Now On Tour...because we travel like a band

As I have said before not having the internet really puts a damper on keeping up with my blog, as if having a new baby in the house wasn't excuse enough. Honestly, I don't even know if I can remember all that we have done, because we are on the go pretty much nonstop but here is a quick overview of August and September.
I kinda thought after having Maverick that life would slow down a bit...WRONG.
Maverick was born a Wednesday, my mom came up and stayed with us until Sunday. My dad also was up that first weekend helping entertain the kids. Then on Monday we went to my Aunt's house in Addy, WA to visit her and my Grandma. Gunnar, Ryker, and Kyle had a blast with my Uncle Larry. I enjoyed my time seeing my Grandma. She had fallen and had some broken ribs, praise God she is healing and doing much better now.
During that weekend on Saturday as we were driving in for a 2-day check-up for Maverick, Peak 7 called and wanted to know if Kyle could guide that day. We talked about it and we agreed he could. Maverick and I had a fun day walking around the park and showing off his cuteness while Kyle took a group down the river.

Then that Tuesday we made the drive down to Pasco, WA to my parents. we stayed a week, until we had to be back home for a 2 week appointment for Maverick.

 We spent a little time at home. We also made two trips to Montana on house searches. Maverick went with us, the older boys stayed with Mike and Laura.

 My Great Uncle Buddy and Aunt Rosie were in town so we got to visit them for a few minutes.

 Ryker turned 2! He got spoiled and got a awesome trampoline, books, and a farm lego set from his brothers and mom and dad.

 

 

Gunnar took it upon himself to help carry brother around.

I turned 29. They boys made me a cake.

 We went to my parents again and Ryker got to celebrate his birthday again.

 We went to Eugene to help out Kyle's mom and get some things for Kyle that belonged to his grandparents who have passed away.

 We spent a little more time at home.

 Gunnar started preschool up for the year. Sadly he has missed more than he has attended due to getting croup and us being gone.

 Maverick started rolling over before he was even 2 months old.

 Gunnar enjoys being a big brother and likes to read to his little brothers.

 Baby Maverick was dedicated to the Lord at church.

 He had a lot of family up here for the special occasion...

 Kyle's mom, Kathy also came up and enjoyed some shooting while she was visiting.

We are now back at my parents. Me, mom, Laura, and Jenny (Paul's fiance) went to women's retreat this last weekend. This week Kyle helped my dad paint the outside of the duplex and then today I dropped him off at the train station to head to Eugene this weekend to spend some time with Jarid (cousin/best friend) who is celebrating a birthday. The kids and I will stay and hangout with my parents. Kyle will be home Sunday night and we will head home Monday, it is hunting season after all, he has some things to shoot.

A quick update on our house search: Kyle and I did a lot of praying and have decided to stay in Priest Lake. We were looking in other places but never had peace about them. We are at total peace with our decision to stay in Priest Lake. We plan on opening a youth center there in the community. We are seeing doors open and are getting really excited. We are hoping to have it open by the beginning of this next year. Finding a house in PL has been a bit more of a challenge. It's beginning to look like we will be spending another winter in the trailer (which was totally not in our plans). We have put offers on two houses. The first house we decided we didn't want because it was so tight on space, the second house we are still hoping he calls us back on to accept our offer. Finding a house that fit our family's needs both space and financial wise in the PL area has been challenging. We get very discouraged, but are putting our trust in God.
I think that is it for now...

"The Mav"

Maverick Albert Pettit

Born: July 25, 2012 at 5:03am.

Stats: Weight 7 lbs 7.4oz. Height 19 inches

Maverick decided it was time to exit the womb, one day after his due date. It was definitely worth the wait. He is perfect, healthy, and a great addition to our family. I actually discovered that my midwife had July 30th written down as his due date, but it was changed at least 4 times throughout my pregnancy and I had written down the 24th on my calendar and was what I have been going by. So you can either say he was born a day after his due date or about a week before...either way, he is here!

