Survival Mode

I am writing this in spite of the fact that I have laundry to fold, floors to vacuum, and bathrooms to scrub. I am writing this because I am hoping that one day I will look back and laugh. Right now I feel more like crying.
We are really very blessed. Abby has been a great baby-- good eater, good sleeper, pretty mellow all around. I am grateful for these things. It's just been a little crazy is all.
Since Abby was born six weeks ago:
1. Kate had pneumonia. Then I got the flu that turned into pneumonia. Now Trav has the flu and we are just hoping it will go away soon because it's the kind of flu that is completely debilitating. Yes, we all got flu shots.
2. The kids were off track right after she was born, which was difficult in its own way of trying to keep them entertained. But now they are back in school and I am finding that it is also difficult to get them to school or pick them up on time because I am either feeding the baby or fighting with Max about getting his shoes on.
3. Anna had surgery to remove the plate and screws from her arm.
4. Anna got her braces on, and if you know Anna at all, it has been full of drama about what she can and cannot eat and how uncomfortable it is.
5. Eve got a popcorn kernel stuck in her ear.
6. Max has gone mad. He is in a super hero phase where he runs around, jumping off the couch crying "To the Rescue!" He loves to irritate the dog, and in fact colored stripes on her (as well as the couch) with marker the other day. I was able to get it out of the couch, but not Daisy.

The only chores I can stay on top of are the dishes and the laundry. I am not sure if my upstairs has been vacuumed at all since Abby was born, and my car is a total disaster. Five kids is turning out to be a lot harder than being pregnant and having four kids. I am sure six months from now I will be a little more in control and that this is just a phase, but it sure seems like a long phase!

 We did pool all the money the kids had saved from selling toys before we moved to donate to the Philippines after the typhoon. Kate's heart is about four sizes bigger than most people's, I am pretty sure.

Abby is a beautiful little baby, and she does smile, just not for the camera. She loves her changing table, baths, and the ceiling fan.

This is Max most days. He loves these super hero jammies and wears them all the time. Like, he'll wake up and get dressed in regular clothes, but by the time he takes his nap at 1, he wants to be back in his super hero jammies again and stays in them the rest of the day. I think Santa is going to bring some more so that these can get washed once in a while. Also, he loves these glasses that he found in Anna and Kate's room. I think they make him look like Elton John. 

Crazy or not, they're mine and I love them to pieces!

Introducing Abby

Our sweet little Abby is finally here! I am going to attempt to chronicle the last part of my pregnancy and her birth story (mixed in with darling pictures to keep your interest. :) )

As far as pregnancies go, hers was pretty easy. I gained more weight than with any of my other pregnancies, but I think it's because I was eating gluten free and absorbing the stuff I put in my mouth. When I was 35 weeks, I got a call from my midwife's office that she was taking an undetermined leave of absence because she'd had a surgery and was not recovering well.
Dang it. Clearly I needed to find someone else, but didn't know where to go. Lucky for me, I went visiting teaching and my friend told me about her doctor that she absolutely loved. So I switched and saw my new doctor for the first time at 36 weeks. She was nice but I never really developed a great bond with her. Honestly, I had only been in her presence for a total of 45 minutes before she delivered Abby.

Then, things with Travis's work got a little crazy and he ended up needing to go to Brazil for a week when I was 38 weeks along. I wasn't worried I would have the baby while he was gone, but I was worried about how I would manage my four children when I was tired and cranky. It worked out fine, and I actually was able to do prepare-for-baby things like making freezer meals and sewing new burp cloths (where did the old ones go?).

After Trav got home from his trip, I was ready to have this baby! I was scheduled to be induced on Oct. 3, but just felt a little weird about it. Like I should let her choose when she wanted to come into the world not schedule it like a dentist appointment or something. It turned out I got a nasty cold and cancelled my induction because of that.

Well, Oct 3 came and went and I had no baby and felt recovered from my cold. I was starting to get very antsy! The night of the 4th I scoured the internet for ways to induce labor, but nothing was terribly successful. On Saturday Oct. 5 Anna and Kate both had soccer games, so that's how we spent our morning. I should say, that is how we spent our late morning. Our early morning was spent doing chores and having a dance party to T Swift's "22" which left me singing "It feels like the perfect night-to have a baby" all day long.

We took the kids to Warren's for lunch to celebrate a great soccer season. Seriously, $1.50 for a kids' meal? I love Warrens! It was one of those golden moments where everyone was happy, the sun was shining, and we were sipping Cherry Sprites. We came home and watched the afternoon session of General Conference and I recalled a friend saying that she did squats to induce her labor, so I squatted through a few of the talks, but still.... no contractions at all.

