Happy Holidays! It is time to wrap up this crazy year! All I can say is GOOD RIDDANCE! Of course, with my luck things will be crazier next year, but we'll just look forward with hope that things will start to look up.
October began with another virtual General Conference. You could tell that the brethren missed having the conference center filled and having to broadcast from a smaller room on temple square. Hopefully, we can gather again soon. The messages were wonderful as usual and even though I didn't hear a lot of it (thanks to 4 rowdy kids), I felt the Spirit there. It was also kind of fun, because during the Saturday evening session they were using performances of choirs from prior years and one of them was mine! I had fun watching familiar faces popping up on the screen and watching my kids have fun playing “find mom in the choir”.
As the month progressed, the main event everyone was getting ready for was the arrival of the newest member of our family. The new little guy would be arriving on the 19th. In order to help us adjust to the new little one, my mom would be coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks. As part of her visit, she went to stay with her dad for a couple of days. She invited Enna and Aijah to come up and have a sleepover with her at Grandpa's. They were really excited and helped to pack their bags while I was taking a required COVID-19 test (thankfully negative). When I arrived home, they were already standing outside waiting for me so that they could load the car and go.
With the girls gone for the night, Ryan and I were able to enjoy some time with just the twins and (when the twins were asleep) with each other. One thing for sure: the house was a LOT quieter! :)
The following Monday morning, we headed to the hospital so that we could welcome the new guy. It was a long drive as we stayed with our same doctor we had from day 1 and she was currently with a hospital in Riverton. So we had to travel for about an hour to get there. It was nice to just talk and relax.
After arriving, we had the normal changing, poking with needles, and heading into surgery we have had every time. I absolutely hate it, but I just kept reminding myself “Last time, last time”.
It was really cold in the operating room and so I started shivering a lot. Thankfully, one of the doctors noticed, and I got a heated blanket to help keep me warm. That felt nice.
As they pulled little Erick out, the doctors said, “Wow, that's a lot of hair!” He ended up being the only non-bald kid at birth we had. The hair was really dark too. So I hoped that the dark brown would stay. Only time would tell. He also ended up being our biggest kid at a little over 8 lbs.
Once we arrived back in our room, both the baby and I slept while Ryan read/slept/played. Over the next few days, we got used to each other and got feedings solid. However, the day before we were scheduled to leave, the pediatrician told us that his jaundice levels were too high and would need to be put under the lights to help it go down. We were also told we might have to take the lights home if the level didn't get low enough by the next day. We hoped that one night would be enough.
Thankfully, the level did go down enough that we didn't have to take the lights home, but we were supposed to take him to the doctor a couple of days later and make sure that the levels continued to decrease. So we went home a few hours later.
Upon arriving home, the older girls wanted to love on him and cuddle him as much as they possibly could. We had to make sure they took turns with him because this time there weren't two babies to share. The twins more or less ignored him, so at least we didn't have a 4-way fight.
Due to the level of COVID infections still being high a couple of weeks later, the city canceled their annual Halloween trunk-or-treat. So instead we dressed up (except Celeste, she wasn't interested) and hid candy around the house for the kids to find. They loved it! They ran from room to room looking for their favorites. The only thing we really had to do was remind the older kids to let the younger kids find some too.
November began with an unexpected twist. Ryan's back had been hurting him for a bit, so he finally went in to see the doctor. At the consultation, he was told that he would have to have surgery, so it was scheduled for later in the month. We weren't too worried about it, but Ryan was saying that he would know how I had felt after all the c-sections that I had. It would mean a little creativity for a bit because basically right after I would get the all clear to lift things (assuming nothing went wrong), he would lose his ability to. So he did all the lifting until I was cleared and I did all of it after. It made things interesting to say the least.
Once again due to COVID and the uncertainty of when things would open up again, we decided to talk to our bishop about doing Erick's baby blessing over zoom instead of waiting for church meetings to be allowed again. He gave the OK and came to our home to help do it. It was a bit of a last minute decision, but it ended up working out alright. While the bishop was there, he also gave Ryan and I a blessing and did our tithing settlement. It made for a bit of a longer visit than we originally intended, but I think that it was needed.
The next day we headed down to the Salt Lake area for Ryan's surgery. Due to the distance from our house and the length of time for the surgery, I decided to just hang out in the parking lot. It was a bit rough trying to keep 5 kids calm for the whole time, but I figured it would be more efficient than traveling home, sitting inside for 15 minutes, and then coming back. Although, after all was said and done, the surgery and recovery took longer than originally planned, but I had no way of knowing that, so oh well. He was a little loopy on the way home, so he said some funny things, but otherwise he seemed alright. When we got home, he just went into bed and rested there. For the next few weeks as he got back to normal, he just took it as easy as he could. I had to do a lot of reminding to the kids that daddy wasn't for climbing right now.
As Ryan was in no shape to travel, and we couldn't meet with family because of the pandemic, we had our own family thanksgiving for the first time in our married lives. So that made things interesting. We didn't do a ton of food as we have picky kids, but we still had a good amount of leftovers for a few days. I think it was a bit more relaxed than normal though, so that was nice.
The beginning of December was pretty laid back, the only major things we did were school for Enna, decorating the tree (or in the twins' case un-decorating), and DDIvantage meetings. I think that the meetings for the twins have really been helping as we are starting to hear a lot more words come out of their mouths. We aren't getting a whole lot of sentences yet, but we are getting more words instead of screaming. That alone has brought the stress level in the house down.
About mid-month we had the fun of watching Ryan's niece Elaina perform her dance recital over Zoom. We were sad we couldn't go in person, but she did a good job.
The next week we decided to go up north and enjoy some time with family while they were in town. The girls had a lot of fun sledding down the hill with Grandma and Grandpa. The twins weren't really into it though, so they played on the playground instead. It was funny watching them slide in their snow suits, but it worked pretty well.
Christmas day came and unfortunately Ryan had to work the night shift. So as soon as he got home, we opened our presents and had breakfast, and then he went to bed while the kids played with their new toys. Erick ended up sleeping through most of it and had pretty much no interest in even trying to open gifts, but I wasn't really expecting anything different.
The next week we went up again and enjoyed New Years Eve and Day with family as well. While there, the girls got to go with Dad and Grandpa and enjoy a tubing resort. They had a blast tubing for a couple hours. Especially since they didn't have to climb the hill (there was a moving sidewalk instead).
We played games, enjoyed family and food, and the girls even got to sleep in a tent in the house (Dad's idea, he made sure to OK it with Great-Grandpa though)! After everyone woke up, we cleaned up the house so it was nice when Great-Grandpa got back, bid farewell to my folks (as they were leaving for home), and headed back to our place. We were a little tired, but we had fun.
That's it for this installment! See ya in 2021.
October began with another virtual General Conference. You could tell that the brethren missed having the conference center filled and having to broadcast from a smaller room on temple square. Hopefully, we can gather again soon. The messages were wonderful as usual and even though I didn't hear a lot of it (thanks to 4 rowdy kids), I felt the Spirit there. It was also kind of fun, because during the Saturday evening session they were using performances of choirs from prior years and one of them was mine! I had fun watching familiar faces popping up on the screen and watching my kids have fun playing “find mom in the choir”.
As the month progressed, the main event everyone was getting ready for was the arrival of the newest member of our family. The new little guy would be arriving on the 19th. In order to help us adjust to the new little one, my mom would be coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks. As part of her visit, she went to stay with her dad for a couple of days. She invited Enna and Aijah to come up and have a sleepover with her at Grandpa's. They were really excited and helped to pack their bags while I was taking a required COVID-19 test (thankfully negative). When I arrived home, they were already standing outside waiting for me so that they could load the car and go.
With the girls gone for the night, Ryan and I were able to enjoy some time with just the twins and (when the twins were asleep) with each other. One thing for sure: the house was a LOT quieter! :)
The following Monday morning, we headed to the hospital so that we could welcome the new guy. It was a long drive as we stayed with our same doctor we had from day 1 and she was currently with a hospital in Riverton. So we had to travel for about an hour to get there. It was nice to just talk and relax.
After arriving, we had the normal changing, poking with needles, and heading into surgery we have had every time. I absolutely hate it, but I just kept reminding myself “Last time, last time”.
It was really cold in the operating room and so I started shivering a lot. Thankfully, one of the doctors noticed, and I got a heated blanket to help keep me warm. That felt nice.
As they pulled little Erick out, the doctors said, “Wow, that's a lot of hair!” He ended up being the only non-bald kid at birth we had. The hair was really dark too. So I hoped that the dark brown would stay. Only time would tell. He also ended up being our biggest kid at a little over 8 lbs.
Once we arrived back in our room, both the baby and I slept while Ryan read/slept/played. Over the next few days, we got used to each other and got feedings solid. However, the day before we were scheduled to leave, the pediatrician told us that his jaundice levels were too high and would need to be put under the lights to help it go down. We were also told we might have to take the lights home if the level didn't get low enough by the next day. We hoped that one night would be enough.
Thankfully, the level did go down enough that we didn't have to take the lights home, but we were supposed to take him to the doctor a couple of days later and make sure that the levels continued to decrease. So we went home a few hours later.
Upon arriving home, the older girls wanted to love on him and cuddle him as much as they possibly could. We had to make sure they took turns with him because this time there weren't two babies to share. The twins more or less ignored him, so at least we didn't have a 4-way fight.
Due to the level of COVID infections still being high a couple of weeks later, the city canceled their annual Halloween trunk-or-treat. So instead we dressed up (except Celeste, she wasn't interested) and hid candy around the house for the kids to find. They loved it! They ran from room to room looking for their favorites. The only thing we really had to do was remind the older kids to let the younger kids find some too.
November began with an unexpected twist. Ryan's back had been hurting him for a bit, so he finally went in to see the doctor. At the consultation, he was told that he would have to have surgery, so it was scheduled for later in the month. We weren't too worried about it, but Ryan was saying that he would know how I had felt after all the c-sections that I had. It would mean a little creativity for a bit because basically right after I would get the all clear to lift things (assuming nothing went wrong), he would lose his ability to. So he did all the lifting until I was cleared and I did all of it after. It made things interesting to say the least.
Once again due to COVID and the uncertainty of when things would open up again, we decided to talk to our bishop about doing Erick's baby blessing over zoom instead of waiting for church meetings to be allowed again. He gave the OK and came to our home to help do it. It was a bit of a last minute decision, but it ended up working out alright. While the bishop was there, he also gave Ryan and I a blessing and did our tithing settlement. It made for a bit of a longer visit than we originally intended, but I think that it was needed.
The next day we headed down to the Salt Lake area for Ryan's surgery. Due to the distance from our house and the length of time for the surgery, I decided to just hang out in the parking lot. It was a bit rough trying to keep 5 kids calm for the whole time, but I figured it would be more efficient than traveling home, sitting inside for 15 minutes, and then coming back. Although, after all was said and done, the surgery and recovery took longer than originally planned, but I had no way of knowing that, so oh well. He was a little loopy on the way home, so he said some funny things, but otherwise he seemed alright. When we got home, he just went into bed and rested there. For the next few weeks as he got back to normal, he just took it as easy as he could. I had to do a lot of reminding to the kids that daddy wasn't for climbing right now.
As Ryan was in no shape to travel, and we couldn't meet with family because of the pandemic, we had our own family thanksgiving for the first time in our married lives. So that made things interesting. We didn't do a ton of food as we have picky kids, but we still had a good amount of leftovers for a few days. I think it was a bit more relaxed than normal though, so that was nice.
The beginning of December was pretty laid back, the only major things we did were school for Enna, decorating the tree (or in the twins' case un-decorating), and DDIvantage meetings. I think that the meetings for the twins have really been helping as we are starting to hear a lot more words come out of their mouths. We aren't getting a whole lot of sentences yet, but we are getting more words instead of screaming. That alone has brought the stress level in the house down.
About mid-month we had the fun of watching Ryan's niece Elaina perform her dance recital over Zoom. We were sad we couldn't go in person, but she did a good job.
The next week we decided to go up north and enjoy some time with family while they were in town. The girls had a lot of fun sledding down the hill with Grandma and Grandpa. The twins weren't really into it though, so they played on the playground instead. It was funny watching them slide in their snow suits, but it worked pretty well.
Christmas day came and unfortunately Ryan had to work the night shift. So as soon as he got home, we opened our presents and had breakfast, and then he went to bed while the kids played with their new toys. Erick ended up sleeping through most of it and had pretty much no interest in even trying to open gifts, but I wasn't really expecting anything different.
The next week we went up again and enjoyed New Years Eve and Day with family as well. While there, the girls got to go with Dad and Grandpa and enjoy a tubing resort. They had a blast tubing for a couple hours. Especially since they didn't have to climb the hill (there was a moving sidewalk instead).
We played games, enjoyed family and food, and the girls even got to sleep in a tent in the house (Dad's idea, he made sure to OK it with Great-Grandpa though)! After everyone woke up, we cleaned up the house so it was nice when Great-Grandpa got back, bid farewell to my folks (as they were leaving for home), and headed back to our place. We were a little tired, but we had fun.
That's it for this installment! See ya in 2021.
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