Just Some Pictures

 Becca with Great Grandma Harris (my mom's mom)

 Becca with Marcus

 Becca with Alyssa

 Becca with Ethan

 The kids put her balloons by her rocker so she could look at them.

 Becca with Great Grandma Orton (Brian's mom's mom)

Becca with Great Aunt Linda (Brian's Dad's sister)

T.M.I.

I feel I should warn you...but really, isn't every birth story too much information?  When you're pregnant, and especially when you're giving birth, all sense of modesty flies out the window.  It's almost like your body has become a science experiment for people to study and comment on, and when the time comes for the baby to enter the world, you don't really care who sees what and what they think about it.  Then, after things settle down, and you're sitting down to write about this amazing experience of bringing a child into the world, you want to remember everything - even the disgusting details, but it doesn't feel proper to write them down and share them with the world.  I apologize.  I'm writing them anyway.

Once I hit thirty-seven weeks, I was ready to have the baby.  I felt I had done my job, and I was done. I had spent the better part since Thanksgiving feeling like I had the flu.  I was still throwing up every morning, and even then, around thirty-eight weeks I tried to go off my anti-nausea medication (because I had run out, and I didn't want to go to the pharmacy) and I ended up throwing up all the time again until I got back on it.  I was so tired of feeling sick.  I started to go to each doctors appointment hoping that things would be wrong - that my blood pressure would be too high, or that they discovered I had gestational diabetes - anything that would cause the doctor to say, "Let's get you to the hospital and induce you."  But instead, he kept saying, "I'd really like you to go into labor naturally."  I knew this was best for the baby, which made it a little easier to wait.  Plus, the closer I got to my due date, the easier the wait became, because I knew that I was closer to being done.  Still, I did all that I could to get labor going.

I spent those last three weeks of my pregnancy cleaning like a mad woman.  Partly because I wanted things to be clean for when the baby came, but mostly because I hoped it would put me into labor.  I cleaned the house thoroughly, multiple times.  I spent a day with Brian cleaning and organizing the garage.  I cleaned out the car.  I mowed the lawn.  When I went to church on my due date, the seventeenth, the bishop's wife said that I could come mow her lawn, but by that time I told her I was done trying to make things happen.  Nothing had worked so far, so I was going to wait it out.

On Thursday, the fourteenth, I went in for an exam, and the doctor did a membrane sweep.  My mom was watching the kids, so I went back to her house, had dinner, went for a walk, and timed my contractions at six and three minutes apart, back and forth for about an hour.  Things felt like they were picking up, so I told my mom that Brian and I would go home and put the kids to bed, then we would most likely give her a call and head to the hospital.  We loaded the kids in the car, headed home, and everything stopped.

Friday.  Brian had Friday off from work, so we all slept in.  Brian's sister was in town visiting from Indiana, and everyone was planning to spend the afternoon at Ice Harbor Dam.  I thought walking around the dam and playing in the park would be a perfect way to get contractions going again, and I was excited to go.  Brian's mom agreed with my theory, and she was concerned about me going into labor forty-five minutes away from the hospital, so Brian's parents volunteered to take the kids without us.  Brian played Star Craft while I took a nap on the living room floor.  I contemplated mowing the lawn again, but Brian said not to worry about it.  He would do it later.  Nothing was happening anyway, and mowing the lawn would probably do nothing to help, so I decided to leave the lawn to him.  Instead we went out to lunch, which was nice.  We hadn't gone on a date for a while, and it was great having some quiet time as just the two of us.  When we made it back home, just as Brian's mom was dropping off the kids, I discovered that I was losing my mucus plug.  I came running out of the bathroom exclaiming, "Things are starting to happen.  I'm going to mow the lawn!"

Well, it didn't work.  This is when I really gave up and decided that the baby was coming when she was ready, and I just needed to be patient.  On Saturday I did some laundry and some extra straightening up around the house, and we bought a couch and love seat off of Craigslist for the family room.  On Sunday we went to church, and I came home after sacrament meeting to rest.  On Monday, things still weren't happening, and I had another doctors appointment.  My doctor is in Richland, and Alyssa's soccer practice is in Richland, so I called Brian's mom to see if they could watch the kids, and if we could stay for dinner to be able to get to soccer practice easier.  I even finished packing the hospital bag and a bag of clothes for the kids, just in case the doctor finally decided to induce me.

