February

February has been busy. I had these cute pictures of Sean taken at about 6 weeks old
Erin turned 9 on February 7th, so on the Friday before, she had her birthday party. It was a late night party where they watched The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. We provided snacks and treats, started the movie, braked for cake and presents, and then sent the girls home. It was fun, (It was easy!) and the girls loved it. I made this really cute birthday cake. On Sunday the 6th, (My sister's birthday), We had Sean's baby blessing. We had a lot of friends and family come. Thanks to all who could. My mom made his cute outfit. He also had the sweater and blanket that John was Christened in 37 years ago. His Grandma made them. That was really special to us.

Sean is such a sweet little baby and we love him a ton, but he has been very difficult. He had a hard time gaining weight! It took him 2 months to be back to his birth weight of 9lbs, 15oz. He went as low as 8 lbs 9oz at one point. It's not because we haven't tried either. I nursed him faithfully with very little supplementing at first. Then as he kept losing, and/or not gaining quickly enough, I supplemented more. The more I supplemented, the fussier he got. I tried everything I could to continue nursing him: Waking him continually, Pumping after, Pumping during, compressions to keep him sucking. Nothing worked. I didn't produce very filling milk in the first place, and on top of that, he was a lazy little nurser. We just got to a point where nursing was just more frustrating than rewarding, and then we called it quits. Now Sean has 8, 6oz bottles each day and has chunked up big time. He's now about 11 1/2 lbs. (according to my not very accurate scale). The biggest thing we've noticed about him though is that he's happy, and that makes us all very happy. After nursing 3 kids very successfully for until they were each 1 year old, I now have a formula fed baby. It's completely new territory for me, but in a way it's a little liberating. Thank heaven for formula.

I just had his 3 month old picture taken today. When I get them, I'll post them asap.

The Past couple of months

I've been a little busy, and this is the first I've been able to blog in a while. Let me give you a brief overview of the past couple of months. Here are a few pictures of Sean in the hospital.
My Mom & the boys.

John's Mom Came to stay with us for a few weeks around the time he was born, so we were well taken care of. It was nice to have someone there to do everything, so that I didn't have to worry about it.

John's brothers also came to visit shortly after he was born. We had a great time with them here. We had a nice Christmas dinner one night (thanks to my Mother-in-Law and John) and John took them up to temple square to see the lights.

My Mom and Dad and Brothers Roger and Richard came to see us too. My dad: This is Richard and Callie

Here is Roger, Tasha and Sean's cousin Alyssa who's 4 months old here.

Here's Sean at 1 week old.

John and the kids did all the decorating this Christmas. It was so nice! and it looked beautiful.

We had a very quiet Christmas here at home this year. We played out our own nativity scene with our very own real live baby "Jesus". It was fun to have a new baby at Christmas time this year, though tiring. He's a cutie.

Santa was really good to all of us this year. It was a fun day for everyone.

And before we knew it, Sean was 1 month old!

We had a great new years eve too. We played games and ate great food. Then at 10:00 we celebrated the new year with New York and sent the boys to bed. If we were smart we would have all gone to bed, but Erin really wanted to stay up til midnight. So we did.

Sean came home to a house full of eager siblings. They all love him and want to hug him and hold him, and feed him, and entertain him. They just can't get enough! Especially Colin! I think Sean has been so good for him. He now feels like he's one of the big kids. He's even finally decided to go in the potty and stop sucking his thumb! What a big boy. Erin is always wanting to help. She'll wash her hands just to hold him and she'll entertain him for half an hour sometimes! Devin is not quite as motivated, but if I give him the job of watching the baby while I do this or that, he is so happy, and has a great time. In fact, Devin is really good at getting Sean to smile.

This weekend Sean turned 2 months old. I can't believe it's gone so fast! When I go through this blog I can really see he's changed so much! The house may not be clean or the dishes done, but we're getting by. Sean and I are learning together to find out what makes his tummy happy, and we're having more and more good nights. Happy Baby makes Happy home.

Sean Brendin Doyle

He's here! Sean Brendin Doyle was born Monday, November 29th at 11:08 pm. He weighed 9 lbs., 15 oz., and was 20 1/2 inches long. Not a small baby by any means. It's a good thing he came early! Already we can tell he has such a sweet patient personality. The kids are so excited to have him here too. They love their little brother. These are some of the really cute pitcures taken while we were at the hospital. I'm wishing I could go back and retake my other kids' newborn mugshots! More photos to come soon!

Lake Powell

We had the opportunity again this year to go to Lake Powell with some great friends of ours. We stay on a house boat in the middle of nowhere out on the lake and swim, ski, boat, and relax to our heart's content. This year the big thing to do was the double tube! Sounds dangerous, but they all really had a great time! We also got to jump off the top of the boat this year! Pretty scary if you ask me.

John's skiing has majorly improved this year!

Erin enjoyed everything, Skiing, knee boarding, the slide, and the tubes.

Devin's favorite parts were swimming in the deep water, and riding the water wienie. He also tried the knee board again and enjoyed it, and went down the slide!

John took the kids on a couple of rides on the wave runners too.

Colin discovered that he loves the water. Every morning the first thing he would ask was "Can we go swimming!

He also loved jumping off the deck on the back of the boat. he did this over and over and over.

As for me. I couldn't do all the risky stuff, but I did swim a lot. It helped me cool down and keep the swelling down. I also went on a couple of SLOW water wienie rides.

We had a great vacation. Thank you to our friends for inviting us again.

Since we were down in southern Utah, we decided to drop by my brother's house is Las Vegas. He and his wife just had twins! They were only 1 week old and I can't believe that Ryan and Jocelyn let us stay with them, but it was so fun to see those cute babies! Evan was 6 lbs, 7 oz, and Jared was 6 lbs. 15 oz. Talk about big fir twins! But they were so tiny! It's hard to believe that people can get that tiny! My kids loved holding them! And I got to change a tiny diaper. I'm just getting geared up for things to come! Thanks for letting us stay guys!