Welcoming Miles

We are so thrilled to announce the arrival of our 4th child, Miles Griffeth Rapp, on March 9 at 9:13 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 10 oz, and is 19 inches long. Chis and I had such a great day together as we anxiously awaited his arrival. I was scheduled to be induced, so my mom was able to come and stay with our other children while Chris kept me company as I labored. I was very comfortable and we really had a great time welcoming this little miracle into our lives. We feel extremely blessed to add another healthy baby boy to our family. The kids were so anxious to come and meet him, and at their request, we celebrated Miles's birth with a cute little cake! Jonah is a very proud big brother, and Mia naturally fulfills the motherly role. She was immediately telling little Brady, "Be soft Bwady, don't squeeeeze him". We'll have our hands full just trying to protect our new baby from Brady. Mandi is feeling great and anxious to completely recover. We can't wait to take little Miles home and watch him grow!

my little beauty

My friend, Tara Painter, came to visit, and snapped these cute pictures of Mia to decorate her room with. Tara has a very artistic eye and did these pictures in seriously 3 minutes. Thanks a bunch! I'm excited to put them in some frames in her room. Have I mentioned how fun it is to have a girl?!

happy valentine's day

When I woke up this morning, I found my husband had gotten up much earlier and MADE this amazing fruit bouquet! What a sweetheart! He saw these advertised, and thought, "I could make that", and so he gave it a try. He said he even pulled out some very manly tools to do it (hacksaw, needle-nose plier, and wire cutters) I thought it looked FABULOUS! And the fruit was absolutely heavenly too--strawberries stuffed with white chocolate, pineapple, and cantelope. I love how thoughtful he is and willing to spend time to make me happy. I love you honey!!

mia's big girl room

With our next baby due to arrive in a few weeks, we decided that we should get rid of atleast one crib, so Mia was graduated to her big girl bed!! She affectionately calls this her "princess room", and just adores it. It's a work in progress, but it has been very fun thinking PINK lately. I'm going to love spoiling her in a household of boys. She has started to show her feminine side more and more lately, featuring the drawn-out emotional break-downs and drama, which I never experience with my boys. She sure is a girl!

a christmas to remember......

First of all, I have to emphasize that there was absolutely no photo editing done on this picture. What you see is what we had to clean-up! My mother-in-law managed to capture this moment on film last christmas morning. Needless to say, Mia had the stomach flu. Chris's face is priceless. I can almost hear him screaming like a girl. I'm doing just what I appear to be doing--screaming "NO" at my husband who didn't get the bowl in front of her in time! I also like how Jonah is completely oblivious to what is happening. Poor Mia. She was such a trooper and didn't let being sick stop her from enjoying Christmas. We still had a great day, but I hope that we can all be healthier this year!

Merry Christmas!

a weekend get-a-way

After leaving our kids with my sister, Melissa (I owe her big!!), I met Chris in San Antonio, where he was completing a two week CE course. Time away from eachother, along with my pregnancy and our young kids, all added up to equal a much needed get-a-way. Chris picked me up at the airport with a rose in his hand, and we headed straight to the San Antonio's famous "River Walk". It was seriously breath-taking! We loved this quaint and picturesque part of town so much, that we ate dinner there every night! The boat ride was so fun, the food was great, and we couldn't have asked for better weather. We walked around holding hands, shopped, ate lots of ice cream, visited the Alamo, watched movies, slept (12 hours one night!) and enjoyed being together. We both fell in love with San Antonio and our time there.

It's a boy

We are thrilled to announce that we'll be having another boy in March. My due date is March 15th. I'm finally starting to feel better and the baby looks healthy, so we couldn't be happier. I have lots of work to do to get the boys' room ready for another one to join. Luckily, the boys room is the biggest, so it should fit all 3 of them fine. Mia will get to enjoy her own room for now, but she is a little disappointed that she's not getting a girl baby. Jonah KNEW it was a boy from the very beginning, because he "asked Heavenly Father for a boy baby". I didn't doubt that he was right =)

graduation

What an incredible day for our family! I've never been more proud of my husband and this ENORMOUS accomplishment of graduating from Dental School. I love thinking about Chris's rocky start in college. He was the first in his entire extended family to attend college. He and his parents didn't know about general classes and how they fit into a major, so Chris's freshman year was full of randomness in his schedule. I'm sure he had fun, but none of those classes really helped him toward a degree. Like many young men, he learned a great work ethic on his mission, and came home determined to do well in college. When I met Chris, he mentioned that he would like to be a dentist, but he really didn't think he could do it. I, of course encouraged him to follow his dreams and I hoped that this would all work out for us. When we got a phone call at 6 am one morning with an acceptance into dental school, that was a great accomplishment, but we knew that we still had 4 hard years ahead of us. Those years were difficult in some ways. Chris got very little sleep and studied A LOT. I birthed 3 kids and also got very little sleep, but the years have also been highlighted with so many sweet memories, and so many friends who made the journey very enjoyable. So here we are, 4 years later, with a full blown family, a place to call home, and a career for my husband.....I couldn't be happier. I'm so proud of you honey. Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication and sacrifices to provide a stable future for us. We love you!

our new home

We are SO happy to be in our new home. We still have some more unpacking and organizing to do, but for the most part we are just enjoying the space. Chris loves his job, although he is glad that he only has 4 years contracted with the Air Force. He'll be excited to be in private practice after this location. I took pictures of some of our main living areas. The babies were napping, so no pictures of their rooms yet =) We love the extra loft space that is used as a play room for the kids. It's so nice to have this room in such a convenient location. We also have an unfinished basement, which houses all the really annoying, but fun toys (bikes, trikes, ball pits, tunnels, tents, basketballs, soccer nets, etc...) It's a great place for the kids to be wild, and not destroy anything! Once I start feeling better, we'll think about painting...there's always something to do.

happy birthday jonah

Jonah turned 4 and we decided to celebrate with style....so we took a trip to Chuck-e-cheese. I have to admit that I have NEVER been there before, not even as a kid! Jonah has seen the commercials and just new without a doubt that he had to celebrate his birthday there. We were able to get lots of his friends to come and we had a ball!! Thanks to everyone for coming and making it such a special day for Jonah. There were non-stop smiles from all 3 of my kids. It was our last get together with our friends in Kansas City before we moved, so it's very special to us for that reason too. Transformers was the theme, since it's all Jonah can think about these days. He was thrilled with all the loot he recieved. Happy Birthday Jonah! We love you!