videos.

I hope these work...

Here is Peter practicing counting and jumping.

This is Jayne serenading us at Family Home Evening.  She is our little singer girl.  Singing all the day long.

Peter singing They Might Be Giant's childrens song, "High Five!"

I asked him to sing, "Zeroes" too.  He sang a few words and then let me know he was done.  

my big boy.

It is becoming very real that we are going to have a baby in just a few days.... and this little guy will suddenly be even more giant and grown up in my eyes.  It's hard to comprehend.  I've been trying to enjoy him as much as I can each day and will continue to do so after Henry is born.  I'm sure he's going to have a hard adjustment as he's used to having me all to himself for the most part.  Hopefully he will handle the transition well. 

I was attempting to paint my toenails one day and he came in to help me.  He kept saying, "So cute, Mom!"  It was darling.

 One day I kept finding him all over the house laying around in random places.

 My favorite was this one... He laid under that blanket for a solid 10 minutes or more.  Such a silly guy.

 He found Lincoln's fedora one afternoon and wouldn't take it off.  I couldn't get him to stand still for a picture so I plopped him on the counter and this is what I got.....

 We were making cookies that day and I got such a kick out of watching him as he watched them cook.  Everything is better when you wear a fedora.  :)

nat-attack.

My little sister, Natalie, moved in with us on Sunday.  I am SO excited about this!  She needed a change... and to get out of Utah for a little bit.  She's going to get a job in nursing and stay for at least a year.  It's going to be a great year!  

The kids were so very excited.  Especially Graham.  They made welcome signs for her door.  Graham drew all the Harry Potter characters he could think of and wrote, "Welcome to this awesome house!" Love it.

 Gracie's was full of little hidden messages.  She has been learning how to draw graffiti in her art class.  I love how she turned each letter into a little person.

 Jayne tried her best to write "Welcome".  I love the rainbow colored C.

 Each time we visit Utah and see how the cousins that live near the grandparents interact with the aunts and uncles, I get teary.  One of the hardest parts of living away from family is the fact that my kids don't know their aunts/uncles/cousins very well.  I am so grateful that Natalie will be here and my kids will get to build a wonderful relationship with her.  She has already found a place in each of their hearts.  I am so blessed to have her for my little sister.

insta-pics.

The kids have been requesting fun after school snacks the past little while.  I am not one to bake much because I end up eating way too many sweets when I do.  Gracie begged me to make cookies one day to surprise them after school.  I did.  They were delicious.  Since then we have made brownies, several varieties of muffins, and muddy buddies.  These kids are spoiled I tell you.

 We love our Monday nights.  Family Home Evening is the best.  Jayne serenaded us with a few songs one night.  It was darling.  I think I will try to upload them and see if it works.

 All of the kids have found the joy that is Mommy and Daddy's shower.  Bathtime is no more.  They love to take a shower in our bathroom.  It's sad because Jeremy just fixed the shower in their bathroom!  Maybe someday they will like it again.

 I love after dinner jobs.  The four oldest rotate between setting the table, clearing the table, taking out the trash and sweeping the kitchen.  They do it for a week.  Jayne's favorite job is sweeping the floor.

 This little girls fifth birthday is coming up in October.  With the baby coming this week we decided to get a head start on her party planning.  She wants a "baby party" where her friends bring their babies and we take care of them.  There is going to be a lot of sewing involved in the preparation but having this little helper makes it very worth it.

 I have my last doctors appointment this week.  Here is last weeks picture.  I feel ginormica.  They told me that they would induce me.  Then they said that they can't until my duedate.  It's a new policy.  I broke down in crocodile tears and threw kind of a hissy fit.  It was embarrassing.  I have been contracting for weeks and have been in a lot of pain for months.  I am just kind of ready to have the baby out and in my arms.  I know, I know... they come when they are ready.  It's true.  But, don't tell a 39 weeks pregnant woman that... it doesn't help.

