So Many Changes

I guess I should start with the new baby. How is it that I have forgotten to post pictures of him in the last eight weeks?! He is totally adorable. He was 6 lbs. 4.5 oz. and 19 3/4 in long. Now he's 10 lbs. Here he is--

Lincoln Willem Van Horn

Newborn

2 Weeks

2 weeks

1 month

6 weeks

Now he's smiling and content for longer periods of time. His siblings adore him.

The other crazy stuff going on in our lives started the day Lincoln was born. That same afternoon, John got a phone call about a job that we have been waiting for since February. He applied for the job in January, and went through the whole interviewing process over about three weeks time, only to find that they needed to wait three months before they could hire him. We weren't sure they would actually stick to that, and so our hopes had diminished quite a bit by this time. But, the offer became official three weeks after Lincoln was born and we immediately started preparing for our move to Iowa.

Those preparations meant working on the house to get it ready to sell. We knew we had to do something with our kitchen since we destroyed it and never built it back up. It's more like we started a bunch of projects that never got finished. With the help of my mom and her mad painting skills, my dad and his wood working (plus so much more) skills, and of course the help of several professionals (for texturing, countertops, and tile floors), we got the house and kitchen looking beautiful in just three weeks.

Floors all torn up

New tile

New granite counter tops, tile, and bead board

Dinette area

John has already moved to Iowa to start his job. He has been gone for one week now. We already miss him lots, but we are doing all we can to sell our house so that we can move up there with him and save him from his cracker box living situation.

photo update

Here is the latest photo update on me--don't mind my face, I was feeling quite sick that day.

Only two weeks left!!!

Upon Request

My brother has requested that I share photos of me now that I am about eight months pregnant. But not only do I have a picture of me now, I also have pictures of me with all my previous pregnancies at about the same time. It is quite amazing how huge I can get. I think this time around, I have been a little smaller and been able to keep the extra weight off everything but the midsection. Let's take a look...

Here I am at nine months with Breanna

Here I am at eight months with Brett

Here I am at nine months with Kaylee

Here I am today at eight months with Lincoln

Do you see a difference? I sure do. Yikes for the first three. I should post all sorts of comparison pictures, but I thought this would be good enough. So Sean, there you go. Request granted.

Dining Re-paint

I must be going crazy. I need to keep busy, and one of the things that is fairly easy and cheap to do in our house is paint. So, the past two weeks I had my mom help me attack our dining room. It never was fully finished, so we took a total of 5 days to get the job done. Here is what our dining room has gone through in the last almost 3 years.

This is what our dining room was when we first moved in. We used it as a living room for short time.

Then we thought we would go bold by actually using it as a dining room, and painting it red.

Notice at the very top of the ceiling, the molding is still yellow. We never painted the floor boards either.

Almost 2 1/2 years later, I got out white painted and slopped it all over that red paint.

Plus I finally painted the top crown molding.

We decided to make the room a little more sophisticated.

And we're finished. Well, I still have to re-caulk the windows, and put up the curtains, but that's nothing compared to all the scraping, priming, and painting we did. Thank you mom for all the help!

I'm very proud of this dining room. It needs new carpet, but that will have to come later. Now on to Brett's room!

Really? Do I have to come up with a title?!

You know it's been way too long since your last post when you can't even remember the website to your own blog. Yikes!

I feel like a slacker. I have friends and family that keep their blogs updated all the time, and I just don't. I don't have a whole lot to say I guess. I try to wait until something exciting happens worth sharing, but you can see how often that happens. Some of my friends post all the fun things they have done with their kids, but I am not one of those moms that plans fun activities for the kids--I let others do that for me. When the opportunities arise for them to participate in something fun, I jump on it for them. But, then I usually forget my camera, so there isn't too much to share there. I know I'm not a horrible mother, but you would think I would be more put together after having almost four kids. And maybe the sad thing is I know I will never change. Oh well, I love them and they love me and we are a happy family!

So, for anyone that was not informed, child number four is on his way. Yes, I said his. We are having another boy in May. This pregnancy has been a walk in the park compared to my other pregnancies. I had my appendix removed at 4 1/2 months pregnant with Breanna, I had gestational diabetes with Brett, and I had the unwanted growth with Kaylee (plus I was really really sick with her). I haven't been tested for the gestational diabetes yet, but I feel so much better than I did with Brett. I think it was because I got into shape before this one. I was very out of shape before Breanna, and I just never got back until after Kaylee. I am hoping that it's a sign of good things to come with this baby though. Maybe he'll be nice and mellow like Brett was/is.

I've decided I don't like the beginning of any year. Last year we were all sick for about a month starting mid January. Now, here we are in the first week of February one year later and the family is very sick again. We lucked out a little this year, because school has been cancelled for most of this week. We had an ice storm come in Monday night, and temperatures have stayed below freezing since then, so the schools are closed until travelling conditions improve. Therefore, I haven't had to call Breanna in sick. But I think everyone is improving as the week goes by. Kaylee seems to be out of the funk, and Breanna is on her heals. Brett should be feeling better in the next day or two, and John hopefully sooner. I was sick last week, but I'm not sure it was the same thing, so I am just holding my breath.

Well, I guess I should try to remember to keep my camera in my purse or something, because I just have nothing interesting for you to look at. Sorry about that. I'm sure I will soon though. I just have a feeling.

No Pictures Please!

The past two weeks have been a little hard on me. I had a large fibroid removed three Thursdays ago. It was kind of like having a C-section.

Luckily, my mom was ready to jump in and help. She took the kids all day that Thursday, and kept them until Friday night. John was home over the weekend to take care of them, but then she took them again for me every day that next week. I really needed that peace and quiet for the first half of the week. I was stuck laying on my left side, because, for some reason, if I tried to turn over to my back, or even sit up for too long, my right lung felt like it was being crushed.

