Mini Pies

I have a new favorite thing: mini pies.

I love pie, but I'm more prone to whipping up a batch of cookies or brownies when I need a sugary snack. Sometimes I'll even do cupcakes, but those are usually reserved for birthdays.

The other day, I had a mostly full can of pumpkin sitting in my fridge. Yes, I prefer roasting and pureeing my own, but I didn't have any on hand (though I had a few pumpkins on my counter waiting for their treatment) and my sister-in-law has about two dozen cans (her in-laws gave her their food storage because they were moving). Anyway, I needed to use the pumpkin before it went bad. The kids were begging me to make pie.

I don't really like serving my kids a whole slice of pie. They always leave the crust and the little kids never eat a whole slice, no matter how small that slice is. Simon only licks the whipped cream off the top.

Then, I came up with this crazy idea to make miniature pies using my mini muffin pan. This idea pretty much goes back to when I was in Utah in October 2014. My sister had just given birth to the cutest nephew on the planet and I wanted to bake him his first birthday cake (yes, I know he wouldn't be able to eat it). I decided to make a Boston cream pie. I think my sister asked me to. I don't remember. Either way, I hadn't made one in a long time, so it sounded really good.

My sister doesn't bake nearly as much as I do. She has a lot of really amazing, high quality kitchen supplies because she used to work at Bed, Bath & Beyond, but she didn't have a 9" round cake pan (she does now because I gave her crap about it), so I had to improvise. I made Boston cream cup-pies instead. They were perfect.

Back to the mini pies. I made some pie crust and used my fluted 2.5" biscuit/cookie cutter to cut out a bunch of tiny crusts. I fitted them into the mini muffin tin and used a turkey baster to fill them up. I baked according to the canned instructions, but cut the time down a bunch. They came out perfect.

I love them because their cute, bite-sized little pies. Yes, they take a bit more work, but wouldn't they be perfect for a kid party or pot luck or even Thanksgiving if you're feeling really ambitious?

Anyway, if you're crazy like me all you have to do is make pumpkin pie filling according to the can (or your own recipe). Make six pie crusts. I do not like refrigerated ones you get at the store. The quality isn't as good as if you make your own and pie crust is really easy and simple in the first place. Rant over. Use a 2.5" round or fluted cutter to cut out your tiny crusts. You should get 48 from two of the crusts if you roll thin enough. I rerolled once with the scraps to achieve that amount. I wouldn't reroll the scraps more than once so cut your crusts as close to each other as possible. Place the crusts in the mini muffin mold. Use a turkey baster to fill the crusts almost to the top. Bake at 425 for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 400 and bake for 20 minutes more. Cool about 5 minutes in the pan then use a toothpick to gently pop the pies out of the tin and cool the tiny pies on a wire rack. You'll get approximately 144 tiny pies out of one batch.

I did not make all 144 tiny pies at once. I did them 48 (or two crusts) at a time over the course of a week and a half as the pies were consumed. I refrigerated the filling in an airtight container between baking sessions.

I'd love to try this with other pie recipes, especially pecan, lemon meringue, and fresh blackberry. When I do, I'll let you know how they turned out.

Asher the Toothless

I'm not going to make a big deal for every single tooth that falls out of my children's mouths, but losing the first tooth is a rather special occasion.

It dawned on me a few weeks ago that Asher should start losing his teeth soon, but I didn't think much more about it after that. Well, last night he lost his first tooth and his second one this morning before school. The funny part of this story is how he ended up losing two teeth within twelve hours of each other.

Last night, the boys, making a classic boy decision, made up a game they called "Boat." This game consisted of taking the cushions off the couch, stacking them up, then climbing on top,  and balancing for a few moments before jumping down to the ground.

I was in the kitchen completely oblivious to what was going on in the other room. I just heard giggles. It should be written in the parenting handbook that just because one hears giggles, it does not guarantee the kids aren't doing something boneheaded (though we all know that silence is much more troublesome). Anyway, Asher jumped off the tower of cushions right as Simon was running by and Asher's mouth smacked into Simon's unusually hard head. Simon was hardly phased, but Asher's mouth was all bloody and his bottom two teeth were really wiggly.

