Catching up!

Since little Luke came along, I feel like all I do is play catch up...catch up the laundry (by the way, Carson informed me that their hamper is overflowing today), catch up on dishes, catch up with friends that I haven't had time to talk to, and now it is time to catch up this blog.

Before I had Luke, I was determined to keep all Christmas traditions the same. So, we started the 12 days of Christmas with the boys, but after the climatic trip to SLC, we didn't do as well. So, here are our few days of the 12 days of Christmas...

On the first day of Christmas for home evening, we did our Samuel the Lamanite Christmas story. With junk mail wadded up for rocks, Samuel stood on the back of the couch telling us the prophecies of the birth of the Savior. We threw rock at him...most missed, but a few hit our Samuel.

 Looks like one of the times a rock hit Samuel.

 Lukey was a sleepy little participant. It is not going to be long until he is right with his brothers throwing rocks.

 One of our activities was to attend our ward Christmas party. Carson was Joseph with Calista as Mary. It was so cute. We can only hope that this can be displayed on the table at their wedding!

After the Nativity, it was time for Santa! The boys LOVED him! Nate chased him down and hugged him. Logan went to him and wanted picked up.  I was always too scared so I am glad they like him.  

 Nate asking for his robot that transforms into an airplane, rocket ship, boat, race car, monster truck...you get the idea. Good luck with that Santa.

 Carson asking Santa for a surprise...what a good little boy. He makes Santa's job so easy.

 Carson with the goods given by Santa...yes, that is a whole 2 liter of pop and a big bag of candy. Thanks Santa! I think we still have some pop left.

 Next was our trip to Doc's Pizza. It a little restaurant on the square. It is one of the best pizza places I have ever eaten at. We love "Doc's Pizza Hut." Funny boys. I am certain it is not the pizza they love, but the arcade games. They weren't super happy to come eat dinner. They were busy "flying" airplanes and "driving" race cars. (I never gave them any quarters...mean...I know.)

 SO happy. He loved that racing game.

 After the pizza, we always take a stroll through the lights. I love the Nativity scene on the square. We look forward to seeing it. It is right across the street from Doc's.

 With our 2 and a half week old baby, we packed up and headed for SLC. With a stop at the suit shop to get Robbie a new suit behind us, we headed to the boys favorite place...Toys R Us!!!

 Then we went to the hotel and Robbie took the boys for a swim. After that it was time to meet up with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Marsha and head to David Archuletta with the MoTab. It was amazing. My cute cousin, Jessica, stayed in the hotel room with our 4 kids and her one. What a trooper.

 After a VERY sleepless night, Robbie, Grandma Marsha, and the kids headed to the pool again. Here is Carson under water.

 Logan loved this little puddle on the rim of the hot tub. He played there a lot.

 Here is Marsha trying not to get her hair wet...good luck with that! Carson loves to jump in and make big splashes.

 Taking it easy on the noodles. Right after this, Nate jumped in and couldn't touch. I was about to jump in when Carson came and helped his brother. It really wasn't too close of a call, but to Nate and Carson both it is "the time Carson saved Nate from drownding".

 When you have 4, it is hard to keep everyone sanitary. Gross Logie...good thing bacteria have a hard time staying alive on metal.

 The Monday before Christmas, we went to visit Grandma Great...my mom's mom. She wanted to meet Luke and had made a darling blanket for him. We took her dinner and had a nice visit.

 Carson in front of the Christmas village she puts up every year. The kids love it!

 Then we went to Idaho Falls on the day before Christmas Eve. We love Grandpa Bob's. Robbie likes going so that he can get his Christmas shopping finished. Luke had not met anyone in our family except Grandma and Grandpa, so this was fun. Here is Heather, Tucker, and Luke.

 The gift of the night was Taylor's choice in the game Marsha does. This cracks me up. Gotta love the dollar store hair piece. Could have gone to a better girl. FUNNY.

