Baby Boo

Though everything indicates that Baby Boo was right on time, it's hard on the psyche when you think you are going to have a baby around the 11th of October and then he doesn't actually show up until the 22nd. But he is here! He was born Friday morning at 10:18 a.m. (my dad wonders why I couldn't hold off for 4 minutes so he could have been born at 10:22 on 10/22). The home birth was a wonderful experience. I woke up at 3:00 and counted contractions until 4. Then I woke up Adam and we came downstairs and got everything ready. The boys got up at 7 and when Adam told them I was going to have the baby, Phin gave me the thumbs up and said, "Good job, Mom." I stayed pretty still while Adam got the kids breakfast and off to friends who took them to school and into their homes. My midwives came, enjoyed breakfast and got everything else ready. It was pretty nice to just relax (between contractions) and watch everyone else running around. I started to walk around about 8:30 and less than two hours later there he was. It was perfect and went faster than I thought it would. Here is the first picture of him. Still getting his color, but very healthy.

This is my great midwife, Dr. Frazier, weighing our new baby boy. 7 lbs. 8 oz.

The new family photo. The boys were excited to see their new baby brother. We were still calling him Boo until Friday night, when Adam and I agreed upon Colin Adam Gaul. We still have to remind each other not to call him Boo. All three of them love to hold the baby and can't wait for him to wake up. I tried to tell them that new babies sleep a lot, but they still insist on placing cars and trains on him when he's fast asleep hoping he'll wake up and play.

Spencer seems to be adjusting fairly well to not being the baby. He always asks about the "bee bee" and wants to hold him and share his drinks and food with Colin. What a cutie!

What a blessing each of our children has been to our lives. I feel so grateful to have four healthy, happy boys. I marvel at the things they do and teach me everyday. I am also grateful to know that they are mine for eternity, if I live worthy of it. I can't think of anyone I'd like to spend eternity with more than this wonderful little family that Adam and I have created. Adam is wonderful, coaching me through the labor, helping me to keep confidence in myself that I could do it. He's taken over Mom duties for the week and does it better than I do. I love him so much. Thanks, Ad, for being my strength and example always.

So here we are, a family of six and I am loving every minute of it!

Bad Mom and Heavenly Protection

Have to write about my scare of the day. George and Spencer were playing out back "building a space ship" according to George. Spencer was helping with the decor by piling dead grass on the "wings". George came inside and I continued to check on Spencer every few minutes. Our back has been broken for a few weeks. I propped it up to keep the kiddos corralled, but a big wind storm blew it over.

At one point I couldn't see Spencer and as George was going outside, I asked him to check. He went the other direction and I went out the back door to find Spencer. That's when I heard the first honk. I ran around the pool, hoping to see Spencer near where I had last spotted him running with his big Tonka dump truck. No Spencer. Then I hear the second honk. I run around the house to see a car in the middle of the road, Spencer crawling onto the curb, my neighbor picking him up and his dump truck stuck under a parked truck on the other side of the road.

My heart racing, I ran to grab him (thank goodness for my neighbor), waved a thank you to the lady in the car and went to retrieve the dump truck. That's when the police officer approached me.

"Had an escapee?"

I explained that I he had been in the backyard and I had just seen him back there a couple of minutes ago. The officer asked for my I.D. and for Spencer's name. I gave him both and told him that I really had seen him in the backyard two minutes ago.

"I think it was more than two minutes," he said. And he was probably right. Spencer was heading away from the open gate the last I saw him, I was busy making dinner and didn't think he was going to pass the blown down fence on the other side. I may have been three or four minutes. But it could have been the last three or four minutes of my little buddy's life.

I cried for the next half hour until Adam got home. The first thing he did was screw the blown down fence into place. It won't open now, but at least I won't have to worry when the kids are out back. I was just waiting for CPS to knock on my door. I am so thankful that Spencer was protected. And not just this time. This is his fourth time venturing out in the road, always when I have stopped watching him for more than a minute. I think today was Heavenly Father saying "Okay, I've warned you, now the police have warned you. Get it right or it might not work out so well next time. You're not being a very good steward. Now, stop cooking and watch out for your kid!"

No excuses. I will do better - anticipate the worst and hope for the best. My kids might never see the front yard again.

Construction

Okay, so Adam is working overtime tonight, so I don't have anyone telling me to go to bed. Thought it might be good to catch up on the blog.