 My doctor decided to have me get an ultrasound to see how much the baby is weighing.  Since Peter was a whopping 9 pounds 11 ounces... this one could very well be just the same.  If he was large, it was reason to induce me early.  Turns out he's a little guy.  Weighing around 6 pounds 13 ounces.  I don't really believe it... I still think he's going to be at least 8 pounds.  I guess we'll see.  The good news is, he is going to induce me on Saturday at 6am.  Right on my duedate.  I am perfectly content to wait until then.  I hope he is too because the timing is perfect.  When they were doing the ultrasound, Henry was so shy.  He would show us everything except for his little face.  Whenever we would get close to his face be would put his hands and feet in front of it.  This is the best picture they could get.  I adore it.

 I have been doing better at taking it easy (some days....)  One day Jayne, Peter and I all took an afternoon nap.  It was heaven.  Until I had to wake both of them up to go pick up the big kids.  That is the worst.

 I got my haircut.  Jeremy was not too happy that I cut off my long locks.  He has since gotten used to it.  I love growing it long and then chopping it off again.  My short hair loves my curls.  It's been fun to go all natural again.  And so much quicker!

 This girl... She told me to take a picture and send it to my two best friends.  She is such a camera girl.

 We tried a new app.  I love it.

 We had a family movie night the other night.  We ordered pizza and snuggled in the basement with Epic.  Such a cute little flick.  And I officially declare Papa John's my favorite pizza chain.  Love them.

 I got released from my calling as the youth Sunday School teacher on Sunday.  I thought they were going to call a team teacher for me... not release me.  It's so hard for me to get released from callings.  Especially ones that involve the youth.  I just love them to pieces.  It was so hard for me to not break down in tears while I was preparing my last lesson.  The faces of the kids I teach were so priceless when they released me.  And the hugs after class made me realize that maybe I did have some impact on them.  I'm so grateful for callings that help me grow in my testimony.  The youth are so amazing.  They definitely taught me way more than I could ever teach them.  I got a new calling as a Primary teacher for the oldest class.  I haven't been in Primary since we first got married.  It will be a new adventure for me!

 Fall is in the air!  I got to break out my cardigans.  This is my favorite time of year.  Cleveland really does Fall right.

books.

We have this amazing library around the corner from our house (technically a few corners... but it's really close).  We have been there a few times in our 8 years of living here but it's always been a struggle for me with all of the kids because there is this fountain at the front that they aren't allowed to go in.  Fountains + kids = fun.  Telling them they have to stay out of it in the quiet library = no fun.  I decided to give it another try with just the two little ones.  We had the best time!

I love this library!  It rivals my love for the Provo Library.  Actually... I would have to say that I love this one more.  Something about turning an old mansion into a library is so romantic.  I wish I could move in.  It's so pretty.

Petey is very into taking pictures lately.  He loves posing silly for pictures.

We managed to enjoy the library and stay away from the fountain.  We will definitely be going back again soon.

birthday aftermath.

Graham has told me he had the best birthday about a dozen times a day.  I love it.  We had lot of fun celebrating our little man this year.  He picked out a sock monkey kit this summer and we have never gotten around the making it together.  I surprised him and told him we would make it after school one day.  He was so excited!  He and Gracie did the stuffing while I did the sewing.  It didn't take as long as I thought it would and we had the best time together.

 Here he is with his finished little friend.  He adores it so much and I love that we made it together.  It makes it that much more special.

 He reads with it, eats with it, sleeps with it... he would take it to school with him if they let him.

 Jeremy has been teaching him ukulele for the past little while whenever he can.  I came down from bed Saturday morning to this scene.  It made my heart melt.

 This kid gives the best reactions when he opens presents!

 The kids have been very into Legos lately.  They have quite the set up in their rooms upstairs.  If the house gets too quiet I often find all of them in Lincolns room building together.  It is rather adorable.  Graham got a few sets for his birthday and he would open them and say, "You're building this one, Gracie."  until each one of them had a set to build or help build.  I love that kid.  Always thinking of others.

 Jeremy had fun testing out Grahams new razor scooter.  He got going super fast in a circle around the living room!  I had fun watching him.  He's still a kid at heart.

39 weeks.

39 weeks people.  One more to go.  I can do this.  

