Thinking about my babies

I was looking through old photos of my girls and put a picture together of all of them at ~ 1 year old. Mia is not quite there and neither was Hailee but the other two are right on.

Might as well update the ol blog

So we have had an eventful December thus far. I grabbed Kim and Mia and stole away with them on our Anniversary to Seattle. I had a great time with my beautiful wife of 9 years and Mia actually slept well for the first time in a long time. We went to dinner at a great restaurant on the 2nd and the next day we just hung out in Seattle. We walked downtown and ate at a seafood restaurant.

We came home and have really enjoyed being around family. Mia is back to her old sleeping habits so I have been trying to let Kim sleep as much as possible but some nights it gets to be too much.

The kids are doing well in and out of school and I am so excited for our older two who are in piano. I love the sounds of the piano in our home.

I have taken up a new sport and am decent at it until I get tired. I tweaked my back playing it but still live to play squash. For those who don't know it is a bit like raquetball just on a smaller court, with a smaller squishy ball that doesn't bounce and a racquet that is smaller but longer. It is a lot of fun as a winter sport but I miss boogie boarding. I love the snow but summer is great.

We are looking forward to Christmas and have come up with ways that we can serve others this year. I love the way that Kim's family takes an active role in serving and I look forward to this time of year just for that reason.

Busy as life gets

Life has been nuts lately. I was gone last week after hurting my back. I drove 7.5 hours in pain last Sunday and I was in Spokane for 5 days. I drove 7.5 hours back Thursday night. I have been home 3 days and am headed to Phoenix for 3 days starting tomorrow. As much as I enjoy work, I am tired. I sit here in church after hours of meetings with my back still hurting. I miss my wife. She is at home with sick kids. I want to take a break for a few days and just spend time with her. Then I want to take a few days and just do stuff with my kids and her. Money and time takes away from me being able to do that. My girls are growing up and I miss out on it.

Hailee got chased by a dog the other day while she was riding her bike. She is such a funny girl. She was so excited to tell me about it.

Abigail is growing up so fast. She is learning to control her emotions. She makes me laugh when I tease her and she gets mad and comes at me swinging. She likes to wrestle me and I never would have figured that a year ago. I am proud of her doing well in school.

Natalie is a little tank. She gets mad and drives her mom crazy with her super scream but it makes me just want to cuddle her more. She is getting so smart and loves racing to help out.

Mia is getting bigger and sweeter. She still likes held but she is much more content. It makes life easier.

Kim is my world. She struggles with me being gone and I feel horrible. We are working on a few ways to get her off of her paper route. I enjoy every second that we have to spend together and I relish the opportunity to be a better man.

Girls will be Girls

We took the girls to the fair and were showing them the cows getting milked. Abby so gently asked why our milk doesn't taste like barn. Not sure how to answer that we went and looked at all the animals. We had fun at the fair, but were lightly afraid for our lives with all the scary tube tops and mullets. Rooster shows up to my office today and Kim asked me if I liked how she was dressed. I looked at her and thought, "Holy Cow, she really needs to start caring what the girls look like before they leave the house. Nice snow boots in August Rooster.

Mia has been WAY better, but has been really touchy while she sleeps. She will wake up and scream every 15 minutes if you don't stay on top of her. She is sure getting cute. She smiles at me every time I get home from work. It gets me so much that I have to sit there with her for a while. Abby and Hailee are about to start school again and I am excited for that. I really hope that Hailee continues what she started last year and I hope that Abby stops with her gang building skills. She is the biggest ring leader I have ever seen. She teams up with other girls and picks on the boys. I see it every day when I get home because she gets all the girls all pumped up and they jump on me almost every day. Rooster is getting so smart, we are starting to be able to have conversations but she also realized a few weeks ago that throwing a fit is somehow fun. She throws them so much now that I can hardly stand it. Kim is still Kim, the best woman in the world. Sorry all you other women out there reading this. It is true, you have no chance at taking that title away from her.

CUTE GIRLS

We just got the girls pictures taken and they turned out great. Good thing you cannot see me behind the camera because I was pulling out every trick in the book to get them to stay in the picture and look the direction of the camera. I wasn't even asking for a smile, a smile was a bonus. Natalie had a bottle of bubbles in almost every picture, but she would scream and cry if we took it away. Hailee was my big helper with the baby. Abby was tired and hot...it was very hot that day so I completely understand the grumpiness. Mia was a good sport. With all of that...Christie did a WONDERFUL job. We are getting ready for school to start and are very excited. It will be nice to get on a regular schedule. Hopefully. We have had a fun summer. The girls are lots of fun and make me laugh a lot all the time.

At least I didn't die!!!

