Life with five

Don't you love his chub?!  Just days old and he's so chubby and lovey!  Here are a few random pics the first couple of weeks of life with five kids.

Clark's first bath.  Amelia was watching from the sidelines, dying to get in with him and help out.  I should have done this in the sink so she could help more.  She's since helped out and each morning asks if Clark needs a bath.

Enjoying the last days of Fall in the backyard.  This is their "club fort", pretty amazing!

Everyone loves to hold Clark!  After scriptures and prayers, I tuck the kids in and they each want Clark to lay with them and snuggle for a minute or two.  Who doesn't love a newborn snuggle?

Amelia loves to sit and read Clark a book in the morning after the boys get on the bus.  It's pretty cute, she does a nice job of retelling the books she loves most.

One of my favorite parts of motherhood is seeing my children love each other.  Clark often has as sibling or two keeping him company on his play mat.  It's fun to hear the big kids talk in sweet voices and get so excited when he smiles and coos at them.

In early September, I was on the phone with Camie and told T&R that after I got off I would put Amelia down for a nap and then we could make cookies.  They quickly ran out of the room and returned a few minutes later with big smiles saying they had put her down and were ready to start baking.  I laughed and went upstairs only to find Amelia tucked in her bed.  I asked if she wanted me to read her a book, nope, Reid had done it!  Tanner had tucked her in! They were so proud of themselves and so cute!  Since then, Amelia will choose who she wants to put her down for a nap.  I think it's adorable!  Here they are holding hands and heading upstairs for Tanner to lay Amelia down for a nap.  Love these kids!

This was the end of October and the day was so perfect and nice we spent the whole afternoon playing in the backyard.  Just my kind of day.

Here's Andrew and Tanner's new trick.  They feel so big and so cool doing this.

More pics and life to come.

Sisters

It would be terribly remiss of me not to recognize my sisters' help with the birth of our little Clark!  Our sweet mother is usually the travelling nana, happy to come and help with new babies.  She's always come to help me, but with Clark's arrival, she had just finished her chemo and was/is still recovering from the chemo and a very difficult case of shingles.  Our family has fasted and prayed for her for months, she is doing better, but was in no shape to come take care of my family.  Thankfully, Rachael and April were both willing and able to come!

I failed to take a full body shot at the end of this pregnancy, but this is my belly two nights before giving birth to a 10 lb. baby!  I was huge and officially miserable!

The day before my due date, Rachael called and said she was coming and she'd be there in just four days!  I felt so relieved!  I had been stewing about who would take the kids depending on when this baby arrived.  So many people were willing to help, but there's something reassuring about a sister who knows and loves your kids, sleeping in your basement ready to take over at a moment's notice. Rach was awesome!  She didn't wait for me to have a baby to take over, she just did it when she arrived.  I picked her up from the airport late Monday night.  Tuesday morning I woke at 6:30 a.m. to find her dressed and ready for the day and folding laundry in my front room!  She made a menu, grocery shopped, and started cooking, she played with kids, helped me get to projects I'd wanted to do, but didn't have the energy for, she was awesome!  She arranged for her four kids to be taken care of while she came to take care of our family.  We loved having her!

Making pumpkin bread with my cuties!

Rach spent the night with me in the hospital, and it was especially fun to have her because I did the same with her when she had Hailey.  Mom was sick and so I flew out to help Rachael when her third sweet baby arrived.  I didn't have kids at the time, so I was the super fun aunt, but not sure if I was as helpful to Rachael as she was to me.  Once you have a baby, you have a better idea of what's helpful.

While I was at Rachael's house helping I remember walking into her bathroom and being so confused when I found a spatula, stapler, and other random objects strewn about.  I wondered why in the world she had these things in her bathroom!  Years later, and a few children later, I totally got it!  Often, when I find something placed by a child in a completely random place, I have to smile and think of how naive I was.

