Blessing Day

Matson was blessed on October 10th by his dad. I pretty much missed the whole thing due to my 2 year old who was yelling and jumping off the pews. It was certainly not how I imagined the day going, but John assures me that I'm not the first person to experience an out of control 2 year old on their baby's blessing day. :) I am grateful for a sweet lady in the ward who jotted down the blessing and handed it to me after the meeting. I really appreciate her thoughtfulness. It was wonderful to be surrounded by our family and to celebrate our new little Matson and the great blessing he is to our family. Thanks to all our family that came to be with us on this special day!

Our family with four kids--looking so complete!

Grandma and Grandpa Durrant

Grandma and Grandpa Peterson. My dad was in a lot of pain and having a hard day but we're glad he still was able to make it. :)

Here are a few pictures from the get together afterwards. Between our 2 families there are 21 kids under the age of 10 so these joint family occasions are quite an undertaking. We had 15 kids at the blessing and they all ate at the little preschool tables and then headed off in different directions to play. Carter loved having everyone here and wants to know when all of his cousins are coming for another party. :)

Matson

The Backpack

Yip. That's right--this year Emily's backpack was so special it gets it's own blog post. It's a lavendar and lime green tinkerbell backpack with wings and sparkly, fluffy straps. She fell in love with it the minute she saw it and said she had to have it because "it was like a costume" (in her words). And what could be better than wearing a tinkerbell costume to kindergarten every day?!?

I was honestly kind of embarrassed to send her off to school with that thing---it's that loud. I thought kids might make fun of it and hurt her feelings but Kelsie assured me that the kindergartners would think it was REALLY cool. I tried to find a different backpack that she would love just as much, but my efforts were in vain. Finally, she got really frustrated with me and told me "I want the one with wings. Then I can fly home from the bus every day!"

So there you have it. She needed the wings so she could fly home from school. And the great thing about Emily is she truly believes she can! Her imagination knows no bounds.

The above picture is the 1st day of school. She was beaming with pride as she put her Tink backpack on. She headed across the black top to her class and looked back at me grinning and said, "SEE. I CAN FLY!"

First Day of School

The first day of school for my little kindergartener and my not so little 3rd grader. The girls were SO excited to start school and to finally be together. They both got the teachers they wanted (and mom wanted) which made for a great, happy start to the school year. Hooray!

That's my little Emily heading to kindergarten. She was so excited to finally be at the big school with her sister and all her friends. I was a little worried about how she'd do since this summer she wouldn't go to church, birthday parties, or friends houses alone. But she skipped right into kindergarten grinning and never even looked back at me. That kid never fails to amaze me. Her teacher is super sweet and came highly recommended from Emily's best friend who had her last year which was a big bonus for Emily! She knew a few girls in the class already and she came home SO happy! She had 3 bits of news for me: she can almost do the monkey bars, there are no snacks in kindergarten, and you can only get drinks at recess. It was funny to hear what was noteworthy to my 5 year old. She was especially concerned about the drink rule and spent the rest of the day catching up on her water intake so she'd be ready for day 2. She is one funny girl.

Kelsie is off to Goodtown. Her teacher is the most requested teacher at the school (although they don't take requests--how does that work?) and now we know why. He is AMAZING. He made a personal visit to our house before school started to meet Kelsie and drop off papers. Kelsie came home bursting with excitement and couldn't stop talking about her teacher, Goodtown rules and jobs, the Goodtown puppets, the giant stoplight, etc... I have never seen her this excited or talkative about school and I'm so grateful she has such an amazing teacher this year.

Babies Don't Keep

I had to share this poem I recently heard and just love. It totally sums up how I feel right now (and yes, I totally cried when I read it). With this baby I'm not worried about spoiling him by holding him too much or any of the other nonsense I heard when I had Kelsie. I hold him every chance I get and I find myself just wanting to savor every little moment with him. I've never been so unproductive in my life and for once I don't feel guilty about it.

I read that this poem was written by a mother about her 5th child and I thought that made it even more meaningful.

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Babies Don’t Keep

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

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The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew

And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo

But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo

Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

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The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Newborn Photos

These pictures were taken when Matson was 8 days old. It was a little crazy trying to do pictures while he was so little and in the midst of Jaundice treatments, etc. But I'm so glad we did because I just love that these capture my little Matson while he was so new and tiny. He has been the best baby. He sleeps a ton and is so content. There is just something so sweet and angelic about him and we just love him to pieces.

I love this. He totally covers his face with his hands all the time--like he is trying to escape from all the chaos of our house--I really can't blame the boy.

This was the look I saw most during his first few days of life. Every time I tried to wake him to eat he looked so annoyed, almost like it was painful to open his eyes. :)

Love his little curled up legs and arms. He was so squishy. I wish they stayed that way longer!

My favorite. Totally captures my sweet boy.

Jaundice

In case you've always wondered what a billi-bed looks like---here it is. Matson was jaundice and spent 5 days in the billi-bed for light therapy and enjoyed daily trips to the hospital to have his heel pricked to check his billirubin levels. Poor kid.

There is something quite disturbing about walking into a room and seeing your newborn plugged into a wall all aglow. But the look on his little face made me more concerned. He would look at us as if to say, "I don't understand this world I've come to... What are THEY doing to me."