{5.7.18 - 5.13.18}

After I had Eli my mom brought the three bigger kids to the hospital to meet him. They all climbed up on the bed with me and it was an "oh, my gosh! I have FOUR kids!" moment for me. But we are so glad he is here! So far he has been a pretty sweet little thing and we love him dearly! 

Axel has taught himself a new trick. I noticed his fingers crossed one morning during breakfast and I just thought it was so cute! // Popsicle weather is some of my favorite weather. 

Alya is so sweet with her baby brother! She always wants to hold him! // The best part of decorating a cake (or brownies in this scenario) is tasting the frosting! I love that sweet face of his! 

We are so grateful that Nana was able to be here this week! I'm sure my children wore her out! They kept her crazy busy while I was mostly taking care of the baby. It was fun to have her here right before Mother's Day and the girls loved helping make and decorate brownies for her. This picture makes me laugh...Axel was ready for some time alone with his favorite show (Baby Bum) and when I had his sisters and Nana pose for a picture by him he was not happy that they were invading his space.  

Matthew and the kids are tearing up the front flower bed to make it pretty for my Mother's Day present!  

Axel and his pony-tails! // I have already been given many, many flowers this year. I suspect there will be many, many more to follow. (Lyla) 

Dad gave each of the kids a ride in the tractor and they loved it! (Alya) 

Axel seemed slightly nervous about his ride on the tractor, but he really did have fun! // He grabbed Matthew by the pant leg and directed him to the trampoline because he wanted to jump with his dad. And he was so happy!  

The kids got the sand shovels so they could help their dad spread the bark chips in my new flower bed! // He's such a good helper! 

I love these kids! I LOVE Axel's happy face and I wish you could see the girls' faces better! Haha!  

I love my Mother's Day gift and I am really excited to see it as it grows more!  

I love these sibling interactions!  

Lyla and Eli. Look at those eyes on that girl!! 

The girls think it's pretty cool that they can pick each other up. There might have been a couple small casualties.  

Alya // Lyla - I sure love them, and I love how happy they are!   

I love his eyes, too! And I LOVE his curls! He needs a haircut so badly, but I'm going to have such a hard time saying goodbye to these locks when we do cut his hair.  

He looks so peaceful! 

I love this little bear and the little rolls on his skinny little legs!  

Dad and Eli snuggles. Aren't baby yawns the cutest!  

Having a picture of me with all of my kids is probably one of my favorite Mother's Day gifts! 

And I will leave you with the cutest little one year old singing the cutest version of "Itsy Bitsy Spider!"

Eli Matthew Sorenson

On April 30 I went into my final doctors appointment with Dr. Nay. I was dilated to a two at this point (thanks to me moving my girls bedroom furniture around!) and my doctor stripped my membranes for good measure. We were hoping that since my body was making progress I would go into labor on my own, but we scheduled a trip to the hospital for Friday, May 4 just in case. 

All week I tried to keep progress going. I cleaned my entire house, moved a box spring and mattress into the girls' room for my mom to sleep on while she is here, we went on a walk and I pushed a grocery cart full of kids and groceries all through Walmart. Matthew was nervous every night that I would go into labor in the middle of the night...I think our experience with the girls scarred him a little bit! But, nothing worked. Friday rolled around and I didn't feel like my body had made any big changes.  

We got to the hospital Friday at 7:00 a.m., and I was right--I was only at 3 cm. We hooked me up to the monitors and soon learned that the baby's heart rate was dropping when I had contractions. My nurse thought that either the baby had the cord wrapped around his neck, or that he was at least squeezing the cord. She had me try laying on my left side to see if that would help the baby's heart rate, and he did much better after that. The picture above is what Matthew saw all day! 

At 8:40 a.m. I was still at a 3 so we started me on a small dose of Pitocin since the baby seemed to be okay with me on my left side. At 12:15 I was almost at a 4 and I decided to just  get my epidural put in since my doctor was at the hospital, which meant I wouldn't have to wait for him when I decided the pain was too bad! Haha! Around 2:00 the baby's heart rate started to become irregular again so we turned off the Pitocin as it can sometimes put added stress on the baby. At 2:20 my water broke and I was now at about 7 cm!! The nurse was taking bets that we'd be delivering the baby by 3:00 - which sounded great! Also, if Axel's birth was any indication as to how things would go, I agreed with her! Things moved so quickly with Axel, especially after my water was broken! But, 3:00 came and went...4:00 came and went and at 4:45 I was starting to feel more pressure (my epidural was probably the best one I've ever had...I thought I could feel everything but the pain with past epidurals - minus the spot that didn't get numb when I was birthing Axel - but I know now that that wasn't the case. I knew when the baby dropped, I knew when I was having a contraction, I knew when it was time to push, and I know when I was crowning, when the shoulders were born, everything! With no pain! It was so great!)

I started to feel like I had to push to the point where I thought I was going to have to let the nurse know the baby was coming with or without the doctor if they didn't hurry! Luckily that wasn't the case! Haha!  

