Christmas

I would blog more often, but...

My husband has been working from home for months now. He has an office. He just rarely goes in unless he has to do the books, write checks, etc. So, he is in his home office all the time which is where the computer is.

I have loved having him home, though. It is very helpful. He is in charge of baseball which means: he takes Lincoln to practice, the cages, hitting/pitching lessons. It saves me a lot of time. I love that he's available to help out! Usually, he will leave right when Lincoln gets home from school and take him out to the field to work out even before practice starts.

A while ago, Jim went down to the City offices and sat for hours trying to reserve baseball fields. This is very hard to do, and it costs money to reserve them. Most people just give up. But, Jim has fields for 4 hours almost every night, and a couple hours on Saturday. So, our team has a place to practice. Or, him and Lincoln can go out to a field and have lights on whenever they want. Spoiled. We are loving Lincoln's new team and Coach. He is Venom now. We have won 3 out of our last 4 tournaments. We even won a 10 year old bracket and we are 9.

Little Finners is doing great! She is the best baby. Probably the easiest baby we've ever had. She sleeps great, and never fusses. She is 7 weeks old now. We all adore her. Levi LOVES her. Sometimes, he just randomly walks by her and gives her a kiss. How sweet is that? So glad she is in our family.

Finley Grace Berkabile

Finley was born on October 22, 2011 at about 5:30am. She weighed in at 5lbs 11oz, and was 17 1/2 inches. It was the quickest, easiest delivery ever. I was at sitting at Lincoln's baseball game, having pretty regular contractions that night. Jim wasn't with us, he was at a Scout thing, so I took Lincoln home after the game and called Jim. I knew the contractions were regular enough for me to need to go to the hospital. So, we packed up and went. After I got there, they monitored me for a while, and since I had been 5cm dilated for the last month, and I was finally 37 weeks, Dr. Martin decided to keep me. After he got to the hospital, they gave me an epidural, broke my water, and I had the baby 20 minutes later. She was so small, that they told me not to push. They said to grunt or cough, and her head came out. It was so easy. She is healthy and strong, and the BEST baby. She may be our best baby yet.


My sister had her baby 5 days before I had Finley. She had a little boy, Emerson. These are a couple pictures of Finley & Emerson together.

18 days

That's how long I have been on bedrest. I'm not gonna lie. It's been rough...on everybody. 4 more days, and the Dr will let me stop my medication and go into labor.

So, here's the story...

Friday night, a couple of weeks ago, Jim and I were going to go on a date night for our 14th anniversary. Well, I had been having contractions all day, but that is so common for me, we decided to go ahead with our plans. But, we decided to hit a restaurant close to the hospital, just in case. So, we are sitting in the parking lot of the restaurant, debating if we should go in, and we decide we better just head up to the hospital. So, we grab a quick bite at Taco Bell (Happy Anniversary)and head to labor & delivery.

I am always reluctant to go to the hospital, because I can never tell when I'm really in labor. I have contractions all the time, and I hate spending a couple hours in the hospital and then have them send me home with a false alarm.

So, I get all settled on the monitors and the nurse checks me and I'm dilated to 4cm. An hour later, she checks me and I am at 5cm. I just get tears in my eyes and think, "Why?" I am only 32 weeks pregnant. I do not want to have a 32 week baby. They decide to admit me and put me on magnesium and steroid shots. That might have been the worst experience of my life. The magnesium makes you feel so crappy, and what's worse is you have to be on it for 48 hours. Ugh. Glad that's over.

I ended up spending 4 days in the hospital. I could not wait to get out of there. I was tired of the IV's and my belly itched so bad from the monitors, that I just wanted to be free. So, the morning I'm supposed to be released, the specialist comes in and tells me he wants me to stay in the hospital for the next 2 weeks. Um, no. I practically begged my doctor to let me come home and I told him I would be sooooo good, and hardly ever get out of bed. So, he let me come home, and for the last two weeks, I have hardly been out of bed. No matter how hard it is on EVERYONE, I know that this is the best thing. We want our baby sister to come home with us and not have to stay in the hospital.

