Pro Golfer

Recently, we had to sell all our bunnies. It was definitely a sad day, although I think everyone was too brave to actually cry about it. Since one of the bunnies was Ethan's, he got to have the money from selling Hoppy.

This past week, he finally decided what it was that he wanted to spend his money on. A brand new set of junior golf clubs.

This little man LOVES to play golf and always has. Ever since he was a little munchkin (about 18 months) he would play with chopped off golf clubs. Even with the clubs cut down, they were still too big for his teeny little body. But he was in HEAVEN every time he was able to play golf!

(Check out Jayke's classy footwear. I just love the socks paired with the flipflops.)

Now the boys go outside everyday and play golf in our backyard disguised as an obstacle course. :-) After hitting 2 balls on the roof, I had Ethan explain to me how he got them up there, since he was not supposed to be aiming them toward the house. He simply explained, "Well, I was using the 9 club which hits high but not very far, so I didn't think it would go on top of the house, but it did. So, I tried the 7, which doesn't hit it as high, but hits farther, but it still went up there." I guess he is just having his physics lesson, right?

I think it is wonderful that my children love to play golf, just like their dad, and his dad, and his dad. We've got a long line of golf players in this family.

Mr. Musician

Jayke has been learning to play the violin this past month. His progress really surprises me. He has had a total of 4 lessons. He is still working on using correct posture and getting his fingers in the right place, but he is doing quite well for a beginner!

He has wanted to play for a long time now and I am so thankful that we were able to find someone so close to us to teach him violin lessons. We are still working on his habit of procrastination. He can't practice while V is sleeping, so I kindly "suggest" when he should practice. Most of the time he completely ignores me and waits until V is asleep and tells me that he can't practice until she wakes. He is starting to obey a little faster now that I have computer time as a reward for finishing all of his school, which now includes violin practice.

Little giggler

Little V found it quite hilarious when Aimee held V's hand on the sound button while Kate turned upside down.

I love babies at the giggling stage.

Posers, or not

 Anytime my kids see my camera, they ask me to take a picture of them. We have (most of) them trained pretty well so that they don't give me cheesy smiles and try to act as naturally as possible. It is still pretty funny to see the types of poses that they want me to capture. What even funnier is when the kids see someone do a certain pose and then they all want in on the action.

 The horse pose was Kate's idea.

 But Aimee wanted in on the fun.

Jayke saw Ethan's baby whisperer picture (which was real) and wanted to stage his own.

Aimee's just a crack-up and wanted me to take her picture sleeping. Like anyone sleeps on a Jenga tub!

This shot is the third attempt. We have the most difficulty with natural poses from Jayke. It's probably because he was so old when I finally got a real camera.

This one is actually not posed. I completely love how they try moving their hands while pushing the buttons, as if it would help Mario jump higher if their hands move higher. Better yet is the tongue that sticks out of mouths when trying to concentrate on something. Yes, we finally allowed video games in our house, as long as it was an old-school Nintendo like from our childhood.

Newborns

My favorite part of newborns is when they are sleeping. I'm not too fond of the other parts, like when they scream, or I have to change their diapers, or the sleepless nights, or even the non-stop nursing.  Those are all quickly forgotten, though, thanks to little moments like these. 

She is just a little angel when she is sleeping. Oh, how I love my teeny tiny!

Siblings

We have some kids in this house that are head over heals for little V.

She couldn't be happier than holding little sis.

I even have my own built in baby whisperer. Anytime she cries, he does his little magic and quiets her down for me.

 She goes from screaming to sleeping in just moments when he is around.

Faces

Little V loves to make faces. Her favorite one to make, or the one most often made, would have to be a scowl.

Occasionally she humors us with this face. 

Anyone with kids would know what THAT face is.

And sometimes she even shows us what she thinks of us with faces like this.

She's Here!

  Ah, yes. The post I'm sure you've all been waiting for...for almost 7 weeks now.

The shortened long version...because I want to remember.

