Playin' on the Porch in our Jammies

Here are pictures of a typical morning after breakfast. I think they are just so cute! Zenna had put her kitty on the pillow, and covered it with her blankie, but by the time I pulled out the camera, she'd picked it up.

The baby in Mommy's Tummy

I thought I would dedicate a post to the new baby. Here I am showing off my very pregnant belly.

Abigail and Olivia draw many pictures every day. Lately they have been drawing pictures of Mommy with a baby in her tummy. This is Abigail's rendition of me:
Here is Olivia's rendition (she made sure to point out the really cute hair):
I love that the baby is floating right under my chin. It feels like that some days...

The cutest thing that happened was when Zenna came up to me the other day insisting on seeing my belly button. She is at that age where the belly button is a very important part of everyone's anatomy. When I showed her, she poked my belly and said, "It's a brudder! Wight in dere!" I thought that was cute, cause she'd seen her sisters do that. Then she thought for a minute and put her eye up close to my belly button and said, "I see him?" She tried to clean my button out with her finger so she could get a better view, but she never caught a glimpse. I told her she'd have to wait until the baby came out to see it.

Abigail and Olivia get really interested once in a while. About a week ago, they both came up to me and spontaneously started rubbing my belly. They had such a twinkle in their eyes, and they started chanting, "It's our brother, it's our brother." I thought maybe they were having visions and premonitions that I should heed. But, yesterday they were talking about how cute the new baby will be, and therefor it must be a girl. I asked, "What if it's a boy?" they replied that we'd get a boy next time. This time it's a girl. So... we know nothing.

I am 36 weeks... after June 3rd I am 37 weeks, and can go at any time. We are so excited!!

Joe's Birthday at the Shop

Since Joe has been working crazy hours for the past few weeks, we decided to take his Birthday Party to the shop. The girls love to see the Asparagus Harvester, and since they hadn't seen daddy in 3 days, they were totally excited.

We had birthday cake and pizza, and then they got to roam the shop.

I love seeing the girls wander around the shop. I was not so happy that I forgot to leave Zenna's blankie in the car. It was black when we got done.

Here is a picture of the Harvester. This is just the skeleton. We'll post more pictures when it's complete. They are getting so close... any day now and it will be in the field!

Motherhood lesson #4,319

Don't let your kids chew gum in the bathtub.


The other day I gave Olivia a piece of gum because she spontaneously came in the kitchen and cleaned everything off the floor (the one job that is almost impossible for me right now). She popped it into her mouth, and then it was bath time.

While the girls were playing in the tub, I heard Olivia burst into tears. (Yes, I confess I do leave my children semi-unattended in the tub. I never leave hearing range, but I don't spend 15 minutes sitting in the bathroom while they play.) When I went in to see what was the matter, she told me she had lost her gum and wanted me to find it. Well, I "tried real hard" to find the lost gum (nasty!) and told her it was gone for good. I helped her calm down and get dressed. When I pulled Zenna out of the tub a few minutes later she looked at me with a mischievous look on her face and said, "I find gum!" and kept on chewing. I hurried to get her out of Olivia's sight, and she swallowed the gum before anyone else knew about it. Not only ABC gum, but ABC gum that was floating in bathwater! It still makes me gag to think about.

I am a firm believer that such exposure increases immunity. I have to think that or else I'd go crazy.

Yummy Chokwit!

I made chocolate pudding for dessert on Sunday. Zenna is a huge chocolate fan. In fact, she learned the word "chokit" very early. So, after dessert Sunday, she was saying over and over, "yummy chokwit" and licking the bowl clean.

Milestones this week

I can't believe how fast the girls are growing up! They are so much fun, and we just love seeing them grow!

Abigail is "too big to take naps." So, as you see... she will never lay in her bed at a regular naptime, but about twice a week she will get her blankie and lay down on the couch. Not to go to sleep, of course. So, actually this week Abigail has NOT reached the milestone of no afternoon nap. But she did learn to write a lowercase "g" today. She still doesn't understand that in order for anyone else to read her name, she must put all the letters in a row. Instead she writes all the letters of her name randomly all over the page over and over. But, we are still working on it. I am definitely a novice home-school mom. :)


Olivia has reached an important milestone this week. She can now completely self-dress! Here she is in her purple flower jammies that she put on all by herself! She can take off her shirts all by herself, put on her footie jammies by herself, and tuck the lining back into her shoes to put them on by herself. I am so proud of her, and so relieved. With two who can totally self-dress, life is a little easier now. :)


Zenna learned this week how to go up and down the stairs by herself. She had never even tried before. We never had to put up a gate or anything, because she never even tried to go down. I found out she could do it herself when I left her blankie upstairs. We were going to see Joe at the shop for lunch, and I told her she had to leave blankie at home. When I was getting the other kids in the car, Zenna disappeared. Pretty soon I saw her coming down the stairs by herself, blankie in tow. Nothing could move her to try, except blankie... If only I had the same power. I decided if she was determined enough to brave the stairs, I would let her take blankie on our trip.

