grandpa with baby girl. this is love!

double fisted. This is how she sits and lays! Rich says that she is ready to fight!

Meeting her new family

Gwendolyn Matisse

Hello baby! Man was this kid a welcomed sight. I didnt think the pregnancy was ever going to end. Terrible. But she came. Thank Heavens! She is beautiful and my littlest one, 8lbs. She is so wonderful and was a good eater right from the start. The first thing she did was stick her hand in her mouth and start sucking.

Christmas 2010

This winter was crazy. I'm just getting around to posting some pics of Christmas and winter fun. My new goal is to post once a week so that all the fun stories don't get forgotten. Here are the kids with Richard camping. Well they slept outside in a tent......in January.....Richard is a sucker for those crazy kids. I slept in my bed. They had a blast. Parker lasted about 30 minutes. Cate lasted about 40 minutes. Emma and Rich made it the whole night.

Here the kids are showing off their Christmas Eve gifts, slippers! they thought they were awesome. And reading the Christmas story and a couple of stories that Rich's family read growing up. It was such a nice night.

My crazy cute kids in their Christmas outfits.

Baby number 4

We had to work really hard for baby number 4. I found out I was pregnant the day we set off to girls camp but i "knew" about a week before that. We had started trying for a baby right before Parkers first birthday. He was 2 1/2 when we finally got lucky! I think a lot of it was that my thyroid was crazy off for awhile. It was emotionally draining to have to come to the realization every month that i wasn't preggers yet. But then i was and.......IT SUCKED!!!! I cant tell you how bad this pregnancy was, it started out terrible and just got worse. I was comatose sick for about 2 months and then just miserable. I still believe that this was not truly my hardest pregnancy, but since i knew it was my last i just wanted it over. My back didn't hurt as bad as when i was preggers with Cate or Parker, but my hips ached so bad i had a hard time walking and there was no sleeping had. I was blessed to have such amazing friends near me to take care of me and forgive me for my crankiness!!! I felt terrible for my kids, it was like they had lost their mom and I was replaced by a yelling impatient monster!! The last couple of months Parker was attached to me and we spent a lot of one on one time together. With both girls in school he was my movie buddy and i loved those days! I knew this baby was a boy, i just did, and when we went to get the ultrasound and it turned out to be a girl i was stunned. I cried a little and was really upset. In my mind i knew that a boy would make my house complete. It took a couple of months to realize that a girl was wonderful. I never thought of myself as a "girl mom" but here we are, 3 girls and 1 boy. As the end of the Pregnancy approached i could not have been more irritated with everything and everyone. I was prepped for a c-section and it terrified me. Parker was a c-section and I have nothing but the worst memories of that day and the terrible recovery. But my doctor here said they would try for a vaginal birth if my body cooperated, my body never does. We scheduled an induction for Feb 8th. My actual due date was Feb 14th. Truthfully i think the doctor was confused when he said he would induce. He had previously told me he doesn't do that. My fears of his mistake came very real when i was in the hospital all hooked up and ready to go and nurses came in tell tell me the docs were unsure if they were going to go through with the induction. Luckily they did. I had almost no progress all day and it was terrible. At about 6 pm my doc came in and said I needed to make more progress or they were going to do a c-section. I was terrified and had Richard call our Elders Quorum Pres and I got a blessing. At 8 i still had no progress was stuck at a 4ish. the doc said i needed to make significant progress by 9 or we were going to surgery. I have never prayed so hard in my life, i knew i couldn't do a c-section, it was just to much for me to even think of. When 9 rolled around i knew i was in for surgery and i had a calm feeling. But surprise surprise i was at a large 9 and was ready to go. I only pushed through 2 contractions and there she was!! After i pushed i puked, that makes 2 times puking that day, weird!! She was beautiful and had dark hair. When they weighed her and she was only 8 lbs, i said " shes so small' and the doc said " only people who have 10 lbs babies think 8 is small". I still laugh about that. She is small and perfect. She nursed like she had been doing it for years and is still a pro. Her siblings love her and cant keep their grubby hands off of her! Welcome to our family, Gwendolyn Mattise Thurston

Happy Halloween!

We went to Huber Farms and picked pumpkins and had a great time. The kids loved riding on the tractor and running through the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day.
Cate was tinker bell and has been talking about her costume for months. Parker was a ninja and was karate chopping people all night. I'm glad we forgot his sword, it would have been dangerous. Emma was suppose to be Mulan, but the costume never came so she chose a Geisha costume that looked kinda like Mulan. She thought she was pretty hot stuff and did funny poses all night. We went to the Trunk or Treat at church and the kids went crazy going from car to car. With Halloween on Sunday it was nice to have the Trunk or treat. I was scared that Sunday would be terrible with kids coming to the house and my kids crying. But they were really good and i tried to make the night fun. We watched Hocus Pocus and ate pizza and candy. They loved passing out hte candy and seeing all the kids in their costumes.

Utah state fair

While we were in Utah we decided to go tho the fair. Which was great because we missed the fair at home. The kids had to wear a hat just like grandpa.


he loves the carousel
Riding a real pony, she is so cute!
On their first roller coaster.
Trying to show how strong he is, he did a pretty good job.

Good thing Tory and Jenn showed up. Everyone else gets sick on rides. I dont normally, but pregnant i do!
At one point on this ride, grandpa was showing Parker to spit over the side. Awesome.

Yummy cotton candy
I was so tired by the end i barely made it to the car. the kids could have stayed all night. they had a blast!