.4.

Eisley,
Has it really been 4 months since your rather dramatic entrance?  You are so big and strong already that I often forget how fragile you were.  You now sleep completely through the night (thank the heavens!) with no help from me...you did it completely on your own.  You eat like a champ, and have grown into size 2 diapers.  You are all cheek sister, in every sense of the word.  Your jowels rest right on your chest, and is usually the first thing most people comment on.  Your Aunt Holly once said, "where does all that food go that she eats."  To which I relied, "open her diaper".  It's true little one,  you have rolls upon rolls concealed within the confines of your diaper.  The pediatrition was even astounded during your check up, and had a good chuckle.

Your latest thing is your hands.  You LOVE your hands...especially your thumbs.  If you're not eating or nursing you are constantly looking for a thumb to suck.  We will see if it sticks, but for right now it is what it is.

You are such a unique soul Eisley, and you have added so much to our little family.  I constantly thank Heavenly Father for out little miracle, and feel abundantly blessed to call you ours!

.winding down.

I'm so far behind on whats been happening that I feel almost like I don't want to even bother trying to catch up, but since I have a minute or two and I have a computer that is actually hooked up to a power source, I thought I better try and at least do a quick recap of the past month and a half.  So in no particular order here we go:
Painting.  We totally realize we went the hardest possible route on this by doing it after we moved in.  There were quite a few projects that we were slowly going to get to that were pushed up in their time table.  This of course being one of them.  My sister Holly came over for about 5 days and helped me slowly make our way through the house.  She commented that the house looked like it had been dipped in chocolate.  I would say that was a fair assessment.  Now we have a nice clean neutral that I'm so much more happy with.

Miss "busy hands" Meg got in on some of the painting action too.
Hot tubbing-  The kids are discovering the joys of the spa.  Meg in particular gets a nice lazy river ride with the jets and her float.

 Reunion Time-  We spent 2 days catching up with family at the end of July.  It was nice to get together and reconnect with family that we don't get to see as often.  I took Finn with me on the hike, but if it wasn't for my brother Sean, it would have been miserably long.  Thanks Sean and Kim for hauling Finn up and back down the mountain.

Anniversary-  Roy and I celebrated 7 years of marriage.  We mustered up enough energy for a movie and dinner because in my words...I just didn't want to have to think for awhile.  This boy makes me happier the longer I'm with him...I guess that's a good sign right?

 Milestones:
Eisley hit 4 months and is as wonderful and as sweet as they come

 Summer storms:  The park right down the street is a drainage park so when we get the summer monsoon storms it fills up and all the neighborhood kids come out to splash and play.  The kids have loved all the rain we've had to play in these past weeks.

Basement re-do:

Like I said, we had a few projects that we knew we wanted to get done, but weren't planning on doing them for awhile.  However,  our time table was moved up.  My grandma Tiedi is coming to stay with us for a few months so we knew we had to get the carpet in the basement replaced.  The previous owner had a dog who ruined all the really nice quality carpet that was in the house.  The basement was particularly bad.  We ripped everything out and scoured the concrete with lots of chemicals and then sealed it for good measure.  After all that work, I will never have an animal live in the house.

 Strong chemicals call for respirators.
Triathlon-

Roy and I had signed up to do our stake triathlon long before we knew we were going to be busy with gutting the basement and painting.  We signed up as a team and so we couldn't just back out on our third leg.  Roy took the swim (he hasn't swam any distance in about 5 years), but of course he's such a fish that he passed about 15 people...not an exaggeration.  I busted out the bike portion on a borrowed bike from my sister, which should tell you how much I love biking.  But it was still a nice break from all the projects at the house.

New sand:

Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan brought us a couple yards of the nicest beach sand to top off the sandbox.  The kids love it!  We also did a nice deep clean of the playhouse after Finn found a black widow out there.  I made my mom kill it because I'm an absolute wuss when it comes to spiders.  My mom is awesome in more ways then one!

 More floor work:  because we were already replacing carpet in the house we decided to just do all the new flooring all at once.  Good bye to our yucky linoleum in the kitchen.  In order to save ourselves some money we did the demo and install all on our own.  Oi, that was quite the undertaking.

 All gone and ready for the laminate.

