SO CUTE

Ok, I could die, this little man is SO CUTE.

He was alert this evening and looking around at us all as we squealed at his adorableness.

I can already tell that he's got his father's big beautiful eyes.

His cord fell off this afternoon so I put a onesie on him. This will stay on better than the little hospital shirt since it snaps around his bottom.

But we had to put the socks on his hands so he doesn't scratch that precious face. Here is Natalie holding him this morning before kindergarten.

She's happy to have some time to hold him in the mornings, when everyone else is gone at school and she gets to be the oldest helper at home.

Owen and Daniel have been doing great with him too. They haven't been harassing him at all. They are doing their own thing and like to hold him when they have a chance. 

I took these pictures at 1 am this morning. He was wide awake, and I thought he might be pulling a newborn Daniel 1 a.m. move on me and that this would be the only time I could get some pictures of him alert. 

 Oh he's so pretty. We love this little person. (We'll try to figure out a name for you soon!)

Back Home

We are back home. We arrived at 8:40 pm. The kids had been calling us at the hospital from 6:00 on about every 10 minutes asking if we were on our way yet. "No, they're not done doing tests on the baby..." "Ahh!" they'd say as they let out a pained cry. I actually wasn't sure if we'd come today or not. I wanted to, just to start to get going on being in control of my life again, but for practical purposes I thought maybe I'd stay... The baby didn't pass his hearing screening on his right ear so I'd have to schedule an appointment to bring him in on Monday, but if I was still a patient they'd just do it again in the morning. Hmmm. And he would need another bilirubin test too, so if I went home I'd have to bring him back Thursday for that. What to do. I eventually decided to come home cause I was sick of sitting on the bed in that room and would like to walk on the treadmill. Plus I thought the kids might die if I didn't bring their baby brother home asap. So - after consulting with Nicole, who is always able to help me know what I want to do, I decided to come home. Many anxious arms were ready to hold him when we arrived. We teased them and didn't unlock the car right away, they were like mobbing the van to try and get in! It was funny. We got inside the house and had to start setting the timer - 5 minutes each so everyone can get a quick fix, and then we'll do another round for longer...

"My turn! My turn!" "I'm next!"

Natalie's face shows what it looks like when your turn is over... also very similar to what is looks like when you have to wait 5 more minutes for your turn with the new baby.

All these anxious little mothers...

Something funny - on Monday night when they came and saw us at the hospital, after they moved me from Labor and Delivery to the patient room and got me settled, the nurse asked if there was anything else we needed or anything she could do for us. Corey looked at her and said "Do you have more babies?" Ha, she laughed and so did I. Yeah, we need a few more to keep all these big kids happy and their eager arms full! It's good to be home. 

He's Here!

Hello hello it's January 14th! Today finally came, and hip hip hooray - we've got a new baby boy. Born around 7pm, 7 pounds, 8 ounces. He's a cutie!

Here are the details of the day - I woke up several times during the night and tried to keep resting, but got up for good at 4:38 am after dreaming about a fire starting in our bedroom closet (I think I'll moved the blog books downstairs to the main floor...) So, I was on the treadmill at 4:48 and got in my 3 miles. Did 1.5 miles then paused for a bathroom break, back on and finished 3 miles total at 5:55 am. My weight was really good this pregnancy, I'm about 10 pounds less than I was with Daniel, and I was about 10 lbs less with Daniel than I was with Owen, so go me. If I can really get my weight down and match or beat my 6 week appointment weight after Hyurm was born (144), then this pregnancy and delivery will beat out my in shape self from 15 years ago, which would leave me totally impressing myself. So we'll see!

So when I called the hospital at 7 this morning, they said to call back at 10 (nooooo...). So I layed down for a short nap before getting the girls up for school. I just called back. I called this morning at 7:05, 5 min past 7, so I'm hoping I wasn't too slow and the elective inductions had already filled up. So since I had been 5 min late earlier, I figured it was okay for me to call 5 min early at 9:55 this time. The nice lady said they were still packed with people, but then said "why don't you just plan on coming in at 12:30... we'll make it happen!" Yay, I was happy to say "Ok!" and quickly hang up before she changed her mind and told me something different. So I finished packing a few things and picked up Abi from school around noon to come babysit Owen and Daniel during their naps. Natalie went to a friends house at noon and they took her to the bus and we were on our way - hallelujah!

