Jackson Chase

I am a little behind, okay that is a HUGE understatement! Life has been a whirlwind the last two months with the arrival of our newest precious gift...our baby boy. 

On August 13th, after much anticipation, we welcomed Jackson Chase to our family. He is our fifth child, and our second son. He was born at a healthy 6 lbs 14 oz after a kind of scary delivery. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday that Jackson and I both came out okay, and know that he truly watches over me and knows me personally. Heavenly Father knew my fears going into my delivery and watched over us both as only a loving father could. Two months later, I am so grateful for the wonderful spirit that he sent to our family. We couldn't live without him!

There is a very miraculous story behind our little Jackson. Last year I was facing some scary health issues and with that came numerous tests. On the eve before a particularly scary test, I asked my father if he would give me a Priesthood blessing. He agreed and invited his Bishop to participate in the blessing. After the anointing, my father's bishop gave me a wonderful blessing of healing and comfort. During this blessing, he told me that the Lord blesses me with the health and strength I will need to bring our spirit children to my family. He promised me that if I have faith, I will raise my children in the righteousness he desires. My blessing left me comforted and at peace, while at the same time a bit puzzled...

Driving home, David and I discussed what was said in my blessing. We were not planning to have any more children, and I tried to rationalize what the bishop had said about more children by stating that he didn't know we already have children and maybe he was speaking about them. David told me that if I believe in what had just taken place, I could not honestly believe that that is the case. Due to what the next day would bring, as well as numerous trials that followed, I soon forgot that special promise.

In December 2012, I told David that I was feeling a little "bizarre." David teased that maybe I was pregnant. Knowing this could not be the case, I tried to push it from my mind. That was impossible and I begged David to go and buy a pregnancy test. Sure enough, it came back positive. I cried. My husband is a full-time student and stay-at-home father, I am a full-time graduate student and full-time employee outside of our home. We couldn't have a baby! We were past that point in our lives! Andrew was getting ready to turn 5! This wasn't happening to us! And then it all came flooding back...the morning sickness with Andrew, the traumatic delivery, the colic, etc. I was overwhelmed, terrified, and scared all at once, and this lasted for a few months. Eventually I warmed up to the idea that we were expanding our family, and I could not feel more selfish about how I felt in the beginning. My pregnancy went very smooth, and now that I have recovered from pregnancy and childbirth I am loving every second of our newest child.

Jackson is my blue eyed, chubster man. He brings so much light and happiness to our life! I would miss him even if we had never met. It's amazing how Heavenly Father knew there was a piece of my heart that was missing when even I didn't. Jackson is that piece. He is an absolute angel and a miracle.  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father knows what is best for me, and I need to have more faith in his path for my life. As Jackson lays next to me sleeping, I can't help but melt at how blessed I am. Heavenly Father has entrusted me, us, with five special spirit children. He trusts us to raise them and love them so that one day we can all return back to him. I am so thankful that my family is sealed together for time and all eternity, they are my everything.

Here are some pictures of our beautiful baby boy!

So pure and innocent. He truly is a blessing!

This picture shows how much he looks like Madisen!
He has strawberry blonde peach fuzz and big blue eyes!

So Little!

Daddy's hands look huge compared to his tiny little head.

This is probably my favorite picture ever! It truly
captures how quickly my whole world changed for this
amazing little boy! He is now part of my everything.

Guess this picture is now outdated! I will post a new family picture
as soon as we get one done! 

Ohhhh baby!

Well, I am now 37 weeks pregnant and two weeks from induction day. I feel very ready, while at the same time extremely nervous to be having another baby! With Andrew being 5, I haven't been around a newborn for a while. People say it is like riding a bike...we'll see.

Luckily for us, in all the excitement for our little boy, the fabulous ladies I work with and my amazing sister-in-law Debra threw me baby showers last week. It was a great time, and little baby Awtrey received all kinds of good stuff! Here are some pics from all the excitement!

The "Work Party"

Please note that my pictures do not do it justice. Marci, a good friend at work put together an adorable baby shower for my colleagues. We ate, laughed, and opened gifts. They even got me the awesome new swing I have been coveting for a while! Not a cheap gift, and it is very appreciated!

Really cute decoration!

There was so much food!

Me with one of the gifts. I just love
unflattering pictures!

The "Family & Friends Party"

My sister-in-law Debra threw me a Star Wars themed baby shower! As you all know, I am a TOTAL and COMPLETE Star Wars fan! My favorite movie is "The Empire Strikes Back" and my favorite character is Han Solo. Debra spent so much time and effort to make this shower amazing and it was a great time!!

