It finally snowed for like the second time this winter. We were way excited that it was on a Saturday morning and we could all go out and play (well, Joe and I took turns staying inside with Benjamin). Here are some pictures of the fun we had in the snow. It’s a good thing we took advantage of the morning, because our snowmen started melting and falling over only an hour after we made them.
Alisa and Hyrum loved making snowmen outside.
Joe’s snowman ended up having 2 heads.
I can’t believe it has been one month since Benjamin was born. (And I can’t believe I am doing a blog post on time instead of 2-4 weeks late.) He is such a great baby. I was really worried at first as his nights and days were switched way more than any of my other kids. During his first week, he wanted to stay up all night long and would only sleep if you held him. He would wake up the instant you put him in his bed. I was so grateful to have help from Joe and my mom during that hard week. It seemed like Benjamin just wanted to nurse all night long and then he would sleep the day away. We ended up trying 2 things that really helped. We woke him up from naps during the day so that he wouldn’t sleep longer than 2 hours at a time (to encourage him to sleep more at night). We also gave him a pacifier when he was a week old. We knew he was getting enough milk from nursing and the pacifier was to help satisfy his need to nurse-especially at night. It felt like Benjamin’s sleeping habits improved overnight. I’m sure it was gradual, but he now is a great little sleeper at night. He now does three nursings fairly close together (like 8, 9 and 10 pm) and then falls asleep in his bed and sleeps until about 4-5 am. Then he nurses and goes back to sleep again until 7 or 8. I have been really grateful to sleep from about 11-7 and only have to nurse twice during that time. And he also falls asleep pretty quickly after nursing. I just feed him and then put him back in his bed and go back to sleep myself. I feel so blessed. I still don’t always feel well rested in the morning, but I am glad that I can nap most days if I need to.
I am also very grateful that I can nurse without a lot of pain. I had an extremely painful sore that has finally healed.
Benjamin weighed 10 pounds 5 ounces at his two week checkup, and was 22 inches. Most people’s response to seeing Benjamin for the first time is “He doesn’t look anything like your other kids.” Benjamin is a very calm baby and rarely cries, except when he is hungry, has a burp, or is tired. He has smiled every now and again, but never consistently. He also randomly giggled for the first time a week ago Sunday. It was hilarious. We love him so much.
wrapped up ready for sleep
my three cute kids
Happy Birthday Hyrum!
Hyrum turned 2 on December 29th last year. He enjoyed opening his presents and playing with them. He also really enjoyed his snowman cake and the ice cream that went with it.
The snowman cake: it was super easy and the inspiration came from Family Fun.
Can you tell that Hyrum loved his snowman cake?
Hyrum was totally focused on eating
And here is a little bit profile about Hyrum
Age: 2 years
Height: 34.5 inches
Weight: 26 pounds
Clothes size: 18 months and 2T tops and 2T bottoms
Shoe size: 5.5
Favorite Foods: Cheese, Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets (from Costco), hot dogs, yogurt, “baby oranges” (cuties), any desserts
Favorite Stuffed Animal: His new stuffed elephant that Grandma S* gave him for Christmas
Favorite Phrase: Do-it (And he says it all the time!)
Favorite Color: Orange
Favorite Pet: Zoe, and I’m pretty sure he would love to have a dog, but he’ll have to keep dreaming.
Favorite Toys: his “tracks,” cars, plastic animals, his baby (yes, it’s ok for boys to have babies).
Favorite Songs: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. He also likes many others. When you ask him which song to sing, he says “Ummmm …” until you suggest something and then he laughs and nods yes.
Favorite Book: “Moo, Baa, La La La” and anything that has animals, trucks, or dinosaurs in them.
