9/23-9/26

A friend from Clovis recently posted about how it feels like this is a season of everything all at once. It’s beautiful chaos. 

Adi had a field day at Amy’s wedding. We joked that they had to pay extra for all the photo booth’ing she did. 🤣

On Wednesday I drove the ballet bus at 3, shopped, then drove the ballet bus home at 6, picked up Frankie from cheer at 7 with dinner, then drove her to church. My afternoon/evenings are filled with driving. Just a few more weeks. 

Thursday was more of the same, only Matt and I volunteered at the free yard sale that was this weekend. Only, Matt went and then went to Nate’s for guys night, then after my driving duties, I went. 

Everyone was off on Friday so we all enjoyed a much needed sleep in day. We had talked about doing several things, but then didn’t do any of them. Then D had dance at 3 and Frankie had to be to the school before 4, so we didn’t have the most time, but it was nice to have a slow morning. Then Matt and I went to Frankie’s game at Westlake. They, of course, lost, but we sat with the Kinneys and it was nice to visit.

Frankie loves this cute exchange student from Spain! (Whose name I don’t remember 🤦‍♀️)

It was a beautiful day and is just getting a little bit cool. 

They had food trucks outside so we got Frankie some tacos. 

When Frankie has her license we’ll be able to make it a real date night and go somewhere after the game, but until then we have to hustle back to the school to pick Frankie up. 

On Saturday morning Matt and i volunteered at the free yard sale again. It was busy busy but there were so many donations that we still had a lot left over. 

I got Mia these cute little dresses and a bagging cute clothes on Thursday too. 🤗

Matt and I picked up one of his English Connect students and her baby to shop, and then a Walmart order and then came home for more work.  

Delaney is taking over Adi’s room, including painting it. 

Frankie is taking over Adi’s bed, but Delaney doesn’t want Frankie bed, so that means we got to move 3 beds. Also dresser swaps. And paint prep. 

Then Matt ad Delaney go started working while I made salmon for dinner and then 2 brownie trifles - 1 for the baptism and 1 for us. 

I also continued my mom and dad bin project. 

It was a busy day and we were so ready for our Sunday day of rest. 

And these cuties made good use of their zoo membership. ❤️

Mia Michelle is born!

Lexi left the boys notes to read before school on Mia’s birth day. The were excited to read them and then they fought over them. 🤣

Check out this blast from the past! They also have an old blockbuster. So nostalgic. 

They went to the hospital early to get things rolling and I hung out with the crew. 

I headed to the hospital after they broke her water, and stopped by Trader Joe’s for flowers on my way up. 

Damian and I played games and we breathed through contractions and Lu got an epidural, and a little nap, and then since she was able to relax she was ready to roll. 

Girlfriend came into this world just after 5pm. It was so special to be there to see my granddaughter born - at #5 this was a first for me. 

Alexis had a little bit of placenta left and was bleeding a little more than normal so they gave her something to slow her bleeding and everything was fine. 

I picked up some dinner for everyone and everything was still good. 

I held Mia so they could eat, but about halfway through her waffle fries, Lu started feeling sick. 

Their nurse came by to check on things and saw that Lu was losing a lot of blood and got her to the bathroom where she weighed the blood and clots lost and called for a doctor. 

That doctor was there for like 2 minutes and called for another doctor. They got Lu back to bed and when there were like 5 doctors plus several nurses working on her, and things were getting very tense and very loud, I took Mia out into the hallway.

I won’t go into too much (more) detail because it’s really not my story to tell, but that was one of the scariest hours of my life. I sent out a few pray for us texts and rocked Mia and prayed my heart out. At one point there were at least 10 doctors in her little recovery room. She ended up losing a liter and a half of blood, got a transfusion and several medications, plus a few other things to stop the hemorrhage before things calmed down. When it was over Damian came into the hallway and we looked at each other and started crying. It really was truly awful. 

But God really is truly good and even though it was still a rough night, Alexis was out of the woods by the morning. Including the fact that she didn’t really remember what had happened. Damian and I remember enough for all of us. 

Precious baby girl got her shots and even though she was still hooked up to a thousand machines, her tough mama was able to breastfeed her. 

It was a long and exhausting day for a newborn girl.

There was only one couch and I knew Damian would never lay down if I stayed, so I left around 11 when things were fully calmed down and lu and Mia were sleeping.  

