Savannah Ruth Jones

I know this was a huge surprise to a lot of people because I never really announced I was pregnant to begin with.  Do you want to know the awful reason why not?  I was waiting to get caught up on my blog.  Next time I'll make big news the priority.

Savannah was born on July 28th 2011.  Here are all the fun details:

About a week before the 28th My doctor said I was 50% effaced and dilated to a 2.  This would normally be very exciting news because Savannah wasn't due until August, but I was actually nervous.  Kimball had to go to Boise to take the bar on the 24th and wouldn't be home until late on the 26th.  I knew there was nothing he could do to change things so I just promised to move as little as possible until he made it home.  Beyond that I just hoped and prayed for things to work out.

Since you already know the end of the story I know there isn't much build-up about what happened so I'll cut to the chase.  By mid-afternoon on the 26th I had decided that even if I did go into labor before Kimball got home he certainly had time to get back before the baby was actually born so the kids and I went for a walk to the park.  I may have also done a few squats and lunges.  Having delivered my other two babies two weeks early I had decided I'd waited enough and was ready.  Kimball got home later that night and to my disappointment I was not in labor.

The next morning I had a doctors appointment and asked to see if things had progressed.  I hadn't felt any new contractions so thought my chances were slim, but was kind of hoping the exam might help things along.  I think the doctor knew what my real intentions were because that was the most uncomfortable exam I had ever had!  Later that night I had just let Kaden out of time-out when my water broke.

I should have realized right away because my water broke with Kaden too, but I was still terrified that I had wet my pants.  Between you and me, it wouldn't have been the first time.  So we finished putting the kids to bed and I did a little experiment to see if it was for real and sure enough it was!

The hospital was a memorable experience.  I had one of the sweetest nurses on the planet, but she wasn't exactly competent.  She got me set up just fine, but when it came to the I.V. things just went wrong.  She couldn't find the vein for a little while and decided to dig around until she did.  At long last she was done, or was she?  After a few minutes she came in and decided to put a little fluid into the I.V. to make sure she got it in the vein.  OK.  She pumped a little in and my arm started swelling up, my guess is she missed the vein after all, but my sweet little nurse was twisting my arm around at all different angles trying to decide the obvious.  Finally she asked me if my arm looked swollen.  YES!  She was still unsure so she got another nurse for a third opinion.  The next nurse gave a quick yes you need to try again and left me at the mercy of my sweet nurse.  So she took the first attempt out and tried to clean up the blood then put in the second attempt.  This time it was a success!!  Unfortunately I passed out from the whole ordeal.  I don't like to think I was a wuss, but to be honest that was the most traumatic part of the whole delivery.

One thing I learned from the experience is those little packages of smelling salts they have taped everywhere work really good.  One sniff and I was wide awake.

One other surprise I had was having to wait for an epidural.  I delivered Kaden and Jocilyn at the same hospital and was able to get the epidural as soon as I wanted it.  Madison Memorial has a different way of doing things.  I had to wait until I had dilated to a certain point.  I can't remember how far though.  Either way I wasn't allowed an epidural until about 4 am.  Beyond that you'll be relieved to hear I have no complaints.  Epidurals tend to have that affect.

Just after sunrise the doctor came in saying we were ready to push.  Thankfully Savannah was delivered after just a few pushes and surprised everyone with a ridiculous amount of beautiful hair.  The nurse joked that she was the first baby to use conditioner during her first bath.

She is the sweetest baby I could have asked for.  And very very happy!  Kaden and Jocilyn love making her smile.

Jocilyn goes back and forth between mothering and doting and becoming a little jealous.  Overall she does much better than I expected.  Even when she's jealous she's never mean to Savannah she just reverts to being a baby herself complete with sippy cups and baby talk.  Kaden doesn't seem to get jealous at all, just a little annoyed when she cries, but he is a very loving and sweet big brother.  I am so grateful for my sweet family.  I can't believe I have three children now and Kimball and I have been married for over eight years!  I suppose that means we really are in a serious and committed relationship with each other.