After conference Trav went out to mow the lawn, the kids were playing, and I was picking up toys they had left in the hall. I bent down to retrieve Eve's doll, and when I stood up, my water broke. And the thing about it, is that that is a very messy deal. I told Kate to tell her dad and I hopped in the shower. We called my mom and packed all our bags, ate a little dinner, and I changed my pants 3 different times. Because apparently I was packing a LOT of fluid.

Once Trav and I got to the hospital, I got an IV, pitocin, and an epidural right away. Then we just played the waiting game as my body got ready to have the baby. I was at a 4 when I got there and progressed pretty quickly, but as always, the epidural made me feel super weird. I remember with Max I felt crazy itchy-- this time I just felt like my legs were "asleep" like when you sit on your foot and then it starts to tingle? That was both of my legs for a couple hours!

We still hadn't completely decided on a name for our little one. Our favorites were Lily, Grace, Olivia, and Abby. Going in to the hospital, Lily was our top choice, but we decided we would wait until we saw her to decide. Skipping ahead in the narrative here, but once she was born Travis was just so excited about her and kept saying over and over "She's so perfect" or "Look how beautiful". It was super sweet to see this Daddy fall in love with his fourth baby girl, and so I told him we needed to name her Abby-- which means Father's joy.

Anyway, finally I was at a 10, my doctor was there and the next thing I knew, I had a precious little baby! It was a very easy delivery and she was a very healthy baby.

Our little Abby Kaye Larsen was born Saturday, October 5 2013 at 9:46 pm. She weighed 8 pounds 8 ounces (our biggest by a long shot!) and was 20.5 inches long. She had lots of dark hair and long fingernails. And we are so very glad that she is here!

Random Little Thoughts

Oh, man. I am constantly having thoughts that make me say, "I should totally blog about this" but then life is busy and I just never do it. So tonight I will try and spill some of the things that have been brewing in my brain for the past couple months.

1. Moving is a lot harder than I realized. I don't want to sound like I am complaining, because I feel like we are very blessed for Travis's new job and our lovely house and our friendly neighbors. It's just that everything is still so new. I still get lost when I go to Costco or the temple, I still haven't figured out which pediatrician to use, I still don't know most of the people in the ward. It's just kind of... hard. I miss the mountains in Utah County, the river trail, having Marci as my neighbor just in case I was ever out of diced green chiles or something. We are adjusting, and I am sure the day will come that we will love Davis County as much as we did Spanish Fork, but it is going to take some time.

2. I am having a baby in the next few weeks. ACK! People keep asking me if I'm ready, and the answer in honestly no. She doesn't even have a name, for crying out loud! This past week I did manage to secure a carseat, thanks to my sweet friend down the street. But, no, the hospital bag is not packed, the month of freezer meals are not made, the entire house has not been thoroughly cleaned... and I guess that is just going to have to be okay. The important thing is that our sweet little daughter will be coming into this world to join our family. Everything else is secondary to that. I am looking forward to seeing her (will she have wild black hair like Kate or fine light hair like Anna? will she be enormous-- because she sure feels that way!) And I am extremely excited to hold her close and smell her sweet baby smell and ignore every other responsibility I have in this world for the chance to cuddle her up close to my heart.

3. My kids are so great. They are just growing up to be the most amazing little people I could ever imagine. Anna has been going through some rough times with the beginning of her braces treatment and she may starve to death because she is basically surviving on Jello and yogurt right now... but her heart is pure gold and her testimony is so strong. She looks out for her little sisters and brother and tries to help me quite a bit. Tonight was chaotic and there were lots of hurt feelings at our house, but Anna taught the most beautiful FHE that she prepared all by herself about how Jesus loves us, and immediately the Spirit was there and the kids were quiet and kind and it was truly a miracle.
Kate is still our loving and patient one. And our super wild child at the same time. She is the one who can make us laugh almost all the time because of her funny facial expressions or the way she tells a joke. Trav took the girls to Lagoon a couple weeks ago and Kate couldn't get enough of the roller coasters. She loves to have fun, reads about 345 books every week and worries over Max and the dog.
Eve is a social butterfly up here. She has so many little princess friends and ALWAYS wants to play. She is spunky as ever, and often cracks me up with the observations she makes about every day life. She is in her first season of soccer and is a force to be reckoned with. Eve is one of two girls on her team that seem to understand what is going on with the game and they are all over the ball, meanwhile the other little girls are doing cartwheels and picking flowers. She is super aggressive and at the end of every game she comes over to us with her fists in the air and yells "Great game, huh, Dad?"
Max is my little buddy. I am so glad he is in our family. Over the summer he was literally driving me crazy because he wouldn't sleep at night, wouldn't keep his pants on, and kept climbing in the toilet. Those things still happen on occasion, but for the most part his shenanigans have calmed down. He loves me so much and always wants to sit on my lap and cuddle or to "pway ta-wucks" (play trucks) with me. He chatters all day long about whatever he is thinking about-- the other week it was if the rooster that lives in the field behind our house would come to his room, because he was pretty sure it would. Max just turned 2 yesterday and is overwhelmed by the amount of tractors, trucks, tools, swords, and general little boy gear that has come into his life. He had to take his tractor to his nap with him because he couldn't stand to part with it.
I love these little children and feel so happy when we are all together-- as long as nobody is yelling or poking someone else.

