All right, finally some pictures of the little princess...
Of all the boys, Parker just adores his baby sister and dotes over her all the time. He even told me how much he loved her the other day while she was screaming! That's love. He also laughed when she was wearing this sweater the other day and told me she looked like a Grandmother...
Anyway, here she is!
Finally some updates! A lot has happened in the past month, and I'm at the library with Sadie, so we'll see how long she lets me sit here before we disturb everyone and have to leave. Cole turned 5 and Mason turned 2 while Nana was here helping me with Sadie, so here are a couple of pics from the celebration...
Okay, you know you've gotten behind when your blog says you are 42 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Thank goodness it's not true!
Sadie Anne Trapnell was born October 23, 2008 at 2:20 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz, and was 19 inches long. We are loving this little girl. It is so fun to have some pink in the house, and bracelets, and bows, and headbands... The boys love their little sister - especially Parker!
I promise I'll get pictures up soon!
Wow! What a week! We had a great family vacation during Russ' week off of school. We were headed for Kentucky - a 10 hour drive from Jacksonville - so we started off by going half way. We spent a night in Greenville, South Carolina and enjoyed the beautiful Falls Park on the Reedy River. We got some great family shots (now here on the blog) and had a great time enjoying the cute downtown area. This is how we get around when we have a lot of walking to do with the boys... What are we going to do when number 4 arrives?!
Next we made our way to visit my Grandpa and his wife Helen in Kentucky. The whole drive was beautiful, and the boys are very good travelers, so what may sound miserable was actually quite enjoyable - I thought (you'd have to ask Russ if he agreed). Grandpa lives on 50 acres of land in a tiny town near Lexington, so we had plenty of room to hike and explore...
We also went swimming - probably an average of twice a day - the boys favorite part! They loved being able to swim anytime they wanted, and we were pretty willing since Helen insisted on doing all of the cooking and cleaning with absolutely no help allowed. What else were we going to spend our time doing? She wouldn't even let me fold my own laundry! What a vacation!
We also did plenty of fishing - both from the shore and from the little peddle boat they have for the pond. Needless to say, we had a week full of FUN and very relaxing!
Here are the boys with their Great-Grandpa Packer...
On the way home, we spent a day in Maggie Valley and Ashville, North Carolina. We stayed in the mountain house of one of Russ' professors - Dr. Rumble and his wife. It's the 2nd time we've been their, and they were very kind to let us stay. Here are some pictures hiking to Clingman's Dome in the Smoky Mountains. It was not a long hike, but it was fairly steep. Most hikers were huffing and puffing pretty well by the time they reached the top. Even so, little Mason (who has recently become Mr. Independent and wants to do everything just like his brothers) managed to hike the whole thing all by himself. Russ did hold his hand to prevent him from tumbling down the hill backwards, but that was all he would permit without a fight.
Hooray for a successful vacation! Back to real life now: laundry, cleaning, cooking, school (for Russ and Cole), and Sancho the wild bird.
We are going to a movie for Russ' Birthday right after school today, so we celebrated Monday night with the kids. Parker was very adament about what he wanted to get Russ for his Birthday - a Hawaiian scented air freshener for his car. He was also very specific about what he wanted to do for Russ' Birthday games, so I let him be in charge of the family home evening activities for the night. Parker's game involved each of the boys hiding in the house with a present and Russ had to find the boys to get the gifts. The game was a big hit, and family home evening was ending with strawberry frosted angel food cake (request by Russ), when Daddy decided to let the boys see what would happen to their balloons when held up to a burning candle. Cole and Parker both were startled but pleased with the result. Mason, on the other hand, was less than happy until we told him to just go get another one. He was trying to be tough though. Watch the faces closely...
In this HOT and HUMID summer Florida weather, I am increasingly grateful for Kiddie pools and otter pops! It is the only way my kids want to be outdoors at all. I can't blame them!
Okay, so admittedly this was not the most relaxing vacation we've ever taken.... trying to finish minor problems with the condo, a little cleaning, Russ' deposition that was supposed to be an hour and took closer to three while I waited with the boys and tried to find things to occupy the time, not to mention 3 burned little hands that resulted in blisters from the sparklers and Russ getting sick after sushi...
Nevertheless, it was still really nice to see Jen, Doug, Dallin and Brooke. It was great to see them getting settled in their new place and let the cousins play. Thanks Jen for watching the kids for SO long during a move and everything! Doug has become the hit of their new neighborhood after playing soccer with all the kids in the street. Jen went outside July 5th only to find all the parents out letting their kids stay up past bedtime because the neighbor kids had all heard Doug still had fireworks to light off. That really was lots of fun! Thanks Jen and Doug! Hopefully the next trip will be even more fun and even relaxing!!!
Thanks to Alice and Louis for letting us stay in their beautiful home in Homestead! We had a great time (about the only really relaxing part) at your house on the 4th. It was so fun to get to know Baylee better - she is so cute! The boys miss you guys & Karma!
Cole and Parker finished swimming lessons a couple of weeks ago. They loved it, of course! Cole has been a little fish practically since the day he was born. Parker, on the other hand, loves playing in the water but has always been seriously distressed when his face gets wet. For the first time this year though, he's been willing to put his head under water with no persuasion from Russ or me. I think it's all thanks to a nice teacher and "dunkaroos!" All the kids in the pool practice against the wall yelling out "One, Two, Dunkaroo!" as they go under the water. Apparantly, it's had an effect on Parker. So, all the afternoons out in the humid florida heat trying to keep Mason and his broken arm out of the pool was all worth it!
