It's a beautiful life

Well we sure are liking this little Edison boy. Charlotte still calls him "Edison David" all the time.

 I love this. Isn't this what little girls are supposed to do?

So fuzzy. I had to get a picture of his fuzz.

I can't believe a month has already gone by. Here are his one month pictures, taken on April 13th:

 

Somebody sneaked into the photo shoot...

On Saturday, the 14th, we had the opportunity of attending a dear friend's baptism in Salt Lake. 

It was a nice excuse to dress up our little man, which is even more fun than I imagined after having three little girls!

(Isn't his tie adorable?) 

First Sunday back to church with four little ones. I ended up leaving after the first hour in tears because it had been a really tough morning getting everyone ready on my own. I was supposed to conduct Relief Society but I was late, so I didn't. And I had fliers I had left at home and had to drive back for and when they were handed out, I realized that I had chosen the wrong date for the activity! Then someone lifted Eloise by her hands and popped out her wrist and gave her nurse's elbow. 

True story.

But the good news is, it can't get worse! 

We'll get into the swing of things soon enough.

And a dear sister ended up skipping sacrament meeting to come and visit with me and my sweet baby and it turned out to be an uplifting afternoon. The Lord is aware of us mothers indeed.

Here was Edison on his first day back to church. Later that afternoon we went to Kevin and Vicki's for dinner.

And Grandma Phipps let Hazel paint her very old dog Chrissy's fingernails.

So fancy.

Little monster. We love this outfit.

Gertie and Ollie. We started letting them outside for a bit to peck around in the grass. So tiny still.

These wee ones are so cute sometimes. On this day, I got them all dressed nice for Joy School (minus Ellie) and it was cancelled, so we went to the Treehouse together. Good day.

Bath time in the real bath tub! The girls have been great helpers with Edison's bath time. He has such different "anatomy" which is interesting and he's just so cute naked.

A pink towel.

On the 19th, we went out to dinner to celebrate Vicki's birthday. These were the only two pictures I took apparently. One of Edison's cute shirt...

And the other of the girls being silly in the car.

Took my husband on a hot date on Friday.

And the next Sunday was much better. Thank goodness. We even managed to get some cute family photos afterwards. 

(I hate to waste all that effort in the morning and not get a picture of how cute we are.)

Little blurry, but maybe that's a good thing.

Easter 2012

April 3rd-April 8th

David's little brother came into town from Florida and we were blessing baby Edison, so all of the Phipps came together to celebrate!

 

We played crochet a lot and David seriously wins every time. Kinda makes me proud and crazy at the same time. He even played with Edison in the wrap!

Sometimes Kevin and Vicki let the kids take a bath in their huge bathtub and they turn on the jets which make HUGE bubbles!

 

On Friday, the 6th, Edison smiled at me for the first time. I picked him up after a nap, he looked up at me, and smiled. I'm sold.

Kevin made an awesome seafood stew that had fresh calamari in it, which he tried to get the boys to help prepare...

That same day we took the older kids out shooting.

My handsome mountain man.

The next day we all went to the fish hatchery in North Ogden and caught some fish for lunch! This is one of the coolest things we ever done during a Phipps reunion. The kids loved being able to catch multiple fish so easily.

This is Eloise's fish face.

Hazel proudly holding her first catch of the day.

Then Lottie caught one.

This was one of the first times I had all four children out in public with me and David disappeared for a little while. Luckily for me, Amber helped me watch Ellie so that she didn't join the fish in the pond! When I finally spotted David, he was in front of one of the far ponds, pulling at his fishing pole until he caught the big one he's holding in this picture.

The Phipps' men.

The whole clan together. I love these reunions!

The wee ones. I love that Charlotte is holding two graham crackers.

 

 On Saturday, Vicki held her annual indoor Easter egg hunt. Every year, one of the littler cousins gets his/her feelings hurt because the big kids always find the egg with the next clue. Since we don't have any older kids, it's usually one of our girls that's getting her feelings hurt! This year it was Charlotte, so David got involved and helped her find one of the eggs. Hazel was a champ about it all (she was the whiner the year before).

 And in the end, they all got humongous chocolate bunny suckers! Holy sugar!

After the indoor hunt, we headed outside for the big outdoor hunt! I love that we do both. We really try to give these kids the opportunity to eat more sugar in one day than they do the rest of the year. 

 Since Ellie was just a baby this time last year, all of this was new to her. She loved that each egg had so many goodies for her, so she grabbed one and planted herself on a rock and ate every mini chocolate egg inside.

 Intense egg hunting going on here inside of the playhouse.

 This is her look of contentment.

 Hazel in motion, checking out her goodies while she runs.

I caught Tyson catching up on his sleep during the hunt. If you look closely, you can see that he's holding one of those chocolate bunny suckers.

Now if that is not an excited and happy face, I don't know what is!

 All the cousins checking out their loot.

On Sunday (Easter) morning we woke up and had a small scripture study together as a family. We talked about the resurrection and smiled at each other as Hazel answered our questions, seeming to understand perfectly what that lovely morning represented. She is growing up so fast.

We presented the girls with our special Easter surprise, three more little chicks to add to our family, since we just recently lost Diego, leaving us with just one lone chicken, Rapunzel.

Now each one of our kids has a chicken. We have Rapunzel, Gossie, Gertie, and Ollie.

Happy Easter. How grateful we are to know of this amazing part of our Savior's Atonement.

Edison's Blessing

Edison David was blessed on Sunday, April 8th, 2012.

It was really a beautiful Easter morning. What a special opportunity it was for us to bless our baby boy on Easter morning, a holiday that symbolizes hope, renewal, and promise.

We're so grateful to have this little boy in our lives.

David and I were asked to bear our testimonies shortly after the blessing.
It was neat to have the entire family together for that.

Sweet little boy in his cute white suit!

It's amazing to me how much work it takes in the morning to get everyone in their dress with the right shoes and hair clips and keep them clean and get myself ready, etc., etc. And then somehow it all works out. I remember how I sewed Charlotte's blessing dress a few weeks before her blessing and finished her little matching booties the night before. I could never pull that off now!

Literally one year ago, we lined all the cousins up on this same couch for a photo at Eloise's blessing...

March 27th, 2011
(This makes it remarkably clear just how close our last two children are...)

So grateful for such a great family.

My mom, Jay and Bradley with our little family of six!

The brothers.

  The Phipps men.

What a blessing to have little Edison in our family. Here are the highlights of his blessing that I hope to always remember:

 Here's David taking the girls for a walk in Gram's wheelbarrow. 

I love that he has Hazel's pink blanket around his neck.

 

And during this trip, Vicki was throwing away a broken glass jar (a bug jar) and it sliced her hand open. Kevin rushed her to the hospital and she got quite a few stitches. Poor Gram. Luckily, all will be well after a few uncomfortable weeks with a wrapped hand.