Miscellaneous in May

You always hear parents say that they have SO many more pictures of their first child than they do of their last. Well, with us it's the opposite! I think I got more pictures of Quinn in his first three weeks than I did of Isaac's entire babyhood. But digital cameras just make it so easy! All we had with Isaac was a cheapy 35 mm camera. Makes me wish I could go back in time with a digital and get more pictures!

Anyway, here are a couple of cute ones of Quinn. He was 3 weeks old in these. He is just the smiliest baby ever! He is so much fun. He started smiling in response to us talking to him when he was only 2 weeks old. I've never seen a baby smile that early. He's a happy boy!

Isaac wants to be a geologist when he grows up. This is a picture I caught of Isaac doing a science project. He was growing some crystals - emerald crystals this time. :) So cute.

One day the boys wanted to have some popcorn and watch a movie. I was trying to fix dinner and Quinn was fussing, wanting to be held, so I had Isaac hold him while they watched their movie. :)

This year, Isaac got to participate in the Pinewood Derby for scouts! He was SO excited and had a lot of fun making and decorating his derby car. He didn't place, but had a lot of fun with the races too. He did a great job with his car! He named it "Rocket".

This is our new lawn mower! We decided to buy a manpowered push mower. It's kind of like a modern version of those old fashioned lawn mowers they had back in the olden days. It's so cool! Easy to push, does a great job cutting, it's quiet, and obviously better for the environment. The only problem we've really had is that by the time we got our mower, our lawn was a jungle it was so long. So it took a few runs the first time to get the long grass down to normal length, but otherwise we've been really happy with it!

Bryce and I love to bake things together. It's interesting to me since Bryce has been tube-fed his entire life and is just now beginning to eat more food, but he just loves making cookies or cupcakes. This time, we made some cupcakes and Bryce got to put all the papers in the muffin pan. He was so proud of the good job he did! :)

Parker's Kindergarten Program

Parker's Kindergarten class went on a field trip to the zoo this year, so the following week (April 26), they did a Zoo themed program! It was SO cute. They did a really good job and sang some cute cute songs. Each child played the part of a zoo animal, and each song was based on one of the kinds of animals. Parker was an elephant along with two other kids in his class. Do you remember that show on Nickelodeon years ago called The Elephant Show? Well they sang the song that was on that show - "One Elephant". The song lyrics go "one elephant went out to play upon a spider's web one day". While they sang that part, the "elephant" was jumping on a little trampoline. When the second elephant joined in, they both jumped on the trampoline, etc, until all 3 were jumping. It was just too cute. :) Parker looks a little sad in some of the pictures, but I think he was just a little nervous.

Isn't this the cutest backdrop? It was even 3-dimensional in parts. Not sure if it shows up in the pictures.

Mother's Day 2011

I had a really great mother's day this year. :) I woke up to Isaac and Parker bringing me breakfast in bed. They brought me toast, yogurt, cereal with milk, a muffin, an orange, and a glass of water.

They also brought me some little gifts they made in school. Isaac gave me a notebook that he had drawn the picture that was printed on each page, a bookmark, and a card. They were all so cute. Parker made a cute little book that he had written about me. It was so cute. One thing he wrote was, "My mom loves to garden so she can grow 'vegtubles'." He had a little garden with rows of seeds. I need to take some pictures of it. At the end it had a picture of him and and About the Author. It said my name is Parker Chappell, I'm six years old, I like to drink water. LOL! Bryce made a really cute little owl magnet with a clothespin to clip things to.

We went to church, then just spent the rest of the day together. For dinner that night, they made cilantro lime shrimp with fiesta rice and artichokes. Yum! I'm so grateful to be a mom and for all the joy my little boys bring into my life. I love them all so much. It was a great Mother's day!

Easter Weekend 2011

This year for Easter Weekend we took a trip down to Goblin Valley State Park. Normally we would have camped, but since we had a new (2 week old) baby and the temperatures were cooler, we decided to stay in a motel in Green River. That Friday evening we drove to Green River. We got there pretty late, so we just went to bed. The motel didn't offer continental breakfast, so we brought along some bagels and fruit to eat in our room. After breakfast we drove to Goblin Valley. I grew up down there, so I had been a few times and Josh had also, but we had never taken our kids yet so we were excited for them to see it. I couldn't believe how much it had changed since I was last there!! When we used to come down when I was in high school, it was just a small little parking lot with a picnic area (that was still there). Now it has a BIG parking lot with a fee station and even a little gift shop!

