We love our sister!

Ayla is a wonderful baby. She sleeps pretty well for the most part during the night, and the boys just love her. Gideon loves ON her though. He asks to hold her then gives her a cuddle like the picture above. I think it's funny that when he cuddles something he always sucks his thumb. He also loves to stand on the bassinet and pat her head if he can reach it. Ammon and Zenock have been very helpful with her too. Sometimes they hold her for a minute while she is crying so I can finish doing what I need too before I feed her. Ayla definitely has a mad cry. If she doesn't get what she wants fast enough she has no problem letting me know she has no patience to wait one. second. more. She passed her birthweight by her first checkup at a week old. She was 6 lbs 8 oz then. We all love our baby!!!!

I want to give a HUGE shout out to my wonderful Mother!!!! She came to stay with us for a week so that Brady could go back to work. I am so glad she could come help me. I could not have survived and followed the doctors orders if she wasn't there. She was a huge help with Gideon and taking Ammon to and from school. She took me out of the house for the first time to get some errands done. We went to Walmart and Costco. Isn't that adventurous? I was just happy to get out of the house. A week without going anywhere except from the parking lot to the doctor's office and from the parking lot to Baskin Robbins is tough. I am still getting used to having 4 kids to cart around when we go somewhere as a family, but thanks to my wonderful husband, it's not so bad.

On that note, I am VERY thankful for my husband. I am thankful we have such a trusting, strong relationship. I am thankful we are often on the same page about a lot of different things. I am thankful he is willing to change our children's diapers and do the grocery shopping. I am also thankful for all the time we have spent researching minivans on the internet together. He was able to purchase a "new to us" minivan on Memorial day without me (since I wasn't feeling up to going anywhere yet). It just happened to be the same day as the 13th anniversary of our first date way back in high school. So technically I got one awesome anniversary present.......but we would have bought a van regardless of the occasion just because it was necessary. Apparently the law doesn't approve of 6 people traveling in a 5 passanger car!! We are all excited to take the van out on its first road trip in 2 weeks to Idaho. Six days with my husband is going to be amazing after he has no days off for 2.5 weeks so that he can take more time off to go to Idaho. I am really excited about having so much space for our stuff. The boys also get to take their bikes, which will be extra fun for them when we get to my parents house. Another reason to go north is to escape the summer heat for a while. It's been over 100* way too much already this summer. Yesterday it was almost 110* and still 105* after the sun went down. I might turn into fried chicken before the summer is over.