Cute! John's latest haircut. He always looks the most handsome right after he gets it cut. PS. He loves it when I take pictures of him while he's driving.
September 1, 2015- Maynes' Baby
Christa had her baby! Her name is Molly. It's nice for us because we always know what day she is going to deliver since she has C-sections and gets to schedule them. They asked John and me to kind of take over things at their house for a couple days while they were in the hospital with the baby.
It was so fun taking care of these cuties and we were honored they asked!
They were all so helpful!
They were so excited the morning of! Christa left a big gift for all of them. Actually it was from Molly.
On the first evening we went to the hospital to visit mom and baby.
Got to watch the first bath.
She kinda looks like Kelly.
She was so alert after her bath.
Christa was very upset about the green hat.
Proud uncle and aunt of now 12 nieces and nephews between the two of us!
Beautiful view from the room. And the baby and her uncle are pretty cute, too.
On day 2, John and Jack spent the majority of the morning gathering rocks from the creek to throw.
The big rocks made a big "pop" and the little rocks made a little "pop"
Getting them all sugared up for their dad later that night!
Jack wanted chocolate ice cream in a cup. He focused on the French fries first and then moved on to the sweets.
That morning we took Jack to get baby doughnuts at Bowman's, then when Erika got home we went to get ice cream (what can we say, we're the aunt and uncle. We are supposed to spoil them!) We told them not to tell the other kids when we picked them up from school about the ice cream. Within a matter of seconds of the other kids being in the car, Erika couldn't handle the secret anymore and proclaimed "We got ice cream!!" Ha ha!
To all of you allergy sufferers: I was having the worst allergic reaction to the dog, cats, and trees in their back yard the first day. I don't know why I thought that it wouldn't bother me. And usually the only thing that works is Benadryl, but we all know how that story ends. So on that first day, I had to eventually take some Benadryl cause I couldn't handle it anymore. And so of course I fell asleep for about an hour (and John took over everything). That evening at the hospital I felt exhausted from my day of allergies. Christa told me to make sure to use the peppermint essential oil that she had in her bathroom. She and Charity have been claiming for a while that it works wonders (they both have bad allergies too). They've told me this for years but I've been too skeptic to really give it a chance. So I decided to try it the next day. I sniffed it every 15-30 minutes (probably not THAT often, but it totally felt like it). I basically took it with me wherever I went. And let me tell you- my throat wasn't itchy, my nose wasn't itchy or runny or stuffy, my eyes weren't itchy or red, and the muscle spasms I usually have in my upper back seemed relatively relaxed. And I maybe sneezed twice the entire day. It truly was a miracle worker!!! I've suffered with this my entire life, and I've never seen anything work like this! I am sold! As soon as I got home I ordered some for John and me. Apparently there are many benefits to peppermint. It has a calming effect on muscles and helps with headaches. Christa is probably pretty bugged right now, cause she has been telling me for years to use it. I'm converted, Christa! Just took a while.
A few fun/meaningful memories that we had from the time we had there:
-We're grateful we were both able to get the time off of work. On the first morning John and I got there in time to see Christa and Nate off. Before they left John helped with administering a priesthood blessing. He's glad he got to be a part of that. It turned out that the surgery went very well and Molly is a beautiful, healthy little sweetheart. This was C-section #8! That's some kind of world record!
- On the first morning, all of the kids (except for Jack and Luke) got up way early, due to their excitement that they were about to get a new baby sister. While we were all gathered around the kitchen table, eating breakfast (thankfully they love cold cereal), we all of a sudden heard this cute and loud squeal. So of course this alarmed us. We went upstairs to check out the source; apparently Jack had opened the door to his parents' bedroom and saw that they weren't there (probably the first time that had ever happened for him). The squeal/scream was his reaction. It was so cute and sad though. We, of course, all comforted him the best we could.
-On the second morning, John, Jack, Buddy and I were down by the creek, just chilling. Jack found a spot of dirt that he started digging with a small stick. Buddy must have viewed Jack's method as very inefficient. He quickly went over and started digging with his paws in the same spot. I mean, REALLY digging, like dogs do; just helping out. However, Jack was not impressed and quite bugged.
-On the second day John, Erika, Buddy, Jack and I took a walk down to the pond. John and Erika threw sticks into the water and Buddy was more than willing to fetch them (it was great exercise for him cause he was exhausted when we got home). Erika found a really big "stick," which was basically part of a tree trunk (a chunk of a tree like 6ft long). She dragged it over to the water and Buddy immediately jumped in and got it and some how brought it to shore! His eyes got so big as he did so. He was overwhelmed, to say the least, but very determined. He did it many more times, and thanks to John's muscles he was able to throw it pretty far. The only time Buddy didn't fetch the stick was when the ducks were too close to it. He was very intimidated by them. On our way home Erika told us about the boy at her school who told her he liked her. Very cute.
-As soon as Erika got home from school the 2nd day, Jack started playing with her. This went on for hours. She reached a point where she was done, but he was still soliciting play time with her. She cried a little bit (out of sheer frustrating, I'm sure) and then went up to her bed to lie down. Meanwhile, Jack was crying "ka Ka! Ka ka!" around the house. After a wile she fell asleep. So Jack went in to her bedroom (while she was still sleeping) and started "playing" with her. Which means he was sitting as close to her bed as he could and played with her sock and shoe. I went up to her room and saw him and asked him if he wanted to swing outside. He responded "My playing with Ka Ka." I said "But she's sleeping." He said "uh huh." So funny!
Kids are so fun. We had so much fun taking a couple days out of our normal routine to experience parenthood. I was so impressed with John. He was the one reminding us of prayers and he had basically everyone's schedule memorized. I had to keep referring to the written itinerary. He also put all the kids to bed the first night when I felt super sick, for whatever reason. And he made it way fun too! Everything is more fun with John.
September 3, 2015
It's been one year since John proposed to me! What a fun, incredible day that was! However, I'm glad to be where we are now. We've truly come to know each other so much more. I thought that marriage would be easy for us since we had dated for so long. Turns out, it's not always easy. But it's always meaningful and there are so many fun, good, happy times I never would have experienced had I not met him back in nursing school years and years ago. I love having a companion and someone to experience life with. And I'm so glad it's him.
I'm so glad you guys were able to be there for the Maynes for this. It probably helped everyone so much (parents didn't have to stress and kids had a blast instead of feeling worried about mom so much). It's such a special experience being with the kids as their going through that change in Their lives.
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