Moving Right Along

I can't believe how fast the time is going. Is 2013 REALLY coming to a close?? This is our favorite time of year and here is some of what is going on in the Carlson home.

On Sundays we've been going to Blackfoot to watch football with Mark's family. Our kids love it. We love the family time.

 Mark's work is so good to their employees. This Saturday they paid for us to go to Lava Hot Springs. My kids are little fishes and we had the best day. So grateful for the memories we get to make together.

 Caught this precious moment on camera. I'm beyond grateful that my kids all love each other. They have their moments of course but for the most part they are all loving and kind and best friends.

 Ha! I love checking on my kids on Tuesdays after I get home from mutual. They are funny sleepers.

 It snowed! But now it's all gone and I want it back. I LOVE winter.

 We blessed Emmett on November 10. It was a great day. Mark gave him a beautiful blessing. He blessed him to have faith and to have the humility and meekness that he needs to be faithful. Every day I am blown away at how good my sweet Emmett is. He has such a calm, easy going spirit. We are truly blessed to have him in our home and call him ours.

This just makes me laugh. Peace, homie.

 Poor daddy and Emmett sure do get exhausted on Tuesday nights. =)

In other news, Mark turned 32 yesterday. Neither one of us can believe that. And Weston's birthday is rapidly looming on the horizon. We are super excited for Thanksgiving this week and spending time with Mark's dad's side of the family. We are a family with MUCH to be grateful for. Even though things can be rough and we have our own trials we feel the love of the Lord every single day and know he is mindful of us and our children. We really don't need more than that to be happy and thankful.

October in a Nutshell

Wow. I have so much I want to catch up on and not enough time to do it. I couldn't add new posts for a while but I got it fixed now so hopefully I will be able to fill in the gaps! Now that November is almost over, let me show you what our October was filled with.

Conference weekend was great. The kids were just excited to have the TV in the front room for a few days!

 Cuddles with our baby Emmett. Never can get enough of those.

 Saydi went to the fire station for a field trip. 

 And our annual visit to the pumpkin patch. So fun.

 We go to Mark's mom's or brother's house in Blackfoot on Sundays so Mark can watch football. It's exhausting, apparently. =) 

And of course, Halloween. Emmett had several outfits to choose from. So I chose them all. Gotta love holidays!

I'll be back soon now that things are fixed! Be prepared for long updates on each of the kids, Emmett's blessing, and upcoming birthdays. Life is good!

Family Pictures

We got family pictures done before the weather got too cold and I LOVE how they turned out. Special thanks to Cherice Hanson Photography. She did fantastic and was patient with us when Jonas fell apart and would no longer cooperate. Unfortunately, thanks to his episode we didn't get all the shots we wanted but I am so thrilled with the others that I really don't mind.

 My favorite thing about this picture is that if you look close you can see that Weston and Saydi are looking at each other instead of Emmett. So cute.

 I can already guarantee this picture will be on display at Saydi's wedding. LOVE it.

Emmett Wells Carlson

He's here! And that is old news by now but I am finally getting around to recording his birth story and hopefully I haven't forgotten the details already. On September 11th I had a really rough day. I couldn't even get off the couch for the majority of the day. When Mark got home from work I was in tears and asked him to give me a blessing to help me get through another week of being pregnant. The blessing helped me emotionally/mentally a great deal but unfortunately, at 1:00 in the morning I woke up with the horrific pain I had from my belly button down feeling even worse than before. On top of that I noticed I was having genuine contractions but they wouldn't stay consistent long enough for me to feel like I should wake up Mark. I knew they would send me home and I just couldn't handle that emotionally! So I got about two hours of sleep that night and first thing in the morning went in to see my doctor for my weekly appointment and non-stress test.

During my NST I noticed that I was having regular contractions but not necessarily feeling them all. So then I got into the room with my doctor and told him how I was feeling. He checked me and I was already just barely shy of 4 centimeters dilated. I've never gone past a two without an epidural before. He touched my belly to get my measurements and I burst into tears because it hurt so bad. I said, "Sorry, I don't mean to cry. It just hurts so bad and I don't know why." My doctor looked at me and kind of smiled and said, "It's because you're in labor." I said, "Am I really??" Ha! I was so terrified of having a false alarm that I wanted to be sure! I was so incredibly relieved that it was time to have this baby that I couldn't even believe it. I called Mark at work and told him to come home and got the kids taken care of before heading back to the hospital.