We had a very fun Christmas Eve. There were wonderful, thoughtful gifts given. Thanks to my brothers, all the boys in this family have a dart cross bow to shoot their mom with. And I, the mom, have a shirt with a target on my back. Thanks brothers. I think I still have welts from when I was a girl tanning in my back yard and getting shot. Our family also got an air hockey table from my dad and Marsha. They ALWAYS do too much. It is so fun to have. We gave my dad the gift of trying to get healthy...a body bug to track calories. So far he likes it.

We had a yummy dinner and lots of fun. We drove home late with an air hockey table strapped to our roof. We had 4 sleeping boys and lots to do when we got home. Next post is Christmas...it was a fun one!

I think I will forever be catching up!

This probably should be about Christmas but...

I probably should do a post about Christmas full of pictures, but I am too tired. I am sure I will recall details of Christmas later. I just wanted to do a quick post about what life has been like since we had cute baby Luke.

For starters, this baby poops and pees with out his diaper on more than all 3 of our others combined. We are constantly washing clothes, beds, the couch...you name it, he's peed on it. Poor Robbie usually gets the worst of it, until Logan decided he liked to help change diapers. Lukey peed right in poor Logan's face. Poor little Logey...heartbroken. I have to admit, I had to laugh.

We are totally sleep deprived. Luke likes to sleep about 2 hours at a time. I was one of those when I had my first that let him cry it out. He was sleeping through the night by 6 weeks. Luke is 4 weeks...I can't stand the thoughts of him crying. I have turned into a softy, but I would like a little more sleep.

Carson has settled in as the biggest brother (who will always be the biggest brother...he'll tell you that) nicely. He is helpful with the other boys and the baby. He holds him leaning back, tummy to tummy, and says, "I'll get him in a deep sleep. Don't worry mom." Then he rubs his back and Luke sleeps. It is like magic.

Nate has had the hardest time. He's been a little teary. He must have some concern for me. He says in his prayers every night, "Please bless my mom that she will feel better." I think that means please bless my mom that she will get some sleep and be fun again. He also has wondered why he is the only one with blue eyes. He is wishing for brown. We tell him a hundred times a day that his blue eyes make him special.

Logan loves little Luke. He is soft to him. He wants to hold him. Most of all when I am nursing baby, Logan tries to climb under the cover or blanket and make a "tent" or "tunnel". It sure is fun trying to feed a baby with another one pulling and tugging and climbing. I am sure my boys have seen more nursing baby than they want to. I guess it is just preparing them for a mission to South America! HA!

Robbie moved out of our room for a while...I think 2 weeks. He and Logan were roomies. Turns out Logan is not a very quiet sleeper.  He wakes up a few times per night. We never knew this...we are clear across the house. SO, with my permission to use them, Robbie with ear plugs moved back in with me. I am glad to have him back. The poor guy isn't sleeping any better. I never hear Luke. Robbie hears him (wearing ear plugs) and wakes me up. Thanks for the wake up!

I feel like 4 kids is a little busy. There has been so much to do...treats for preschool (of course they ask for homemade bread and jam), parties, presents to get, and of course the day to day tasks of raising 4 sons.  I think for the first time in my life I forgot to eat breakfast today because I was just too busy with too many things on my mind. I feel like the last month has gone by in a blink...maybe it is because of no sleep. It is like I have lived one day that has lasted a month. Last week, I found myself a little teary. I was looking at my sweet little baby who has grown so much and it broke my heart. How come they grow so fast? It is not fair. I wish that I could hold each one of my sweet boys in my arms forever.

There is nothing I love more than these boys. I love the funny things they say. Like when we were in Salt Lake at a Mexican restaurant and the waiter was speaking a mix of English and Spanish and Carson turned to me and asked, "Mom, is that guy speaking Chinese?" Or when Nate scraped his arm and said, "Mom, I scraped this arm, now I can only battle with this one."  Or Logan, that is the littlest, picks on his brothers and then says, "Shorry Cars...Shorry Nate." I love that Carson asked Santa for a "surprise" this year for Christmas. I love that Nate loved his ugly dragon soooo much.  I love that Logan was so overwhelmed with Christmas that he went to the boys room and played with our old Lightening McQueen cars. He also LOVED the candy.

