December Update

(This post is a little lengthy, but a lot happened this month)

December was an eventful time to put it lightly. The joys of bringing a new baby home only lasts so long then the overwhelming feeling comes and goes and comes and goes again and then maybe a month later the joys come back and are better then in the beginning. That is at least how I feel when things change and you have to adjust to new circumstances. Evan has really been a really good baby, from the moment he came home he was only waking up once or twice in the night and that only lasted a week or so, so I was very grateful for that. But even getting up once at night to nurse for an hour makes you feel out of whack. 
Besides adjusting to the new babe being home, depression, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, feeling like I wasn't being a good mom to the twins, it was an okay month. What helped with my depression was looking forward to Christmas and being with family.
Two weeks after Evan was born was the Meyer family Christmas Party in Goshen, we went and had a lot of fun. It was so nice to get out of the house to see family and visit with everyone and let others hold Evan. :) It was snowing a little bit on our way down and then a lot more on our way home. We only live 45 minutes away from Goshen now so it wasn't too bad of a drive. The twins loved playing with their cousins and 2nd cousins. I love the age the boys are at when we go to family functions. I don't really have to worry about them running off and playing without my supervision which makes life a little easier. We played BINGO and Jeopardy, ate yummy soups and desserts, and visited for a few hours. David made a super yummy Sweet Potato pie that is definitely going to go into our recipe book of favorite desserts. 

The Sunday before Christmas was the annual McAllister Christmas party in Layton. It was fun to see Davids Moms family and visit with them. Every year we do white elephant gifts and play the game where you pick one present and the next person can either steal yours or pick a new wrapped present. This year there wasn't a whole lot of stealing going on so maybe next year we will get something really cool so that it get's stolen more. :) The boys love playing with great-grandmas gun range shooter game. I am not sure exactly what it is called but it is old and David use to play it when he was little. We had a lot of fun and look forward to next year.
My mother-in-law came and stayed a few days with us to help in December and it was great. It was nice to talk to someone who has been there and done that. She was great to help with the twins and we had fun taking her out to eat at some yummy restaurants here.

 

I struggled with nursing Evan in the beginning just like I did with the twins, so I made an appointment with a Lactation consultant and that was the best decision I ever made. She had me come when Evan was hungry and had me nurse so she could see how much milk he was getting and to give me tips. So she taught me this awesome technique of flipping it (the nipple) in. Sorry if this is TMI for some of you but it helped me so so much and if you want to know more you can always email me. :) So she weighed Evan after each side and he got 2 ounces form each. She told me that was great and just reaffirmed to me that what I was doing was great and to just keep going and that eventually I won't be producing too much milk and everything will even out, and it has. :) I am so glad I have stuck with it because now it is just everyday life and easy.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas this year was spent at my parents house. David was able to get the days after Christmas off so we stayed up north until Saturday. We had a scare with our expedition on the way to Tremonton on Christmas Eve and it was not fun. 

So I am going to back up to the first of December. We started noticing while driving the expedition that it would make a little sound whenever we would turn left. We figured it was just the alignment so we didn't really worry about it or get our car serviced since we had only had it since June and didn't drive it all that much because we had my car. So we went by thinking everything was alright. The Sunday before Christmas we had to drop Adrie off at her apartment after the McAllister party. When we got back onto the freeway to go home we hit a pot hole and everything got a little shaky. We could hear this constant humming but it wasn't too loud or anything so we didn't worry about it again. We thought about taking it in to get serviced the next day but never found time to because of David working and me with 3 kids going to get a car serviced was not ideal, so we decided that we would be okay. So on Christmas Eve we got ready, packed up the car and we were ready to head up north. When we got to Thanksgiving point which is only a few miles from our house the Expedition really started shake, so bad that David's hands were shaking. We thought man the alignment is getting really bad. We kept on driving and I called Jim and Dave's to get our car serviced the day after Christmas. The car kept shaking but wouldn't shake as bad when we were turning more right so we thought we were okay. 

We made it through Salt Lake and past Farmington until we heard a loud noise. I looked back and something had flown off of our car and was rolling down the freeway. Luckily we were in the Carpool lane so it just went off to the side. After that happened things started getting scary, the car started shaking even more and we could feel it wobbling, not a good sign. We were coming up to the Hill Field Road exit in Layton and were able to make it from the Carpool lane to the exit without one car by us, call that lucky, or a blessing. As soon as we were slowing down at the light the front driver side tire was wobbling like crazy. It felt as if it was going to fall off then and there. Luckily it didn't because there was nowhere to pull over so we made it through three intersections (while I prayed and prayed that we would make it through them) and finally were able to pull over on the Main road by McGraths fish house. Once stopped I felt that I could breathe again and David too. David got out to see the damage and notice that 4 of the 6 lug nuts had broken right off on the front driver side tire, AHHH!! We were driving on two lug nuts going 70 miles an hour, scary. The tire soon went flat because it had come off of the rim. 

