Brynja Leigh and the Contest Winner

Hidee ho.  I had a baby!

Most of you already know that thanks to the wonders of Facebook, but I did post a little contest on my blog a while ago and some of you might be wondering who the winner of that contest is! 

This was a tough decision for me.  I sat in my bed in the hospital making a chart of all the guesses, and figuring out who got what right.  I was hoping that some soul would have guessed two of the three right, but sadly, no.  Anyone who got any correct only got one.  There were many guesses for girl, and INDEED, we got ourselves a girl!  The most angelic little girl I've met.  She's so sweet and mellow and I can't kiss her enough.

So, good job to all those who guessed girl, namely Polly, Maria, Jenn, Holly, Emily, Ginny, Jen, Kristin, and Marci!

Then we have the date... March 20th was it.  She was born on the first day of Spring, which really fits somehow.  Why didn't I think of that before?

We had one correct guess for the date and that was by my friend Beth.  Good job, Beth!  :) 

And then the weight... my biggest baby yet!  She weighed in at 8lbs 3oz.  I could tell the moment they set her on me that she was bigger than my other kids.  She just looked fuller in her skin.  Ella came later... 11 days overdue, but she only weighed 7.13, Mac was 7.6 and Rohan was 7.3. 

We also had just one correct guess on the weight and that was Miss Stevie Kay!  Good job, Stevie!

But, alas, there was no one, not ONE person who guessed more than one correct "stat".  I was in a quandry!  I didn't know what to do.  Dustin and I hashed over a few ideas and then I kind of forgot about the whole thing for a while. 

And then the winner came to me.  My exact words in the contest rules were: "The person whose answers come closest to the actual stats will win some homemade treats from me. "  And guess what?  Marci came the closest!  She had one correct guess, GIRL.  And then, her other picks were March 19, just one day off, and 8 lbs., 4 oz., just one ounce off!  So, she was the closest to the actual stats! 

Congratulations Marci!  You are the winner of some homemade treats!  I will get them to you some time in the next couple weeks.  :) 

Thanks to everyone for playing!  It made that last little bit of overdue-ness more bearable to have more than just me guessing at when the baby would ever come.

And for your viewing enjoyment...

Miss Brynja Leigh
born March 20, 2010 at 7:14pm, weighing 8 lbs., 3 oz., 20 1/2" long.
(and her head and chest were both 14 1/4")

 Mom and Brynja 

(by the way, her name is pronounce BRIN-ya... Scandinavian J...)

Dad and Brynja

I want to write more about the labor, etc., but I will have to do that another day.  My kids have been so sweet with their new little sister.  They can't get enough of her!  These pics are of her first day home from the hospital.  She was not quite 48 hours old. 

We are so blessed.

Rant

I love my sister.  Dearly.  She is wonderful, creative, thoughtful and fun.  She has a knack for making things beautiful.  She also has a weakness for Webkinz.

For any of you who might not know what a "Webkinz" is... a Webkinz is simply a stuffed animal.  Upon purchasing said animal you open a little thing attached to their ear, neck, leg, waist... (I don't really know what part it's attached to because, unlike my sister, I avoid Webkinz at all costs)... that has a code on it.  This code gets you into a "virtual world" for your new pet.  My sister's darling children have owned a Webkinz, or perhaps several Webkinz pets for a few years now.  My sister thinks it's great fun and loves to help her children take care of their "pet" in the "virtual world". 

For several years (probably since she bought her first "pets") my sister has told me that I should get these for my kids and I've resisted in every manner possible.  I have even told her that I don't need any other reason for my children to want to get onto some think-for-you, creativity-sapping electronic device (in this case, the computer) and exisit, even for a little bit, in some non-physical plane that is NOT reality (ie., the Webkinz world).  They get enough of that with our Wii that I don't let them play very often.