Vocabulary:Hyrum knows lots of words, although he is not speaking full fledged sentences yet like Alisa was when she was 2 (maybe because he can only get 2 words in amidst Alisa’s nonstop chattering). He has started saying many 2 word phrases such as:
Friends: Alisa, Sam P*, Brendan B*
Favorite Activities:
Pictures
playing with Play-doh at the kitchen table
riding a horse at our reunion this summer
excitedly clapping at Christina’s graduation
“helping” me by peeling carrots
playing in the snow, looking mostly like an astronaut
I made this Quiet Book for my kids for Christmas. I was very impressed with how it turned out. And because I got most of the ideas and templates from servingpinklemonade.blogspot.com, I was able to make it in about 3 weeks while waiting for Benjamin to be born (probably a good thing he came late). I also made two at the same time, and gave one to my sister Valerie for Christmas (she has twin boys that are Hyrum’s age). Because I knew I couldn’t make 4 of them, I made them so that the pages are removable and the kids can take turns doing different pages.
The quiet book was well received by my kids. Although I have yet to take it to church with both kids. We have to break it in a little bit, or I am afraid it wouldn’t be too quiet in church. I hope it works, because Alisa is rarely quiet and still. Her mouth is always moving. I’ve let her play with it during her quiet time while Hyrum is napping and I think we can almost take it to church without her giving everyone around us a running commentary of how to play with the book.
The quiet book I made has 12 pages. Unless otherwise specified, the ideas for the pages came from the website above.
Outside front cover
Inside cover page
Kite page: the kite pieces are a puzzle which are fastened on with Velcro.
Artist pallet: the kids enjoy matching the colors and then painting anything and everything.
Season Tree: decorated with spring blossoms
Season Tree: decorated with summer leaves
Season Tree: decorated with fall colors
Season Tree: left bare for winter
(As you can see this is a page devoted to learning about snaps. All the pieces are stored in the grass pocket.)
Barn page
The barn doors open to reveal 3 finger puppets.
Road page: all the road signs are attached with Velcro and are interchangeable, the car parks in the blue garage.
Tithing page: I made up this page in memory of a page in a quiet book I remember playing with when I was young. There are ten felt coins so you can place one in the envelope along with a felt tithing slip.
Jonah and the Whale: I am really proud of how this page turned out. It’s another one I made up to try and mimick the one from my youth. I did get templates for Jonah here.
Faces: the blue square is a pocket that holds a bunch of different facial features. I got the idea here.
Here are the choices for eyes, noses, and mouths
a sample
Mailbox: there are also three pieces of “mail” addressed to each of my three kids.
Doll: There are felt dress up pieces stored in the pocket on the right.
I don’t think I have ever had a more interesting Christmas. Except for maybe the one when I was young and someone left us presents in our family’s van. But that one was memorable because we knew our family wasn’t going to have much of a Christmas and we don’t know where the presents came from. This one was memorable because I have never heard of anyone being afraid to open presents. But I will get to that later. Christmas 2011 was also made special because of the birth of Benjamin. Having a baby 9 days before Christmas helps you think ahead and be prepared. It also helps you reflect a lot on Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ. And we had a perfect actor for Baby Jesus during our Nativity.
This Christmas season was also great because we had so many inexpensive presents for Alisa and Hyrum. Hyrum’s Santa present was found at DI for $3 and Alisa’s Santa present was given to us by our neighbor. We ended up spending most of their Christmas budget on a shelf to help organize Alisa’s room as we didn’t feel like they needed any more toys.
Hyrum was so excited on Christmas morning. We tried to make him wait for Alisa, but she wanted to sleep in and we’ve learned that everyone is happier if Alisa wakes up when she wants to. Waking her up is never a good idea. Eventually he saw the living room and then we couldn’t hold him back any longer. He loves his “tracks” that Santa gave him. He wanted to play with his tracks every waking moment for almost a week straight. He was also fasinated by his stocking. His surprised faces were hilarious as he pulled out the different items.
Alisa eventually woke up and started to come out, but got scared and went back to her bedroom. She sat on her bed where she could see her play kitchen from Santa, but she didn’t want to come out and look at it. After about 20 minutes, she had to go to the bathroom and she talked to herself for another 10 minutes about how there was a kitchen with her name on it, but she did not want to play with it. She finally finished up and braved coming out into the living room, but only to play with Hyrum’s tracks. I don’t even think she cared/dared to look in her stocking until after breakfast.
Hyrum had a hard time eating breakfast because he just wanted to eat the candy from his stocking. Alisa ate a great breakfast because she wanted to prolong looking at her stocking.
