Our little angel

Introducing...

Gabriel Whitacre

Born Monday, August 27 2007



7 lbs. 4 oz.

20 inches long

bits of blondish hair


...a real angel!

Busy as Bees

So I haven't been blogging in a little while. It's not that I haven't had stuff to write about; I've just haven't found the time to sit down and get it all out. Between doctors visits, Clint's new job, the new school year, and the impending baby birth, I'm one slightly worn-out mama.

Anyhow, the first major event is that Clint is a high school math teacher. He's been working on a teaching certificate and a friend from church told me that some districts in Utah are hiring teachers without certificates. So he registered on a teaching job website and , a couple days later, he had a phone call asking him to interview....only catch is that the school is nearly two hours away. Anyway, they offered him the job the next day. We felt it was too good to pass up, and he started the job the following day. Thankfully, he's commuting with another guy who lives nearby. That helps a lot...with gas, companionship, not falling asleep, etc. For now, we're planning to stay put. We really love where we live and hope this will lead to a job opportunity closer to home in the coming school year(s). And I'm so proud of my husband...this has been a goal of his for years now and it's fun to see it finally happen for him!!

We miss having him around...we've been really spoiled the last couple of years. And I am apparently incompetent without my hubby around, because Autumn broke her arm on the 3rd day he was gone. She was walking downstairs, tripped on one of the steps, and tumbled down five or six steps. Her elbow is fractured. All the doctors and nurses have been so sweet with her. They let her choose this awesome cast, to which they applied gold sparkles:


She has adapted SOO well to losing use of her right arm. I'm frankly amazed. We are praying hard for her this weekend; the doctor is going to x-ray her arm on Monday. If the bone has moved (which is a real possibility with this particular fracture), she'll have to have surgery so they can insert some pins in the elbow. Ouch!! But hopefully, she'll be OK.

In other news, I've been worrying myself sleepless that this baby will come while Clint is at work. He wouldn't have time to get here (unless he were already about to come home), so I've had visions of driving myself to the hospital in active labor, birthing all alone & then hoping the doctor and nurses believe me when I say I AM married. ;) My Mom and sister think I'm crazy for not just planning to have a neighbor take me to the hospital. But would YOU feel comfortable dropping a lady in labor off at the curb!? And me delivering a baby is more than any neighbor of mine needs to see, or than I want any neighbor of mine to see, thank you very much. SOOO... I asked my Dr. about inducing me and he's scheduled me for this Thursday. YEA!! I'll be squeezing until then. :)

The kids have been asking all sorts of questions about the whole birthing thing, lately. We have a book called How My Body Works, and reading the requested page about birthing to them the other day has opened up a whole can of worms. In our favorite ice cream parlor last night, the conversation went something like this:

J: Mom, how can a baby come out your PRIVATE PART!?!!
Me: Shhh...this isn't the place to talk about this. (...and it stretches.)
J: Oh. ....But what if it came out your BUM-BUM!?
Me: It won't. (looking around to see if anyone is eavesdropping on this unfortunate conversation) ...How's your float?
J: (Belches.) REALLY good!!

So, in short, life is keeping me humble. And we'll be sure to post when the little guy comes to stay.

Fun Weekend

Friday, we took the kids to the County Fair & rodeo. The biggest hit was probably the giant scone the boys shared. In their benevolence, they even handed over a couple microscopic pieces to their little sister.


During the rodeo, Jonah asked if he could do mutton racing next year. For all you city folk, that's when conspiring fathers set their little ones atop a sheep who races away at top speed, often dragging the kid through the dirt until said kid lets go, at which point he/she is trampled over until aforementioned sheep gets completely free. i said he could if he wants to, but made sure he noticed that nearly every child ran crying to his/her father after their performance. Clint may have been disappointed at my approach, but then he gets into rodeos much less than do i.

Yesterday, we went to a nearby reservoir so that i could make believe we still live near the beach. The thick stench of dead fish greeted us upon our arrival, reminding us that we do not in fact live near the beach. We still allowed the children to frolic in the water, which they greatly enjoyed. It was only on our way to the car that Clint noticed the sign: "By order of the Health Department -- No swimming allowed." Maybe that's why Jonah's back broke out in a rash almost as soon as he entered the infested water. It was an innocent mistake, but i don't think we'll be going back anytime soon!

But today was, in J's estimation, "a VERY lucky day." First, he has his first loose tooth! Then, a summer thunderstorm turned into this beautiful display:


Hope that put a smile on your face, too!!

Sum-sum-summertime!

Jonah loves to concoct ways to earn money. Since his AFV scheme, to rig a funny video and win thousands of dollars, hasn't panned out yet, he settled for a lemonade stand the other day. Two hours later, he felt rich after his three customers (one being his own daddy) paid him a little over $2.00. The sun was in their eyes, so this is the best picture I could get:

Budding Young Artists

My kids LOVE to paint. It's fun to watch their different methods. Jonah paints actual stuff:


Micah prefers the two-brush, pile as much paint as you can on the page without it ripping under all that weight-method:


And Autumn likes to paint slowly, one precise blob at a time:


After Clint walked in to check on the project, I said I hoped he didn't mind that M & A were wearing his white church shirts. The paint's washable, after all, I said. He said it was no problem. What a guy!! (Of course, these are really his old discarded shirts; I wouldn't have really let them use the good ones. Just wanted to see what his reaction would be, although I should have known he wouldn't get upset!)

Another Summer Camping Trip

We had a great time camping last weekend with my cousin Kelly and her hubby Bryan. We just traveled up the nearby canyon, pitched our tent and then bunked up with Kelly and Bryan in their new tent trailer. We felt really spoiled...especially while eating our yummy New York steaks grilled up by Bryan and the delicious BBQ chicken Clint made the next night. Among the fun things our kids found to do, scooting on their bums down a very steep hill ranked high. Here, Micah catches up to his little sister:


They also enjoyed "hiding" from Bryan, who was always a good sport about the children's games and could never seem to find them:

We were also visited by some little critters. Bryan and Clint fearlessly set out to discover the bandits. Their conversation went something like this:

B: Clint, open the window and see what it is.

C: I can't.

B: Just unzip the window cover.

C: Alison won't let me.

B: Why?

C: She's afraid.

Now, in my defense, I had visions of a giant bear claw sweeping through the opened window covering and snatching me up for a midnight snack. There have been a few attacks in the news this summer, and I didn't want my family watching me on the next report.

So Bryan was sent outside by his wife (noble sacrifice, Kelly! :) ), and he found a raccoon busily helping himself to the contents of a Rubbermaid container. In the morning, we took stock of the missing merchandise. Claw marks showed where he pried the lid open. He managed to escape with three Hershey bars, a roll, and a few Doritos (from a previously unopened bag). Didn't know the little guys were such camp food connoisseurs! We packed the food up better the next night, mostly to protect the remaining Hershey bars. This was nearly to Jonah's liking, who suggested an all-night watch rotation. He's pretty serious about his sugar!

Thanks for a great trip, B & K!!

Baby Gets Boppy!

It's hard to get as excited about baby stuff with #4, so I recovered the Boppy today to make it a little more exciting for both me and Baby (he's really into this stuff...i can tell already!)

Before, it had a plain denim cover. I found some cute vintage fabric at a yard sale, but didn't have quite enough for one side. So I pieced the top together with some soft yellow chenille (which is still making the inside of my nose itch like crazy!), then did the back in solid chenille, facing the opposite direction.

Here's what the top looks like:



And here's the bottom, as it looks to me (hard to get the belly out of the picture at this stage of the game!):