Our little girl is a month old!!

I love this picture of Sam.....it captures his personality so well!

Ava loving her bath time!

Sam loving his little sister

Our little Ava a few days old

Our little Ava is a month old today!! I can't believe how fast the past month has flown by. The past month has been quite busy getting into a routine again. Ava is doing great.....at her two week appointment she weighed 6lbs 9 oz.....2 oz shy from her birth weight. She eats great and sleeps great at night. She eats before bed at around 10:00......sleeps until 2 or 3......eats at that time and then sleeps until 5 or 6......I am up by that time anyways because Jack still is getting up early. Ava is waking up for longer periods of time during the day and is becoming more alert. She loves to look at faces....especially those of her family. It even appears that she is starting to smile and coo at us! We love our little girl and feel so blessed to have her in our lives. She is so perfect and such a great addition to our family. I can't even imagine our lives without her!

She gets a whole lot of attention from her brothers......they love to kiss her and talk to her. My favorite is to hear them talk to her in a sweet voice and say....... it's ok sweetie......you're ok baby Ava. They are great helpers.....they love to help hold her, burp her and clean her up when she spits up. They always tell me that their baby Ava is a cutie and a sweetie! It has been so great for me to see my boys interact with their sister.

I can't believe that a month has passed already......we look forward to what the next month may bring us!

Pictures of Ava at a week old!!

Ashleigh took some pictures of Ava and the boys last week. She has posted a few of them on her photography blog at http://ashleighsbutler.blogspot.com They turned out soooo cute.....thanks again Ashleigh!!

Samuel and Jack meet their new little sister!!

Jake brought the boys to the hospital the night we had Ava so they could finally meet their baby Ava that they had been talking about for months!! I was a little worried Jack would be very jealous and want nothing to do with Ava, but to our surprise they both loved seeing their new baby sister and wouldn't leave her alone. They gave her loads of hugs and kisses and thought it was hilarious when she would open her eyes. It was so wonderful to see all three of our kids together!!

Welcome Ava Lynne Romney!!

We welcomed our baby girl into the world on Monday November 10 2008 at 9:08 am. She weighed 6lbs 110z and 19 inches long. At first we thought she had red hair but it is blonde. In some light it looks white blonde and other light it looks strawberry blonde.

It all started when we went to the hospital Sunday November 9th to start on antibiotics since I tested positive for group b strep. My doctor wanted me on the antibiotics at least 8 hours before I delivered. So we checked in at Salt Lake Regional, hooked me up to the monitors and the IV and checked me to see how far along I was. I was already dilated to a 5 and 90 effaced and the baby was stationed at -2. Since I was already so far along my doctor wanted me to get in as much antibiotic as possible before breaking my water. Both Jake and I were able to sleep a good portion of the night. I was then given my epidural at 5:30 am even before I started having contractions. At 6:30 am they broke my water and I started pushing around 8:50 am. Our little sweet girl was born a short time later and we were both so relieved that she did come out a she!

Sam and Jack

My friend Ashleigh took some cute pictures of our boys at memory grove the other night....they turned out soooo cute! Go check some of them out at http://ashleighsbutler.blogspot.com/
Thanks again Ashleigh!

We are still alive!

I thought I should post a bit on what has been going on in the Romney home! We have now been out of our house in Murray for a month now and miss the house and neighborhood dearly. We are renting Jake's Aunt and Uncles house in West Bountiful while we wait to find out on a short sale home that we put an offer on in Syracuse. They are now telling us we might have all the bank signatures we need by this Friday! Short Sales are anything but short.....we put our offer in on September 12th and are still waiting on the bank to approve our offer! We hope to get this house as we are just itching to get into our own home and not to be living out of boxes anymore!

Sam and Jack love being in a bigger home as they have much more room to run a round and play....they are especially loving the stairs in the house! They do miss our friends in Murray and ask about them occasionally and it breaks my heart to tell them that we don't live in that house anymore.

I am still pregnant......very pregnant in fact....I noticed my pregnancy countdown is down to 19 days! I can't believe that I am so close to the end....this pregnancy has gone by way too fast. I went to the doctors yesterday and I am almost dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced. If I don't go into labor before we are planning on having this baby around November 10th!

I haven't blogged in so long because we don't have the internet set up at our temporary house in Bountiful so I go to my parents house to use the internet. I hope to post some fun pictures very soon! Wish us luck with the house and the birth of our little baby girl Ava!

