On Saturday we had our annual pumpkin carving and painting fun! The younger kids paint while the grown-ups (and Adam this year) carve their pumpkins. These are some pumpkins we picked ourselves last weekend from a pumpkin patch!
Here's Anna having a ball painting her pumpkin.
Lizzy with a big grin as she starts painting away!
Adam has been slimed (either that or he just turned into Spiderman!)
My friend and co-worker Rajesh is visiting this month from India. Halloween is not observed much in India (he said he first heard about it reading our blog last fall) so we decided to invite him over for an American cultural experience. This is a shot of his first ever pumpkin carving. Great job!
We also had black bean burritos for dinner (I know -you'd think we could come up with something American to eat considering it was supposed to be an American cultural experience - oh well). He told me later that he learned from dinner that an Indian could live very happily in Mexico. We enjoyed having him in our home!
Jacob had a pumpkin suit on. I wanted to paint the top of his head to look like a jack-o-lantern, but Tammy wouldn't let me! Ben was the dragon. Here he is with his friend Holly. When Adam had his face all painted and bloody like a vampire, Ben was very frightened. Adam handled it really well - every time Ben would cry out of fright, Adam would cry out of fright at Ben's "scary" dragon costume. That made Ben feel much more brave!
Lizzy performed in her preschool Halloween program today. She sang out the loudest and really enjoyed acting in front of the crowd of parents.
Adam decided to be a vampire this year. He enjoyed it so much, it may become his full-time job when he is grown!
Anna was happy to have her glitter paint face with princess fairy costume.
The kids went trick-or-treating with the Jensen kids. It was strange this year with daylight savings time still around - it was light outside for trick-or-treating!
I took Jacob to the doctor this past week for his well check. Jacob is doing great! He weighed in at 11 lbs. 5 oz. which is 50th percentile. He was 23 1/2 inches long, which is 75th percentile (I have a friend who had a baby that was 23 inches at birth!). I can't remember the exact head size but it was also 75th percentile, which is small for a Finch. He has been smiling and cooing so much lately. He has been doing that since he was about 3 weeks old, but now it comes so much easier for him. It is really fun. He has the most pleasant temperment and is just easy going and quiet. He is sleeping really well still, getting up only once a night.
The saddest part of the visit, of course, were the shots. Maybe it is because he hardly ever cries, but it really bothered me when he was crying after his shots. I just felt so bad. You could just tell that it hurt. He has been fussier the last couple of days, but did better today. I have to say this was an uncomfortable visit for me as well. I chose not to get the prevnar, you know the pneumonocacal (sp?), or the new oral rotavirus vaccines. We have never gotten prevnar, and when Adam was a baby they had a rotavirus shot that they recalled, so I just would like to see how things go with this one for a while. Also, with both of these I feel like ther are not as serious as some of the other illnesses, anyway... the nurse practitioner seemed very concerned that I wouldn't get these vaccines (I know the shots are combined, but the poor child already was getting 4 or 5 vaccinations that day). I probably wouldn't get the varicella (chicken pox) either except it is required for school. I also had to sign this waiver "Refusal to vaccinate". I just felt terrible, but I felt like it was the right thing to do for us. I don't know, it felt like it harmed the relationship with my practitioner. The tension was thick and she tried to talk me into it and told me all these things I should do to prevent illness and how I should get the other kids vaccinated with flu shots (I said no to that too). I don't know people. Am I crazy? I seriously want some opinions, even differing ones. You folks with medical backgrounds.....hint, hint, and you moms out there, what do you think?
It was not my favorite visit to the doctor, but I guess most visits to the doctor are not enjoyable, it usually means something is wrong. I do have to say though, Lizzy and Ben were awesome! We had to wait about 35 minutes just to be called back there and then all the time spent in the room and the waiting time there. Our appt. was at 9:30 and we left the office at about 11. They did really well though, even the nurse practitioner commented on how well they behaved. That made me happy. Ok, yes, there was a promise of a treat involved, but I'm OK with that.
Anyway, Jake is doing great. He has been such a blessing to our family. I am always amazed at how much love you can feel from this little person that can't do anything for himself, that needs you for everything. He just lays there and smiles, but it fills our home with happiness to have him do that . We really do feel loved by him. It is pure love. Babies are such a blessing, and we are thankful to have one that is so amiable all the time, who loves us. We love him too of course!
