Rylin Emma

Here are just a few pictures from the mini photo shoot I had with Rylin last week. Unfortunately she wasn't all that cooperative. She kept waking up and squirming around. I felt really rushed. Anyway they're precious, of course but....not my best work. I'll have to give it another try sometime in the very near future--she's growing up so fast!

A few more hospital pics

Here are some additional photos from Rylin's birth. We've been enjoying her so much that we haven't made the time yet to publish the images.

Rylin's delivery was by far the easiest of my three. I didn't have an epidural with Kinsley and Grant but decided I'd try it the third time around. All I have to say is what on earth was I thinking the first two times! No really, I had my reasons for the first two and wouldn't change a thing. My labor and delivery with both Kinsley and Grant was extremely challenging but a wonderful and spiritual experience non-the-less. But.... not feeling a thing this time was fantastic! I'll definitely be getting an epidural with the next little one:)

We had a great Dr. who happens to attend our church ward. He let Shawn deliver the baby (with his help of course) and everything went smoothly. My recovery has been really easy this time and as I mentioned earlier we're just lovin' everything about Rylin. The kids adore her too. Their love for Rylin is simply enormous.

Enjoy the pics. I'll post some from her little photo shoot with me here shortly.

Announcing Rylin Emma Sorensen!

Hey everyone...fantastic news!
Time: 2:14pm
Weight: 8 lb 7 oz
Length: 20.25 inches
Mother and baby are doing fine. This is just a sampling of the beautiful duo. We will try and post some more pictures when we get home tomorrow.

Quick Update

Hi everyone. We know that you are all awaiting any news from us. We are at the hospital. Andrea is dilated to a 6 and we are anxiously awaiting the new baby. So far everything is going really well. Andrea is happy and beautiful as ever. Based on past history we should have the baby this afternoon. We will be sure to post pictures and update y'all as soon as possible. Thank you to everyone who has been so helpful thus far and for all your calls, emails, prayers and help.

The event you have all been waiting for...its a boy...who has graduated from law school

Oh yeah, and Andrea is also two days overdue (and counting). Since we don't have baby pictures yet, I figured I would bore you with my graduation pictures from May 16, 2009. I walked for graduation at the Key Arena in Seattle; although I still have two more classes to take over the summer.
The last graduation I attended was for my high school graduation and the only differences I noticed were that the hat I wore this time looked more like a Christopher Columbus hat and all of the people who were graduating were much older looking. Other than that it was long, hot, and I made sure not to trip when I went on stage.




I don't have enough room in this post to thank everyone who has helped me, supported me, commiserated with me, encouraged me, laughed with me and challenged me to be better. But I do want to thank my wife who has done all of the above and more these past three years. Thank you Andrea! I couldn't have done it without you. And thank you to my kids who were so patient with me. I'm always grateful for the opportunity to further my education, but I am extremely pleased to have my JD completed and spend more time with the fam.


Okay Andrea here and I must pipe in a mention a few things before this post is published. First of all I have to give a super huge congrats to my amazing husband. Shawn was able to earn his law degree in just three years while working full-time. He attended evening class taking just one credit less then a full-time day student. I don't know where he came up with the energy to make it all happen. Shawn you are simply remarkable! Thank you for all of the sacrifices you have made to take care of this family. I love you!

The last three years have been tough! There were definitely times when I thought it would never end. As soon as the ceremony began and the graduates begin walking into the arena I couldn't help but cry. I felt excited, proud, grateful and relieved that this day had finally come. When we started out on this journey Kinsley was just one year old and we had only been in WA for two years. Without any family around I had to rely heavily on friends to help out when needed. Thanks to all of you for your support! Law school was a sacrifice but we were so blessed along the way. I can't wait to see what's ahead of us now. More than that I'm just thrilled for the simple things to come, like having dinner together each night. That my friends is satisfaction!

Too Cute

Had to post at least one pic from this session over here on my family blog. If you want to see more photos of this little guy you can head on over to my photo blog:
www.youreverycolorphotography.blogspot.com
I had the opportunity to take the maternity photos and newborn shots for this family too, who by the way are great friends of ours. I have to say he is definitely one of the cutest subjects I have ever photographed. He smiled so easily it was like I wasn't working at all. Can't wait for the years to come and to capture all his little changes. Thanks guys and so glad you're moving close by!

