Summer summed up.

So this is what it feels like to completely forget that I have a blog and not write for two whole weeks! (I kid, but seriously, the OCD in me can't stand that I have gone that long.)
Look! I figured out the video thing.  Aren't you glad?
Don't you think I should write titles professionally?  Don't worry, I won't quite my day job, although sometimes I wish I could :)
We bought a membership at a pool for the summer knowing that with a baby coming, we would have time, money and energy for little else.
It has paid off, big time.  With friends that belong there too, we are never bored.  And with the exception of Hazel scaring the skin off of my with her kamikaze ways, she has toned it down enough that I can actually take her without Clark (since I am still not supposed to go in the pool for another week or so.)
In short, we love the pool.

**I just came to my blog list only to realize that I have had this post in queue for a while.  Since this I have rejoined the "cool ones" at the pool and actually gotten in.  It's amazing how much more comfortable I am at the pool now, temperature wise.  Clark set goals with each of the girls at the beginning of the summer.  This week Hazel jumped off the diving board, leaving only one child with one goal left (and that is Mia swimming one length of the pool.)  Everyone else has worked hard and had a lot of fun.  I think we'll celebrate, by spending three more weeks at the pool!!

My DC Bucket List

Our summer is just swimming along...which would be a painfully horrible pun if I could figure out the video thing to show you exactly where we have spent 99.9% of our time thus far this summer.

We decided to do something slightly different yesterday.  We wanted a good, family together day doing something other than what we have been doing.  There are several things that I have been wanting to do, things that are typically touristy things that I just hadn't ever gotten around to doing and haven't seen since middle school.  So my family spent the day fulfilling my every wish and desire, including peaceful coexistence.

We started out at the National Cathedral.
 It is so incredible.  The girls had fun looking for certain things from the tour booklet.

This is the Space Window, in honor of the Apollo XI mission.  That little tiny circle thing in the middle of the redish part is a moon rock.
The rest of the windows are just breathtaking and so intricate.  Pictures on my little camera just can't do them justice.

We made sure to step outside and locate the Darth Vader gargoyle that was the winner of a design contest several years ago.  It is way the heck up there but we found it.

Then the girls and I may have slipped back inside to "get drinks at the water fountain" but really we were gawking at the wedding happening at the front chapel.  Nothing like a bunch of little girls watching a bride.

We may have also found a way to kill time while I fed the baby out in the shade.  Disturbing and really funny.  Also, probably really bad for the 10 year old's back.

Next stop was Arlington National Cemetery.  Clark and I felt that since their father has spent their entire lives in the military, it was an important and worthwhile thing for the girls to see and experience.  It is impossible to take in that view and not be in awe of the sheer numbers.  It is a beautiful place.  Clark and I may or may not have had a little discussion about where he would rather be buried, Texas or Arlington. The conversation was inconclusive except that I promised wherever he decides to be buried, I will plant a gardenia bush, and then make sure my new husband is willing to take care of it :)

We spent time at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  We were just in time to see the changing of the guards.

Very cool.  

Why end the day there?  I had also never been to Old Town Alexandria.  Why not? is exactly what we were asking ourselves as we walked around.  Lots of people have told us to go and we just never had.  So quaint.  So cool.  So full of neat buildings, yummy restaurants and treats.

Not a bad view either, if you could undo the blur.

It was one of those perfectly lovely days that I will always remember.  I thanked my family profusely for doing everything that I wanted and without bickering too (I swear that promises of ice cream had nothing to do with it.)

I wasn't expecting any smiles for a couple of weeks still, at least.  That's not to say we haven't tried.  I figure that the kid probably just spends the majority of his time being overstimulated and overwhelmed here at our house.  In any case, I witnessed a little surprise while at church today when he was in the midst of cute teenage girls.  I dove for my camera so as not to miss that amazingly adorable little grin.  And then congratulated them all on making it into his little book of remembrance.

Well hello there happy baby.

Only because I didn't feel crazy enough...