So I went on my first High Adventure as YM President and let me tell you, at least I didn't die. We left at 6:30 from my house. I had been up since 2:00. I drove all the way there and felt SUPER tired, but at least I didn't die. Steve Davis and I were both swerving all over the road while the boys in his car rested, not knowing how tired we both were, but hey, at least I didn't die.

We got up to McCall and stopped at the store for some stuff, when we left McCall I made it as far as Warren Wagon Road (outskirts of McCall) and I started feeling stomach cramps and a HUGE urge to throw up. I kept driving in hopes that it would go away...it didn't. At least I didn't die!!!. We got to the end of Payette Lake and I had to stop at the Restroom there. It took a while, and a woman almost bursting in on me since the door wouldn't lock, for my stomach to settle. I went out and walked around for a bit to make sure that I was good to go. We all got back in the car and I made it just far enough to make it stupid to turn around when my stomach pitched a fit.

We got to camp and got it all set up and I ate what I had for lunch, which was a sandwich from Boise that had been sitting in my car, not sure that was the best for my stomach. Anyways, after a few more minutes in the restroom I came out and the boys were ready to go on our bike ride. I decided not to be a pansy so I got ready to go. One of the boys had a horrible flat tire, so we attempted to fix it and finally got it working and we took off. The 2 mile warm up was nice and then we got to the trail that was / <== that steep most of the time and sometimes | <== that steep...at least I didn't die. :) According to the Forest service, the trail is a beginner level 10 mile course that should have looked like ==> --~-~ that.

After grinding my brakes, having everyone but two leaders eat it and having my legs lock up from cramping, we were half way to the half way point but at least I didn't die. Cliff and I ended up taking up the rear and walking most of the hills after that. The downhills were nice, but somehow most of the trail was uphill. To make a long story short, we got to the lake. No one felt like going back on that trail, that is except Steve. He was like an Iron Man. So we talked to some people and they told us that we could go out to the road on an easier trail and then ride the road for ~10 miles. We did that trail and it was WAY easier but by that time I could barely move from the ride in and so Cliff and I took our time. Oh, and at the lake we had 3 flat tires, one that I thought was irreparable. We got past two major hills and the rest was downhill. That was TONS of fun. We were about a mile from the campground when I saw a huge amount of tire SLIME© in the trail. It was Hayden's tire again. He blew his rear tire out completely and we found him pushing his bike not too far down the trail. Let me just say this one thing about SLIME©, it is great for small punctures, but not when your tube gets wrapped around your chain and gets shredded. It just didn't work that well in that scenario. I was extremely proud of Hayden for not throwing his bike into the bushes and walking away. I would have.

We get to the camp and Cliff hitched a ride with some gentlemen back to camp and we all took off riding to try to meet them half way. We felt like we had done that when I rode up on all the boys sitting in the middle of the road. We sat and sat and decided to push on, we made it 100 yards and sat some more. Then we saw Cliff and Gaylan driving up to meet us, at least I didn't die. YAAAAAY!!! was the cheer from all of us. We made it back to camp after our 10 hour bike ride.

Upon arriving we were met by a pungent odor from the RV hookups, at least I didn't die. We dealt with that all night as we ate and had our FHE (Family Home Evening) from the boys. I thought that FHE was very well thought out and put together, good job boys. They talked about Leadership in families with an emphasis on fatherhood. I thought it was a wonderful take on Leadership. Then we played Mafia and I was the Mafia 80% of the time. It was great. We went to bed and I still have a favorite quote from that evening thanks to Conrad Davis. I am sure that he had already fallen asleep and had a thought go through his mind, "What about Breakfast?" I heard him tiredly say, "If someone could get up early tomorrow and make some breakfast that would be great." It still makes me laugh.

So the next day we were going to hike to a lake and go to the hotsprings. We did and it was a great day for two things. Car sized boulders being pushed down a hill, off a cliff and into the water. Ok, I need to add one more thing, Davis' tennis ball canon that Conrad shot, empty of course, directly into my face with no ear protection, at least I didn't die. The boys thought it was so funny but I can still hear my ears ringing slightly. We went to the hotsprings that night and got eaten alive by all manner of biting fly. I am hatching baby horseflies from my back right now, but hey, at least I didn't die. It is kinda funny cause they look like me. We then went back to camp, ate (I don't like to brag about my cooking but it was pretty stinking good), and had a few spiritual discussions. It was definitely good to hear the boys testimonies and know that they are good kids from the inside out. After that it was a blur. I remember a little more Mafia, me being the Mafia a few more times and throwing a fit when I was Mafia to get a new card, but everyone wanted me to die anyways so they claimed I was Mafia right off the bat. That is fine boys, you all have interviews with the Bishop on Sunday.

