That's not QUITE how it happened...

Katie has been telling a lot of stories at church lately, and she seems to be often leaving out the most important detail.

At the beginning of December, Katie told everyone at church that I cut her hair.

It's true. She got a hair cut.

By her own hands.

No, sweetie. You own up to what you did and don't blame your momma.

Lucky for Katie, her BFF nursery leader, Joslyn, owns a spa in town, and pulled a favor with her hair stylist, and Katie got to "Joslyn's beauty shop!!" Elicia did a great job fixing Katie's hair.

Last week Katie told Linda that Tom, Katie and Thora came from heaven, but Sundance did not.

Today, I heard from two people, Cathie and a visiting grandpa (who all of my kids have mistaken as their Bumpa), that Katie said I took away all of her toys.

Truth.

But what she forgot to tell you is that it was a consequence for her actions. Let me back track and tell the whole story. Shad and I came home from a date Friday night (worked at the theater, saw Unbroken, not my cup of tea) to find all the kids still awake. On the couch in the living room. At 10:30. The babysitter said that she had put them to bed, but then they were crying and she didn't know what to do, so she let them come back down. I don't blame her so much as I blame my kids, who know better. Tom and Katie explained that Tom had broken Katie's glowstick Wolverine claws, and Katie had done something in retaliation, etc, etc. Shad and I told the kids to go upstairs for bed, and Katie had a complete meltdown and refused to move. I left to take the babysitter home, and came home to find Shad throwing all the toys out into the hall. He explained that he had asked Katie to get in bed 3 times, then told her to get in bed or he'd take away all their toys, which were the cause of the problem to begin with. Sweet! I've only been wanting to do this for about a year. I gladly helped.

At this point, we don't know what we'll do with the toys...get rid of them, purge half of them, or just hold them hostage for a while.

October

The beginning of Thora's cheek development.

Dancy loves olives, and I think it must be human nature to stick them on your fingers.

Pretty sure she's got 4 in there.

We blew up balloons for Katie's birthday and they played a balloon game on the floor.

Shad took Katie out around town and they stopped in at Edward Jones so that Katie could visit our friend Brittany who works there. Katie told Brittany it was her birthday, so Brittany made a quick stop at Dollar General after work and came over to give some presents. She got a pretty sweater dress and leggings outfit and a cupcake play dough set. After dinner Tom, Katie and Dance all played with it.

Katie was happy to open her birthday mail.

She chose wafers for her birthday treat, so I made a play dough cupcake for her to blow out her candles.

Thora sleeping on Nana's lap.

Thora's blessing day.

Oh, look! We do have a picture of all of us:)

Halloween costumes kept changing up until 10 minutes before they had to go out the door. They finally settled on princess for Katie, Hawkeye for Tommy, fairy for Dancy, and Andy Warhol for Shad. Mostly Halloween just means dressing up in public, so they just threw a bunch of dress up clothes on and went out to get candy. Shad took them trick-or-treating while I fed Thora, then we switched and he stayed home while I took Tom and Katie to the carnival at the Christian Church. Dancy was too tired.

Tiny Drunk Adults

Isn't there some tradition people have of getting drunk and taking tons of pictures on a phone or camera of someone who left such device unattended?

The rules are pretty clear:

1. Get drunk.

2. Take tons of pictures.

Ahhhh, classic!

That's a good one.

Lookin pretty drunk, Kate!

Tom has mastered the selfie.

That finger over the lens is a tricky thing.

How long did you guys have my camera? They're both in different outfits now!

And this is AFTER I deleted 100 pictures they took. Of everything in their room.

It's Been One Week Since You Looked At Me

Oh, and how we all love her! We made it past the first two sleepless nights when my milk hadn't come in yet and she wasn't getting full off the colostrum to fall asleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. After my milk came in, she and I were both much happier and slept better.

Dancy didn't know quite what to think of her on Tuesday morning when we came home. There's only so much comprehension that can be expected of a 16-month-old. She warmed up quickly though. She gets excited when Thora comes downstairs each morning. I love hearing her say, "Wo-wa! Wo-wa!" She asks to hold her often, and is quick to sit down and get ready when I ask if she wants to hold Thora. It typically lasts only 20 seconds before Dancy says "all done" and pushes Thora away, but Dancy loves benig able to hold, stroke, hug and kiss her baby. Dancy is also happy to be a helper for me taking care of Thora--she brings me diapers and wipes upon request. And if we leave Thora sleeping on the couch, we often find several toys placed on her, courtesy of big sister Dancy.

