Welcome to Baby Jett! His Birth Story

We welcomed baby Jett Milo Strong into our family 2 weeks ago. Everything went pretty smoothly and we are both mostly healthy and happy and also exhausted, haha.

I like to document my birth stories when I remember, so here I go.

As a little background, this was my fourth pregnancy and baby. Number 1 came spontaneously at exactly 39 weeks. Number 2 was induced at 39 wks 4 days. And Number 3 also came spontaneously at exactly 39 weeks as well.

Also I had an epidural with Number 1 and I had her around 7 hours after being admitted into the hospital. With Number 2, it was about the same, only they started labor for me, but I had an epidural and it took 7-ish hours before I got to meet her. Then Number 3, I wasn't sure I was in labor until the last minute and I literally pushed him out about 2 minutes after arriving at the hospital. So no epidural with that one.

One more note, we are currently a year into our first tour as US diplomats in Saudi Arabia. So the State Department flew me out to Florida (my home town) so I could deliver in the States where medical care is a lot more reliable than abroad. They flew me back 45 days before my due date and the plan was for me to head back to Saudi 45 days after. So the kids and I would spend around 3 months in the States, but my husband, Garrett, couldn't get quite that much time off work. So he was planning to arrive just before baby was due (11 days to be exact) and spend 4 weeks with us before heading back.

So that's where I was at. Hanging out in Florida with my friends and family, waiting on Garrett to come so I could have the baby a couple days later, probably again without an epidural, just because labor tends to go faster with each subsequent pregnancy.

So Baby #4 was due Feb 17 and Garrett would arrive Feb 6th. I really had no reason to think I'd have the baby super early, because often timing is similar to your other pregnancies, so I was really thinking one week early.

But that's not how it happened.

For a couple of days prior, I kept doing a ton of online research to see when other women had their 4th babies in relation to their other deliveries because I was feeling a little nervous about the timing. I also researched tons of random signs labor is on its way and I had convinced myself it was happening soon even though lots of the signs can happen several weeks to several minutes in advance, so none of it really meant anything. But for what it's worth, I got the sniffles about 2 days in advance, which is apparently a thing when your body is preparing for labor, your immune system doesn't have energy to fight off random things like mild colds and stuff. I also felt a cough coming on and had watery eyes. Also my feet were swollen for like the last month, but they seemed to get even more swollen a couple days before delivery. Also sometimes my Braxton Hicks contractions seemed a little more intense than they had been before. Also, one other gross thing happened that I'll spare you.

So Saturday February 3rd in the evening, I started having what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions. I was reading my kids their bedtime stories and I kept glancing at my watch because I was noticing around 7pm they were coming about every 5 minutes apart. But this wasn't the first time I had wondered if I was in labor. Plus they weren't extremely consistent and they certainly weren't painful and they didn't seem to be getting longer in duration or closer together or more painful. So I super wasn't sure at this point. I did mention to my kids just before prayers that I may be in labor, but that I didn't think I was. They got super excited and prayed that he would come (even though I was super hoping he'd hold on just 3 more days)...

About an hour later, I texted some folks and called Garrett (who was still asleep because it was 4am in Saudi Arabia) because I still wasn't sure, but I was still suspecting that it might happen that night. When I called Garrett, I teared up a little, because I really really did not want to deliver a baby without him, but I was pretty proud at how well I kept it together. He just said, "Noooo, just keep it in 3 more days..." Like I said, I still wasn't sure, so I was kind of worried I was alerting everyone only to have to tell them it was a false alarm.

I also called my midwife (the only 1 of the 3 I hadn't met yet) and she wasn't sure if I was in labor yet either but she did tell me to 1) not wait until my water broke before heading into the hospital (because that's the way I finally realized I was in labor with Number 3) and to 2) just go in if the contractions got painful. So that was my new gauge I was waiting on.

Anyway, my sister, Sunni, my dad, and nephew came up to my apartment around 9pm or 10pm, I sorta forget. They were cool even if it was a false alarm so it was nice to have them there just in case it wasn't.

So my contractions started getting closer together, like very 2-3 minutes apart, but they still weren't painful at all. I put on some makeup, chatted with my family, and was working on packing my hospital bag. Eventually I realized that they were getting a little more intense. Still not painful, but more so than before. I had like 2 painful ones at my house before I was positive I was in labor and my sister and I decided to head in to the hospital.

