Merry Christmas 2016!

Christmas this year was pretty low-key since I just had a baby, but it went pretty smoothly since I had the majority of it prepared before Trevor was born. Austin let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve (not including the one they opened from their cousins-Paw Patrol PJs). Leif opened an elephant that he saw at the store months ago and asked us to get him for Christmas. We told him no, but secretly bought it for him. He wasn't at all discouraged by us saying no though; he has been mentioning his "Christmas elephant" ever since, sure that he would get it. He didn't seem very surprised when he unwrapped it. He named it Silly Elephant and has chosen it as his animal to take to bed with him.  On Christmas morning, I made the kids crepes for breakfast before church. My mom and sister were here visiting, so my mom helped Austin take the older kids to church. When they got back, Austin's parents and brother came over to watch the kids open presents. We spent the day playing with our new toys, taking cookies to the neighbors, and had dinner later in the day.

Little Miss is 19 Months

Our sweet Little Miss turned 19 months old, and her life sure has changed recently! Heidi loves her new baby brother, but it has been an adjustment for her so far. I've noticed a few more temper tantrums (she's at that age anyway) and her feelings seem to get hurt really easily. If Austin or I so much as tell her "no" at the wrong time, she melts down crying like she will never recover again. But she always does within a minute or two, so she's doing fine. Heidi loves to hold her baby brother and lets me know she thinks its her turn by getting up on the couch, reaching out her arms, doing "grabby hands" and saying "I want hold it" over and over again. Many times I can't let her hold him because he's eating or I'm busy with something else, but when I do let her hold him, she pats him, and sticks her face in his, coos at him, and fusses over him. This typically lasts only about 60 seconds, then she says "I'm done" and wants to run off and play. She demands to hold Trevor 10-15 times a day and although she says "I want hold it" she knows that his name is Trevor and usually calls him Trevi or Bruddi (her word for brother).
I've noticed in the last few weeks that Heidi has started some early imaginary play- no doubt fueled by her older brothers constantly pretending to be something else. She has said to me several times "I dog" and crawled around on the floor for a little while, getting a hug thrill out of me patting her on the head and telling her she was a nice puppy. She also loves to take a little dog figurine and walk it around saying "woof, woof".
Heidi is still an independent little girl and loves to try to do everything herself (me doing it for her often causes the temper tantrums, but I don't have all day sometimes ;) She loves to brush her teeth, comb her hair, wash her face, try to get dressed, feed herself everything, put her shoes on, drink out of my water bottle, sit on a stool instead of in her highchair, and do anything that her brothers are doing. We love this girl so much! Here are some pictures we got of Heidi in the Christmas dress my dad bought for her. And also a picture of what Heidi looks like most of the time- a huge mess :)

