Elody's Baby Blessing

Today was my little Elody's baby blessing.

After church we had a luncheon at our house with Matt's family. Most of his siblings and his Mother were able to come. We had a potato bar and Green salad. It was very simple. For our dessert Matt made a pan of granola apple crisp bars and a peach ones too, made with whole grain flour and served with whip cream. It was very yummy.

The kids had a ball with their cousins.

After we came home, we took pictures and then I took off Elody's dress. Shortly after while I was holding her, KABOOM! All over her and my dress.

Matt's brothers and b-i-law left to right: Aaron, Ben, Ryan, Matt holding Elody, Nate, and Jake.





(This post doesn't look very organized, but this program is not very user friendly. Just know that I tried.)

What Safia has said that I want to record in writing

1. We were driving home from an activity and found ourselves behind a truck with an advertisement for some drink on the back of it with a big picture of Carrie Underwood. Safia saw it and said, There's that Carrie Under"wear" girl. We all busted up laughing.

2. The other day Safia asked me, "When Beau turns 3, is he going to make messes?" I busted up laughing and responded, "I hope not!"

3. This is more of a spiritual nature. We were sitting in sacrament meeting when Safia asked me, "Who's that baby over there?" I said, "What?" She said again, "Who's that baby over there?" I said, "I don't see a baby." She asked again, "Who's that baby over there?" I said to her, "Show me where you see a baby." She pointed over to a lady in my ward who was sitting behind us and over a little bit, named Julie. All I could say was, "Oh." There was no baby there. Then she was off talking about something else. About two months before Safia was born, Julie lost a baby girl 8 months along. The cord was wrapped around her neck and she died. It reminded me of when Safia saw a ghost in her room over a year ago which I posted 4/14/08 entitled "She's a beast!"

My husband loves me!

Before I conceived Elody, I spent a lot of time biking to loose weight and get into shape. I rode Matt's bike. Well, this year he decided to buy me my own. Walmart had this bike out front on clearance and he bought it for me. I was a return and Walmart was trying to get rid of it. Matt checked it out and it works just fine. It just needed the gears adjusted a little and he took care of it. This morning we went on our first bike ride together. We get our dates in however we can.

Garden produce

We have had better luck with our garden this year producing tomatoes. We use to plant our row going east and west. This year we planted them north and south and put the tomatoes closest to the house. This way they don't get the afternoon sun and don't burn up in July. I actually had enough tomatoes at once to bottle a batch of 7 quarts on Tuesday. Jileigh and Angelique helped me all the way through. Talon held Elody the whole time. I couldn't and wouldn't have done it without them.

Pictures for fun!

Every afternoon the kids like to go swimming. After I took the picture of Beau for the last post, Some of the other kids wanted their picture taken too. Poor little Elody gets to just sit in her swing while we all swim.

Beau's progress

Last Sunday morning when Matt set Beau down to his breakfast, he took away his pacifier and gave it to me. I hid it away and he hasn't asked for it since which has been a huge shock to us. He was a bit sick to two weeks previous and had it in his mouth constantly. So he is broken from the pacifier.

Also this week, he has been wanting to get in the pool, but doesn't go in unless I am with him thank goodness. The first day he wouldn't do much. He wouldn't even let go of me. Then gradually he has been learning how to kick and learning how to move his arms in the water. Yesterday I got him to the point that he would jump to me from the ladder, then turn around kicking and moving his arms with me just holding his belly. He still doesn't get the holding the breath thing and putting his face under water, but we will keep working on it. I need to get a picture at the end of the summer of my kids with their dark tans. Beau doesn't have any tan lines because he insists on going into the pool in the buff. We make him wear a suit if we have cousins or friends over and for taking pictures. After he is done swimming, he gets in the tub to warm up. Today he surprised me by bringing his truck in with him. Have I mentioned that he loves his truck?!

Then the past couple of days he has been running to the toilet on his own!!! I usually just take him every couple of hours and set him on the toilet, but I have been loosing track of time which has given him the opportunity to think on his own to use the toilet and he has been. I am totally impressed.

He has really turned into a Daddy's boy since I had Elody. He wants Matt to do almost everything for him, like get his food for him, get him ready and put him to bed, hold him during church etc. I love it! Sometimes I wish I could keep him 2 years old.