We arrived at 11pm. They were getting more intense and it was getting difficult to talk to the admissions folks while they were asking me a bunch of annoying questions.

When they admitted me, I was dilated to a 7 and an 8 while I was contracting. So I think I arrived at the perfect time because I spent most of the time at home laboring, and I came in when I was far enough along that they admitted me, but I wasn't so late that I felt like I needed to push immediately upon arrival. So I think I got there just in time.

They hooked me up to the IV, asked if I wanted an epidural ( I said no) and called my midwife. My contractions were getting more and more painful and my goal with this delivery was to try not to panic as much as I did during my contractions with Number 3. I wanted to stay positive and relatively calm. Everyone says to breathe through them, so that was my goal this time and I did pretty well. My mantra was "I'm doing great, I'm doing great" so sometimes during the contractions I would just say that to myself. It kinda worked. Towards the end, when they were getting really really intense, I did have a harder time keeping my cool, but I wasn't as panicky as I was with my last delivery so I still call it a success.

Also, I really wanted to change positions. I kept trying to stand or be on hands and knees and all the nurses and midwives kept restraining me because "they wouldn't be able to catch the baby if I was standing up"... That's garbage to me. That's the one reason I wish I had had my baby in a birthing center, because they actually let you do things that relieve your discomfort, but my insurance either didn't cover it, or there weren't any centers locally. Either way, it worked out fine, but I was still annoyed that I had to lie on my back with my legs in those dumb stirrups, like a... whatever puts their legs in stirrups.

So anyway, I started feeling like I needed to push so I got to. Oh, also Sunni Facetimed Garrett so he got to feel like he was sort of part of the process. So that was really nice too. Anyway, I started pushing and I had pushed out like half the baby when they told me to look down and I saw him for the first time!

I still can't believe we have 4 children!!! 

This little purple, crazy looking, beautiful baby boy. I pushed him the rest of the way out and I kept repeating "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh" over and over because, Oh my gosh! I had just had a baby!

Jett was born at 11:51pm on February 3rd. He was 6lbs15oz. and 20 inches long. He was actually my biggest baby even though he was born the earliest! Weird, huh. Good job growing, little man!

I'm so grateful Sunni could be with me when Garrett wasn't able to, and I'm grateful she and my friend Tiffany were able to take turns watching my other 3 rowdy children during my hospital stay.

Anyway, then Baby Jett did the jaundice thing that all my babies love to do. We tried battling it as outpatients for a week but eventually he was readmitted a week later so they could put him on the phototherapy lights. It was very emotional but it worked out. We got to leave 24 hours later and he's been doing well with that ever since.

We are still working on his weight gain and nursing and pumping and battling exhausting and hormones and stuff, but he is a true light in my life.

Life is insane with 4 kids but at least my husband is here with me now! The other three kids and Garrett are all enamored with Baby Jett and everyone loves taking turns holding and feeding him. He's super cute and snuggly and so far, he's not a huge cryer so that's been nice too.

It will be a fun journey back to Saudi in a few weeks with all the kids and a newborn, but we're just focusing on being where we're at now.

In Florida with lots of loved ones and access to all the things they don't have in Saudi!

Happy due date yesterday, Baby Jett. I'm still bummed you couldn't wait a few more days to come, but I'm so glad things went pretty smoothly and that you're here and that we're all together now.

Just meeting his 3 day old son for the first time.

Yay for babies.

Saudi Arabia

I mentioned last time that I'd talk more about how we felt when we found out we'd be going to Saudi Arabia.

So how it works when you join the State Department as a Specialist is, they give you a bid list. There were 4 Facilities Manager Specialists including Garrett in his training class so we received a bid list of 4 locations. The 4 were Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, and Equatorial Guinea. They give you resources and some time to research the different posts and then you turn in your preferences, ranked in the order you chose along with justifications. They met with Garrett a couple of times and talk through why he chose to rank the posts in the way he did, so they know what's really important to him, and then a board chooses where to send everyone.

The 4 FM families all had chosen different number 1's so we really thought we all knew where they'd send us, but we were wrong!