I am entertaining a slightly crazy plan to take the little one abroad next month.
Do you know how much fun it is to attempt a passport photo of a one month old?
You didn't?  Oh, that's because it's not. 
In fact, the woman at Walgreens refused to even try.  "I won't do newborns" she said.
120 attempts later, I got one. 

But I should have just gone with this one.  It's the real keeper.

PS The funny part is, none of those made the cut.  We did another photo shoot this morning with the winning picture...even though I thought his eyes looked shifty and suspicious.  I hope it doesn't get him on the "no fly" list.

Mid July?! What the?

Planning ahead is for suckers.
That's what I am telling myself, repeatedly, this summer.
It all started with anticipating a baby to come on time.  It's really been a slippery slope of spontaneity since then.  Not how I typically like to operate.   I'm pretty sure that for spontaneity to be desirable, it has to revolve around something fun.  I have no problem being spontaneous, I am just not sure that its the most efficient way to run a household, particularly with things like laundry and feeding people.  So imagine how awesome it felt when the power went off exactly 2 hours after I returned home from Costco with enough meat to feed small army, or rather just enough to feed our company that was showing up the next morning.  Not only was the power out but we were also experiencing record high temperatures in the upper 90's, low 100's.
The silver lining, for the guests of course, would be that I actually had enough foresight to wash their sheets the day before.  Because when they pulled into our driveway on Saturday at noon, it was exactly 2 minutes after I returned home from the grocery store and Clark pulled in from waiting in line for forever for gas and 30 seconds after I broke down in tears after walking into the house and realizing what a disaster it was (think not just clutter, but dark, dirty bathrooms and carpets that hadn't been vacuumed in...a while.)  I was horrified for all of 10 seconds before I let it be replaced by joy that Clark's parents and sister were here for a visit.
I love them.  And I knew that they would understand that A) I just had a baby 10 days before and B) power just goes out sometimes.
It was kind of a bonus that they are from Houston and a little heat and humidity doesn't phase them.  I'm pretty sure we complained way more than they did.

 (Haley reading by camp-light.)

But we stayed powerless for almost 3 days in heat that got progressively worse.  The first night we actually slept upstairs but each subsequent night we moved down a floor to chase after the cooler temperatures.  Luckily we invested in a generator last year so we were able to run the fridge and a few fans.
Unfortunately for a woman that just had a baby and is showing her face for the first time in public, we made everyone get ready for church with cold showers and no power.
But we were really grateful that Clark's family drove all the way from Texas so we could have them there at Jonah's blessing.  We are also so grateful to have cousin Heber and Gentri close by (even though poor Heber was sick and couldn't make it - we had stand in honorary grandparents here, Gentri's parents visiting.)  Also, our good friends the Millers interuppted a special anniversay trip to DC to come as well.
We love these people.

Call me crazy but is it possible that Clark and his 2 week old son look amazingly alike in this picture?  I think they have the same shaped head.

The girls all scampered off to primary too obediently after the meeting so I had to get them with Jonah after church.  These sweet sisters.  He really is a lucky little boy, I think :)

Clark's parents were very easy company.  They didn't expect much, just time with us which is good because we gave them lots of it!  They helped cook and clean and keep kids happy and we were so happy to have them!!  They really just live much to far away...or maybe its us that live too far away.

The plan for Fourth of July was to simply "play it by ear".  We had lots of really good options but I just didn't know what we would be up for on that day, especially because there were still heat advisories every day all day.  But we got up and went to the ward breakfast at the church.  All was well and everyone was happy so we followed a crowd of friends over to our city parade.  Everyone loves a parade.  Am I the only one that marches when the bands pass?  I just can't help myself.

We really waited until the last minute to make a call on the evening's festivities but decided to take the chance and hit up our gem we found last year.  Armed with our picnic dinner and LOTS of water we went down several hours later than last year and were able to sit in the exact same spot.  We all went with the anticipation that we were just going to sweat a lot.  And we did, but it was OK.  Jonah slept right through the fireworks.

