Our July Trip!

We took a family trip back to Las Vegas to visit our family at the beginning of July!  It was very fun.  One of the best parts was getting to see Brady's oldest brother, Colin, and his family.  The are Army and we haven't seen them in three years!  They had never met Beckah or Owen in person.  It was so wonderful to see them and play with cousin's Saylor and Paisley.  They have grown so much!  

Brady had to fly home after the first week, which was sad.  The second week the kids and I got to spend the week in California with my parents, most of my siblings and niece and nephews. We spent some time on the beach and went to Lego Land, the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World!  

Sunset on the beach in San Clemente

We went to Legoland first.  Shortly before we entered the parking lot to Legoland, Beckah threw up all over the place.  We ended up having to take her car-seat apart and clean the cushions in the bathroom of the park.  We also had to buy her a new shirt and borrow some extra shorts my sister-in-law, Megan, had for her son, Liam. I'm so glad she had them with her! Not the best way to start the day.

When we got into Legoland we went through their aquarium first.  It was pretty nice and the multiple touch tanks were definitely a hit with the kids! 

While eating lunch Beckah managed to tip her chair over and hit her chin on the T bar of the stool behind her.  At first we thought she was fine.  It happened really quickly and no one really noticed that she had actually hit something on her way down.  I noticed she was bleeding a few moments after sitting her back up though and thanks to quick action by my parents and sister we had ice and towels in quick order and off I took her to the first aid building in the park.  The medical personnel were wonderful at Legoland.  I didn't really get a good look at her chin until we to the first aid building and I was shocked at how deep the cut was.  They offered to refer us to the hospital to get her stitches (which would have really complicated things with the my other kids since we just got to the park and coming back another day wasn't going to happen) or they could steri-strip it for us right there and we could stay at the park.  The medic told me that either way she was going to have a scar, but that if we could keep her hands off of the steri-strip and keep it dry for at least three days it would heal very nicely.  We chose the steri-strip, mostly because Beckah was so calm at the first aid building and getting it placed there was less likely to upset her.  She held perfectly still for him to clean and sterilize the area, apply the glue and place the strip.  Then they covered everything with a big butterfly band aid.  The medic said Beckah was the best patient he has had in a long time. He sent us off with a goody bag of first aid supplies and a dose of Motrin in case Beckah started to hurt.  

Ouch! 

There were lots of rides at Legoland and tons of awesome stuff built out of real Lego's!  Cadence was having the time of her life on all the roller coasters.  She's a girl after my own heart that one.  Rory was scared, but grandma convinced her to try small coaster and she was hooked after that!  Beckah went on every ride she was big enough to ride.  Watching her stick her hands in the air on the little train and squeal was so fun!  Even Owen got to ride a few things.

Cool Lego Spider that was easily as big as a Smart Car. 

Beckah did so good letting me change band aids and never once played with her chin.  The next day was Owen's first birthday and we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo!  We got lost in the Lost Forest and never did see the Gorilla's.  We saw quiet a few amazing animals, but the highlight for my kids was the Polar Bear.  It's Rory's favorite animal and it was all they would talk about most of the day.  They got their faces painted and we celebrated Owen's birthday with some ice cream!

Beckah the Butterfly

Birthday Boy!!

Cadence the Cat

Birthday Ice Cream!!

Rory the Tiger

I think we wore them out...

The third park was Sea World.  It was really packed at Sea World and we didn't get to see as many shows there as we would have liked.  We did see the Shamu Show and we got to watch the dolphins in their tank while they played with toys and had some interactions with people.  We also touched sting rays and saw beluga whales and more polar bears!  Cadence and I got to ride the big roller coaster in the park a couple of times and the younger kids loved the Sesame Street play area! 

Hanging with Grandpa waiting for Shamu to start!

All in all it was a really fun day.  It was nice to just spend the day at the beach on Saturday though.  It was a super fun week in California, but I was glad to head back to Vegas. 