After breakfast we started to open presents. It took a long time as there were lots of presents and we opened one at a time. Plus Alisa was scared of opening any of them that were addressed to her. There were some addressed to her babies (by name) and she had no problem opening those, or helping Hyrum open his, but she was too scared to open hers. So we helped her most of the time. (After opening the present, Alisa had no problem playing with it.) So Alisa’s presents didn’t get the reactions we were hoping for. We all enjoyed watching Hyrum open his presents. With church being at 10:00 and stopping for lunch and naptime, we didn’t finish unwrapping gifts until about 4:00. So it was a long drawn out happy Christmas.
We also enjoyed spending lots of time talking with family using Skype.
And now for some pictures.
Hyrum playing with his “tracks”
A very happy and excited smile
Alisa’s kitchen/ washer and dryer
Hyrum digging in his stocking
Alisa playing with Hyrum’s tracks
Alisa opening the gifts addressed to her babies. They all got matching PJ’s
All the matching Pj’s. Alisa really likes kitties.
My sister Daralee gave us these “Straws and Connectors”. We have had lots of fun building things.
like this igloo
We put a sheet on our igloo and made a fort.
And now some pictures of our Nativity:
Joseph Hyrum as Joseph
Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus in the manger.
A shepherd
the angel
Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus again
A wise man
Benjamin as baby Jesus
It’s now been two weeks since Benjamin was born. We are so grateful to have him in our family and that he arrived safe and sound, even though we were worried for a bit about him. He was born at 10:48 pm on Friday, December 16th. He weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Here are some pictures of Benjamin:
Benjamin after getting all cleaned up. He had way more vernix than any other of my kids.
Alisa and Hyrum loved playing on the chair that turns into a bed.
They also loved the curtain by the door.
While Alisa didn’t want to hold Benjamin, Hyrum couldn’t get enough of it. Although whenever he held him, he got this serious look on his face.
My mom got to come just after Benjamin was born! This is the first time I got her so soon and for so long to help me out afterwards. What a blessing!!!
I caught him mid-sneeze. It made me laugh.
This is my favorite picture of Benjamin. I love the dark contrast of his eyes.
Here he is in his going-home outfit. He won’t wear the hat again. It is already too small.
Ready for the ride home.
And now to document Benjamin’s birth story. After I wrote it, I decided I had made it way too detailed. So I also included a much abridged timeline.
Abridged version
And here is the very detailed version:
I was fairly certain that Benjamin would be born after his due date of November 28th. I told most people that my due date was sometime in the first week of December; however, I never thought I would go so far over my due date. Because I anticipated a “late” baby, I choose to go with a group of Midwives called Better Birth. They would let me go 3 weeks over, which I felt like was plenty of time. I had to plead with my previous OB’s to let me go even 1 week over. I loved my prenatal care that I got with my midwives. I never had any wait time in a crowded waiting area. Because I chose to go with the student option, I also always had at least 2 people involved in my prenatal care: a student and a midwife. I chose to give birth at their birthing suite and even though the midwives weren’t covered by our insurance–their price for prenatal care and a birth package was extremely reasonable. I felt comfortable with the midwives’ care and knew that I could trust them to do the best for our baby.
At my 42 week midwife appointment (Tuesday), we discussed our natural induction options. I wanted to do whatever we could to avoid a Pitocin and hospital birth. In addition, Benjamin was still posterior and the midwives wanted to give him time to turn to the anterior position before hard labor began. So we first tried stripping my membranes. It brought on a little bit of cramping, but nothing to get excited about. I was basically dilated to 1 cm and only 40% effaced. When nothing changed in the next 2 days, we did a sweep and stretch (which means a repeat of stripping membranes and stretching the opening of the cervix as far as they could). We also placed a Foley catheter inside my cervix. It’s like a little balloon the midwives fill with water that acts like a little baby head and puts pressure on the cervix. You can read about it here. The uterus is supposed to cramp it out, thus opening the cervix even wider and hopefully creating strong contractions. It was placed around 3 pm and did create some rather strong cramping. It even started some contractions. I was getting excited … until it fell out about 11:00 pm that night and all contractions and cramping stopped.