It took us about 4 days, but we got it all installed, and it looks amazing.  So grateful I married a handy man to work on all my crazy ideas.  This week we will be getting the upstairs carpet installed and then get the base boards up...and then hopefully be done with the big projects for awhile...fingers crossed.

.a new place to lib.

It has seriously been three of the craziest months of our lives for obvious reasons. 8 months ago when we decided to put our house on the market, we had know expectations.  We didn't absolutely have to move, but we wanted to see what would happen.  The condo sat with no interest or showings for about 6 months, and to tell you the truth I wasn't really in any rush to move the closer I got to Eisley coming.  I had even requested that we take the house off the market the month she was due so I wouldn't have to worry about cleaning and the such.  But Roy talked me into keeping it on just in case the right buyers came along.  We had one showing...count 'em...one...when I was about 8 months along and it was a no go.  Then all the happenings of Eisley being born a month early and a 10 day NICU stay took over all our thoughts and energy.  We were so relieved to finally bring her home and return to some normalcy.  Three days after she got home from the hospital we received a text from our realtor about another showing.  I didn't clean much, and felt like if they really liked it, they would see the condo for what it was.  Needless to say the offer came through the next day, and it was an offer we couldn't refuse.  We started the dreaded house hunting, which was extremely frustrating in the booming market.  We would give our realtor a list of houses we wanted to go look at and the next day 3 of the 4 would already be under contract. I started to get down hearted about the whole thing and not feeling like we would find something we really liked from what we could afford.  About a week after we started looking, Roy wanted to drive out and see a short sale.  We loaded up the kids (as we had done almost every night that week) and drove out to Riverton.  We loved the neighborhood as soon as we drove in.  It was an older established one, but well kept, wide streets, big yards, close to the schools and church.  As we drove in I noticed a different house for sale and made a mental note to check on it when I got home.  The short sale house needed a lot of work, but we loved the neighborhood so we thought we would look more into.  The next day I checked out the listing of the house we had seen when we drove into the neighborhood, and it was within our price range.  I quickly contacted our realtor so that we could go look at it.  I don't want to say that I fell in love with the house when we walked through it, but I felt home...if that makes any sense.  I could envision our kids growing up here, and how I wanted the house set up, and the yard...it was awesome...complete with swing set and sandbox.  It was an estate sale with two offers already.  We knew we would have to push our budget limits to make a competitive offer, but we did, and ours won.  Of course I started to stress thinking about tightening our budget to make it all work.  But another miracle happened, the appraisal came in lower then our offer and the sellers excepted the lower price.  So not only did we find a good house in a great neighborhood, but it came within our price range too.  We have felt directed though this whole process and are so grateful for my parents and their wisdom and help in making it all come about, but we know it all came down to the Lord blessing us.  We have been here just over a month and we love it.  There are the endless projects that come with home ownership, but its our own, and that makes all the money and energy worth it.  We have been shown so much love from the ward and the neighbors, and feel even more like we are right were we need to be.

As we were looking for a house we would tell Finn we are looking for a new place to live.  After we were under contract we came to show him the new house, and he said, "this is my new place to lib".

We are still getting things organized and put where we want them so pictures of the inside will have to wait.  And of course we have taken a perfectly good backyard and started demolishing it...mostly because it was loaded with pine trees, but it is starting to take shape the way we want it.  I will post more about that later too.

We love our new place to LIB!

.easy.

It is summer time...and the living is easy...at least for our kids.  They have spent the summer in deluxe fashion, spending hours playing and eating popsicles outside, just as every kid ought to.  So even though mom and dad are busy hauling rock, cutting down trees, and going through the list of countless projects, the kids are living it up!
A quick run down of  the summer so far...
-Eisley turned three months on the third of July and spent the day eating and sleeping like she does most days.
-We started our fourth of July celebrations with a neighborhood parade and breakfast.  Finn whined and dragged his feet the whole time because I was pulling him too fast.  I still don't know how he thought that since we literally were the last two people in the parade.  (thanks to our wonderful new neighbors who took pity on us and pushed Eisley in the stroller so I could deal with mr. slow poke).

Roy enjoying his mountain man breakfast while the kids play in the background (really Meg, who refused to eat anything I gave her, was busy foraging off the ground and other peoples plates for scraps...seriously??)