It was about 11:30 in the afternoon when I got to the hospital and got checked in and such. Around 12:30 they gave me an epidural and then shortly after Dr. Leavitt came and broke my water. At about 2:15 I was feeling more pressure and I was already at an 8. About twenty minutes before that I had been at a six. I could just tell by the way the pressure wasn't letting up that he was on his way out and I told them I was ready for them to call the doctor and get him here. Around 2:40 I got to feeling like I really, really needed to push. No doctor still. So for the next ten minutes I practically held Emmett in while waiting for my doctor. (He told me the next day that they called him when he was seeing a patient who had lost her baby the week before so he was trying to handle that situation with tact. Poor guy.) As soon as Dr. Leavitt was ready I pushed with everything I had because it hurt so flipping bad that I knew I couldn't do this much longer and I just wanted him out! So, for the third time in a row, after one push we had a baby! He was born September 12th at 2:56 pm and weighed 8 lbs. even and was 21 inches long.

 I have always wanted a dark haired baby in the hopes that they might look more like me with dark hair. I had kind of resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get one so you can imagine my surprise at this guy's mane! When they put him on my belly I just kept wiping at his head because I couldn't tell if his hair was that dark or if it was just wet. =)

 The kids came and met Emmett later that evening. It amazes me every time I have a baby the way my kids just accept and adapt. It's like they really are just getting reunited from heaven rather than meeting each other for the first time.

 

 We were blessed to get home about 24 hours after we had him. Although the next day I got to wishing that I had stayed and let someone else take care of me (and Emmett) for just a bit longer!

 He has been such a good baby. My other babies have been so difficult and have required so much work. Even though I'm still not getting much sleep he doesn't make me bounce him just right or walk around the house with him. He pretty much just eats and goes back to sleep or eats and then stays content. He struggled with losing quite a bit of weight and then didn't get back to his birth weight by two weeks so I have been supplementing with just a couple bottles of formula a day and it has made such a difference. I don't know why I felt like it had to be all or nothing with my other kids.  Anyway, things are going great. I felt more prepared for this baby than I ever have and so far I have been coping really well. With my others I kind of felt like I was living under water for the first little while and I haven't felt that at all with Emmett. I felt such a sense of calm from the moment I got pregnant with him and I really thought that was going to be his demeanor. So far, he has proved me right. He has such a sweet spirit and seems to be an old soul. It is crazy how quickly they cement themselves into your heart. I don't know what our little family ever did without our baby Emmett!

School, Baby, and Catch Up

Well, the long awaited goal of being full term has come. Unfortunately this little boy is apparently quite content in there so, no baby yet. But before he comes I need to catch up on a few things!

 This is my most recent belly pic. I can't even remember how far along I was. I think 34 weeks. Here we are a month later and I am MUCH bigger than that! I will take one last picture before we finally have the guy.

 This pregnancy started out going really fast and really well and now things are getting a bit rocky. My fluid is way too high so that is why I'm so big. It also means that about every other day or so I stretch and am so sore I can't get out of bed. At my appointment on Thursday I was dilated to a 3 and about 75% effaced. I have never gone past a 2 without an epidural so that was encouraging but still no baby. I just hope if I go into labor on my own that Mark will have time to get home from the site before he comes. It's kind of stressing me out but there's nothing I can do about it so we are just waiting (I would say patiently but that's a down right lie) until he comes on his own or until the 18th comes and they induce me.

In the mean time we have been lazing around. Falling asleep on your daddy in the middle of the day is good proof.

 And passing time playing with cousins too. Whatever I can do to not make my kids' lives horrible with their grouchy, good for nothing mother. Hopefully that will be changing soon.

 Weston started kindergarten last week! He had an open house on the 3rd but we didn't really count that as the first day. He definitely got more comfortable though.

 

Then the next day he headed out on his own to begin his new adventure of school life! I did just fine until I was driving away and I looked in my rear view mirror and saw him standing in line with all his class mates. Then I cried all the way home. It definitely felt like the beginning of the end. And being pregnant with another little boy and remembering when I was pregnant with Wes didn't help much. But we survived and he had a great day! Now I just have to get used to him going every single day! That's going to take a while.

Other than that life just keeps going, whether you want it to or not. We potty trained Jonas about a month or more ago and he is doing fairly well with it. Potty training is always a long process but he was definitely ready so we took the plunge before he changed his mind. Saydi starts preschool on the 17th and she is ready this year for sure. Mark changed jobs at NRF and is the respirator administrator now meaning that he is in charge of all the gas masks and training and such. He is really liking it and it got him on a regular schedule of day shifts only which is better for our family now that Weston is starting school. Now we are waiting for fall and all the fun that comes with the changing seasons. I'm glad my kids like the changes as much as I do. We are eagerly anticipating playing in the leaves, going to the pumpkin patch, Halloween, and cold weather. And of course, baby #4! So, that will be the next time you hear from me. Let's all pray it's sooner rather than later. For my family's sake. =)