Three kids under four

Today is the last day that we will be parents to three kids under the age of four. I don't think that things will magically get any easier tomorrow when Allie turns four-years-old, but it has been a little crazy these last 12 days with three kids so close in age. I often think to myself "what the heck was I thinking". Adam, I take full responsibility for the craziness that is our life. After all it was my "master plan" to have these kids so close together. It does give me some peace of mind to think that the closer together we have them, the sooner we will be done with diapers, wipes, finding pacifiers and sippy cups that have been dropped and lost, middle of the night feedings, sleep deprivation, bottle washing, diaper bags, strollers, infant car seats (I guess we still have to deal with other car seats since kids these days seem to need one until they are in high school), high chairs, and the ever dreaded potty training. I'm sure there are many more joys of having little ones around that I've forgotten to list-feel free to add them to the comments to remind me. The down side to this is that all of our children will be in college and/or on missions at relatively the same time. I guess we better start saving now. Talk about empty-nest syndrome. I'm sure by then it will be a much needed break. Four years down, only eighteen more to go. Despite all of the insanity in our house right now, we really are having a great time with all of the kids, especially watching them be so sweet to their new baby brother.

5 vs 5

Try to spot the similarities and differences between the two families of five (one when Adam was just a new infant in 1978 and the other when Lincoln was just a wee little infant in 2009).

Introducing Lincoln!

Lincoln was born on January 16, 2009 at 1:27pm. He weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long. It was a relatively short active labor, but I am sure Jen would say that it was not really that "short." I'll let her fill you in on the details. Now on to the pictures.

Here we are at 5:45 am before leaving for the birthing center

This is the room where Lincoln was born

Lincoln was born at 1:27 pm

Jen and Baby Lincoln about 3 hours after his birth

Little Lincoln Logs

Link-a-doo


Already asleep before even getting in the car


West family of five

Snow Day???

I'm not really sure if it snowed on Tuesday night or not. When I went to bed it was hailing a ton and when we woke up the next morning our backyard was somewhat of a winter wonderland (or at least as close as it gets in these here parts of Texas). The kids were so excited to go outside and play in it. I had to get ready for my midwife appointment, so Adam got the kids all bundled up and took them out. I think they looked pretty cute and they had a ball playing until they got their gloves soaked and their hands started freezing.

Allie and Jack all dressed and ready to go out.
Jack ate or licked a ton of the ice which is no surprise because he licks everything (including people-he thinks it's hilarious).

The kids playing in the ice.

Allie filled the sand box up with ice. Later it melted and Jack fell in. He was freezing.

Baby Blog

Wow it's been a long time since I've written a blog. So I figured I'd give a pregnancy update since we've had an interesting few days with it. Saturday I planned on going shopping all day for Christmas. I had a ton of places to go in search of a red sweater for Jack. We were having family pictures taken today at the capitol and all I really needed to find on Saturday was a red sweater. It shouldn't be that hard (oh, and a long black skirt for myself-not even maternity). After over 5 hours of shopping and looking in every store in Austin, no red vest (just a sweater) and I had only found one long black skirt which was perfect. Anyway, the point is that very early that morning it felt like the baby had dropped. All of a sudden I could feel a ton of pressure and the kicks were much lower than normal. Throughout my shopping expedition I did a ton of walking and I could feel my hips separating (0uchhhh).
on Tuesday I had an ultrasound scheduled to check the position of my placenta and make sure it had moved up and out of the way. I expected it to be a quick appointment, in fact I almost brought Allie with me. It's a good thing I didn't. It took forever. The ultrasound tech remeasured all of the babies body parts because it had been a while since my last ultrasound. Everything measured well. I also had her check to make sure the baby was still a boy and she said it was very obvious that he was. So the problem that took so long is that she couldn't get shot of my cervix to make sure the placenta was far enough away from it. Of course she couldn't because the baby had dropped so low on Saturday that his head was right over it. Eventually she had to go talk to the doctor (which is always a little scary) and they decided that she would have to do a vaginal ultrasound. That worked. She was able to see that the placenta is out of the way of the cervix and everything looked good.
The next day I had an appointment at the birthing center with one of the midwives. I told her that I thought that the baby had dropped on Saturday and she didn't really seem to be too worried even after I told her about the whole ultrasound ordeal. Then she felt my stomach to check the way the baby was lying (head down) and started to get worried when she realized the baby did in fact feel like he was engaged. So, she did an exam and said that his head is really low and that my cervix has started to thin. She didn't really check to see how far dilated I was because she was afraid that would send me into labor. She estimated about 2 cm. Then she said that she should put me on bed rest, but realized that was ridiculous since I have two little ones at home. She said to stay off of my feet as much as possible, no cooking, no walking and no cleaning. So, I went home and cleaned the house for Activity Day that night. But that's it, no more major cleaning (luckily Adam did the mopping). She did move my due date up almost one week as we went back and looked at early ultrasounds and checked dates. If I deliver soon (which I'm not going to) then the baby should be ok. I would just have to deliver at the hospital and I really don't want that. If I can hold off until the day after Christmas that will put me at 36 weeks, according to my new dates, and I can deliver at the birthing center. In the meantime, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and saying some serious prayers and I'll take any prayers that anybody else has to offer.