Well, let's start the story way back during the summer when I had my ultrasound at around 20ish weeks pregnant. We found out we were going to have a girl, which had me super excited. That meant that we would end up with 2 boys followed by 3 girls. The perfect combination. I really liked that the genders were separated and not mixed between each other. Once all the baby measuring was finished, the technician gave me my estimated due date.  Two weeks later than I thought. Not possible. I knew my due date was correct. There was absolutely no way I could be off by an entire 2 weeks. I had even had 2 early ultrasounds confirming my original due date. Oh, well. I'll just talk to the doctor about it at my next appointment.

At home, I had a message to call the doctor office for the results of my quad panel test I had blood drawn for previously. I might have waited a few days to call them back. When I did, the nurse told me that the test was showing an abnormal result for Down Syndrome, meaning that there was an elevated chance that my baby could have Down Syndrome. I was a little nervous, but not overly so. At my next appointment I talked to the doctor about the due date and the abnormal test result. We decided to do another, more detailed, ultrasound to determine if she did have Down Syndrome.

After lots of scanning and measuring, the geneticist determined that she was not as likely to have Down Syndrome as the quad screen suggested. Still, I could have an amniocentesis to find out if she had it for sure and whether I wanted to abort or I could do a different blood test to be pretty sure if she had it. I chose the less invasive blood test and it came back negative. Now there was only a 1% chance that she could have Down Syndrome. From this point on, I prepared myself for her to have Down Syndrome, just in case, so I wouldn't have any surprises on her birth day.

So, if she didn't have Down Syndrome, according to all the recent tests, then what was causing her to measure a full 2 weeks behind schedule. The doctor suggested maybe there was a problem with the placenta not supporting her. Once she reached a viable age, the doctor decided I needed to go in for testing twice weekly. We would do non-stress tests and biophysical profiles. It was fun being subjected to testing twice weekly for 2 months. 

Anyway, closer to my due date, at about 38 weeks, she didn't score high enough on her tests. She wouldn't do her practice breathing. She only scored 6 out of 8. I had to retest the next day to make sure everything was okay. She scored 6 again. This time was because my fluid level dropped drastically. It went from an average of 12-16 down to 6. I would find out the next day that everyone was flipping out over it. So, she failed her tests two days in a row. The doctor scheduled the induction for the next day and also ordered more tests because there was a backlog of women being induced that day. They wanted to make sure they didn't have to have an emergency induction or c-section. At home, I consulted with Dr. Google and tried a few things to help my fluid level. So, back to the hospital for more testing, for the third day in a row. This time she had a perfect score. My fluid levels were perfect and baby performed perfectly. We were still on the induction list for that day, but not anything that was time critical.

I went home and started making dinner for the family and right as we were sitting down to eat we got the call from the hospital telling us it was my turn. So, we made a few phone calls and dropped the kids off at my sister's house for the night and headed to the hospital.

It was right around 8pm when I finally got checked in and put in a labor room. My mom came, but I don't remember if it was before or after the doctor came. The nurse was still inputting information when the doctor came in to break my water and get me started on pitocin. The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me. The contractions started fast and hard. I didn't last long without an epidural. We called him back to give me the drugs so I could actually enjoy the evening. A few hours pass. I knew I was contracting, but it wasn't painful. I love epidurals during childbirth. Baby's heart rate was acting up. Showing signs of stress. They lowered the pitocin and gave me oxygen. We watched for a while more. For a few moments during a particularly long contraction, there was a very long silence where we could not hear any heartbeat. I was scared to death. Finally, the contraction eased up and we heard that wonderful clopping sound again. Relief! This happened a several more times, but the nurse assured me that there was still a heartbeat. The nurse checked me and said I was a 9 and that it would be soon. She would go call the doctor to warn him. She wasn't even to the door and I started to feel the baby move down. I thought I was imagining it and let it happen a couple more times. I had the nurse check me again and I was ready. She still hadn't called the doctor. Now they did. They told me to not push. I crossed my legs and panted into the oxygen mask. I watched the clock. I panted. I asked how long the doctor would be. I panted. I watched the clock more. I panted. I crossed my legs tighter. I panted. Fifteen minutes later the doctor finally gets there. The doctor gets all suited and gloved up. My legs go in the stirrups and she immediately crowns. I wait for the next contraction and (barely) push. Her head is out. The doctor had to move a bit of cord out of the way. I push a little bit more and she is completely out. She was wrapped all over with her cord. It was around her neck, arm, and leg. 