This is the 3rd pregnancy in a row that I have had to be on bedrest. I guess I was hoping that it would be different this time, but it was actually worse than all the rest of the pregnancies. I think this is the last time I can do this.

Jim and the kids have been amazing!They have really stepped up and taken care of things. They have all pitched in and kept up on the house and the laundry. My mom and Jim's mom have been over here trying to keep up on the laundry, too. We have a lot of laundry. I have the best friends, too. They have brough meals and helped with the kids. We feel really loved and blessed to have so many people who want to help us. Thank you to everyone!

Saturday, I will be 36 weeks and I will stop my medication and resume normal activity. I am counting down the hours. I never had a chance to "nest", and I need to get a few things done. I don't know how long I will last after Saturday. I am going to have to watch my contractions very closely, and head to the hospital at the first sign of labor since I'm already at 5cm. Because I've had so many kids, it doesn't take much to push me all the way to 10cm. Also, I will be VBAC-ing. Which means that I have previously had a C-section (Stinkin' Lincoln). I don't plan on having a c-section ever again, so my doctor legally has to hang out with me for my whole labor, in case of complications. I hope everyone is lucky enough to have such a great doctor. He has VBAC-ed me my last 3 babies. I love my doctor.

I know this is a long post, but I just wanted to give a little recap of what's happening at our house, since Mom's been down.

Jim gets 5 of the kids up at 6:30am and sends them off to school by 7:25. Gets a little bit of work done before Levi wakes up. He feeds Levi,puts in a couple loads of laundry (while texting and answering his phone for work stuff). Then Dylan gets home from Kindergarten and he feeds me and the kids lunch, more laundry, runs to the store (sometimes more than once a day). There is no shortage of fruit loops and cheese balls at my house. Makes sure Lincoln's uniform is washed for baseball. Kids get home, Jim gets Lincoln going on his homework before baseball (which he has almost everyday). The girls do their homework without being told. He chases Levi around pretty much all day long cleaning up his messes which include: throwing things in the toilet...every toilet, dumping the garbage can out, unscrewing spray bottles full of water, helping himself to hot cheetos and dumping them out everywhere, putting legos in his mouth, throwing all 100 of Lincoln's trophies onto the floor from his dresser, etc. You get the picture. On top of that, the girls have activity days, young womens, piano lessons, student council meetings, Jr. honor society meetings, volleyball, and the list goes on. So, basically it has been a struggle for Jim to actually get any work done the past couple weeks. Usually, there are two of us to split up the running around. But, Jim is doing it all on his own. I try to text friends, and arrange rides for the girls when I can, but Jim has been running ragged. I love him so much. He is really making me look bad with how well he is keeping up with things :)

Yesterday, Levi went to spend a few days with my sister-in-law. Usually, he is not that big of a pest. He and I hang out and spend a lot of time together during the day. He is not used to me being down, and I think he has just been bored to death. He is having fun with his cousins across town, but the kids miss him like crazy.

My mom has been a huge help. She washed my huge bin full of baby girl clothes and organized it for me, and then picked up a few things I needed which wasn't much at all. Turns out, we have a lot of girls stuff. Preemie stuff, too, since Brooklyn and Dylan were both under 6lbs when they were born. So, we are in good shape.

I am still in denial that I am having another baby. Even after all that we have been through. I don't think it has really hit me that we will be carrying around a car seat, diaper bag, bottles, formula, and a newborn. I don't know if it will really sink in until she gets here. We will love her, though. We still haven't decided on a name...the end.

