Hailey plays with Scott every day and when she isn't playing with him she's playing with the household of 5 boys across the street. After a few talks about "talking like a lady" (instead of using toilet words), I also gave her the task of looking for some girls to play with. On Sunday before she headed off to church I told her to look for a little girl she could invite over sometime to play.

Dinner conversation:

Me: "So Hailey, did you see any girls at church that you thought would be fun to play with and invite over?"

Hailey: "No. I just don't like girls. I only like to play with boys."

Me: "Why?"

Hailey: "Because they are nice to look at." 

Me (now a little worried): "Um they are?"

Hailey: "Yeah I just look around and see who the cutest boy is. Then I go up and talk to them!"

 Should I be worried?
I told Kevin last night I was super boy crazy when I was little, so I guess he can blame me! lol

 This is what we have woken to the last 2 mornings

 The kids, as you can imagine are thrilled! (Me on the other hand- not so much!!!)

 my neighbor said she heard Hailey screaming and giggling before she had a chance to see out the window. I wish I had a video clip of Hailey- I haven't seen her get that excited over anything.

 We don't have church until 1 pm on Sunday so I was trying to find a way to occupy these three...plus they kept bugging me to do the "craft" I had promised all week and didn't have time for. All it was as collected toilet and paper towel holders and anything else (paper, markers, googley eyes, etc.) to make some "Halloween Monsters". Sounds easy right? Well the kids loved it and it kept them busy for a few hours.

 

I helped Ari with hers, but Scott and Hailey came up with their ideas all their own. Scott made one with octopus like legs and one with a cape and over 10 eyeballs- thought that was pretty cute :)

 Hailey came up with this monster she called "Afro Circus!" I was wondering what she was doing with all those poms! She even drew black stripes down it. So creative!

Jay is doing good. Still super sleepy, but we are working on it. (And still got the blonde hair...I hope it sticks :)

My visiting teacher knitted him this pumpkin hat! A little big right now but seriously the cutest thing ever!

Hailey finally got to change her first diaper yesterday because I told her she had to wait for a few things to heal first. His umbilical cord was a nightmare! It fell off but then he had a granuloma (like a raw bubble of skin in the center sticking out...weird) and so he had to go into the doctor and get that fixed which ended up looking horrible before it got better. Finally he is all healed up and Hailey gets to play mommy. She's thrilled :)

She has also been super helpful around the house. Yesterday she asked me to make her a chore list that she could check off and I started off with just 3 easy tasks but she kept asking for more and more! Ended up unloading the dishes and sorting the laundry to name just a few but she had over 12 things on the list and was soooo excited to help.

Scott had parent teacher conference yesterday and is doing great in school. He calls him self a "fly by mather" and brags about getting done faster than anyone in his class. He definitely has a niche for math for sure. His teacher said, "I just don't know about Scott...he's just SO nice!!" It was fun having him with me for the conference (teacher requested they come) because he's always so worried about what the teachers are going to say about him, which is funny because they never have anything negative to say. Just a super great kid!

Arianna had another therapy session last week playing with some food which proved to be a really big struggle for her. We are touching everything and working on giving everything a kiss. Just an example to those of you who think this is all crazy...today I asked her to touch the scrambled eggs on her plate before she could be done. She did and then she gagged and dry-heaved (just over touching it!!). Last week she "kissed" some garlic bread and then decided she wanted to try some and ate a few bites. That was really big! We are excited just over the little progress for sure!

This cutie is already 2 weeks old!

8 pounds 5 ounces

20 1/4 inches

he does the "zoolander" face quite often! I remember Scott use to do that too :)

 and quite the sleepy guy too! He REALLY has his days and nights mixed up. More than my other 3 were for sure. He wants to sleep ALL day long and at night he's just bright eyed and wanting to play

Life is wonderful with this little guy around!

 Hailey is still continuing to be the baby hog. She will come over and say, "I washed my hands AND sanitized them!" and hold out her hands for Jay :)

 

 Grandpa and Grandma were able to drive up on Wednesday. Grandpa was able to help Dad do some finishing work on the house. He was pretty worn out when he left to go home on Saturday morning. Grammy also went home on Saturday after spending a few weeks visiting and helping out and Grandma is staying until Tuesday so we've had a busy household for sure!

Random cuteness pics

 Big Brother Scott

Notice Jay's shirt says, "Boys Rule"

 Sunday was a mix between conference and football games so we had to dress him appropriately :)

 although he wasn't really too interested in football!

 Having a newborn around makes your other kids look huge!

 On Monday night Scott's school had a "Fall Festival"

We took advantage of my mom being here to watch Jay and had a little family night. It was super fun. We also went to a local neighbors pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins for the kids.

Tuesday the kids didn't have school so Mom and Grandma tried our best to keep the kids busy painting pumpkins

 I love Scott's Frankenstein inspired pumpkin...he's always so creative with art stuff.

