Walking trails

One thing we really loved about living in Wisconsin was the wide variety of walking trails in the city and near our house.  Nearly every weeknight in the summer, we would get in the car and drive to a nearby trail or down to the lake to enjoy the fresh air and gorgeous weather.  Tennessee doesn't have quite the same amenities as Madison, though.  We did manage to find one trail not too far away, and we went a couple times after Henry was born while the weather was still nice in the evenings.

I don't think this picture quite captures just how steep this hill was!  The whole trail was very hilly and very steep at some points.  I'm not going to complain, though, because my glutes could use it and it felt good to put in the effort after being pregnant and sore for so long.  Sadly, the evening light and warm weather didn't last too long after Henry was born so we've put our evening walks on hiatus for a while.  Hopefully we can pick things up again when the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, which should hopefully be by March or so here.  Maybe even by this summer we will live in a house, in a neighborhood with sidewalks.  Then we can just walk out our door and go walking every night like we did in Florida, if we don't want to drive to a trail.  Here's hoping!

Henry's baby quilt

My mom always makes a baby quilt for her new grandchildren, and it's something we treasure!  For Henry, I actually came across this quilt on instagram over a year ago and always had it in the back of my mind in case I ever had a boy.  Thankfully, Mom was happy to make it for me exactly like I wanted it! (she usually chooses out the fabrics and patterns)  She brought it to us when she and my dad came down for Thanksgiving.

 For now it's just a tummy time/snuggling quilt.  It's a big size, though, and will be perfect on a toddler bed someday.

Henry certainly won't suffer from any lack of attention at our house-

Future pilot, perhaps?  

Thanks, Mom, for the beautiful quilt.  We will treasure it always!

Hands On Museum

Something fun we have found to do is the Hands On museum downtown.  I took Olivia a couple times before Henry was born (we bought an annual pass), and Garrett took all the girls a couple times after Henry was born while I stayed home with the baby.

Probably the neatest part is the huge "Make it, Take it" room.  They have all sorts of crafting supplies that you can use to make pretty much anything you want.  Then you can take it home.

On this day, Garrett helped Ellie build a house for one of her little stuffed pigs (his name is Bacon)-

We came across another little art room with some easels downstairs, so the girls set to work on some masterpieces:

Shopping at the "grocery store":

Digging for fossils and shark teeth:

There's also lots of other things.. a pretend "bank", one of those shadow rooms that takes pictures of yours shadows on the wall, a black light room, huge building blocks, a stage for "performances", dress ups, lots of bubble stations, a big water feature for floating little boats down a river, etc.

I'm glad we have found something fun to do while the weather is cold or rainy.  The best part is that there's hardly ever anyone else there, as you can tell from the pictures - even though we mostly go on Saturdays (with all 3 girls, anyway... I've been a couple times with just Olivia during the weekdays and it's just as quiet).  I hear that it gets pretty busy in the summertime so we probably won't go then, but I'd prefer to be hiking or just outside anyway so I don't see that being an issue.  Now we just need some friends to meet up with there!

Christmas Parade

We went to our city's Christmas parade a few Saturdays ago.  It was pretty chilly (in the 40s) so we bought the girls some hot chocolates while we waited for it to start (I think we were near the end, so we had a good half hour wait at least).

It was a pretty typical parade... mostly churches, the high school band, the local university band.  Radio stations and pageant queens.  The girls liked it because they got lots of candy.  

Afterwards, there was a little Christmas "festival" at the old train depot downtown.  We went because they said there would be food trucks and we were all feeling hungry.  Sadly there were only 3 to choose from (besides ice cream and donuts), but we tried out some street tacos from one and they were okay (not nearly as good as our favorite food truck that we visit at least once a month, but it was fun to try something new).

I wore Henry on me in the Moby wrap during the parade, and he slept most of the time.  He was wide awake for the food trucks, though!  He finally started smiling a few weeks ago and it's been so much fun.  Such a cute little guy.  Most of the time he's either sleeping or eating or fussing, so it's nice to get a smile out of him every once in a while.

Baby Blessing

Since my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, we blessed Henry on Thanksgiving night at Garrett's parents' house (we went over for pie after Garrett got home from work).

Henry with my dad, Garrett, Garrett's dad, and Jared (Garrett's sister's husband).  Garrett gave him a very nice blessing.  As you can see below, Henry was a bit fussy afterwards (what's new) but thankfully he stayed decently quiet through the blessing.

I feel really lucky to have these Priesthood holders in my family.  I'm especially grateful for Garrett and the Priesthood that he provides for our family.  I'm thankful that Henry has all these wonderful examples to look up to as he grows.

New glasses

After 4 years of having the same glasses, we thought it might be time for Ellie to get some new ones.  Her old lenses were a bit scratched up, the pink color had faded years ago, and they were just a bit too baby-ish for her (according to her... I thought they were perfect and adorable!).  

We ordered these through Zenni optical, which seems like a nice concept. Cheap glasses that you order online after you put in your prescription.  Garrett had good luck with them a few months ago so we thought we'd give it a try with Ellie.  These were originally listed at like $17, so I planned to get her two pairs in case one didn't work out (or just so she could rotate in between them as she wanted).  However, by the time I put in her prescription and opted for a few of the "upgrades" (like scratch free lenses, etc... plus her prescription is so strong that the lenses cost an additional $20), we were clocking in at $50.  No longer "cheap" glasses, so we just got one pair for now.

We all love them, and she loves them too which is the most important part.  They are a little big, which bugs me because we measured so well and the reviews said they were even a bit small for their 6-year-olds so I thought we would be okay.  But, oh well.  She will grow into them I suppose.

I can't say I blame her for picking out those cute pink frames.  She looks adorable!

O Christmas Tree

When Garrett was growing up, his family always cut down their own Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We were never able to do that until we moved to Wisconsin last year, so it's a new tradition for us.  This year was a bit warmer than last year, but there was still just the right amount of chill in the air to make it feel festive.

My parents were in town for Thanksgiving, so we left Henry home with them and brought Molly (my sister) with us.