Joseph was quite alarmed at first, especially when the first tooth popped out after Asher had been playing with them for about fifteen minutes (after he'd calmed down). It hurt him a bit and there was more blood seeping from his mouth, but then he got very excited about his first visit from the Tooth Fairy. He kept saying, "I can't believe I just lost my first tooth" and "I wonder what prize the Tooth Fairy will bring me." We kept telling him he would get money, but he just kept on wondering what his "prize" would be.

Unfortunately, he had a difficult time eating the chicken wings we had for dinner. The other tooth was wiggly and hurt a lot when he tried to bite the meat off the bone. I know you all know the feeling. Asher was afraid he'd never be able to eat ever again. I taught him how to pull the meat off with his fingers so he could pop it in his mouth and chew with his back teeth. That way he wouldn't starve to death. Oh, the melodrama!

Still, Asher was excited for his prize. He dictated a note to Moses to leave under his pillow. It read: "Dear Tooth Fairy, I wonder what you will bring me. I still don't know what the present you will bring me is. Love, Asher." Moses even dated it on the top.

I really wanted Asher to write it, but he so afraid of misspelling words that he won't even try, despite the fact that he's doing great at reading and is picking up new words at an ever increasing pace. I keep telling him that it's okay to write phonetically at his age, but he doesn't believe me. He sees Akiko and Moses doing so well with their weekly spelling lists, so he wants to be perfect, too. I try to reinforce that they have had years more practice and that they had to work hard to get to where they are, but he's so impatient about it all and gets frustrated. I know he won't be like this forever, but he is doing great for the level he is at.

Anyway, Asher was lucky the Tooth Fairy was having trouble sleeping last night, because she suddenly sprang out of bed at 3am to take care of her duties. Moses (whom we have told the truth about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy) kept trying to get me to reveal the secret of how we switch the tooth for money without waking them up. He wouldn't take "you guys sleep really deeply" for an answer.

Asher was very excited about his prize when he woke up this morning. He got "a dollar bill that has so many ones on it!" Then the other tooth fell out as he was getting ready for school. He's pretty stoked about tonight. He now talks with a slight lisp.

While I knew his teeth would fall out soon, and I believe they would have on their own in about a month, sometimes accidents happen that speed up those processes.

PS: Speaking of doing well with spelling, Akiko won her class spelling bee and will compete in the school bee at some point in the future. Obviously, she gets that from me (but only because I have no idea how well Joseph ever did in his).

Merry Late Christmas

Of course within a couple short months of me resolving to write more on my blog, suddenly I seemingly disappear again with nary a peep for quite a while. I have several reasons for my lack of blogs posts, so here I will try to catch up without getting long-winded, if I can help it.

Halloween and the prep that goes into it is, for me and a lot of people I know, only the beginning of a very crazy, busy time of year. Throw a new baby, a baptism, and a slew of family coming to visit into the mix and it ups the ante about twice as much, or more. There's more than that though, too, and I will touch on that as well.

Moses' birthday is only six days after Halloween, and since his sister's baptism two and a half years earlier, he had looked ahead on the calendars and decided what day he was going to be baptized and what refreshments he wanted served. So, for the week after Halloween I was busy trying to get the baptism and house ready for Moses and our relatives, respectively, who were coming out to stay for the occasion.

His baptism portrait. Sharp looking little dude.

Photo courtesy of Grandma Sachiko

With all that was going on, I had to keep things as simple as possible, so I wouldn't get too stressed out. Of course, my version of simple is someone else's version of going all out, but trust me when I say I kept things on a simple scale for me.

Moses' baptism was a lovely affair. My mom was very generous and bought him a suit, white shirt, and tie, and he looks super sharp and so grown up in it. Moses continues to astound me. He's still as sweet as ever, he still picks things up really quickly, but little by little I find that he's becoming more and more like a young man than a little boy. I'm so proud of him and his decision to be baptized. He's such a great kid.

The cake I made for Moses. Not my best work, but I'm still a novice when it comes to piping.

The same weekend, we also blessed Hyrum, since the family was there anyway. He, too, looked super sharp in the little white tuxedo my mom bought when Moses was a baby. All my boys have worn it now and thankfully, none of them had a blowout in it, so it's still quite pristine.

