What is the difference???

So is there really a difference between a waffle and a pancake? I didn't think so, especially since I use the same homemade reciepem but according to my Ashlyn there is. She requested pancakes for lunch yesterday so I thought I'd obliger her. I whipped up the batter but then decided to use the waffle maker. She let me know fast that they weren't the same and she really wanted a pancake so Josh got out the flat pan and made her one. It's funny sometimes how technical she can get.

Updated Pics of my girls

Updated pictures of Jacob

Can't get enough of this little guy and his chunkiness. He's grown so much and I love his rolls.

(this one was taken in September after one of his baths)

Trick-O-Treating 2012

So this year we weren't even sure if we'd be taking the kiddos out because Ashlyn started in with a fever shortly after getting home from the ward Halloween party. We continued to give her tylenol, fluids, and encourage solids all day. Anyone who knows her knows that if she has a fever you'd never really be able to tell unless you touch her because she acts perfectly normal (last year when she had pneumonia we didn't even know it til we took her in on day 4 of her fever because as long as she had the medicine she was acting like her normal active self). We really wanted to go out to Ririe for the holiday but felt that with how cold it's been and how long we were out 2 years ago with her it would be best to stay home and take them to a few houses in our subdivision.

After we got her to eat some of dinner we had several trick-o-treaters stop in and that got her excited to go. So I got the girls ready and back into their outfits from the night before and found their buckets and we headed out the door. There weren't a lot of people home so that made it easy but Kaylee was being very independent and wouldn't let me hold her hand so it took longer than I planned. We went to 11 diffrerent houses and 3 of those weren't home or didn't have any candy. The girls still came back with a decent amount and this year I'm definitely making them pace themselves so that they don't get sick and so it's not all gone by tomorrow. Josh and Jacob stayed home to pass out candy and watch a competition on tv dealing with carving pumpkins.

When we got home we let the girls have a little bit of candy and got them in their pj's and then sat down and watched Madagascar 3. It was a great way to end the day. Here are the girls in their outfits. This was all I could get since Ashlyn was so excited to go and Kaylee never sits or stands long enough to get good pictures lately, enjoy!

Riverside 1st Ward Halloween Carnival 2012

Here are the girls excited to head out to the ward halloween carnival. Ashlyn has been talking about it non-stop for the last week. She orignially was going to go as a fairy, but then decided to go as a witch. She didn't want to wear a shirt under her costume that was too big so she finally settled on being a pirate princess with a hat from the witch costume she wanted to wear. Kaylee went as a ballerina. Jacob was our little tiger.

Kaylee kept trying to get the butter or escaping to find candy while we waited for the dinner to start. They served several types of soups, rolls, water, and witches brew for dinner before the parade of costumes and the carnival began.

Ashlyn did all the rooms. In the 1st picture she was doing the fish pond, and the other 3 are of her getting a heart painted on her cheek. She was super excited about it. She didn't really talk about the fear factor room or other rooms just about her goodies. Josh was a good sport to take her around. I was feeding Jacob and keeping an eye on Kaylee who didn't want to go into any of the rooms really. A little before 8pm we all met back in the gym for the awards ceremony for the parade of costumes

In this last picture she was showing her award to our friends the Wilcox's. She won the Best Overall Costume and got a big twix bar with her award. She was so happy! Her award was the last one to be called out for the junior primary age group and she was so excited she didn't know which way to go to get it without help from us and other ward members. It was definitely worth it to go to the Carnival to see how excited she was about everything. She definitely grasps the concept of holidays and I'm sure Kaylee will catch on soon enough.

First family trip since Jacob arrived

So in in August my sister called us up to see if Josh was interested in going to the Boise State vs. BYU football game in Boise. Josh was all for it, he'd never been to a college football game before. I jumped at the chance to see my sister and her 3 girls, especially since I hadn't seen the twins yet in person. The game was scheduled for Sept. 20th and we figured that'd be fine to go since Jacob would at least be almost 3 weeks old.

Well as we all know Jacob decided to come in August so when we went down he was 6 weeks old. It was so fun to see Jess and Neil and their girls. The trip wasn't too bad, especially since we had a dvd player in the back for the girls. Neither of them slept much on the way there or back.

