Still Here

I thought the yesterday was going to be "the day." Wednesday night I went to bed having contractions 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. Then I was up every half hour with more. I woke up Thursday morning and nothing. Maybe one every hour or so. Sigh. I luckily have plenty to do to keep me occupied. Between the kids' activities and all the stuff I've volunteered for, it's probably better that she hasn't come yet! My doctor told me to come into the office Monday morning for a quick check, then she'll send me over to the hospital to be induced if I don't go into labor this weekend. So either way, the end is in sight and we're very excited. It looks like she's measuring about 8 lbs so we'll see! Wish me luck!

Overdue

So it's the post that's overdue, and not me. Two weeks to go and I'm feeling really good. Aside from a little chest cold, I'm pretty darn comfortable considering my 'condition.' My only gripes: hot flashes and getting a little extra emotional.

Someday I'll post some pics. We've had so many great things going on, I wish I had time to get all the pics up for you to see! Scarlett started kindergarten and she loves it! She says her favorite part is riding the bus. I volunteered to do music with her class, so every tuesday afternoon I go in and do 30 minutes of music with them. It's so fun! In the spring we'll do a little program for the parents to show them what we learned.

Friday mornings we go over and do the choir before school starts. It's 4-6 graders and we have a blast! We're already gearing up for our holiday concert. Luckily I have a great friend who's helping this year and will take over for a week or two when Juliet's born.

Avanlee starts dance class tomorrow. She'll know a couple of girls in the class this year which I think will be really exciting for her.

Scarlett opted out of dance to do soccer and basketball (a girl after my own heart!). She's playing a league up in soccer this year and it's crazy! The games are twice as long and the field is twice as big, but she does a great job. She's super fast and strong and you can't even tell she's playing with older girls (it helps that she's taller than most of them!). Bball will be a new experience for her this year. It's kicks off after soccer ends for the fall so we won't have to worry about overlap.

We finally started canning yesterday. Our fruit is just starting to come on and it's soooo yummy this year. We bottled about 20 quarts of peaches with probably another 60 to go. we did maybe 10 quarts of pears which is about half of this year's crop. We had to chop down the pear tree after we took the fruit off because the tree was so sick. Kyle mourned for 2 days. It was pretty sad. We have a ton of peaches this year and hope to bottle some peach salsa for the first time, I can't wait! We'll have plenty of grapes to juice in a few more weeks. It's so great to bottle fresh fruit to use the whole year. It's cheaper and tastes so much better than store bought stuff. Thank goodness Kyle knows how to can!

So we finally have everything under way and I feel so much better about having this baby. 2 weeks ago i was sweating it a little when my OBGYN said I was dialated. I thought about all the things I wanted to do before she came. Now I think we've got a good enough start that I'm getting excited. Kyle is pretty much down with waiting. I'd like to wait and go into labor myself, because I've yet to have the experience. If not, I'd like to induce on my due date (the 28th) because it was my Grandma Wanlass' bday (Mom's mom). I think that would be cool. We'll see.

COME TO OUR PARTY!

We're having our traditional "back-to-school" party Saturday August 22nd at 6:30 p.m. in our backyard.

We've told some people, sent a neighbor girl to pass out some invites, passed out some of our own, ran out of invites, called some people and now I'm going online to spread the word.

Kyle has an old (and very yummy) family recipe for spudnuts (doughnuts made with mashed potatoes) and he has a couple hundred in the works. We'll also have homemade rootbeer. It'll be a good time so stop on by!

Our New Car!

We are now the proud owners of a 2005 (non-van) Nissan Armada SE. We purchased it Saturday from a family in SLC and we were able to get a fantastic deal. It seats 8 with lots of leg room, has a V8 engine, and it cleaned up REALLY well. We now have room to fit everyone including Juliet Sophia who we'll be welcoming in the coming weeks. These aren't pics of OUR Armada per se, but it may as well be! Knowing Kyle and I, you'll find it in these settings soon enough. It looks just like ours (except ours has nicer wheels!), I've just been too busy to download any pics...of anything, let alone the new ride.

When checking out the inside for the first time, Scarlett was really cute and said, "Look we have room to have another baby, and another baby..." at which point Kyle threw a little mock fit and told her not to talk that way. It was pretty funny.

