Giving Thanks

  This year we celebrated with my Sister and her family. It was great fun as always, even though we had some illness strike. Poor Emily woke up in the middle of the night (the day Jessica was due to arrive) vomiting. She didn't have a fever, and was as energetic as ever, but still sick. I texted Jessica to let her know and they braved the drive anyway. On Friday night Devon woke up screaming that he "hates being sick. I hate throwing up!" Poor guy. Turns out a ton of people were sick over the holiday. Half my ward had someone throwing up. Yikes!
 Anyway to the fun part Charles turned 7 on Wednesday so we had fun celebrating.

Rex got to come down for a bit. That was a pleasant surprise. He made his super secret rolls.

While I prepared the turkey. All my years of training had prepared me for this mayo facial turkey technique:

I am spreading a compound butter under the skin. Yummy! Please excuse the crazy hair. I can't do anything with it right now. Meanwhile there was an exciting bout of boxing in the rain.

 Devon was the announcer and he did a great job.

 And Behold! The magnificent glory that is a thanksgiving table........

Jessica and I each made cranberry sauce this year. Mine was jelled and Jessica's was a whole berry sauce. They were yummy and I think a new tradition. 

It was an exciting week for Charles, he lost a tooth!

On Friday we all went to Ape caves to see the meatball.

 I imagine this was similar to the view Jonah had.

Henry fell asleep so Daniel put him under his sweatshirt.

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Then Daniel and I got to take the girls to do baptisms at the Portland Temple. It was such a neat experience. I have never done baptisms there before. You enter from a side entrance.

The girls had left their recommends at home, but the recorder was able to look them up so after a few min we were able to proceed. The font was the smallest I have ever seen! I'm sure the girls were afraid of hitting their heads. The regulations recently changed, so I was able to wear my street clothes while watching the baptisms. I had brought my whites to change into, just in case. The brother who had given us his family names was able to attend and help with the confirmations. It was a special experience.

 I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Halloween

As my favorite holiday, I was excited for Halloween this year, but with the new baby my energy levels are a little less then sparkling. Luckily 3 of the kids decided to get costumes from Costco so I didn't have to make them. I already had something for Henry so just Lizzy needed a costume. As usual her requests kept pouring in. I patiently waited, (did nothing) while she made up her mind as to what character she really wanted to portray. I was not prepared for her final answer: Pachi a character from a little known and relatively new to us TV show called Mix Master. Here's a screen shot so you know what I was working with.

 

Lizzy had lots of ideas about how to put it together, her suggestion to use a hoodie was genius. So I got looking and finally found one online. Getting the right color took a bit of searching. When it arrived, we went to the fabric store for some fur and  appendages fabric. I searched online for days for inspiration or advice, but it seems that no one had made this character before. Or if they did they were holding out on me! Finally the week before Halloween I got to work, Lizzy helped me draft the patterns and gave me encouragement as I tried to make her costume come to life. In the end I am pretty pleased with the final result and Lizzy loves it, so my work here is done!

We never get many trick or treaters here, but this year was so sad. I had 4. Four people! Oh well. Daniel had put up this way cool projector with funny skeletons and creepy scenes. We did have one car stop and watch for a while, but thy didn't have trick or treaters. Oh well. the kids had a great time.

And Then There Was Seven

 On September 5th at 6:30 in the morning Daniel and I entered the Legacy Hospital to prepare for my 5th C-section. (Mostly that means waiting around. Although we had to shower with special soap in the morning and the night before.) After some time and more prepping, Daniel got into his spiffy outfit and I headed to the OR. By now I think I have been in all their operating rooms.

   I sat on the table and had my spinal inserted. It was the fastest easiest one I have ever experienced. So much so that I was shocked when he said it was done. That was a good sign. Then, as I lay down and got to the numbing, the team got working and then Daniel was allowed in. I convinced them to let me have the little window in the drape open the whole time so I could sort of see what was going on. Besides having over double the amount of amniotic fluid, everything went according to plan and at 9:36 AM Henry was born. He wailed and wailed so his lungs were clear! He was 8 lbs. 2 oz and 21 in long. By far my biggest baby. He was so covered in vernix he cheesed the plastic window.

 I was so excited to hold him! He's just perfect. He eats like a champ and has no shortage of diapers! We had been struggling to name him. We agreed to Henry as a middle name, but couldn't agree to his first name. Daniel was rooting for Fitz, but I was unconvinced. We kept thinking. In the meantime, we had some visitors, my sister and her kids came. I don't have any photos, but they were so cute with him.

 I had Daniel put together my Mother's day gift, portal figures! Lego for the win!

  On our last day at the hospital, the nurse came in and asked if we had a name yet. I sighed, "No" and she said, "It's funny, I keep wanting to call him Henry." It was the light bulb going off. She didn't know that we were thinking of Henry as a middle name. When Daniel returned I told him about it and he agreed that his name should be Henry and said that we should have Gomez as his middle name. It was so perfect. I immediately agreed. Gomez is my father's middle name. It's my Grandma's maiden name. It felt right. I was so happy that we were not leaving the hospital with an unnamed baby. 

Ready for his first trip home.