Haleyjo's Weblog

June 2, 2020

Liberty Ann’s story 7/11/15

Annnnnd now 4.75 years later….

Before this memory drifts from my mind and it is lost forever. It has been almost a year and a half and you can see how years go and this post is still not completed. I am sure the story has changed some because your mind can do that with stories. Not remember fully. Forget. You know it happens unless the story is told over and over and over. Then it stays. So back to where I started…

Sometimes 9 months seems to wiz on by and in our case 9 months plus 7 days (I am never on time to anything, if you know me well) but other times it seems to take foooorrrrreeeevvveeeer! This past pregnancy, #4, was not the easiest I have experienced. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten older, maybe my body just stretched out a lot faster (there’s been 4 babies in there people) or who knows but it was not an easy ride. The first 3 months were cake and then bam, just like that it got really really difficult. I had horrible anxiety, like major panic attacks. Thankfully I had experienced panic attacks 7 years prior so I knew I would survive, live, and eventually overcome it. But anxiety and panic are just not at all fun, other than driving me in deep to the Lord. For 6 months I would read before bed in hopes that I would not wake in the middle of the night trembling for who knows whatever reason. Needless to say it was hard, I was tired, but God got me through it once again, just like He always does.

This time around with baby #4 I did not expect to be “on time” if you will, because the last 2 were also not on time. Also at the end of this pregnancy my hips decided to hurt, in such a horrible way. I started going to a chiro (which I love because the guy we see is absolutely amazing!!!). But basically the last week I was pregnant he said the best thing for my hips was to have that baby. Now I was due on July 4th, but like I just said no baby came and I was extremely thankful because it was an insanely hot day. Unfortunately due to my hips I was not able to participate in our July 4th parade because I could not walk. July 4th came and went, along with 7 more days. Coming and going. Waiting. On July 10th which was a Friday I went about business as usual. I was out of a few food items but I was pretty bound to home due to my hips, so I called my mom to complain. That seemed productive, complaining…. And since my parents are awesome, my mom said on the other side “well what would you like? We decided to come your way in hopes that baby would come soon.” Praise the Lord!!!! They showed up, dropped off food and took off towards the coast. Are they not the greatest? I felt my body give into relief. Maybe an hour later I started to feel some contractions. This was definitely it (because hello I was overdue) but the contractions did not hurt and seemed super light. At that moment I decided to group text my college friends. They told me to start timing those contractions, which I did. 5 min apart, 3 min apart, 2 min apart…. but still super light. I was not concerned but my friends started to freeeeak out. “Halllley get yourself to the hospital stat!” Worry started to set in but still my contractions did not hurt. But the fact that the timing was so close indicated otherwise, or so I thought.

Now I have been down this road before… Contractions…. my husband not being home from work… So, late into the afternoon I called his work and said he needed to come home. By this time I had called my parents and they had made it back to my house. My dad tried having conversations with me which I was not diggin’, I mean I was in labor just not in tremendous pain. My college friends were freaking out. I really was not sure what I should be feeling. I was excited, hopeful, and ready to be done carrying this baby. Oh and did I mention we had no idea of the sex either???

So we continued to wait. We ate dinner. Steve put the 3 bigs to bed. I kept having light contractions. My cute pregnant neighbor (Rachel) came over and we took a selfie. And then it felt like it was time to go. We had about a 20 minute drive ahead of us. We left between 7 and 8pm…. I cannot remember at this time. Steve called the ER on the way there to let them know we were coming. And as we were driving my contractions started to spread out and I remember feeling so frustrated. As we pulled up to the hospital, Steve was going to drop me off at the door (like we had done in the past) but I insisted that he park so I could walk this baby out. So we did just that. People starred a few times. I was feeling feisty. We entered the ER doors and I checked in. They wheeled over a wheel chair and I said “no thanks, I am walking this baby out!” I am not quite sure what I was thinking at the time, but I walked some more.

