What a Jinx!

So remember on Friday how I did a post about how I am so glad to not be on bed rest for the first time out of my four pregnancies. I obviously spoke too soon.  Friday night David and I were lucky enough to have Trish take the kids to her place for the night so that we could go to the temple after trying 2 or 3 other times to go and failing. So Trish picked up the kids and then David and I went and did initiatory.  Silly David thought that would be faster than doing an endowment session, which usually lasts about an hour and forty five minutes.  Apparently he was done about 45 minutes sooner than I was and had quite a bit of time to wait and reflect. He had been insanely busy at work the past couple of weeks and this particular night he was finishing up a project he has been working on for the past year, but told the guys he was  working with that he had to go to the temple and we couldn’t postpone it again.  So he reluctantly left his computer to go to the temple.  We got home and David went straight to work again and I laid down for some very quiet relaxing time without any worries that a child would come running into my room with a “major” problem.  I finally went and picked up the kids from Trish’s and brought Gabby with us for a sleepover. 

The next morning I got up and took a shower and then went up to get the kids some breakfast and felt a little off.  I just felt weak and a little weird.  That is when the first contraction came and so I went and laid down in my room and started timing the contractions. They were lasting about 40 seconds and they were 1-2 minutes apart. David was in his office on a phone call going over some little details of the project he was still tweaking.  So I decided to wait until he was off the phone before I told him.  He got off the phone and I went and told him not to freak out, but I was having contractions and they were only a couple of minutes apart. He started freaking out and asked how long I had been having them and I told him it was about 20 minutes.  So then I went and laid down again and he came in and said that we should go to the hospital.  I finally told him ok and our sweet neighbor Sister Desmond came over with her dough for cinnamon rolls in hand and watched the kids for us, while we headed to the hospital.  I had been a little emotional that morning before the contractions started and then when they started that just added to it. You would think that since I had been through this with every other pregnancy I would be used to it, but I just was so scared they wouldn’t be able to stop the labor.  My sister Pam had called while we were getting ready to leave and David answered the phone and said I couldn’t talk, because I was crying. She laughed and said what a baby I was being and then felt a little awkward, when I got on the phone and I told her that we were heading to the hospital…Then on the way to the hospital David’s mom called and was telling us how David’s cousin was coming home from a mission on Monday and we should try to make it to visit her if we could. David then told her that he didn’t think that would work because we were heading to the hospital.  So by 10:00 I think that all of our family knew and majority of our ward as well. 

So I got checked into the labor and delivery and got to wear the beautiful gown I am so fond of and the fetal monitor and contraction monitor thing. They then checked me and luckily I was only dilated about a one and no other progress. They took some samples to be sent to the lab to see if I had any infections and to see if I was in true labor.  The contractions were getting pretty painful by this time and were still about a minute or two apart.  So the sweet nurse said they were going to give me some medicine with a shot which was one of the most painful shots ever in my arm and then my hip to help stop the contractions and some stuff for the pain.  After about an hour the medicine still wasn’t making the contractions stop as much as they would like them to, so they gave me another painful shot in the arm.  You would think that after 18 weeks of shots in my hip I would be used to them, but I would gladly take my weekly shot daily rather than these 2 shots.  Luckily the third shot did the job and the contractions stopped and they said I was able to go home, but had to be on bed rest. I was so drugged and drowsy and out of it, that didn’t sound bad at all!  So we got home and I talked to my sister, Trish, for a few minutes before heading to lay down. I slept the rest of the day mostly in and out of sleep and loved what a good sleep I was able to get because of the medicines and thought about asking my doctor for some more of that for the rest of the pregnancy!  I will be 35 weeks this Wednesday and my goal is to make it to at least 37 weeks. We will see what little Lizzy has in mind for us though. 

I am just very blessed to have so many great friends, family, and neighbors to watch over us and make this time so much easier.  David especially is amazing with all of this. I don’t know that I would be as firm if he were the one on bed rest. I would probably be begging him for his help.  But he is amazing and insists that I take it easy and gets onto me anytime I step foot out of bed.  He is amazing and I am so grateful how considerate and thoughtful he is for me and this little baby.  The kids have also been amazing as well.  Little David saw me going to get a snack and said, “Mom, you don’t need to get up let me get you something. Until Elizabeth comes mom I can get you all your food and drinks for you.” How sweet is that?! Maggie is constantly bringing me snacks and special drinks and then today she started putting away all of our dirty laundry in our bedroom and tidying up for me.  Too cute! Parker is just Parker and is usually coming into my room with a box on his head for a hat of socks on his hands for gloves and making me laugh constantly. He loves to come and make his whole body shake to make me laugh.  What a great little family I am blessed with. I am truly excited to meet little Elizabeth and have her to snuggle with, but I am so glad she is able to grow a little more and hopefully come out a healthy baby girl!

