Lynneah

Brand new!

10/20/10
8 big pounds 6 ounces
21 inches

Welcome Home Party

She likes having a warm head and this chair was the perfect width to keep her all cuddled up and head warm.

Just thought she looked so sweet. I love her little hands!

Her dark eyes.

All stretched out.
She had just a touch of jaundice so here she is in her few minutes of sun. She just hung out and looked around for a long time. All the big boys were gone and it was nice to be able to just let her be without the worry of someone jumping on her or man handling her.

These are just a few pics from the last week. I'm working on a real post all about the day she was born...mostly for me, but ya'll can read it too if you want. :-) There will be lots of pictures in that.

Buckelew Farm!

Me: We need to get our pictures by the measuring pumpkin.
Gabriel: I don't want to!
Stephen: Do you want to do it now and get it over with or do it later and have to think about it?
Gabriel: (through gritted teeth) Do. It. Now.

Ahhh, didn't it turn out so cute?!?

Garrett had a stroke of cooperation wash over him...which I was grateful for.

Lincoln needed some help staying by the actual measuring stick. He wasn't very interested in staying there, but we'll know that's the side of his blond noggin'.

All loaded for the wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch.
Can you tell how much Stephen was into pictures? He's sure a good humored fellow...most of the time.
As we were walking to the wagon Stephen ran into the wife of someone that was in the academy with him. She's connected to the farm and was actually working. She was a cute girl. As their conversation was ending she asked, "Hey, do you want some pumpkin tickets?" She then gave each of us a coupon for a free pumpkin up to 15 lbs. Not even 10 minutes earlier I was thinking I need to track a way to get coupons so we can stretch cash for next year. What a blessing. Stephen and I never get pumpkins for ourselves and have a hard and fast rule that you can only pick pumpkins you can carry by yourself. This keeps the cost way down. This year we each got one and Stephen helped Gabriel pick a slightly bigger one to actually carve. Garrett got to pick the design for the pumpkin Stephen picked.

Garrett's first pumpkin choice. He ended up changing his mind and actually getting a striped "tiger" pumpkin. But, of course, I didn't get a picture of that.

Lincoln's choice. The poor kid could hardly walk around in the field, but he was not about to give that little pumpkin up either.

Stephen took pity on him and carried him for awhile. Lincoln welcomed the break from tripping and falling every 3 seconds.

All my boys!

In the corn maze.
The sweet girl that gave us the pumpkin coupons also gave us some free admission tickets for the corn maze. We hadn't planned on doing the maze because they're expensive and I was SOOO pregnant.
With the tickets in hand off we went.
It was the first time any of us had ever done a corn maze, including Stephen and me.

We did the half maze. It had a F.S.I. (Field Scene Investigation) game set up. Each kid got a little card with animals, weapons, and scenes to find out who got the farmer. It was set up like the game clue. As we went through the maze there were little stations with a picture of an animal, weapon and scene. The kids would get to punch out what they saw till the mystery was solved. They were very dedicated to their games. I'd tell ya who done it but then I'd have to...just kidding.
We spent a lot of time in the maze. There were little maps posted around, but I can tell ya it didn't help me much. After an hour I found out Stephen was able to decipher it. Grrr. I told him to start reading that thing and let's get done. My body was about to give out.
The kids loved it!

Waiting for Dad to bring the van up closer.


We went to Buckelew Farm this year because it was much closer to town and I was so very pregnant. We figured if I did go into labor we'd be able to get to the hospital within an hour or so and all would be well.

After 5 hours at the pumpkin patch I thought for sure I'd go into labor. Well, I didn't go into labor and our little jack-o-lantern just stayed right where she was.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

She's Here!!

I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is to NOT be pregnant anymore.

She came fast...so fast in fact I got to do it all natural with NO epidural. To all the people that taut the greatness of natural childbirth I D I S A G R E E ! ! If you want to see a couple pictures you can check her out on my Ma's blog. She's beckoning me at the moment.

I'll be posting all about her arrival...complete with pictures on one of the days Stephen is off this week. She looks a lot like Garrett. I keep looking down and thinking, "who put Garrett in pink?" Then I remember... I have a girl!

Fun times. Hope my pump arrives tomorrow. Off to feed and try to settle in for the night.

Going "Green"

This is our new "green" washer. We bought it shortly after we bought our house. It's kind of one of those things you need. If I remember right the washer was purchased before our bed. :-)

Last week it decided it was time to go "green". I had the last of the four loads I did that day in and was just waiting for it to finish up. I noticed it was quiet (it was bought before I began making appliance choices based on decibel levels so quiet is pretty noticeable) and went to switch them to the dryer. When I opened the lid it was still full of water. I messed with the cycle knob trying to get it to spin out. I failed. Grrr! Now what do I do...Stephen was on shift and my parents were gone AND it was a load of whites sitting in Clorox water. I couldn't just leave them till Stephen got home. Later that day my Mom swung by to fish the clothes out. She was able to rinse and spin them out at her house.

