Family Pictures

Way back in December, when we were visiting Jacob's family for Christmas, his parents got family pictures taken of everyone.  It was quite an accomplishment, considering there are now 30 people in the family!  The photographer was pretty awesome... she somehow got the kids to smile perfectly for the pictures.  I really love the ones of our family!

This is my favorite!

The entire Romney family!  All 30 of us.  Although Kalie had twins in January, and then Jen had a baby in June, so there are now 33.  And Rachel is pregnant, so in another 9 months there will be another baby!

Family Photos

Jacob's mom took some family photos for us today. It was too sunny when we took them, so a lot of them didn't turn out, but we had a few that I liked. Here are the ones that turned out ok:

This one is my favorite:

This was a really cute one of Naomi, but the rest of us looked terrible so I just cropped her out:

Just Jacob & me:

I don't know why, but I really like this one even though no one is looking & smiling:

This was the best one of Aleta:

And here's a few more that were decent:

2- Week Report & New Year's

We had Aleta's 2-week doctor appointment on Friday. She weighed 8 lbs. 4 ounces (about in the 75% for weight) and was just about 22 inches long (about 98% for length). I can't believe how much bigger she is than Naomi was. She is wearing sleepers right now that Naomi was wearing when she was 2-3 months old. She also has big hands & feet, with really long fingers & toes. Jacob says that will help Aleta in sports... she's going to be our little athlete. :) Naomi will be our little dancer... she's always bouncing & twirling & flitting about like a little fairy.

Aleta's 2-week photo with the caterpillar

Sleeping soundly! (which doesn't happen nearly as often as we'd like)

We spent the weekend at Jacob's parents' house with the family for New Year's, which was fun. We played games and talked and drank Martinelli's at midnight when the ball dropped (although technically, since we aren't on the east coast, we celebrated one hour after the ball dropped... I miss living on the east coast and watching the ball drop live... It's weird watching it an hour after it actually happens).

We also attempted to get a family photo both on Saturday and on Sunday night, but not a single one turned out. In every one, the baby is screaming, or Naomi isn't looking at the camera, or it's blurry, or Jacob isn't smiling... so frustrating. Somehow, someday soon, I am going to get a good family picture!

Here are a few of our attempts:

Aleta Deanne Romney

We finally had our beautiful baby girl!! Aleta Deanne Romney was born on December 16, 2011 at 8:00 in the morning! She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measured 20 3/4 inches long. She is beautiful, and we are already in love with her!

We had a little scare about an hour after her birth when I started hemorrhaging, but we eventually got everything under control. Thankfully, I am doing very well now and even feel pretty good! I will post more details of Aleta's birth story and all of the "excitement" later when I am not so tired. But to keep you all satisfied until then, here are some photos of our beautiful little girl!

Bring on Christmas!

Thanksgiving is finally over, which means it is officially the Christmas season!!! Yay!

Before I talk more about Christmas, however, here is a picture of my little family on Thanksgiving: (Please pay no attention to my fat pregnancy face!)
Speaking of pregnancy, I only have 2 1/2 weeks left until my due date! Yay! Then hopefully my feet will stop looking like this:
Gross, I know. And they hurt. So hopefully this baby girl decides to make her appearance sooner rather than later!

Now, on to Christmas!

Jacob and I plan on listening to fun Christmas music tonight, putting up our tree, and watching Elf once Naomi goes to bed... photos will follow! I have been in a cleaning frenzy the past week or so to get ready for the holidays and our new little baby, and I finally feel like I have our townhouse ready to finish decorating for Christmas. So hopefully in the next few days, I will get the rest of our decorations put up!

When I got my Christmas decorations out of our closet, I found 4 pages of holiday window clings. I don't usually like window clings--I think they mostly look tacky and stupid. I only had them in the first place to decorate my classroom when I was teaching. But Naomi loves playing by the sliding glass doors in our living room and looking out the windows, so I thought I would put some of the clings on the sliding glass doors for her to play with. She's not very good at putting them back on the windows yet, but she's been having a lot of fun pulling them off!

Halloween Fun

We had our church Trunk or Treat and Chili Potluck on Friday night. I remade my bun-in-the-oven costume that I did two years ago when I was pregnant with Naomi, and Jacob reused his chef costume (although we somehow lost the white apron and had to make do with a red one instead). I wanted Naomi's costume to go along with ours, but it was tough to find something that would work! I finally decided to make her into a loaf of Wonderbread. I made her costume and my costume, and they both took a lot more work and time than I had anticipated, but they turned out pretty well! I think my oven looked better two years ago, but I had more energy & patience when I made it the last time.

