Introducing...

Eli Jensen Rasmussen

Born June 20, 2011

9 lbs even

21" long

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back to the blogging, I feel pretty beat up still. The fourth c-section has been brutal on this aging body, although we are so grateful everything went smoothly. No hemorrhaging this time, hooray! It is just going to take awhile to get back into the swing of life, especially now that I have FOUR children! Yikes! But you don't want to hear about me, let's look at pictures of the new addition....

Does this look like a proud sister or what? As we knew she would, Olivia fell in love with Eli right away, despite the fact he wasn't a sister.

Already chubby. I told the doctor, I don't grow them small. I'm soooo glad he let us get him out 11 days early. Doesn't look like he is underdeveloped or anything, right?

It's hard to believe our Benny is a big brother now. So far Eli has survived so that's good.




Caleb and Olivia have been great helpers. They love to hold and snuggle their new brother.

We were so grateful to have Nana come and help out for a week. She held down the fort at home while Erik hung out with me at the hospital. She was in constant motion, washing dishes, folding laundry, getting snacks for the kids.... we kept her busy. We are indebted to her for her loving service to us. Can you feel the love in this picture?

I don't think Eli has to worry about getting enough love. He has wriggled his way into our hearts already, and we can't imagine our family without him.

Things I Will Not Miss About Being Pregnant

As of today I have been pregnant for 36 weeks. By my calculations, that's about 9 months already. And I have a few more left to go. Let's just say I have really gotten the full pregnancy experience, and as I look toward the light at the end of that tunnel (hooray! Almost done!), I want to remember the things that make this time of life... unique. Interesting. Unbearable, if you will.

I will NOT miss:

Feeling the waves of nausea every. single. day. Yes, it has gotten better as the pregnancy has gone on, but I still have an underlying feeling of nausea. Every. Single. Day. There are fun retching sounds that accompany this one but I will spare you the details.

The Hugeness. It's getting past the point of ridiculousness now. I am way bigger than I was with any of my other pregnancies, and as I waddle around and shift and adjust in my seat to try to reach some semblance of comfortable, I almost have to just laugh or cry at my plight. There really is nothing to do except lay on my side whenever I possibly can. And even then I turn into a beached whale. So pathetic.

The Insomnia. Now, I happen to be fairly practiced at this one, having dealt with it for a few years now. But, the thing that makes it worse in pregnancy is that I start out with a higher need for banked hours of sleep, so when I find myself wandering around the house at 2 a.m. (as I am at this very moment, in fact) I am sad because I know I will be even more tired tomorrow (today) because I just can't ever catch up. and my body needs more sleep than it normally does! And it's getting less! The brain dead-ness is starting to make more sense.

The Heartburn. Let's just say, it doesn't get better as the pregnancy goes on. It used to only be a problem for me at night, and now I find myself reaching for the Zantac as soon as breakfast is over. Will I ever be able to eat normally and just enjoy my food ever again?!

The Swelling. My normally skinny hands and feet have turned into sausages. My wedding ring is so tight it makes me claustrophobic, and I am down to two pairs of flip flops that I can comfortably wear. Yes, even to church. I am at that point.

The sinus issues. Does anyone else get this one? I have been constantly stuffed up for months now. I just want to be able to breathe normally!

OK, I guess that's enough whining for now. I really am looking forward to meeting this little guy. I am sure he will be adorable and that I will instantly fall in love, as I have 3 times previously. Growing a person inside your body may not be an easy experience, but it sure is worth it! A true miracle. The biggest miracle of this life, probably. And I get to be a part of it. Lucky me.

Um, Just Kidding

I have been meaning to post this for awhile, but it just made me too--not sad, but disappointed I guess would be the word. Well, and for awhile surprised too.

We found out we are actually having a BOY!

Yes, the doctor made the wrong diagnosis when he "took a peek." When I went in for my "real" ultrasound a month later, where they take all the measurements and stuff, the lady told us our soon-to-be-born child is, indeed, a boy.

Olivia cried.

I must admit, I cried too (just for a minute) when I realized Olivia won't be getting a sister. You see, I have three sisters and as adults, we are all very close. A sister is a life-long friend, and I really wanted Olivia to experience that.

