Makenna is FIVE!!!

I truly can't believe that my big girl is five!! It has gone by so fast but she has grown into a beautiful, loving, sensitive child. I'm so proud of her and for all that she has learned. She does so well in her joy school and surprises me by how much she knows already. She will probably be helping the other kids when she gets to kindergarten this year. She loves her friends but gets her feelings hurt very easily and is so sensitive and tenderhearted. I hope she gets a little tougher before she starts school. Makenna is a huge helper to me (especially being pregnant). She gets her sister out of bed (so I don't have to climb the stairs:), gets things for me and is just a great big sister. Jordyn copies everything that she does (which at some times irritates her) and she loves her so much. She loves church and says the sweetest prayers. I love hearing her pray. She also makes us laugh all the time with the silly things she says. For some reason she calls potatoes, tomatoes, no matter how many times we correct her. She also saw Liam Nieson on the newer Star Wars with his long hair and beard and called him Jesus!! :) She is full of energy and has given up her naps over this past year but crashes when it's bedtime. She shows us her love by giving us hugs and kisses all the time. She is such a joy to have in our home and we are so thankful to have this sweet spirit as our daughter. Happy Birthday Makenna, Kenna, Kenna boo, boo bear, Kenna Rae, Ken. We Love You!!!

Say what???

Today, I got called to be the emergency preparedness specialist! Is that a mouthful or what?? I thought they were going to ask me to be a primary worker (which got me irritated because I'm just about to have a baby!!!!) And then they ask me to be this (and I'm still thinking....I'm just about to have a baby!!!!) Why do I have to do something new at all right at this very moment??? I asked him if he was serious because I was confused that they would call me to something like this! I thought it must be a mistake. He had to be thinking of the wrong person. The lady that was doing it is the perfect person for the job. She has tons of food storage and knows all about everything. I have a few extra groceries under my stairs and a couple partly done 72 hour kits. Not exactly the best person for the job. And yes, I know....I am being called because I NEED to learn. I know I need to learn. But do I need to learn when I only have ONE month to go in my pregnancy??? Do I really need to be trying to figure this out when I have sooooo much to do already in this ONE month before my baby boy comes??? I was quite upset when I got home the night the counselor asked me. I just feel so overwhelmed with everything and I am not exactly feeling so good. It's just one more thing that is putting me over the edge. Plus, everyone keeps telling me, "Oh, the other lady was so good at it. She was perfect. I don't know why she was released!!!" Me either people. Me either. But I'm just going to do what I can do and everyone is just going to have to be ok with that.

Helpers

Because you know it takes three people to water a lawn!!! :-)

Picture browsing

I was looking through pics today and came across this one. This was taken at the Smith Cabin in Palmyra when we went on our East Coast trip back in July. It was right before we got pregnant!! It made me a little envious to not have all this weight on me. I hope it doesn't take as long as it did after Jordyn to get back to this size!! :-)

33 down and about 5 to go!!

And not a moment too soon either. This little man is making me feel like....well....crap!! I have had a varicose vein for awhile and now there are more!!! I feel ok until I do anything that is a little more than just sitting on my butt. Like cleaning house, grocery shopping, walking a little, etc. I feel fine while doing these things and then I can hardly walk afterwards. It royally stinks. Plus, I think my girls know this and are taking advantage. They have been so sassy and honery and naughty. I can't wait until afterwards when I can keep up with them!! I also have had high blood pressure the last two doctor appointments. And I can really feel it today. But it will all be worth it in the end because I will have my sweet baby boy!! I will just have to always remind him that he gave me a hard time;-)

Cutest t-ball player ever!!

Our stake started t-ball yesterday and one of my kids is finally old enough to play!! Makenna was so excited. Her Daddy took her to the store the night before to get her a glove and she had the biggest smile on her face when she came home with it to show me. Then for the whole day, she kept asking me if it was time to go yet.
I wondered how she would do. Would she be shy and not do much or would she be all over it?Well, she wasn't the slightest bit shy. She was the first one in line to hit and ran to get the hard hat that they wear to bat. It was so cute!!
This was her first time up to bat.

Getting that hat adjusted.

Ready to go!! Look at that batting stance!!

And look at that great hit!!

Running bases!

She had no idea where to run (I guess we should have gone over it with her beforehand) but she caught on quick!! Some older siblings were there helping them show where to run and it was a huge help!

Waiting for her turn again!

Go Kenna Go!!

I forgot to sign them up for their dance and gymnastics classes this session and they were filled before I got to it but I think this is going to make up for it!! She can't wait for next week!! :)

Nascar Race

They gave away free Nascar tickets to teachers so we were able to go to the race over the weekend. We pretty much gave up on going anymore a few years ago because it gets expensive but you can't beat free!!

We got there and browsed around. There was this dodge area that had sports cars taking people on some wild rides. We also got me a hat at the Tony trailer. Guess who's trailer had the most people? Not Tony, or Gordon or even Johnson! It was Danica Patrick!! She's raced a whole three races and I've never seen lines this long! Crazy!

We wondered how good our seats were going to be and we were very pleasantly surprised. They were even a little better than the seats that we spend some good money on and we got to sit on the end!! How lucky were we??? Yes! I didn't have to climb over people with my huge belly to go to the bathroom.

Tony's car!

Joe's fave...Kurt Busch with the Shelby pace car.

