Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We are excited to celebrate this evening. The Wise Hero keeps saying "Candy!" She's learned really well.

On Sunday morning the Wise and Hopeful Heros needed to carry their stuffed animals around in the carriers that their aunt made for us. 

On Saturday we went to our ward party. We got to wear our costumes and we had a lot of fun. The ward here has a carnival games and then a chili and hot dog party. Alice loved throwing balls and I loved watching kids play a smash the carrot game. It was fun.

Here are our scary dragons:

And the whole family:

Saturday was a crazy busy day. We went to the San Diego Safari Park. It was a lot of fun. We went then because during the month of October kids got in for free. It was a great zoo, but a little bit more spread out than most zoos. We had a great view of this tiger. She was marching back and forth. We loved watching some tiger cubs playing together, but we didn't get a good picture because they were playing behind a tree.

The Wise Hero loved all the animals. And she had a great time. The Bug Hero and I survived pretty well but near the end, our stroller got a flat tire and so I pushed a difficult stroller and The Bug Hero carried The Wise Hero. And The Hopeful Hero struggled. She had to walk nearly a half a mile. The promise of candy at the ward party motivated her. We loved seeing the baby giraffe and the baby rhino. 

Too cute not to include:

This is at the beginning before we did all our walking. The kids loved playing and being there.

The Friendly Hero was chosen for Student of the Month. We are proud of him!

It was hard, because the girls mobbed him. He found it a little embarrassing. 

October 18th

Friendly Hero: got his wish on Friday. Ever since his friends have lost teeth at school, Friendly Hero has wanted to do it. He lost his fourth tooth at school, and popped it out himself. He was super excited that he got to go to the nurses office with his tooth. (The bummer deal--it wasn't the normal nurse and so he didn't get the special bag he was coveting.) But he told me he loves it all the same.

Peaceful Hero: Is now six. I don't know how time flies so fast. All this past week, I've been trying to convince him that we will still celebrate his birthday but could he just be 5 again? He laughs and laughs and tells me no. And his laugh is the best. I love his belly laugh. He had a great birthday. He invited a neighbor family to come to have cake and ice cream with us. He loves playing with the kids and adored his vanilla cake with chocolate and vanilla frosting. I love his imagination--this past week he has everyone being vampires with him. Vampires suck blood, but mostly they climb up slides and then climb down the ladders. Doesn't seem very fun to me, but all the kids at the playground adore doing it, mostly because Peaceful Hero made it cool.

Cake and Ice Cream, blowing out candles.

Showing off a present

Opening the last present.

Hopeful Hero: Had a great week. She loves playing and laughing with friends. This past week we were talking about when we move and she had a really hard moment. She mentioned E, E, P and A, and was surprised that they all were not moving with us to live next door to us again. It was a sad moment that she learned that her four best friends were not going to be with us always.

Wise Hero: Cut another tooth on Friday. The same day that Ivan lost a tooth. She is up to nine. She also mastered standing by herself. As you can see, she is thrilled with her new ability. And the birthday balloon.

For Date night we fixed our dryer. It is really nice to have it working again. It was also very empowering to watch youtube movies and learn a new skill together.

All in pieces.

Screwing in the last screw.

Bug Hero graduates from Purdue in December. We are waiting to hear about what postdoc he is going to get. He is one of two still being considered for one postdoc and the other he is being considered for will make decisions next month. Math Hero is hanging in and having a great time being a mother and enjoying time with her kids.

What We Have Been Up To

Or in other words:
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD

We would like to introduce the newest Hero in our family!

Born July 17, 2015 at 6:15 pm

7 lbs 15 oz, and 19 inches long

We adore her chubby cheeks!

She is named after my great aunt. When we were first married, we lived really close to my aunt, and knew that she wanted visitors, but you had to be sneaky. We did our laundry at her house so she knew that there would always be someone coming to visit her...but also so she could feel like she was serving us--which she was! For two and a half years we had family night with her and loved her. Both of us fell in love our dear aunt. And we told her when we were expecting the Friendly Hero we would name him after her if he was a she. And her response was that she would come back and haunt whatever girl she is named after. (Which kind of sums up my aunt: funny, kind, and loving.) So until she gets another name on the blog, our daughter will be known as the Haunted Hero. 

