Growing

Nikolas is finally starting to wake up and be a person, instead of a big ball of baby goo as Jeremy (aka that big fire man guy) called him.  He is just starting to smile a little, but only very quickly, maybe half a second for a smile.  This one I caught purely by chance.  didn't even know he was smiling when I started taking the picture, so then I took 3 in a row trying to get it, and this is the best I got.
Here are a few pictures of us settling into being a family of 7.

I came home from the store Sunday and found them all watching a movie like this.

Reading the new zoobook magazine from Auntie Anna.

Christmas Morning

ahh Christmas, there's nothing like it.  Especially when it's Christmas morning and there are 8 kids it's loud  and crazy, but lots of fun.

Grammy and Pop very wisely got all the boys identical presents, so here they are with all their new space blaster guns.  It is Alexander's first gun and he's very very pleased with it.  I'm happy that his first gun is at least not realistic, laser blasting doesn't bother me quite so much as old west bullet shooting.  Isaiah is sporting Ari's new fuzzy orange hat.  

Alexander got lots of new costumes, and Isabella was trying out his pirate get-up.

Arianna loves a good purse.  But it has to have something in it.  She won't carry around an empty purse.  As soon as she opened it she started asking me for my phone and keys.  Eventually we put her M&M candy cane in there and that held her for a while.

When you are a pirate, you must attack.  and if you are Pop, you should know better than to leave your back open :)
Grammy, helping Nikolas open his present.  He got a glow worm style sea horse that plays classical music.  He seems to enjoy it too.
Pajama-ed Buckner boys opening some presents.
Isabella, now wearing Ari's hat and scarf, fixing Pop's make up (with a felt "Mary" ornament off the tree)
Baby's first Christmas boys.  Kaleb will be one in March and Nikolas is 1 month old.
Alexander's favorite gift, a knight's costume.  He is, however, King Peter from Narnia.
He also got a spider man costume, he couldn't make himself take off his king outfit though, so after some deliberation he decided to try on the spidey mask with the king stuff too.  
Arianna was having a great day!  When the kids first got up they opened their stockings.  Ari was upstairs asleep for a little longer than everybody else, so when she came down the other kids had finished opening their stockings and were eating their candy.  We tried to get Ari to open her presents in her stocking, but when I asked her if she wanted to open her presents she said, "No... Chocolate."  So all she wanted was the candy out of her stocking for about 15 minutes.  Eventually Sophia talked her into opening the presents too.
and more and more and more to open.
After many hours of being King Peter, Spider man finally won out.  Spider man also has a laser gun, as you can see.
Faron (and Alexander) have been building the girls a new doll house.  This is only half of it, but it is now wide enough that they can all play at the same time, and all their different people (barbies, little people and everything in between) can play in the same house.  At one point Alexander, aka Spider Man, went to observe there game and when they paid him no notice he said, "and then, Spider Man stopped by!" but they still didn't turn away from their game of dolls to play with Spider Man, so he had to go save lives somewhere else.
Nikolas actually did have a very nice Christmas, there were people around, so he got held all day, and that is really his greatest wish.  I took this picture the next morning, I just wanted a picture of him in that shirt, but I put him down to take it, so he had to scream.  Now I just think this is a funny picture.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night :)

One of our Christmases

This weekend kicked off our Christmases, we had pretend Christmas at Grammy's (pictures still to come) and then we had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa, which you are about to experience.

First there was lots of eating and playing, then we got down to the business of present opening.

Checking out the scene.

passing out the presents. Everyone had to hold onto their presents until all the kids had one, then they all opened at once. They were very patient waiting until they were given the go ahead to rip in.
Alexander enjoyed opening his presents with Lane's sword, which didn't leave his hand the whole time we were there, luckily Lane had 3.

Ari decided to try the sword method too.

Lucas didn't get into the present opening much, but he enjoyed watching the kids play when it was all over.

The boys playing with a knight castle.
The girls playing with a fairy castle.
Once we got home the presents all came into the living room and we sorted through them all again, which lead to a fasion show.


This was the aftermath of the present sorting and fasion show. Everything you see here was a present!


After the fasion show Papa hooked up the new gaming system that Grandma and Grandpa got the kids. A Vtech Vsmile, and the art shop game. Here Isabella's playing the art game. See the picture she drew (on the TV). They've had tons of fun drawing, coloring, making toys, making cartoons, playing games...