They called Garrett's name 2nd out of the gate and there were like 60 people receiving their assignments too, so that was a surprise to hear our names right at the beginning because we thought it might be alphabetical or something, only it was random instead. And then it was Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and not Bahrain like we had hoped. We thought Bahrain would be nice because it was right next door to Saudi Arabia but it wasn't as strict with rules (like closing stores for prayer times or women not being able to drive or having to wear abayas in public). They both had great schools and lots of nearby shopping and amenities so that part wasn't so scary. Plus, even though we bid Saudi 3rd on our list of 4, we also had realized in the back of our minds, that financially, Saudi would be best for us. It had the highest hardship pay (aside from Equatorial Guinea which didn't have any schooling in the English language so we ruled that out pretty quickly) and pretty much nothing to spend money on besides traveling!

So we found out it was to be Dhahran and I look back on my reaction and am sort of embarrassed... I cried. Kind of a lot. Right afterwards, people were shaking my hand and congratulating me on this thing that I was sort of devastated about. And then they'd get this look of sympathy, and anyone who knows me knows that sympathy just makes me cry worse, so then I'd just try avoiding seeing anyone.

Little did I know, that night would be the last of the negative feelings I'd have about Saudi Arabia before going!

I read this article online that day that taught that people should lean into their strong emotions, rather than keep burying them. So that night I decided to let myself feel. I felt scared and confused and angry and disappointed and worried and concerned and terrified and pessimistic and overwhelmed and all the negative feelings that I had only had little inklings of up until that point and I just let myself fully feel them. I expressed all my negativity to Garrett that night. And I cried. Oh how I cried.

After about 2 hours of just sobbing and voicing all my concerns, I actually felt so much better.

The next day I casually talked to one of the ladies on the board who helped send us there and also some other people who had also been there and they started telling us lots of the benefits of going there.

As I said before, good pay, nothing to really spend money on unless you want to, motorpool to drive me places, lots of American restaurants and shopping, near the oil compound Aramco with lots of other Americans and kids sports and things, great schools, etc.

So I started feeling a lot more optimistic after that point and that has continued to be my attitude now that I'm here.

I'm glad I was able to go through what I felt was a hard thing, so that I could practice feeling my feelings as well as adjusting when there are things that feel like trials. I feel stronger for it.

And next time, I'll actually update about what it's been like being in Saudi Arabia!

It's Been Too Long... But We're Back!

So it's been a while, but now that life is starting to settle down again after the many changes we've been experiencing lately, I feel like I finally have some time to catch up on this here blog again. Yay!

First, I've been wanting to include a little timeline of Foreign Service events somewhere before I forget it.

Oct 2014- So over two years ago, Garrett decided to apply for a job with the State Department. He heard about it in college, only you couldn't apply without a few years of experience so he's always planned on applying after working for a little while first. So he worked for the LDS Church as a Facilities Manager. The State Dept job was the same position, only he'd manage Embassies and Consulates, which he felt really qualified to do, after he put in those 5 years with the Church. When he told me that it would require international moves once every 2 years, I was a little frightened, but the idea grew on me with time, and luckily, I had a lot of that (time) to get used to it.

March 2015- We decided to sell our house in West Jordan and rent a place in Midvale. We knew it wasn't our forever house, and with this job possibly on the horizon, we felt like it would be nice not to have any big things holding us back (like a mortgage we couldn't get rid of had we wanted to) so we sold our home. The value had increased while living there, so we used the extra money to pay off debt. We saw it as a win-win, even if the job didn't pan out.

June 2015- Apparently the State Department tried to contact Garrett via email to request an interview with him, only it went to his spam folder so we had no idea and instead we continued to live in anxious curiosity about whether we'd ever have closure relating to this job.

August 2, 2015- By this point, we were pretty antsy to know about this job one way or the other so we could start making other arrangements. With a little encouragement from me, Garrett finally worked up the nerve to email the State Department, asking if there was anything else they needed from him. They responded by referring to the June email that had requested his interview for Aug 10, that he never replied to and so he was too late. Only once he said he was definitely still interested, they suggested he come out Aug 12 (10 days later) and he accepted. This was a pretty exciting day for us.

