Emma's 10th Birthday

Well, better late than never, right?!?!  Here we are finally getting around to posting and actually interviewing.

Here is the Birthday Interview (in July):

How old are you today?  10 Years old

Do you have a nick name?  No, except when mom calls me "Mah"

What do you enjoy doing most?  Going to the lake house with Tessa and tubing!  What do  you enjoy in regular life the most?  Reading Harry Potter

What is your favorite book?  Harry Potter 2 or Princess Academy

What is your favorite animal?  A fox cub

What is your favorite color?  Majorca pink

What is your favorite food?  Swedish Meatballs

What is your favorite treat?  Apple pie with icecream

What is your favorite movie or show?  Mr. Peabody and Shermon

Where is your favorite place to go?  To the Lakehouse with Tessa
What is your second favorite place to go?  The farm

What is your favorite toy?  I don't have a favorite toy....because I don't play with toys anymore.

What is your favorite sport?  Soccer

What is your favorite time of the day?  Evening.  Why?  Because that's when Daddy comes home.

Who is your best friend?  Emma Vaughn.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Zoo Keeper.

Are you going to go to college?   Yes.

What would you like to study at college?  Animals.  What kind?  Carnavors.  Why?  Because they are cool.

What's your favorite talent that you have?  Playing the piano.

What have you learned in your years of experience so far?  That my Mom doesn't like clothes on the floor and Dad likes everything spic and span.

What grade are you in?  4th.

How was school for you, this year?  Good.

What are you going to do to make it better?  Have my desk in my room.  How will that help?  I won't have all the little kids bothering me.

What do you like most about school?  I don't know...recess.

What was your favorite project or science experiment so far this year?   I don't know.

Does Mom do an excellent, incredible or awesome job homeschooling?  All Three.

What would you like her to do differently?  Let me do some history on my own.

Are you a mammal, an amphibian or a reptile?   What do you think, Dad?  Grants a reptile, Dad's an amphibian, Mom is reptile, Kate is an amphibian, Arianna's an amphibian, Benson is a reptile and I'm a mammal.

If you encountered a chicken crossing the road, please describe what you would do first: Call 911.  Get all the Police there to stop traffic and then rescue the chicken.

What was been special about your birthday?  Mary came over.

What does Dad do for work?  He manages tractors to make sure they can do all the work on their own so that people don't have to sit in them to do all the work for hours and hours.

What does Mom do for work?  She stays home and takes care of the children.

How are you liking Georgia?  I like my friends, but the bugs have to go!

Do you miss Kansas?  I guess.

What do you miss most?  My friends.

What do you like most about Georgia?  Our house and yard.

Emma, how would you describe yourself?  Pretty, dazzaling, and beautiful.

What would you like to accomplish this next year, before you turn 11?  I want to be able to send my relatives a cd with 10 songs which I have written.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  I'll be on my mission, knocking on someone's door and they'll let me in.
What will the world be like when you're 30?  Probably the same?  Will cars fly?  My car will.  Will people talk more or less?  Emma V. will talk more and Dad will talk less.

Any last words for your Birthday interview?  I'd like a phone before I turn 11, or a Kindle.

Arianna's 8th Birthday

What a special birthday!  

Here is the Birthday Interview:

How old are you today?  8 years old.

Do you have a nick name?  yeah- Anna.

What do you enjoy doing most?  Playing with the bunnies

What is your favorite book?  Harry Potter

What is your favorite animal?  Bunny, no, no, no, dog

What is your favorite color?  yellow

What is your favorite food?  Ice cream

What is your favorite treat?  Ice cream.  Do you want to change the first one?  Nope

What is your favorite movie or show?  Rio and Rio 2

Where is your favorite place to go?  The mall

What is your favorite toy?  Legos

What is your favorite sport?  Soccer

What is your favorite time of the day?  Afternoon.  Why?  Because. . .then I’m finished with all my school and chores and I can watch a movie and play with the bunnies.

Who is your best friend?  Sunny (the bunny)

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A farmer, no a cowgirl.  I thought you wanted to be like Joe- retired with horses.  I did, but I changed my mind.

Are you going to go to college?  Nope.  Why not?  Because I don’t want to.  Do you know what you do at college?  Nope.  What if you get to eat lots of candy?  I would go.  What if you get to explore and play with animals?  I would go. 

What would you like to study at college?  Dogs, no cats.  You can learn about cats.  How much?  Everything!!! 

What's your favorite talent that you have?  Building Legos

What have you learned in your years of experience so far?  Nothing.  Are you sure?  Yup.  Sure?  Yes

What grade are you in?  3^rd grade. 

How is school going for you?  Bad.  Why?  Because.  I don’t like it.  It’s hard to like school. 