This little guy surprised me by coming into the kitchen as I was making dinner and saying, "A kiss, baby Hen-ney?"  And then he kissed my belly.  It was the cutest thing ever!  I didn't even know he could give kisses!  

 Jayne figured out how to make a heart with her hands and gave Henry a heart one morning.

 We taught our friends how to play a Wilde family favorite... Mahjong.  It was so fun!  Our kids are great friends so it felt like we were on a double date.  They were all off playing happily together for hours.  I won with pairs.  I put this in this post because I love my belly at the bottom of the picture.  I'm actually going to miss it.

 This is me being sick of sitting of lounging around reading.  I have been having contractions for the past two weeks now.  Hard contractions.  Painful ones that take your breath away.  There was one night that I had to wake Jeremy up to massage my back through them.  I see my doctor today and I'm hoping that they are doing something besides just make me miserable and keep me up at night. The end is near... that's what I keep telling myself.  Then I will trade it for a baby that makes me so happy... but still keeps me up at night.  :)

 This girl is moving in with us on Sunday for a whole year!  I am so excited.  I don't know how I got so lucky that she wants to come join the chaos that is our family.  But it will sure be nice to have her around.  Especially the first few weeks post-baby.  We are going to have so much fun together!

This kid.

Peter has grown and changed so much since we moved into our new house.  He has really come into his own little personality and he is such a funny kid!  He keeps us on our toes and laughing all day long.  He is very independent.... and he loves his milk.  The kid can chug it down like no other.  He still calls it "shrink it bubbles" which makes my heart so happy.  My favorite is when he walks around with his cup and sings, "a shrink it bubbles...a shrink it bubbles... a shrink it bubbles... a shrink it bubbles."  (To the tune of All the Single Ladies).  Sometimes his independence gets him into trouble though... like when he tries to get milk by himself and can't get down from the inside of the fridge.  He'll stand there and say, "Mom!  I stuck!" until we come and get him down.

 Our washer and dryer have this delightful little ding when they are finished.  When Peter hears it... he goes running.  He'll say, "It's done, Mom!  It's done!"  And then take off.  He tries to be so helpful pulling the freshly cleaned clothes onto the floor for me.  Pregnant me can't keep up with him sometimes and he usually beats me to it.  One day he pulled the white batch out with cheeto covered fingers.  He was a big helper that day.  One morning we were about to leave and he said, "Take a picture me, Mom."  And posed like this:

 His favorite thing to do (besides play outside) is run around the house.  We have a big circle between all of the rooms and he loves to be chased around by the big kids.  I caught him waiting to be caught and snagged a picture.  He is such a funny kid.

bedtime project.

We were able to take the girls bunkbeds apart the other night and so far it has worked wonders for helping them sleep in their own beds at night!  I think it's adorable that they need to be right next to each other.  Hopefully they will outgrow it before college.  Until then, I am happy to let them sleep with their beds so close.  

 With the beds down, there was more wall space to fill.  I had picked up some little embroidery hoops at the thrift store for dirt cheap and hadn't figured out what to do with them.  After the kids were in bed I set to work.  Jeremy was at a study group so I needed something to occupy the time until he came home.  I found some fabric scraps and some leftover lace from Gracie's baptism dress and set to work.  SO easy!  I just put the fabric down, then the lace.  Put the hoop on and tightened it up, trimmed the edges and they were ready.  I love how the fabric underneath peeks out behind the lace.  They aren't matchy matchy fabrics but the lace ties them all together.

 They needed a little something and after playing with a few ideas I came up with this:  I hot glued twine in little lines across the hoop.  It still needed something so I grabbed a few scrapbook pages, cut out the birds and hot glued them on above the twine.  I adore how they came out.  The girls do too.

 I had two empty frames that hadn't been used that matched the wood on the hoops perfectly.  I printed out a few quotes that I felt my girls needed in their room, added a twine bow and called it good.  The second one is my favorite.

 Then I hung them randomly above their beds.  I love it.  So do they.  It's the perfect fit for their bedroom.  I smile every time I go in there.   Because it's cute... and it literally cost me under $5 to put together.