Rory's Here!!

Alright I am finally getting around to filling in the details of Rory's arrival. I had the best of intentions to keep updating as the day progressed but things got a little bit harder after my last post so here is what happened. I DID IT NATURAL WITH NO PAIN MEDICINE AT ALL!!!! I could never have done it without my amazing friend Lindsey. When I decided to try and do this naturally I knew I needed a labor coach that would help me and the first person I thought of was my best friend. All the books say not to use your husband because they don't want to see you in pain and boy were they right. At noon I was ready to give up and get my epidural. Jerame called Lindsey to give her an update and she came running over. I think it took her ten minutes, must be a record. Anyway she encouraged me to keep trying. With her and Jerame's encouragement I stayed in the zone and made it all the way. Holy cow it hurt but I survived and happy I did it:)

Focused and concentrating on my breathing.

Here she is. Look at that face. I survived with a smile on my face:)

Rory Carolann Holbrook Schloss Time: 4:56 pm Weight: 7 lbs 4 oz Length: 20 in

Look at all of that hair. I think she looks the most like Kennedy. She is super petite but totally has my nose just like the other girls. She has big hands with long fingers. I am so very happy she is finally here. The girls got to come to the hospital and see her. They were so excited and so cute with her.

Here we are our new family of 7!!

At the Hospital

We are finally at the hospital and we will have baby Rory in our arms today!!! I got to the hospital at 6 am this morning. Everything is going well. The contractions hurt but I am doing just fine with them. I must be doing okay if I can blog, right........I will send out more updates later.

Happy Halloween

Last night was our church trunk or treat party so the girls got all dressed up and had so much fun. This is the first year I let them pick them costumes without guidance from me. I think they did a pretty good job!

Everywhere Sydney goes strangers come up to her and say "Oh my gosh you look exactly like your mother," I can't believe how much you look like your mother" etc. You get the picture, anyway so she decided she wanted to be me for Halloween. She got to wear makeup, carry one of my old purses for her candy bag and put a ball in her shirt. Everyone loved her costume and new exactly what she was instantly.

Kennedy our chef in training wanted to be a chef for Halloween. She looked so cute with her new apron and her pot and spoon. She gathered her candy in her pot. Thanks Ammanda for the chef hat it was perfect. Delaney was a ballerina. She changed her mind about 25 times but she was very cute in the end. She had to do a ballerina pose for her picture. Audrey is our newest princess. She is obsessed with Cinderella. All princess are called Rella in her book because of Cinderella. She looked very cute despite her very short bangs she decided to cut last week. This kid really keeps me on my toes. Thanks Stacy for letting us borrow the costume! Everyone ready to head out. Rory wanted to be dressed up too so she got to be a Jack-O-Lantern. Isn't every baby a pumpkin their first Halloween. haha Family picture at the end of the night. What a cute family:)

We did it!!!

After much hard work and a few tears we accomplished our goal. The pantry is done:) I am so thankful I have such great kids, they were so much help!!

Doesn't that just make you smile :0)

What was I thinking

Today is our off day of school and I decided to spend the day in my kitchen. I made 2 lbs of meatballs, 2 1/2 lbs of hamburger patties and browned 3 lbs of hamburger. I figured since I was already in the kitchen I should really tackle my pantry that was in need of some serious help, I couldn't find anything. I had the girls empty out the pantry while I was cooking and this is what I get. I had no idea I had so much stuff in my pantry and now I have to put it all back. My brilliant idea is not so great anymore. This is what Audrey decided to do now that the pantry is open. Crazy child:)

To be continued..... hopefully I finish this today!!!

Canning: Applesauce

I know I am absolutely crazy but I love canning. There is something so satisfying as seeing all of your hard work lined up in your pantry. Last fall I canned 2 cases of peaches and one case of pears but haven't done anything since then. I just haven't had the time but apples were crazy cheap so my friend inspired me to make some applesauce. I really wanted to have it for baby food for Rory when the time comes. (I always make my own baby food.) I thought it would be nice to get a head start on that. Anyway after 40 lbs of apples and a big sticky mess we had lots of tasty applesauce. Here are some of the apples. We had a case in the back of the truck and I had the girls take bags out and fill them up and bring them in the house. I kinda figured carrying a 40 lb box of apples was not good for my pregnant self.

All of the girls pitched in pealing and coring the apples. Audrey thought she was hot stuff that she could do it all by herself.

We did it over the course of two days. The 2nd day went much smoother because I knew what I was doing.

The girls ate a billion apples. They got to eat all of the ones that had big skin pieces on them.

Here they are cooking away. I have to tell you this is the hardest thing I have ever canned because I don't eat applesauce. I had to keep calling the girls to come and taste as I was making it and totally trust their judgement. They were so funny too. Sydney tasted it the first time and she says "Mom it just isn't popping in my mouth it needs more pop." A little lemon juice and a sprinkle of sugar got a thumbs up but so funny. They really do watch to many cooking shows.

