Anniston Olivia Schow

The 9 month journey of cooking up Anniston was a pretty good one. Of the 3 pregnancies, I would say this one was the best. The weather was good and I was not working at a desk all day so I was able to stay active and it made a huge difference. I also did prenatal videos almost daily and continued running on the treadmill and lifting weights a few days a week until about 8.5 months. I had less swelling overall but a ton of heartburn! I ended up gaining 37 pounds instead of the 49 I gained with the other two. Hopefully this will make my recovery slightly easier.

 

20 weeks

                                                                         26 weeks

                    I froze my poor family to death. The house was usually at 65 degrees.

 My sweet friends Jen and Kim bought this shirt for me when I didn't win a contest with the above picture.

 

34 weeks

   We expected Anniston to come about 2 weeks early because that is what the other two did, but she wanted to bake in the oven a little bit longer. I was scheduled to be induced on the 27th and LDS hospital called me on the 26th to give me instructions for checking in. They told me to call them at 6am and that the kids were not allowed to visit us in the hospital at all. For some reason, probably hormones, this phone call majorly stressed me out. I did not want to be induced and I was really upset that the kids would not be able to be there because of the flu season. At 9 o'clock that night I started having a few contractions and by 2 am I woke up with consistent painful contractions. I layed there for an hour timing them and then got up and showered. By 3:30 I figured it was time to wake Bryce up and head to the hospital.
Miraculously my good friend Mindy was working and was my first nurse until 7:30 am when her shift was over. She was there when we checked in with Bentley and it was so great to see her again.
The whole experience was great. I had a fabulous anesthesiologist who explained everything to me and made it so that I could feel a little bit, but was not in pain. Dr K broke my water at 6:30am and our beautiful baby girl was born at 10:25am.  She weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long.
                              This is me waiting and a pic of Bryce snoozing on the couch.

 Anniston cried when they took her over to check her out, but as soon as they layed her on my chest she quieted and just looked at me.

 Love Dr. K. He is such a nice guy and does such a great job. Anniston had the cord wrapped around her neck twice which was scary, but he was able to get it off with no big issues.

 

 The first to arrive that day were Jason and Jenae. Jase had a little cold so he didn't hold her, but it was great to see them and nice to have the support.

                                                          Nani with grandbaby #3

Even though her papa had just had a knee replacement 12 days earlier, he still hobbled his was on crutches to see her.

 We left the hospital Sunday after lunch, went home to shower and rest for a little bit and then headed up to my parents' to introduce her to her big brother and sister. They were both thrilled to meet her. Jayda had been begging to see her all day long.

 First family pic 

 We were lucky to have Landon and Melissa here for a few days so they could meet her as well. It meant a lot to me that they saw her.

Christmas 2014

Our Christmas this year was fairly simple. We were busy with trying to find a new car, my dad getting a new knee and me just waiting for the baby to be born any day. But we still made time to have a few fun memories as a family.

Below are pics of the Parker's 2nd annual Christmas party. Everyone gets together for treats and hot chocolate and somehow Santa magically knows that we are there and pays us a visit with a surprise for each of the kids. So much fun.

For the first time ever we went to the ward Christmas party where Santa visited as well. Jayda said she wanted a baby doll and a barking dog. Bentley wanted a Captain America shield. Santa was super cute and his bells jingled as he laughed.

 

 

 The weather was crazy this year in a good way. Our first storm was not until Christmas morning so on Christmas Eve we made our own snow to play with inside. It was a mess, but lots of fun.

 Jayda enjoyed sticking her face in it, crazy girl.

 Pathetic as it is, this is the only pic we got of Christmas. We were too busy enjoying the experience of it. Santa brought the barking dog and the Captain America shield along with tools, barbies, ninja turtles and lots of other great prizes. Looks like the kids were good this year.

The party month

October seems to be a party month for us. We love to do all of the fall festivities and the kids are becoming extremely interested in all things Halloween. The first thing we did was paint a few of the pumpkins that grew in our garden this year. We were able to grow 9 pretty decent pumpkins.

 Our second adventure was to the Mabey Family Pumpkin patch with the neighbors. Anna's family owns the patch and it is huge! She let us pick out a few more pumpkins to take home and took the kids for a ride on the 4-wheeler which was the hit of the trip.

 Here are all of the neighborhood kids we hang out with, except for one. If you look really closely you can sing my stinker of a son hiding. He refused to come out for a picture and I wasn't going to fight him on it. I am picking my battles with him lately because he is once again proving that 3 is not my favorite age.
(Navy, Molly, Missy, Daphne, Ryker, Mia, Scotty Jayda)

 Prince Bentley decided to come out after all the kids had done their picture and struck this pose for his very own pic.

 And this one.

 All the mamas

 Next activity was another pumkin patch which we have been to almost every year with the Morgan family. It was a fun night because we were with them, but I think we will pick a different patch to go to next year. This time it was half as big and super unimpressive.

 The Saturday before Halloween we headed over to our favorite place, Dick's Market for their trunk or treat and then ran to Scotty's first birthday bash. Jen knows how to throw a party and went all out with taco stands, piñatas and gift bags.

 That night was Jayda's annual Halloween dance performance at the rec center. The kids did the carnival first and surprised us when they wanted to go down the gigantic inflatable slide a million times. It gave me a bit of anxiety to watch them climb up the steep stairs but I am so glad they have each other and they loved it!

 The Wednesday before Halloween was the church kiddie carnival and dad was working so I took the kids over by myself. They had a blast. Last year I took Jayda through the haunted house and she was not scared at all and asked to go again this year, but as soon as we were inside and all she saw was dark she cried and would not go in. We decided to go play a different game instead, but while we were in line Bentley said, " Mom, let's leave Jayda and go in the haunted house." So that's what we did!

 The day before Halloween Jayda had her class party but they weren't allowed to wear costumes. They could do crazy hair or crazy hats so this is what we ended up with. She didn't want me to do crazy hair, but once she saw it in the mirror she laughed so hard she cried. I had to ask her if she was ok. Then she was worried that it really wasn't crazy hair day and she would be the only one looking so lovely. When we pulled up to school and she saw all the other crazy haired kids she was relieved. One of her good friends even had the same hair-do.

 Halloween was our neighborhood party, work party, visiting grandma and grandpa "Near" and then trick or treating with Nanny and Papa. They ran from house to house and had a blast. They also loved sitting out on the porch and handing out candy to everyone who came to the house. It was a jam packed day!