Going to Oregon, Caleb's birthday, and more sickness!

getting ready for some boxing!

so cute!!!

Sweet little Malachi!!

I love cuddling this boy

Aunt Kellie carrying 3 babies (she's pregnant)

The Hardy family together again for my Mom's birthday!

The Hardy family and Oregon nieces and nephews

Valentine's Day games, blowing q-tips through a straw into a bowl with a heart bulls-eye

Austin's turn

Betsy's turn

Samuel's turn

Caleb's turn

Playing Hershey's Kiss Memory with hearts

Caleb got a match!!!

Such a cute little Valentine

Gideon is helping Samuel do his HW

Caleb is 5!!  

Caleb asked for a race car, rainbow, marshmallow cake!

Caleb loves his Elmo he got

I can't get enough of this cute little chubby face!!

Austin was playing with Gideon in the ball pit

Such a happy boy!

It's been a busy couple of weeks as usual around here.  Malachi has been driving me a little nuts with his 2-year old shenanigans.  He colored all over himself with a purple dry erase marker (right after a bath) and as I followed the trail of purple marker all down the hallway on the wall and the carpet. I finally reached the end of his coloring with my $3000 piano covered in purple marker, he didn't miss a single key, (yes, I let out a scream), with the marker with lid off sitting on the colored piano bench. (After much scrubbing managed to get it all off). He got my deep blue roll on (kind of like icy hot for muscles) and rolled in on his lips like Chapstick an all over his hands and tummy before he started screaming. (We went through about a cup of coconut oil to try an dilute it, and he finally stopped screaming) at least he didn't rub his eyes. I had just finished putting all my papers and files into nice neat stacks all over my bed and he ran in and shoved them all over the floor. He took all the little clay people we had made to represent our family and send to Travis and broke them into little pieces. Aahhhh!!!!! He also stole my glasses and left shoe one morning when I didn't get up with him at 5am.  I barely found them in time to drive the girls to school.  I flew to Oregon for my Mom's 60th surprise birthday party.  Gideon came with me of course, but the rest of the kids stayed home, and my visiting teacher (she's awesome) stayed with them Friday and Saturday.  It was a really quick trip, I left early Friday morning (5am) and came back late Saturday night (11pm).  Gideon was a great travel companion, he was cute and cuddly, and very good, for a total of 6 hours flight time between two flights.  I ended up sitting next to men on both flights, which is always a little awkward with a breastfeeding baby, even if I am covered up.  A really nice gentleman (a grandpa) helped me get off the airplane and get my bags, and even wheeled it with me out to meet my sister.  It wasn't necessary, but was really sweet, and kind.  My sister Misha picked us up from the airport. I always forget how green Oregon is, it is awesome.  We ran a couple errands for the party and then I hung out at her house, playing with my nephews and helping to get ready for the party.  We went back to the airport and picked up Cristin, then went back to Misha's house and ate dinner, and finished the party preparations, and then drove over to my parent's house (my Dad took my Mom out to dinner) and decorated the house.  All the other guests arrived, and just before my Mom and Dad got home, we turned off the lights.  My Mom was so surprised, she couldn't believe both Cristin and I were there.  All her children were at the party for her, she loved it!  I loved it too, it was so awesome being home and with all my siblings, and my parent's friends who I've known all my life.  Everyone loved Gideon, and enjoyed holding him.  As part of the party everyone told funny stories about my Mom, it was fun to reminisce.   Then my Dad and Misha played a cello/piano duet, and then Misha and I sang a song to my Mom.  It was a very fun evening.  The next morning we had a breakfast of crepes with all the family there, it was really fun, then we took pictures, and it was time for me to go to the airport again.  Gideon was a little fussier going back, but still did awesome, and we lucked out and had an empty seat next to us on both flights.  I drove home, and relieved the babysitter and fell asleep exhausted, but happy.  The next morning woke everyone up and got them ready for church and went to church.  Caleb and Malachi had both started getting colds a few days before I left, but apparently they had gotten a lot worse, because Malachi couldn't stay in nursery because he was coughing so much.  So Betsy had to skip primary and watch both Malachi and Gideon in the Mother's room, while I played the piano.  Then during choir practice, Malachi was coughing so hard he threw up in the hallway, and Betsy had to take him to the bathroom and clean him up, while Samuel cleaned up the mess in the hallway.  I was so relieved when choir practice was finally over and I could take my poor, sick little boy home to take care of him.  It was also Valentine's day, so I made a fun scavenger hunt that I got from the internet and the kids and I all had fun playing the games while Malachi slept.  Now a week later Malachi and Caleb are both still coughing way too much, and Malachi has even had fevers and wheezing, so we didn't go to church today.  Even though I've had sick kids all week, it was Caleb's birthday on the 17th, so we celebrated his birthday with cake and ice cream and opening presents.  He had a great day playing with his new toys!  We have had a couple really nice days weather wise and enjoyed a few walks to the park.  Gideon had his well-baby check up on Wednesday, and he has not been happy about it, it had a fever for two days, and has had diarrhea the past two days, and started crying so much today, that I took him to the ER to see if he had an ear infection, They said everything looked good, and just gave him more tylenol and said he was probably still upset about his immunizations, and I took him back home.