So, mid-December, my sister called me several times while I was in a movie theater.  I had my phone on vibrate, so I didn't hear the calls and my phone was in my purse so I didn't see the calls either.  When I got out of the theater, I noticed her missed calls and called her back.  She told me that she had been in a store and they had Webkinz for only $5 and she was wondering if she could get one for a gift for each my children.  She remembered that I didn't really want them for my kids, hence the calling, but since she couldn't get a hold of me, she made an executive decision and bought them anyway.  I'm not gonna lie, this announcement made my blood boil a little bit.  I suppose I could've told her she needed to take them back to the store, but that's not my style.  It's a gift, after all, and she loves them but doesn't understand why I don't want them in my life.  So, I conceded.  The gifts were given this last weekend. 

My children flipped out.  They were so excited.  I was not.

Their cousins helped them log on and set up their world.  They played on it some while they were at my mom's house over the weekend.  Whatever. 

This year I have suffered a severe post-Christmas crash.  I pushed myself beyond my limits for several weeks, trying to do too much and not getting enough sleep in the process, not to mention the fact that I'm growing another human being in my body, which tends to sap energy.  I have felt groggy every morning (including Christmas morning) and felt as though I could sleep until noon each day.  (I haven't, but waking daily has been a serious challenge) 

With that preface: Ella, upon waking this morning, came and climbed in my bed.  This is normally a sweet thing.  I love to converse with her in the mornings.  But I was downright grumpy today as she tried to talk to me.  And one of the first thing out of her mouth was something about how she needed to get online and feed "Marci" (her Webkinz) or Marci would die.  Seriously?  Your stuffed animal's electronic persona will die?  I had no tolerance for it.  I told her she better wait until I was a little more awake (like in a non-horizontal position) to talk to me about that. 


Grrrr....

I guess this is where I get to assert my position as "Mother" and just tell them too bad.  Your little pet will have to live on whatever they get with a "once every couple weeks" visit online. 

And, just for the record, I'm not mad at my sister.  She made her choice to give them to my kids and I made my choice to NOT tell her to take them back.  I now get to choose to be a "mean mom" who let's virtual pets go skeletal with malnutrition and neglect. 

I just feel better for the telling of the story, so thanks for listening, Blog. 

Night of the Living Siblings

I guess I'm in the Halloween Spirit! Here's another little treat for you.... or maybe I should say trick? Anyway... remember this picture of me and my siblings? Well, my mom made a nice video of the three of us...

Check it out here. Mwwwwaaaaahhaaaahaaaahaaaaaaa!!!

6th

I'm it. Got tagged by the adorable MERRIANNE! I don't know if it's because it's October 6th, but this tag says go to your picture folder on your computer, go to the 6th folder, and then find the 6th picture and post it on your blog! This is a little scary and I'm a little bit tempted to cheat, but I won't. Here goes....





Wow. That pretty much sucks. This was a picture that my mom took when we drove to Arizona in June. Dustin asked us to take pictures of the terrain on the way down as he's never been to Arizona. This was somewhere past Flagstaff. Thrilling, is it not?


Lucky for all of you, I happen to have two"My Pictures" files... one from pre-computer-hard-drive-dump and from one post-computer-hard-drive-dump. The above pic happens to be post-drive-dump. (I was going to say post-dump, but that just sounds bad!) Anyway, I thought I'd see what I came up with in the other "My Pictures" file.... and *yikes* here it is!





I shouldn't told you I have two "My Pictures" folders, huh. Should have stuck with the boring window shot. This is a pic that my older brother, Zandy, took of Lacy, Taylor and I Christmas 2004. He emailed it to us after and titled it "Scary Siblings". Someday, if you ask nicely, I might show you what I did with this picture in Photoshop. *shudder*


SO....
that was a fun easy tag. Thanks, Merrianne! I am guessing I need to tag six people? That's what I'll do. I tag Kristin, Micci, Jen, Britta, Leah, and Beth at the Burn Unit! And Kaci... even though that's seven. Ready, set, GO!