Trevor's Birth Story

Just a word of caution to readers- like all my babies' birth stories, I tried not to get too personal, but it is still a birth story, so might make some uncomfortable. Trevor Arland Wilkins surprised us by coming a few days earlier than we were expecting him to! All three of my previous births required me to have my membranes stripped before I went into labor and the baby was born the next morning. So, of course I was expecting that to be the case with this pregnancy as well. Instead, I went into labor spontaneously. On Sunday afternoon after church I started noticing Braxton hicks getting a little more intense than usual and more frequent as well. I told Austin, but we decided to not think too much of it. After a couple hours, I sent a text message to my midwife to let her know I might be in early labor and she asked me to time the contractions length and how far apart they were. They were only about 25 seconds long and most weren't very intense, but they were only about 5 minutes apart so she told me to start getting things prepared just incase and she would be ready with her scrubs on if I needed her. At this point we decided to let our family know and I sent a text to my friend, Amy, who wanted to see the birth because she is also having a homebirth with her first baby in a couple months. After that I went into a frenzy of trying to get dinner for the kids, get ready for the birth, and finish up a few household tasks. Austin had blown up my birth tub earlier when I first told him about the Braxton hicks getting stronger, so he began filling it with water and all the kids wanted to help. The boys started getting excited when we told them the new baby was coming soon and Heidi could tell something was going on. We ate dinner and I cleaned up as quickly as I could. I tried to eat a normal portion because I had been really hungry and not eaten much all afternoon, but I wasn't feeling up to eating too much with all that I wanted to get done. As soon as dinner was cleaned up, I put Heidi to bed (she was not happy to be left out of the excitement) and my friend came over. Mostly we all just sat in the living room and chatted and as the contractions got more intense, I would leave the room to lean on the dining room table or our dresser to breath through them. I found with all my labors that rocking my hips in circles through the contractions helped me, so I did this. In between contractions I felt perfectly normal and went back to talking with everyone. At some point during all this Austin's parents came over and his mom stayed to talk with us and his dad took the boys into the family room to watch a movie and read books. (The boys had told me they wanted to see the baby's birth like they had seen Heidi's so we were just going to let them stay up until it happened). Austin called my midwife once during my contractions just to update her and she said that as soon as they were intense enough that I couldn't talk through them, she needed to be there, but would come earlier if I wanted. We decided to wait, because although I didn't want to talk during the contractions, I could have. After awhile, Austin's dad decided to leave (I'm sure he was feeling a bit out of place) and the boys wanted to go with him to watch a movie at his house. He said he would bring them back later and we told them they might miss the baby's birth if they went, but they were persuaded by time with grandpa watching a movie and left anyway. Soon after they left, I asked Austin to call my midwife and have her come over. I could talk through the contractions if I needed to, but they were getting pretty intense and since my previous home birth happened so fast, we knew that this birth could be really fast too and I didn't want it to be too late. She came over within 15 minutes and set up all her supplies in our room. She asked if I wanted her to check the dilation of my cervix and I was curious, so she did, but I was only dilated to about a 5. About this time, I didn't really feel like being around everyone anymore, so I retreated to our room with only our closet light on when I was having a contraction. I was feeling really restless, so sometimes I walked around the house or paced in our room, but I also tried to rest a bit in between contractions. My friend came back for awhile and rubbed lotion on my feet between contractions. Austin also came in a few times to joke around with me and be with me during the contractions. With my previous births, he was my biggest help during the hardest contractions at the end because I could just lean on him with my head against his chest and he could rub my back. He did this for most of the contractions from then on, but was also trying to get the birth pool a little warmer and had to leave a few times. With our last birth, Austin spent most of his time worrying about the pool and I didn't get to lean on him as much so I was glad that the pool was mostly taken care of this time. Once we thought the pool was warm enough, I wanted to get in it and had about 6 or 7 contractions there. I started feeling a little like pushing and it mad the contractions feel better if I pushed a little, but my midwife said that I shouldn't until she checked to make sure I was completely dilated because pushing could cause the cervix to swell if it isn't fully open. I got out of the pool for her to check, but was so cold once I got out. She checked and my cervix was not quite dilated to an 8. We checked the temperature of the pool and it was too cold which was why I was feeling so chilled and I decided not to get back in (there wasn't enough time to get more boiling water in it). Instead I used Austin as my support through the contractions and everyone else mostly just left us alone. My midwife told me to let her know when I really felt like pushing; like my whole body just couldn't stop from bearing down. With each contraction, I could feel the baby moving down and pressing on my pelvic floor- it was so uncomfortable and I wanted to push, but could control it. Everyone soon assembled in our room (Austin's mom, my friend, and our midwife) and I had two contractions that were almost unbearable to not push through. I just kept saying "I want to push, I want to push, I want to push" and at some point made the comment "this is the point when I always wonder why I'm doing this again". At the end of the second really hard contraction my midwife told me to get on our bed. I didn't feel like I could move and I said "I can't do this" but Austin gently pushed me to when I needed to be and she helped me get on the bed. I didn't realize we were as far along, but she checked and my cervix was fully dilated so told me that with my next contraction to grab my knees, pull them to my chest, and bear down. It felt so much better to be able to push with the urge and although I could feel my perineum muscles stretching and stinging, pushing felt good. I heard my midwife say that the bag of waters was bulging and about to break and that the baby's head would be out soon- and surprisingly it came out with that first push (just like my second birth). She had me stop pushing until the next contraction, and I wasn't sure why she didn't just let the whole baby come out at once, but later found out that a little hand came out with the head which my midwife was afraid might cause a tear if she didn't do some adjusting before the whole baby was delivered. On the next contraction, she asked me to bear down again and our baby was born at 9:41 after about 4 1/2 hours of active hours of labor and two pushes. At this time I still didn't know if we were having a boy or girl, but my midwife plopped the little baby down on my stomach and let us get acquainted while she delivered the placenta and Austin cut the umbilical cord. I was expecting Austin to tell me the sex of the baby like he had with our previous birth, so I didn't look myself, but eventually, Austin said, "you better pick up your baby and look so I can call your mom and tell her". I was a little surprised to see a boy- I was hoping for a girl, but within a few seconds didn't care at all- I was so in love with our little guy. He cried a little, but was pretty calm and latched on to nurse without too much trouble. We spent about an hour getting to know each other while everyone cleaned up. My friend soon left to give us some bonding time. Austin's dad came back with the boys (who were so excited to meet their newest sibling) and he and Austin's mom only stayed long enough to see the baby and give us a few gifts. I took an herbal bath with the baby to help us both heal (and he really enjoyed floating in the warm water for awhile) then we weighed and measured him. Heidi didn't get to meet him until the next morning and was a little shocked, but quickly warmed up and demanded to hold him for about 20 minutes until Austin took her away because she isn't quire sure how to be gentle :) We didn't decide on a name until later in the morning. Although we had long since agreed on the middle name of Arland after Austin's grandpa, we couldn't agree on a first name. We thought we might go with Kaito (Kai for short) but it didn't seem to fit him. I have wanted Trent for a long time, but Austin liked Trevor better. After getting to know him a bit, I felt like Trevor was a good fit and we agreed to name him Trevor Arland Wilkins. Welcome to our family little guy- we all love you so much!