Happy Anniversary!!

Jake and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Tuesday August 12th! It is hard to believe that we have been married for five years! We were talking the other day about our lives together during the past five years and it is hard to believe we were once poor newlyweds still going to school and now...... well, we are still poor students but now we have two boys and a little girl on the way!

We didn't do much on Tuesday as Jake had to work and I had my doctors appointment but we did manage to go to lunch together with the boys....funny how after you have children your anniversary's sometimes just aren't the same! Jake has been really busy with work trying to get the job at the U of U done so he actually didn't get home until 6:30 that evening and we were both so exhausted we were asleep by 9:30! He did bring me home a wonderful card with a beautiful message in it......he knows I love when he expresses how he feels about me because it isn't easy for him to do that! He also brought me home a big bag of reeces peanut butter cups which he knows I love anything peanut butter!

Hopefully we can find some time in our busy lives to go out and celebrate our anniversary together without the boys! I just had to let Jake know how much I love and appreciate him! We have come a long way in the past five years! We both have grown up a lot and realize the importance of being one in a marriage! I am so very lucky and blessed to have such an amazing husband and father for our children. He is a wonderful example to me and to our children and I am looking forward to spending eternity with him!

Singing Time!!

We were outside playing last night and Samuel found the sprinkler head to water the flowers. He took it on the grass and started singing and dancing as loud as he could! Then he would come over and say "look mommy I'm singing!!" He was using the sprinkler head as his microphone and performing for the rest of us. I am so amazed at little kids and their imagination. The things they come up with are just so precious! Times like this you want to cherish every minute you have with them!

Feeding my Horsey!!

Jack has been obsessed with horses for about a month now. He will not go anywhere without his horse.....we used to have another one but it is lost somewhere in our house, he has forgotten about that one.......for now! I am sure he will remember he has it and ask me where it is one of these days!! He absolutely loves to watch anything with horses in it, especially The Man for Snowy River and My Friend Flicka!! He gets so excited to see anything with a horse.....we even have been to the farm a couple of times so he can see his horses!!

Tonight during dinner we noticed that he picked up his fork and chicken and started to feed his horse saying "here you go horsey" and "that's yummy!" It was so funny to watch him feed his horse I grabbed the camera and tried to get a couple of pictures of him feeding his best friend! He literally takes them everywhere we go, the store, running errands, church, outside play time, bath time, meal time I wonder how long this fascination with horses will last?!?!

My poor little boy!

My poor littlest guy is sick and it came on so suddenly. He was great yesterday until after nap when he got 102 fever and all he wanted to do was cuddle with mommy! You know they don't feel well when they would rather lie there and cuddle than play! We had a rough night being up all night with high fevers and throwing up.....luckily we go to the doctor in about an hour to see what is wrong. I suspect more ear infections since he has been pulling on his ears telling me it hurts. You always feel so helpless when they are so sick and wish you could make all their pain go away! It breaks my heart to see him burning up and shivering with a fever and not be able to keep anything down! Poor little guy......we love you and hope you start feeling better soon!

22 weeks and still growing!

Here I am at 22 weeks.....more than half way through!! I cannot believe that we are halfway through this pregnancy! It must seem to go by faster since I am so busy taking care of two other little ones!

I went to the doctor today and everything looks great. I have now gained a total of 8 pounds with 5 of those just being in the last four weeks! I am finally starting to put on some weight. I am still pretty sick but sometimes I have to force myself to eat for the sake of my little girl! I am feeling little movements here and there but nothing very big. My doctor looked at my ultrasound report and told me that my placenta is right in the very front which acts as a cushion for all those movements. So with the placenta being right in the front and with her still being relatively small I don't feel much movement which sometimes worries me, but my my doctor assured me that she is in there moving around! So when I can't feel her move I take out my stethoscope and listen to her heartbeat. Of course I don't hear it as well as I do with the doppler but it is enough to put my mind at ease!

Everything seems to be going as it should be. We will just have to wait and see how this little girl is when I start to get examines in the next two months to know whether we can have a vaginal birth or have to have the c-section. I am hoping for the vaginal birth but I know that the most important outcome is a healthy baby!

Ultrasound pictures of our baby girl!

Here are the pictures from our ultrasound a few weeks ago. I went in a week ago and it was confirmed that she is still a she!

Showing us her girly parts!