I gave hugs and encouragement and a promise to keep my phone turned up. So grateful for good medical care and healthy bodies and prayers answered. This little miracle was worth all the hassle. 

August 17th

 The day before Mia was born we took care of the crew so Alexis and Damian could rest and prepare. Henry put on Lu’s carpal tunnel wrist braces and thought he was a funny guy.

Adi and I took turns with the boys school run. They go to two different schools and it takes between 40 minutes and an hour, so it was nice to only have to do one. 

This is a little story of their homecoming one day. 

Happy brother tries to help unload, but Carter has a treat bag he doesn’t want him to have. 

Henry wants it. 

Carter says “no thank you, Henry. It’s not for you.”

One-and-half-year-old and very opinionated Henry isn’t happy with the situation. 

A fit gets going. 

And finally, a look up to ensure everyone is appreciating his fit. Honestly, he is so fun! I’m not responsible for him everyday, so I just 100% think he is the best. 

We had a fun family night playing games and I’m sure I made something for dinner. 

Late blogging is probably better for all because I don’t remember details so we have much shorter posts. 🤗

August 15th-16th

 I really hate scheduling. It’s so hard with so many moving parts. Our trip to SC to help with Mia went through like a dozen iterations, I swear. Of who was going, when, and how long we’d stay. It was crazy hard to figure it out, with tryouts, open houses, college prepping, school starting, and other fun summer stuff.

We finally landed on Adi, Delaney, and I leaving August 15th after Delaney’s dance that morning. Frankie made varsity (yay!) and had cheer practice every day (boo!) .

We left that last afternoon and had an easy drive. 

Alexis had contractions all day Sunday so we ended ip staying home from church to help. We did a repeat of our fun Peter Pan Disney dinner that day. 

Carter was like, oh yeah, I’ve seen this at school. 

They were super into it and played Peter Pan all day, even the now questionable Indian chants. 🤣

We played games and helped with boys and timed contractions. Henry helped Damian rub Lexi’s back. ❤️

I convinced them to go to the hospital since she’d been laboring all day. 

So they got ready and we put everyone to bed and then after a few hours they got sent home. Whomp whomp. 

We were all ready to meet baby Mia!

9/21 & 9/22

The purge continues. Along with the purging, I also pulled everything out of the basement closets where I had unceremoniously shoved bins of my parents things. I’m going through and organizing and part of that is looking through old pictures. I love a 4 generation. ❤️

We got a free pizza for dinner and our days with our girls are quick since they both got home at 6. 

I missed Inklings yesterday. I didn’t sleep well and woke up feeling sick, so I laid back down. Then when I was feeling better Alecia and I walked in the drizzling rain and caught up on all the things. It was a very eventful summer.

I picked Frankie up from cheer and took her to piano and then we had dinner and family night. We FaceTimed Adi in. We probably won’t always be able to do that, but it was nice last night. 

Also, look at me go!

August 13th-14th

For Alecia’s birthday we went to the temple. It was lovely to not be rushed. I used to be so stressed about getting to each ordinance on time, but I can’t do that anymore. It’s more important to be there and feel the spirit than to have to make sure I do an ordinance. Not that participating isn’t important, but it’s not the only thing and I decided I’m not gonna stress anymore. I say that because there were a few ladies twirled up about performing initiatories and i let them right on past me. 

When I got home from the temple i found out that Ruby and Jeanne were coming to town! Jeanne’s dad was in the hospital so they came down to see him and Jeanne’s new niece. 

We had planned the 14th as a day of shopping at the Annapolis mall and we were excited to bring Ruby along on our girls day. 

Frankie was stoked to hold her in the front pack first. 

She was so good and happy!

She was patient with us for about 2 hours before she’d had enough. 

We got her some milk and I walked her around and she cashed out. 

These girls are so fun! So different, but so fun!

There were so many fun photo shoot opportunities!

And I made them pose at all of them. 🤣

As long as I covered her she stayed asleep and got a good 2 hour nap. Christian and Jeanne were amazed - they said she never sleeps in her stroller. 

We grabbed lunch and then had to head home for Frankie’s cheer tryouts. 

We left the next day for SC, so we finished packing and got all our cuddles in with Ruby, and even had time to catch up and play a few games with Jeanne. 

Also, the Annapolis mall (and Kent Island) were on our summer bingo sheet (courtesy of Frankie) so yay!