My beautiful babies.

Dang. I may be biased about the utter beauty of these children but... I don't think so.

Oh my gosh. Look at that sweet face and the Mater teeth! Looooove.

Megan was extremely fun to watch because she is such a poser! The camera guy would tell her to put her hands and feet a certain way and if she forgot she immediately put them back in position.  There was no difficulty in getting her to smile and flirt with the camera.  My boys were also really good at smiling and just doing what was asked.

My favorite.

This kid is just getting too too big. What a handsome boy he is turning out to be.

Precious.

It's a....

GIRL!!!!

We are so so excited and surprised to be welcoming another girl into our family. 

 Yay! A sister for the Megs!

I thought in the beginngin that we were going to have a boy but as my pregnancy progressed and my symptoms felt more similar to Megan's pregnancy, I began to doubt my original prediction. Another girl and now we are even. :)

Even better than that, she is a HEALTHY baby girl. We feel extremely blessed.

The kids are all excited as well.  When asked what he would choose, Kyle said a boy. However, when we told him he was getting a sister he said he was happy to be getting a sister and that it was fine that its not a boy.  Noah even come up with a name suggestion.  "Let's call our next baby 'Lilly'". Not bad!

We haven't decided on anything name wise yet but hope to soon. I am so bad at the name game. But girls are, at least, easier. Wish me luck!

I can't wait to meet this little angel.

Megan Quotables

Our sweet little baby girl is a talker. Here are a few of our favorites:

Ta-Da: Yelled any time she accomplishes something and wants recognition.

Pooh Butt: May seem a little disgusting, but it actually means "Push button" as in I want to push it.

Pees(please): As in I want that.

Awshome: "Awesome" and yes she says this often.

Ma Turn: And it always is Megan's turn.

A-Noah or A-Kyle or A-Tommy: This usually proceeds her telling on her brothers or dog. Megan is our little tattle tale. Her favorite victim is Tommy.

Coo-y: Or "cookie". This is extended to all snacks not just cookies.

Nook: Milk. This one is our favorite and will probably become a staple of the Shiflett language. We think she got this one from the way Erin used to say Milk in her baby voice.

Ky-Nook: Chocolate Milk. Now this was Megan's mind working to produce pure comedic genius.

Meeeee?: Megan says this all the time. I don't even know if I can explain in typing why this is so cute. It basically means "For me?" One time we were taking a balloon to Ava's house for a bday party. She asked if it was hers, I said no, its for Ava. Megan: "Meee?" Not its not for you. It's for Ava. "Meeee?"  Its Ava's birthday. We're going to give it to her. "Meeeeee?"  She wouldn't give it up. She makes us laugh.

We love our little girl and everything she says (which is a lot!).

Snow Day

Few weeks ago we actually got snow in the valley. This year that has been a rare occasion, so we decided to take advantage of the situation and ran the boys out with the sled. As you can see they had a great time. 


The first run Kyle jumped on the sled and started his run. Immediately he veered for a big jump in the middle of the hill. In the back of my head I heard Kyle crying already and the end of our sled riding. He went flying off the side of the jump the sled completely away from his body then landed on his back. "Here it comes..." I thought. He turned around and started laughing "That was awesome..." After that Noah wanted to go off the jump too (I declined).   


After a few runs we ran around making snow angels and pelting one another with snow balls. Snow days rock.


Mommy and Megan were at home (little too cold for Megsie).


{Post by Adam}

Sometimes being in second is better than first...