We got there, ate some lunch that we had packed, nursed the baby and then hit the valley! :)

Quinn stayed nestled in his carrier the entire time and we had lots of fun roaming through the rocks. The weather was PERFECT! It was nice and warm, but overcast so we didn't get roasted in the hot sun.

The boys and I getting ready to walk down into Goblin Valley.

Josh and the boys walking down into the valley:

Josh & Bryce:

Isaac & Parker on top of one of the rock formations:

Josh and his new five-finger shoes

that he got for Christmas:

Bryce just had to climb up on this rock he found:

Parker is always so good at helping Bryce:

I think Josh looks like a Ken Doll in this one... haha:

Goblin Valley:

Bryce found this little crevice that he just loved playing in:

A close up of Josh's cool shoes:

Josh & Parker in a little cave that they climbed up to:

Josh and the boys (minus Quinn) by another little cave:

Isaac wanted to pose by one of the rocks:

Parker and Bryce. Bryce had SO much fun playing

in the dirt. He didn't want to leave this spot!

After we hiked around for a few hours, we drove back to Green River and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. After dinner we went back to our motel room and dyed Easter eggs.

Quinn hanging out while we dyed eggs:

Easter morning we woke up and found our Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had hidden. I didn't even get any pictures of the baskets! Oh well. Isaac & Parker got a baseball mitt & ball & a few other things. Bryce got a Melissa & Doug Tangram puzzle set and some other things. Baby Quinn got a little bunny. After that we sat down together and read from the scriptures of Jesus' resurrection and had a little discussion with the kids. I'm always amazed at how much they know and remember. It's always fun to have these discussions with them.

After that we packed up our room and headed out. We were meeting my parents and my sister's family & my brother at Castle Dale on our way home, so we took a different route home. It was such a pretty drive! We made a couple of stops at some scenic viewpoints along the way.


In Castle Dale we met my family (they had been camping nearby) at a park and had a picnic and a little Easter egg hunt. It was cold and a little rainy, but we still had a good time and it was fun to be able to see everyone.

Welcome Baby Quinn!

It's a BOY!!

Quinn Alexander Chappell was born on Tuesday, April 5th at 8:15 am. He was 7 lbs 11 oz (I can't believe I had that big of a baby!) and 19.5" long. We're so excited to have our new little boy. He is just the sweetest baby and so peaceful. The boys are just adoring him and want to hold him all the time. Isaac asked me if I could get pregnant again right now so we can try and get a baby sister now. LOL! I don't think so. :)

So I had gone to the doctor Monday afternoon and she told me I was dilated to 4cm and 80% effaced. I had already been dilated to 3cm for a few weeks, so we were figuring it would happen soon. I was a little nervous because I knew if my water broke it would happen fast and I just wanted to get my other kids taken care of and make it to the hospital in time!

Well, I woke up at 3:00am with contractions. I laid there and timed them for awhile. They were only coming every 10 minutes, but they were pretty strong (felt different than any I'd been recently having). I decided to get up and get things ready to go just in case. Sure enough they started coming faster, so at 4:00, I woke Josh up and told him it was time. He called his sister Melissa, who luckily lives just 10 or so minutes away in Springville. She headed over to stay with the boys and we went up to Provo to the hospital. We checked in at about 5:00 and contractions were every 3 minutes at that point. They got us all settled in our room and called the doctor. She came right away. Despite having a "bulging sack", my water didn't end up breaking until it was time to push. So I had a nice relaxed labor. It was so nice. The contractions slowed down and Josh and I just hung out in the room while I labored. The contractions were so calm that I was really surprised when I was up walking, texting my sister one minute, then sat down on the bed, had another contraction, and felt the baby coming. I had Josh get the nurse, told her the baby was coming and she called Dr. Clark. She came running and as soon as they got in there I started pushing. I seriously pushed for less than a minute and he was here! It was definitely my most easy labor. I loved how everything went. Such a blessing!

I'm so thankful to Melissa and my sister Cammie who were able to watch our other boys while Quinn was born. I was probably more nervous about that than anything. My mom & dad and sisters (and kids) came to visit at the hospital. It was good to see all of them for a bit. It just all turned out so well. I'll post a few pictures of him here. I have a whole lot more on my Facebook page.