I relinquished control of the decorating of the tree and let the girls put the ornaments wherever they wanted.  I think they did a pretty decent job!  It was fun to pull out all the old ornaments that we have collected over the years.  We try to get an ornament each year for the girls, based on something they did that year.  They liked seeing their Disney ornaments (from the year we had Disney passes), their Florida ornaments, etc.  They also have their ornaments they got when they were born, Garrett and I have one from our first Christmas together, etc.  I need to get some Wisconsin ones for them to remind them of our year there.  Someday when they moved out of the house (or get married maybe), I plan to give them their ornaments so they have something to decorate their own trees with.  I will admit, we haven't been great at remembering to get ornaments every year but hopefully we will get better about that (and there's nothing that says it's too late to go back and buy things from years we have missed!).

The random decorations make it look a bit hodge-podge but I'm okay with that right now.  Someday when we have a bigger house I would love to have a "pretty" tree - decorated in matching decor in a way that I really like.  And then we can have the "hodge-podge" tree in a family room or something.

Later that night, Olivia asked me to take a picture of her in front of the tree.  She did several "poses" for me and then looked at my phone to see which one she liked best.

I'm loving the fresh pine scent that the tree adds to our home.  And of course, we love to sit by the glow of the Christmas tree in the evenings.  I love Christmas time!

Abbie's play

Abbie's 4th grade play was in November.  They did a show about Davey Crockett.  She played Carrie Ann, which was one of the main parts!  She did such a great job.  I will admit that when she came home and said she got a main part, I wasn't very excited because I didn't look forward to helping her memorize all her lines (she had a LOT).  I expected that she would get frustrated and it wouldn't go over very well.

But, I was pleasantly surprised.  She was a pro at memorizing her lines, and got them really quickly!  I think it helped a lot that they practiced SO much at school, so that was a big plus.

Honestly, I couldn't understand half of what most of the kids were saying during the show.  I'm not sure if they were playing up their Southern accents for the part, or if those accents were real (wouldn't be surprised around here).  But all the kids were cute and did a really good job.

She got to wear a great big dress, which was fun.

I really enjoy seeing my kids' shows at school.  I like to see what they are working on in music class and I like to see their smiling faces up there.  I also really like that their elementary school here has an actual little theater with "stadium flooring" - the people in the back sit up higher and can see still.  So much better than sitting in a cafeteria and hoping you can catch a glance at your kid once or twice.  It was also smart of us that we went to the daytime performance (during school), so we were sitting on chairs in the back behind kids who were sitting on the floor.  Even Garrett got to come, since he was able to switch to the 2-11pm shift for that day.  All in all, a great performance -- especially since Henry miraculously slept in his carseat the entire time.  Certainly out of the ordinary for him.

Great job, Abbie!

3 weeks

Henry is 3 weeks old!  It's been pretty crazy so far.

We ended up checking out of the hospital on Tuesday afternoon (he was born Monday morning at 6:15).  They told us we could stay until Wednesday, but I really hate hospitals and couldn't wait to get home to the comfort of my own bed (that hospital bed is sooo uncomfortable!  It's so hard!).  Plus, my sister Emma came into town on Tuesday and I didn't want to miss out on any of her visit!  Emma came to see us in the hospital early Tuesday afternoon (straight from the airport), and then we finished up the discharge papers after she left to pick up Abbie & Ellie from school.  We got home just before dinner time to find that Emma had gone grocery shopping and had dinner waiting for us, which was a nice surprise!  She's the best.

The first night was hard.  First of all, we don't have a dedicated bedroom for Henry, so we just had a pack and play set up in our bedroom for him (that's what we've done for all our babies so nothing out of the ordinary there).  However, I ran into a problem right away.  First of all, all of our bedrooms are upstairs (well, the 3 bedrooms that we use.  There's a 4th bedroom downstairs on the main level but it's the playroom.  Plus I wouldn't put him down there alone anyway).  The problem with having all the bedrooms upstairs (and no other rooms upstairs) is that I can't be up with the baby without going downstairs (and the thought of going up and down wooden stairs in the middle of the night, over and over again, in my state of exhaustion, was scary to me).  And Henry, being a typical newborn, didn't sleep that first night.  We still hadn't gotten a hang of nursing, so it was taking him forever to latch, and he kept crying.  I tried sitting on the wooden rocking chair in our bedroom to nurse him, but it was uncomfortable and nothing was working.  I could barely keep my eyes open (I had only slept maybe a total of 5 hours since I had woken up on Sunday morning, this was Tuesday night) and I was afraid I would fall asleep in the rocking chair and drop him.  I changed his diaper on the floor of our bathroom... he cried throughout that.  I was so stressed he would wake up the whole family, or that our neighbors would hear him (we share walls).  Finally around 2:30 I went downstairs to the living room and tried to nurse him down there on the couch.  Long story short, I slept maybe a total of one hour that night.  It was rough.

The next few days are kind of a blur.  I really wanted to enjoy Emma's visit so I probably didn't nap as much as I should have.  But on the other hand, I really didn't have many opportunities to nap. Henry still wasn't nursing well, and was constantly hungry.  I could literally have him latched on for over an hour, and when I would take him off he would start crying his "hungry cry" and I knew he had hardly eaten anything.  He had a lazy suck, and was too tired to put in much of an effort.  He slept in little 30 minute intervals here and there (usually while latched), and when he was awake he was crying because he was hungry.  He was only quiet when I was "nursing" him.  So, this didn't give me much time to sleep.  Thursday morning he had his 3-day checkup, and he weighed 7 lbs 9 oz... a drop from his weight at the hospital discharge time (7 lbs 11 oz), and a bigger drop from his initial birth weight (7 lbs 15 oz).  It was still within the "normal" range for weight drop, but disheartening nonetheless.  Since my milk had come in by this point, he should have been gaining again.

The weekend happened... still a blur.  Emma left early Saturday morning, which was sad.  It was so fun to have her around.  The most valuable thing she did was play with my other kids!  It was sooo nice that they were occupied and happy and taken care of, so I could focus on bonding with Henry (and trying to keep him fed).  Garrett was also off work that first week, which was a huge help.  He and Emma got the kids off the school each morning, kept Olivia occupied, ran errands, and generally just kept the house together.  I nursed... and nursed... and nursed. And slept on the couch sitting up while Henry was latched on, not eating (just making me sore).