Then we got into our room and I curled up onto those super comfortable hospital beds (please feel my sarcasm). My contractions did not feel that powerful. So I made them check me… only 4 cm! ugh. By this time it was around 9:00pm. So we waited. Then came my least favorite midwife (or ND) out of the practice I was going to. I was just annoyed by this point. So annoyed. I didn’t want to wait until shift change but I wasn’t all that excited for this woman either. So we waited some more. I cannot remember if I got up to use the bathroom and then puked in the sink or after, but I had the nurse check me again. Things had picked up by this point and I was feeling done. She went to check me and it seemed to be taking way longer than normal and then she broke my water! My emotions were everywhere. “Oops” is what came from her mouth. Why on earth would this woman go and intentionally break my water???? I usually was able to start pushing and then have my water break, but not now. I remember feeling such frustration over the situation but all I could do was continue forward. Perservere. Like I said I think I puked before this…. Pretty soon the room was silent. There was only me, Steve, and this baby kicking with each contraction. And boy did this baby kick. My contractions at this point hurt and I just remember thinking to myself I really hope we are done soon here.

Moments later I told Steve I was ready. He ran and got a nurse. She came in and told me I would have to wait because Dr. Berry was delivering another baby. I told her “no”, and that I was doing this. So she left. Moments later another nurse came in and checked me and then it was almost a flood of nurses and people in the room. It was show time. All of a sudden this tiny little Asian lady walked in and started putting scrubs on. I said in a staunch voice, “who in the world are you???” “I am Dr. Lee and I am here to deliver your baby.” (Uhhhhhh what??? Who is Dr. Lee??? Where did she come from)??? At that point I could care less who was there to deliver my baby, it could have been some random passer byer by this point. I just wanted the baby out. I pushed and within a few minutes the baby was there. They grabbed her and tossed her onto my chest. I asked what the sex was. I looked under the blanket and what did I see? Girl #4!!! I was in love all over again.

At that point all of the love hormones come washing over you. Another young nurse made some comment about me bleeding too much but I assured her I felt fine. And I was. It was funny because having another girl just felt right. I knew what it was like to have a girl. It was familiar. Apparently there was meconium that came out which had never happened before. And the babies belly was super distended. She had to be examined and a tube was put down her throat. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 9oz. and was born around 2:30am. We didn’t get to our room until 5:30am. We were wiped. I turned my phone off and went to sleep. But baby girl was here and we were just overjoyed.

A few hours later the phone was ringing and friends were calling to make sure we were still alive. I was so tired at that point and did not want to speak to another human for hours.

And two years later our sweet baby Liberty Anastasia (Libby Ann) is still the baby of the family. She is our longest nurser. Still camps out in our bedroom and in our bed more than any other child has in our home. We are still feircly inlove with her and cannot believe she will be two tomorrow!

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December 30, 2015

Recap on 2 years… oh what????

By haleyjo

Dearest Libby Ann,

Well hello there daughter. You are number four in a great bunch of little ladies. You were born about 3 months ago and I am finally (once again, I think I always say this on here), finally writing about it. You have captured my heart with your sweet gummy grins and your oh so perfect sleeping and how you hardly ever cry. Needless to say little lady I am in love with you! It’s far too late for me to write about your entry into the world, so we will save that for another day. But you are such a blessing to this mama.

With you being 3 months we embark on the fact that we are coming up quickly to year #2 of living in this house of ours. How have 2 years past by so quickly and nothing was documented? Well here is the short version on bullet points on what has happened in the past 2 years:

bought our first home! yay! – total provision from the Lord
the day we were supposed to close the government froze and our loan was on hold for another month…
have had 6 international students live with us at different points of time in the last 2 years… China, Vietnam, and Japan.
had our first ambulance experience with a child in 2014. (do not want to try that one again)
got a dog. Coco she was 5 when we got her. She is part german shepherd and something else.
took Hannah to OHSU 4 times due to bladder reflux and kidney issue. This stressed me out every time. One day the Lord healed her and we did not have to return,… (many ultra sounds and catheters were involved… gag me but Praise the Lord, there was much rejoicing)
Somewhere in there Hannah walked at 13 months.
got pregnant with baby #4
Did not find out what she was…
bought chickens who lived in our basement for a reeeeeeallllly long time.
Ava has now lost 3 teeth and is 6 years old… ohhhh whattt????
Had baby girl #4 on 7/11/2015! (we have 4 girls)
started 10th year with CRU at WOU as staff…
Baby #4 also paid a visit to OHSU due to weird overlapping skull pieces but again saw how faithful our God is and it disappeared.

and I am sure there is more, but that is the brief recap…

next up… Liberty comes into the world!