Kids + Cake + Ice Cream = Exceptional Amounts of Fun

All chefs have their favorite ingredients. Some favor one spice over another. Others prefer complimentary flavors. When a chef gets the perfect combination, they will rave that it has transcended ordinary to the extraordinary. Kinsley's birthday party seemed to provide those great ingredients in just the right amounts. The weather was superb, so we held the party in our back yard. Kinsley and all her friends got to fill up on sun, fun and of course, cake and ice cream. Kinsley had been looking forward to this day and it couldn't have turned out more perfectly.


She was thrilled with all of her presents. She enjoyed the crown and magic wand so much that after she opened the gift she spent the rest of the party turning her friends into frogs,horses, chickens, etc. She also really liked getting birthday cards. She starting to read and enjoys the challenge of trying to sound out each word.



The kids gathered around the card table to enjoy their cake and ice cream once they had all finished their portions they spread out again to start playing. Grant however decided to stick around to take what he thought was his fair share of the ice cream.

We had a great time! Happy Birthday Kinsley, we love you!!!!!

Happy Birthday Kinsley!

Oh she is so beautiful! Here's one pic from the party. They'll be more to come soon....

Happy Mothers Day

Saw this on another blog and tought it was great. Just had to share. Happy Mothers day to all of you mothers out there. We truly are superhuman!

Oh, if you missed it, GRANT IS 2!

If you are doing the math, you will realize that Grant's birthday was almost 2 weeks ago. We apologize for taking so long to post the pictures.
Grant loves Thomas the Train, so he was doubly pleased when his mother was able to create a Thomas the Train cake (especailly because it tasted like yellow cake and not iron and coal dust).
Grant liked to hear us sing happy birthday to him, and he has been to enough birthday parties to know that after the singing is done, you blow out the candles and eat the cake (he only needed a little help from his eager sister).
Once the candles were out, it was time for Grant to do what he loves most: eat and get the food he is eating all over himself.
Grant has quite a personality. He is understanding role playing and in Lion King mode he is Rafiki, Kinsley is Simba and Mom and Dad are Sarabi and Mufasa. We have awoken in the middle of the night to our little Rafiki crying out for Mufasa or Sarabi.
Grant recently has attached himself to some of his new toys, Rescue Heroes. One of them in particular, which Grant gave the name of Samuel (Fisher Price says his name is Bob Buoy, but don't tell Grant that) spends the entire day in Grant's hands and is only released upon exchange for food or water (and sometimes not even for that).

Highlights now that he is two:
1. He can now count to twenty, identify some shapes, colors, and letters, and loves to draw.
2. He loves his Lightning McQueen jammies, so much that he'll burst into tears saying "la mcqueen, la mcqueen back on" when we take them off.
3. He can shovel more food into his mouth than his dad. That's saying a lot for those of you who know Shawn.
4. His favorite food is strawberries, with grapes taking a very close second.
5. He loves to build mega block towers and spent the majority of his birthday party creating one Kinsley called their apartment.
6. He has the best manners always remembering to say please and thank you.
7. He's always very quick to comfort Kinsley when she's upset saying "Kiki, it's okay" If she doesn't respond right away he'll run through all of their pretend names: Simba, Dora, Boots, Puppy, Super Why,etc. until he gets her to react.
8. He loves to read books and can be found flipping through Mother Goose, Arthur, Dr. Suess, Cars, Nemo, Lion King, and more at any given moment.
9. He has the longest lashes we've ever seen on a little boy (thank you Sorensens!) and has become aware of the fact that others have taken notice. Now if he really wants something, or simply a chance to charm he'll blink rapidly and then make his request.

We could go on forever.....
Happy Birthday Grant we love you!