I had not been feeling well the last two days prior to his arrival. Not super sick, but sore back, contractions off and on all day/night, just nothing very consistent. The night of the 24^th when we went to bed I told Kyle I was beginning to think I might actually really be in labor, so he might not want to get to comfortable. He went to sleep around 11 while I tossed and turned and attempted to sleep. Around 12:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and had a little streak of blood. I told myself this was enough to start towards the hospital, considering the consistent contractions about 5 minutes apart, the small streak of blood, and the hospital being about an hour and half away.

Waking Kyle up is a challenge to say the least. I told him that we probably should be heading in. He rolled over after many jabs in the side and started questionings all my symptoms asking if I was sure.  I was busy trying to pack up the last few things and in his sleepiness all he wanted to do was hug and tell me it was okay, he was testing my patience. Once I got the car packed I not so nicely told him to find some clothes and that seemed to snap him out of his sleepiness. He quickly got dressed, grabbed Gunnar and Ryker and got in the car.

He did grab me the ice pack. He insisted that I use the ice pack. I tried explaining I didn’t really think it was going to help with contractions, but he was so persistent I finally just put it on my back so he would leave me alone and then once I got too cold I quietly removed it as we travelled down the road. In his sleepy mind he was being helpful. 

I had always imagined us speeding to the hospital being it's a considerable distance away, but apparently Kyle had more envisions of tickets than me, so he proceeded to travel down the highway at the exact speed limit of 60. After about the first hour of me trying to be patient and calm, my contractions started getting closer varying from 2-3 minutes apart, I at this point told him he better start at least going 5 over or I might begin to think he wanted to deliver the baby in the middle of no where, with Gunnar and Ryker as the audience. He complied. 

We got to Mike and Laura's and quickly dropped the kids off and finished off the last 10 minutes of the ride to the hospital. We safely made it, PRAISE GOD.

We got all checked in and up to our room around 3:15am. I was so nervous they would tell me I was wrong, it wasn't labor and to go home. They checked me and I was only dilated to a 4. Nurse Sarah said they would give me an hour to see how I was progressing but to plan on heading back home (or we would have just got to Mike and Laura’s). I told her that usually once my dilation started I went quickly, so I wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but we could wait the hour and then talk about it. At about 3:45 she came back and said she would check me because the monitor was showing (and I was feeling) some very strong and consistent contractions every two minutes. Kyle would watch the monitor and almost on the dot every 2 minutes start holding my hand knowing another good one was on its way. When she checked me to her surprise I was dilated to about 6 ½. She said I was indeed in labor and that she would call the midwife, Faith. Faith showed up around 4:15. She checked me and I was at an 8. She sat quietly in the room and told me to let her know when I was ready to push. They let me be in total control. Around 4:45 I told her I thought I was ready and she checked me I was about 9 ½ and she called the team of nurses in. Everything was ready and I could start pushing.

Maverick decided to make things difficult at the point and they informed me he was turned sideways. Faith could feel his back and his arm, but no head. While I pushed they worked on turning him. My stomach is bruised from all the pushing they had to do…no fun, thanks Maverick, as if giving birth isn’t painful enough.

My water broke on about my third set on contractions that I was pushing with, unfortunately my midwife got a nice amniotic fluid shower, a direct shot to the face (did I mention she is 37 weeks pregnant). As my water broke apparently Maverick got himself situated correctly. With all the stress I was so close to blacking out. As I was pushing I would see the black closing in. Thankfully they started giving me oxygen in between contractions and it helped considerably. As I could feel Maverick crowning I got a horrible cramp in my hip. I told my nurse, but she was more concerned with other things, like me passing out, and gave it like a two second rub. I was so annoyed with her. The cramp was killing me, so I ended up pushing my leg out straight trying to relieve some of the pressure from my hip. The nurse kept trying to pull my leg in so I could push better, but I won the battle. I not only got relief from my hip cramp, but in the process I was also able to finish pushing the kiddo out. At 5:03, after about 15 minutes of pushing he was in my arms, perfect, beautiful, and an absolute miracle. 

