Gage

Gage's baby blessing

On Saturday April 23rd, Gage was blessed in our home by his Grandpa, Terry Gosney. Elizabeth (Gabe's sister) had graduated from BYU a few days earlier, so we had family in town to celebrate two special events. We held the blessing pretty early in the morning, so I kept it pretty low key. The kids were still in their p.j.s and I didn't bother putting on make up. Gage enjoyed all the extra attention and didn't mind having to wait an extra hour to nurse.

Gage and Grandpa Gosney

Grandpa and all five kids

The Gosney Girls (minus Deon and Kelsey)

The Gosney Guys: Devon, Gabe, Gage and Thomas

Our first photo as a family of six, err I mean seven (thanks Jenny)

Tucker and Mom (dang that boy in photogenic!)

Tucker loves to hold Gage, he asks at least 10 times a day.

I'm still here...barely

Things are going great, life is just really busy! Gage is growing like a weed and is pretty content, depending on the day. He has struggled with tummy troubles, but sleeping on his stomach has helped and also Gripe water. Even when he has to be bounced for awhile or just held for an hour, he's not the most high maintenance child in the house. That roll has been filled by Mason. I'm not complaining, but he is the reason that I only get on the computer twice a month.

Let me paint a mental picture for you. All of our doors that lead outside are triple locked. One is at the very top of the door that our kids have titled "The Mason lock". Our fence gates have padlocks and his room has a lock. Yet we are constantly finding him outside, or in the van or rummaging through the garage. Yesterday morning I was nursing Gage in my room and I was startled by the garage door opening (our bedroom is above the garage so you can hear and feel when the door is activated). I knew I had locked all the doors the night before and had checked them again before I went to bed. I called out to Gabe to run down and see what was going on. He found all the doors still locked, but the front window was open and the screen had been kicked out. He found Mason in the van in our garage playing in the driver seat. Luckily we had unlocked one of the backyard gates for the older kids the day before, so he was able to get through it and into the garage, rather than taking off down the street.

We are planning on putting some type of GPS device on him, for his safety and our sanity. He has been returned to our house by complete strangers, he has been found inside many of our neighbors cars. He will walk into neighbors houses and make himself at home. He has intentionally locked me out of the house many times and I've had to beg and bribe him with chocolate or ice cream to let me back in.

Escaping is not his only hobby. He is a master mind at getting into anything and everything. Last week I bought some hamburger buns for a BBQ and hid them in a non-food cupboard so Mason wouldn't find them. I came downstairs the next morning to find him sitting on the stove top eating a hamburger bun. On the counter next to him was the bag of buns, mutilated by a knife he had to used to open it because he hadn't been able to undo the twisty tie.

I do love this child, but I really don't get a moment's rest, unless he actually does take a nap and doesn't use his binky to unlock his bedroom door, (the door knob locks that can be opened with a coin are a joke to this boy).

...It is now 24 hours later since I started writing this post, Mason got up from his nap and I never got a chance to return to the computer. I ended up saying "heck" to house work and took him out front to play with neighbors while us mom's visited a little. We were sitting on the neighbors lawn and Mason was playing in their garage with a few other kids. All of a sudden the sprinkler system came on. We rushed into the garage and found Mason standing on top of their freezer with his hand inside the sprinkler control box. Aghhhhhhhh! We went home after that. I just have to remind myself, on an hourly basis sometimes, that I do love this child.

Well, Gage is now awake and crying so I'll have to be done. Hopefully I'll get the chance to post some pictures soon, just be patient with me.

Happy Birthday to Me

The older I get, the less I know what I want for my birthday. May be I'm just getting old and boring, or perhaps I have everything I need. Gabe has been busy with his senior project and work lately so he didn't have the opportunity to do any gift shopping. His solution was to take me shopping the day before my birthday and have me buy my own presents. It was fun, but at the same time a little disappointing because there was no element of surprise. Well, I take that back, he did surprise me on Friday with a bouquet of yellow roses, which was a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

On my birthday Gabe and the kids made a delicious french toast breakfast and brought it to me in bed. It was scrumptious and it was wonderful to not have to cook or clean up the after math. In the afternoon I took all 5 kids on a walk to the park, by myself, and it was nice to get out and enjoy the sun. Our weather has been jumping back and forth between Winter and Spring, so we take advantage of every sunny day we get. Gabe had to work on his project so he didn't get to go with us. Earlier in the day at church, Tucker walked down the halls telling everyone he passed, "It's my Mom's birthday, she's 33!" Dang, now I can't claim I'm only 29. In the evening I opened my presents, a new blender and the dvd "New Moon" and we celebrated with brownies and a delicious cheese cake made by my neighbor.

