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.

I think I'm ready for the baby to come!

Today as I was getting dressed, Benjamin touched my pregnant stomach and said laughing
"a butt". So I guess my stomach looks like a bottom to him. I'm 36 weeks now, and soooooo eager to have this baby! I was laughing last night with Dan showing him that it's impossible for me to even bend over. I feel so huge, tired, and my back is killing me. (were all of my pregnancies this hard? It's amazing what you forget when your baby hungry). My Dr. says the baby is measuring two weeks ahead of schedule, so let's hope that's good news for an early delivery. Most likely though it's bad news for a gigantic baby! I'd love to have this baby at 38 weeks. But that's wishful thinking I know. In the meantime I'm just trying to hang in there.

Our little hikers!

Kate has been asking to hike up Adams canyon to the waterfall for a couple of weeks now. It's a beautiful hike, but Dan and I didn't think the kids would be up to it (actually I didn't think I'd be up to it, I'm like 36 weeks pregnant). But Sunday the kids wanted to do a mountain walk, so Dan took the two older kids while Benjamin and I took a nap. They were gone for a really long time, so I started to worry a little. Three hours later they returned triumphant! They had hiked all the way to the top of the water fall. The kids were beaming, they were so proud of themselves. They should be proud, it's not a easy hike, and for their age I think they did awesome. Here are some pictures.

Kirk's funny thought

Today as I was driving the kids to school (we didn't make the bus this morning), the two older kids were wondering if they'd make it to school in time. Kirk asked, are we going to make it before the "tidy" bell! I had to laugh that he thought it was the tidy bell instead of the tardy bell.