Parlee's new hair

Parlee is "So Pretty" as she puts it....and of course we agree, Im mean come on thats a pretty happy face if I do say so myself!

On Saturday my mom, Marg and the boys spent the day at my house, in the evening Parlee came waltzing out to the front room, smoothing back her locks with her hand saying "Parlee's pretty" she had a smile about as wide as the grand canyon. It seems as though our little beautitian had some fun with the safety scissors in her room.

Marg and i cut another 4 inched off the back and cut the rest of her bangs into little pixie bangs and all in all I figure no harm done, it was bound to happen eventually. Shes on day three of her new hair and she still loves it, in fact yesterday I found her in the bathroom carefully slicking her locks back with lotion and on Sunday I found her styling her hair with the shampoo and body wash!....never a dull moment!

A card carrying boy

5th birthdays are pretty special around here...and well, Kyler happens to be turning 5 in one hour! So today I packed up the kids and we headed to the library...Why?

Well, because at age 5 you can be an official card carrying member of the public library system. So, Kyler went to get his own card. Our friend Carrie was working, and I was so glad, because I had told Kyler that Carrie would be there to give him his card, so I was seriously hoping she would be working, phew she was!

Carrie let Kyler know that they now had cute new library cards...but Kyler wanted the standard library card that would fit into his wallet (yes, he did bring his wallet to the library)

He signed his name on his new card (my favorite part of the visit), safely tucked it into his wallet, and then promptly headed to the movie section to pick out a Thomas the Train movie.

He is quite proud of his new card, and well...so am I. Joely and Taran told stories of when they were finally five and could get their own cards. You know it may be simple, but I sure do love traditions! I hope that one day they will get their own kids excited for the day that they too turn five and can finally go to get their own library cards!

Found!

Both bikes have now been found! The police found Joely's bike tonight! Yeah Ivins Police department!

Conference

I still need to add Tarans picture, but its on Joels phone....

Anyhow, this year we had the honor of taking Joely and Taran to conference! I took Joely to the Saturday morning session and Joel took Taran to the Sunday afternoon session. It was so fun to be able to spend some time with our kids and let them hopefully get a little more out of conference.

Joely and I left from Draper two hours before the session, just to make sure we would be there on time...and with all the fun adventures we had (dont I always have those?) we barely made it, we were seated on the balcony on the LAST row! And I may have shown up with a few tears running down my face because I wasnt sure we would make it, and had shin splints for a few days from running so much in heals....aahh we love an adventure around here!

The one about bikes and toots

What a crazy few days its been around here!

To start with, poor Kyler has been feeling awful lately. But it's been a rather odd, he would be fine in the mornings, a little tired, but nothing too major. He'd say his tummy hurt and lay around a lot. Then by the afternoon, he would be on the ground curled up crying and then just as quick he would fall asleep. This happened for several nights in a row, and he fell asleep in various places, like the bathroom floor, doctors offices, waiting room, cars, the couch, every floor of our house, bench at church...etc etc.

We decided if t lasted on Monday we would bring him to the doctors, and needless to say Monday he did much better...then Tuesday afternoon it came back. So I rushed him to the Instacare, where he had this x-ray taken...all the black is air. He was filled with air...a compacted gas issue. I was relieved it was anything to do with the appendix. Needless to say as the night wore on, his condition got worse. The doctor informed me the if Kyler woke up crying again or had a fever I needed to immediatly get him to the emergency room to have a tube put into his intestines to release the gas (sounds painful)

Well, last night he did get worse But I was also dealing with 4 other kids who had some form of sore throat, chapped lips (yes Joely woke up with this), parlee waking up crying for me to hold her, or I was stuck nursing. So, with Joel being gone I just kept putting off going in until each crisis was delt with. Finally at 2:30 am when Kyler went to sleep, I told myself the next time he wakes up, we are heading into town...and to my luck he slept through the rest of the night.

