Our little McKinley

Tomorrow will be two weeks since our newest little one.  I thought I should probably write some things down before I forget, since I've heard that you lose brain cells with each child...and since this is #4, well, I might be in for some trouble.  :)

Since my kids seem to be inclined to stay inside and bake for...ever, we went ahead and scheduled an induction for this baby.  Caleb was late, Rachel was late, and with the prospect of moving homes in our very near future, it sure was a nice option to go ahead and plan on having her so we could move forward with recovering and packing!

We finished school on May 20th to give ourselves a little room before baby, and everyone (including mom!) was ready for summer break.  We celebrated by going to Kidzplex (an indoor play gym) and getting ice cream sundaes at Sonic.  The kids had a blast taking down all the decorations and artwork in the classroom and packing it away.  Caleb had his DRA reading test in April and tested right on the mark, so that was good news.  Ella really buckled down on her letters and now knows most of them. :)  Rachel can sing the ABC's and loves to color and do whatever the big kids do.  I'd say all in all it was a very successful year of school for the Thygersons.

The next week we started packing things up to get a head start on the move.  The good thing about moving a lot is that you clear things out, realize what you don't need (or want), and end up with less "stuff," which is nice.  We still don't have anywhere specific to move yet, but things always work out in the end, so we'll pack it all up and wait.  We will be out of this house by the end of June, but our cell phones and e-mail will stay the same to be able to reach us.

Thursday morning (May 26) we went in for the induction.  We started about 8:30 am...then waited a really long time.  I wasn't dilating, she wasn't descending/engaging...and so we waited.  It was good for grandma, who was coming in on a later flight than she planned!  The nurses didn't want to break my water because the doctor wasn't on hand to do a c-section should it be required.  So we waited.  The doctor finally came by around 7:30 p.m.after all of his regular patients, broke my water, and she was there by 8:30. YAY!

 About an hour after she was born, Caleb, Ella, and Rachel came to meet her, with grandma and grandpa Thygerson.  It was fun!

We had a whole list of names - 8 or 10 of them - that we'd been carrying around, trying to choose one for the baby.  After she was born, we looked at it, and looked some more, and none of the names seemed to jump out at us.  (Hospital records people:  "Does your baby have a name yet?"  "Nope!"Later..."Does your baby have a name yet?"  "Nope!")  The day after she was born I was sitting in the bed resting and the name McKinley just came to my head; when Kip got there later, he liked it, so there she was, McKinley Katherine.  It fits. :)

Saturday morning it was time to go home!  I love her bow! 

Our first little family photo!

And I'm sad to say that in all the fun, we never got a picture of grandma Mitchell, who was a big part of all the excitement.  Sorry mom.  The closest we have is this:

 ...which is little Kinley holding grandma's finger before her car ride home.  I do have a good picture of Kinley and grandma to post from a couple of days ago - I'll get it up soon.

She has settled in nicely around here.  The other kids love her and love to help with her; even Rachel is always ready to give her a binky.  McKinley is very content and smiles all of the time in her sleep - grandma can verify.  It is hard to say what color her eyes are going to be yet - maybe dark like her sisters?  She has the cutest little chubby cheeks that I love to kiss.  These first few weeks are such an amazing time with the babies.  I will snuggle her as much as I can !  Welcome to your family, McKinley - we are so excited you are here!  We love you!