David and I were scrambling for ideas of what we could do. He called his grandparents who luckilly happen to live not to far from there to come and help us out. We couldn't drive anywhere so Davids Grandpa came and drove him to all the local mechanic places that were open to see what they could do. Finally at Les Schwab they were able to help us out, but only a little bit. The manager had just sent his employees home and was getting ready to close up because it was 1:00 pm. He told David that he could get the car towed to their shop but it wouldn't get fixed until Thursday. We thought well that's great but how are we suppose to head north without a vehicle. So Davids grandpa offered their Van, but David nor I felt confident enough to drive a manual so we didn't want to do that. While David was with his grandpa the boys and I were in the car waiting to see what was going to happen. I called my mom and told her what had happened and immediately my sister in law offered her parents van. They just lived in Clinton and were so nice to help us out and let us use their van for the weekend. So David and the boys went with his grandpa to their house while I waited to for the van to arrive. Once they came we loaded it up and left the sad Expedition for the tow truck driver to come and haul away. Thank goodness for family and prayer. I am pretty sure we were being watched over that day. Things could have gone terribly wrong and who knows if I would even be here today if it had. 

We made it to my parents by 4:30, way past the time we wanted to be there but that's ok. We were safe and with family and that's all that mattered.

We spent Christmas Eve night with Davids Dad and his family at Mary Kays house. It was nice to visit and eat lots of yummy food. After that we headed to Davids Dad and Carries house to open our Christmas Jammies.
We spent the rest of Christmas Eve at my parents house and Christmas Day!! This year we didn't spend too much money on getting each other gifts. David and I made each other something and we got the boys one big present and clothes and little things for their stockings. Christmas isn't about what you get anyways so we felt we didn't need to buy much. We are going to start only making our main gifts to one another from now on, It means so much more and is more fun too. This year I embroidered the Doctor Who Logo for him and framed it so it can go on his desk at work. David put gold leaf on a journal for me and it looks pretty cool. I love presents where you know the person put thought and time into it. So for the boys we bought Thomas the train track and trains and They LOVED it!!! All they wanted to do was play with it so we made them open the rest of their presents and then off with their dad they went to put their train together and play. They played with their trains all morning. My parents got the boys extra trains and lots more track so they could really have fun with it. We took turns opening presents since my brother Nick and his family were there too. We had a great Christmas with my parents.
Later that day we went to Davids Mom's and hung out, ate food and opened more presents from one another.
The day after Christmas David went and picked up our expedition in Layton. We were glad to have our vehicle back and for everything to be fixed. Davids grandparents were super sweet and secretive and paid for everything. We were so thankful to them for coming to our aid and helping us out in a big way.
Later that day we had our third Christmas at Davids dads house. We usually have it sometime in January but all of Davids siblings were in town so we were able to have it sooner which was actually really nice. We ate dinner, opened presents and played games and watched family videos of David and his siblings. Most of the videos were of them clogging which was really fun to watch. :)
We had a wonderful Holiday and can't wait until next year!!

November Update (I am behind, as usual)

November was a pretty good month and went by way fast. I guess when you are expecting a baby and trying to get all the last minute things done time slips away from you. The twins and I would try to go on walks, when it was warm enough to get Evan to come but he didn't really budge, but the boys and I enjoyed being outside anyways. We spent some days being crafty by me sewing and the boys painting snowflakes.
The main event for November was the birth of our third son Evan David Buchanan. He came the day before Thanksgiving which was an entire week after my due date. He is such a cute little guy with very expressive eyebrows which I love. I will write another post of his birth and give you all the juicy details, maybe not too juicy but I went all natural so there is quite a story to tell.
David decided that for the entire month of November he wasn't going to shave for his Novembeard and he succeeded. He can grow a pretty good one and probably the best one out of all the boys in his family. We also started getting a little more into football this winter which has been fun, David get's quite into it, its pretty comical sometimes. He has taught me a lot about football. I always thought I knew the rules and everything but no, I really didn't know much but now I do. Last year we didn't watch much football or even the Super Bowl but I don't think we really missed much, just my opinion.
And just so you know, Usually when I am talking about Aiden and Oliver I like to say "The Boys" but now that we have a third boy I can't do that anymore so from now on they will be called the "Twins" or Aiden and Ollie, just an FYI. :)
One thing that happened the Saturday after we came home was I went to the Emergency room. I was uncontrollably shivering like crazy and had a fever of 104, Yikes!! So we spent all morning at the ER and Evan slept for most of it, thank goodness. They tested everything they could to see if I had an infection or what. When they came back with the results I was negative on everything. They couldn't figure out why I had such a high fever. David was scared that I might have an infection because of my stitches, so when I didn't he was relieved.  I told the Doctor that I was pretty sure it was because of my milk coming in. I remember when my milk came in when I had the twins and I did the same thing just not as bad and it always happened at night. So they gave me an IV of Tylenol and pumped me full of water. I got some rest and finally felt warm. I guess Tylenol is the key for me because after I got that I felt just fine. So when they sent me home, David immediately went to Costco and bought some Tylenol. I wish I would have known that before we went to the ER, it would have saved us some money and time. The boys were hungry and tired and so was David after spending 3 hours there. I ended up having to take Tylenol just before bed for about a week or so and I was good after that. I think a lot of it had to do with so many hormones regulating and my milk trying to regulate and with feeling overwhelmed and anxious my body didn't know how to react so it just burnt up. So much fun huh? :)