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December 30, 2015

perspective from 2011

By haleyjo

So have you ever been on google earth? Well if you have not, google earth is pretty cool and in my mind kind of freaky too. But anyhow, we will stick to the pretty cool side of things. How it works is you plug in an address and hit enter. All of a sudden you go from looking at the earth to the picture zeroing in on your location. In my crazy mind, while looking at this visual happening I also envision a zooming noise taking place. Woooooosh! One that starts slowly and picks ups speed until I am zeroed in (like I said before) on what ever the address/object is you would like to see.

My life is a lot like that at times. I’m looking at what I think is the big picture, but then all of a sudden when I hit the enter button my perspective changes and I am zoomed into the actual thing I needed to see all along. God gives us people to help us at times to point us to that perspective. This is why having friends who love Jesus is so very important. They help us see the actual location on the world map when all we can see is the big globe. They are able to see the address we have been searching for.

So with all of that said, tonight I had a conversation with a friend I treasure a ton and am so thankful God has blessed me with. She currently lives as a missionary, somewhere in the world. (A lot of detail eh? It’s just to keep her cute self safe). In our conversation we talked about the things we are struggling with and the ways we see the Lord at work. We got on the topic of comparisons. Oh man do I compare. Ugh. So in so has a house and I, well don’t. So in so gets to buy new clothing all of the time and I well don’t. Those folks get to eat out so much. They have a dishwasher. Their parents live close and can watch the kids. It gets so bad at times that I try and find ways to fix my dissatisfied heart. Well I’ll buy this thing. Or I deserve a Starbucks right now because I feel this way. Or if I play my cards just right, then I may be satisfied. blah blah blah. Oh my heart is so weak and ugly.

It’s so funny that I do this as I am sure other adults do this as well. I am always telling Ava, my three year old, not to worry about what her sister has or doesn’t have and to be concerned with her own actions. I myself need to be concerned with what the Lord has given me and be satisfied in the gifts that I have been freely given. I need not be concerned with what others have or don’t have and what I have in comparison or don’t have. So getting back to speaking with my friend, she shared with me this lovely little nugget of a verse:

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. – Romans 12:14-16

So much easier to just Rejoice with those who rejoice. Rejoice with the fact that the Lord has given them certain things and

^{Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 24} A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

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October 19, 2015

well hello

By haleyjo

Well hello there. After my 365 plus day hyatus I am back! I’m not sure where to start. Should I start with the fact that I am ecstatic that I have eggs in the fridge again, the fact that I am 33 weeks pregnant with baby #4, my other 3 kiddos are 6, 4, and almost 2? So Much has happened and I have been horrible at recording any of it. So we shall start small…

Today. It was a pretty great day! I do not feel like I have been able to say this for sometime, but today was great! We had new friends come over (which I am also reading a plethora of books right now, one of which is called “women are scary”. true title, I kid you not). In this book it talks about mom dates… so I pretty much suck at those. But today, it happened and it was good and it filled some of my tank, sooooo yay for mom dates! I also was able to accomplish the crazy, how fast can you clean your house and make it look decent before said friend comes over mode. I was able to make the kitchen look humane and vacuum the floors. Hey I consider those huge accomplishments.

Then I was able to go sing some songs, which does any heart good, and then finished with some zumba action. I have been attending zumba for the past few months due to some anxiety that crept its way back into my life. SO far Jesus and zumba are helping me out a ton! Now its off to kiss little heads and whisper “I love you’s” into their ears, do my stretches and fall asleep to reading one of my books… Peace out!

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May 23, 2014

my mess of a dream

By haleyjo

So I have this serious issue with floors. I cannot handle stuff on the floors. Toys and that sort of stuff is just fine, but hairs, dirt, food, it just grosses me out. If it touches the bottom of my foot I cannot go about my business. I sort of freak out. Now if this is your house, that is fine, I’ll keep my shoes on, but in my house I feel restless and am completely unable to focus if my floors are in that state. I feel out of control, and on top of that I have crawler, and the thought of her putting some crusty piece of old food in her mouth, well it makes my stomach turn. With that said, we recently got a dog. Oh yes, a dog. She is sweet, the girls love her, and she barks at anyone who comes to the door. mmmhmmm, do you sense my love? She really is sweet. But the one thing that I absolutely loathe about her is the small amount of hair she sheds each and every moment of each and every day. I vacuum at least once a day. Oh and Im not a fan of weird scents, and she has that too, but we will just stick to the hair for now. So tonight after a very long day, I couldn’t take it any longer and I needed to vacuum. 9:45pm vacuum sesh, I think yes! We party hard around here.

