Welcome Ainsley!!

So for all those who haven't heard, we recently welcomed little (and I do mean little) Ainsley to our family. She only weighed in at 5 lbs. and was 18 inches long. Thank goodness she was so little as we had her without any drugs (not by choice). On the morning she was born, I had contractions between 7-10 minutes apart for about 4 hours. Then they slowed down and were only coming about every 30 minutes apart. So I sent Scott on to work and told him that I would call him if I needed him. About 1:30, I tried to call my doctor's office, since they were getting strong again and I wanted to know whether I should go into the hospital or to stop by his office and see how far along I was. No one answered the nurses line, so I called back an hour later. I was told to keep track for an hour and if they remained strong, and I could get there before 4 then they would check me. Well, an hour later, I was in a lot of pain, but it was now time to get the kids home from school. Scott called his sister and asked her to pick up Jeff and Hailey and bring them home for me. By that time it was now 3:45 and I figured that I wouldn't be able to get there in time to see the doctor. Scott showed up about 4:45 and we decided to feed the kids dinner and then go in. So Scott made dinner and I went and laid down. After a while, I started feeling guilty, I could tell Scott was stressed out trying to get the kids to help with dinner, set the table, and get sleeping bags and clothes for the next day for all the kids, so I got up to help him. We ate dinner and then took the kids to Ryan and Penny's house, just in case we were spending the night. I stayed in the car while Scott took everything in, including car seats. When we arrived to the hospital it was now 7:30, Scott was talking to Jason on the phone asking him to water our garden. I was stopping every couple of minutes to try and get through the contractions. While we were checking in, I was bending over in pain and crying, so they sent me into the trauma room to change and then they would check me. While the CNA was checking my blood pressure, I had a contraction and my water broke. The RN came in to check me and I told her that I wanted to go to the bathroom. She told me no and then asked Scott to go out and ask for a kit and to call the doctor. She was afraid that we wouldn't be able to make it into the labor and delivery room. Dr. England called back and asked if he should be running red lights, the nurse said YES! Then she made the decision to try and get me into the labor and delivery room since it was a lot bigger room. They (4 nurses) pushed me on the bed down the hall and into the room. When we got there, the RN was too afraid that I wouldn't be able to transfer beds, so they pushed the bed aside and then she told me that although she would prefer me to wait until the doctor arrived, she had delivered baby's before so if I felt the need to push, then to go ahead. A couple minutes later, Ainsley was born. Time, 7:57. Dr. England walked in about 5 minutes later.

About 8:15, Scott called Jason back to tell him the news. He didn't believe that we had already had her, even when Scott sent him pictures. He also asked Jason to go to our house and get the phone charger so that he could call the rest of his family. When Scott called his Mom (on vacation in New Orleans), she didn't believe him either. Then he called his Dad, I don't know why everyone didn't believe him. When he called Kristin, he asked her how she did at weight watchers and then told her that I had lost 5 lbs.

The next day, Hailey chewed out the pharmacist (who she thought was my Dr. for not being there). When I saw Dr. England, I told him about it, he told me that he was at the hospital within 7 minutes.

All in all a very memorable and eventful experience! We are just happy to have her here with us to complete our eternal family! Everyone happy, healthy and well!

What's going on in Jeffrey's life

So much has been going on lately that we have neglected to do a blog lately. Jeffrey is now 12 years old and recently received the priesthood. This event for me was both kind of a happy and sad moment. Happy because I was excited for him to receive it finally and sad because this means that he is no longer my little boy.

He is also going to be getting his star in scouts in a couple of weeks. Scott told me that he worries that people might think that Jeffrey only is this far along because Scott was his scoutmaster, but if anything it made it harder to have Scott as scoutmaster. When Scott did Jeffrey's scoutmaster conference, he made Jeffrey write down and type his own goals. He didn't make anyone else do this. Jeffrey just always goes to scouts and we as his parents follow up on any homework that he needs to complete.

Jeffrey is also going to be testing for his high red belt on May 1st. Hopefully he is ready. His teacher says that he is, so we will see. Now Jeffrey just wishes that he would start growing. He hates being the smallest person in his class. Most people that don't know him think that he is only about 8 years old.

Jeffrey's school class also recently did A Midsummer's night's dream. Jeffrey got to play the part of Puck. He did fantastic! He was one of the few kids that you could actually hear. When I find the camera, I will add some pictures.

I know that this doesn't have anything to do with Jeffrey, but FYI the baby is due in less than 5 weeks. We still don't have a name picked out for her, in fact, the paper that we had been writing down names has gotten lost. Any suggestions?

Has anyone seen the gingerbread man?

Be on the look out for a run away gingerbread man. Hailey's kindergarten class has scared the gingerbread man away. They have looked all over the school for him, he is not any where. When Hailey got home from school the other day, she wanted to go wander the neighborhood looking for him. She even had me help her write a letter of apology to the gingerbread man, hoping that would make him return. Nothing seems to have worked.

