Rachel Lillian Carpenter is Born!

 As I mentioned in the last post, I was having contractions during the Awana awards ceremony and as the night went on I had more and more of them to the point that I was sure it was time to go to the hospital.  We had all the childcare arranged for the night and the next day just in case and so at almost 1:00 in the morning we made our way to the hospital.  As it turned out, I was not dialated at that point, but after walking around the hospital for an hour from 3-4am, I was dialated to a 2 or 3 the nurse said.  This meant we got to stay rather than being sent home!!  Wahoo!

After a nice bath, I got my IV and epidural on board and then the waiting began.  My contractions slowed a bit, so they opted to give some pitocin at the lowest levels.  That made things begin again and I was able to rest a little for a while.  The epidural wasn't working super great on the right side and they tried to adjust it, but eventually I got a new epidural instead.  Every time they gave me a dose of the medicine via the epidural, I would get nauseous (not fun) and apparently my blood pressure dropped (also not fun).  And sadly, the second epidural was not covering a key area for giving birth, so I was not super comfortable as I had been in previous times when birthing my children.  Eventually, my body took over and they stopped the pitocin and I started to have some contractions that were making me shake really bad.  All these lovely symptoms definitely made me more anxious to get this party started, but still I was not ready!

Also, this was the longest labor I had ever had and it seemed to take forever for me to dialate fully and though it still wasn't as long as some, for me it seemed to be taking too long when I was used to coming to the hospital and giving birth 4-5 hours later.  FINALLY, I was told I was dialated enough to push and then I had to wait for the doctor to come from across the street at the clinic to arrive. It was really hard to wait!  However, she did make it and after 4 pushes, little baby Rachel came right out!  She was what they call "stunned" because she came out so fast and they had to try to stimulate her to cry by flicking her heel and such.  She did start to cry a little eventually and all the while Daddy was watching our little one and got to cut the umbilical cord.

She was 7 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20 3/4 inches long!  She was born officially on Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at 12:54pm.  She came out with dark brown hair (a first for our kids) and smokey gray/blue eyes.  We anticipate the eye color will change probably to something darker as time goes on.  People keep telling us that her dark hair may fall out and some blonde may grow in, but I am not so sure.  All of our kids who were blonde started off either bald or with fine blonde hair, so I think for the 5th shot here we got a dark-haired one!  

As a little side note, David's mom's name is Rachel and my mom's middle name is Lillian, so we named her in honor of both grandmas.  This was of course very popular with both grandmas!!  

When we came home, my friend EJ and her boys had helped my kiddos make this lovely welcome home banner as well as a cake, brownies and dinner for us that night as well.  It was nice to know the kids were in such good hands!   My friend Kim came in the middle of the night on Wednesday when we left for the hospital too.  Thanks friends for being there for us!  

We are very pleased to welcome this new little one into our home and her siblings have been fighting over who gets to hold her ever since!  We have never seen so much hand washing and sitting still around here!  Thankfully, baby is doing wonderfully and we are glad she is finally out here in the world with us! 

Co-op Christmas Party 2012

This was the first year we were a part of the North Spokane Homeschool Connection Co-op here in Spokane and they had a fun Christmas party in December that we participated in.  They had face painting and Josiah got a snake as you can see here pictured.  They also had a craft area and the kids played some fun games too and also came down to sing carols.  I played the piano for those who wanted to sing, so that was fun too.

One of the games was to wrap up a partner in toilet paper to make a snowman.  The person who was most wrapped from head to toe was the winner.  Daniel didn't really want the toilet paper over his face, so this is as far as he got to being a snowman, but he was enjoying himself!  They had scarves and other things to decorate the snowmen too.

Caleb decided that Naomi would be his snowman and started wrapping her.  She was loving it!  It was a really fun event and we all brought potluck items for lunch and the kids had a great time!

Caleb & Daniel's 5th Birthday!

 Caleb & Daniel blowing out the candles on their cake.  They were very interested in licking the frosting off the candles afterward too!  Here is a link to us singing "Happy Birthday" to our twin five-year-olds!

It is pretty hard to believe they are five now!  They are definitely growing up!  

