Ragen's 2-Week Check-up

Can you say, "Chubby already?!?" Ragen has definitely decided to be her own girl and not follow in her siblings' footsteps. All my kids lost some weight at their two-week check-up, but not Ragen! She has gained weight and is now 8 lbs. 11 oz. That puts her in the 50% for height and weight! The rest of the kids are below the 5% for all of those! Maybe she'll be the tallest one in the family. Ok, it's probably too early to tell and she will most likely be a shrimp like everyone else. But we're excited for now!

A few things about Ragen:
- She hates riding in the car in her carseat! She screamed the whole way to and from the dr. office which was a 30 min. drive both ways. We've gotta get her to snap out of it, though because we're driving the girls to school three times a day.
- She's being a stinker about taking a pacifier.
- She does not like baths and we have to do them double-time.
- She's gotten better about having her diaper changed and doesn't cry the whole time.
- She hates being naked, unless she's snuggled up next to Mom!
- I swear she has smiled at me real smiles a few times. So precious!!
- She's been sleeping in a laundry basket. It's a good thing because the laundry basket is light enough for me to carry to the different rooms I am in.
- She hasn't lost her hair yet and it is so cute!
- Her favorite snuggle position is chest-to-chest with her legs tucked up underneath her. That just happens to be my favorite snuggle position with her, too!
- For the most part, she is a very calm baby who likes to be held and look around at her surroundings.

We definitely love her and feel so blessed to have another family member!

Introducing.....Ragen Bree Jeffs

We are so excited to welcome Ragen Bree Jeffs to our family! She was born at 9:15 am on Sunday, August 29, 2010. She weighed a healthy 8 lbs (tying Tyla for the biggest baby award) and was 19.5 inches long. We love her so much already!

Our beautiful new daughter!

I have to admit that I just love her long, dark hair!

Our not-so-little family!

What a relief to finally have her here!

Ahhh, my beautiful girls. Wasn't it just yesterday I was in the hospital welcoming these two to our family? I keep telling them to stop growing!

It took quite a bit of coaxing to get Mason to come sit by me, let alone hold the baby! I think he was a little freaked out by seeing Mom hooked up to all the cords. Hopefully he will warm up more to Ragen!

There is no shortage of hands to hold her at this house! The girls just adore her!

First Day of School

The girls had their first day of school on August 18. We've been homeschooling our children for three years now and it is with very mixed emotions that we came to the decision to put them in school. Although homeschooling can be tough at times, I look back on it with fond memories. We've done a lot of great things together and it has really brought our kids closer. They are truly each others' best friends and love to play together. What a blessing! We'll see how school goes. I have to admit, I'm not 100% into the school thing. Our lives suddenly seem extremely structured and I miss the flexibility of homeschool. I also feel like the kids are gone so much, they don't have much down time. Therefore, we will not be doing many extracurricular activities. The girls are all involved in soccer right now and that's going to be the extent. Tyla has started to complain that she doesn't have much time to read, and she's right!





Our family is going through a lot of change right now. We always seem to do major changes in a big way, ie move to Indiana and change jobs while seven months pregnant with twins. This time it's change careers (from working in the corporate world to self-employment), have a fifth child, and change schools for the kids. Good thing we're not moving this time! Travis and I are now full-time Realtors and working hard to get our business going. We have a business website: http://www.northernutahhomefinder.com/ that is still a work in progress, but it's getting there. Travis is great with computer things and building systems to make the work easier and more efficient. It's been fun to work together and I look forward to spending more time with him. So if anyone needs help with Real Estate, we'd love to help you!

These two are best friends and I am so grateful! Besides, they have to be the cutest set of twins I've ever seen!

Mason didn't want to be left out of the photo shoot.

Tiana



Alayna

Tyla


Mason

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Have you ever wished you had a kite on a windy day? We've tried purchasing kites for the kids, but they just seem to break so easily. Tyla has solved all of our kite problems, though. We had a super-windy Sunday and my creative girl came up with the idea to fly plastic grocery bags. So we tied string around the handles, tied the ends to some garden tools, and "wah-lah" - a kite! The kids had so much fun running around the yard and up and down the sidewalk with their make-shift kites! Travis and I enjoyed sitting on chairs in the garage watching them.




Alayna and Mason just laughed and laughed as they flew their kites!

Tiana had fun doing twirls on the lawn with hers!