Dr., and Hospital visits

Caleb with Joseph while at the hospital

smiling in my sleep! 

So this week has been a little crazy.  So right after I posted last week, Gideon started getting worse.  Sunday afternoon and all night long, Gideon cried and cried and cried, he would not be comforted at all.  He would cry until he fell asleep in exhaustion, and then just a few minutes later wake back up and cry some more.  I took him to the Dr. Monday morning as soon as I could get him an appointment.  The Dr. checked his ears and said he had a ruptured ear drum due to an ear infection.  The poor little guy was so miserable.  We got him some antibiotics and tylenol from the pharmacy, and I started him on them right away.  The ruptured ear drum will take about 3 months to heal on it's own.  We have an appointment on the 17th to check his ear and make sure it is healing, and won't need surgery.  Malachi was still not feeling good for a while, but slowly started feeling better and sleeping better.  After school on Monday, Joseph came home from school with an ice pack on his finger, and said his finger hurt real bad and his head hurt, and he thought he had a mild concussion due to getting shoved into the wall during a dodge ball game at school.  He also said he got real mad and kicked the door to the gym and left.  He skipped dinner because he didn't feel good and went to bed.  On Tuesday he said his finger still hurt really bad, I told him even if it was broken, it would probably just needed to be taped together, and I didn't have time to take him to the Dr. because Betsy had her physical therapy appointment and I had my OB-GYN appointment, and they had all their church activities.  By Wednesday, his finger was hurting even worse, even with the ibuprofen, so I gave in and took him in to the Emergency Room as soon as I got the other kids off to school.  They x-rayed his hand and sure enough there was a chip in the bone on the joint of his finger.  There was also a hematoma underneath the nail bed.  They splinted his finger, and told him to wear it for 4 weeks, then follow-up with the Dr.  We rushed to the Dentist office for our Dentist appointments (for Joseph and I) and got our teeth cleaned.  Poor Caleb and Malachi were getting so tired of waiting in offices or lobbies.  I didn't blame them we had been in offices since 7:30am and by the time we were done with the dentist it was almost 1pm.  We got some lunch and dropped Joseph off at school, and then went home.  I also had Austin's appointment that afternoon, boy was I tired of having appointments, at least Gideon slept through most of it.  Gideon was finally feeling better, and smiling and acting happy again.  He still hates taking his medicine, and is a little fussy, but is doing so much better.  I'm still not getting a lot of sleep, but getting 1-2 hours of sleep at a time, is much better than only 15-20 minutes at a time.  I've been trying to get the house back in order, it turned into a disaster zone after dealing with a sick baby for so long, and not spending any time on the house.  We finally got it cleaned and organized again yesterday.  Hopefully things will get a little bit back to normal now.