They untangled her and handed her to me. I checked her eyes. I checked her hands. I checked her feet. I checked her ears. No sign of Down Syndrome. Relief! At that moment she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. I was so in love. 

(Check out her belly button. She DEFINITELY has an outie!)

They took her away, got her all checked out, and cleaned her up.  Ryan looked over to tell me she was 6lbs 12.6oz (he had to add in the .6oz part) and 19.75 inches. She was my teeny tiny. Her official time of birth was 12:25am on December 14th. 

The birth was the easy part, now we had to officially decide on a name. We had the first name picked out three years before, but we were stuck on a middle name. 

The entire pregnancy I was positive we'd name her Vevith Anne, after my grandmother, but a few weeks before delivery I had mentioned to Ryan that I had loved the name Adelle ever since I first saw the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance. He suddenly liked it and then we had a decision to make. Would we give her great-grandma's name or would we give her the name I really loved. 

(She always sticks out her tongue!)

After weeks of going back and forth, and almost not being discharged from the hospital on time because we hadn't filled out the paperwork, we finally ended up having the other kids choose between our two options. 

 They decided that their baby sister should be named Vevith Adelle Taylor. It fit perfectly. 

Welcome to the family, my teeny tiny.

Gingerbread Houses

This holiday season was a little different from others. Mostly because I was ready to pop at any moment and partly because I had no energy left. I felt really guilty for not wanting to do much with such low energy levels. 
I decided that we would do gingerbread houses for the first time, just to make this year a little more memorable. I had never attempted them before because all the recipes for gingerbread houses had egg in the dough AND egg in the frosting. I had never wanted to search out a replacement for two major components before, but figured this year was a good year to try. I wondered why I could not use my regular gingerbread cookie recipe in place of a gingerbread house recipe. Well it worked. Now we just had to find a replacement for the egg in the frosting. The meringue is usually vital in this situation since it sets up so fast and hard. After a little searching, Ryan found this recipe. It was a little sticky to work with, but it definitely did the job! The kids ended up having a blast and they all, unfortunately, got sugar hang-overs. 

Hard at work.

 Finished product.

Time for sugar!

I thought it was quite cute how the kids were so proud of their house designs. Some of them were so proud that they made me take pictures of all four sides of their houses. They all agreed, though, that the cookie and frosting were not worth eating. They definitely want regular gingerbread cookies that won't break their teeth instead of the rock-hard gingerbread houses.

Baby chicks!

This Thanksgiving, my parents gave us several baby chicks for the kids to raise. The kids were thrilled! When the chicks were little, the kids would go out to the coop and just play with the little featherballs. They were so dang cute. The kids were told not to name the chicks, unless they wanted to call them "stew", "KFC", "pot pie", "wings" or "sunday dinner". Of course, they did not listen and named a few of them. "Biggie" was the biggest one, of course. "Sophia" was one of the smallest. A few others received names that were the same as some of the kids' school-mates. Now that the chicks have all grown up, the kids can't tell one from another, thank goodness. Aimee quite frequently likes to talk about us eating her chicks for dinner. :-)

Even now, I often find the kids inside the coop just holding the chickens or even just sitting outside the wire watching them. The boys mostly like to try tricking them by throwing a little stick or rock through the wire and watching to see if the chickens will chase after it. The funniest thing to watch is when someone throws a bug to the chickens. They run around playing "keep away" until one of them finally digests it and all the others are out of luck.