Christmas 2012

Since we really try to get out to Utah every other year for Christmas, we decided we really wanted to try for it again this year. Plus, the family hadn't met Rori yet! The thought of driving for two days across several states with 3 kids under 5 did not sound fun, but we did it anyway! We decided it would be fun to surprise everyone and just show up. We had to tell one of Kevin's sisters since we needed a place to stay, but no one else knew. We made it there just in time, arriving on Christmas Eve. Oh, the surprise was so worth it! Kevin's mom was so shocked to see us and so excited to see Rori!

Running around the kitchen as reindeer to "Sleigh Ride"

Winter ring pop : )

Temple Square with the family. The kids were loving all the attention from cousins!

Took the kids to a jump place. SO much fun and the kids were so daring! No fear!

Met up with some old friends before we headed home

Rori-6 Months

At 6 months:

*15 pounds, 27 inches(?)
*Rori has 2 teeth coming it. They are the bottom middle ones.
*Started eating solid foods this month. We don't do "baby food" and don't really do purees either, so she just eats off our plate. Her first foods were whole wheat toast (gnawed on it and swallowed a bit) avocado (her fav so far) and banana slices. She like gnawing on apples and likes greek yogurt as well. None of my kids have had food sensitivity/allergies so far, so I tend to be pretty open to letting her try anything healthy.
*Sits up on her own. She still braces herself most of the time and will fall if she turns. She is close to going from crawling position back into sitting position.
*She's crawling!!! She started scooting a bit the week she turned 6 months. She is still figuring it out, but she can get where she wants to if motivated. She gets up on all fours and kind of throws herself forward. She's starting to crawl normally too, though.
*Sleeps in her own room most of the night. I keep trying to find the answer to why our kids hate sleep so much. I thought maybe I might get a great sleeper if I ended the co-sleeping sooner. Nope. Actually, she's really not that bad. MUCH better than Donny ever was! She goes down between 6 and 7, nurses sometime between 12 and 2 and again at 3 and 5. Sometimes she sleeps all the way from 6 till 2. Sometimes she wakes a couple times and just needs a pacifier. I usually pull her into bed with us at 5 am and she sleeps soundly till 7 or 8. She is getting better and going down easier, lately. Maybe by a year she'll be sleeping all through the night? We'll see! She is not predictable at all with naps during the day. Probably because she is a third child and I just can't form my day around her naps. She takes 2-3 naps that range from 30 mins to almost 2 hours. I never know how long she will sleep, but she typically takes a longer nap in the afternoon. She doesn't ever sleep more than 2-3 hours total during the day, though. It's ok cause she sleeps like 12-14 hours total at night.
*Rori is a completely different baby!! Her personality has changed so much. She used to be pretty intense and hard to figure out. Now, she is seriously the most pleasant, calm, alert baby!! She is so smily and is happy 24/7 as long as she has people around. She loves people and loves listening to conversation. If she's playing with a toy and someone starts talking, she immediately stops and watches whoever is talking. Her eyes get so wide, too!!
*She has an obsession with hands, both her own and others. She is very "grabby" and has super busy hands. When she nurses, she can't seem to keep her hands still. Clawing, grabbing, squeezing, touching, so busy! The fastest way to soothe her is to let her play with my hands. I think it stems from being in the car and not being able to help her. I would sometimes reach my hand back to try and soothe her. She started grabbing it and rubbing it against her face and massaging my fingers. Now, when falling asleep she likes to be holding one of my hands or even just a finger. She holds them so tight! It's super sweet ; )
*She has the best siblings ever and they take such good care of her. I had a bit of fear that one or both of the kids would feel resentful of a new baby in the house. The complete opposite has happened! There has never been any aggression. They both love her so much and are quick to move in if mom doesn't help Rori fast enough. I have come into the room many times to find either Josie or Donny trying to calm her down with toys or by talking to her. They love making her laugh and would just love it if she was big enough to play with them. It makes my heart so happy to see their love for her.
*Seriously such a CUTE baby!! Of course, I think all my babies are cute, but Rori is one pretty baby!!