So I went to my appointment, the doctor did another membrane sweep, and said, "That should do it.  Hopefully we'll see you tonight."  This was at 3:00 in the afternoon.  With the first membrane sweep on Thursday, I felt cramps and contractions immediately after.  This time, I felt nothing.  I headed to Brian's parent's, walked on their treadmill for fifteen minutes.  Nothing.  I walked around the back yard.  Nothing.  I thought, "Yeah, right, doctor.  I'm not going anywhere tonight."

At just before 4:00 I started feeling cramps that started coming and going.  I looked up "how to use a birthing ball" on Google and sat on an exercise ball for a while.  This is when things started to hurt.  I called my sister, wondering how to tell if I was really having contractions, or if I was just having cramps from the membrane sweep, and if I went to the hospital a day past my due date with just cramps, would they send me home?  "Yes," she said, "They probably would."  So I got off the phone, bounced and did circles on the exercise ball, and started timing these cramps.  They quickly went from eight minutes apart at 4:30 to six minutes apart until 5:00, then five and four until 5:30.  Diane fed the kids dinner, and got them all ready to go to Alyssa's soccer practice.  At this point, the plan changed from "possibly going to the hospital" to "definitely going to the hospital."  At first, Brian was going to stop at home to change out of his work clothes, but I was hurting bad enough that I called him and said, "Come straight here.  Things are happening pretty fast, and they hurt!"  Brian wondered who would take the dog to her obedience class the next day, and I told him I didn't even care about that and that he needed to get here right now and get me to the hospital!

Brian pulled up shortly after his mom left with the kids.  He and his dad gave me a priesthood blessing.  I was silly enough to ask Brian if he wanted to eat dinner before we left, and thankfully, he declined.  We made the short drive to the hospital, made it to the birthing center, and I was admitted to have the baby.  They weren't just cramps after all!  From 5:30 to 6:30 they quickly moved from four minutes apart, to three, to two, to one and a half.  Brian had my phone and was still timing these contractions while we were waiting for a nurse to come, and once they said I was really in labor, we stopped timing things and asked for an epidural.

Things were happening a lot faster than they did when I had Marcus, and they were also hurting a lot worse.  I thought a lot about the pioneer women while we walked to my room, pausing for my contractions, and when I leaned against Brian, hurting like crazy.  Those women were amazing!  After the nurse hooked me up to the I.V. to get the right fluids in me before I could get the epidural, I lay in the bed and had Brian squeeze my hand.  He tried talking to me at first, but I told him that when I start breathing really slow and close my eyes, he needed to not say a thing.  I even resorted to saying, "Honey, hush!" a few times.  I would honestly love to hear Brian's side of the story, because I'm sure I said some other crazy things during this time that I don't remember.

And then that blessed man came with the epidural.  It went in quick and easy, and I seriously contemplated sending the anesthesiologist a gift basket.  This is when things settled down.  Brian ran to Zips to get himself some dinner, he came back, the doctor broke my water, the nurse had me lay on my right side, then my left side, then I told my nurse that it felt like I had pooped (seriously, it's what it felt like!) and she said it was actually the bloody show.  She checked me, claimed I was at a ten, and said that I could start pushing whenever the doctor and I were ready.

So this is the cool part.  With Marcus, the epidural had worn off enough that I could feel the contractions just enough to know when to push, but that's all that I felt.  This time, I could feel the contractions and know when to push, but I also felt the baby move down through the birth canal and make her way out.  After all was said and done, I told the doctor that I felt everything as she was coming out, and he apologized.  "No," I said, "It was so cool!"  The other really cool thing is that I didn't tear or get an episiotomy.  Right in the middle of everything I told my doctor that I really didn't want to be cut, and he said he wouldn't.  He said, "That's the point of a non-surgical birth - to not cut."

When Rebecca was born, they pulled her away for a moment to make sure she was doing well, then they immediately put her on my chest.  They wanted skin-to-skin contact, so they unsnapped my gown before laying her on me.  (See?  That whole modesty thing was gone.)  Brian was disappointed, because he wanted to take pictures of her, but because of this immodesty, anything he took would be unfit to send to his parents.  I held her, and was able to nurse her right away, then after a little while I gave her to Brian so he could meet her.  It wasn't until after a couple of hours that they took her to be cleaned up, weighed, and measured.

