Memorial Day

Being true to form, our little baby decided that he was ready to come on his due date, which happened to be Memorial Day. This is baby #3 that has had me up at 2 am with contractions on the exact day that he/she was expected to arrive. I got Jon up around 3:30 and after getting ready and the kids taken care of, we headed to the hospital around 4:30 am. Once I was checked-in and changed, a nurse came in to check me. Before she even hooked me up to any monitors or anything, she asked me if I was just there because it was my due date. I told her that I would have waited until a more reasonable hour to come in if I was just there because I expected my baby to come on his due date. But since I had dilated to a 5 and my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, they agreed to keep me. Unfortunately, since it was still so early in the morning, then my doctor wasn't on call and since it was a holiday when the clock reached 7 am, then he still wasn't on call. I reassured the nurse that the doctor had informed me that Dr. Tutt had nothing going on, since his wife was off at Girl's Camp. But she decided that she didn't want to call him very early and wanted to give him a chance to sleep in on his day off. So she called him around 8 am and he didn't return her page until around 8:30. Apparently he had got up early and gone on a bike ride, only about 16 miles! He said to give him an hour to get showered and changed and he would come and check me. He showed up shortly after 10 am and said that I was at a 7 . He broke my water then, which is what I was really waiting for. In fact, my contractions had slowed down so much that they had put me on pitocin to keep my contractions going. Since Dr. Tutt had nothing better to do, he sat and visited with Jon, my mom, and I about Girl's Camp and hiking at Camp Lomia, and also scouts and other random things. About 45 minutes after my water was broke, Dr. Tutt said that I looked like I was almost ready, so he went and changed. By the time he came back I was definitely ready and sweet little Owen was born at 11:07 am. He weighed 8 lbs 5 oz, which tied Savannah for my smallest baby. He was also 22 inches long, which was an inch smaller than Spencer. I was so happy to finally get Owen here and extremely grateful at how quickly he came. Of course, Jon was a happy daddy too. The girls were so excited to come and meet baby Owen. They love him so much and want to hold him all of the time. Here is our most recent family picture. Spencer liked meeting Owen, but wasn't as entertained by him as the girls were. The hospital was like a 2 year old's playground.I wanted to check out of the hospital the next day, June 1st, but Owen was jaundiced and so they had us stay longer. You can kind of see how yellow he was in this picture.It was really funny because the 2nd night, my nurse was someone that I knew from my parent's ward. She actually came and helped me out quite a bit when Savannah was very first born and was giving me trouble with nursing once I was home. So it was fun having Tracy check on us and she was too sweet to take Owen down to the nursery so I could get some extra sleep. Owen was still a little jaundiced the next day, but they let us come home and I took him to the pediatrician the following day just to make sure that he was doing alright. We've been doing quite well. Of course, I would love to get some more sleep, but Owen is quite a good sleeper. He definitely sleeps well whenever anyone snuggles with him. He loves being snuggled! The girls are always asking to hold him. Savannah is quite a good little helper. She seems to be able to keep Owen entertained too and can occasionally get him to smile. Melanie always has to be as close to Owen as possible. She always wants to kiss him and hold his hand. She drives me crazy when I'm trying to nurse. But Mel is a sweetheart and just loves little Owen! Spencer loves Owen too, usually. He's a little rough with him, so I fear for Owen's life sometimes. Spencer even tries hard to say Owen, which comes out as: O-hmm. Sorry, no pictures of Spencer and Owen. I don't trust Spencer with Owen long enough to take a picture. But we all love having Owen around. And I couldn't help but put this "Rad like Dad" shirt on Owen for Father's Day. He just can't wait to grow up and be like Daddy! We love our little O-hmm!

The Race is On

For those of you that are anxiously waiting, still no baby. The 20th came and went with no hope of our little guy coming. I am currently shooting for the 24th-26th. A girl can hope, right?

