Emma Graduation/Reese 1st Year Preschool

Emma graduated from Kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary with Mrs. Cluff and Reese finished her first year of Preschool at Learning Dynamics with Mrs. Johnson. We LOVED both teachers so much.

Reese loved making friends (such as Bailey), learning about different letters every day and getting a skittle every time they listened and cleaned up :). She learned how to write her first and last name really well and be able to write and recognize all of her letters.

Emma learned how to read at a level G by the end of school. She improved so much during the year. She of course LOVES all of her friends most of all as well as doing art work. She is excited to start in full-day 1st grade in the fall!

Reese and Mrs. Johnson

Reese and Bailey

Pres. Emery and the Henderson's

It's so great to catch up with friends. First, we visited President Emery and his new wife Sharon, Cades mission President and new wife. It was great to see them. Cade was really close to him on his mission because of being AP (Assistant to the President) for a while. The girls favorite part of the visit was the stork they got to ride :).

Aimee and Russ Henderson came to visit!!! We miss them so much! What great friends and amazing people. We were first friends with them in college in our married BYU ward. We had some awesome memories- stinky sheep, exploding chocolate fountains, crazy dog Jonah, camp-outs up Hobble Creek, singing in stake choirs, card game nights, and seeing them adopt their first child, Savannah. And so much more. They are incredible people and it was so much fun seeing them again! (Photo credit: Emma :)).

Easter 2016

I love Easter time- the flowers and plants starting to come back to life, baby animals, our Robins nest on our back porch (minus all the bird poop!), warmer weather that brings playing outside, dying eggs, Easter Egg Hunts, and of course the most important thing- talking about and spending more time thinking about our Savior and His atonement and what that means to us in our lives.

Our favorite tradition is to eat a waffle breakfast and watch the sunrise in our family room and talk about Christ being the Light of the World. I am so grateful for my Savior who makes it possible to repent from mistakes and wrongs we've done and become more like Him. There is such great happiness that comes from knowing you can always be with your loved ones for eternity. Hallelujah!

A new favorite tradition (3rd year now, I think?) is going to Thanksgiving Point during their Tulip Festival. The gardens are filled with tulips and it's gorgeous. Some day it would be fun to go with just Cade and I and have a RELAXING walk with him :). By myself with all 4 was still fun but by the time we were half way there, deep into the gardens, the girls and my feet were hurting and there was a whole lot of complaining on the way back!!! We still had fun!

Sisten Visits from Cali!

Kristen and Andrew have sure been through the ringer lately. Their up and down rollercoaster with fostering has been even more trying lately and I admire them for their strength and love they give to these little boys.

Andrew texted me and asked if Sisten could come fly here and stay with me for a weekend. Um....of course!!!!! She was having a really rough few weeks with all that is going on with Julian and decided to fly her here to get away from all of it for a while.

We had such a good time together and it has been SO long since we've gotten that much one-on-one time together. Andrew was so amazing for sending her here and Cade was so amazing for allowing me to have so much time with her. He watched the girls mostly all weekend for me.

Thursday night, we went shopping and ate out at Blue Lemon (our favorite!). Then Friday night we had my mom, Boose, Steph and Jennie over for a girls night. Then Saturday we went out to lunch with all the adults (and a few babies) and Saturday night, went out to eat (again at Blue Lemon!) and watched a chick flick in our movie theater and stayed up talking for a while about Gospel topics. She left Sunday morning. It was a wonderful weekend. We pray for her and Andrew all the time. Things are so unknown with those boys. Who is going to stay, who is going to go? It's sometimes too hard to bear. We love them so much and pray that Gods will be done. I am grateful for Sisten in my life and the person she has become. She is amazing!

Grandma Close Comes to Visit!

Boy and I so grateful Grandma Close came to visit! She is such a great help and the girls had so much fun with her here. She got to drive the girls around everywhere and give the older girls lots of attention while I got to snuggle and take advantage of simple moments with my little Lucy.

When she first came to visit, Cade said make sure you take pictures today so you don't forget the rest of the week! I told him it was fine and we'd take some sometime- and then I forgot! Not a single picture all week!

We still appreciate her and all she does for us! She is so easy to have as a guest cause she is so easy going and such a help. We love her!

Transition from 3 to 4

Well...the first month after having Lucy was amazing. I had help the first two weeks from Grandma's and Cade and Boose and the next two weeks were also great. Lucy is a pretty good baby and each of the older three were such good helpers, playing with each other so well, and everything was going SO much smoother than I expected! But then...after one month for some reason the girls started fighting a lot, crying a lot and just so emotional and needy. Yep! That's more like it :). Exactly what I expected!