Grandma Steven's visit and Daddy came home for 10 days

Grandma Stevens with baby Gideon 

Austin styled Malachi's hair

Hello cute baby!

Daddy and Baby Gideon

Daddy and Gideon looking at each other

Daddy enjoying his massage chair while holding his baby, isn't he a lucky guy!

Daddy blessing baby Gideon

We got lots of snow!  Caleb loves playing in it

Daddy put Caleb and Malachi up high in the closet

Daddy holding his sweet little Gideon

Such a cute, happy boy.  He found Betsy's stamps, and put stamps on his forehead.  

close up of baby gideon

I'm so sleep deprived that I can't remember most of what has been going on in our house, but I should be able to give you some highlights.  Grandma Stevens came to visit.  She loved holding the baby, and it was nice to have her there to help out.  Travis was supposed to arrive home Jan. 12th, but his flight got delayed, so instead we picked him up at the airport on the 13th.  It was so nice to have Daddy home for a few days.  He loves his new baby, and Gideon loves him.  Malachi was super excited that Daddy came out of the the phone.  (he always talks to him via Facetime on my phone).  Travis took him Mom to the airport, and then went to IKEA and bought some organizing bins, and helped to get the basement organized better.  We went to the USO for a family game night and had a lot of fun, but driving there and back with the four oldest shoved into the 3 back seats didn't go over well, we will really need to get a new car when Travis gets back this summer.  On the 24th we drove Travis to the airport and he flew back to Jordan.  Gideon got sick the next day.  He is really congested, and has gotten worse each day until today.  He either cries or sleeps, and barely has any voice left, so just sounds hoarse and incredibly pitiful when he cries.  He throws up all his milk, if I can get him to eat any, and only sleeps about 10-20 minutes at a time.  I have been doing hardly anything but hold the baby and take care of him, with a few loads a laundry run, due to him throwing up on me all the time and needing clean clothes and blankets.  It has been really hard on Malachi, because I haven't been able to take care of him very well, but Caleb has been a great helper.  And when the older kids get home they have been helping out too.  I cancelled as many of my appointments as I could, but I did take Austin to an orthodontist appointment and she needs $5000 worth of braces and treatment for 2 years, which doesn't even include implants for the top front teeth she is missing.  I finally asked our home teacher to come and give Gideon a blessing yesterday, and he seems much happier and is eating better, so I think he is finally starting to get better instead of worse.  He is still stuffy, and throwing up but not as much.  Our home teacher's family even took all the kids to church for me today, so I could stay home with Gideon.  I keep praying for him to get better, it breaks my heart that he is so miserable, and I haven't had hardly any sleep at all, I'm so tired, and I really need to get my house back in order.

Birth of Baby Gideon Asher!! Christmas and Grandparents!

Gideon Asher Kirkman born December 14th, 2015 at 5:26 am weighing 7 lb 3 oz and 20 inches.

Caleb and Malachi meeting Gideon for the first time

Samuel sitting with Santa Claus

Betsy trying to get Malachi close to Santa Claus (he was scared of him)

All the kids with Santa Claus

On their carriage ride with Grandma

Malachi really liked Caleb's dinosaur he got from Santa

Caleb is the cutest little Santa Claus

Betsy with her Jingle Bells

Samuel makes a cute Rudolph the Red Nosed-Reindeer

My Mom and I walking the halls of the hospital during my labor.  I think we ended up walking just under 2 miles, before the contractions got too intense

Baby Gideon getting weighed

He found a finger to suck on

Smiling in his sleep

Austin and Gideon

Samuel and Gideon

Betsy and Gideon

Sweet little baby boy.  