Well I told Savannah that we would have a race. She has her first loose tooth. So I told her that we would see if her tooth would fall out first or if the baby would come first. I know that that sounds ridiculous, because you would think that it would definitely be her tooth. But I'm telling you, that she has been claiming that that tooth was loose for the last 3 months. There were so many times when Jon and I would feel it and tell her that it wasn't loose and she would say that our fingers were too big and that we just couldn't feel it wiggle like she could. Well, it is finally loose, but it's been about the same amount of looseness since Wednesday night. I don't think that she wiggles it at all during the day. So it remains in places. In fact, on Wednesday she was practically in tears because she thought that she could feel a hole in her tooth with her tongue. I told her that it was just the space under the tooth and that it was just fine. But what would I know? It's not like I've ever lost any teeth. Nope, she wanted me to schedule her an appointment with the dentist. Luckily Daddy walked in about 2 minutes later and was able to resolve her fears. But the tooth still sits there. She is afraid to loose it, even though she really wants the tooth fairy to come.

So the race is on. Baby vs. Tooth. Feel free to vote for who you think will make their appearance first. Jon's dad says that it will hands down be the tooth, but I have my doubts, especially at the rate that the tooth is currently going...not that I have any room to talk though!

Nope, not yet

For those of you that were wondering, nope I haven't popped yet. I guess that I technically have 2 more weeks, but I keep telling myself that I only have about 1. I don't go early. Both Savannah and Spencer were born on their due dates, and Melanie was only early because we had her induced since Jon was taking the Bar on her due date. But I'm secretly hoping that our little dude comes this Thursday, the 20th, because it would make all of our family birthdays line up so nice and neat.
Savannah: July 28th
Melanie: July 20th
Spencer: May 28th
So that must mean that this little guy is going to come May 20th, right? Plus Jon's birthday is August 20th and our anniversary is December 20th. So I guess that I'm slightly fond of the 20th. Just don't tell my mom, because she'll be out of town that day...going up to Utah for my cousin's wedding.
However, I'm thinking that I'll actually go around the 24th-26th, just because I think that this due date isn't quite as accurate as my other ones. Jon thinks I'm silly, but I keep telling him that my super power is willing the baby to come on the date that I want him to come. I guess that only time will tell. And I'll let you know when he actually gets here.

The Beach

At the end of April, Jon ran in his 2nd Ragnar for the year, in LA. I decided that I didn't want to just sit around here at home, while he was out having wild, crazy fun. So I talked my sister into coming with the kids and I to LA. We stayed with some friends from law school, which was so much fun (I know that Jon was jealous that he barely got to see/visit with them). But the highlight of our trip was going to the beach. Savannah was the most excited to go. She ran down to the water right away and started playing. Unfortunately, it was very windy that morning and so it was quite cool. And of course, about her 2nd or 3rd trip down to the water she tripped and got all wet and sandy. This made her upset and she whined for a good long while because she was cold. She did get over it towards the end of our stay though because it started to warm up. Melanie was quite the opposite. She insisted that she wasn't going to get in the water and so she wouldn't even wear her swim suit to the beach. But we'd only been there for about 20 minutes when she decided that she wanted it on and was down playing in the water too. She had a great time and was a good helper on our castle! Spencer loved everything about it...being outside, the water, and the sand. No matter what I did, he was always sticking his face in the sand and he constantly had it in his mouth. We seemed to be continually trying to wipe it off of his tongue. But he loved every minute of it.My sister, Andrea, just wanted to build a sand castle. After a little time in the water, we spent most of our time working on our castle. It was complete with moat and had towers in the corners where the water could go under them. The castle was basically 3 boxes stacked on top of each other. But it took us quite a bit of time to accomplish it. And it was a miracle what we did get done, because we kept running into this little problem...Yeah Spencer, he was all over the place and oh so helpful. Here he is sitting in our moat. But overall we had a great time and can't wait to go back again. Here's our little crew down by the water. Bet you didn't know that my girls are pirates! Arrrr!

A little help

I am helping to throw a bridal shower for my sister-in-law-to-be. As most of you know, I'm not the most creative person, more like a "tell me exactly what to do and I'll do it" person. I want to do a little question and answer at the shower to see how well the happy couple knows one another. I've come up with a few questions for them and most of them are not very creative. So I was hoping that a few of you would give me a question or two that I could ask them. Thanks!