Sleep :-P Steve snoring in 5 seperate patterns at once. Wake up. Eat, pack, leave.

Rafting!!! That was very fun, but I think the award for most fun has to go to Gaylan. The oldest and wisest of us all knows how to have fun on a river. We had him standing up in the middle of rapids, chanting, boarding the other boat to throw people off and initiating huge water fights where our whole boat stayed dry and theirs was soaked. Cliff has to get the award for colateral damage since I was trying to get everyone in our boat wet and he was always in the way. I am surprised that he didn't attempt to have me walk the plank. The thing that I enjoyed the most was seeing Steve and Garrison get ejected from their boat over a rapid, the second most enjoyable was getting to float the last mile or so in my life jacket. It was so relaxing, and at least I didn't die.

That was our trip. Pictures will come when I get them.

It's my turn Mitch

Well, I guess it is my turn to publicly express my love for my little hot momma. Out of the next 10 days I will be gone 8 and it got me thinking this morning about how I don't always appropriately say goodbye to my wife. So here it goes:

Kim, you complete me. I see life differently when you are around. You are my glue and my sanity. You have been with me for 9 years and I have been your husband for 8 1/2 of those. Those years have been the best of my life. I have never been so committed to anyone else's happiness. I dream about you almost every night. Not those kinky, dirty dreams but dreams about us just hanging out. I adore your laugh and just being near you. You are the nicest person that I have ever been around. You never think about yourself even though I wish you would sometimes. I know that you care about me more than anything because you show me. You are always there to help me out when I haven't had time to eat or when I have been working out in the yard you always have a cold drink there for me. You are patient with me when I have a bad day. You support me and what I do 1000%. Yes that is one thousand. You don't question my dreams, you just listen and say, "Let's make it happen." You don't know how much that means to me as a man and as your husband. I hope that I give you even a fraction of that. You make me who I am. You make me want to be better, To treat you better, to be a better dad, to care about others more.

I love to read your love notes. I still have all of them. I have one hanging in my office right now. I read it when I am having a tough day. I cannot think of being with anyone else and am entirely happy to have found you. I found love in you. I thought that I knew what love was. I thought that I loved before you. I was wrong. I see my love for you like one that that is eternal. My mind and my soul are bonded with you. I would go farther for you than I would go for myself.

You are the mother of our children. You have the ability to create life and what a group of wonderful lives you have created. You have turned them into the cutest kids ever. I see little parts of you in all of them. Hailee has your commitment. She loves being around me because you love being around me. She sees how you treat me and she wants to do the same. Abby has your sassyness. She is so cute and knows how to get her way. She sees how you are a strong woman and knows that she wants to be like you. Rooster has your sense of humor. She loves to be around you and get tickled and she comes running when you laugh. She wants to see what you think is so funny. Mia has your indecision. She can't make up her mind if she wants held or not, if she wants a bottle or not, if she wants to go to sleep or not. I see you in all of them and they LOVE you.

You are my wife and are truely my best friend. Most guys say it but when they get around their friends, they forget about that and just want to hang out. I usually cut my hanging out short just to get back to you. You are my heart. Without you it would cease to function. I'm forever grateful for your love and proud to be your husband. I will see you in my dreams as I am away.

Waterskiing with the YM

We had a good old time last night. I will preface this story with the fact that I have tried to go wakeboarding so many times. I have never been able to get up, ever, not even close. Well yesterday we went out for YM's and the boys all went. I didn't think that I was going to go because I knew my previous experience and it sucked to be drug around by a boat in 10 foot increments for 4 hours. Well, they looked like they were having so much fun so I decided that I would give it a try. I did and was in the water for what seemed like an hour, but was probably more like 20 minutes trying to get up. My forearms were on fire and I decided to hang it up, saying I would give it another try later. Well, later came around and I didn't want to do it. My excuse was that it was too cold. My reality was that my arms were on fire and I knew that I was just going to sit in the water for another 20 minutes, swallow water and be all bitter about wakeboarding afterwards. Steve Davis convinced me of the fact that it wasn't cold and I didn't want to bring up my real excuses because, well, I am a man dangit. So I got everything on and jumped in the water. I assumed the position but took on a new grip that I saw Steve use which is the baseball grip. It got ripped out of my hands so I got gloves on. The first time it worked. I was suddenly standing and went for a while before I tried some "moves" I reversed stance. It worked well, then I hit the wake and ate fish. I tried again and failed, then I got up 3 more times. Adjusting my stance from decrepid old man to 31 year old unconfident man worked a little better. It was awesome. Thanks Blake, Conrad and Steve for the good times. Even though I am in pain trying to type this message because my forearms are killing me, I had a lot of fun.
PS, that is totally me last night. I pulled off a flip my 3rd time around. :)