More on My Siblings

So, I was looking at that picture at the bottom of my last jar post. You know, the one of me and my siblings? I decided it doesn't do these beautiful people justice. I came to the conclusion that I needed to devote another post entirely to their cute faces. What cuter picture than senior portraits! None of these are recent, but they are very nice pictures! So enjoy taking a closer look at my gorgeous siblings! :)

Sarah... pretty, isn't she? No wonder I wanted to be her!

Zandy back in his long hair days. I told you he used to be blond. Isn't he RICO! (suave')

Apparently I was still Lacy's personal assistant. I picked her outfit for these pics and that was my sweater she's wearing! :) (don't ask me why she has a grouping of four. We all had a total of 8 pictures, but my mom scanned all these in and she, apparently made Lacy a little collage!)

Dang, he's a cute little snot! I just love that kid! (ok, he's almost 24, but he's still a kid to me!) You should see the rest of his 8 pictures. He looks like a model.

And, while we're looking at senior pics, here's mine too... just so you don't feel like I'm trying to exclude myself from this blast from the past...

From The Jar... #7

Wednesday again? I love that I know that I'll have something particular to blog about on Wednesdays. It's a nice feeling. And the jar says....

How many siblings do you have? Describe them. Tell a story about you and each of them.

This is much funner for me than last week's jar pull. Lengthy post, as a forewarning...

There are five children in my family. I am third of the five. Sarah, Zandy, Clancy, Lacy, Taylor.

Sarah (or Sassy, as we like to call her) is a fun gal. She is a little shorter than me with blondish hair and greenish-blue eyes. For work, she plans events (parties etc..) for the staff of a neuro-psyc hospital. She's very good at what she does. She's creative and smart. She's dependable and efficient. She likes to read. She is slightly OCD- particularly when it comes to loading her dishwasher. She almost always re-loads what I load when I'm at her house. I've just learned not to do her dishes unless I wash them by hand! :) She is very classy. I think she gets that from my grandma- they have similar tastes. She always likes to present things in a beautiful way. If she brings a dish to a party, it's always arranged in an eye-pleasing way and it is to die for delicious. She is a masterful salad maker. Her house is decorated very tastefully. Classy. She's always dressed well... again, classy. She is good mother, wife and sister who is very giving of herself and her time.

A story about she and I...
Like I said above, she was always a good dresser. She has great taste in clothes and I would always steal them when I was in Jr. High and she was in High school. (she's four years older than me) She left before me and I got home before her, so I would steal clothes after she left and take them off before she got home. I'm sure you're surprised to hear that she didn't like that much. I would risk the wrath of Sarah to look as good as she! We had one year of high school together. That was a rough year for my career as a thief. I would watch for her in the halls as one would watch for a cop on the roads when they are speeding. If I saw her, I would dart away as quick as I could. It was a bad day when I got caught. Needless to say, we weren't best friends in those years, but we are really good friends now. I love to hang out with her and I'm grateful she's my sister!

Zandy (Alexander is his real name), who is two years older than me, is the analytical type. He's incredibly smart and talented in every way. I call him the Midas touch boy... at everything he tries, he does exceptionally well. He's always been a brainiac. He took AP calculus his junior year of high school. He's a computer geek of the coolest degree. (I believe his title at work is "Internet Security Architect") He plays the guitar with supreme skill. He works hard and he is very loyal. He is also the nicest pain in the butt you will ever meet. He's the kind of guy that thinks he is ALWAYS right, yet he's mostly really nice about letting you know that he is right. He's handsome, about 5'10" or 5'11", super green eyes, blondish hair (at least it used to be). He's an awesome athlete... always played soccer really well, mountain bikes like a madman, rock climber... he's just plain ol' talented!