My baby has skinny legs.  And they are short compared to his wickedly long torso.  He already wears 3 month clothing and has been in size 1 diapers since the day he was born.  Just in case you were wondering.

It's still the best spot ever.  Minimal traffic.  No crowds.  Awesome view.

Clark and his Dad built the girls a little water fun for the driveway on days that I just can't do the pool.  They can ride their bikes through it everything.  And apparently, they like it.

It was very sad to say goodbye.  And I regret that I didn't take more pictures while they were here but at least I remembered at 10pm the night before they left.  With them so far away, we have no one else to sit and play cards with whenever we want.

We really wish we lived closer.  The girls adore this Aunt to pieces (and I adore her amazing bottomless suitcase full of clothing options that she brought with her.)

Thank you Scharmans for driving in the car for 48 hours for little 'ole us!!!
We love you!

We have a lot of kids.

Where do I even begin? I couldn't possibly get to the fact that I now have 5 whole kids until I cover a couple of things leading up to the big day, right? After all, I am a dedicated historian (aka blogger in the year 2012.) Otherwise, how would I ever expect to remember that my sister came to town on my due date? And I got to hang out with her and her husband and her delicious baby for 5 whole days?! Or that we actually got to celebrate Father's Day (which I thought I would get out of by having a baby-just kidding, I was totally looking forward to celebrating and showing grand appreciation for my amazing husband...who became even more amazing in the week to follow when he completely took care of wife, home and kids while I had a new baby...but I'll get to that.)

So before I cover any of that, here is a picture of Clark and Chesty.  Do you not know who he is?  That's OK, neither did I.  But add it to my list of other bizarrely random accomplishments of 2012: star in a prenatal exercise video, have a baby boy, and host Chesty XIII/famous Bulldog mascot of the Marine Corps in my home for a little Sunday evening dessert with friends (who happened to be babysitting him that weekend.)  All they had to say was "he's pretty much famous" and I was all "heck yeah he can come with you" (that, and they couldn't get him to go back into his crate after being cooped up in there all morning.)

These are pictures from the day that I walked to kingdom come and back, a couple of days over my due date.  I was oddly comfortable.  Besides, all you really have to do is promise me a trip to the Pentagon Chocolate Shop at the end of the tour and I'm in.  We took Amy and Chris, and delicious nephew Spencer to the Pentagon.  I think he has a future in politics, don't you?

This was Father's Day...when we came in to sing to Clark and bring him breakfast, he was nowhere to be found....until we opened the closet door and found him crouching in wait.  Just for the record, if I pull into the garage and see that Clark's car is there, the girls will absolutely refuse to go into the house because they know that he is waiting to scare the bejeebees out of them.  Wise girls, if you ask me.  We celebrated Chris too because he is pretty awesome in his St. Patty's day shirt and Christmas pj bottoms and has some of the best morning hair ever.

Then we took a picture of my amazing sister Amy who loves and adores all of her nieces (and nephews) so much that they all asked to go home with her at least twice.  I wish I had gotten a picture of her reading to them...she loves it.  They love it.  PS Amy was in Halloween pj's.  Someone get the Carr's a calendar! or just season appropriate pajamas.

 Spencer was a stand-in for our own baby boy that had yet to make an appearance.

AND NOW, the moment you've all been waiting for, THE BIRTH STORY.
In the beginning, I missed my due date...sailed right passed it and did things like drink raspberry tea, eat spicey food and walk 5 miles through the Pentagon. I reluctantly scheduled an induction, disappointed that my body hadn't done it's thing. (I have a history of slightly larger babies and since it's a VBAC we don't want things, meaning babies, getting out of hand thus making a VBAC less possible.) Therefore, I scheduled an induction. And rather than dropping off our kids at people's houses at 5:00 in the morning, we dropped them off the night before.
But not without letting them all say good-bye to "boy in utero".