It may sound silly, but we're grateful for the Lord's hand in this for us. We were in the right place at the right time, and did the right thing when prompted to, in order to receive this blessing. We were able to get what we've been wanting and keep it within our tight budget. This deal took place in less than 24 hours and in that time, the family had many other offers on the vehicle. If we hadn't been looking and preparing and listening to those promptings, we would never have had this opportunity. It was yet another good lesson for us and we're extremely grateful.

A Quick Update

We are healthy, happy, worn out, and busy as always. Kyle is still working lots of overtime and we are gearing up for all our Fall events. We have:

>Prep for Kindergarden - teacher conference, Back to School Night, haircuts, shopping, etc.

>Back to School Parties - *homemade spudnuts and rootbeer Aug. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in our backyard, come on over.*

>Dance Registration - for the girls

>Family Reunions - both sides

>School Choir - I'm crazy. Gathering and purchasing holiday/winter music, getting flyers out, drafting a script, and securing help.

>Looking for a bigger car - we are, frankly, stressed out about finding a larger vehicle in budget that isn't a van. $10 says we end up with one despite all our best efforts.

>Doctor appointments - less than 8 weeks to go!

>Daughters of the Utah Pioneers - meetings, and being a docent for the local museum...twice.

Despite how it sounds, we are not as over booked as we were earlier in the summer (thank heavens) though I fear this is the calm before the September storm. This is not supposed to be a blog about our business, but I do want to keep those of you who may be interested up to speed. I will at some point post more pictures, but I'm more than a little behind in that area at the moment.

Somewhere in between now and the end of Sept., Kyle and I will celebrate 7 happy years of marriage and welcome Juliet Sophia to our family. We witness blessings and miracles in our lives everyday and are grateful for all we have.

Congrats to all the moms out there with your new babies (there are a ton of you right now!). Hope you're well!

From the Mouths of Babes...Like it or Not

So, I wear thigh high compression stockings thanks to my vein issues. For those of you who know me well, you know that I'm my "meatiest" in the thigh and buttocks region. As I was putting one of the stockings on the other day, Scarlett noticed a little bit of my meat hanging over the top of the stocking leading to this fun exchange:

Scarlett: (giggling) There's a bump right there!

Me: Yep.

Scarlett: Why?

Me: It's baby fat. Your body puts on a little more fat when you have a baby in your tummy.

Scarlett: Will it go away?

Me: I hope so.

Scarlett: How?

Me: I'll just exercise and try to eat right.

Scarlett: But you already do that.

Me: I know. I guess I'll just try to work harder.

Scarlett: Yah, your bum is a little bigger, but that's okay.

Me: Yah, that's okay.

Names and Veins

Things SHOULD begin settling down around here. I'm back from Seattle. Kyle's back from backpacking in the Uintahs. Plus (hallelujiah!!) Kyle is back to working only 40 hours a week. We are grateful he had the work and the overtime during such a difficult time, but we're ready to have Daddy back.

We are definitely having another girl and we're really excited. Kyle declared that since I named our other three children (though not entirely true because my sister suggested two out of the three) he would get to name this one. I laughed aloud and told him he knew perfectly well that he wasn't naming the baby. He has a tendancy to come up with some very 'interesting' names. He then told me that he already had a name picked: Juliet. I was pleasantly surprised. I like it and it fits in with the other kids' names. So there you have it. Though the jury is still out on a middle name. I like Ester. Or maybe Sophia. What do you think?

Scarlett starts kindergarden the end of August. She has afternoon class with Mrs. Carter. I was dissappointed about not having morning at first. Then I thought about getting up and getting her ready in the middle of winter early in the morning with a new baby and I'm really coming around to the idea of afternoon. I think it'll be great. I'm still debating on whether I'll attempt to do the choir at the school next year. We'll see. It'll be a lot of work, but I already have some great ideas and I just don't want to turn it over to just anyone. If I can get all the music planned and the script written before the start of the school year, I might just be able to pull it off.

One little thing I've got to vent about before I finish up. I have a HUGE varicose vein in my right leg (I can't really describe the grossness of it) and it turns out that I have a clot (no worries!!!! It's in a superficial vein and there's very little danger of it going anywhere that would be harmful). It's just really annoying. I get to wear very sexy support hose all summer now. I'll have one tan and one very white leg by the time this baby's born. I'm glad that I had it looked at though. I'm also grateful that there are thigh high supports that will keep me functioning this summer. Finally I'm grateful that they don't strip veins anymore. Look it up. It's pretty gross.

