Grand Tetons

Back in June we took a little family vacation to the Grand Tetons. We went up with our good friends, the Knight family. The weather was a little cool but everything was soooo gorgeous! I think Dirk took a million scenery pictures.

 This one is the view from our campsite.

We took the kids bikes up with us. They loved riding them around the campsite and on the trails to the general store.

About 30 minutes after Rayden started riding his bike he managed to run over a nail and get a flat tire. He was so upset. The general store at Colter Bay didn't carry patch kits for bikes so Dirk took one of the wheels off of the bike trailer and put it on his bike until we could drive to Moose to fix his tire.  On our way to Moose we saw a moose!

The kids loved it!

They also loved going to see Old Faithful in Yellowstone again this year. Simon had to go to the bathroom about 2 minutes before the geyser was suppose to errupt so Dirk ran him to the visitor center and they came out just in time but not in time to make it back to where the rest of us were so Simon is a lone man in the picture.

Rayden loved walking around the hot pots. I think it was the highlight of his day. Alexia couldn't stand their smell and Mom was nervous the whole time that one of the kids would fall off the walkway into one.

One of the days that we were there we drove down to String Lake and had a picnic. The kids loved skipping rocks in the water.

 Simon insisted on helping us out and he pulled the cooler with lunch in it to the picnic area.

We went for lots of walks around Jackson Lake as well. The kids loved finding walking sticks!

And it isn't any fun unless you get to play in the freezing cold water for a bit!

We also spent an entire fishing at Jackson Dam. Dirk was determined he was having fish for dinner. Brett caught fish after fish before Dirk had his first nibble. He finally caught enough fish for dinner!

And there is no better time camping than sitting around the campfire making s'mores!

 All in all it was a great family trip and Kynlee did great on her first camping trip. She toughed it out wonderfully at only 3 weeks old!

Our Baby Girl

I am woefully overdue in the blog department. I can't believe it has taken me so long to post some of these pictures!

Kynlee Cecelia Sorensen was born on May 27, 2011 at 2:23pm. She weighed 7lbs 3oz and was 19.5 inches long. She was the same size as Alexia so they tie for being my smallest babies. Kynlee is the only one to be born with actual hair!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Kynlee in the last couple of weeks.

Poor Kynlee was white as a ghost from the cord being wrapped around her neck twice.

Alexia is one proud sister!

Rayden loves Kynlee to death. His poor friends have to put up with him asking them everyday if they want to "See Kynlee's cute litte face."

These two could be twins except Kynlee has more hair than Simon did. 

 Going home from the hospital, May 29th.

 1 week, 2 days old enjoying some time in the backyard.

 Taken this morning. She smiles in her sleep and this is the closest I have come to catching one.

 I also wanted to post Kynlee's birth story. I really don't expect everyone to read it but I want it written down for my own sake. Be warned that it is very long and full of details.

I came home from work Thursday afternoon around 3:30pm. I went to the bathroom and noticed that I had lost my mucous plug and was having bloody show. I called DH to let him know that labor could start within the next 24 hours or so. I was having contractions but nothing really different then my Braxton Hicks. I spent the afternoon cleaning house and getting ready just in case. By 8:30pm my contractions changed and were harder and closer so I started timing them. They were 3-7 minutes apart but still not horribly painful. They stayed like that all night and I had tons more bloody mucous! I tried to sleep but I couldn't sleep through most of the contractions so I mostly dozed all night. The next morning DH got the kids ready for school and I called the dr's office. They had me come in to be checked. I was at 5+cm and 80% effaced so she sent me to L&D. This was around 10:15 am.
Our hospital has never been known to be natural childbirth friendly. With my other kids it was always, "This is how we do things and we don't deviate." I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in my room and found a birthing ball already there and they let me know that the on call doula was on duty. My nurse asked me what my expectations and birth plan were and she wrote it all down on a white board on the wall. She was an amazing nurse and I am so glad I had her. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors to check on the babe before letting me get up and walk around. I never got the chance to get up. My poor girl never passed any of her Non stress tests. We tried all sorts of things to get her heart rate where it should be but nothing worked. With each contraction her heart rate would dip way down and take 3-5 minutes to regulate again.  So at 1:00pm the doctor decided I needed a low dose of pitocin to get my contractions closer together and get her here. My nurse felt so bad and was apologizing the whole time she hooked me up because she knew it wasn't part of my birth plan, but I knew we had to do something if baby wasn't doing good so I was ok with it. I was nervous about continuing naturally. I turned my iPod on and listened to track after track of my Hypnobabies as the pitocin started to kick in. I'm not going to lie, it was hard! My nurse came in and helped me with my breathing and showed Dirk how to counter pressure my pains for me. This was the first time he had ever gotten involved in the labor process and he was amazing! I knew how uncomfortable he was with the idea of a natural birth but he really stepped up to the plate and made me so proud. I got to a point where I didn't think I could it anymore and that is when Dirk got a text from the girls at work. It said, "Tell Hanne good luck and that we know she can do it!" Talk about perfect timing! A few minutes later the dr came in and said I could start pushing whenever I wanted to. Two pushes later at 2:23pm Kynlee was born with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck twice. We were lucky she could be delivered without cutting the cord during the process. They unwrapped it from her neck and laid her on my belly while the dr helped to pulse some of the blood back through the cord to Kynlee. She was so pale it was scary. They were going to take her straight to the NICU but she started to root so they let me nurse her first and she started to pinken up. She nursed for 30 minutes and got to stay with us for a full hour before they went to run tests to make sure she was ok. She passed all of her tests and is doing great. She was 7 lbs 3 ozs and 19.5" long, the same size as her big sister. Her brothers and sister are over the moon in love with and so are Dirk and I. We are so glad she is here!