G-Day

Well it has come and gone...G-Day as Jon fondly refers to it, or to interrupt: Gender Day. Yes, we prefer to find out our baby's gender before we get to D-Day. Plus it makes for a great post-Christmas surprise. And then it gives Jon and I about 4 months to argue, I mean discuss, what to name our sweet baby. So for those of you that haven't yet heard, we are having another boy. I was even able to tell from the ultrasound. This news came as a relief for three reasons. First, it makes room assignments very simple. Secondly, my girls swore that they wanted a boy. And lastly, I didn't have to disappoint Melanie by telling her that we were having a girl and that we wouldn't be naming her Sparkles. I'm not sure where she came up with the name, but I thought that it was cute. In the meantime, Jon and I's debate on names continues and probably will for quite some time. I'll let you know if we actually agree on something. And if you're wondering, I'm actually feeling quite well. My morning sickness has finally passed and I can manage to go shopping, do the dishes and the laundry, and even make dinner occasionally. It's amazing how all the little things really add up. I'm only halfway there, but I know that the time will fly by quickly.

Happy Anniversary

7 years together and we love each other more and more!
Can't you tell?

The completed project

After lots of hours of manual labor, Jon did get Savannah's bed refinished. He completed it a little while ago, but it wasn't until this weekend that we got all of the bedding out and made it official. My mom gave us matching bedding for both Melanie and Savannah's beds that used to belong to my younger sisters. It's still in really good condition and of course the girls think that it's fabulous because it's new to them. It also took us most of the week to get the girls' room clean, so we were very proud of our final project. I think that Savannah's bed turned out great. She loves that she has a bed skirt and flat sheet, just like Mom and Dad's bed. Of course, she also likes the little decorative throw pillows too. Melanie really wants Daddy to get to work on her bed, so she can match Savannah. But she's happy with the throw pillows for now. We even got matching curtains to hang in the room. Those hadn't even been taken out of their packaging. Savannah was very excited that I let her help me iron them. And I think that they added just the right touch to the room. Now I just need to convince Savannah to leave them alone. She keeps taking the cute button ties off and letting the curtains just hang straight down. Silly little girl. But she was so proud of her new bed. Her and Melanie fell asleep in it together last night, and then Savannah was so excited to make her bed like a big girl, complete with pillows, this morning. I just hope that lasts.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

For those of you that have been dying to know how I've been feeling, well here it is.

Mostly, I've been tired. Melanie is such a little angel to just sit and look at books or color or watch a movie and let me nap. Rarely has she actually joined me, but she always lets me sleep and I don't have to worry that she's getting into trouble. Unfortunately, I've been so tired by 9:30 that I've fallen asleep while the kids watch cartoons. However, Spencer is not so nice to me while I'm napping and is usually trying to wake me up during those times.

I'm also starting to feel a little bigger. None of my regular pants fit comfortably, so I don't even bother wearing them. I drug my box of maternity clothes down. Luckily I organized it very nicely last time and was able to just grab a few pairs of pants off the top and so they are keeping me happy for now. I really do dread when I have to make the full switch to maternity clothing. Although it is fun to see some of my old clothes again that I haven't worn in a while.

Nausea is never fun, but has always been a part of my pregnant life. I have felt very blessed to not toss my cookies everyday or even close this time. I have had a number of very miserable points, mostly every evening. But I have actually been able to think of things that I would be willing to eat, lots of refried beans this time, and then keep it down. So far, I've only lost it 3 times, which is a great record for me. I used to be happy if I only lost it 3 times each week, but I'll take 3 times in total for this time around. Since I am now at 13 weeks, I'm hoping that the nausea ends soon. I know that Jon hopes so too, so he doesn't have to stay up and do the dishes every night. But I love him dearly for it and it really has helped me keep it together in the morning.

The girls are excited for a baby. Savannah says she wants it to be a boy, because she loves Spencer. Melanie was insistent that it is a girl and wouldn't let me talk of the possibility of having a boy; however, after listening to Savannah talk about having a boy a few times, I think that Melanie may have been won over to the boy vote. As for me, I'd love to have another boy so that Spencer could have another little guy to play with. He's only a year and a half and he's already rougher and tougher than Melanie by far! I think that he tackles/clobbers her at least once, if not more, on a daily basis. Of course, we'd all take a little girl in a heartbeat! You can never turn down a little sweet thing! Savannah is already asking if the baby is kicking and if she can feel it. I informed her that she's going to have to wait a while longer for that.

