Lately

The last three weeks have gone so quickly. We love having Miss Ivy here...it has been an adjustment for everyone for sure! Emery was horrible for a few days but is doing much better. She has found a whole new level of energy and wildness (I didn't know that was actually possible:) but is behaving much better than when Ivy first arrived! Davis has had a hard time in his own way, too. He has had an 'attitude' and hasn't been super obedient. We are working on it! He asked me the other day when he can get his own phone. I seriously feel like I have a mini teenager on my hands already.

This is what happens when Dad is in charge...he actually sent the kids to play outside looking like this. Hopefully no neighbors were out to see them! Aren't those the best outfits you have ever seen?


I tried to get a picture of Ivy the other day and this was all I could get! She has had a hard time during the day-wants to be held all day long and cries a lot if you put her down. She also has a hard time going to sleep. It has been better the last couple of days, thank goodness.



Valentines day was low key for us but Steve and I did get to go out to dinner since my mom was here and volunteered to watch the kids. Steve got me these amazing flowers and I am still enjoying them.
My little valentines...wow, Emery has some serious bed head from her nap!



My wonderful mom came to stay with us for a week and we loved every second of her being here. I wish she could have stayed for much much longer! The kids had a great time making valentines cookies with her among many other things that they did together!

I am still trying to figure out the 3 kid thing...we haven't left the house much but I have survived a week now on my own (since my mom went home). Steve has to go out of town for a few nights soon and I am pretty nervous about that...but we will make it! I have felt so blessed to have such amazing friends who have helped me with my kids and bringing us meals. It has made such a difference...thank you! I seriously have the most amazing people around me and have felt so much love from them.

Ivy

Ivy Jane 3 days old

Steve's Grandma Black passed away last week. I wanted to have a copy of her obituary here. She was the spunkiest Grandma I have ever met and I feel so blessed that I was able to know her and that my kids were able to know her. I am sure she and Ivy had a fun time together as they passed at the veil.

Eyvonne Porter Black

1932 ~ 2012
Eyvonne Porter Black died February 1, 2012, following a long illness.
Eyvonne was born April 16, 1932 in Monroe, Utah the oldest of four children born to Var Niels and Forest (Nielson) Porter.
Eyvonne married Russell Charles Black March 21, 1953. Eyvonne grew up in Susanville, California, and Central Valley, Utah, and graduated from South Sevier High School. She later attended Utah Valley University where she earned an Associated Degree. As active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Eyvonne and Russell served as Missionaries in the Dominican Republic. Eyvonne was a gifted leader and teacher serving in every Church organization. She wrote and directed several roadshows. She loved to travel. She supported her husband, taught her children, entertained her grandchildren, and delighted her great-grandchildren.

Eyvonne is survived by her husband Russell; six children: Jill (John) Larsen, Riverton, UT; Susan (Mark) Crawford, Sandy, UT; Bruce (Judy) Black, American Fork, UT; Ted (Sherrie) Black, Perry, UT; Mariann (Michael) Taylor, American Fork, UT; and Mark (Brenda) Black, American Fork, UT; twenty-five grandchildren; and twenty-eight great-grandchildren; brothers Garry (Rula) Porter, Central Valley, UT; and Jim (Sue) Porter, Richfield, UT. She was preceded in death by her parents; her sister Joy Jones, and great grand-son Spencer Martin.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 11:00 am, in the Hillcrest 2nd LDS Ward Chapel, 1120 North 150 West, American Fork, Utah. Family and friends may call Monday evening from 6:00-8:00 pm at the Warenski Funeral Home, 1776 North 900 East, American Fork, Utah and also Tuesday morning from 9:30-10:30 am prior to services at the church. Interment will be in the American Fork City Cemetery.

Introducing Ivy Jane Larsen

Ivy Jane was born February 2, 2012 at 2:20pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 7 oz. (almost a full pound bigger than either Davis or Emery...I was so surprised she was that big!) and was 21 inches long. I guess she needed to be big to be able to defend herself against her very loving siblings!!

I was scheduled to be induced on my due date, the 3rd of February. On the 1st, however, Steve's Grandma Black passed away. We wanted him to be able to go to the funeral in Utah so we called Dr. Nett to see if we could move it up a day to give us one more day to be settled at home before he left for the funeral. She said that was fine...it was about 3:30pm at this point and I was planning on having another entire day to clean my house and pack the kids and myself for while we were at the hospital. Anyway, I kicked it into high gear and cleaned and packed like a crazy woman the rest of the day. It was super nice to come home from the hospital to a really clean house but my feet hurt so bad that night and were super swollen from my efforts!

If the birthing story is too much information for you just skip ahead...I just wanted to have this written down for me:)

The next morning we headed to the hospital and got started on pitosin (spelling?) around 9:30am. I wanted to make it to a 4 before I got an epidural-I didn't want to be on it for a super long time-by the time I was not okay the nurse checked me and I was only a 3 but I didn't care! By the time they finished giving me the epidural I was a 4 so I guess it worked out okay! So I got the epidural around 11:30am, took a nap and then the nurse came to check me about 1:30pm and I was a 10. I love those epidurals. Seriously...taking a nap while you are in labor?! Nothing better! Dr. Nett had another patient that was already pushing so we hung out for a few minutes while she delivered that baby then we got down to pushing. I had a hard time getting her out due to some scar tissue that did not want to stretch enough so I pushed for about 20 minutes. I had a really great nurse that was a pro pushing coach and had also told me that Dr. Nett would probably let me deliver her myself if I wanted so we asked her and she said sure (first she asked Steve is he wanted to but he didn't want anything to do with that:). So I finally was able to get her head out and Dr. Nett pulled her shoulders through then had me reach down and deliver her the rest of the way. I was able to pull her out and up onto my stomach. It was really the neatest thing. Such a great reward after all that pushing.