So since I am a bit neurotic about my floors, I find it soothing to vacuum, are you sensing my weirdness? Go ahead, judge. I get lost in my thoughts while I vacuum, its almost therapeutic for me really. Its probably because it, the vacuum, produces some sort of white noise which drowns out the sound of small voices, barking dogs, and anyone else who might be trying to get my attention at the moment. So anyhow, I have a moment to think, in somewhat silence. So tonight as I was vacuuming away I started a conversation with the Lord. I started to think about the many things that frustrated me about today (its been one of those days where everything annoys you, is that just me? or do others get this way too?) I think about the many dog hairs that are being sucked up into the vacuum. I think about the Chinese student, whom I love dearly, but sometimes is hard to live with. I think about how my 3 year old has peed on the carpet ~~twice~~ three times in the last ~~two~~ three days, and I wish I had only wood throughout my house. I think about all of the many things that I am ungrateful for, the many things that I do not posses but so badly want…. uggggggggly ugly. I finally say in the stillness of my heart, “well this is definitely not my dream life” (I can really be a sass to the Lord, sometimes.) And the Lord said, “your right.”

What??? I’m right? I was expecting the Lord to say something like, “yes, but you have this to be thankful for…and this… and this…” but I’m right??? This isn’t my dream life?

Then this verse:

“in heaven I’ll have only you, and on this earth you are all that I want”

Psalm 73:25

popped into my head. Thank you, Holy Spirit! Then my thoughts start going…. Is He really all that I want? Is He really all that I strive after???? Right then as I am vacuumed hundreds of hairs over the tattered rug that we’ve had for 8 years, which I purchased at Target with wedding gift cards, thinking about how I would sooooo love an updated rug. One that is “in style”, one that would really “put” my living room together. Is Christ all that I want, right now as I vacuum? As I go about my day? As I rest my weary head on my pillow at night? I know He is my deepest desire and I really honestly want Him to be all that I want. But my strongest desire is to have it all. To live the “American Dream” or at least my idea of what that means. But for what gain? I will have none of this when I get to heaven. Am I storing up treasures in heaven? Or am I creating a palace for me to find rest in while I live my life on this earth? Am I seeking comfort in stuff and my surroundings? Am I just seeking comfort in general? All things that will just burn away someday. Christ did not promise me a comfortable life. Actually the very opposite.

“take up your cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24

To take up a cross means you are headed towards hardships, pain, loss, and definitely not comfort. There will probably be suffering of some kind if you choose to follow Christ. Sometimes, most times, I don’t like that idea if we are going to be honest. Who wants pain???? suffering??? But in that you become more like Christ in His sufferings. When we are weak we become strong, because we get Christ’s strength and no longer our piddly strength. This is actually really good news. Christ in His complete strength conquered death. He took on all of the pain, suffering, and all encompassing everything awful onto Himself. He experienced the deepest pain, sadness, and all things awful because what we experience as pain, Christ experienced everyones pain, everyones suffering, everyones sin, everyones all encompassing awfulness all at once. It makes my stomach get all uneasy to think about it. If you really take a brief moment and think about how gut wrenching awful that was, and how it felt…. oof. But then He not only took that pain, died, but He literally rose from the dead. Like His whole body was not there! whhhhhat???? Unbelievable strength! So even though taking up your cross sounds hard, painful, and sometimes completely unbearable, Christ’s unbelievable strength makes it possible to endure and press on. His strength makes it possible for me to get out of the rut of ungratefulness and onto the path of Holy Cow, God is great! This life that God has given me is good and what Ive been given is good. The dog hairs, the children screaming, the messy student, the tattered rug, all of this is good and is Gods grace to me in this season of life. And I am so thankful that there is more to look forward to instead of just this life and what it has to offer.

