6 Weeks

Mason is 6 weeks old today. Can you believe it? Time sure does fly, especially over the holidays!

He is now 10 lbs 14 oz...that means he's gained 4 pounds since birth! That boy has gotta be drinking straight cream. I think he is my chunkiest baby yet, and I'm getting a little worried that the blessing outfit won't fit because we aren't blessing him until February 7th. He is already in size 2 diapers and starting to loose that newborn look, which makes me kinda sad.

He is my angel baby. He has fussy moments, but it is no where near what I endured from his brothers. For the most part, he only cries when he is hungry or needs his diaper changed. His brothers adore him (especially Jonas) and I have to keep a good eye on him to make sure they aren't smothering him too much!

He has already rolled from his front to back three times and can hold his head up very well. His eyes are going blue...crazy, huh? What's the probability of Jeff and I getting all three boys with blue eyes when ours are both brown. I know its possible, just doesn't seem too probable.

Simple Joy

As you may have noticed I've finally given my blog a name beyond the generic "Birch Family". I've been thinking for awhile about what would be an appropriate name for a journal of our family and the one word I kept coming back to was "simple". I know simple, simplify, and simply are all catch words right now, but for me "simple" has a whole different meaning.

As I was growing up my Grandma Carson would always tell me to live simply. I remember talking with her on the phone one day and she told me "The less things you have in your life the more simply and happily you can live." I've never forgotten that. My grandma was a simple woman in her life. She kept her home simply decorated and clean...always perfectly clean. It was shortly before she passed away that I was sitting in her living room and realized how much I loved her simplicity. I loved the peaceful feeling that her uncluttered and uncomplicated home had.

Our family has not been immune to the current economic situation. In an effort to tighten our purse strings we've cut out a lot of "stuff". Its been very difficult at times, but I realized the other day just how much I've learned. I've learned to get more for less; that joy can be found so much more at home than anywhere else; that frugality is a skill best learned by experience; that I can better use the resources right at my fingertips; and most importantly that if we continue to pay tithing, the windows of heaven will be opened for us.

I am learning to look at my situation as an opportunity to grow and learn new skills and not to shrink back and ask why. I'm learning to look more at what I do have instead of what I don't. The other day while I was doing laundry it hit me: Simple Joy. There is so much happiness to be found in the simple things in life! It truly is the small and seemingly simple things that really are the most important! Like sharing story time with my little boys, or rocking my beautiful newborn to sleep. These are the things that life is made up of. Simple, sweet moments that can bring us the greatest joy.

30

Jeff turned 30 yesterday (that sounds so old when you are only 25!) and the boys and I had a fun day getting ready for Daddy's birthday party. We made him a happy birthday banner, cake, and a special card that the boys colored.Then it was time for the party!

Jeff's little brother, Jason, was in town and he snapped a new family picture for us with his SLR camera.

Wishing You A

I have a million things on my to-do list this year. The more I thought about it the more I decided I could break down my resolutions into three basic goals. This year I am going to:

Simplify
Organize
Create

Merry & Bright

Christmas Eve is really one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I love the anticipation in the air and the excitement for what tomorrow will bring. After eating our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup, we watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town, read the Christmas Story in Luke, and then tried to get some very excited boys off to bed. We woke up Christmas morning to find out that Santa had come and brought Carson a huge dump truck and Jonas a wiggle car.

But that wasn't all, he even left us a special note...

Want to know what it was?

(As you can tell, Jonas was more excited about the massive train track he had built with Daddy a few days ago.) The dome will be moved out to our back yard in the spring to join our airplane teetter totter. Gee Santa sure is thoughtful!

Santa brought Jeff a garage door opener and he's excited to get it put up in a few days when Grandpa comes and can help him out.

This is what Santa brought me...it has already made chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and four loaves of bread. And I'm thinking it will be making dough for cinnamon rolls tomorrow.

Since our house is overflowing with boy things, I've had a hard time deciding what to get Mason for Christmas this year. He really doesn't need anything besides the baby book that Mommy & Daddy already got him (oh and diapers, but who wants that for Christmas?). Nevertheless, I'm not going to skip out on him because he won't remember it. So I've decided to make him some things. First I made this baby car seat cover. And I'm working on finishing up these 3-6 month onesies. I just have some stitching left to do.

And if there's some time left over, I'm going to make him a little stuffed owl...similar to the one on the onesie.

How is your week before Christmas going?? Is anyone else rushing to get last minute presents done?

Plugged

It was about this time last year when I posted about Carson sucking up two very large paint brushes into my vacuum (read about it here). Well, my mischevious little man is at it again...this time with the toilet. Apparently yesterday he flushed this... down the toilet. Don't ask me why he thought the toilet paper holder should go down the toilet! Needless to say it didn't make it past the first few bends in the toilet. Tonight my handy husband tore into the toilet to fix it. He had to bend a hanger and try to coax it out...it took longer than you'd think.

I'm not sure what it is with Carson plugging up things! But I sure am thankful Jeff knew how to fix it and we didn't have to call a plumber.

Peace, Dude

Today I got this cute picture of Mason. It makes me laugh everytime I look at it. Doesn't he look like a spaced out hippie giving you the peace sign? He even does it when Jonas is trying to "love" him.

We are going stir crazy. We've been stuck inside the house almost this whole month. I still can't drive anywhere and I can't go outside to supervise my boys (who would run off if I just let them out...can't wait to get a fence!). So by now you should know that I have nothing better to do with my day than to sit around and take pictures of my boys. Everytime I try to get a project out (sewing, scrapbooking, etc...) the boys tear into it and make it a huge mess. I would rather avoid the stress of the boys scattering my stuff everywhere so I spend my time playing with them.

Here is Mason enjoying some floor time.

Thank heavens he's been such a good baby so far. He mainly sleeps and poops. I'm enjoying not having a colicky baby...yet. He even takes a pacifier sometimes! We'll see if he keeps up his good behavior!

Our Boys

The Past Two Years

There's something about having a new baby that makes you contemplate life. I am up late tonight and found myself looking through some old pictures. Not really that old I guess, just two years ago, but somehow it feels like that life was so long ago. Could it really only have been two years ago when I was under all the stress of student teaching and finishing up my time at BYU-Idaho? Was it really only two years ago when it was just Jeff, Carson, and I? Was it only two years ago that Carson was a crazy two year old who loved his red boots and throwing things off of our balcony so he could go downstairs and see Chandler?

We've been through a lot in the past two years. We added Jonas to our family...

And went from our homey apartment in Rexburg... to our moldy, crappy apartment in West Jordan...

and finally to our amazing new house.

And now we've added Mason to our family.

That's a whole lotta change in two years! Sometimes I still feel like my head is spinning from all we've been through. I remember how hard it was just to take care of Carson and now I have three little guys to watch out for. I feel like I have two babies because Jonas and Mason are so close. It's different to have added two children to our family in 18 months because we were alone with Carson for almost three years. After I had my miscarriage in 2007 I remember wondering if we were ever going to be able to have another child, and now two years later I have three children.

Its like I've lived three different lives in the past two years...our life in Rexburg, our life in West Jordan, and our life now.Its interesting to note that one thing hasn't changed and that is that we still live close to our good friends the Snedaker's. They may not be living downstairs from us anymore, but they are right up the road from us!

Through it all I know that the Lord has been there directing our lives and leading us to where we need to be. I've learned in the past two years that change is difficult...even painful at times, but if that change is done according to our Heavenly Father's will, then everything will work out how it is supposed to.