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?