So that is the low-down on us. We're managing and hanging in there, some days better than others, but we're all still alive. Thanks for all of the love and concern!

Happy Halloween!

We had a nice Halloween! To get into the holiday spirit we went over to Jon's parents' for some pumpkin carving! Melanie had no problem gutting her pumpkin. I thought that it was funny that she didn't mind getting her hands all slimy! Savannah didn't mind the slimy hands either. Jon was good enough to carve both of the girls' pumpkins. Melanie wanted the exact same face as Savannah's pumpkin, so that worked out pretty easy for him. And the pumpkins turned out pretty cute too. We even got to have yummy pumpkin waffles that night! Thanks Auntie! They were really good! We also decided to make a few Halloween goodies. Here are our Tombstone brownies with Nutter Butter ghosts. The girls had fun helping for about 2 minutes and then Jon and I were left to finish them. I think that they turned out cute though. The anticipated night of Trick-or-Treating finally arrived and the girls didn't want to be what they originally planned. So here is my cute little Superman. It was about the only costume that I could come up with that didn't require Spencer to wear something on his head; he absolutely hates that. Savannah was a butterfly again, which she was 2 years ago. And Melanie decided on the Indian costume, which Savannah wore 3 years ago. Melanie insisted that she was the Indian Princess from the Peter Man movie; so there's our cute little Princess Tiger Lily. Jon and I also pulled some costumes together. I found almost all of the needed clothing at Goodwill, so I guess that it was meant to be. Jon went as Handy Manny and I was Kelly the Hardware Store owner. Of course, no one could tell who I was without Jon and even then it was still difficult. Oh well, we still had lots of fun and the kids got mounds of candy.Happy Halloween!

October Break

So the girls loved Disneyland so much that we decided to go back for October Break (along with about half of Arizona). It was certainly a little more crowded than we had hoped for, but we still had a fun time. Of course we took just a bunch of pictures, but what else do you do when you spend 4 days at the happiest place on earth? So I tried to narrow it down to just some of our favorite and least favorite moments.

Savannah's favorites: Seeing all of the characters. There were so many out, we probably did pictures with less than half of them. Princess Aurora is one of Savannah's absolute favorites.Since it was Halloween time, then they had a bunch of villains out too. She also got a picture with the Old Hag from Snow White. Melanie's favorites: Her absolute favorite ride was It's a Small World. We went on it 5 times! She really just loved it! We went to Mickey's Trick-or-Treat Party on Friday night. Melanie loved that she got to sit in the stroller and people gave her handfuls of candy. Her absolute favorite part was getting to see Cinderella that night. We looked for her all week and finally found her at 11 pm on Friday night. Melanie was so happy that she couldn't even take her eyes off of Cinderella. Melanie also does an excellent job of picking out exactly what she wants at Disneyland. She picked out a Minnie Mouse Polly-Pocket kind of doll. She absolutely loves it and was so happy that I let her play with it that night while we were waiting to watch the fireworks, that we ended up not staying around for.My favorite parts: I love Snow White. I was totally happy to actually get a picture with her this time. My only complaint, I think that we saw her 3 or 4 times, because they just released her movie. And of course I loved when Spencer finally fell asleep on our first day there. Yeah, he didn't take a nap and was awful for the last 4-5 hours or so.And you have to be totally impressed that we managed to get Spencer to sleep on the 2nd day while we waited in line. Unfortunately, this was a short lived victory. He woke up the second I tried to put him in the stroller.Jon's favorites: Getting into the main park an hour early for one Magic Morning. You can't really tell, but they were the only ones on this ride! It was nice to be able to go on about 5 rides in 25 minutes! Everyone's favorites: Hanging out with old law school friends and their girls that we don't get to see nearly enough. We were so happy that they would let us stay with them and then come and go with us to the park a few of the days! We all loved the parades. Got to love that Pixar Parade. Where else are you going to see flames coming out of a baby's head and think that it's totally cool?Jon also commented that he thought that the army guys were pretty cool. Then the Celebration Parade at the Main Park put Mickey and Minnie right in front of us. Definitely a nice way to see them up close and personal. And the parade was so interactive that Savannah loved it. Melanie was kind of scared to death, but she was that way a lot on this trip. I ended up holding her during the parade because the characters were a little to close for her comfort.
Our least favorite parts: Standing in line! It's always such a pain and Spencer always ups the level of difficulty.Oh yeah, did I mention that we went on It's a Small World 5 times? Some of us were a little sick of it by the last time or even 3 times before that. We also hated taking sleeping children back into California Adventure for the Trick-or-Treat party. Yes, we were the ones taking sleeping kids back into the park. Yeah it was fun, but Melanie slept almost the whole time and refused to go on any of the rides. Thankfully, Spencer stayed with our friends and was asleep the entire time we were gone!And Melanie claims that she was excited to see Aurora again, but it was just too funny, because look at her little face. She's thinking: "Aurora, get out of the way. Cinderella is standing right over there!"