On the way back to Las Vegas we blew a tire on the van.  It the radial part of the tire tread just peeled off like an orange. The rest of the tire stayed inflated. It was super weird and shook me up pretty good.  Thanks to my parents and a good manual we were able to get the spare on the van and made it to Baker where we were able to get a new tire.  The inside of the wheel well was duck taped back in place and the only thing with issues was my left turn signal in the front wasn't working.  Back in Vegas we had a mechanic look at it and it was a surprisingly simple fix.  Considering how much damage could have been done we were very lucky.  He fixed things up and secured things very well for us so we could drive home to Omaha safely.  My van has some cosmetic damage but other than that it's good as new. 

Brady's mom, Suzi, was kind enough to make the long drive back with me and the kids.  She stayed for a few days after we got back too which was wonderful!  

We had a great adventure but it was so nice to get home to Brady and our own beds!

Life is Hard

Two years ago we adopted a kitten from a friend.  He was friendly, playful, and cute as could be.  The kids named him Rockstar.  As he grew he constantly used his claws for everything.  The kids started to avoid him as he would always leave scratch marks in his wake. He also loved to chew on anything rubber or soft.  Computer/charger cords, the kids toys, and any number of things were chewed through before this cat turned one.  

He was turning into a total pain in the butt.  He would cuddle up with you all but begging to be petted only to turn around and bite you for no reason.  He bit Brady badly on the hand when trying to escape the house. It quickly became infected and Brady had to make an ER visit that ended with a nasty antibiotic shot followed by days of a very strong oral antibiotic.  Brady was less than happy.  

We pressed on with Rockstar.  Figured he would mellow with age.  He was difficult, but he was our cat.  To keep him from "playing" (read attacking the kids trying to get them to play) we adopted a second kitten who we named Bullseye.  Bullseye is everything Rockstar is not.  Sweet, cuddly, sociable, excellent with children.  The cats took to each other like we had hoped and would play hard, leaving the kids alone.  We thought things would be just fine.  

Then we went on vacation over Christmas.  We found a nice place for the cats to stay that would allow them to roam free as long as they were nice to the other cats.  When we got back things seemed fine. Then Rockstar started picking on the kids again, specifically Beckah.  Not cool.  He would try and take her food, would constantly follow her around and when she would try to get away from him would try and swipe at her.  I started keeping him shut up in the bathroom when the kids would play or eat.  It helped keep the cat away, but didn't help his attitude.  

I was growing more frustrated by the day. I had started looking into re-homing options but because of his difficult personality no one was interested.  Then, on Cadence's 7th birthday Rockstar followed Beckah upstairs and while she was laying on the floor by our bedroom door he bit her hand.  She started screaming right away.  It was a deep bite.  By the afternoon it was swollen, red and hot to the touch.  Infected. Brady took her to the ER to have it treated.  It is healing nicely and probably won't even scar.  

I redoubled my efforts that very day to find the cat a new home.  A barn maybe, where he could hunt and be a pain to his hearts content, far from any little kids.  No luck.  The no kill shelters were full and one of the volunteers said that even if they had room they would have better luck finding a home for a dying cat than one that bites.  

My heart was hurting.  It still is.  I finally called the Humane Society today.  I know that there is a very good chance Rockstar will be put down.  I know this because he tries to bite nice people who come to our house. He is aggressive towards our vet.  We have to warn everyone that comes over not to touch him or they will most likely get a cat bite.  If I watch other peoples kids I usually have to lock him up.  I just won't chance it. 

I explained all this to the very nice lady on the phone.  I asked her what his chances were.  She, kindly, explained that they would give him time to warm up to several of their cat people.  That they understand that he will be upset and confused at first and that he will need to time to demonstrate if he will be adoptable or not.  She told me that there are good people working with the animals who want them to do well so they can be adopted out.  She assured me that if he was approved for adoption that it would be in his file that he was not to be placed with children.  

She also told me that if he proved to be mean and nasty and not adoptable that he wouldn't be alone with he was put down.  It hurts to think that it is a possibility but I am also very rational.  I know that he can't be allowed to run free biting anyone he wants.

