Missing Details

Lincoln's middle name is Alton after Stephen's grandfather. He weighed 7 lbs 12 ozs and was 20 1/4 inches long.

He is a super good baby, very calm and easy going. The kids all absolutely love him and love to hold him.

We had a good Thanksgiving-- Stephen cooked a turkey and we made all the traditional side dishes. Of course, all the kids wanted were turkey, rolls, jello, and olives. Oh well. It was different not having any family around-- the kids missed having lots of cousins to play with.

He's HERE!

We were scheduled to have the baby on the 25th, but apparently 16 other mothers were told the same thing. So we got a phone call Monday morning at 7:06 asking us if we would be interested in coming in a day early. I had to stop and think through my list of planned errands for the day and stop shaking. So one hour later we had all 4 kids woke up, dressed with a change of clothes, fed, and in the van and we were off. We even made time to drop off some books at the Library.

The Dr. broke my water sometime around 9:30 am and the baby was out at 12:19 pm, less than three hours later.

Here's Stephen's description:
Lincoln was born in one of Jeanisha's favorite colors - Purple. Seems he has been a little bored the last 9 months so he decided to twist the umbilical cord like a rope - A lot. It is hard to describe what it looked like, but it was not normal. Then to add suspense he looped it around his head to finish off his grand entrance.

He was then given oxygen for a while and then it was determined that he had to much fluid in his lungs. So they decided to do what nurses are best at - they stuck a tube down his nose. They ended up suckingup 20 CC's of fluid which I am told is a lot. All I know is it looked like a lot. He decided to yell at the nurse at that point, which was good.

Life got a lot better for him after that and he decided to open his eyes and smile at all of us. He still has purple feet, and sometimes his hands, but they do not seem too concerned.

The kids came by (except Adam) and were more interested in what cartoons they could have on the T.V. and the almighty hospital cafeteria. Jeanisha asked 7 times what she could eat there before I finally broke down and took them to get something to eat. Jeanisha and Ryan got a cookie, and Tyler got green Jello with whip cream. I got the bill. They did take their turn holding Lincoln, but soon left to watch movies at their cousins house.

Arrival Date is Set

Sometime on November 25th-- the Tuesday before Thanksgiving-- is when Lincoln will be making his arrival. My Dr. is going to be out of town for Thanksgiving and the entire following weekend, so he is going to induce me 8 days early and let me be home in time for Thanksgiving. Stephen said he will even cook Thanksgiving dinner-- although he keeps joking that it will be frozen pizza. :)

It is SO nice to have a set date and be able to count down. The kids are really excited-- 3 more Sundays doesn't sound like very much and it is something even Jeanisha can relate to. I'm looking forward to having a beautiful new baby instead of a big awkward belly. :) I'm bigger with this pregnancy than I have been with any of the other kids, so I feel huge. This is the first time I couldn't sleep on my stomach all the way up to delivery. He's also been positioned much lower making it painful to walk and bend and do all the things you have to do taking care of 4 kids and a house. Stephen has been great-- and for the most part, the kids have too, but I will be very happy to be able to move and get things done again.

First weird craving this pregnancy

It seems like I have at least one strange craving with each pregnancy. With Adam it was green olives-- I loved them. Yesterday I was in Costco and they were doing samples, and one was sushi-- the fully cooked kind. It tasted so good, but I knew I would be the only one eating them, and at Costco, everything is extra large anyway-- did I really want 40 pieces of sushi. I told myself I would find something else that looked good that the rest of the family would share, but Ryan and I went through the entire store and nothing else looked good-- not even the candy bars and M&M's I was buying with my coupons. So I went back and got my sushi. Stephen gave me a really funny look when I walked into the house carrying it. And again when I was eating it while we watched a movie and he was digging into his bag of M&M's and the kids were eating popcorn.

And then tonight on our way home from the temple, I told him I was going to go home and eat some more of my sushi and a bowl of ice cream. I didn't mean together!!!!!! The sushi was for dinner and the ice cream was for dessert!!!! Oh well, I think it sounds better than pickles and ice cream any day.