Instead, she will be the Princess. The Boss. Mom's Shopping Buddy and Pedicure Pal. She Who Posesses Her Own, Unshared Bedroom. The second mother to, yes, a bunch of stinky boys.

Once Caleb turns eight in just over a year, we will have FIFTEEN uninterrupted years of Scouts. I better get used to being called den mother.

The boys are excited. Caleb and Ben get bunk beds, and they will have their own (stinky, dirty, smelly) boys' clubhouse, a.k.a. bedroom.

It will be fun. And this little boy is going to be well-loved. It just pulls on my heartstrings a bit to know I won't be buying any more tiny little pink outfits or itty-bitty hairbows. Because those things are so cute. And yes, I KNOW because let me tell ya, this old mare is barely getting through this pregnancy. Chances are slim to none that I am ever doing this again. It is a truth of pregnancy that it gets harder every time. Not that I'm complaining. I'm just really, really excited to only have a few (six!) weeks left, and then NEVER be pregnant again.

Now we just need to think of a name. We already used up our top boy names, we need to start thinking about this sometime soon.

Think Pink

I went to a regular ol' OB check-up this week and my dr. asked me when my ultrasound was going to be. When I told him it wasn't scheduled for another month (the ultrasound tech is only in once a week, so she gets booked up fast), he offered to take a peek and see if we could tell the sex. I was 18.5 weeks so he was pretty confident he could tell.

Well guess what... it's a GIRL!

I felt a little weird not having Erik there for the big announcement but hey, it's our fourth kid. By that point in life you may just get a voicemail message telling you you're going to have a daughter. And that's OK.... right? Anyway, he seemed alright with it. He even told me he would have been upset if I had waited to find out just because he wasn't there. He's not big on secrets, as you can tell.

Can you guess how Olivia felt about it when she heard the news?

"Finally, a sister!" She and I went out to Target that night and bought a cute baby girl outfit. It was a symbolic girl bonding gesture. We also got that cute rainbow shirt for Liv.

I am 19 weeks, so I'm thinking the dr. could tell pretty accurately. But part of me wanted to wait until the "real" ultrasound to make sure before announcing it to the kids and the world.

Erik's comment? "If it does turn out to be wrong, it would be a good lesson in statistics for the kids. We could teach them all about false positives and specificities." No, I'm not making that up. I needed to write that down so I could remember what he said in years to come. Because I love him, I feel it is my duty to mock him when he makes comments like that.

So we're pretty excited around here. Two and two, it seems like a good balanced number. And honestly, I was not looking forward to hearing "All I got was 3 stinky little brothers!" for the rest of my life. Which, let's be honest, we would.

The Year of the Temple

I am so excited to focus on the temple this year in Relief Society. My good friend and RS secretary Michelle created this logo for us and I love it!!! She is so talented!


I made over 100 magnets to pass out to the ladies at church. I am hoping that we will all have wonderful temple experiences this year!

Button Letter Craft Project

Because it's Friday and I'm desperately avoiding planning my part of the RS lesson for Sunday, I decided to finally frame and document a craft I recently completed. It's a letter made out of buttons for the wall. I saw this on a blog once but couldn't for the life of me find it by the time I decided to make it myself.

I made one for my brother's family for Christmas (different letter, different color buttons--didn't take a picture of course) and finally finished the one for my own house.

I even took pictures along the way because I am wacko that way. And so Tracy can pass it along to someone to teach at the Super Saturday if they decide to include it. I will be pleading the 8th month excuse by then.

It's super easy; I didn't need so many pictures, but it was actually kind of fun to photo-document a project. First you go into Word, type whatever letter you want in whatever font you want, and make it really big.
Next you either tape it to the window with a blank sheet of cardstock over it (so you can see through the first sheet) or use one of these:

Put a blank piece of cardstock (it has to be a heavy paper) on top of the letter like so:

And trace lightly around the outside edge.

Next, grab a bunch of buttons of varying sizes. I used all the same color but you could use a variety if you wanted.

Next get some glue. This was my first time using this type of glue and ironically I would not recommend it for this project. It is way too strong and you can't adjust a button once you've placed it. I wanted to use hot glue but was fresh out of glue sticks.