Baptism

On April 30th, 2011 Alexia chose to be baptized. We are so proud of her! She is such a great example to her brothers and sister.

Easter Sunday

The kids really enhouyed Easter Sunday this year. We thought, for sure, that since it was so late in the month that the weather would be great. We were wrong. It was still cold and rainy. Spring has refused to come to Utah this year!

 Needless to say the kids had a blast still with 2 egg hunts and rolling eggs at Old Main Hill!

The Big 3

Simon's birthday was this last week. He was so excited to turn 3 years old! All day long whenever you asked him whose birthday it was he would point to himself and give you a big ole grin.

We didn't do anything huge or super fun but we did do a theme for his special day. One of Simon's favorite pastimes is playing Mom's IPod. He LOVES the game "Angry Birds."

 The kids had a blast with the balloons. They played with them all night and Simon was so excited to have all the attention on him for a day.

8 is Great

This girl went and did it! She turned 8 years old on us today. Where does the time go?

Some interesting things about Alexia are:
Favorite color: lime green
Favorite food: pasta
Favorite Animal: dolphin
She also loves to do tumbling, be with her friends, and read.
Alexia is a joy in our home that I don't know how we could live without. Her brothers adore her and I know her little sister will too. She has Dad wrapped around her little finger extremely tight and he freely admits it. I might as well admit that she has me wrapped there too! We can't help but love her.

 Happy Birthday Alexia!

Dangerous

 About a month ago I caught Simon standing on the bar stool. I said, "Simon sit down or you are going to fall and get hurt." His reply, "It's ok Mom, I'm Dangerous." Where did this come from? I'm not sure but it has become a theme with him. Anytime, now, that we ask him to stop doing something or to do something he replies that he is 'Dangerous!' It is incredibly cute especially when you see his face when he says it!

PS- Please ignore all of Dirk's tools in the background!

I swear his face is saying, "Quit treating me like a baby, I know what I am doing!" How can you not love him to death?

3 R’s

I have the best husband in the world! It is Dirk's slow season at work. He still works from 8am-6pm during the day, comes home to eat, play with the kids, and help put them to bed; then he goes back to work from 9pm-12am. He does this 3 days a week and then works 8am-6pm the other two days. Even with this crazy schedule he found time to make this for his boys:

One of Dirk's many jobs at work is to make all of the displays that we send out to customers. A couple of displays came out of our outlet store that were old and falling apart and Dirk was told to just throw them away. Instead he reused them and some other odds and end pieces to make the bed. He made it over a weekend and his boys absolutely LOVE it. Since we put it up in their room Simon has gone to bed sooooo much easier. He calls his bed his house. The railing is his window.Rayden feels so big being on the top bunk! Sometimes he is in a good mood and allows Simon to climb up and play for awhile.
Dirk is also working on another project for their room. We took apart the two sides to our entertainment system and moved them to the boys' room. They fit perfectly on either side of their window and they are already black so I don't have to paint them. Dirk is going to build a desk to connect the two shelves and also a shelf on the top to give it a more built-in look. When it is done I will post more pics.
So when that project is done I am going to create a sign in vinyl that I think fits the room perfectly.

I know the saying is 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle', but I think I am going to change it to say, 'Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle.' I'm going to cut the words out and place them in each arrow. I think it works. I am so excited to see the finished room.While Dirk has been busy with wood projects I have been working a few of my own. I pulled Simon's old car seat out of storage and decided that it just wasn't girly enough for Kynlee, so I made a new cover. It is far from perfect and I still have to make the canopy but I was pretty impressed with myself.

I've never done a sewing project without a pattern and I was scared to death the whole time I was working on this one. I'm going to keep the old car seat cover on underneath to make sure there is enough padding but now it is perfectly girly!

Cleaning the Kitchen Sink

Here in good ol' Cache Valley we have a little diner. If you have never been there you can't say you live here.

Angie's has been around for forever. Like all good diners they have a challenge item on the menu. They call it the Kitchen Sink.

(I'm not sure who the girl is in the photo but it was the only pic I could find of the Sink before it was eaten!)

Obviously you can see where it gets it's name from. It's a huge ice cream sundae in, well, a kitchen sink! I have never experienced the pleasure of all that ice cream myself but Alexia got a chance to this last month with their oh so wonderful babysitter, Sam.

We love Sam! She is so much fun!!!! She took the kids to Angie's just for this special treat and look how well they did.

Sidnee, Connor, Alexia, Clay, Navy, Megan
 Lexi informed me that they kept eating after this picture and only a teeny little bit was left in the bottom when they were done. I am surprised none of them had belly aches when they came home. Lexi wants me to put the bumper sticker on our car but I convinced her it would be more fun to hang up in her room.