It's harder than I thought it would be to let him go. 

But I know if we keep him the biting will happen again.  That is not something I want to happen.  So on Thursday we will be surrendering our handsome cat to the Humane Society.  I'm praying that he adapts quickly and will be able to be adopted to some nice person who doesn't mind a handful of a cat.  

I know I will feel relieved once he is gone and don't have to keep an eye on him at all times.  I know this needs to happen.  I just can't help but wish that things were different.  

And I really hope that Bullseye adapts well to being the only cat in the house.  I think he will as the kids all love him to bits.  Sigh.  Life is hard. 

Not having a working computer...

STINKS!  Big time.

It really annoys me that I can't work on pictures lately.  I had hoped to have it fixed by now, but there is always something more pressing to take care of these days.  I hope to have it fixed next pay check though.

Sigh.

Other than that we are doing well. Brady wasn't selected for retraining in December.  We were bummed but figured that God had other plans for us. Then Brady was asked if he wanted to deploy. We talked and decided that we were okay with that so Brady told them yes. There was some back and forth and we were told it was pretty sure that he was going. Then we find out a few days later that they aren't going to send him. Bummer but we started making other plans. Then they said yes he is! Okay, change of plans! Oh, wait actually no he isn't. Sigh. It was crazy there for a bit but it is official now that he isn't going and it's nice to know for sure.  He is planning on going back to school and finishing his degree now.  I'm excited for him to get going on that as I know it is something he really wants to do.

The kids are doing great!  Cadence is excelling at school as per usual.  She has aced all her spelling tests so far this year and all her teachers are impressed with her advanced reading and math skills.  She loves school and really misses it when she has to skip a day.  She is also in Piano lessons and is flying through the beginner books!  She loves her Piano teacher and we are looking into getting a real piano for the house so she doesn't have to keep playing on our cruddy keyboard.

Rory is really blooming at home this year.  She has started taking her role as a big sister very seriously and has been a big help to me around the house.  She was hoping that she would get to go to Kindergarten this coming year, but they moved the age cut off to July so she won't be old enough in time.  We did get her signed up for preschool screening in March and I am hoping that she will qualify and get a spot.  I normally don't do preschool, but Rory is ready for something school related and I think she will benefit from the structure and social interaction. She is also in a little gymnastics program and LOVES it.  She is learning all kinds of things and I am so impressed by what she can do after only a few months in the class!

Beckah is talking like crazy!  She learns new words everyday and is stringing together some pretty complex sentences these days.  She knows her colors and a few letters which is pretty awesome for a kid that isn't even two yet.  She is into everything, follows me everywhere, and wants to help with everything.  It can be exhausting, but then she smiles her silly little smile and I melt.  She is such a fire cracker.

And then there is Owen.  He is so sweet.  He has four teeth now and is almost sitting up on his own.  He loves his family.  He especially loves Brady and Cadence.  There is really nothing sweeter than watching Brady and Owen together.  It just melts my heart every single time.  Owen is having a hard time adjusting to a regular napping and bed time schedule and that is driving me a bit batty, but at the same time I am trying to cherish the last of these baby days.  He is growing up much to fast.

We are gearing up for back to back birthdays here soon, Cadence will be 7 in a couple of weeks and Beckah will be 2 in March.  It's crazy how fast time is flying!

I hope that 2013 is treating you all well!

Christmas in Las Vegas

We decided, somewhat last minute, to spend Christmas in Las Vegas this year.  I wasn't very excited about it at first.  I have had two years to spend at home on Christmas.  Growing up we never just stayed home.   There was always somewhere we had to be and it HAD to be on Christmas day.  No other day would do. I didn't realize how bad it stunk to get up, rush through presents so we could have time to get ready and be at a relative's house until I didn't "have" to do it. 

