More pictures of Mikayla...

My Dad, who loves teeny infants, asked if there was any way I'd take some pictures of Mikayla so he could have one printed. I got a bounce flash for Christmas and decided to try it out. Here are my favorite three:

If anyone has any bounce flash tips, I'd love to hear them. I should probably just read the little book that came with it but I haven't had time yet. I still can't believe all that hair!

Oh, someone asked about Mikayla's middle name, Ai. Sorry that I didn't explain. Ai is the Japanese word for "love." It's pronounced I.

It's a girl!

After feeling that I was going to have a boy, we ended up with a girl in the oven! Mikayla Ai was born at 9:57 p.m., was 20.5 inches long and weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz.

We got started with the induction around 4 p.m. Everything went pretty smoothly. I got an epidural at 7 p.m. (i think) and told the doctor it usually takes on the left side really well and not on the right. So he aimed to the right and instead my right side went totally numb but I could still feel it on my left. It's not an exact science. He also said I had some scoliosis from the pregnancy. I've always felt like my babies like to sit on my right side and he says that pulls my spine to the side as well. It's supposed to go back to normal with recovery. Fingers crossed. :)

So around 9 p.m., it was still hurting and the anesthesiologist came back and gave me an extra dose of something. After that, I was super numb and happy. Around 9:35 p.m., they called the doctor, she arrived, I pushed 3 times and we had a baby girl.

She has a ton of brown hair!

By the time we got moved to the new room and ready to sleep, it was midnight. Merril went home to sleep and help with the kids. The nurses kept coming in and waking me up so I didn't sleep super awesome at the hospital.

This is the next day as we're getting ready to leave the hospital.

We left the hospital around 2 p.m. and my Mom kept the kids during the afternoon. Merril, the baby and I all had a long nap. Around 5 p.m. the kids showed up and met their new baby sister. Since then, Mikayla has barely touched the bassinet or couch. The kids love to hold her!

Last night we put her to bed around 10:30 p.m. and she woke up at 3:30 a.m. I fed her and Merril got her back to bed and she slept until 7:45 a.m. Pretty good for the first night.

I'm feeling pretty good too. Not hardly sore at all, just where the epidural was. I'm slow and sleepy today but feel like I'll be back to normal soon!

Thanks to everyone who has brought presents and helped out!!

Baby Shower Gifts...

I received some baby gifts a few days ago. Since no one knew the gender of the baby, I got lots of essentials! Things like diapers, lotions, a baby bag, wipes, baby thermometers and such. When I came home with the gifts, Juliet immediately loaded up the bag with wipes and diapers and played with her baby doll, Suzie.

Juliet and I were playing because we were so bored waiting for the hospital to call. There was no laundry to do, no messes on the floor, no dishes in the sink, just waiting.

The hospital finally called at 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon and we loaded up the kids and headed over. Grandma C. met us at the hospital and we checked in. They had to finish cleaning up the room for me and so we waited in a triage room. This is the last pregnant picture of me.

No baby yet...

I'm scheduled to be induced tomorrow so I don't have the baby so close to my birthday. I'd had Juliet by now so I've thought that maybe I'd go early. I've never been induced before and I'm a little nervous. I'm not sure why, I'm always given pitocin eventually because I take a while a dilate. I tested negative for Group Beta Strep, a first for me, so I don't have to have the antibiotics!! I've finished with almost everything I wanted to. I have 2 goals for today: running to Walmart and washing sheets because I've washed everything else in the house.

The thing that's wigging me out the most is the fact that by tomorrow for sure, I'll be holding my baby. With the induction, they can call as soon as midnight and tell me to get in there. That's only 16 hours away! Next post will include baby pictures! Promise.

Decided to wash some clothes...

I tend to procrastinate. It's not my best quality. Today I was talking to a friend and she asked if I was all ready for the baby. I indicated that I was mostly ready except that I hadn't washed any baby clothes yet. She chewed me out and said I'd better get on it because the baby could come any day! She's right, as much as I didn't want to admit it. So I hauled up the boxes from the basement containing girls and boys clothes. I washed a variety of each.

Juliet had a great time helping me with the baby clothes. She recognized the outfit that she, herself, came home from the hospital in. (She loves to look at her baby picture book.) So there. Ha! Done.

Maxine's school sends home these brochures from Disneyland, detailing their vacation packages. The brochures irk me. Juliet was looking through one and said to Merril, "We've already been to Disneyland...what other lands can we go to?" We're thinking Thailand, Ireland, Greenland, Scotland! She's probably thinking more like SeaWorld.

