Thanksgiving 2016

Justin's pie of the month was appropriately sweet potato pie. I've been wanting to make this all year because I was so curious about it. This one is on a pecan crust and I made a second one on a regular crust for Thanksgiving.

I love the filling but I'm not in love with either crust. I'm going to try it again soon on a graham cracker pecan crust.

For FHE we made a poster of things we are grateful for. Erica's scribbles on the bottom are actually pictures of her teddy bear and a snake and Henry. I can't tell you which is which.

I had to bribe her with a tootsie roll to get her to wear this shirt for Thanksgiving. Totally worth it.

We went to my parents' house this year. Only 4 of 8 siblings were there but my aunt and her two boys also came plus a lone nephew Isaac, on the right who didn't go home to my sister's in AZ.

Henry had fun hanging out with the big boys and playing video games.

Sarah was missing cousins her age too so she hung out with my mom a lot and did Sudoku puzzles.

When Erica wasn't throwing snow balls at the windows with Mason, she was slowly working on her dessert. She would slide her spoon over her nose every bite.

The "cool kids"

The pie spread. See my sweet potato pie? It was homemade among the Marie Calendars. I kind of hung out by the pies to boast about my homemade pie and to watch people's faces as they ate it.

Henry and my cousin Daniel.

Playing with Grandma's new race car track

This was James most of the day...sleeping and being held by aunts.

I wonder what he's dreaming about. He also turned two weeks this day. He now weighs 8 lbs 1 oz (up 8 oz from birth) and is 21 inches long (up 2 inches) He eats and sleeps a lot so this makes sense.

Erica got a rare opportunity to play with my mom's collection of nesting dolls. She didn't even lose a piece!

On Friday, Justin's aunts and grandparents came to see the baby.

More, more, more!

More Baby J, that is.

We are still in the getting to know you stage. Here's what I know about him so far. 

He still has his dark hair and I'm enjoying it before the top falls out and he looks like an old man.

He likes to eat and would eat and sleep simultaneously all night if I'd let him.

His eyes are very dark but I think they'll be blue.

He does not like wipes.

He likes it when Erica talks to him.

His naps can be 3 hours or 12 minutes and I can never anticipate which. It's all about going with the flow and having no expectations of him or myself.

Until he can smile and give me positive feedback, I feel like everything I do he just finds tolerable.

Which is ironic since everything he does I find adorable. I just love love love him. Crazy how even the day before he was born I wasn't "feelin' it" and worried what that meant and then he's born and and BAM! insta-love.

I've been thinking of this quote from Elder Holland's April Conference address a lot lately

A wonderful young mother recently wrote to me: “How is it that a human being can love a child so deeply that you willingly give up a major portion of your freedom for it? How can mortal love be so strong that you voluntarily subject yourself to responsibility, vulnerability, anxiety, and heartache and just keep coming back for more of the same? What kind of mortal love can make you feel, once you have a child, that your life is never, ever your own again? Maternal love has to be divine. There is no other explanation for it. What mothers do is an essential element of Christ’s work."

With every birth of my children, I learn something new about God and myself. 

With Sarah, God taught me that I can do hard things.

Henry taught me that God is a God of miracles.

Erica taught me that God is good and blesses us beyond what we deserve or imagine.

Through James, I learned not to settle and be comfortable in what I have when God is trying to give me so much more--especially when the "getting" requires great sacrifice. His plans work even though they are hard at times. The Plan of Salvation works. His plans for families to be eternal works. His plan for me to have and love a 4th child even though my heart and hands felt full worked. There was room in my heart after all.

I'd Like to Introduce.....

James McKay Dye

Wednesday evening I'd been having contractions consistently but they weren't strong or painful. Here's my post it where I wrote times down while getting dinner ready.

They felt more like Braxton Hicks but nothing I did could get them to go away. At about 8 pm they were getting stronger so we decided to head to the hospital to have me checked. Luckily Nadine was here for dinner so she stayed while we headed over. I was super paranoid of delivering as fast as I did with Erica and not making it to the hospital in time. When I got there, I wasn't much more progressed than I was at my doctor's appointment the previous day. But after an hour, the contractions got more real, I did progress and got to stay. At 11 pm my doctor broke my water, at midnight I was DYING from the contractions and told the nurse if I'm not at a 10, I want an epidural. I was at a 7 so they called him in. I HATE epidurals and thought if he came in 2 1/2 hours like Erica, I could handle it. But he wasn't coming quickly so I called it. About a half hour after the epidural, I was at a 10 and he was ready. Three pushes and he was here at 12:52 am November 10.  I was surprised by the amount of hair and how dark it was.