What are you going to do to make it better?  What would you like to do?  I would like to skip it.  You don’t want to learn anything?  No.

What do you like most about school?  Reading

What was your favorite project or science experiment so far this year?   I don’t know.  The Archimedes Screw

Does Mom do an excellent, incredible or awesome job homeschooling?  Incredible.

What would you like her to do differently?  Nothing.  What?  I thought you don’t like school?  What do you want be to do differently?  Be nicer.

Are you a mammal, an amphibian or a reptile?   A reptile

If you encountered a chicken crossing the road, please describe what you would do first:  I would catch it!

What was been special about your birthday?  I got cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat and a cowgirl shirt and a cowgirl belt- but it was too small.

What does Dad do for work?  He’s an engineer.  So, he designs tractors. 

What does Mom do for work?  Stay home.  Who’s job is harder?  Mom’s. Why?  Because it’s hard staying home. 

How are you liking Georgia?  Good. And bad.  Why bad?  There are too many bugs and bugs and bugs and poison ivy and poison oak.

Do you miss Kansas?  Nope.  Why not?  Because it had too many bugs.

What do you miss most?  So you don’t miss anything about Kansas?  Nope.  Do you miss anything about California?  Nope.

What do you like most about Georgia?  Animals.  What animals?  Lizards and toads and frogs.

Do you treat your siblings well?  Everyone except Grant.  Why?  Because.

Do you love them?  Everyone except Grant.

What do you think about having a new brother?  Good. 

What will be the first thing you teach Benson?  To eat

Arianna, how would you describe yourself?  I don’ know.  Can you please try? Yup. Right now.  Western.  Anything else?  Nope.

What would you like to accomplish this next year, before you turn 9?  I’d like to work at an animal shelter.

Any last words for your Birthday interview?  Nope.  Are you sure?  Actually there is.  Why do we do Birthday interviews?  So you can get a kick out of reading this when you are older.

Grant's 6th Birthday

Grant Birthday Interview

Here is the Birthday Interview:

How old are you today?  Six

Do you have a nick name?  No, {emma] Granty, No, Ant.

What do you enjoy doing most?  I don’t know, no, don’t do that.  Playing legos.

What is your favorite book?  I don’t know.  MOM: think of the ones we just finished.  Oh, Fudge.  Which ones, Super fudge, Fudge, .  All of them.

What is your favorite animal?  Camodo Dragon.

What is your favorite color?  Blue

What is your favorite food?  Pizza

What is your favorite treat?  Umm, Ice-cream in a cone

What is your favorite movie or show?  Diego

Where is your favorite place to go?  To the Stream

What is your favorite toy?  Remote controlled train

What is your favorite sport?  Soccer!

What is your favorite time of the day?  I don’t know.  Please think about it.  Is it breakfast time, is it snack time, school time, resting time, bedtime, when Dad comes home? Yes.

Who is your best friend?  Jacob Ellsworth

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Bird.  Why?  Because then I could fly around.  I want to be a bird like Fudge.

Are you going to go to college?  Maybe

What would you like to study at college?  Catching lizards

What's your favorite talent?  What are talents?  The things you can do well.  Shooting my bow and arrow.

What have you learned in your years of experience so far?  Umm umm umm, I don’t know, there are lots of thinks.  Ummm catching lizards.  What have you learned about catching lizards?  You have to be quiet to sneak up on them and they you can grab them.

What grade are you in?  1^st grade

How is school going for you?  Not good.  Why?  Because, it’s just not.

What are you going to do to make it better?  Umm, not do any school.

What do you like most about school?  Art

What was your favorite project or science experiment?  Doing the volcano in California

Does Mom do an excellent, incredible or awesome job homeschooling?  All of them.

What would you like her to do differently?  Do more science projects

Grant opted out of finishing the birthday interview this year.  We decided it wasn't a battle worth waging.

Are you a mammal, an amphibian or a reptile? 

If you encountered a chicken crossing the road, please describe what you would do first: 

What was been special about your birthday? 

What does Dad do for work? 

What does Mom do for work? 

How are you liking Georgia? 

Do you miss Kansas? 

What do you miss most? 

What do you like most about Georgia? 

Do you treat your siblings well? 

Do you love them? 

What do you think about having a new brother?

What will be the first thing you teach Benson?

Grant, how would you describe yourself? 

What would you like to accomplish this next year, before you turn 7?

Any last words for your Birthday interview?  