The Haunted Hero spent most of the pregnancy flipping up and down. She would be in breach on week, and head down the next. And so we were waiting to see if she would stay head down. Which she never did, so she was induced in the 38th week. Before the induction, I had a version--where my doctor grabbed the baby's head and bottom on the outside of my stomach and pushed her around the right way. I had an epidural so I didn't feel any pushing or grabbing. The nurses were all surprised that I have had two successful versions. They all told me that my doctor has the best success rate, and also that having the epidural was another key factor. And I was very grateful for all the prayers that my family offered and that we were guided in all the decisions to make.

Laboring was good. We read to each other and the whole experience was very peaceful.

After nine hours of laboring in the hospital, I pushed for less than 15 minutes and out came our precious bundle of joy! With the most delicious chubby cheeks!

Our first picture

Meeting the siblings, all of them adore her:

Peaceful Hero

 Friendly Hero

 Hopeful Hero

For months, she would come to me and say: "Minny (how she says her name) Mommy's baby, Minny's hand now." I couldn't explain that it takes a lot longer than three seconds to get the baby out, and that it wasn't time. But she waited and finally, the baby is in her hands.

 Our first family picture. (Sorry about the back lighting. We will be getting better ones)

 We are at home. We love her!

She has a mild case of Jaundice, which is on par with our family. She is kicking it faster, so much faster than the Hopeful Hero. And that is a great thing! She brings love and happiness to our family. I love this newborn honeymoon stage!

Star Wars Celebration 6

The Bug Hero got to travel to Anaheim, CA to spend a week with his brothers and dad at Celebration 6. He had a blast!

 Here he is with the actor who played Dak Rendar

 The voice actor of Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Clone Wars.

The boys!

We are glad that he was able to go and spend time with family and have lots of fun! We missed him at home.

Cinicinnati

We went to visit my cousins on June 13 and 14th, and now they think that we only ever go to Zoos. When they stopped by for a visit, we took them to our local zoo, and we have heard how awesome the Cincy Zoo was and we insisted that we go. On a side note, I really love my new camera. Really love it. The pictures we got are amazing! They make me look like an awesome photographer.

We had a lot of fun. Our first stop was the insectarium. (No real surprise) But our surprise is that one of the Bug Hero's old co-workers was there. She works there on Saturdays! Super fun!

This is Ivan the Lemur jumping up to touch the white ball.

 Hopeful Hero enjoying the Manatee. I love how zoos claim that they are one of two or the only zoo with a certain animal. Of course they are--no zoo can have every animal. The Cincinnati Zoo is one of two zoos outside of Florida to be a home of Manatees.

 They also have an awesome animal show. We got to watch an ocelot play with a toy. He was a baby and they were starting to train him to be an animal ambassador.

 We saw an Asian Fishing Cat.

 We also got to watch two cheetah's run at full speed. It was so awesome! (And look at how awesome these two pictures are? I love this camera!)

Our happy family!

When asked what the favorite parts of the zoo were:
Bug Hero: Seeing my friend.
Math Hero: Watching the Cheetah's.
Friendly Hero: Watching the Cheetah's run really fast! And the Ring Tailed Lemur named Ivan. That was cool.
Peaceful Hero: The elevators and escliators. (These were on the way to the zoo entrance.)
Hopeful Hero: + Squack=Animals. She loved all the animals.

Good News!

 Today was a good day! The Bug Hero had his Prelims. That is the final examination you take a year before you defend your PhD dissertation. They're kind of a big deal. And he PASSED! We've been celebrating!

The other awesome news--we got a new camera. And I am loving playing around with it! Look at how cute my kids are! Here is the Hopeful Hero playing Peek-a-boo and smash her face!

 And two adorable brothers!

HERO Factory

This is the Three Headed Combiner Model for Hero Factory.

This is our version. Saturday Mornings are becoming scarier at our house. Or more adorable. I sure love my boys!