Today was spent in much confusion, talking to doctors and trying to get Kyler to feel better. He wouldnt eat or drink. Luckily about 6 pm we had a break through and he is improving!

We spent the day making up 'poopy-tootie' songs to try and make passing gas and having a bowel movement seem like a 'cool' thing to do :-)

What a long couple of days!

Then to top it off Joely and Tarans bikes were stolen last night! The even rode them yesterday afternoon. ***update*** while typing this the police department called and they have located Tarans bike down by Amber Estates!

Parlee

I want to try and write a few things about each of my kids more often, just so that they are written down....So heres to our little spitfire Parlee.

I used to think that Kyler was quite possibly our hardest child....what was I thinking? Its 100% Parlee! However I will say that Kyler and Parlee were surely cut from the same cloth, there is never a dull moment with either of them around.

Parlee just gets into everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! The other day Joel said "maybe we need to buy her a new toy or something and then she will be entertained for at least a few days"....Funny thing is I HAD bought her something just that morning, and by the time Joel was home from work, she was already back to her same old routine!

Parlee draws on more things then ALL of my kids combined. I have bought so many magic erasers, Im actually surprised that we havent sanded our way through a wall yet with all the scrubbing we do removing her artwork!

Parlee LOVES to sing and anything musical, and she especially loves performing such songs in front of a captivated home audience. SO far she shows the most promise of inheriting some of Joels talent (however I think my non-msical genes are far more dominate in most of the kids) Parlee seems to really catch onto the keys that somegs are song in, and even though she doesnt say the words I have identified several songs just from how she sings them. Her favorites are "Do as Im doing, Follow Follow Me", "Popcorn Popping", "Elmo's World", and "Clean-Up".

Parlee seems to have a love/hate relationship with Keegan. She really does love him, and if he makes the tiniest peep, she is always the first to go running saying "Im coming Keegan". She obsessively holds his hands, even when she is taking a nap by him, she will sleep holding his hands, and she love to give (rather force) his pacifier into his mouth....On the flip side, those same hands that are being lovingly held, have also been bit many times. She also cant adjust to me holding him, and has the worlds loudest scream or more accurately a Pteradactyl squeal that pierces the eardrums. She screams sometimes when I hold or nurse him because she wants to be held instead and screams "No, hold me mom". Its both sad and quite frankly rather annoying too. I try to spend time during naps just holding and comforting her, if only us moms had multiple arms and laps!

We love Parlee and all the excitement she brings into our home!

2 months

Its funny how two months can fly by and yet also seem like forever too.

I'm amazed that Keeg's is already two months old and growing so well. He smiles and coo's at us. He brightens our lives each day, he makes all the misery of being pregnant so worth it (though I dont want to experience being pregnant again). It sad to already see him grow out of some of his clothes, and I wonder why time has to move so quickly...I want to just enjoy this new little one for longer. Yet at the same time it seems like Keegan has been a part of our family forever, its hard for me to even think of him not being there, not being the little brother. Time is such a funny thing, but mainly Im just glad he's ours!!!

It's really happening

We are getting an addition on our house! Yeah!

So far, all wires have been ran underground instead of above ground like they were before, the tramp and swing set have been ripped out (with many tears from Kyler) some trees out back have been removed, with tears to begin with...and well after days of trying to remove a nasty big trees stump, the tears have turned to some cussing in our heads :-)

Concrete was supposed to be poured this week, but I think this week will be put on hold as Joels uncle Terry is going to pass away probably today, so Travis (who is helping us build the house and Terry's son) is going to need to spend much needed time with family this week! But hopefully next week we will be back in the swing of things :-)

Keegans Blessing

So, I just started working on baby books, and realized that we never even bought Parlee and baby book! I know what terrible parents we are! Anyhow, Joel is huge about keeping a baby book, he is always asking if Ive written in them lately. I'll say that I havent but that Ive written stuff on my blog. Joel when then say something like a blog isnt the only place you should record stuff...well Im here to say Im so glad I have a blog and Im going to be a lot better about recording stuff here, and not worrying about if I have a picture to add or not, because today I was about to go back over the last 3 years and find dates, stories and facts to update baby books! How great is that! Thank you blog!!!


