10 years

seven moves
nine jobs
four vehicles
3 1/2 years of school
twenty-nine callings
five wards
nine Christmases
four rambunctious, crazy boys
thirty-one birthdays
five hospital stays
one miscarriage
one death
vomit
sweat
blood
tears
lots and lots of laughter
a love we could never have understood

Here's to ten amazing, heartbreaking, fulfilling, trying, successful, beautiful years.

James blessing (six weeks later)

What is it about the more children you have, the longer it takes to get things done???

Somehow I forgot about taking pictures on his actual blessing day, and I've been thinking that I needed to do it for six weeks. Nice. Well, this afternoon I just decided to do it. I was going to try to get all the kids dressed for it, but there was an after-school meltdown and I just figured if someone wanted to participate, they would. Hyrum was the only willing participant.

So, anyway, some photos of a baby in his almost-too-small blessing outfit.

Hyrum loves, loves, loves his baby brother. He is constantly hugging and kissing him. If James makes the smallest little fuss, Hyrum is right there to pat James' belly and tell him it's ok.

The last one I had to take with the flash because it was getting too dark, but what a cute smile!! I'm gonna see if I can sneak in a few minutes tomorrow for a couple more smiley ones.

There's a funny story about his blessing that I need to write down so I'll remember.

I had asked Brandon sort-of jokingly if there were going to be 20 guys in the circle again and he said no. He was going to keep it to family this time. Well, I thought about the size of that circle, and it was a pretty sad number. My step-dad, his dad, his sister's husband, my uncle, and my cousin's husband. Maybe that's not such a bad size, after all, but in my head, it just looked small.

So I said I liked how big the circle was last time, so Brandon began making some calls. When the men were invited up, it was a figure-eight shaped circle because there were so many. I think it was one shy of 20 men.

Brandon was a little embarrassed, but I thought it was incredible. It drew a few chuckles, but it also touched a lot of people, including me. Seeing all those wonderful priesthood holders who love our family and were honored to share in that ordinance was amazing.

The primary president at the time, who I was a counselor to, and one of my good friends sent me this email because she didn't feel like she was completely eloquent when she bore her testimony that day.

My thoughts on seeing so many priesthood holders going to support and participate in the blessing for James, and thereby the Chapman family, were heartwarming. James will never remember but I kept thinking that this group represented ALL the priesthood holders who would bless his life and support him. Yes, names may change, but the Priesthood will not change. What a good start to his life. The majority of the blessing I was thinking about that. (then it turned to all the priesthood holder's who bless my life & then throw in my gratitude to your family for letting my brother use his Priesthood to help with the blessing & I could have left church for the day feeling spiritually gratified).

Another of my friends, the bishop's wife, who I can't recall seeing bare her testimony in the three years we've been here, got up that day, too.

And Brandon was very overcome. He had sit for a few minutes to gain his composure when it was done.

Our James is very, very special and we know it. We feel very blessed to have him in our home and a part of our family.

Confession

Pie and an amazing flourless chocolate cake have made up the majority of my meals the last two days.

This is a problem.

Fortunately, said desserts are almost gone, so then I can go back to my regularly scheduled meals....

And by the way, you must, must, must try this. You'll just die.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/flourless-chocolate-cake-i/detail.aspx

(Try it with 1 bag of semisweet morsels and two bars of Ghirardelli Bittersweet chocolate. Ohhhh, yum.)

Halloween and pumpkin patch fun

There is a great pumpkin patch we visit every year. I'm sure in a few years Sterling will outgrow the fun of it, but we'll still force him to go, because we're really nice parents that way.

In the meantime, Brandon will take pictures of my cute boys while they still think it's fun. Isn't this a great one of Sterling? He's at that self-aware phase where he smiles a goofy, but I think we caught him off guard with this.
What a cute couple! That must be their first baby. Certainly they're not old enough to be parents of four kids.

My parents love watching the kids play at the farm. This hay jump is where the boys would spend all their time, if they could.

But we force them to do other not-so-fun things, like corn mazes and tractor rides. I know, we're awful.

How about a photo op with Mater!! Yes, please.

And now to the Halloween par-tay! I bet you didn't recognize Jonah, Sterling, and Hyrum in their disguises. You'd never know that's not actually Buzz, Ben 10, and Indiana Jones, huh?

Oh, and the totally humiliating cow. Compete with udders. If you're thinking inappropriate and disturbing, you'd be correct.

Somehow we didn't get a pic of me as my go-to witch and James as my overgrown spider, but we were cute.

Hope you had a happy halloween!

My baby!

I'm very, very in love with my baby. We love to take a nap together on the couch. This was a nap day. Isn't he cute?!?

You'll never believe it

So, guess what happened to me. Go ahead, take a guess.

OK, I'll tell you.

My water broke at Walmart. No kidding. I thought I was having major bladder control issues because I never had the big gush, just little trickles. But by the time I got home, my pants were pretty wet.

OK, now guess what else. You'll never get it.

I didn't even have to push. My doctor came in at 5:30 and asked what time I thought the baby would be born and I said 7. I was between a 4 and 5 and she thought maybe I was a little optimistic, but if the nurse would have checked me at 7, I would have been at 10. Instead, she checked me at about 7:20 after I got a bolus for my epidural because it wasn't complete and she freaked out that I was complete!! Because my epidural was partial, I was throwing up with the contractions (normal for me). The nurse ran out to get the doctor, came back in, put my legs up, I had a contraction and puked the baby out! Fun times. Good thing the nurse came back in or Brandon would have been the one catching the baby because the doctor came in about two minutes after he was born.

It's a good story, right?

And now, what you've all been waiting for.... The pictures!!

James Byron Chapman, September 15, 2011. 8 lbs 0 oz, 20 inches long.

He's super sweet. He had the same reaction to my blood that Jonah did, so we spent a few extra days in the hospital for photo therapy.

He gets tons of kisses and hugs and everyone seems to be pretty ok with him. Even Mama's-boy Jonah is happy to sit next to me with James is eating, as long as Jonah can suck his thumb and run his fingers through my hair.

We love him.

A question for you all

So, my doctors have been concerned that in the last month I'm not measuring as big as I should be, like pubis to fundus today was 34 weeks and I'm 37 weeks. Has anyone else ever had that? They told me today I shouldn't me concerned as long as the baby keeps growing, but that is not much comfort. One doc even ordered an ultrasound to measure the baby. According to that I was two weeks ahead AND the baby measured at 6 1/2 lbs! But then in the office they tell me the baby is small and I'm measuring way behind. It's very confusing.

Anyway, if you've ever experienced this, please chime in and let me know how things turned out for you. I know the whole thing is a guessing game anyway, but a mama can't help but be concerned.

Thanks!!