Here are some of our jars all sealed and ready to go. Such a good feeling and so much fun making it with the girls.

Happy Birthday Eddie!

So I am still catching up. Kennedy Lane Ashley turned 6 in August. She had a fun filled birthday that of course lasted weeks. Her Aunt Jessica happened to get back in town just in time for her birthday. It was a nice treat since we hadn't seen her since Christmas she had been in Florida doing an internship at Disney World. Kennedy thought she was very special to have her here for her birthday dinner. We had a small family dinner for her on her birthday because we had just gotten back from CA the day before. My mom and dad came over, Jessica was here and Jerame's dad was also here. Here we are sitting around the table ready for dinner. Kennedy chose Hawaiian haystacks and homemade bread as her favorite dinner. She was pretty excited to have control of picking the menu. For her birthday we got her a new bike because she out grew her last one. It was a total surprise to her. We knocked on the door and it was waiting outside. I love the surprise on her face:) She had to test it out of course. Unfortunately it is pretty warm outside in August so it didn't last long but it will be fun when the weather cools down.

Here she is opening a few more presents.

Sydney and Delaney bought Kennedy this doll. They were very proud that they picked it out all by themselves. For her birthday dessert she did not want cake but wanted homemade cinnamon roles. They were quite yummy of I do say so myself:) In our family we take turns having parties and doing activities. This happens to be a party year but Kennedy chose an activity instead. She wanted to go get her nails done and she chose her sisters to go with her. We went and had frozen yogurt afterwards. They all thought they were pretty cool and Sydney has already put in her request to do this for her birthday as well:) They are trying to show off their pretty fingers but kind of an odd picture. Oh well they had a lot of fun. Kennedy had a few more birthday activities the rest of the month and had a great time with everything. She is such a sweet girl and continues to amaze me at all that she can do. She has always wanted to be big and does everything as fast as she can, she never wants to be left behind. It is fun to see the new things that she is constantly learning how to do. I love you Kennedy!!!

Kennedy

We have breaking news that just had to interrupt my catch up posts. I am not done with those but we had to sneak this in. Kennedy lost her first tooth yesterday. The silly girl didn't even realize it was wiggly until she went to bed Sunday night and it was really wiggly. She worked on it all day on Monday. Yesterday she finally came to me and asked me to pull it out. She was a little nervous because Sydney told her it was going to hurt a little but she put on a brave face and let me try. It came right out but I think it hurt more than she thought it was gonna because she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Honestly she did a little of both. I officially have two children losing teeth and this just makes me feel older. Seriously I wish my kids would stop getting bigger!!! After everything calmed down I looked over at Audrey and she had gotten a tissue and she was trying to pull out her own tooth. She kept saying "my turn". Such a funny girl.

California Part 2

Our next big adventure in California was we went to Solvang. It is this super cute old Dutch town. Lots of neat shops and places to eat. We had fun going to a few of the shops and having lunch. The shops are not super stroller friendly because they are so small so we left Jerame and Audrey outside for most of them. In front of one of the shoe stores there was a large wooden clog that the girls thought would be so fun to sit in. The girls favorite part of the whole day was they each got to pick out a handful of salt water taffy and we got ice cream cones because it was quite a warm day outside. Much warmer than we are use to at my Nana's house. Overall a fun day but we will definitely wait till the kids are older to go back. Here is the one family picture we took the whole time we were on vacation. When we got home from Solvang we went out to the garden and did our daily picking. The girls loved doing this. Sydney the least of all because the first day she went out there she got her favorite dress caught on the fence and it put a little whole in her dress. She was not very happy and pretty much avoided the garden the rest of the trip. Kennedy on the other hand loved picking the tomatoes. She was really good at digging through the branches and finding the red ones. i know she is holding a green one in the picture but that was actually on purpose.

Delaney and her tomato basket.

Even Audrey got in on the action. She has our zucchini and cucumbers.

Our bountiful harvest.

All of the green tomatoes were for my pregnant craving of fried green tomatoes. My fabulous Nana was so nice and indulged me. She will hate this picture she doesn't like having her picture taken but it is the only one I got of her the whole trip:) While we cooked in the kitchen the girls ran through the sprinklers. They had so much fun because it was the first time they had done this all summer because our yard is still dirt.

These are some very wet, soggy girls. It was actually quite cool too. Poor Audrey and Kennedy had blue lips when they were all done but boy did they have a good time.

The next day we continued out tradition of picking lemons off of Nana's lemon trees and juicing a ton of them to take home lemon juice. The girls love homemade lemonade and it is so yummy with fresh lemons from Nana's yard. This pretty much wrapped up our trip. We just love going to CA and spending time with our family. I feel so lucky to have such a great Nana! I love you Nana and we can't wait to come back again soon!!!!