September and October!

Life as of late has been busy, busy, busy! 

I don't even know where to start... we'll let's start with what is the most fun announcement. I had a baby! We welcomed baby Paul into the world on the first of November and he's the love of our house.

The last 6 weeks of pregnancy were pure misery for me. I was in constant pain... my hips hurt, my back hurt, and I felt like I had been kicked in between the legs constantly. I wanted to act like a normal functioning person but when I did I would regret it later in the night when I woke up in agonizing pain. I'm not trying to be dramatic, it really was so hard. 

More on that later.

Here's a little peak at life with 4 babies to call my own.

I've now had 3 little boys within 4 years... I can't wait until they are all in high school together playing basketball :)  I was working on getting Paul's name stitched for his stocking when I remembered this picture. So I had Thomas take a second similar one. Even though I felt a million times heavier and weighed about 20 pounds more with Paul I don't think I look all that different. It was a fun comparison none the less!

Now let's back up. Henry turned 4 in the middle of October and we can't move on without documenting it. He's such a funny little goon who is kind and funny but also can be so loud and crazy one minute then bawling the next. He's full of emotion and some days his whining is so frustrating. He's luck he has a killer dimple on one cheek because that grin sames him from many-a-time-out.

The kids did a chore chart this fall and were allowed to pick out their end prize. Henry wanted a "super fall bath all alone". Done! Here he is enjoying the fruits of his labor and he loved every minute of it.

We had preschool at our house the day before his Birthday and I lit candles for all of the kids to blow out. I LOVE this picture because you can see just how happy he is! Isn't that precious.

And then there were the presents. I ordered a huge box of Duplos off of Ebay and he loves them.

And then we went to Grandma's for cake and ice cream. He was insistent on wearing his strainer hat while we sang and so all I have are pictures of him with his nifty hat. I told you he was a goon :)

The work around the garden slowed but the canning did not. We worked and worked the last few weeks before the baby came and now I have a full pantry and a happy heart. Here's the belly and my worker-woman boots.

We grew the most delicious golden delicious apples this year. Despite our lack of attention they were glorious and huge. We ate and ate them, canned apple sauce, and Thomas even conned me into pressing 40 gallons of cider one night at 38 weeks pregnant. That cider is phenomenal by the way!

 Carvin' pumpkins.

Applesauce canning palooza. I'm so grateful Thomas helped or I would have died...

We decided to take the kids to Zion to hike on one of the days Macey had fall break at the end of October. We live so close but it's not something we make enough time to stop and enjoy. We have a few favorite hikes but this time we decided to ride the shuttle and try something else. The kids loved riding and that made the day even more special.

And then there was Halloween.

I was in labor while the kids went trick-or-treating and hid in the house managing my contractions while Thomas took them around.

And then the next morning we had another member of the family! He missed being born on his dad's birthday by 8 hours.

I have a ton more to tell and say about this little lamb and his birth but that is for another day! Let's just say it was the longest labor ever. Details coming.

And just when you thought these past few weeks couldn't get any better... I won this glorious tangerine kitchen aid!!! It's so very pretty.

Now I need to go take a nap and I'll write up that birth story soon!

A little support needed :)

Hi friends!

I've been wanting to put some info out into the world for people that I love to know but my other blog certainly isn't the place and even facebook is feeling to impersonal. SO I thought I'd put them here. If you even know about this blog then we are certainly friends and I can confide in you.

We found out a few months ago that Thomas and I have an ABO blood incompatibility which explains a lot about our past babies!

Here's an article that I liked that summed the issue up:
http://www.pregnancy.com.au/resources/topics-of-interest/postnatal/abo-incompatibility-in-newborns.shtml

If the baby has any other type of blood than mine (type O) then my antibodies cause it's to breakdown the red blood cells too quickly and then my kids get horrible jaundice.

I feel silly saying we are dealing with jaundice... the whole world has dealt with jaundice, but this is so sever. The boys were both in the hospital for 5 days on photo-therapy and IVs and Henry came home for another 10 days of lights. I couldn't hold him for the first two weeks of his life!!

So there's a 25% chance the baby will have my blood type and a 75% chance that he won't. The odds aren't really in our favor but there is a chance that he'll be healthy as a little ox.

I guess what I'm after is good thoughts and prayers. I'm not expecting a healthy baby but I pray that we don't have to do something extreme like a blood transfusion. We've dealt with this in the past, I can do it again, but man alive does it worry me. Just pray for us that things will work out the best that they can.

