Megan's Blessing

Megan was blessed last week. Jason gave a beautiful blessing! It was a wonderful spring day surrounded by great family and friends.

Isn't he so handsom!

My grandma (Megan's great-grandma) makes blessing cakes for all the new babies. They are so wonderful and yummy!

These were the Herbert men in attendance - Travis, Jason, Randy, and Matt

A bunch of Pics of people enjoying the lunch:

So this year we were finally able to host the lunch at our own home - for Brock's blessing we were at Jason's parents, and for Noah's we were at my parents. I thought it would be nice to be able to do it at my own home - it turns out when you do it at your house it is kind of crazy. You're responsible for everything - and on top of the lunch I still had Brock and Noah to take care of... well... I really didn't keep a great eye on them. Thanks to Debbie - my mother-in-law, they both got food and cleaned up - but after she left... who knows what they really did.

Brock is old enough to not need supervision - he mostly played soccer with his older cousins.

And, this is where I found Noah at the end of the day:

wonderful!

Grandparents:

Jason's parents - Debbie and Randy

My parents: Joe and Michelle

My grandparents: Wayne and Janet

My mom and Megan

I have stayed true to my word and not decorated my house yet - there is not one picture on the wall or figurine located anywhere in the house. All white bare walls and bare shelves. I felt bad for Megan not having any of her newborn pictures out - since I had a display at my boys' blessings - it is not her fault we moved into a new house 2 weeks before she was born. So I got a little on the ball and made a nice little display on our mantle. I had intended on taking it down after the blessing - but since it is the only pretty thing in our WHOLE house (except for my kids of course :) I have decided to keep it. It is my shrine to Megan - if you just came to our house you would think she is our first!

Good and Bad in my life these days

Good: Brock is getting so big - he is such a good helper and I can count on him to do anything for me. He takes really good care of Noah.
Bad: Brock is getting so big - it is heart wrenching to watch your baby grow up.

Good: Ever since I have had Megan I have had dinner ready almost everyday when Jason gets home.
Bad: I can't remember the last time I washed my hair (I think sometime last weekend).

Good: We went to Wheeler Farm on Monday and it was PERFECT. I had one of those wonderful mothering days - where I am so happy to be a stay-at-home-mom. I love hanging out with my kids.
Bad: The very next day I wrote the "I quit" post - it is amazing how fast they can turn on you!

Good: I am starting to make friends with my neighbors and I am getting a calling on Sunday - this is starting to feel like home.
Bad: Our blasted neighbors dog won't stop barking. I seariously HATE barking dogs!

Good: Jason got our swamp cooler working
Bad: Jason got our swamp cooler working... deep down I think we were both kind of hoping it would be broken and we would HAVE to get AC - now it is hard to justify it when our swamp cooler works.

Good: Noah - he is getting cuter and cuter everyday, he is talking up a storm and has the most unique personality. I fall in love with him daily.
Bad: The testimonial I gave to daily scripture study a few posts ago... well... I haven't been doing so good. How is it that I can KNOW something so strong, and I just can't make it happen. My deepest desire is to have daily prayer and scripture study... and no matter how long I do it... it just takes a few days to break the habit.

I would give anything to...
-someone who would invent a car seat that I can buckle my swaddled baby into.
-have a few hours totally to myself so I can clean, iron, do the budget, and organize Megan's clothes.
-go to the temple.
-know what Megan wants between the hours for 7 and 10 pm. Does she want to sleep? eat? be played with? Right now if just seems like she wants to cry.

I Quit!

Can I do that?

Idaho

As mentioned earlier we went to Idaho for Memorial Day weekend. Jason's brother's family just moved to Idaho Falls and I have family in Rexburg - so we thought it would be a fun family vacation. The kids did AWESOME in the car - we are now thinking of taking them cross country :)


Because I am LAME I didn't take any pictures - but my Aunt Cathy took some pictures of us riding horses.


We had a lot of fun with Matt, Janina, and Aaron - the kids played great, Matt and Jason figured out how to get rich in the stock market :), and Janina and I never stopped talking... it was wonderful.


We loved riding horses and seeing Dan and Cathy. They were SO accommodating, I have the most wonderful childhood memories of staying at their house and riding horses. It was a great Memorial Day.

Aaron and Matt

My Uncle Dan with Brock

Um... I discovered that riding horses 6 weeks post-pardum is not such a good idea, this lasted about 5 minutes - especially once the horse started galloping - my uterus was up in my throat!

Megan didn't ride - she didn't mind.

What do you do?

What do you do with a baby that cries unless you hold her?

She is six weeks old - I don't like letting babies just cry until they are 4 months old, but she is the third - I can't just sit and hold her all day.

She is happy to be in the Moby (my wrap), but is that just reinforcing it? If I put her in the Moby all day and just carry her around with me - is the "I won't be happy unless you are holding me" thing (including when she is sleeping) just going to get worse and prolonged?

but...

is there even another option? If my baby cries unless I hold her, are my only two options let her cry or hold her?

Live and learn

It is never a good thing when you get home from a vacation and your house has a musty, watery smell. While we were in Idaho for Memorial Day weekend our hot water heater broke and was leaking.

Since we moved in 2 months ago our swamp cooler, fridge and now hot water heater have broken. We should have gotten that home warranty thing. We didn't because we thought we wouldn't need it - everything looked new or at least to be working well.

Word of advice, if you buy a foreclosed home that had been vacant for almost a year ALWAYS buy a home warranty - SO worth it!

Nursing

What does it take to keep this girl gaining weight?

All of this...

Some of you may know I have trouble keeping on weight when I am nursing. It turns out that I loose more weight and faster with each child. So with Megan being a preemie AND my third - my milk has seemed to turn to water. Nursing in important to me - so I need to bump up my protein and calories. I eat EVERYTHING I can and then I supplement with protein shakes, meal replacement bars, nutrition drinks, and I have to pump before I feed her so she just gets the hind milk.

We are doing good - she is bulking up.

What have we been up to?

Mostly just staying at home - except for when Karli sets up a play group...

We have gone on three fun ones... See the post below.

I love this play group and have missed it over the winter.

Zoo

Megan is using my wrap - and she likes it. She just sleeps in it - it was one of my best purchases.

This is our "main play group" - there are sometimes a few other moms - but these are the consistent ones. 5 moms, 13 kids (4 and under) , 3 sit and stand strollers, 2 double strollers, a lot of fun!

This is typical Noah. He LOVES to sit and look at something. His favorite thing is DVD covers. He will just sit and stare at it for 30 or so minutes - looking at it intently. He sat on the back of the stroller and stared at the zoo map for about 20 minutes. It is one of my favorite things about him.

Gym Cats

Karli has a new gymnastics place that has opened up by her house. They have open gym hours - so we went and checked it out. It was so much fun.

This is a crazy high platform that you jump off of into foam. Brock just jumped right off. Noah was DYING to jump off - but I wouldn't let him - it was too high. And as for me... well... Brock had to count to 3 like five times before I got the courage to jump.

I did let Noah jump off this smaller one - but only with me. That kind of satisfied him.