False Pretenses

At the hospital, I realized I didn't really have a belly shot.  Thinking it

might be the final opportunity to take one, Jason snapped this picture for me.

I have been sent home from the hospital....twice.  You would think that after having given birth three times previous, I would have it all figured out, but whatever.

The first time wasn't too unexpected.  I had an appointment on Monday (the 10th) and there was some progression that indicated that things were in motion.  After three hours of consistent, five-minute-apart contractions on Tuesday evening and the same during the afternoon on Wednesday, I thought maybe something was in the works.  Turns out that on both occasions, I was experiencing labor induced labor as a result from trying to get my house cleaned.  All that vacuuming, mopping and laundry set off the series of contractions that ceased the minute I slowed down long enough to put my feet up. So after sitting in a hospital bed in observation for an hour with no contractions to speak of, I signed the papers for discharge and was given a lovely note about how I should try not to feel stupid about being sent home.  

So at my appointment on Monday (the 17th), one of my doctors said I was in the most ideal situation to begin labor, he stripped my membranes, and excused me from his office by stating "We'll see you tonight."  When contractions were two minutes apart for an hour (albeit, kind of wimpy), I didn't hesitate to head to the hospital, sure that I would have my water broken and have a baby within the evening. 

After three hours of  observation (and walking the halls to try and encourage a more active labor), the doctor on call decided to send me home because I wasn't progressing very fast.  I was quite upset that he wouldn't break my water.  That had been the protocol in the past, and it proved to be quite productive for me (not walking the halls!).  What's more, he didn't even come in talk to me and it all had the feel of being very impersonal care.  If only Dr. Wolsey had been there...  

Well, as it turns out, it was a blessing that I did not have a baby Monday night (although I did spend a majority of the day Tuesday being all sour grapes about it).  Not having the baby Monday (or Tuesday, for that matter) allowed me to go to Brevin's Pinewood Derby to see first-hand his excitement during the whole event. That was a delight!  It also turned out to be a good thing that I was there since I had charge of the event. I think it ran much more smoothly than it would have if I were trying to instruct others on how the event was to be handled over the phone from a hospital bed.

So now I'm just waiting (and blogging) until I feel there is enough reason to head to the hospital once again. Perhaps the third time will be the charm! 

This post was authored by Amber

Shout Hooray

Yes, I did celebrate the fact that I recently turned thirty three.  Since we had another family party to attend on the actual night of my birthday, we decided to celebrate a day early.  I chose to have dinner at Tera Mia, an Itallian restaurant in Orem that I had heard was excellent, but didn't know much other than that. It turned out that the recommendation was good, and I really enjoyed my meal. On the way home, Jason stopped at Baskin Robbins to let me pick out a flavor of ice-cream cake (devil's food cake with Oreo ice cream).  Delicious!

As one of my gifts, I was treated to a night out alone for a pedicure.  Boy did that feel good on tired, pregnant feet!  Not to mention, I am still sporting a bright pink nail color that I hope will still look nice when I finally get around to delivering a baby.  I took pictures of my "little piggies" but I will spare the blogosphere from those.  While they are well manicured (or should I say pedicured?), it is still a little disturbing for me to see my toes up that close. 

My other gift was a haircut and style.  Yes, I am definitely in need of some image TLC. 

I have to wait until May to enjoy my final birthday gift, but I am thrilled to know that I will be going to Les Miserables when it comes to the Capital theater.  Man! I love getting old! 

This post authored by Amber

"Somehow or Other, It Came Just the Same!"

I know that December has come and now past,

So I'm getting to posting about it...at last.

It came without mention of wild winter weather.

It came before getting my "blog-act" together.

It came without uploads of pictures to Facebook

(Despite all the numbers of pictures I took).

It came without lists of highlights from our year.

It came without bragging of what goes on here.

Somehow the season just came and then went,

But here are some photos of how it was spent!

Every Christmas, Grandma & Grandpa Park take the entire family to

Los Hermanos for some chips & salsa (among other things).

We went to Temple Square early in the month to beat the crowds at getting to see the lights.

A family friend secured tickets for our family to attend "A Pioneer Christmas"

 at the Church Historical Museum.  The boys even got to see Santa to tell him that he

 could bring them whatever he wanted.  They had no requests. 

We had our annual dinner of snowman-shaped pancakes to go

along with the reading of the book Snowmen at Night.

The Park family has a tradition of having a train around the base of the Christmas tree. 