She smiles!

Elody finally went to sleep before 11 pm! She went to sleep at 10:30 pm and stayed asleep until 4 am. She nursed and went back to sleep until 7:30 am. She was so happy that I finally got a smiling picture of her. She is 7 1/2 weeks old.

If you click on the picture and look at her right arm, you can see her birth mark.

A memory to record

This evening when it started to cool off, Matt decided to mow the lawn. While Matt was starting up the lawn mower, Beauchene ran into the house, into the bedroom, and found his monster truck. He pushed it outside and pushed it back and forth along side Matt mowing the lawn. It was the cutest thing so I had to take a couple of pictures of it. Yes, he has a bare bum, but that's been the best way to toilet-train him. I took the pictures from the foyer in the house because I didn't want Beauchene to see me and stop moving, so the white part of the picture is the door frame.

24th of July weekend

We decided to go to the Ranch for the 24th of July weekend. We weren't sure if anyone else would be there and discovered that most of the Grygla family was there. I was grateful to have family to visit with and help with the baby. We got up there about 3:30 on Friday after noon. It was plenty of time for the kids to get in their swimsuits and play their hearts out in the pond and sand. Friday evening, the kids and men had fun with the fireworks. Matt came up with the idea to tape fireworks to his arrows and Talon's arrows, light them on fire and then shoot them up in the air to go off. Well, on one of them, Talon waited too long and as you can see, they went off in his face. He wasn't hurt at all, just startled. Jileigh just happened to capture the moment with my camera. The next picture Talon is holding a firework in his hand and pretending to be the Statue of Liberty.

Jileigh took this picture of Elody and I added just because it is cute. I love the baby "cactus" sleeping position.

On Saturday, Matt talked his cousin Stephanie into watching Elody for a while so we could go on a ride on the 4-wheeler. We went up a canyon. As we were going along, we went through a swarm of deer flies. I got about a dozen bites and Matt didn't get any. I guess I taste better than he does. We stopped where the trail ended and hiked up a ways. I got too tired and stopped while Matt went up to the top. He took some great pictures up there. He hadn't been up that way before and was thrilled to see some really cool sites. When we got back, Erin, another cousin, came outside holding Elody to give back to us. They were happy to let us have some alone time.

We left Saturday night and got home at 11 pm. We were exhausted, but Elody was wide awake. Toward midnight she would fall asleep, I would put her down, and then she would wake up again. Finally, I just brought her into bed with me and cuddled her. She stayed asleep this time. I so do not want her to get into a habit of sleeping with me, but I am afraid that it will be inevitable.

All tuckered out

This afternoon the kids went swimming. Beau hadn't had his nap yet. Some days he just doesn't take one. Anyway, after they went swimming, they all went to lie down on the concrete to warm up. Well, as you can see, Little Beau fell asleep. Too sweet to not take a picture of.

Summer Salsa - It doesn't get better!

Today we picked some tomatoes from our garden and made my favorite salsa. I have been working on this recipe for years trying to perfect it to my taste and here it is. It has fresh tomatoes, avocado, mango, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, red onion, fresh cilantro and seasonings. This is how I finally got my kids to start eating salsa. So this is my masterpiece of the day.

Precious moment with Beau

Last night Matt had to go to bed early, so I was on my own getting the kids to bed. The older kids go to bed fine, but Beauchene usually climbs into bed with Matt and me with his arms around my neck and then goes to sleep. Then I will carry him to his bed. Well last night I was dealing with Elody trying to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep for the night. Every time I tried to put her down, she would wake up. Beauchene came into my room wanting me to hold him. So I knelt down, gave him a hug, and asked him to please go climb in bed with Jaren tonight. He just said to me, "OK" and he did it and went to sleep. I was in awe. That was huge for him. He has never been willing to do that. It was such a relief to me to know that he is capable of going to his bed on his own. I ended up getting Elody to stay asleep at 11:15 pm after 1 1/4 hours of working with her. She just has her biological clock set to go to bed at that time and I am trying to get that time moved up. She will then sleep for about 4 hours, nurse, sleep for another 3 hours, nurse, and wake up at about 9 am.