Kole didn't care about the game, but here he is all snuggled down in one of his new outfits.

I've got about a million other pictures, but I think that pretty much sums it up. Playing with cousins, eating good food, opening TONS of presents and then playing with it all!

Nikolas pictures, what else?

Alexander got left out of the "holding the baby" pictures on that last blog, but trust me, it happens. He is so thrilled to have Nikolas. For the first several days after we got home he kept telling me "I like my new baby boy" or we'd say something about the baby and Xander would say, "and it WAS a boy!"

One day Alexander got hurt and he climbed up beside me on the couch and looked at Nikolas, who was asleep, and said "when he opens his eyes again I'm going to show him my blood". I guess it seemed like the perfect thing to do with a brother.


Here are a few pictures from Nikolas' latest photo shoot, he's only had a couple short ones so far, but as soon as I can bend and move more, he's in for a good long session.
He had not so silent observers who liked to jump in the shot.
I liked the look on his face in this one. Nikolas is totally not effected by the kids loud noises or constant motion. I know he's been hearing it for months now and he just doesn't even blink when the go yelling by his bed while he sleeps. He doesn't mind being hugged and kissed on either.
big yawn


We've had a good first week with Nikolas. He's a good boy, had a few long nights but he's getting that all straightened out now. He had boarder line jaundice, and we had to keep going back to the hospital to get him tested every day, but his numbers finally came down Wednesday (after Faron spent many days sitting by the window letting the sun light do it's work on Kole) so that's gotten all resolved without any medical intervention.

This has been my best C-section recovery, so that's handy since there are so many people all over me, not the best if you're in pain. I've had very little pain and feel almost back to normal already, a little slow and weak still, but feeling very good.

Nikolas was not to impressed with his first holiday today, but the rest of us enjoyed it and we were glad to have him "out" and with us!

more babiness

Here are some more pictures from the last couple of days that I wanted to share.


Ok, I know this pictures is a little gross, sorry, but this is the knot that was in Nikolas' umbilical cord, they called it a "true knot", I just think it's cool that I got to see it and see what God protected him from, who knows how long that knot has been there, and it could have meant tragedy at any point.ok, no more gross ones, here's the 5 of them all together at the hospital meeting for the first time.
We got to come home on Saturday, so here's Nikolas getting ready for his first car ride. I love how he's clutching his pacifier, making sure it's not going anywhere.

since we've been home there's been a lot of this going on.

Here's his coming home from the hospital outfit. All of our girls have worn the same outfit home and now all of our boys have too :)

The Baby Is Here!

Here is the latest addition to the Hopper Household:Nikolas Judah. He decided to show himself to us at 8:02 am. He weighed in at 8 lb 6 oz. and was 20 1/2" long. The nurse in the nursery said she thought he was about 37 weeks old due to his movement ratio and the wrinkles on his feet.

He Looks like Xan/Phia in the face. It might be that he will have 2 blonde boys....only time will tell



Moma is doing great. I Love this woman!

A quick note about the birth of Kola, he had a knot on his umbilical cord. The Dr. called him a miracle baby due to the knot being around the cord, yet God is still taking care of him and brought him through birth without it tightening up and choking him. When the Dr. showed it to me, the first thing I saw was the letter omega, which is the last letter assigned to God in Revelation 1:8 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Vera thought it could have been a really big deal after realizing what the Dr. said. Both of us have seen how God has had His hand on our lives these last few months and this is another sign of that providential influence.

May the Lord's blessings be upon you,
Faron

Playing in the leaves

We don't have many big established threes around here, so we don't have tons of leaves that the kids can play in, but we did manage to find a couple of trees who were dropping their leaves and have a little fun.

Isabella loves to be up a tree.
Notice that she lost her 2 front teeth in the recent weeks. that's 5 total now!

Sophia was on the ground so she did the raking.


And Isabella jumped from on high.
Sophia also reaped the benefits of her pile.


Xander really wants to climb the trees but he isn't quite tall enough to get up there on his own, so he was getting a little boost here. Once he gets up on the first branch he's good to go.
Ari required quite a bit of assistance, but she had a fun time.



Attempting a shot of all 4.
The toothless grin again.