 11. My nurse came back in about 11:30 and retook his vitals, still high. By this time i had unwrapped the two blankets adam had wrapped him in and just let him sit there. Within a half an hour his temperature had dropped to a more normal temp 

and the pediatrician was willing to let us go.

 

 Ready to go home. 

 Sound asleep. 

Jerrick is now almost three months old. He has been sleeping for 6- 8 hours for the past couple months. He goes to be around 8 or 9 then wakes up at 4 to eat then sleeps until about 7 to 730 when the big kids come down to wake us all up! He has started to smile and coo the past couple weeks. The older kids all love to see if they can get him to smile at them. Charles and keisha love to help me change his dirty diaper. 

He loves to eat though he seems to puke every time. He is definitely getting enough food he is the cutest chunkiest little thing.

Sleeping Children

This is how we found the kids one night after sending them to bed. Keisha prefers to sleep with adahleigh almost everynight, but i guess that night charles wanted to join.