Anyhow, to keep with updating things and archiving, Keegan was blessed Sunday August 7th, the day after Tarans blessing...wow doing two big events and two seperate luncheons within 2 days with only a 2 week old baby was a lot!!! But it all turned out great, we had a lot of family come to the blessing, Joel gave a really nice blessing and then we all came back to our house for lunch, it was very casual and nice! Keegan actually slept during the entire luncheon!

Keegans blessing was the first blessing that Joel said he was seriously worried about the baby crying during the blessing. Keegan cries alot, he just like to nurse and sleep :-) But needless to say he did well, he didnt cry once during the blessing, but he didnt make it all the way through sacrament, he was crying by the end :-)

Tarans baptism

On Saturday August 6th Taran was baptism a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints...Taran has been looking forward to this day for a LONG time! In fact he was supposed to be baptized on July 10th, but we worried that we could have a small baby right then and decided to move it back one month so that we could do it on the same weekend that the babies blessing would be (of course we figured we would have at least a month old baby by then). For the last few months Taran would say things like "so mom and dad, do you want to talk to me about my baptism?" you could tell he just was so excited that he was always hoping we would have something new to tell him to prepare him....The night before he wanted Joel to practice how to hold his arms, over and over again, of course Parlee and Kyler also wanted to pretend that they were being baptized too.

His baptism was great, it was the same day as Mason Abbots in our ward, so we had our family and his there. After we went to the park to eat, we invited the Abbotts to come with us and also the Maxwells were there. It was nice to have some friends there for Taran!

my little boy

I just cant get enough of this sweet little boy!

But for your entertainment I have a funny story, today I drove through Conrads car wash, and part way through the car wash, my car just stopped on the track, it stopped right when this big blue sheet like thing was over my windshield, so I didnt dare try to put it into drive and try to drive down the track a bit, for fear that the small car in front of me was stopped on the track ahead. needless to say the large white medical van behind me hit into the back of me, and the truck behind him hit into him....a worker came over and I had to roll down my window, which ended up soaking me, because the sprayers where still on, and he had me drive throw the rest of the way with my window down....the funny thing is they didnt even offer to refund my money, offer my a free wash or anything, they never even asked if my car was dented. I guess one of my wheels went off the track. The guy in the van came up to me after and said that his wheel went off to and they had to guide him trough too. odd huh? ...I did go and ask them for at least another free wash, because my car was still looking cruddy because they turned the dryers off

Keegan

We are loving our time with the newest member of our family! How lucky are we to be blessed with another sweet baby in our family, nothing is better then a new baby!

He is loved (WAY TOO MUCH), I feel like he is constantly being mauled. I have to ask the kids to leave him alone sometimes. He is always being kissed. He has even been dropped (by Parlee who picked him up and dropped him on the floor before we even noticed...and he never even cried, that's a fifth baby for you!)

He has a name

He has a name, and its not just cute baby :-)
it's

Keegan Joel Stout

Never a dull moment

Thats my motto at our home!

As if having a baby isn't enough excitment in our home, we like to step things up a bit!

Last night when my mom was visiting, and we were cleaning up from dinner that a neighbor brought....the kids were out side playing while we got dessert ready, and Parlee came inside screaming with blood pouring (not an understatement) down her face.