After everything was calm, we settled down for the night and got what little sleep you can get in a hospital.  They were actually going to keep us a second night, because Rebecca was born at 11:30, and she needed certain tests done when she was twenty-four hours old, but both she and I were doing so well that we convinced them to let us go home after these tests were done.  So we checked out of the hospital at 11:45 on Tuesday night, headed home to a quiet house, because the kids were still at Brian's parents, and we were able to sleep in our own bed.  It was nice to have that little bit of extra time alone (but at home) the next morning to cuddle and get to know Rebecca before the kids came home.  It was also nice to be able to get some good rest after an exciting couple of days.

The Newest Little Jacks

 Rebecca Lynn Jacks was born at 11:33 pm on Monday, July 18, 2011.  Stats were taken when she was a couple hours old, after she cuddled with us for a while.  She was 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches.

Here's a whole ton of pictures from her first day in the outside world.  We had a lot of visitors at the hospital.  I tried to get pictures of Rebecca with everyone, but I missed getting one with Eric and Philip.

 resting with Daddy

 Grandpa Jacks

 Aunt Claire

 Brian's mom and the kids brought us some flowers and balloons.  Diane said that Marcus was adamant about putting a blue balloon in the bouquet.  I love that blue balloon!

 Alyssa - she loves holding Rebecca!

 Ethan - he's very curious about everything having to do with Rebecca and asks a lot of questions.
 

 Marcus - he's very concerned with Rebecca's entertainment.  He tied the balloons to her car seat so she would have something to look at and he's asked a few times about giving her baby toys.

 Grandma Jacks

 Brian with all FOUR of our children

Papa Lewis

Me!

cousins Marian, Megan, and Emma

Grandma Roses

big yawn - she's not crying

They're both sleeping

Great Grandma Orton, with Brian's aunt and uncle, Karen and Tracy

She's so pretty!  

 All ready to go home

June

There is one person who keeps checking my blog, noticing the lack of updates, and then pestering me endlessly about posting again.  This person is my husband.  Going to bed at night:  "Let's see, has the blog been updated yet?  Nope.  Still the same..."  Yes, it does make me feel a little guilty, especially since I didn't intend to go a month without posting.  So here's a summary of the month of June:

 

 Alyssa had her Spring ballet recital.  She did fabulous!

The stereo was stolen from our van one night, and the kids and I discovered it when we were headed to the spray park the next afternoon.  I called in to report it, and the kids decided to patrol and guard our driveway while we waited for the police to come.

We went to Brian's parent's cabin to go mushrooming.  It was wet and rainy, but we had a lot of fun.  It was Sadie's first trip to the woods, and she loved it.  Everyone found mushrooms, even the boys.  Brian seemed to find the most, and the hardest ones to find.  I enjoyed mushrooming, but my favorite parts of the trip were the two glorious naps I was able to take.  It was wonderful!

[camping pictures go here - soon]

The next weekend we went camping at Mt. Rainier.  In past years we've been to Ohanapecosh on the East side of the mountain, but this year we needed a group site, so we went to Cougar Rock on the West side.  It's been a cold Spring, so as we drove to our campsite, we passed ten to fifteen foot walls of snow on each side of the road.  Brian had the GPS and kept saying that we were getting closer, and I kept thinking, "What did I get ourselves into?!?"  Luckily, after driving up the mountain, we drove back down for a bit and the snow disappeared.  It wasn't the warmest camping trip we've done, but it was still a lot of fun.  And boy, did it rain.  It was mostly sunny in the mornings, but from afternoon on, it was like buckets and buckets of rain.

We went with my parents, my two sisters (so the Johnsons and the McCanns), and the Baughs.  Our group site was set back away from everyone else, so it was nice and private, and the kids enjoyed running around together.  We hiked up to Carter Falls, went to a visitors center and museum, and spent lots of time sitting around the fire.

I haven't taken any pictures since camping.  Nothing of the 4th of July - sorry.  Brian's sister came in to town last week, and we've been having fun visiting with them, but we're also trying to give everyone in Brian's family a little space, because Brian's dad also had his gall bladder removed last week.  I've been spending most of my time cleaning the house and getting everything ready for the baby to come.  Eleven more days until my due date!  The nausea got pretty bad a couple weeks ago, right about thirty seven weeks, and I was ready to demand an induction, but of course, it was too soon.  Now that I'm closer to my due date, the nausea isn't as bad, and I'm trying to wait patiently.  Right now I'm just to the point where I'm so dang excited to meet this little one.  Not too much longer, though.