Aug 12, 2015- Garrett flies solo to DC on our own dime for his Oral Assessment. This assessment was rumored to take several hours, and it did not disappoint. It included a multiple choice test, a few essay style questions, and an interview with a panel of decision makers. Each part was scored and at the end, they told him he scored well enough to be offered this position, conditionally. He still had to pass the background security stuff as well as get worldwide medical clearance, which turned out to be trickier than we would have guessed. I do remember, however, that as I walked to the car from the girls finishing their swimming lessons, I was crazy anxious to hear back from Garrett. When he finally called and told me the good news, we were ecstatic. We had talked about getting this job for almost a year so it felt amazing to finally know that they were just as interested in Garrett as he was in them.

September 2015- Garrett turned in all his security documents and they started talking to all his references. We also spent 2 solid weeks getting all the medical stuff taken care of, going in once or twice every single day during that time. Luckily, we were literally 2 minutes from the doctor, but it was still really intense. The State Dept medical folks told us, now your doctors are going to think some of these tests seem invasive and that they don't need to do them, but you'll need to tell them that they really do need to do them. And that absolutely happened, so I'm glad they prepped us. So here's a weird thing that started happening. Eventually the 3 kids and I all got our medical clearances. They were experiencing some difficulties with Garrett though.

The protein levels in a few urinalyses kept coming back really high and the doctors couldn't figure out why. Eventually they had him go in for a kidney biopsy to see what they were dealing with. Turns out, he has a fun, super rare kidney disease called C3 nephropathy. Basically his kidneys weren't filtering properly and since the disease only affects like 1 out of every million people, they don't know how serious it is. They say that it's possible that nothing bad may ever come of it his whole life OR it could cause a lot of problems, resulting in dialysis or kidney transplant. So they determined that they needed to monitor it indefinitely, every 3 months for the first 2 years, and then if it was stable, every 6 months forever after that. Plus they put him on a couple medications. We reported back to the State Department on all this and they then rejected Garrett's medical clearance. We were devastated. It seemed like all our hopes that had just shot right back up after the Oral Assessment, had just plummeted back down.

Later Garrett was in touch with someone on the medical board who told him that he needed to appeal. Basically the information gets put through the system and it automatically rejects him. But if he appeals, his case goes to a medical review panel, with actual humans and they get to make a different call if they choose. So Garrett appealed. Only their choice wasn't what we wanted to hear either. They told us that since his diagnosis was so new and there wasn't much research done about it yet, they really wanted to wait another 6 months to see what his condition would do.

Again, another blow to us. After all that waiting, we felt like we finally knew we were probably getting this job, only to find out that nope, instead we get to do some more waiting and stay in limbo even longer.

Luckily, our landlords were super relaxed about us possibly needing to stay longer or move out early so that wasn't a huge issue. I had decided to quit my jobs because I had assumed we were moving soon, but then I learned we wouldn't be going that soon. I was fine with it though, because I felt like I'd rather be home and have time to do all the medical errands and school and whatever else than be busy working the whole time.

March 2016- So after 6 long months and 2 of his appointments, Garrett's levels were looking really good. The bad levels went down and the good levels went up with the medication and other levels looked more stable. After passing on that information, they finally got back to us and gave Garrett the Worldwide Medical Clearance that he needed in order to continue remaining a candidate for this job.

April 2016- We were notified that Garrett had passed all the security checks and was officially on the Register (which is the list of cleared candidates). After a couple weeks, they invited us to join the training class starting in September and we happily accepted!

May 2016- They contacted us again to let us know that there was actually room in the July class if we wanted to go out earlier. And since we had done SO MUCH WAITING, we were really ready to go, so we accepted that instead! Over the next few months, we purged and donated and got rid of almost all the furniture we owned, because we knew that everywhere we'd live was furnished.

June 2016- At the end of June, we had our packouts and then began our trek across the country. We packed our van full of stuff and drove down to Arizona for a quick vacation at the Ranch and to Mesa a little. Then we drove 6 DAYS with our 3 small children through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia. We stopped each night to sleep in a hotel and the kids actually did really well. I was super anxious about this road trip, but it ended up going way better than expected, for which we were really grateful.