Unless you have a child of your very own, parenthood is impossible to understand. There is no love like it. I am so blessed that I have all these boys to love and I love that they love me. Carson told Robbie once, "Dad, we love mom most...but...we do like you." Robbie just smiles and says, "I know my place. It is OK." I know in the not too distant future our roles will reverse. I am OK with that. I just love where I am right now. This minute. Life is pretty great. But, I could use a little more sleep.

Family of 6...woa!

We are so excited to have our sweet little baby here...and he is so sweet. Luke Andrew Wayment was born on Monday November 29 at 5:17 pm. He is our smallest baby by over a pound. I am thankful for that. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long. He looks most like Carson did as a baby. He has the most hair. He has a pretty laid back disposition so far. I think being the 4th he knows that his mom couldn't handle a high maintenance one.



 I am not sure why, but with this little guy, we were on pins and needles for a few weeks before he came. Robbie particularly was stressed about getting to the hospital. It is about 25 minutes away, but the snow could have seriously complicated things. Every time I moved or got up to use the bathroom, Robbie would say, "You OK?" in an urgent way. I appreciated his concern, but man, he was worrying.

Tuesday before Thanksgiving we got a terrible snow storm. Robbie had to close his office. We could barely get down our lane...country living. It snowed and mostly blew for the next few days. Our nephew Josh got married in Salt Lake on Saturday, so we were here all alone. Our family was gone and our friends were out doing Black Friday shopping, so we were praying for no baby.

Sunday the storm worsened. Church was cancelled. Robbie got stuck in our drive way. He called the Millers, a family he home teaches, to let them know that there was no church. Julie asked if we had our baby. Robbie told her no. She said to let them know if we needed help getting down the road to go to the hospital. Jesse is in charge of snow removal for the county. It was only a few minutes after Robbie got off the phone that the snow plow was down our road. It came a few times that day until 2. That put Robbie's mind a little at ease. But then he'd look out the window and through the field see at least one car slid off the road. The plows stopped at 2, but Jesse assured Robbie that the plows would be at our house by 6 the next morning.

The drifting snow was so bad in our driveway. Our wonderful friends, the Wilkins, called. Alisha sent Troy over around 5:30 to plow our driveway in his big tractor. What a blessing! The wind was dieing down and we went to bed.

 We had to be to the hospital at 7:30. Troy showed up at 6:45 to make sure we could make it to the hospital. The plows had been down our road 3 times...as promised. I am not sure if I have ever said how much I love Rupert and the people here. This is a perfect example of why.

We made it to the hospital. Robbie breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was a little nervous. The doctor came in to check me and see my progress before starting me. To our surprise, little baby was laying transverse/breech. His head was in the upper left of my tummy and his bum in the lower right. The worry was back. SO, he had to be turned. OUCH! I just kept thinking that this was nothing compared to recovery from a c-section, so just tough it out. The doctor was dripping sweat, but he turned! The doctor wasn't gone 5 minutes when the ultrasound guy said that baby had moved right back. I wanted to cry. Once again, in came the doctor. Baby had shifted when I had gone to the bathroom a couple of minutes before. So, the turning wasn't SO bad this time. Then, while the PA student held his little bum in place, the doctor broke my water and put an monitor on baby's head. We were having a baby...NOT A C-SECTION...YEA!

Finally, I started pitocin at 10:30. At 3:30, I was still only a 4. The doctor said that maybe if I got an epidural things would hurry along. So at 3:45, I got an epidural. He was born at 5:17. The nurse said that she checked me and I was a 6 and 20 minutes later, he was here. So, I guess it did speed things along.

 So so so HAPPY he is here!

 Look at those tired eyes! He went to bed at 9:00 that night.