Picture of her face

Her two cute little feet!

Profile of our sweet baby girl

Showing us her girly parts again!

For Sale!!

Our house if officially up for sale now as Jake put a sign up this evening. He put the sign up and all I could do is cry......I'm sure being pregnant, hormonal and emotional doesn't help!! I have mixed emotions about selling but we really do feel like it is the best thing for our family now. We need more space as we will be welcoming our little girl home in four months. We also need to be closer to Weber State as that is where Jake is going in the fall for his construction management degree. They only have a bachelors degree for that at BYU and Weber State.....so we feel we need to be closer to Weber as that is where Jake will be going for the next two years.

When we moved to our home here in Murray we never realized just how much we would come to love the area. Our friends and neighbors have been so wonderful to us it is hard to imagine moving away from everyone. It is especially hard for me to leave all the wonderful kids and their mothers that Samuel, Jack and I have come to know and love! We appreciate everyone being so kind and welcoming us into the neighborhood and ward. We truly have felt the love that everyone has for their neighbors and ward members. I remember shortly after we moved in having the Rose Circle block party and we knew then just how wonderful this area was going to be. We have spent many months thinking about this move and it has been a hard decision for us but it is something we need to do for our family. We love the area so much we even considered adding on to the house but with Jake going to school at Weber State he just wouldn't have the time for that. We will be very sad to leave this house and neighborhood but I am also looking towards the future and what that may bring. I am not someone that deals well with change......in fact it is very difficult for me but I know that no matter what happens my Father in Heaven will help me through this difficult and exciting change in our lives!

I look forward to the many new adventures that will come about from this difficult change of leaving our house and friends! I hope that I can keep in touch with all of you through this wonderful world of blogging!

It's a GIRL!!!

That's right......the Romney's are going to be having a baby girl in the house!! Our ultrasound revealed on Friday that we will be having our baby girl! I am still really skeptical about it being a girl since we already have two boys, I wonder how it is possible to be having a girl.....I am only used to seeing the little boys parts on ultrasound, so when the technician pointed on the three white lines for the labia I just couldn't believe it.

Our little one wasn't very cooperative at the beginning with the cord being in between the legs but after I was able to empty my bladder we were able to get her to move around and show us her parts!! I asked the technician several times if she was sure it was a girl and she kept reassuring me that all the girly parts were there pointing them out to us! I still have a hard time believing it so I am actually going to go back for another one in another week just to have them make sure it is a girl and also to have them record the ultrasound since I took my tape in and the recorder was being used upstairs. They told me I could just come back in and they would record the ultrasound and make sure the girly parts are still there and no boy parts decide to show themselves!!

I will have to post some of the pictures we got from our ultrasound later. I am once again dealing with sick kids today!! We are really really excited about having a daughter and cannot wait to welcome her into our home.

16 weeks and counting!!

I decided to post a picture of my baby bump......I have had the baby bump since about 7 weeks and I am now almost 16 weeks along. The picture of my baby bump was when I was 14 weeks.....it keeps growing and growing. I feel like I am going to be huge this time! Here are just a few stats on my pregnancy so far:

• I am due sometime around November 17
• we are going to be trying to have the baby vaginally again. I was successful at having a vaginal birth with Jack after my first birth with Samuel was done by c-section due to him being breech.
  
• I am still felling the nausea and thinking it better go away soon!
• We should be finding out our baby's gender in a couple of weeks.....we are hoping for a girl but will be just as happy for a boy! Samuel tells me there is girl in there....then he changes to a boy and then one day he told us there were two babies in there!!! As far as we know there is only one in there!
  
• weight gain to date: 2 pounds......due to being so nauseous!
• Cannot stand the sight, texture or taste of ground beef......has never bothered me until this pregnancy!
• Cannot stand to drink any citrus juices like orange juice or V8 fusion and splash
• I can pretty much eat anything else but if it has been more than a hour or two since I have eaten then I really start to feel sick and makes it even more hard to eat.
• We are very excited for baby number three to arrive and are happy Jack and baby number three will be 26 months apart instead of the 18 months apart Samuel and Jack are!

A DAY OUT WITH THOMAS 2008

Sam waving goodbye as we drive away on Thomas

Sam pulling his whistle on Thomas.......whoo whoo!

Jack enjoying his ride with his Thomas and friends trains

We decided to try to get those boys picture as they sat on one of the many trains at the Heber Creeper!