My midwife then proceeded to show us the placenta, the amniotic sack and umbilical cord. Honestly I thought It was all pretty interesting, I never got an up close and personal look at it with the other two boys. I'm not sure Kyle enjoyed the show as much as me.

I then was allowed to hold, nurse, and love on my baby for an hour before they took him and did anything with him. Before they weighed him, Apgar scored him, anything. It was wonderful to say the least. He nursed like a champ the last 30 minutes or so of the hour. He then got to go be tortured by the baby nurse. 

When they came back to check me, they discovered I was bleeding to heavily. They decided they needed to hook me up to pitocin to see if they could get my uterus to clamp down and stop the bleeding. They were doubtful the entire time they were pumping pitocin in me. Kyle was calm the entire birthing process, but this made him so nervous. The next steps didn't sound pleasant, so we prayed and handed the situation over to God.

He answered our prayers and the bleeding slowed down to their satisfaction. This didn't stop them from coming and giving my poor tummy an aggressive deep tissue massage every 10 minutes or so. I seriously wanted to smack my poor nurse. I was very resistant as she did it and she had to practically hold me down. 

We were put up in the Pediatric department as the maternity ward was full. We got our own room for the day and night then were headed out the door Thursday before 11am. 

There were some rough moments in the delivery of little Maverick, but God kept everyone safe and we are all healthy and loving getting to know each other. 

Gunnar and Ryker adore Maverick. Gunnar is especially helpful, loves holding him, and has informed us that if I have milk for the baby he has chocolate milk in one side and apple juice in the other. If I was Maverick I would try that out. Ryker experiences more jealousy than Gunnar, but really has been doing a great job. I love watching them both as big brothers.

Kyle and I are adjusting to life with a new little one. There are new challenges, but nothing we can't handle without each other and our faith in God. 

So now that the baby is here, we are actively looking for a house or land to build a house. Please, keep us in your prayers. 

 Moments after delivery.

Cuddling with mom after a grand entrance into the world.

 His brothers checking him out for the first time.

 First attempt at a family photo...didn't go so well.

 Gunnar giving his new baby brother kisses.

 Ryker trying to be sweet.

 "The Mav"

 Daddy loving on his new baby boy.

 We are ready to take his kiddo home.

 Just home from the hospital. Enjoying the attention of all three of my boys.

A sweet, sweet, baby Maverick. 

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year up at the lake. It seems like forever ago (16 days ago), but it only seems like so long ago because we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of little dude then, and here we are almost to 40 weeks and still waiting.
For the fourth, Mike, Laura, Shawn, and Caleb came up to the lake. They put their big pontoon boat out on the water and camped out at Kalispbell Island. Kyle, Ryker and I did our sleeping back home, but Gunnar enjoyed himself sleeping on the boat.
We had a great time kayaking on the lake, boating, and using the wave runner. It was really perfect weather. They were out there for about 4 nights.
Over the weekend our friend Jacob came up and spent some time with us. Kyle took him up to the natural waterslides and they seemed to have a good time there too.
Overall it was perfect. Good food and great fellowship with friends and family.
The co-pilots.

 Kyle and Caleb kayaked from the shore to the Island. Gunnar joined them about 10 minutes from shore.

 How we keep crazy Ryker under control.

 Us kayaking with the boys. There was a lot of crying, but also a lot of laughing.

 Gunnar playing catch on top of the boat.

 Haha...you won't see this everyday, 37 1/2 weeks pregnant and in a wet suit.

 Ryker knows how to roll when we are in the boat.

 That's Kyle on the wave runner.

Looking back on lower Priest Lake, ready to go see Upper Priest Lake.