Baby Benson

Benson is coming up on four months old already!!!  He is such a joy to have in our family.  I love this baby!!!  As long as he is fed and has sufficient sleep, he is a very happy baby.  Between naps, after nursing, he will just hang out in his swing or bouncy seat or on a blanket- happy as a clam.  I am so thankful for that!
 Benson was born 4 days after his due date and was healthy as can be!  (Four very welcome days which allowed us to get a little bit more situated in our new home.)  I was able to have him naturally and so my recovery was great!  I felt the best after this birth than I ever have.  For the first time with any of the babies I actually did not cry when it was time to leave the hospital.  Usually I am a complete emotional mess, but this time I was just so happy and I felt great.  The crying all happened after I got home.  Our first night home from the hospital was the first night in our new home. (Talk about stressful!) .  At least we were able to do quite a bit of unpacking the week before he was born i.e. at least the kitchen was unpacked.  But, there was still so much undone.  Entirely too much craziness with a newborn and 4 other children.  My stress level was out the roof!
Luckily my mom was here and helped me to take care of what needed to be done and be calm about all the rest that I wanted done, but was not an immediate need.  Thank goodness for moms!  I love you, MOM!!!!
The kids adore Benson and for the most part he has been a very pleasant baby.  He was pretty gassy and burped and spit up a fair amount, but he is a pretty consolable baby, for which I am grateful.  Babies are such miracles and I am so thankful for him even though the first few weeks are so difficult.
 On Thursday, July 23, I had some contractions in the early morning.  They weren't terribly regular,but I felt very different than I had the past couple of weeks.  I decided that it was the day to go to the hospital to have the baby. I had Arianna very quickly (almost didn't make it to the hospital) and once I was in transition with Kate it all happened very quickly.  I didn't really want to have a baby during the half hour drive to the hospital, so I decided to be safe and go before I was REALLY in labor, if you know what I mean.

Here I am just before we left the apartment for the hospital.  40 weeks and 3 days along.

 When we got to the hospital, they checked me out and said I was at a 5 and was definitely in labor.  With it being my 5th child and all they said I did the right thing to come to the hospital.  We got settled in a room by 10 am or so and then everything pretty much stopped.  NO contractions, nothing.  Kenneth and I were just hanging out and talking to the midwives and waiting.  I took walks around the hall- still nothing.  By the afternoon, Kenneth wanted us to just go home and wait there until I was really in labor again.   Part of me wanted to go home and part of me was nervous to go home.  So, I kept putting off making the decision.  They let me have some lunch (thank goodness!) and I chilled out while Kenneth went home to help get the kids to bed.  I walked the halls alone and just sat on the birthing ball and read and thought.  Nothing.  I started to be very discouraged- why had I felt like I should come to the hospital?  Finally in the late evening I was very discouraged to the point of tears.  I decided that I would go home after all.  The midwife wanted to check me one more time and monitor the baby and the contractions for a period of time before she released me.  During that time, the baby's heart rate dropped during one of the contractions and the midwife came back in and said she had made the decision for me- I needed to stay so she could monitor that baby.  So, around 11 pm, we settled in for the night.  I rested/slept until 1 am and started to have regular contractions. I woke Kenneth up between 2 and 3 and things really started picking up.  I went out and told the nurses that my last baby came very quickly once things got going, so they came in and got the room all prepped shortly thereafter.  They waited a long time to wake the midwife who was asleep in the hospital and she just made it in time to deliver the baby.  The cord was wrapped around his neck when he came out, so he was blue, but pinked up very quickly after they unwrapped it.  He was born at 5:15 am.  All on his own, completely naturally.  What can I say, he was meant to be a Pioneer Day baby!  And he was a boy!!!!!  We were overjoyed!  It was a surprise and a very welcome one!  Kenneth was over the moon!  He got another boy!!

Just after birth- lots of hair on this little angel

What is happening!

That's a little better.

Daddy with his boy.

So proud.

So peaceful and new

So tiny and pure

Definitely a boy

The kids came to meet their little brother:

Everyone wanted to check him out at once!

Arianna with Benson

They all wanted to check out his hair. . .and his toes.

Emma looks so grown-up to me in this picture!  

Brothers.

Kisses

We figured feeding the kids lunch at the hospital was a way to keep them from bouncing off the walls at least for a few minutes. 

Hearing test in progress.  This picture makes me laugh!

The show of the day- baby Benson gets a bath.

First family picture with FIVE children!

More snuggle time- and poor little Kate is so tired.  

Snuggles!

My boys!

The blue-eyed girls + Benson

My mom actually stayed with me in the hospital the night Benson was born and Kenneth went home to be with the kids.  My mom was so helpful!