When my doctor got there, I asked him if delivering babies is still amazing to him after all these years and hundreds of babies. He said yes. Later as he and the nurses were preparing for delivery, he explained further, "I have two jobs. I do this and on Friday mornings I work at the temple as a veil worker and these two jobs are the same."

He left one family to join another.

All my babies have this ball chin.

Justin brought the kids over after school Thursday. Which was still his birthday. Weird. Here are all the Dye kids together for the first time.

He weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz which makes him my heaviest baby by 9 oz and he's more than a pound heavier than Sarah and Henry were.

I'm smiling because I'm done! That was a long 9 months.

All dressed up and ready to go home.

He did not like being buckled but he didn't mind the car ride.

The big kids were still at school when we got home so Erica got a few moments with him on her own.

Here's an almost identical picture of Sarah and Henry 5 1/2 years ago.

And Sarah and Henry. Here we go again!

We like him.

Sarah Turns 8

Sarah was baptized on Saturday so now I'm going to post all about that and her birthday on October 27 in one gigantic post.

We started the morning off right with presents and cinnamon rolls. And a big thank you to my sister Rachel for coming over late the night before to do the streamers.

First up, Yahtzee.

An apron I made with fabric Justin scored at a yard sale. It probably cost 25 cents to make.

Magnetic tile art. I think she may now have every little girl craft kit there is.

Fashion plates. Remember these?

Full House season 4. She also got some of her favorite treats then it was off to school.

While she was gone, I frosted her cake. I really wanted to do an 8 shape and she really wanted an Oreo cake so this is what I came up with.

After school the kids squirted the extra frosting into their mouths.

Since her baptism was 9 days later, I didn't go all out on a party for her this year. My parents came over for dinner (homemade macaroni and cheese) and cake. We had to sing twice because Henry blew out all the candles the first time. I think he's used to adults letting him help on their birthdays.

Baptism day! Sarah had been so excited. She even made this list of people she wanted to include in her confirmation.

 Henry wanted a reverse mohawk so I told him he could long enough for a picture.

I'm pretty sure my child's baptism is the only reason I will ever let a picture of 9-month-pregnant me be taken.

I don't remember what Erica was upset about in this picture. She was pretty much tired and ornery the entire day.

Is there anything sweeter than an 8 year old in a baptism jumpsuit? Sorry no pics of Justin in his. I'm nice like that.

The other child being baptized was Reese who lives across the street. He has an amazing mom that took them both to take their pictures a couple of days before. Then she made this table display. Then she put all the pictures she took of Sarah in a small leather album.

Then she made Liahonas for them and gave them journals. And she gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. And their family is moving this week so she did all that while packing.

I made cupcakes. 48 of them. And incubated a baby.

Here are my parents with Sarah.

Then we went to my parents' house for a big old lunch with all the family. I love seeing everyone. Families really are the best.

My 8 Favorite Things about Sarah
1. She says she doesn't like chocolate. But she loves Oreos and Tootsie Rolls and Twix.
2. She is a math brainiac. She passed off all her subtraction and addition math facts a few weeks ago and her teacher said she did it earlier than any student ever.
3. She's my best helper and most obedient child. She's not a pushover and we butt heads a lot but that just makes me like her more.
4. She never complains about practicing the piano. Her teacher ended lessons for all her students in October except for Sarah. Sure, Sarah started later than the rest but I think she's her favorite.
5. Our bishop said he had never interviewed an 8 year old so ready to be baptized.(He's only been bishop since June but still) He said she gave the most thoughtful answers. (She did prep for the interview by reading the questions in Preach My Gospel).
6. Her primary teachers and the primary president have both told me how kind and patient she is with Sophie, the girl in their primary class that has Down syndrome. Sarah told me once that if Jesus came to our church, He'd want to see Sophie first.
7.  She watched 6 episodes of Little House on the Prairie during fall break. I'm not even mad, that's incredible.
8. She's just a good kid. But she came that way. I'm just trying not to mess that up.

Here are the pictures I took of her a few weeks ago. These are some all of my favorites.

This is at the end. Can you tell she's done?