Next place your buttons within the outline you traced. Alternate using large and smaller buttons, and move things around until they fit the way you like. Make sure you have several small buttons to fill in the little gaps.

Next, take a few buttons off at a time, erase the pencil lines for that area, and glue the buttons down. Repeat one small section at a time. If you try to do too many at once you will forget how you placed the buttons.

Next get one of these awesome frames. You can adjust the depth of the space between your paper and the glass for 3D projects.

And, voila! Here is the finished product. I'm not totally happy with the slant on the top but it's fine for the family room, right? I think it turned out cute!

Way Back When-sday: Teenage Fantasies

This is a story from my youth. I never thought of being embarrassed by it until I shared it at a recent book club and everyone laughed at me. Then I realized, I'm kind of a dork. But that's OK, it's not like that's new information or anything.

When I was in 8th grade, I had a huge crush on a boy named Justin. We had nothing in common--he was a skater with lots of friends and awesome hair. Oh, the hair. Remember when guys used to wear it long in the front and then do the head-flip thing every 48 seconds? ...sorry, I got lost in my reverie... back to the story. I, on the other hand, was shy, awkward, and good at math.

Every day as I rode the bus home after school, I would watch him walk home, or better yet, skateboard home. Oh, how my 13-year-old teenage heart yearned to know him, to have him smile and me and want to sit next to me at lunch time. The problem was, he had no idea who I was. We had one class together, but never interacted.

There had to be some way for our worlds to collide. Some way for him to get to know me and then, clearly, he would immediately fall in love with me. So I daydreamed that I would be his.... math tutor. Yes, that's right. That was my big fantasy. He would ask me to be his math tutor, so after school I would walk home with him and spend time hanging out with his family in-between algebra pop quizzes. They, of course, would fall in love with me too, and we would all live happily ever after, surrounded by algebraic equations and geometric shapes. Ahhh, love!

p.s. I recently looked Justin up on facebook. We are not fb friends, so you can't find him on my friends list. But, I have to say even though he has lost the floppy skater hair, he has remained a good-looking guy. So I guess I had good taste even back then.

p.p.s. Just to clarify, I am very happily married and, ironically, my husband could be MY math tutor. Funny how life works out, huh?

Pregnancy, Treadmill Trauma, Organizing, and Handball

Here I am at 15 weeks with Baby #4. The kids and I like to read online about the baby's growth. At this point the baby is 4 inches long crown to rump (I wish they would still measure people crown to rump, I think it's such a funny term) and weighs a whopping 2.5 ounces, which totally explains the 20 lbs I've gained thus far. I have a feeling this isn't gonna be pretty. We read that the baby empties its bladder every 40-45 minutes--you can imagine how much the kids enjoyed that one. "The baby is peeing in Mommy's tummy!" We were looking at pictures women have posted of their bare pregnant bellies at different weeks of pregnancy. Caleb asked me "Is that you, Mommy?" and I responded with "You think I would post a picture of my belly on the internet?!" Which I guess I just have, but fear not, you will only see this belly clothed.

Moving on, we experienced a slight trauma in our household when Olivia decided to take a run on the treadmill. She was doing fine, until she fell off while it was moving on level 7.

She hasn't let me take any pictures of her scraped-up legs, but they look pretty bad. We have been re-wrapping them every night with gauze, and she still complains that they sting. She was so worried about me writing a note to get her out of PE this week, then of course I forgot this morning. She came home and I just knew I was going to get yelled at about it, but then she informed me they ran laps and she ran the most of anyone in her class. "I beat all the boys!" So even though we get an earful on a daily basis about how painful her legs are, she is still our competive girl. Here is the hole she kicked in the wall when she fell.

The kids have been collecting water bottles for the Cans for Copies fundraiser at school. The idea is, the kids recycle cans and bottles, and that pays for all the copies the teachers have to make. They love to get them all out, line them up, and divide them up equally. We usually don't go through so many water bottles, but during this pregnancy tap water tastes nasty to me, so I mostly drink bottled.

I organized the boys' room. I got this idea of folding clothes and standing them up from a friend's blog. It makes it so much easier to see what they have, and when you just add the clean clothes to the back of the line they don't end up wearing the same shirts all the time. I figured I should get a picture before it gets all messed up, which I know it will because my kids put their own clean clothes away.