She must have fallen and hit the bench out front and ended up with a nice little gash in her forehead! Luckily my mom was here, so Joel and I quickly loaded up Parlee and headed to Instacare (Yes, Joel was mad that I didnt just stay home, but honestly I couldnt just sit at home)

We called Instacare and told them we were on our way, so that we wouldnt have to wait around. They got us right in and put a jell on her cut to numb her instead of a shot....at this point Parlee was happy go lucky and I was kind of a wreck. After about 20 minutes they came in to tell us that they were going to burrito wrap her up and have a nurse and Joel hold her down while the Dr. stitched her up. They told us that all the kids freak out and perhaps I should leave. I told them I would leave if I needed too, but Parlee was doing fine at the moment so I would stay in.

The wrapped Parlee up...and she did fine, we talked to her and told her she was such a big girl, she stayed perfectly still.

The Doctor put the first stitch in and Palree said "ow" in the cutest quietest voice ever. We all had to smile...then on the next stitch she said it again..it was so quite and so darned cute, the doctor and nurse where totally smiling and commenting about her. So then I figured I would get out my cell phone and take a picture, when i took the picture Parlee said 'Cheese" and thats wen everyone lost it, we were all laughing at her. It was so unexpected! Im so glad I was there instead of home worrying about her.

Parlee has done great ever since, she hasnt complained once! Her stitches come out next Wednesday, she has 5 of them.

It's a.....

It's a BOY!

He was born last night at 9:30pm
9 lbs 8 oz
No name yet :-)

No baby still

Cake, castor oil and patience :-)

At this point I figure I can have chocolate cake for breakfast right? Honestly who is going to tell someone as pregnant as me to have something else...Im kind of thinking if I ate nothing but cake, no one would say anything either :-)

My midwife appointment today went something like this... Im measuring at 41 and a half weeks. I will be seeing the midwife again in a couple of days to see if anything has progressed. Starting Friday she will as she said 'be more aggressive' about getting this baby here YEAH! because we are starting to get concerned, and so was she...so hopefully for real this time the baby should be coming soon. She did say that everything looked like I wouldnt make it to the Friday appointment, which is not like her to say. However I have thought many times I wouldnt make it to this point :-)

My past week went something like this....I knew the baby would be coming last week...I mean really how could it not? Or so I thought. I dont care about dates or anything like that, its all the signs that make it so frustrating. Like loosing the plug weeks ago, and having 4 kids that are born within 1 1/2 weeks after that....seems pretty good odds to bank on the fact that the baby would be born within a week and a half right? Being dilated to a 5...I mean seriously! The baby dropping, so low that its hard to walk. Contractions galore. My measurement all pointing to the 4th of July, not to mention I NEVER measure big EVER! In fact Ive never measured more then 38 weeks before....I dont know I guess all of that made me pretty convinced this baby would be here. But its not.

I've tried to hurry the baby along, I took Kohosh, and herb that now if I smell I throw up, it did nothing. In fact the other day Joely opened up the bottle in the car the other day, and I had to pull the car over to toss my cookies for about 5 minutes!

I've gone on tons of walk (even though it is hard to walk) I've even googled this 'labor' inducing walk that has you walk with one foot on the curb and one on the road. I tried that the other night (at midnight to avoid hopefully anyone seeing) It was ridiculous and still no baby.

I've get on the ellipticle almost ever day, I jumped on the trampoline (no that wasnt tremors you felt from an earthquake, it was just me)...no baby.

On Saturday, I broke down and tried Castor oil....and a LOT of it! I started with a Tbs...nothing happened. So an hour later I tried some more, and then more. Nothing happened. So we went to bed.....I woke up at 1:30 and it was working! I had way hard contractions and of course the diarreaha. Wow, that stuff is crazy! But after 9 hours of misery, I still had no baby!

So, we have changed our prayers, to pray for patience! As I guess there really isnt anything else we can do. Though I have to admit, I am getting a little nervous, I try not to, but this is really wearing on my mind, and Joels too. We both have dark circles under our eyes from lack of sleep...since Im up most nights with contractions.