Her teacher is using the escaped gingerbread man to lead into her world section. She has asked us parents to ask people out of the state or around the world to send post cards to her class saying that they have seen the gingerbread man in their area. When she gets the cards, she will go to the world map and point out the place. We asked Kristin to ask Bonnie, and also Scott asked to his co-worker to ask his son who is currently serving.

Hailey talks about the gingerbread man so much that Jeffrey is sick of it and tells her all the time that there is no such thing, and to quite looking for him. Oh well, I guess we will see how it goes.

Good luck gingerbread man, where ever you are.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope that many of you did not have to stay up too late wrapping presents. Our kids are so excited to unwrap presents, we will have to post their fav's later.

Our kids have now watched "Curious George, A very monkey Christmas" about 15 times. I guess this is now their favorite Christmas movie is.

Jeffrey took his tae kwon do test on Monday. He now has his red belt. Hopefully with a lot of hard work, he can be a black belt in the next year or so. It still boggles my mind that he is almost 12 years old now and will be passing the sacrament in just 3 short months.

Hailey is super excited for Christmas. She has sung the song she learned at school, Christmas is a time to..., to just about everyone she has seen, whether they were willing to listen to her or not. She has also told everyone that Santa will be bringing her a butterfly sled. Hopefully the Big Guy doesn't let her down.

You'll have to ask the kids what they all got for Christmas. They are very excited about everything.

Also, you'll have to see the mothers ring Tammy got from Santa Claus. I have it on good authority that Santa uses a little elf named LaMont to do all his jewelry work. The ring has a stone for each of the kids in their birthmonth; Jeffrey (March) Aquamarine, Hailey (June) Alexandrite, Caleb (August) Peridot, and a 4th stone, hopefully Emerald, should be placed in the ring around the month of May. You'll have to call for the details and ask the kids if they are getting a brother or sister.

Well, we hope everyone is having a good Christmas - now its time for me to go to bed before the Big Guy catches me still awake.

What have we been up to lately?

So before all this snow came down, there were actually some nice days to be had in the last few weeks. I thought I might share what we have been up to during that time. We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with several of Tammy's siblings out in the Uintah Basin. This picture was taken at Sherry and Dex's house just after Thanksgiving dinner. The kids loved to run around outside and it was very difficult to get them all together for this picture. It was obviously very bright and sunny outside. What I wouldn't give for another one of those days!

Jeffrey has gotten to be a real photography enthusiast. He went up exploring in the hills behind Sherry and Dex's house on Thanksgiving and took some pictures. There were really some pretty good pictures and scenery to be seen. This is a reservior and hill near Altamont where they live. Dex takes care of the reservior and surrounding area there.

After Thanksgiving, we had the opportunity to go on a Christmas tree hunt excursion up Nine-mile canyon. And in case you are ever in the area and want to explore Nine mile, don't be fooled by the name --- its actually more like 60 miles and on a dirt road. But great scenery to see when you have a day to waste.

We only went up about 5 miles into the canyon to search for our tree. Then we probably hiked another 5 miles or so (maybe I'm exaggerating a little) thru the hills and around the brush to find the perfect tree. The perfect tree was right by the road, and we could have been in and out in probably 5 minutes, but you can't do a tree hunt unless you actually hunt, Can you?
Jeffrey had to find (his) tree. I got to carry a sleeping Caleb up and down the hills, trying to keep up with Jeffrey. Once he found the tree he wanted, we had to get back to the group and back to the truck to get the chainsaw. And since he wanted to get the far away tree, I had him carry the chainsaw most of the way back to the spot. Would have been nice to have my GPS and marked the spot so we could have found it again easier. But it was an experience.

Back to the truck with the tree. Everyone still happy and awake! Dex cut down a couple more for himself, and a small one for grandmas house. Not bad all in all for $10/tree permit!
Good thing we have a fake tree we use most years, because cutting down and setting up a real tree is a lot of work! But I guess everyone has got to do the real tree the right way (cutting it down yourself) some time in their life!

Back to work, additional Christmas preparations continue. Santa Claus makes it a point to stop by my work each year, and the kids get to take advantage of seeing him every year and getting some good pictures! And no lines! As you can see, Caleb still isn't to happy to see him yet.

Hailey on the other hand just loves Santa! Not sure what all she asked for .... something about a butterfly sled or something. I think by next year she'll be asking for her 2 front teeth. As you can see, she lost her first tooth recently.

She was really excited to loose her first tooth. Happened just after Thanksgiving while we were still out visiting family in Myton. I had forgotten how small those teeth can be. The tooth fairy came and left her $1.00! Seems the tough economy doesn't affect the tooth fairy at all!