Lizzy: Mom what does s-i-s-t-e-r-h-o-o-d-i-s-p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l spell?
Me: (I know what she is looking at so my response is easy) Sisterhood is Powerful.
Lizzy: Who is Sister Hood?
Of course I start laughing. Lizzy starts crying. When she realized I thought it was genuinely funny she said it over and over "Sister Hood" "Sister Hood" I will never think of that word the same again.
Well, our little Jacob is 2 months old now. In some ways it seems like the time has flown by and in other ways it seems like it has slowly crawled by. I was really tired at first, more tired than I remember being after the others were born. I seem to be coming out of it though. I was having some challenges nursing the baby for a while too, but that is going much better. He is just a sweet, wonderful baby. He has such a gentle, pleasant temperment. He does great at night too, just getting up once almost every night since he was born. The other night he even slept for 7 or 8 hours straight ! It was just one night, but I will take it. The kids love him. In fact he is practically smothered half the day with children in his face. He takes it all in stride though. I think Ben has had the hardest time. He has required extra patience. I think he is coming along though. My house is a mess and I always seem to be running late, but other than that things are going well. We were overwhelmed with kindness the weeks after Jacob was born. So many people brought us food and gifts. It was wonderful! We felt so loved and were so thankful not to have to worry about one more thing. One wonderful lady even took Lizzy and Ben for a day and had a "party" just for them. They still talk about it. Another lady brought them to the park and out for ice cream. I am so grateful for the church and all the good people we know who helped us.
We also had a stream of family visitors. First was Greg's mom and her husband, Jim. They came just 2 weeks after Jacob was born. I was still having nursing troubles and spent a lot of time in my room with the baby. Thankfully they took good care of Lizzy and Ben, or rather, spoiled Lizzy and Ben (the other kids too, but they are at school most of the day). The went to parks and the musuem and went to "playground restaurants" (Burger King) and even to climb on the tractors at John Deere. Jim spoiled me by making a lot of the evening meals. We were so glad to have them come. Here are some pictures of their visit:
As usual things were crazy while they were here. I celebrated my 32nd birthday. It was a simple affair. Dinner at home, yummy cake, fun presents, and Jim and Cherrie watched the kids so we could go out for a little bit, even the baby stayed with them. Greg also had to speak at Stake Conference, where several congregations from our church meet together, in front of about 1,000 people. We chuckled that his assigned topic was peace and harmony in the home, as our home seemed to be turned upside with this new little one coming home. He did a great job though, and since he told a story about his good dad, I think it was neat that his mom was there to hear that (Greg's dad passed away about 10 years ago).
Here is a birthday picture.
In between visitors, Ben had his 3rd birthday. We had two celebrations; one was with just our little family with spaghetti and a yummy cake and presents. The other was with Ben's cousin, Lawson, who was born on the same day as he was. Since the Ebberts are now living in Iowa City, it was a great chance for the cousins to celebrate together. The kids always enjoy playing with their cousins. We are so happy they are so close now. Enjoy the pictures:
These are the cool dump truck birthday cakes that Aunt Deanna made for the boys. (Delicious too!)
Our next visitors were my grandparents. They have been our most faithful visitors since we have lived here. They have come just about every year we have lived here and years like this where we have a baptism and a baby blessing, they have come twice. They haven't missed any of the kids' blessings. They are fantastic visitors to have because they just sort of go with the flow. My grandpa always keeps busy with house projects. Both Greg and I really appreciate that. It is great to get some of those nagging projects done. He was also the official tickle monster for the week. My grandma is great at reading to the kids and talking to them. Lizzy, especially always seems to have something to say. They also helped a ton with meals and cleanup. The took Liz and Ben out to the musuem and while the girls were at a birthday party, they took the boys out on the town while Greg and I ( and the baby, this time, so we could be gone longer) could go out on a date. They also came to see and participate in Jacob's baby blessing. Look, more pictures!
Jacob's blessing was beautiful. He was blessed with a strong mind, body and spirit. He was blessed that he would be a wise and compassionate man and that people would come to him for advice. He was blessed that he would desire to live the gospel, to be baptised and live worthy of the covenants he makes throughout his life.