Ellie has gotten so big and has such long thick hair. The twins are just solids blocks that I absolutely fell in love with. The only way I could tell them apart was if I helped Jess dress them. I just loved their rolls. The thing that surprised me the most was that they eat as much as Jacob eats (6-7 oz) and they are 5 1/2 months older. Jacob looked so tiny compared to them. Jessica also helped me by giving Jacob his 1st hair cut on Thursday (20th). He now just looks like a little man.

Well when we got to Jess's on Thursday we had hot dogs, a veggie plate, chips, kool-aid, and a peanut butter ball w/graham crackers before we sent the guys off to the game. The guys had pretty good seats and if I can get Josh to put his pictures on his phone from the game I'll add them on here.

Jess and I worked on a Christmas block project while we were there and went to the craft store. When I finally finish my blocks I'll take a picture and post it. We got the idea off of pintrest but couldn't remember the exact layout of the blocks so both of ours are different in the sense of block shapes as the one posted on pintrest.

We had to cut our trip a little bit short because I ended up getting a migraine Saturday night that made me throw up. Grateful that they understood that we needed to go home but felt bad that we had to cut it short. We were going to have a movie night with goodies while the girls had a movie slumber party upstairs. Next time we come Ellie, we'll do it on the first night :) She was so looking forward to it.

Overall it was a really fun trip. Jess and Neil, looking forward to seeing you again.

Umbilical Hernia

So many of my family and friends have heard about Jacob's hernia but haven't seen it so I thought I'd document it. This is how big it is as of now (Oct. 31). It has shrunk quite a bit. Wish I had a picture of what it looked like even a week or two ago because it was enormous, but I couldn't find my camera charger.

He has had this since he was born but it really got big and ugly looking (tight, shiny, and purplish) around September when we went to Boise. It had gotten so big in such a short amount of time and he was crying a lot so we took him in to the doctor. After an ultrasound confirmed that there was part of a bowel loop in it we have had to monitor it to make sure that it doesn't close up and pinch that part. This has in turn made it difficult for him to have regular bowel movements. Thankfully as it has been closing we are still able to push down all the way and now he is starting to have more frequent movements without the aid of Karo syrup or suppositories. He's such a little champ with it all. We still have a ways to go but I know that the doctor will be pleased with the improvement when we see him at his next appointment.

A few milestones for Jacob

Rolled over for the first time (and only time) Oct. 2nd

Gave mom his first real smile on October 24th (it also snowed for the first time this year)

His hernia is closing up more and more.

Hunting 2012

I'd definitely say that this year's hunting trip was a great success. Josh and my brother-in-law, John, put in on controlled hunt and got it. My dad and brothers, Sam and Brandon, went up with them to hunt and I think they all had a great time. John and Josh went up on Friday October 10th to scout out area and came back Saturday night. Then all the guys left on Sunday the 12th after church. John and Brandon got their bucks earlier in the week and Josh shot his elk on Thursday morning. Was pretty impressed that Josh was able to get this 6-point. It was really fun to hear about his experience and to hear the exicetment. I told him to bring something home and he definitely delivered. Way to go babe!

This little beauty was borrowed from my brother and his wife. We absolutely loved packaging our meat with the foodsaver. We decided that eventually we want to get one of our own. It's nice to know all of our elk meat is packaged nicely, labeled, and I don't have to worry about re-packaging like I did last year. It took us 2 days to cut up and package which isn't too shabby seeing that it was really only Josh and I doing it with 3 little ones needing our help. Our neighbor came over and helped Josh finish up the last hindquarter. Now our freezer is happy and so are we.

2 Months Already

Oh Jacob, how you've melted my heart. I can't seem to get enought of you and yes you are spoiled. You went in for your 2 month checkup on October 1st. Let me tell you what, you definitely shocked me when you weighed in at 12 lbs 9 oz. and measured 22 1/4 inches. I don't think anyone sees you as a preemie or would have believed you were a preemie. You've definitely filled out nicely which makes me one proud momma. When we got home I compared your stats with your sisters and you are the biggest baby at this age.

We didn't give you shots because you were still feeling under the weather from a cold you caught from Kaylee. We did get you in though the following week and lets just say you weren't very happy. You had had a very long day of being poked, prodded, and moved between your 3rd hearing screen, 4th newborn screen and your shots (August 10th).

