Abigail's First Concert

Abigail auditioned for the ISU Children's Chorus last spring and she has been rehearsing with them every Wednesday since the beginning of the school year. Well her hard work finally paid off and we enjoyed watching her at her first concert. She seems so grown up now. The did well and we look forward to hearing these little angels sing more often.

Carson's First Smile

Carson has smiled a few times randomly in the last week, but today he was all smiles and would actually respond to my smile. It must have been the Dallas Cowboys onesie that he was wearing. I was pretty happy that I was able to catch a smile on camera. I think this is one of my favorite milestones that a baby reaches now on to "coos" and babbles.

Kindred Spirits

Abigail has been dying to have a sleepover for a while now. I finally was able to bring myself to let her have a sleepover and I am so glad I did. Abigail was so excited and she had a blast with her friend Kassidy. Abigail knows Kassidy from dance and school and her family recently moved into our neighborhood area. These girls had so much fun together; they are definately kindred spirits. The girls just clicked and it made my heart happy for Abigail to have such a fun time with a friend. Both of them woke up at 6:00 a.m. and they spent the entire morning singing and dancing and having a blast. They were also very good at including the twins with their play. Kassidy was sweet and polite. I would be glad to have her over anytime.

Who looks like who?

I was curious as to which one of my girls Carson looks most like so I found pictures of all of the girls when they were 1 month old. Comment if you have a guess.

 

Abigail - 1 month

Emily - 1 month

Elizabeth - 1 month

Carson - 1 month

Watch Me Grow!

I have seen some friends with those onesie stickers that you stick on a onesie and take your baby's picture to watch them grow. I found these cute tie onesie stickers on Amazon and I thought that it would be a good idea to watch Carson grow and document each month of his life and see the changes he makes (sniff!). I can't believe my newborn is a month old already.

Of course wherever the baby is, Elizabeth is there also. She LOVES her brother.

Carson's Blessing Day

Today was a very special day in our family. Our little Carson was blessed and we were honored to have my dad, Heather and Shane, and Darin's brother Mark attend. What a special little guy we have in our family.

Uncle Mark & Carson

Heather and Shane & Baby Carson

Darin with his sweet son. Darin gave a beautiful blessing for our little boy.

Family Photo. My, has life changed in the past 10 years. Darin and I met in May of 2002 and we are a family of six now 10 1/2 years later. I have decided that it is next to impossible to get a good picture of all six of us. This was the best we could do.

Emily with Carson

Abigail and Carson

Elizabeth and Carson

Papa Carl met Carson for the first time this weekend and it is so sweet to see the two guys together. We are so glad he came to help Darin bless the baby.

Momma Misty with her little boy.

I can only hope that this sweet boy lives up to be a worthy righteous priesthood holder like these men: Shane Booth, Darin Ralphs, Carl Stocker.

Halloween Happenings

We started off the Halloween season with pumpkin carving.

 

Our first family outing as a family of six was to the ward Halloween party.

Carson AKA Buzzy Bee

Emily as a Lady Bug

Abigail the Rock Star

 

Elizabeth as Spider GIRL (not spider woman) shooting her web.

Spider Girl's Creepy Hair

One of these days I will be something more interesting than a witch.

Darin went as his favorite food, pizza.

It's not fall unless you can play in a pile of leaves.

Carson and mommy passed out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters, clearly he enjoyed his job.

New Haircuts

Since Elizabeth got her haircut about 6 weeks ago Abigail and Emily have wanted short hair, so we finally did it. All of the girls have short hair now and I can say that it makes Sundays easier cause they can almost fix their hair completly themselves.

 

Can't Get Enough of Baby Carson

A couple of weeks ago Heather's husband Shane came up to meet Carson for the first time.

Carson is starting to like his swing

and hang out in his crib.

Adjusting to Life as a Family of SIX

On October 1st our family changed forever and we are all still adjusting to the change. Now we are a family of six, which is twice as big as the average family in the USA (The average family in the USA has 3.14 people in it). We have four children, which is half the amount of children raised in Darin's home when he grew up. The most important thing though is that a family of six seems like the perfect size to me. I totally feel like my family is complete now with the new sweet spirit that has joined us lately. Pretty soon, I am not going to even remember what life was like with out baby Carson.

Here are some facts that we have discovered about this little one.

 

*I may have mentioned this before, but we decided on the name Carson Kent because Carson is a combination of Carl & Harrison which is my dad's first and middle name, and Kent because it is Darin's middle name. Darin actually thought of the name first and ran it by me and as soon as I heard it, I knew that was our baby's name.

