Best Post-Partum Recovery Ever

After our "test" road trip to St. George, we headed north to my parents house in Midway.  Jason and I were both getting a little stir crazy in our summer heat and were ready to go to a cooler climate.  My sister Sam was staying at my parents too, so our kids played all day every day. We also were up there in time for lots of family activities like Nates baptism, Abbey's wedding, and we also decided to throw in Danny's baby blessing.  Then there were other activities like a new hair cut for me, 4th of July fireworks and family pictures, and a day at the "This Is The Place Monument." The best 2 week trip ever!

On top of the "volcano" or the crater at the Homestead. Sammy and I would try to ware our kids (okay, mostly my kids) out by making them climb the 78 stairs to the top.

Tod enjoy the big wheel in the rain.

Papa and Kimball getting some quality time.

Washing cars in the rain.

Congrats Abbey!  We're so happy for you and Bill.  Love this picture of the Ashton girls.

Pony rides at "this is the place" pioneer village.

Tod enjoying petting some pigs.

Kimball needs her Danny time.  She asks to hold him all the time.

Kimball and Jack enjoying our favorite swimming pool.

Really, this pool is the best because the lifeguards let our kids do anything, including going down the big water slide by themselves. On this last trip, Kimball and Jack both decided that the HIGH-dive looked fun.  They both jumped off twice. Who are these kids? I don't even like to go off the high dive, but these 2 are always up for an adventure.  On the next visit, though, they decided to stick to the low dive.

Jack jumping off  the low dive, trying not to jump on Jason.

Kimball taking her turn off the low dive.

All of the Ashton grand kids, minus one on the way.

We had a fabulous time at my parents house.  Thanks Mom and Dad for hosting all of us for those 2 weeks, it was the best post-partum recovery location ever. And thanks Sammy, for sharing mom and dads house with our crazy family.  Hope my kids were too bad of an influence.

Photo Shoot with Kim

Last year when we had Tod, we took a "test" road trip to St. George to get new pictures taken by my sister-in-law Kim.  She is amazing, and we thought we ask her again if she would mind trying to capture our crazy family on film again this year. Here are the results. She got some amazing shots, especially of baby Danny. 

A classic "big sister moment" as Kimball was trying to help Jack smile.

What more can we say?  This is pretty much what life is like for us.

 

Thanks Kim!  You truly are amazing!  

Who do I Look Like?

I always enjoy looking at the new baby and trying to figure who they look like and which one of their siblings they have the most in common with looks wise.  So without further ado, I present you with the sibling comparison:

Kimball 2 days old

Jack 1 day old

Tod 1 day old

Danny 2 days old

So far, I think the 2011 model has his own look.  Let us know what you think!
Jason

Lazy Days of Maternity Leave

One of the reason I know that I can survive having all of these kids this close together is because my fabulous husband chooses to save up all of his vacation and sick time to go on maternity leave with me after I have a baby.  With this baby, Jason managed to save up about 5 weeks of paid time off.  I love him for this, he could be choosing to spend his vacation days in a variety of other ways, but he picks to stay home with me.  I hope he enjoys this time off as much as I enjoy having him home.  I know he gets excited to have a new baby, but sometimes I know the excitement is more about not having to work (no offense to the City of Henderson Utilities Dept.).  Either way, this what we've been up to since Danny was born almost 3 weeks ago.

I got a little excited with the scissors and chopped Kimballs hair for the summer.

Tod has been very anxious to play with the baby. We're just trying to teach him to be mellow and not hit or pull him off the couch.

 But Tod has been enjoying some of the new toys around the house, including Danny's chair.

 

Kimball and Jack are very content to have each other and have been busy playing with one another.

As you can see, we are all trying to stay caught up on sleep and the couch has become a favorite nap location.

 Danny snoozing on the couch between feedings.  Yes, he does sleep every once in a while. Especially while Tod is asleep up in his room.

 Jason and Jack worn out from after hard day of playing.

Kimball and Jason napping after church.

Jason was worried that people would think all he does is sleep while on Maternity Leave.  But, not true.  They just look so cute, I couldn't help taking pictures of our kids curled up with their dad.

Other notable events... Kimball stuck an air-soft pellet (that she found outside) up her nose and had to go to 2 different doctors to get it removed.  Our pediatrician couldn't get it, so Jason took her to an ear nose throat specialist to get it out. That's a first. Needless to say, we've found all of the pellets that she had collected, and they've mysteriously disappeared.

We also took our first road trip up to St. George to have pictures taken w/ Kim, my very talented sister-in-law.  Hopefully she managed to photoshop a few decent shots.  What a champ to try and get a picture with all of us together and not to mention that she's 5 months pregnant. She's awesome!

4 Kids Under the age of 4

We officially have 4 kids under the age of 4. Daniel Jay Hafen was born 05/25/11 at 3:33 am weighing in at 9 lbs and 3 0z and 22 inches long. Here's some of the highlights.

Mandy posing in her pre-delivery state. I love taking this picture before each kid is born.

Mandy went to the midwife on Tuesday afternoon and was dilated to a 4 almost a 5, so her midwife, Sherri, gave her a little nudge. When I got home from work, we went and walked around the mall, voted, shared a delicious Cinnabon (because that's how we celebrate momentous occasions), walked up to the church and tried all sorts of other things to help contractions along. Mandy called Sherri around midnight saying the contractions were getting more consistent. That's when the party started.