Grandpa's Polar Express train is much cooler than our GeoTrax train! 

Before church on the Sunday before Christmas, we dedicated some

time to take a few family photos.  By the time we were finished,

Jason and I both had broken into quite a sweat. 

Why is getting a decent family photo such hard work?

The last day of school before Christmas break ended up being

canceled due to a massive snowstorm that dumped on our area.

With school canceled, what better way to spend the day than sledding!
 

We pulled out the china to have a formal Christmas Eve dinner. 
 

The boys were excited to open their pajamas before going to bed.

Garrett "crashed" at 7:30  p.m. and thus missed singing

"Happy Birthday" to Jesus before eating some cake.  Brevin and Spencer

 were not far behind when they went to sleep at 8:30 p.m.



 The gifts seemed to be a hit, as everyone was smiling.

The day following Christmas, we traveled to Ogden to be with my family for our annual Grab Bag and Nativity reenactment.  We also had lots of delightful foods to eat.

Spencer got to portray Samuel the Lamanite in the Nativity. 

Brevin (with cousin, Emma) was one of the wise men.

This post authored by Amber

Novem-blur

When the calendar was turned over to December, I was baffled and confused.  Where did November go?  It went by so quickly, I wasn't sure what happened during the month.  I hadn't even loaded a single picture from my camera to my computer since Halloween.  Once I viewed the pictures, I realized there actually was a month of November during 2010, and it was plenty eventful.  (I must just be loosing my mind!)  Here is a recap of a few of those events:

The month started out a bit unseasonably warm--so warm, in fact, we managed a backyard wienie roast. 

 We finally purchased a new, flat-screen TV for our family room.  The box provided just as much entertainment for the boys as the new TV.

 Brevin prepared and presented a fantastic report to his second grade class on the country of his choice, Japan.  Jason was most helpful in providing souvenirs and food for the demonstration. 

Both Brevin and Spencer had many activities leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday in their classes at school. 

We met with family at Grandma and Grandpa's house in St. George for a fabulous Thanksgiving feast, followed by a traditional tournament of dodgeball (I was merely a spectator, though).

 During the holiday break, we made a point to catch an early showing of Disney's animated film, Tangled.  We were unaware that the showtime we selected was a 3-D showing, but it turned out to be awesome.  Garrett was completely riveted, which means this was the first movie at the theaters that I have enjoyed in quite some time (and, boy, did I enjoy it!  The film is darling).

This post authored by Amber

Halloween 2010 Reconstructed

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20:  Halloween festivities kicked off at the annual Park Family Halloween Party held at Greg and Tilly's house.  Recent dealings with road construction projects in Springville and on I-15 inspired our family themed costume this year (and also inspired Craig and Heather, as they came dressed with the same concept).

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22:  Jason left in the afternoon to campout prior to opening day of the deer hunt.  I took the boys to the annual Ward Chili Cookoff and braved one of the three-alarm chili entries as well as braved taking three boys to a ward function without reinforcement. Not good...oh, but the chili was lovely!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23: With Jason gone for the entire day, I costumed the boys and packed them in the van for a day trip to Ogden for cousin Addie's birthday. The visit with family and cupcakes were well worth making the trip. We arrived home late that evening (as did Jason).

 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24:  After church, Jason left to head back up to the deer camp.  Hail and fierce winds pounded the windows all night and Brevin ended up in the room with me sleeping on the floor. I was enjoying hogging the whole bed to myself too much to let him join me.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26:  Snow storms and unfavorable forecasts caused the deer hunters to break camp early and bring trailers home while the roads were passable.  The timing was nice, because it allowed Jason to be back in the afternoon in time for Spencer's kindergarten Halloween program.  Spencer did us parents proud by singing his little heart out from the back row.  He knew every single word and choreographed gesture of every song, and he garnered the praise from his teacher for being a great performer. After the program, Jason returned to the mountains for an evening hunt while I commenced making cupcakes for Brevin's class party.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27: Jason left early in the morning for the final day of the deer hunt.  I finished preparations for Brevin's class party which I had signed up to be in charge of. (Don't ask me why I thought that was a good idea!)  I made rat and cheese cupcakes inspired by this amazing book, we played pass the rat, and party favors that included stretchy rats were given to the children.  I'm kind of a sucker for themes. After the party, the whole school did a costume parade and the children were excused to leave early.