The 4th of July was fun.  We had a family dinner at Brian's parent's house on the third, then a barbecue at my parent's house on the fourth.  We walked down to Gesa Stadium to watch the fireworks.  We got there at 9:55, found the perfect spot (don't know why people haven't caught on to it yet), fireworks started at 10:00, and Marcus was asleep by 10:07ish.  He did warn us, though.  He kept trying to bring his pillow, saying, "I'm going to sleep there."  He was right - he must have been one tired kid.

Chef De Cuisine

Alyssa has recently taken a fancy to cooking.  Today for lunch she made soup following her own recipe.  The picture isn't a fabulous quality - I snuck up on her and had to take it real fast before she realized what I was doing.  I took the picture just after she tested the soup - apparently we need to have a talk about double dipping.  Oh, and the huge bag of dog food on the counter...that didn't make it into the soup.  A big plastic tub to put dog food in is on our shopping list for today so I can stop pulling it out of the pantry every time we need to feed Sadie.


Alyssa's Secrit Reseipy

1. Creem of chicken.
Croumble Ritz.
Str it.  Add Milk and cheese.

What Did Your Amazing Husband Do This Weekend?

My amazing husband put in the edging stones around the flower bed, added some sprinklers, and laid down a path from the porch to the kids' playground.  I keep going to the backyard just to see what a great job he did.  See how level and perfect that path is?  I love it, and I can't wait until the filler between the stones sets up enough that we can walk on it. I might look for excuses to walk to the playground.  Up next: putting down the ground cover, planting a snowball bush, some lavender, and tomatoes, then covering it all with mulch.

Progress Report

Fence - Done!  It is absolutely finished!  It's so nice to let Sadie outside without worrying about her running off, and to let the kids play, knowing they're contained as well.  We still have some clean up to do: resetting the sprinklers, filling in the gaps by the mow strip, etc., but it is just so wonderful to finally have a fence.

Homeschool - Alyssa is done with Math, Science, and History.  We have a lot of Language Arts lessons left, so we'll be focusing on those for the next few weeks, then once those are done, we'll go into summer school mode.  Summer school will just be practicing math facts, along with regrouping and borrowing, reading books and doing story maps and book reports, and working on the spelling words we'll be missing in the next couple of weeks from doing language Arts so fast.  Once the baby comes, summer school will be over, and we'll enjoy our official summer vacation.

Nursery - We haven't done anything in the nursery lately.  The fence has taken top priority.  We need to set up the crib, put up the curtains, put in the changing table, etc.  I did get some cute outfits on Clearance at target last week, so I think this little girl only needs a few more pajamas and some cute summer time onesies, and she'll be taken care of clothes-wise for a while.

Pregnancy - Only eight weeks left!  Sometimes that feels so close, and other times it feels forever away.  Today marks 55 days until my due date, and I can't wait.  For a while I was doing really well with trying not to throw up in the mornings, but now it's getting harder. Oh, I just can't wait until this is all over.  I have a huge list of things I want to eat after the baby comes, because once I'm not pregnant anymore, I'll actually be able to enjoy eating.  But don't ask me what's on the list, because I won't be able to pinpoint something - it's basically comprised of everything.

Sadie - We've discovered that Sadie likes to bite.  I know, all puppies like to bite, but she really likes to play rough.  She's a smart dog, and she's doing really well with her training.  The only problem is that she sees the kids as large, loud chew toys, and she doesn't back down once she starts playing rough.  We had someone come from Pawsitive Effects Dog Training, and she worked with us for an hour or so on how to get Sadie to back down.  It's helping a lot, and I'm glad we had her come.  I've been working with Sadie on "Leave it" and "Drop it," and responding always to having her name called, and she's catching on.  She's getting better on a leash now, too.  Our walks started out just going around the back yard, then around the cul-de-sac, and this morning, we went a full mile around the neighborhood.  She still likes to cuddle before bed time, and she definitely likes to be with us when we're working outside.

Yard - Now that the fence is complete, we have tons of ideas for the yard.  A pergola in the back corner, flower beds and vegetables all along the fence, Ethan wants a trampoline but that ain't gonna happen, etc.  The main problem is that we ran out of project money building the fence, and the next couple months of our Usable Savings needs to be stockpiled to pay to have the baby.  I've already paid the doctor for the whole pregnancy, but we have no idea what the hospital bill is going to be, and that scares me.  We've got the enthusiasm and momentum from getting that fence up, though, so whatever project that doesn't take a lot of money will at least be started.  We have one flower bed that we've already bought the edging stones for, so that's going to be put together first.  Mostly I'm just excited to have a place to turn some sprinklers on and let the kids play this summer.  It's going to be wonderful.