As some of you know, we moved into a new-to-us house in January. In April the remodel began. We planned on combining two bedrooms and a bathroom to make our master suite. Over the next several months we removed a bearing wall (thanks to engineer Allen for helping us "suspend" the roof), ripped down the other walls leading to the baby's room and an extra small room that had been set up as a sort of sitting room, moved tons of insulation (I know insulation doesn't weight that much, but Adam has shoveled his way to the east coast and back with as much as he has moved up in the ceiling), redid plumbing and electrical, rebuilt two walls, gutted the bathroom and rebuilt the shower, installed can lighting in my new walk-in closet and put "exploratory" holes all over my dining room wall.

Here are some before pictures:

This is the ceiling of my bedroom. The big beam running from the top left hand corner down to the right is what is helping to support the roof since we took down the bearing wall. It also helps that we are building another wall just three feet from there. No worries on the roof caving in... this thing is solid.

Here is the wall of my bedroom. Adam had to put in extra supports in the walls to hold up the new beam. Can I just say the remodel takes twice as long because you have to destroy stuff before you can put up new stuff. Adam has become the master of destruction. Anybody need to borrow a crowbar or a maul ax?

Looking into my new bathroom. You can see the new Pex plumbing for the shower. There were only a few leaks while we were testing to make sure everything was hooked up all right.

THE MAN. Did I tell you he has spent every weekend for the past month working on this. And that means working from 8:30 in the morning until around 7:30 to 8:00 at night. He is standing in front of the wall that will lead from our bedroom into the closet (on the right) and the bathroom (on the left).

As of today the sheet rock has been hung and taped and the first layer of mud put on to try and patch up the mess we had to make above. We are on a time crunch now because I don't really want to have a baby in the tiny room we are living in now. I keep giving Adam and his AWESOME dad a count down -- only five more weeks, guys! Hopefully I will be sleeping in my new master suite and bathing in my newly tiled shower by the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Summer Randomness

Summer is officially over. But I thought I would post some random summer pictures just so I remember how great it was.

Spencer has discovered the greatness of farmer's market corn. He's also graduated to the table and out of the highchair.

As mentioned in the last post we went to the Seattle for the weekend in July and of course had to go to the Pacific Science Center. We really could spend the entire day there, but four hours was enough for me. It also helps that with our $35 pass to our local "science center" we get in free over in Seattle. SWEET!

Spencer is a budding musician.

George thought this was awesome. "Just like Harry Potter, Mom!"

Spencer's not afraid of anything - - bring on the T-rex!

I think Phin is supposed to be a circus bear. In any case, you can't help but want to hug him.

We've also spent the summer doing the normal things. This is movie night, our new Tuesday night tradition. Had those boys a bowl of popcorn and pop in a Scooby-Doo movie and they won't move for an hour and a half.

George dressed himself for church the other day. He did loose the cap and the boy scout bandana right before we went in. I do kind of like the orange and blue plaid with the black and white shiny vest. Sassy!

Adam reads "special stories" to the boys every night. It is usually from the Book or Mormon or Old Testament readers. This night must have been special because they were reading from the Book of Mormon coloring book. Adam and George have added all sorts of commentary to the pictures, including blood on Laban's sword after Nephi has killed him and something about "Give us the drugs, Laban," when they are asking for the gold plates. I just like to sit and listen to Adam's version of the story. It makes it new again.

Finally, (drum roll please) George lost his first tooth! I thought he was too young, but one day it was loose. We ate pizza for dinner one night and after he was done eating I noticed his tooth was gone.

"Where's your tooth?"

"I don't know"

"You must have eaten it."

So George wrote a letter to the tooth fairy: "Dear Tooth Fairy, I ate my tooth. From George Gaul" Luckily the tooth fairy was a good sport and left a dollar in exchange for the note.

Summer has been great, but can you blame me for relishing in Tuesday and Thursday mornings when George has Kindergarten and Phin has preschool and it's just me and Spencer for two hours?

Day Out With Thomas

Well, it won't become a family tradition, but we did spend a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine back in July. We planned a trip to Seattle the same weekend, so it didn't feel too out of the way. All the boys were excited but I think the eight train tables and the puppet show were the highlights. In the end we had to drag them to see the actual Thomas the Train because "someone" had put a bounce house right in the way.

Phin was in Thomas heaven.

They had a Punch and Judy puppet show. The boys loved it!

Riding with Thomas. They advertised a 20 minute "ride with Thomas". It was 8 minutes up, sit and wait for 4 minutes and then 8 minutes back. The coaches were old and hot. As adults we were like "what a waste", but the boys didn't care.

Last stop of the day, meeting Thomas. This was the best shot I got, even if the "professional" photographer's arm is in the way.