Caleb is such a great kid. Being the middle child, he sometimes gets overlooked and doesn't throw a tantrum to get his way like the others do, but he is such an important part of our family. He will go play with Ben for a whole hour, talking to him in his high "talking to the baby" voice, reading him books, and playing along with whatever pretend game Ben wants. Caleb is in first grade and has suddenly become an awesome reader. I must say, I think a big reason is because we started reading from the real scriptures instead of the comic book scripture readers (which we used for years). It has made a big difference in his reading ability. It's funny to hear him rattle off words like wherefore, commandments, and murmured. He is my kid that loves to be silly and say and do things just to get a laugh.

Erik and a family friend built a handball wall in the backyard, which the kids love. They use it all the time. We still need to paint it, but we've had all this rain so we need to wait for it to completely dry out first. They are both really good handball players. They can both hit the ball super hard, and are clever about changing up their shots.

And lastly, a picture of my buddy Ben, who I hang out with all day while the kids are at school. He climbed in a basket to eat his chips the other day. Then he wanted me to pull him around by the piece of duct tape that's attached to it because that's what he does with his baby doll. Mmmm, you're too heavy, bud. He has really gotten into playing baby lately. He will wrap up the doll, give it a kiss and put it night-night in the basket. Then he will pick it up and carry it around. Then he will toss it onto the floor face-first in favor of playing with his garbage truck. Even with the tender heart, he is still a boy.

Big Boy

I thought I'd post a few more pictures of Ben. It's been a week since his haircut and I still find myself staring at him sometimes, thinking he looks so different now with his shaved head. Such a big boy.
Here he is in his new Big Boy Bed (mattress--we start them out close to the ground in case of falls). He loooooves it, especially the fact that he has matching bedding with his big brother.
I have had these truck stickers for like 2 years now, and we finally got around to putting them up. I needed to let go of the idea of having them perfectly placed and let everyone just go for it. I think it looks just fine. The boys like it so that's what counts, right?

He loves the "choo-choo" pj's that he got for Christmas.

I just organized the boys' room, which included going through several bins of clothes. I found these undies in a bin and he wanted to try them on for a bit. Which is funny because he is nowhere near potty trained, but I think he looks cute with his Superman top and Spiderman undies. He's such a superhero of a kid, it is fitting. Plus, I haven't gotten a pic of those cute chunky thighs for awhile.

In other Ben updates, he has started speech therapy twice a week. He is very verbally delayed for his age, so we are hoping this will help him catch up. It is going pretty well, although we usually cut the hour-long visits short because his attention span just doesn't last that long. We are working with him at home too, trying to reinforce what the speech therapist is teaching him. Right now we are working on putting two sounds together, like u-p and jui-ce. He is responding but progress is slow. He has spent 2.5 yrs with 4 family members anticipating his wants and needs, now he needs to start verbalizing them for himself. I have high hopes for my Superboy.

I'm Not Dead. And, Happy New Year!

I know, I know. It's been about eight thousand years since I've posted. I am just so sick of looking at that picture of me and my sisters I could throw up. And I've already been throwing up lately so I don't want to do it any more than I have to.

So, it's a new year, and I thought that would be a good time to start blogging again. And then I didn't do it yesterday, so I'm already behind. Way to start off, huh?

We had a very low-key New Year's Eve at our house. We had our friend Abbie over and ate snacks, played charades, took turns showing off our moves at our impromptu dance-a-thon, and rung in the new year around 7:30 pm. I know, we are party animals. Here are the girls with their festive gear.

I just love how the elastic from his hat emphasizes Ben's chubby cheek.

Caleb the goofball.

We got the boys matching superhero pj's for Christmas. They have Superman and Batman. Here they are a few days ago, showing off their twin outfits. Ben LOVES to match Caleb in any way, shape or form. And Caleb is a good sport of a big brother. Actually, I think he thinks it's pretty fun too.

Here they are yesterday after I shaved both of their heads. They both got lollipops for being brave. I cried when I cut off Ben's baby fine hair, but it's time for him to be a big boy. He is going to be a big brother in about 6 months.

He looks so different now. We packed his crib away too and put him in a big boy bed. I will post a picture once I take one. It is already starting off to be a new year of change for our Benny Boy.