34 weeks pregnant (can't really see my belly since I'm wearing a black shirt, but it's there)
About two weeks ago (at 32 weeks)

Pumpkin Patch & Halloween Party

The Saturday before Halloween we took the kids to the Elgin Christmas Tree Farm to play at their pumpkin patch. We looked at the animals, found our way out of the maze of hay, took a tractor ride, and looked at lots of pumpkins. Later that night we went to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat at church. We all had a great time. The kids were quite happy with the candy that they collected. Allie was just happy to finally get to wear her Little Mermaid costume. She's been so patient.

Jack and Mommy driving the tractor.

Jack and Daddy during the big tractor ride.

Daddy and Jack hanging out on the pumpkins.

Jack looking cool among the pumpkins with a ring of drool around his neck.

Allie and Jack sitting in the pumpkins. The sun was in their eyes and neither of them wanted to cooperate so this was the best picture we could get.

Batman and Ariel (The Little Mermaid)

Jack would not leave his mask on long enough to get a picture of it.

Jack turns 2!

Jack turned 2 this past week. We just had a low key family party. This was the first year that we didn't have any of the Grandparents here for one of the kid's parties. Maybe next year we'll have a party with friends. I was asking Adam the other day if we should have a party with friends for Allie this year and he reminded me that this year might not be the best idea since her birthday is my due date. Good thinking Adam. Maybe next year for Allie too.

Things we love about Jack:

-The way you gallop and prance instead of running.

-That you never get tired of playing peek-a-boo.

-Your belly laugh when you are getting tickled and that you still love being tickled.

-You sometimes cuddle for about 30 seconds.

-The way you put your head down on our shoulders every night when we sing "You are my sunshine" to you.

-The silly sounds that you make while you're trying to fall asleep at night.

-The way you stomp your feet when you dance and clap your hands when a song is over.

-That we have you in our family.

Jack coming through his door first thing in the morning. We hung up some of our Halloween streamers on his door. I love this picture!
I made the cake in the morning and then made the frosting in the afternoon after we dropped Allie off at school. Since it was just Jack and Mommy, we shared the mixers with frosting on them. Jack doesn't look very impressed...yet.

Now he's loving it. How could any child of mine not like chocolate.

Adam made his mom's recipe for mac-n-cheese. Of course we all loved it. This is Allie shoveling it in. She had just gotten done throwing a fit over something. So, she still has some tears and snot for the camera.

No pictures please. It's my birthday and I just want to eat my mac-n-cheese.

The Cake

Weekend visitors

Over the past 36 hours, we have found two little friends around our house. These little friends are not the kind of friends that are invited, but their appearance would make you think we live in West Texas.

On Saturday morning, Jen noticed a little snake coiled up in the corner of our garage, near the garage door. She came inside and asked me I if I had seen it, which I had not. I went and peeked at the snake, but didn't have much thought as to what to do. I knew we wanted it out of the garage, but my snake experience is quite limited. I continued working for a few minutes on the computer and Jen returned to ask me if I noticed that the snakes head was now moving. That was my cue to figure something out. So, I decided to grab a shop broom and shoo the snake out. By this time the snake was slowly starting to move, so I went ahead and swept the snake out of the garage. The snake skidded to a stop a few feet down the driveway. The snake looked a little dazed and was flapping his tongue in and out of his mouth like snakes often do. I took another swipe at it with the broom and the snake went a few more feed down the driveway. Jen came outside and took a closer look at the snake. The snake's head was up in the "strike quickly" position and his tail was rattling. So, on closer inspection, we had a little rattlesnake in our driveway. And we thought we were living in an urbanized city, 15th largest in the nation. Jen, who has more snake experience than I, suggested two options. One, shoot the snake with a gun loaded with snake shot. Or two, and the more practical option, take a shovel to the snake and take it's head off. Of course, we don't have a large shovel. Jen ran across the street to ask a neighbor for a shovel. The snake started to slither onto the grass next to the driveway. It was heading for a tree bed that is full of lantana, which is dense, leafy vegetation. I took a few whaps at the snake with the broom, but it went into the tree bed and disappeared. At this time, Jen returned with the shovel, but I couldn't even see the snake. I took a few more whaps at the lantana with the shovel, but nothing. I then sprayed the tree bed with a high pressure water hose, but again nothing. So we have a squatter on our property.

