More summer fun...

Look what the cat dragged in...literally!  We heard a noise in the garage and Meowser had one of these little guys in her mouth and then proceeded to find a second one after we rescued the first one.  We ended up finding a third one a day later too hiding out in my flower garden but that one has since died.  Hopefully we can keep the other two alive.  They are ridiculously cute and if anyone can desensitize them to humans the girls can. :-)

More pictures.

The job hunt is still active and still a pain in my butt, no offers yet still interviewing and waiting.  Blah!  Here's more pictures of fun stuff though to keep my mind off the yucky stuff.

Our roof is all done, here's some shots of them working up there.

We went to the lake for the first time this season on Saturday, when the kids woke up they were so excited/nervous that they were wearing their life jackets while watching TV.

Joe's little mini me on the paddle board with Austin swimming along side.

Tyler took her job of keeping the Lily Pad close to the boat very seriously.

It was a big day for Hunter, who then slept on my lap for most of the evening.

Jackson's absolute favorite thing right now (besides his Dad who he idolizes) is the "Lawn Mow" so Joe goes real slow and let's him sit there and help...he doesn't move, talk or barely blink due to excitement.

Summer fun!!!

This one thousand times over...I love summer time!!!


They are starting our roof today!

Our swing stopped working (possibly because Jackson would lean into it) so we borrowed Tadd and Carri's since little Hunter still loves it so much.  Look at the amazement on her face to see the mobile go around.

It's been hot here so pulling out the sprinkler is always fun.

We turned the old hot tub spot into a sand box for the kids.

So the big kids play in the sand and Hunter sleeps in the wagon.

We picked up Helen in Denver and Jackson got to watch his first movie facing forward while we waited for her.

After swimming lessons we went over to Tadd and Carri's house and ate pizza on the lawn.

Daddy's little helper spreading grass seed.

Hail storms have devastated my flowers, hopefully they will bounce back.

The girls got butterflies for their birthdays...they "hatched" and we set them free.

This face...boy do we love her!

Vacuuming the outside..that's a tough job!

Hunter's Birth Story

As always here's Hunter's birth story for record...complete with the details read it if you'd like to. :-D