Condolences

Condolences to my sister and her family at this time. Here is a letter that her husband wrote in explanation. I'm at a lack for words in my grief for them.

"Dear family and friends - we have felt your amazing sympathy and support and we want you to know that we sincerely appreciate all of your actions, thoughts, words, and prayers. We're still taking things day by day and even hour by hour - we don't know what to expect with each new turn.
Things happened pretty quickly - I've been trying to balance being here for Stacey with my own emotions, not to mention the logistics of childcare and upcoming memorial services. I want to personally thank everyone who has helped us by watching or sharing a kind word or hug with Caleb, Andrew, Matty, and Sammy these last few days while we've been at the hospital.
I know you are all wondering what happened, so let me share briefly what we know. On Tuesday evening, Stacey called me from her regularly scheduled OB appointment. She was crying - really crying, and she told me that there was no heart beat - that the baby had died. There was no way of knowing how, when, or why at that point in time. We decided to go ahead with a c-section delivery on Wednesday.
Eli Quinn Roundy was [still]born at 31 weeks gestation on June 3, 2009, at 1:38pm. He weighed 4 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 16 inches long. He is our fifth boy, something many of you know we are pretty proud of - we do pretty good with boys! During the c-section, both doctors commented on Eli's abnormally short umbilical chord, and there is a likelihood that the short chord had something to do with the complications that resulted in his passing.
We had the beautiful opportunity of spending the rest of the day yesterday with Eli in Stacey's recovery room. Somehow having him bundled up nearby has made it easier for us to both remember him as our fifth son and let go at the same time. Stacey and I are both bound by the faith that we will be able to be with Eli - and all of our children - again in the eternities after this life. This belief has also been the source of great comfort to us.
Stacey is recovering well - she was taken off IV just a few minutes ago. Her spirits are up. But she has a long 4-6 week recovery period ahead of her. Stacey's parents are flying in this afternoon. We will have a private grave-side memorial service next week with our boys and other immediate family who are here. We want to spend time with our boys focusing on Eli and building a tradition to remember him even though we barely knew him...
Thank you for flooding our email, text, and voice mail inboxes with words of sympathy and kindness. Although we haven't been able to respond to each of you individually, your words and thoughts bring us great comfort and confidence that we will make it through the days and weeks ahead.
From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate all the help and support everyone has offered."

I'll be leaving next Thursday to fly out and help for a few days. Stace, your family is in our thoughts and prayers. We love you.

It's a girl!!! (for now)

So it's been a bazillion years since I've posted. This spring has been insane. It didn't help that after I bouht extra memory for our computer the mother board decided to fail. Then we didn't have a slow computer... we had no computer. Luckily our super cool, super nice friends saved us by giving us an extra tower they had lying around. Luckily the hard drive was compatible and it was a smooth transition.

My OBGYN didn't get a great look last time we tried to determine the baby's gender, but a boy made sense so that's what we were saying it probably was. Well, she got a much better look this time and it looks like we'll be adding another little girl to the Kluge family. At least that's what we're saying this month. My targeted ultrasound is June 2nd and we'll be 99.9% sure after that. I'm going with girl for now. Kyle's not convinced. It's great to have a husband that seriously has no preference. He loves his kids and it has never mattered to him whether we've had boys or girls. He's a really great dad. I like a lot of super cool old fashioned names that Kyle doesn't. Asher was going to be Gwenyth if he was a girl so that's still in the running. I really like Tabitha too, but haven't brought it up. As I recall, Kyle didn't like it last go around (that doesn't mean he will remember that he didn't like it. He has a habit of changing his mind. He's a moody name liker).

I finally downloaded pictures off my camera today mainly because the memory was full. The stretched back to Scarlett's birthday in February. I'll include a couple for fun. To get a little caught up...we had her birthday, all mother/mother-in-law birthdays, Easter, a trip to St. George, a choir concert, we refinanced, had our deck torn down (it's half done!!), two dance shows, 5 soccer games, 3 preschool field trips and 3 parties, plus Kyle is working 50 and 60 hour weeks every other week. Things should (cross my fingers) settle down in June. It's been a lot of fun and the weather has been really great lately for our latest events.

Now for some pictures. I'll try to keep it condensed (emphasis on try). The last few are boring pics of the house and purely for the sake of my mother and sister who have not been able to see some of the little changes I've made to the house.