Then on Sunday evening, I was casually walking by our piano and looked down to see another visitor--a scorpion. Although I don't have much scorpion experience, similar to my lack of snake experience, I did know exactally what to do. Step on it. So that is what I did. The scorpion was about 2-3 inches long, and was easily squashed. The last time we had a run in with a scoprion, Jen was pregnant with Allie and we were alseep in San Angelo, Texas.

So, there you have it. Two univited guest, one of which is still roaming around our grounds and the other who is on the way to the county trash dump.

It's a....

Boy! Allie didn't get the sister that she has been asking for for her birthday, but it looks like Jack is getting a brother. Allie told me last week that she didn't need another brother because she already has one. I was a little afraid to tell her that the baby wasn't going to be a sister, but all she said was why not (typical 3 year old). We told her that Heavenly Father wanted us to have another brother and she said "why". After that, all she seemed concerned about was when the baby was going to get here. I think she's over it.
As for me, I'm not going to lie, I really was looking forward to having another girl to wear all of those cute clothes that Allie hardly got any use out of because she grew so fast. I really just want Allie to have a little sister at some point. We'll see. I am glad to have two children of the same sex close together so that the boys can share a room sometime soon. Things are kind of out of control with Allie and Jack sharing a room right now. And Adam, in true Adam form didn't care either way (he's just glad the baby is healthy), but I do think he's excited to have another boy. He's already talking about Olympic aspirations for both of the boys and Allie too.
Everything seemed really good at the ultrasound as far as the baby's health is concerned. He weighed about 12 ounces and was measuring about 20 weeks which is right on. She said that put my due date at January 26th (the original due date is Jan 28th). The only problem is that the tech said that my placenta is lying low, but that often times that corrects itself as the pregnancy progresses. If not, it sounded like another c-section. I hope not. I really want my natural birthing center birth. Again, we'll wait and see.

The baby sucking his thumb

Full body shot

What a fun week

We spent Labor Day with some friends from church. They grilled and Adam was able to get his meat fix for the month. The food was all so yummy. I used my mother-in-law's recipe to make fish/frog eye salad which is always a big hit with the kids. The kids had a water balloon fight with a couple of the brave dads. It was a really fun day.

Allie is so excited to be drinking soda and it's pink

Daddy and Jack playing soccer-Jack forgets to use his feet

The kids waiting for their turn to get the next water balloon

Allie had her first day of preschool at the University of Texas Lab School. From what Adam told me she did really well. I asked Adam to make sure to take some pictures of her before she got too deep into playing. Apparently she ran off to play so fast that Adam couldn't even get one picture. When he came back to pick her up, her teacher said that "Allie is made for school." I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but she seems to be loving it. This week she only went for two days, two hours each day. Starting tomorrow she'll go four days a week for three hours each day. On Mondays and Wednesdays Adam takes her to school and brings her home and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I drop her off and Adam brings her home. I think that Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be great for Jack and I.

The only picture I got of Allie on her first day of Lab School (I think that skirt is getting a little short). Allie loves her new pink puppy dog.

For the most part potty training is still going fairly well. No major accidents, just lots of little ones this week. Jack on the other hand has taken to going poopy in his diaper when he is in his crib, then taking all of his clothes of (onesie included) and smearing the poop everywhere. We had a major mess after nap time today. Yuck!!!

On to better news...I had my first appointment with my midwife at the birthing center this week. Things went well. I love how laid back they are about most things. I also really liked that they paid a lot of attention to the nutrition of the mother which my OB/GYN usually doesn't have time for. The office was very busy because it was the first day back after the Labor Day weekend, but the midwife didn't seem rushed at all. I was 18 1/2 weeks and I measured 15 weeks, so we'll see how big the baby is tomorrow at the ultrasound. It's the big one. By lunchtime tomorrow, we'll know if we are having another girl or another boy (assuming the baby cooperates). Stay tuned. We'll post another blog when we get home from the appointment.