Here is a little vid of when she started to crawl:

Wanna see something cool/gross/educational?

 WARNING!!  If you are squeamish about blood or have a hard time watching things like surgery, don't watch!! You will see blood and a totally awesome, real organ. : )

Ever since finding out all the unique things about Aurora's placenta, it's placement, and it's chord, I knew I wanted to document it. I'm a weirdo, so things like placentas totally fascinate me. How amazing is it to grow something so efficient, large, and powerful?! It's crazy that it is the lifeline for the baby, and after it's born, it's just discarded as junk and not given further thought. Aurora's placenta was special. As crazy as it sounds, it meant a lot to me. Her pregnancy was a faith building experience for me and that was all part of it.
First of all, up till as late as 36 weeks, I had placenta previa (complete at 20 weeks, marginal at 29 weeks). It is fairly uncommon for a complete placenta previa to "move"as much as mine did. It was very likely it would remain too low for vaginal delivery. Only approx. 1 in 200 women will have pp at term, requiring a c section. I'm pretty sure that had I been with a standard ob, they would have just scheduled me for a c section at 36 weeks, without trying to wait it out anymore. Obviously, had I had bleeding or anything, I would have opted for this, anyway.
Second, the placenta had a marginal insertion, also called "battledore" insertion. This is not a big deal by itself. About 7% of placentas have this. It was, however, a bit scary discovering that it had a velamentous insertion, meaning the membranes were exposed at the insertion point.  By itself, it may not be that scary, but with a low-lying placenta, if the exposed membranes were compromised by the head, we would have a real problem. I am SO GLAD we didn't know about this. I would have likely transferred to an OB who would have recommended an early c section.  I would then have had a harder recovery and a premature baby.
Lastly, the velamentous insertion is more common in babies with a single umbilical artery like Rori's. Somehow they are all connected. Basically, the placenta did a crappy job at implanting and then the chord grew all weird.
Ok, this is turning into a really long back story.
Bottom line: I am SO GLAD I listened to the Spirit and my intuition. I knew everything would be fine. I felt at peace with my decisions. I didn't have fear. It could have been catastrophic. I could have had her taken out too soon as a precaution and ruined a process and baby that were set to be perfect.  It was a blessing from the Lord and it wasn't by chance. Now I have a beautiful, perfectly healthy 6 month old and a strong, healthy body. So, onto the documentation : )



P.S. This is from the 2 hours of film I have from her birth. I filmed hers and Donny's births. Maybe someday I'll share part, but not ready for that just yet : )

Introducing........

"The Lodge"

For the last year or so (longer?), I've been secretly scoping out houses for sale and areas to move to. It had become pretty clear that we were both completely done living in our rental home. We were definitely ready to buy again and be in a house that was bigger and was OURS! We planned on buying sometime next year, probably in the spring or so. Well, one day while driving around, I saw this neighborhood that was in a hilly part of the city and was on the way to Kevin's work. It was only about 5-7 mins closer to work, but the location was very convenient. Also, since Indiana is a very flat state, hilly areas are extremely rare. I'm pretty sure that area is about the highest part of the city (and it's not even that high). Anyway, driving into the neighborhood, you drive up this hill with woods on both sides and it sort of feels like you are driving up to a cabin or something. At the top of one of the cul de sacs, was this gem for sale. I scoped it out online and decided on a whim to go see it. We both fell in love with it. The best part is, it was at the low end of our budget. Totally affordable!! Actually, it was less than our first home in Florida! The price had dropped almost $50,000 and an open house was scheduled for that weekend. We really had a feeling we needed to jump on it. So, with no plan, we put in an offer and it was accepted. We quickly found a mortgage person and got preapproved. It was a bit nerve wracking doing everything so quickly, but it just felt right. Plus, the morning we put in an offer, our lawn mower broke. We went to the house one last time and realized there was no lawn!! It was a sign, lol!! 

We moved in the last weekend in September, but had a week or so to slowly move everything from our old house. We finally said goodbye to Miami Club Drive the end of the first week of October. I don't miss that house. We had some amazing memories there, it's the only house my kids remember, and my daughter was born in the upstairs bedroom. Even still, I was very happy to leave that house!