Wonderful Weekend

On Thursday Brian and I went in for my ultrasound.  We're 100% sure now that our baby is a girl, and of course, she's very cute.  I wish the picture I took of the picture turned out better, but, well, that's what happens when you take a picture of a picture.  This must be why I can look at other 4D ultrasound pictures online and think the babies look like blobby aliens, but I stare and stare at the original copy the doctors office gave me and think, "She's so beautiful!"

Friday we got up early to (finally!) pour the cement for the mow strip for our fence.  It was exciting to watch it go in, but it was stressful to try to get it all in and smooth before our time with the truck ran out and the concrete dried.  John (the guy in the yellow shirt) was amazing!  First of all, he's a contractor, so he's the one that arranged to have the cement truck come on such short notice.  We were going to borrow a truck from Brian's dad and just get a rental cement trailer from Pasco Rentals, but we were having a hard time getting the truck at the same time we could get help to pour the cement.  So John said, "No, you don't want to do that," and called to get a truck to come to us, and he came over to help.  He was the one that took the time to smooth the patio where we're going to put a pergola.  Watching him, Brian and I realized that we didn't have a clue as to what to do for that, and if it was left up to us, the patio would have looked horrible.  As it is with John's help, it's beautiful!

Once we were done with the concrete, Brian loaded up the boys in the van and drove to Spokane.  Our friend, Will, was running a half marathon, and he had to bring his son with him, so Brian went to keep an eye on Grant while Will was running.  The boys had a blast!  They swam in the hotel pool, played in the park, rode a carousel, and just had a great time relaxing.  Brian said the best part of the trip was not having any responsibilities - they could just do what they wanted without worrying about being anywhere at certain times and things like that.

Alyssa and I also enjoyed our time alone.  We went to my sister's house for a cousin play of "Sleeping Beauty," went out to dinner at Teriyaki Grill, got our hair cut, picked up some goodies and a movie, watched Megamind while eating those goodies, went to ballet with my niece Marian, and went out shopping for some Spring and Summer clothes for Alyssa, which she was badly in need of.  Before we went to sleep on Friday, Alyssa said that it was the best day ever and that she loved spending special time with me.  I loved it too!

While we were out at Red Robin after shopping at Target, Brian sent me this picture and said, "We're having fun."

So I sent him this picture back, saying, "So are we."

It really was a great weekend.

Yeah, I Guess It's Not A Good Idea To Hide The Candy In My Closet

Marcus can get into everything.  I have to lock the pantry and the fridge, and even that doesn't stop him sometimes.  Last week, after I told him he couldn't have an yogurt (or yo-yug, as he calls it), I found him hiding behind a chair in the quiet room, happily downing a tub of vanilla yogurt - his favorite.  I called my parents house to rant for a minute, and my sister-in-law, Erin, answered.  She suggested putting the refrigerator on top of the roof.  My mom says that it probably wouldn't do any good.

These are all my maternity clothes.  My real clothes are folded on the shelf for the time being.

So we hide the candy on the top shelf of our closet.  It's not exactly hidden, but there's no way for the kids (i.e. Marcus) to reach them.  Although there was one time that he drug a chair in from the school room to try.  As you might be able to see, Brian buys his candy in bulk.  Red Vines from Costco, large boxes of Cadbury eggs (He brought home regular for me and caramel for him.  His are gone.), and hidden behind the vitamins and under the licorice are boxes of chocolate covered cherries he got me for Christmas.  There's also a box of Phineas and Ferb candy I got for Easter, but Marcus found it before the Easter Bunny could distribute it, so it just became family candy.

The point to all of this is what is missing from the picture.  There used to be a semi-full bag of Kit Kats sitting on those two folded sweaters.  It wasn't bulk, though - not that big.  Anyway, I got out of the shower this morning, and I was feeling pretty sick.  I knew I had to eat something right away, or I would throw up.  So I grabbed a Kit Kat from the top of the closet, ate it, and thought, "This is so good."  And then I finished the bag off while I got dressed.

I guess the real question here is: Who's going to hide the candy from me?