Rachael left the next Monday and we were sad to see her go.  Mike was home that next week and then sweet April arrived Thursday!  We love this girl!  I think my boys were slightly disappointed it was just April without her kids, but they realized she's still fun without her kiddies.  She pushed them on the swing, played games, and made yummy food.  April is a saint!  She was my lifesaver during Amelia's pregnancy and was so helpful to our family while Mike was in grad school.  I was so grateful she was willing to come out and help once again.  Mike was especially grateful, as he had a ticket to the BYU vs. Notre Dame game, but only felt he could go if someone was here with me.  April was great!  She took great care of us and did my big Sam's Club shopping and got me all stocked up before she left.

I loved having my sisters here to help!  I feel like I learn so much when I'm with these ladies and I feel encouraged and uplifted because of them.  I have to add that my sister Sarah was taking care of my mom while April and Rachael were here helping us.  I feel so grateful for a loving and supportive family.  These are great women!

More Clark

I feel like by now I usually have pictures posted of the first week with a new baby.  I suppose the addition of a fifth is keeping me busy!  Clark is such a sweetheart!  He's doing a great job eating, sleeping, and being a content little guy.  He knows his roll well as a fifth child and goes with the flow.  He's adored by his siblings, is smothered by their affection, and he takes it all in stride.  Amelia is especially enamored with Clark.  She is so sweet with him and will do anything for him.  If he's crying, she'll find his pacifier and give it to him while saying in the sweetest voice, "it's OK, you're OK baby Clark."  I love it!  

My dear friend, Kasey, came over and took these pictures when Clark was only five days old.  I love seeing all his rolls and chub!  More pics to come of family life with five kids, but for now, here's our sweet Clark!

New Arrival!

Welcome to our newest addition, Clark Gerread (pronounced 'Jared' after Elizabeth's grandfather) Christensen--10 lbs., 21.5 inches!

After a long day that started at home around 3:45am, Clark finally arrived at 5:50pm, 8 days past due. Well worth the wait!  He is a healthy, strong, and BIG newborn boy and seems to be adjusting well to his new surroundings.






As always, Elizabeth was pretty incredible. When we arrived at the hospital at 6:50am, everybody (doctors, nurses, us) was preparing for a quick delivery.  Not so!  The combination of a 10 lb. baby and the fact that he decided to come posterior (face up), made it a long and tiring day.  In the end, what more could we want than this beautiful new addition to our family! What a blessing!

Check out some of the pictures below.

 Here's the whole crew on Saturday night, a couple of hours after delivery.

 Reid was excited to come in and to be the first sibling to hold his new baby brother.

 Nobody is more excited than Amelia to have a baby in the family.  She has talked about 'baby brother' for a long time now. 

 Here is proud big brother Andrew with his new little brother.

 Tanner was a little less comfortable holding our new addition, but excited to have him nonetheless!

It's always a special day to welcome a new addition to the family.  We are excited to finally have Clark here!

An Ideal Day

If I'm going to go over my due date, this was the perfect way to spend a day.  I've been wanting to document Home Depot day because it's one of our favorite family outings.  The first Saturday of every month, you can usually find our family at Home Depot and we love it!  The kids get to make their projects and feel such a sense of accomplishment.  People are always amazed that we walk in with four kids, we usually get lots of comments, especially with my pregnant belly.  

 Tanner has really gotten independent in making his project.  He was so focused on hammering, too bad my camera wasn't focused on getting the picture.

 After Home Depot we headed to a charming pumpkin patch!  It's exactly what I think a pumpkin patch should be.  It's locally owned, non commercialized, had a little corn maze, and the pumpkins were the right price.  The kids had a great time looking though the patch for the perfect pumpkins!

 We got home and warmed up with hot chocolate and macaroni and cheese for lunch, then cozied up on the couch to watch the semi-annual General Conference for our church.  It was such a nice afternoon!  The kids were surprisingly attentive, the talks were excellent, so uplifting, and enjoyed having Mike home all day!

Mike took all the kids to a neighbor's birthday party where they rode horses and played at a ranch while I talked with my mom, made granola and picked up the house (which involved too much bending over, the only bad part of the day).

The day seemed perfect, cozy, and delightful!  I'll go over my due date if I can have more days like this!