Bunk Beds!

Last week I set up the bunk beds that Mom and Dad gave us when they got a new bed and all the beds moved down. These are the bunk beds Hilary and I had a teenagers, and if I remember right, we put them together when we got them. So, when I discovered that after three moves, we had lost the hardware to put it together, I was able to figure out the bolts we needed. The girls and I took a long trip to find the right bolts and one mattress. Mom and Dad gave us the other one.

After hitting a few retail stores that don't sell mattresses for less than $100, and hitting 4 thrift stores that didn't have any twin mattresses, or they were selling them for $50... we found the perfect mattress for $15! We brought it home and put the whole thing together!

They spent the entire first day in their beds. The house was very quiet that day. I have to say I got a lot done that stayed done since they didn't leave their bedroom. Abigail even requested to take a nap! The second day, Olivia got brave enough to climb up to the top bunk. She wanted me to put her up there. Besides the fact that I am almost 9 months pregnant and can't lift a 40 pound kid four feet in the air... I told that it wasn't safe for her be up if she couldn't get down by her self. So, after a few trips up and down the bottom two rungs of the ladder, she made it to the top. Then she went up and down freely!

Now that it's been over a week they are settling down. They went to bed at 11 o'clock for the first week. They just stayed in there playing forever. Once things calm down, Zenna will get to sleep in with them in a toddler bed. She loves the "big girl bed" but I think she still feels more comfortable in her crib. She always reminds me that she wants to sleep in the "cwib" in "Zenna's Woom."

Random pictures

Since I just started this blog, I will include some old pictures that are my favorites.

These are the girls on Halloween.

I just love that bunny tail!

Here is Olivia helping Daddy tune the piano:

Here is this year's model of the snowman:


Zenna frequently walks around with her hands held behind her back like this... she has since she started to walk. I think it's cute. She also frequently walks around without pants on. Also cute. She is sporting her favorite cloth diaper. :)

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, my girls gave me a wonderful gift. They made it through Sacrament Meeting without major interruption. That's a big deal, because since Joe is the Ward Organist, he goes to church at 7:30 to prepare and play prelude. He usually joins us after the sacrament, until the intermediate or closing hymn. The girls are good most of the time, and yesterday they were very good.

Zenna is always so excited to see Daddy at the organ. Yesterday, before I know what was happening, as soon as the Sacrament was over, Zenna jumped into the aisle and ran for the stage, yelling, "Daddy, daddy!" She had to dodge between the young men who were just leaving their bench, but she found him. It was so cute! I get the feeling we are one of those families that keep our quarter of the chapel entertained during meetings.

They also let me get this picture of all of them in their matching dresses. I decided to make them Easter dresses this year, and of course I had to pick the pattern with a full pinafore! They were very simple, but there were 6 of them! If baby #4 is a girl, that means 4 matching Christmas dresses... Whew!

Simple Joys

The other day I had a few moments of joy and satisfaction that I wanted to share.

I decided that the two most satisfying things in my life right now are:

1. Hanging a load of homemade cloth diapers on the line to dry in the sun.
2. Feeding my kids a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches and apple sauce. Homemade whole wheat bread, homemade jam, and home canned applesauce. It's their favorite lunch!

So simple, but to me... that's what life is all about!

I'm going to do it!

I decided to take the plunge and become a blogger. Not because I believe that everyone wants to know all that's going on in our family all the time, but what a great way to document! And for those few people who do want to know what's going on in my family all the time, they can check. I don't have to feel guilty about not sending an update email every week (since I haven't done that for almost a year now).

So, let me introduce our family: Joseph (Joe) and I (Adrienne) have been married for almost 7 years. The 7th anniversary of our first date is coming up soon... and since from first date to altar was only 4 months, we are almost there! What a whirlwind! Since then, we graduated from BYU, bought (then sold three years later) a home in Layton, UT, moved to Eastern Washington (where we now live) and have had three kids! Abigail is four and a half, Olivia is three, Zenna is 18 months.

Right now we are about 7 weeks away (or 6 or 8 or 5... who knows?) from welcoming Baby Haws #4 into our family. We aren't sure if it is a Baby Benson, or a Baby Sophie. The family is divided on predictions at this point. Joe remains aloof from all speculation, the rest of us can't make up our minds. Our opinions shift frequently. Whenever all the girls are getting along well, Abigail will say, "We can wait and have a brother next time. I think it's a girl baby." When they are all at odds, they agree that they want a brother. Either way, we are excited!