Since i am up

I decided to make a post about what we experienced today. I will start with earlier today. Actually since it is 3am, I will have to say yesterday. Hailee and Abigail started piano lessons and Kim went to drop off Hailee to start them. She pulled away from the teachers house and poor Natalie must have thought that Kim was just leaving her there for good. She cried all the way to the store with Abs trying to console her the whole way. Kim then went and picked Hailee and dropped off Abby. Well this did not sit well with the Rooster either and she was freaking out again. She finally calmed down when they picked Abby up. Kim was about to leave and she heard Rudy say, "Mom?", "Yes Rudy?", "My turn?".
Poor kid, she wants to do everything that her sisters do and she always gets left behind. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. She is very smart for a 2 year old and she knows what is going on. She feels so bad when she doesn't get to do what her sisters do.
So we had a ward member over last night who works in Airport security. Every time I go through he harrasses me. I invited him over to show the girls what to expect when they go through. He is such a nice guy and he agreed to come over last night. He was all dressed up in his uniform and he stayed and talked for a while about what to pack, how to go through the line, etc. When he was done we closed and gave him some cookies to say thanks. He hung out for a while talking and i am so glad that he did.
I would call myself a patriot and say that I am blessed to be an American. With that pride comes an almost unhealthy obsession with the military. I love and appreciate our servicemen and try to learn as much about what they do and teach my wife and kids what I know. Well this guy had lots of really neat experiences in the military. I mentioned how much I liked Tom Clancy and he said that a few of his missions were like some of his books.
My dad served in the Navy and I know what it is like to have a close relative as an ex-serviceman and it is funny how a vast majority of these guys belittle what they do for our country. I am amazed that they put their lives at risk and then can talk about it like it was no big deal. Well it is a big deal and even if they didn't get hurt or cannot talk about what they did, we are blessed to have servicemen and women that are willing to put their lives on the line and for their families to experience all the emotional distress for us and our great country.
An example of this is the non-chalant way that Kim's grandpa talks about his WWII experience. He was in all of the big areas of the Pacific Theater just after major conflict. He says that it wasn't a big deal but I know through studying a lot of what went on "after" the fighting and many times it was as scarey as the major conflicts.
If any servicemen or ex-servicemen read this, I want you to know that the Munn family appreciates what you sacrifice for us. I will teach my children to respect you for what you did for our freedoms. As I tell all of the servicemen and women that I see, "THANK YOU for YOUR service."

Getting Ready

We are getting ready for the big family vacation this year. Everything is paid and we are ready to get into it. We are having a guy from our ward come over tonight who does Airport security and hassles Mike when he tries to go through. He is going to teach the girls how to get through easily. Then we leave Wednesday morning and go see the sights in Seattle. We are all very excited and should have plenty of pictures and stories for everyone when we get back. Our biggest obstacle is the first and last thing that we will do. We have to get 4 kids on a plane and convince them that it is okay and help control their screaming as to not annoy the other passengers. Abigail is going to be by far the worst. She is crazy obsessive about stuff that scares her so we have her convinced that it will be SO much fun. Everyone wish us luck ~ 9:42am on Wednesday when the pilot hits the gas and lifts up in the air.

Biggest Loser Here We Come

We started working out this week and are determined to lose weight. I have been going twice a day hoping to see some results sooner than later and Mike has been going at night after work. Mike informed me yesterday that he has already lost some pounds, so i hop on the scale thinking I have worked out twice as much as he has so maybe I would have lost a couple pounds also...............no I gained 2 pounds. How the h*$# does that work? I hate to curse because it isn't very lady like but holy cow talk about irritating. Anyway, on the plus side, I have felt better during the day and had more energy, ohh and at night I am sooo tired that my head hits the pillow and I am out.

The girls have been great at child watch at the YMCA. They were so excited to get our pass again so we could go swimming. We went for family night and Natalie was so excited she about drowned 5 times with Mike and I right there. She thinks she can swim and even after falling in and about coughing up a lung to catch her breathe she would turn around and do it all over again. Then right before we leave Natalie decides she wants to go down the little slide and she climbes out of the pool and we see she has a HUGE terd in her swim suit( we didn't have a swim diaper but we thought she would tell us if she needed to go poop) so we booked it out of there FAST. A big thank you to Mike for stepping up and washing out that swim suit. Nasty. Never a dull moment. :)

Abby is done with preschool and is a big helper with Mia. She is so excited to go to kindergarten in the fall. Hailee and Abby have learned too get on the computer and play games and print lots of different things. They have gone through tons of paper and ink with this new found fun. Hailee is also a huge helper. She makes sure I get to sleep in by helping Abby and Natalie in the mornings. She has no idea how much I appreciate that. I am thankful for my girls, they always make me smile.

