whitmer 101

A quick re-cap of what is going on in our world. Ben finished his MBA from University of Oregon about 3 years ago, and we have been in Medford, Oregon ever since. We love it here, with the warm summers (yeah pools!) and moderate winters (not too much umbrella weather!). We love the family friendly atmosphere and the kind people, Makenna attends a great school, which will be re-built and brand new next year. Oh, and Medford has the yummiest pizza place ever. I mean there are priorities.

We have three kids, Makenna is our oldest. At almost 8 (yikes!) she is getting baptized later this year! It is hard to wrap my head around having a child who is baptized...am I that old already? Makenna is a little brain. She loves to learn and has her dad's photographic memory. It is pretty handy as a Mom having a child that learns so easily. She memorized the 13 Articles of Faith when she was a Sunbeam, and giving the little 2nd grade speeches is a breeze to prepare and practice for!

















Luke is our little spit fire (though, you can't tell from this picture...this is the quiet after the storm, he's sleeping). He is spunky to the core. He will be 4 in May, and every time we celebrate a birthday, he is convinced it is his. Luckily he doesn't care that all the presents are for someone else, he just wants us to sing to him, and have a front row view of the person opening presents...usually with hands on privileges. Luke has had a hard transition to primary this year, he wants to play toys and have snack with the other nursery kids! Who wouldn't?  So, to help him get more excited about being in Primary we have started memorizing the Articles of Faith, and he passed off #1 this last week. He was so excited to pass it off, that when he saw his primary teacher, Sister Hale, during sacrament meeting he ran over to her row and told her his little memorized Article of Faith and gave her a hug and came back to our bench. It was super sweet. 
















Our newest addition to our family, is Jared Benjamin, who was born on the morning that we closed on our first house... coming into the world 35 minutes before we took possession. What a whirlwind! Thank goodness for our awesome family who came to the rescue. Our house is beautiful, but it needed a lot of tlc. (more on that later), Jared was nearly 8 pounds, and came without any pain medication, much to my arguments with the doctor. I had been at home, laboring all night, but because I had already had a false alarm earlier in the week, I kept thinking that it would go away. About 5 days earlier I had exactly the same contractions about 5-7 minutes apart, same intensity, and so I woke Ben up, showered, and ate a bowl of Shredded Wheat. Just about that time, the contractions slowed down and went away!!! So, I went back to bed and woke up feeling great.

So, when these contractions started a few days later (knowing that we were going to close and get keys to our new house the next morning) I cringed thinking of the timing. So, I repeated the same steps without waking Ben, why make him lose sleep over a false alarm, right? I took my shower, ate my Shredded Wheat and waited for the contractions to go away...no such luck. But I still wasn't convinced this was it. With Makenna and Luke I was induced, so I had never gone through this stuff on my own. When Ben finally woke up and I pulled him up to speed on what was happening, he convinced me to go on in to the hospital. So we packed the kids over to Ginny's home at 7:00am, and headed to the hospital (though I was sure they would send me home).

After somewhat of a dismissive smile from the nurse, she showed me the way to an exam room and came back a few minutes later to see where I was at. She asked how dilated I had been a few days earlier at my doctors visit, and I told her 3 cm, and asked if I was still there? She flashed me a funny smile and said, no...you are at 9, and ready to deliver this baby! YIKES! They walked me (yes, walked...what a cruel world) to the delivery section of the floor and called the doctor in to examine, and when she made it in a few minutes later, I was a 10. She told me it was time to push, and I told her, "No, it's time for my epidural". The argument went on a couple of more times, and when she was insistent, I yelled for Ben, who was in the hall on the phone with his Dad. I completely thought that he could talk some sense into the doctor for me, there was no way I was going to push this baby out,  without drugs, I was already in a ton of pain, and wanted it to STOP!! But, the doctor won the fight, and a few minutes and a few pushes later Jared was born (a whopping 35 minutes after we arrived at the hospital, that was too close). We've been in love with him ever since. 

Jared bundled up and ready to come home!  I don't think Jared had 

much alone time, everyone wanted to hold and love

this little boy from the moment he was born.  We are so glad

Jared came to our family, we just love him to pieces already!