12:20 - Corey gave me a blessing
12:30 - At Hospital - went to room 209, answered a hundred questions, started pitocin at 1:48. - hooray this is happening! This is my "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S FINALLY CHRISTMAS!!!!!" happy face.

- Corey and I were listening and laughing at Jim Gaffigan's "4 kids" sketch, then kept listening to him, funny stuff - kids, camping, bacon, cake, weddings, McDonalds.
- Broke my water at 3:30, epidural in at 3:45
- I was dilated to a 5 at 6:00, they called Dr. Smith to give him an update. They started to get the room ready.
- At 6:50, I was fully dilated, they called him again. Then I felt different, I'm glad I was able to tell with the epidural, I told the nurse "It feels like his head is right there...." We lifted the blanket and yep, head was out. "Should I push?" I asked my nurse Sue, and I didn't really waited for her reply of "Yeah" and I just pushed as she was saying it, and out our little boy came onto the bed. I got to hold him for the next hour before they weighed him.

Heaven! 

7 lbs, 8 oz, 19 inches.

Corey and the kids came at 8:30 when I was still in the labor and delivery room. This is Daniel's "I guess this means I'm not the baby anymore" face...

Yup, buddy, you've been bumped. But we still love you! Of course everyone wanted to hold the baby. They each got a quick turn - I need to get more pics from Corey's phone, but here are the kids I was able to snap photos of from the bed or that Hyrum took with my phone. Natalie -

All these little future mothers are very excited - Lily -

Abi -

Mel - "He's so little!!!!"

We let the boys have turns too, I only got a picture of Wes - 

They moved me over to a nice patient room 225 with my entire entourage with me, new nurse was Kim, she was cute. My legs were still immobile from the epidural, so I got to ride a wheelchair. Daniel was at my feet asking to hold the baby "I hold it? I hold it?" Natalie had my phone and took this picture, I love how it captured his little eager outstretched hands asking for a turn - 

I had Daniel and the new baby on my lap. We got a group picture.

It was a smooth delivery, feeling very blessed. The Lord has been abundant with us. 

Natalie's First Lost Tooth

The first lost tooth is kinda a big deal. Natalie had her big moment tonight. It was very very loose, it was sticking about half a baby tooth length higher and up out of the gums than the other bottom teeth, but Natalie wouldn't let me wiggle it or touch it. She wanted it to come out on it's own. Luckily Abi came to my aid, not intentionally, but Abi and Natalie were wrestling on the bed and kicking each other with their feet and Abi kinda heeled Natalie in the mouth and knocked it over to a 90 degree angle, and then Natalie finished the job and pulled it out.

Corey told her that she's broken and can't go to school now, but Natalie assured him that lots of kids have lost teeth and they can still go to school. And the tooth fairy remembered to put a dollar under Natalie's pillow before she (the tooth fairy, aka me) went to bed, so even that part is taken care of, go me.

And here's a picture of Corey reading to the girls tonight before bed. He always gets a set of books from Costco for Christmas that he can read to the kids. He's a good dad.

I've got 4 days to go until delivery day. Abi asked if she could give me a foot massage tonight, and I gave an enthusiastic yes. Abi, Sophi, and Natalie lotioned my propped up feet and hands as I sat in Owen's chair.

It was really nice, I think I'll let them do it again today. Abi offers to give me a back massage regularly too, maybe I'll also order one of those from her home salon. I've got good kids. They make a mess and we've got a long way to improving things so this place runs smoothly, but they're good. My sons are good too, but none of them pamper me like Abi. My daughters are very nice to me, thank you pretty girls.

Joseph is 19!!!

Happy Birthday to our wonderful missionary in Guatemala!

What a great kid, we love that smile! In typical Latino fashion, Joseph got his face shoved in his cake.

Fun news is that the package I sent Dec 29th arrived at the mission home yesterday and they delivered it last night, and it was a total surprise, he loved it! Yay! But I think the present he was most excited about was getting a mission companion.

Yeah, so Elder Flinders showed us up but that's okay. Joseph has been in a trio for the past 2 weeks and has had to find members from his ward to go on splits with him if he wanted to work in his area of Lo De Coy. It's been hard and stressful but he's had a great attitude. I hope he's having a great day. We celebrated here tonight in his honor with some of Joseph's favorite ice cream (Kroger's Chocolate Cookie Crumble) and chocolate cake.

Singing Happy Birthday to Joe with 19 candles on the cakes - 8 on one and 11 on the other. Daniel was super cute blowing out the candles!