How is it "green" you ask? Well, it agitates just fine. So, in an effort to reduce our water consumption I figure we'll just keep using the same ol' water over and over and over again. It'll probably cut our water bill in half. :-) Such a gross thought!

I figure with a broken washer it's a sure fire way to get this baby to come.

When Stephen got home he started his research, this is what he found:

Problem:
"Fool thing won't pump out and I got a tub full of stinky water in the washer. I'm gonna die! EEEEK!"

Possible Solutions:
*Calm down, the pump's fried. If it's a belt-driven pump, you can tell by feeling how stiff it is to turn. For electric pumps, hook up a test cord and run it. Pull drain hose and watch discharge stream. If stream fluctuates or is pathetic replace the pump.

* Worn drive belt. In this case, washer won't spin either (or will have a sluggish spin).

*The drain hose is clogged (usually with panties or nylon stockings, yee ha). Pull drain hose and watch discharge stream. A good discharge stream will have the same diameter as the hose itself. If less than this, it's time to play find the panties.

Stephen showed me all our options and I immediately started whining that I needed a new pump, for me not the washer, and that this was really annoying timing. He responded that a washer was more important than a pump. I gave him my sweetest smile, kicked him as hard as I could and strongly disagreed. He's since been able to get it all figured out and we'll both get our new pumps! With a little creativity we'll have a bigger washer, a fixed washer to sell, and a new pump for Me. Going "green" will have to just wait a little while longer...

My Gabriel...

The Monday and Wednesday morning schedule around here is fun. I either leave the little boys running wild at home or drop them off at Nanny's house around 7:15. That leaves just me and Gabriel left in the car for the drive to school drop off; then I head straight to work from there. He's a talkative little guy and tells me all kinds of stuff on the way to school.

Yesterday he asked, "Mom how do you get the baby out of your tummy?"

Hmmm, I doubt he's really wanting the how that happens. I could sure use some of that farm/ranching exposure I grew up with. That was an education...on more than one occasion. Ask me about billy goats and I'll tell ya a story. ;-) I'll spare you the cow and horse stories.

Me: "I just push them out."

Gabriel: "It hurts a little bit, huh?"

Me: "Yeah a little bit." (Which is why ya'll should be NICE to your Mommas!)

Gabriel: "How do you push them out?"

Me: "Just take a big breath and push, then they come out."

Gabriel: "Sometimes I take a big breath and push out my poop. It shoots (complete with hand motions) into the toilet like a rocket!"

Me: "Wow, that sounds pretty crazy." (No rocket babies for me thanks.)

Gabriel: "I wish my sister was already out of your tummy."

Me: "Me too buddy!"

And then he was off and talking in a totally different direction. We still have lots of challenges to conquer, but he's sure come a long way. Those eyes of his and that truly happy smile he gets sometimes always brightens my day.

Speaking of his sister coming out...she's making a little more progress. The Dr said she's dropped a little, 60% effaced and to a 3. My weight, although higher than allowed, is holding steady and blood pressure is actually going down. Weird. I think she's making a statement, "Go ahead and try...I'm a girl and am gonna do whatever I want."

Thoughts...

A couple Sundays ago I was asked to read a quote and share my thoughts on the Savior. I was very emotionally fragile that day, I don't know why but am pretty sure it had something to do with the 100+ degree days that continued, my ever growing girth and discomfort, and another fun Sunday of getting kids to church...or maybe I'm just a crazy female.

It was a powerful lesson and I learned so much from what the other women shared. I love that every week we, as women, are loved and strengthened by other women that are traveling this path we call life right along with us.

I read the quote quickly before the lesson started and knew I was in trouble; it pierced my soul.

From the talk:
He Lives! All Glory to His Name!

"I try to imagine what an intensely poignant moment it must have been for our Father in Heaven when the Savior cried out from the cross, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' (Matt 27:46; Mark 15:34) I don't believe Father in Heaven forsook His Son on the cross. I do believe the cry was motivated when that Son felt removed the sustaining support He had always enjoyed from His Father. His Father recognized that the Savior needed to accomplish the Atonement totally and completely on His own, without external support. The Father did not (emphasis added) abandon His Son. He made it possible for His perfect Son to win the eternal fruits of the Atonement.

None of us can ever adequately appreciate in mortality the full beneficial consequences of the Atonement."


As I tried to share my thoughts I struggled to form any kind of coherent thought. This so perfectly summed up thoughts I'd been trying to put words to for sometime now. SO many things rushed through my head and came out so disjointed. Frustrating...

We were in such a free fall, all we could think about or focus on was the immediate. Whatever was pressing the hardest at the moment was what we took care of...everything else just waited till it started pressing the hardest. There were no plans or foresight involved in our lives. We didn't like it, but what else was there to do? Now that we're in a time of rebuilding I have been able to step back and analyze...just didn't have words to put to it.

I am acutely and painfully aware that our problems were, and are, minuscule in comparison to many others.