Caleb at his Preschool Christmas party

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Joseph and Gideon

Betsy dressed up as "Anna" from Frozen for School

Austin going Christmas Caroling with the YW

Joseph and Grandpa Hardy at his court of honor

Grandpa Hardy taking a nap with Gideon

Grandpa Hardy giving Joseph some much needed "male bonding" time

such a sweet baby

Caleb loved getting two oranges in his stocking

Malachi loves his new blanket

Malachi especially loved climbing on the presents

Austin at her orchestra concert, she is the one in the back with the Santa hat

Cute little Christmas baby

Joseph loves his new chess board

Austin was happy to get some new dresses

Malachi loves his new football

Betsy is ready to dance

Joseph is happy about his binoculars 

At the bug museum with Grandma and Grandpa Hardy

Such a sweet little boy, growing so fast

Austin loves her little brother

I just love those chubby cheeks

Caleb loves Gideon too

Gideon with Grandma Stevens

Austin and Malachi

Baby Gideon almost 4 weeks old

So obviously a lot has happened since my last post. So on Sunday the 13th at 11:30pm, I woke up to my water breaking.  I have never had my water break on it's own, every single time, my water has broken right before I start pushing, so I was quite surprised.   I hadn't had any contractions yet, but I called the hospital to see if they wanted me to come in or wait.  They told me to come in so they could get the antibiotics started.  I called the babysitter, who watched the kids in October, and asked her to come over, and changed my sheets and put my clothes in the laundry, cleaned up the carpet, where my "water" leaked, and packed my hospital bag.  Then I woke up my Mom and told her that we needed to go to the hospital.  The babysitter arrived, and I gave her instructions, and my Mom drove us to the hospital.  I still hadn't had any strong contractions, but they started soon after arriving at the hospital.  They checked me, and I was still at 3cm, but my water had indeed broken, and was still leaking out lots of fluid.  It was so weird, I'm not used to that part.  They finally got me moved into a room and started me on an IV and antibiotics, they gave me that first dose around 2am, so they needed to get one more dose in about 6am in order for the antibiotics to have their full effect.  My Mom and I walked around the hospital in between them monitoring my contractions.  I had also been texting Travis about my progress.  We ended up walking almost 2 miles according to my Mom's tracker, going back and forth on the labor and delivery floor.  My contractions were getting pretty strong and close together by 4am.  After that, I just concentrated on  getting through the contractions.  They checked me and I was at 6cm, but not long after I started wanting to push, so they got everything ready and checked me again and I was ready to push.  After several minutes of pushing, Baby Gideon Asher Kirkman was born December 14th at 5:26am weighing 7 lb 3oz and measuring 20 inches long.  I got to hold Gideon right away, and we just got to cuddle together for the first couple hours.  Such a sweet little spirit, I love the strength of the spirit surrounding the birth of new child.  I always feel so close to heaven during that time.  I'm so grateful that my Mom was able to be there, it was a special experience to have her there with me, since my husband couldn't be.  We did get to Facetime with Travis, so he got to see his new little son.  Gideon nursed well right away, and they finally weighed him and bathed him.  He is a good, healthy baby boy.  My Mom and I took turns holding him, and I got to shower and get cleaned up.  I took some Tylenol and Ibuprofen to help with the after birth pains, and tried to sleep as much as I could.  That afternoon, my Mom went home to take care of the kids.  I stayed in the hospital for 2 days with Gideon, since he couldn't come home for 48 hours, since they weren't able to get that second round of antibiotics in me before I gave birth.  I have always gone home 24 hours after birth, but I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet of the hospital room, and having food delivered to my bed.  The first day I didn't have much of an appetite, but by the second day I was feeling a little better.  A friend picked Gideon and I up from the hospital on Wednesday the 16th by 9am, and we were able to come home.  It was nice to be home in my own comfortable bed, and to see my sweet little Caleb, and Malachi (the other kids were at school).  My Mom is such an angel, she has been absolutely wonderful in the way she took care of me, my kids, the cooking, and the house.  I don't know what I would have done without her.  The sleep deprivation has been pretty rough.  The kids still had school, that week, but my mom helped to get them off to school, and she let me sleep as much as could during the day, since I was so tired from being up in the night with Gideon, Malachi, and Caleb.  