We LOVE the Mall!

Sorry, there are no pictures for this post, but I had to write it down. First of all, I want to thank my mother for not allowing me to "hang out" at the mall when I was in Junior High. I would now be very embarrassed. There was a group of "very cool" junior high kids at the table next to us in the food court last night, and I was embarrassed for them.

Last night, Joe took all of us girls to the mall. When I told the girls that daddy was taking us out, Olivia jumped up and down and said, "Oh! Oh! Oh! I LOVE daddy!" They were all very excited. While I went shopping for some new shirts, Joe took the girls to the play area. They love it there, and even Zenna was running around and playing. It was very cute, because Abigail was keeping track of her sisters very closely. When we switched off, and Joe went to look for shoes, Zenna ran off. I was nursing the baby (of course!) and took a few minutes to get up to chase her. Abigail and Olivia were right with me. She was headed for Penney's when we found her. On the way back to the play area, Abigail took one of Zenna's hands and Olivia took the other. They kept telling her, "Don't ever run away again! You can't leave! You have to stay where mommy can see you! Don't ever run away!" It was so funny to see them give the lecture they've heard, we won't say how many times. :)

The last time we all went to the mall was pretty funny too. When we pulled up, Zenna was very excited. She kept shouting, "A twinkow! A twinkow!" We didn't know what she was talking about until we looked up at the building. We usually park by Macy's and she was looking at the star in their logo. When we got out of the car, she was singing "twinkle twinkle little star."

When we got to the food court, a local elementary school marimba band was performing. At first both Abigail and Olivia covered their ears. After they grew accustomed to the noise, they started recognizing some tunes. After a while Abigail turned to Joe and said, "Dad, this sounds kind of like music!" We had to agree. It did sound kind of like music. Not exactly, but kind of. :)

Then we went to Old Navy. While Joe was trying on jeans, us girls were waiting outside the fitting rooms. There was a large display of flip-flops that was pretty picked over. When I turned to find Olivia, she was going through the display, straightening everything out. She put all the flip flops back into neat little rows. I am sure the staff was grateful.

Maybe we are off to a bad start... with four girls who already love the mall... What's a girl to do?

Four girls... whew!

My four girls hanging out on my bed. Right now four seems like so many... Crazy crazy household now!

For example... yesterday morning (Sunday) I dragged out of bed at 7 after 3 hours of sleep. Phoebe was hungry again. Olivia stopped me and said, "Mommy, you need to make me breakfast. I'm hungry. How about pancakes?" Zenna tugged at me and said, "Mommy, could you help me? I lost my blankie." (Yes, she said that whole phrase... she's quite the talker!) After I got breakfast ready (toast and bananas, no pancakes today!), I went to wake up Abigail. She growled at me and told me it was too hard, she couldn't wake up today. Then I had to get them all ready for church. I was not up to going yet, but Mum and Papa Haws took them (daddy was playing the organ). We made it! After they left, I laid down to nurse the baby, and slept for 3 hours! I was so grateful for a nap! Wow!

I thought it was hard to have one baby. Motherhood is tough.

I thought it was hard to have two babies (15 months apart). That was busy.

I thought it was hard to have three little ones. I still got a nap every day.

It is hard to have four... for the first time, I don't have the chance to nap with my baby. I am exhausted by 8 every night. When the kids go to bed, I am ready to crash!!!

All that said, I love it! We are still adjusting, and thankfully Joe is taking care of the dishes every day. Pretty soon though we'll be in a good groove. Life is good. We love being in the four girl club! We are now one of three families in the ward with four girls. One family came over just the other day to "welcome us into the four girl club." They are great.

She's Here!

June 15, 2009 Phoebe Elise Haws was born at home. She was born at 10:53 after a pretty quick and uneventful labor. Only 5 hours of uncomfortable labor, and 1-2 hours of hard labor. She was 9 lbs. even, and was 21 inches long. She is beautiful!! I finally have a way to transfer my pictures to the computer, so here they are!

Laboring at home... the best thing ever!

Being weighed by the Midwife.

One day old. Sporting her homemade cloth diaper.

What a face! She looks an awful lot like her sisters...

Asparagus Harvester

I don't have any of my own pictures to post, but there are lots of pictures included in this article written in the local paper.

It has a lot of good information in case you want to know what the harvester is all about, and what they are doing this year. After so much work, it is great that the harvest is almost over! This is the last week!!!

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!