  We had this cake made at Rosaur's and though they didn't have the "car kit" to put on the cake, I assured them we had it covered!  So we used our own cars to park on the cake itself and it worked out great!  

 Some of the kiddos took to singing songs during the meal before and as you can see Matthew didn't like the sound of it! 

 More singing and the twins are really into it here!  They sang the "ABC's" a few times and various other numbers as the kids thought of songs to sing. 

 Time to open presents!  

The twins are opening a gift from the Craciuns, which was a big set for these hamster critters that go around on a track and then battle in this center ring.  They were very interested in getting the track all set up and Evan was eager to show them how to do it.  The party really went well and I think the twins had a fun time!  We had a lot of friends come and join us and that was really special too!  Thanks one and all for the lovely gifts and your presence on their special day!

Colton's 7th Birthday!

Colton's bow hat!

This year we got to celebrate with Colton for his 7th birthday!  It was fun to come to one of his birthdays again as the last time, Josiah was very little and so was Colton for that matter!  As you can see, his birthday was in a nice shady park on a very sunny day.  There were some squirt guns to play with and other outdoor toys as well, but mostly the kids just loved running around in the grass!

Beautiful Kylie!

Colton's sister Kylie was there of course and gave me a winning smile here!

Kim pondering the lighter.

At first, the lighter wasn't working too well and Kim was looking at it questioningly here.  I love the expression of all the kiddos in this shot too watching her.  The candle was lit once and one of the kids (probably one of mine, I didn't see) blew it out before Colton could and there was a great outcry by the older children!

Chris lighting the candle for the 2nd time.

Then Chris stepped in and lit the candle again for the second time, hence his smile here as he is doing it. 

Colton sharing his wish with Josiah.

After Colton blew the candle out, Josiah said, "What did you wish for?" Colton said something like, "I wished for you to be here with me Josiah."  You can see Chris saying, "Awwwww!" in the background.  It is nice that they are such good buddies!

Me and Kim!

And speaking of buddies....here is a picture of me and Kim! It has been so fun living over here again and getting to hang with Miss Kim.  We have a lot of fun together and she is a great friend!  

Caleb taking a "gun" drink and Naomi watching the festivities.

As you can see, Caleb found a very practical use for his squirt gun, to give himself a drink once in a while.  Naomi was very engrossed in whatever was happening on the opposite side of the table!

Daniel shooting himself with the squirt gun.

Daniel was very pleased with himself and you can see on his shirt that he was squirting himself with the squirt gun.  Many people tried to squirt him a number of times and that was NOT popular!  He could "give it" to others, but definitely could not "take it!"  

Lastly, we have some gift opening and you can see three very eager children around Colton looking to see what is inside as well!   It was a really fun day in the park and I think Colton had a good time!  When we left, Kim and Chris gave all of our children a balloon, which they loved!  It was nice that it was such a warm day in May to enjoy Colton's birthday.  Thanks to Chris and Kim for inviting us! 

Colton opening gifts with very curious onlookers.

Jo-Sizzle!!!

Josiah tested for his blue belt today and passed! He is holding his broken board, but apparently he is holding it together to "trick" Mommy into thinking he didn't pass. It took him 3 times to break the board, but he did it! He was the only green belt going for a blue belt and so had to do his Poomsee by himself. After he completed it, Master Justin said, "And THAT is why I call this boy, Jo-Sizzle!!" Josiah and I talked about making sure that he did an exceptional job, so that Master Justin would say just that, so he was very proud. When Josiah doesn't do his best, Master Justin calls him Jo-Ice Cube. It is pretty funny! Here is a link to Josiah doing part of his Sa Bun Chuck (phonetic spelling) and reciting the 3 ancient kingdoms of Korea.

Here Josiah is showing his wart (which is almost ready to fall off now after he had it frozen a few weeks ago at the doctor) to his friend Reed and Cole. I just love this picture of the three of them. Reed and Cole were testing for their orange belts and passed also, so it was a great day for the three of them! Josiah will be awarded his new belt on Saturday, March 10th and then will be working toward his high blue belt in his upcoming classes. We are very proud of our Jo-Sizzle!