By Wednesday, I was feeling so so much better. I even went to my mom's house with the kids so I could be around people. Friday, I almost felt like a normal person. Saturday was a bit of a relapse though. I was really sore and tired. I decided to stay home from church Sunday to have one more day of relaxation and recovery before I had to jump back into life Monday. Then my ten days of driving restriction were up, and I had to take care of things myself.

I have been able to slowly get back to all my normal chores, and now I can even pick up Brett just fine--no pain. In the evenings, I feel a little bruised, but for the most part I feel like myself again.

For anyone who cares, the fibroid was measured to be 10 cm and a little over 1/2 a lb. I know I will be feeling better now that that is gone. Sayonara sucker!

One Crazy week

Here is the letter I wrote to my youngest brother for this week. (He is in Canada on an LDS mission)

Dear James,

John and I think we were punished last weekend. (Not really, but I guess we shouldn't have messed with the Sabbath). We got home from church last week and realized that we had no meetings or appointments, and we had a vision of moving our furniture in our bedroom and then relaxing with the kids for the rest of the Sabbath. You see, Sister Howell was getting rid of TONS of stuff so she would have an easy move. One of the items that we got out of this was a large entertainment center to go in our bedroom. I have had my eye out for one for a long time. We had no good furniture in our room, other than our bed and nightstands. Anyway, we had just left it backwards against a wall, and we were running into it every time we turned the corner. So we thought we would go ahead and arrange our room to get that all set up and out of the way.

As we were moving things around and cleaning up the mess that was under the bed, it started to get really hot. I left the room to catch a break from the vent in the living room, where it is always the coldest. I then realized that it wasn't really any cooler, just very muggy. So I went to check the thermometer in the hallway, which read 82, and should have read 78. So I turned the A/C up a notch and went back to work. When all was said and done, it was hotter than before. The A/C was out. I couldn't believe it. (I guess we shouldn't have moved furniture :)

We called one of our friends in the ward and asked if he could come over and assess the problem. (He works with this kind of stuff). We thought he might have the magic touch and would know the right thing to hit to make it work again. He very willingly came over at about 7, and half an hour later we received the bad news that the compressor was shot and we needed a whole new unit. (That's really expensive BTW). So we called Mom and Dad, who invited us to stay the night.

We had no idea when Chris, our friend, would call us the next day, but he said he would call and let us know what kind of unit we needed and what the best deals were for us. He didn't call until lunch time, and he couldn't get the unit until the next day. So I had John go home after work and get us all one more set of clothes for the next day.

Tuesday, we waited for Chris to tell us when he could get the unit over to the house, but he didn't call until 6 PM. He was still waiting for one part to come in, but he would get things started the next day. Luckily, I had already been to the house and picked up more clothes just in case. Another night at Mom and Dad's.

Wednesday, John came home from work and waited for Chris to show up. I stayed with Mom and Dad, but John waited in the hot hot house. Chris finally showed up at 8, and they worked on the unit until 11. John just stayed at the house and slept. But the coil Chris had was the wrong size, so the house was still hot, and that also meant another day at the Crawford's.

Thursday, John did the same thing--went over to the house at about 7 and waited for Chris. Again, he showed up at about 8 and they worked until 1 AM. Everything was finally fixed. So Friday morning, I cleaned up the space that the kids and I had destroyed (like the kitchen and bathroom), and cleaned towels and sheets, and then we headed back to our nicely cooled off house.

I'm not complaining. I got to enjoy some time out and about with Mom and some time with Dad. It was almost like vacation. But it was so unexpected, and Mom was busy with life, and I think that maybe they got a little too much of us that week. The kids certainly were not in the best mood. Kaylee was a pain and a half to get to bed every night. But it all worked out.

Now, to add to all the craziness, I had planned a surprise UN-birthday party for Mom that Thursday night. But I had it planned several months before. It was supposed to be at our house, and Karie was going to have the whole afternoon to decorate our dining room while I was taking care of baking a cake and getting food prepped. Then Dad was going to come up with an excuse to get her over to our house. First of all, she told me that she was leaving for Utah on the 18th. That was fine. But then she changed her mind and decided she wanted to leave on the 17th (that Thursday). I wasn't sure what to do about that. She was going up with Granddad, so he could be there with Aunt Kristen when Murphy came home from his mission. So I called Granddad. Funny thing was, Dad had the same idea I did. When I called Granddad's house, Dad was there with him talking to him about the situation. So Granddad called Mom and said, "We can't leave Thursday, I have something I forgot about," and that was that. But now we had the problem of being stuck with no A/C, and I had to figure out how to get their house ready, and Mom out of the house. Dad and I ended up going to Costco to buy a cake, since I would have to time to bake one at their house. We had to hide that from her. Then, after much craziness, I got Mom out of the house for about 45 minutes--in which time we had to decorate and get food out and ready. Karie arrived to decorate five minutes or so after she left, and I was running a marathon to make sure I had all the food out and ready to go. Mat ran to the store for me for last minute stuff, and John and the kids were on the look-out for her arrival. (Dad was out with her as well). Mom was completely surprised when she walked in. It was great! We all said Surprise! and then we all had fun talking, opening presents, and eating to our hearts desire. Granddad showed up after the surprise part, but we were all there. Mom got a Michael Buble CD, two large pinwheels, reflexology certificates, and a Josh Hamilton shirt (which we all laughed at hysterically). The theme was summer and pinwheels. It was just plain fun.

So we had a crazy week, but after much waiting, secret purchases, food hiding in coolers in office closets, and re-planning, it was fun. I hope we weren't a burden on anyone, but everything worked out in the end.