Boise

I was able to make a long trip to Boise with my parents. I ran away that weekend so that I could be there to support my younger brother as he was getting married. It was weird as I only took Henry and left all the rest of the kids to manage with Gabe. I rode with my parents so my responsibility was only to Henry. We had a lot of fun and it was a nice break for me.

The Tetons were covered in smoke on our way over.....but still stunning.

 Henry had my full attention in the back seat...not sure he knew what to do with it all!

While we were there, I decided to go shopping. I had been wanting a new skirt...and what better occasion that my brother's wedding! So the girls went shopping and I found this outfit that I love.

 On the way home we stopped to eat in Pocatello. I had never eaten at a 5 Guys restaurant.....so we tried it! It was awesome!! The fries were never ending.

 These are the Tetons on the way home....much better!

What I have been doing....

Lately I have been doing a lot of this:

Mainly because I can't do much of anything else.

Someone asked me if I needed anything....to come in and clean my house specifically and I told them that right now I am ok with kid clean. Why, you might ask? Well for a couple of reasons. First is that if my house is "kid clean" then that means that my kids are helping out. Second, if my house is being cleaned then that means that I have taught the kids HOW to clean in the first place. Kid clean might not be perfect, but it does make things presentable when company comes over.

The waiting is over!

Ok, so the waiting has been over for a while, but this is the first chance that I have gotten around to blogging about it. Since I am the author here, I am going to tell the story like I want to.....I know you are just dying to know what we had, but you will have to read the story to find out!
 10 days ago.....was Sunday, November 4,2012.....which also happens to be Gabe's birthday. So it was a pretty special day to begin with. We have church at 9 AM. I was tempted not to go, just because I was tired of all the questions from well meaning people about when the baby was going to come. But I went anyway. It also didn't matter to me that I was contracting, they weren't consistent enough for me to worry about. I will note that I was contracting about every 10-15 minutes but if I walked around they spaced out. So it was only consistant if I sat still. So off to church our brood went. Throughout the whole meeting block I was pretty uncomfortable, but I grinned and bore it because I honestly didn't think that we were going anywhere with this. I had driven the kids to church myself as Gabe had meetings before the block and so therefore drove us home. After we got home, I had a pretty major contraction that started me thinking that maybe it was today! I think that Heavenly Father was looking out for me as my parents actually were on their way home from my Grandfather's 90th birthday celebration and were passing through town. They stopped and we decided to have lunch. In the preparations for lunch my mom decided to also make us a lasagna that we could have for dinner the next night. I thought "Awesome! I don't have to cook!"....but I was going to help her make it anyway.....that never happened. I kept having contractions but with the contraction was the feeling of pressure, it was worse if I stood up, so I just stayed sitting down. Finally I decided that maybe we better go see what was going on as the pressure issue had me concerned.
Gabe and I drove to the hospital. He kept telling me that we were too early and that we would be there a while. I told him that I just felt like we needed to go. So we went. When we got there we were ushered to the maternity ward. I didn't want to ride the wheel chair. When we got there, the nurse who walked with us (I guess standard hospital policy) told the OB nurses that she was worried as I had had 2 contractions in the 5 minutes it took us to get down there. I guess when someone comes in pregnant with #8 it is par for the course as studies say that they tend to come faster the more you have. I was again being watched after as I was the ONLY patient there at this time. They took me in and checked me out.....8 cm!!! HOLY SMOKES! When the nurse told me that I was glad that we came in when we did. Then she asked about presenting parts.....well last week in the office I had been told it was a head. They couldn't tell. So when the OB doctor got there, he couldn't tell either. So out comes the ultrasound machine and much to my horror......we weren't head down. We weren't even breech! This baby was transverse in my pelvis meaning that we were sitting sideways and weren't even ready to come out. Then my whole world seemed to come crashing down on me when he told me that I wouldn't be able to have this baby without a c-section. They discussed it with us and told us that we couldn't risk the baby's health. Apparently all the aminotic fluid was low in my uterus and there wasn't hardly any up by the baby, so not a good situation for having a baby turned. Then to top it off, the bag of waters was so close to breaking that if it had we could have had an emergency on our hands instead of control. They really didn't want it to break and have the umbilical cord or something else come out before the rest of the baby. As much as I didn't want to, I consented to have the c-section. It was more important for me to have a healthy baby than to have the birth that I dreamed of. Thankfully, Gabe was there for the whole thing and that was a comfort. (He wasn't there for Amanda's c-section). So they prepped me for the section and I was excited and scared at the same time. So excited because it was Gabe's birthday and here we were going to meet our new baby.....yet scared because I didn't want the birth to go this way.
Let me spare you the details of surgery other than to say the staff was AWESOME and took great care of me. I will tell you that this little baby didn't want to come out. On top of being transverse, their arms and legs were curled up under them and the doctors had to do A LOT of pushing and pulling and such to get them out. So this was NOT a fun delivery at all.
They finally got the baby out and I was so happy to hear crying and screaming from the baby. Now for my theory. I had looked at all my kids and when they were born and had decided that if the baby was born on any day other than the 5th or the 9th that it would be a girl. So since we were getting a baby on the 4th, my theory stated it was a girl.......needless to say my theory is busted!!! We welcomed our 8th child, a boy, into the world at 3:32 PM.
Gabe stayed with him as he left my side to go to the nursery. I was able to touch him briefly before he left and feel how warm he was. I was happy to have a baby, not so much as what it took to get him here.

