A Glimpse into 2012...

I've been so terrible at blogging on the family blog this year, so I'm DETERMINED to do better! Here's a more in-depth look at 2012 for us...

Hailey turned 5 in January... she had a super fun party with 12 thousand little girls. I was tired before it even began but it actually turned out really fun! 

Hailey and Colin just being themselves- January.

Everyone LOVES Leah. Still. February. 

All 4 kids in February.

Leah's pretty painted piggies in March. 

All 4 kids, Easter, 2012. {April}

Williams Family Vacation to Zions Park down in Southern Utah. SO much fun! May 2012.

 Here's the whole Williams Clan- Kunzlers with their 4 kids, Kory and Raz and their kids and of course, Christy and Keoki! We just wish Blake and Janet were there...

My adorable sleeping Leah, May 2012.

All 4 kids in the summertime! June 2012. 

The Great Kitchen floor re-do- replacing the laminate with tile. End of June- July 2012. 

Here goes the first tile! 

My pantry is in the living room and most of the kitchen/ dining is in the family room. Can I just tell you how MUCH FUN that was?!

So worth it though- check out this gorgeous floor! 

At the end of June we drove to California to visit my family! 

Colin and Julie obviously share DNA. 

Jenn fell in love with Leah and tried to swipe her multiple times. Too bad she doesn't live closer, I'd let her babysit ALL THE TIME. ;)

Michael took Thomas, Colin and Hailey up for an airplane ride! 

My mom with Leah, her youngest grandchild. 

In July Aunt Carol, my sister, brought her daughter Cailynn to Utah for a visit! 

August, 2012- I had a little photo shoot with Leah, wearing a dress my grandmother made for Hailey 5 years ago. I think she looked so pretty in it!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, 2012! Thomas is now in 3rd grade and Hailey started Kindergarten. 

A couple weeks later Colin {along with his cousin Cameron} started preschool. 

In early September, Thomas turned NINE. 

Thomas and Colin terrorizing Leah. Downstiars bathroom re-do- new paint, flooring, mirror, wainscoting, chair rail and crown moulding. It was a lot of work. I don't ever want to do wainscoting in a bathroom again! 

September, 2012. 

Colin turned 4 in early October. He helped me bake his cake! 

Jessica got braces in mid-October- 

here's the "right before she left for the appointment to put them on" photo. 

Couldn't resist this sad baby crying shot of Leah. 

We went with Bubba, Nellie and their 4 kids to Cornbellies in October. 

For 6 weeks in the early Fall the kids participated in a running club. This was the 1-mile long race at the end. Thomas came in 3rd place, which was pretty cool since there were quite a few kids older than him participating as well! 

Christy, Jessica, Raz and Tiffany at the women's conference broadcast, late October, 2012. 

Williams four, Halloween 2012. We have a sparkly witch, a dragon, a skeleton and a pumpkin! 

In November, Jessica had the chance to be on channel 2 for a news segment on blogging. It was a pretty cool feature! You can see the blog post here, as well as the news feature here! 

Leah turned ONE in mid-November!! My baby is a whole year old! 

Cousins posing during Thanksgiving, 2012. 

During Thanksgiving, Adrian's parents, Christy and Keoki hosted and had a family talent show afterwards. Hailey drew a couple pictures and Thomas played a piano duet with Adrian.

 Christmas will be a whole new post, but that was pretty much us in 2012!

2012- a Year in Review...

Leah Has a Present For Us

I know, I'm getting more and more behind on this blog. I promise to update soon, however I had to share this funny little video clip with you all. Leah is 3 months old now and is just darling. Here she is saying hi to the camera and doing what she does best. Can you hear it?! LOLOLOL!!!

Leah's First Smile

First, let me say that Leah has always been a very smiley baby. I understand that for a while, these smiles don't mean much and aren't in reaction to anything I do, however she smiled all the time and it was just cute to see.