Hello again! + The Emergency Room

Let's face it.  I am a terrible blogger, but that said this is still better than I've ever done with a journal so I'm going to keep at it!

Because I have over six months of time to catch up on including some major milestones (new baby, kindergarten, etc.)  I've set a schedule for myself and within the next couple of weeks I'll hopefully be all caught up.

I suppose I should just start where I left off.  Kimball did in fact come home safely from Morocco, quite a bit sooner than we expected.  He was only gone 17 days in total.  Just long enough to pick up some souvenirs and realize Morocco is actually not hot just humid.  He loved the experience and is keeping his eyes open for any other small missions like this one.  For the time being I don't mind too much.  I always miss him when he's gone and am sure I always will, but I'm getting used to handling the kids by myself when he's away.  It is nice to play tag team when the kids are being a handful though.  I don't want anyone to misunderstand.  I wish Kimball never had to be away for even one night and I miss him like crazy every time he leaves.  But right now, that seems to be a part of what's necessary, so I'm trying to adjust.


Next order of business...

Our families first emergency room visit.

This next story is painful to tell because it begins with me being a know-it-all and ends with Jocilyn paying the consequences.

Living in Rexburg has many advantages, one of them being lots of family very close.  One night we decided to take advantage of the closeness and got together for dinner with Kimball's dad and Phyllis.  So we're all sitting down at the table when Phyllis tells me not to let Jocilyn stay in the chair she chose because she could fall over.  After looking at the chair (a plastic short patio furniture type) I decided she would be just fine and even if she did fall it would be on carpet and from not very high up.  She needed to learn to sit still in chairs anyway.  I was a soon-to-be mother of three after all so of course I knew what I was talking about.

I'm sure you can guess what happens from here.  Within about 15 minutes Jocilyn had tipped her chair backwards, and did she land on carpet?  Yes, but not before her head bounced off of the corner of the wooden table behind her.

...
...

Sorry, I was just swallowing my pride for a moment there.

She was of course balling and screaming and while we were cuddling her we realized she was bleeding a lot.  When we looked at the cut it didn't look all that big, but it was deep.  So thanks to my guilt and natural tendency to over react we took her to the hospital.

I hated explaining what happened to the nurses, over and over again.  I know I didn't really do anything wrong, but I'm always afraid they'll find a hiccup in my story and decide I'm an unfit mother and try to take my children away.  (Like I said, I'm a natural over-reactor.)

It turned out to be a good thing we took Jocilyn in.  They cleaned her up, rubbed some anasthetic on her cut, and used some staples to pin her back together.  Had we not taken her in, at the very least her scar would have been a lot bigger and possibly become infected.  That would be after a week or so of wondering if she had a concussion,  infection or brain damage.  Even the nurse turned out not to be scary.  She knew Kimball from when we went to school at BYU-I, and didn't declare me unfit.

She was such a trooper.  She didn't cry or anything once we were at the hospital, not even during the staples.  And she LOVED the bandage they gave her, pink and purple hearts!

Don't mind the pictures.  She's just hamming it up for the camera.  She was actually laughing through most of this, but wanted to play the part for the pictures.  My little drama queen, she just soaked in all that attention.  And please don't look to carefully at me, I'm almost nine months pregnant after all.

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

On Saturday the kids and I sent Kimball to Morocco.  I don't know if it was a jet plane or not, but how can you go wrong with John Denver?  He had to report in at 9:30 am, but didn't take off until 5 pm.  Gotta love the military.  

Since he left I've gotten a couple emails from him.  Apparently Morocco is really hot and humid.  Who'd have thought Africa would be warm in the summertime?    Is it their summertime?  They could be heading into winter for all I know.  Either way, its hot.  He says its pretty neat though.  The place they're keeping everyone is kind of like a hotel in a touristy area.  Complete with swimming pools so he's not exactly roughing it.  He hasn't gone into much detail about what his days are like, but he says his job there is really interesting.