Photo courtesy of Grandma Sachiko

While that particular weekend was quite busy, it was spiritual and uplifting and filled with family. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Photo courtesy of Grandma Sachiko

Soon after the extended family left us and the house was quiet once more, I started looking a few weeks ahead to Thanksgiving. I was feeling really worn out from everything that had happened in the last couple months that I wasn't really looking forward to it and wasn't really in the mood to cook one this year. Over the next couple weeks I started feeling more and more down, and my mood got worse and worse.

I've struggled with depression before. I'd been hospitalized for it at one point. I could feel it coming. I had known since about halfway through Hyrum's pregnancy that I needed to prepare myself for it. I tried to brace myself for the onslaught, but what happened to me in the next couple weeks was nothing I could have ever imagined. Post-partum depression hit me pretty fiercely, despite my efforts to mentally get ready for it. I'm not going to go into detail in this post about what was and still is going on, but I will say that things got pretty bad.

Joseph went with me to my six week checkup and we talked and have been working with the doctors to get me the help I need. Joseph set up help for me around the house and with the baby by asking several of our friends in the ward to take shifts.

As far as Thanksgiving is concerned, our dear friends, Mike and Gina, were hosting Thanksgiving and simply invited us over to their house. I'm so glad they did. I love cooking and hosting Thanksgiving, but there was no way I could pull it off this year. Mike and Gina have become our surrogate family, so to speak, since we moved out here. Their generosity, not just for Thanksgiving, but the whole time we've lived here, has been overwhelming. I love them dearly.

My mother-in-law, Char, had been with us for Moses' baptism, but had gone up to Washington to help Kailee (Joseph's sister) as she had her new baby. Kailee and her family had been planning on moving to our area for a while, but Char got a prompting that she really needed to get back to us, so (and I still don't know how they managed everything) Char and Kai got everything packed up and started their move ten days after Kai gave birth. They drove down from Port Angeles on Thanksgiving day.

Now we have some family here and will soon have more. Char and Dave (Joseph's dad) will be here permanently sometime in the next couple months. I have to admit that while having family living close to us has been a strong desire of mine ever since we left Utah, actually having family close by feels a little weird. I had come to rely on my ward family so heavily and forged many great friendships with them, that in my mind, these people had, in a way, become part of my family. I know this weird feeling will pass, but I didn't expect it.

Since the depression has been so bad, Char has been helping me around the house, catching up on all the things I was too overwhelmed to deal with. It allowed me to sort of get in the mood for Christmas, which by my standards, was also kept to a minimum this year. With Char's help, I was able to get some projects done for the kids that I had been planning for months, but lacked the motivation to do. It's honestly a miracle that they happened at all.

First, there are the stockings. I've been wanting to do new stockings for the family for a couple years now. The knit ones I'd made before just weren't working out. I happened upon these kits at JoAnn during their after-Christmas clearance last year and thought they were perfect. I bought all five patterns (keep in mind I was not pregnant at the time) and got started on them immediately. I averaged finishing about one every two months, mostly working on them in the evenings after the kids went to bed and Joseph and I would unwind with Netflix. By the time Hyrum was born, I had four of the stockings done and just a little bit left on the fifth one. I love how these turned out. They're beautiful. I'm going to keep my eye out for a couple more so I can make them for Joseph and me.

I'm sorry this is sideways, but I'm simply feeling too lazy to turn it.

My other projects included sewing Moses and Akiko new scripture bags. The one I made for Akiko at her baptism was kind of tight and busted after a couple months. I measured and re-measured this time and got the dimensions right. I love how these bags turned out. I may just jump the gun and go ahead and make three more and save them for the little boys' baptisms. Since Simon is entering Primary as a Sunbeam this year, I made him a crocheted scripture bag, similar to the ones I've made in the past for all the other kids so far, but I neglected to take a picture of it. It's cute, though, and he was so excited for it he took it to his last day in nursery today. I also made Asher an apron since he loves helping me cook, but of course, any of the boys can use it. Things were getting a little silly when they'd borrow Akiko's apron.

