baby blessing

We were able to do Owen's baby blessing on Sunday, while family was still in town. It was pretty cool to have Dad, Micah, Daniel, and Sam participate in the blessing with Alex. And I was thrilled that Alex stuck with "Owen Knight" for his name... I didn't want "Archie" as the name on the records of the church. We are so happy to have Owen in our family and know that he will continue to be a joy and inspiration to us and those around him. Welcome little guy...you have lots in store for you!

good excuse to get together again...

Luckily, we get to see everyone again in March... because Audrey and Sam are getting married! Yeah! Sam got a dose of our family the past few days - we hope he'll stick around (and forgive us for giving him a cold!). We made Sam sing for Audrey while he was here...pretty sweet. We're looking forward to their wedding in Utah in less than 3 months.

Christmas in Oklahoma

We had Christmas at our house this year, and the best part was having so much family here. Of my immediate family, Mike and Carrie were the only ones we were missing (they're in Africa). It was nice to have someone to cook meals, play games, help with the boys, and just be here. But the hard part is saying goodbye again and not having them here. I guess it's the post Christmas depression... come back everyone!

Owen burrito

Our room tends to be especially cold, despite the rest of the house. Alex wrapped up Owen in so many layers that he just looked like a little Owen country sausage burrito!

a few good men...

more Owen

We're home now. Thanks Alex for posting last night (I guess I have to have a baby to get Alex to post on the blog...) I sent Alex home to stay with Nathan and Jared last night - it was his night to get some sleep (and the last for the next few months!). We're doing well. I have to say that going under general anesthesia just might be the best way to have a baby. The worst part was getting the IV - no one has ever gotten it in on the first try. I didn't have to get an epidural or spinal block - I just took a few deep breaths and the next thing I knew there was the baby. And recovery hasn't been too bad - obviously there is pain associated with being sliced open, but I've been smarter about the medecine this time. With Jared, I took the pain medecine too often and I got a migraine and vomiting. This time I've only taken the medecine about every 8 hours, so I haven't had any other side effects. The afterbirth uterus contractions have been terrible though. I hear they get worse with each child - that's been the case with me.

Anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to know. The main thing is that we're healthy and we're back home and we're loving little Owen Knight. (Nathan said his name was Owen, so we went with Owen.) You probably can't tell from the pictures, but he has red hair just like Nathan and Jared. They all come out looking the same. I'll have to see if I can find some newborn pics of Nathan and Jared to post...

Owen is here

Owen is here! He was 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long. Him and mom are doing well. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy. More to come...

His brothers are excited for yet another boy.

-Alex

P.S. Thank you very much for everyone's help. Kudos particularly to Audrey, Angela, Sharon, Rebecca, Amanda and company for watching the boys.

final preparations

D-Day (Delivery Day) is on Tuesday - we've been busy getting ready for a new baby. We're currently making some instructions for those who will be watching the boys...

maybe this will work if all else fails... just tie them up!


But really, it has been challenging trying to get everything ready for the holidays and arrangements for the boys. It was much easier with Nathan - no other kids to worry about and no holidays. I am excited to see family in about a week, and Audrey was nice enough to use her 2 extra days off this year on us - she will be coming up from Dallas... thanks Audrey! And we have also had so many other offers to help and received a very generous cash gift from Alex's colleagues.

Now, hopefully everything will go well and we'll have some pictures to post later this week. My platelet count is at 73, so I guess I'll be going in for a little snooze...

Santa Claus?

We had our ward Christmas party tonight, complete with dinner and a special visitor. We were getting ready to leave and asking Nathan about seeing Santa... he said, "That was the guy cooking the meat!"

"But how did he get that beard?" asked Alex.
"It was his costume."

Can't get anything by this kid...

full term

I finally made it to 37 weeks. I feel like I'm ready to pop...

(The first shot is at 16 weeks, the 2nd at 28, and the 3rd at 37.)

