New Things

New sister, new school year, new car...

After Greg's car failed its state safety and emissions testing, we decided it was time to part ways with the beast. We didn't want to pay the $1500 that was quoted to us as the price that would get it fixed up enough to pass. So we started searching for a new (used) car and finally found one on KSL. We took a test drive, were satisfied, and wrote a check. We donated Greg's car to the Kidney Foundation of Utah and watched it get towed away. It all happened so fast. But we are now the proud owners of a Hyundai Elantra.
Andrew and Nathan started their new school year on Monday. I'm not gonna lie. Having them in school has been good for everyone. I can continue to heal from surgery and have some down time a lot better with the number of children I'm responsible for cut in half. And since baby Elizabeth mostly sleeps all the time, I've been able to have some sweet one on one David time. Andrew is in 3rd grade and was lucky enough to be in the same class as his best friend, Brevin. Hope the teacher doesn't go crazy..She'll learn soon enough that maybe they might need to be separated because she had them right next to each other in desks on the first day.

Nathan is in first grade and was a little nervous as I left him that first morning. He's definitely not as social as his big brother and I hope this is a good year for him. I hope he can make friends and love going to school.


Goodbye old, dead, white car. Hi new car that runs!

Meet Elizabeth Elaine Wilding

Baby Stats: 6lbs 14 oz. 19 inches long. Dark brown hair
Greg and I woke up after a very short night and left the house around 4:45 early Sunday morning and got to the hospital by 5ish. I got checked in, gowned up, needle inserted and all prepped by 6am. Then we waited. I was supposed to have a 7:30 cut time, but was bumped back to about 9am after an emergency came in and pushed us back. I've always had a spinal done for all of my c-sections and was a little concerned when the anesthesiologist came in announcing they would be doing an epidural. I've heard too many stories of epidurals not working right, or only numbing half of your body. The difference between a spinal and an epidural is that the spinal is done just minutes before the surgery starts almost instantly paralyzing you. The epidural was done a couple hours before and took some time to get me completely numb. After that not fun experience we had a couple more hours to wait and my blood pressure would severely drop randomly bringing on terrible dizziness, crazy shaking, and nausea. I threw up a few times waiting in my bed to be wheeled to the OR. Anyway, the surgery began and Elizabeth was born at 9:24am.
Greg left with the nurses and Elizabeth leaving me to get all stitched back up listening to the doctors banter behind my screen. My anesthesiologist would peek around the screen and whisper to me what they were doing. Things like "they have your uterus out of your body lying on top of your stomach right now so they can sew it up...."
With my last C Section I had an allergic reaction to the morphine they gave me so this time they didn't give me any pain meds until the epidural wore completely off. Full on pain of the surgery isn't fun to experience and I was pretty miserable. I was finally given my pain pills and they didn't do anything to help. So they called my doc at home and he authorized a straight morphine injection into my hip. Which helped considerably. I didn't have any weird reaction this time and got the shot a few more times throughout the day. I didn't see Elizabeth much that first day because I was just too miserable. Monday was better, but I mostly slept as much as I could. By Tuesday morning I'd had enough of the hospital and was asking if I could go home. Surprisingly my doctor authorized my discharge and away we went. I was checked every 2 hours during the nights I was there and didn't get much sleep. I was much happier to come home and rest in my own bed.
So here we are at home with a 11 day old baby who is the sweetest blessing in the world. She is so precious and darling. The boys can't get enough of her and neither can her daddy. Greg is doting on her so much. Even more than with the 3 boys when they were little. I think she's got her Daddy wrapped around her finger and will likely keep him there for a good long time.












Welcome to the family, sweet baby! We love you!!

3 days and counting...