As far as teacher/neighbor treats were concerned, I really toned things down. Normally I make three different kinds of cookies, and five of each kind get put on a plate. Last year I made forty plates.

Cookie plates for 2014

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen this year. I kept my list as short as possible this year. I also needed to make gluten-free treats, because a couple of my recipients have Celiac disease. I didn't want to make two separate kinds of treats, so everyone got a gluten-free option:

A simple bag of homemade salted caramel popcorn.

The kids got to decorate gingerbread houses again this year and I found a kit that had five little houses. Of course, Hyrum is too little to decorate or eat his, so I let Akiko do one for him. I had Akiko take the lead with the decorating this year. I think they turned out really cute.

Now the busiest time of year is over. I am so relieved. So much more relieved than in years past.

So, now you all know why I haven't posted anything since Halloween. Not only are the holidays crazy busy on their own, but I've had a lot of other issues and events to deal with.

None of this would have been possible without Joseph, my family, and the many, many amazing friends who have stepped up, put their own lives on pause, and come over to help me in a desperate time of need. I am so very blessed to have so many wonderful, gracious, selfless people in my life. I am also grateful for a very loving Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, who know what I am struggling with and prompt the people who are willing to listen and act, in order to help me. Little me. I know I am important in His eyes. I matter to Him. He is willing to send me the help I need because He doesn't want to watch me suffer needlessly. If He feels this way about me, I know He feels the same way about each one of us.

I hope you all had an uplifting Christmas season and may the New Year bring you many more blessings.

Halloween 2015 and a Time Warp

Once upon a time, Halloween was a simple affair. Perhaps it was because I only had one child at the time. Maybe it was because I was not yet confident in my sewing and creativity skills. Whatever it was, Halloween once looked like this:

Akiko's first Halloween - 2005

And then this:

Halloween 2006 - Minnie Mouse

Then for a Relief Society activity, we made poodle skirts and I ended up with just enough fabric to make Akiko one, too. That was the first year her Halloween costume had been planned well in advance. The skirt was made in March of that year.

Halloween 2007 - Sock hoppers. Matching costumes with Grandma Sachiko

She liked that costume so much, she wore it again. But this time, she was a "pink pirate." Moses had joined our family by then:

Halloween 2008 - The "Pink Pirate"

Moses the Not-So-Big Not-So-Bad Wolf.

Also the first year I coordinated some costumes.

The next year, we moved to California two weeks before Halloween. I was so stressed out about moving that I had decided to wait until we got to our new house and then just purchase some costumes once we got there. As I began shopping for costumes amidst all the moving chaos, I quickly became disappointed. The costumes were either horrendously expensive, or affordable and crappy low quality. Akiko was also old enough to have a very specific costume in mind. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I managed to pull together something, finishing them within hours of the ward trunk-or-treat party.

Halloween 2009 - The Snow Princess. Obviously pre-Frozen. 

Moses the Mummy.
This costume has since been worn by all our boys.
Hyrum will wear it again in two years.

And that, my friends, marked the beginning of my homemade Halloween costume insanity (though one could argue that it began the year I dressed as Chun-Li from Street Fighter II way back in 2001 - best costume ever).

Since then, I have been pretty adamant about making the kids' costumes. Sometimes they've been easy to put together. Other times they've been more difficult. Most of them since have blog posts, but here's a recap:

Halloween 2010 - Akiko the Black Kitty

Asher the Mouse

Moses as Anpanman - One of my favorite costumes.

The next year after that:

Halloween 2011 - Reused costumes are the best. I only had to make Little Red's riding hood.

And the year after that:

Halloween 2012 - Tombo and Kiki. Another of my favorite costumes.

Asher as the Mummy.

Simon making his debut as the Mouse.

We moved right after Halloween that year, and the blog, unfortunately got put on the back burner shortly after that. Here are the costumes you missed:

Halloween 2013 - The Incredibles.

Asher also had an Incredibles costume, but refused to wear it. He was traumatized about being a "scary monster" from the year before, he wanted nothing to do with Halloween and was genuinely freaked out about the whole affair. He stayed home with Joseph and passed out candy while I took the rest of crew to gather goodies. These costumes were a huge pain to put together. Finding long sleeve shirts and leggings in everyone's size and making sure the shade of red matched was nearly impossible. I honestly thought this was going to be a simple costume to put together, but it was not the case at all.