We were really happy that Tammy's dad and wife Nancy were able to be here for the blessing as well. They stayed for a few days afterwards and we enjoyed having them with us very much. They took Ben out birthday shopping (and he LOVED that - not to mention the other kids who were suprised with gifts as well). We all got to go out to dinner the Monday evening they were with us. Tuesday Lizzy and Ben and Tammy and Jake enjoyed a trip to the zoo with Grandpa and Grandma. The older kids were sad they missed out on all the fun (school again!) but were all glad to be able to spend a couple of evenings enjoying their grandparents. Here are some pictures from their visit:
Finally, since we're catching up for two months of missed posts, we'll end with some pictures from this weekend at the pumpkin patch. It was a cold and very windy day so it made for a good day to be picking pumpkins. Enjoy the pictures.
We are happy to announce that Jacob Gregory Finch was born today (August 20, 2007) at 4:09 pm. Both he and mom are healthy and well. Jake was born a big boy - nine pounds exactly - much larger than any of our other kids. Twenty and a half inches long and a nice round fifteen inch head circumference (Tammy loved that during delivery).
Here is a picture of him just a few minutes after he was born.
His first bath a little while later. He didn't like that much.
He seems to mostly like when he can be held by mom.
But he did pretty good with his brothers and sisters too. Here's four year old Lizzy holding him this evening.
Six year old Anna with her new baby brother.
Even eight-year old Adam couldn't help but smile holding this precious little one.
And two year old Ben has a new pal. He's very excited!
Tammy and I dropped the kids with some friends early this morning and went to the hospital. Because of some concern, the doctors wanted to induce labor a few days early (Tammy's due date wasn't until later this week). Shortly after arriving at the hospital, they broke her water hoping that would start labor. The rest of the morning were spent wandering the hallways at the hospital hoping the contractions would start, but nothing really happened.
Around noon, the nurses came in to start the IV with pitocin, but had a very difficult time finding a vein to insert the needle. Three nurses tried twice each before they finally got one (6 rather aggressive needle sticks in all). Here's a picture of Franken-Tammy after all the poking. Notice all the band-aids on both arms.
Once the pitocin started, things picked up pretty quickly. Tammy was phenomenal throughout the whole experience (as she always is). She's never used any pain medication with any delivery before and thought going in she might try it this time to see what difference it made. But when it came down to it, she chose to continue without medication. I usually just stand there in awe the whole time watching how well she controls her pain and feeling kind of helpless to do much.
After just four hours of labor, she was fully dialated and given permission to begin pushing. It took just 90 seconds or so from that point until the baby was born. The nurse was pretty impressed - she commented that Tammy was the most controlled labor patient she'd ever had (and she's been doing this a long time).
We feel very blessed that everything turned out fine. The doctors have been confused, not understanding why the baby was not affected by the disease Tammy has (which nearly always seriously afflicts positive blood type babies). Our Iowa City doctors have all said that most likely the baby somehow has negative blood and that's why he's not shown any problems. But today we learned otherwise - Jacob has O-positive blood.
And so we attribute the health of our little one to a miracle from God. All babies are miracles from God, but we feel especially blessed that this baby was born entirely healthy. We know that many of you have been praying for this baby and we thank you for those prayers! Thanks for your interest in our family and your love and concern throughout this pregnancy. We are so happy to have our new little one here with us now!
Well, I have gotten several phone calls this past week concerning the upcoming birth of our baby. We had thought he would be here by now, but, alas, he is not. We had our last ultrasound in Iowa City on the 7th, about 38 weeks into the pregnancy (I think I counted 13 ultrasounds this pregnancy, crazy, huh!). The baby is still doing AWESOME! However, as a precaution, they like to induce at about 39 weeks. The problem is this has to all be coordinated with my doctor here in town. We had tenatively scheduled the 14th as the day to go in, but then he went out of town and I wasn't able to see him for two weeks. The doctor I saw instead felt this was too early. I told him the Iowa City drs. wanted me induced at 39 weeks (they had also sent a letter to this affect). He asked if the baby had an exchange transfusion, I said no, and he said they probably just didn't want me to go over my due date. I knew my doc was on call on the 18th so I asked him to schedule it for that day. He said my doc had changed call days so now it is scheduled for tomorrow, the 20th! That is only 3 days before my due date (I guess I should be thankful it is not 3 days after). It is no fun having to be induced either. Letting your body do it the natural way is so much better.