Grandma Pilz with sweet little baby Benson

We went home from the hospital the next afternoon.  We went home straight to the new house.  I napped and then we went to the apartment  for the last time to eat leftovers, for the kids and Dad to have one last swim and to clear everything out.  It was not the smartest move on our part.  It ended up being very overwhelming for me.  We finally finished clearing and cleaning and then went back to the new house for my first night sleeping there.  And Benson kept me up until 2:30 am!  I was just beside myself with exhaustion!  Good thing my mom was there and I didn't have to get up with the kids in the morning!
These next few are from our first few days at home:

This is one of my favorite pictures of Benson.  I love it when their little legs are still all folded up.  He still has lots of hair here, but most of it fell out!

So tiny.

Sunday afternoon nap with Dad.

Went to walk around the temple with Mom at 3 days old.  We had a Dr. appointment right around the corner.

Kate adores you!

Emma loves to play with her baby 'doll'

Before and Afters

Well, hello world!!!(All 4 of you who actually read this blog!)  I am finally sitting down to catch up on the blog posts I've missed in the past 4 months.
We bought a house in Georgia which sits on one acre.  We fell in love with the house and the property- it is beautiful and pretty private and a lot of fun for the kids.  There is a creek that runs right by the property, a big, long driveway plus our neighbor's long driveway that he lets them ride bikes on.  It is wonderful!  Many times I miss living in a neighborhood, but there are also many times when I do NOT miss living in a neighborhood.  Especially when we hear about all the woes of living with an HOA, which most of the neighborhoods around here have.
We knew the house would need a fair bit of love and work before we moved into it, but we really underestimated how much work would be involved.  We thought we only needed to paint the bedrooms.  Well, as it turned out, the whole house was in major need of a paint job!!  We very quickly realized we would not be able to paint it all on our own- not with me being so pregnant and with your fairly young children and Kenneth working full time!  So, we finally broke down and hired most of it out (after we had done all the prepwork- which involved major cleaning of the walls because the previous owners had pets, spackling. sanding, wood-filling dents in the window sills,etc.  It was a lot of work!!!  I spent hours looking at paint colors on pinterest and was very pleased with my color choices.  We had the painters paint 3 bedrooms, the schoolroom, the front hall, and family room.  We painted the laundry room, our bathroom, the kitchen, dining room and the living room.  Sheesh!!  It was a lot of work!  We still have the downstairs bathroom, mudroom, and hall closet that really could use paint. . .eventually.  We also decided that the garage floor needed to be refinished.  Kenneth spent hours researching how to epoxy a garage floor.  That project took forever to complete and wasn't done when we moved in- which meant all our junk that the movers brought that would have belonged in the garage had to live on the front and back porches for several weeks.  Good thing we didn't live in a neighborhood with an HOA- we would have been kicked out!  Through all this time, our dear neighbor, Joe, mowed our lawn for us.  He saw how many kids we had and that we had so much work to do on the house and just did it.  What a Godsend he was for us!!
So, without any further ado, here are some of the before and after pictures of what we did to the house.  You can't really tell how awful the paint looked before in these pictures.  The walls and baseboards were so dinged up and dirty and ugly.  It is so nice to have it all fresh and new!

Our home- bushes in desperate need of a trim!

Family room before

Family room after

Dining room before

Dining room after

Opposite view of dining room after- looking into the living room

Living room before

Living room before- there were loads of outlets and we decided to cove most of them up.

Kenneth had to patch 10 or so outlet covers on the perimeter of the ceiling in the living room.  We did a great job!  It looks so much better!

More outlets to patch

Living room after- we kept the same color because we liked it so well.

Living room after- looking into the dining room

These next few pictures we had already ripped out the carpets, so you're seeing the bare floors in the before pictures and the new carpet in the after pictures.

Grant's room before

Grant's room before

Grant's room after 

Grant's room after

School room before

School room before with color samples on the wall

School room after

School room after- we love this color!!  So calming

Girls' room before- little Kate did such a good job napping in here while we were at the house everyday to work- we just saved a little piece of carpet pad and put a blanket on it for her to nap on.

Girls' room after- we used the same wall color in all the bedrooms and the family room

Girls' room after

Master bedroom before

Master bedroom before- we actually decided to use this same color in the dining room!

Master bedroom after

Master bathroom before- with some paint samples on the wall

Master bathroom before

Master bathroom after

Master bathroom after

Laundry room before

Laundry room after- opposite view

Kitchen before

Kitchen after

Front hall- this is a before shot, but we kept the same color- just added the color on the stairs between the board and batten.- instead of it being all white.

Front hall- we kept the same color

Front hall 

Garage before

Garage after

Garage after

Kids enjoying ice cream in front of the house

Well, there you have it!  It was a lot of hard work and even after moving in there were lots of things that still needed fixing: the doorbell, the garage door, the kitchen faucet, hardware in master bath, etc.  But, we are mostly really enjoying our new home.  Next post. . .Benson's birth!