Settling In

This week started off with laundry fun as usual and some grocery shopping.  Plus it was the day that our furniture was getting delivered!  The kids got things cleaned up - Dan took out the old stuff and we vacuumed and got stuff ready.  Now we have a living room full of new furniture to sit on.  A lot of the seats in the new pieces have reclining parts and every time the kids sit down they have to put the bottom out and lay back - even if they are only sitting down for a couple minutes.  

Tuesday, Becca came over.  The kids love having her and Laura come over to visit, and Laura loves the attention of the older kids.  Becca and I (and Anna and some Eileen too) had fun making books and pretend iphones for our dolls.  Plus we had a yummy lunch together.  

David hit the 1 month mark this week - I can't believe it's already been a month - he is starting to fill out and not be so skinny any more and is eating well and starting to sleep a little better.  

Eileen and Dan had youth activities on Wednesday and Anna had her activity days activity.  Eileen learned all about rhubarb from a sweet lady in our ward and she came home wanting to make rhubarb everything.  :)

Thursday afternoon, we met up with Grandpa at the Buckley AFB Fun Fest.  He was helping with a booth about the Philippine Scouts and the work that he's doing to find the Scouts and their families.  The kids had a great time and came home with a ton of junk swag - but they LOVED it - especially after a month of not getting out much.  The favorites were these balls - Eileen especially loved them, and the zip line -which Eileen wouldn't go on.  David and I went on the little train with James and over all - it went well - I'm ready to attempt a day out with the kids!

Friday, we got a call from the Elders who needed a dinner for Friday, so we had the Elders over along with some less active members of the ward.  We had a great time with them - their family is wonderful and it's always wonderful having the Elders in our home.  We had a great lesson from them and then had a yummy Oreo cheese cake that Dan and Eileen made for dessert.  The two of them have gotten on a cheesecake kick lately - my taste buds have been enjoying it - Eileen wants to make a Strawberry Rhubarb cheesecake next. :)  Poor Dan thought he would never have to eat Rhubarb again.

Saturday was rather busy.  Dan spent a lot of the day getting the kids school supplies.  Eileen had flute lessons in the morning, and the kids had piano lessons in the morning.  Then in the afternoon, James had a birthday party to go to.  His fried Wyatt was turning 5 - so he and I went and had fun partying.  Then Dan went with Anna and Evie for Adeline's birthday party.  Plus Sister Cottrell came up to visit us and meet the baby!  It was so nice to see her again and have her join us for scripture study.

Today was nice and quiet after a busy Saturday.  Church was wonderful.  David is complying well by eating during Sacrament meeting so he's not fussy or hungry while I teach Sunday School.  We had yummy Cinnamon Rolls for dinner with Scrambled eggs with fresh chives from a sweet sister's garden.  Choir was wonderful - we actually had a good turn out!  Tonight after the younger kids went to bed, we played Clue with the kids and I got lucky and won.  :)

On our own

After helping out with the laundry and cleaning up, Dan's parents headed home on Monday evening.  They stocked us up on food and helped us clean out our leftovers.  We had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again!  

The rest of the week week was mostly just taking it easy at home.  Becca came over on Tuesday to play and craft stuff.  The kids had a great time outside this week, and we mostly just took care of the baby and played together.  

Wednesday was the youth activity for Dan and Eileen.  Thursday was cub scouts for Aaron and Friday was our end of week fun.  Eileen got to do her first paid babysitting job.  She did a great job taking care of the little girl and playing with her.  It was exciting!  (well exciting for me and hopefully for her since I told her dad that she would be happy to watch his daughter with out asking Eileen first...)  

On Saturday, Dan and I took Anna and David and went to American Furniture Warehouse to get some new furniture - actual new furniture (that wasn't bookshelves) for the first time in our married lives.  We walked around and with Anna's help, we picked out what we wanted.  It will be delivered on Monday!!  I feel like an adult! :)  

Sunday was wonderful as always - Church was great - I got to teach again and then after we had choir which was great!  I'm so excited about our new songs!  In the evening, Becca came over - Jeremiah works on Sunday evenings, so she has an open invitation to come over and hang out with us on Sundays.  She came to have dinner with us and play and while she was here, Anna set up our mermaid scene since I had finished all the tails and we set up our little underwater scene with all 5 of our dolls.  We ended up with everyone involved in holding up backgrounds and floating dolls and such!  And of course, and time I have a camera - James has to pose.  