Still loving life

We are absolutely loving this nice weather. For family night we played woofle (not sure how to spell) ball in the front yard. The girls were so good at hitting the ball, we were so impressed. The ball only went over the neighbors fence 3 times. Not too bad. We have also enjoyed going on family bike rides to the park. Natalie LOVES riding bikes with me. Every now and then she convinces Mike to take her on a ride and he hops on my purple bike with the big mama seat ( I am always getting made fun of for, but those little skinny seats just don't work any more) and she is in heaven. School will be out in a week and a half and we are excited to do some fun things this summer. We are proud of Hailee and Abby for doing so well in school. Abby's school will be out next week so we went to the zoo yesterday and had lots of fun. We asked the kids what their favorite animal was and one of the kids said the slide. That made me laugh. OHH and Mia is starting to get better. The past few nights have not been bad at all. Either her she is growing out of her fussiness or we are learning to deal with it a little better. Could be both, but we are happy to have a little happier baby.

Chuckles had by all- NOT!

Natalie just turned 2 and the terrible 2's hit us all in a big way the past couple of days. Mike wanted me to write everything down so we wouldn't forget (and it has only been a couple of days and I have forgotten or blocked out some things so I will try hard to remember). She learned how to open doors so she helps herself to the bathrooms and loves getting in the drawers and putting on make-up, trying to brush her teeth by herself, and putting on deodorant. She ate half of a blue stamp pad so her whole mouth, teeth, lips and fingers were all blue. I put her in the tub to wash it off and she took a bite of the soap and left deep teeth marks. She got out of the tub and took a marker and wrote all over her body and then took her diaper off. She has also learned that if she pulls the piano bench out she can climb onto the back of the piano and walk along the top like a balance beam- scary. She also electrocuted herself by trying to plug in the humidifier after she sucked on her fingers. She hopefully learned her lesson but you never know. I think the neighbors have heard all of this craziness because when she gets in trouble or thinks she will get in trouble she lets off this siren like cry that is almost impossible to stop. Then last night Mike was getting after Hailee for saying stupid and Natalie started chanting stupid. We have to laugh inside or she would do it more. Abby also came in the house from outside and said that Natalie kicked her in the "nuts", and she is in lots of pain. These are the fun times in our lives and if it wasn't for our girls being so dang cute we would really be going crazy.

Mia's Blessing

We had some great times during Mia's blessing. It started early with meetings and ended late with a BBQ. I just wanted to post some pictures of the day. It sure is hard to get 5 people to pose at the same time. Mia was the easy one...

Time has flown by

So, everyone knows how much I love my little Rooster. She is a great little kid and she sure is cute. As you know if you read our blog, she is a jealous little thing. She has been trying to do tricks and stunts to get us to pay more attention to her. She has been SO cute as of late. We finally got grass in our back yard after our dog tore it up and I tore it out last fall. So she has been out in the back yard playing hard. It takes about 10 minutes for her to fall asleep every night and when she goes out, she is out hard. So, it is her 2 year birthday this Friday and I am entirely stumped as to what to get her. We are thinking about a trike since she loves to be outside so much. She gets all excited every time we go ride bikes.

We went to the park the other day and ate dinner for FHE. She is nearly fearless and goes down any slide or up any ladder. She came down one of the curvy slides face first. Hailee is getting so big, I have begun to think of her as a young lady. She is so responsible and helpful with everything. She has been trying to distance herself from the other kids, which I understand, because she just wants peace and quite. We are working on getting their bedroom moved downstairs so that they can have a bit of quite.

Abby's personality is sure changing lately too. She has always been a bit whiney and scared of LITERALLY EVERYTHING. She is scared of shots, bandades, the dark, men, male nurses (mainly cause she is a sexist and thinks all nurses should be female), doctors, the cracks under certain stairs, and anything that she can see through and walk on, just to name a few. She has turned a new leaf and barely cried for her last shot. She pulled her own tooth last week. She has been super helpful, and she has stopped crying as much. Amazing, I know, but these are not little things in our house.

Anyways, I just wanted to fill everyone in on the goings on in the Munn house. Thanks for listening.

I wish Conference was every weekend

I actually got lots of work done yesterday and it feels great that I don't have any real YM President type stuff to worry about. I feel awesome, even though I feel super lazy.