The memory of he and I that jumps out at me is sitting in his room listening to him play the guitar. He started playing when he was 12, if memory serves. When he was probably about 14 I would slip into his room all the time, sit quietly and watch him play. Sometimes I would sing with him while he played. He would practice about three hours every day for years. I loved to watch that. I felt like I was bonding with him. Whether he felt the same, I don't know, but it always meant a lot to me.

Lacy is the artistic one. She is three years younger than me. She's got amazing hazel eyes and honey colored hair. She's also just a touch shorter than me... probably about 5'5". She was often seen to others as quiet and maybe a little shy, perhaps because she was always doing her own thing as a kid. That was what a lot of people thought, but at heart she is a barrel 'o fun and a little wacky! (at least when she is around her siblings, particularly me and Taylor!) She is also extremely talented. She is a great singer with perfect pitch, or very close to it. She plays the piano and is an amazing artist. I watch her whip out drawings in minutes that I couldn't draw if I had weeks or even months. She is a devoted sister, mother and wife who would do anything for the people she loves. She's a gem.

A memory of Lacy and I would have to be when we were quite young, and I was her clothing matcher. Lacy, being artistic and a little bit of an introvert, (and being her father's daughter!) had a tendency to come up with some wacky clothing combinations. While my mom let her wear whatever she came up with a lot of the time, if we had somewhere special we were going mom would say to me, "Will you please go make sure Lacy matches?" I also got put in charge of doing her hair. Lacy had the most sensitive scalp on the planet, and she liked me to brush her hair better than my mom. So, I often was Lacy's personal assistant. It was a pleasure most of the time.

She and I would walk to school together too. She was probably in first grade and me in about 4th. We would often leave late (I know it's shocking that I left late as a child!) and Lacy just didn't care. It was hard to light a fire under her. I would make up games to help her hurry. I told her that the principal was the king and the secretary was the queen and they would chop off our heads if we were late for school. So we would run and talk about how the evil king and queen would punish us and how we've just got to get there on time! We would also play a game where I would yank her forward by the arm and then she would yank me forward. We'd do it as fast as we can to hopefully get there on time. She is a sweetheart and I loved to take care of her.

Taylor is one of the most dynamic people I know. He is six years younger than me. He's smart, handsome and SERIOUSLY funny. I laugh more around Taylor than any person on the planet. He is just plain hilarious. He is too charismatic for his own good. People love him and he knows it. He has vast potential. He doesn't always maximize on that. He spends a little too much time on video games, in my opinion, at which he has almost savant tendencies. Yes, folks, he is a gaming genius. I've watched him play video games with countless people who get so mad at him (myself included) because he wins every stinkin' time with what seems like effortless ease. He's also an incredible singer. He was named the Most Valuable Singer in his elite high school choir. He sang a song at my grandma's funeral... it's been over two years now, and people are still talking about how they had to pick their jaw up off the floor and rub their arms to make the goosebumps go away when he was done. He is truly talented.

Taylor and I have had some good times. They mostly involve Lacy too. We were kindof the three musketeers when we moved to Idaho when I was a senior. None of us had a lot of friends because we were new, so we spent a lot of time together. We take the word 'silly' to a level that most people couldn't dream of. It might be described as crazy. Taylor has always been the sound-effects king. He can do so many funny things. When he gets going I can't stop laughing. Then he laughs at my laughing and it makes me laugh more. It's a vicious circle.

Another fond memory is road trippin' with Lacy and Taylor. My senior year we started school in Idaho but my parents still hadn't sold their house in Utah. They bought me a car so that I could go up during the week to Idaho and come home to Utah during the weekend with Tay and Lace. Every time we got in the car to make that drive Taylor would be asleep within 5 minutes. Literally. And he would not wake up until we got to our destination. It didn't matter what time of day it was or what position he was in, he did it every time.

This is a picture of all of us, with the addition of Zandy's wife, Nicky. From left to right, Lacy, Taylor, Nicky, Zandy, Clancy, Sarah.

There you go! A little knowledge gained about me and my siblings. So, let's hear about yours!