November 2022 - Baby Audrey

Michelle and Garr invited us to a Boys & Girls Club Dinner & Silent Auction Fundraiser.  Garr is on the Board for our local UT Chapter.  I had no idea all of the work they do to provide housing, food, and jobs to local families in addition to after-school programs for kids.  It was great to learn more about all they do to help the community.  

Baby Audrey joined our family right on her due date of Nov 20.  The first 4 kids were 2-10 days early or on time but Nathan was a week late so we weren't sure what to expect.  All of our other kids have come pretty fast but Audrey's labor and delivery was really slow.  I started having really mild contractions Friday night and they continued about every 45 minutes to an hour for the next day.  They started picking up Saturday night.  We called the midwife at 3am once they had been hard and close for a couple of hours, thinking it would be only a couple hours until she was born (like our other kids).  I spent several hours only dilated to a 4, then a few hours stuck at a 7, etc. until she finally came at 2pm.  She was 9 lb 8 oz, 21" long.  I was exhausted.  Emily and Sara graciously took our other kids first thing Sunday morning.  Nathan and Liam came back Sunday night and the other kids came back on Monday.  Marmie and Grandpa drove up to Utah on Saturday so they got to meet her on Monday. 

Meeting the siblings:

When Liam left for preschool on Monday (the day after she was born) he said, "Mom, you need to take care of baby sissy while I'm gone.  I will be back soon and then I can take care of her again."

Misc pictures of the adorable baby girl:

Audrey was only 5 days old on Thanksgiving and RSV was at an all-time high, so I stayed home with her on Thanksgiving along with Tyler and Liam.  We ate on paper plates and had a nice simple meal including Costco rotisserie chicken.  It was perfect.  Tyler and Liam both wanted to dress up, so they put on suit coats over their sweat pants and t-shirts and in Liam's case, added a cowboy hat.  After we ate we cuddled up and watched a movie (Bad Guys) together.  The rest of the family went to Emily's to feast with the Swingle clan.

Tad and I had fun decorating turkeys and other Thanksgiving pictures for the holiday.  We had more turkey drawings than we could fit on our "art wall."

Nathan shenanigans:

Liam had fun at the Butterfly Biosphere with Aunty Lissa.

Alexa received recognition for a poem she wrote for a reflections contest at school.  

A bunch of ward members came to help us blitz the drywall in the outbuilding the week before Audrey was born. It's getting close!