I am more than ready to have this baby. At our last ultrasound they asked me if I have big babies. The largest one we have had is 8 lb. 3 oz. This baby's head was off the charts at 38 weeks and they said he was measuring 8 lb. 6 oz. give or take a lb. (I pray it is not give). That was nearly 2 weeks ago. This has given me more anxiety than normal about giving birth especially with it being pushed back a few times. Add to this the fact that I have been asked several times if I am having twins (one person even asked if I was having twins or triplets!!) and I have been a little nervous. I talked to my dr. about this. He said I wasn't measuring too big and that he would be surprised if the baby was over 9 lb., but that they would closely monitor things. He is a great dr. and I like that he has delivered 3 of my babies already. I don't know if he can remember those births, but I like to think he knows what to expect at least a little. It also gives me some comfort knowing that my mother gave birth to a 9 lb. ? oz. baby. How big were you Shane? I am built a lot like she was, so hopefully things will all go well. It would just be so difficult to have a C section with 4 children and a baby to take care of, and no family that could come and stay for an extended period. I know our church family would take good care of us, but you hate to have to need it for so long.
Amidst all the waiting the kids have been anxious too. Ben tells me almost everyday, "I want my baby brother to come. How long until the baby pops out?" (if only it were that easy, pop!). We have kept busy though. The kids started school this week. At least I didn't go into labor the first day of school. They are both enjoying it so far. It is nice that the routine and the school are familar to both of them this year so they have had less concern. Anna was worried, but then the first day went so well, she has been fine. I know our routine is going to be screwed up a bit with the coming of the baby, but hopefully it won't take too long to work all of that out. It has been nice to have more time with Liz and Ben. I just can't believe how much quieter it is around here without the older two. Ben has also done SUPER with potty training. He hasn't had an accident in several days. He will even tell me when he needs to go even if we are at a store or church or whatever. That is a huge relief to me. I just hope that it continues after the baby comes. I have just been trying to complete as many little projects as I can and stay caught up with the house and laundry so there is less for Greg to worry about when the baby comes. I can't remember the last time he had to do the laundry! It is great the kids are older this time too. The older two have been making their lunches for school (with a little coaching) and can get their own breakfasts. I think this will help me so much. They are also good at entertaining Ben and doing their daily chores. I think they are excited and looking forward to the baby's arrival. It has been amazing how they have just sort of known, intuitively, the last few weeks that it is very near (OK maybe the shrinking size of my lap has something to do with it).
Well, hopefully our next post will be about our new baby and how healthy he is, and what a great labor and delivery it was. PLEASE keep us in your prayers. Soon the Finch 6 will be the Finch 7!
Adam and I traveled to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday. Besides the extreme heat, we had a fantastic time! The Straw Poll is a mixture of a mock election, a giant fund raiser, a good old fashioned political rally, and a carnival. Sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa and paid for by the campaigns, many of the candidates come together to participate in this mock election. Roughly 30,000 Iowans showed up for the event yesterday.
Besides the voting, there was tons of free (and very good) food, free carnival rides, tons of information and rallies about nearly every political subject imaginable, live concerts, parades, and typical carnival games.
This is a shot from the top of a ferris wheel that Adam and I were riding down on the Romney camp. The blue tent on the left is the band stand where the concerts were happening. On the right are the food tents, and in the rear on the left is the game area for kids. This picture was taken early so there weren't too many people milling about - at the height of the event, the entire area was packed with people. This is just the Romney area - all the others had similar camps set up nearby.
This is a shot facing the opposite direction sitting down near the blue bandstand. I took this picture to show some of the parades that were happening. They were kind of impromptu parades when groups of supporters from one candidate would march through another candidate's camp chanting something in support of their candidate. This is a shot of one of Ron Paul's parades marching through the Romney camp. It was all done in good spirit and I think everyone participating in those marches was having a good time. Ron Paul's supporters were definitely the most vocal of the groups.