I'm Being Featured on Little Birdie Secrets

Today My Little Lilies shop is being featured on a great craft blog called Little Birdie Secrets. It's one of my favorite crafting sites were I can go for great ideas, giveaways, and awesome tutorials. If you've ever wanted any of my stuff but haven't wanted to fork over the cash, there's a Freebie Giveaway involved for just leaving a comment. So head on over to Little Birdie Secrets and explore.





http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/

I've Been a Busy Bee

Spring is in the air, or at least some of the time! I'm feeling the need to be busy like a bee and decided to open up my second etsy shop. So here it is, I just finished posting my last item this morning. My other etsy store, www.littlelilies.etsy.com is for all things little lady but my new shop is just for mom! Check it out www.youreverycolor.etsy.com and let me know what you think! Better yet tell your friends!

Your Requests Granted

The people have spoken, and their requests have been heard. I'm finally posting a pic of me prego. It's just a snapshot I had Shawn take quickly after putting the kiddos to bed this evening. I've been pestered for awhile now to share, but finally got the nudge I needed when Kinsley walked into the room like this...



Yep, hysterical I know. She spends a lot of time imitating me these days and this time I just couldn't resist snapping a photo. As you can see from the second image Grant wanted in on the photo too, so I had to post. Isn't he such a stud!



Okay so here's the shot of me.



I'm 32 weeks now can you believe it? Time has flown by for this pregnancy. In case you haven't heard we're making the gender a surprise this time around. I'm so excited to see if it's going to be a boy or a girl. I've been feeling okay... The pregnancy started out really rough with a lot of morning sickness but it finally went away during the second trimester. Up until the last few weeks I was feeling great but now as I get increasingly bigger things are just more uncomfortable. Anywho I can't really complain I'm healthy, happy, and am ready for a new addition to the fam. So here you go. I hope you're all satisfied now!

The longest 10 minutes of my life

Last Thursday I had the chance to take the kids downtown to the Seattle Children's Museum. The museum is currently hosting a Curious George exhibit and since my kiddos are totally obsessed with George I thought it would be a fun activity for them. The museum is filled with activities for children with everything from art rooms to mock retail stores, barber shops, and more then I can even remember. We arrived when it opened at 10:00am and to my surprise it was already packed! I wasn't anticipating such crowds. I later found out that it was mid-winter break for the Seattle School District. Normally I'm not a person who minds a crowd but when you're chasing two toddlers around (who by the way never wanted to play with any of the same toys) it's easy to get a nervous that you might loose one...and that's exactly what happened.

We made it through the first couple hours without incident. The children had a blast checking out all of the Curious George displays. The George area had a darling little mini golf ramp that Grant quickly attached himself to. In fact he liked it so much that when I insisted it was time to move onto another section he brought a piece of it with him. Grant carried the club and golf ball with to every place in the George exhibit. When it was time to leave, parting with the toy was difficult! We're talkin' the craziest tantrum that only a 2 year old is capable of. Lucky for me the museum has so much to do we were easily distracted by the Grocery Store next door.

As you can see from the pics Grant and Kinsley had a great time shopping together. We spent quite a bit of time here as the area was small enough that I could see both the kiddos from any angle. Kinsley spent most of her time at the scale and wasn't too happy with mommy when I snapped a picture of here there. Grant just thought it was fun to push the shopping cart around the the area, and would occasionally stop by the fish and bread aisle to fill up his cart. We took a lunch break after the store and ate upstairs with a few friends from our playgroup. We had classic tuna sandwich's. Kinsley hates tuna fish (at least right now anyway) so the night before when I was preparing our lunches for museum day and realized we didn't have anything but the little fish for sandwiches, I decided to get crafty. I cut the bread into the shape of teddy bears thinking I was so clever. Grant thought it was the greatest thing ever and Kinsley just turned her nose up at me. Eventually she gave in after I insisted that she couldn't have any grapes until she at least ate all the bears appendages. After lunch we headed back down to the museum for some more fun. I was already exhausted at this point but we had to pay $15.00 bucks to get in and I wasn't about to call it quits.

