Jimmer is in the house!

Jake's school does the wax museum in 3rd grade. Basically, it is a research paper designed for the students (ie the parents) to learn about someone in history that has made a difference in the world. The students (ie the parents) are supposed to research facts about this person, create a poster then gather (or demand the parents purchase) an outfit that looks just like the person they have finished researching. Jake chose the single most important person in history: Mr. Jimmer (James Fredette.) (Sarcasm. Yeah, he's amazing. He's cool. He's just not my choice.)

Of course, there were at least five other Jimmers... I begged Jake to research Jeff's Grandfather Louis Burmeister. He was a solider in WW2. But instead of carrying a gun, he carried a camera. He was a war photographer. He was also one of the soldiers that landed on Iwo Jima. In fact, he was the photographer that took the original photograph of the flag raising. Not the famous one that was all over the papers. But the original one. He had a remarkable story. But, alas, it wasn't MY project! (Well, actually it was - but I didn't get to choose the hero!)

We spent several afternoons researching. Well, I sat researching while Jake "wrote" the information down. Then I made him re-write it because his handwriting is so incredibly illegible. I subscribed to the magazine that had the photos, I bought the project board, I laid it out. He typed it, printed it, glued it and wrote the speech (while I held the baby, guarding the door so he could neither get out or his friends could get in!) It was the longest project of my life. (And probably his too!) But we did learn some interesting facts about the Jimmer. And we are total fans now! The wax museum was a total success and Jake got an awesome new jersey to wear!




Just a cute photo of Adalyn... :)
And because I don't need a post just for this, here is my April Fools dinner. Did I fool ya? It's cake.

Birthday Week Begins! Happy Birthday Adalyn!

I apparently can't count. Everyone knows that you are pregnant nine months. Except I can't count accurately. What was I thinking having TWO girls, TWO years apart with birthdays ONE week apart! (See?! Numbers are not my thing...) And so we start off Birthday Week 2011 with one very special little girl!

Last year we had a smashing party. I still remember the exhaustion that one caused! I decided that a large birthday party every other year is sufficient. Yet, somehow, I got sucked into this party. She just really, really wanted a Tangled birthday. And so I gave it to her. Although, instead of 30 princesses running around, it was just my extended family and a whole lot quieter!

We started off the day with Lucky Charms (her favorite) and her birthday sign (a Lifferth tradition). It included the following things:

• Our adventurous girl
• Our cuddle bug!
• Fast bike rider
• Lots of energy
• Loyal friend
• I love you Adalyn
• Great artist
• (Selectively) sweet girl
• Beautiful
• Awesome tumbler
• Lots of spunk
• Favorites: strawberries, swimsuits, big baby, cantaloupe, pizza and cookies
• Happy
• Makes us smile
• Funny
• Loves to swim
• Great big sister
• Loves to read
• Loves to laugh
  

Then we got all dolled up to head to lunch McDonalds (again her favorite!)

I like to make my children's birthdays special, so I let them pick an activity or event to do that we don't normally do. Something unique that they might remember doing on their special day. Adalyn's choice?

Samples at Costco. Yep! That's my girl!!! I still giggle. Who wants to spend their day at Costco eating samples?? Apparently my little princess does!

So I obliged. And unfortunately, there just wasn't a whole lot (but enough to make her satisfied!)

Then we headed home for the Tangled party.
We greeted our guests with an overlarge braid. We ate pizza (birthday girl's choice), salad, fruit salad, and soda. We also ate these adorable jello boats (from the lantern scene). I decided to try my hand at fondant icing. I made her a tower birthday cake. My first fondant cake, so don't look too close! I really, really had fun making this! I used this cake recipe and it was delicious!


There's the hair!! It was strewn around the kitchen at this point...
For our craft, we made these Pascal blow horns. Except, I couldn't find all my crafts supplies I thought I had (ie tape, glue and squiggly eyes.) So this is what'cha got! :)

Even before we had finished our food, she was walking around asking if we were done. If your hand wasn't on your plate, she had it in the sink before you could answer. This was one excited birthday girl! Obviously, since it was the release date for Tangled, she got the movie...

The dress...

The dolls...

A shirt (and a book and the tower, both not pictured!)
Here is Adalyn and her new bestie Gabby - a sweet little girl!
My tower fell over (not because it wasn't anchored properly, but because of some rough housing. Oh well! Happens on Cake Boss too...) We still enjoyed it.
Then after loosing the vote, everyone snuggled together to watch Tangled. Although some of us didn't quite make it... Happy Birthday sweet girl. Oh, I how I love you!!!