And I am thankful for a God who took all of my crap and everyone else’s junk and nailed it to a cross with himself so that I might have life and hope and joy and goodness in this really hard life that we sometimes live. In this temporary moment of struggle and strife I can take up my cross and I can look forward to the day where all I will have in heaven is Jesus and that is all that I need now and always!

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August 23, 2013

Hannah Ruth’s “Birth”day

By haleyjo

Let me start off by saying how much I have come to love birth, babies, pregnancy and all that comes with these topics. I know it sounds strange that I say love. I think that I love these topics because The Lord brought me through the shadow of death and up the mountain where I was able to breathe fresh air about the subject. I love these topics as well because for me birth has been an utter dependence upon my God to get me through to the bitter end, which always ends so sweetly. I love pregnancy because I honestly love watching my body change and knowing that God is doing something amazing inside, knitting together something so special you have to wait 9 whole months to find out the surprise.

I understand that pregnancy is not always fun nor is it always easy and birth is the same way. Not every day of my 9 months plus 3 days (I might add) was smooth sailing but every moment of waiting, feeling queasy, growing larger, was worth it.

On May 20th, 2013 I held a sweet, amazing, beautiful little girl in my arms.

(fresh baby on the boob…. sorry if this is too much, but its raw life)

And her story starts like this…

The month of May started with anticipation of a tiny baby to be born 3rd in line at the Munson household. We had no idea what to expect. Boy? Girl? I honestly thought this time around was a boy. It felt different inside this time. Much more aggressive than the last two babes. Major jabbing and rolling all.of.the.time. As the days flew off the calendar many people around me were having babies. I’d see their photos shoot up on technology left and right. Facebook newborn: 6lbs. Instagram newborn: 7lbs. I would get so excited seeing fresh babies and was eager to hold my own flesh and blood. I was due on May 17th, but as most of you know this is called an EDD (estimated due date). In the world of birth you can’t tell God when He’s done, you can share your wants and desires but when the baby is ready, it’s ready. I had started to have Braxton hicks contractions weeks before and to be honest this was incredibly different from the last two times around. The start of these contractions would have me questioning if this was the start of the real thing. In prior births my tummy would tighten up but nothing would take my breath away or cause me to sit and rest for a second. But this time was more intense. So you can see why I thought this might be it.

May 13th was our 7 year anniversary and we celebrated as a family by going to Bauman’s Farm and buying some hanging flower baskets. (I know I know it was an anniversary but I was low on energy and those pesky contractions… I just wanted to hang with the whole clan). I had contractions the entire time we were there and thought this was it, but to tell you the truth I was not ready. I was not ready to endure contraction after contraction. I was not ready for my two little girls to share their spot on my lap with someone new. I was not ready to become a mom of 3. I was just not ready. And the Lord knew that I was not quite ready….

Day after day for the next week came and went… a few contractions here and there… I would go to bed each night and ask the Lord if I could have just one more night to rest up. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for who knows how many hours of labor was to come.

Finally May 17th, (the EDD) came and went. No baby.

May 18th, no baby.

May 19th, I was ready. The house was spotless, my bags were packed, and I had started to get stretch marks! I had never seen these before, so I was like baby come out! I was now starting to become tired from the size I had become (all 30 extra pounds of me). That night Steve made me dinner. He said I needed something super healthy just in case the baby decided to come that night and who knows how long labor would be. He made: spinach salad with avocado, apples, and sweet peppers. Some chicken with sated onions and black beans with rice and cilantro. Best.meal.ever!

Went to sleep that night with a belly full of goodness. As I laid my head on my pillow I pleaded with the Lord that I wouldn’t start labor until the morning. This was not my M.O. I usually was woken up in the middle of the night with contractions. Because of my crazy type A personality I had been putting together scenarios over and over again on how my children would be watched and taken care of in this whole labor/birth shindig. The first baby is easy because it is still in you… 2nd baby not as easy READ HERE, because you must find someone to watch the first… and 3rd baby… well who wants to come to your house in the middle of the night to watch your kids???? So I prayed that everything would start in the morning because it would be more convenient for EVERYONE!