After that first night, I resolved to just start out my night downstairs in the living room, rather than even trying to sleep in my room (too stressful).  We bought a Rock & Play for Henry to sleep in downstairs (we don't have any baby gear anymore besides the pack and play, and I had nowhere to set him down when we were downstairs).  So, he sleeps in that and now, 3 weeks in, I'm still sleeping in the living room every night, with Henry in the Rock & Play next to me.  I miss my bed.  I've taken a nap or two up there in the last 3 weeks, and it's been glorious, but other than that, its the couch for me.  Not the ideal situation... I wish I had a nursery with a crib for Henry and a twin bed for me, and a nice recliner or rocker for nursing.

Anyway, we had a weight check for Henry the next Tuesday (he was 8 days old).  We were called back into the little exam room, and soon the nurse came in to get us to bring him out to the hall to be weighed.  First she asked me how things were going, and that's when the tears came.  I told her how exhausted I was, how sore I was from the constant nursing, how he never slept, how he always cried because he was hungry.  I was so tired.  I hate crying in front of people but no one had really asked me how I was doing until that moment.  I didn't think I was that emotional about it until it happened.  I kept apologizing and saying I was just so tired, not sad, just exhausted.  She listened to me and told me she was sure everything was going to be fine, and we went out to weigh the baby.  7 lbs, 3 oz.  He had dropped another 6 oz over the last 6 days!  I felt awful.

The doctor came in and we chatted for a bit (and of course I cried some more, ugh).  The lactation consultant also came in and tried to help us out a bit.  By the time I left my appointment, we had a plan... I would continue to keep trying to nurse, but only for about 10 minutes on each side.  After that, I would feed him a bottle -- either pumped milk, or formula.

Things immediately got better.  After trying to nurse him (which was really painful still, but we kept trying), I would feed him a bottle, usually half breast milk and half formula (I could only pump about 2-3 oz if I was lucky, but he was wanting to eat 4 oz after nursing him, which tells me that he really wasn't getting anything from me).  After the bottle, I would go pump for the next time.  By Thursday (his next weight check), he had gained 3 oz. He was also sleeping more, which meant I was sleeping more (only about 2.5 - 3 hours at a time, but still... so much better than before).

And now, 3 weeks old, he weighs over 8 lbs.  He's still eating about every 3 hours around the clock, and still eating 4-5 oz each feeding.  I rented a hospital-grade pump last week, which seems to do a better job than my Pump In Style was doing.. I'm usually able to get at least 3 oz now, which means I am supplementing with less formula.  I gave up nursing altogether for about 5 days (the whole nurse-bottlefeed-pump was so overwhelming and time-consuming), and just pumped and bottle fed during that time, which was great.  A few days ago I started trying to nurse again a couple times a day and he seems to be doing okay with it.  I still just do bottles (and pump) during the night, since nursing is still kind of an ordeal and I'm so exhausted.

So, the fog is starting to lift.  I'm starting to feel like a real person again, which I didn't think would ever happen.  Honestly, there were a few days in there where I wondered how we would survive.  Garrett had that first week off, then the second week he worked the night shift, which meant he was only gone from around 10:30pm - 5:15 am.. while the other kids slept.  So, it was doable.  He woke up before the girls got home from school (so, he continued to pick them up and deal with the after-school stuff, and help with dinner, etc).  Then, he had another week off after that (they automatically get a week off after their week of nights, it doesn't count against his vacation time which is nice).  So, for another week he was able to pick the girls up from school and deal with the homework and piano and dance and all that.  Throughout that whole time, I dreaded when he would go back to his normal work routine (7:30am to around 6 or 7pm sometimes).  I wondered how I would do it all.  I was still so tired.  I didn't remember it being this hard with any of my other babies.  Of course, I didn't have as many responsibilities back then.  I could stay home all day if I wanted/needed to.  Abbie was in kindergarten when Olivia was born... now I have 2 kids in elementary school, with after school activities, extra-curricular stuff,  etc.  Plus Olivia was such an easy baby, so the transition wasn't hard at all!  In some ways, it's nice that they are older and can care for themselves.  But having them be older is also a lot harder in other ways.

But, like I said before.. the fog is lifting.  I got dressed yesterday (in maternity jeans, but still... I hadn't worn those in months since I just wear dresses and skirts by the end). I did a major grocery shopping trip alone with the 2 younger kids.  I took 3 kids to Sam's Club while Abbie was at piano lessons (just to get Ellie's pupils measured at the optometry center, nothing major, but still).  Things are looking up and I don't feel so overwhelmed.  The thought "What the heck was I thinking having 4 kids... how do people do this?!?" is not the forefront thought on my mind anymore.... so that's good.  It looks like life might start to feel normal soon after all.  Thank goodness.  Because Henry's a little sweetheart and we love having him in our family.  He makes us feel so much more complete.

He's here

Henry joined our family a few weeks ago!  The girls are totally in love with him and he's got us all wrapped around his little finger.

The first 2 weeks of October were kind of crazy around here.  I was feeling contractions pretty often (several a day), especially when I was doing a lot of walking around.  It made me really nervous because Garrett was scheduled to go to Chicago on October 6-7 for his radiology boards.  I was SO certain that the baby would come while he was gone, and I was pretty nervous about it.  The last thing I wanted was to go into labor with him out of town!  In my head I had the whole scenario played out... I would have to drive myself to the hospital while in labor (how??), I would sit in the labor room alone, give birth alone in a room full of people I didn't know, make all the decisions alone... it made me very nervous.  Starting the weekend before Garrett left, I put myself on a sort of "bedrest", which did help to keep the contractions down.  It was General Conference weekend, so we did a lot of sitting around anyway so that helped.  Garrett worked that Sunday, but thankfully the kids were pretty easy and I was able to relax for most of the day.  That week was another story, though... the kids were on Fall break so it wasn't easy to sit around all day like it would have been if the two older ones were at school.  I tried to keep them as occupied as I could that day, but I felt really bad that we didn't have anything fun planned for their week off.  Thankfully, my mother-in-law took them during the day for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, which was a LIFESAVER.  I was home alone ALL DAY for those three days.  She brought them home for bedtime.  I don't think I have EVER been home alone since having 3 kids, maybe not since having kids at all.  It was amazing.  I napped, watched Netflix, did indexing (family history), surfed the web, online shopped for baby things I still needed.  I hardly left my bed at all.  It was the best gift ever.  Garrett left early Wednesday morning and got home late Thursday night, and we survived with no baby coming.  I was so incredibly relieved.  And, I thought FOR SURE that Henry would be born at any moment... turns out he was pretty comfortable in there, though, and wasn't in any hurry.

