Its official…Lajuana is expecting! We just found out and we are all very excited! She’ll be due in February. Many of our friends can relate to our internal struggle with knowing when you’re done having more kids. Lajuana and I fasted and prayed a lot to know and at different times we both had conflicting thoughts. However, we both knew that we wanted one more. At the same time we were comfortable with no kids in diapers, we’re getting older, fears about the birth (just look back at the interesting birth stories of our kids), busy life schedules, and I’m super busy in school. In short we had a lot of things holding us back. Then after thinking about it more and more we realized that we needed hope and faith. The great examples of our many friends have provided us with true inspirational stories of lives lived by faith and the subsequent abundance of blessings. So with some hope and faith our fears are set aside and we are really excited to have another one join our family!
I have found that most people (outside of Utah) think having more than 2 kids is a large family! When I tell people I have 3 kids I’m amazed at their reaction like we’re single handedly repopulating the earth. I wonder what they’ll say when I tell them we’ll have 4 kids. So far we’ve only announced the news to family and some friends and neighbors that happen to be in ear shot. Here are some funny comments so far:
“Wow…really?”
“So when are you guys ever going to stop having kids?”
“At this rate your kids are going to be in college before you finish”
“Are you trying to get a TV program…only a few more to beat out that woman with 18”
(A funny one from my Mom) “That’ll make 12 grandkids now…no more after that one cause I can’t have 13”
“At this rate you’ll still be having kids when you’re a grandfather”
So what funny or crazy things have you heard people say about your growing family size????
Not sure if we are going to find out early if it’s a boy or girl…but if we do find out we’ll let you know. Thanks for all of your love, support, and examples. I’m sure Lajuana will have more postings to add later.
John
Friday, June 26, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
More Visits, More Fun
We had a fabulous visit with Karin and family. It was a lot of fun reacquainting ourselves, especially the kids (for whom 2 years is a lifetime). We had a sleepover every night, Hannah was in heaven having so many girls in the house, and John was so happy to have someone to play games with. They bought us Settlers of Catan and we’ve been playing it non-stop ever since. Garrett and Z. played whenever the adults were not. Hannah and A. are just two peas in a pod. They holed up in Hannah’s room most of the time, playing with Polly pockets and putting on “make up” that Aunt Denise gave her for her birthday. Kevin tagged along with whatever the big boys were doing. Karin’s daughter B. (3 ½) was busy getting into everything, especially food they got from Trader Joe’s. Her favorite phrase is “Awwwww, WHY?” which she said every time we took things away from her or got her down off the table or made her stop climbing the outside of the stairs. Their littlest, L. was the belle of the ball for sure. Her feet were rarely allowed to touch the ground because Hannah and Garrett wanted to constantly carry her around (even though she can walk like an expert).
I got to introduce Karin to a friend of mine who has become very active in supporting natural childbirth, especially VBACs. She is in the process of becoming a doula. They had met through some VBAC websites, and realized they both knew me. Sarah came over and it was great to listen to them and share experiences and wisdom (even though Jared rolled his eyes at us a few times over his book while we sat there gabbing for 2 hours). It was almost like we were sitting outside the Villa once again; letting the kids run wild while we vented, supported each other’s opinions, and learned about each other.
We went to a kite festival, where there were also a lot of carnival type rides and a climbing wall.
We went to the Field Museum, where we saw "Sue" the dinosaur, real treasure from a pirate ship (no pictures allowed), played dress up in a forest, built towers with blocks, and played musical instruments from around the world.
We went to a living history museum, where the kids dressed up once again, this time as pioneers, and we saw a little bit about how frontier life was back in the day. We also went down to our river walk and walked around a little. But the path is often RIGHT NEXT to the water and we were all afraid of our crazy sleep-deprived children falling into the water. So we didn't stay too long.
I know Karin would be nice and forget to tell all the mistakes I made: like when we went to the kite festival, I took us to the wrong parking lot and we had to walk a million miles across a field. The day after they had traveled thousands of miles to come and see us. Welcome to Illinois! Walk a mile with your baby, toddlers, and all the diaper bag supplies you can carry to get to the fun!
And how I planned for us to go to the Field museum on Wednesday because it's free that day. Then finding out they changed the free days to one Monday a month in the summer, which happened to be the day before I found out. So we decided to still go, but they had to pay LOTS of $$ to get us in (prices are seriously outrageous, that's why I so frugally prepared to go on the free day). I am such an idiot. But now I've worked out the mistakes, so you can come back any time Karin, really. It will be better. And any other friends who come visit will benefit from the mistakes I made. I'm much wiser now.
Really! Come and visit us!
I got to introduce Karin to a friend of mine who has become very active in supporting natural childbirth, especially VBACs. She is in the process of becoming a doula. They had met through some VBAC websites, and realized they both knew me. Sarah came over and it was great to listen to them and share experiences and wisdom (even though Jared rolled his eyes at us a few times over his book while we sat there gabbing for 2 hours). It was almost like we were sitting outside the Villa once again; letting the kids run wild while we vented, supported each other’s opinions, and learned about each other.
We went to a kite festival, where there were also a lot of carnival type rides and a climbing wall.
We went to the Field Museum, where we saw "Sue" the dinosaur, real treasure from a pirate ship (no pictures allowed), played dress up in a forest, built towers with blocks, and played musical instruments from around the world.
We went to a living history museum, where the kids dressed up once again, this time as pioneers, and we saw a little bit about how frontier life was back in the day. We also went down to our river walk and walked around a little. But the path is often RIGHT NEXT to the water and we were all afraid of our crazy sleep-deprived children falling into the water. So we didn't stay too long.
I know Karin would be nice and forget to tell all the mistakes I made: like when we went to the kite festival, I took us to the wrong parking lot and we had to walk a million miles across a field. The day after they had traveled thousands of miles to come and see us. Welcome to Illinois! Walk a mile with your baby, toddlers, and all the diaper bag supplies you can carry to get to the fun!
And how I planned for us to go to the Field museum on Wednesday because it's free that day. Then finding out they changed the free days to one Monday a month in the summer, which happened to be the day before I found out. So we decided to still go, but they had to pay LOTS of $$ to get us in (prices are seriously outrageous, that's why I so frugally prepared to go on the free day). I am such an idiot. But now I've worked out the mistakes, so you can come back any time Karin, really. It will be better. And any other friends who come visit will benefit from the mistakes I made. I'm much wiser now.
Really! Come and visit us!
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