May 20th hit and around 7:45am I hear the girls. I seriously don’t want to get out of bed and have assumed that I wont go into labor now until that night. I feel sick to my stomach and really don’t want to do anything. I roll out of bed. Get the girls juice and a bowl of cereal. Now this is odd for me, because cereal in our house is usually not a common breakfast food. It’s usually cheesy eggs or blueberry oatmeal. But cereal was easy. I also threw on some Netflix cartoon which is way out of the norm for me as well. I felt so sick and thought to myself, “well crapppppp am I getting sick???” Not “ohhhh maybe I’m starting labor”. So I went back to my bed and laid down for a bit.

About an hour later I get out of bed and make some eggs for myself… and started to fold some laundry. My stomach feels crampy and sick. I text a few friends… “could I be in labor??? I am able to do stuff around my house and be in labor?” I get a phone call from my doula friend, Whitney. We chat. She tells me to lay down and if things don’t go away after 30 minutes then I’m probably in labor… and I’m probably in labor because I am already 3 days late!” I decide maybe I’ll call Steve and let him know that I feel sick.

We chat… He finally asks after I have informed him of my “sickness” if I have been timing my tummy aches. “well no, and why would I do that?” in a rather annoyed voice. “Well do that and I’ll call you back.” Rolling my eyes, I say “fine”. So I start to time my “sick” feeling… ehhh 5 minutes apart… interesting. Now you would think I would understand how this all goes by now… but apparently I was in denial.

Steve calls back… “they are 5 minutes apart but it’s no big deal and blah blah blah…”

Steve: “um I’m coming home right now and why you’re at it you need to contact Michelle to let her know.” Michelle was our on-call friend who was coming to watch the girls.

So I text Michelle… “so I think I’m in labor. contractions are about 3-5 minutes apart. You can come this way… if you want…” If you have never had a baby, 3-5 minutes apart is when you should be driving yourself to the hospital especially if you live 25 minutes away like myself. shake.my.head.

Steve gets home. And to be honest I was just annoyed that I felt sick and was in somewhat of denial that I was even having contractions. Michelle shows up with her daughter Grace. My girls eat lunch and go down for naps. I try to come hang out in the living room for a few, because I for some reason feel the need to be hospitable to my “guests” who have come to watch my girls so I can go have a baby…. Stubborn woman I am.

I go and lay down with Ava for a few, (she naps in our bed). She starts to kick me in the back (thanks kid). I, being in labor, ignore the kicks from my 4-year-old and decide, maybe, just maybe, Steve should drive me to the hospital.

He calls the OB to let them know we are on our way, and they ask if I would like to come in and get checked first, Steve somewhat annoyed on the phone states: this is our 3rd baby, my wifes contractions are 3 minutes apart and…. “Steve I can go to the OB, I don’t even care….”… “Ok apparently we can come get checked.” 5 minutes later I decide that was a stupid idea and make him call them back and have them meet us at the hospital. (When you’re in labor, husbands tend not to argue with the craziness that overtakes ones mind).

We get to the hospital. Get registered. Go upstairs to the labor and delivery wing and I get shoved into a closet with a bed. First all rooms are full. Second they don’t think I am as far into labor as I am. Nurses come and nurses go. At this point I could care less where I am at and am fine staying in the closet. I finally get checked and whoaaaaaaa. “This girl is ready to deliver”! They roll me down the hall. At this point we are thinking of having this baby in a birthing tub. We get in the room, I tell them I’m ready to push, they check the heart rate and people start yelling. “Haley you need to push now!” I’m like whhhat??? Steve responds “she can push when she wants.” But people are yelling, and the quiet that had once been there is gone. It felt like the TV shows which I despise because of the yelling. Now in my first two births there was no yelling. Things seemed much calmer. Yelling is not relaxing. Apparently one reason for the yelling was there were about 5 too many people in the room trying to fill up the birthing tub, then they realized baby’s heart rate had dropped. So to get things over with and to stop the yelling, I decided to shoot that baby out. I pushed and pushed and pushed. No stopping to breathe. (Now if you are about to have a baby, this is not the best way to push a baby out. It causes you to tear. Pushing when you feel like pushing is best, slow and gradual). So out shot the baby. Wrapped up in her cord. Did I tear? Yup. And at that moment, I could care less.

I ask well what is it????

“it’s a girl!” Steve says, as if I’m supposed to know this.