We have had the best two days of the year this weekend so yesterday was spent in cleaning the yard and getting some projects done that I have been putting off outside. I still have one sprinkler to fix, one to move and one to plug and I will not have to do anything for the rest of the summer.

Mia is finally starting to sleep and not be fussy. I think it was her poor little tummy. For those who care and can be there we are blessing her on May 3rd. If you have not been able to make one of the previous 3 blessings, this might be a great time to catch one since this is for sure the last one.

Till next time,
Mike

We will look back and laugh

A week ago it was quiet time in the Munn household and Abby decided to put my debit card and drivers license in a special place, but forgot where that special place is, so I am without any of my most important cards, and have been for a week. She feels bad but still frusterating.
The same day Natalie drank the whole bottle of Mia's gas drops so I had to call Poison Control. This was the second time in two weeks I have called Poison Control on Natalie. A few days before she got a hold of the tums and ate half the bottle thinking it was candy. Today Natalie managed to dump the whole white bucket of sugar all over the kitchen floor while I was upstairs feeding the baby. I forgot to mention she took her diaper off right before and was sitting in the sugar. She was sticky all over. The floor was sticky all over. What a headache. The mice we have in our house will love that sugary floor. Hopefully they are gone soon, thanks to the pest man who came yesterday.
Mia is fussy in the evening and not sleeping much at night so that doesn't help but add to the chaos. I took her to the doctor yesterday and she weighs 8 lbs. 6 oz., the doctor is having us switch her formula to hopefully cut down on the fussyness. Nothing has happened yet but we will give it time. Mike has a special armpit and Mia falls asleep everytime he puts her close to his armpit. We think she falls asleep, she might be passing out, but either way she does stop crying and settles down.
I did manage to get out of going to Hailee's parent teacher conference today because her teacher called yesterday and said she is doing so well we don't have anything to talk about. That is great. Hailee is doing very well in school and we are proud of her.
Mike has been a wonderful husband. He worked from home one day so I could sleep the whole day and he took care of the kids. I slept pretty much the whole day.
Mike has been busy at work. He thought he would lighten things up a bit by playing an April Fools joke on two of the ladies. Needless to say it has caused a LOT of problems. Hopefully he has learned his lesson, but I doubt it.
I hope next week things seem a little more under control. If not we will keep smiling.

Happy Birthday Hailee

We celebrated Hailee's 7th birthday. I cannot believe she is 7. She is such a joy in our family. We had pink cake with rainbow chip frosting. The best ever.

She got a digital camera for her birthday and she is learning how to use it. Here is her debut as a photographer.

Our family picture minus the rooster. Rooster is off to the side not cooperating.

Abby helping with Mia.

Hailee posing by the birthday cake blowup. Thanks Grandma Dree and Grandpa Todd.


Great Job Hailee.

Rooster is Jealous

I don't think that I have ever seen a more jealous child. Natalie is extremely on the needy side of things. I am sure that eventually it will get annoying but for now it is CUTE. She is trying her hardest to get in the way when we are holding the baby. She used to want to hang out with me but now she wants whomever happens to be holding the baby.

She's Home

We are so glad our little Mia is home. The girls have been big helpers so far, and we are just so glad our family is all together. You forget from child to child what it is like bringing a newborn home, and how much they sleep. She has been a good baby for the whole day and a half we have had her home so we hope that continues. Hailee loves to hold her for long periods of time, Abby wants to help me take care of her in any way she can, and Natalie is adjusting to not being the baby and it is a better adjustment than we actually thought it would be. Mike has been a SUPER DAD this week and I am so appreciative to him. We both spent some time at the hopital with Mia and he changed more diapers on Mia than he has with all the other three combined. She manages to need a change before, in the middle and at the end of her feedings. He had things under control at home when I was at the hospital and I think he is a better stay-at-home-dad than I am at being a stay-at-home-mom. The girls loved having him home for the week. He has been very patient with me, I am such a lucky woman. We feel very blessed to have 4 healthy girls.

I need to Vent

I cannot sleep because I feel like my baby is sitting in a hospital alone and that she needs me as her father to be there with her. I have been emotional all day. I know what the answer is, but am having a hard time accepting that answer. It isn't like this is a life threatening thing, at least we hope not, but I don't just want her to be alone. I already have this connection that I cannot explain. Yet I have maybe spent a couple of hours with her.

I want her to know that I love her and I cannot stop thinking about her. We have been praying a lot and we have given her a blessing. It is the same feeling that I get when one of our kids is sick. It is just amplified by the fact that we are home and she is somewhere else.