I pushed through four contractions and after Eli's head was born the doctor unwrapped the cord from around his neck and he was a healthy little boy! Doctor Nay rubbed him until he cried and started to pink up a little bit, then they placed him right on my chest where I got to snuggle him for a few minutes before they took him to suction him and weight and measure him.  

He was a healthy 8 pound 5 ounce baby boy. He was 21.5 inches long and he was born at 5:12 p.m. 

As soon as they were done weighing and measuring him, my nurse gave him right to Matthew! I was so grateful! Usually they just give me the baby...which I loved, but I thought it was pretty neat for Matthew to get to hold him first - well, kind of first, other than when he was on my chest, of course! 

The kids wasted no time to get to the hospital to meet him! The girls were old pros...they were so excited to hold him and meet him. Lyla is so glad that we named him Eli. Alya is okay with the name that we picked, even though she wanted us to name him Balto. Axel was pretty confused when he came in the room but I think he warmed up to the baby pretty quickly! He kept pointing to Eli and saying "baby!" and he was so excited to sit on my lap to hold him! He loves his little nose and ears!

Our family of {SIX} 

We are so in love with this little boy! I'm almost a little heartbroken knowing how fast time is going to fly -- I already want to slow down time!

{4.30.18 - 5.6.18}

We had kind of a big week this week! Welcome to our crazy not-so-little-anymore family, Eli! 

My little decorators putting their skills to good use! // Axel has loved reading with us lately. After lunch every day he has pushed Matthew into the family room and pulled all of his books out of the diaper bag and he makes Matthew sit and read all 5 of them with him! 

The girls tried over and over and came up with many different ideas to try to set up a hammock for themselves. We decided to try tying a blanket on the kitchen table and they loved it! It was pretty fun for all of us!  

39 week baby bump // Meet Mr. Eli Matthew Sorenson -- we are in love!

{4.23.18 - 4.29.18}

The girls like to pretend this broken thermometer is a clock. They always run to it to check the time, and Axel loves to do everything his sisters do! And he's so cute! // This is what happens when your dad has been working out of town all month and you don't want him to leave again. (Alya) 

Picnics outside are so glamorous! (Lyla) 

Alya // Axel is just so cute, I can't even stand it!  

We are finally prepping for the new baby at our house. The kids loved helping me clean the bassinet and car seat!  

38 weeks. I love that Alya is showing off her little "belly"!  

Matthew got me and the kids out of the house for what feels like the first time in a really, really long time. We took the kids fishing and they loved it! The girls looked for crawdads and snail shells and they made sure to find some for Axel, too!  

She's beautiful! (Lyla) // This little fishing pole she's using caught the biggest fish! 

Alya has the cutest smile, but she doesn't know how to smile when I pull out the camera! It's so funny to me! // Axel enjoyed his hot dogs by the fire tonight! He is such a cute kid! 

These are just a few of the crawdad claws they found.  

(Alya) // Lyla is pretending to be a crawdad. Because I thought she was so funny, so found a bird feather and made me take a picture of her being a bird...then she found a rock and wanted a picture of her being a rock...then she found a snail shell, and -- you guessed it -- wanted a picture of her being a snail shell. She's such a goof ball!  

This is the fish caught by Lyla's tiny little pole! He was so big!  

Axel loved it!!!!! When Matthew noticed the pole was in the water, he ran over to grab it, and while he was reeling in the fish Axel was running back and forth along the shore line. It was so funny! I love this look on his face!!

I love this picture! Axel thinks the fish is the coolest thing ever, Lyla can't focus at all on me because she's upset I asked her to stand in the back where she couldn't see the fish very well, and Alya is giving me one of her on-demand...smiles...? 

This was such a great night! It was fun to sit and watch the kids playing together. I don't think we've ever been fishing where I was able to sit for as long as I sat tonight. We enjoyed our campfire and our campfire dinner, but most of all, it was just great to be out as a family doing something we love! 

A beautiful Otter Creek sunset! 

{4.16.18 - 4.22.18}

This kid is hilarious! I have no idea what he was doing, but he sure thought he was funny - and so did I!  

I love these kids! Dirty faces and all!  

I love that it's been warm enough for us to have picnics! We have been outside for lunch almost everyday this week and it's been wonderful! 

Lyla is pretty proud of the fact that she can wink both eyes, and Alya is getting really good at winking her one eye!  

Axel goes outside for five minutes and he is beat red! He loves his truck and playing in the dirt! Also, the girls have finally figured out how to pump on the swings and that makes me so happy! 

I don't remember what they were playing...but I could hear them whispering but I couldn't find them...until I looked in the washer. // Axel is just too cute for his own good!  

37 Week baby bump. I'm feeling large and ready whenever this baby is! // Axel's hair is getting really long, so we gave him some pigtails. Now, when I do the girls' hair he usually brings me a rubber band and asks for a ponytail.  

We made it up to the Jordan River Temple open house. We were kind of rushed through, so I don't know how memorable it will be for my kids, but I think it was fun and I think they enjoyed themselves. While we were in the Celestial Room I kind of explained to the girls that it was a room where you can sit and feel close to heaven. Alya's response was, "I don't feel that." Haha! It made me laugh! It'll be good when she can go back and feel that Spirit.