As you can see, I got a pure chocolate Han Solo frozen in carbonite! My favorite character, movie, and scene!

I don't know what I would do without the amazing family and friends that I have! I truly appreciate all of their efforts to make this baby a fun and joyful experience. Little Jackson and I are so blessed.

Now its countdown to baby time! I am soooo excited for my new little guy, can't wait to share his with the other amazing guys and girls in my life!

Our Baby Boy

Had my 33 week doctors' appointment this morning. Boy, where does the time go?! Our little guy is progressing really well, getting fat and happy! It's amazing to think that in a few short weeks we will be welcoming our 5th child! I may be crazy, but it is going to be quite the adventure. 

Our kids are all very excited. We have just about everything we need to hit the ground running. After we set up the crib, a couple of weeks ago, Andrew was convinced it was time for him to be born. I told him we had to wait a couple of more months but he stated, "We have his bed for him to sleep, and diapers and clothes and bottles! That means its time!" Ahhh... I love kids. I wish it were that easy!

Madi on the other hand is quite worried about what I am about to go through. She loves watching "A Baby Story" on TLC and has seen what labor actually entails. For any of you that tune in, it can be quite a traumatizing rendition of labor and delivery! She is giving me quite a bit of sympathy for my upcoming experience and I try to calm her fears by saying "I have done this NUMEROUS times, I know what ready." She is comforted by that. Maybe if I keep telling myself that I will be comforted to. Although I have been through labor and delivery several times I still have some anxiety! It has been 5.5 years and I have a degree of amnesia when it comes to labor, I just always remember the sweet little angel in the end that makes it all worth it! 

Alas, here is a picture of my pregnant belly! I know women do this, I never have before, but thought I would join the "norm." Heck...why not? This pregnancy has been nice in many respects, I have not gotten very big and have only gained 11 lbs. That said, I think he rearranges my lower spine weekly and I have some pretty heinous back pain. You win some...you lose some. It still beats the awful morning sickness I had with Madi and Andrew!

The Things Kids Say...Okay Just Madisen

Kids say the darnedest things! I know that we say this all the time, but lately, Madisen has been on a roll! Here are some of her current funnies:

• "Mom, Andrew is starting Kindergarten in the fall and he is not even reading yet! When I was going in to Kindergarten I could read and do math. Geeze, what is wrong with him?!" To this I replied that when Madi was Andrew's age she had a stay-at-home mom who had practically homeschooled her from the time she was three.
• "Mom! Jenna is talking about boys again! Makes me want to PUKE!" Oh to remind her of this when she is a teenager!
• "Mom, everyone knows that Andrew is your favorite no matter what you say. You just tell us we're all your favorites so we will still like you!" Oh boy...
• "Mom, Andrew is a little messy thing, covered in dirt, that should have to sleep outside with Stryker!" If only she could see what she looks like when she comes in from playing outside all day...oh wait she does! 
• "Mom, dad is more playful than you. With you it's just work, work, work, oh and you're always tired because of the baby." Oh, I can't wait until she is a mother!!
• "Mom, Andrew won't stop following me and he is making me crazy!"
• "Dad, you're just lazy. All you do is sit around and watch tv or get on the KSL."
• "I'm dad's princess. KayDee and Jenna aren't" This was said to KD and Jenna to which they replied, "We are too!" Madisen then confirmed to them that they are not.
• "Oh great... Another brother. I think we should give him" this was proceded by her crying for two straight days. After she stopped crying she decided that she will train him to "Not be like Andrew" and then he can stay.

Alas, most of her blunt comments involve Andrew, due to how much she just loves him! I mean look at these two! Don't they look like the perfect little companions?!

So today, I am sitting at work and the phone rings. It's "home." Since the kids have been out for summer break I get these calls frequently about kids not doing chores, KD being mean, Andrew doing something Madi told him he couldn't do, etc. Today was one of the best ones yet, it went like this!

Me: Hello

Madisen: Mom will you tell my stupid sisters that I am to old      

                to take a bath with Andrew!!!

Me: Yes Madi, let me talk to KayDee

Madisen: Good! Here she is!

I mean isn't that just priceless?! Oh the things kids say...

"Boys Night" & Trying to Salvage the Weekend

As you can see from my last post, our Memorial Day plans were ruined. The kids were totally bummed out so we tried to compensate for not going to MT. 

