She's Here!!

Hailey Jacqueline Dean was born November 25, 2009 at 7:56pm. To make a long story short, I went to my Doctors appointment at noon and was dilated to a 5, so he said to head on over to the hospital! After an afternoon of walking laps around the floor, a small amount of Pitosin, my Dr came and broke my water at 6:30. I had decided long ago to have this baby without pain medicine. As my contractions got worse, I regretted that decision! I had about 5 scream into my pillow contractions then it was time to push... if that's what you call it. I call it screaming excruciating burning pain! It didn't last long however, thank goodness. She was born posterior (face up) and weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces. Not an easy birth. But it was all worth it. It was defiantly an experience that I will never forget. And I couldn't have done it without my darling husband who held onto me for dear life. I love you babe! And little Hailey, I'd do it all again to have you!

They put "Thanksgiving" color bows in her hair.. red for cranberries and white for mashed potatoes! So cute. Later the bows were green and brown, and that was darling too!

The kids came to see her, they all wore the masks to protect themselves and Hailey from sicknesses. They looked so darling! I'll never forget the 3 sets of beautiful blue eyes looking at me with hesitation as they met Hailey. So precious. Chad has done this with all 4 kids. He puts his nose into her mouth to "trick" the baby. He thinks it's so funny, but it just makes the baby mad! Silly Daddy.

I am a blessed mommy, that is for sure!

Emily and her new sister.

Baby Hailey. So darling. I cry every time I hold her. I don't want her to grow up. I love little babies, and it makes me so sad to think she, most likely, is my last baby. I will earnestly try to treasure every moment.

Blast Off to Fun!

After we bought our new stroller, the kids had at the box! They had so much fun with it. Nothing says fun better than a huge box!

Here is Emily with her new wings she bought at the DI. And Shelby was her "Prince" dressed in daddy's shirt. I thought it was cute as they walked arm in arm. Gotta love having a sister.

We promised our kids that once Chad got a job, we would take them to Blast Off - a fun place like Chuck-E-Cheese, to celebrate. They looked forward to it for weeks. On the Saturday that we went, they spent the whole morning cleaning the house to help speed up the process. We all had so much fun, and it was worth the wait.


Mmmm, pizza.

This was SO funny to watch the kids play the bowling game. Shelby and Emily were throwing the balls like a baseball! I was dying laughing, but they loved that game tons! Too bad the prizes were so dumb.


Oh the balls!! How they loved the balls! Can you see Chad buried in there?? Who said balls are only for kids??! If I wasn't 2 weeks away from giving birth, I would have been in there too!

Happy Halloween!!

We all carved pumpkins. The kids drew out how they want their faces to be, then Daddy cut them out. Emily and Riley were pretty good about gutting the pumpkins, but Shelby hardly touched it at all! But we got tons of yummy pumpkin seeds that all the kids gladly ate! Mmmm. By the way, Shelby did have clothes on, but a touch of wetness got on them when she washed her hands, so she had to take all her clothes off. She's so funny.


Here is Optimus Prime. This was on Friday before school. The kids aren't allowed to wear masks to school, so we just spiked his hair cool. He had a ton of fun at school. We watched his parade, Chad stayed for lunch and for an hour after, just for fun. The whole class loves him there, even the teacher. It was a fun day. That night the singles ward in our stake had a trick-or-treat down by the river. It snowed in the morning, but by evening, it was beautiful!

And here is Gabriella from High School Musical. I think Emily really just wanted the head band that went with the dress. But she looked cute. We got up early to curl her hair, and of course, she did her own makeup. But she loves this dress, she wants to just wear it to school now for regular days! Pretty girl.

This is my princess unicorn! She wanted to be a unicorn this year. Luckily, my good friend Sarah had a unicorn costume! The shoes really were the cutest thing. (You can't see them in this picture) Shelby loved dressing up, but she did not like trick-or-treating. She his behind me or Chad while we did the candy getting! But by the end of Halloween at Boo at the Zoo, she finally realized that it isn't scary and it can actually be fun!


Here they all are as we are off to Trunk-or-Treat! It was a beautiful night. We only needed our jackets. They got a ton of candy at the church. I love Trunk-or-Treat. It is the best invention since sliced bread!


Our friends the Crenshaws gave us tickets to Boo at the Zoo. It was SO fun!! They decorated the zoo all up with lights and pumpkins and booths for candy. We could see most of the animals that were out too. It was a beautiful night and the kids had so much fun. I was worried I wouldn't be able to walk all through the zoo, but we took it slow and I did ok. It really was so worth it!

Here is where the big turtles were supposed to be, but instead, a whole ton of glowing pumpkins! It was pretty cool.

And the spoils of the night! We all of course had to go through our candy and organize them into all the different piles....

...then Daddy got to go through them and pick what he wanted!! No, the kids let him have a few things. But by the end of the night, I don't think anybody wants more candy. I have little baggies, and the kids get to pick 5 candies to put in the bag, and that's their candy for the day. They can eat it all at once, or spread it out through the day. It has worked pretty good so far!



Ahhh! The scariest of them all!! 5 weeks left to go! Man I'm ready! Can't wait for this whole pregnancy to be over and we can move on to... moving around again, cleaning my house again, sitting or sleeping comfortably again! All the fun things in life :) !