The next year was much more simplified:

Halloween 2014 - Asher as Fancypants

Moses the Orange Kitty

Akiko the Black Kitty, again

Simon making his debut as the Mummy

Asher's costume was so obscure, nobody knew who he was. They all called him a pirate. He would get irate with them and tell them, "I'm Fancypants!" Besides us, there was only one other person who recognized him, a missionary serving in our ward. But Asher knew who he was and that's all that mattered.

Moses' costume is an homage to his favorite YouTuber, Stampy, who plays Minecraft with his friends and posts videos of himself playing Minecraft with his friends.

Thankfully, Akiko and Simon were just using old costumes, so I only had two sewing projects: the fancy pants and the orange cat.

And, hey, with that, we're all caught up to this year:

Halloween 2015 - Asher the Blue Ninja

Moses as Harry Potter

Akiko as Luna Lovegood

Simon as Anpanman

Hyrum the Pumpkin

When I found out we were pregnant at the beginning of the year and realized I would be due within a month of Halloween, I told the kids almost immediately that they needed to think about what they wanted to be. In early March, I asked for their costumes and told them they were not allowed to change their minds. I thought I was doing myself a favor, but it ended up being somewhat of a disservice.

Over the next several months, I put together a list of all the things I'd need to gather, researched, started pricing things out, and planning what to do and when. I happened to go into the fabric store on a day when sewing patterns were on sale for $2 per pattern, so I snagged Asher's costume pattern immediately. That was fortuitous.

Unfortunately, because of the worst first trimester ever and the nearly debilitating anemia, my planning wasn't able to be put into action the way I'd hoped. I also had a three week long road trip that went through five states to plan and execute in the middle of summer (which I promise will be blogged about soon). Most of the costumes didn't get put together until after school started. I do not recommend commencing a sewing project when you're eight and a half months pregnant.

I'm very pleased with Asher's ninja costume, even though it took everything out of me to put together. Hyrum's costume was easy enough. I was able to work on that while Joseph and I watched Netflix in the evenings. Those two costumes were finished before the baby came. With Hyrum's costume, I thought I'd have a much smaller one month old baby to fit into a knitted sleep sack. He was too big for it the moment he was born. But knit fabric is stretchy and he only has to wear it a couple times, so we squeeze him into it anyway.

With the Potter costumes, I really just needed to sew a couple simple robes and gather accessories. I wasn't able to get to cutting and sewing the robes before the baby, and because of the c-section, I wasn't able to cut the robes myself, but our sweet missionaries came by and helped me measure and cut out the fabric. I'm not particularly happy with the end results, but it's because of the pattern and instructions I found and followed that are at fault. I know what to do to fix them, but I didn't have any more time (or fabric). Besides, the result I ended up with still gave the general idea of what we needed, so I'll live with it.

Simon was originally slated to be Elmer Fudd. I even went as far as purchasing the fabric I needed. However, with no pattern to work off of, little time, no energy, and no desire to try to track down a rifle, Elmer Fudd got scrapped and Anpanman was pulled out of retirement.

Simon is thrilled. He wouldn't have known Elmer Fudd anyway. He's not particularly familiar with Anpanman either, but we do have some toys that I brought back from Japan a few years ago that are super popular with our kids. For a few months lately, Simon has been asking us to tie blankets around his neck and then he runs around the house yelling, "I Super Simon, the hero!" So, when I pulled out all the accessories for the costume which, for the last five years, have been used as pajamas, getting him into costume and character was an easy sell.

I really should have kept things more simple this year, but you live and you learn. Five kids to get ready for Halloween is no easy task, but it is something I enjoy doing and I do know my kids appreciate the effort. It will be nice someday when they start doing their own costumes, but I know I'll miss all this craziness, too.