Life

Biscuit loves having the kids play with him in the snow. The best part is when his legs get so much snow on them that they freeze and he can't bend them to get through the doggy door.  He just comes and sticks his head next to the door until someone sees him and lets him in. 

I have really been a slacker at taking pictures of the kids lately.  I guess for the majority of February we were all sick.  We all had pink eye and also the pleasant throw up bug that was going around.  Each of us were sick about 2 days apart from each other, which made for a long month with a lot of medicine, laundry, sprite and noodle soup!  I pray this will all be done before little Elizabeth gets here next month. 
We have had quite a bit of snow this winter.  We haven't seen the ground in our backyard since the beginning of December.  Last winter we had quite the drought here in Utah, so this has been an adjustment again after a good year break.  Luckily I have amazing neighbors who still shovel my sidewalks and driveway every time it snows.  The kids love the snow for a couple of days, but most days I think they are just annoyed that there is old, crunchy, non-playable snow blocking them from playing in the backyard.  These pictures above they were outside playing with Dad for a good 45 minutes.  They loved having a snowball fight and just goofing around.  Parker got this backpack from Grandma DeVaux for Christmas and wears it everywhere. It is so dang cute!:) He is a funny kid!
I just did my last week of our co-op preschool group this week.  Since there is no way of knowing, when I will actually have this baby we played it safe and the other moms were sweet enough to let this be my final time to have the kids! We talked about the "at" family and words you can make with these 2 letters. We also talked about hygiene and why it is important to keep clean and all that fun stuff! We had a spray bottle with colored water in it and each of them got a turn...or 4 seeing why we need to cover our nose and mouth, when we sneeze of cough.  We would spray it on the paper and they saw all the "germs" that come out if they don't cover themselves. They really enjoyed that.  They are some smart kids.  I had a great time teaching them.  It has been great for Maggie. 
As for Valentine's day this year, David and I were planning on going to the temple for a change and Trish was going to watch the kids for us. It didn't work out too well though! I was sick all day Wednesday and then exhausted on Thursday.  David had been up until 4:00 in the morning on Wednesday night and he too was exhausted, but neither of us said anything to each other until about 2:00 that afternoon.  I told him  I would not be offended if we did absolutely nothing that night and just stayed home and took it easy. David was so relieved by this! It worked out for the best because David actually ended up getting sick that night.  We did get each other presents though. I got David an AUX hookup thing so he can hook his phone up to his car and some candy.  He got me a Digital photography book for Dummies for me!:) We both like how romantic we were for this day! I have been wanting one of these books for a while and have enjoyed it so far.  David says that if I read the book and learn enough then we can get a nice camera and I can start doing some photography! I have been wanting to do this for a while. I love pictures and I love taking them. Especially of my kids! So we will see how long it takes me!
As for my pregnancy things are going well. I am 34 weeks along and can't wait to not be pregnant anymore.  I have started feeling nauseous again and I just grow every single day.  I waddle everywhere because she dropped about 2 weeks ago and I now can't do very much without having extreme soreness.  I am out of breath from going up all 13 of our stairs each day.  I can't sleep at night, since it takes a fork lift to roll me over and sleeping on my back feels like I am sleeping on nails. BUT the good news is that for the first time I haven't had to go on bed rest! :)  And the longer this baby stays in the longer I only have to take care of 3 kids. I have gotten most things ready for when she comes. Just a few more minor things to do in the next few weeks.  I am excited to have a little newborn to snuggle with though. They are just so sweet and irresistible those first few months! My mom has booked her flight and is getting here on April 3rd (my actual due date) and will be here for a week. We wanted to make sure she would be here for sure when Elizabeth is actually here.  So excited to have her here to help out with everything and the kids can't wait to have snowman pancakes and all the yumminess that Dee-dah makes, when she visits! Can't come soon enough and yet at the same time it is coming way to fast. How is is already almost March?? Hopefully I will do better in March about taking pictures! Here's hoping.:)