Smores and more

(Written July 2, but just now getting to the internet to post)

Kyle ended his rafting season on Friday, and we have enjoyed having him home. I am pretty sure he is awfully bored going from being very active every day to being at home with two toddlers and a pregnant wife, but he is coping.  I am thankful for him ending his season a month earlier than the rest of the crew to be with us before the baby arrives, which they say could be any day now (they said that with Ryker too, and it was still 3 weeks until he was born).

We had a smores night, Friday and we had tons of fun besides all the bugs. There are these tiny black flies that love my family. They leave a nasty bite. Despite our bug repellent, they just can’t get enough of us. We really can’t stand them. Luckily for the most part the mosquitoes leave us alone if we have our bug spray on. The boys loved the smores. We made some extra special ones with Reese Peanut Butter Cups and they were amazing!

Monday we got a bit more adventurous. We had heard about the natural waterslides up here, but have never checked them out. So we packed our lunch and headed that morning. It was about an hour drive around the lake and up to Lion’s Head State Park, and then about a mile and half hike. The hike was beautiful and totally worth it, even 36 ½ weeks pregnant. We got about 200 yards from the slides and couldn’t get to them because the bridge was washed out and there was no way we were wading through the waist deep, ice cold water with Gunnar and Ryker in tote. We had to cross plenty of streams with them and that was challenging enough. We decided we will visit them kid free next time. Gunnar did a great job of walking, but Ryker would walk about 100 yards and then want to be carried the next 600 yards….on the way back Kyle took to carrying both of them.

Kyle and Caleb did decide to get into the water despite not being at the slides and the freezing cold temperatures. Gunnar decided to dip his toes in, but that was all the further I allowed him to go. He wanted to jump in with his dad and Uncle Caleb.

Anytime we are outdoors we are reminded of God’s awesome power and strength. Our God is truly an AWESOME God. I am so thankful that He has afforded me the opportunities to see so many of His beautiful creations. 

33 weeks

I realize that my blog in general has been quite neglected (minus my two recent posts),which means that writing anything about my current pregnancy or even sharing an ultrasound picture has also been forgotten. It’s just simply not easy keeping up without having internet at home. I can drive less than a quarter mile in either direction on the highway and use their free internet. But, this in turn means slow internet, and trying to put any pictures on the blog takes forever,and with two little boys in the backseat waiting patiently while mom uses the internet means I don’t have forever.

But alas, I am here to give an update on my pregnancy: I am about 33 weeks along. I don’t know if the next 7 weeks or so could possibly goby fast enough to please me. I have been measuring 2 weeks big the last couple of appointments, but they say I’m doing good, however, if you ask me I feel like a whale and possibly even look like one. I’m not exactly sure how my belly can grow for another 7 weeks. Kyle even commented that I have never been this big with either Gunnar or Ryker, it was said with love, and it’s true…so no hard feelings towards his honesty. My midwife told me to plan on not having a 5 or 7 pound baby again, that I needing to be thinking 8-9 pounds. She then assured me my body knew what it was doing…so comforting.

A few weeks ago I went out and bought some new bras and maternity pants. My maternity pants from my previous pregnancies are just not comfortable anymore proving that I really am larger this go around. My bras were not fitting at all making me miserable throughout the day. Kyle gladly sent me off to get new clothes because he understands that being uncomfortable doesn't equal happy. 

I have felt okay. I have horrible heartburn, and it keeps me from getting rest, it especially interrupts my afternoon nap attempt while bothboys are sleeping. Baby boy LOVES waking me up at about 3am each morning forsome kickboxing, so I don’t tend to be well rested. He is an active little dude, which I guess is just like my other two, so why should I expect anything different. I was lying with my belly against Kyle’s back the other night and Kyle woke up at 3am during one of the kickboxing sessions to tell me to rollover the other direction because the baby was keeping him awake with all the kicking that was being felt on his back. Funny, I wish I could have him rollover and be kick free and able to sleep well.