When I woke up the next morning (Friday), I was willing to do almost anything to have a baby (except go to the hospital and get hooked up to Pitocin). Cynthia G*, (my sister-in-law) was a big advocate of Black and Blue Cohosh, so Joe stopped by the natural food store and bought me some. It tastes horrible! I’m sure it was better than drinking Castor Oil (which I thankfully never did) because there are no side effects, but it sure did taste nasty. It was supposed to bring on contractions for a few hours, but nothing happened. So I went in to see the midwives again that afternoon. The good news is that the Foley catheter had helped my cervix open up to 4 cm. I was still only about 40% effaced and wasn’t really experiencing contractions. The midwives did another sweep and stretch which caused a lot of cramping and started some more contractions. They also were able to stretch me to 7 cm. They told me that it was a “fake” 7 cm and that when my body went in to labor it would take some time to realize that I was open to a 7. But they did advise me not to wait too long to come in, or I might not get to the birth center on time. They also mentioned that there was really only one other method to try-breaking my water. So we decided to break my water on Sunday morning if nothing else happened before then, and if all went well on my NST (non stress test),
My NST didn’t go well. I was hooked up to the monitors for about an hour and the midwives became concerned about my placenta deteriorating. During contractions (which were about every 7 minutes or so) Benjamin’s heart rate would stay the same. It was good that his heart rate didn’t drop, but it also didn’t accelerate either. They tried giving me juice and jiggling my belly, which resulting in Benjamin moving around a lot, but his heart rate continued without any increase. So after much deliberation, they gave me two choices. They could either break my water, monitor baby for a while (and possibly turn me over to the hospital if we still didn’t get accelerations) or else just turn me over the the hospital and do a Pitocin induction. I chose to have them break my water. They gave me 2 hours to go home, feed kids, and make the necessary preparations to come back and have a baby.
I was really nervous to let the midwives break my water. I knew that there was a possibility that something could go wrong and I would end up being taken by ambulance to the hospital. It was scary not knowing what would happen. But I really felt that the midwives were capable of handling an emergency and there was still a large possibility that everything would be fine. We were so grateful for Sherie E* who came over and watched our kids for us for the entire evening and put them to bed.
We got back to the birth center at 6:00 pm and they broke my water at 6:08. I then sat in a comfy chair by an electric fireplace while we monitored Benjamin’s heart rate. I think I was monitored for almost 2 hours. We still didn’t see any decelerations, and there were 3 accelerations, but that wasn’t enough. The midwives had even tried hooking me up to an IV and filling me with fluids to see if it would help. Nothing seemed to produce the results they needed to feel good about continuing with an out-of-hospital birth. So we made the decision to go to the hospital. I was grateful that they didn’t think the situation was an emergency, so Joe could just drive me over in our own van. I had pretty steady contractions after getting my water broken. They were about every 5 minutes, and I could tell they were becoming stronger-especially when I was standing.
We got to the hospital about 9:00 pm. I told Joe on the way over that I was really sad about ending up in the hospital. Not only would our bill be a lot higher than we were planning on paying, but I was worried about our baby. I was also worried about having to have a C-section. I told him that I really wanted to continue to give birth naturally if I could, but that I might not be emotionally prepared enough to continue without intervention. Joe dropped me off at the front desk of UVRMC, parked, and then pushed me in a wheel chair up to Labor and Delivery. I probably didn’t need a wheel chair, but I was really grateful for the wheelchair during contractions. I tried to keep a positive attitude and even joked about the student midwife, Dina, needing a drivers license for the wheel chair as we almost bumped into things a few times. The midwives had already called ahead to let them know I was coming and was in labor, so the L&D nurse at the front desk just led us to my room and then had Joe fill out the paper work from there. I was so glad that the midwives were able to answer all the normal questions and I could just focus on the contractions. They seemed to me to be stronger and more frequent, but I wasn’t really timing them. It was really frustrating when the nurse had to get some blood drawn and ended up needed to poke me in 3 places during 3 different contractions. I had a hard time stopping tears from coming.
