Isaac is here!

Let's start with the important part - Isaac was born this morning at 11:01. He weighs a respectable 7 pounds 9 ounces, and is 19 1/2 inches long/tall - depending on your perspective! :) He's got a little bit of dark hair and very long fingernails. So far he likes to sleep, and he's very good at it. I'm sure he's going to practice a different skill once we get him home!

Here are a few photos:

Resting between new experiences.

Enjoying a gentle shampoo.

Getting to know the family

I'll post a better blog post from home soon, and Julie will post an even better one when she can. Right now, she's resting!

February come and gone…

The middle of February surprised us with one of about three snows we got this winter.  It snowed on Sunday and Rachel called to see if there was still snow left on Monday if we wanted to go sledding – of course!  There really wasn’t much snow left, and the ground was really soggy, but that didn’t stop us.  Neil wasn’t too sure about the sleds, but the kids took him anyway.For Valentine’s Day I did Abbie’s hair in hearts.  Neil saw us trying to get a picture and wanted to be just like Abbie.  It was so funny!   Do you love him leaning backward to show me his hair too?   I also got to go to Abbie’s class for her class party.  The kids in her class were really good and it was fun to be there with them.  I had made some material heart “mice” with long ribbon tails and if you rolled doubles you tried to capture everyone's mouse with a pan lid before they pulled them out of the way. Spencer got out the horse costume after church one Sunday and Neil tried it on too.  What a cute little guy!Mark built this Lincoln Log house.  He explained all it’s features and such, but I just can’t remember.  It was certainly cool though.

For a conference Ken was attending all the credit union’s were asked to make a commercial and since no one on his staff really wanted to be in it Ken let the kids do it.  They were SO excited!  It took us 4 hours one Saturday to get it all taped.  You can read about it here on Mark’s blog: http://mkpayne.blogspot.com/2012/03/commercial.html 

Ken’s friend helped edit it down to a 1 minute movie and added the sound track.  It won third place at the meeting and that made the kids happy too.

My Hero

After taping all morning we got to celebrate with a BBQ at Ken’s parents.  YEAH for yummy hamburgers!  One new thing they tried was using toasted English Muffins instead of buns.  It sounded kind of gross to me (I guess I can just remember the smell from toasting all those muffins so long ago when I worked at McDonalds), but we gave it a try and it was FABULOUS!!  and probably healthier too.  So try it!  You might be surprised and find a new favorite to share with your family too.  I forgot to take pictures while we were there until the very end.  Ken and the boys came home early while the girls and I stayed a played a couple games with Grandma.  I tried to get a group picture with the timer on the camera, but it completely cut Jessie out….well, there is her sleeve way over on the right side.Spencer and I made his poster for Star of the Week.  I sewed across the top of each of the flaps while Spencer ran the pedal.  He was so excited!  Neil and I went to his class on Friday and read The Legend of the Golden Snail to his class.Spencer and Abbie were eating some of the pepperoni while Ken put together their lunches for school.  Then they brought me in to see their creation.Neil love to go visit dad at work!  We had made some cookies to take up and surprise him. Here’s Spencer’s cute penguin he made at school.And his class did a little play of The Wild Things.  Here’s his mask.  Neil also loves to wear it.Neil was helping mark off chores on our Saturday list.  Thanks buddy!Rachel invited us to go to a girls gymnastics meet with her up at BYU.  The girls and Spencer came with me.  It was amazing to watch, but after two rotations Spencer was bored.The boys stayed home and got ready for our own BBQ.  Mark was SO excited because he got to use his new fire starter from his birthday to light the fire!  What a lucky guy.  Oh, and February is still a cold month, even if it looks warmer outside.I let a friend borrow our GeoTracks for about 4 months while she was watching her nephew.  When she brought them back it was like Christmas for the kids; they played with them almost everyday that next week.  I think I should loan out more of our toys! Any offers??  Here’s Abbie’s and Spencer’s track.Neil loves playing with the kids.  And I love it too!Neil helped pass out the cards while Ken and Spencer played Candy Land.  What a good helper!Jessie is a read-a-holic.  She had two books open here that she was reading from….not quite sure how she managed that one.Mark’s science project made it to district level.  He was pretty excited.  We went down to set up the display and found out that the date had been moved to the next week, his teacher had forgotten to tell us.  :-(    That was kind of stinky because the next Wednesday I had Activity Days and Jessie was at the temple with the Young Women so I had no babysitter…..and so it was a crazy mess of a day, not to mention that we found out after we set up his display that he had to be down there with it for the judging for an hour and a half that we didn’t know about it.  It was a rather frustrating experience.  Oh well, live and learn (and write a letter to the school district!).  His dad helped his make up a new poster that would stand up on it’s own.  What a great dad!More morning food art:  Yum!  We love sharp cheddar cheese pretzels!And one last picture of Neil.  Not sure if Dad or Mark did his hair for him.

More of us

We spent almost an entire Saturday helping Mark with this year’s Science Fair project.  At first Mark had great aspirations: proving the wave-partial duality of light!  Ken finally convinced him that that was more of a PhD project than 5th grade project, and they headed to the library for some inspiration.  Ken had to work Saturday morning so Abbie and Spencer and I helped Mark do some testing on light refraction in water.  At first we tried dropping marbles into a mug submerged in a 5 gallon bucket of water.  We tried it from the side and from directly above and the kids made it easily almost every time.  They were having tons of fun, but not getting very far on proving that light really is bent a bit as it goes through water.  Mark even put his goggles on and stuck his face in that cold water to drop marbles in, just for fun.

Luckily for us when Ken came home he came up with a better plan.  Measuring the amount of refraction using the camera on a tripod and different substances dissolved in water.  He and Mark worked on the project the rest of the afternoon.  Mark was tired of projecting, but he didn’t get to go play until the poster was done.  YEA for getting something done a couple of days prior to the due date.

