A pregnancy progression

I have been terrible at blogging while we didn't have a home and I was working a job and a half. I'm trying to catch up, but it looks like pretty much the entire pregnancy is going to have to be recapped right here! (You know, seeing as I'm already past 37 weeks...)

I told Jeff we were pregnant with number 4 by having his buddy drop this little package on his desk at work.



Here is how we announced:

(Vanilla Ice, Ice Baby... get it?!)

Here are the (few) belly pics I have amassed.

16 weeks 

 25.5 weeks

32 weeks

35 weeks

At my 36 week appointment, I went ahead and got an exam because I had been contracting randomly but strongly for a few weeks.  Lo and behold (just like all my other pregnancies) I was already dilating! Head was down, and I was at 3 centimeters, though she said the cervix was still fairly thick and posterior.  That night I went to the hospital with a bloody scare but it turned out to be nothing. Also, my doc gave me a letter to give to the nurses when I go in, saying to call her even if she's not on call.  I'm so pumped about this! I hate going a whole 8 months with a doc, and then someone else shows up for your delivery. (She always says we're one of her favorites and tried to get us to buy a house in her neighborhood.)

I had more firm (but still very random) contractions so I was curious to see if there was any progress the next week.  At 37 weeks, she said still three, but cervix was definitely anterior and head is firmly engaged. Yay! I might have cried if we hadn't moved at all. She also said she wished she could strip my membranes that day but couldn't.  I think she will next week, though! Woop!

As you may know, I delivered without pain medication with Carson and it was ROUGH.  Jeff and Dr. G tell me that I told them not to let me do it again, but here I am at the end of another pregnancy... My plan for this one is to again go without the epidural IF I can actually just go into labor on my own.  If I need pitocin - no way, Jose, that stuff stinks!  It makes it hard, because it would be much more convenient to schedule and now when the baby is coming (with all our schedules, the kiddos, and not to mention Alisa's birthday 2 days before!) but I'd reeeeeaallly like to skip pitocin and the epidural if possible.  My recovery that time was not even in the same galaxy.  I have yet to just start on my own, however, so I'm not holding my breath.  What will stink is if I end up having to be induced late anyway and I could have just scheduled a more convenient induction!  Oh well, we shall see... 

Stay tuned for all the gross graphic updates soon to come!

Cute phone photo dump!

 A little family night fun at Cabela's...

 Yummy - x2!

 I won a sweet gift basket at the U's employee appreciation day!

 I don't even know how this picture got on my phone!

 We suffered a major booboo this day, nasty scary still lives... but so does his smile!

There it it again!  What a cutie. (Thumbs up!)

This house business.

Way back in April of this year, one of my co-workers decided to leave for 6 months or permanently from her full-time position at 5 West (where I sometimes fill in.)  I though to myself, if that could be temporary, 6 months of extra full time income would be just what we needed for another house.  I didn't really spend much energy on it, until the job strongly encouraged me to apply... a few times... and opened the job back up after I didn't. SO, I agonized over it, and finally said - duh, this is a massive blessing dropped in your lap.  So, I worked full time from May to Nov in the name of earning money so we could move out of our tiny house.
Then mid-June or so of this year, our old realtor dropped in and said she thought we may be able to sell our house for a decent price now (we'd been waiting to even out after the crash.) SO, we set an appointment to talk about it, and by the day she showed up, we were so gung-ho that we had just moved out of our house already. We settled in to my mom's basement the first week of July and put our house up for sale within a week or two. It only took until the first week of August to get an offer that was acceptable.  (Later, it was a little surprised how much we ended up paying at the closing of that house... but it was exactly what we saved up to that day, so bonus there!) They were veeeeeeeery slow in closing, but we were able to begin seriously looking at places.  We put an offer in on a short sale in the meantime, and kept up the hunt, while I just kept earning the down payment. We found another place we really liked that wasn't unsure like the first, and put an offer in, which was accepted.  We had to be a little slow in closing this time, as Jeff was out of town for a week, and we needed all the paychecks we could get! We closed on a Friday afternoon, but had to wait and wait and wait until Tues so it could officially record.  (We already had the code to the front door, so we may or may not have gone in on Monday to paint... I couldn't say for sure...) We spent Tuesday and Wednesday moving everything, and a full week after that picking up little residual stuff and moving things in from the garage (ok, this is not even done yet...) Unpacking and decorating are taking much longer.  Luckily, I am not working full time anymore, but still one or two times a week has been enough to make me feel sooooo busy all the time and unable to complete the task!
It was really rough for everyone for me to be gone at a full time job.  I was out of the house just for work at least 55 hours each week, my parents did a lot of babysitting for us, my poor kids never saw their parents and got passed from sitter to sitter, Jeff and I never saw each other.  It of course, helped us appreciate a lot of things, and me, especially being able to be home with my kids (not that I ever wanted NOT to, but if you stay home with kids, you know how it can get...)
Currently we are slowly, slowly finishing the basement, as baby4 should be coming anytime and we only have 3 bedrooms upstairs. Framing is finally nearing it's close, which puts a quick electrician visit next on the agenda, then the business of drywall. Hopefully sometime this year we'll see initial completion. :)
It still feels a tiny bit unsettled without that part of the house usable, but it has been great to be back in our own space, finding our own new routine... you know, just so it can all be thrown out of whack again when this babe comes!
Someday we'll have you all over... but don't hold your breath. :)