Lucy is still a good baby- wakes up a couple times in the night, feeds every 3 hours during the day, is pretty content and happy (except for a couple hours every evening), breast feeds really well. We were very blessed with a good baby! The older girls I think finally "had enough" of less attention from mom- especially sweet Nora! Who is not ALWAYS so sweet anymore :). She is having a rough time and asking me 24/7 "play me? Play me?" She has started not sleeping as well, which she has ALWAYS been an amazing and easy sleeper. But nonetheless the transition to a baby sister has kicked in...for all of us. It was bound to happen as it does with every baby. And now I am writing this post as I suffer from Mastitis. Yay! The joys of motherhood and a newborn.

With all that said, would I do this all over again? Of course!!! Little Lucy (or Lu Lu as Reese now calls her) is such a blessing in our lives and I am so grateful Heavenly Father has blessed us with another beautiful, healthy baby girl! We are SO blessed!

Daddy took them on a hike while i was in the hospital. Forgot there would be tons of snow still! 

Lucy Ann Close is Born!!!

Birth story

Cade and I went in to the Dr office on the 10th. Two days from my due date. I was expecting the Dr to strip my membranes but wasn't aware that since I tested positive for Group B Strep, that he couldn't do that. But he asked me if I wanted to be induced and him break my water. I said I had a C-section so I wouldn't be able to be induced, right? He said since I had two successful VBACS and was dialated to a 3 that he didn't see any issues with it. The Dr said they would start me at the lowest amount of pitocin possible. Cade and I agreed to be induced the following day.

I was told that night of the doctors appointment that they could call any time after 5:00 am the next morning. So naturally I woke up about every hour in the night looking at my clock. We got a call at 8:15 that morning and went to hospital at 9:15. We got all initial things done and they started me on the smallest dose of pitocin at 10:30. I Was dialated to a 3 when they started the pitocin.

Contractions were pretty consistent but not a lot of dialating was happening. I took the doctors advice and got the epidural before he came to break my water. The epidural was one of the worst parts this time around. He had struck a nerve or something and had really sharp pain in my back for several minutes. But then the Dr came in at 12:45 to break water. After about an hour was at 5 (1:40).

I had texted Boose that at the rate I was progressing she could probably make it for the delivery after work. I was hoping I was wrong but didn't see a lot happening to my contractions and my body.

The nurse increased the pitocin gradually to a 6 or 7 over time but Dr said to stop pitocin all together when my contractions were happening strong and consistent. Luckily the Dr convinced me to get the epidural before he broke my water. If I hadn't listened to him there's no way I would have had time to get one after breaking my water.

Only 20 min later (after texting Boose) at 2:00 I felt great pressure and pain and felt like I needed to start pushing. Nurse checked me and I was complete. At 10 cm. She said "oh yeah, you're complete. I'll call the doctor!"  I said I wasn't sure if the doctor would be able to make it. She left and a couple contractions later I told Cade that I felt like baby needed to come! He panicked and called on the intercom "baby is coming! We need someone in here". He said no way was he delivering the baby alone. That sent a good panic and five nurses and midwife rush in. They thought baby was on the table already delivered. The midwife told me that the Dr was just a few doors down delivering another baby. I didn't know if I could hold off but I waited a few min until he came in.

After Dr came in and suited up, I pushed a few times and baby girl was out. I tore some and Dr stitched me up.

I loved doing skin to skin time with her for about an hour after. The nurses laid her on my chest and I finally got to hold our little girl.

Overall, everything went great. It was a little too fast at the end and I had some bleeding concerns (just too much bleeding for them to take me off the IV), but baby Lucy was healthy and strong and my recovery has been pretty pain free.

The amount of immediate love I think becomes greater with every child because you can see through your other children the potential they have and the amount of joy they bring to your life and family. I am so grateful for eternal families and the plan our Father in Heaven has for us.

Two days before Lucy was born:

We have a baby with hair!!

The girls came to visit me and their new baby sister that evening. Nora seemed to do just fine and wasn't scared with me in a hospital bed hooked up to machines. I don't think she really understood that Lucy was now a part of our family but it was cute watching her hold her :). 

More newborn pictures (none edited):

Man, taking pictures of all 4 girls is not easy :). Most of them ended up like this one: