MightyJohnsons

This baby will be the first one to be formally induced. Manina was a little nervous about it, and as a result neither of us slept very well last night. It’s very convenient to be able to plan ahead, get stuff ready, and just make an appointment to have the baby, but knowing it’s going to happen certainly increases the anxiety.

We arrived at about 6:20 AM and went straight into our room. Our nurse, Jana, came in and asked the usual barrage of questions, gave us some paperwork, and got Manina admitted.

Jana got Manina hooked up to all the monitors and gizmos and started an IV. She missed the first time and then had to go into the hand, which seemed pretty painful. Manina is one tough gal though, so she did just fine.

However, Manina was very nervous about getting the epidural. When Drew arrived the epidural turned out to be quite an adventure for both Manina and me — I nearly passed out after they had to try five (!!!) different spots in her back for it to get just right. Manina dreaded getting the epidural this time, and even considered going without it since it went so badly with Drew.

However, this time the epidural procedure was as smooth as silk. Only one poke, not too much pain (according to her), and I didn’t even try to help since I knew I’d be more of a liability. Perfect. She said getting the IV was probably even worse than the epidural.

After the epidural, things get boring until we get closer to showtime. Manina mostly sleeps. The nurse comes in every once in a while to make sure everything is progressing nicely. I try to nap, do some reading, and keep myself from going crazy listening to the beeps, bongs, and blips from all the monitors.

The nurse tells me Manina is progressing nicely and that we’ll be welcoming a new baby soon. Stay tuned.

I am a little over 39 weeks now. At my doctor’s appointment yesterday he did say I was dilated, although only to a one. Generally though, if I am dilated at all then the baby is on its way. I don’t dilate until we are really close to delivery. The plan is to go in on Monday and make sure things are still looking good and then we will have her on Tuesday, Nov. 24. My doctor is headed out of town the day after Thanksgiving so inducing is the best option for him and me (if she doesn’t arrive sooner).

I am really excited to have this little girl join our family. It is a little bitter-sweet for me. I will be thrilled to have my body back, but because she is our last I am trying to savor every minute of this pregnancy. Once she arrives, I may never let her out of my arms. I have a feeling it won’t be an easy battle either because we have three other little mommies that are equally excited to finally see her and hold her.

I am sure Seth will get the arrival details and pics posted quickly after she gets here so check back soon. Wish us luck!!

I am not sure if there is any way to describe my sweet daughter Claire. She is so imaginative. She is rarely “Claire” around our house. More often than not she is Christine, Hannah Montana, a cat, or one of the many other characters she enjoys being. She is so dramatic and entertaining. Nothing is normal with her. Every single day she has me laughing. She has a habit of including most of the family members in on her pretend play.

Today I spent most of the day being “Mrs. Beck,” her school teacher except while we were at Walmart and there I was “Captain” of the ship (my cart) and she was “the kid on the ship” as she called it. She shouted to me, “Quick Captain, over that way” while pointing at the toy and candy aisles. Then when making dinner this evening I overheard her and Drew playing together and she was calling after him, “Come here Diggity Dig!” and I was then informed I needed to call him that for the rest of the day.

She doesn’t always require a costume but most of the time she enjoys dressing up too. I found this wig last year after Halloween for $2 and it was certainly the best $2 I have ever spent. She has nearly worn it out. Here are a couple picks of her while in costume. However, her imagination goes way beyond the costumes. She is such a hoot and keeps me smiling all day.

Notice the numchucks she is holding…that’s what I mean by “nothing is ever normal with her”

We have a rich tradition of service of country within our family. We’re grateful for the service of all veterans, who have sacrificed much for our country, but we are especially grateful to our family members who are veterans.

Both Grandpa Mike and Grandpa Gary served in Vietnam. Uncle Matt served in Iraq, deployed over there several times. Uncle Joe was also in the Marines for some time.

Last winter, Jacob and I found a veterans memorial geocache and took the picture above. We salute you, brave veterans. Thank you very much.