Were there times we felt a little abandon? Yes. Well, I should clarify, I felt a little abandon. I've never pried into what Stephen was feeling, but could see the fleeting flickers of emotion that would flash across his face and be gone again. He was stressed, but did a good job of not showing anything.

Were we really abandon? No. Just like our Savior, we were not abandon, but left for a time to struggle and conquer on our own. We are not even remotely close in comparison to our Savior, when we began to approach a breaking point the loving hand of Father in Heaven would step in again with guidance.

I was surprised more than once at the random solutions that came to us. We were prompted to drastically modify our lifestyle and to do it immediately. It was hard to give up some things, and every now and then I felt the need to pout about it. I am a woman, after all, and have honed the ability to pout for many years. It was ugly. Did we survive it? Of course. My Stephen loves gadgets and cool toys; turns out we didn't need quite so many and lots of people are willing to give you money for them. As we dug through the shed, house and all the nooks and crannies that housed said toys I had a very clear thought come to me that getting broke is better than moving. You get to clean out and cull without the stress of finding a new place to live or packing what remained. Although, to say I wouldn't love a bigger house would be a lie. :-) At the same time I felt comforted that if we came to a point that a home sale was in order we'd already be half way ready to move out. Turns out people were willing to give us money for some of my "treasures" too. We needed to cut back more, out went the home phone. The health insurance that refused to pay a cent towards Lincoln's $9,000 birth started costing more than our mortgage so we canceled that too. They let us retro cancel so we didn't have to pay the current month. It was scary with a new baby, but that worked out too. A car broke. That Stephen of mine looked at the spa sitting on our patio and got another idea. He traded that spa for a "little red race car" (Garrett's name for it), then we traded that "little red race car" for a huge U G L Y full sized van (I loathed that van, but it got us from point A to point B), then one day Stephen got an email from a guy that had landed on harder times than us and was looking for something to live in. We gathered some non-perishable food, a couple blankets we didn't need and a few toiletries from our year supply to put in that horrid van and traded it for his motorcycle. Stephen doesn't have a motorcycle license so we had my Dad ride it to make sure all was well. Turns out that motorcycle was in great shape and had some original decals that increased it's value quite a bit. We finally sold that motorcycle and had the money we needed to fix the broken car. Back in the day we'd borrowed money against my Explorer to finish off the last little bit of our family room addition. We chose borrowing money against the car on purpose because if anything ever happened I would rather lose a car over my house any day. We were saddled with this darn car that still had payments. We were blessed that the loan was through a credit union, not a bank, they worked with us and we were able to find a buyer and get rid of that thing too. We were able to find fun free activities to do with the kids...they were sheltered from the reality of the situation. Their childhood bubbles are still in tact. The toilet broke, found one on craigslist for FREE. A system for using coupons and ad matching came together in my mind and reduced our food bill by several hundred dollars per month. Some months we made it on exactly $100 dollars. The kids were begging for a swing-set, found one with some broken wood from a storm for FREE. A couple hours replacing the broken wood and the kids got their swing-set. Stephen found hourly work that brought in some money, I swallowed a SIZABLE amount of pride and approached my supervisor, that DOES NOT like me, and asked for a little more work. A new career idea came to Stephen; one that I'd never even thought of, in a direction totally opposite of what he'd been doing or studied in school. It felt right and we went for it, despite the total disapproval from his Mom. In the middle of interviews I discovered I was pregnant. It felt like a boulder had been dropped on my chest. I couldn't breathe and was more than a little panicked! (We couldn't afford a baby and had no business being pregnant...and I knew it.) The Lord blessed me to be able to keep quiet for a month before I told him so he could focus on getting a job. These times of guidance were spread over a 2+ year period with times of suffocating desperation in between. We were not abandon, but definitely given ample time to grow and learn through the struggle.

Throughout the entire time we were scooped up by the loving arms of family and friends and carried during our times of weakness. We would've NEVER made it without them. Christmas 2009 will forever be burned in my memory. I was left in tears more than once at the generosity, love, and warmth shown to our little family. We were humbled and felt the pure love of our Savior through the sweet acts of others. To this day I have no idea who to thank (oh how I wish I could let them know how profoundly they touched our hearts). On Christmas Eve it dawned on us that Mom and Dad hadn't purchased anything to put under the tree for us. We prayed that the kids would be distracted enough to not notice. Our prayer was answered. Those, sometimes too savvy, boys didn't notice a thing. We learned that when the Lord calls on us to serve one of his children we must act; for we are here to serve Him and His children.

Are we abandoned? No.

Do we have to do some things on our own? Yeah.
Is it painful and hard? Without a doubt.
Would it be easier to skip the hard parts? For sure.
Did we learn from this time? More than I can ever tell.
Humbled? I was choking on all the pride I had to swallow.
Do I want to repeat it? No way.
Will hard times come again? Yes.
Will we be abandoned? Never Ever...

Thanks for handing me that quote. I now have the words I was looking for; we will never be abandoned. It is taped in my journal to remind me of it's important message for many years to come.