Leif is FOUR!

We all thought this day would never come! Leif has been saying "it's almost my birthday" since at least August and now he is finally four! He is so proud of it, although so far, when asked, the only difference he is aware of between three and four is that four-year-olds can jump off of rocks at the park that three-year-olds are unable to (we haven't actually tested this theory, but he is pretty sure of it). Leif is pretty happy and proud to tell everyone he meets that he is four and we had several parties to celebrate. We had one with my dad at the beginning of November when he was here visiting (just pizza and cake), one with my mom, stepdad, and sister when we were in Utah the night before his birthday (The Old Spaghetti Factory, presents, and cake), and one with Austin's side of the family on his actual birthday (presents, wrestling with cousins, and the same cake from the night before).

Leif is quite the interesting fellow. He is a little replica of his father with some of his mother mixed in. Leif is stubborn and is very set on having things his way, is always thinking about something or figuring something out, is very clever, loves to watch movies, and is great at memorizing things (particularly rhymes, stories, and movie lines). Leif is really into quoting Peanuts right now and will go around reciting conversations between the characters without any context (it really confuses people who don't know what he's talking about). He thinks he is hilarious and his brother agrees, so it just eggs him on to keep doing it. Leif loves to laugh and is always thinking of something absurd to say or do just to entertain himself or his siblings. Sometimes it irritates me, but most of the time I just have to keep myself from laughing at him so I don't egg him on too. One of the funny things about Leif is that he loves and seeks attention when it's on his own terms (he loved saying his part for our church Primary Program and tries to get up and talk at the microphone whenever he can), but he gets really shy and put out if he's given attention without seeking it (he squirmed and hid every time we sang to him for his birthday parties). Here is the birthday interview I did with him and a few pictures from his party (plus a bonus picture from about a month ago that I just really like of him)

Who is your favorite person? Heidi

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Planes Fire and Rescue (this has been his favorite movie since before he turned two)

What is your favorite outfit? Rescue Bots shirt (my sister made this with him a few days ago and he wore it for two days and two nights until I finally made him take it off)

What song do you like the best? Silent Night (this is a recent thing, mostly he loves 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' and sings it to Heidi all the time and even wanted us to sing it instead of Happy Birthday)

What is your favorite cereal? Kix

Who is your best friend? Amanda

What do you want to do when your grow up? Do construction

What is your favorite book? Planes Fire and Rescue (of course- the book version of his favorite movie. He has this book memorized and can 'read' the whole thing)

What are you really good at? Jumping off rocks (this must be what he was referring to when asked what four-year-olds do better than three-year-olds)

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? To Idaho (Great Grandma & Great Grandpa's house-we just got back from here, but its a favorite for both our boys)

What would you buy is you had a lot of money? A paw patrol toy (he just got a bunch of them for his birthday)

What is your favorite dinner? Meat Love (meat loaf)

If you could have a wish, what would it be? Jesus being born

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip-the green kind

Who do you want to be like? our Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Play

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? run to our house

What is your favorite thing to do? Play Planes Fire and Rescue

What are you proud of? my brother

What are you afraid of? Monsters

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Have new babies

How strong is Dad? Really strong

What does Dad do best? Take pictures

What does Mom do best? Exercise

What do you like best about Dad? He's huge

What do you like best about Mom? She stays at home with us

Heidi is a year and a half!