As for a name, we are still clueless. We have a couple ideas, but nothing even close to solid possibility. I wish when babies were born that they came out with a tag attached to a toe with the name God determined fit for them….it really would make my life a whole lot less stressful!

So, there you have it a bit of an update on pregnancy #3.Sorry I didn’t bring my ultrasound pictures to upload. We only had two ultrasounds this pregnancy which is so strange to me, and none of the pictures were any spectacular, other than I suppose the miracle of life which is pretty spectacular in itself!

7 years

Kyle and I have officially been married 7 years as of May 21. As I reflect on these last seven years, I realize we have done so much and have an endless list of praises.

Upon getting married I moved with Kyle to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Within five months of our marriage he left on a year long deployment to Iraq. I went back to Washington State, lived with my parents and completed my student teaching, then kept myself busy coaching tennis and substitute teaching. I moved back to Kentucky in September awaiting Kyle’s return.

Kyle returned and we were at Fort Campbell until February at which point we packed up and were moved across the world to Schweinfurt, Germany. We were in Germany for about four years. Kyle was deployed for 15 months to Afghanistan, and I was blessed with a job teaching Kindergarten at the American School on base. I kept plenty busy with teaching, but also took a little time to travel with friends. Upon Kyle returning from Afghanistan we had our little Gunnar. Together we travelled and saw a lot of great places across Europe. One of my most memorable trips would be our 95k hike across a stretch of the Austrian Alps. It was challenging, yet really gave us some quality time together away from the world. Kyle was deployed again to Afghanistan for what was suppose to be a year. I was busy packing up our apartment as Gunnar and I were planning on moving stateside setting things up for our transition out of the military. God had other things in mind for us. Kyle ended up badly breaking his ankle a month into his deployment and was sent home. Gunnar and my plans got put on hold. Kyle came home Dec. 23, 2009 from Afghanistan…he was the best broken Christmas present ever. I told him that first night that he was home I suspected I was pregnant again (despite our use of birth control). I then began caring for Kyle, our 8 month old Gunnar, and in the meantime tried to take care of my pregnant self. We also moved into a larger apartment off post. It was an interesting move, I was about 7-8 months pregnant, Kyle had a cast on his leg (not to mention his dislocated shoulder), we had a year old kiddo, and we were doing a self-move, talk about good times. Kyle went through a long recovery process and the day after Ryker was born in August we got the news that they were sending us stateside to complete Kyle’s medical evaluation board process.

This meant after Ryker’s birth things went into high speed. We quickly got his US citizenship paperwork, passport, and other documents in line, they packed up our house, put our car on a boat, and our family of four on an airplane and sent us to Fort Lewis, WA. We were in Fort Lewis for a year. There we saw the ins and outs of the military health system. Some days were better than others. We were told we would be there for about 6 months. After a frustrating year and 2 months, Kyle was finally medically retired from the military. We then took about a month to travel and visit our families over the holidays then finally moved into a ‘beautiful’ mobile home up in Priest Lake, ID, courtesy of Kyle’s dad.

We have now been here since January. We have been waiting for Kyle’s VA paperwork to come through. The VA considers Kyle 100% disabled and with that comes a lot of great benefits. We finally got the paperwork about 2 weeks ago (3 months later than expected) which means we are officially on the hunt for a house. The trailer has served us well as a transitioning location, but we are ready to move on. Kyle’s rafting season will end at the end of June, we will have a baby towards the end of July, and then we will hopefully we moving shortly thereafter. We are continually praying that God will show us just exactly where He wants this family of FIVE to go. Kyle is really feeling called to continue his work in outdoor youth ministry .

So here we are 7 years later….I think we have made the most of our 7 years, and honestly I can’t imagine going through all of this with anyone but Kyle. We really seem to balance each other, and I believe God really knew what He was doing when he placed us in each others lives. 

