still alive... just busy

So I realized that we have not been present in the blogging world for quite some time...almost four weeks now? wow, time is flying. We are still alive, just busy in our lives and dealing with our kids. Sydney is doing really well, she slept from 12 to 6ish A.M. straight-through last night, so we are really grateful and happy about that. Thank you Babywise! She is spending more time with her eyes open lately, checking out this wild world in which we live, and is starting to follow the sounds of our voices. She especially loves to hear Em's, and has smiled at her a couple times in response to Em talking to her. I have not been the beneficiary of any smiles in response to my voice, but I like to count the ones where she is smiling at the fan and because of gas as mine.

The older girls are still very sweet to her, except that I think that Kami wants to start playing with her, so she has been bringing toys to Sydney, hanging out with her at mealtimes (which is fun for Em), and removing her socks for her (Kami has a thing with shoes and socks, I'll talk about it some other time). Gracie has been nothing but sweet to her and likes to imaging that when Sydney is crying, that she is the Mommy and says comforting things like, " Oh, Honey, What's the matter?" and "It's OK, sweetie". Cracks me up every time!

Funny story about Gracie, today as we arrived for church we devised a game plan for getting the kids out of the car and chauffeuring them into the capilla. I said that I would take number three and Em volunteered for number two, which left Brittany (my sister who is staying with us for a couple months, we had space, she wanted a change) taking "number one" (Gracie). When Gracie heard that she was number one, she broke down in tears, saying that she is not number one, she is three, and that she could only be three and not two or one, that she is a big girl, ....and so on. She obviously meant her age needed to be three, and that we couldn't relegate her to being one just by saying so. I just laughed as I tried to explain to her that she was our first child and that that was special,and that she was still a big girl and could be three years old and still be our first child...needless to say I was laughing whilst I explained and she thought I was laughing at her, not with her...and she eventually understood, but I was again reminded of a number of things that I should not forget. 1. Cardinal numbers are not an easily understood topic by three year-olds (get working on that Disney) 2. I have a house full of girls and need to remember that most of the time it is not what I say but how I say it that matters 3. these kids are paying close attention to everything we do, and so when I am not speaking at their level, I probably need to talk in code so as not to upset them. I

Well, this was just a short blurb that will hopefully allow Em to guilt-free post some pictures of our cutie pies without writing a whole lot. so tune in shortly for the good stuff in our next post.

Lance

Announcing Sydney Kay Mollenhauer

(notice gracie's birthday make-up...he he he)

So this is a random smattering of pictures of the first day or so of our little Sydney's life. Choosing her name was by the far the hardest part of her delivery. She just did not look like an Olivia or an Annie, and she seemed to respond to Sydney better than Janey. The name is pretty special to both of us, as Sydney is Em's Dad's middle name and Kay is my Mom's Middle name ( and Alexa's too), and it does seem to fit her. She is an extremely mellow baby and only lets out a yelp when she is hungry and not getting fed. When she came out, all she wanted to do was snuggle with her mom, so that is how she spent the first ten minutes of her life. Em will have to relate the whole birth story later, but it was great experience overall, and so relaxed. we just love Mt. Hood Legacy, and the staff there.

The big girls have been nothing but sweet to their new sister, and Gracie has been really good about holding her " by herself" (which is a supervised holding, but she is able to do it for like thirty minutes at a time, before she asks for someone else to hold "baby Sydney", which is nice that she doesn't just shove her away). Kami is really funny, and has been nothing but sweet, but I think she feels like she wants to make sure she is not left out of anything. We are constantly showing them what Sydney is up to, how she is eating, getting "help" with diaper changes, and reminding them to be soft with their baby sister. Sydney is being showered with kisses and hugs, and Is a really good baby. We were able to get sleep in a four and five hour stretch the first two nights at home, and she is awake at dinner time and sleeping a lot. She is a good eater, at least every two hours, and has only projectile vomited one time per day (which is funny until it happens to you, and you have to clean it off of your shirt, pants, and couch cushions (plural)) I think she is somewhat soothed by the sounds of her sisters yelling and playing, as it does not bother her at all, and loves to give kisses back as long as she thinks that your lips/face/arm/shirt/finger is where she gets milk from.

So the whole family is doing great. We are loving having our new baby girl around. Em is going a little stir crazy right now, so we are going to go see if we can see a movie (Julie and Julia?) Umm, this was supposed to just be a quick update, so if there is anything I left out, please ask or call.

Lance

Happy Birthday Gracie!