I want to be strong for my kids and wife and give them a shoulder to cry on and reassure them that things are okay. I find myself slipping away to cry because of the unknown. We have had doctors tell us that she is fine, that everything is precautionary and others act like she is dying. I am frustrated with the level of clear cut answers. I know that she is only a day old and that they cannot have immediate answers, but the unknown does not help my state of mind.

The latest is that they will find out tomorrow if it is an infection. One doctor that Kim talked to tonight said that he heard a murmur in her heart which most likely means that she has a valve that isn't closing all the way yet. He said that generally that means 7 days for monitoring and by then it usually corrects itself. All said, we still don't know. We just have to act like we are okay and answer everyone's calls when all I really want is for her to be healthy and home.

Mia

Mia means Mine in Spanish. I am so happy that we can finally touch her and she is ours. I, on my emotional roller coaster, am all sentimental right now. Listen to the song. If you were at our wedding, you may recognize it as the one that I sang for Kim.

Kim is a BABY MACHINE

It really is amazing how Kim manages to pop babies out like a pez dispenser. She is definitely one of the strongest people I know and that isn't just because she had a little liquid courage in the form of an epidural. She was on her paper route this morning and started having contractions at 4:00am. They were spaced 10 minutes apart and she finally called me at 6:00am to let me know that she planned on making the trip to the hospital with or without me. I reluctantly got all the girls up thinking, "YAY!!!!!" I have been jonesing for a baby. I got them all up, got them dressed, and had them lined up on our bed ready for mom to come home. Finally ~7:20am Kim comes strolling in with her tell-tale ink smudge on her nose from excessive contact with newspaper. I requested that she take a shower so we didn't look like we had been snorting ink all night. She fortunately obliged, good thing too cause I was prepared to spray her off with a hose when she stepped outside.

We dropped the girls off at Kim's parent's house (most people cannot stand their in-laws but I am blessed not to be one of those people. They are easy to love) and off we went to the hospital. I know, I am being a bit verbose tonight, but indulge me cause I am emotional. We got there and the nurses said that we were going back home because Kim always has to smile, they didn't think that she was in enough pain. Finally after hearing from 2 people that we were headed home they finally called her doctor and he said, "no way." They admitted us and he came down to see her. Knowing how much she likes epidurals he automatically said that they needed to put her on one. Once they got that in they broke her water and started the pitosin drip. A few hours later and she was ready. Our favorite doctor in the WORLD, Dr. Carlson came in and checked her and then ever-so-kindly said, "Don't Push". He got his scrubs on and waited about 10 seconds for a contraction and plop, there was the babies head. He physically held her in while he sucked her nose and mouth and then she came pouring out.

Since then we have had a bit of drama with a doctor that is NOT our favorite doctor, I understand his concern but his bedside manner sucks. Needless to say our 4 hour old, 6lbs 5 oz, Mia Addison Munn is now in the NICU with complications from what they think is a premature birth. She is literally perfect except she is making a sound like she is clearing her throat. They took her down after the resident Pediatrician scared the, if I cussed online I would, shiznit out of us. The doctor, who has a wonderful bedside manner, in the NICU actually explained to us what to expect and what was going on, and we feel a lot better now.

Kim is sleeping now, a WELL DESERVED REST, and I am so proud of the way that she is. She truly is the perfect woman for me. She never complains, she always wears a smile, and is absolutely beautiful to me. I am constantly amazed at how strong she is and am blessed that she loves me. Thank you for my new baby girl Kim. I will try my best to be the dad that she deserves and the husband that you deserve. I love you very much.

Craziness

Well I have managed to get all the laundry done, and that is HUGE in the Munn household. That hasn't happened very often in the 8 years we have been married, so needless to say our house is a little less full of piles. We spent last night at the emergency room with Abigail. She had two severe bloody noses that sent mom and dad into a panic. We could not believe how much blood came out of that little nose and body. They think they were caused by this yucky cold that has been passed from person to person in our house. She tends to get bloody noses when she is sick but we had never seen one that bad. She was very brave at the hospital and has decided she would like to become a doctor. We also have had car troubles with the Jetta and will be getting it back today from the shop. We took it in because there was a little light that came on saying we need to get it checked and about $1000.00 later they think they have everything fixed and working right. We certainly hope they have it fixed and working right, but feel blessed that we just got our tax return back and had almost that exact amount of money still sitting in our account. We are constantly blessed. So now we are just trying to take it easy before another form of chaos comes our way when we bring home a baby. The doctor thinks it will be sooner than later but he says that every time and on our due date I always go waddling in to his office, so we will just assume we have 2 1/2 weeks left to go. I still have some cleaning to do so it will be ok.