For our anniversary we dropped the boys off with Mike and Laura where they spent the night. I then went and spent the night with Kyle in his home away from home…a tent in the back yard of the warehouse of his work. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting, and we got a peaceful, restful night sleep (the only thing that would have made it better was if I had a toilet). The next day we went and stuffed ourselves silly with breakfast at Frank’s diner then we hit up Manito park in Spokane. It was beautiful and we took tons of funny pictures of each other. It was great to be with Kyle, to relax, and just take time to laugh together. After the park we went and changed our cell phone contract from AT&T to Verizon, then picked up the boys so Kyle could spend some time with them too…I didn’t think it was fair I hogged one of his rare days off. It truly was a perfect day with each other.

Preschool

Gunnar finished up preschool on Thursday, May 24^th. I can’t even begin to explain what a blessing preschool has been in our lives. I was so worried about Gunnar socially after leaving Fort Lewis. Gunnar loved interacting with the kids at daycare usually at least twice a week, plus there were many kids for him to interact with at both Sunday and Wednesday night services at our church, so he was going from having quite a bit of interaction with other children to none when we moved.

Our church up here at the lake has two other little boys that are there off and on. They are brothers who are each just a couple months younger than our boys. So when they are there and when they decide they want to play in the nursery it is good. But other than that there is not a lot of opportunity for interacting with other young children up here. When we heard about the preschool that started in January, the month we moved here, we were thrilled. I probably would have paid big bucks for Gunnar to attend, but we were told they only thing required was that Gunnar was potty trained. Score for us. We were psyched as Gunnar was indeed potty trained (and he only had one accident and that was on a day when 4 kids peed their pants and they had an unusual schedule). The best part of it all is that it didn’t cost us big bucks, instead it is free! It is two days a week for three hours on those days.

Gunnar did pretty well he was the second youngest in his class that ranged from 4 kids to 15. He wasn’t always interested in their activities and if he got bored with something he would often just get up and go play. Luckily he became more actively engaged as time went on.

We have been impressed with all he has learned. He says his alphabet flawlessly, will point out random letters and numbers to us on signs and identify them correctly. He knows his shapes and can count to twenty if he is focused. Although if he messes up, which if it is going to happen he skips number three, then he just starts throwing random numbers out there and ends with ten or twenty. Colors….colors are his major weakness. We are constantly pointing out colors at home, he practices them at school, practices them at home, but he just doesn’t get it. It drives me bonkers. It does give us something extra fun to practice this summer, I can thinking up all sorts of games that involve identifying colors. We will also continue practicing his other skills (especially counting), and I would love to teach him to write his name over the summer. AND, we can’t forget we are working on him NOT speaking in third person. He will say “Gunnar wants candy” instead of “I want candy.” It’s cute and I was hoping he would just figure it out on his own, but I’m beginning to think it is something we might have to make him more consciously aware of.

I would love to get Ryker potty trained so he can start attending as he really wants to stay and go with big brother when we drop him off, but Ryker really isn’t ready yet and with the new baby coming potty training will have to wait a bit. I am hoping maybe by next January we can start thinking about potty training him, he will be almost 2 ½. Ryker does attend a lap sit story time at the public library here. He was actually the only “lap sitter” attending for a while, but now we have a little girl who regularly attends with us and today some 7 month old twin boys attended. Ryker’s behavior during this time has gone from interested to completely not interested! I actually just end up wrestling him most of the time, which gets frustrating. During this 30 minute time we usually sing songs, and look at books together. The songs are fun and interactive, but Ryker just wants to run through the library and push books over. They do capture his attention when they whip the bubbles out. I think they try to judge by my level of frustration with Ryker when to start blowing bubbles. This summer we may stop doing the lap-sit and start going to preschool story time with Gunnar now that preschool is over. I’m hoping that Ryker will see the older kids and want to copy them. It could go either way…but at least then Gunnar will be able to see his friends from school, and I know there is no way Gunnar would stay interested during the lap sit time, so I think preschool story time will be our best bet.

Keeping our kids socially engaged is so important to me, yet living in a very small and rural community makes his a bit of a challenge!