Mobius Children's Museum

We finally took a trip to the Mobius Children's Museum in downtown Spokane. My friend Kim and her kiddos (Colton & Kylie) joined us there also and kindly let us have a few of their free passes as well! Thanks Kim! The kids had a glorious time and hit the ground running the minute we arrived! This is a picture of Colton and Josiah's "campsite" that they made outside the hut. They gathered lots of supplies for camping as you can see, so they are ready!

Naomi had a blast climbing up the ladders and going down the slides. I had to monitor her as she did so though because they really were not designed for little ones like her, but she had the tenacity to climb them and slide down many times anyway!

This stationary bike had a video screen in front that made it appear that you were riding the bike on a street. As you can see, Daniel is mesmerized by it and is apparently trying to beat the boy on the bike next to him!

Kim and I posed for a "yes we were there too" portrait as well. We had a good time chasing the kiddos around the museum and miraculously we didn't lose one of them!

Naomi was just crazy about the water table and we had to pry her away from it a few times, so she didn't completely soak herself. The tongue hanging out is a clue that she is very occupied and happy there.

There were so many pictures of Caleb that were cue that it was really hard to choose just a few. He was in heaven with all the costumes to wear and things to do at the museum. Here he is giving his classic Caleb-ee smile that we have all grown to love.

We went to Red Robin for lunch and the kids promptly discovered that there was a TV in the floor that was playing Scooby Doo, and they all gathered around to watch while we waited for our table. At first, Naomi was strapped in her stroller, but she was just dying to get down there too, so I let her out to join the crowd.

Caleb had me in stitches at one point, when at the water table, he decided to test out the safety goggles as swim goggles and put his face down into the water. I did get a picture of his head down, but this one was just as funny with all the water running down his face. Daniel of course had to try this too at one point and I just laughed and laughed at them.

I also discovered later that Daniel left the house wearing my socks when he wanted to put on this cow costume! He was wearing my socks and shoes earlier in the morning to pretend to be "Mommy," but then did not change socks when he got ready to go. It cracked me up that he was wearing my socks and he sure makes a cute cow as well!

Caleb tried on most every costume they had there. I have great pictures of him as a puppy dog, turtle, fireman, construction worker, doctor, etc. However, this one takes the cake of him as an elephant. I asked him to make an elephant face and this is what he did! Can't you just hear an elephant trumpet right now? He is such a ham and loves to dress up.

Josiah is kayaking away here looking very handsome as usual! He had a great time exploring and playing with Colton at the museum. It was a very fun filled day and we were very thankful that Kim let us have her free passes to enjoy the museum with them. We will plan to go back there soon I am sure!

Awana Cars 2 Party

After the fun day at the museum, Colton got to stay the night and go to Josiah's Awana party with him on Friday night. It was a drive-in movie night and the kids got to decorate cardboard boxes and sit in them to watch the movie "Cars 2." There was lots of food and Josiah also got to use some of his Sparky points to buy toys as well. I found it pretty funny that the few token boys that came (not many boys in the Sparks group at this church) had the best cars there minus one girl who came with a pretty fancy car. Josiah had his Lightning McQueen pillow and blanket also and another boy that came brought his Mater pillow. The boys had a good time and at home, I bought "Cars 2" also and the twins got to watch at home.

Christmas Dessert

This year our church hosted their annual Christmas Dessert function and I was honored to be asked to sing for it! It also happened to be on my birthday, so it was a fun treat to go out and hang with some girlfriends on my birthday! I sang "Welcome to Our World" and "Blessings." I shared a little bit about why the song "Blessings" means so much to me because of what I went through this last fall with the miscarriage. They had lots of other speakers and entertainment also, so it was fun to hear them all and fellowship with the ladies at our table.

I got to sit with my friend Kim, who I invited to the dessert and then discovered that we were assigned to my friend Liz and her family's table as well, so that was fun! Liz used to host a small group at her house that both Kim and I and a few other families attended back when we lived in Liberty Lake.

This is a picture of the decorations that were on our table. Jan (Liz's mom) did the honors. Everyone was really impressed with her center piece, which was two knitting needles and some ornaments that she threaded onto them to make them stand up with the toppers on top to hide the needles. She did a great job with the decorations for sure, it looked very nice! Each table host brought their own style to each table, so it was fun to see all the different tables set up at the dessert.