Hyrum's Story

Last time I wrote, I was two weeks from my due date and Hyrum had finally flipped heads down. All was looking well for a vbac. At my 39 and 40 week check ups he was still heads down. My due date had come and gone and my doctor wasn't going to discuss inducing until I had reached 41 weeks because the risks of uterine rupture increase with vbacs if they induce. She did order me to to a stress test to make sure the baby had enough room and amniotic fluid and see that everything was okay.

Monday afternoon (4 days post due date), I showed up to the hospital for the stress test. Everything seemed to be fine. I'd had some fairly regular Braxton-Hicks contractions, but nothing major. They sent me to ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid. I saw the technician grimace, but she didn't say anything to me. Once she was done, she sent me back to labor and delivery for more monitoring. A few minutes later, the nurse came in to talk. Hyrum was breach. The doctor came in after a while to discuss what to do. I had already called Joseph and after we talked and prayed, we decided that the best thing for all of us was to just go with a c-section. Yes, I was disappointed, but I'd kind of had that gut feeling that the vbac wasn't going to happen for a few weeks, even though Hyrum had been heads down for the last month.

Tuesdays, apparently, are c-section days at this hospital, so the staff kept telling me how serendipitous it was that I had come in on that Monday for the stress test. My surgery was scheduled for the first thing Tuesday morning. We were expected at the hospital at 5:30am. We had a lot of juggling to figure out how to get the older kids taken care of. Asher had been sick and home from school for nearly a week, so we needed someone to watch both him and Simon, make sure the older kids got off to school and that they had after school care. Luckily, we have very good friends who were willing to rearrange their already busy lives to help us out. My friend Becca offered to come to our house at 5:00am to be there for the kids when they woke up, make sure they got off to school, and hang out with the little boys. Our other friends, the Warners, offered to take care of Akiko and Moses after school.

We had one last meal together as a family of six and everyone went to bed early. Around 1:00am, a contraction had woken me up. I thought maybe it was a strong Braxton-Hicks, but a couple short minutes later confirmed that I had started labor naturally. While this was something we had been waiting to happen for the last several days, it felt too little too late at that point, especially since we knew the baby wasn't in the correct position.

Joseph and I spent the next couple hours puttering around the house getting those last minute things done and killing time before we felt like we really needed to go. We woke Akiko up and asked her to lay in bed next to Simon in case he woke up, but of course, she was so excited the baby was coming, she was wide awake after that. I dealt with the contractions the best I could. I was trying to hold out until Becca would be able to show up, but by about 3:00am, I just couldn't handle it anymore. Unfortunately, that's when Simon decided to wake up and freak out that I wasn't in bed with him. I laid down next to him and tried my best to get him back to sleep while not making any noise with every contraction (which is nearly impossible) and relax as much as possible. I had to give up after about the fifth contraction. They were just too intense. We had to go. Thankfully, Simon decided that it was a great time to play on the Kindle, so we sent him to bed with that and left Akiko in charge for the next hour until Becca would show up. I got in the car. Joseph got in after a couple minutes. Apparently Asher had woken up and Joseph had to get him back to sleep. Moses slept through all the ruckus like a good boy.

We got to the hospital a little after 4:00am and I was hooked up to the monitors. Since we were a bit early for our appointment and was in labor already, the doctors had to be called in. I had dilated to 3cm, but the nurse couldn't feel a bottom or a head, so they wheeled the little ultrasound machine in to check Hyrum's position. He was transverse and was not going anywhere. He couldn't move from his position because of the contractions. Everyone rushed to get the OR ready, which wasn't that big of a deal since we were only a little early for our scheduled appointment.

Around 6:00am, I started to get delirious from being up all night. I'd only gotten about three hours of sleep. I tried to rest the best I could between contractions, but they were so close together and more intense, it was impossible to do. About 6:15am, they wheeled me into the OR. At that point I was panicking, exhausted, sobbing, in pain, delirious, and about ten other negative emotions all at the same time. Thankfully, my anesthesiologist is a friend of mine from church and I had requested that she be there, which she was happy to oblige. She was amazing. Kind, caring, and got her job done as quick as she could to put me out of my misery. I'd never been more relieved to get poked by a needle, even though it still hurt.