The Dr. on call-Dr. B*-came in to ask some questions and access the situation. He didn’t understand that I had been a “fake” 7 cm and got worried that I had been at 7 cm for 4 hours without progress. He also wanted an exact readout of Benjamin’s heart rate, so an internal monitor was placed on Benjamin’s head. The internal monitor also let Dr. B* see just how strong each contraction was. After a contraction that I felt was the strongest one so far, he said something like “That one wasn’t very strong. I think she needs some Pit.” Fortunately, he was satisfied with the heart rate readout and didn’t think a C-Section was necessary. He didn’t feel there was currently any danger for Benjamin, but he continued to suggest that I should have some Pitocin. I was feeling like my contractions were progressing just fine, and wanted to give them an opportunity to get stronger on their own, so I tried to politely decline. Although I didn’t say it, I really just wanted him to leave so I could labor in peace. He also kept suggesting pain killers for me. I was glad when he finally left. I was determined that I would not let the nurse check me until I felt the urge to push-I didn’t want Dr. B* to tell me again that I needed Pit. The nurse also finally left to watch my monitors from the nursing station.I think it was about 10:10 pm at this point.
With just Joe and the midwives, I felt much more in control of the situation. I knew that if I wanted to avoid Pit, I needed to get the contractions to be stronger. And to do that I needed to be off my hospital bed. I asked the midwives to find me a birth ball, which they did. The contractions were stronger while I was on the ball. It was a relief to have Joe and both midwives taking care of me, getting me ice chips, giving me massages, finding me pillows to better relax as I leaned forward onto the bed, etc. Finally, I thought I felt the urge to push, but it wasn’t the “I need to push now” push, so I wondered if I had imagined it. I knew I needed to push on the next one, so we called in the nurse and the Dr. I was indeed complete, but we needed to wait for Dr. B* to come. Joe asked if I wanted to wait for a little over an hour so that Benjamin could share a birthday with his Uncle Scott. I replied with a very emphatic “No!”
Dr. B* came quickly, even though I felt like it wasn’t quick enough. We got ready to push right away. Benjamin was born on the first contraction at 10:48 pm. His head came out on my first push and his shoulders came out with the next. Mind you they were very hard pushes. I am certain that I would have gone slower without Dr. B* and nurses telling me to hold my breath and push with all my might, but maybe I needed that coaching, because I knew what was coming. I was so grateful that Benjamin was healthy and that we could stop worrying about when he would come. He was finally here.
I laughed at my 20 week ultrasound when they tried to move my due date up four days. I went 11 days over with Alisa and 6 days over with Hyrum (although I was induced with Hyrum, so maybe it would have been longer). So I expected to have a late baby. I purposefully told people my due date was in the first week of December (even though it was November 28) because that’s when I figured he would come. Because I expected to go over my due date, I was fine when it came and went and I was still pregnant. However, it has gotten a lot harder as today is the 11th day over my due date and I still have no baby. I knew I could do a week and a half over, but can a make it a few more days? I know I will because I don’t want to be induced with Pitocen, but it’s hard going to sleep every night wondering if it might be the special night, and then waking up with nothing different.
I have been really grateful to have my prenatal care and birth overseen by a group of midwives. They understand late babies and don’t even bat an eye. I had to plead with my doctors to let me go a week and a half over with Alisa. With Hyrum, they started talking about setting a date for induction even though I was only 39 weeks. My midwives will let me go until 43 weeks, which should be ample time … it will just be hard to keep waiting when we are so excited to see our new baby. As for dilation and effacement-I have no idea. The midwives only check me if I want them to unless there is a concern. And since I usually bring my two young kids with me every time, I haven’t asked them to check me. (If I am still pregnant at 42 weeks, I think I want them to check me-I’ll just get a babysitter) They were concerned about the baby being breech three weeks ago, so they did check me then and I was nowhere ready to have a baby. The baby is currently head down and directly posterior, meaning his back is on my back. Hopefully he turns soon so I don’t have back labor again.
And so to end my ramblings and get back to something else a little more productive, COME OUT SOON BABY!!!
If anyone was wondering, I am trying to post some things before this baby decides to make his debut. My due date was 3 days ago and if I don’t post things now, they probably won’t ever get recorded. Especially since baby #3 will probably take over the focus of the blog. Alisa has astounded us with saying things way beyond her years. We are constantly amazed at her sentence structure and have a hard time remembering that she is still just 3.
