For Becky....

It's ALMOST done! It has taken a while. Nick has been horribly busy, but there are only a few small housekeeping items left. As you can see, our junk is moved in and I have been really enjoying my new bathroom. It looks amazing- I think even Nick is impressed with how good everything looks. I feel a little wierd posting all these pictures of our house... but I'm pretty sure that there are only a few people who care enough to check our blog and your the ones that have been asking and would want to see.. so here you goThanks Nick!

Taking these pictures was hard, since I couldn't get back far enough, just know it looks even better than these!

Here is a picture of what everyone really wants to see. The kids (well, most of them in this one. Chase is growing quickly. His skin is still really dry and he is always scratching himself. Despite that, he smiles SO much, it really brightens our house up. All of his brothers and sister ADORE him. I have to tell them to go away sometimes when he gets fussy, so he and I can have some room! They are great helpers and Ace is happiest when he is in the thick of the chaos that is our home.

Happy New Year! Our Christmas vacation has been really nice. Nick toar apart our master bath and has been redoing it in style. He designed the floor and countertop and it looks pretty impressive. Life has been pretty crazy, so we simplified Christmas a lot and it was a very nice, lazy day with family. The only thing that would have made it better would have been being closer to family.

Here's a picture of the kids on Christmas morning in their custom towls by Matney. Yesterday, when Bryn was using hers after the bath, she talked about how much she loved her towel (even if it wasn't Dora) and she wanted to know if I had thanked Matney yet. Good to know she wants to make sure Matney knows we appriciate it- now whe just need to get her pronouns straight!

Chase on his blessing day. He came through it with the same name... Chase Lee Rowley. The part that I remember most was that Ace was blessed that he would have a happy disposition. I think that shows here. He is such a happy good little guy. It was a special day, we just wish that more of you were closer!

Happy Halloween!!!

What a bunch of clowns!! We had a lot of fun mucking out the pumpkin so that Nick could carve it. He did Chance's new favorite cartoon: toothless. It turned out really well and is even cooler when it is lit up (I just couldn't capture it on film, because I couldn't figure out how to turn off the flash!)

Chance and I tried making our own pumpkin out of cake. It turned out pretty well, although Chance was pretty put out that we didn't eat it and that it had milk in it.

The kids have been really good about not trick-or treating on Sunday. We went out to the side walk trick-or-treat downtown on Thursday and they had lots of fun. Tonight we are going to stay home and make doughnuts per Rowley family tradition. Its my first time making doughnuts... lets hope they turn out!!!

Here is a video of Brynli singing Swing Low Sweet Chariot. They learned it in school and she does a pretty good job. Must have gotten that from Nick and his side of the family- there isn't anything from me in it!

He's Here!!!

Ok, it has taken me awhile to get to this. I view it as having my priorities right... playing with my handsome new guy is much more fun than posting pictures for others to look at!

Chase Lee- my little Ace- was born a week ago. We were anxious to have him here and he had been giving me indicators for over two weeks that he was going to be arriving soon. Once things got going, they went pretty fast and we now have a beautiful and healthy boy. Little Ace was our heaviest at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 in long.

He takes after most everyone in his family. Chase can eat! And wehn he wants and is looking for food he is a pretty strong little fellow. When he gets what he wants he goes absolutely limp curled up on whoever is holding him.

The kids all love him, although they have had very different reactions to him.

Brynli loves him and is curious and helpful in a more hands-off way. She has a really hard time if Chase is crying.

Ari didn't want to visit us in the hospital (she was to busy having fun with Grandma Jo and Tyler), butshe was the last one to want to leave, she was so busy touching and petting her new baby brother.

Chance is full of questions about whey the baby wants to drink so much, why he is always asleep and why I keep covering the baby with a blanket. The other morning when Ace was crying, Chance told me: "We have a hard baby!"

This little guy isn't hard at all. He does have some fussy moments, but for the past two nights he has eaten at 2 and 6 am. A week old and I only have to wake up for one early morning feeding- I'm not complaining.

Thanks to Mom and Tyler for all their help. You guys made the first week of transitioning from 3 to 4 kids a lot easier- and we ate well!

Here are some of the pictures, we didn't get as many pictures in the hospital- Nick was distracted.

Happy Birthday Tyler- the camera issues were mine!

Ari lost her first tooth and she has another one on the way out. The tooth fairy left her a whole quarter, which she took to the play section at Walmart and promptly used in the machines. She can't wait for all of her teeth to fall out so she can make bank! I can't believe that this girl is going to be 5 in 19 short days. Ari starts Kindergarten at the end of the month too! We go to the pool every day we can and Ari is one of my two little fish. One of my other children THINKS she takes after Grandpa Smathers.

Brynli turned 6 this last month. The girl is 6 going on 16. I never thought I was as ungirly as Brynli makes me feel. As a mom, I don't quite know what to do with all the skirts and drama. She wants to be a cheerleader! AUUUUUUGH. For her birthday she requested a princess cake- bedecked and bejewled. I did my best and, all told, it turned out pretty well. The best thing I can say about it was that we had tons of frosting left over and it was good.

Nick took the family fishing. Feeling like a beached whale, and not having a fishing license, I took pictures, read and watched. Chance really got in to it! The boy who doesn't like anything dirty on his clothes or his hands loved playing with the squiggling fish and worms! He took every fish off the hook and hucked it back into the water. The girls enjoyed the catching part, but wanted nothing to do with the worms or the fish once they left the water.

Nick and I just celebrated our 7th year. (Hint: the anniversary usually is closely followed by the girl's birthdays and you just have to know the anniversary year and you can count back to find out how old the girls are). Mom asked me if I was getting itchy- I didn't understand and she had to explain it to me. I must admit that this is not where I saw myself being at this point in my life, when I was younger. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Now we are setteling in to await our new one. The kids are very excited and ask all kinds of cute and embarasing questions!