*Carson is a really good eater. He is my first baby that hasn't been a total struggle nursing. He has been pretty easy to nurse from day one and is very enthusiastic about food.

*Carson is starting to get into a routine. We are not quite there yet, but I see it happening. When he was born, he had his nights and days switched, he just wanted to snooze all day and his most awake time was in the middle of the night. I kind of knew this would be the case cause he was always very still in the womb during the day and kept me up in the night with all of his kicking and moving around. The last few nights I have nursed him for a really long time right before he goes to sleep and then he manages to sleep for about 4 hours before a feeding, he then wakes up about every hour from then on for shorter feedings until we are up for the day at 7:00.

*Carson is a sweet, happy, easygoing baby so far (Thank Heavens!) I prayed every day of my pregnancy to have a baby with an easygoing personality. I hope he stays this way cause my girls are not so easy going and we need a personality that just goes with the flow to even out their stubbornness.

*Carson only gets mad when he gets too hungry or when he is naked. He does not like diaper changes and he really gets worked up over clothing changes and baths.

*Speaking of diaper changes, I haven't quite gotten the hang of changing a baby boy's diaper. We end up with soaked clothes several times a day cause I can't predict when his little sprinkler system is going to go off. I think I figured out yesterday that I need to make sure his boy parts are pointing down when I put his diaper on because if it is pointing up, his diaper will leak.

*Carson came home from the hospital on Thursday, October 4th when he was 3 days old.

*Carson's umbilical cord fell off yesterday (October 13th) when he was 12 days old and he had his first bath.

*With Carson's umbilical cord gone, we have discovered that he has an "outie" belly-button and I am kind of in love with it because it just makes him a little different and part of what makes him special.

*Carson is scheduled for his circumcision on Monday at his 2 week check-up (OUCH!)

*Carson has all 10 fingers and toes and he has a birthmark on the back of his head around the swirly part of his hair, his eyes are dark blue, but my prediction is that they will be hazel or light brown because I can see little brown flecks behind those baby blue eyes.

*Carson doesn't have any nick names yet, but we have called him "sir," "little dude," and "buddy bud."

*Carson gets hardly any downtime cause his sisters are always waiting in line to hold him. They have been so obsessed with their little brother that we haven't gotten much done besides bonding with the little man. This has been okay for a couple of weeks, but it is time for us to get back to reality, so I have come up with a new system. Today is the first day implementing the new system, so I don't know how it works yet, but basically, the girls earn 5-15 minutes of Carson time per job that they do around the house (depends on the job). So far the girls seem excited about it, it doesn't cost me any money, and it saves me from holding the baby all of the time because Carson wants to be held if he is awake because he is not used to being put down.

 

Elizabeth is pretty sure that I had baby Carson for her. She loves her brother.

Carson is snoozing with his bumblebee that papa gave him.

The signs of a new mother - complete exhaustion.

Ready for his 1 week check up in overalls just like daddy.

I had to capture this moment cause he was mostly naked and not screaming.

Emily loves to climb up in Carson's crib and read him stories.

His head gets stronger and stronger every day.

Carson loves his soft owl from papa.

 

I am soaking up every moment with this little one as I know I won't have any more newborns to love and snuggle with and time just seems to fly by. I am still astounded that my first baby is eight already and I try not to think about my babies growing up too much because I get really emotional.

First Bath - 12 Days Old (October 13th 2012)

Blankets made by Savanna & Victoria Mitchell - Thanks Cousins!

 



Carson needed some alone time, so we tried out his swing. He fell right asleep. Success!

Happy Birthday Sweet Carson!

I don't take many pictures when I am pregnant, but I always manage to take one the Sunday before I head to the hospital to have a baby. This is my one and only "belly shot" before Carson made his grand entrance.

 

It's time! We took this photo as we were walking into the hospital for Carson's delivery.

Darin in his blue smurff suit ready for the surgery.

Heather got to be in the surgery too. They usually only let one support person into the delivery room, but because Heather is an RN and once worked at that hospital, we were able to pull some strings and get her to go in to witness the c-section first hand.

Our new family! Just minutes after Carson's arrival.

Carson Kent Ralphs

D.O.B. 10-01-12

Weight: 7lbs 15 oz

Length: 20 inches

It's very surreal and a bit nostalgic knowing that Carson's birthday was the last time Darin and I will be experiencing the birth of a child together.

The new hospital in Pocatello has only been open for 1 year. I can definitely say it is a big improvement from the hospital that I delivered the twins in.

Carson's first bath. Getting all cleaned up and smelling sweet.