Then Clark and I went home, ate ice cream and watched a movie with the volume turned up unnecessarily loud since there were no children upstairs to wake up. Are you afraid that I am already including way too many details and I haven't even gotten to the hospital yet? Don't be. The next part goes kinda fast. At 1:00am I woke up with hard contractions. They were 6 minutes apart. Then they were 4 minutes apart. I took a shower. I made Clark get up and brush his teeth. We left for the hospital at 3:30am. When I checked in at the front desk I didn't even have to go through triage since I was already scheduled for the induction later that morning.  I like to think that since it was baby number 5, they just believed me when I said I was in labor.

A baby boy was born at 7:52am. My goal of going medication free was accomplished only half way. I went into labor on my own, success. My body actually did know what to do. I did not make it without an epidural. It turns out that all those things that I was prepared to do to ease my contractions made me really angry when actually in labor.  I sat on the ball, hated it.  I leaned over the bed, pain.  I flattened my body out on the bed in "maximum relaxation position", pressure! I decided that even though I had prepared and practiced and had it all worked out in my mind, my brain and my body do NOT communicate well. By 5:30 am I was hanging on to Clark during contractions and gripping his jeans so tight I wanted to tear him to shreds. So I got an epidural. It made me want to live again. My regret came in the form of the anesthesiologist getting the needle all the way through to that slightly off-spot which provided me with a splendid epidural headache for 5 days after Jonah was born. Even though my legs were completely dead, it was still my most uncomfortable labor. I was having front and back labor.
The things that excited me the most though were that I didn't need pitocin, my water broke by itself (that was kinda exciting) and for the first time ever I told the medical staff that it was time to push. I felt him come out. The kid that we thought was going to be our smallest was actually our biggest. He was so long.  I knew all during my pregnancy that he wasn't very big necessarily, just long.  Even during the pushing I had my hands pushing down on top of my stomach which was still all the way up in my ribs.  It was like he didn't have the space to "drop".  The relief was incredible as he came out because of the immediate space he left up by my ribs.  It was like he was pushing off with his feet from the inside. And I felt him come out...he just kept coming and coming. It was a little like birthing a length of sausages. They immediately put him on my chest and I was in awe of his long, blond hair and nearly transparent eyelashes.

It was perfectly lovely timing.  The sun was just coming up through the enormous windows in my room and here was the beginning.  The staff was wonderful.  I was surrounded by the most caring and considerate nurses and midwives I have ever had.  They were thoughtful and deliberate having sympathetically and carefully listened to every bit of my history, concerns and expectations.  I would have to say that over all, it went very well.
I really just wanted it to happen quickly, which it pretty much did.  But now that it's over, I am kind of sad.  That moment is so intense, and so amazingly surreal, I just don't ever want to forget those minutes when I was ushering in each and every child.

 Just look at those handsome boys.

I become very emotionally needy when I have a baby.  I suddenly don't want to be alone.  Even though Clark had to step out a couple of times to shuttle girls around, he came back and slept two uncomfortable nights in the hospital to help every step of the way.

 And then the girls came and we were all there, our family of 7!

This girl in particular, has found a new passion...her very own baby brother.  As much as I want to be the one to always calm him and keep him happy, she has a magic touch.

We had a couple of other visitors while in the hospital which was nice to break up the time.  They had to keep Jonah for 48 hours since I had not had time to receive both doses of a particular shot after checking in before he was born-so we had lots of time to kill.  We are so grateful for the people that kept our girls entertained and happy while we were there.

He was so long that the little nursery issued onesie looked like a muscle t.

 And then we came home.

And life resumed...

Mia had a dance recital.  I put mascara on her amazing eyelashes that I couldn't get back off again.  I missed the recital but Clark and the older girls went and recorded it.  Even though the make up totally creeps me out, her little dancing body makes my heart swell.

And then I took some more pictures of my baby because new Moms tend to do that.

Just in case you were wondering...he looks like all of the girls, depending on the day.

But he looks a lot like Clark as a baby,

(I cannot, for the life of me, find the baby picture of him that I am thinking of.)

except for his little gorilla nose, that's mine.