On Friday night we headed over to our favorite local dollar theater and saw "The Croods." It was your classic disney movie, with a happy ending of course, but wasn't so bad I wanted to poke my own eyes out! The kids loved it, Jenna, Madi, and Andrew that is. KayDee is getting to "cool" to hang out with us and went to chill with her best friend Sara. 

Saturday morning we went swimming at "Big Bucket." Its the pool in Lehi, and my kids love it there. Sadly and much to my surprise, the water made me start cramping up pretty bad and after an hour and a half I told the kids we needed to go. They would have stayed all day if I let them! Little fishies! Don't worry...I made it up to them with a trip to Macey's grocery store where they piled the cart high with treats! ;)

After we got home, Andrew and David decided they needed to go on a boys camp-out. David keeps telling me that as our girls get older, he and Andrew are going to need to escape that one dreadful week a month. You all know what I am talking about! I laugh and tell him they will survive. Here are some cute pics from their camp-out. As you can see they had to Stryker with them since "he is a boy too!"

I don't know if you can tell how dirty Andrew is, but it's pretty gross!

The two fish they caught! Andrew was soooo excited!!

They took the two back seats out of the Suburban instead of worrying about hauling
the trailer or pitching a tent. As you can see, it was a "snuggly" night!

This is what Andrew looked like on the drive home!

The girls stayed home and went to eat at Cafe Rio, yummy!, and visited Blockbuster for a few videos I knew I was going to regret renting. I filled Jenna and Madi up with sugar and they were good for the night. We all camped out in the living like a 10 year-old girls slumber party, watching movies and eating junk all night!

 When the boys got home on Sunday, Jenna and Madi talked David into taking them up American Fork Canyon because they wanted to go camping too! David is such a good sport, and loaded up fresh supplies and off they went. Have I ever said what a great husband I have and an even greater dad? Well he is!! So it was just me and KayDee for Sunday night and we spent it watching the amazing Iron Chef America Tournament of Champions and Chopped. We are die hards for those two shows! My favorite was Geoffrey Zakarian but he only made it to the second round. :(  (I know what you are thinking...I need a life!)

Alas, it was a very nice, peaceful night with most of the kids gone and I watched tv, read my book, and tried to get some sleep. That is easier said than done with David gone and being seven months pregnant!  The fam came back Monday around lunch time and told me what a "great time they had!" 

On Monday afternoon we went back to the theater to see "OZ." It was a pretty good prequel for the old "Wizard of OZ," and was even a little scary at times. I was nostalgic listening to my kids talk about how scary parts of it were. I remember being a little kid and being totally freaked out by the old movie, although "Return to OZ" was much more terrifying! I know that I'm not the only one who was scared of a talking Scarecrow, a Lion who cried all the time, and a Tin Man who walked "very strangely."  

I'm so glad I get to spend time with my little family before this new baby arrives. It is going to be a little bit of a shock when we don't run around all the time when we do now. I think they will be so excited to be around the baby that I will get a pass. We'll see!

Memorial Day Plans...Wait, We Had Plans?!

For Memorial Day weekend, we had planned to go to Conrad, Montana to see our niece graduate from High School. This was going to be our ONE trip of the summer due to the baby coming in August.  Those plans were contingent on our main sewer and water line being completed since our basement had flooded... Okay, let me back up a little...

David and I bought a 1958 rambler about seven years ago and in the years since then we have almost entirely remodeled the interior. This has definitely been a labor of love, or frustration, blood, sweat, or tears. You pick! Alas, one of the final things we needed to have done was replacing our clay sewer line to the street. It was cracked in several places, and we have had problems with it clogging over the years. Sunday night, it backed up into our newly remodeled basement and needless to say, that was the last straw. We scheduled for the construction to begin on Wednesday, giving us plenty of time to leave for MT on Friday. It was only supposed to be a one day job. Key phrase..."supposed to be a ONE DAY job."

Here are pictures of our house before and during construction.

 

There was dirt everywhere and all the neighbors were poking around wondering "what we were doing." When we dug a hole in our backyard for our tramp they thought we were putting in a swimming pool! I can only imagine what they thought!

This irrigation pipe was such a pain in the butt! They had to hand dig around it and the comcast pipe. This made for a lot of shovel digging, especially since they had to do it twice!

The lovely trench that spans my front yard to the street! It was about 3 feet wide and 9 feet deep! They removed two large pieces of sidewalk, most of my grass, and half of my flowerbeds! Ugh...