 Grandma Marsha...patiently waited all day for him to come...meanwhile keeping Grandpa Bob in control. That is A JOB!

 Grandpa Bob

 Proud parents!

 He is beautiful...perfect. I was so relieved to have him here. It is amazing that we have this unlimited capacity to love. I love him every bit as much as I love the other 3 that came along before him. He belongs. A few lessons were learned that day...like not to have things planned out in my mind how things "should" go. Another was that I learned was to be patient. Robbie and his dad gave me a blessing before I left for the hospital. It the blessing he blessed me with patience. I definitely felt the added measure of patience that day. The last was that the power of the priesthood is real. In the blessing, Robbie blessed that the doctors that would attend to me would be guided and helped to get this baby here safely. Later, Keith told me that in all his years of delivering a baby, he'd never been able to turn a transverse one. Turning one is definitely the exception, especially a transverse one. I think that Heavenly Father knew that I had 3 little ones at home that needed their mommy to recover quickly.

The boys came to meet him the next day. They love him. Even little Logan. He says, "That my baby. I touch it."

 Carson and Lukey...aka nicknames Little Dudey. Carson loves to hold him.

 Nate loves to share his blankey with Luke. This is a BIG deal.

 "I touch it." Funny little Logan. He really loves his brother and has shown way more interest in this baby than his brothers ever did in a baby.

 So, now we are a family of 6...WOA!

 Leaving the hospital...

 Look at those sweet bright eyes. Good thing he is so cute otherwise I might lose my patience at 1am.

 Logan wanted a "picture with baby." So, here it is. Look at the difference in size of these two. Just to think that only a week ago Logan was my little baby.

It has been so special being at home with these sweet 4 boys. I think of the band of brotherhood that we have in our family and I love it. They are all little best friends. I hope it stays that way. I just can't believe how lucky and blessed I am to be their mother!

I might be a tiny bit crazy.

Last Monday for Family Home Evening, we had a lesson on being thankful. That was probably good for me to keep in mind while I did what I thought would be something fun with my children. Fingerpainting. Well, lesson learned. I guess that I am thankful that these little boys have fingers to paint with! We were making Indian Corn...an idea I got out of a family fun magazine. I have decided one thing. These people who think of these ideas don't have 3 kids ages 5 and under to do this with. Well, this is what it turned out like.

 This was supposed to be what the corn cobs looked like. Carson's did...sort of. Nate and Log's...not so much!

 I just had to put these pictures on here. The next day Nate and Logan found the swimming goggles. They loved having them over their eyes. Nate wore his to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Logan just wore his all around.

 This is his favorite trick...He says, "Pickle. Pickle." Then you are supposed to cut the pickle and tickle him. He loves that. Then his second favorite thing to do is shake your hand. Then as Grandpa Bob taught him from Dr.  Seuss, say, "Hello Jack. Hello Jake. Shake hands. Shake hands. Shake. Shake. Shake." He is funny. I love to see his little personality shine.

I guess 30 is not so bad...

What a good day it was! 30 is not so bad. I have such cute little family to thank...starting with Logan. He was awake at 5:45. I am sure it was just to wish me a happy birthday. Then Carson and Nate followed at 6. It was so cute to see their excited little faces. My husband surprised me with some very nice presents...hard to do when the wife is 9 months pregnant. I got some running gear and a cook book and CD of Christmas music...which I love. I always feel like my birthday is a gateway to the holidays...I love that feeling!

We picked out a yummy orange cranberry waffle to have for breakfast, turned on the Christmas music, and then I found out that Robbie had invited some friends over from our ward for a little party. He and the kids made cupcakes and a cake!

Here are the boys mixing away

 Look at that little face. It is hard to turn the mixer on just to #2 speed.

 I love this little baby boy. I can't believe in just a couple of weeks he won't be my little baby anymore!

After the cake making festivities, we got ready and were heading to lunch. Carson got hold of my camera. That is never good. We just got it a couple of months ago. He dropped it and it is now completely broken. But, on the bright side, this is a darling picture of Nate and his blue eyes!