The last two years have been liberating! No one to see, no where to be.  Just wake up, open presents, hang around in our PJ's playing with all our new stuff.  Maybe go to a friends for dinner or have some friends over for dinner. It's awesome.  So when Brady started asking me if we would have the money to visit Vegas for Christmas this year I wasn't very excited.  I really didn't want to give up my peaceful Christmas. But I gave in.  It was a good year to go as my siblings would all be together this year for Christmas so I would get to see all of them. We had the room in the budget if I cut back in other places and, probably most importantly, it was important to Brady that we go.  He rarely asks for us to do things like that and then follow up with me on it so I knew we needed to make it happen. 

So, we drove a total of four days in our van, two to get to Vegas and then two get home, in some of the worst driving conditions we have ever had to drive through. The worst we had to deal with kid wise was Rory getting altitude sickness twice (once on the way there and once on the way back).  I had planned for that possibility though so it wasn't much more than a blip on the radar.  A gross blip but compared to watching other drivers lose control and fishtail into a ditch, seeing Semi trucks jack-knife on an icy road and driving up and then DOWN the mountains through Vail, Colorado while it was snowing on top of more snow and ice...well I can honestly say that barf was a welcome distraction.  My kids were so good on the drive.  Even the 5 month old did extremely well with only a couple of crying jags that lasted only a few minutes each.  I still need to write a thank you note to Fed-Ex.  At one point I was driving through a small blizzard.  I couldn't seen more than 20 feet in any direction.  The snow blowing all over the road made it impossible to see what lane I was in or even where the road ended.  The road "felt" good under my tires (those of you who drive in snow will know what I mean) but visibility was no where near good.  Brady and I discussed just pulling off at the next exit with lodging and calling it a night. I was driving very slow, probably 25 to 35 miles an hour, when I was passed by a Fed-Ex Ground truck.  I could clearly see his red tail lights ahead of me and I told Brady that I was just going to follow the truck.  The truck driver could somehow see and was keeping a stead pace (55ish).  I felt myself relax as I followed his tail lights.  We followed that truck for an hour and a half when the snow let up and the roads became clear and I was able to pick up our pace. I am very thankful for that truck.  

Our trip home was great all in all and a great way to end 2012.  It was wonderful to see so much of our family.  We were planning on staying in our old house while we were there.  Of course once we got to my mom's house Cadence and Rory were begging to stay there with their cousins and I gave in.  My mom and dad were awesome and went and picked up the stuff they had put at our old house (air mattresses and blankets and all that) and we made our beds on the living room floor with the two big girls on the couch.  Beckah's pack'n'play was tucked neatly in the back bedroom with my brother's boys since she needed to go to bed earlier than almost everyone else.  Bless my kids and their ability to sleep.  They did very well despite all the people crammed into my parents house.  And by crammed I mean a total of 18 people (9 adults and 9 children).  It was crazy...and crazy fun if I am being totally honest.  The first morning my niece and nephews woke up early and pretty much stood in a semi-circle around the front of the couch where Cadence was sleeping waiting for her to wake up.  They were whispering things like, "We are going to have so much fun!" "When Cady wakes up we should totally play that one game." "When is Cady going to wake up so we can play??" It's so funny to me that they were all waiting on her to get the fun going.

It's hard to believe how much all the kids have grown.  Kids who were barely talking the last time I saw them are now little giants who almost have more extensive vocabularies than I do. Cadence is the oldest at 6. Avery just turned 5 and has to be the queen of "Why?" Tyson is 4 but looks 10 (seriously that boy is so TALL). My sweet little Rory is 4 going on 14.  Deceptively quiet Aidric is too smart to only be 4. Then there are the little ones. Sweet Liam who is only 2 but he talks so clearly now he seems older. Gage (aka Gah-jay the Destroyer...long story on that one lol) is 23 months now and never stops moving/climbing/getting into trouble. Beckah is 22 months and thinks she is a big girl and should do all the things the big girls do. And sweet little Owen on the end who was darling and cuddly with everyone our entire trip.   My parents house was a mad house on a good day.