Gabe had teased me as we got in the truck to go to the hospital as I had brought our iPad with us. I am glad I did as our first pictures of the baby were taken with it.

This was the first picture that we have of him, and the first I got to see anything other than his face all wrapped up in the blanket. They were giving him a bath when I was wheeled down the hall and didn't get to see him for a while. If you are familar with me and my family, we don't pick out names before our children are born. We don't even know which gender to focus on because we don't know what we are going to have until they are born....so now we needed a name. This is something that I have enjoyed watching Gabe for. Usually he takes the baby in his arms and says names while looking at their faces. This time we did this together. We decided that this little man would be named:

Henry Lyle 

so there you have it. We welcomes Henry Lyle into the world (on his daddy's birthday no less) on November 4th 2012 at 3:32 PM. He weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We are both home and doing well. I am cooping with a c-section and have had lots of helpers coming in. I am so very blessed to have the friends and family that I have to help me out. This hasn't been an easy birth, mentally or physically.....but so worth it.

Henry is a cuddly boy. He loves to be swaddled and cuddled close to you. He is a great eater. The rest of the kids can't get enough of him. James calls him "His Henry".  

Waiting......

Waiting is so hard to do. We wait for busses, appointments, dates, birthdays and Christmas.....all sorts of things, but this waiting for a baby is hard work. Why?? For starters we know that these other things we wait for have an exact date.....Christmas always comes on Dec 25th. The hard part for a baby is that there is not really a set date/time (unless you are having a C-section) for this to happen. Yes, you do have a due date, but that isn't any guarantee that baby will be there on that date. Sometimes doctor's call it an Estimated due date.....estimated, meaning that they don't know exactly when it will happen either. I have a due date of Nov 7th....that date is fast approaching, but we still don't know if baby will come early or late. So we are waiting........
Now the other hard part is that we aren't the only ones who are waiting for this baby. We have friends and family that want to see and meet this baby just as much as we do. I have people who will tell me that the 2nd is a good date to have a baby.....well is there every a BAD day to have a baby? I would love for the baby to come today. Why? Well, for one, I am done waiting....but also because today is my Grandfather's 90th birthday. How cool would that be to tell this baby that they were born on their Great-grandfather's 90th birthday? But then again there is the 4th (coming very fast) which is Gabe's birthday. How cool would that be to share a birthday with your dad? Heaven forbid, but Katherine's birthday is coming up too (the 13th)....but, not so cool to share a birthday with your sibling. That one is a little harder than sharing with dad, grandpa or say a cousin.
So to say the least, we are still WAITING......and will continue to do so until the baby decides the s/he is ready to join the family. I know I won't be pregnant forever......but it sure feels like it. And, yes, you will know when the baby comes as we will shout it from the roof tops and publish it as we are excited to welcome this new little person to our home.