Back to school

Dylan was so excited to go to Kindergarten. I had to kiss her goodbye and send her in, because we weren't allowed inside the gates. Lame. When the day actually came, she was really nervous. She came home the first day and said,"School was good, but I didn't learn how to read." I guess she had big expectations for the first day :) Brooklyn walks her to class now in the mornings, and she goes in like a pro. She is still so small. Can't believe she is old enough to be in Kindergarten.

Lincoln is in 4th grade now. He is really liking school, but not the new schedule. School is an hour earlier this year. He is not a morning person. He wakes up at about 6:45am. Gets to school by 7:50. Right after school, he has about 4 hours of baseball. Homework. Shower. Bed. Repeat the next day. He is working so hard lately, and feels horribly guilty that he doesn't have time to play with his friends. We are not forcing this on him, though. He would rather be playing baseball. He is doing what he wants to do. But, he sacrifices a lot for it.

He is not on the Stealth anymore. Most of his team moved over to the Venom, and he has a former MLB player as his new coach. This guy played for the Mets (Lincoln's favorite team). But, this coach wants to practice all the time. This team is basically his job, so Lincoln gets a lot of practice. He is getting sooooo good, too. I have seen a difference in just a short time. We are excited for the change.

Brooklyn is in 2nd grade. She has lots of friends in her class at school, so she loves it. We also love her teacher. Blake and Lincoln both had this teacher, and she is great. Brooklyn is excited to go to school everyday. She keeps begging me to sign her up for cheerleading. Ugh. I keep avoiding it. Honestly, I would rather her do ANYTHING, but cheer. She is the child that worries me the most. She is already into hair, and clothes, and boys. I'm scared for when she is a teen-ager.
Ah. Middle School. Taylor is in 7th and Blake is in 6th. Both are doing great in all their accelerated classes. Blake has been really on top of her assignments and homework, and is really interested in getting involved in Student Council during the next few years. Taylor is in National Junior Honor Society, and is interested in stacking her resume so she can get into BYU Provo. I am so proud of these girls. They are so amazing! Sometimes I'm shocked that I borned them :) They have somehow avoided all the Middle School drama, too. Hopefully, they will lay low and glide right into High School without too much drama.

AS for me and Levi. He is barely waking up by the time Dylan gets home from school. She gets out at 10:30. Levi is a sleeper. He loves his bed. So, mornings are a nice quiet time for me. At least for now. Next month we will have a new baby...

Happenings

I have no pictures for ya. Sorry. I don't have the patience to sit and upload and edit at the computer. Besides, my feet will start to swell up and then Taylor will make fun of me and say, "OH! My feet feel like bricks!" Apparently, I say that a lot.

I am almost 32 weeks pregnant. Baby girl looks great. She is a little over 3 lbs right now. So, we are happy. I am still in denial, and am nowhere close to nesting. I have a lot of little baby girls clothes that need to be washed and organized. But, that means organzing a couple of closets...and I'm not in the mood. We can't decide on a name.

I have been very tired this time around. I think it has something to do with having 6 kids. I was telling Jim that my "energy spurt" only lasted about 3 weeks this time. I keep apologizing to my family for being a lazy pregnant lady, but really, they don't seem to mind. They have been super helpful and everybody pitches in and helps out. I think my own guilt gets to me. Not being able to do what I normally do. But, seriously, I don't think my sweet little family even cares if I just lay around all the time. They are great :)

I am moving pretty slow. Levi even peed on the carpet upstairs today because I wasn't fast enough getting his diaper. It was actually kind of funny. I think he was as surprised as I was.

The kids are loving school. We are back in our routine. They all love their teachers and classes. The best thing about this year is that Lincoln has a weekly homework packet instead of daily homework. It works out so nice with baseball. On the nights he doesn't have baseball he can just bust it and get his whole packet done. Such a stress off of him.

I have some amazing friends that are helping bring Dylan home everyday from Kindergarten. I am so thankful to have them.

Here is a picture of my cute sister and her hubby. They are having a baby boy in less than 4 weeks. I couldn't be more excited for them!