My C is scheduled for this coming Sunday at 7:30am. I am more than ready. But at the same time, apprehensive. I HATE hospitals. I HATE, HATE needles even more than hospitals. And I HATE IVs more than anything else on this earth. And that includes spiders. And I really HATE spiders. I've even got David my three year old trained to kill spiders in the house. He just grabs a wad of toilet paper and snatches the little beast up and throws it in the toilet. With our last baby I was so nervous about the IV that my veins collapsed because of my racing heart and blood pressure. The nurse could not get my IV started and she took a hit to her nursing skills ego because she said she's never once in 20 years been unable to start an IV on a patient. Too bad. She hadn't met me. So I've been mentally preparing myself for the drama that I turn into when faced with an IV. I know I should just grow up and get over this mental block, but it's what I dread even more than under going a major surgery like a C Section.

Anyway, we've got family coming to town, lots of pink stuff around the house, and the bassinet and crib all set up and ready to go. We're ready and just hours away!

Hooray for Andrew!

How much do you wish you had this guy for your primary teacher growing up? He and his sweet wife are Andrew's primary teachers and they are amazing! Andrew earned a ride in this bad boy by being the top earner on the sticker chart that they have. Stickers are earned by things like reverence during sharing time, bringing scriptures to church, reverence during class time and being a great student in class. I'm so glad to get positive reinforcements like this at church because school is often another story. It could have something to do with Andrew's primary class being mostly girls. It's just him and one other boy in a very large class so he doesn't have many chances to be silly and goof off. (Not the case at school). But I was proud of him for earning a ride with his teacher. By the way, this guy built this thing from the ground up by himself. It took him about 10 years he said.

Mom and Me

I totally stole this idea from a friend of mine. So Sarah, if you're reading, thanks for the idea.
I had been thinking of something that I could do with each of my kids individually before our baby comes. Just kind of a special one on one time with each of them before our household completely changes. Cause lets face it, babies get all the priority, all the new gifts, all the attention for the first little while.
So after stealing this idea from my friend's blog, we went for it. I had each kid write down something that they wanted that started with each letter of their name. The rules were: only one candy item and one of the items had to be a healthy snack. So one at a time, I took the kids to the store and let them choose to their little heart's content. I did put a price limit on the adventure and steered them away from completely ridiculous things that I wouldn't even get them for Christmas. It was a fun time with each kid and they were confused, but thrilled, that Mom was letting them pick out stuff at the store like it was a free for all. Yes, I basically wrote David's for him, but he's not complaining with the results.


DAVID - Dart Gun, Animal, Vegetable, Ice Cream, and DVD rental from red box.


NATHAN - Neccos (candies) Animal, T-Shirt, Hat, Apples, Nerf Gun

ANDREW - Animal, Nerf Gun, DVD, Ring Pop, Eye Wear (sunglasses) and Watermelon.

Happy Birthday, Bean!

Greg has nicknamed each of our children minutes after they arrive into the world and six years ago he took one look at Nathan and he became our little Bean. Beanie, Bean Bag, Beaners, etc. Fortunately he still allows me to call him that, though I am making a conscious effort to not do it in public. I have vivid memories of my own painfully embarrassing nick name being called out to me as a child in which I consequently felt like I wanted to sink through the floor. Anyway, our NATHAN ASHBY WILDING turned six yesterday and here's the rundown:


New Lego Star Wars kits and a slip n' slide were his most repeated requests for birthday gifts. And since slip n slides never last more than one summer in our family, we were happy to oblige. They always tear or spring an unrepairable leak. Boys to rough on them?

And lunch at Pirate Island Pizza with a friend of choice, Spencer!






Try as I might, David would not spare one second from his arcade pleasures to grace me with a smile at Pirate Island.


Despite there being only 5 candles on the cake, he did turn 6 this year. And now it's off to first grade in just a few short weeks!

We set up the slip n slide later in the afternoon while we watched big black clouds roll in. We ended up getting rained on while we enjoyed the slip n slide. Oh well. Wet is wet...

And we rounded off the day by doing left over Fourth of July sparklers in pajamas in the driveway.


Happy Birthday, Nathan! We love you so much!

It's Great to be 8!