Journey to Bethlehem

A couple of my new friends, Aimee and Bridget, both separately invited me to go to this event at their church called "Journey to Bethlehem." It is an outdoor walk through of what it might have been like to be in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. First, you enter the church and take tickets that have a "family name" on them. Our family name was "Zechariah" this year. Then you wait in the sanctuary where they have special music going on and watch for your family name on the big screen. When it comes up, you go back and line up to take the tour. You are assigned a guide (ours was named Josiah) and they take you through the tour as if you were characters in the story.

They had live actors playing various parts throughout the journey and then at one point you see Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus as you see here. They had lots of animals there too including geese, ducks, sheep, goats, donkeys, and even a camel at the end! It was quite cold that night, I think in the low 40's? And in that temp you can last for a little while, but with the little ones and walking for a bit it got pretty cold! They had fire pits along the way which helped somewhat and at the end they had a tent with warming lamps and warm apple cider.

The camel was in a cage at the end of the journey and she walked around showing off for us when we got there. The kids thought the camel was pretty cool! It was a neat way to hear the Christmas story and I think the kids enjoyed it. It was a little hard keeping them corralled as we were walking, but it worked out. I had to laugh when we went into the "tax collector's" tent and were supposed to be "quiet and respectful" to the man in charge. Daniel meanwhile "stole" a coin off of his table to look at it and interestingly the Roman guard there did not put him in chains as he should have. Perhaps he didn't notice? Anyhow, I was wondering how the actor did not laugh at this and I managed to pry the coin from his hand and put it back on the table.

Thanks to my friends for inviting us to this fun event. It was a neat experience for sure!

Caleb & Daniel's 4th Birthday

This was the first year that we had an all out, friends invited sort of party for the twins. We had it earlier than their actual birthday (on Dec. 7th) because Grandma and Grandpa were here for Thanksgiving and wanted to celebrate with us. In year's past, we just had a small "photo op" type of situation with just my parents, a few gifts and some cupcakes to make their faces all frosting-covered for the photos. They had a great time blowing out the candles and Caleb exclaimed afterward, "I did it!" Click on the link here to hear us singing to them.

As you can see, they aren't quite a messy as they used to be! This is of course a great development for me as colored frosting is QUITE a mess to clean up!

Miss Naomi has not learned the finer points of staying clean while eating cake just yet though and as always she looks super cute!


Caleb is showing off one of his gifts that he got here. It is a gift card to McDonald's! This was used very soon afterward of course! Thanks to the Burns' family for those!

Daniel is opening his Leapster game that we got him and as you can see, this is quite popular! He is wearing his doctor's costume and Caleb is wearing the knight's costume that we got them too.

Naomi later tried on the doctor's costume and looks very concerned here as you can see! Being a doctor is very serious business apparently!

This is a shot of some of the party guests and the decorations that we put up for their party. Our friend's the Allbee's came (Kim, Colton, Kylie), the Burns' (Kristi, Evan, Isaiah, Elijah), Neriah Graham, and of course Grandma, Grandpa as well as Great Grandma and all of us. It was a small gathering, but super fun for the boys!

We had a Buzz Lightyear pinata for the kids also and Daniel was getting a big kick out of it here as you can see. Caleb was the winning pull for the pinata and all the kids were scrambling to get the candy afterward of course. We also took some video of the pinata as well.

The night before, Grandma and Grandpa presented the boys with 2 photo books each that go through all the years of their life thus far. Grandma has been doing that with each of the kiddos, and they look at their books often!

Great Grandma Margaret and Grandpa are reading Naomi's book to her as she did not want to be left out of the fun!

Josiah was having a little bit of a hard time with Caleb and Daniel getting all of the attention and expressed days later that he wondered why noone loved HIM anymore. Poor oldest child, we love you very much and we talked him through how to be happy for others too. A hard lesson to learn, but glad we had the opportunity to help him. Josiah did enjoy playing with his buddy Colton and they played some Leapster together.

The party was a big hit for the boys and they talked about it many days after and enjoyed their gifts very much. Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us, it was a great time!