This is the old, broken clay pipe. So glad to be rid of that stuff!

You can see how deep it was with these two plumbers standing in it. What a project!

These are the "Trench Boxes" they had delivered after David threatened to kick them off the site. The excavator almost lost his machine in the trench as well as tried to bury one of his guys. It was awful!

These boxes were huge! As you can see. They weighed about 400 lbs each.

At the end of the day, they didn't do the pipe correctly the first time and had to re-dig most of it out again. After much frustration and anger from my husband they did finish the job very late Friday night. We cancelled our MT trip to stay and make sure the job was finished properly, and now have a large mess in our front yard to deal with. Good times people...good times.

Family time with Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa Legg came to see us over the weekend! Since their move to Arizona we have been lucky enough to have them visit every month. Boy do we love seeing them! Since it was Jenna's birthday weekend, they scheduled to take all the grandkids to Jungle Jims for some good ol' fun! The kids had pizza, soda, and unlimited rides, as well as tokens to play the arcades! 

The best part for me? Being able to sit in one place, without kids crawling all over me, reading the USA today and talking about the latest in government, business, and sports! What a great way to spend a Saturday. The other bonus? We were able to take three of Debra's kids with us so she could have some quiet, or relatively quiet, time at her house too! Debra is my sister-in-law who has been so helpful to us in the last few years. She is always willing to have our kids come play, and right now is watching Andrew full-time while David finishes school and I work. We look for all kinds of opportunities to return the favor! Hey, isn't that what family is for?!

Here are some pictures of our great time! Thanks Grandma & Grandpa!

Jenna's Seuss Birthday!

So, as you saw in my last post, I forgot Jenna's birthday but luckily, not entirely. On Friday night she had a Dr. Seuss birthday party with a bunch of her friends. Needless to say I went "all out," I seem to have a habit of doing this. 

Jenna had the girls all dress up as characters from Dr. Seuss' books. We had Cindy Lou Who, Thing 1, Sam I Am, Sally, Pair of Green Pants, and two more I can't remember!

I was happy that they all had such a good time! Making my kids smile makes me smile!

 

What a week!

This week has been one of "THOSE" weeks. 

Monday I had some very unsuccessful meetings at work, you know the ones where you always have  that one person who is trying to halt change and progress for everyone. Needless to say a downright crappy day. I thought, it's okay, things will be better the rest of the week! Hahaha fat chance!

Tuesday was complete with feeling every day of my 26 weeks! This baby is trying to tell me that he has no where to go, I have stayed very small this pregnancy, and it is really starting to make me uncomfortable. :(

Wednesday seemed a little better until I realized I had forgotten Jenna's birthday which was the next day! What a horrible mom I am! Things have been so busy with David's classes, the kids, work, pregnancy, etc. that I had totally spaced it! I was ironing my shirt for work when she came in and said "I'm so excited for tomorrow!" to which I asked her why. She said "Mom, you know why!" Then I knew something was up and just played along. She continued by saying "It's my birthday silly." Luckily I was able to pull this one out, and if you know Jenna it goes without saying why, but I teased her that it was not her birthday and she thought I was joking the whole time. Once again... Mother of the Year. Needless to say, I rushed out after work to buy her birthday presents, which turned out to be an epic fail because the only thing she asked for was a book series called Skullduggery Pleasant and it was sold out everywhere. Luckily I have a very understanding daughter who said no problem when I told her I had to order them! Love this girl. Can't believe she is 12!!

Thursday was filled with meetings. After several morning meetings I had to run to Kneaders to pick up food for our Directors Luncheon. I was sitting in the left turn lane on 1600 N & State St when all of a sudden the Range Rover in front of me started backing up. I laid on my horn but alas he still rammed right into the front of my car! His hitch went right through, and he put a small dent in my hood, among various other scratches, cracks, and breaks. After waiting 45 minutes for the extremely competent Orem City police officer (if you couldn't tell I'm being sarcastic) I got my accident report and rushed off to pick up lunch that was now an hour late! Good thing my boss is only slightly like the wicked witch in The Devil Wears Prada or things could have been much worse. Oh and don't let me forget the best part! When the officer asked the gentleman who hit me how he didn't see me, he replied "my backup camera didn't even pick up her car!" Argh!!!

Well, now it is Friday and my day seems to truly be off to a better start. Tonight I am hosting Jenna's "Dr Seuss" birthday party for ten 12 year-old girls! We are looking forward to a great time. I will post pics later. Happy weekend everyone!