Time keeps marching on.....

Today is my son's 12th birthday. How the heck did that happen????? I have spent some time today thinking about the last 12 years and everything that has happened. I have to admit that the last 7 1/2 years were much more peaceful than the first 4 1/2, and I think very influential in Brendan's life too. Brendan has grown up to be such a nice young man so far. There are definitely moments when I am so totally frustrated with him that I would like to throw him out the window (not that I am physically able to do that anymore, but the thought is sometimes there), but then there are times when I am blown away with the maturity that shines through. Brendan has started babysitting for us and he does an amazing job with his little sisters. Especially his baby sister Sarah. They have a special bond and she adores her big brother. She gets very excited when he gets home from school and just about leaps into his arms to give him a big hug. On Sunday it was Stake Conference and Matt was working, so I decided to accept defeat before the battle and just stay home. Let's face it, me against five is just not fair, and usually very noisy! I told the kids that we were staying home because it was conference and Brendan asked if it would be on TV, but of course that is only for General Conference, so I said no. Brendan then asked, "What if they say something important?", to which I replied that we would just have to miss it this time and hopefully make it next time. Then my amazing son finished his breakfast, went up to his room, got dressed for church and came down and said he was going to church. I asked him how he was going to get there and he said he would walk. I kind of balked at the idea since we live about 4km away from the church. I did try to call my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to see if they had left yet, but it was already 9:20 and they were gone. So, I made sure he knew where he was going to go, told him to bundle up because it was cold and sent him out the door. I didn't really think he would go, but he left and made it there in one piece. He found a ride home with some neighbors who live just around the corner and was really excited to tell me that he didn't even fall asleep! I asked him what they talked about and he said it was all about temples, and I came to find out that all the talks besides one were all about temples! I don't know if I would have ever gone to church on my own if my parents weren't going and gave me the option not to go, but here is my awesome 12 year old son that totally makes me so proud of him! Brendan will be ordained to be a deacon this Sunday and we are so excited for this next step he is making in his life. What a lucky mom I am!

Sarah's Birthday!

Sarah had her birthday on Monday this week and she is a whole year old! It seems so hard to believe that it has been a year already. It was quite a nice mild day on Monday and it seems funny that I was at the hospital with her on Monday as we were there with her a year ago on that same day. Sarah was able to get her cast taken off on Monday - Yeah!! She crawled with a straight leg for a little bit, but was soon zooming around like never before. The day Sarah was born it was -40 outside! The only upside to that was that we didn't have to pay for parking since all the machines were frozen! I was glad that it was warmer this year! We celebrated Sarah's birthday on Sunday afternoon. Grandma Hatch, Uncle Jeremy, Uncle Abe, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Cub and Zach all came to have cake with us. Sarah really thought the candle on her cake looked really neat and just tried to grab it. When I gave her a piece of cake she grabbed some, looked at her hands and then flung the plate off her tray onto the floor! I guess she wasn't interested! She really did like the new toy we got for her though. Anything that makes noises and has a dancing monkey is always sure to be a hit!

I took Sarah to be weighed on Tuesday and she is now 17lbs 5 oz! She has really been our "tiny" baby. She doesn't put on weight very fast but she sure does everything she should be doing and more. One of her favorite things to do is "help" with the dishwasher - pulling out as many things

as she can reach as fast as she can! We love our little 10th percentile baby!

Here we go again.....

Yes, it's true! The Hatch's are having another baby!! This will be baby #6 and we are so excited! We are not very good at keeping secrets and told our kids almost as soon as we knew. They were so excited. We told them we had a secret and then said that Sarah was going to be a big sister. Grace got up on her chair and started jumping up and down and clapping her hands. She said, "I know what that means - - We are having another baby!!" Then all the girls got really excited, except for Sarah since she really has no clue what kind of disruption this will bring to her life! Brendan looked excited but didn't say much. I talked to him later and asked him what he thought about it, and he said, "I don't know about having 5 sisters." So I said that it could be a boy, but my mathematically minded son just looked at me and said, "That's a very rare chance, Mom!" Well, I guess I can't expect much more from a boy who has has 4 sisters already. I just told him to pray for a girl this time, since all the other times he prayed for a brother - that obviously must have been working against him!
It was such good news to hear that two of my sisters were expecting just after we are. Melissa and Rachel both announced that they were pregnant just after we were and I couldn't be more happy for them. It truly will be a fun time this fall. We are all hoping and praying for another sister to join us in one way or another - that would truly be the ultimate cherry on the top of this awesome triple decker ice cream sundae!!