Katie is deliriously happy to have a baby sister. She asks to hold Thora often, and talks to her about being sisters while holding her.

Tom jumped right in being a big brother again. It was actually a few days before we realized he hadn't gotten a turn to hold Thora, so we fixed that real quick, and told him and Katie that Thora is their baby, too--not just mine and Dad's--and that they're allowed to ask to hold her any time they want to, even if she's asleep. Sleeping babies like to be held and cuddled. That was such happy news to them and they've sure made good on it. Tommy did have a little sadness in his face one afternoon and I sensed that he was feeling a lack of Mom time even though he'd had plenty of attention from Shad and visiting grandparents. I told him that he's allowed to express that to me and let me know he needs some time with me, and he's been fine since.

Shad and I enjoy laughing at the faces Thora makes in the minutes after breastfeeding. Shad calls that milk stupor "lactoasted." We've decided that we'll have to catch it on video tonight when she does it. Babies may not do much, but when they do, it's funny!

My mom drove out from Denver Tuesday morning, arriving here while the kids all napped...and even I had fallen asleep. Shad took Tuesday and Wednesday off work, went back on Thursday and then had the weekend home. He just works 4 10 hr shifts, so we always have a nice 3 day weekend. Mom's been such a wonderful help to be here. She's done all the cooking and dishes, help me with laundry, vacuum a couple times, entertain and feed the kids while I sleep in, and take them outside or to the library. Tommy has hauled her off as quick as he can every day to go downstairs and play with our new Legos (scored at 2 garage sales during the Treasure Hunt). They were going to be reserved for Christmas, but Tom found them in the garage when they weren't hidden well, but just unloaded from the van. It all worked out though, because they made for good entertainment during General Conference.

Wednesday morning they made play dough, and Katie has been all over that every day. She asked me that day, "Mom, can we play with it for forever?" I told her she could play with it as long as she wanted to. "I want to play with it for forever." She's always been my artist and Tom has always been a builder. My dad drove out Thursday afternoon, arriving here around 10:30. He had done some Norton research before he came, and knew there was a football game Friday night he wanted to take Tom to see. Katie said she was interested, and Shad went, too, so that Dad wouldn't have to figure things out with two kids. They all walked down there after dinner. Mom and I stayed home with Dancy and Thora. Shad said Katie was a great cheerleader yelling, "Go Bluejays!" Tom reported that the Bluejays crushed the Eagles. It was our homecoming game, so there was also parade in the afternoon that everyone but Thora and I walked down to see. Tom went on a little run around a few extra blocks with Grandpa on the way back. He loves running.

Katie asked if we could watch the "Open the gates to seize the day! Open the gates to seize the day!" movie. Translation: Newsies. We had a dinner movie night Saturday to do that for her. She was so excited!

We tried to get good pictures before Dad left. This is as good as it gets. Katie's been in a mood to make goofy faces for the camera lately. That's okay with us.

Kisses for Thora.

Dad left Sunday morning around the same time that Shad, Mom and the kids went to church. Thora and I stayed home. I read scriptures, listened to a couple general conference talks, then watched Little Women. It's my cuddle movie because of all the snow and winter in it. Thora was such a great cuddle buddy:)

So I've been asked about me regarding recovery and breastfeeding. Recovery has been easier this time than it was with Dancy. Recognizing that the after-birth pains intensify with each birth, I searched the internet for ideas of using essential oils to help. Lavender came up, so I applied lavender to my belly often during the first several days after delivery. Most especially before or after feeding Thora, when the uterus is stimulated to contract back into place. That definitely made a difference! Oh, it was so much more comfortable using the lavender oil! Life saver. Seriously.  Breastfeeding has been going well so far. Thora is lip-tied AND tongue-tied. The tongue-tie doesn't look bad enough that it'll affect breastfeeding, and we can't tell yet with the lip-tie. It's something I'll monitor closely, but I may also just have them clipped to prevent any of the trouble I went through with Dancy.