New Beginnings

We had our Young Women New Beginnings a couple of weeks ago. I was over it and no matter how low key I keep it, I always get a little anxious.  Luckily my 12 and 13 year old girls did a great job planning and helping with the night. I also  delegated most of the things to the other leaders, which is hard to do since I like to be over every detail. Being 7 months pregnant helped though  The theme for the youth this year is D&C 87:8 “Stand ye In holy places.” So we went with the shoe theme.  The girls all came over on Tuesday night and decorated the shoe cupcakes. They did a great job and definitely saved me an hour or more of decorating!  Then we had the big cookie cake with the shoes on them. I love cookie cakes and was glad to have an excuse to make this so easy and yet so delicious dessert! We also had a Cherry limeade drink.  We started the night out by welcoming our new beehives that will be or have joined us this year.  There were four of them and we played Jeopardy to learn more about them.  We called the girls parents and asked questions like favorite food, drink, activity and  a few others.  We also made them sashes with their names on them, which I didn’t even get any pictures of them.  The girls seemed a little embarrassed, but in a good way!  Then we gave out any Personal Progress achievements to the girls.  Then we did a script from Jenny Phillips called “The Right Shoes.” We had the bishop give some closing remarks and then had our yummy treats.  It was a fun night, but I am always glad when they are done.  That is until the next activity.

January Update!

Parker loves his backpack he got from Grandma and Grandpa DeVaux for Christmas and loves wearing it around! David loves all of his angry birds that he got for his birthday and plays with them all the time! Maggie loves playing in her room these days and can’t go a day without playing with her new Barbie’s she got for her birthday. 

Where does the time go? I can’t believe that in less than 2 months I will have 4 kids and a new baby.  Some days I think that I am ready, but the other 90% of the days I am okay with just the 3 kids and not quite ready for a newborn again. Didn’t Parker just get out of the newborn phase like last week?!!

David is doing really well in 1st grade and loves school and especially loves his teacher. She is great for David and is always telling us funny things that David does at school. She seems entertained by him and his ways! He has a very good imagination and it has really grown since being in Miss Gurney’s class.  He is all about MindCraft and Angry Birds. He is still as happy as ever and easy going.  We got to go to “It’s Great to be Eight” for his primary class a couple of Sundays ago and they told us all about how to get David ready to be baptized in December.  He has some great Primary teachers this year that will do a great job preparing him for such a special day. 

Maggie is doing great these days.  She is still loving preschool and has learned so much from it. It has been a great program for her and she has made some great friends through it.  Luckily I only teach one more week before the end of the year.  The other moms are very supportive and know how crazy a newborn can be, so they said I won’t need to teach after little Elizabeth makes her debut! I will take it.  Maggie is also enjoying her dance class still and she is very excited to be dancing to “Chim chiminey” from Mary Poppins.  I always look forward to her recitals. She has come a long way in the 2 years she has been in dance.  She is so excited to meet Elizabeth and loves to feel her moving around in my tummy. 

Parker has become a new kid these past couple of months.  He has been so happy since December and very entertaining. His new thing to do to make us all laugh is to start shaking his whole body as hard as he can (usually at the dinner table) and then turns red! I need to get it on video because it is so dang funny. It reminds me so much of Olivia (my little niece) back in the days, when I watched her a few years ago. She would do the same thing.  Parker loves going places and loves playing with all of Maggie's toys.  He is a great little eater and just a happy baby these days.  He has no idea his life is about to change so dramatically in the next couple of months. Poor little kid. I think he will like having a little baby though. He is so independent and loves to be treated like a “big kid” so this should make him happy, right?! He is really into “The Wiggles” these days and can even say “wiggles.” He also says “where’d it go” and “there it is!”

Big David has been extremely busy at work these days.  He has been at his job for over 5 years now, which means he gets to park in the Joseph Smith Building parking instead of the Conference center Parking. It works out well, since we are having such a cold and snowy winter this year.  He also gets 5 extra vacation days a year which is awesome…although he hasn’t taken a real vacation in a couple of years. He has acquired quite a few days for vacation. It he wanted to he could take off a whole month from work and be paid. It is just too bad he is so valuable and that will never happen.  He is always having managers from other groups at his job asking him to switch to their team. In his time with the church he has changed positions 5 times.  He has come a long way! It is great that he is so talented and so needed at work, but I know he does more than his share of work and never complains about it.  I am forcing him to take our first real family vacation to Disneyland this year and he is doing a great job at only breathing heavy and sweating a little each time I bring it up. Progress for him!

I am fatter than ever and okay with it!  I am about 31 weeks along and feeling great! I remember with Parker I was so big and had so much pain in my lower back by this time that I had to take a bath a couple of times a day just to have a little bit of my day without pain. Not so with this one! I am measuring right on track and feeling good about that! Again with Parker I was measuring 2 weeks ahead for the last 3 months of pregnancy.  I have most of my energy back and can eat whatever and whenever I want again, without worrying about getting sick. I have been feeling good since about 22 weeks. That was the last time I had “morning sickness.”  I am also not on bed rest!!! I have been getting the weekly shots to help prevent preterm labor since about 17 weeks along. I think I only have 5 more shots left!! I am looking forward to not having to make the weekly trips to my doctor. The good news is that my doctor  and nurse are amazing! So much better than my last OBGYN.  The nurses are just so friendly and sweet and just night and day from my last ones with Parker.  Most of my appointments I am in and out in less than 25 minutes.  I just love them!  It makes a huge difference having a doctor you like.  I am trying to get everything that I need for this little baby. You would think that I have everything that I need, since this is my 4th,  but holy cow it still just adds up!  My goal is to get everything ready by March just in case.  She is a very active baby and loves kicking those feet all day and night.  My kids usually have pretty strong leg muscles, when they come out from the workout they do while in me.  I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore and actually be able to bend, roll, breath, pick things up without people having a heart attack and so many other things! But I must say I feel great for being almost 8 months pregnant and couldn’t feel much better! 