July 2016- We arrived in DC and stayed a night with Garrett's parents, who were in town for a Principal's Conference, and then they stayed with us for a few nights in our new place as well. A couple weeks later, my dad, his girlfriend, and my niece were in town visiting as well. I invited them along with my aunt and cousin to our Flag Day, at the end of the month, when we would find out where our first post was going to be. After about 3 days of working, Garrett received his Bid List. It included (and I'll list them how we ranked them):

1. Manama, Bahrain (which is a little island right off Saudi Arabia)
2. Mbabane, Swaziland (which is right near South Africa)
3. Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (which again, is about an hour from Bahrain)
4. Malabo, Equatorial Guinea (which is another island on the coast of Western Africa)

We had a couple weeks to rank the posts and Garrett also met with someone to talk about why he chose the way he did. There were 4 people in his training class (all FMs) so there were 4 posts and each person would go to one of those places. So Flag Day was the ceremony where they gave you a little flag of your new post country and announced where you'd go. There were about 60 people at the Flag Day and we had no idea what order they'd call everyone in. Garrett was actually second, which totally caught us off guard. Our first post was going to be Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

I'll write more later about how we felt about Saudi Arabia specifically. But for now, I'll say, we're here and we made it! Maybe next time, I'll include some pictures too as well as talk about how it was living in Arlington for 6 months.

So now we're kinda caught up. Yay!

It'e Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

So the last time I posted was around Halloween and now it's a few weeks before Christmas. Only, it's also an entire year later...

A few things have happened in the last year. Let me think:

-I worked at Scheels as a receptionist for just under a year. The last day of August was my last day there. I loved the other receptionist girls and it was fun to work a such a huge company because I'd never done that before. There were so many employees I never even met or learned their names, it was very different than I was used to at pretty much every job I've ever worked. It was fun though.

-I also got another job, as a Social Media Specialist for the company Two Little Hands, in May, and quit that in August as well. I really liked working for the company itself because they make videos that teach ASL (American Sign Language) to children, but I didn't love posting new things on social media everyday for 3 hours. It was kind of hard and more time consuming than I was prepared for.

-We applied last October (in 2014) for a Facility Manager job with the Foreign Service. The job includes Garrett doing the same job he's doing for the church, only instead of taking care of church and seminary buildings, he will be taking care of Embassies and Consulates all over the world and moving to a new post approximately every two years.

-We figured Garrett had a good chance of getting the job so we decided we should sell our house in West Jordan so that if we did get the job, we wouldn't have to worry about selling our house while also moving across the country and totally changing our lifestyle. We listed the house in January or February, and after a few offers that fell through, it ended up selling in March. We loved that house and the ward and our neighbors so it was sad to leave, but we were giving it up in hopes of a different bright future (this crazy FS job). And our house appreciated so we ended up selling it for a profit which we figured wasn't a bad deal even if the job didn't pan out. (We made over $50,000, woohoo!)

-So we moved into a little duplex in Midvale right near Garrett's office. It's been really nice because we are so close to a ton of shops and restaurants and stuff and we feel like we never drive more than 5-10 minutes to get anywhere. It's awesome. Also, the ward is so sweet. They are definitely a smaller ward than the one we came from, with a lot less kids, but we are really liking it. We feel really needed and that's a nice feeling, considering that in our previous ward, everyone was a young family like us so it was sometimes hard to feel like we were contributing anything unique.

-After waiting several months and hearing nothing, we finally followed up with the FS job only to find out that they actually did try contacting us in June to invite Garrett out for an Oral Assessment in DC only the email went to his spam folder so he never got it. So on August 2nd, they gave him a new option and that was to go out on August 12th. Which he did. It was kind of nice because instead of having several months to stress about going out for that assessment, we only had 10 days to even prepare. It was kind of a whirlwind. So Garrett went out for the assessment while I waited anxiously here.

-The assessment was kind of an interview but not in the typical way you think of a job interview. It was more like a series of tests with scores and then also an interview, also with a score, and if you get a certain score, than you get a job offer. And they don't tell you very much about the scoring or how you did on each portion. So they just told Garrett he got 6.0 out of 7.0 and they gave him a conditional job offer, meaning, he would get the job as long as he passed the medical and security clearances. I had just finished taking my girls to swim lessons (Side note: Kailyn took 3 sets of 2-week lessons, at level 3, then 1, then 3 again. Harlie took level 1. They both passed and were making progress but I pulled them out because life got hectic. So both girls can kind of swim, but not all the way yet. We'll have to pick that up again sometime. Maybe next spring or summer).