We scheduled an induction for October 17.  Honestly, when we scheduled it the week before, I thought there was no way I would still be pregnant by then so I didn't hesitate (I was due on the 15th but my own calculations had me due on the 12th.. Olivia was 5 days early so I was kinda planning on something like that again since this is baby #4).

His due date came and went (actually I'm a bit grateful for this because my MIL wasn't very available to help out with the kids that weekend, so I'm not sure what we would have done with them if I'd gone into labor).  Ironically, even my contractions had slowed down ever since Garrett came home from his boards.  I was still in a lot of pain and still exhausted, but no more painful contractions even when I went walking.  The induction date was coming quickly and to be honest, I was a bit nervous to go through with it.  I induced with both Abbie and Ellie, and both were very successful (labors were under 7 hours each), but for some reason I felt guilty inducing this time around.  I was nervous he wasn't ready, and I felt guilty for making him conform to my own personal preference/schedule.  The truth was, Garrett had the whole week of Oct 17th off, and we wanted to make the most of his time off.  But was that a good enough reason?  Probably not.  On Sunday I tried to be as active as possible.  We went for a looong walk in my in-laws' neighborhood (Garrett's sister and her husband were in town from SC, along with the kids' cousins from GA).  On Sunday night we set our alarms for 5:15 a.m. and prepped our bags to show up at the hospital at 6 the next morning.  We went to bed around 11:30 and I remember wishing I would just go into labor naturally so that I wouldn't feel so guilty about the induction.

At 1am, I woke up to my water breaking.  I ran to the bathroom to make sure that's what it was, and when I was certain I woke Garrett up to tell him.  I wasn't sure if we should wait for 6 am, or go in right away, so I cleaned myself up a little bit, and laid back down on the bed to try to get a little rest (my water didn't gush out like crazy, so nothing had gotten on the bed earlier, thankfully).  Almost immediately, I got a hard contraction, harder than any I had had up until that point.  I told Garrett we needed to go in right away (I was paranoid that this labor would be FAST since Olivia's only took about 4 hours from when I started labor).  I texted Garrett's mom and she was here within 15 minutes.  Off we went to the hospital.  Thankfully the streets were quiet and it took less than 10 minutes.  We went in through the ER since it was the middle of the night, and got admitted right away (no one else was there.. this was a small private hospital, a very different experience from our other, huge University-based hospitals!).

My contractions were coming strong by this point, and about 2-3 minutes apart.  I had thought I would wait a bit for the epidural but I ended up asking for it almost right after we got settled in our room.  I always get nervous for the epidural, but it's soo worth it to me and has made all my birthing experiences so nice.  The CNA came in almost right away and got to work.  An anesthesiologist also came in to oversee it (he had obviously been sleeping, I always feel so bad waking doctors up!).  It went well, minimal pain, and I literally started feeling the effects immediately.  Before I had even laid back down, Garrett asked if I was feeling the current contraction (he could see it on the chart), but I couldn't at all.  I actually ended up asking the nurse to turn down the anesthesia a bit because it felt stronger than I needed.  My contractions slowed a bit, so they gave me some pitocin and things picked up again.  I was already dilated to a 4 when I went in (I had been at a 4 for over a week), so things didn't take too long.

At 6:05 a.m. I buzzed the nurse in and told her I felt ready to push.  She checked me and told me NOT to push under any circumstances, I guess we were ready!  Haha.  She called the OB in (poor guy had 1 more hour left in his 24-hour call shift, got to sneak one last delivery in!).  He came in by 6:10 and everyone started prepping the room for the delivery.  I love this part - everyone rushing around, bright lights coming on, the energy goes from zero to 10 in less than 60 seconds.  Once everything was prepped, we waited for the next contraction to show up on the chart.  Once it started, the doc told me to push and suddenly he was out!  One contraction, one push.  Doesn't get much better than that.  All my epidurals have been great but I think this was my best one.  Not too strong, but strong enough that there still wasn't any pain.  It also wore off quickly afterwards which was really nice.

The rest of our hospital stay was okay.  Since he was born on Monday morning, we could technically stay until Wednesday.  However, I hate staying in the hospital so we always try to leave as soon as they will let us.  Thankfully, we were able to leave on Tuesday afternoon.  Since it was a private hospital, it wasn't too bad though -- I didn't have medical students and residents rounding on us twice a day, and I didn't have people coming in to do exams or check my vitals around the clock like they always seemed to do at teaching hospitals.  But still, I was anxious to get home to my own bed and my own surroundings, and to Emma!!  She came to visit and help out that first week, and she arrived on Tuesday afternoon.  I didn't want to miss any more of her visit than I had to!

So, there's Henry's birth story.  Hopefully I will find some time later this week to update about how these first two weeks have gone!  In short: it hasn't been easy!

House hunting, part 2

So, in early June Garrett bought a last-minute ticket to our city to do some house hunting -- both to look at a few rentals that popped up, and to look at houses to buy.  Our options were pretty much:

1. rent a little (2 bedroom) apartment for a few months while we find something long-term (either a cheaper/small house to last a few years, or just go for the long-term house after a few months).  This option sounded absolutely miserable but we could have made it work.

2. Buy a cheaper/small house now and move again in a few years to something we love.  This option sounded okay to me.... but wasn't too appealing just because I feel like we would have wanted to stay in the house at least 3-4 years to make buying worth it, and I didn't know we would want to stay that long. (can you tell I was WAY overthinking everything?)