However at 5 weeks old, I was holding her on my lap while talking to her and she suddenly starts flashing me these big, bright smiles. I stopped. Listened. Is she passing gas? She just ate so I know she's happy, but still. They looked like REAL smiles! I yelled for Adrian and he came over and we both sat there and talked to Leah in those annoying high voices that babies adore- and there she was just smiling away! So I did what any normal mom would do and I grabbed the camera!

The lighting was bad so most of the shots were blurry, however I did manage to get some great ones. I'm so happy I was able to capture those first few smiles!

Sibling Love

I have to say, one of the things I love most about having 4 children is watching them interact with each other. I think having siblings teaches you many things- one of those is an increased capacity to love {and later, an increased capacity to drive each other crazy.} As Leah is so young, we are still knee-deep in the love stage. It's fun watching Thomas express his soft side and watching Hailey be so maternal.

Leah, Glimpses into weeks 2-6

 We continued to get acclimated to life with 4 kids and actually, it was easier than I thought it would be! Here are some fun picts that show a glimpse into how life has been...

All while I was pregnant with Leah, I felt this little foot in the very right side of my stomach. It was crazy- it'd poke out super hard, then move all around, etc. After she came out, I got some great shots of her crazy legs!

We had her first appointment at 3 weeks. she weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz and was 21.75" long.

The kids still love her to pieces. they are so helpful- getting me a diaper or a new blanket. We haven't had any sort of jealousy issues or anything so cross our fingers we bypassed that whole possibility altogether!

Her cord stump took forever to fall off! Finally at 13 days it did and we were able to give her a bath! We opted for the kitchen sink. Seems like she was OK with the whole process. She didn't cry, but then again she didn't seem to love it either.

She is such a wonderful cuddler. She'll nuzzle into you until she's crammed up into your neck or face or wherever she finds warmth. She doesn't like changing her clothes and cries when I take to long to get ready to feed her. She loves to bounce, which has given both Adrian and I really strong arm muscles. :)

Leah Arrived...7 weeks ago!

Ok, so I'm a bit behind...but the obvious reason is- Leah arrived! She was born 7 weeks ago, on Sunday, November 13th at 6:00 pm.

In a nutshell, I began having contractions during the day on Saturday the 12th. I went about my day like normal but by about 4:30pm, I commented to Adrian how regular the contractions were and wondered if I should start timing them. So we did- and they were about 10 minutes apart! They stayed that way for a while and so I took a bath and walked around the house, packing the rest of my hospital bag and trying to distract myself. The contractions fizzled out, then came back again and I just felt exhausted, so I went to bed.

All through the night however, I had contractions. They were getting more intense and by morning, I knew I was in labor. I went to the bathroom and had some bleeding, which further solidified that statement- this was it!

After my super fast labor with Colin, Adrian and I had decided to labor at the hospital this time, so I called the midwife and we went in at about 10am. I was dilated to a 3, then progressed to a 4 after walking around the hospital a bit. We made the decision to break my water, which was so painful! I guess the bag of waters was super strong this time around, so it took a lot more effort than it should have.

I labored on the birthing ball, walking around the room, even laying down occasionally. It was really hard labor but by 4pm, when I hadn't made much progress, I opted to lay in the tub for a while. I had about 10 minutes of rest in there, then the contractions came fast and furious. That really sped things up! It took a lot of effort to get through each one. About an hour later, I was dilated to a 6, then not long after that, an 8. Soon I felt the urge to push, so we got out of the tub and 20 minutes later, Leah was born! She was 6 lbs 11 oz and 21.5 inches long. My biggest baby by 1/2 a pound!

Adrian was home for the first 2 weeks, which helped tremendously. So far, the transition to 4 kids hasn't been that bad. The kids adore her and are very helpful. The hardest part is dealing with the lack of sleep! It's finally getting better though, thank heavens.

Leah is such a cute baby! She was very quiet for about a week, then suddenly let us know just how great her lungs work. She's a fantastic nurser though so I've had a very easy time with that. More to come on how she's doing!