IT'S THANKSGIVING

Prior to Thanksgiving we constantly heard Chase talk about "turkey dinner". He was so excited to have this turkey dinner he even had a song about it that he would sing. They talked about it at school and each night I would prepare dinner he would say "is it turkey dinner?" So, the prize goes to Chase for being the most excited about Thanksgiving this year.

Here are some of our Thanksgiving festivities:

We went to Chase's preschool party where each child had made a turkey hat. On each of the feathers was something they had told Ms. Shirley they were thankful for. So...most kids had stuff like family, friends, mom, dad, you know the usual stuff but not Chase. This is what he was thankful for: rattlesnakes, long snakes, big snakes, worms, and some other worms! I wonder how far down the list I would have been.

If you're thinking, that looks like a cute class of all girls--it's because it is a cute class with all girls except Chase. Can you believe he's the only boy? He doesn't even seem to notice, though.

On Thanksgiving day, we did the annual Turkey Trot in Dana Point. Alex ran in the 10K, Megan ran the 5K and Zach ran the kids run, 1K. But, Alex actually ran a 16K because after his race Megan wanted him to run with her and then after that Zach wanted to run with him also. So, I think he got in enough running for all the eating to be done later.

I'm not really sure how this happened but somehow I missed Megan coming across the finish line. I was there the entire time watching. At one point I saw an old neighbor and talked to him but other than that I had my eyes on the finish line for her. But, I missed her, I'm thinking I must have been talking with Kirt (old neighbor) when she whizzed by.

Zach was pretty proud of himself and his running! But, mostly he was excited about his medal.

Grandma Lorscheider came to visit for Thanksgiving! Here she is meeting Max.

Grandma came and made us her famous "twisties". Here she is teaching Megan how to make them. Yum Yum!

Here's Chase finally eating his much-anticipated Turkey dinner! We ate at Auntie's house and had a great time. Sara and Heidi came to play soccer here in California so their whole family came and had Thanksgiving with us! We went to a few of their games to see what great soccer players they are.

Also, our friends Cory and Paige came for Thanksgiving and Cory ran in the 10K with Alex...did I mention it was pouring down rain?? Oh, they were soaked. We later had dinner with them over the Thanksgiving weekend before they left to go back to Houston. It was fun to catch up and laugh with them!

HALLOWEEN!

This Halloween we had an Indian, a skeleton, a pirate and a chicken! We had another year of Halloween fun starting off by not having to go to school! (I'm pretty sure the teachers were happy about this). Later in the afternoon we walked down to the neighborhood party -- we played some games and had dinner there. After, we got together and all took off trick-or-treating. This year Megan, Sara and Taylor went by themselves! I can't believe I have a daughter that old to go trick-or-treating by herself. I remember going by myself and thinking I was so old. We ended the night with Alex making the kids the traditional "witch's brew", this year it was rootbeer.

Megan and Sara as the Indians

Zach as a skeleton-- he didn't want to wear the mask because he said he couldn't see too good in it and it was hot!

Chase the pirate. This is year #2 of being a pirate. Those of you who see him often know that he is a pirate really almost everyday.

Max the chicken (looking a bit cross eyed)

The whole gang ready with buckets in hand.


"Witch's Brew"-- Sara, Megan and Taylor checking it out.

ONE MONTH OLD

Max--One Month

Max is officially one month old. Part of me feels like this time has just flown by and other days I feel like he's always been a part of my life. I love having a newborn in the house...they are just so sweet, innocent and a real blessing. But, I'm remembering the challenges that come along with newborns--mostly sleepless nights. For a quick update, he is definatly getting enough to eat and weighs over 8 pounds now. He had some eye goop going on so I took him in to the doctor when it didn't clear up with putting breastmilk in his eye (yes, the dr. told me to try putting a few drops of breastmilk in his eye). It turns out that he has a clogged tear duct that had got infected so now we are doing eye ointment. I also found out that day that he has a heart mummur. My dr wants us to see a ped cardiologist to find out what exactly is going on. I'm not really nervous...yet.