Summer fun!

The kids are trying to find ways to entertain themselves this summer.

In the morning we work on cleaning up or tidying up the house and their rooms. This is also the time that they do their reading. I let them watch TV or a movie in the early afternoon, and then they swim after 3 or 4 pm. The sun is way too hard on their skin before then. We have been going to the park on Tuesdays for the potluck picnic at the park. Sometimes on Thursdays we have been going to the Thursday playgroup to different places within a half hour drive. One day this past week, they pulled out the marble racer game and played with it for hours.

Today they got out Jileigh's tea set and had a tea party. They got all dressed up and the girls put on make-up. So we gathered them together outside and took some pictures just for fun.

1 month old Bear picture

Today Elody is 6 weeks old, but this was taken a couple of weeks ago when she was 1 month old.

Teeth cleanings

Today I took my kids to the dentist for cleanings and exams. We went to a new place that our insurance covers now that we have dental insurance. It was pretty cool. Their x-ray machine was hooked up to a computer so that one could see the x-ray full screen. They also had a big room with 4 exam beds in it. Above each bed was a TV screen with a choice of 4 different movies with ear phones. They were able to work on 4 kids at a time. I only had one kid with one very tiny cavity. Angelique has a permanent tooth growing behind a baby tooth that isn't loose at all, so it needs to be extracted. Beauchene cried with his mouth wide open, so he got his teeth cleaned too. The dentist said that we really need to get rid of the pacifier. All in all, I was pretty impressed with the results of my kids teeth and impressed with the office.

Afterwards they all thought that they were starving, so I took them to Wendy's. On the way home, I had to stop at Walmart to get diapers; so I let each kid pick out a flavor of Yoplait yogurt of their choice for their treat for being so good at the dentist. We got home just in time to get Jileigh off to Young Womens. Matt is working evenings this week so the kids got chicken nuggets for dinner. How lame am I?!

Jileigh's accident

Jileigh had her turn cutting her hand pretty badly. She won't let me put it on my blog for now, but is having me refer people to her blog: http://jileighsjournal.blogspot.com/

Jileigh's accident

Tonight, Jileigh voluntarily took out the garbage.

She was pulling the strings on the top with her right hand and went for the bag with her left hand. Unfortunately, she cut her hand on a piece of broken glass. We called Dr. Dave and he met us at his clinic. She got 8 stitches in her left hand at the base of her thumb. Now Matt and Jileigh are walking around with their left hands bandaged and elevated. Please don't let there be and "next" one.

4th of July fun!

We went to Matt's mom's house to spend the afternoon with his family. The kids played outside most of the time on the slip and slide. We came back to town for the fireworks. It was a nice display.

Matt's accident

Yesterday morning Matt was doing a side job at someone's house wiring up an outdoor shade. He was using a hole saw at an angle and ended up cutting the base of his left thumb pretty badly. He went to his cousin Dr. Ed and it took 8 stitches to put his thumb back together. Then he went off to work. As long as he doesn't use that hand it really doesn't hurt him. So this morning he was reading Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Warbreaker, while I was getting after the kids to get their chores done. The little kids were also taking turns holding her.

Babysitting and dinner

Last night I was so please myself that I was able to get my all kids to bed at 9:30 pm. Safia gave me excused until 10 pm, but that still was pretty good for us. I was so happy to get to go to bed by 10 pm too. Well, at 2am Elody wakes up like usual for a nursing and went back to sleep. Then Beau wakes up right after that coughing. That kid did not go back to sleep until 5:30 am. Then Elody woke up again for a nursing and was back down. So I finally get to go back to sleep a 6 am. That was my night. Then Candy calls me at 9:40am pleading for me to babysit for her while she goes to scouts. I was so dead tired but agreed. So I had her baby Hannah and 3 others for almost 2 hours. Fortunately, both Hannah and Elody were content for most of the time. I had Jileigh and Angelique for helpers too. After lunch, I was able to rest for a while.

For dinner tonight I made a new recipe that I got off of Americastestkitchen.com. It is Baked stuffed manicotti with a marinara sauce with sausage. It turned out pretty good and everyone enjoyed it.