Tony again with dumb ol' Gordon

This was the flyover by the Thunderbirds during the National Anthem!! It was very cool!!

And this is a restart:)

We had fun and we didn't have to wait too long to get out since we left early. You don't feel guilty about leaving early when you didn't pay for anything:)

Birth Story- Makenna

I use this blog a lot for journaling! I think it's funny that some think blogs are horrible because I personally wouldn't have documented as much as I have without it. Plus, it prints out with pictures:) Since I didn't start my blog until after my girls were born, I thought I would write their birth stories here so theirs would be documented along with their baby brothers all at the same place. And since Makenna's birthday is coming up, I thought I would start with her.

We had been waiting for Makenna for a long time so we were both extremely excited. I was due March 18th and had no idea when she would come. I figured she would come late since she was my first. I was wrong. On the morning of March 16th, I woke to Trav's alarm at 6:00 and felt a little bubbling down there so I went to the bathroom. As I got up, I noticed that my undergarments were all wet. At first I didn't know what the heck happened. I yelled out to Travis that I thought my water broke. He ran to me and asked, "well, did it or not?" I told him that I didn't know for sure and he's like..."how do you not know???" It wasn't like it was a huge splash like you normally see on tv but since I was continuing to get wet and I knew I wasn't peeing on myself, I figured it had to be. I called my ob's office and they told me to get to the hospital. I ran around trying to get a bag packed since I thought I would have a couple hours of contractions at home before I needed to go to the hospital so I didn't have it done. Travis decided to go to work while my mom took me to the hospital since I wasn't even contracting. I really wanted my husband to take me but I was just trying to get ready so I just said ok. I hopped in the shower and got ready to go (I wasn't about to go have a baby without being clean and shaved;) My mom took one last pic of my prego belly and as we were about to leave, Trav comes walking back into the door. His coworkers thought he was crazy for coming in and told him to go home. So he got things ready for his sub for the next few days and came back home. I was so happy that he did!! We didn't even get to the hospital until about 9:00. They checked to see if I really did break my water (which I did) and they admitted me. I was already dilated to a three! They got me all set up and started pitocin at 10:00. They started to really hurt at 10:30 and increased over the next hour. I knew I wanted to get the epidural but wanted to wait as long as I could so that I could experience what they felt like. I finally couldn't take it anymore and asked for the epidural at noon. The anesthesiologist was a young Asian guy with long hair and he reminded me of Keanu Reeves. He was so laid back which is the kind of doctor that I like and he just sounded like he knew what he was doing which put me at ease. It wasn't bad and he said it went in perfectly. I felt better immediately and was able to relax. They checked me after and I was already at a six!! I was dilating really quick so that must have been why they hurt so much. Five minutes later, she came in and said she wanted to check me again because of how it looked on the monitor and I was at an eight!! Holy cow!! What?? Not much longer after that I was complete. I was moving really fast for a first timer. My mom told me I better close my legs so that she could get there in time:) I thought she had plenty of time because I was sure I had a couple of hours of pushing to go anyway. Since I was moving so fast, the nurse just sat me up and let gravity and nature move the baby down so I might not have to push as long. That really hurt though. I started feeling the contractions coming back in my ribs but it worked!! I only had to push for about 20 minutes before they called for Dr. Swainston. Pushing was hard for me. I felt like I couldn't breathe so I'm sure I was holding my breath. It felt like my head was going to pop off. As we were waiting for the doctor, I started feeling the contractions in my lower stomach again. I thought about putting extra medicine in but realized that it was almost over so I might as well wait. Thankfully it didn't wear off all the way down:) I am realizing later that my nurses probably turned my epidural down so I could push! Punks. They could have waited to see how I pushed first! O-well. Dr. Swainston got there and I started pushing really hard. He said, "Whoa, don't throw her at me!!" Her head popped out and one more push and she was out. It was so amazing. They put her on my stomach and it was so awesome. She was so beautiful and she was ours!! She got here at 4:12 in the afternoon so I really only labored for six hours. I felt very lucky and fortunate to have a pretty fast labor and that she came out healthy. She was a little shaky when she came out but was just fine after I nursed her! We are so thankful to have our sweet Makenna in our family!!

I'm conducting!!

Jordyn copies everything Makenna says and does....literally!! Makenna has been 'conducting' and so Jordyn decided she wanted to do it too. She did it randomly one night and I was able to get a pic of it. They hit the top of the stand with their 'baton' (don't know where they got that from) and then they start waving their arms. Of course they steal some type of music sheet from their Daddy as well and even turn the pages like they are using it. This time Jordyn is conducting Makenna playing this train whistle thing. It's really too cute!! :)

Sweet little chubby cheeks!

I had an ultrasound this morning and got to see our beautiful baby boy!! He looks just like his sisters and I'm in love already!!
He was starting to smile in this pic:) It was so precious.

He was snuggled up with the placenta so part of his face is blocked but it's so cute!!

He is measuring two weeks early and is already 4 pounds 6 ounces (which is a pound more than he's supposed to be at the moment:) They are going to do another ultrasound at 37 weeks and I'm sure schedule an induction date then. Thankfully the cyst in my placenta seems to be gone so we don't have to worry about that but my blood pressure was a little high so they are going to watch that in the next appointments.

I am looking forward to seeing this baby boy and having him outside of the belly but I also need more time to get things ready for him. Especially since we haven't completely narrowed down the name for him;)