PUMPKIN CARVING

As always a good, fun, messy time carving pumpkins! It's always more fun to carve with friends so luckily the Austin's came over to help us with the carving. This year Megan and Taylor decided to use the same face for their pumpkin, Zach and Parker decided to draw their own face and Chase and Lexi were happy to be in on the fun this year! Max and Kendyl just snoozed away. The whole group with their finished projects.

Chase having fun digging out the "guts"

Zach wanted the traditional Jack-o-lantern this time.

BIG ROUND THINGS

It sure is interesting to have a baby as seen through the eyes of a 3-year old. Chase has been so fascinated by this baby but especially fascinated with breastfeeding. He keeps asking me why the baby doesn't have teeth, why he can't walk, etc. etc. The other day I was feeding Max and Chase was there sitting by me when he was interrogating me about the feeding process. I was explaining the baby gets big and strong drinking "mom's milk", blah, blah ,blah. Chase then says to me "Where did you get those big, round things anyway?" Too funny! Yesterday he then said to me, "Which one of those round things has juice?" When I told him they both have milk, he seemed pretty bummed for the baby that Max only gets milk and no juice. He also insists that he can hold the baby by himself. He will tell me " get your hands away...I can do it by Myself!". Oh, he scares me...

MEET LITTLE MAX!

Our sweet little Max was born on Sept 30th at 4:51pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and 19 inches (our smallest baby). We named him Max White Thurman. (White is my maiden name) This was my first induction and eventhough I was nervous about it, all went well. I got to the hospital at 7am and was happy to find out I was farther along than we had thought. I was dilated to a 2 and about 50% effaced which meant I was put on pittossin, the famous induction drug! After a little while, I was "feeling it" and luckily the anasthesiologist was available to give me an epidural. So after that, I was feeling good and spent a big portion of the day watching TV and reading (which seems crazy that I was in labor doing that!). Anyway, nothing much was happening and I was starting to worry--you know not much else to think about except everything that COULD go wrong. Finally, around 3:45 I started feeling more heavy contractions (even with the epidural), my nurse, Lisa came in and checked me to find out I was a 8 and 100% effaced. Around 4pm I called my mom to tell her to come over if she wanted to see this one at birth and then Lisa called Dr Thein. Around 4:15 I thought I was dying, the contractions were intense and I really needed to push. After that, the student nurse came in and gave me a shot to stop my contractions because Dr Thein was still 1/2 hr away and appartly no one else wanted to deliver this baby. My mom and Lynn (alex's mom) arrived around 4:30 and 10 minutes later Dr Thein came in. We got all ready and in stirups only for me to say "I really don't need to push anymore". So back on the pittosin I went. I started to push and to be honest I really felt I was pushing for a super long time but come to find out it was only about 10 minutes. After the fact, I learned that Max was still high in the birth canal because the cord was short and it was wrapped around his head. Luckily, I couldn't see the heart rate monitor through the pushing since his heart rate was pretty low during the pushing. Anyway, he came out but was sunny side up (like Chase) and came down twisted--I don't really get it but thats what Dr Thein told me. Anyway, it all went well yet I have to say I'm glad I'm not planning on doing this again...that is hard work!

Here are some pictures of Max:

The rude awakening of this world!

Dr Thein, Max and me

All settled down as the "burrito baby"

I'm already in Love!!

LAST BEACH DAY BEFORE SCHOOL

Here we are enjoying a final day at the beach before school. A beautiful day is was and we all had such a great time! Even the moms (Annalee and I) got into the water!

Max loving the sand! He never minded crawling around in the sand.

Megan trys out some snorkeling. She and Taylor see an eel--pretty cool!

Zach trys the snorkeling next but struggled getting the breathing down so it didn't last too long.

Max and I.