Samuel getting his picture taken with Thomas....we tried to get Jack in there but he just kept running away!

Trying to get the boys in front of Thomas to have their picture taken, as you can see Jack is trying to run away again!

We had the opportunity on Thursday to go up to Heber and ride Thomas the Tank. I had heard great things about this so we decided to purchase tickets and go. I had bought the tickets two months ago so we had no idea that is would be a freezing 41 degrees outside! Despite the freezing temperatures the boys loved every minute of it. We were able to visit the gift shop where they had EVERYTHING THOMAS......and of course Sam and Jack wanted these huge Thomas balloons and then we got another little train to add to our collection of the wooden railroad! We were able to look at and play with train sets and then finally able to ride Thomas. The train ride was 25 minutes long which was perfect for the attention span of little kids. After we got off Thomas were waited in another long line to get our picture taken with Thomas. Sam loved to stand and have his picture taken but all Jack wanted to do was run away from us....which he has now mastered. I suppose this running away and not staying put is the age he is at! I'm not sure who had more fun....the boys or me! I just absolutely love seeing my boys soooo happy and doing something they love and enjoy! The boys kept telling us the whole day they they were going to ride Thomas. During the train ride they kept saying choo choo over and over and playing with their Thomas trains! We had at great day visiting Thomas the Tank. As we were driving away from the trains Samuel asked me "where did Thomas go"......we told him he had to go back to the Island of Sodor but we could see him again next year! We will be making this a yearly family outing as they come every year over memorial day weekend!

Just some itty bitty news!!

It has been a whole month since I have posted anything!! We can finally relax a bit now that the semester is over and Jake is FINALLY done with his associates degree! (Good job hun.....we are so proud of you!) Now it is on to Weber State for his bachelors degree....hopefully that will only take a couple years to finish!

We are also trying to finish up our house and maybe try to sell it, but with the way things are I don't know if that will happen or how long it could take to sell. We really don't want to move.....we just love the area and the people here! But we would like to be closer to Weber State and also we would like a bit more room in our house!

We are also going to be trading in our car for something a bit bigger sometime this summer! Probably a minivan because of how convenient it is and for the great gas mileage. We love our Subaru but once again we need a bit more room!

Finally, we have some itty bitty exciting news.......are you ready for this........WE ARE EXPECTING OUR THIRD CHILD!!!! I don't know if anyone has noticed that I am a bit more chubby or that I have missed several young womens activities but now you know why! It's been really hard to hide it since my stomach popped out at 7 weeks and since I have been soooooo sick this time around. I am sorry for all of the young womens activities I have missed! It has been difficult with Jake finishing school and me being so sick and nauseous all of them time! I am hoping I will soon be out of the sick stage since I am now almost 14 weeks along. We wanted to wait to tell everyone until after the first trimester. So far everything looks great. I had an ultrasound at 9 weeks just to make sure that the heart was beating and then today we were able to hear our little baby's heartbeat with the doppler! What an amazing sound it is to hear your itty bitty baby's heart beating. What a blessing our Father in Heaven has given to us to be able to procreate and bring down to Earth some of his choice spirits. We are so blessed to have Samuel and Jack and now to be able to have another one of Fathers children come join our little family here on Earth. We are so excited for the arrival of this new little miracle.....arriving sometime around November 17, 2008!

Sick again.......it's never ending!

I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks....not too much going on here. We did go to Wheeler farm with my sister in law Becky and my nephew Mitchell on Monday which was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. Sometimes it is more work than fun taking the boys places without Jake. I am constantly chasing after one of them or dealing with temper tantrums! We then went to play group a little late and played in Gracie's back yard which Sam keeps reminding me we did.....he had a blast playing with all the fun toys Grace had!

Yes just as the title of my post states both boys are sick again! It is never ending with kids.....it seems as though one of them is always sick. We went to the doctors office this morning, Samuel threw a fit the whole way there.....which was only about 2 minutes since their doctor is at the new hospital here in Murray. Sam is usually great for the doctor but today he was resisting and throwing a fit and even trying to push the doctor away with his legs....he definitely did not want to be there. Anyways they both have runny noses, and sneezing and horrible coughs. Samuel's cough is more croupy and dry while Jacks isn't too bad! Lets just hope Jack doesn't get as bad as Sam....and that Mom and Dad don't get the sickness too!

Potty training time!

