Not a Coincidence

Do you ever just step back from your life and realize how Heavenly Father is blessing you? Well, I had one of those moments this morning. I'm not talking about the big things, you know, like my wonderful husband, healthy kids, comfortable home, good friends and so on. I mean more on a day-to-day basis. Here's what I realized...

This year when Joe is busier than ever at work (he was gone from like 7:30AM to 8:30PM most of the days this week)AND he's trying to finish up the CPA exam AND he's out of town almost as much as he's home AND when we are both serving in presidencies at church AND when we have just been blessed with our third child...it's no coincidence that Andrew is doing so well with potty training....or that Abby has basically been sleeping through the night since six weeks which allows me to get much needed sleep ...or that Sam has truly embraced his role as big brother and is a cheerful helper most of the time.

My Heavenly Father loves me.

My life is far from perfect, my house is usually a mess, the kids fight, I get grumpy with them, I could do be doing a lot better in a lot of ways. But even with all my shortcomings, Heavenly Father is blessing me with exactly the things that He knows will help me most. It makes me want to try a little harder to show how grateful I am for my blessings.

Six Weeks!!!

Our baby girl is six weeks old already!

It's been such a busy time with the Holidays and all of the family stuff going on, I can't believe how fast the time has gone! She is a joy to have in our home and the boys (especially Sam) just adore her.

She is starting to smile more and more, which is lots of fun! She is still a mellow baby and is sleeping really well, so I'm counting my blessings! Joe weighed her last night and she is 11.5 lbs. Needless to say, she's a good eater!

Oh, and as a side note, six weeks also marks the end of my "recovery" from surgery so I can start exercising again! Yeah! I've had "activity restrictions" for the last 10 months (since I was 5 weeks pregnant) and it feels so good be able to exercise again! Plus, I've got to lose this baby weight! Wish me luck!

Is it time...ALREADY?!?

*** WARNING***

Toddler Potty talk enclosed in this post...

Andrew has been showing lots of interest and initiative when it comes to going potty. I have been doing everything I can to put him off for a while because I don't feel ready to potty train, I don't have the energy for it yet!

Well, on this day he and Sam had been playing in the living room (dancing to Christmas music). He stopped all of the sudden and grabbed his diaper and said "I go pee pee!" Great, I thought, Glad you are telling me after the fact! But then he proceeded to strip off his pants and diaper and run to the potty. I got there just in time to see him peeing in the toilet. Yeah!!! I praised and rewarded him and then said it was time to get his diaper back on. He insisted that he had to go "stinky" so we waited...I read him a book...we waited...he still insisted he had to go. I left the room to go and check on the other two kids. A minute later, he came walking out of the bathroom telling me that he went stinky and was all done. He looked back in the bathroom and then got a very concerned/confused look on his face. "Uh Oh, Mommy...What that?" he kept repeating as he pointed towards the toilet. I went to the bathroom to find a little "log" lying on the floor directly in front of the toilet. GROSS! But also very funny...he was genuinely confused about where it had come from! So, I guess we need to explain some more things and then start potty-training for real. The kid is definately ready, we'll see how well the mom does!

Baby Blessing

We blessed Abby in church on Dec 6th. She was still very young, but we wanted to do it while Joe's parents were in town so that they could be there. It was so nice to have so much family around! Here are a few pictures that we took that day...

Our little family with Joe's parents before church

Grandma Lodge and Abby

My Grandpa Clark with his newest great-granddaughter

Grandma Olson and Abby in the beautiful dress that she made for her. Thanks Mom!
Grandpa Olson and Abby

Joe helping get her ready just before church, what a great daddy!

Thanks to everyone for coming to take part in this special day for our family (especially to Rob who had to work, but made all the arrangements to come on his lunch break...) it sure meant a lot to me! I wish that our whole family could have been there, two of my four brothers were there, but I sure missed Jon (on a mission) and Mike (in Utah getting ready for finals)! It's times like this that you really realize how important family is!

Crash Course in Real Life

The last couple of weeks I have had a lot of help...Joe had a week and a half off work when Abby was born, then his parents came to help when he had to go back to work. Well, his mom left over the weekend and today Joe left to go out of town for the week. So, it's my first day at home by myself with three kids and I won't have reinforcements until Friday night! But, it's almost bedtime, everyone is still smiling...
...I consider that a successful day! One down, four more to go!

Two Weeks!!

Abby is now two weeks old, it's amazing how much she has changed in that short amount of time. She is a very good baby but is very sure to let us know when she is hungry! Here are a few new pictures of our little lady!

Our Baby Girl

Wednesday we welcomed Abigail Charlotte Lodge into our family. She was born 1:59 PM (via C-section) weighing 8 lb 5 oz and is 18 1/2 inches long. We were both released from the hospital today and are very glad to be home! The boys are very excited about their new "baby Abby" and so far have been very good with her. Here's a few pictures from the last few days...

(no she is not actually orange, the coloring is weird and I don't know how to fix it...but at least you can see her eyes!)

Sam's gift for his new baby sister...a butterfly crown. He was so excited to give it to her!

This is about as close as Andrew likes to get to her at this point...
Well, there's a brief intro to our newest addition. So far she is a fairly mellow baby and has tolerated her brother's craziness very well! We are so excited to have her in our family!