-So when Garrett got back we figured life was about to change because we assumed we pretty much had the job and all of it might happen quickly. We each went to the doctor's like a million times. This is when I quit both my jobs. It turns out the medical clearances are intense. We kinda expected that but the doctors were even surprised how many invasive types of tests we'd need and we had to go back and forth like 20 times a week, no joke. So eventually the 4 of us all got our medical clearances, except Garrett.

-Garrett learned during this process that he has a super rare kidney condition called C3 Nephropathy, where his kidneys are enflamed and letting too many of the good things pass through when they should be holding onto them. So the only symptoms were protein and blood in his urine. He ended up getting a biopsy and they were able to diagnose him. The only thing is, it's so rare (only 2-3 people have it out of every million) that no one is quite sure what the prognosis is. His nephrologist said that it's possible nothing will ever go wrong with it, but we'd better monitor it forever just to be safe (because the worst case scenarios are dialysis or a kidney transplant, which are both intense). So he just has to go to a kidney specialist every 3 months for the first 2 years, and as long as he's stable, then he can go every 6 months for the rest of his life. So Garrett turned that information in to the Medical Review Panel with the Foreign Services and their response was this: We don't know enough about your condition since it's rare and you were just barely diagnosed, so we'd like you to wait 6 more months before we can get the Class 1 Worldwide clearance. That answer was kinda sad to us, given that we've been waiting like a year already, but I guess it's fine because when we've been waiting this long, what's a few more months? Honestly, it's a perfect situation because our house is sold and we are renting here. We told our landlady our situation when we first moved in so she's been fine with us needing to move whenever, which is awesome.

-So Monday (3 days ago) was a big day for us because Garrett was finding out his results for the first time since being diagnosed to see how stable his condition is. This is what the FS email said when they asked him to wait another 6 months: they said his something ratio was like 500 something, then a week later it rose to 900 something, then another week later it rose to 1000 something. They wanted to know if his condition was worsening for real or if those numbers are just random and not actually indicating deterioration. So he went in Monday and it was kind of like, if his results were the same as last time or less, we'd probably get the job. And if they were higher, we probably wouldn't and we could start dreaming a little more of our different back-up plan options, which could also be fun. So it was a big day that was sort of going to determine our future (feels like we've had a lot of those kinds of days). So, it turns out, we got good news, yay! Some of his levels were the same as last time and some were even lower, because apparently his body is responding to the medication, woohoo! So his doctor is feeling confident that his condition is not worsening, and it's actually likely that he's had this condition for several years and just not known it. We think that is great news because it means he's probably stable and will probably get the clearance. Then we would just have to wait on the security clearance and then maybe next year sometime we'll actually be officially hired and be able to head out to training in DC. So that's the deal with this job.

-In other areas of life, the kids took swim lessons, which I mentioned before.

-Also we went to Florida at the beginning of November. It was the perfect trip. We stayed at a house near my family's through AirBnb and it was so great to have our own space and our own rooms and still be really close to my family. We went to Disney World with my dad and minus River, and it was so great. After riding a few rides and the girls realized it wasn't just a crowded, boring sweatfest, we ended up having an awesome time. We also went on the glass bottom boat ride at Silver Springs, and had a birthday party for miss Kailyn (6!) where I got to see some friends and family. We also had a date day, where Sunni watched our kids while we went to Panera Bread and to see the movie Burnt (is that what it was called? It's a cooking movie with Bradley Cooper), and then we watched her kids while they went out on a date to dinner and a movie that night. We took the kids to Checkers and then to get a Redbox movie only to find out the DVD player didn't work at our house and then it was too late so everyone just went home and we went to bed. I also got to go Disney Springs twice, once with Tiffany and Elizabeth (who randomly happened to be in town helping her grandmother move) and then again with my family on the last day we were there so Garrett could go build his own custom light saber. Anyway, it was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad JetBlue has cheap non-stop redeye flights so we could enjoy seeing my family. It was great.