October Days

My little beauty queen. She found this caboodle at the D.I. and HAD to have it. So now she has all her makeup in it, and almost daily she loves to sit and put on her makeup. She's getting pretty good at it too! It's just for fun, she normally doesn't wear it out of the house, but Daddy is not pleased with this past time of hers!

This princess of mine loves her "sparkley" dress. She pretty much wears this everyday. There was a while she had to wear it to church too. But alas, when you wear a dress everyday, it pretty much wears it out! So she no longer can wear it to church. The best is when she wears it with her snow boots, now that is a cute sight!

They really are precious. Sometimes I love to just sit and watch them. How wonderful it is to be their mother and see what beautiful girls they are turning into. How grateful I am that I get the blessing of having another of Heavenly Fathers princesses!

Ahhh, my little man. I asked him to take the garbage out for me. Now Chad tends to take everything out in one load, so as Riley was getting ready to go out, I told him that he probably needs to do 2 runs. But oh no, he piles everything on, it was so funny! He is becoming more and more like his Dad. It is so cute to see. I am so grateful that they have each other. They are the best of friends, and Chad is a wonderful example of all that a righteous man and father should be.

Sooo, I realized that there are like no pictures of us on my blog. So one night at like midnight, after long hours of homework, I take this picture of us. I realize that this is not the best picture in the world of me, (it's nice of Chad) but you will all have to give me slack, for I am 8 months pregnant and have unfortunately gained more weight than I would like. Oh well. Healthy baby right?? Never the less, here we are!! Say cheese!

A Month of Firsts

Here is Riley's first day of school... okay, it's his second, but I forgot to take a picture the FIRST day. It was very action packed that day. Anyways, he starts second grade and he loves every bit of it. (Except homework).
This really is Emily's first day of kindergarten. She was so excited to start, but a little nervous. I had to follow the bus there and help her get to her class. She's so smart and loves school already (hopefully that will last the next 12 years!)
Shelby couldn't miss out on a photo op!
Here is Shelby on her first day of Joy School! It is SO fun to do Joy School and I recommend it to anyone with 3 or 4 year olds. Shelby loves it and is learning so much. I love to do it and prepare the lessons. It is so great.

Chad is the Priest Advisor in our ward, so for an activity one night they all came over to our house and cut up a bunch of wood for us! It was great. They all loved seeing who could chop the biggest piece of wood. (Chad won of course) But it was sure helpful. Now we will be nice and warm this winter!


And here is my pretty Shelby baby. She's all dressed up and no where to go! She loves her purple jacket that Grandma and Crystal gave to her for her birthday. She also has to carry all her purses around everywhere with her goods. Gotta love her!

And below here are my peaches! My very first attempt at canning anything! It turned out so good and it was soooo easy! I wish I could can everything!

August Fun

Here is the start of our camping trip... this picture is out of order, but, oh well. We stopped on our way to Meadow Lake at Birch Creek. Riley found an ancient arrow head - (we knew what it was cuz our friend Bethany Crenshaw whom we went camping with, is like an archeologist or something). So that was pretty cool.


I thought my kids were so creative with this! On Sunday, Chad and I took and nap, so Riley and Emily "snuck" containers of water and put toys in them, then froze them. So the next morning, they got them out and watched them melt, played hockey and chipped away at the ice. They had a blast!



Back to our camping trip... it was SOOOO cold. We woke up this morning with a thick layer of frost on everything. I think it got way below freezing. It was a fun trip, although next time, I will try to find something to sleep on! We were on the hard ground, and for a pregnant woman, not so comfortable! Oh, and never fear, the bears didn't get me or the mountain didn't fall on me, so we're good! :)


We were able to have our good friends the Carrolls stay with us for a night on their way to Spokane Wa. This is Nicole and me.
Shelby took this picture of me and the kids. Not so straight, but cute enough!


Ahhh, the Spray Park in Rexburg. We just discovered this little gem of a place this month and have gone up 3 times. Its free and there are a whole bunch of fountains and slides. Riley always had a blast. Emily barely got in and never went down the slides, and Shelby... well, she didn't get in till 10 min before we left, and she was in her clothes, as you will see later on!

Me and my dry Shelby... like Mother like Daughter I guess!

And then there is Chad, my big kid. He got right in there the whole time, going down the slides and getting soaked. Riley loved that his Dad is the only Dad who is cool enough to do thoses kinds of things with him.

There is also a really big dry park. So we would go over there to "get warm". Shelby liked that much better. So they all climbed this monkey bar.

And here is Shelby who finally got in the water. Emily and her had so much fun. I wish that they would have discovered how much fun it was 2 hours earlier!!
LOVE this picture!!


We had a really go Family Home Evening this week. We wanted to teach our kids before school that it is not about what grades they get, but how their attitude and effort are what matter. So we put together an obstacle course that they could try their "hardest" at. It was fun and they loved it! Hopefully it taught the principle though.




Happy 3rd Birthday Shelby!! Here is her Dora cake...it took me 3 hours to decorate it! But I love to do it. She had so much fun as all the neighbours came over for cake! She also is very happy with her Diamond Castle movie, play shoes, makeup and toothbrushes she got for her birthday! *sigh* I can't believe she's 3!!

My model girls.