After enjoying the party outside, we all went into the basketball arena to listen to the speeches. Each of the candidates spoke for 20 minutes or so about what they stand for and what they intend to do when elected. It was a great opportunity to hear really what each are all about. Adam only lasted through about 4 of the speeches, so we didn't get to hear everyone, but he was interested in what he heard and I think he understood fairly well what they were talking about. There were some candidates that, when they finished, he would lean over and say, "I didn't like that guy." I usually agreed with his assessment, though there were times when the crowd would go wild on some point that I didn't agree with and Adam would join in the cheering and yelling, then look at me, who wasn't cheering, and say, "Oh, that wasn't a good thing?".
There was plenty of time to "mingle" with the candidates and get autographs and shake hands. This is a picture of Adam getting close to shaking hands with Mitt Romney. I didn't get a picture of it, but Adam did eventually get up there to shake his hand. Mitt told Adam that he liked his hat (he was wearing a BYU hat) and thanked him for coming. Adam was very excited to meet someone famous. We spent some time in each of the other camps as well and got to see many of the others.
Since this wasn't an official election, there was no voter registration. Instead, we did like the Iraqi's when they had their election - marking that we had voted by dipping our thumb in permanent ink. This is a shot of my thumb after I voted.
This is at the bandstand while Romney was giving one of his speeches with his five sons standing behind him. I couldn't get him in the picture, but Adam was up at the very front right next to the guy in the white tee-shirt with gray hair. You'll notice on the left the television camera filming. There was tons of media there all day, and CSPAN was airing most of the event live. Right after I took this picture, the guy with the camera on the stage knelt down and pointed the camera right at Adam for about 20 seconds. When the speech was over and Adam came back to me, he said "I think I was on TV". I said, "Yeah, you were probably on National TV, Adam!" He, of course, thought that was pretty cool. If any of you happened to be recording CSPAN yesterday, let us know if you've got Adam!
Here's Adam standing behind the "Mitt Mobile". One of Romney's sons bought this RV and he and his family have been driving it all over Iowa campaigning during the last few months. He managed to visit all 99 counties in Iowa before the straw poll.
Here's Adam on the ferris wheel. That ferris wheel was the oldest most dilapidated machine I've ever seen. I couldn't believe they still let it operate! Yet, I still took my son on it - we were both kind of nervous!
The ferris wheel was sponsored by the "Fair Tax" lobby. It's a group pushing a new tax system called the "fair tax". It's basically the idea that you get rid of income tax and all other taxes and simply create a federal retail sales tax of 23% so that you're taxed not on what you earn or what you save, but on what you spend.
While there is some merit to that - it's certainly "fair" since everyone is paying the same rate, it seems to shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle and lower class (fair, but painful for us middle and lower classers). Also, as Tammy pointed out, it could be rather burdensome to large families (like ours) who currently enjoy a lot of tax exemptions because we're raising a flock of future tax payers. There are provisions to help with some of that (for example, I think things are tax free up to a certain established poverty-line limit, so the poorest of poor don't pay taxes), but I don't know how far they go.
What do you all think of the idea? You can read more at fairtax.org if you're interested. This was one of the biggest lobby groups there and three-fourths of the republican candidates have endorsed this concept (Romney has not).
Next - we have a video of Adam on the climbing wall. He really did awesome for his first time climbing and went up quite a bit higher than I think I could have gotten!
And, last but not least here's a random picture of all the kids completely unrelated to the straw poll, just because they're all so cute.
We had a great time! I've never been to a real old-fashioned political rally before and just had a great time. You could kind of get a sense for how politics was operated in the 1800's before television (although probably on a much larger scale here). As we were leaving, Adam said, "I want to go back next year!" I said, "Sorry Adam, they only do these every four years at most. And, if the Republicans win this election, they won't have another one for eight years." At that, he frowned and said, "Well, I hope the democrats win then!"
Results of the straw poll was Romney winning by a big margin with Huckabee coming in second and Brownback third. A few of the other candidates (Rudy Guiliani and John McCain) didn't participate - probably because they were both losing to Romney in the polls in Iowa and didn't want to suffer an embarrassing loss early in the campaign. The straw poll typically doesn't do much for the front-runners, but it will usually weed out some of those lagging far behind. I think Monday you'll hear of at least one pulling out of the race and potentially others to follow.
So, you've made it through another long political post, Auntie Ann (since she's the only one to comment on my last post I figure she's probably the only one willing to read this far!). I promise we'll drop the politics on the next post and have something more family oriented on our next post (hopefully some news about a new baby)!