-I also decided to homeschool my girls because I figured I could give them more attention than a public school teacher because I wouldn't have 20 other kids at 20 different levels to worry about. It was going pretty well until I got lazy and pretty much just didn't really homeschool them anymore. So it only lasted like a month and a half. I still believe in homeschool but I also believe I'd have to be more self-disciplined than I apparently am to do it, so I stopped.

-Kailyn is now in Kindergarten at Midvalley Elementary School with a teacher named Ms. Bell.

-I tried signing Harlie up for preschool but I had a really hard time getting any option recommendations (it's very different in this area than it was in West Jordan where there were 100,000 kids and just as many preschools). So I signed her up at a school only to find out on the first day that it's a school for kids with special needs. And since Harlie doesn't have special needs, I decided to pull her out. So for now she is just doing Upstart (a computer preschool that teaches her to read, Kailyn did it last year too).

-Also, at church, River is in nursery like a big boy. He does well because I don't think he cries when we drop him off and they never particularly mention that he's a troublemaker so I assume he isn't. Harlie and Kailyn are in primary and they sometimes get grumpy about going but I think they usually end up having a fun time. I am a teacher for the 8-9 year olds and I am loving it. I do miss going to Relief Society and getting to know people in the ward, but I think the kids I teach are so fun, as is primary. Garrett is the Executive Secretary, which keeps him way busy, but I think he's liking it because he's getting to know a lot of the people in the ward.

In conclusion, life is pretty good. We have done a lot in the last year and I assume we'll do more in the year to come as well.

Maybe next time I'll post with pictures but I figure this is better than nothing.

Anyway, goodbye. :)

October Overview 1/3

I keep accidentally taking a month off of blogging... oops. I guess it's a little harder to get back into it regularly than I thought it was. That's ok. I'm okay with blogging when I want to. 

Anyway, we went to Gardner Village with my neighbor friend, Nichole, and some of her sisters-in-law and their kids. They have a scavenger hunt where you find all the witches hiding all over the place doing stuff (like playing the piano, fighting a fire, etc) and if you find all the right ones and fill it out on a form, you can take those to the bakery there and get cookies for like 50 cents. So we did! It was lovely. 

 Here's Kailyn and Harlie Jo with Spencer and Brigham and some of their cousins.

And I also celebrated my 28th birthday! It was so great.

 I got flowers, which only just barely died. They were lovely.

 I also got to go shopping! Alone! And then Garrett surprised me by showing up at the store with me without the kids because he had secretly dropped them off with his parents. I got some tribal leggings, a flowy polyester super flattering shirt, some camo slip-ons, a curling wand, some free mascara and free sweet tooth fairy treats, some concealer, and Garrett got me a head massager thing (which is absolutely heavenly) and we went to Cafe Rio (because that's just my favorite restaurant to eat at whenever I get a choice) WITHOUT KIDS! It was super fun. 

 Then, since my birthday was on a Wednesday, he took me out dancing that weekend with our friends, the Hickmans. Here's Vanessa and me right before heading in (and taking off our uncomfortable high heels...). 

 We had a blast. The boys danced with us for like 1-2 dances and just joked and stuff the rest of the time. And then we went to IHOP afterwards. It was way fun! I'm super glad we had another couple with us because honestly, dancing would not have been very fun just the two of us... :) 

We also had a ward Halloween party, on the 10th.

 Here's Harlie Jo as Rapunzel (which was Kailyn's costume last year).

 Here's Kailyn as Anna (from Frozen. )

 And here they are with Mia, our neighbor friend, dressed up as Elsa from Frozen. She came with us to the party.

 And here's like my favorite picture ever. I dressed my sweet little River up as a girl this year. I got so many comments all night. People couldn't remember that I'd had another little daughter and I'd have to tell them "This is actually my son... I'm being a mean mom tonight..." Isn't he darling? It was super weird seeing him as a girl because he looks a lot like Harlie Jo as a baby. Such a stinking cutie. He'll probably kill me when he grows up... :)

 "Being a girl isn't so bad!"

 The other fun thing is that Garrett's mom dressed Garrett up as a girl for his first Halloween too and that's where I got the idea! And he turned out totally fine, so... 

River also turned 8 months.

