Isabel's 11th Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday on Dec 23rd

Not an awesome picture of her, but we keep on forgetting to do her birthday pics.

I cant belive that I have an 11 year old!

Isabel is the funnest girl that I know. I wish I was her age just so I could be friends with her! She suprises me all the time of how smart and creative she is and how much she loves everyone. Being the oldest, Izzy has taught more love and joy to our family than we ever could.

I love ya Is!

We had a nice simple birthday party. I took pictures of our theater room for the invites and played on the Photoshop. (we dont have purple walls down there, they're red)

Isabel wanted to have a movie night and play games with her girlfriends. How fun!

So, here we go....

No cake or pie for Isabel... She always wants the Brownie tower!!

Straight up chocolate!

Thats my girl!

Charlotte gets a new hat

We are pretty sure that Isabel is the reason why all of our kids decided to come to our family. Everyone loves her. They all must have been best friends before they came to earth. Izzy can always get the babies to make the best faces.

Charlotte is working on her smile. Not sure when it'll happen, but I will worry if its not soon ofcourse. ;) I never really care when they walk or sit up.... for me, the biggest milestone is when they smile and laugh.

SNOW!!

Oh boy! We were getting kinda bored with the bitter cold all of Christmas break. BUT! it finally snowed! It was soooo much fun! Better yet! The snow was perfect for snow ball fights and snow men.

Beatrice is 2!!!

Big day for Bea: December 15, 2009Beatrice has been so much fun these past 2 years. I think Beatrice has brought such a joyful and fun spirit to our home and lives. To anyone that meets her, she just makes people happy! One look into her eyes, and you are a better person because of it. Her smile warms you up! We are pretty confident in saying that Beatrice started the baby craze of 2009. Hey, even us.. we had to have another baby in hopes to have another like her. HAHAHA!

Yes, still with a binki.... but we are all adjusting to the new baby in our own way!

We had a great Bday party for Beatrice on her birthday. We had Granny and Gma and Gpa Goodwin here. It was really fun. Granny made Bea a kitty cake. It was so cute. Bea loved it! I mean, what 2 year old wouldn't? Look at this thing! I am so glad Bea got to have a fun day and cake and a few gifts to celebrate!

Charlotte Ayla Lheron

Charlotte Ayla Lheron’s Birth Story

I had my beautiful baby girl on Saturday morning, December 5, 2009 at 11am. I think this home delivery went beautifully. With our meager scale and measuring devices at home we assume she weighed in at 9 lbs. 4 oz. 21.5 inches long. She showed up with lots and lots of dark hair with a tiny bit of red in there to tease me with. After thinking about it and getting to know her for 14 days, we named her Charlotte Ayla Lheron.

That is the short story.

If you want to read the this, go get a snack and a comfy chair because this is the long story… and I am not kidding…

My water broke at 8:30am while I was still in bed visualizing the birth like I did every morning. I wanted this delivery to go as smoothly as possible. Being in the comfort of my own home to deliver my baby was so important to me. I did have Beatrice at home and the others totally natural, so I knew I could do this! I know my body, my own comforting sights, smells and energy of my home. This is how I wanted our baby it enter the world. So, I felt “the pop” and I knew it was time! I was so excited I was going to meet my baby! I relaxed and laid down and started to listen to my hypnotic birth CD. I told Chris to go make breakfast for the family and call the kids friends to go play for the day. Chris made BACON with breakfast of all things! All I could smell was that freaking bacon! He felt so bad! Ha! I just told him it would serve as a good distraction. He was frankly lucky I was already in my “happy place”. At about 9am things were starting to move along with the labor.
I use this technique called Hypnobirthing and for me it is basically mind over matter. The idea of turning my mind over to my body that knows exactly what to do was the key! That is what I focused on this time. It was like the other births were test runs. For months, Chris and I worked hard on reading scripts and training each other to relax during the labor. The funny thing is that I didn’t want him to do anything except be there and touch me. I needed to know he was there and that was all. I needed his support and he did just that. I just listened to my CD that led me through my meditation and it was awesome.
I was laying down and was feeling things quite strong but I knew that things would go a lot quicker if I sat on my labor ball. So, I did just that. It was awful changing positions and at one point, I did think… why do I do this? Give me some drugs! But, I knew that the hospital wasn’t going to work for me, so I just refocused. Chris’s mom was there and she helped me get more comfortable. She and Chris looked at each other at one point and thought I was asleep! That is because I DID IT!! I reached the total relaxation where I did not feel any pain at all!!! NONE! It was soo exhilarating! I just kept on saying to myself that this was what I wanted to reach and I was doing it! I was so proud of myself! I could tell that Chris’s back was aching because I could hear his actual facial expressions writhing in pain behind me as he held me.HA! I wanted to tell him to just go to his “happy place” too, but I decided the bed was a better place to just relax. Only a few minutes later, I pushed with the few contractions and there she was! AMAZING! Our baby was perfect!!
Recovery with natural childbirth was so great as well. I shared some tender, awesome moments with the baby and Chris and then got up, took a shower, got dressed and went to the living room to nurse the baby. Everything happened in 2 hours!