He can't call or Skype, but he usually gets to check his email a few times throughout the day so if you want to drop him a line I'm sure he'd love to hear from everyone. 

So far the kids and I are doing fine.  He's supposed to get back at the beginning of June so its nothing like Basic Training or OCS when he was gone for months at a time.  Unless Kimball's lying Morocco is a very safe place to be at the moment especially where they're keeping him and he'll be back in just a few weeks so it really feels more like a great experience he gets to have free of charge, plus he gets to put to use a little of the training he's been getting the last couple of years.  That's how it seems to me at least.  

After dropping Kimball off the kids and I, and my Aunt Ranee headed up to Morgan to go to a rodeo!  My dad was taking pictures of the whole thing so I went to help with the sales end and my aunt went to watch my kids.  It was such a great day.  It was the perfect distraction for me and the kids right after leaving Kimball.  I was so busy all day I didn't have a chance to miss Kimball or feel sorry for myself.  And the kids loved the rodeo.  Between the dirt, horses, and cows they had a ball.  I can't believe my Aunt came all that way to watch my kids.  I was feeling sentimental I guess and didn't want to leave them with a baby-sitter all day right after sending Kimball off.  I don't know if it mattered to them much, but it made me happy to see them having such a great time.

The kids got extra lucky.  It turns out I had a distant cousin at the rodeo (I should have guessed...they're all over Utah) and he let Kaden and Jo ride his horse!  They had such big smiles, and Jocilyn was extra excited because just a few hours before I had told her she wouldn't be able to ride the horses which completely broke her heart. 

When I woke up that day I expected to be so depressed, so imagine my surprise to find its one I hope I always remember because of how great it turned out to be!  Don't get me wrong. I miss Kimball like crazy especially at night.  Which is why I'm writing this so late.  I'm not sure, but I think the fact that I'm always missing him makes the times when I have extra reason to be happy even more welcome than normal.  Does that make any sense?  Maybe it is time to head to bed.  I'll try to keep everyone posted on what news I hear from Kimball.  Of course I don't exactly have the best record with staying up to date, but we'll see how it goes.

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter this year!  It was very simple, just dying eggs, eating candy and of course a yummy dinner with family here in Rexburg.  The kids were so excited to be coloring eggs.  They both love eating a hard boiled egg so they spent the whole time talking about how great it would be to "hatch" them all.  Kaden had a hard time waiting.  I think he dropped half the eggs I gave him.  The poor kid has the slipperiest fingers I've ever seen!  We had a great time.

You'll have to excuse the nakedness.  That's how we roll at our house when it comes to food coloring.

In case you're wondering what Kimball is concentrating so hard on let me show you...

Its a Love Egg, Awww!

 Just before church I ran the kids outside to get some pics of them dolled up in their new Easter clothes.  We were rushing through the whole thing because I didn't want to be late, but I knew if it didn't happen in the first few minutes of wearing the clothes there would be a huge likelihood of stains, blood or some other mess that just wouldn't look right for an Easter memory.

I cannot believe how grown up Kaden is becoming.  He's such a cutie, pictures like this catch me off guard.  He looks like a handsome kid not my little guy.

Here's Jocilyn in one of her few cooperative photos.  Kaden taught her how fun it is to be silly for the camera and it really caught on.

Case in point.

This is what happened when I asked them to hug.  It turned into a tackle-fest.  My kids... got to love them!

I shouldn't like this photo.  Kaden is taking her to the ground and Jocilyn is holding on for dear life.  But I love it.  I'm pretending its a loving embrace between a brother and sister on Easter morning.  I guess things are all in the eye of the beholder right?  Wink, wink!

Grrr

In case you haven't heard we found out that Kimball did not pass the bar this time around.  He missed the pass rate by 0.2%.  Yup, that's right!  He needed a 280 to pass and received a 279.4.  It took us a couple days to heal up and accept what happened, but when we found out how close he came to passing we went through the process all over again.  0.2%... it still hurts a little talking about it.  I guess two months of studying just wasn't quite enough to make up for three years of post law-school life. 