It was so bright in the OR, but I kept my eyes shut through almost everything. I just wanted to sleep through it all. At some point, Joseph showed up. At some point later, I heard Hyrum's first cries. A few minutes later, he was laying on my chest, though I couldn't hold him because my arms were strapped to the table. I remember kissing his chubby cheeks and crying. I vaguely remember Stephanie, my anesthesiologist friend, keeping me up to date on everything that was going on. Everything was such a blur. I was almost too tired to care.

Joseph and the baby were lead into the recovery room while I was put back together. I eventually showed up. Joseph greeted me with an excited, "Did you hear how much he weighs?" I shook my head no. "Ten pounds and two-and-a-half ounces!" I knew he was going to be our biggest baby. My belly was so big at the end and I had gained about 58 pounds this time. I wasn't quite expecting a ten pounder. I kind of remember the doctors and attending nurses in the OR exclaiming what a big baby he was. Nearly everyone on staff has said something about it. I still think he's a perfect little newborn. He's still way smaller than Simon is now.

So, here we are now. Hyrum is perfect. I'm slowly recovering, but doing a lot better at this point than I did with Simon's recovery. I was able to walk around a little bit 24 hours post-surgery. I couldn't do that last time. Everything hurts, but little by little it's getting better. Now that the baby is finally here, I feel like we're on the downhill side of everything. Life is crazy. I miss my crazy family at home and they miss me. Joseph is trying to scramble around getting whatever he can while being a single dad for the time being. Ladies in our ward have set up meals for us for the next several days. Friends are stepping in to help us out wherever and whenever they can.

I am truly grateful for how everything turned out. It wasn't what we planned on, but we had always known the risks and were aware of the complications. I'm grateful for a loving Heavenly Father whom we can rely on to guide us in our decisions and lead us to the best possible outcome. I grateful for the opportunity I have to be the mother to the most amazing kids I've ever known. I love them so much. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me to be their mother on earth. They are such a blessing. I'm excited to see what ingredient little Hyrum brings to our wild, crazy concoction of a family.

I wish Asher were in this cute picture. Perhaps he was the one who took it.

I love this sweet picture of my family so much.

Those cheeks! I can't stop kissing them!

Introducing...

Hyrum Brady Wecker

10 lbs. 3 oz., 21" long

Tons of black hair and a dimple on his cheek.

I'm in love.

Quick Baby Update: 38 weeks

I keep meaning to write a big post about our epic road trip that the kids and I took this last summer, but whenever I sit down to write it, I realize that I didn't grab the camera to upload all the pictures. Getting up off the bed or even from the couch or dining chairs is such a chore these days. In fact, lately, in the morning, Simon, instead of asking me to simply get out of bed to get him anything, states that I need to "roll out of bed." It's pretty amusing.

Anyway, for the last several weeks, the baby, like Simon had done before, kept flipping around back and forth, and always transversely. At last week's appointment, my doctor had me schedule a version, where the doctor manually pushes the baby into position. I did not want to do this. I was not convinced it would work, or rather, that the baby would stay in that position. It didn't work with Simon and it's extremely uncomfortable. I remember crying last time. I was so stressed out about it all weekend long, so I called and cancelled the appointment first thing Monday morning. I'm glad I did.

I had an appointment today and, happy day, the baby is finally heads down. He's a mover and a sharp jabber (I've nicknamed him "Jabberwocky"). I can feel him move around constantly and, especially at night, when I'm trying to relax, is when he likes to really jab my ribs and press into my diaphragm so I lose all my breath. I think he's still going to flip around some more, but I'm glad to know that he knows how to get into heads down now.

So, my next appointment will determine whether we will proceed with a VBAC as planned, or, if he's flipped again, whether we'll schedule a c-section just to be safe. I could really use prayers that we'll be able to do a VBAC. A c-section is so hard to recover from and I've got so much to plan in the next several weeks, namely getting Halloween costumes finished and planning Moses' baptism. Then suddenly, it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas in no time at all. I feel this holiday season may be pared back a bit from what I normally try to accomplish.

Here's a shot from two weeks ago. We travelled 5.5 hours to attend a session at the Sacramento temple where our friend was going through for the first time. Last time I travelled that far at 36 weeks, I broke my ankle. This trip was, thankfully, non-incidental.