4. I am currently serving as the Secretary in the Young Women in my ward and it is so great. I love the girls and the leaders I get to work with. It takes up a lot of time, but I feel like it is time well spent and I really haven't felt like I am missing out on anything because of the time I give for my calling. (except maybe my blog I guess... ) It's really a good thing for me to work with the young women and see how they are strong despite the wickedness in the world around them. It gives me so much hope for my daughters.

5. My cute husband is going to Brazil this week for work. I am really proud of him for all the energy he has put into trying to settle a lawsuit for his company down there and for all the good things he has been doing at this new job. I really don't understand half of what he does all day, but I can see how much happier and more fulfilled he is and I am grateful for it. He is such a wonderful husband and father and I am so glad that we get to have more time with him.

Well, that is a pretty basic update of our lives right now. We're doing well, hanging in there, and just waiting for this little sweetheart to make her big debut!

Princess Eve

 Eve just had her Annual Eve Celebration in place of her birthday in December, and she requested a princess party. Around here we abound in girliness, so I put together my third princess bday party. Oddly, it's always been the 4 year old party theme. Anyway, Eve looked forward to her day all week long, each day telling me "Only 2 more days till my party." Finally the morning of her party, she came down to the kitchen where I was feeding Max and simply said, "So, Mom, today is my birthday party." Then she asked every few minutes how long it would be till her friends got here.

 Eve's really become a popular girl here in Syracuse. Here are her little girlfriends: Zetta, Ayla, Eve, Halie, and Ava. She plays with a friend almost every day, especially Ayla because she only lives 2 houses away. Aren't these girls adorable?

 Evie wanted a pinata more than anything for her party. She totally pumped her friends up for it and they kept asking when they could hit the crown and get the candy. It turned out to be a rather difficult task for them and they needed some outside help from Trav.

Happy Birthday Princess Eve! You are a little firecracker in our family and I love you to pieces. Thanks for your big squishy hugs, the way you love to play with Max, how you like to help me cut up the veggies for our salads or pick the berries in the garden. Thank you for the silly things you say every day that bring a smile to my face, and for how you love to snuggle up with a book on my lap. You are confident, kind, beautiful, smart, and goofy. I am so grateful you are a part of my life!

Down in New Orleans

One of the perks of Trav's new job was that they sent him to a conference in New Orleans in May, and recommended that he take me too! It was a great experience for us to go someplace new and have time for just the two of us.

Our first day there was Sunday. We attended sacrament meeting which was so interesting. One man we spoke to told us 1/3 of their congregation each week is visitors like us, and another 1/3 is graduate students who are only there a few years. There is only one ward in the entire city. Needless to say, there is a lot of missionary work to be done in New Orleans!

After church we took a swamp tour out in the bayou. We saw tons of alligators, turtles, and birds. It was awesome!

 My favorite was seeing the alligators swimming. You know how at the zoo they just lay around still as statues? Not in the bayou! They were actually fairly active.

 Here's a tiny alligator I got to hold. His skin was surprisingly supple, I can see why people might want alligator skin boots. Not that I am a proponent of such things, I just can understand.

 Monday while Travis was at his conference I spent most of the day at the World War II museum. It was amazing. I love to read about WWII, but seeing real photos, journals, letters, etc. really helped me appreciate the danger and the sacrifice that our soldiers made.
I also spent a lot of time trying out different settings on my camera. My goal was to learn to shoot in manual mode, and I figured it out! Only, the subject has to be still, like this flower. When I try it on my kids I still struggle.

 That night we took a riverboat cruise on the Creole Queen up the Mississippi River.

 I absolutely love the architecture of this city. And the way the people there seem to celebrate the city and its culture.

 Tuesday I took a tour of Treme while Travis was in his classes. It is the first place in America where blacks were allowed to own property. The tour was fascinating, talking about the history of slavery and the civil rights movement in New Orleans. And the buildings were charming--- all painted these bright colors!
That afternoon I attended a New Orleans cooking class and it was AWESOME! It wasn't so much about learning to cook, although she did demonstrate and feed us some amazing food, but more like a storytelling hour of the history of the city and its food. I want to do it in every new city I visit now.
That evening we went restaurant hopping (at the suggestion of my food class teacher) and tried charbroiled oysters and BBQ shrimp at two different restaurants. It was so fun! Then we took a ghost tour of the French Quarter where we heard creepy stories of different buildings in the city. FYI, the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland--- based on a hotel in New Orleans where people swear they have seen ghosts in the mirror with them and ladies dancing in the ballroom.