Thora Nicole Kendell

Monday morning when I woke up, one of my first thoughts was to email Lori and tell her that I'm still pregnant. After eating breakfast, I started a load of laundry and then took some clothes upstairs to put away. That's when I had my first contraction and it was even strong enough for me to grab onto a clothes bar and breathe through it a little. That was around 10. The contractions continued coming, but only 2 or 3 an hour until around 3. I took a bath with clary sage and jasmine essential oils around 11. (They're good for encouraging contractions) I took a nap around noon. Tom and Katie woke me up a little after 1 to zip up their bag of Legos that they were done playing with. I cooked them mac & cheese for lunch, called Destination Kitchen and ordered a sandwich for myself. I drove to pick it up. Still only having contractions every 20-30 minutes. They were getting stronger where I really had to stop and breathe through them, hold onto a wall and move my hips, but I still wasn't thinking that I needed to call Shad home from work.

After lunch I put the kids down for naps and spent the rest of the afternoon upstairs in my room. I bounced around on the exercise ball I borrowed from Mallory; I turned on my relaxation water fountain; I lied down on the bed in between contractions; I took whiffs of peppermint oil to dispel my nausea (hindsight: I won't eat that much for lunch next time. I wanted to have energy to get me through labor, but that was too much food. Yay for peppermint oil, though!); I took whiffs of lavender to help me relax during and after contractions; I read articles on my tablet for entertainment. Still, contractions were 10-15 minutes apart. At 4 I went downstairs, walked around a little bit, picked up a package from the porch, went back up to my room. I called Shad at 4:30 when he got off work to tell him to ride fast (he bikes to work), really only for the purpose of giving him the exciting news. Still not thinking it was time to go to the hospital yet.

Shad got home at 4:45 and found Tom and Katie awake watching Ice Age in the living room. What good kids! I didn't even hear them wake up from their naps and go down there, but those were my instructions to them. Shad started getting the kids ready to go to a friend's house. He threw stuff into a bag for the hospital, and still it didn't quite cross my mind that it was time to go. Seriously, this whole experience was just weird and that's partly why I'm taking time to write it now--I read an article recently that writing is healthy physically and mentally because it helps you to process a situation and move on from it.

Anyway, back to Thora's story. At 5 when Shad was ready to load the kids in the van, he said he'd come back to help me down. I didn't think I needed help and figured I could make it down the stairs myself. I mean, I had just done so an hour ago! Not so. I couldn't walk down the stairs and I couldn't gently lower my butt step by step, either:) I sat and waited uncomfortably for Shad to rescue me. We dropped the kids off at my friend Jennifer's house at 5:15. Drove slowly on the uneven brick roads (oh, how I was cursing those bricklayers in my mind!) to the hospital. Walked into the inpatient building. "Did you call to let them know you were coming?" NO! I sure did not think about that--I didn't even think it was time to come! It was quite obvious that I was far enough into labor that they didn't mess with taking me to triage to make sure. However, the birthing room was occupied so they wheeled me to the emergency room to get me on a bed. 5:30. They took my vitals and information, collected a few supplies and were pretty calm and relaxed until they checked me at 5:40 and found that I was fully dilated. WHAT?!

That's when things got hectic. They sent for Dr. Maurer, and a host of other staff to get ready for a baby any minute. Dr. Maurer came in at 5:45. We chatted for a minute and I asked her to break my water. Katie is the only birth of mine where it broke on its own. Glenda broke my water and told me I could push whenever I was ready. I still didn't even feel the urge to push, but I was exhausted and figured we might as well get this finished. At the first push, I didn't really feel anything. Glenda said she could see the head with a lot of hair and I didn't believe her. I pushed again and still didn't feel anything. Third push and that time I felt the burn of pushing out a baby and her head came out. Thora came out with her hand on her cheek, then shot her arm out. Shad said she was reaching for her hammer, mjolnir. Fourth push and the rest of her came out, born at 6 pm. Half an hour after arriving at the hospital, and with only 4 pushes, Thora entered our lives. That is the power of raspberry leaf tea, let me tell ya what. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz, measuring 19 inches long.

Honestly, I was in shock and disbelief for about an hour. It all just happened so fast and only half of my pushes felt like pushing. Much different from any of my other births.

Katie kept saying, "Hi Thora! I'm your big sister! I'm your big sister!"

Look at the contrast of those two girls!

Nothing makes a one-year-old suddenly big like having a newborn 6 pounder.

We have 4 kids!