3. Just go for it and buy a big house that fits us well, and not have to move again (I really didn't want to do this either, because I have heard so many stories of jobs not working out, or not liking the area, or what if the school just doesn't work out... or private practices being bought out by hospitals and the new people getting the boot first).  What if he hates the job and we want to leave?  Realtor fees alone would be crazy to sell a house so soon after buying it!  And the stress and hassle!  Ugh.  I was over-thinking for sure.

4. Rent a house.  This was our first choice, by far.  But... since there were never any houses for rent, it wasn't a true option. Ha.

So... as you can see, I didn't like any of the options.  It was tough.  We went back and forth so many times.  We prayed about it, we went to the Chicago temple one Saturday.  We consulted our parents.  We talked, and searched online, and talked some more.  Garrett left on a Monday afternoon with a list of rental places to check out (miraculously, 2 houses were listed on Craigslist that weekend so I was feeling hopeful).

By Tuesday morning, one of the rental houses had been taken, so there was one left for him to see.  I had really high hopes for this one, because it was in a school district I really liked (there were 2 I liked equally, and I would have been okay with 2 others too).  Garrett called me after he toured it and said it was okay.  It was a really strange layout -- it used to be a really small house but rooms had been added, a garage was converted into a family room, etc.  There were 3 levels and no closets, really.  Tiny one-car garage.  Just awkward layout.  No grass in the yard, but there were trees and there was privacy.  A giant deck in the backyard, covering an old underground pool that they used to have.  There was also a cockroach in the kitchen cabinet, so... bonus.  It would have been fine, probably, but he just wasn't feeling it.

Another house popped up that day, so he also toured that.  It was in a "meh" school district.  Not my ideal but it would have been okay.  But, the old tenants had left a ton of junk so it was messy.  They had also turned off the electricity so it was kind of hard to see anything.  The kitchen probably hadn't been updated in 25 years.  He didn't like that one, either.

Then, he went around with our realtor for a few hours and saw some homes for sale.  And of course, he loved them... especially since these were brand new homes, and compared to the rentals he had looked at, they were amazing (I mean, they were already pretty nice.... but they seemed like palaces compared to earlier in the day).  There was one that he especially liked that we started to consider pretty heavily.  The inside was beautiful. The lot was tiny, though, which I hated.  Plus, there was no bonus room/extra living space/basement.  So basically we'd be buying a house like we had in Florida, but with 5 bedrooms (so, just a living room for living space, which is tough with 3 -almost 4- kids.  The kids are getting to the age where we just need more space.  The bedrooms were pretty small so while one could have been a "playroom", it would have been tight.

He had a ticket to come home on Wednesday afternoon, so time was really limited.  Tuesday night we were just as confused as ever.  Garrett was leaning towards buying, but I really wanted to just suck it up and rent that house for a year.  Meanwhile, I was refreshing Craigslist like crazy, praying for something to turn up.

And what do you know, something did.

For a long time, Garrett balked at the idea of renting a condo/apartment.  It stresses him out to keep the kids quiet all the time, to not bother the neighbors, etc.  But, a condo came up for rent that seemed great.  4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, bigger square footage than any house we've lived in so far.  And, it was an end unit, which was great.  In a school district we loved.  Garrett called the manager right away but she said the unit couldn't be viewed until Friday.  Garrett explained that he was leaving town early the next afternoon and asked if he could possibly see it in the morning.  She said that he couldn't, but told him that she lived in an identical unit on the other end of the row and that he could come see hers if he wanted to.

Long story short, he toured the condo, signed on the dotted line, then drove straight to the airport to catch his flight home (which ended up being an ordeal in and of itself... he got stuck in Charlotte overnight and missed my official gender ultrasound the next morning.  I'll have to blog about that soon).  Good thing too, because she had two other people coming to look at it after him (I'm telling you, nice rentals here must go FAST because they are so rare).

So... we found a place!  And it's fine!  I wish we were in a house, in a real neighborhood.  With other kids and moms that I could be friends with.  I wish we could settle down somewhere and just BE.  But, that's the consequence we get for not buying.  And it was (and still is) worth it to me to take our time buying.  So it's working out okay.  The condo itself is very nice.  There are two master bedrooms, one on the main level and one upstairs with the other 2 bedrooms.  We decided to use the downstairs master bedroom as a playroom, which is working out pretty well.  The bedrooms are pretty good sized.  Our master upstairs seems huge, since we don't have much furniture, but I like being minimalistic especially since it's temporary (we signed a one-year contract, and it goes month to month after that).  We let Abbie have her own room, which she's thrilled about.  Ellie and Olivia share the other bedroom upstairs, and they are connected by a jack & jill bathroom (each bedroom has its own toilet/sink, and then they share a shower in the middle).  To be honest, I'm not loving having my master bedroom on the second floor (not just because I'm pregnant, although that probably has a lot to do with it), but I do LOVE having a master bedroom again (we essentially all shared one bathroom in Madison, so this has been quite a luxury to have so many bathrooms here!).  The laundry room is also on the second level which is perfect since it's near the bedrooms (basically it's just a laundry closet in the hallway, but I don't mind.  Laundry isn't really something I love to do so it's not like I needed/wanted a huge room to do it in.  I just want it done).  There is also a lot of storage space - two big walk-in closets upstairs, a big pantry in the kitchen ("big" to me means room for two big metal shelves, which we bought at Walmart a few days after moving in.  It's been perfect).  The dining area has windows on 3 sides so there is lots of natural light.  There is no carpet anywhere -- wood floors throughout -- and they are in great shape.  Neutral paint on the walls.  I will have to share some pictures soon.

There's more to share about settling in but that will also have to wait for another day.  It's getting late and this blog post is way too long (again).  Way more information than anyone will ever need or care about, but I'm sure it will be fun for us to look back on someday.  I don't really want to forget about how stressful this time in our lives was, because I think it will be something I can appreciate someday.  I always imagined that when Garrett was done with training, things would be less stressful, but that certainly hasn't been the case.  Oh well, that's life I guess.  I certainly do appreciate our condo a lot, considering what our other options were.

House hunting

Finding a place to live in our new city proved to be one of the more stressful things we experienced during our move preparations.

