Baby Jacobs!

Kirsta finally had her baby! After a few looooong weeks and being SURE it would come the day she took castor oil (it didn't), Ethan Edward Jacobs arrived September 22 at 8:24 am.  7lb 3oz, 19 1/2 inches.

Ever since they moved to Pueblo Kirsta had been insistent that I be in the room with her when said baby arrived.  Pretty much the ONLY reason I wanted to be in there was so I could be one of the first people to know the gender, which they opted not to find out early, much to my dismay.  I know that she was there for both my girls births, but she WANTED to be there. I, on the other hand, am completely freaked out by the whole labor and delivery process, even when it's my own babies, but then I can't avoid it. Being in the room for someone elses labor did not help me to be any less freaked out.  She did an amazing job though! Especially since she had no drugs and ended up pushing for over an hour! But oh man, when she was screaming, "Get it out!"  I wanted to scream, "GET IT OUT!"   But seriously, the second that baby was out she was back to 100% normal.  Smiling, laughing, and wondering what was for breakfast.  Amazing.

Here's the beautiful bundle that makes it all worthwhile:

 His new favorite Aunt (sorry Elsha and Amy)

 Nothing makes Addilyn look big except a 7lb new baby!

Congratulations Kirsta and Joe! I love him so much already. Can't wait for you to be in the room with me in February!

Our Journey to the Temple

As some of you may know, I was raised Mormon. My parents were strong in their faith and did all they could to raise well-rounded children who were also strong in the faith.  Everyone ultimately chooses their own path in life and for me, it was not following the Mormon religion. 

Jonathan was raised Baptist.  He was strong in his faith and loved attending church and youth group and ultimately that's where all his friends and aquantinaces and memories came from. 

By the time we met and married neither one of us was "strong" in any religion, and we were ok with that.  It wasn't until I was pregnant with Amelia that we started discussing going back to church because we knew we wanted to raise our kids in a religion, we just weren't too certain which one. We tried out the Baptist church and we tried out the Mormon church but we were really just pretty lazy on Sunday's and would rather watch football than go to any church.  A few more months went by and I decided I really wanted to meet some stay-at-home moms if I was going to become one of them myself, and from all I knew the best place for me to do that would be at the Mormon church.  A poor excuse to go back, but it brought me back to church and I am more than grateful for that.

More than getting me back to church, I'm grateful that I married a man who wasn't completely turned off by going to a Mormon church.  I mean, let's face it, not everyone jumps at that opportunity. :) There was no pushing or pursueding, there were no arguements, but from the beginning he said, "I'm comfortable where I'm at, I'm happy where WE are at, I'm 30 years old and I don't think I need to convert religions to make my life any better than it is."  And that was ok with me.  We agreed though, that whatever WE were going to do, WE were going to do together, and how lucky I am that he was open to what I was comfortable with.

Over the course of weeks and months we started attending church on a semi-regular basis, going to "investigators" nights at newly made friend's houses, and having the missionaries over to dinner on occasion.  We became good friends with one set of missionaries in particular and we found ouselves hanging out with them a lot.  They would help us with our projects around the house and then teach us, or Jonathan, lessons about The Church. And over the course of weeks and months Jonathan became very receptive to the things they were teaching.  Things started to come together, to make sense to him in a way that religion had never made sense before, and all his doubting questions were being answered in a way that made him start to believe that the things he was learning were true. All the while, I was being "re-converted" to a church that I had never given a chance.

In March, 2011, Jonathan decided to be baptized.

One of the most valued principals of our church is that families are eternal, not just until death do you part. We believe that if you live worthily you are able to go to the Temple to be sealed together as an eternal family.  We are thrilled to have been given that opportunity on August 11, 2012. 

I thought I would write this blog for a few reasons:  For all the people who saw my Facebook pictures and had questions, especially, "Kari is doing WHAT these days?",  for myself as a reflection of how much has changed in the past 4 years for the better, and for everyone who had no idea because I am never vocal about religion.  My hope is that this doesn't taint anyone's view of me or Jonathan, just gives a glimpse into our lives right now, how happy we are, and how blessed we feel.