Mandy's parents came over, our sister in law Danette, Sherri (the midwife), Tiffany (her assistant) and Shanna (the student midwife). There was great conversation and distraction for Mandy as she was having the contractions. The baby's head was kinked a little bit so he wasn't descending into the birth canal very easily. When Mandy would have a contraction, she would lift her belly up to try and get him in the right position. After some more walking around, she was checked again and was dilated to a 7. Her water was broken and we were off to the races.

Mandy relaxing in the pool, enjoying the warm water.

We borrowed a birthing tub/pool from Mandy's sister Sammy to have a water birth. 55 minutes after Mandy's water was broken, our new boy was born.

I was able to pull him out of the water and give him to Mandy. It's one of my favorite parts of having a new child.

As you can tell, he was born with a ton of vernix

He cried 2 times and then fell asleep. Mandy stayed in the pool for a little bit holding him. It was very relaxing. I remember in the hospital they whisked the others away as soon as the cord was cut. The midwives were very accommodating and let Mandy do things when she was ready.

Daniel getting weighed. No one guessed he was over 9 pounds. I even tried to rig the betting by weighing on our digital baby scale before the official weigh-in.

Mandy's parents (Nana and Papa) holding baby Daniel, number 29 grandchild for them.

Kimball keeps asking to hold him. She already loves him tons.

Grandma (Jason's mom) came over later to meet her new grandchild, number 23 for them.

Kimball took this picture while Grandma was holding her new brother.

We are so excited to have Daniel in our family and know that it's only 4 under 4 until the end of July. Mandy is doing well and said her nether regions have never felt so good postpartum. She was very worried about tearing. While she tore a tiny bit, she didn't need stitches. For that very reason, Mandy feels the home birth was a success. I'm now a believer in home births. The kids were asleep the whole time and I got to sleep in my own bed instead of the hospitals pull out mattress. We had more freedom to walk around and have the birth the way Mandy wanted. We have truly been blessed.

Jason

Happy Kids and Father Daughter Camp Outs

Can I just tell you how much I love happy kids? Well, I do. And I think I have some of the happiest kids in the world. I'm not saying I have anything to do with this... No, it's mostly because they have their dads temperament, but either way, I love them.

After bath time, the kids love to spin on the computer chair. They love it and laugh and giggle.

This is what I found when I went out in the back the other morning. Jack was pedaling Kimball's tricycle around with Tod hitching a ride. It didn't last long, because Tod kept trying to get Jack off, so he could pedal. Oh, to be the littlest one, waiting to get big enough to do the "big" kid things.

On to the Father Daughter Camp Out. Jason's brothers try to take their daughters on an annual camp out, and this year Jason took Kimball for the first time. Needless to say, she had a blast. She had been talking about sleeping in a tent and camping for the last 2 months (I think she saw something on Bubble Guppies about camping).

Kimball and her cousins, who she will follow around all day long, or all morning long, as I heard that it started pretty early at 5:30am or so.

And, I love this picture because it shows how dirty her face was. I love the dads for doing this, because you know if the moms had been there, Kimball's face would have a wet wipe taken to it. But not with the dads, who cares about clean faces and wet wipes. I actually got to see this face, because she came home with it looking just the same. Thanks Jason and the other Hafen dads for doing this for your girls. Great memories!

Tod has become very chatty. We can't really tell what he's saying but he definitely knows what he's saying. He walks (yes, he's been walking for about a month now) around the the whole house laughing and saying all sorts of jibberish.

As for me, I can't believe how blessed I am as a mother and a wife. I got to teach Young Womens on Mother's Day and I asked the girls what did their moms (or any mom) do that made them excited to be a mom or something that they're excited to do with their own kids. As I sat there, I pondered my own mom and some of the things she did (and still does) for us as our mom. I am so grateful to have a mom that played with us. A couple of the young women have nicked-named me "Sis. Playful" and I had to tell them that my mom is the original "Sis. Playful." She's the one that taught me how to play because she played with us. Because of her, I try not to miss a chance to push my kids on swings or take them down a slide, or chase them around the house. I hope I can play with them as much as my mom played with me.
Thanks MOM - the Original Sis. Playful!

Hoppy Easter

Hoppy Easter! Our kids had a blast with Easter this year and more than their fill of treats, mixed in with us trying to teach them what Easter is really about.

We started the festivities with a flashlight Easter Egg hunt at Aunt Carmens with all of the other Hafen cousins the Monday before Easter. They started opening their eggs and getting sugar in their systems, so this picture was as close as it was going to get with all of them sitting together.

Easter morning came around and the kids each opened their baskets that were up on the table.

Jason had to go early to church this morning, and I was desperately trying to get a picture of all three of them in their Easter outfits, and not be late to church. Well, the picture turned out okay, and we made it on time. It was truly an Easter miracle.

And, I just had to throw in this picture because it sums up Kimballs life pretty well. If she had a band she could call it Kimball and the Boys. She loves her little brothers. She also loves her primary class where she is the only girl with 7 boys.