Good Times all Around

I was on a business trip this week and had the opportunity to go watch the Harlem Globetrotters in Seattle. It was pretty cool. I have never seen them before and while it was choreographed, it was still cool to watch some of the monster dunks that they did. All that I have to say is WOW!!! They are amazing.

We are also excited because Kim is starting her weekly appointments for the baby and the doctor said that she is pretty far along and may not make it to her due date. For some reason I am giddy about this. I want to finally see this beautiful girl and spend time with her. My little Rooster is going to be SO jealous.

I am jacked

I think that this is the best year of my life. On top of every other blessing that I have had, now I find the long lost mission companion. I have been looking for my friend since I lost contact with him after he came to our wedding over 8 years ago. I have been randomly Googling him and this last week I went on another spurt of trying to find him. I took a random guess about the year that he graduated, Googled it, figured out what city he was from...long since forgotten but I knew that he was from Cali. I then tried a few combos and found him in California on a Chiropractor database. From there it was easy. He called me a few hours later and I really hope that I didn't scare him away cause I was so pumped to hear from him. It has been over 24 hours now and I am still all jacked up about it. He was one of my best friends on my mission and one of two that I would actually like to keep in touch with. Justin, glad to hear from you.

Happy Birthday

It is Kim's Birthday today and she is so happy cause she was pulled over and ticketed this morning on her paper route. Nice way to start the day. Poor girl isn't just getting older, but she is now a fugitive of the state. Have a great Birthday Babe. No more tickets...

Kids

Kids are great. I am obviously partial to my own, but I really do think that they are some of the best kids in the whole world. We struggle with the obvious stuff, like cleaning their room, sharing, etc. On a whole, they are wonderful children. This is in large part due to my wife. This weekend we had a wonderful time just hanging out. I enjoy seeing our children interact with other kids. It is a wonderful thing to see Hailee developing into such a great young lady. Abigail is sassy, but you can really see her growing up. They both are wonderful kids, but even better examples to our, for the time being, littlest Natalie (Rudy, Roo, Rooster, Buddy, or whatever you want to call her). Hailee woke up on Sunday, took a shower, got the other kids in the bathtub, got them out, made breakfast and had them almost ready for church by the time I got back from my meetings. That may not seem like a lot, but she is 6. She does this kind of stuff every day. Abby loves her little sister. She plays with her, shares with her, wrestles with her and comforts her when she is sad. You can really see the look of concern when Natalie is hurt or sick. She is a great kid. I won't comment on Natalie yet, but she sure is a great kid too. I love to come home after work and have her so excited to just hand out with me. She is so cute and is really helpful too. I always tell them that they are the best _insert_age_here_ year old ever and I really do believe that.

When will the sickness end?

I cannot wait for us to finally get over being sick. One person always seems to have a runny nose, cough, pink-eye, gas :) etc.... the list just seems to never end. We will survive cause we always do, but not without me whining just a little, and sometimes a lot. Mike just returned from the Klondike campout with the scouts and he had a BLAST. Ok a blast might be stretching the truth just a little, but he did return with some very funny stories and he has all of his limbs despite the cold, cold weather. We sure miss him when he is gone. We use him being gone as an excuse to have a girl party. The girls love to eat Little Ceasars Pizza and crazy bread when he is gone- because Mike doesn't care for Little Ceasars cheap pizza. They also got to stay at Grandma Dree's and Grandpa Todd's for the night. They loved that. I sure appreciate all support our family is to us.

One Happy Family

We have been through some trials but we remain happy. I left on a trip to Phoenix last week and from that point forward things went, well, not so well. Hailee dislocated, broke or something her finger at school. Natalie started her day with crying all day on Thursday. Kim had already taken her in on Wednesday and the doctor said that she was teething. Thursday, after Kim's paper route, she did not stop crying. She kept going and going until after she visited the doctor again and he diagnosed her with severe ear infections in both ears. By the time I got home, things had settled down, but what a nightmare.

Life is Great

Sometimes you just feel blessed. I have felt blessed for the last 8 years of my life. We are preparing for our 4th child. She is due in March and we are really excited, but scared, for our new addition. We are excited to have another daughter and sister, but scared cause this is four. Four is a big number that I never thought that we would attain. Kim is doing well with the pregnancy but she is definitely ready to get it over with. Hailee is still doing really well in school. Abby is still sassy as ever. Natalie is getting so smart. She is going through her shy stage, but when she is home alone with our family, she is crazy.

Sledding with the Munns

Today we had some fun as a family. We woke up this morning and I dragged Kim out of bed and we went tubing. I thought it would be fun since the kids had never been tubing before. Poor Natalie was not in a good mood from the beginning but we had fun anyways. I sure do love my wife, but I always see and hear what she really thinks in the videos that she makes.