It was a sacred day I will always cherish and remember!

She's Here!

I had our baby girl on Saturday morning at 11:00am at HOME! Yeah!

She is so beautiful. She has so much hair and she is amazing!

I will do a big story and lots of photos when I can.

Here is a photo of her after 2 hours after she was born.

We dont have a name for her yet, but we'll decide sometime. ha.

I feel so blessed for being able to deliver my baby the way I wanted and in the comfort of my own home. LOVED IT!

Oh, and my labor lasted only.... 2 hours! yoohoo! Another point for Natural child birth and Hypnobrithing!

Patiently waiting......
Everyone is in place, including babylheron. Just have to wait until "it's time".
Deep breaths and lots of tricks to start this labor!

Not an optical illusion!

taken today, Sunday Nov. 8th

Halloween Weekend

Dressing up is just part of life around our house. There are jedis and princesess running around our house most days. This weekend, we got to actually choose something that everyone would see! So, here we go..... Isabel was a disco girl, Gabe was a stick figure for one party and then Darth Vador for Saturday night, Adeline and Beatrice were Tinkerbell. I didnt have to sew one thing!! I was proud of my children for being nice to me and not choosing something I'd have to sew at the last minute. Chris and I were Nuclear Power Plant Inspectors. hahahaah!

For a fun SlideShow Go to this LINK....

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e59/lheronclig/?action=view&current=65e9b530.pbw

Chris brought home the paper jumpsuit that he wears while inspecting the nuclear power plants. I cant believe that a paper thin suit protects you from nuclear bad stuff. hahaaha! At any rate, I felt protected. hahaha! I added HAZMAT to the back of the suits and off we went. It was hilarious being twins with Chris. It was even more funny having people checking out a pregnant woman in a nuclear waste outfit. People took pictures. hahaahah! Funny! Anyway, we had a fun weekend.

IMPRESSIVE!

I got out of the shower today and I was seriously impressed at what I saw!!!

A stool was up against the counter and my skin care lotions and bottles were all over the bathroom. My makeup bag was strewn over the counter. The wall had a nice masterpiece Picasso would be proud of done in marker. The entire full roll of toilet paper roll was in huge piles over the floor and through the house as a little trail to the silent culprit. Beatrice sitting in the middle of the living room floor covered in toilet paper and a little lip gloss tube in hand. She had a huge smile and had a beautiful glossy look on her entire face. She was so excited! It was a silent visitor during my one moment of privacy. A bang up job at what kinds of things she can do with out anyone there to get in her way of wearing a little lip gloss in under 7 mins.

Pumpkin Carving night

The kids LOVE love the night that we carve pumpkins! We have loads of fun.

They all each get one to do whatever they want to it.

We get some crazy requests to carve like Cat faces, Princesses, Mario, Some other characters I've never heard of, Eyelashes, Harry Potter and Money signs. HAHAHA! I try to do my best at carving, but I'm no Martha Stewart!

Remember I'm still pregnant. hahah!

The Amigos

Aaaaachhoooooo!

(A boys dream of slimming his sisters)
Super girl wasn't quite sure.... Who is going to clean all of this up?

Our LOST cat!

We lost our cat. She ran away a few nights ago and took her boy kitten with her. If you live in our area, keep an eye out for her please. This is her photo and her kitten when he was only a few weeks. He's now about 3 or 4 months old. The shelter said to start looking in your car engines before you start up if you park outside because stray cats are starting to crawl up into them to stay warm in the night. Its freezing around here! Thanks!