I don't know if all parents have a little freak out moment when their oldest child turns 8 and is ready for baptism, but I did. Andrew turned 8 on Saturday and was able to be baptized on his actual birthday. With him being our oldest and being the first one baptized, it really made me stop and reflect a lot. We have been having lots of home evening lessons and family talks the last few months about the Baptismal Covenant and this important step. It was a great reminder for me to stop and reflect about the importance of the Gospel in my life. I often feel so inadequate as a parent. I really do. I feel like I'm not doing enough to prepare my kids for this very challenging life. But Andrew's baptism was so beautiful and special, I was just overcome with a very peaceful feeling. And Greg's blessing during his confirmation was so touching to me, even though I wasn't the one receiving it. Anyway, it was a great day and Andrew was so happy all day long.

Signing his baptism certificate.

Brand new suit he was confirmed in.


We got his birthday celebrations rolling the day before. This is an "off year" for friend parties, but I did allow him to choose one buddy to take to the movies. He chose his pal, Brevin, and we went and saw Cars 2. I am the BIGGEST Pixar fan. I have loved everything they've ever done. That being said, I was a little disappointed in Cars 2. The plot was too complicated for my kids. Nathan kept asking me when it would be over and being super fidgety. David had absolutely ZERO interest after the first 20 minutes. Dialogue was too "adult." Plot was too "adult." It was fun and flashy and exciting, but overall, I didn't care for it as much as the first Cars. But I hope Andrew had fun bringing a friend to the show. Treats were good, anyway.
After the show, we went shopping and got things ready for the birthday the next day. Greg's family was having a family reunion up Spanish Fork canyon and he took the boys up to the campsite to visit while I stayed home. My parents came into town and we went out to dinner with my brother.
After Andrew's baptism we had lunch back at our house catered by Jimmy Johns (a family favorite). We then had presents and cake. My friend Amber is a super talented cake maker and I had asked her a few months ago if she could come up with something for Andrew's birthday. And since Andrew is a Star Wars freak, she made the coolest Star Wars cake for him. David got to it and bit off some important parts while we were not looking, but not before we snapped some pictures. So no real harm done. Andrew got a new bike from Greg and me. He has outgrown his old one so we got him a bigger size. I'll be honest, he doesn't love it. It's a lot bigger and heavier than his old bike and it's hard to ride it up our street on the hill. But he'll get used to it and grow into it, we hope. My parents got him his own set of scriptures with his name embossed on the books and a carrying case with his name on the front. He was pretty excited about those, even more than the bike. He loves carrying them around and I've found him several times by himself looking through them and reading them by himself already. Warms my heart.





After birthday celebrations my parents entertained themselves while Greg, the boys, and I went up to the family reunion still going on up the mountain. All three kids succeeded in getting the filthiest I have ever seen them. But that's the joy of tromping around in the mountains when you're a young boy, right? I couldn't even stand to touch any of them, they were so gross.

We went to a Salt Lake Bees game on the Fourth of July. Mom, Dad and Uncle Paul came with us and we had a nice time. Bees narrowly won, and there was an amazing fireworks show after the game. It was very impressive and the boys were subdued into silence as they watched the show. So loud! with patriotic songs choreographed to go along with the fireworks. Pretty fun night.
But I'm exhausted and trying to play catch up with sleep now.

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

When all the world is HOT? And your mom is really pregnant and doesn't want to do anything?

You read endless library books. Even better when the boys read them to each other.

You camp out in the backyard in the new tent with your dad because mom had to go in around midnight cause it was just too miserable, even with an air mattress. Really blurry photo...

You sell lemonade to the neighbor girls who first charged you to buy a stuffed animal off their table. Then you make more than what you spent on the stuffed animal because those girls were just so thirsty. Capitalism at its best..


You wash the car in your underwear.

You invite your best buds over and get soaking wet in the sprinkler. (Cheap thrills)






HAPPY SUMMER!!