Twice a year

How is it that 7 months have passed by since my last post. Am I really that pathetic? I mean it isn't like I have had any life changing events take place, say, the addition of a new baby girl to the family, which might seem important to document. Well, it seems that my personal motto has become, "better late than never!" Life in our family is probably the best it has ever been. We have our little struggles here and there, and it always seems like the kids are going through some sort of phase, but now after 6 1/2 months since our little Addy was born, I feel like we all have finally adjusted. Addison Lynne joined our family last June, on her Grandma Fisher's birthday (Shon's mom). I went in to the hospital for a scheduled c-section at noon and had to wait 5 hours before she finally arrived. While waiting I began contracting so it looked like it was the right day. The c-section was probably the best I have ever had and the recovery was pretty quick. I don't know if it's because I've had 2 previous c-sections and knew what to expect or if the reality had sunk in that I had 3 kiddos to take care of and didn't have time to take it easy. Either way, I was grateful that it all went well.

Life has moved lightning fast since then, so I feel like I need to document a few things. Addy has been the perfect addition to our family. She is very easy going which is a blessing because often times she has to wait while I am tending to her sisters. Her middle name is Lynne, named after my aunt Mary Lynne, who was my mom's sister. Mary Lynne passed away a few years ago, and I have a very special relationship with her. I have so many great memories of sleep overs and painting my nails with her. I know she is close by and aware that we have remembered her.

Avery and Taylor have adjusted brilliantly to adding another girl. They just love her, sometimes a little too much. I am grateful for that. I have heard of children becoming jealous or hitting the baby. Thankfully we haven’t experienced any of that. I have watched Avery grow into this beautiful little girl and see that she is more of a helper this time around. When Taylor was born she was 18 months and was still a baby herself. I don’t know what I was thinking then having two babies 18 months apart. That was difficult for me but somehow God helped me grow through that and now I am seeing the blessings of it. Avery and Taylor will be one year apart in school. They do everything together. They go to preschool together, have the same friends, play house and makeup (yes….makeup!!) together. It is like a live in best friend. Things are not always rosy but the good times far out weigh the bad times, which is good because I don’t have a lot of patience for their fighting matches.

When we were married I never in a million years thought we would have only girls in our family. I always pictured boys in our future. Well I was dead wrong and I am grateful for that. There is certainly more drama with girls, and if you don’t believe me then spend a day at my house. (Anyone want to come to dinner?) However, I don’t think I can fully say how much fun I have watching them play dress up and put makeup on each other and say funny things like “Oooh-la-la, I’m off the Paris mom.” (Thanks to our favorite Fancy Nancy books). There is something tender and sweet that comes with a little girl and I am blessed to have 3 of them. Poor Shon is outnumbered and sometimes I feel bad for him, I mean even our dog Andie is a girl. But Shon is such an excellent father. He loves his little girls and they also love him. He takes them on bike rides and on the golf course. He makes them mac and cheese with spam in it (yuck I know, but the taste grows on you not to mention it is great food storage) and they think it is great. Shon will even get up in the middle of the night to help me with Addy. He is just a “don’t complain, just get it done” kind of guy. I think everyone should marry a farm boy. I highly recommend it. They know how to work hard, fix things and get the job done, which are all excellent qualities that my sweet boy has. I think having girls is refining us a bit...ok a lot! We are both learning the lessons that come with acquiring patience. Neither Shon nor I have been blessed with this quality and because of that all hell can break loose pretty fast. I have made some new goals for 2011, which I will talk about in another post, and I feel like we are making strides in this area. I am realizing more that my life is a marathon, not a sprint so it really is the small changes that I consistently work on that make the difference. I just have to be patient and wait to see the miracles that come (there is that word p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e again. I can’t get away from it).


Addy's birthday

Addy's blessing day. She is wearing my blessing dress my mom made for me when I was blessed. My mom also made Avery and Taylor a matching dress in their favorite color:

Meeting Santa at the ward Christmas breakfast. It was a very exciting day, of course :)

Every morning when I go in to get Addy, I sing this silly "good morning" song that I made up to the happy birthday tune. She gets so excited every time, I love it!

Eating carrots for the first time.