15 weeks

I'm 15 weeks along now in this 3rd pregnancy thing, and right now I feel pretty good and normal.  Before I knew I was pregnant I woke up one night to feed Addilyn and when I got out of bed both of my legs from the knees down pretty much felt like they were broken. (To which Jonathan scoffs and says, "you don't even know what broken legs feel like") but seriously, they hurt SO bad. Especially my feet.  It was hard to walk, especially up and down the stairs. I was pretty convinced I had leg cancer and that they would both have to be immediately amputated, but then luckily a few days after this started I took a positive pregnancy test!  Then I was just really hoping that the two were related, and I could scratch out getting my legs amputated.  Turns out, my doc said it was early edema (pregnancy swelling) and not to worry.  Worry or not, it sucked.  It lasted about 2 months and then gradually went away, and I'm grateful it's gone, and really hoping it doesn't return.

Another annoying symptom I've had is being annoyed (ha!).  I'm annoyed at my kids, I'm annoyed at other peoples' kids, I'm annoyed at random people and random situations like I know I shouldn't be. It's very frustrating.  At least I'm aware it's happening so I know to keep my mouth shut a lot of times instead of burning a lot of bridges.

Some things I've been craving so far include: milk. Tons of milk. Like, a gallon by myself in 3 days.  Pasta salad. Green olives. Pizza rolls. Crunchy tacos from taco bell. Arby's, except now I've eaten way too much Arby's and I probably won't eat it again for a while. Maple and brown sugar oatmeal with toast. And orange juice.

Anyway- so far this pregnancy is dragging. I'm like, "Seriously, only 15 weeks by now?! Blah." And it's not that I hate pregnancy, but being pregnant again makes me very sure in saying I don't want to do it again.  Hopefully everything continues to go smoothly and we are so excited for October 4th when we find out if it's a girl or boy!

Addilyn

Addilyn is 10 months old now! On one hand, where did the time go?? On the other hand, when Amelia turned 1 I thought she was such a big girl, and I still think Addilyn is such a baby.  Maybe it was just because Amelia was my first.  Anyway~ Addilyn is getting more fun by the day, and for some reason I have a connection with her that I never had with Amelia.  That being said, I'm going through a phase right now where I kind of want someone to take Addilyn for like, a week so I can love her more, because I'm kind of tired of her.  Maybe it's because she gets up at 5:30 every day and is a terrible napper, so I'm pretty much with her ALL day. You would think that putting her to bed at 6pm makes me have adequate time without her but no.  Don't get my wrong, I love her to death and smother her with kisses, but she's buggin' me. :) 

She's crawling like a maniac, which I love because it means less I have to carry her around.  She'll eat anything you put in front of her, any time of day.  Literally I can't think of anything she won't eat. Even dog food.  She says, "Mama" and, "Dada" and sometimes it really sounds like she says, "Hi" and, "dog" but I think that's unintentional.  So far it's looking like she is the child we'll be at the doctor with the most.  Amelia has NEVER had to go to the doctor for anything but a well visit, whereas Addilyn was on oxygen from day 1 because they thought something was wrong, she has been to the doctor 3 times for ear infections, the ER once for a bad fall, and had multiple other minor injuries at home.  Hopefully she slows down because I don't think I can handle much blood or anything broken. :( Now I'll quit babbling and post some recent pictures.

At Amelia's birthday party she reached in the pizza box and helped herself to a piece. It took about 2 hours but she gummed down a good portion of it!

Eating, again, fresh peaches off our tree

She's very stoic most of the time. And I realize the headband is in a weird place but she had a scab on her forehead that we were covering.  Thanks for the headband, Bailey!

Amelia turns 3!

