Samuel is 4 years old!

Sara is such a good example to me, she writes such great posts about each of her children individually. I have pages for each of them, but I only update them once a year or so, and I'm not even doing very well at that lately, so I decided I'd write a blog post for each at least on their birthdays. And... now that Samuel had a birthday... a month ago... this is about my 5th son and 6th child, Samuel James.

He was born almost 2 months after we moved to Texas. This was our baby who was supposed to be born in Pennsylvania... IN Punxsutawney, no less. (think Groundhog Day) He is now 4 years old. He started Sunbeams in early January, and is not liking it very much, mostly due to everyone expecting him to talk and interact when he doesn't feel like it, and having missed several Sundays due to family illness as well as his own. He did stay with his class the whole Primary time this past Sunday, though.

He loves playing with his brothers. He likes being allowed in the "big boys" new room and playing with Legos with them. He likes computer games, especially anything Blues Clues. He still loves Blues Clues movies best, but his other favorite is Star Wars Episode One with Darth Maul. He got a new computer game for his birthday as well as Cars cars, books, and board games.

He knows all his colors, shapes, letters, numbers, can count to 100 (could since age 2 when Nathanael taught him), can read about 20 words, and is just an amazing little guy. He loves his Preschool workbook, drawing, writing, cutting stuff up, and helping.

His birthday was fun. He chose to have chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner with pop to drink, and of course cake and ice cream.

Let's post some pictures of my big 4 year old. (I can't believe we've lived in Texas for 4 years!)

First Born

"Oh I tag anyone that reads this and has kids." Dang, I thought I was free from being tagged. J/K. This is from Erin. I think I also tag anyone that reads this and has kids.

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Define planned... all our kids are wanted, but planned by someone other than us.

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Yes, had been for 5 months when we found out.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? We were really happy. We knew we were going to have kids as soon as possible and this was perfect.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Never.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 21

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? I hadn't been feeling well and I had gained 5 lbs out of the blue. We got a blood test at the college student health center (BYU) but had to wait for results. That night we bought the "What to Expect" book. We found out the next day.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Tom and then our parents. Tim was one of the first, too, but we lived in the same house.

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No, but we knew. I was so sure he was a boy I would have told the doctor to check again if they had said "girl" when he was born.

9. DUE DATE? December 24

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not really. Similar to all my pregnancies, I only felt sick if I didn't eat. One night after work (we worked til 3 am) we went grocery shopping and I came home and got very sick. (didn't eat anything when I would have normally, right after work). Also, camping with Tim's school I got sick as well. However, I learn from this and try and keep something in my stomach all the time when pregnant. I do stay rather nauseated through the whole pregnancy... just didn't throw up unless I forgot to eat.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? With Michael, chips and salsa, and chocolate chips. I also ate stewed tomatoes straight from the can or jar.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? People touching my belly. Just because I was pregnant didn't mean my belly was public property. The older ladies didn't bug me, it was the other students at BYU that seemed to feel they could touch my belly. Weird.

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No. Tom summed it up really well when he told me he couldn't complain about either... he could say, "This is my baby girl" and "This is my Son" with equal excitement.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? About 30.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Nope. Not that Michael wasn't blessed with gifts from family and friends, just no baby shower until our 8th child. I think part of it was that he came a month early but he was born over Thanksgiving and he was due over Christmas break... no one was going to be around anyway.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? No baby shower :)

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No, other than my water breaking at 36 weeks, no.

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Provo, Utah

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? Water broke about 8 am, called the doctor's office... they started to induce me about noon and he was born at 7:11 pm. So between 6-7 hours, I do not remember when things really started.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Tom

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Tom, my doctor, the nurse, and emergency support personnel.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-Section? Natural. We were close to a C-section which is why we were moved to surgery with support, but the doctor was awesome and we delivered... everything was fine. He did use forceps. I would prefer the forceps to a C-section if there is a choice.

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I did have an ill-advised epidural. (It was given when I was already at a 7... if I had known this, I would not have agreed to it. Michael reacted to it badly and it made things go slower) It was actually given to counteract something they had given me previously that I had a bad reaction to. I learned... We've only done an epidural once since, with a difficult induction, and that was also a mistake. Never again. For me, things go better without.

27. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 5 lbs 7 oz, he was 4 weeks early.

He hardly added any weight to the car seat. He was under 5 lbs when we brought him home.

28. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? November 27th at 7:11 pm

30. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Aaron Michael Valencic

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? 12 years, 2 months and um 9 days.

Fencing class

This is Tom interrupting your irregularly scheduled blog updates to post some pictures that Tabitha took of Michael and Benjamin at their second fencing class. Looks like they're really having fun so far...

Michael and Benjamin in their "jackets"

Michael with jacket, mask, glove, and foil

Benjamin with his stuff


Michael-action shot (he's the shorter one-the older students in the advanced classes help out)


Benjamin (way in the back..he's also the shorter one in this photo-see caption for Michael's picture above)