We spent the rest of the holiday living it up at Grandma's.  There was good food, plenty of water, cousins to play with, and aunts to hold Eisley.  I pretty much had the day off.  It was wonderful!

Eisley spread eagle in the shade trying to keep cool.

-On Saturday, the nursery leaders threw together a bbq for us to meet the other kids and parents in the nursery.   Another good night of food and new friends.  The kids played (Meg foraged again) for hours.  What a great place we've moved to!

- Monday night we got together with some friends from our old singles ward.  We met at our old Bishops house (AJ is Roy's boss too) for a night of swimming and catching up.

Eis and I sat poolside watching everyone else enjoy the water.

I always tell people that my kids don't really like water, because they've never really taken to it.  I've concluded it might be because the water is cold.  They like bathtub temperature apparently, because the Jackson's pool is set at a brisk 85 degrees and the kids loved it...especially Finn.  That kid couldn't get enough of the slide.  He kept wanting to run to get over to the slide, so we had to keep reminding him to walk.  He would slow down and take very deliberate heel to toe steps.  He was cracking us up!

 Baby Henry tried Roy's goggles on for size.  It was my favorite picture of the night!

As you can see, we have been taking full advantage of the hot weather, and living it up!

.three.

Little Eis,
Another month has completely flown by with me barely even realizing it. Most of the time I'm not aware at how much you've grown, but then suddenly diapers and clothes are too tight, and you're longer in my short arms.  How can my little 5 pounder really be as big as you are?

 You are really starting to bust out the smiles, and coo A LOT more.  It's so wonderful to see you start to develop and recognize those who love you.  My most favorite thing of yours is still you quirky little smile.  It absolutely melts my heart!  When I come and get you first thing in the morning, I'm always greeted with a string of happy smiles.  What a way to start a day!

Seriously...how could you not love this?

You are still one amazing sleeper!  Thank the heavens for that.  You will now consistently pull 8 hrs at night.  I'm fairly confident that we will be moving you in with your sister in about a month since I don't have to get up in the early morning to feed you anymore.  Not that that matters really because your sister is up with the sun anyways.

3 months old!

Being the baby, you are absolutely loved by friends, neighbors, and especially family.  You and your brother and sister our are life and we love you baby Eisley!

.2.

We have had a lot going on this past month, what with moving and all that, momma got a little behind on posting about your second month of life little one.  It feels unreal sometimes to think that you've been with our family for that long.  Sometimes it feels like it was only yesterday that we were bringing you home from the hospital, but most of the time it feels like you've always been apart of us.  Does that make any sense?
We've got you all moved into the new house...the house we want to raise our family.  You and your sister will share a room, but you are still sleeping with mom and dad, until you're a little older.  You sleep really well (a tender mercy that all three of my babies have slept so well), about 6 hour stretches at night.  I can not thank you enough for letting me sleep.  It's probably what has kept me sane through all of the craziness of moving with three young children.
At your two month appointment, you were 9.1 lbs putting you in the 5% on the growth chart.  Not surprising as none your siblings were big either.  You had your first dose of shots, which made you miserable for about a day and a half, but then you settled right back into your rhythm.
My most favorite thing that you've learned to do this month, is smile.  It goes from a sweet little half smirk to a full fledged toothless grin.  It brightens my day, and makes my worries disappear.
You are loved beyond measure little one, and an absolute blessing in our life's!

Your sweet little smiles melt my heart!

peaceful little sleeper

.our first.

That little place on 26 La Vista Dr was our first home.  We bought it with the idea of it being a great started home that we intended on living in for five years.  It ended up being a bit longer then that.  It was a place where we grew up in our first years of marriage, and celebrated our first holidays together   It was where we brought our three babies home, a place that only Finn may have vague memories of.  We made lasting friendships with some of the best people we've ever had the privilege to know. And as much as I felt completely crowded in it at the end, it's still hard to leave our first.  A home with lots of memories and love!

So young and innocent with the keys to our first home...classic Roy.

Moving day!

I was super thrilled about moving into our very first home.

our first Christmas

very pregnant (8 months) with our first baby

Finn and daddy on his blessing day

Loving on Meg in our bedroom

Meg and Eisley (sort of) in the kitchen

 It has been a good 7 years, and even though we won't miss living in a condo, we will miss our wonderful friends and neighbors.