Here is his letter from this week and more pictures.

Galaxy Painting

Good news! My goal to finish blogging 2018 by today was accomplished and I put together the blog books. It was a bit of a pain, cause they only let you have 1150 pictures in a book, and I had a total of 2317. At first I thought I was only 12 over, so I went back and deleted a few duplicate pictures, like a few of the pictures of Natalie with the monarch butterfly and some of my plethora of fall color pictures. But then it still wouldn't work, and I found out I was over 60 pictures too many. And there was no way I could go back and delete/filter out that many, so I had to order 3 volumes of 2018 - one is from January 1st through June 26 when Joseph left for Guatemala, Volume 2 will be the smallest volume documenting the rest of the summer break, and then the 3rd volume is School starting through New Years Eve. So, I'm kinda bummed I had to separate it into 3 different books, but oh well. What can ya do. I'm glad it's done. So that was my big project to finish this week and before the baby comes. The older kids have been busy too - the end of the term is this week. Hence, they've been finishing up projects, making up assignments, and retaking tests. Melodie was working on an art painting tonight. This is what it looks like right now - 

The left side of the painting there used to have something else on it though...

That was how it looked at first - Mel wanted to put a picture of a girl looking up at the galaxy. She did a sketch, outlined it with the white paint, but when she started to paint it in, it didn't quite look right... Hmm, how do I paint a dark night portrait of a girl? Do I use gray? That's not it... She did that part at school and people in class, knowing she's a good artist, came by occasionally to see what she was doing... but she hid it "NO! Don't look!"

It kinda looked more green, she thought it looked like an alien head. She brought it home to try to fix it but she was at a loss, so then she just started being silly and ruined it more - we were all laughing.

We were laughing pretty hard. Yeah, scratch all that - she painted over it.

Blurry picture there cause we were laughing - She's not sure if she'll try to put the face on there again, or some trees, or more stars.

Mel is a funny kid, sometimes she's really goofy and really makes us laugh. Here are two of my other favorite memories with goofy Mel - with broken glass and her concert clothes characters. It was fun to get in a good laugh tonight!

One More Week

Well, I'm at 38 weeks today, we are almost there, just one more to go. I had my doctor appointment today and I'm now scheduled for an elective induction next Monday, hallelujah. So I called and preregistered at the hospital so I should be good to go unless they are really busy next Sunday night/Monday morning, as painfully happened to me just once (with Natalie and I had to wait two more days, such torture!). So that's the most exciting news of the day.

Daniel might be helping us get ready for the baby transition by taking a nap a few times in the chair, which was Owen's spot. Owen has moved to the floor when he sees Daniel in the chair. Yay, that frees up the crib for the new baby. But he'll be by our bed for a few months, so we still have time for the kids to transition to the new spot they're being bumped too. Daniel's not the baby anymore! (Might also be why he's being a little more clingy than usual, he might sense somethings coming...)

In other news, Corey decided over the weekend that it is time to potty train Owen. Isn't that just awesome timing? (I'm being sarcastic...) Corey is usually more anxious about this transition of toddlerhood progression than I am. I admit I don't understand the urgency he feels about it - I don't think it's the cost of diapers, or the wear of diapers on the environment... and what else is there? He might want to help Owen mature and feels the confidence gained by this independence will help him give up his pacifier, which I'm also not anxious about... I'm ok to let him keep it until he'd done with it, he mostly just uses it at night and naps anyway which I'm fine with. But I'm not ready and I don't really think Owen is quite ready to be toilet trained. He has not showed any interest. Daniel seems to be more interested that Owen. I told Corey how I felt but said I will give him one week where I will play along, but once I've got a nursing baby attached, I am not going to worry about jumping up to help a toddler make it to the potty over nursing the newborn. I tried that once with Joseph after Ethan was born. I was a first time parent and thought I should train Joseph cause I didn't want to or shouldn't be spending so much of our budget on 3 kids in diapers. And all I remember is that it didn't work, cause I'd be sitting on the couch nursing, then Joseph would come for help, I'd start to set Ethan down, and then J would wet on the carpet. Lesson learned, it's not worth the stress or the mess. I've been a little unanxious about potty training our kids since. It appears that most humans figure it out, and so I verily believe that when my kids are ready, they will figure it out.