It was excellent to see all the siblings, mine and Brady's.  Only one family was missing and we are sad we couldn't see them, but the kids got to Skype with Saylor and Paisley which was awesome.  Thank you technology! I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I got to see them in person.  I missed our families so much.  Brady and I are so blessed really.   The more I get to know my siblings as adults the more I love and admire them.  They are such amazing people who are raising amazing children and I am so proud to call them my family.

When we were planning our trip I thought we were spending a long time down there but it felt like no time at all.  Because Brady and I both grew up there, both our parents and grandparents are there, all our friends are there, there was so many people we wanted to see.  It wasn't possible to see them all and I am grateful for those who came all the way out to see us once we were there.  I am thankful to my parents and in-laws for letting crash with them and spend quality time with people.  It means so much that so many people miss us as much as we miss them.  And to those of you we didn't get to see I hope we get to see you next time.  

I got to take a lot of pictures of people while we were there.  I was able to shoot a wedding for some family friends (something I only do in unique circumstances as wedding photography isn't really my cup of tea).  It was a beautiful day for a lovely couple and I feel lucky that the timing was right for me to take their pictures.  I was also able to take pictures of my siblings and their families while we were there.  I took so many pictures that I didn't have any memory card space for pictures on Christmas day!  My siblings took some pictures for me though and I am grateful for that. I will post some pictures once I get through editing all of them.  It could take a while!  There were so many!

Christmas day was crazy but good.  We managed to convince all the kids to go to bed in my sister's room so that Santa could come.  And boy did Santa come!  The living room was full to bursting!  We got to see my both my grandmas, a ton of my cousins from both sides and Brady's grandma and cousin's too.  There was even time for me to sneak out with my sisters, sister-in-law and mom to see Les Mis!  The trip was stressful and crazy but in the end I wouldn't take it back even if I could. I was reminded of all my fond memories of traveling to see my cousins in Utah during Christmas break.  Sleeping on the floor or the couch or where ever there was room. Staying up late chatting and laughing about silly things and spending long days playing silly games.  Preparing and eating yummy food with people we love.  I cherish those memories now as an adult when work, families of our own, and distance make getting together so difficult now. I am glad that my kids will have similar memories and that even through the distance they look forward to spending time with their cousins.  

Brady and I have decided that from now on those memories will have to built during the summer though.  Unless we have the money to fly home.  Driving during the winter was just scary and we don't want to do that again.  Ever.  We were very blessed and felt the Lord watching over us, but the risks we took are ones we don't ever want to take again. Not when we can drive risk free in the summer months.  

So that was our Christmas trip in a nutshell.  I hope that you all had a great Christmas and New Years and that 2013 brings wonderful things for everyone!

Why we stayed...

I really wanted to go home after 24 hours at the hospital when Owen was born.  Not only do I not sleep well in the hospital bed (does anyone??) but I had three other kids at home and my mom had to leave on the 13th and I was really hoping that we would be home to see her off.  As it was we were "allowed" to leave by noon on the 13th so I did get to see my mom for an hour before she had to go home.

For the record they "had" us stay because Owen had some risk factors that put him in danger of having severe jaundice.  This is mostly my fault.  You see my blood type is O negative. Brady is A positive.  Because of this I have to get Rhogam shots to prevent my body from developing antibodies to Brady's positive blood type that could cause me to miscarry future pregnancies.  I have one shot during pregnancy and then I receive one after birth if the child is born with positive blood.  So I have had 8 of these shots total now.  :o)    All this I knew about.  What I didn't know was that my O blood could also develop antibodies to Brady's A type (regardless of our positive or negative status).  That is what had happened and Owen (poor kids) has A positive blood and some how MY antibodies against A blood had made their way over to Owen.  Nice.  This puts him at a higher risk for jaundice that can become extreme rather quickly.  Sigh.

So they wanted us to stay for at least 48 hours to keep an eye on him and do bili level checks off and on.