Caleb had a ball at grandmas. I think all the kids spent the entire weekend watching and rewatching Up! Caleb also loved to play with cousins and be just generally happy! A good age (sometimes)

Except at night lately. Jeffrey has been the good older brother and try to deal with Caleb when he doesn't want to go to bed yet. This is a scene that has been a little more common in our house at night. Jeffrey reading a book to Caleb in his crib before bedtime. He even lays down with him sometimes in the crib to get him to go to sleep. Some things only big brothers can do!

Do I have a big butt?

So Scott had a service project on Saturday morning. His scout's were to meet at a park and clean it. He decided to buy donuts since it was cold and early in the morning. Unfortunately, only Jeffrey and one other boy showed up. He ended up bringing about 8 donuts home. I haven't had a donut in about 2 years, and it started calling to me. So I had one when Hailey and Caleb had one. Now Hailey is worried that she is going to be FAT from eating one donut. She also told me that I was going to be fat from eating one donut. I tried to explain that eating one every once in a while wouldn't hurt, but she is still concerned.

She has told both Scott and I that we have big buts. Where is my 5 year old getting this obsession about being skinny. Maybe I need to stop watching Biggest Loser. Who knows what goes on in a 5 year old's mind.

Its The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

Ouch! My back is still in pain! At least when Charlie Brown and Linus went out to the pumpkin patch they didn't have to haul the thing around! Sometimes sitting around and waiting but never actually getting what you wish for has its benefits. Be grateful Linus!
I'll have to admit it was quite an eye opening (and back breaking) experience being exposed to the world of giant pumpkins and giant pumpkin growers. I'll have to remember to keep a pallet around and make friends with someone with a forklift if I attempt this again. But we still have kids stopping by our house asking if the pumpkin is real and where we got it. As you can see from the pictures, the largest one weighed in officially at 392.5 lbs. The one Jason adopted was also quite large and unique in shape and weighed 257.5 lbs.


The kids have really taken to the pumpkin as if it were another sibling. Its certainly a bit quieter than the other 3 kids. Just not quite as cute or as active. But quite a bit heavier! I think it might weigh more than the whole family combined!

Do you think we ought to use this as our family Christmas card this year? Maybe we should have made a giant santa hat for the pumpkin. If only I would have thought about it sooner. I guess its not too late.

One of the many times we had to transport the pumpkin. We were grateful to have helpful strong neighbors and several brothers on hand to help. This contraption was put together by my dad to get the pumpkin to the Thanksgiving Point weighoff. It consisted of 2 long poles with some netting and a blanket on top of it to make a stretcher of sorts to load it onto the truck. We all felt like we were pallbearers at some large persons funeral!

After we finally got it to Thanksgiving Point, there was plenty of time for pictures with the family and checking out all the other pumpkins that were there. Apparently, we Wardles aren't the only weird, redneck-like family around. There were plenty others there that helped us fit in. It was quite fun and exciting for the kids.

So part of the excitement comes when the officials come around to each pumpkin and take measurements to estimate the weight based on the formula that they came up with. Apparently, if you add the circumference, the over the top (in the center) length from ground to ground, and the over the top (end to end) length added together, it can help estimate the weight. Our largest was estimated at about 325 pounds based on those measurements. The final circumference was about 113 inches.

Ahh, the 2 siblings with the 2 siblings. Its hard to believe these 2 pumpkins came from the same seed. Jason's pumpkin ended up being 257 pounds. Much more than we had estimated. These two must be extra thick inside (no jokes needed). There were probably about 40 or so pumpkins there at the weighoff, and our largest came in 20th place overall. The largest this year was only 919 pounds. They said it was a down year because of the wet June we had and several growers lost their plants to disease. We couldn't tell. Looked like a pretty good year to us!
The next week after the Thanksgiving point weighoff, we got to move the pumpkin to the Herriman pumpkin festival! We have been going to this festival for several years. This year our two pumpkins got to be displayed on either corner of the stage. They were the focal points of the pumpkin festival for sure! They even arranged to have a "guess the weight" competition with the winner getting a toy tractor. We all wanted to guess just to get the great prize! Several of our friends and neighbors were disqualified because of insider info. The 2 people that were closest each guessed 387 pounds, so we had a guess-off to determine the winner. They had to guess the weight of Jasons pumpkin. The guy that guessed closest was only 1 pound off on that one, guessing 256 pounds.

There were lots of things for the kids to play on while we were there. Caleb loved jumping around in this thing. I'm surprised he let us keep his hood on, he usually hats to have anything on his head. What a cute little Pooh bear!

Jeffrey was so busy playing on all the stuff they had that he was rarely seen, except by his cousin Jesse that followed him around everywhere.

Hailey was our little butterfly. I guess its appropriate that she choose to be a butterfly this year, because she is such the social butterfly. She loved bouncing around playing everywhere.

So now we have to ask the question about next year. Will there be another great pumpkin? Will we have the patience, real estate, desire to try to grow another one? I'm sure Jason will talk us into doing it again. I heard the lady that grew the 1725 pound pumpkin this year is giving away seeds. Have to check into that one.