Yesterday was KK’s birthday. I don’t do big parties every year, especially when I am nearly full term, but it has been a while since KK had a friend party so I agreed. Unlike most little girls she insisted on a Spongebob party. She invited 10 girls (plus my three girls) so we had a full house.

We played “pin the tie on Spongebob”, searched for hidden spongebobs throughout the house, made Krabby patties out of felt and lastly swung like crazy at a pinata that was nearly invincible (thanks to Jake we finally got to the candy). It was a fun party and the girls seemed to have a good time.

Seth and I got KK new bedding, curtains, and a lamp. Grandma supplied the bean bag. KK was so excited to come home from school to a newly decorated room. It has bothered her for the longest time that she didn’t have curtains on her window but I wanted to wait until we got out of a rental before purchasing them. These were cute enough that I thought they would look great in this room or any room she may have in the future.

Happy Birthday girly girl! We love you!

The birthday invitations that KK and I made.

“Pin the tie on Spongebob”

Blowin’ out the candles!

KK’s frog bedding that she has been wanting forever.

We were lucky enough to have Grandpa Gary and Grandma Kathy join us this Halloween. A Halloween geocache series got us in the haunting mood. It consisted of 12 spooky caches that led up to the final 13th geocache with lots of fun goodies for the kids. We enjoyed all the Halloween festivities: hot chocolate, pumpkin carving, costumes, and trick-or-treating. We had a great time and scored tons of candy!

We didn’t have a theme for our costumes this year. Jacob was actually a BYU fan, but then changed to a skeleton (a costume from a previous year) for trick-or-treating. Megan was a vampire. Katelyn was Dorothy. Claire was a witch and Drew was a skeleton. We had a family party earlier in the week and I dressed up as a black widow (and yes, I had my costume picked out BEFORE I saw Angela on “The Office”).

As I was tucking Claire into bed after a long night of trick-or-treating, I looked over in Drew’s crib (who had been in bed for about 30 minutes) and I found him asleep in his crib wearing his googly eye glasses. It was the cutest thing! So with that, happy Halloween and goodnight!

One of the things I remember most about Grandma Pat is her famous grape juice. Coming from Alaska, I wasn’t very familiar with fresh homemade grape juice but I quickly fell in love with it. With the unfortunate recent passing of Grandma we decided not to let her grapes go to waste. We took the family over to her house and picked 5+ boxes of these yummy grapes. Other than Jacob who was busy running from the bees, the kids really enjoyed picking grapes. There were tons and tons! Even after all we picked there were still plenty left.

We came home and steamed and canned them into grape juice. This is new for me as I never have been much into canning but with all the peaches, apples and now grapes we got this summer I had to quickly learn. The kids really think it is great to see that even WE can make this stuff. It was fun and we look forward to thinking about G’ma Pat each time we sit down and enjoy one of our jars of grape juice.

He’s thirty three and as hot as can be.

Happy Birthday Babe! I love you!

Our kids have recently taken to creating their own books. Megan especially will spend hours and hours, sometimes spanning several days writing, editing, and illustrating her own book. She is becoming quite the literary talent. Every book seems better than the last, and her creative mind keeps coming up with fresh ideas.

Her latest work is Crack the Egg. Megan agreed to share this on our blog for everyone to read. Click on the picture below to download the PDF.

Drew, being the only boy home during the day, gets totally spoiled by his sisters. As far as he knows he has four different mommies. I know many people fear for his sanity since he doesn’t have any brothers (other than Jake who is 7 years older) to play with but let me assure you that he gets plenty of attention from his adoring sisters. Every day before school Katelyn puts Drew on the plasma car and drives him around the driveway until her bus comes. I have to smile at how much she loves to have him hugging onto her waist.

Of course Claire insisted that while I was taking their picture that I must take hers as well. Notice she is posing with her hand flipped outward…what a fruit cake!