An Update on Heros

 First off: We absolutely loved General Conference this weekend! It was a spiritual feast and a great way to end the week! At this point I don't have a favorite talk, but I loved the spirit and the focus on family and parenting. I also loved hearing the Prophets speak to us. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

And the boys are doing better about paying attention. At various moments in the conference, Friendly Hero would pipe up, "He's talking about the resurrection! I hear him talking about Jesus!" And then Peaceful Hero would pipe up, "Who Dat? Dat President Monson?" And when we told him no, "Why?"

We still had toys and snacks and lots of fun. We're not expecting perfection, but it's fun to see them learn and grow in their testimonies. By the way, their Easter outfits are adorable! Thank you Honey!

So speaking of Easter, we dyed eggs, and had a small egg hunt on Saturday. The boys loved it! 

Peaceful Hero keeps asking for more Easter! He then clarifies and asks for another Egg!  Friendly Hero can tell you the story of Easter, but I'm not sure he understands it all. Ever since we started telling him the story, he gets worried that he's going to die and go to Heaven, without us. If we all go together, then he's okay. But in his prayers, he has started asking Heavenly Father to bless Jesus as he is dead so he comes back to life on Easter. I love his testimony and he loves to tell everyone that Jesus comes back!

This week was kind of stressful. And by kind of, I mean medically stuff filled and emotionally draining. First off, we went to the doctor's for a weight check for Hopeful Hero, on Monday. I knew she was still small on Easter. She had just cleared up her jaundice, which for both of the boys, they didn't get back to their birth weight or start thriving until it was cleared up. Friendly Hero's was a lot more severe, and more stressful. But the doctor's here didn't see him. Peaceful Hero didn't cause worry, because he was eight pounds. Hopeful Hero, the nurses started freaking out that she was still 6 lbs 4 ozs. Her birth weight was 6 lbs 14 oz. They started talking about needing a lactation consultation, and other interventions. One nurse even asked in disbelief if my milk was in, or if she was having the correct number of poopy and wet diapers. (Hello! It is!) I was getting the vibe that she didn't trust me when I told her that she was following the pattern of my other children. The doctor wasn't as worried as the nurses, but he was concerned. So we went to a lactation consultation, and everything is fine. I decided that I would squeeze in an extra feeding every day, and wake her up frequently during the day--I refuse to wake her up at night. So instead of feeding her 8 times a day, I've been feeding her 9 times a day. And by Tuesday, she was starting to feel heavier. (Right when I knew she would.) We go back for another weight check tomorrow, but Bug Hero and I both feel that she's close to 7 lbs, if not over it. This week would have seemed busy if that was the only thing, because I'm spending close to 6 or 7 hours during the day feeding a baby.

But she's totally worth it. This is my favorite gown of hers right now. I love the puffed sleeves and the gathering on them. So much fun to have ruffles and puffed sleeves!

Tuesday, we were out at the playground and enjoying the warmer weather and the sun. I am getting the boys ready to go back inside, when the Peaceful Hero starts screaming and all the other parents at the playground start running towards me. The Peaceful Hero, who is also the climbing or adventurous hero, had climbed up the tall slide at the playground, and fell backwards off of it three quarters of the way from the ground. He fell backwards and landed on his back from about 10 feet high. His head was bleeding profusely  For a horrible accident to happen, it really was great timing--because someone took care of Friendly Hero, someone else took my monitor to listen for Hopeful Hero, one dad was home to give Peaceful Hero a blessing, two other people got first aid kits. Once we got down to the scalp, we realized he would need stitches. So another mom came with me to hold pressure on his head. Four hours later, he is the proud owner of three staples in his booboo. He's fine, no lasting harm. He's most upset that I'm not letting him play in the sandbox until it's healed--I don't want to be cleaning sand out of it.

The last person that needs an update: The Bug Hero. He sported facial hair this week, because he had eye surgery last week. He got a pinguicula removed. That's a fancy word for a callus on his eye that caused irritation and redness. So he no longer has a red eye!

Math Hero: I'm keeping up with everyone. I look forward to a less medically busy week next week. We are still having fun and enjoying everyone's company. The next update I will do will have pictures of the Hopeful Hero's newborn photo shoot. I love sharing them with people, and knowing that I make adorable babies.