My sister has been asking for a belly picture, so here it is just for you! Objects are bigger in pictures then in real life though!

David’s Birthday

David’s birthday was a lot of fun this year.  He opened all of his presents in the morning before heading off to work and then that night we went with Trish, Gabe, Molly, Giselle and Kevin to Tepenyaki for dinner.  So yummy!  We had a great time chatting and laughing that night. Then we got home and did cake with the kids. Then we played Settlers of Catan and Gabe gave him the best present ever, he lost miserably at the game with a record 2 points by the end of the game! It was hilarious.  Maggie and David both wanted to pick out something for Daddy from them. They did not want to buy anything, they wanted to go shopping in their rooms and find things they just knew their Dad would love! It is too cute! I think he enjoyed his birthday!

Maggie Turns 5

Maggie is the big 5 this year! It was a very low key birthday like she wanted.  I guess that is one advantage to her having a birthday the day after Christmas.  So I had the kids for our co-op preschool the week before Christmas and we had a little celebration for Maggie with cupcakes and all! They all had a great time.  Then on her birthday her and I went to Target to do some shopping.  She picked out a Cinderella Music player with a microphone, a new baby and a Cinderella barbie! She loves shopping and was so excited to just have the 2 of us go and her get to pick out whatever she wanted! I was happy because it was the day after Christmas and everything was on clearance! Win, win!! Then she was in her room playing for the whole day with all of her new toys.  That night she got to pick dinner, so we went to McDonald’s. The kids had the whole place to themselves to play in. Then we went home and had a rice crispy treat cake. I was glad to have something besides cake or cupcakes.  I think she had a great day and thankfully is very easy to please! We love having Maggie.  She is such a helper and a little mom for us.  She is so excited to go to kindergarten and be a big girl.  Even with all the drama a little girl can bring, she is such a great girl.  Five years have flown by so fast!

 

Look at what a sweet baby she was so long ago! Happy Birthday Maggie!

Christmas 2012

Parker’s Stash!                                          Little David’s presents

Maggie’s Pile                                               Jen’s Pile

Big David’s Pile

Christmas morning we were up around 5:30 and ready to get those presents open! As you can see from the pictures, none of us were deprived this year.  Santa was good to us.  Parker got 2 different car toys, a back pack, bath toys, clothes, and a few other things that I am sure I am forgetting.  Maggie got a baby cradle, an Arkansas barbie, lots of art sets and art things, make-up, clothes, coats, a ballerina painting and a few other things.  David got lots of dinosaurs, a treasure box, books, clothes, a dinosaur painting, a robot dog, games, and more! The kids also got a tablet from Santa and Meme made them a quiet book for church that is so dang cute and fun! Big David got a Soda Maker and lots of clothes and some games for the xbox 360.  I got a new sink for the laundry room!!! I have been wanting one of these, since we moved into this house and I told David I had to have one before we bring another baby home. My kids have a lot of blowouts and I wanted a dedicated sink for all that yuckiness!I also got a popcorn bowl with popcorn and M&M’s in it from little David.  Maggie picked out a gorgeous bracelet for me.  We got new silverware from mom and Dad.  I got a blueray player for my kitchen and a gift card for Olive Garden and Sherrie and David got me the last piece for my Willow Tree Nativity set, the Manger! I am so excited to use it next year.  I am sure that I am forgetting a lot of stuff, but his will do! After presents we all went and either played with our new toys (kids) or took a nap (adults).  Then we got up and cleaned and ate and then took another nap!  That afternoon we went over to our friends house, the Johns.  They were sweet enough to invite us over to play some games and eat some yummy foods.  They don’t have any family in Utah either really and so it was nice to have friends to hang out with.  We played Bang, talked, laugh and ate a lot! It was a great way to end our Christmas. We are so blessed!  We definitely miss all of our family, but we are glad to have some family out here to celebrate with and great friends as well.  Just another year until all the madness is here again! It never comes soon enough. I love the holiday season and all that comes with it.