It was such a tiring and fun trip. We were glad that the kids pretty much done with the colds that they had the week before, so we could enjoy everything. I think that this is the only picture of all of us together. We had a good time, but I think that it will be a while before we venture back again.

School Ramblings

For those of you that have talked to me in the last week, you know that I've been a little stressed about Savannah going to all-day Kindergarten. I really would prefer for her to be in half-day, but our elementary school doesn't offer it. I do have the option in having her ride the bus to a nearby school so she can do half-day. I just don't know that I want her to not be just down the street from home. Anyways, Savannah has really enjoyed her week, but she comes home so tired. I wish that I could let her take a little nap, but she gets home so late in the day that she would stay up all night if she took a nap.

The girls had their yearly check-ups on Friday and I talked with our pediatrician a little about all-day vs. half-day, and it really made me start to wonder if I should have put her in the half-day class. After debating over the options all weekend, I think that we're just going to stick with the all-day and tough it out. I know that she loves getting to play on the playground, even though she informed me that she doesn't know how to make the swings go, and she enjoys getting to take her lunch to school. I guess that I'm just not quite ready to have her all grown up yet; I want to keep her at home as much as possible.

And for those of you that were wondering, I didn't cry when I took Savannah to school the first day. I was so happy and excited for her and just so proud of her too. But I did cry when I picked her up on her first day and I asked her how her day was and she said, "I thought Kindergarten was going to be fun, but it wasn't! It was boring!" It just made me sad to think that she had been gone all day and she didn't think that she had any fun. I know that she has had a good time though, because she keeps going on and on about the different things that she's done. She's really enjoyed PE and Music and she's even made a little friend. So I'm hoping that this second week is a little more fun for her and that I become a little happier about being back to school.

Snowflake

I have an aunt and uncle that live in Snowflake and I haven't been up to visit them since Savannah was a baby. So I decided that we would stop there on our way home from New Mexico to try and break up our trip. The weather was wonderful and we had such a great time. Savannah got to ride my cousin's horse, Spliff. She totally loved it! Melanie was forced to also ride and cried the entire time. She later claimed it was fun, but wouldn't do it again. I was surprised that Melanie really wanted to hold their baby goose though. Savannah liked the goose too and it kept following her around, to which she said, "I'm not a mommy goose!" The kids also loved jumping on the trampoline. I just loved the how green everything was and the cool weather. I also took the kids over to see the Snowflake Temple. It was so beautiful outside and we all loved it. Melanie loved the waterfall and all of the pretty flowers. Spencer just wanted to get into everything...the dirt, the water, anything he could. Luckily, Grandpa followed him around and kept him out of trouble.Savannah was a little disappointed that she didn't get to go inside, but she still really enjoyed walking around the outside. As a quick side story, Savannah stopped to look at a bug and so I stopped with her. My Dad and sister took the other kids ahead and when we turned to go and catch up with them a snake had come out of the shrubs onto the sidewalk! It totally scared me and so I grabbed Savannah's arm and pulled her up onto the planter. The snake took a look around and decided to go back into the bushes. It was yellow with black stripes. Needless to say I was a little paranoid about the pretty flowers after that. Here's Melanie touching the temple, like President Monson told all of the children to do! And I need to tell Sarah thank you for riding with me all the way to New Mexico and back! She made this trip possible, since I did it without Jon. The girls loved spending so much time with you! And here's me and my Meli! Other highlights of the trip included playing dress-up with cousins. And of course, roller skating in the house. Who could ask for more fun than that? We all loved it and only wished that Jon had been with us.