Aren't we a pair? I received my shiner in a basketball game--which we won--the day before I had to sing in church. Pretty funny. I covered it the best I could as you can see.

Poor Scarlett took a nasty fall on the concrete in front of the house running home from the neighbor's house. These pictures are dedicated to my dad who loved snapping pics of all my battle wounds from high school sports. He was so proud of my black eyes, knees, hips, etc.... and so was I =)

Here are pics from Scarlett's birthday (finally). My big girl is 5. It's surreal when I say it aloud, "I have a 5 year old," but it feels so natural to be Scarlett's mom it's like it has been this way forever.

We had dinner at McDonald's on her big day.

Avanlee assisted in most of the unwrapping.

We had a family/friends party the Sunday following. Once again, Avanlee was right in the middle of things.

This is a classic "Daddy is teasing me again" face.

And, of course, there was cake.

After presents, cake, and too many stickers... Asher had had it with the party.

Here's a typical Sunday morning for you (I'm only including this because I think my family is so adorable and it needs to be documented). Make rolls...

Doing hair...

Sisters...

Daddy still sleepy...

Some random cuteness...

Here are the Kluge and Harper kids watching a movie in the playroom. The big girls made all the arrangements for the babies.

At Scarlett's birthday dinner, she hauled her little brother to the top of the play gym. It was funny to see them altogether up there. I can't remember how he got back down.

I love these moments.

We took a little trip to St. George and invited the in-laws for my mother-in-law's birthday. We have a kind friend who allows us to borrow her condo. when we go down. We had INN-N-OUT, El Pollo Loco, hiked and had a good time. The kids took some pictures...

Scarlett LOVES to climb. We rock climb with her, but Kyle hurt his back just before this trip so we settled for some hiking/climbing in a local park. It has a pretty sweet view.

Scarlett climbed rock formations....

...while Avanlee and Asher played in the sand, chased bugs, and played with Grandma.

There is a narrow tunnel that leads to a hole where you can climb out on top of the formations. Kyle couldn't fit all the way up, but Scarlett with the help of some teenagers climbed all the way.

A little too much dance class for Avanlee?

If you've never been to Zions Natl. Park, you ought to try and make it out there some day. We love it! The hikes are beautiful and you can customize your routes to fit the endurance of your party. With our little ones we have a favorite easy trail we like to take. As they get older there are plenty of tougher hikes available.

This one is the River Walk and it's gorgeous. I'm not going to include all the great pics we got. I'm already making this post enormous.

Dying Easter eggs is one of my favorite Easter memories as a child. I still love to do it.

We went to three egg hunts (two were family parties) as well as the annual egg roll (another family party). It's always a really fun weekend.

Scarlett is such a good big sister!

The egg roll is a held on top of a smae hill. This year there was a little trench Asher decided to tumble down. After the discovery and recovery, he bum-slid down the trench over and over again. So much for clean pants for the next party!

This is my favorite shot of the day. She actually ate the whole thing too which is rare for her.

Easter morning the girls woke Asher up so they could see what the Easter Bunny left them.

I love this one. It's amazing how exciting chapstick can be!

We tried to take some pictures before church. Asher was too excited to be outside to be cooperative.

This was the only shot we got of him holding still.

Another random cuteness shot. The kids made themselves comfortable in the little "makeout nook" as Kyle calls it. I'm often amazed at the way the girls can get Asher to play with them or sit with them. It's adorable!

The girls are in the same dance class at a great little studio. They dance to Dora music and have so much fun. It's funny to me how specific the instructor was about their hair and make-up. Dance is a whole new world to me. They had a little competition (if you can call it that for the little ones) at Lagoon. It was cold and pouring rain plus we waited in a packed pavillion for an hour and a half before they went on stage. It was pretty miserable but turned out to be a pretty good day in the end.

This past Saturday they performed at the Ogden Ampitheatre. It was so nice! The weather was warm and perfect. The girls didn't have to wait long and did a great job! It's been really fun seeing them perform. They have one more show in June. Scarlett is the tall one and Avanlee has the red hair.

Scarlett is 2nd from the left and Avanlee's on the right.

Scarlett's in back.

Here are the boring pics for my fam. I bought some new pillows.

Here's my beautiful new sink!! I love it so much!

I finally found something to do with my big wall.