Philmont Scout Camp

Warning: This is a really long post...

This is what my family looks like after a week of camping.

We were lucky enough to get to go to Philmont this summer. It's a little Scout Camp in New Mexico. It's scout training for Stake Presidents and Stake Young Men's Presidents. Stake YM Presidents have to be invited by their Stake President to attend, and we were lucky enough to be invited by President Moody and his family. While the men go to leadership training all day, the wives and kids can play.

Each of the kids were divided into age groups and had their own counselors. They had a huge building for nursey age kids, too, so I was able hand off Levi for several hours every day. The kids never EVER wanted to leave their groups. They had so much fun and made so many new friends. After dinner, the kids would run off with their friends, and we didn't see them until lights out at 10pm.

On the grounds there is a huge villa which used to be used as a summer home. Now, it's a museum and you can do tours, but there is a huge villa lawn that the kids would play on for hours. They would play frisbee, football, baseball, or just lay on a blanket and hang out. There were deer roaming free on the lawn, too.

During the day, the kids did their thing, and at night there were skits, firesides, parades, and other activities. The kids cried when we left. They said it was better than Disneyland. I think a lot of it was the Spirit they felt there all week. It truly was a little heaven on earth.

So, I had only heard of Philmont from Pres. Moody and Pres. Lytle, and they always said that if we had the opportunity to go, we needed to go. When we arrived, we were greeted by Sis. Wixom, the General Primary President, and President Gibson of the General YM Presidency. The entire week at Philmont was planned and run by the General Primary Presidency, and General YM Presidency. Those were our speakers at church on Sunday, they were the speakers at firesides, classes, and trainings. It was a seriously amazing experience.

Taylor had the opportunity to have her testimony meeting and a Q&A that was filmed with President Beck. She bore her testimony and asked him questions. She also had a fireside with President Beck and his wife. The week after she had these experiences, she had her first year at Girl's Camp. I asked her how Girl's Camp was, and she said it was OK. Not like Philmont, though. Sad that her first year at camp had to follow this Philmont experience.

I was able to have classes from the General Leadership during the day with the other wives. In those classes, they basically just told us how amazing and wonderful we are, and thanked us all for having so many children and supporting our husbands.

Some other things we did were:

Hiking- the kids did some 7-8 milers. Even Brooklyn.
Crafts- there was a huge handicraft building with every craft you could possibly think of.
Fishing- we found a little reservoir, but didn't catch anything.
Horseback riding- they have a stable on the camp grounds. Even Levi rode a pony.

We ate every meal as a family in the mess hall. I didn't have to cook at all. It was like a huge cafeteria, and we would just go through the line. Sometimes the food was good, sometimes not.

Here are some pictures, in no particular order...

Taylor is inside the orange blanket. This was part of her skit.

This is Blake doing her part in the skit. I can't believe how much my girls loved doing their skits. I am not a skit person. That was always my least favorite part of camp, but my girls were so excited for it.

Dylan just finished her skit. She was VERY proud of herself.

Levi had the best seat in the house.

Levi was always trying to run off, and it was pretty exhausting trying to catch him all the time.

Dylan played in the mud every second she could. If you know her, you know that playing in the dirt is her most favorite thing EVER.

She offered President Moody a mud pie. He was a very good sport, and he made her day by playing along.

These were the buses that took the kids to their hikes. The kids hiked A LOT. They got patches for all the hikes they went on. They earned so many patches. I learned that Scouting is ALL about the patches. I sewed Taylor's on her camp sweatshirt, so she had a ton of patches for her first year at Girl's Camp.

Lincoln waiting for his bus to go on his hike. Hiking was his worst thing about Philmont. He hated it. It was really hot.

This is his hike buddy. It's the twins from his baseball team (two of his best friends) cousin. It's a small world.

Levi and Brooklyn having a conversation on Sunday after church.

Brooklyn is doing her counselor's hair, waiting for her bus to the hike.