She has a great musical ear and we frequently hear “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” coming from our xylophone or piano. She plays around for a while before she finds the g key and then can play the rest of the song from there (on the xylophone she doesn’t have to guess, she knows to start on the bottom one). She also has learned that songs have verses and frequently flips through the Hymn book telling me how many each of them have.
Alisa understands so much. So we are constantly teaching her new things. Joe often doesn’t know what we’ve talked about during the day, so he if most often surprised by things Alisa says. The other day she requested him to sing “Away in a Manger” before bed. After the first verse, she wanted the second and then stopped him to explain “Dad, a cattle lowing is a cow mooing.”
We were driving in the car the other day at sunset and Alisa saw the moon. This is what she said of the moon while we were stopped at a stoplight: “It’s not moving . . . maybe there’s a stoplight for the moon.”
And the last thing I want to record is Alisa’s mathematics. Somehow she came to understand the word plus. She first started by adding 1 or 2 and would most often be right. This was a pivotal conversation:
A: Mom, 4 plus 1 is 5.
M: Yep, it is. Good Job”
A: And 3 plus 1 is 4.
M: Yes
A: What is 3 plus 2?
M: It’s five.
A: No, 4 plus 1 is five.
And then we broke out the fruit loops. And she understood.
Another day at lunch, we were sitting eating and Alisa verbalized this sequence:
A: 8 plus 2 is 10. 7 plus 3 is 10. 6 plus 7 is 10.
M: No, 6 plus 7 isn’t 10, 6 plus 7 is 13.
A: oh. (she thinks for a bit) Well 6 plus 1 is 7, 6 plus 2 is eight, . . . (she thinks some more) 6 plus 4 is 10!
I was confused the other day when she came to me with the conclusion that 6 plus 6 was 12. Where did that come from? And then I saw that she had been playing with her cookies on her cookie sheet. There are twelve spots for cookies and she had 6 of them attached with Velcro. That left six empty spaces, so 6 and 6 was 12. What a mind!
One more thing before I need to be done posting for tonight. As we were eating dinner one day (Thanksgiving leftovers) Joe told her that she needed to eat 2 bites of stuffing, 2 bites of potatoes, and 2 bites of turkey, and then she could have jello. Her reply “Dad, 2 plus 2 plus 2 is 6!”
For such a big holiday, I didn’t take any pictures. As I was 39 weeks pregnant, I couldn’t travel anywhere, but we were really excited to have Joe’s sister Christina join us for dinner. I made my first ever turkey and it tasted great. It even finished right when it was supposed to. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, a relish tray with ranch dip, Joe’s family’s traditional strawberry jello salad, potato rolls, green salad, and sparkling cider (we really liked that blueberry kind that Christina brought). We later had pumpkin pie and homemade (from scratch) chocolate cream pie thanks to Christina. All in all it was very very yummy. We had leftovers for like 4 days straight and didn’t really tire of them (well, ok, the kids never did eat turkey, but they loved the potatoes, rolls, and jello). Afterwards we sort of digested on the couch while looking at Black Friday ads. I (or the baby inside) gained 3 pounds over Thanksgiving (as says my midwifes’ scale).
I wrote this at the beginning of November for my family’s monthly newsletter. I added lots more pictures.
Joe’s Mom got to come to our house for a few days in October. She came out for Joe’s sister who had a baby and the kids loved spending time with Grandma Seegmiller as well. (his parents live in Virginia and we can’t visit often). We had lots of fun roasting hot dogs and marshmallows in Provo Canyon, playing at parks, picking out fabric at Joanns, and spending time with Joe’s sisters. We had FHE together one night and we had lots of fun playing Hide-n-seek in a 3 bedroom apartment. We’ll miss her as we probably can’t visit Virginia for a while yet (as of December we now have to buy 4 plane tickets. Gross. Maybe we should start considering driving.)
I love how this one turned out.
I love Hyrum’s excited face.
This one turned out really good, too.
Crazy family!
And we decided afterwards that Joe should have worn a different shirt. Now the character from Star Wars is in our family. 