Them's the breaks.....

So, life just seems to want to keep me on my toes and on Monday, Sarah and I took a quick trip down the stairs. I really don't know how it happened since it happened so fast, but one second I was going down the stairs, and the next I was on my back at the bottom. I had Sarah on my hip at the time, so her right leg was behind me, and therefore under me at the time. I was really hoping that there would be nothing wrong and that it was just bruised, but Sarah cried for over an hour and wouldn't move her leg, so I figured something was wrong. I was babysitting two little girls and didn't have enough car seats so I couldn't even go anywhere. But, my sister Rachel came to the rescue (she is very good at that!) and came and watched the girls while I took Sarah to the hospital. They moved her through pretty quickly and we were in and out with a cast on her leg in just over 2 hours. I was able to take a look at the x-rays they did and I didn't see anything obvious, but I am apparently NOT a radiologist, and he saw a very minor "buckle" just below her right knee. He told me that if her leg was a pop can it would be like a little dent. It did not involve any growth plates and I was told it should heal in 2 weeks. So for the next couple of weeks, Sarah gets to try and move around with a cast on from ankle to mid thigh! It is scheduled to be off on her birthday - February 9th. Happy Birthday little one!!





The girls all knew what to do and immediately wanted a marker so they could write their names on her cast. 2 broken bones in just less than a year is more than I expected to say the least!!

Snow Day!!

The weather was quite "balmy" this week at +10 degrees, so we bundled everybody up and had a snow day outside!! I got out a little sled and pulled the girls up and down the driveway and around the backyard, we built a little snowman (the snow didn't stick together very well!), and we had fun on the swings and our playhouse! It was so nice to be outside and enjoying our winter rather than being cooped up inside and hoping for nicer weather. Maybe we can make it through this winter after all!!

It's a keeper!

I don't know whether this is truly blog worthy or not, but I was pretty impressed. On Saturday I took my watch off so I could give my girls a bath and later that evening I went looking for it and it was nowhere to be found. I asked all the kids if they had seen it, but nobody was confessing, so I figured it was in the bottom of a toy box somewhere and I would find it eventually. I wear my watch everyday and I was quite lost without it for the last couple of days. As I was doing my laundry today - - yes, yes, more laundry (10 loads to be exact!!) - - I was switching loads and lo and behold, there in the bottom of the washing machine is my watch! I must have put it in my pocket during bath time. I actually am learning - normally if I leave my watch on the bathroom counter it does end up in the bottom of a toy box!! So I guess my next lesson would be remembering what I actually do with it! Anyway - I was quite surprised to see that my watch was still ticking away and it had the right time too!! Not too shabby for a watch I have had for about 5 years and only cost $10!! It's a keeper!!

Goodbye 2008...... Hello 2009

Well, I guess I can't start a new year without finishing out the last one, so I thought I would add some pictures from Christmas! We had a great time with all our family both here and in Mountain View. Matt's mom and siblings came over to our house on the 21st and we had our Christmas dinner and shared presents with the kids.

Then we went to my mom and dad's on the 24th and spent 5 days with them. It was such a blast having everybody home for Christmas - 26 people for Christmas morning was CRAZY, but so so so much fun!! We were able to see a lot of extended family at a dinner on the 27th and also at church the next day.

We were "fortunate" to have a major snow storm hit while we were in church and we were forced to stay an extra night.

It was hard to leave knowing the festivities of the new year were going on without us. We survived though and went to a friends home and played games to bring in the new year. The one downside to our holidays was that we had to spend some time with Grace in the ER in the Cardston Hospital on Christmas day because her ear drum had burst! We were able to get some antibiotics and painkillers and she was on the mend. Then Rebecca said her ear hurt, so I did what doctors tell you never to do, and started her on Grace's medicine too. Then Anna came down with a fever and a cough, and then lo and behold, so did Sarah. I took them all to see our doctor on Tuesday this week and they ALL have ear infections! My doctor didn't seem to think that Rebecca needed any medication because she didn't have a fever at the time like Anna and Sarah did, but I just neglected to tell her that she was doing better because she had been taking medication! Anyway, two more bottles of Amoxil later, and hopefully next week we can see some improvements!!

All in all, it was a very awesome Christmas and the only thing that would have made it better would have been having it last longer. I wonder what kind of adventures 2009 will bring.......