Taylor and Blake were in the same group. They were waiting for their 8 mile hike. I was so glad I packed the Camelbacks.


Breakfast

This was our home for the week. Our family had 3 of these tents right next to eachother. Levi and the girls were hanging out during flag ceremony in the morning.

Lincoln is on the bottom, third from the left. Notice President Beck and Sister Wixom standing in the back. Lincoln had the opportunity to be involved in the flag ceremony on Wednesday. He was one of the lucky kids to raise the American Flag. They made us sign a media waver, because they took lots of pictures for the Ensign and took some film footage. Maybe we will see him in the Ensign or on LDS.org sometime soon :) Either way, what an amazing experience for him, and Jim was a proud dad watching his kid raise the American Flag in his Scout Uniform at Philmont in front of the General YM President. Once in a lifetime experience, no doubt.

So, that was our week at Philmont. I don't know if we will ever get to go again. Only if Jim is a Stake President someday, I guess. We were really grateful for the chance to go. It was a fun family vacation, and Spiritual experience for all of us. Something we will never forget.

This is my attempt to catch up

Seriously, my kids are so cute. It's a shame that I don't post ALL of the cute things they do and say everyday. They keep me entertained.

As I am writing this post, I can hear Dylan in the other room telling Lincoln "I love you google plus google infiniti nonstoppable Lincoln." I love my kids. By the way, Jim forged my name on the above contract. Pretty sure that makes it null and void.

I have posted next to nothing about this pregnancy, and here I am about to enter my 3rd trimester in just a couple of days. We are having another girl. We can already tell she's cute, just by the picture :) We are getting excited about having another sister, even though, we thought for sure it would have to be a boy this time.

I have kind of been waiting to see the results of certain tests before I posted what is happening in this pregnancy. It's nothing major, but every pregnancy seems to have it's little speedbumps. I have had 4 or 5 ultrasounds this time, because the baby is measuring really small. We have been checking her growth, and doing tests. There are even more tests, because I'm OLD now. I finally went to the specialist, and he confirmed what we already thought. She is fine. She is just teeny-tiny. It is not a big surprise, since my last 3 babies have been under 6lbs. She will be small, too.

I have already been having some strong contractions, so I imagine I will have to take it easy for the next couple of months. I am really hoping to make it 10 or 11 more weeks. That will put me at 36-37 weeks, but I'm not sure. Levi was born at 35 weeks. I am just going to do all that I can to keep cooking her. It's not fun to have a NICU baby. We learned that with Brooklyn. But, they seem to come earlier and earlier everytime.

In other news:

Dylan turned 5 last week. She counted down all the way from 100 sleeps. We were so glad to get to 1 more sleep. She did a small family party. Since it was Monday, we took the kids to Flip n Out and went out to dinner. The kids were so tired afterwards, that they only had the energy to sing happy birthday and blow out candles. Nobody wanted to eat the cake, so we had it for lunch the next day :) We also ordered Press Dough with her birthday money, but it takes 6 weeks to get here. Lame.

We have had lots of baseball tournaments this summer, and have another one this weekend.

The kids have been swimming everyday. So glad we have a pool. It is TOO hot.

I think Blake will probably drag me around to every store until school starts looking for the perfect Vans. I really hope we find them soon.

I think my kids have lost half their brain cells this summer playing Mario Kart.

We have single-handedly depleted Costco of their Dino Chicken supply.

We have been having a great summer, though. Not ready for it to end. I still have lots to post...

Still here

We are loving this summer break. We have been busy busy. We are not used to having 3 whole months of break for summer, and I thought I would be going crazy by now, ready to have the kids back in school. Not the case, though. I am actually dreading the end of summer. The kids have been awesome this summer!

I have not heard "I'm bored" once. The kids are happy to just sleep in, veg out, swim, and whatever else they can find to do. There are plenty of friends around, too, to keep them busy. I think they are enjoying the laziness as much as I am, so they are perfectly content to just hang out at home. They are all getting along, too, for the most part. It has been great.