 Trav and I in front of St. Louis Cathedral, a main attraction in the city.

Lots of the streets had these little markers in the pavement. We saw this cute old couple take a photo of their feet like this and thought it was so sweet that we did it too.

Baby Animal Days

 Just before Mother's Day we went to Baby Animal Days in Kaysville. If you live in Davis County, you must do this next year. It was so fun. The kids all loved the chance to hold all these sweet baby animals.

 Kate came away from the experience convinced that she needs a duck or chicken for her birthday. She says she can keep it in her room, away from the dog. I say they start out cute but it doesn't last long....

 Soft baby bunnies. So darling!

 They all got a chance to briefly ride a horse.

 Max thoroughly enjoyed his horse ride. Now any time he sees a horse he says, "Horse. Hat. Horse. Hat." Repeat five times. He is convinced that riding a horse included wearing a hat. I'm kind of impressed that he remembers it so well.

 No such thing as an ugly duckling!

The First Week Was a Disaster

Our first week in our new house was a disaster. The house was great and Trav loved his job, but we had some kid mishaps.

For example, while we were at Grandma Nancy's house, Anna was rough housing with Travis and broke her arm. We took her to nearest ER and they set it, but when we went to have the hard cast put on a few days later, it had shifted. The doctor told us she needed surgery to place a pin in the arm to hold the bone in place while it healed. It was supposed to be a quick 30 minute surgery, but we waited for nearly two hours before a nurse came out and told us the pin was not working out and they would have to put a plate with 6 screws in her arm to hold the bone in place! It was so stressful to feel like I had absolutely no control over my daughter at that point. Luckily, the plate/screw situation worked and she has healed up beautifully. She was incredibly emotional about it, though, and would not allow me to take any pictures. I would love to show you the Xrays with all the hardware in that little arm, but I have been forbidden.

 Here is one a day or two after the surgery. We were fingerpainting (it was so hard to come up with things for her to do one handed!). You can see this yellow block we called her Cheese that she used to keep the arm elevated and safe from Max.

 Luckily we have year round school and the kids were off track when the arm incident occurred. By the time she was ready to start her first day at Bluff Ridge, she was not so worried about pictures.

 Here is Kate on her first day at her new school. Do those glasses look different to you? Well, they should, because she lost her first pair while jumping on our neighbor's trampoline about 2 days after Anna's surgery. It was just one more thing to add to the list of let's-make-this-move-hard-on-mom that the kids were trying to achieve.

Let it also be noted that Max loves finger paint.

Last Month in Spanish Fork

I had given up on this old blog, but in the past week I've had two different people tell me they actually read it. So this is for you, Cindy and Grandma Newren!

I thought I'd try and catch up with our last month in Spanish Fork. It was super crazy trying to pack, clean, and spend as much time with all our friends there as possible. We were so blessed to live there and benefit from the faith and examples of so many good people, and to make friends that (hopefully) will last throughout our lives.

Our darling neighbor Marci wanted to throw us a going away party. The original plan was to make sand castles in the volleyball pit at the church, but unfortunately it snowed that day..... so we made PlayDoh castles inside instead. We felt so lucky to have so many people come out to say goodbye.

 Kate and Callie, our next door neighbor. These two were barely old enough for nursery when we moved in!

 Anna and Raia, our next door neighbor on the other side.

 All the girls from our street. We sure miss them!

 Kate and Tyson Deveraux. Tyson's mom and I became good friends as soon as she moved in to the ward, and we've kind of decided Kate and Tyson must get married someday. They are the cutest together!

 Kate with her first grade teacher, Mrs. Riley. Don't they look like they could be sisters?

 Anna and her second grade teacher, Mrs. Moody. She is an angel here on earth and made everyone feel special and important-- even me when I would come help out! It's been hard for Anna to not have Mrs. Moody in her life.

 We had a little BBQ with our favorite friends, the Deverauxs and the Andersens. The kids were playing Red Rover here. Eve, Tyson, Allie, and Anna.

 Kate, Lindsay, and Bryce.

 Bryce, Allie, and Kate.

 Kelli and Cam Andersen, Shaun and Bethany Deveraux, and Trav and I. I am so sad we moved away from these families. I loved park days with these ladies and learned so much from them about being a better mom.

All the kids. It was a miracle to fit them all in one photo.

The last day we were in Spanish Fork I had so many neighbors come help me clean our house. I was overwhelmed because they were all moms like me with little kids and had to sacrifice to help me clean. It was so appreciated, as well as the men who came and helped load our moving truck that night. What a wonderful ward and neighborhood we lived in. Our lives will be forever blessed for the time we spent there.