    

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 (CONTINUED):  Once home from school, we got a phone call to meet Jason at the meat locker to see the deer that he nabbed this year.  I opted to wait outside with Garrett while the boys went in and watched the deer have its head removed.  It's not the sights that are so bothersome, but the smells that I was concerned about.  I'm sorry, but that place stinks!  We got home, cleaned up, and Jason suggested the whole family go out to dinner.  I did not protest in the least.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29:  School was out for the children which conveniently allowed us to go into Jason's work to trick-or-treat.  After canvasing each floor of the nine story building, the boys were exhausted and their buckets were full.  While there, the costume contest judging committee insisted that Jason enter the contest.  As he was the only employee among our group, he was included in the individual category for most creative. We were considered his "props" (I know!  That's stretching it a bit). It turned out to be worth forcing our overtired, overstimulated children to stay for the judging since Jason won second place and was awarded a cash prize.  Cha-ching!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30: We spent the morning carving pumpkins and I spent the rest of the day preparing the traditional family Halloween feast of dinner in a pumpkin.  After our elaborate meal, we bundled the kids, waited out the hailstorm, and then Jason and the boys went off into the drizzly night for more trick-or-treating.  I stayed home to pass out treats, quite relieved to know that we were on the holiday "home stretch."

    

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31:  With Sunday being the actual day of Halloween, I tried a recipe for pumpkin pancakes that I found from this website.  I will pass this tip along, though.  If you decide to make the black cinnamon syrup, cook it only until it barely starts to thicken.  I cooked it a bit longer and it turned out to have a sludgy consistency that was reminiscent of black snot.  While grossly appropriate for the holiday being celebrated, it was deemed as inedible by my children.  But we did have a bit of fun decorating our pancakes.

Whew. We survived Halloween! (Did you survive reading that long post?) Now the real question is, are we going to survive the ongoing road construction?!

This post authored by Amber

Jumping on the Bandwagon (Or at Least, the Hayride)

The blogosphere has been overwhelmingly assaulted with pictures of Halloween festivities, and so I figured it was time to add my two-cents worth.  I do not have a cute tutorial for making fabulous wall decorations with crows and skulls and vinyl ghosts (Jason will tell you, we have absolutely no Halloween decorations...gasp!).  Our decorating is limited to placing a few pumpkins on the porch.  Granted, what Jason does to those pumpkins is nothing short of amazing, as you can  see here.

Normally the majority of our pumpkins come from our garden, but we had to rely wholly on the local pumpkin patch for produce this year. (Darn you, squash bugs!)   As it turned out, the local pumpkin patch has expanded and now offers more allergy-inducing amenities than ever before!  Now there is a petting zoo pen, a corn box, hayrides, and mazes and towers of hay bales.  Jason and Spencer were in hay fever heaven!

We went with extended family and had dinner at Two Jack's Pizza afterward with everyone. It really is an enjoyable tradition, and just one more reason why I love fall so much. So without further ado, here are the photos:

This post authored by Amber

School Lunch

We recently celebrated the little known holiday of "National School Lunch Week" by going to Brevin's school to eat lunch with him. I must say, I think they feed these kids a whole lot better than I ever got fed in elementary school. They even have a fresh fruit and salad bar (although, I noticed some children weren't choosing to put those items on their tray). And nothing makes you feel more nostalgic than drinking milk from a small carton, don't you think?

After we ate, we went outside for recess. Garrett even helped with operating the jump rope for several of Brevin's classmates. He was laughing and having a grand time until I started taking pictures and video footage. I was only able to capture the images of a disinterested, nap-ready two year-old, but they still are pretty funny.

Can I say, this sure beats an afternoon at home eating a bowl of Ramen Noodles?!

This post authored by Amber

Fall Sports

This year's soccer season ended much the way it began.  Spencer was part of a U-8 team who utilized a three coach system, focused on teaching the boys proper field position, and thereby annihilated every opposing team they faced.

Brevin's U-10 team was a slightly different story.  They lacked the coaching attention of Spencer's team (to say the least) and the result was a loosing season. 

Despite the differences, Jason and I enjoyed spending a month going between fields to watch the boys play with fierce determination and, most importantly, a positive, sportsmanlike attitude.

And just like that, the season was over.

So now, with Thursday evenings and Saturdays suddenly free of any soccer commitments, the boys were quick to accept an invitation from dad to attend a BYU football game.  They were able to enjoy the Cougars homecoming win over San Diego State, but I think they could care less for the outcome of the game.  They just love to spend time withe their Dad.

Boy, we are sure loving Fall!

This post authored by Amber