I'm totally term today!!

So I'm 37 weeks. Holy Moly. It could come out and be happy and healthy! YIKES! So I put up the pack and play with the bassinet, put a sheet on it and made plans to wash blankets and both genders of clothes. This pregnancy has felt like it's gone by so fast and I can't believe I'm at the end. I've really felt great this pregnancy, except for the days that I'd lift too much. I'd really love to have 2 more weeks to get everything done that I'd like to. I teach a preschool co-op and I'm assigned to teach the next 2 weeks in order to give me the most time off after the baby comes. I woke up last night because of Braxton-Hicks contractions and panicked that the baby might be on its way. It's not.

Here is yet another picture with my crummy camera on my phone. I'm really too lazy to go get my real camera.

Since it's been so long since I was pregnant last, I've had less charlie horses, less heartburn, and less feet in my ribs. I had a dream last night that the baby was here already and probably 3 months old. It was smiling at me but wearing white pjs so I couldn't tell what it was. Then I opened a bucket of flour that was full of flying weevils, which creeped me out. Weird. I woke up worried about disinfecting the pantry but luckily, no weevils. Thank heavens! Have a great day!

New carseat...

My Mom wanted to buy a new carseat for the baby, so I let her. :) We browsed WalMart for a little bit and picked out this one. It's brown, tan, lime green and orange. The base matches the Tahoe interior nicely. :) So I brought it in and the kids wanted to play with it. Juliet put her favorite doll, Suzie, in it and has been playing "Mom" ever since.

It's almost a little scary to see a baby in the carseat already. :)

Having an off dinner day...

I like to think that I make good dinners. My kids tell me I make good things for dinner all the time and I figure they're pretty tough critics. But tonight I failed. Merril was out of town and I generally don't try as hard at dinner time if Merril's not going to be there to eat it.

Earlier I had promised Juliet that I would fix macaroni & cheese, which I never make when Merril's home. Already dinner is going downhill. I see a whole pineapple and figure I could chop it up and have it as a side. Rummaging in the fridge, I see brussel sprouts from the bountiful basket and think, "I need to use these up." So I cut them in half, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and put them in the oven to roast. So dinner consisted of

Mac & Cheese

Pineapple

Brussel Sprouts

Oi. All by themselves, not necessarily bad. Together for dinner, it just felt weird...off...not melding at all. The kids ate the mac & cheese and the pineapple fine. I had to really coax them to try a brussel sprout. I ate lots of everything, especially the brussel sprouts. I struggle with brussel sprouts but thought they were really good this time. But as I ate dinner, I thought to myself, "This is going to cause some serious heartburn."

Vegas trip...

Over the Martin Luther King weekend, we decided to take the kids to Vegas. It was a last hurrah before the baby comes. We just went down for the day and took some very crummy low light pictures. :) But hey, I wanted to get them on here before I forget.

We got some Wahoo's fish tacos. Then we drove up Las Vegas Boulevard and saw the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Maxine commented that it was a lot smaller than she thought it would be. We explained that the sign is really old and at the time it was great.

First we went to the Bellagio (Merril and I love it there) and saw the Conservatory. It was decorated for Chinese New Year.

We watched the Bellagio fountain show.

Then we walked across the street to the Paris and went to the top of the Eiffel tower. Merril and I have been to the top of the Stratosphere a ton but never to the top of the Eiffel tower.

From the top of the Eiffel tower, we could look down at the Bellagio fountain show canons, which I thought was pretty groovy.

We stayed up there for the next show and Merril snagged this picture.

Then we met up with my sister, Jess, and her family for dinner. Then we went to Fremont Street to see the light show. Juliet was tired and cold by then so Merril drove around with Juliet while Maxine, Jack and I saw the show. We saw a very bendable man who could fit into a box, the light show and bought some balloon animals and a hot chocolate.

After that we drove home. It took me me 5 days to recover from all the walking. Merril was amazing and ran to get the car several times and had me sit and wait but I was still pretty beat up. I'm back to feeling good again and can't believe mere weeks separate us from a newborn infant.

A Christmas gift...

One Christmas gift that Merril made me grew from a comment I made a few months ago. I mentioned that I thought my fridge always looked "messy" because I hang so many things on it. I thought maybe some type of magnetic boards could be attached to the back of my pantry door so I could still hang things, but close the door and hide it. So Merril decided to make them. So here is my very clean fridge!

If I need to look at stuff, I can just open the pantry door and unveil all my untidiness.