At this point I need to say that ALL of my kids have been jaundiced.  Rory was by far the worst and had to be checked at least 6 or 7 times (that lovely heel poke...7 freaking times...so fun).   All three girls turned yellow/orange before leaving the hospital.  None of the girls needed to have light treatments or hospital stays because of being jaundiced.  In an effort to help prevent Owen from having jaundice I did quite a bit of research and had asked the doctors if we could leave him attached to the umbilical cord until it stopped pulsing.  They told me as long he was fine and I was fine that they could do that for us, no problem.  I asked for this because I wanted Owen to start life on the outside with all his stuff from the placenta.  It has been known to help with infant anemia (they start with all their own blood volume and the iron stores from the cord and placenta) and despite there being no link with helping with jaundice I figured it couldn't hurt.  My Doctors were all for it and because everything went well with his rather fast delivery he got to cuddle with me and they waited until his extremely long cord stopped pulsing to have Brady do the cutting.

After the news of Owen having my antibodies to his own blood type we waited for him to turn yellow.  Figured there was no way to avoid it at that point.  I was annoyed that I had to stay in the hospital for another day, that I was probably going to miss my mom going home, and all because Owen might get bad jaundice.  But I am all for using caution.

So imagine my surprise when Owen didn't turn yellow.  At 24 hours after birth he was a lovely rosy color and his bili levels were on the very low (and normal) side.  Still couldn't go home. Just to be safe you know.  Of course the next day was Friday the 13th and by 4am the maternity ward was PACKED.  My nurse came and woke me up and explained that they might need to move me to a different floor because they were going to need my room.  Nice.  Can't I just go home instead??  I pushed hard (and with help from my awesome nurses who recognized that I was more than capable of recognizing if there was a problem and bringing Owen back if I thought he had jaundice) they decided I could leave by noon.  Yay!

Owen didn't start turning yellow until his third day of life.  It didn't reach the whites of his eyes until his fifth day of life. He got his heel poked at his first appointment and had "elevated" levels which went down two days later.  And that was the extent of his experience with jaundice.

Because I am who I am (read easily amused), I find it all very amusing now.

Owen is doing very well.  He is a little gassy here and there, most annoyingly late at night.  He eats like a champ and prefers to sleep in my arms, but will sleep in his swing too.  It's looking like he will be a blond in the way Cadence was.  I have some newborn photos I need to get up on the blog so you can all ogle his cuteness. His sisters love him so much!  Beckah loves him a little too aggressively at times.  She loves when I will lay on the floor with him so she can lay there and "ooooo!" at him for a while.  Been working on her ability to be soft and gentle.  So far she (and I) are doing well and she hasn't injured him or made him cry.  Cadence is super helpful and is always willing to cuddle him for me when I need my hands and Rory is becoming a pro at holding him and is learning from her big sister how to be helpful.

I am loving on him as much as I can.  Our home, while very crazy at the moment, feels full and complete. It is a feeling I can't really describe and, while I will be very happy never to be pregnant again, there is a little corner of my heart that is sad to know he will be my last baby.  So I am trying to drink in every moment I can.  He reminds me so much of the girls when they were small, and at the same time he is very much a little boy.  I can tell he is growing and changing already, as he should, but he still looks crazy small to me when Brady holds him or Beckah lays down next to him.  The time is already passing to quickly.

My girls are doing wonderful.  Cadence is so grown up!  She reads so very well now and enjoys books.  She is slowly figuring out writing and is constantly drawing books and writing stories for us.  I love nothing better than a little note from her on the fridge or my bedroom door. She is sweet, helpful, and kind.  I see a lot of myself in her and I have to try and remember not to put to much responsibility on her shoulders.  It is harder than it sounds because she is insanely capable and willing to help.  Brady made the observation that she is going to make a ton of money babysitting one day.  Kids just flock to her and she has a calming effect on most of them that is very nice in our home.