So although I may be getting old and boring, I did manage to have some fun and enjoy my birthday. And the best thing about the day after is all the yummy left-overs!

Brianna having fun on the slide

Hayden showing off his front teeth

Tucker prefers climbing on top of the tunnel slide

Mason's two favorite things, the park and eating snacks

Gage is filling out, although this sweater makes
him look wider than he really is.

Fitting right in

We are all adjusting well to having a new baby. The kids love to hold him and he is adapting quite nicely. He is beginning to have more awake time and is content to look around and soak up the scenery.

Gage age 8 days

Mason holding Gage 9 days old

Gage hanging out with the big kids 3/6/10

Tuck is a good big brother 3/6/10

Flowers from Mom and Dad Burt

Things are going...

Gage is one week old today and my stay in the hospital seems like eons ago. Carrie left this morning, so I feel like I am walking on egg shells just waiting for things to fall apart. It was so wonderful having her here and it really helped me to recover. Luckily this morning went well and I got Tucker off to school without a hitch. I don't feel bad that I've let the kids watch more t.v. and movies than could possibly be good for them, but otherwise I would never get to eat or shower. Gage has been such a good baby so far, and of course he likes to sleep more during the day than at night, but being sleep deprived is in a Mom's job description.

I haven't been good at taking pictures so far, but Elizabeth took some of my kids and I copied them from her blog. I should just have her come over once a week and take photos because she does such an awesome job and her pictures always turn out so well.

Brianna and Gage

Hayden

Tucker

Mason

Here at last

I delivered a healthy boy Monday afternoon at 1:49pm. He weighed 8 lb. 10 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. My delivery went pretty quick and I only had to push 2 times. It's funny to say that he is my smallest boy, but he's also our most unique with lots of dark hair and dimples. We went to the hospital considering a few different names and we have now decided on Gage Gabriel. At first we decided to spell it Gauge, but I am having second thoughts and I think I prefer spelling it Gage. But we'll see if Gabe let's me change it.

It was so nice to rest in the hospital and have all my meals served to me in bed, but now that we are home reality is beginning to set it. Luckily Carrie (my mother-in-law) is here helping and I know I wouldn't be surviving without her assistance. I am hoping to have Gage's schedule figured out by the time she leaves so I'm not trying to nurse, make lunches and get the kids out the door for school at the same time. The kids might be eating school lunches for awhile and hopefully the teachers will understand when they show up with clothes on backwards and their hair looking like it's never seen the likes of a comb.

The kids adore having a new brother and are doing well with the transition. Mason is having a little bit more trouble with all the changes, but that's to be expected. We are so grateful for this new little life in our family and we know we are blessed.

New Camera

So we finally have a new camera after being without one for 2 months. Per my mother's request, I'm including a picture of myself nearly 9 months pregnant. I took a few pictures of the kids while we were just hanging out with some family this evening, nothing spectacular, just a regular night in for us.

What a cutie pie!

One week to go!

Brianna- we are growing her hair out
after a couple years of short hair do's.

Mason's pretty enthralled playing with Elizabeth's
phone. Hayden just wants some snuggle time.

Tucker showing us his muscles

Hanging out with Aunt Elizabeth

"If you were dead..."

One of our house rules is that we don't let the kids play Wii on Sunday, I've told them that one day a week we spend time just with the family and not with friends and video games and Sunday is the day that we've picked to rest from Wii. So usually on Saturday they get to play for hours as long as they have done all of their chores. Lately I have also been limiting how much they play during the week because it's all they want to do and they do bicker quite a bit when playing. So with that as a prelude, I want to share a conversation Tucker and I had this morning. He said, "Mom, if you were dead, could we pick a different day to not play Wii"? "You want me to die so you can have more time on the Wii?" I stammered in surprise. He responded, "If you were dead then we could pick a different day to not play Wii". I calmly answered, "I think you would really miss me if I did die." He confidently replied, "Ya, but you would come down from heaven when Jesus comes back".

As you can imagine I was a little jostled from his comments, but I suppose I should be glad that he has faith in Jesus Christ and an understanding of the resurrection. But still, I think I am a little traumatized.

Ouch!

On Wednesday night I started having contractions every 3 minutes for 45 minutes. I wasn't too worried because my body did this before with Hayden and it went on for a week before I was induced. But I have more than a week to go before my inducement date and I've been having contractions every day on an off. Most people wouldn't mind going into labor early, but I'm a little panicky because I wouldn't have any help and my doctor is out of town until the day before I'm scheduled to deliver. But if this baby needs to come early so that he will fit, then I will trust the Lord's timing.