I have been keeping busy in my spare time sewing many different things. I finished a diaper bag for our new baby as our others had broken and I won’t be getting a free one in the hospital (as I am planning to give birth in a birthing center). I love how it turned out. I also made a matching changing pad to go with it. I don’t think I like sewing with vinyl very much. I also am finishing a new bathrobe for me and making matching PJ’s for Alisa and her 3 babies for Christmas. I figure I won’t be able to do much sewing after our baby is born, so I am trying to fit in a lot of projects before he gets here.
Since I’m usually the wielder of the camera, pictures of me are few and far between.
my favorite detail-the bow
Joe finished a project at work and was awarded an Android Tablet. He couldn’t see value in keeping it, so he returned it and bought himself a camping backpack, two sleeping bags (one lightweight for backpacking), a very lightweight tent, and a Nintendo 3DS. He is much more excited about these rewards for his project and only spent 50 cents more than the tablet cost. (Plus he still has a $25 Target gift card that came with his 3DS) He has already put all of them to use (well, I guess he hasn’t yet used the bulky cold weather sleeping bag yet) and loves them all.
We rearranged our bedrooms so that Alisa now has the bigger one and Hyrum has the smaller one. The crib is currently in our bedroom, and we’re not sure where it will end up eventually, but for now Hyrum will hopefully sleep better as his room is warmer (He will NOT keep a blanket on, so he was getting cold at night). And hopefully Alisa’s room won’t appear to always be such a mess. Our new baby will sleep in our room for a few months, and then we’ll have to rearrange again. At least I won’t be pregnant that time around.
Joe and I celebrated our fifth anniversary on October 28. It was a really special day. We got to eat at Joe’s weekly Friday work BBQ for lunch. Joe then surprised me with a beautiful daisy arrangement when I picked him up from work. I surprised him by arranging a last minute babysitter so we could use a gift card at Olive Garden for dinner. I guess our waitress could tell we liked the Andes mints; she ended up giving us about 30. We then went to the mall to just hangout and be kidless. The next day we got another babysitter and went to the temple together. It’s been awhile since we were dedicated enough to attend at the same time. We hate asking for babysitters. All in all it was a fun weekend.
The flowers that Joe surprised me with on our Anniversary.
Halloween was much more exciting for us this year. Last year Alisa was scared to dress up in her Tigger costume. But this year she absolutely loved it. She was Tigger and Hyrum was Winnie the Pooh. I dresswd in brown and was Kanga with our unborn baby being Roo. Joe was Hagrid, and a really good one. He even scared a couple of kids away from our van at the Trunk or Treat. Alisa and Hyrum loved taking their ice cream buckets around for the Trunk or Treat and loved handing out candy at our house on Halloween night. They were also amazingly obedient about eating their candy. They each got to choose 3 on Halloween and they’ve been eating 2 or 3 a day since. I think they’ll be sad to see their buckets empty this weekend, as they are almost gone. Alisa’s favorite candy is now Reese’s. She was thrilled to open it and see a “muffin cup.” She told Joe at dinner that night that she got to eat a “chocolate muffin with peanut butter in it.”
Our ward’s Primary Program was the day after our Trunk or Treat and the day before Halloween. Although it was a lot for one weekend, the kids weren’t bouncing off walls due to candy and excitement. They did great, and I was able to play the piano for it as our Primary Pianist was out of town that day. It was certainly a busy Sunday (I also had sharing time) and I was grateful when Church was done.
We all enjoyed carving pumpkins for FHE on Halloween. Hyrum had fun taking out the seeds, but his most favorite part was me carving out a simple face. He thought it was a puzzle, so he would replace the pumpkin parts and pop them out again. It was pretty funny to see how excited he got. Alisa wanted a kitty on hers. Joe helped her use the little saw tool we had and she was thrilled with the result. Joe ended up doing an Angry Birds design that looked awesome. Mine was an autumn maple leaf.
Kinda blury, but it was the best one we got.
Hyrum thought that the pumpkin was a big puzzle. He kept putting the carved out pieces back in.
Alisa loved her kitty pumpkin (and anything else to do with kitties, for that matter.
I really liked Joe’s smile in this picture. It’s not often that I capture his genuine smile.
Alisa playing in the fall leaves.