30 Weeks on Mother's Day

 Yesterday, on Mother's Day, I officially completed thirty weeks of this pregnancy.  Thirty weeks, with seventy days on the count down until my due date.  We're getting there!  I've been trying really hard lately to not throw up in the morning, so I'm down to throwing up just once every few days.  I've discovered that sitting in the passenger seat in the car makes me really sick, so yesterday I started driving even when Brian is with me.  (I guess I knew that it made me sick a long time ago, but yesterday was the first time I decided to do something about it.  It helped a lot.)  It takes me five minutes to roll over in bed now, and even longer to get out of bed.  Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it feels like five minutes.  I waddle more often than I walk.  The baby is big enough and strong enough for us to be able to watch my tummy bounce and stretch from her movements.  I suppose this all means that this pregnancy is well under way.  I have a 3D ultra sound scheduled for Thursday, and I'm so excited.  Our insurance doesn't cover ultra sounds, so we were thinking of canceling it, but I've never had a 3D one before, and this is our last baby, so last night Brian and I decided to go ahead and do it.

So this is the first belly shot I took when I was around six weeks along.  This was back when I was so excited to be pregnant and I just knew that this pregnancy was going to be different.  I wasn't sick yet, I was still running three miles every day, and at this point I decided that I was going to write in a pregnancy journal and take a belly picture every week.  Other than yesterday and today, though, this is the only belly picture I've taken.  But having such a large gap in between pictures sure shows that difference!

This next picture I took this morning.  I took a couple yesterday, but I forgot to turn the flash off my camera, so they didn't turn out so well.  Please ignore my scuzzy hair and such.  I ran out of clean underwear, so I'm waiting until my clothes are out of the dryer to take a shower.

Anyway, I am so excited to have gotten this far.  Every day I go to bed thinking, "One more day done.  I made it through another day."  On days when it's warm and sunny outside, and it feels like summer is coming, it feels like it's so close to when we'll get our baby.  Also, with the dog and home school keeping me busy, each week is flying by, so I know we'll be at the end soon. 

When You Have A Puppy...

...you wash loads and loads of laundry (especially towels from cleaning up puddles) but never get around to folding those clothes.

...you trip over a fluffy black mess of energy while preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because that fluffy black mess of energy loves you a whole lot, even after you step on her tail.

...you find yourself saying, "Sadie, don't bite!" ten thousand times a day, and as you pry a dirty sock from her mouth you find yourself wondering why you spent big bucks on chew toys and rope toys and kong toys when for the most part, they're ignored.

...you watch from your dining room window as your kids build a boat out of the playground set and the dogs follows them around the yard, wagging her little tail.

...you end up with a huge dog crate in your bedroom and another dog crate in the school room and still search Craigslist for another one to go in the family room.  You look at the family room, which doesn't have a couch, but has a a large, circular dog pillow from Costco, and wonder why the dog has more furniture in the house than you do.

and of course

...you never blog, because you have a brand new baby to take care of, and unlike human babies, puppies can walk and bite and chew and need constant - CONSTANT - supervision when they're not in their kennel to keep them from piddling on the floor.

*     *     *

So we've learned a lot since getting Sadie two weeks ago.  Puppies are a lot of work!  Between Sadie and the kids and home school and household chores and being in charge of Activity Days at church, I don't have a minute to spare.  I'm currently writing this blog post while the kids are having read-aloud time, and now they're actually done and I need to do Phonics with the boys while Alyssa reads silently.

Having a puppy is not all bad, though.  Sadie is down to waking up just once or twice a night to go potty, and Brian takes one shift and I take the other, so I'm not as tired as I was last week.  As you can tell from our multiple dog crates, we've gotten more serious about kennel training in the last week or so, and it's cut down on the amount of accidents in the house, and it's also helped Sadie to be a part of the family when we need to concentrate on things other than her (like breakfast, lunch, dinner, and school) while keeping her from wandering around the room, chewing on things she's not supposed to chew on.  The last couple of days, she's slept happily in her crate while we do a little bit of school, then she and the kids take a recess in the back yard, then we're back to school for a while, then another recess, etc.  The kids are enjoying it, of course, because they never got so many recesses before Sadie came along.

I love watching Sadie play in the back yard with the kids.  I love cuddling up to her when she's sleepy before bed time.  Even though I trip over her, I love that she follows me around the kitchen, because it means she likes me.  Overall, we're really enjoying the new addition to our family, even though she is a lot of work.