Hunter Ann’s Birth Story

We knew when we went from having more than two kids that we were going to go for an even number and up the count to four.  So after Jackson was born we started thinking about how long it would take to get pregnant with the fourth.  It seemed surreal at the time to realize that I was pregnant when Jackson was only six months old.  I waited to tell anyone including Joe until after the first trimester was over and then we had one wedding and Carri and Tadd’s baby shower for Summer.  The shower was on a Sunday and I had my first OB/GYN appointment on that Thursday to confirm that I was in fact 18 weeks pregnant with our fourth child and third daughter.  I remember that we named her Hunter within the first week, it just stuck and we didn’t even think about other possibilities.  So just as all of her siblings before her, we made it to the past due date and started looking towards induction.  While Jackson’s went smoothly I was still apprehensive of the “what ifs”.  Carole got in town on Tuesday night, originally to meet the newest member of our family and to help out with the other kiddos but instead she was able to be here for the whole process and watch the kids during labor and delivery.  Wednesday morning Joe accompanied me to my weekly routine health check for the baby and I, and when they checked my cervix I was starting to dilate, now sitting at a 3cm with 50% effacement we were told that the beds in the hospital were filling up fast and since this was my fourth and it would more than likely go extremely quickly so we should head in that afternoon.  We drove home and picked up Austin from school so everyone could just be at home and I knew that everything was taken care of and headed back into the hospital at 2PM.  The nurse checked my cervix again and sure enough I was still at a 3cm but now I was almost all the way effaced.  We talked it over and we decided that we would try one round of cytotec to finish the effacement and start the harder contractions.   My Mom was able to come down and be with us in the hospital so when she arrived at just about 5PM we were told that everything was going as planned and sitting at about 6cm dilation so it should be any time.  I was up walking around and to be honest the contractions weren’t even making me stop in my tracks, perhaps by my fourth I had finally learned the art of working with my body rather than against it.  The next check showed that I was dilated to an 8 and it would be any second now (or so we were told).  Our OB/GYN had a student doctor with him at the time and we had given permission for her to deliver Hunter (with him standing there of course) and when we were all sitting in the room after several hours sitting stagnant at an 8 she spoke up and said perhaps it’s because the baby is double wrapped.  Our ears perked up and asked her what that meant to which she replied that the baby’s umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her neck and perhaps that was causing her to not be able to drop all the way down into the birth canal to finish the dilation.  My mind went into a panic and the contractions that hadn’t bothered me before were now taking concentration to get through.  The doctor suggested at this point as it neared 11PM that we should try to manually dilate the cervix since there really wasn’t much else to try.  We all agreed and with every contraction the nurse and Joe would hold my legs back, I would push and the doctors both of them and their four hands would try and push the cervix back around the baby’s head.  This went on for 20-30 minutes although if you had asked me at the time it was an eternity.  The pain was so much more of a sharp searing pain then normal labor is and I couldn’t even form words (normally I can muster the energy for a cuss word or two).  My body was shaking in between contractions uncontrollably which was making Joe nervous and he was trying his best to hold me still.  Finally one eternity later during one of the contraction – pushing rounds I felt a snap and could feel Hunter pass the cervix.  Everyone rushed to get the table and gowns all setup before she slipped too far back and we got ready for the real pushing.  After everyone was in place they briefed us on the fact that we would push just enough to get her head out and then stop so they could unwrap the cord and then finish the delivery.  The nurse who had delivered Jackson too, who just so happens to be our friends mom had to bow out at this point…she had my Mom take my leg and Joe the other one and she stepped back.  Afterwards she came up and told me that she was too close to us now to watch me in that kind of pain.  Just a couple pushes later Hunter flew out of the birth canal and the poor student doctor tried to just block her in with her hands pushing against me, which didn’t work and her the actual doctor and the nurse all grabbed Hunter and she came racing into the world and essentially tossed her on my stomach, where she sat up like a Budda doll facing away from me with her cord neatly wrapped around her neck twice like a scarf.  They quickly unwrapped the cord and laid her flat against me.  At this point labor had been over for 30 seconds and I had the biggest smile on my face, the rush of endorphins completely melted the pain away as they kneaded on my stomach to get the placenta to break lose.  Fifteen minutes or so later they had me mostly cleaned up and presentable so George could come in and meet his newest grandbaby.  I asked my Mom if it was easier to watch baby number four being delivered compared to my first (since she was able to be there for both) and through choked back tears, she exclaimed that they were both equally hard to watch.  To watch someone that you love that much in that much pain and know that there is nothing that you can do is a terrible feeling.  It was now past midnight and everyone was coming down off the rush, the doctors had left, the nurses covered Hunter and I up with an additional blanket since I had requested that she just lay there with me and they do the bath and measuring when they came back around.  Joe curled up on the bench and fell asleep, when he woke up an hour or so later I urged him to go home get some rest and be there if the other kids needed anything.  Hunter and I were in good hands and by now four babies in – all delivered in the same hospital – we had made friends with most everyone.  In fact the same nurse bathed all four kiddos, she made her way back around almost four hours later to find me enjoying every breath of that sweet baby on my chest her just snoozing away.  She had even passed her first round of meconium right there on my chest…and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  She was just absolutely content and happy and perfect.  They came in and started the bath process with her and gave me new gowns and changed my sheets and nestled us all back together.  We fell in and out of sleep until everyone came by the next morning to meet their new baby sister…the love in that room was palpable that day.  XOXO

Birthdays

We had two birthdays this month and boy did the girls have a ton of fun with them, of course Jackson gets included in most everything too so he loved it just as much.  Here's a photo dump of the excitement.


Austin's Birthday was on Saturday so we took them all to Bass Pro shops to bowl and check out the giant fishes!

Jackson is just about the cutest thing ever standing up there pointing at the fish as they swim by.

Bowling was super fun too, even Jackson got to roll them down.

Jackson wanted to finish petting the elk behind us but we made him sit still for a photo which lead to this great picture of my Mom with a crying Jackson on her lap.

J is back in town for a while so it's been awesome to have her around more and it gives me someone to expel some of my 10,000 words a day to. ;-)  Oh yeah and the guys bet Nate that he wouldn't shave for a year - while it's only for a $100 bucks apparently it's enough for Nate to grow that beard out.

Tyler wanted to jump in a bounce house for her birthday, when I looked online it was cheaper to buy this one than it was to rent one for the day.  It's not quite as big as the commercial ones, but for our little kiddos and in this case Uncle Wells and Summer it was plenty big. :-)  It was raining the day of the party so we were able to blow it up indoors and jump around in it.

 But outside is where I love it best, that way when Action Jackson fall out onto his head it's just the grass not the concrete of the basement.

We signed the kids up for swimming lessons at Tadd and Carri's neighborhood pool, apparently 30 minutes of crying because you are scared of the water makes Jackson very tired. ;-)