The rental market here absolutely stinks.  There was nothing available for months leading up to when we arrived.  We were looking for something that started anywhere from mid-June to July 1-ish (we were a bit flexible since we could stay at Garrett's parents house for a week or so if necessary), but we were willing to pay a whole month's rent ahead of time just to lock something down if needed.  But nothing came up!

I guess I shouldn't say there was NOTHING available... sure, we could have moved into a 900 square foot apartment with two bedrooms and one bathroom.  We also probably could have found a decent, dated house out in the county, but the schools out there aren't as good as the city schools.  Maybe it was a bit crazy (considering the circumstances with nothing available), but I was adamant that we live within the city limits so that we could be in that school district.  The county schools are decent, I'm sure.  Probably a lot better than their school in Florida (not hard to do).  And deep down, I know that kids will thrive wherever they have the right support system.  Kids can be in a terrible school but if their teacher is wonderful, they will have a wonderful experience!  And vice versa... if they have a terrible teacher, it doesn't matter how good the school is, really.  But... knowing that there were two elementary schools here in the city that were in the top 25 in the entire state... I was adamant that we be in one of them.  Of course, this didn't make our house hunting experience any easier, but honestly it didn't matter.  There was nothing, anywhere.

We came down here in March to do some "house hunting" with a realtor that Garrett's new practice set us up with.  We spent a morning driving around with her, looking at some neighborhoods and even touring a few houses.  Obviously she wanted us to buy something, but we were certain at the time that we wanted to rent first, so we didn't seriously think about buying anything that we saw (plus, she was showing us houses that were SO over a budget we had ever considered, which made it a little easier to not get too into it.  It was kind of ridiculous).  She warned us that the rental market was rough, but that we might be able to rent something that was for sale but not selling quickly enough for the seller.  So, we left the city at the end of that week with the hopes that something would turn up around June.  (We also toured some schools that week and really liked them, confirming my desire to get into the city schools above anything else.  To be honest, nothing compares to their elementary school in Madison, I don't think we will ever find a school that good again.  We were so lucky there!).

So, we kept looking.  April, May passed and nothing turned up.  Small apartments were always popping up but the thought of moving into a 2-bedroom apartment made me want to cry.  I suppose we could have rented something temporarily until we found a house to buy, but even that option sounded depressing.  When we buy a house, we want it to be a house that we will stay in for a good long while.  And... that house will likely cost more than we want to spend right now.  I didn't want an "interim" house for a few years.  I want to buy once and then stay.  Maybe that's dumb.  But I also wanted to check out the wards, the different neighborhoods, and just figure out our life here first, before committing to something major.  When we bought in Florida, it was easy because pretty much all the residents bought/rented homes in a handful of 4 neighborhoods.  It was perfect, and we LOVED where we lived.  I thanked my lucky stars every day that we lived where we did, and there were houses we had seen during our house hunt back then that I was SO happy we didn't buy. So, we got lucky that time in Florida.  I didn't want to push my luck this time that we would buy in the right neighborhood this time.  Our options are a lot more "open" this time around.  There are a lot of nice neighborhoods around here, so there isn't an obvious choice.  One of the really good schools is in one ward, and the other school we really liked was in the other ward.  So there was that to consider, too.

When June rolled around, we still hadn't found anything.  There was a house for sale that we really liked a lot (in one of our very favorite neighborhoods from when we had toured around in March.  The neighborhood had walking trails and 2 pools and a really nice playground, tennis court, etc).  It just seemed perfect.  BUT... it was at the top of a budget we had considered, and there was no way we were about to buy something that expensive without seeing it first.  Garrett didn't have any time off to go down there and see anything, and I can't exactly just get away for a few days with 3 kids at home.  So, we were kind of stuck.  Garrett's parents toured it for us and FaceTimed us during that.  It really was great... a fenced back yard, no house right behind it (just a field), a walkout basement, 6 bedrooms plus an office, coffered ceilings, tons of storage space, a flat driveway (hard to find here).  The basement even had those tiles that look like a wood floor... it was great.  But, again... we just couldn't pull the trigger without seeing it in person, especially since it was at the top of our budget.

Finally, in early June, Garrett couldn't take it anymore and booked a flight down here to look at some houses (to buy) in person.  I was shockingly a bit more calm about the whole situation than I expected I would be... I just figured a place would turn up to rent eventually (this is surprising since I'm a huge planner and normally that would stress me out like crazy.  Maybe I was just too lazy to think about it, or too stressed about other things).  But Garrett couldn't live any longer with the fact that we were moving in 3 weeks and still didn't have a place to live.  So, he booked a flight and set up some times to tour some homes for sale with our realtor.  This time, some cheaper "interim" homes that would get us by for a few years.

This blog post is getting too long so I will continue tomorrow!

Siebach Farm 2016

We had another awesome reunion at the Siebach Farm in July.  I took over the 8-hour drive home so that Garrett could work on the annual video.  Here it is!

26 Weeks

It's been about 26 weeks since I've posted, which pretty much exactly coincides with how pregnant I am.  Haha.

I wish I had blogged more about our time in Madison.  It was so great.  We loved it.  We had a few friends, we loved our house, we loved our neighborhood, I loved our ward at church.  I loved all the variety of shopping (I'm not much of a shopper but it was nice when I needed something).  I loved the weather (when it warmed up).  I intend to go back and catch up on some blog posts because I really don't want to forget our time there.  I'm much better over on Instagram if you want to follow me there (@hwoodbury).

But, let's make this post about the pregnancy... I do want to document that.

I found out I was pregnant at the very beginning of February.  I was having some symptoms but it seemed really early to take a test.  Of course, I was anxious to find out so I took a test anyway.  Sure enough, there was a very faint line!  I was really excited but a little nervous, too.  We had been trying for a few months to get pregnant, but we specifically did NOT try that month because Garrett has to take his final radiology boards on October 6-7 in Chicago.  The baby is due October 14, so we will be cutting it pretty close (Olivia was born about 5 days early).  Whoops!

I had planned to wait and tell Garrett on Valentine's Day in some cute/fun way, but of course I didn't last that long.  Secrets/surprises are not my strong suit!  I ended up telling him in the most random and un-romantic way a few days later. Haha... he didn't believe me at first because it was so random, and because we had not been trying.  I had to show him the test before he believed me.