My immediate response was “im sorry Steve.” (inside I was not, but had to at least let the guy think I was sorry for overtaking the house with 4 women strong).

The next thing that happens when you have a baby is this sweet scent that fills your nose. I inhaled the sweet scent of fresh newborn skin and squeezed her close. I was in love all over again.

The next thing that I heard out of my husbands mouth was, “can we leave here in 24 hours?” Oh what did you say??? I mean yes I want to go home but sheesh. So the next 24 hours went fast.

Hannah Ruth Munson was 8lbs. 14oz. and 21 inches long. 2nd largest baby born to this family. And so for the next 24 hours we settled into our room and drank in the sweetness of the new baby.

By the way we had no name for a week, but it didn’t matter because God knew who she was and all we needed to do was soak in every ounce of baby freshness. So we did. Hardly any pictures were taken and the only visitors we had in the hospital were Ava, Charis, my mom & dad, and one friend. I know that seems like a lot for 24 hours but it wasn’t and it was quiet. And like I said we soaked in our new baby girl and fell in love with her sweet little, tiny self.

Ava’s in love.

So is Charis.

Hannah Ruth, you have forever changed our lives and our lives are better because you are here. We love having a house full of girls.

(Hannah Ruth: Gift & Friend)

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January 15, 2013

love, love, love…

By haleyjo

A quick note…

Everyday I do not go without hearing the words; “I love you mommy” or “I love you so so much mommy”. Every time I hear these sweet words, they melt my heart and place a small grin upon my face. Ava Joy is full of life and full of joy! Her name, Ava, actually means Life and well we all know what Joy means. I am astounded that her name breathes the very essence of who she is.

It is a constant encouragement to me when I hear that someone loves me and genuinely loves me. I know she says it because she means it. It is amazing how many ways I see the Lord at work in this small child’s heart.

It is amazing how the Lord would use someone so small to works wonders in a heart such as mine. Thankful today for his kindness towards me as He uses a child to constantly bless my heart.

Leave a comment | tags: Ava, Children, love | posted in Uncategorized

December 16, 2012

4 months…. and Ballet

By haleyjo

It’s never a good thing when you log into your blog site and it has an updated look and you can’t remember what the last thing was you posted. I don’t even know if I could do a brief synopsis of what has gone down with the Munsons for the past 4 months. Epic blogging fail here. I’d like to tell you it’s because I have been über tired because we are preggers with Munson little #3 or that we have just been busy…. but to be completely honest the blog just has not made it on the To Do list therefore it gets left undone. So with that explanation may I present to you one thing we have been up to:

Ballet

We (I mean Ava) started taking Ballet this year. It is something I did from age 5 well into my mid twenties. I love love love dance and wish I could take up a class here in the near future as well… but for now we will chat about Ava. Ava is pretty much the tiniest person in her class and she couldn’t be more excited each week when we pull on her tights and leotard and drive off to Dallas for class. It’s been fun to watch her body develop in class. If you don’t know my daughter well, you may not realize that she does not have the strongest legs… she walked on her knees until she was 18 months! But this class has improved her strength and I love watching her rise up onto her toes.

Her studio recently put on the Nutcracker and Ava loved every minute of it. I am pretty sure she found performing quite exciting because of all of the people and she is incredibly extroverted which fueled the energy.

We were very proud of our sweet ballerina. I love watching her do her best. It makes a momma proud.

the flower girl

By haleyjo

You know those moments that your heart is snagged (in a good way) and you just fall in love with someone all over again? Well today Ava got to be a flower girl in Brandon and Kailey’s wedding. We have been talking about this event for months. We practiced on Tuesday night as she would toss and pick up. Toss and pick up. I honestly wondered how today would go. Not only was it ohhh 95 degrees out but my baby was going to be a flower girl. Now she is only 3 years old and at the age of 3 you can’t bank on how the situation might go.

Will there be tears because you don’t want to wear your cute flower garland in your hair?

Will you make it down the aisle?

Will you know what to do?

I know what you thinking… sheesh she is only 3 years old, and I sure hope you didn’t put all of that pressure on your poor little 3-year-old. Nope. I think I did a good job at not doing this. It’s just stuff you hold inside. Just wondering. And Hoping that things will go how you somewhat expected.