Halloween Festivities

We had a long, lovely Halloween season, as always, with Witches' Night Outs, various parties and events, numerous costumes for everyone.  Here are all the highlights:

Witches Night Out at Gardner Village with all the witchy cousins!

A trip to the pumpkin patch

At a coworker's party

 Meridas!

 Trick or treating through the neighborhood

My secret sister came!!

 Family party

As you can see, the kids cycled through various costumes.  Amelie was Frankie Stein, Merida and once a pirate.  Alisa was Frankie Stein and Merida. Carson was Thing 1, a basketball player and once a little Hawaiian dude. Jeff was rarely dressed up, but once he had to go straight to work from a party so he was a cop, then another time I got him to be the baker to my bun-in-the-oven costume, complete with due date on the timer... get it?! And I had a nice maternity (ie, lazy) witch as well.

Amelie's 5th - cowgirl style

My oldest little baby turned 5 last month! She had a cowgirl themed party at Wheeler farm, where they roped the horse, fed ducks and had a wagon ride. (her boyfriend from last years preschool, jack, came-she was thrilled! )
That evening just happened to be my assigned night for the opera (season tix my amazing hubs got me for my bday.) I didn't want to leave Amie on her special night so we made it a big girl's fancy night. She choose olive garden for dinner, then she went in the fancy dress, heels and purse grandma Chris took her to get. She was veeeeery good, especially considering it was a modified show with very little to look at.
My angel girl is super smart, able to blend read, still enjoying her dancing/singing group and is very very girly. She is a super help to me with all the kids being little. She loves playing with her siblings, entertaining them, and really likes it when I tell her she's in charge. She's still into princesses and also likes monster high and really wants a pet. I am so blessed to have this angel!

Funny things the Norths say... First installment

It occurs to me that this North household has been hopping in the comedic one-liners lately. I've been wanting to post this forever, but have been trying to compile a good list. Here are a few for your blog-time enjoyment.

Jeff:
-Rolling over in his sleep, hugging his pillow, sighing and shaking his head "Oh, Arnesky..." (Neither of us know any Arnesky's.)
-Sits straight up in the middle of the night. I ask "what are you doing?" I was met with my favorite response ever: "I'm getting ready to go to tiny church." That's right folks, tiny church!!!!!! HAHAHAHA!
-Sleepy again "sorry, I think my car's poisoning me."

Nikki:
- To a member of my ward choir during practice (I'm the director) "Go back a little farther, like 'up your.' " Not kidding. I couldn't stop laughing for a very very long time. Kinda impedes your practice.

Amelie:
-Asks where mommy is, dad says 'at work.' "We have to go save her!" (Yes, please!)
-I walk in to get her out of the crib in the morning, her hand is in her mouth. "mommy, I'm eating my hand." "What?" "I'm eating my hand!" "Why are you doing that?" "It's so good!"
-Daddy's calling her to come get dressed, she puts her face down in the floor "but I can't find you, daddy!"

Alisa:
-"UUUUUUUUNNNNGG!" That girl grunts and groans like a full grown man! I think all her noises are very funny.
-We SWEAR she imitates what we say. So far we've heard versions of Amie,

Carson man turns 1!

Our Carson man hit his 1 year birthday!  I decided long ago to do a Dr. Seuss themed party, which I think was so fun.  I usually make just about everything for my kids parties and work on it for weeks, but working full time, plus a second job, plus selling/buying a house and not to mention being pregnant, I didn't do quite as much this time. Mostly, I just got super lucky (read blessed) and happened upon a big clearance of Seuss stuff.  And we were in Seuss landing only a month before! Carson's souvenir from our FL trip just happened to be this Thing 1 shirt, which he wore on his big day.  Love this sweet little kid so much!

 

At one year, Carson is walking, feeding himself (he likes pretty much anything!) and drinking soy milk like his sister did at that age.  He sleeps really well, with a terrible night every once in awhile.  He babbles a lot, but the only words he says with meaning are maybe mama and dada and definitely owie.  He recognizes lots of words though and responds, as well as communicates well by showing you what he wants or doesn't.  He gives kissies, snuggles, claps, high fives, strokes your face "soft", and loves to throw balls, ride his toy car and chase after his sisters.  And, I finally got my green-eyed kid! (I think.) We totally adore him and couldn't imagine life without him.