Ryan's Baptism

I had wanted Ryan's baptism to be a memorable experience for him, and I can honestly say that I don't think he will ever forget it! I don't think most of our extended family will forget that weekend either. He was baptized on Sat. Oct 11th in Rupert. We drove down Friday evening and had nice dry roads the entire way. Not too long after we left, it started snowing in Boise. Enough to stick on the grass, but not on the road. We were a little worried the weather would follow us and make driving a little challenging for people coming to the baptism, but we had NO idea. We woke up Saturday morning to 3 inches of snow on the ground in Rupert. Talk about fun and exciting for the kids. We had packed a good amount of snow clothes for the boys for hunting, so they were right out there shoveling and having a blast. Stephen checked the weather and called his family to tell them it was supposed to be letting up. But it didn't. It snowed and snowed and snowed. By the time we were leaving for the baptism at 5:00, there was about 8 inches on the ground, and it snowed another 3 inches during the baptism.

To make it even more memorable, there were problems with the pump to bring water into the baptismal font, so they had to run a hose in from outside, across the snow into the church to fill the font. so the water was COLD! The baptism itself was really nice, with great talks by grandmas, music by Ryan's aunts, and a very excited boy. Afterwards we had root beer floats for refreshments-- a little ironic considering the weather-- but it had been 92 degrees a week and a half earlier.

Stephen's family was debating which way to go to get back to Utah, but the main freeway was closed, so their only option was to go through Pocatello. It took them 2 hours to get to American Falls, normally a 45 minute drive, but once they made it past Pocatello, the roads were fine.

The storm just hung out over Rupert and kept piling up. By Sunday, we ended up with 15 inches-- all of church was canceled except Sacrament meeting. In the middle of October! It was crazy!!!! And memorable!!!

Here are some pictures of the snow.

More than one way to get your oil changed

I'm a little behind posting. Two weeks ago we went to Rupert to my parents house for the weekend. Ryan was getting baptized and we decided to do it there because all of my family was getting together for the guys to go hunting and it is 3 hours closer to all of Stephen's family. The night before we left, I sent Stephen out to check the oil on the van as I was packing. He came back in and said it looked good. The next day, I drove the kids to co-op (30 minutes from home) and then went to my sister Karmas house afterwards. Stephen met me there and we left for Rupert (30 hours away).

We stopped in Twin for a bathroom break and to buy some snacks and Karma called and said we had left a bunch of oil on her driveway and might want to check. Now Karma tends to exaggerate, so when I told Stephen, he figured I meant a little tiny bit and didn't really take it seriously figuring he would check it again at my parents. He had been parked at the grocery store for about 20 minutes and when we backed out there, there were several wet spots under the car, but he didn't look too closely.

Another 20 minutes down the road and we get a call from Karma telling us her husbands plane has just been rerouted to Twin, so we pull of the interstate to see if we are going to need to pick him up. All of the sudden I notice smoke coming out from under the hood of the van!!! We jump out to look and the entire engine and bottom of the hood are COVERED in oil! It turned out that when Stephen checked the oil the night before, he had forgotten to put the lid back on. Amazingly enough, the lid was still sitting under the hood right where he had left it. We called my dad and he brought us more oil-- it took 4 quarts-- almost a full oil change worth. (Turns out there were about 6 spots at Karma's, ranging in size from a baseball to a dinner plate-- for once she wasn't exaggerating!).

It turned out that that was just the start of our interesting adventures on that trip. I'll try to post more--- along with pictures of the baptism--

A Chance to Try New Stuff

I found out a couple weeks ago that I get to be a part of the focus group for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine testing and reviewing new products. (This is the same company that let me give away a free subscription if I wrote a review back in August). And since I love their magazine and love free stuff-- even if I'm giving it away-- I was happy to review it. I posted the review on some of my homeschool email lists, but just put the contest part here--so if you wanted to win, you had to visit my blog. :)

So as part of the focus group, they will be sending me new products from a bunch of different vendors to review-- up to 50 over the next year-- and giving me the chance to do some giveaways. But I don't want that to get lost on this blog with all our family stuff for homeschool friends who are interested in it, and I don't want to bore my non-homeschooling friends and family, so I have set up a second blog where I will post the reviews: http://simplyschoolingreviews.blogspot.com/

I will post a link here when I add reviews, but anyone not interested won't have to read them, and I'll put that link in for my email groups, so people interested in the homeschooling aspect of my life-- not if my kids are sick or saying funny things, can just go there.

Anyway, I am really excited to get to try a bunch of products, several are things I've considered but not wanted to buy without seeing. In the long run, it will probably just end up introducing me to more companies and costing me money, but it will be fun. :)