Well it was Ava’s turn and I watched from the sidelines. I couldn’t have been more proud. I know she was just a flower girl, but little miss melted my heart so much today. She really pulled at my heartstrings. I really wish I would have captured it on video because it’s one of those precious moments that I will play over and over again in my mind.

The sheer glee on your face as you pranced down the aisle today was so wonderful. You pranced and tossed those flowers so well. I know you were not there to perform for anyone. But today you truly gave your best and the Joy that beamed out of you, well it melted my heart. I think it melted God’s heart as well. You had no worry or care in the world. You were determined to do the job you were called to do and you did it with more Joy then I do most of my life. It’s funny how much you can learn from such a quick instance. From such a tiny person. But you put your best foot forward, grinned, and proceeded with Joy. Oh how much fun you have when you/ we proceed with Joy. Anyhoo…

I’m sure other people thought oh what a cute little girl, but honey you were wonderful and I am just so proud to be your mommy! Someday you will prance down that aisle again and when that happens you will be given away to a man. I guarantee I will see you as a flower girl and remember this day and your Joy will radiate from your sweet face once again.

I just hope you know what a gift from God you are to me and your daddy. Know that you will always be our little girl, no matter how old you get. The joy of the Lord spills out of you and I pray that you continue to radiate the Glory of Gods Joy all the days of your life. Thank you for giving me so much joy today and once again I love being your mommy and am so proud of you!

The Happy couple!

And the exhausted hot family. Time for bed!

1 Comment | posted in Ava Joy

August 17, 2012

Idahoooooooo

By haleyjo

A few weeks ago we braved a 9 hour trip to Idaho and a 10+ hour one back to Oregon. It was quite the adventure. This is the longest trip we have taken with two kiddos in the ghetto van thus far. Like I said it was an adventure, isn’t it always? (life that is). Steve and I had discussed leaving on a Tuesday night after work, but as that Tuesday approached I started to get anxious and wondered if it was such a hot idea. You know “hoping” that the kids would fall asleep in the car, like good little children and there would be no potty breaks, uh yeah right! So we decided against the insane idea (of leaving at night) and left the next morning. I enjoyed this idea much better because we packed the car the night before, woke in the morn, threw all of our bodies in the car, and started the trip with some Starbucks, now we are talking!

I think on the way there we stopped oh 10 times or more. We prayed over our ghetto van several times because once we hit the nothingness in Washington (who knows how many miles of no buildings) the temp spiked to the 90’s, 100’s somewhere in there. Just to give you an idea of the ghetto van, (now don’t get me wrong, we love the van, it was free and is a bigger blessing than we realize) but this van is from 1993 and it is a Ford Aerostar. The van has a radio and tape deck. We do however have AC, state of the art for her time I’d say.

Now quick side note… my friend Jacqueline drove one of these babies in college and it burned all of the way down to the ground in the Roth’s parking lot. For reals. I got the call after it had happened, my friend telling me she was standing in the parking lot looking at her burt to a crisp car. Is this the first time we have heard this, ummm nope! Apparently it’s an Aerostar thing. So you can see why one would pray hard over a van like this driving in to no man’s land, with 90+ degree weather…

So back to the 90’s+ weather… “We” start to get a bit worried how the ghetto girl will fair in this type O’ weather, because extra heat added to the already working hard engine is.well.a.no bueno. Will today be the day she burns down? (honestly we really hope we never cross that road) Will the heat be too much for her to handle? So for miles of nothingness we worried, I mean we trusted the Lord… uhhh we just worried. The Lord was gracious and we finally made it to our destination! No cranky kiddos, no broken down car, no grumpy parents (well not too grumpy)… we had made it! Halleluia!

Anyhow in Idaho we stayed at Steve’s folks spot on “The River”. About 40+ family members showed up. We basically hang out for days, float down the river a few times, eat, talk, relax, and sleep in campers! It is pretty great if I do say so myself. And because I am a caffeine addict I always enjoy my sis n’ law and the fact she brings her rock star of an espresso machine to the river. It’s like wake up, have a legit latte, eat yummy camp food, and float da river! Can’t beat times like this with the fam.

Alrighty here are some precious pics of our time in Idaho!

Good morning to you!