Not to worry though.  Kimball is working hard again to retake the bar in July.  Despite how I may sound I'm actually really hopeful right now.  I'm more confident than before that he will pass this time around.  Three months has got to be enough time to cover that 0.2% of knowledge he needed the first time right?!  And despite how it may seem it doesn't set us off course that much from our plan.  Because Kimball was already going to Morocco he wouldn't have been able to take a job for a few months anyways.  Which means we'll only be about 3 or 4 months behind where we wanted to be.  In the long run that is hardly anytime at all. (Someone pointed this out to me the first day or two when we found out the results.  I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember who it was, but looking at it from this angle has made a huge difference for me.  Thank you whoever it was.)

The job in AZ is still what we're hoping for, though its a little less likely at this point.  Either way Kimball's been looking into lots of other positions that could be available so I think we'll be just fine.

Jocilyn's 3rd Birthday

My little girl turned three last week!  I really can't believe it, but that doesn't seem to matter.  She's still a sassy, flirty, pint-sized three-year-old princess.

We've been in Utah visiting my family for a little bit so we celebrated by going to McDonald's with a bunch of the cousins.  I think she had a great time.  I was a little too busy keeping the nuggets and fries stalked up to really tell.  Which reminds me; big thanks to my dad for supplying the photos, I wasn't going to get to them.

She loved opening presents.  And thanks to all her cute cousins I'd say her summer wardrobe is pretty complete for the next couple years. (Let's face it she'll probably be wearing the same size next summer as she is this summer.)

I also made cupcakes.  They were supposed to be purple, but they turned out kind of grey instead.  Now I know to be extra careful with the blue food coloring.  Regardless they had sprinkles so she seemed happy grey or no.

I absolutely love my little Jocilyn.  She keeps me busy.  She's constantly sneaking into something or trying to work her way around the rules.  But is still very sweet and kind.

Her favorite activities are probably play-doh and painting.  Its amazing!  She can sit and paint for an entire hour completely absorbed in her project.  She really loves to focus in on what she's working on and she's set for quite a while.

She also loves playing house.  She rotates between being the mom or the baby.  But I think Jo really loves being pampered and coddled so most of the time she's the baby.  Poor thing, hope she grows out of that soon!

She is certainly loved.  Her squeaky little voice and take charge attitude are an essential part of our family.  I'm so grateful to have her and cannot wait to see the adventures she has planned for us.

Hello...Anyone Out There?

In case anyone out there still checks my blog on occasion I thought I should give an update on my little family.  And incase no one checks it after six months of nothing I guess its more of a journal anyway so its still been on my to-do list.

I have an apology to make right up front.  I don't have any photos to put up.  As you'll soon understand we've been moving around a lot the last little while and on one of those moves my everyday camera was accidentaly put in storage which has about 90% of the photos I've taken of my family.  So be prepared for a lengthy post with no cute photos to spice things up.

Utah
The last update I gave Kimball and I were still in Utah waiting to go to a TDY training in October of 2010.  At the beginning of July 2010 we got a call asking if we could start at the end of that month instead.  Since we were pretty much sitting around waiting to do this training anyway we decided to go for it.  Two weeks later we were packed and on our way to Sierra Vista, AZ.

Arizona
We had such a great time down there.  You might think summertime in Arizona would be the worst thing in the world (I know that's what I expected), but it was really nice.  Sierra Vista has a really high elevation so the temp. only gets about as hot as a Utah summer would.  Plus the monsoon season lasts most of the summer.  A typical day usually involved a warm morning spent at the park, then down for a nap.  Right about then the clouds would come rolling in and we'd have a down pour for a few hours.  Most days the rain only lasted long enough to cool things off and we'd go swimming when Kimball got back from work.  If this sounds a little too perfect it probably is a little unrealistic, but this is how it was in my mind.  I really truly absolutely loved being there! 