The curse of a really clean fridge is that it made me want stainless appliances even more. Maybe next Christmas?

Happy Epiphany...

Epiphany, or 12th Night was yesterday so we made a king cake to commemorate the event. Epiphany is a holiday that celebrates the supposed day the 3 Kings found the baby Jesus (I think). Mostly, it's a time for me to make a wreath-shaped cinnamon roll and hide a teeny, plastic baby doll (to represent the baby Jesus) in the dough. The cake is sliced and whoever is lucky enough to get the baby in their slice, receives good luck for a year. I feel like it really ends the Christmas season for me as well. Here are the kids and the king cake. They are each holding a teeny baby Jesus.

Merril cut the cake since I knew where the baby was hidden.

Maxine's piece had the baby hidden in it and she was very excited. Juliet started to cry and went to bed right after. She was tired.

Jack was playing with a different baby doll and made it look like the baby was crawling over his piece of cake.

We finished taking down all the Christmas decorations and cleaned the house today. Ahhh. I never mind the decorations until they disappear. Then I sit in my clean house and feel relieved that it's all gone. I debated getting some Valentine's Day stuff out but I don't think I'll want to clean it up next month. So I might just skip Valentine's Day decorating this year.

Coral Pinks 2012...

Since it was a brand new year, we went out to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, just like we do every year. We went out on Monday because New Year's Day was on a Sunday. Usually there's about a foot of snow on the sand but not this year! The weather has been so warm and hardly any snow was on the sand. I brought snow gear just in case but the kids didn't need it, aside from boots and gloves.

There I am, 34 1/2 weeks.

This is Merril's new work truck. He bought it at an auction in Seattle, WA and the front bumper was smashed. He got a screaming deal on it! There's a couple of things that still need to be fixed but it runs and drives and we're quite happy with it.

Grandpa brought some shovels and inevitably holes were dug. :) Juliet and Jack fit in them the best.

Happy New Year! I've thought about resolutions and all I can think of so far is I plan to drop 25-30 lbs. (I expect to gain a few more before I start losing but that can't be helped.) Other than that, I have low expectations for the year because I'll have the bambino. I'm focusing on just getting the bare essentials done around the house and family for a while. I don't feel like that's a goal though. It's not that I don't want to set goals, it's just that I want to keep them realistic because I'll have a newborn and don't want to take on too much. I hope the rest of you have really ambitious goals, for me, I'm just happy to be here.

My realization...

So in church I leaned over to Merril and said, "You realize that next month we're having a baby." Commence freaking out. :o Okay so we didn't freak out but it's feeling close. I just need to get a new baby car seat. Yikes. Happy New Year!

I love food :)

I'm to the point in my pregnancy that instead of eating meals, I tend to graze all day. From the moment I wake up until my head hits the pillow, I'm putting food in my mouth. It's kind of hard not to because my stomach is getting squished so I can only eat a little bit.

The problem? I lose the ability to stop eating. I start to eat when I'm not hungry. After all of my pregnancies, I have had to make a conscious effort to stop eating all the time.

I'm not hungry but I'm still eating. I'm eating Cheez-Its and Sprite. I know. It's bad.

Merril went to Japan...

Okay, so before time slips away from me, I need to mention that Merril went to Japan for a week during the first part of December!  He was going to the Tokyo car show with some buddies from Australia and visiting missionary companions.  Merril served a mission in Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 2 years from 1997-1999.  This trip was his first time back.  He was gone for a week and a half.  So here are some of the pictures that I liked best from his trip.  

He walked past the Cup 'O Noodles Museum and thought it was funny that there was a whole museum dedicated to Cup 'O Noodles.  

This was a cool Christmas tree in Tokyo.

Merril and his friend, Hiro, went to this Shinto shrine and Hiro bought an Omamori, which is kind of like a blessing.  You can buy all different kinds of blessings and he bought a blessing for me and a healthy baby.  Hiro and his wife actually went the following Sunday to this Shinto shrine to bless their new baby.

This is Merril in Kyoto at a Buddhist temple.

Here's more of the Buddhist temple.

This is Kinkakuji, a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, which is covered in real gold.

Here's Merril on the streets of Tokyo.

This is a funny Japanese sign telling people to run from a tsunami when you hear the tsunami warning sound instead of continuing to swim.

Here's a Japanese van that was at the car show.  Mooneyes put on the car show.

Merril flew standby and was bumped up to first class for the flight over.  He said it was very relaxing and the food was really good.  On the way home, the flight was pretty empty and he got 4 seats to himself and laid down and slept the best he's ever slept on a plane.