We were still unsure about her name. I can't believe what a hard time we had naming this little girl. I had brought up the name Ivy a while back but Steve had vetoed it (and pretty much everything else I suggested!) but towards the end he stopped vetoing-I think he was worried she would never have a name. He even said I could name her whatever I wanted! So I was looking at a baby name list again just a few days before she was born and saw Ivy again. Steve liked it okay but didn't love it I think. I really wanted to name her that but I was still hesitating because I knew he didn't love it...but in the end it was the only name I loved and I think it really fits her. I am happy that is what she ended up with!

Getting weighed and cleaned up




I am swallowing my pride posting these pictures-I think this pregnancy must have been the hardest on me because I look the worst in these of all my kids births!!
Dr. Nett...can I just say that I love her?! I am so grateful to have her as my Dr.

Nurse Jenny and Dr. Nett-we made a good team!

What a sweet new little girl!

Getting her first bath-she was not a fan!

Meeting her sister for the first time. Emery has been really cute about her, but hasn't figured out how to be 'soft' yet. Ivy has had a few wacks on the head among other things. It will get better...right?!
Davis has been so cute about the baby coming. It has been fun for him to be old enough to really understand what is happening and he was so so excited for her to be born. We did have some interesting conversations about how the baby gets out and he did ask me if my tummy was going to break because it was getting so big!



She is so pretty!!


Coming home..bracing ourselves for what is to come with 3 kids:)We are so glad this little girl has joined our family. It is just amazing to me that I can grow a baby and I am so grateful that she was born healthy. I can't wait to see what her personality is like and who she ends up looking like (I think she looks so different from our other kids so I am so curious what she will look like as she gets older). We are so grateful to have her!

Happy Birthday Emery Jae!

We had so much fun celebrating Emery's 2nd birthday today. She ate up every minute of the attention! I can't believe my little girl is 2 years old (I think I start every birthday post of my kids with that sentence, but seriously where has the time gone?) I was looking at pictures of her on her first birthday and it is amazing how much she has changed in this last year. She is definitely my little girl now instead of my baby and is running around like a crazy lady all the time and talking up a storm. She has so much energy and is anything but shy. She likes being the center of attention. She knows what she wants and she is going to get it! Emery brings so much life and joy to our home. I love every minute I get with her.

She humored me with a few cheesy birthday poses!


She kept licking the cake while we were getting everyone ready to sing to her. At least it was the same spot!
Blowing out her candles...
She was the last one eating..I think she enjoyed every bite!

She loved opening presents but had lots of 'helpers'...Dad had to intervene and make sure she got to open them herself!

Such as pretty two year old girl.

House Projects

So we have been doing some major projects on our house and I have had some requests to post pictures so here it goes...

The most recent and biggest project we have probably ever done...our kids had these crazily gigantic closets behind their bedrooms that were a total waste of space. We have wanted to do something with them since we bought the house. We found some attic space behind those (this is all space over our garage) and after throwing around a bunch of different ideas decided to make make the two closets and attic space into a big bonus room, to be used as a bedroom for now. We also had to build normal size closets in the kids rooms. I don't know if that makes any sense but it turned out amazing. We had someone drywall and mud/tape but besides that Steve did all of the work (and it was ALOT!!) and I did all of the painting once it was built-my specialty! I don't think we have ever been so glad to have a project done-living in the mess was making me CRAZY and our poor kids were sleeping in random places in the house while we stayed up all night many times working in their rooms.

Here is one of the closets before: (that square in the wall opens up to the attic space behind the closet).

Some 'during' pictures...I should have taken more later on, but this is when Steve started tearing down walls:

The finished product...it was hard to take a good picture of the room so these don't really even do it justice but it turned out so cute and is really big. We moved Emery in there and the baby will have her room. Steve did even put in that window-it was a little scary when he cut a hole in the roof to install it!

Also if you can see the molding on the wall next to the dresser, there is a little door on each side of the room that we can take off and there is a bunch of storage space in there.

To get to the new room you have to go through either one of the already existing bedrooms, hence the 2 doors!





The door on the right in this picture is the closet we added to Davis' room and the extension of his room for that.
This fall while Steve was working crazy hours I worked on re-doing our bedroom. I couldn't find a before picture, but here are some pictures of it now. The biggest project of course was hand stenciling the back wall. I LOVE how it turned out and it was worth the time to do it. I made the quilt and most of the pillows and painted the mirror (free from a neighbors yard sale) and the lamps (cheap from goodwill:). I am still on the hunt for the perfect (really cheap that I can re-do) bedside tables but have yet to find them!





Now I just have to finish the baby's room. I am currently drowning in fabric in my craft room and sewing every spare minute I can find! Hopefully I can get it done before she decides to show up!

Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to an amazing 2012...starting out this month with Emery turning 2 and welcoming a new baby girl to our family. Happy New Year!