 I haven't made his monthly announcements for like the last 3 months, but here are some of his developmental milestones from then: He started doing a super cute inchworm crawl right before he turned 8 months. He also got his first tooth a couple days before this. He's quite the little vacuum and he sleeps awesome at night, waking up like once a night, and sometimes not at all. He's a sweetface.

And here's Daddy and River in coordinating sweaters (unintentionally). Such studs.

Ok, two more posts to come. Stay tuned!

October Overview 2/3

Cornbelly's

 On the cow trailer train thing. 

 Playing in the corn.

At the pumpkin patch.

 Playing in the corn again.

 If you look closely, you can see some corn heading down Harlie Jo's pants. There was a lot more down there that isn't pictured... haha.

 Making silly faces. 

This is the pumpkin patch again. It's the same one, but actually a different event. We went with Harlie Jo's joy school. 

And this is the event called "chopping off 14" of my hair"

 I did donate it, in case you're wondering. 

 Here's my hair after having gotten it dyed, re-dyed, and re-dyed one last time. (The ombre kept looking bad so I had the girl redo and it wasn't better so I went to a different girl. I am pleased with it now, though.)

So yep, those are some more pictures. :)

October Overview 3/3

 Guess who got a job working as a receptionist at Scheels? This girl!

 Here are the kids posing for a pic at Scheels (while I'm upstairs interviewing and getting the job!).

 This is Harlie Jo at her joy school the other day. (All the moms take turns teaching each week and this was taken at one of the other moms' houses).

 This is Harlie Jo painting her pumpkin at her joy school Halloween party. 

 This is Riv and Lucy (our neighbor friend who was born one day after Riv) playing while the joy school kids do their joy school thing. 

 Here's Harlie Jo (and Emrie in the background) playing candy corn bingo for their party, which was a super cute game.

Here's most of the rest of the class playing too. 

 We also had dancing time at the joy school Halloween party. It was so fun to watch how the kids dance.

 Her snack was a scary spider made of bananas, butterscotch chips, and pretzel sticks.

Snack smiles for mom's camera phone... :)

 And here's Kailyn's preschool about to sing some Halloween songs for their Halloween party. I'm super sad because my phone picked that moment to run out of storage space for more pictures or videos. Either way, it was way cute. I also never knew that many Halloween songs even existed. They did great, though. 

Here's when we started actual Halloween. We began with orange jack-o-lantern pancakes with chocolate chip faces. 

Then we spent most of the rest of the day being normal and waiting to dress up.

 I don't like dressing up in costumes but I did decide to at least look a little festive. See, all the orange and black? I was totally into Halloween, it counts...

Here are my two crazy-haired girls. Rapunzel and Anna (from Frozen).

And this is the best (and only) picture I remembered to snap of River. He's Frankenstein. He did awesome, by the way. He stayed in the stroller and pretty much just drank his bottle and then later sucked on some lollipops (which he loves, apparently).

 Here's Kailyn with her neighbor friend, Mia (Elsa, from Frozen).

 And here's the whole group of kids (minus Harlie Jo who was still getting her wig situated while this was taken). Jacob, Bradley, (Nichole the skeleton in the back), Kailyn, Ava, Brigham, Mia, and Spencer. (Lucy is behind Brigham facing the other way and River was still getting into his costume too).

 And here's one with Harlie Jo and minus Jacob and Bradley. (They were probably antsy to get going!)

Here's Ava, Kailyn, and Mia, and a couple girls from the ward. One of the ladies in our ward took pictures of all the kids that came to her house, which was fun.

And here's Spencer, Brigham facing Harlie Jo, and some more kids from the ward. That Ninja Turtle in the front right is the Bishop's daughter and if you saw her and Harlie Jo side by side, not wearing makeup, you'd think they were twins (except that they're a couple years apart in age). It's kinda crazy though. 

And here are the girls with their haul. To finish out the night, we watched Nightmare Before Christmas.

And that was our Halloween. The kids made it to way more houses this year than they did last year, it was really impressive. In fact, I was feeling done way before they were. They had a great time. Except for when Kailyn fell towards the end and skinned both her knees and was miserable for the next couple of days. She did well with that too though. 

Anyway, Happy Halloween and I can't wait till there's no more candy cuz these kids are CRAZY when they're all hopped up on sugar (and yes, I'm monitoring their consumption now, but I wasn't on Halloween)!