Olivia's Baptism!

Olivia was baptized on Saturday! Such a crazy, whirlwind of a day. But it was beautiful. Aaron and I started the day in the temple. It was really special, and I think we might make it a tradition for the rest of our kids baptism days.

For my not Mormon family and friends, mormons get baptized at age 8. We don't believe in original sin, so we don't see a reason to baptize babies. So the "age of accountability" was decided to be 8. I think it's interesting that it's the same age you receive your first Holy Communion in Catholicism. 

So Aaron performed the baptism and confirmation. Olivia kept saying she couldn't believe she was really baptized now. We went up to Mesa for it so that Great Grandpa could be there. Afterwards we had cake. Olivia drew a picture of the cake she wanted literally 6 months ago. She's changed it a bit since then, but mostly this is exactly what she wanted. And I was ridiculously proud of it. It was a vanilla lemon cake with honey vanilla whipped cream and strawberries between the layers. SO good. I actually made two of them because we love a lot of people! And then for our immediate family I made a pasta bar. I made 3 different sauces and 3 different pastas, chicken, sausage, bread sticks, and salad. It was all so delicious. And if you want to feel like super woman, do all this while 8 months pregnant and taking care of a newborn. Not to brag, but I totally am. I just felt impressed with myself. Though it's honestly more of a reflection of the amazing people I have helping me. Obviously I couldn't do any of that alone. So grateful for my husband and his family and all their help. 

^That's a lot of babies! 6ish more weeks until there's another one!

Busy seems to be good for me

At least for now. Maybe I'll crack eventually, but right now it's been really good.

Before Saely was with us my days looked something like: Get kids to school. Exercise with a friend 3x a week. If exercise happened, pretty much nothing else did that day. Like literally, lay on the couch and read Harry Potter while the kids watch TV. Usually I'd cook dinner. And get little people to bed. But I feel like I was doing the bare minimum. And I wasn't feeling all that great about myself. But I had great excuses. Like, hello super pregnant, and taking care of kids, that's enough!

Since Saely has been placed with us a typical day so far has been:

Wake up every 2-3 hours all night and feed, diaper, burp, baby.
Do laundry like all day every day.
Appointment for Saely for a visit with mom.
Doctor's appointment for Saely
WIC appointment for Saely
OB-GYN appointment for me
Coordinate babysitter for all this stuff
Make my bed every day because it gives me some sense of order, which apparently I did not need until now.
Try harder to make individual time each day for each of the kids, because this transition might be hard on them.
Cook dinner.
Read scriptures and pray together, because we need that peace.
Meanwhile, continue to care for newborn around the clock all day.

It's been so hectic. And I love it. Though I almost lost it when I took Eliza with me to pick up Saely today from her visit, and she cried the entire time. Eliza! Just screaming and crying over the most ridiculous things. It took almost an hour to get Saely and come home, and Eliza was crying or yelling for 90% of it. Then when we got home I was so tired and just wanted a nap, when I remembered Saely had to go for her newborn screening follow up today. And I had to drop off a rent check. This was dawning on me as Eliza was crying for who knows what and it was the first time since Saturday that I felt like I was going to just snap. Fortunately, Aaron was home and he told me he'd take Saely to her appointment and drop off the check. Eliza took a good nap, and once again all is right in the world.

I want to document as much of this as possible, so the ol' blog may be updated as much as it was in its glory days of '09. We'll see!