We have been traveling alot this summer. Much more than we usually do. I have a lot to post:

Baseball tournaments in Utah

Philmont Scout Camp in New Mexico (amazing!)

Hopefully, a trip to Disneyland soon, because we have passes that we have to use by September.

Taylor's 1st year at Girl's Camp.

I will leave you with this picture of Taylor just before she headed up to Camp. This is the first year in 5 years that I haven't been to camp. Bummer to miss Tate's 1st year :( I have pictures of these 3 girls on the left on their first day of Kindergarten together. Now, I have pictures of them on their 1st day of Camp. Where is the time going? They are getting to be so grown up.

So, a little recap of Camp. Trust me, if you know Taylor, I got very specific details of every minute of Camp. However, I will spare you the play-by-play. She loved Camp. She slept out under the stars the first night. It kind of surprises me how much of a camper she is. She is such the quiet reserved brainy type, but she really loves the outdoors. Camping, hiking, fishing. I love that about her.

Anyway, it was kind of a bummer that her 1st year at Camp came the week after Philmont. She said Philmont was way more fun, so she kept comparing Girls Camp to Philmont. Philmont was an amazing experience for her. She had Firesides and Testimony meetings with the General YM Presidency of the Church, and General Primary President. Talk about once in a lifetime. She loved both Camps, and I am so greatful for the experiences that all of my kids have had this summer. I will post all about Philmont soon.

Dodger Game

When we went down to Lincoln's California tournament last month, we were able to take in a Dodger game with some of the families from his team. There's something about the feel of a Major League Stadium that is just plain fun. We caught a good game. The Dodgers won, and there was even a Pickle which the boys thought was the coolest thing ever. It's pretty rare to see a pickle in the Majors.

I think my favorite time is when the lights just come on, and it's just about to get dark.

Lincoln and some of his boys. These boys are all good friends. They have been together at least 3 days a week for the past year.

Yeah. How cute is he?!

After the game, everyone was allowed down on the field to watch fireworks. My kids are down there somewhere.

Watching the fireworks. Levi didn't seem to mind them at all. Going to the game was a fun family thing for us to do. Hopefully, we will see many more games together... maybe one day we will be watching Lincoln out there on the field.

Summer haircut

For those of you who know Lincoln, you know that his hair is his claim to fame. He is all about the hair. That is why I am shocked he decided to buzz it off. I can't blame the kid. He has thicker hair than all of his sisters. He was majorly overheating at baseball practice. He is not sure of it. Doesn't think he looks as cute. He is quite concerned that it won't grow back before school starts. At the rate his hair grows, I don't think he needs to worry.

His baseball practices run 3 hours long sometimes. In 108 degrees. I think this haircut is a good thing.

Awards and end of school stuff

This year, all the kids had separate awards ceremonies on separate days. I was at the school pretty much all week between Blake and Lincoln's birthdays and all the awards ceremonies. I'm so proud of the kids. They did great this year!

Blake got her Great American Award. This is an award only offered to 5th graders. They have to memorize all these crazy things like the Gettysburg Address, all the Presidents, the Preamble to the Constitution, and much more. I am so impressed that she got it. Only 27 5th Graders finished everything. Way to go Blake! I wish I could've gotten a picture of her with the trophy they gave her. We had to leave right after she got her award. Levi was OVER the awards ceremonies, so we took him home, and he immediately threw up :( Poor kid wasn't feeling well.

Making sure that mom is watching!

Future trouble makers, right there.

Mom, Seriously, are we done yet?

Dylan finished her last year of preschool.

She looks so tiny next to all those boys.

Ms. Heather has been an amazing teacher to my kids the last few years. We love her!

Woohoooo! I'm going to Kindergarten! Mom, how many more sleeps until Kindergarten? I will hear this every single day until summer is over :)