Cole's last day of swimming...
Parker's Dunkaroos!
I guess maybe I'm lucky that with three boys this was my first trip to the emergency room. Mason fell off the ladder going up to the little slide in our backyard on Wednesday. He was only on the 2nd rung. He's definitely fallen farther plenty of times, but he must have landed just right. Both bones in his forearm (the radius & ulna?) broke, and when I found him his arm - the part that should be straight - was bent at probably a 60 degree angle. Yes, I panicked... and I was a little (maybe a lot) frantic until Cole was about to cry in the car and I realized it was my job to try and keep it together. Mason was very brave and once he calmed down in the car never made more than a whimper when anyone touched his arm. Unfortunately, being pregnant, I couldn't even go into the room with him to get his x-rays done! About 8 hours later, after being transferred to the children's hospital and getting knocked out while his bones were moved back into place (luckily with Russ who was out of school by then), Mason was finally ready to come home. He's finally starting to feel better after a couple days of Lortab and lots of Motrin. Now, his favorite thing to do is clap or give someone five with his broken arm. Doesn't look too upset about the whole thing now!
Ahhhh! One of the best perks of having kids is having all the tickle torture transferred from me to the kids! Luckily, Cole and Mason LOVE being tickled. Parker isn't much of a fan, only because laughing the slightest bit at any time gives him horrible hiccups, poor kid. Here's a little sample of the fun...
One last chance to play with the cousins (or so we thought). Damon, Allie, and Kyla came over while Krystal and her aunt and cousin finished cleaning the house. They left for their flight right after, but unfortunately missed it (although their luggage made it to Utah), and we got to have another day similar to this one again the next morning. My kids were thrilled! They mention their cousins all the time now and how much they miss them. December seems way too far off for a visit. We'll miss Jeff & Krystal and their family a lot!
We had a great Easter this year including a wonderful dinner at Jeff & Krystal's house. One of the last big family events in Jacksonville before the first group leaves. We missed Greg & Noel though. Everyone had a great time except, apparantly, Mason. Here's Krystal's favorite shot with the tears falling off the chin of a very sad Easter bunny. I think he had dribbled chocolate eggs all over his Sunday clothes...
We also got to spend most of spring break with Jeff & Krystal and the kids up in the Smoky Mountains at the cabin of one of their professors. It was beautiful, and I hope we can go back again sometime....maybe without the rain and without the stomach flu taking it's turn to everyone (which is why Russ is missing from the picture this day - I was taking it).
My parents came in March for a visit to see us and then Jen & Doug in Ft Lauderdale. We took them down to St. Augustine one day. Here are some pictures including one rare shot - Nana and Mason with eyes wide open! (I hope you're not offended Mom - it's one of the things we love about you!)
And here are the boys at the Mosh (Museum of Science & History)...
We also went to the park where I discovered I have been a lazy Mom and have failed to get Mason into a swing as much as I should during his short life - I think it was the highlight of his week!
So, Russ has been taking more of the pictures lately (since I don't do my job of getting the camera around very well), and they have been turning out much better than mine. The only difficulty we've discovered is that Mason is just like his Nana. He can't seem to keep his eyes open for the pictures!
Hooray Mason!!
Okay, I have a lot of updating to do. I'll probably just set the date to the actual event - cheating, I know. But it'll make more sense to me that way. We finally got our camera back from being fixed, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up a little better from now on. We had a fun January.
James came to visit us for about a week before leaving for his mission. He was here on Parker's birthday, which was a bonus. Parker really thought James came specifically for his birthday, and I just went ahead and let him think that. The only thing he really wanted for his special day was a turtle cake he found in an easy cake-making book from my mom (thanks Mom!) so we made the attempt. Not as good as the one in the book, but from the look on his face you'd have thought it was the most incredible cake in the world. I love this age when it doesn't take much to please.
Jen and Doug also came up to see James one last time (although Parker also thought that was for his Birthday - what a lucky boy!). It was fun to have them here. Doug took Cole, Parker, and Dallin to get doughnuts for Parker's Birthday breakfast. They loved it! Here are some pictures of all the little boys eating doughnuts, the turtle cake and birthday party, Parker trying to ride the motorcycle his cousins gave him (he was really excited about that present), and all of us in St. Augustine.
We will miss James, but it was sure fun to have him visit, and it has been such a blessing to read all of his letters and hear his testimony growing and read about all of the hard work. It motivates us all to be better and try to keep things in perspective!
Hooray! I'm almost caught up on the year of blogging! We'll see how well I keep up in 2008. We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas break this year. Our first ever away from the rest of our family in Utah. After moving this past summer, and now that we've got three kids to tote around, we decided another trip across the country was just too much this year. We've had a great time. It's been very restful. We drove down to Orlando to go to Sea World again (got to get use of that pass!) and saw Kurt and Amanda who were there with Kurt's family. They were kind enough to let us intrude on half a day of their vacation to visit since I probably won't get to see them until next Christmas. We then drove down to Fort Lauderdale and stayed in Jen and Doug's place so we could relax, visit friends, and tear down the office! Yes, the office Russ built onto the condo had to go since post-hurricane construction is finally about to start. Lots of work, but still a nice trip. Then we got to come home to an entire week of NOTHING! That's rare, so we've enjoyed it. We also moved Mason's crib into the boys room, so he's loving being part of the group. Here are a couple of Christmas shots - one of the middle of the night, and then Christmas morning including one of Mason stuffing his face with cinnamon bread. Happy holidays!!