Ok, enough back story. Here's a tour of the house!

Stats: 

*5 bedrooms

                         *4 bathrooms (2 half, 2 full)

                                                                *about 4300 sq ft. (3000 sq ft upper, 1300 basement)

It sits a bit higher than the neighbors and has quite a bit of privacy behind the island out front. The island is shared by the cul de sac residents. Everyone sort of takes turns caring for it. There are flowers, benches, and a vegetable garden. Looking forward to planting some fruits and veggies next spring!

Love this heavy, wooden door! Also a pretty rose bush on the right side.

The entryway. There are big coat closets on both sides of door and a half bath on the left. Forward is family room, right is living room and dining room. 

I'm sort of obsessed with this wood floor. It's so rustic looking. It has these old nails in it. I wish there was more of it in the house!

Here's a pic of the entryway before we moved in. The bathroom has already been updated and the wallpaper removed.

Here's the formal living room. It's still empty : ) We are eventually getting a new sofa set and new pictures and decorations and such. (sorry, I couldn't resize the pic)

The dining room. 

The family room. This room is also quite empty as we are getting a new sectional soon. (All our furniture went down to the basement) That's a double sided fireplace that looks through to the office/den.

There's a great, big window with a bench looking out to the back.

We mounted the TV into the brick and put all our movies in the built in bookshelves in the corner.

I love the kitchen. There is so much cabinet space! The pics can't even fit all of them in! There are 2 ovens and (finally) a gas range. The range came with a giant iron skillet and grill top for grilling over the stove. We put a desk chair over in the desk area on the right and table in the open space.

The sliding door goes out to the deck. 

The hallway there leads to the laundry room, garage, guest bedroom, bathroom and coat closet.

This may be about my favorite room in the house. On the other side of the double fireplace in the family room is this office. We have a big desk that has been begging for a nice, wooden office to call home. Complete with skylight, built-in bookcases and cabinets, and fireplace, it's pretty awesome. The window looks out down the hill and has a nice view.

The master bedroom is huge as well. I love the view!! It looks out to the back and has nice, big windows. There is also a giant, walk-in cedar closet and another walk-in closet in the bathroom area. I don't love the master bathroom. It has the necessities, but is pretty outdated. There are double sinks, linen and walk-in closets, a tiny, tiny shower, toilet, and 80's whirlpool tub.

Upstairs, there are 3 more bedrooms with the master, as well as a full bath for the kids. There is one bedroom downstairs that we are using as a guest room. 

Finally, a non-basement laundry room!! It walks out to the jacuzzi area. It has lots of cabinet space and drying hooks. The iron comes out of the door on the right and there are shelves and hooks next to it where the pic cuts off. 

The basement is the size of a small house. It's quite outdated with the drop ceiling and wood paneling (unlike the nice, real wood upstairs). Still, there are so many possibilities! There are a bunch (6?) big closets and two built in work benches. Someday in the future, we plan on putting another bedroom and bathroom down there, as well as a drum room for Kev and a multipurpose room.

The basement walks out to a patio on the side of the house. Behind the brick (not pictured above) is the utility room. It has lots of shelves, built in utility table and the water heater, ac, heat, etc.

Definitely what sealed the deal for us was the yard. The neighborhood is surrounded by undeveloped forrest. There are private walking trails for the residents that go through the woods. It comes complete with deer, squirrels, raccoons, and wild turkeys. There is a big wrap around deck that overlooks the neighbors on the side and woods in the back. There is also a nice jacuzzi on the left there : )

If you go straight back, it leads to a walking trail.

An old hunting platform?

Here is the trail. It's so lovely!!

Walking to the trail.

Here's what our yard has looked like lately. So many leaves!! Good thing we have a good leaf blower!

I don't think I will ever get tired of looking out into the woods through all our big windows or relaxing in the spa after putting the kids to bed.

The neighborhood is private and part of an association. There are 2 pools and kiddie pools, walking trails, parks, and a community garden.

 We are loving this house!!