Happy Father's Day, my Love

I know that most wives will say their husbands are the best fathers, but I have to say that my children truly have the greatest father of all time. My own father comes in a close second, but I still have to boast that Hyrum reigns supreme in the paternal superiority contest.

You see, Hyrum's biggest goal in life always was to be a good father and husband. As most of you know, we didn't think we'd be able to have children since it took over 2 1/2 years and fertility pills in order to get pregnant with Talea. If, like us, you're someone who has felt the bitter pain of believing you will never parent a child, and then suddenly you are surprised with the joyful news that you're pregnant, and finally that magical moment comes when the baby finally arrives, something inside you makes you a little extra grateful for every breath that child takes and your bond is so unbelievably strong that you want to be with your child every possible second. You don't ever look forward to putting the kids to bed early so you can have some unwinding time. You don't ever look forward to going somewhere without the kids, even if it's something as mundane as shopping. You can't even fathom a vacation without your kids, because you'd feel like you left your soul behind. I think that our having gone through that bitter pain has only helped Hyrum to become that much better of a father. No matter if the timing was bad or good, each of our pregnancies have been delightful surprises because each of our children is one more baby that we thought we'd never get the chance to hold in our arms.

Just look at Hyrum's face when he saw Talea for the first time. He'd been up all day and night suffering sleep deprivation and titty twisters (yes, I gave him one so he could feel at least SOME sort of pain while I was in agony), but the look on his face when he met our little girl for the first time was absolutely priceless.



He's always proved himself to be such a good dad. He takes us with him whenever he possibly can, and he always involves the kids no matter what, even if it makes his job that much harder or longer. Whether it be excavating...





...or picking up counter tops...


...or going to Coos Bay on business, or taking us to his employees house to check out the animals.


Hyrum hates plumbing, but he even lets the kids get in the way while he's stressed out trying to fix a leaking pipe in the yard.

And even though it's definitely not his favorite thing to go to the snow or the beach because of the work and mess that's involved in each outing...


He'll take us anyway because he knows it's fun once we get there and he'll take us wherever we want to go if he knows that it means a lot to us.

To show my appreciation to him for being such a great father to our kids, last year I made him a father's day video. (When it's downloaded onto blogger, the resolution looks cruddy and it's not on with the beat all the time and it just looks lame compared to the real thing. Just use your imagination.)


This year I made a picture of him and the kids to hang in his office.


And wouldn't you know, just as fast as I made it for him, it became outdated! You see, it was difficult to conceive our first baby, but after that, we've been surprised with pregnancies that space our kids 2 years apart. It's been nice! Slight infertility has been our natural birth control. When we look back, we've figured out that 4 things induce ovulation for us. All 4 have to happen at once.
1. Stress
2. Saying that we're done having kids and we don't want any more.
3. My being 10 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant with the previous child.
4. Remodeling

I've become an expert at figuring out I'm pregnant before a pregnancy test can even detect it. My symptoms are few, but obvious. The only ones I dare to tell you about (lest I make you blush) are these: I have carpal tunnel, and when I'm pregnant, it gets extremely aggravated to the point that I'm miserable when I sleep and I have a hard time holding my kids without a lot of pain and numbness in my hands. I also get annoying insomnia, which makes me so exhausted throughout the day. So lately, I've been having a little insomnia, terrible carpal tunnel, and some other things that made me suspicious I was pregnant. Please no!!! Kiersa just barely turned 4 months old on the 14th! I took a test, and thankfully, it was negative. The symptoms persisted, I kept gaining weight even though I was jogging and eating healthier and the squishiness of my stomach started feeling very different, so I checked again today (Father's Day), and it was positive! I took it in to Hyrum, who was still asleep, put it next to him and said, "Happy Father's Day, you did it again!" He opened his eyes, looked over, saw the stick, and said "Oh no!" We were definitely shocked, but after we got over the initial "Oh my gosh, they'll be less than a year apart!", we were happy about it and have resigned ourselves to looking forward to a January birth (let's hope everyone's healthy this time).

The good news is, when people keep asking me if I'm pregnant, or Tilly keeps telling me my tummy is big and looks like I have a baby in it, I can say, "yes, I'm pregnant" and "yes, there's a baby in my tummy." So if you have any unusual, cute baby name suggestions, let me know.