Girls Camp and Visitors!

 This week has been busy and fun!  Monday was laundry and grocery shopping and getting Eileen all packed up for Girls Camp.  She got all packed up and we dropped her off at the church bright and early Tuesday morning.  She seems to have had a great time - despite lots of rain.  She also made some new friends from other wards and came home seeming to have grown up way too much...  Monday night for Family Home Evening, we did a family movie night and watched "Sing" together - such a cute movie and such a fun night!

Becca came to visit on Tuesday - it was great!  She was feeling great and the kids loved getting to see and play with baby Laura.  We had fun chatting and having lunch together and letting the kids play.  In the evening we had a quiet time with out Eileen around.  I missed her a lot more than I realized that I would and worried about her more than I needed to.

Wednesday morning, Dan's parents arrived.  We had a great time with them - working and playing and snuggling the baby.  The kids all wanted to play games and read books all the time - they have loved having Grandma and Grandpa visit!  In the evening, Dan had the Young Men's activity and Anna had activity days.  She got to decorate cupcakes - and was sweet enough to decorate some for everyone - and she did a great job too - they were so cute!

Thursday was more work around the house and games with Grandma and lots of taking care of the baby.  In the evening, Aaron had cub scouts.  Mostly it was a busy but easy going day!

Friday was a fun day.  The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa - helping around the house and trying to teach them games.  In the afternoon, it poured for a bit - but it was still nice and warm outside, so the kids (and Dan) got swimsuits on and headed out to jump on the trampoline in the downpour.  It was so funny!  I grabbed my camera to get pictures and a video - once Evelyn realized what I was doing - she had to pose for the camera.  In the evening, we had a fun movie night again and made personal pizzas for dinner and popped some pop corn and watched "The Secret Life of Pets" - it was a cute movie and we had a fun time together.

Saturday was spent by me eagerly awaiting Eileen's return.  My Dad flew in from Texas for the baby blessing and we all enjoyed a family dinner together!  Finally back together.  We also spent some time getting things ready for Sunday!  I just thought it was so fun watching the grandparents all trying to get the perfect picture of David - so I took a picture of them :)  

Sunday was a busy morning - getting ready for church and getting David ready for a day out.  Stephen came down for the blessing with Lincoln.  Newell and Becky and family came and Becca and Jeremiah came with Laura.  We had a wonderful full circle of family and friends.  These are the priesthood brothers that blessed baby David (not including the bishop and stake president) It was wonderful!  There were also two other babies blessed (twins) today and a confirmation.  There was also some Stake business to be taken care of and I led the choir in a musical number.  The choir did a great job and Stephen was kind enough to step in and sing with us too!

It was so wonderful to have so much family around us!  After - we invited people over to hang out at the house with us.  It was lots of fun and a great chance to be with people we care about!

In the evening, we all (we being our immediate family, the grandparents and Becca and Laura) went to the nursing home to see Glenna and play music for her.  The kids brought instruments and we used their piano and the kids all played songs for her.  We listened and sang and had a wonderful time.  The kids were so cute and so friendly and brought cheer to everyone!  After, we headed home for dinner before taking my Dad to the airport.

Week 2

This week Dan had Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday weekend.  Monday we mostly spent doing laundry and grocery shopping and all the usual stuff.  David is doing good and eating well.  

Tuesday our ward had our annual 4th of July breakfast sponsored by the scouts.  We all headed over - Even David and I made a cameo for a bit.  We then spent the afternoon taking it easy before heading outside to watch the fireworks - we really got to see some great ones from our own front yard.  David slept through them all.  :)

Wednesday, Dan headed back to work.  In the morning Anna got picked up to go to Water World with her friend from church, then in the afternoon, Tina stopped by and picked up the younger kids.  I dropped Anna off after she got back and then in the evening, Dan and Eileen had mutual.  Eileen had her pack check before camp - she is excited about this coming week!  Eileen wanted to stay and hang out with us and since she needed to be at the activity on Wednesday evening and we didn't really want to drive down to drop her off, we let her.  It was kinda fun - but I'm afraid she may have liked being an "only child" for a couple of days a bit too much.  

Thursday Eileen and I spent most of the day relaxing.  We played some Zelda and Dan came home and had lunch with us.  It was funny because Eileen still wanted to do scriptures and prayers at the same time we usually do them, even though there weren't other kids around to need to go to bed at that time!  