He was so busy he said it felt like he was only gone for a couple of days.  (It felt different for me and the kids.)  After he flew from Tokyo to LAX, he drove to Seattle, WA to pick up his newly purchased work truck.  Then drove home.  For a few days afterwards, he'd sleep all night, wake up for a few hours, nap at 11 a.m., wake up again and fall asleep on the couch at 7 p.m.  But now his sleeping habits are back to normal.

His new truck needs some work (of course) but it was a screaming deal.  Before and after pictures to come.

Mac & cheese alternate name...

So the other night, Merril and I planned to go out to dinner and so we needed to make something for the kids to eat before we left. We decided on macaroni & cheese and vegetables for the kids.

I didn't have any upstairs so I sent Maxine down to the food storage room to grab a box.  She came back up and said, "Just so you know, this is the last box of We're going out to a nice dinner and this is what we're feeding the kids."  (Peals of laughter from Maxine)  I replied, "Okay, I'll get more."  :)

Coming to terms...

So over Thanksgiving, I was laying on a couch and hoping to fall asleep. I was with my whole family and I could hear my Mom and sisters in the kitchen talking. They were talking about cleanliness. Somehow the conversation turned to clean houses. Now I know my house is not the cleanest, especially when compared to my sisters. But it still bothered me when my Mom said that my house wasn't as clean as theirs. So I've been mulling it over in my brain since then and trying to make a better effort to keep my house picked up.

And then it occurred to me, I choose spending time with my family vs. cleaning my house. When Merril says, "Do you want to go to the sand dunes?" and I have a sink full of dirty dishes, I totally choose going to the sand dunes. I think of all those people who lay on their death beds and wish they'd spent more time with their families. Nobody lays on their death bed thinking, "I wish my house had been cleaner!" So after thinking about it, I've come to the conclusion that YES, my house isn't as clean as it could be. I've traded a super clean house for time with my husband and family. And I'm okay with that. (There's always time to have a SUPER clean house later.)

Maxine's Christmas recital and our tree...

Maxine's Christmas recital was last night. She was pretty nervous but played excellently. She played "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and "Auld Lang Syne".

(There were more pictures but other kids were in them. I don't want an irate parent mad at me for putting their child's face on the internet.)

And I had a request for our Christmas tree so here it is.

There's only 1 stocking hung on the wall so far but I'm hanging the rest today. My Mom and sisters tend to have those really pretty, professionally decorated-looking Christmas trees. Mine is made up of ornaments I've collected over the years and some balls. These are some of my favorites!

This is a Ravensburger puzzle ball ornament. 60 puzzle pieces snap together to make an ornament. We think they're fun and tear them apart every year so we can assemble them next year.


This ball is a hand blown glass ornament that was hand painted in Venice, IT. We bought it when we were visiting Italy as a family during Christmastime. That was 5 years ago.


These paper stars were brought back from Sweden by Merril's little sister, Megan. A light is inserted and they glow. I'm very fond of them.

There's a collection of kid picture ornaments. Maxine made this in preschool.

This Hallmark ornament was the first one I ever collected. It was given to me by Grandma G.


Under our tree lies our baby Jesus in the manger. When the kids do selfless deeds, they get to put a straw in the manger. The goal is to have it full by Christmas.

Other than that, I'm just trying to get things finished up and wrapped. I keep telling myself it's fine and I still have 2 weeks left. I'm usually done by now but I'm lagging behind this year. :) Merry Christmas!

Chia Obama...Hilarious!

I was just died laughing because I saw a commercial for a Chia Obama. The commercial made it seem like having a Chia Obama would be a great tribute to our President. I had the exact opposite impression.

Earrings...

We put the kids "to bed" at 8:00 p.m. but I don't really make them lay down and fall asleep until 8:30 or so. So I sent the kids off to their rooms at 8:00 and started to watch a movie. Maxine and Juliet came into the living room about 20 minutes later and said they'd made earrings. (My girls can't get their ears pierced until they're 10 so they love dress up earrings.) They'd cut a beaded necklace and taped it to their ears. I thought they were really cute and creative.

(Jack looks like some crazy stalker that's going to jump them and steal those earrings)

As a side note, I wrapped presents today! I hadn't wrapped any so far and my tree looked so sad without some presents underneath it. So I wrapped until I ran out of tape and gift tags. :)

P.S. I've procrastinated something I have to do today. Bummer. I really put things off sometimes! One of my less desirable qualities.