Let's Back Up A Bit

Brian and I have always known that we would eventually get a dog.  Brian grew up with a wonderful labrador retriever, and I'm not picky, so we've basically always known that we would end up with a labrador.  It definitely helps that they're a great family dog.  So in talking about putting up a fence and planning for a future dog, we decided that if we wait until after the baby comes, we'll most likely wait until she is two or three years old, because we didn't want to bring home a boisterous puppy with a baby in the house.  We decided that if we were going to get a dog soon, we should get it soon, so we can get through the puppy stage before the baby comes.  We didn't really discuss it much further than that.  We knew we needed to get the fence up, and then I guess we figured we would work it out after that.

Fast forward to last week, when I was randomly surfing the internet while waiting for Alyssa to finish some school work.  I found an ad on Craigslist for a six month old labrador mix that the owner couldn't keep, because his daughter was allergic.  I thought it looked like a great dog, and asked Brian if we wanted to surprise the kids with a dog for Easter.  Brian took a look at the pictures, wondered what the "mix" part of the dog was, and said, "Look at the size of his feet!  He's going to be a monster!  See? He's eating that chair!"  But considering that dog - or not considering that dog led us to looking at other options.

We called about a litter of seven-week-old puppies in Othello and about a seven-week-old puppy just above Spokane.  We skipped a Saturday of working on the fence to go check them all out.  We liked one of the chocolate labs in Othello, and we took a couple of pictures of him with the kids and decided to keep him in mind.  Then we made the long drive to Spokane.  We stopped in Spokane for lunch at a place called The Onion, which had really good and really HUGE onion rings.  I felt bad, because I'm to the point in my pregnancy when my stomach is small, and I could only eat half of my hamburger.  It was yummy, though!

We then headed North to a place out in the middle of nowhere, to meet Sadie.  The man brought her out front, instead of us going back to the kennels, since we had looked at other puppies that day, and he was afraid of spreading Parvo.  When he set her on the ground, Brian picked her up, and she calmly sat on his lap for the majority of the time we were there.  I wanted a calm dog, so that made up my mind.  What we've discovered in the last few days, though, is that the afternoon is her calm time, and she likes to run around and go crazy when she wakes up in the morning.  Compared to other puppies, though, she is still a calm dog, and we're happy for that.

House training is going well.  She's doing great at it, but it is exhausting.  The first two nights it was worse than having a newborn - we were up every two hours to take her outside.  After last night I stopped watching the clock as much and started to pay attention to her, and I think it's going to get easier.  We were up every three hours last night, and I honestly think she could go a bit longer.  Plus, she's starting to wake Brian and I up when she has to go at night time, which is nice.

We ended up putting her kennel with a bed in it in our bedroom for now.  She's doing really well with the kennel training as well.  We put a ticking clock in there with her, and she likes to cuddle up to it while she sleeps.  She doesn't like being in the kennel if the kids are around, because she knows she's missing out on play time, but after the kids go to bed, we put her to bed, and for the most part, she goes right to sleep.

Callie also started handling Sadie's arrival better yesterday.  She's avoiding her less, and she seems to have forgiven Brian.  I think she's just accepted the fact the dog is here to stay and has decided to deal with it.  Or maybe she listened to me when I told her that she needed to make friends with Sadie before Sadie was three times her size, but honestly I don't think cats listen to anybody.

Sadie seems to be more comfortable with her collar than she was at first, so the kids and I are going to start leash training her today.  At first that basically consists of putting the leash on her and letting her get used to it being there.  That part shouldn't be too hard.

Anyway, we're really happy to have Sadie in our family.  We're learning that it's a lot of work to have a puppy, but she is a smart dog, and she's already learning (and growing!) and it's been a lot of fun having her around the last few days.

Our New Baby Before The Baby Comes

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to find the kids' Easter baskets sitting in the upstairs hallway.  Everyone was excited, and we went downstairs for an Easter egg hunt and a candy breakfast.

Then we straightened up the house a bit (not as much as I would have liked, because that's how it always goes) and headed up to Othello to meet a litter of really cute chocolate labradors.  We sat in the grass with them, and loved them, and the kids ran around the yard with them.  We did not, however, take one home with us.

Instead, we decided to drive for two and a half hours over to Spokane to meet a sweet little black lab, which we did take home.  We named her Sadie, and we just love her.  See?  She and Brian already have a kissing relationship.  (Sorry about the quality of the pictures.  I didn't realize they were so fuzzy until I put them on the computer.)