Neil and I were running errands when the kids got home from school.  When we arrived home Abbie and Spencer had set up a train ride for their animals in the living room and were “feeding” them from some empty milk dud and raisin boxes along with some toy dishes.  Neil thought this was the coolest thing ever!  They were really good about including him.  It was a great afternoon.

Ken and Mark and I enjoyed a BYU men’s volleyball game for Mark’s birthday.  It was fun to be together.  Afterwards while we waited for the huge crowds to disperse from the parking lot Ken and Mark walked across the street and got some French Fries and Frosties for us to share.  So kind of them to indulge the pregnant lady.For Ken’s dad’s birthday we made Parmesan Breadsticks.  The kids thought it was so “wow” that the dough exploded out of the top of the mixer.  I think Mark was the one to take the picture.  They turned out so yummy, but totally made us late when the cooking time took almost double what the recipe said.Grandma sent us some fun things to celebrate Valentines Day.  The kids were very excited to try out the little baking powder powered boats so during FHE treats we put them in our glass pitcher so everyone could see them go.  Thanks Mom, that was so fun!Neil loves to play the piano with the kids while they are trying to practice.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.Neil is also growing stronger in his humble opinions….  For example, he started picking out all the broken cereal pieces from Cheerios and Fruit Loops and refusing to eat them.  So now he doesn’t get to pick either of those cereals for breakfast; he’s just stuck with Mini Wheats and Oatmeal Squares because they are almost always whole.Jessie is really doing a great job practicing and learning on her flute.  Although the practicing part often gets up off until bedtime…..hummmm….anyway, her bird, Kiwi, also really enjoys her practicing and often joins her either sitting on her hand or the flute.  It’s been fun.  Now, if we could only teach him to tweet in tune with her.A couple of weeks ago I saw this totally cute idea for a card where they had punched out a shape and put pattered paper behind the punch out.  I had recently gotten a butterfly punch too and was so excited to try it out.  I ended up making 20 or so these cards and when I set them all up to admire them Ken called them my “butterfly garden.”  I just can’t get enough of them and have since made up a second set.Rachel invited us up to her apartment for a spaghetti dinner and homemade breadsticks.  It was tasty and even Neil ate something for dinner.  Afterwards she and the kids played a dance game on the Wii (I think), and then we played some SkipBo.  It’s always fun to be with Rachel.Spencer’s class at school did a lot of fun Valentine things.  One that he brought home he had made for Becca using conversation hearts and writing a note with them.   It was so sweet.Neil loves the kitty towel after his bath.He also LOVES to help cook.  It really doesn’t matter what it is.  Here he’s helping Ken stir the gravy for our Sunday pot roast dinner.  I didn’t get pictures of another cooking experience, but he had helped Ken make pancakes for the kids for breakfast.  I was not out of bed yet, but got up when Ken and Jessie left and went in to help to Abbie’s hair.  After I finished her hair I went into the kitchen to check and see what else needed to be done before the other kids left for school.  I was greeted with a measuring cup filled with cooking oil that had overflowed to fill almost the entire counter by the stove.  After making pancakes the bottle of oil had been left open and Neil decided to do some cooking of his own. So he started measuring and didn’t stop until the bottle, which was almost full, was almost empty.  What a mess!!And the last picture for this post: Don’t you love sisters!

January celebrations

So when I picked these pictures out to post on our blog I told Ken, “Yea me, after I post these pictures from last week the blog will be all caught up!”  Well, that was almost a month ago.  Wow, sometimes the days go so slow but then the month is gone in a blink of an eye.

So, onward and upward, right?

Rachel planned us a fun Chinese New Year dinner (but not too Chinese :-) ).  She came down and made Sweet and Sour Pineapple Chicken and we had a fun night together.  Here’s Jessie’s picture of her plate.  She thought it looked so pretty, but was disappointed that she actually had to eat all the veggies and the pineapple in addition to eating the chicken.

Remember that nasty stomach flu Mark had, well it surprised us again a week later, this time it was my turn.  YUCK!  Abbie or Spencer posted this sign on the bathroom door for me; warning everyone else they might want to use the downstairs bathroom instead, in case I came running (well I don’t actually run right at the moment, more like fast waddling).  It was very sweet of them in any event.The sickness showed up on Mark’s birthday, so I’m glad we had planned to celebrate the next day.  He still wanted to open gifts that night so Ken and the kids got that ready for him.  He got a hot spark, which he has been dying to get ever since he got to go to a fire starting activity with the 11-year old scouts, a BYU hoodie, and tickets to a BYU men’s volleyball game, and a cool drawing of his name from Abbie.

The following day was our big celebration for him.  Rachel came down and helped me make lasagna, Mark’s absolute favorite dinner.  Here’s Neil helping me stir together the cheeses.  She also brought him a balloon bouquet tied to Mark’s very own 1/2 gallon of whole milk.  He loved it!  Not only because it was whole milk, but since it was his he could drink from the jug without getting in trouble.Mark wanted coconut cream pie for his dessert (and we found out that it is also one of Grandma’s favorites too).  Singing, candles, and presents followed.  It was so great to have family here and Mark had a fabulous celebration.  Thanks for coming everyone!

The next day when Mark got home from school he was so kind to share the last of his pie with Abbie, Neil and me.Now that Neil loves baths all the kids (except Jessie) LOVE to be the ones to bathe with him.  And he just loves all the attention.For 100th day of school Abbie and Spencer both got to bring 100 things to class and did fun things there. Here’s Abbie’s monster with 100 words on his legs.And when Neil wanted to wear the movie star glasses during dinner one night Jessie just couldn’t get enough pictures of him.