So off we went and the kids hung out on the sail-boat for a while and then wanted to head over to the big mountain for some camping and caving. Grant and Kinsley really liked the tent set-up in the area and spent a lot of time going done the slide. The area here is made to feel like your up on a mountain-side and it was super fun. I really wanted to take some pictures of the kids here but left my camera at the base of the mountain. With Grant in my arms I walked over to Kinsley who was in a little cave under my feet. She poked her head out of the hole and I told her it was time to come out so she could come with Grant and me to get the camera. Of course she protested but once I let her know we were coming right back she agreed. At that moment Grant wiggled his way out of my arms and went running to the slide. I ran the 3 feet to grab him and when I picked him up and turned back around Kinsley was gone. Thinking she had gotten a head start to the stroller I ran down toward the bottom of the mountain. I assumed that as soon as I rounded the corner I would see her there running right in front of me but she wasn't there. She wasn't at the bottom of the mountain, or at the stroller, or anywhere I looked. I ran around the museum as fast as I could and at a little over six months pregnant with an almost two year old on my hip, I guess I wasn't fast enough. At first all Grant wanted was down but once my emotions started getting the best of me Grant realized something wasn't right and start saying. "Where's Kiki, where Kiki." After a few minutes of panicked searching I ran to the front desk to get help. The staff at the museum was fantastic. Immediately they were repeating my description of Kinsley over their walkie talkies with other employees and within just a few seconds there were more staff member in my line of sight that there were children. At that moment a woman approached me and introduced herself as the director of the museum. She put her arms around me and told me not to worry and that they almost always they find the child within 30 seconds. After about two minutes went by I started to cry. All I kept thinking was "30 seconds, ahh it's been minutes and no Kinsley, where is she something must be wrong." The water works wouldn't stop at the point and finally after what seemed like forever a staff member called in saying they found her in the far corner of the Curious George exhibit. I had to wait up front while they brought her to me. As soon as she saw me she ran into my arms and said "Mommy I was looking everywhere for you, where were you?" I just hugged her and cried. As I held her tight I was more grateful for those little curls tangled in my hands then ever before. Kinsley told me that when she crawled out of the cave she thought I had already headed down to the stroller without her. What she didn't realize was that I was just 3 feet to her side picking up her little brother off the ground. In less than 5 seconds of lost eye-contact she was gone. We had a talk about staying in one place if we can't see mommy anymore and that mommy would find her instead of her looking for me. She agreed and said "I won't go the wrong direction again." Even though the kids were ready to start playing again we left shortly thereafter--I was done.

Later that night I decided to teach Kinsley our phone number. The kid can memorize anything within a few minutes so we came up with a little song to help her learn her phone number. My number ends in 7042 and so the song is supposed to end with "seventy forty-two." Deciding "seventy-forty-two" was just lame, Kinsley changed the songs ending to "seventy forty-tooth." Kinsley thought she was so clever and would laugh for almost five minutes every time she ended the song. Her laughter was contagious and so we spent our evening singing the phone number song and giggling the night away.

Oh I love a good deal!

This weekend I hit some great deals at the grocery store. My favorite being the toilet paper I picked up at QFC. QFC had their 4 packs of the regular roll Cottonelle toilet paper on sale for .94 cents. Although small, with the coupons I had I ended up getting one for FREE plus six cent overage, and the other for .20 cents. Wowzas, I was excited! For you local QFC shoppers here's how I did it. For those of you out of state check to see if your grocery store is running any similar specials. The key is to use the coupons while your store is having a sale too.

Follow the link below. If you enter your name and e-mail you'll be given the opportunity to print a .50 cent coupon for any four-pack of toilet paper. Next return to the site and click on "Be Kind To Your Behind" button to take the cottenelle pledge. It will take less than a minute and at the end you'll be given a coupon for $1.00 off any four-pack of Cottenelle TP.

http://www.cottonelle.com/coupons.aspx

Once you've printed these coupons head on over to www.cellfire.com and sign up for free coupons that can be texted to your phone or put directly on your shoppong card like Albertsons or QFC cards. When you go through the check-out you can give the cellfire code from your text message to the cashier or simply scan your grocery card and the discount will automatically be taken off your bill. Pretty convenient hugh? Cellfire had a "save .25 cent" coupon for Cottenelle and viola' my three coupons equalled 8 rolls of TP for only .20 cents! They also had milk on sale for $1.99 a gallon. Here's my final bill:

4 Gallons Milk
2 Packs Cottenelle Toilet Paper

$8.16+tax
Oh I love a good deal!