A new fun thing!

I started a new blog!
I saw this idea one day of taking a photo a day. I love taking photos. I know I am not all that great, but I like to do it anyway. I thought I had a nice camera, but it seems like they are always coming out with something nicer. So, I do what I can with my Sony 5.1 camera.

The link is http://www.leslie365photos.blogspot.com/
I think it will be a fun thing for me to do.

It'll just be boring for all of you because it's what I'm interested in that I am taking pictures of.

count down

I keep on looking at the countdown of when the baby is coming and freak!

I cant believe that I only have 7 weeks left! Maybe I'll go a week late again. I hope so! There is NO PROBLEM with babies staying put for a few more days.

Life will never be the same. Doesn't that sound great! It's always fun inviting a new member to the family. Life really isnt the same again. We will soon think,

"how did we get along with out this little person?"

Snow and Conference

It snowed Sunday morning! Surprise! Well, we live in Idaho, so I shouldn't be surprised at all. You never know what you'll get around here.

The kids played outside any moment they could. I loved hanging out in my warm and cozy sweater and watching the kids from inside drinking warm herbal tea. ha! It was really fun.

The only thing I am not looking forward to is organizing all the STUFF that comes with cold weather! Shoes, boots, socks, slippers, scarfs, hats, jackets, snow suits, heavy coats, gloves and mittens. I like putting a few flip flops next to the door and call it good.

Farewell Summer! (maybe)
some of the photos are a bit cut off in the slideshow here, but its still cute! because my kids are in it of course!

I have no pictures of us watching Conference. You know the drill. Kids listening quietly and taking notes. Right! That will be the day! I cant even get Chris to do that! hahaha! They did pretty good. We played conference games including the classic M&M Bingo game. I think we ended up just using crayons to mark the bingo squares to get a "black out" because we ate all the M&Ms. Ha!
I think Saturday General Conference was very direct and gave specific instructions on Gospel Principles. All I know is that I think Conference was just for us. I got so much out of it. I am glad we had a chance to watch all of conference this year. Its always nice to be uplifted and instructed by the professionals.

days like this

days like this makes it all worth it.

esp with Adeline.

She's a handful, but I know she loves me.

Free Spirits!

Ok, so I always am saying that my kids have a bit of my free spirit. Some more than others. Now, I don't have a desire to strip down and color all over myself because it looks cool and accessorize with the perfectly chosen necklace, but I think that is what I would have done at age 2 if I was allowed to. The good thing is that Beatrice is reading to her kitten, Goggles.You can only imagine what kind of LOVE that kitten gets!! HAHAHA!

Here she is reading to her favorite doll her favorite book that has the same coloring on it from a previous encounter. Pretty fun!

Adeline dressing in layers of clothes that she just thinks looks cool. She then has a paper crown clipped into her hair. She is pretty amazing at what she comes up with. Her teacher isnt too sure, but oh well!! She went to school today with 2 skirts on. ( I didnt have my camera handy) She had a t-shirt on with one skirt up around her arm pits and the other around her waist. She just couldnt decide which to wear, so naturally she solved her own problem.

Man, these kids are soo fun! Even though we have to soak in the bath several times after their ideas, I think what they do is Inspiring. It makes me think of how I could express myself a bit more. Hummm...

30 weeks!

Me at 30 weeks with baby #5.
My belly button is officially gone!
And I am HUGE! But, we are talking amazing growth here!
A few friends and I joke that when the belly button actually pops out... you're done! Yes, of course it sounds like a turkey, but hey, we are cookin something in there anyway.
The analogy is just fine with me.

No name picked out yet. We'll just have to see her.
So, I have 10 weeks left! Hypnobirthing is going well. Training Chris is easier this time because he's been around more the past few weeks. He's got to read scripts to help me relax and get me to my "happy place" and do it with out laughing. That was our problem every other birth! He just makes me laugh. Plain and simple. Maybe laughing during labor isn't so bad??
Ok, so all I can think of is 10 weeks... I have sooo much to do before this little human comes! Where is she going to sleep? Where are all the kids going to sleep? 5 kids in 2 rooms. Ive got to finish the bathroom I started, paint some walls or 2, make the babies blessing dress, etc etc etc. Trying not to stress.
Still loving it!

A little Serenity!

This is a long post, mostly for my own personal documentation.