We have been trying to work with Sam for a few months now on wearing underwear and sitting on his little potty. He has gone a couple times in his potty but hasn't seemed too interested. Now that he is three we are trying once again to do the potty training thing. We have already had several accidents and it can be difficult to get him to put underwear on and sit on the potty. I know it will take lots more accidents for him to begin to realize when he needs to go potty. I just wish it were one of those things that they just knew how to do! Wish us luck on this journey of potty training!

No more Pacifier!

So we have officially gotten rid of the pacifier for Jack......it has now been one week that he has gone without it and is doing great. He has only asked for it a couple of times. I think it has been harder for me to not just stick it in when he gets crying but I have been strong and haven't given in to the temptation to give it to him. He is 18 months so we thought it was time to say goodbye to it.....now we just need to work on replacing the one bottle he has before bed with a sippy cup.

Nanny Deprived Quiz!

I came across this Nanny Deprived Quiz.....I thought it was cute. Some of these are so true......ohhhh.......the things we do as mothers!

1) Have you ever eaten a random cheerio, puff, or pretzel just because you had nowhere else to put it?

2) Have you ever walked around with a half eaten cookie in your pocket?

3) Do you look forward to going to the doctor or dentist just so you can sit in the waiting room and read a magazine by yourself?

4) Have you ever used a public restroom while holding a child on your lap because there was nowhere else to put them?

5) Have you ever counted down the hours until bedtime?

6) Have you ever answered the door wearing "princess jewelry"?

7) Have you ever run out of batteries on PURPOSE?

8) Have you named your vacuum and consider it part of your family?

9) Do you ever have an audience and cheer section while exercising in the privacy of your own home?

10) Do you ever have to remind yourself that kids stories don’t count when people ask your favorite book?

11) Can you tell what time it is based on what kids show is on TV?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, you truly are nanny deprived.



Some quotes on mothers

"By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class."
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Cleaning up with children around is like shoveling during a blizzard"


My life has gone from:

• High heels to sneakers
• Weekends in Key West to Weekends at Disney World
• Lipstick to Crayons
• Finding the perfect work pants to finding the perfect sweat pants
• Victoria's Secret to Hanes Her Way
• Partying all night to asleep by 10pm
• Dinner at Cheesecake Factory to dinner at McDonald's
• Neusua from hangovers to neusua from pregnancy
• Big Coach bags to little Coach bags ( can't give those up!)
• Jeep Wrangler to Mini-van
• Having a job to having a harder job
• Reading novels to reading picture books
• Shopping at Banana Republic to shopping at Carter's

My life has gone from good to great!

Mommy Chore Facts:

• Women average 2.2 hrs / day on chores, vs. 1.3 hrs / day for men.

• 88% of Laundry is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of laundry and 5,300 articles of clothing each year.
• The least favorite chore for moms is vacuuming the stairs.
• A baby has 7,300 diaper changes by it's 2nd birthday.
• Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds to change a diaper vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for dads. For moms, this adds up to 3, 40-hour work weeks each year - just changing diapers!
• Preschoolers require mom's attention once every 4 minutes or 210 times a day.
• A preschooler's mom spends 2.7 hrs / day on primary childcare, vs 1.2 hours for dad.

Some surprising Mom facts

• 82.5 million of moms in the U.S. - 2 Billion moms throughout the world.

• 4.3 Babies born each second!
• 82% of women aged 40-44 years old who are mothers. In 1976, 90% of women in that age group were mothers.
• 25 is the average age of new moms. In 1970 it was 21.
• 40% of all births are the mother's first.
• 4.0 Million is the number of women who have babies each year. Of this number, about 425,000 are teens aged 15-19, and more than 100,000 are age 40 or over.
• 35,000 births are attended by physicians, midwives or others that do not occur in hospitals.
• 2 is the average number of children that women today can expect to have in their lifetime.
• 3 is the average number of children that women in Utah and Alaska can expect to have in their lifetime.
• Only about 10% of women have four or more children today. In 1976, 36% of women had four or more children.
• 1 in 5 preschoolers are cared for in a day-care center while their mother works.
• August is the most popular Birth Month.
• Tuesday is the most popular day of the week in which to have a baby.
• The odds of a woman delivering twins is 1-in-32.
• 10 Million is the number of single mothers living with children under 18 years old. This number is up from 3 million in 1970.
• 105 Boys are born for every 100 Girls.