You absolutely love to eat and be held. You eat about every 3-4 hours and do 6-8 oz each feed. You are exclusively on formula now. When you are sick though you cut your feeding down to 3-4 oz. You are very spoiled to get to sleep in our bed as much as you do. We are trying to get you to sleep through the nights but most of the time you won't stay asleep unless you are in our bed being held. Hopefully in the coming months you will start sleeping through the night and then we can move you in with Kaylee.

You still have problems with your bowel movements due to your hernia but the good news is that it has closed a little big. Hopefully it will continue to close without complications so that we can avoid having to have surgery on it.

It's nice to see that you're filling out more so that your newborn pants fit without falling off. I bet though you'll soon be out of them at the weight you are growing. I simply love you and your rolly legs and double chin.

Some milestones for you are that you took your first family trip to Nampa Idaho in September. Your Aunt Jessica also gave you your first haircutwhile we were there. Your momma was too big of a chicken to cut it incase it didn't turn out okay. You definitely needed it.

Love you little mister and so grateful to have you in my life. Love Momma

P.S. Still looking for the charger to the camera so that we can take more recent pictures of you.

Kaylee's 15 month checkup

In August I took this sweet girl in for her routine checkup.

She is getting so big. Already up to 21 lbs (It took us forever to get her big sister to this point). She is only 9 lbs less than Ashlyn and is catching up in height to. She has 12 teeth so far and is constantly drooling, so I'm sure her molars are trying to come in.

Kaylee isn't really trying to talk yet. I've heard from some people that this is very normal for the second child because the first child generally does the talking for them. This is not the case for Miss Kaylee Cakes. She simply isn't even trying. We'll just have to see if she's like her older sister (Ashlyn didn't start really talking until 27 months of age).

She definitely reminds me of Ashlyn at this age. She doesn't like to wear shoes and is starting to fight me on keeping her clothes on-although she's not nearly as bad as Ashlyn was and is. She also likes to take her diaper off anytime she feels it is ready to be changed.

Kaylee is very quick with her motor skills and has a very good understanding of what we are saying and asking. Almost anything we ask her to do she can do without too much help. She truly is a sweet spirit.

Some of the things she loves to do include: dancing to ring around the rosy, climbing on everything, taking baths, following Ashlyn around, and riding in the van. She has taken a recent liking to hot dogs (cold or warm) and cookie dough.

Her biggest challenges right now are attending nursery and separation anxiety. She is such a momma's girl.

Shehas dropped her morning nap but is still very good about going down in the afternoon and then at 8 pm every night. It makes bedtime with her so easy! Love and am grateful that we don't have to battle with her like we do her big sister.

So blessed to haver her in my life. We both learn from each other on a daily basis and she is slowly helping me to become the mother I need to be. Love ya Kaylee Cakes!

1 Month

That was one of the fastest months in my life and the wierd part about it is that as I write this entry is the fact that today is Jacob's actual due date.

Jacob is such a good baby and so sweet. Some of my favorite times are when I'm holding him as he sleeps and he gets these partial smiles. He smiles a lot in his sleep.He's definitely becoming more alert and when the girls are around him being loud or just plain silly he likes to try to follow their voices. This in turn makes Ashlyn laugh even more and Kaylee to, it's definitely a domino effect.

I still can't dress you in anything bigger than newborn and pants/shorts are even worth trying on because you are still to skinny that they just fall off. You aren't the biggest fan of baths, hopefully that will change when you can take actual baths instead of sponge baths. You still have part of your umbilicord stump left on so hopefully that'll finish falling off soon.

Your sleeping a ton still but your are having more alert periods after feedings. You try to stay awake for at least 20 minutes after you eat or have a diaper change. At nights you wake up usually 1-2 times to eat and anything after that you just want to be held. So yes, I do give into you and end up holding you and letting you fall back asleep in my arms most nights.

Eating is a favorite of yours. You eat every 3 hours (sometimes less than that)and eat 4-5 oz each time. So glad you are a champion eater because then I don't worry so much about whether you are gaining weight. Here are some growth stats since you've been born:

Wed. August 8th, 6 lbs 3 oz (DOB)
Sat. August 11th 5 lbs 10 oz (discharge from hospital)
Wed. August 15th 5 lbs 12 oz (follow-up appt)
Thurs. August 23rd 6 lbs 9 oz (2 week appt)
Tues. Sept 4th 7 lbs 15 oz (1 month)

You haven't really grown in height at all. You've maybe grown 3/4 of an inch in a month. You have also gone through a ton of diapers. You've only got one more package of newborn diapers so I'm gonna have to go buy more. Thankfrully I got a good deal on your diapers.