I didn't get any pictures of the 3 of us on my camera, so I had to scan the one they took of us at church--sorry the quality is so bad!


I made Naomi's costume with an extra white pillowcase that we had and some Sharpie markers. I used red ribbon to tie the top of the "bread bag" like a twisty-tie. And then I found an image of the Nutrition Facts on the Wonderbread website and used an iron-on transfer to put it on the back of her costume.





We decorated Halloween sugar cookies tonight, but they tasted pretty terrible (it was some pre-made kit thing that I bought at Walmart), so we gave them to Naomi to play with. She mostly just licked off the icing. Decorating them made me want to eat some good sugar cookies though, so tomorrow I will have to make a trip to the grocery store to get some edible ones!



Sadly, we didn't get to go to a pumpkin patch this year because I couldn't find any around here that didn't charge admission. I really just wanted to get some cute pictures of Naomi in a pumpkin patch and have our family pick out a good pumpkin, but I refused to pay 15 dollars admission and then pay for a pumpkin on top of that... so we never got a pumpkin. We were going to just get one at the grocery store last weekend so that we could make a jack-o-lantern, but Naomi & I both got sick and we just ran out of time! Oh well... we will try again next year!

Look how little & cute she was just a year ago... I can't believe she is already 19 months old! She is growing too fast!
Happy Halloween!!

Summer Days with Naomi

My baby girl turned 4 months old on July 22! Time is flying by and Naomi is growing way, way too fast. I've been dressing her in some 3-6 month clothes that I received as baby gifts before Naomi was born, and I remember looking at them after she was born and thinking how huge they were compared to my tiny baby. But now, most of them fit her perfectly, and a few are even getting snug! It makes me sad. I just want her to stay my tiny, beautiful baby forever.

I jokingly call her my bi-polar baby, because she can go from being incredibly happy to incredibly sad within a few seconds. She is happy a lot though, and we love it. She gives us the biggest, cutest smiles where she opens her mouth wide and crinkles her eyes and squeals... it's so cute, I can hardly stand it.

(Naomi's 4-month photos)

We've been taking Naomi on all kinds of adventures since we came to Missouri. She went to her first rodeo a few weeks back (a first for me as well), which she didn't love--I think the biggest problem was the humidity. I don't think I have ever felt such awful humidity before. The rodeo announcers called it "air you can wear". It was miserable. Sadly, Naomi decided about a minute into the bull-riding that she could stand it no longer, and we had to leave without getting to see the best part of the rodeo. Someday I want to go to a really big rodeo, because to be honest, the little one that we went to was not anything fabulous. It was fun to be out with our family though!

(JR & Adelyn playing in the ice to cool off at the rodeo.)

(Our little family at the rodeo)

Naomi has been having fun with her cousins. Her cousin Zo, who we are staying with right now, has been using Naomi as practice so he can learn how to be a good big brother. He will have a baby brother within the next two months, so we are teaching him to "be soft" with the baby. Most of the time, he is pretty nice to Naomi. Naomi's youngest cousin, however, is not her favorite person. Little JR is a cutie, but he loves to hit Naomi and crawl on top of her and claw her face, so we have to keep them separated when we all get together. Adelyn, the oldest of the cousins here in Misosuri, just adores Naomi and is so sweet around her. She is always asking me where "Baby Omi" is and telling me how much she loves her.

On the 27th of July, Jacob's new video game came out (Starcraft 2), so we picked up his copy at midnight and then drove straight to Kansas City to stay with Jen & Jared for a couple days. Jen, being the brilliant woman she is, figured that we may as well hang out while our husbands are consumed by Starcraft and ignoring us anyway. So Jen and I watched movies, kept our babies from killing each other, and played with the kids at the free splash park. It was Naomi's first time in a pool, and sadly, it was not her favorite thing. I had been so excited to put her in her swimming suit for the first time and play with her at the pool, but I think it was a little too cold for her. We will try again soon, though. I hear the pool here in Marshall is actually really nice, so we're hoping to try that out one day soon!

Note: Do not judge me by the following pictures! My post-pregnancy body is not so cute, and I don't have a swimsuit that fits it, so the photos are really not flattering.

(Don't you just love the little fat rolls on her legs?)

Three sleeping babies!

Where our family began

Today we went to Salt Lake City to see the temple one last time before the move. It was a GORGEOUS day--perfect for walking around temple square. And we were able to get a picture of our little family in front of the temple where we were married.

I'm so sad to be leaving! I can't believe we move in less than 2 weeks. It is going to be a sad, sad day.