Yes, Phin, it's Thomas.

Spencer, pointing to Thomas on the tablecloth.

If you want a review of the day, it was okay. The train ride was actually the lamest part of the whole deal. Not really worth what we paid or the three hour drive. The boys have nearly as much fun playing with the train table at the Barns and Noble.

Angels

I know all of you have gone to church some Sundays and spent so much time out in the hall that you wondered, "Why do I even come?" That was today. Adam threw his back out on Friday fixing the toilet. Some little hands had flushed the toilet paper roll holder down the toilet. Usually Adam is the one to take the boys out if they are being disruptive at church. But since he couldn't do that today, the job fell on me. And boy was it a toughy today, starting as soon as we pulled into the parking lot.

So after our family saga was played out in front of the entire ward during sacrament meeting, I found myself crying in the bathroom hoping no one would talk to me so that I could pull it together long enough to do sharing time in Primary.

Can I just say, my ward is full of angels? Some came and helped me when I had two boys out in the foyer crying. Others came and took the crying baby from my arms so that I could get my stuff together - both literally and emotionally. One of our bishopric members gave Adam a hug and both of us heard a lot of "We've been there, we know what it's like." After church, another person came and brought brownies. Each act of kindness brought new tears of gratitude. Heavenly Father was saying, "You're not alone. Others have made it, you will too." Boy I needed that. To all of you angels in the Sunset ward - THANK YOU! It doesn't seem to be enough, but I hope I will remember this day and when I see a mom frazzled beyond belief, I want to step in and say - Let me help, I've been there.

Mom Thoughts

The past two weeks have been HARD. And it's all because I'm a mom. All you moms out there tell me this:

• Do two shoes ever get put away in the same place?
• Are all children able to repeat the same phrase over and over at least 50 times in a row?
• Can you ever change the subject with your small child when in the state mentioned above?
• Will getting out the door ever be pleasant - or timely?
• Do your children think that as soon as they ask for something - crackers, chocolate milk, etc. that it should magically appear within seconds?
• Does there ever come a time where you do not have to repeat a request/question/demand more than three times before getting any kind of a response (besides the phrase being repeated 50 times)?
• Is potty training a nightmare for everyone?
• Do you ever just want to scream as loud as your kids, right in their face, just like they do to you?
• Can this miserable job of being a mom really be the biggest blessing of your life?
• Is the laundry ever "done"?

I love my little Phin and I know that somewhere in heaven my mom is laughing her head off when she sees the things that he does and how he can spin me like a top. "No" is the answer to everything. He will say he wants one thing and as soon as you give it (or don't give it) he all of a sudden has changed his mind. And not once but multiple times during the day. Often, by the end of the day he has completely worn me out. I just want to lie down and sleep for 14 hours without hearing the pitter patter of little feet coming into my room.

On Thursday, I broke. I literally broke. This has never happened to me before. I'm sure a great deal is due to pregnancy hormones. We were playing on my bed, me and the three boys. Suddenly, the wrestling turned a little too rough and someone was pulling my hair. "Get off, get off, get off," I repeated. In the end there were two bigger boys flying off of me and me screaming at the top of my lungs, "GET OFF OF ME!!!" And then I broke. I started to cry, along with the two little ones. Phin, who got the full force of my wrath and little Spencer who doesn't like loud noises.

I tried to go for a "time out", but none of our door have locks. So I ended up bawling with two boys on my lap bawling too and George hiding out in his room, hoping to escape any punishment. Then I couldn't stop. I tried and I tried to get it together, but it was like my body was resisting every effort. Thinking if I went on as normal I would feel normal again, I went out to the van to get my gym bag. When the sliding door wouldn't close, I gave it a "little" help. I could hear the pieces falling on the ground and then the door wouldn't close. Now, I'm a total mess. I call Adam, sounding, I'm sure, like someone has died. Sobbing, I tell him about my morning. He realizes that I am totally unable to function and arranges to come home. I cry for the next two hours - getting up enough courage in the meantime to call my dear friend to come and get my kids because I know the first little tiff could put all of us in serious danger. Adam came home and I slept for the next three hours. But it really took me about 24 hours to regroup.

I only share this, because I know there are other moms out there like me who think that they are failing at every turn - or at least flailing at every turn. Moms can get broken. Moms need time to repair. Moms need daily maintenance, or at least weekly maintenance, in order to keep functioning. Take care of yourselves, moms. And know that you are not in this alone. Heavenly Father, the perfect parent, sends his angles to watch over you.