Sadie slept on my lap the whole way home, which was a long drive, because the GPS took us on the back roads back to Pasco.  Alyssa, Marcus, and I headed to Petco to buy a collar, leash, kennel, bed, poop scoop, etc.  while Brian and Ethan introduced Sadie to our house and the cat.  Callie, by the way, is not thrilled with Sadie's arrival, but she's taking it pretty well.  She's interested in Sadie (like smelling her, and watching her) but for the most part, she's just keeping her distance and giving Brian the cold shoulder.  I say Brian, and not me, because she's sitting on my lap right now, licking my arm.  Brian is her favorite, and I think she feels completely betrayed by him.

Sorry to cut this short.  I'll give more information in another post.  I've got to take Sadie on a potty break before we take Alyssa to school for P.E.

Weekend Projects

 On Friday after school Brian and I finished painting the baby's room.  I had to climb on a chair to get to the high areas, so after a while I just let Brian paint while I sat in said chair and typed up his talk for Sunday.  He dictated what he wanted to say while I typed, and when he woke up the next morning, his laptop had restarted and didn't auto-save the file, so he had to start fresh.  On Sunday morning he was left with twenty five minutes to speak, and he did an awesome job.

 On Saturday we went outside to plant a lilac bush and ended up tearing up a good chunk of yard.  Brian's mom is famous in their family for her Saturday morning projects, which this was very much like.  She would apparently say, "If we all work together, we'll be done in an hour or two," and then, several hours later, they would still be working.

So we went outside, pulled a few weeds - okay, a lot of weeds - and dug a hole for the lilac bush.  Brian found the sprinkler pipe, and he didn't want the roots to damage the pipe, so we decided to move the sprinkler line over a few feet.  With the help of Brian's brother, Eric, and the bishop's teenage sons, Justin and Jeff, we were able to get the sprinkler line moved, the lilac planted, and the stone edging for the flower bed started. It's obviously a project that we didn't anticipate doing on Saturday.  It's still not finished, but we'll work on it some more after we put in the mow strip for the fence.  I'll post pictures when it's more done. 

 Eric

 Marcus

 Ethan with Jeff and Justin, and Alyssa's in the background.  Our boys absolutely loved having the "big boys" working with us.

The nursery walls turned out great, but they looked just a little bit too much like Neapolitan ice cream.  I still loved it, but I kept feeling the temptation to cover the walls in chocolate syrup and whipped cream every time I walked in the room to admire our work, which I do a lot, because I love a freshly painted room.  I also was a little hesitant to put up some molding in between the colors (even though that was the original plan all along) because our line was perfect.  I didn't want to cover it up.  But it really did need some distinction between the strawberry and chocolate scoops, so I experimented with some dark pink ribbon and ended up starching it to the wall.  It doesn't look uber fabulous in the picture, but in person, it does.  I love it.

Nursery-wise, I've got the crib bumpers almost finished, the curtains planned in my head, and really cute woodland pictures being drawn by my super talented niece, Megan.  It's all coming together with plenty of time to spare.  Since I haven't put any decorations up in the room yet, my favorite piece in the nursery is the tiny pink "little sister" outfit I got on sale at Carter's that's hanging in the closet.  We'll see if it stays at the top of the list when I move some furniture in and put things on the walls.  It's going to be hard to beat!

Igneous, Sedimentary, Or Metamorphic?

We finished our unit on rocks today, and Brian brought his rock collection up from the garage to show the kids.  He knows a lot more about rocks than I do!  One of the rocks in his collection is still at his parents house.  (His mom winds her garden hose around it.)  It's very round, but flat on one side and basically the size of a basketball.  Brian found it on a hike-in camping trip, and his parents told him that if he wanted to bring it home, he had to carry it himself.  It took him two camping trips over two years to bring it home.  He carried it half way down the mountain the first year, then carried it the rest of the way on their trip the next year.  I guess it was worth it - it's a pretty cool rock.

sandstone with a fish fossil - Brian said, "This fish is even older than Mom!"

Marcus found a green marble in Brian's rock collection, and he keeps bringing it to me with the magnifying glass, saying, "Look at this rock," and "What kind of rock is this?"  Every time I say that it's a marble, he says, "No-oh."

I can not say enough about how much I love home schooling.  Yes, there are many days that I want to pull my hair out in frustration, and my sister can confirm that there are many days that I call her and scream, "What am I going to do with my children?!?"  But overall, when it comes down to it, I love having Alyssa at home during the days.  I love watching her learn, and especially when it comes to math, I love watching how fast she catches on to things.  I also love that it's 12:16 on a Friday, and we're all done with school, and we can spend the rest of the day as a family.