So Saturday Owen was in tears crying for a diaper to be put on him, and Corey left to get his car washed, so I saw my opportunity to cave in. (...I guess I might not even be playing along for a week like I said, sorry sweetie, I'm weak. I don't have much fight in me!) But yesterday, Owen did a great job. He showed much interest and was sitting like a champ, although without much action.

He had great sibling support from Natalie, who sat with him (she could cause Corey bought two potties on Saturday) and then she'd instruct Owen that it was time to stand up and trade spots - funny.

So, one more week, potty training, and I'm hoping my nesting instinct kicks in and I can clean the house this week, since I've been pretty worthless the past month. I have been blogging a lot the past few days though - I caught up on a few missed dates in August so I finally finished blogging August yesterday, and I also finished September, yay, and October and November were done, so now I just need to finish December. I wasn't homemaking or blogging much last month, I was just dragging my feet around each day. But there is a blog2print deal that expires tomorrow, so my #1 priority is to finish blogging December and thus finish 2018 and get those ordered by midnight tomorrow. That's a good task to get checked off before the baby is here. Just one more week, I think I'm gonna make it.

Busy Saturday

Today was a good and busy day. Corey was really on one, and I mean in a good way. I had a pretty normal last trimester Saturday morning - I woke up at 5:07 cause I hate sleeping right now as much as I hate being awake, so I went to the temple. I went to Draper, and it was so busy that even though I got there at 5:40, the 6:00 session was already full and the next one wasn't until 7, and I did initiatories yesterday and wanted to do a session before baby comes, so I left and drove out to Jordan River. That place was also packed and it looked like I could be waiting until the 7:00 session there too. Doh. But as I went in the chapel, I was fortunately directed to the end of the row by the door, so when they asked if anyone needed assistance (aka the elevator) I jumped up and played the pregnancy card so I could get in early. So I made the 6:20 session by butting in line. So yay, I was done in time to get home to take Wes to UYJSO. I got back home at 8:15, took him, went to Costco as I waited for his rehearsal to finish, and that was my morning.

Wesley is going on tour with his Little Big Band next week to the JEN Conference in Reno (Jazz Education Network). He had two four hour rehearsals this past week - one on Wednesday and another one last night. He said it was cause the saxophones didn't have their parts down, so the director just had the whole band come in again. He was there from 4-8 on Wednesday and 4-8 last night. When I woke him up at 8:15 to hurry and get ready for Orchestra, he was barely even conscious when he started to cry that he didn't want to go, he was tired, he never gets to sleep in on Saturdays anymore...  I told him I was sorry and that we'd buy sushi on the way home. "Good news is that you don't have to go next week! That's good news, right?" So he got up, and Corey was awake too and gave Wes a littel more motivation by saying that each time he does these hard things, doing things he doesn't want to do, and obediently goes to his rehearsals, Corey will put some $ toward his school Ballroom tour to California that Wes is trying to save for. That gave him the energy to get ready and go.

So after orchestra, we got home with lots of groceries and sushi and as we started to bring it in, the whole kitchen was super clean. The kids had helped a lot and he was ready take them out for a reward. Sophi has asked this past week to get her ears pierced. We haven't had any of our girls this young have it done (she's 7) but I don't really have anything against it, and neither does Corey, and Sophi was being very sweet about it, so she cleaned her room today and then Corey said he'd take her. The girls all went on the outing to the mall.

He also announced that it's time to potty train Owen (oh yay...) so he was taking Owen to go buy a potty and some new underwear. They were all gone running errands for a while. After they got home, Corey took Abi and Owen skiing for a bit.

They went up to Alta for just 2 hours.

I think they stayed the whole time on a little hill that Owen could practice on.

Corey's good cause he can ski backwards and goes down backwards with Owen in front of him higher on the hill coming toward him. I didn't ski as a kid, so I can't do stuff like that.

Look at those happy faces. Good times, you kiddos have a really good father. Here area  few other pictures from Corey's phone  that I havent' posted yet - these are the first time skiing on Dec 8th- the day of Kelsey's wedding (which is also why were were running late and barely made it in there in time!)

Owen had probably gone skiing with Corey the most.

Corey said it's fun cause Owen wants to do it by himself even though he's not that good. We like that confidence.

Corey teaching Owen to ski, and I try to teach them a little bit of yoga now and then. Not that I'm super into yoga, but I do some stretches everyday. Owen joined me a few weeks ago, and Corey snapped this picture (28 Dec). Owen tried really hard and did great, it warmed my heart. Cute kids.