Trunk or Treat!

Cowboy Woody!

Indiana Jones!


A Stylin' Witch!

Here are a few photo's of the three older kids before they headed out to our neighborhood Trunk or Treat. All three kids were super excited to get their costumes on, and they all got a lot of candy. I can't believe how grown up Kate looks in her photo, I think this is the first year she wasn't a princess of some kind. She looks cute in her darling witch costume. I was surprised that she picked being a witch this year, when she was younger she was really frightened of witches (thanks to the Wizard Of Oz movie). Kirk's costume was a practical choice. He already had the Indiana Jones whip, hat, and bag from a birthday party. We lucked out and found the rest of the costume at kid to kid. I knew Benjamin had be one of the characters from Toy Story. He is literally obsessed with those movies. We lucked out again and found a great woody costume at Kid to Kid. I also found the adorable cowboy boots there too. This year we did really well by shopping at the thrift stores. Other years, we haven't had such great luck. I guess the secret is to buy early. I got these costumes back in September, and I'm glad I did. If I hadn't gotten them before Jence was born, the kids would be using a sheet, and going as a ghost! Also here is a photo I took of Jence today. I took this from our living room couch. I used a blanket and some pillows to prop him up. I think it turned out really good, but don't be too impressed, I had to take about fifty photos, and ended up with three good shots. Well I guess that's all apart of the learning curve.

A few more photos of Jence

Here are some more photos of Jence. He is only four days old in these pictures.

Pumpkin Carving!

Tonight the kids carved pumpkins (actually Dan and I did the carving, but Kate and Kirk told us how they wanted the jack-o-lanterns to look). I can remember doing the same thing as a kid, and the excitement I'd feel with the anticipation of dressing up, and trick or treating. Halloween is probably one of my favorite holidays (behind Christmas of course, nothing trumps Christmas!) So here are some pictures. I promise to post some more of the kids in their costumes, as well as some more of Jence. He has grown so much in the past week. It's amazing how quickly newborns grow!

Benjamin caught!

This morning I was upstairs feeding the baby after the kids had gotten off to school. I heard Benjamin pushing the dinning chair across our wood floor. I wasn't surprised at all, he does this a lot to get into the fruit snack box in the pantry. I thought to myself he will be coming up soon to ask me to open the fruit snack. But it was very quiet, too quiet. He never came so after I finished feeding the baby I went down to examine the extent of the damage. I figured there would either something very funny, messy, or both to deal with. Turns out I was right. He had gotten into a cake that we had left over from the meal the night before. He as eating it with his hands, and had chocolate cake everywhere. I had to take a picture because he was so cute about it. I went down and he just said, "I eat cake, I eat cake". He was pretty proud of himself.

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Jence Stevens Mower

Introducing Baby Jence

He's arrived! We are so pleased and happy to introduce to you baby Jence Stevens Mower. He was in a hurry to get here, born two weeks early on October 11th at 3:18 am. He was plenty big even, a couple weeks early weighing 8lbs. and 3 oz. and twenty inches long. He is an absolute sweet heart, and we feel so blessed and happy that he made it here so perfectly! We all love you so much Jence. The other three kids are thrilled to have a baby brother! Kate didn't want to leave, or set him down. Kirk said he was the cutest baby he had ever seen! He's going to be getting plenty of attention around our home.
Here are all the details of Jence's birthing story, I started to have some consistent contractactions the Friday before during a play in Salt Lake City. This was to be a final "night out" for Dan and I. The contractions were about five minutes apart, and very uncomfortable. When we got home we went to bed wondering if I was actually in labor it seemed to good to be true, sure enough it was. The contractions started to slow down, until they stopped all together. The next day I was going crazy cleaning, doing laundry, and even making meals to put into the freezer. I was definitely nesting now that I look back on it. Sunday came and went, and Monday I had my Dr. appointment schedualed. He said that I was a dilated to a 31/2 and that I would only last a couple more days at the most. I went home and that evening I started into contractions again. It was very similar to the previous contractions, but only this time they got much more painful, and closer and closer together. By the time they were 2 1/2 minutes apart I called my Mom to come down to the house to be with the kids so that we could go into the hospital. We arrived at the hospital around 9:00 pm. By then the contractions were 2 minutes apart. Since I was so early (38wks) they were very hesitant to admit me even though I was a 5, they kept me in the observation room with an Iv and infused some antibiotics just in case I was actually going to go fast. Finally at 11:00pm I was into a room, and was able to get an epidural. They let me progress on my own, without pitocin, or breaking my water because I needed to have the antibiotics in me for four hours. I knew that as soon as my water was broken I'd At 2:00 am which was the four hour mark, they broke my water and gave me some pitocin. Jence was born at 3:18 am. I pushed him out in one contraction. It's true what they say, birth gets a little easier with each baby. The entire experience was wonderful. I tried to enjoy it all. I love the excitement of the arrival of these precious little babies. They are truly straight from heaven. What can I say except that I have been so blessed.