Our little ragamuffin princess is a year and a half old! She is a little busy body that gets into everything and makes you quite aware if you do something she does not agree with. Mostly she yells "Nooooo!" but if she can get into whatever you are doing, she will. Heidi's verbal skills are skyrocketing-I'm sure I find them even more amazing because I only have her brothers to compare them to. I thought Leif was really good at speaking because he was saying full sentences by two, but Heidi has already surpassed him and uses full sentences now. Like I said last month, its mostly "I want this" or "I don't want that" but she does say other things as well. Heidi still loves coloring and throws quite a few tantrums over not being allowed to color or draw whenever the mood strikes her (like at nap time or when its time to change her diaper). I have found her coloring on walls, the floor, and tables a few times and we have to keep reinforcing that only paper is for coloring. Heidi loves dogs and cats. The boys always had a fascination with them, but Heidi really loves them and isn't afraid at all. She loves to hug and pet them whenever she gets the chance and the word "kitty" is probably one of the cutest words to hear her say right now. Here are some photo's of Little Miss that Austin took:

Trick-or-treat!!!

Austin is out of town for a work leadership training in Michigan this week, so he missed out on trick-or-treating and my dad came with us instead. I was going to email the pictures to him, but figured since I had to do a blog post eventually, I might as well just put them up here first and he can see them this way. The boys were really excited for Heidi to be a care bear for Halloween even though I had pretty much convinced them to be Max and a wild thing from Where the Wild Things Are (I already have the Max costume). But once they saw Heidi's costume they decided that they also wanted to be care bears and so we got a matching set :) Introducing Lucky Bear, Tender Heart Bear, and Sleepy Bear:

 

Trick-or-treating was extremely exciting at first- the boys ran to every house for about the first 1/2 hour, then they started slowing down a bit, and by the end Leif just wanted to ride in the stroller and get home (Heidi rode the whole way since she is too little to go up everyone's stairs and doesn't eat candy anyway) and Asher ended up knocking on the last few doors by himself (our neighbors that knew he has a brother gave him extra candy for Leif). 

 They were so excited to get home and dump all their candy into a big pile and check out what they got. Heidi was excited to dig through it too and just play with it. She was not happy that I put her to bed soon after getting home, but she sure was tired.

Seventeen Months

Little Miss is seventeen months going on seventeen years. She is still a sweet girl who bring sunshine into our home, but she is getting to be quite the handful! Heidi is such a girl! (even though she loves to imitate her brothers by driving cars around with sound effects) She bats her eyes and gives these funny little feminine glances all the time. She loves clothes and shoes and snuggling stuffed animals. She loves to scream like she is being hurt if she doesn't get what she wants (including getting dressed herself instead of me doing it- which, by the way, she hasn't quite mastered). She says new words everyday and occasionally talks in full sentences, the most common being "I want . . ." or "I don't want . . . ". Even with that vocabulary though, she still prefers to just repeat "No" over and over when you have something she wants or when you are trying to give her something she doesn't want. I have worked with her quite a bit to say "please" instead of just demanding something by repeating "no" or "mommy", and she is getting pretty good at it, even if she needs to be reminded a lot.The boys just taught her the word "cookie" today as we were making/eating pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Heidi is great at repeating words you tell her to say, so the boys get a huge kick out of making her say things (sometimes over and over again). They have also tried to get her to say some pretty silly words and phrases, but of course she can't remember the nonsense, so she doesn't say it. Heidi is an incredibly loving little girl. She loves to snuggle and give kisses and gets pretty concerned if she sees someone crying. So even with the girl drama, we love having her around and wouldn't be sad if she gets a sister in a few months (although a brother would be great too ;)
Here are a few pictures of her playing in the back yard today. She loved that I just let her roam around and do whatever she wanted since I usually follow her around every where or trap her onto the trampoline with her brothers. Some of what I call "girl drama" may just be her exerting her independence, but she definitely does it with some girlish flair!

Fall Festivities

I love Fall! I'm so glad it's finally cooling off and I love all the fun activities that go along with Fall. We had a cousin "sleepover" last weekend (which really only turned into Amanda sleeping over) but we had lots of fun before bedtime. We ate pizza, played Halloween Bingo, made monsters from graham crackers, frosting, marshmallows, and sprinkles, and watched a movie with treats.

I also got my little monsters motivated to rake up leaves when we bought a few of the bags that look like jack-o-lanterns. They were very excited to use the rakes too (we have an adult one and a kid-sized one) although they did more spreading the leaves around than gathering them into one pile. But, I was glad for the help to get all the leaves in the bags. We have many more bagfuls of leaves ahead of us this Autumn, but we got a good start on the front yard and added some decorations for Halloween.