Today is Amelia's 3rd birthday, and I'm having a hard time actually believing that 3 years in my life has passed. Every day with Amelia is a new adventure, and she says the most hilarious things sometimes, I wonder if she'll have a great sense of humor someday. I saw a cute idea on Pinterest where you interview your child every year on their birthday with the same questions and see how their answers change each year. Here is my interview with Amelia:

1. Favorite movie: Bambi
2. Favorite Color: Blue
3. Favorite food: Yogurt
4. Favorite song: Twinkle Twinkle
5. Favorite animal: Kangaroo
6. Favorite stuffed animal: Green Parrot (Came with the book "Oh Say Can You Say")
7. Favorite drink: Chocolate milk (I tried to convince her that I thought it was actually juice but she was adamant)
8. Favorite toy: She said, "My train." I said, "Oh that's a good one." And she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I meant my turtle." haha.  Her bouncing turtle.
9. Best friend: Patrick (Jacobs)
10: Favorite article of clothing: Shirt. "No special one, just a shirt" she said.
11. Favorite book: The Lorax (pronounced YoYax)
12. Favorite place to go: Children's houses. (Friend's houses)
13. Favorite breakfast: French toast
14. Favorite Fruit: Cantaloupe
15. Favorite game: We never got an answer
16. Favorite Holiday: Easter
17: Favorite thing to take to bed: Blue and pink blankets
18: Favorite cereal: Marshmallow (Lucky charms)
19: What do you want to be when you grow up: A Mommy

With all of these questions I would give her time to think, give her some options if she needed them, and even ask her the same questions a few days later to see if her answer changed, but it never did.  I can't wait to see how they change over the years.

For her birthday Jonathan and I decided to get her a dog! Crazy right? I've never had a pet in my life, not even a gold fish, so I really have no idea what I'm in for.  A couple months ago my friend asked me to dog-sit her dog for the weekend. I'm not a dog person but this was a little dog and I do like little dogs more. Well, after just 3 days with that dog we wanted to keep him! We actually asked my friend if she wanted to get rid of him and she said, "No, but my mom has his sister and she wants to get rid of her!"  Not because she's a bad dog or anything, I guess her mom had gotten another dog who wasn't very nice to Khloe. So, we said we'd take her! Last night was the big reveal. Here's how it went:

What's in there?

Really?! A doggie?

YAY!!

Then she spent the rest of the night bossing her around :)

Wish us luck!  Happy birthday to the light of my life (most days), Amelia!! We love you.

U is for unmotivated

Most of you may have seen this already:

I'm PREGNANT! Yay.

If there is one word that I would use to describe my state of being right now it's: UNMOTIVATED. It's not tired. I mean, I'm tired too but I've been pregnant enough to know the difference between these two feelings. For instance, if I go to bed at a reasonable time at night, the next day I don't need to nap.  But I have 3 loads of laundry from 3 different days sitting in a hamper in my room waiting to be folded which is SO unlike me. I think about blogging every single day and then I'm like, "Nah, I'd rather just continue to sit here."  It's very annoying.  I went to the grocery store yesterday and pretty much walked around like a zombie and all I could think about was how much I wanted to leave.  What the heck?!

I think the solution to this blogging problem would be if someone would buy me a laptop, so I could do my blogging from the couch! Any takers?

I'm 10 weeks along right now so hopefully this doesn't last too much longer or I'm going to get pretty tired of myself, and my husband might not be so nice by the end.

Anyway~ sorry if it takes me another 2 months to write my next post. I'll just be over here reading all of your blogs!

Clothes

Amelia hates wearing clothes.  It's a huge battle every day in our house to get her to put her clothes on and then to keep them on.  She's sure that she's exempt from putting her panties and shorts back on EVERY time she goes potty.  I'm so relieved at the end of the day when I know we have nothing else to do and I can let her be naked. 

A couple days ago she wanted to go outside with Jonathan and he told her she'd have to put clothes on first.  She went to her room and came out wearing some bloomers from a dress that Melody made, and shoes.  He told her to go back to her room and put and shirt on.  She went back to her room and a little while later came out with no shirt on but was headed outside anyway.  I asked her, "Shouldn't you have a shirt on to go outside?"  She replied, "No, I'm jus' pullin' my pants up higher." 

I died laughing!