I was not really sick with Abbie and Ellie, and only kind of sick/tired with Olivia.  This pregnancy has been so much harder.  I was so sick, and so exhausted for almost the entire first trimester.  Thankfully it only lasted in the mornings, and I was able to continue working out in the afternoons, but it was still rough.  Poor Olivia spent lots of mornings hanging out with me on my bed after the girls left for school.  I would read her a couple books, and then suddenly around the middle of book 5 I would start mumbling and literally falling asleep in the middle of a sentence.  At that point, I would fall asleep and she would play with some toys or watch the iPad for an hour or two.  I would wake up and we would play a game while I laid next to her, read a few more books, and then eat lunch in bed too.  Usually by then I would feel okay enough to get up and get dressed, and we would run a few errands if necessary.  It was hard and I felt bad for her.  I wish I had friends who could have come to pick her up for a morning but it didn't really work out that way (plus I hate to ask people for things).

Once the first trimester was over, my mornings were functional again so that was nice.  But by the time 2pm rolled around I could not stay awake again, so that was our new naptime.  Sometimes I could get Olivia to take a nap also, but usually she just watched a movie on the couch next to me while I slept.  I don't even know how many times Abbie and Ellie came home from school to me sleeping on the couch.

I had no inkling whatsoever about the gender of this baby.  But, I was SO anxious to find out, I feel like I was even more anxious this time than I have been with any other pregnancy.  This is very likely our last baby, and I just wanted to know so badly!  I even entertained the idea of doing that expensive blood test around 8 weeks.  I didn't have a preference either way, I just wanted to KNOW.  Who would be completing our family?  Would we have 4 little girls, or will we have a boy?  Lots of people guessed it was a boy since my pregnancy was so much harder, which was legitimate reasoning I guess, but I also felt like it had a lot to do with the fact that I am 4 years older than I was for my last pregnancy.  I'm not young anymore! Ha.

Around 15 weeks (mid April), the girls and I went over to Garrett's work one evening after hours (on a day he was at Research Park, not the hospital), and he gave me an ultrasound.  I have to say, it was one of the coolest things we have ever done.  It was so awesome to have the 5 of us in a room together, with no one else around, and to see our baby for the first time.  I couldn't believe how clear the ultrasound was.  The night before, we had watched some 15-week ultrasounds on YouTube (to get an idea of how things would look) and I thought there was no way we would be able to tell the gender ourselves, especially this early.  Things on YouTube were so blurry and I could not see anything, let along small little parts to see a gender!  However, this ultrasound machine at Garrett's work was SO clear, it was amazing.  And, it was obvious that we were having a baby boy!  It was awesome.  And of course, I started telling all our friends and family right away and I'm sure Garrett was just cringing the entire time because "what if I'm wrong", ha.  I mean it was pretty obvious, but he continued to have that small doubt in the back of his mind right up until my official 20-week ultrasound (and subsequent blood test that was recommended by the genetic counselor at that appointment, and pretty much made for a miserable and heart-wrenching week of waiting for test results... but I think that will be a post for another day.  But, the blood test came back saying it's definitely a boy, also).  But anyway... that ultrasound Garrett did was probably one of the highlights of my life as a mother. It was one of the coolest things we have done. Being married to a radiologist doesn't have many "perks" in the sense that he can't really help us out on a day-to-day basis.  He's not a pediatrician. He doesn't write us prescriptions for anything, ever.  He can't give me Botox someday (HA!).  Sure, sometimes family members or friends call him for advice or with questions, and he is as helpful as he can be.  But mostly he just says "yeah sure, send me your ultrasound/xray/mri and I can give you a second opinion". Haha... not exactly what people want to hear sometimes (because they still have to go in and get all that stuff done before he can help!).  But hey, if I need an ultrasound... he's my guy!  It was nice to see him in his element (although, okay, OB ultrasound is NOT his "element"... this was his first one, but he did a great job!).

This post is already too long so I will end it.  To sum it up, it's been a pretty rough pregnancy.  I've had lots of aches and pains.  I feel old and tired.  Almost every day, the thought crosses my mind that this is my last time. Some days, I can hardly walk.  Just rolling over in bed is a huge chore and hurts a lot.  I'm gaining weight at record speeds which feels miserable.  There was even a trip to the ER at one point (another post for another day).  Of course, we won't completely close that door until we know we are supposed to be done.... but I'm pretty sure we will be.  I am SO excited to meet our little boy in a few short months.  Shockingly, we are about 75% sure we have a name picked out (we NEVER agreed on a boy's name with any other pregnancy), so that's exciting.  It's very classic, German, and in the top 30 names (like pretty much all our kids' names - popular).  I must admit that I'm a little sad not to get to use my girl name (Olivia was thisclose to being named Greta and I've been holding onto that name in case our next was a girl), but I'm really excited for this boy to get here.  He will be SO well cared for, with three doting big sisters around.  I can't wait for him to get here!  Just not until after Garrett's boards, please!

Texas Christmas

We had always planned to stay in Wisconsin for Christmas.  Garrett had the week off, and we were just going to relax and hang out.  However, after the Thanksgiving break I started thinking that maybe we should plan to go somewhere.... my kids got pretty bored pretty fast and they only had 2 days off for Thanksgiving.  I knew I wouldn't survive 2 weeks of them being home, stuck in the house.  We thought about driving down to TN to see Garrett's parents, but we just couldn't decide what to do.  Technically, it was a "Siebach" year for Christmas, although we have literally never abided by that schedule (we have almost always been a short drive to Garrett's family's house, so we usually just go there).  I hate to travel during the holiays... I don't like flying in general anymore, but the thought of flying during the holidays just made me sick.  However.... my sister Emma kept telling me we should come down to Houston, since my parents were there for a few months, and my sister Molly lives there too.  I told her that it was way too expensive to fly during the holidays, not to mention the hassle.  To prove it, I looked up some flights, totally expecting to tell her that they were $500 and out of the question.  But, they weren't.  They were $140, round trip (out of Chicago, blech, but still).  I knew right away that it was too good to pass up.  For the first time in 8 years, we would be spending Christmas with my family!  