You have us all wrapped around your tiny fingers. We love you and are so grateful for your sweet spirit that you've brought into our home. We can't wait to see how much more you'll grow and what you interests will be and who you will become. We Love You Jacob!

Kids say the darnest things

So anyone who knows Ashlyn knows that she didn't start talking until after Kaylee was born and since then has become a very vocal (in both words and loudness). You also may know that sometimes she still is hard to understand, we've got a lot of work to do with annunciation. Overall she has a pretty good size vocabulary and some words we wonder where she has learned them because they aren't words that we really use. I wanted to remember some of these so I thought I better take the chance to right them down and I'll also give a little bit of insight to what was going on at the time when she came up with them. Enjoy!

1) "I'm Tired"- common response when I ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do.

2) "Daddy you are ruining my happiness and that isn't very nice"- this was said when I was on my 2nd week of bedrest and Josh was trying to get her to help clean up the living room.

3) Josh- "Ashlyn if you help clean up I'll give you some ice cream"
Ashlyn- "No, I want a cucumber instead"

4) Jamie- "Ashlyn, if you finish your dinner you can have some pie"
Ashlyn- "No thank you, I want more salad"

*I had a craving for homemade pumpkin pie after dinner one night so I decided to make it and once again my daughter amazed us with her desire for salads and produce over desserts.

5) Ashlyn- "Mommy the thunder scares me"
Jamie' "Well why don't you stay inside then"
Ashlyn "Ok, but you have to save daddy, the clouds and thunder are really grumpy"

*We had just had a severe thunderstorm alert and Josh and Ashlyn were outside doing yard work when it started getting dark and thundering.

6) Jamie- "Ashlyn lets make up a game to see who can get the most toys in the toy bin"
Ashlyn- "I can't mommy, I'm not a super hero girl"

*Since Jacob arrived I've been trying to turn cleaning into a game with the girls or a race and it usually works out.

7) "He's so handsome", "Oh no, baby Jacob is getting fussy again"- daily sayings whenever Jacob gets hungry or a little fussy.

Well those are the ones I can remember right now. If I remember anymore I'll write them down.

Jacob's Arrival and picture overload

I still can't believe that a week ago our lives changed again as we brought our beautiful little boy into the world. We are absolutely in love with him and can't get enough of of him.

Last week I hadn't been feeling very well on Tuesday (Aug 7th). I was nauseated and cramping. I told Josh about it and asked him to bring me some Ginger Ale home to see if that would help calm the nausea. That night after getting the girls down we went to bed and I kept telling myself I needed to bring up my concerns with my doctor at my 36 week appointment that was schedule for Friday (Aug 10th). That night around midnight-12:30ish I woke up to contractions but was able to fall back asleep off and on until 3am. I ended up having 10 contractions in an hour and decided to wait it out until the next hour to see if they'd slow down. The next hour I only had 6 so I figured that they were slowing down and I could wait until morning to call the doctors office. Every hour from then on I had 6 contractions. By 7 am, Josh was up and getting ready for work and getting Kaylee out of her crib. We both agreed that he should go to work because we didn't know when I'd be able to go in or even if the doctor wanted me to come in or wait it out. Finally at 8:30 I called the doctor's office to see what they wanted me to do. Because I was pre-term (35 weeks 5 days)and had been on bedrest since 33 weeks and medicine to control the contractions they told me to come in as soon as I can. So I called Josh to have him come and get me (since I was too big to drive) and finished packing what I thought we needed incase they decided to keep me. Both of us were skeptic about them keeping us and figured that we'd be going home after the appointment and having to continue to wait at least another week or two before Jacob decided to make his debut.

Well anyone that has been pregnant or who has gone with their wife to the doctor appointments knows how much we hate to have to wait when we get there. We checked in at the office and waited for what seemed like forever (probably was because my contractions were getting more painful) and then went back to room 5-10 minutes later. That's when things got annoying pretty fast. I did the routine tasks that they have you do and then we waited for almost an hour before the doctor came in. You'd think that by having someone come in for possible preterm labor they'd try to get to you faster but they didn't. After the doctor checked me and told me I wasn't chaning he sent me to another room to have an NST done. Where my contractions were coming frequently and the doctor could see that I wasn't feeling well he was worried that they contractions could be thinning out my previous c-section scar, which could cause a rupture and not a very good outcome for me or baby. After being on the monitor and having the nurse come in several times the other OB (Dr. Evans) in the office came in and looked at the strip. He then told us that he and Dr. Allred felt it best to just take the baby out. Love that he stated that there was more to lose than to risk letting me go another week. As we signed the consents and got some blood drawn I felt so many emotions. I felt calm and okay that our sweet little boy was coming today, nervous about his overall health and his NICU stay, mixed about another c-section, and excited that I was finally going to meet my little boy and be done with this pregnancy.