New blankets

For some reason everytime we have a new baby, I feel like I need to make them a new quilt/blanket. With the last 2 I think I just made a blanket but this time I decided to make a quilt. I had this fabric that I fell in love with and I just couldn't decide how to put it together.....until I had an inspiration. Our family is a bit chaotic at times, so why not have really no pattern at all? But in a way I did. I had found this pattern that is based off the Suduku puzzles....you know the ones that I mean right? Well I took that and ran with it and I really like the result. Gabe suggested the color for the binding and I guess (since we still don't know the gender) it will work either way.....purple is my favorite color and it just looked really awesome with the quilt.
This is a picture of the whole thing.

 Here is a look at the back with the purple binding really evident.

I am in LOVE!

So this title could refer to a lot of things. One person that I love, among all the many, is my husband. He is the best ever! He told me the other day that he wanted to get me something for my birthday but he didn't want me to know what it was. Keep in mind that this was like the 7th and my birthday isn't until the 24th. Being the hormonal person that I am right now, I started crying because it was (to me at least) a sweet thing to say. I started thinking about all the things that he could have gotten me and then I started to panic. Not that he wouldn't have come up with something great and wonderful, but because I was thinking of a few things that were/would be higher up on the priority list than what I started to fear that he would ge me (a new rifle/pistol). So 2 days ago, I asked him if I could suggest something that I wanted for my birthday. He agreed and I told him what I thought would be enjoyed by the whole family (but would be for my benefit more). About 6 yrs ago, we had purchased a digital camera for the first time and I loved that....but sadly over the 4th that said camera died. So I suggested for my birthday we upgrade our camera experience and I am in love again. We decided to get a Nikon CoolPix P150. This was something that we had been looking at since Amanda had brought one home on loan from the school and we marveled at the differences in the pictures vs our other camera. He bought it as an early birthday present and I had been itching to use it. Then he gave me a perfect opportunity. He is working pretty close to our house and there are large fields around that are prone to have deer bedding down during the noon time. He called me and said there are 4 does and a buck still in velvet by this building we are working on. I didn't waste any time. I walked over there (it is less than 3 blocks) and sure enough there they were. I was thrilled. This is what I saw when I first walked up:

I was standing probably in the middle of the road at this point. They knew I was there and started to get up. But I took my time and they weren't in any hurry either. I am loving the zoom on this camera. I was only able to get maybe three or four more steps closer, but with the zoom you would have thought I was standing right next to them! Now Gabe had said that there were 4 does and a buck but with the zoom, I discovered something interesting:

This one is actually a buck---he is still trying to grow the big rack, but there is obvious growth there! This is my favorite of all the ones that I took:

I think we determined by the other pictures that this little guy is actually a 5 by 5 buck! He isn't too big, but if he survives through the hunting season, he has the potential to be a monster. I took this last one without the zoom, just so I could see what it would have looked like. I can't take pictures with my other camera and I am not knocking it either, but this is what I would have gotten with the other one even zoomed in as far as I could (or something similar):

So I guess that I am now in love with this camera! I don't profess to be a photographer by any means, but this camera is a huge step above what we had. I am still trying to get used to it and learn the various settings and tricks that it has, but I LOVE IT! I guess this means that there might be a lot more pictures to blog about as I get the hang of my new toy.

2 out of 3

So we have filled 2 out of the 3 tags that were issued to our house for antelope this year and it is only the beginning of the season! Yesterday Gabe took me out to try and fill my tag. Guess what? I got one! My first ever antelope. I must say that they are harder to hunt than deer. They don't stand still long enough to give you much time to think about your shot. You really have to be confident and just take it. Plus they are much harder to sneak up on than deer. There isn't much to hide behind and so therefore if you can see them, chances are they can see you too. With a deer you can often times make a noise that will cause them to stand and give you more time for a shot....not with antelope. You had better be quick about it because if you aren't.....there it goes down the hill. They can cover a lot of ground quickly too. So now I guess the hardest work begins....to butcher them and get them into the freezer. We will have about 100 pounds of meat now from Amanda's antelope and mine. Gabe on the other hand still has about a month of hunting left to get his. He is going for an even greater challenge....he wants to try and kill his with his bow. I thought they were hard enough to sneak up on with my rifle, I don't even want to try and do it with a bow. To get a good shot with a bow you have to be within 50 yards of the thing! Holy moly I was having a hard enough time with my rifle.