Friday morning was mostly us taking it easy again.  Tina and Frank dropped the kids off in the afternoon and they spent the whole evening trying to convince Dan to play Killer Bunnies.  They had played - even the younger ones had learned to play - with Frankie while down at Frank and Tina's house and were wild to play more games.  

Saturday was a busy morning.  Eileen had flute lessons in the morning, then she went to a baptism after that.  Plus, our good friends from Texas - the Tolberts - stopped by on their way to Utah.  It was so fun to see them - even if just for a little while.  It's so fun how even years after we moved away - the kids can all still get together and have a great time together.  Plus it was so much fun having them stop and chat for a while.  Spending time with them makes me really wish we lived close to them again.  Hopefully we will get to see them for a bit on their way back through to Texas next month!  

The next part of this post is just pictures of David.  He gets himself into the cutest poses - and though my cell phone camera can't do them justice, he really is such a cutie!  Both in his cute poses and cute faces and cute baby noises.  I figure that if this is our last baby - I better enjoy it while I can!  

Today, Dan stayed with David so I could go to Sacrament Meeting.   It was wonderful to be there!  Then we switched off and I came back home to eat breakfast and feed David, and Dan headed to church for Young Mens.  After church, we had lunch, then I went back to the church for ward choir - directing them with David in the baby carrier.  :)  After choir, we were talking to the West's and Evie asked if they could come over for dinner - I said that it was ok by me - and so they came over for French Toast and eggs and sausage and then of course, for games.  It was so fun to watch the kids playing games with them!  After they headed home, Eileen and Dan and I played a game they introduced us to.  You use your cell phone and place it on your forehead and people describe the words that come up and you try and guess the word.  Eileen found that there is a distinct disadvantage to playing with two people who have been married for 14 years and know how to give each other clues.

Finally He's Here

Sunday night we headed into the hospital - the plan was to start on some meds to soften the cervix before starting the pitocin the next morning - but upon arrival, the nurse checked me and decided that my cervix was soft enough already and after communicating with my doctor, she started the pitocin drip in the early hours of Monday morning.  She slowed it down a bit while I got the epidural then kicked it back up.  Around 7 am the nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 7.  She had the doctor on rotation come in and break my water and my doctor showed up just in time for David Paul Jones to be born at 8:10 am.  He was 8 lbs 5 oz and 20 in. long.  He was healthy and the delivery went well.  It was all so calm and clear.  By lunchtime, I was in my regular room and getting lunch sent up.  In the afternoon, Dan stopped by with the kids who said they wanted to visit me - but really just all wanted to see the baby!  They were so cute!  

When he came back Tuesday morning, he came back with my first visitor.  Grandpa came up to visit and see the baby and to chat for a bit.

My mom came in to help out for a bit while Dan stayed at home with the kids.  We also had a friend from Dan's work stop by with flowers and a card to hold and snuggle the baby.  

Then in the evening, Dan and the kids and my mom all came over and we got hospital dinner and had a little birthday party for Anna.  She got to open her presents, and we had cupcakes and sang to her and everything.  It was so nice to have us all together for her birthday!

 The kids of course all wanted to hold David - and have spent most of the week wanting to hold him.  They have all been so sweet and so helpful!

Wednesday afternoon, we headed home!  The morning was spent in going through everything necessary to get discharged and then finally we could take our little one home!  

Thursday, we had a check up for David.   He was born tongue tied and we were starting to worry that getting it clipped was going to be a pain in the neck - but at his appointment they said that one of the doctors there could do it later that day, so we came back in the afternoon and got that done quick and easily.  In the afternoon, Frank picked up the older kids so they could spend the night and have fun with Aunt Tina and Uncle Frank.  It was so strange having them gone.  

Friday morning, we took David into the doctor's office again to have his bili-ruben levels tested again since they had been a bit high the day before.  After this check - the doctor said that if things were going well, we didn't have to bring him in again, but if we had concerns, then we could.  Tina took the kids to the Children's Museum and they had a great time, then dropped them off in the evening and stayed and chatted and held the baby for awhile.

Saturday was really our first full day all together.  The older kids are so helpful and sweet and the younger kids just dote on him and want to hold him all the time.  Feeding has been a bit rough - he is hungry all the time - but getting him to latch on properly has been difficult.  He is a champion pooper though!

Today Dan took the kids and headed to church, David and I hung out at home and watched General Conference.  After church, our friends the West's stopped by and ended up hanging out and having dinner with us and playing games.  It was lots of fun!