Grandma even made a grandma pumpkin (all the way to the right) with blonde hair :)

 While the kids were painting Jay was taking yet another snooze. I love how he holds his little feet together and his hands when he's not swaddled....soooo adorable!

Already turned 1 week old on Tuesday!

 There's those eyes we rarely get to see!

 Jay's first sponge bath (quite the crowd :)

 he loved it- especially with the little space heater blowing warm air on him!

 Love this face like, "K are we done yet?" lol

 he just sat there next to the heater for probably 10 minutes just staring at his brother and sisters and playing with his hands.

 all clean! :)

 I think it was on Saturday after working for a bit Kevin took the kids up to the canyon to drive the rock crawlers around. They love daddy time and love the mountains so they had a blast. These were with Kevin's phone so not the best pictures, but you can still see all the pretty fall leaves changing.

That's it for now! I feel great only because of several naps a day from my Mom being here. I'm up feeding Jay at night and it's also his awake time (was when I was pregnant too) and then after the 6:30ish feeding my Mom has been taking over and letting me go back to bed. Oh man I'm going to miss that but I'm taking advantage while I can! It will definitely be an adjustment when I'm back to getting kids fed and ready, taking kids to school and doing all my normal jobs.
Life is good! I feel beyond blessed for sure!

He's here- 1 week early too!

Jay Russell

Born Tuesday October 2nd

@ 9:19 am

8 pounds

19 inches long

right before- last belly picture

looking at mommy for the first time :)

check out how big those hands are!

shocked when they said 8 pounds!

I've had an on-call doctor deliver all the kids so here's the doctor that delivered Jay since it was my doctor's day off- Dr. Erika Smith

Proud Daddy!

All the kids got to come meet him after school
This is when you say, "Wow! I have 4 kids!" lol

Hailey is already a baby hog which is no suprise because she is SUCH a mommy. She kept telling Grammy, "Okay Grammy! Toss him over!" every minute. She wants to hold him all day long

When Kevin called to tell the kids that morning he said, "Mommy had the baby" and Ari said, "I know!" Pretty sweet. They seem to have quite the connection already.

Grammy had her car packed up Monday night ready to leave Tuesday morning, but her prayers were answered and she got to meet this little guy first! #17 Grandbaby for her

 Grandma and Grandma drove up to spend some time too. They are busy this year with me and my sisters- all 4 of us in one year span. First Kyse from my sister Bre, then Marlee from Brooke, now Jay, and in February another from Candice which will make the count to 9 grandkids. Busy busy!!

When the kids were there he never opened up his eyes once! He was so tired he pretty much slept the whole time.

Awake at last!! :)

They change so much every day but check out all that blonde hair! I told Kevin when I was pregnant since Ari is the girl version of Scott, it would be so much fun if this was the boy version of Hailey...I think he just might be :)

With mommy- giving a little sleepy smirk

His arms are so long they didn't even fit in the take home outfit we brought him to wear. That and the fact that everyone thought he was going to be a 6 pounder....not 8! Pretty funny 

Pictures first, story last right? :)

The Birth Story

With my girls I had no signs of labor and then 2 nights of heavy contractions and viola they were here. And Scott was the same- nothing until my water broke then he was born that day. Well this little guy was quite different because I had been having contractions for weeks that were even steady like every 10 minutes for an hour and then nothing for days. So I have had my hopes up for weeks that I was going to meet him and then would get disappointed when nothing happened. It was slow and steady like that which shouldn't surprise us since it took us 6 months to get pregnant with him! Lol

Monday I was in major cleaning mode cleaning the house and then hastled Kevin to start organizing and cleaning the garage that still hasn't been unpacked yet. I was sitting in a camp chair in the garage watching Kevin and Arianna came up to me. She put her hand on my belly, looked right up at me and said, "(Inhale excited) He's comin!" I said, "He's coming?" and she said in an excited voice "Yeah! He's comin!" giggled and ran off. I got the goose bumps for sure.
So that night we went to bed pretty late around 11 pm and I woke up at 2 am with some pretty strong contractions lasting a minute or so. So I told Kevin I would wake him up if it got serious and I went out to the living room. I timed contractions coming every 10 minutes for almost 2 hours when my water broke at 3:50 am! I was so excited because then I knew he wasn't going to trick me this time- I really was going to meet him! So I woke Kevin up and at this point the contractions were every 5 minutes so we decided to head to the hospital. (this is around 5 am) I was a 4 when I got there and within 2 hours I was already an 8 and got the epi and all that good stuff :) but after that things really slowed down because just like ALL my kids, he was sunny side up and not able to drop down all the way. So with lots of help from the doctor trying to turn him around and another 2 hours later it was finally time to meet this little guy. We were seriously shocked when he weighed 8 pounds! Our biggest and shortest baby of the bunch. The cord was wrapped a little bit around his neck kinda like a sweater they said. He is such a sweetie and we are sooooo excited he's finally here!!!