We left the office a little before noon and headed up to the hospital. We called our parents and Josh's sister (she had our girls at her house) to let them know we were headed up and that they hoped to do the c-section by 12:30. While Josh parked the car I went up to the familiar floor that I had worked at only a year ago to get registered and prepped for surgery. Once we were in the room being prepped it seemed like forever but when they wheeled me to the OR I remember asking myself am I really ready for this. For the first time that either of us could remember in our past c-section experineces I had tears as I went in and Josh had to stay out until they were ready for him. The emotions hit hard but I knew we were doing the right thing and that somehow everything would be okay.

As the c-section progressed the doctor told us it was a very good thing we didn't wait to do the c-section. Even a couple of hours to a day could have been fatal to one or both of us with how close I was to rupturing my uterus. We have truly been blessed and the prayers in our behalf from family and friends definitely had power to them.

Jacob Joshua Harmon was born Wednesday August 8, 2012 at 1:18 pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 3 oz and 19 1/4 inch long. He seemed and still seems so small but was a good weight for being a little over 4 weeks early. Wish we had remembered the camera when we were in the OR. The doctor was able to pull him out without rupturing the bag of waters, which I've never heard of. It would have been a neat picture I think. Once he was out the bag of waters he had a good loud cry and when they took him to the NICU we could hear him howling the whole time. Josh stayed with me for most (or even all-can't really remember) of the time as they put me back together before going into the NICU to be with Jacob and see how he was doing. Once I was all sown up I went to recovery for several hours before going to a regular room. It was a while after that before I finally made it down to the NICU. I was having a lot of pain and not feeling well after the spinal block wore off. When I first got to see my newborn son he was already 7-8 hours old and had been weaned off of the oxygen.

Holding him for the first time was such a sweet experience and even now as I reflect back to it and write this entry it still brings tears to my eyes. Our outcome could
have been so different. He is such a sweet little spirit! Over the next few days we were told by the doctor and nurses in the NICU that it was up to little Jacob on when he went home. He had to have the IV in place for 48 hours and then it came down to just feedings. They told us that they didn't think it'd be long before he went home but that it could go either way depending on his eating. They told us to plan on at least a week but as long as 5. Josh kept telling me he thought Jacob would be out by the end of the weekend and I just kept silently praying that he'd come home with us. I decided to stay in the hospital for 3 days (with the other 2 I got out as soon as I hit 48 hours) due to still having some pain issues. When we went to the NICU Friday morning to see him the nurse told us that if his blood work came back fine between noon and 1 pm then Jacob would be able to come to our room and as long as his bilirubin labs ( lab to check for jaundice)came back fine in the morning and that he kept up his with his feeding that he'd go home with us on Saturday. We were so excited and let our parents know. The next morning he had his labs drawn and the nurse said he did great with his feedings. We just had to wait on my doctor to release me and see what the pediatrician said. Can' I just say that was a very long morning. I was given the green light around 8:30 to go home but told if baby wasn't coming I could stay one more day. The pediatrician had a very busy morning with a full NICU to attend to so he wasn't able to come out to the floor til mid-morning. When he finally came and looked over Jacob and his labs he gave us the green light to take him home. What a relief that was. As soon as we had the green light, Josh went and got my meds from the pharmacy packed up our room and we went through the discharge process. Finally at 11:30 our little family of 5 headed home to begin our new adventure!

We are all doing well and adjusting fairly well. The girls absolutely adore their little brother. Kaylee is constantly climbing up on the playpen to look at him and try to help him. Ashlyn is so willing to get me things for Jacob and tells me all the time that she loves him and that he is so handsome. We are so grateful to family, friends, and a great ward who have done so much for us!

Enjoy the pictures:

In the hospital at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg ID

My girls. My sister and her daughter did such a great job with their hairdos. Now if I could only master that talent.

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