Hallish

Merry Christmas Y’all! What a beautiful year of learning, growing and change. As you probably know we have been Austin, Texas for a year now. It has been an adventure. Mike loves working for Indeed and living in ATX. Nikki really likes the food especially now that she isn’t sick and she can enjoy Torchy’s queso once again. Peyton is getting taller and loves being in 2nd grade. She is excited for her new sister’s arrival in March and to get baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in January. Houston has adapted to the culture with his “yes mams” and “yes sirs.” He is swimming like crazy but would always rather be playing Minecraft. Parry is a happy, energetic, hyper, sweet 2 year old with a wild fascination for the moon. He thinks every dog needs to be pet. P.J. is 30 weeks and doing great, growing big and kicking mom late into the night. We love you all and we love this time of year. We are grateful for our Savior and all of our many blessings.

After the ward truck or treat we put the kids down and Kristen came over and gave me a prenatal massage. It was absolutely amazing. I told her as she left around 9, this is going to be the best night sleep of my whole pregnancy :) I was a week over due and I knew if the baby didn't come in 2 days i'd be induced. Which is perfectly fine, I was induced with Pey and Hou, but this time around I wanted to try going into labor on my own.  As I lay in bed Mike had already fallen asleep I was having some contractions that were really starting to hurt so much so that I couldn't fall asleep. I didn't want to wake him until I really knew so I let him sleep. I downloaded a contraction app on my phone. As you can see by the picture I was in labor.  I waited to wake up Mike until I needed him around 11. My lower back was in so much pain. He put pressure in my back and hips and it wasn't helping. I text Kristen and kept her updated. She came over around 12. After 45

 Mike has had the feeling it was time for another little one for quite awhile. I needed some encouragement... In November my sister-in-law and brother did IVF for the last time. In December they found out they are having TWINS! It wasn't too long after that a few more sisters told me they are trying!!  I knew I wanted to be pregnant with them and have lots of cousins running amok that are about the same age. It was interesting to me how badly I wanted to be pregnant once we started trying, because it had taken me so long to get on board. I went to the dollar store and bought around 10 tests... I took a test every morning for about 5 days. On this particular Saturday morning I woke up at 5:00am. I got up took a test and waited about 2 minutes and once again no little pink line. I threw it away and went back to sleep.  At about 8:00am I was Vox-ing (walkie talkie app) my sister and telling her how bummed I was that my tests were negative because my pregnancy app told me