I proceeded to tell him that a camera cost what 17 of his new rescue helicopters cost. I was very frustrated. I was remembering last year the day after my birthday and the paint on our carpet...it turned out OK, but was not my best moment. I thought, "Does this little boy want to sabotage my birthday every year, or what?" Then I realized that I was making way too big of deal out of this. So, off we went to Stevo's. YUM.

Then I had a nice long nap. That was good considering that my day started off so early. Robbie's parents came for a visit, and then we all got up and got ready for the par-tay as Nate calls it. I only had to count down every 2 minutes from 5:30. Our friends were coming at 7. We had such a fun time. Everyone was so nice and it was fun to visit. The kids played down stairs. Kids love and unfinished basement. Now I know why.

After everyone left, we went to see the "damage". WOA! The kids had a battle and there were plastic Easter eggs everywhere. Apparently they ran out of those to throw, so they got out a bag of water softener pellets and threw those. They had also disassembled Robbie's trekking poles and used them for swords. That is not so safe. BUT, they had a lot of fun! As we cleaned up for 2 hours strait on Saturday morning, I asked the boys if it was worth it. They both answered a very clear, firm, excited, "YES!!!!"

I agree. It was fun to have a house full of friends to share turning 30 with. So far, 30 has been pretty good. Carson reminded me that morning that I will never have twenty in my age again. Thanks Cars. Then Nate asked, "Mom, how old are you, 21?" My answer...Yes Nate. 21. I am sure that I will forever feel that way! 

Turning the big 3-0!!!

Yes, that is me...turning 30 tomorrow.I CAN NOT believe it.  I have been thinking a lot about 30. Wow. It seems like a milestone. I was just thinking about where I was when I turned 20. I was at Ricks College (having the time of my life, might I add). I had a lot of question marks in my life. My mom had just been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. I had no boyfriend. I had no kids. I thought maybe I'd go to ISU Dental Hygiene...there wasn't anything too concrete going on.

Fast forward 10 years (which, by the way, seems like a blink)...

My life is pretty constant...not a lot of uncertainty.

Today my day consisted of laundry, dishes, mopping, feeding 3 little hungry mouths, cleaning ketchup off Logan's legs...used for lotion. It is 2:00. I am not showered. I have not brushed my teeth. I feel like a whale. That is what being 9 months pregnant does to a girl. But, I wouldn't change a thing.

Being 30 makes me realize some pretty big things. The biggest is that I am THE MOM. What? I am the all knowing, all loving, all doing person to my kids that my mom was to me. SCARY! I hope that I am up to the task. This is not just for fun. These little boys are depending on ME! Luckily I have an amazing husband who makes up in huge ways for the parts of me that are lacking.

Another thing I am realizing is that once we have this little baby boy in a couple of weeks, I will never be the mother of 3 again. I will always be the thirty something woman responsible for FOUR kids (until I am forty something...I can't even go there). Yikes. I can't think about it too much or I feel a little overwhelmed.

Something else I am realizing is that even though life can be a little monotonous, I love being right where I am. I am very content with the relationships I have.  I love my husband. I love my kids. I love my family. I love my good friends. These things make up for the fact that I am sure I will never love laundry, never love dishes, never love mopping...

So, while tomorrow I am turning thirty (I keep telling myself  thirty, flirty, and thriving...like from the movie 13 going on 30), I am so happy to be 29 one more day. This year has been good to me. Looking back there has been so many fun and amazing experiences all with the people I love most. It is awesome. So, in a blink, 30 comes. I will be celebrating by not running the half marathon I had trained for and planned for, but by having my fourth little sweet baby boy. Sometimes the best things in life aren't planned...they just happen. I just hope the next 10 years bring me as much happiness as the last 10 have. Don't get me wrong...there have been trials...major trials. But isn't it remarkable that looking back, I can see only the blessings. I hope that when I am 40 I still feel this way!