SO, I've been waiting all summer to go to the Central Coast aka Home. I grew up there and I have always just felt a real connection to the most beautiful place on earth. HA! So, I decided that I was just going to go to Cali with the kids by myself! It was a great drive. I had a good time with the kids. All you need to do a 14 hour drive is... great book tapes for yourself. And for the kids, suprise color or sticker books, snacks and of course a DVD player. It works just the same as Benedryl and you dont feel as guilty afterward. Works for me!

Chris was on a job in AZ and was talking to us every night and decided that we were having way to much fun with out him and so he decided to change his flight to San Luis Obispo to join us!! HOW COOL! So, we picked him up from the little airport on Friday and went straight to the beach! I made him do all the things I wanted to. He was a good sport.

Atascadero Zoo and Park
I love this park. Wondering what is going on with the lake, but other than that, I was happy to see the huge amazing trees and sand as the playground base. The zoo has grown and the kids loved it. Addy couldn't believe that I grew up with a zoo in my town. "Did you come like every day mom?" ha! Lots of fun!

Morro Bay beach!
FUN! I breathed in the air and heard the waves and felt the salty breeze and instantly knew this was what I was craving! How many times can you say that?
There were lots of surfers. Got to love watching those guys and girls surf! There were some really great waves and not too cold. I wished I learned how to surf when I was younger. But, from what I understand, I am not so old, so, I've just got to try more things and stay young! Lets face it though, I am sooo clumsy. hahaha!
This was our first beach we went to on our adventure. Joanna, my niece Kyhana and Mom and Mike and my nephew Logan came with us. Beatrice wasn't sure about the sand, or the waves, in fact, she was kinda scared. Total change from when Addy was a baby, eating all the sand and waddling up to the waves. But, in time, she really liked it.
The only thing we missed doing was going to "The Shell Shop" in Morro Bay. When I was in High School, my hippie English teacher owned the place. Anyway, its a cool shop that I am sure the kids would have loved too. We found our own shells. Addy found a live clam. We put it down while digging channels in the sand and it started to bury itself!! How cool!
The first time I took Chris to Morro Bay when we were dating, he said that the Morro Rock just had to be fake. HA! It is just a huge ocean rock out of nowhere! It's way cool.

Avila Beach!
I always have a hard time knowing what to take pictures of and what to just experience. I hope I took enough pictures because I know I experienced a lot.
Played in the water and sand, buried the kids up to the neck, body surfed, Addy had a little girl come up to her and share her boogie board and teach her how to use it. Addy always makes friends wherever we are, no matter what! We saw dolphins swimming across just past the pier. COOL!! There was farmers market going on that day so, that was fun too. Of course, I got a bit more sun than I should have, but it was worth it.

Tide pools at Shell Beach!
We went here as kids with my dad a lot. It was fun to go back with my kids again.
We didnt see as many creatures as we wanted to, but it was really great climbing on all the rocks and searching. I must have been quite a sight.. a huge pregnant lady with tons of kids searching for crabs and sea slugs. We of course were bombarded with seaweed and so we striped off the leaves and played jump rope!
We saw starfish, tons of crabs, sea anemones, some cool seaweed of course, barnacles, clams, I dont know what the other stuff was, but it was great. Lots more questions I have to Google from Gabe. Wished Gpa Lee was there to explain those questions and find more for us. He always knows were to look. I did pretty good answering a few questions though.

When I'm pregnant, I always see lots of other pregnant women. It was true this time too, even in California. Pregnant woman usually make eye contact and then share a split second of understanding. This time, we looked at each other, they counted my children and looked back at my belly and then... looked nauseous or something. HAHAAHAH! It was awesome! Lets just say, we take up alot of "space" with our group!!

After being "home" and hanging out with my mom and sister and brother and all the kids, I need to make the trip more than just every 4 years. But, alas, it was time to go and so we went to Chris's oldest friends house in Berkeley on the way home. Steve and Rebeca Vaisey are great friends! He's a professor at Berkeley, so it was awesome hanging out with them and gave Chris lots of more info and confidence about Grad School. I am really excited Chris is excited! We also went to church with them at the coolest building ever!!! Its really old and totally beautiful. I wished I had my camera!
Overall, we had a great time. I am glad I just decided to go one day. It's great being spontaneous! Best of all...I have great hair in California! hahah!