Of course, for that price, the times weren't ideal.  Our flight left at 9:30pm and landed at midnight.  Thankfully it was direct, that makes such a difference.

Flying down there was pretty much as much of a hassle as I expected, though.  The security line was going extremely slowly; we were probably in the line for almost an hour.  People all around us were missing flights.  But of course, the TSA doesn't really care about anything so it didn't matter to them.  Eventually, the security line split into 4 separate lines, and you waited to go up to the security guard at the desk who would check your ID and ticket.  Well, when we finally got near the front of our security line, our security guard just got up and walked away.  After 10 minutes, no one had come back and our line was just stagnant, but meanwhile the other 3 lines around us were moving forward.  No one was even looking at our line or noticing that our guy had left.  It was so annoying!  Finally I convinced the guy in front of us to just go to another line's security guard when he was free, so he totally just ran up there when another person got through (the guy who was next in that line wasn't happy, but they had noticed our guy was gone for a long time so I didn't really care).  When I got to the front of the line, I called out to the security guard of the other line and said that our guy had been gone for 10 minutes.  He looked around stupidly, then got up and shuffled away as if he was looking around for him (now the line beside us was REALLY unhappy, but hey someone had to do something!!).  Finally he came back with another security guard.  This is why I hate flying.  Ugh.  And then, when we got to the gate, we got our seat assignments and NONE of us were sitting together, despite the fact that I had chosen our seats when I booked the tickets.  So that was another minor fiasco, but eventually they got our seats for us and, what do you know, they put us in the front row of the cabin (the seats that are normally extra $$), and we were all together.  So that worked out.  The flight went smoothly, we landed in Houston about 30 minutes early actually, but then we waited for 35 minutes for our luggage to come down the conveyer belt so... 

 But finally, we were there.  It was SO fun to be with my family for Christmas.  And of course it's always fun to play with other kids' toys:

Isn't my sister's house so cute?

Emma has been learning to write calligraphy and I tried my hand at it.  It's a lot harder than it looks!  But it was fun.

We decorated gingerbread houses:

And waited 90 minutes in line for the second best BBQ in America.  It was good!  And waiting in lines isn't bad when you're hanging out with people you love, and it's 80 degrees out!

My parents bought a house about 3 miles away from Emma's house, and they plan to live there for 3-4 months each winter.   Molly and her husband also live there year round so that it doesn't sit empty.  There's a shortcut path (literally over a river and through some woods!) that is only about a mile, so we did that with the kids several time.  We went "caroling" to grandma's house one morning.

Christmas Eve:

Olivia and grandpa:

New pj's

Waiting to come downstairs on Christmas morning:

Santa brought the girls each an American Girl doll.  They were SO excited!  I guess he figured that since they live only a few miles from the American Girl factory, it would be a good gift this year.  I am excited too because now it will be easy to buy them presents for the next couple of years... they just want outfits and accessories for their dolls! ;)  I remember getting my American Girl doll (Felicity) when I was little, and it is one of my favorite memories.  The girls each got the doll that looks like them - blonde and blue eyes.  Abbie's doll's hair is long, Olivia's is should length, and Ellie's doll has "light blonde" hair, so thankfully it's easy to tell them apart still.

Dance party in the living room:

The kids loved the strobe light, too:

Donuts for breakfast.  See JB holding up a dollar bill?  We told the kids that whoever slept in the longest each morning would get a dollar.  It worked like a charm... they started sleeping in until around 8 or so once we implemented that.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but we mostly just hung out.  The kids played on the trampoline a lot, and basically just ran around the house and outside.  We took them to a movie one morning (Charlie Brown Christmas movie), played at playgrounds, watched movies, worked on projects.  I sang in sacrament meeting with my mom and sisters for their Christmas program ("In the Bleak Midwinter").  Garrett went with John to some house projects.  We walked back and forth from my mom's house a bunch of times.

We had SUCH a great time in Texas for Christmas, and I'm so happy we decided to do it despite my reservations and anxieties about flying during the holiday season.  I was really worried that Chicago would get snowed in, or that someone would get sick for our travels, or that a flight would be majorly delayed... but none of that happened and we made some wonderful memories.  

Garrett left the day after Christmas, he was on call the next week and had to get back.  The girls and I stayed until Wednesday, and flew into Madison where Garrett had left me my van the night before since he couldn't pick us up.  We had a 5:30 a.m. flight (!), which meant we had to leave Emma's house at 3 a.m.... not ideal but it actually wasn't too bad.  Huge thanks to Molly and Mom for driving us to the airport!  But hey, no traffic. 

Olivia turns 3

Olivia turned 3 in October. 

She got this little kitchen from us for her birthday.  She loves it.  I'll admit that I had a few regrets when I opened the box at 8pm the night before and realized what a project it would be to put it together!  Thankfully Garrett got home soon after I started and we had it done by 10:30 or 11.

She loves to climb onto ledges (like at Costco) and say "Mom, take a picture of me!"

We really enjoyed the mild fall here - I'm pretty sure this was taken in November.  We were at a little playground by the lake.

She is surprisingly pretty good at checkers - she understands the rules.  It won't be long before she's beating me, I think.

We love our little Olivia.  She is hilarious, good natured, and brings such a joy to our home!  She says the funniest things, too.... more so than either of the older girls ever did.  She is smart, a little bit sassy, and talks up a storm to anyone.  She loves going to the kids club at the gym, and complains when I pick her up "too early" (after an hour).  She will do anything for a treat, or for iPad time.  She loves to pretend she's a kitty.  She can write her name.  She loves to be the one to hand the receipt to the guy at the exit at Costco.  She loves to play around on the piano and sing.  Her favorite shows are Clifford, and Barbie, and Bo on the Go (all on Netflix).   We go to story time at the library every Tuesday and Thursday, which she loves, and she has yoga on Monday and Friday mornings. She still says her best friends are Kinley (from FL), Eli (from FL), and JB (cousin in TX).  She adores her older sisters.  She likes to be silly.  Whenever we play the board game "Trouble", she wants to be the red one because it's the "evilest".  

We love you, Olivia!!