Ribbon Cutting

I am the Executive Director of the local Chamber of Commerce. It's a part time job - I work about 4 hours a week. And I absolutely love it! I consider it such a blessing to work with awesome businesses AND get paid for it! One of the cool perks of my job is toting around these awesome-overly large scissors used in official ribbon cuttings. When our house was finished, I wanted to "officially" cut the ribbon and "open" our new house. It was a simple ceremony - just a photo or two (and no injuries! Large scissors plus little hands spelled potential trouble!) We are now "Open for Business!" We love our new home, neighborhood and community. We are so blessed!

Bless-ed Day!

Sunday was Alyssa's "Bless-ed" Day (as Adalyn calls it.) After "Birthday" week, what's a little more stress, right? We spent the entire day Saturday cleaning. I even had to put a sign at the door that read, "Wright children are working. Please do not ring the bell until this sign is removed." It apparently worked because the normal Saturday traffic was reduced to nothing. (That's a post in and of itself. Basically, if I don't get to the door before "cool-neighbor-dad-Jeff" then I am left being the not-so-cool-neighbor-mom that kicks everyone out. He tends to let everyone in to play no matter if any chores are done leaving me to be the bad guy, if you know what I mean!)

Anyway, house was ready, cookies were baked and ham was purchased and ready for cooking. When I opened the ham that morning to start cooking, I read the servings. It suggested that each ham would serve 12-17 people. I really started to panic - 17 people? SERIOUSLY? I was expecting 50! Since there was nothing I could do, I just stuck both 10 pounds of ham into the oven and pretended I didn't care. (For the record - 20 pounds of ham for 52 people is pa-len-ty.... I promise.) We headed off to church the next afternoon earlier than ever to save seats. Pretty good idea considering there were FOUR baby blessings that day! If I would have known, I would have totally switched it to May. Four is quite a lot for these little ones to sit through. But it was special. Jeff did a marvelous job. Since this blog is also my journal, I'll list some of the blessings he mentioned:

We headed off to church the next afternoon earlier than ever to save seats. Pretty good idea considering there were FOUR baby blessings that day! If I would have known, I would have totally switched it to May. Four is quite a lot for these little ones to sit through. But it was special. Jeff did a marvelous job. Since this blog is also my journal, I'll list some of the blessings he mentioned:


He officially named her Alyssa Evelyn Wright
Gave her a "choice" blessing. She is a special daughter of God. Blessed her to understand the power of prayer and love of the scriptures. Blessed her that she would love the things of Heavenly Father more than things of the world; that she would be a strong example to others. Blessed her to know that the only true happiness comes from following the laws of the Gospel. Look to the examples of her grandparents, brother and sisters, uncles and aunts and go to them for council. Blessed her to be obedient and remember that all blessings come by being obedient to the Gospel. Blessed her with a desire to get an education. Blessed her to be a peacemaker in the home, to be faithful and strive to marry in the temple and have a righteous posterity, and to be an elect lady to our Father in Heaven.
Always a sweet moment to attend church together as a whole family.

Afterward, we headed to our house where the fun and chaos began! Plenty of food, salads and way too many desserts. (Well, not way to many. Can you ever have too many? Let's just say there was a lot left over.) We had a wonderful time visiting with family until almost 7 p.m.! It was at that point that realized I hadn't taken a single photo! So I started in on a quick photo session.

Uncle Ryan and Adalyn
Katie, Daren and Scott...Cute Katie and Daren
Mikaela, Laura and Alyssa..


Our beautiful "bless-ed" daughter in her dress that Mimi made...
Her darling bracelet that all my girls wear for their blessings. Except somehow, two little princesses lost the original bracelet that they both wore. So when I went to get it out Saturday, and it wasn't where it was supposed to be, I ran to three different boutiques looking for a replacement. Kind of disappointing that I had to get a different one since it was tradition with my girls - but I doubt I remember it in the long run. Tell me I won't. Right? Oh and I painted her fingernails. I don't recommend it. There is nail polish all over her bed sheets (I tried to do it while she slept!)
Daddy with his three girls.

I wanted a photo of us together. (and our glowing baby!)
This was about 20 shots later. Ha ha!! My head is still cut off and we both look way annoyed! Ha ha! Jake kept saying, "okay, one more guys!" Yeah, we are done.

This is the look I get when Jeff is done. Ha Ha! Time to wrap it up! We were exhausted but it was all worth the effort. It was a nice little day with our family.

Surprise! It's a GIRL!