Also this week, I went to sacrament to hear the girls camp talks. I was delighted and surprised that when the Bishop saw me, he called me up to bear my testimony too. I think thats the best way to give a talk, there's no time to be nervous, or no stressing about it all week. Its kind of what you see is what you get, I gotta admit, thats a nice way to go!

Well, here's to patience, and of course hoping that this baby comes!

today

No baby, but dialated to a five today!

This and That

What a fun week we have had (at least when Im not crying because Im still pregnant).


We celebrated the 4th yesterday (complete with a insurance claim). We all dressed in something red, white or clue, except Joel who wore green (party pooper). We started the day out with Joels family. For lunch we headed to Pizza Factory with all the crew that was here in town. All the kids were obsessed with the darned quarter candy machines in the little waiting area. Have I mentioned I hate those darned machines. Anyhow Kyler is beyond obsessed with them, he packs a quarter in his pocket where ever we go "just in case" we find a quarter machine. The kids had exausted all the quarters by the time we were seated, except one quarter that I kept in my purse for Kyler to use at the end if he was good in the restraunt. Needless to say at the end, he got his quarter, and started to run out to our car, knowing their were more quarters out there. Well, he beat us to the car and threw open the excursion door and completely dented the car next to us!....Needless to say thats where the insurance claim comes in. Luckily its already all taken care of, and we waited around to talk to the people who owned to car, just so that we could appologize and get everything figured out.
Later we had a BBQ at my grandparents house, then Joel took the older kids to Vernon Werthen park to see the fireworks, I stayed with Parlee to watch them from my grandparents house. Parlee loved, loved, loved the fireworks. She kept yelling "more" after each firework and saying "I love it" over and over again. It really was funny! She viewed ALL the fireworks from the 'seat' my belly makes. Nope she didnt sit on my lap, she perched herself right on my belly for the full half hour (how did that not push the baby out?)

The 3rd was Parlee's 2nd birthday! She had a fun birthday, having grandma and grandpa stout and uncle Aaron over for dinner, cake and icecream. She loved being sang too, and was so cute about blowing out her candles. She blew them out so daintily (is that a real word). Kyler was too cute and wrapped up one of his train toys for her for her birthday, he was so proud of that!

Saturday: We took off to Zions to try and get my mind off things, he went to the temple of Sinawava and played around the river. We also took the kids to a rock and gem store, they got to pick out some rocks, and then we bought three geodes for the kids to crack open after Parlees birthday the next day (The geodes where a huge hit!), (hee hee no pun intended).

Other things we've done this week: went to Judd's for breadsticks and ate them at Greene Gate Village, that sure brings back memories of 6th grade! Checked out the new carousel they are putting in at city center. Watched more movies then we should admit too (its just too hot) Saw 17 miracles at the theaters. Oh and my favorite thing ever (I swear at this point it was cooler then getting a diamond necklace!) Joel bought me a giant bag of the little pebble ice from Iceberg! Yum! I am obsessed with eating ice when I am pregnant, so he went and got me my own huge bag of perfect little ice! I love it! Im not even joking, I cant think of a more perfect present then a bag of ice right now!!!

big belly

Just a few of the pictures that Amber took of me the other night.

Some thoughts from that night:

1. I miss my callouses on my feet, the other day I had a pedicure with two of my friends, all my yucky looking callouses were removed. While taking these pictures I was walking around bare foot most of the time and I realized that I quite miss those callouses!



2.Im a wimp! By the end of taking pictures I was so tired! I actually had to sit down after almost each picture once Joel got there.

3. I have no creative eye for pictures! I was amazed at things Amber would say or do, and thought to myself I'd never have thought of that.




4. I think photo editing is so cool! The picture of my laying down with my eyes closed...well I really like that picture and I think its super cool that my sleeve is FAKE! serious when I went to put my arm above my head my sleeve was showing my garments and of course my ever so cute arm pits, and Amber told me not to worry about it. Sure enough when the pictures came back I miraculously had a sleeve that looked a little longer...I consider that up their with magic :-)