Caleb started waking up in the night again after I went to the hospital.  Gideon is loved by everyone, and there is always someone wanting to hold him.  Malachi has had a rough time  adjusting to not being the youngest anymore, but is doing a little bit better now.  My Mom was able to get all the kids to their activities.  Austin had an Orchestra concert, Caleb had a Christmas Preschool program, and on Saturday my Mom took them to a Christmas party on post that I had signed the kids up for, where they got presents from Santa, played games, and got their faces painted.  My Mom even took them to church all by herself on Sunday, she definitely wins the Super Grandma award.  Sunday evening my Dad flew to Kansas and arrived at our house.  The kids loved having Grandpa around to play with.  I liked that there was someone to wrestle Joseph to the ground!  Joseph went on a winter campout for 2 days during a snowstorm, My Mom and Dad stayed at a hotel, but took turns coming over in the morning to help me out, so I could get a little more sleep, since Malachi would wake up by 5am every morning, and Gideon is still waking up every hour or two.  They took the kids swimming, and to an insect museum, and to several activities on post.  Christmas Eve, Caleb got an ear infection, so I had to take him to the hospital to get him some antibiotics, I had given him some Tylenol to help with the pain, and he was being pretty silly and hyper from it.  We also had a Middle Eastern Christmas Eve dinner, my Mom made hummus, and sfeehas, and we had baklava for dessert, then we read the nativity story, and Twas the night before Christmas.  Christmas morning was full of present opening chaos.  The kids had tons of gifts between both Grandma and Grandpa Hardy and Grandma Stevens, and then all the stuff from Soldier's Angels.  The kids had fun tearing everything open, while Malachi enjoyed climbing and jumping on the presents.  We had our cinnamon roll Christmas Tree for breakfast with bacon, scrambled eggs, and Orange Juice.  We spent the day playing and relaxing, and had a nice ham dinner.  My Dad was quite the handy man while they were here, fixing my kitchen sink faucet, putting together bikes, cleaning out the garage, and many other projects, although I think the one he was most proud of was fixing the stove.  Samuel had gotten angry, and I went him to his room for a time out, but he pushed too hard on the display/timer of the stove to set the time for his time out, and it broke out of it's frame, so my Dad had to pull out the stove, unscrew the back (sliced his finger doing it), and take out the display, and took it to the hardware store where 3 associates tried to help him figure out how to fix it, but they had no idea, so my Dad finally bought some wire, and managed to hook it into the display to hold it in place, and so far it has held!!  My Mom and Dad left the evening of the 27th, to get ahead of a snowstorm predicted to come during the night.  We were sure sad to see them go, they were a great help.  The kids and I managed to get through the next week without any other adults around.  But the church and chaplain spouses helped by bringing in dinners, so at least I didn't have to worry about cooking.  We tried to make it to church last Sunday, but when I got everyone in the car to leave to go to church, the car wouldn't start.  The battery was completely dead.  One of the kids must have gotten in the car and left a light on or something.  I tried to jump start the car with our portable jump starter, but it was dead too, after trying for 20 minutes to get the car started, saying prayers, and Malachi, Caleb, and Gideon all crying, I gave up and sent everyone back inside.  I plugged in our portable charger for the next 40 minutes, then tried one last time to get it started, but it didn't work.  For some reason we were not meant to go to church that day.  We all changed back out of our church clothes.  Later that afternoon a friend came over and jump started it for me, but since I no longer needed to go anywhere, I just pulled it back into the garage.  So, Monday when I needed to run errands, our neighbor came and jump started it.  Then we ran our errands, never turning off the car, and after that the car worked again.  I was changing Gideon's diaper, and Samuel came in and exclaimed that Gideon's "vocal" cord fell off.  I started laughing and said that he meant to say his umbilical cord., silly boy.  Gideon passed his hearing test finally after the third attempt, and has been gaining weight rapidly, at already over 9 lbs now.  He is a healthy, happy, baby boy.  We Facetime with Travis everyday, so he is getting to watch his baby grow.  Travis' Mom flew in the evening of the 6th, and we've been enjoying her company for the last several days.