Every life starts with a story - some are exciting, some are scary but all are special. There is nothing - NOTHING as special as bringing a sweet baby into the world. They bring all sorts of emotion: excitement, joy, happiness, sorrow (cause it might be my last), pain (cause it hurts!) and exhaustion. And through it all, I am overwhelmed with happiness that I am allowed to care for this new little being, teach her right from wrong, make sure she knows she is a valued person with talents and strengths, then release her into the world to make a name for herself. It's an overwhelming resposibility, but one that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

Alyssa Evelyn Wright's story begins Friday, January 14, 2011. I was feeling a little anxious since I was only one week from the due date. This wouldn't bother most people - but I have never been this "late" and the doctor was convinced I would be early. Also, Jake's birthday was on Sunday and we were going to dinner to celebrate that evening. There was no school that day, so I took the children to Nickel City. Jake was sick that day but still went. We ended up going to dinner that evening and finished the evening watching the final movie of the Borne series. I guess I must have had a feeling because I thought, "I should take a photo of myself in case I go into labor."
And so I did - and my brother Scott joined me. (Yes, one of us is a lot bigger than the other!) This photo was taken at 1:15 a.m. on January 15th - a few minutes before I went into labor.

There were three things I didn't want to happen with baby #4:
1. I didn't want a middle of the night labor
2. I have 5 doctors in our group. I like all but one. I didn't want this ONE particular doctor
3. I didn't want a baby one day before or one day after Jake's birthday.

Guess who successfully managed to get all she didn't want?!

So I woke up at 2 am exactly with my water broken. We quickly got ready to head to the hospital, thinking it would be a very quick delivery like baby #3. Luckily, this labor was a little slower and allowed for a little down time as compared to baby #3! This time, it pretty much mirrored Juliana's birth - almost to the minute!

Anyway, we headed to the hospital at 2:15 a.m. It just so happen to be thick fog the entire way. We finally arrived and I quickly requested an epidural. I received one around 3 a.m. Once that happened, it was smooth sailing! ;) It was then that I realized that the one doctor I don't like would be the one that would deliver. I held on hope that maybe this baby would wait until 6 a.m. when the doctor would be replaced with the one I wanted.
Ryan came to visit and he and Jeff took a long nap - pretty much until it was time!
At 5:30, the nurse came and it said it was time! I was so excited - but of course, we couldn't wait until the doctor change at six!! I would just have to live with "Mr. Personality" as my doctor. Bummer.

We didn't find out the gender with this baby. I was SURE (without a doubt) that this baby was a boy. I just knew it - in fact, my motherly instincts told me so! I was also a little sad when she said it was time. I think this might be my last. And I love to be pregnant. So with mixed emotions, the time came.

At 5:47, after four or five pushes, a darling little baby arrived. It seemed to take an eternity because the cord was wrapped around it's neck three times. In slow motion, I kept asking, "What is it?" but no one responded (because no one could tell yet!) Finally (although it was less than two seconds) the nurse yelled, "It's a girl!" To which I replied, "Are you SURE?" But I saw for myself: we had a beautiful, tiny baby girl!
With lots of hair too! She weighed in at 7 lbs, 6oz and 20 inches long - my biggest baby yet!


After cleaning her up, they delivered her to her dad so he could be the first to meet her.
And FINALLY they let me meet her too! (You know what bothered me? And I blame the doctor! With all my other babies, the doctor places the baby on my chest and lets me see them first. One doctor let me hold the baby even before they measured and cleaned her. This doctor just wisked her away and it took ten minutes before I could see her! In fact, I asked the nurse twice if I could please just see the baby! But the wait was worth it - it was love at first sight!)
She is absolutely perfect!!!
I couldn't keep my hands off of her sweet, soft little face.
Then Mimi got to hold her.
It was a long, long night. Papa wanted to be there too, but he was out of town for a conference. He came on his way back from the airport at 8 am. He spent the day holding her while Jeff and I slept.
Then it was time for the sisters to meet the newest little sister. When Addy came into the room, the nurse was there. She asked the nurse if she was now the big sister! SO PROUD!
Our other little mother fell in love with her sister too!

We spent the entire day going through names. I am noncommittal (in case you didn't know!) and names are hard for me, REALLY hard! We went through Analise, Annie, Kate (which I LOVED) and Alyssa. I'm happy with Alyssa, but I kind of just let Jeff decide at the last minute because I was tired of thinking of a name. Alyssa fits her, even if it took me a few days to remember her name! (Don't worry - I remember it now!) I guess that is why people name their babies before they come!
The girls came to pick us up around five p.m. and we got ready to head home to the chaos and mess of the compound!
We only stayed at the hospital for one day - Jake's birthday was the next day and I didn't want to miss it. I then spent an entire two weeks in my pajamas (best advice ever!) and enjoyed holding my beautiful new newborn - because they are only little once!