This is the birthday girl:

Our dear, sweet, and sassy Grace is turning 3 tomorrow. It's looking like she is going to share her birthday with her baby sister so I wanted to make sure and give her her own special tribute today to celebrate.

these are just a few of our favorite pics of our darling little three year old. Wow, it is surreal that she is three already. We love her so much and wish her her last moments of her own "Happy Birthday."

p.s. Happy Birthday to Michelle too!

It can always get worse

Lance wrecked his bike today...

Lots of Updates

I've finally finished posting several posts that I had started once we got back from AZ. the only problem is that they posted in the order that I started them... so if you want a true update you'll have to scroll down a bit to "sweet home arizona" and come up from there. Happy Reading--there are some doozies!!

Moll Cabin 2009

Alexa and Sienna

"service" at the cabin. we're finishing the driveway.

Michelle and kiddos

Grumpa and Tyrus (I promise I turned this photo--and others!)

Eric trying to prove how strong he is, benching Tricia.

this girl ALWAYS falls asleep eating...but check out those nails!

tons of fun with bubbles.

We sure had fun! Thanks for the vaca!

I'm blaming August

Ever since I can remember August has been a particularly bad month for my (the crouse) family. My poor parents had to endure year after year of things going wrong in the deadly Arizona heat.

I'll give you a few examples;

1996:

-I had appendicitis

1997

-sky had appendicitis

1998

-logan had appendicitis

-just before that the air conditioning went out (when my parents were out of town) and the kids had to separate between my aunt Vicki's and friends.

-the refrigerator, dishwasher, and dryer dying at the same time

-countless car batteries and a/c's going out..

..i think you get the idea

you see these are the things we've come to accept as apart of every August.

I'm so sorry Lance, for marrying into the 'Crouse Curse'. I think we are blessed that our curse is hitting in july--BEFORE the baby comes.

here is what we've been hit with (sorry no pun intended):

LAST thursday we were in a “small” car accident. it’s becoming a big hairy mess to get the car fixed. Fortunately for me I'm married to a chiro student! Downfall, to that being we’ve been in to the Outpatient clinic 5 times this last week.

wednesday brakes are squeaky, thursday definite grinding...yep, the front brakes need to be replaced but we can’t get in until monday.

Thursday i have a major preggo moment and shut the garage on my van. funny thing is my garage won’t close when the garden hose is too close to the spot where it closes yet it will try to slide down the entire back of my van and only retreat once it hits the bumper.

friday we see cobwebs in the car. a spider must have sneaked into the girls’ stroller while we had it stored in the garage. Lance sprays the ultimate spider killer in the car closes it for a while and then airs it out all night long...whoops, he forgot that with the automatic door open it would leave the lights on all night long and drain the battery.

Saturday i get up early to attend a stake activity, but find the car won’t start. get jumped by 3 different people (at different times) hoping that if we drive around enough that the battery will recharge itself. We even drove to vancouver to the nearest sonic for drinks, but nope, the van will still not start on it’s own. During the day the van ran idling for about 3 hours total.

Sunday, got van jumped in order to get to church in time for Gracie to sing in Sacrament meeting. Got jumped again to come home, by now we’re thinking it might be the alternator...this really sucks! But maybe our luck is changing?? Thanks to Jiffy Lube for being open on a sunday and for only taking 15 minutes to change a battery and the oil in my van. $90-something dollars is much better than forking over $500+.

Please tell me there is an end...

tomorrow I get the brakes fixed. wish me luck!

I am counting down the days of July, August will be bright and happy, right??

Names?

So we are still looking for names.. We have a few and a few of you actually suggested some of the names that we were thinking ourselves. Here is the list that is on our white board in the kitchen, which is not exhaustive by any means, they are just the names that we actually took the effort and wrote down.

In no particular order:

Olivia Shawn

janey micah

Sydney claire

olivia jade

janey elle

Annie ...?

so if you catch the angle that we are trying to go with for these names, please throw a suggestion out there, or let us know what you think of the ones we got. We are open to explaining anything about these names that you feel you need to know in order to make a good suggestion.

Lance

I had a bad day

This was the last straw of the day. Don't worry we ordered pizza and I went home and cried. We're all ok, but not only were we down to 1 vehicle (possibly permanently I found out right before this happened)...then the accident. Don't ask about what happened that morning. I'm over it.

Potty??!?!

Kami totally went potty on the little potty!! I'm sure it was totally by accident but we made a really big deal out of it and she was so proud of herself. Love that girl!

p.s. tooth update we are working on tooth #8 in about 7 weeks!