This pregnancy hasn't been too hard me so far (although Adam would probably beg to differ...). Yes, I was nauseous. Yes, I was tired but none of it was BAD. And I am very grateful for this.  I even started feeling better by 8 weeks. Yeah, LUCKY.  But still, I prefer the 2nd tri.
 No more nausea. Less tired (notice I only said "less" tired. :) I'm even working out 3-4 days a week. I have never done this before in a pregnancy!  (My cruise IS a huge motivator. :)
The 2nd tri is when you find out if your baby is of the pink or blue variety (I'm feeling the blue vibe.). I get to find out 2 weeks from today!!
You get the cute little baby bump. Although I can tell my tummy is rounder I still haven't, ya know, popped. Waaaiiiting...
Oh and one of my favorite things? A little something the books like to call "quickening".  I love to feel my little butterfly fluttering around inside me. (about 15 weeks this time) Looooove it. And its even more fun when Adam and the kids get to join in.
Yes, It has taken me a while to get in the groove with this pregnancy but I am loving it now just as I knew I would.

Joining the Craze...

The "Lent" craze, that is.  No, I have not converted to the Catholic religion

 but I DO like the idea of giving something up to prove ones strength or will power.

Well, recently Facebook has become a major vice for me. I'm pregnant. I'm tired. I'm lazy. Perfect scenario for a Facebook/iPhone addict. I'm on it all the time.  I am coming into my second trimester and I'm beginning to have a lot more energy. I figure now is a perfect time to get rid of the things that are slowing me down and harness some of that energy into productive activities....like cleaning out the refrigerator.

So wish me luck on this 44 day silence. I think I'll come out a better person for it.

#4

I can't believe I am announcing this but Adam and I are expecting our 4th child at the end of August.  Wow. I feel like I was just pregnant with #3 and really haven't felt quite ready to be pregnant with #4 as well!!  I have never been this nervous for one of my babies.  I'm not sure of the exact reason but it could be that I already have 3 kids or that I know how exhausted I get when I'm pregnant and I'm busier now than I have been with any of my prior pregnancies OR maybe I'm just a big baby.
It only took us one try and it only took a few days before I knew I was pregnant.  I took a pregnancy test about a week before my missed period where it revealed a very faint line indicating a positive result.  Of course I couldn't just leave it a that.  I took a few more tests over the course of a week until I got a nice bold positive. Adam was very excited to hear the news but I was still kind of in denial.  I think I still am a little.
I am in the middle of my 6th week and I'm constantly mildly nauseous and moderately tired.  This is better than the first with my three others but I'm also not naive.  It could all go full bore in the next day.  I hope not! I'm in better shape with this pregnancy than with any of my others so I'll pray that that will make a difference.
Numero quattro... here goes nothin'!

Update:
I wrote the above about 6 weeks ago and what a difference 6 weeks makes! I really was pretty anxious and admittedly not very excited for #4.  Things have changed however.  I had a pretty good 1st trimester, all things considered.  I felt kinda crappy up to about 8 weeks and then things got suddenly better. Like, literally overnight.  So while I haven't felt perfect the entire time, I think I can say that this 1st tri has been my best/easiest.  Also, I am feeling so much more excited about this little baby which I knew would happen sooner or later.  And sure enough, I've relished in the sound of this baby's beautiful beating heart and watching my stomach grow rounder.  Yaaaaaayyyyy. :)

December

<3... Going to see Christmas lights and hearing Noah exclaim "It's so beautiful!" Noah loves the word beautiful and I find that beautiful.

<3... Watching Music and the Spoken Word and Megan getting excited to see pictures of baby Jesus and recognizing him.  When I showed her a picture Santa she didn't know who he was.  Yes, Adam and I gave ourselves a few humble pats on the back.  We had accomplished  one of our goals for the Christmas season.

<3... The first thing Kyle said Christmas morning, "I will remember Jesus first even before all my presents." What a kid.

<3... Gingerbread houses with the kids and Megan eating all the candy off the floor.

<3...Santa accidentally left one of the boys gifts in his sleigh Christmas Eve so it turned up on our door step a couple days after Christmas. I totally wanted to put off getting a Wii but I guess Santa felt it was about time. Kyle was very pleased but Noah on the other hand was pretty indifferent. He just really isn't in to electronics.
Both the kids did say it was the best Christmas ever though. :)

<3...We had a new elf come and visit us this season. What a pest he was! One day he even hung the boys underwear on our chandelier. I promptly forgot about this so when my visiting teachers come by that day I didn't even notice it was all still there until about 20 minutes into our visit. They had a pretty good laugh. I had a pretty good cry. ;) So why is "Elvis" (Kyle chose the name. Get it? As in Elf?) under the things I love? Well because my boys delight comes even before my embarrassment, I guess...sometimes. Elvis did do some cute things too like paint the boys noses red while they were sleeping.