The other issue is that I'm delivering at a birth center. I'm nervous about all of the details about getting the baby into the hospital if he needs and it and I'm worried I won't be able to stay at the hospital because I wasn't already there. In the past they have just checked me out but I have lived in my room, nursing every 2 hours and it worked great. I'm just not sure what I'd do if I can't stay there. The unknown isn't very fun huh.

So keep me and the babe in your thoughts. I know things will work out great... the Lord has let me know that, but I also know that getting to the great can be hard, especially when you are going to be an hour and a half from home with 3 other kids who need you there.

Wish me luck. I sure like you guys. Thanks for all your love and support.

Old Yeller Stone

We went on a crazy trip up to Yellowstone the weekend before Macey started school. Lachelle was blessing her sweet baby (pictures of that day are on her blog here) but they had family stuff going on the whole weekend before the blessing. I didn't really want to drive up to Idaho just for Sunday morning (because school started the very next day...) so I decided we might as well go to Yellowstone if we were planning to make the drive!

It was a great idea and we are so glad that we were able to go. Thomas and I had both never been and it's been on our list for ages. 

We all needed new shoes... Thomas and I both had holes in ours (they were SO bad!) and the kids have just grown since last summer (make that stop...), so on the way up we ran into a Big 5 and 20 minutes later we all came out with new sneakers. Sweet huh!

I made reservations at a KOA just outside of West Yellowstone and we planned on tenting it up. When we got there I asked to make sure there were no more little cabins still (because there were none when I booked) and one was open! We snatched that thing up fast and paid the difference. Best. Idea. Ever. It gets COLD there at night and I think the ground would have been worse than their cheap mattresses. Mark my words... when I'm rich I'm staying in a hotel. One day, one day...

The park is HUGE. We spent a lot of time in the car driving from place to place just because it's so massive. We'd pop out where ever we thought looked fun and had a great time. Two-days in Yellowstone was well spent and totally memorable.

Here's the photo dump:

Thomas is a ninja. We went down a million steep switch-backs to look at a waterfall and Macey was so done when it came time to go back up. He hauled BOTH Henry and Macey up that hill. It was so sweet. He didn't even complain once... he just does it because he loves his kids. *sigh*

My siblings who are living with us this summer went with us and they were total nuts. But we are glad they came to pack kids around and entertain us in the car with song.

Yellowstone Lake - awesome

Old Faithful - very faithful

The KOA had a super ghetto mini-golf (or putt-putt as us Hoosiers like to call it) set up. We played the last night we were there and the kids had SO MUCH FUN. I never would have thought they would have liked it but they sure did. There was no one else playing, we didn't follow any rules, and we just kind of let them skip from place to place, so they were happy as clams. Henry and Macey were totally into it and Kimball just liked hitting everything with his club.

And we made our way to the candy shop, a Christmas shop (have to get my ornament souvenir!), and to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. We didn't see bears or wolves in the park but paying to see them was totally worth it. It was really neat.

Oh Sarah and her selfies...

We only ate out twice our whole 5 day trip (I planned, packed, and cooked like a mad woman for weeks before!) And one stop was at KFC. We had a few pieces of chicken left so we threw them in the car. The kids ate them on the way to my sister house. I have no idea why but eating these HUGE pieces of chicken in the car was one of the funniest parts of the trip. The kids loved it...

It's a "you had to be there" kind of thing I guess...

After a fun night at Lachelle's in-laws, the blessing the next day, and a tasty lunch at Lachelle's house it was already time to go home :(

Macey woke up bright and early to start SCHOOL!

She came home with an assignment to make a picture of herself and Henry wanted to work on "homework" too. So he did one too! Cute huh...

I've totally struggled with letting Macey go. It's not her that has the problem, it's totally me. But while she's not around me and "the little boys" as we call them (who aren't all that little) have some fun.

I'll be 33 weeks on Thursday and couldn't be more pleased. I'm really looking forward to having the baby!

Boys and bugs

Henry is an awesome helper and he LOVES the garden. He likes to weed, he loves to pick things that are ready, he loves to eat everything in it, he like to help can. Him and I are two peas in a pod in a lot of ways and it's really fun for me.

An my, don't I grow a mean cabbage :) That thing is the size of my head and I have a big head...

That's life lately!