On top of the weather we had a lot of great company too.  Kimball's sister Stephanie lives in Sierra Vista so we got to play with her family quite a bit.  As if that weren't enough his brother Danny was doing TDY there, the same time we were.  At least every weekend we were getting together with someone or everyone to play.  It was great!  It was so nice spending time with part of Kimball's family.  With so many brothers and sisters all over the country there are a few we don't get to see more than once a year at the reunion.  Having six months to get to know them and there kids was perfect!

While we were in Arizona Kimball started talking to his brother-in-law's brother (still with me here?) about a job as a lawyer.  He works as a civilian attorney for the military down there and thought some spots would be openning up that Kimball would fit into really well.  Before he could qualify he'd have to pass the bar first though.  So just after Thanksgiving Kimball registered to take the Idaho Bar Exam in February.  Before you have a chance to ask; yes, the job we're hoping for is in Arizona, but because its a federal position it doesn't matter what state he takes the bar in.  And since we registered later than normal we'd already missed most the deadlines for other states.

Idaho
Because he only had a couple of months to prepare, Kimball had to quit his job as a banker.  We were both sad to see this job go.  It had security, health insurance, a paycheck, and room to grow.  But with only two months to prep for the Bar Kimball had to study full time if he was going to be ready.  And we both agreed that this was the direction we wanted to go.

Thankfully Kimball's dad offered to let us move into their home in Idaho while they spent the winter down south.  So right after Christmas we packed up everything from Arizona and made the trip up to Rexburg, Idaho.  I have to say, going from a warm Arizona winter to windy, bitter, cold Rexburg isn't very fair.  I love Rexburg, I really do.  This is where I graduated, not to mention met my future husband, but seriously going from 60-70 degrees to negative whatever is just ridiculous!  At least spring is trying to show its face now and then.  It snowed yesterday, but its sunny today so it looks like things are starting to defrost.

One advantage to being back in Rexburg is more family.  Kimball's brother Bryan lives here with his family and his brother Ammon is here with his for a little while as well.  I'm glad Kaden and Jocilyn are getting a chance to meet and get to know so many of their cousins.  They've always been close to the ones on the Patterson side, but don't know many of the Jones Family, so that's been a really good thing.

The Bar 
Late February Kimball drove up to Boise and took the bar exam.  Between the two of us I don't know who was more nervous.  I know he wished he could have had an extra couple weeks to prepare, but you take what you get right?  In case you don't know the test is a real beast.  It takes place over two days involving 12 hours of test taking.  One day for multiple choice questions and another for essay questions.  Kimball thinks he probably passed, but is still pretty nervous.  We wont find out until April 14th so we have a few more weeks of waiting still.  If he passed then he can start applying for jobs as a lawyer particularly the one in Arizona.  If he didn't...well, the next test date is in July.

Morocco?
Most of Kimball's family has already heard some version of this part, but due to a small misunderstanding and a ridiculous round of telephone we have a few things to clear up.  Yes, Kimball will be going to Morocco for about 3 weeks with the National Guard.  No, he is not there yet.  And absolutely NO, he is not planning to bring his family with him and stay long term. 

Basically what's going on is some guy who is based in Morocco is going on leave for about 3 weeks in May and they need someone to fill his position while he's gone.  Kimball actually volunteered for this.  Can't say I blame him.  I was a little jealous when he first told me about it.  Though I'm less excited for him now that Lybia's become the mess it's become.  Kimball's still excited.  He's been training for a long time and is excited to get some experience behind him.  The timing works out good too.  He's been looking for a job to fill the time until he can work as an attorney, but its been hard to find much.

I'm not sure yet where the kids and I will go when he leaves.  It depends on what's going on at the time:  Did Kimball pass the bar?   Has he found a job in the meantime, and where is that job?  We have a few things to figure out before I'll really know what's going on.

Until then I feel kind of like the little engine that could.  "I think I can, I think I can."  That said I know all this waiting is a lot harder on Kimball.  But we're trying to enjoy things as they come and hopefully though our plans haven't really panned out before, we've finally found the right plan that will let us move on to the next part of our life.  I'll be sure to keep you posted at least every six months or so. (ha! ha!)