My latest platelet count was 74 - not low enough to do anything about it, but not high enough for a spinal block. We're still on for the 16th.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

After seeing Alison and Micah's beautiful tree, I hesitated to put pictures of our humble little tree. It's not beautiful, but the boys had fun decorating it.

first time for everything

This was by far the best turkey I've ever done! Well, that's because it was the first turkey I've done... but I think it did turn out well. And I even cooked it with one of the giblet bags still in there. I couldn't find it. :) I need some help with my turkey anatomy. I knew I was looking for 2 bags, but I guess I didn't dig around enough to find the "hidden bag." It was a little disgusting handling a raw bird - it just didn't feel right sticking my hand in there! Ha ha. (I'm just glad I'm not an OB-GYN and I'm glad that we don't have 15 lb. babies.) That sucker was pretty hard to handle...

Anyway, the oven bag seemed to work well. The turkey was done right on time. I knew today was going to be all a matter of timing. Alex was teasing me about planning it all out yesterday, but I had to know exactly how long everything needed to be cooked and when. And it worked out great. I cooked the sweet potato apple casserole first, then the turkey, then the rolls, then the green bean casserole (and warmed the sweet potatoes at the same time.) The mashed potatoes were cooking on the stove and the stuffing and gravy were a quick fix right at the end. Everything was done right at 2:00pm. And I was able to clean-as-you-go, so there wasn't a huge mess at the end.

my first butterball!

Alex doing his one task, carving the turkey (and then getting all the meat off later)

homemade mashed potatoes and Stovetop stuffing

homemade rolls

sweet potato apple casserole, with marshmallows!

my 2 other little butterballs (Dad dressed them today!)

We had Alex's brother Jim and Aunt Jane over to share Thanksgiving meal. Aunt Jane brought the cherry pie and deviled eggs. The boys loved the eggs.

We sure missed the rest of our family...

4-year old thoughts

Nathan has been saying funny things; just means he's thinking alot.

Today Nathan said, "Mama, if you eat a toy, the baby will have a toy to play with in your tummy."

We were driving past a construction area near Alex's work and Nathan asked when they would be done. I said, "I don't know." That wasn't good enough for him. He kept asking, and I kept giving him the same answer. Then he asked if da-da would know. I said, "Probably not." And Nathan said, "But he'll figure it out, or maybe one of his students will know." He must think da-da and his students are pretty smart (they are).

When we were playing trains this week, I was trying to help Nathan build a train track. I'm not very good at it (and Nathan knows it). Alex is so much better at building great tracks. Anyway, while in the process, Nathan said, "Mama, you're almost good at this!" Ouch! I couldn't help laughing...

pregnancy update

For those following my recent pregnancy drama, my platelets are back up to 97. They went down to 77, but they're back up. I still have about 5 weeks left. I thought I might have to go in early, like at 37 weeks, but at this point, I'm still on for December 16th. The reason is that below 100, you generally can't get an epidural or spinal block, so I'm already looking at general anethesia. That's not as safe for the baby, but it is better that he can stay "in the oven" longer. If my platelet count hovers around 100, I might be able to be awake for the birth. We'll see...but at this point, we're still looking at the 16th. They won't intervene with steroids or anything unless my platelets get below about 20. Anyway, that's the status.

Thomas

We still love Thomas! They both wanted to wear their Thomas jammies tonight. Grandmas, you can send more Thomas jammies for Christmas. We only have one pair...

fall colors

I couldn't resist taking a picture of our trees in the front (and Jared). I love the colors- they're mostly yellow right now, and probably will be a beautiful red next week.

from our kitchen window...

OSU vs. Iowa State

We took advantage of free tickets and went to the OSU football game this afternoon. It was rough sitting in the bleachers for 3 1/2 hours, but at least we got to go to a game.





It was this exciting...












Jared was awake most of the time.
He fell asleep the last 10 minutes.

Who would have thought it would be HOT in November? The boys and I had to get out of the sun for a while during the game. We went to the concession area - I wanted to get a cup so I could get some water out of the water fountain... they wanted to charge $3 for the cup (the same as a soda). Ridiculous! At least we brought a sippy cup to share...