<3...Nerf gun wars.

<3...Noah's preschool Christmas concert. They sang at the assisted living place where Grandma Hind lives. She was able to come down and watch Noah sing which made it more special.

Noah and his friend, James.

<3...New baby!!

This was my in laws Christmas present and also how we announced the new baby.

The fourth frame says, 

Shiflett

Part IV

Coming to a frame near you

August 25, 2012

 <3...We also went to the Candlelight Christmas up at This Is The Place park. It was a really fun Christmas activity. Kyle was convinced that this Santa is the real one (vs. the Valley Fair Mall Santa) because his reinderr were there along with his sled.

Yay for Yosemite Part II

Today was our big day at Yosemite.  With the Schroeder's close behind we made tracks for Yosemite Valley.  This was to be our only day so the valley was the place to be.
I had been to Yosemite before but don't remember much. Adam hadn't been at all. SO we were very excited.
One of my favorite parts was to come through the tunnel and instantly see this amazing vista provided by the Yosemite Valley. (See picture above) Gorgeous. Just to the right of my head you can see Bridal Veil Falls. The big curved slab of rock behind Adam's head is Half Dome, (to be tackled another time when no kids are involved!) and El Capitan to the left.

Bridal Veil Falls

Hike back from Bridal Veil Falls
Easy "hike".

The kids all decided it would be cool to collect sticks- especially Noah. 

Taylor started feeling sick so they left Will with us and went to the medical center. We, on the other hand, went to Yosemite Falls. It was quite the walk to the trail head and then to the falls. 

My little hikers did great though.

Yosemite Falls!

We had to wait our turn to get our picture taken on this special log. It was pretty crowded. I wonder what its like at, say, the end of October.
Will ended up going back to the condo with his family because he was starting to feel sick as well.
Poor Schroeder's.

This was a really cool, SCARY hike.  

The first part of the hike was pretty chilled (except for the part where Noah didn't feel good and then relieved himself and THEN felt good. Poor baby. :/ )

The second half of the hike, the Mist Trail, up to Vernal Falls was super slippery with a cliff to our left down into a raging river. I kinda can't believe I did it with my kids but I didn't want to miss out! It was a spectacular sight for sure.  Only two weeks before we were there three people fell to their deaths off the Vernal Falls.  Knowing this somehow didn't help my nervousness...

After this last hike we were all tired and ready to head back to the condo.  We took the shuttle back to our car and saw a little more of the park we hadn't seen.
We had a really big and long day ahead of us.  9 hours of driving home that I had been dreading from the beginning of the trip.

Yay for Yosemite!

We left Monterey and embarked on another long drive to a very exciting destination.  In fact, it was this place that really motivated my super outdoorsy husband to go on this trip.

YOSEMITE!

Because of the drive (4 hours, I think) we only did a little exploring in Yosemite the first day.  

We parked near the Wawona Hotel {which is a historic land mark being built in 1879} and walked across a cool covered bridge to a cluster of old buildings that originated in the park. There were a few people dressed up and a blacksmith but mostly it was empty.  

 I love this picture for a few reasons. 

Cyd trying to drag Will to pose for the picture 

looking very composed and 

Kyle and Noah holding hands. 

Aww.

Adam and the boys discovered a path to the river underneath the bridge that had some really shallow spots so because they CANNOT resist a good swimming hole we cooled our heals, literally, and enjoyed a respit from the heat. Cyd and Eric went to check out the hotel.

Being tired from our long drive we decided to head back to our hotel for some eats and a nice swim. I loved those relaxing evenings.  They were a novelty. :)