Rory is coming into her own.  Potty training seems to finally be mastered much to my relief.  Rory is my little firecracker.  She loves to play and hates to pick up when she is done. She loves to cuddle and is my very emotional girl.  She often forgets that she can ask for help and instead will burst into tears.  We have been working on asking for what we need before we throw a fit.  I can always count on Rory to tell my a silly joke and to laugh at just about anything.  She is also very willing to help when I need her too and loves help me with "big girl" chores.  She is very much my girlie girl and is currently in love with She-Ra.

Beckah is every bit 16 months old.  She is into everything, never stops moving, and has no internal caution meter.  She is also running now.  I know.  It's totally awesome.  Want to know if you successfully baby proofed?  Invite us over!  Beckah will find anything you wouldn't want a baby to have in about 5 minutes flat.    Lost something?  Invite us over!  Beckah will find anything that was deemed lost forever in about 10 minutes.  You think I am joking...but I'm not.  She will climb anything, put anything in her mouth, can run faster than most people twice her height and has a never ending supply of energy.  I don't remember Cadence and Rory being this bad...oh yeah...that's because they weren't this bad.  She is growing up to fast too.  Her vocabulary is exploding right now.  She repeats everything and surprises me with new words, sentences, and games all the time.  If Cadence and Rory can do it, she figures she can too (and 90% of the time she can do it).  When I went to the hospital to have Owen I left behind a little baby girl that seemed so small to me still. I came home to a giant toddler who could now scream no at everyone.

Brady and I are coping better than I thought.  Things are settling into a good little pattern.  My house is loud, crazy, stressful and happy.  Most days are good and every now and then we have a bad one.  I am grateful for good friends who remind me how capable I am and help me out when I need it.  I am healing well and I am getting good sleep most nights as well.  Mostly I think Brady and I have accepted that it is going to be crazy for a while.  It makes it easier to appreciate the non crazy days if you expect insanity from the start.  :o)

We hope that you are doing well and enjoying your summer.  We are looking forward to a visit from Grandma Suzi next week and then summer break will be over and Cadence will start first grade!  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone already!

Little Boy Blue

So a few months back we found out that we are having our first boy but he did not want to show us his face. The ultrasound tech that we had at the beginning was good at her job, but not very good at remembering that there were parents in the room who might want to see the baby.  lol I did get to see him, but he refused to cooperate on the showing his face thing.  Period.  

I was told I could try and come back and try and get some better pictures later that week, but trying to get a sitter for the other kids and all that isn't easy so I just let it go. 

At about 25 weeks I was measuring big on the outside, something I had never done before.  I usually start measuring small by that point.  My excitement over that was short lived.  By 30 weeks I was measuring right on target but by 32 I was still measuring 30.  I am currently 37 and measuring just shy of 33 weeks.  This has happened with every one of my babies.  Despite the fact that it is normal for me to measure small they always order an ultrasound to check that baby is growing.  

So today I went in to let them measure the boy child.

I was pleasantly surprised by getting the same girl I had last time.  She was very friendly this time and made sure that I could see the screen and was comfortable.  She pointed out all the parts and showed me that he was still very much a boy.  It was a whole different experience and I was very happy about that.  

Despite how cramped things were in there I was finally able to see this baby's face.  Just his profile (she tried to get some 3D/4D stuff, but he was way to wiggly lol) but it was wonderful to see him.  She also got us a picture of his foot. It's crazy because he is so big!  His foot looks like he has a decent amount of fat already!

And speaking of size...they measured twice to make sure that they were getting the right numbers but it looks like baby is already 6lbs 12ozs.  The look on my face made the tech laugh.  6lbs 12ozs at 37weeks??? Shoot he could very well be my biggest baby in the 8 to 9 pound range! Yikes.  Rory was 6lbs 10ozs at birth (40 weeks) and Beckah was 6lbs 13ozs (also 40 weeks).  Cadence has been my biggest at 7lbs 6 ozs (again at 40 weeks! lol). 

And so much for the idea that smaller pregnant bellies mean smaller babies! lol  I am really interested to see what my Dr has to say on Friday.

This just leads me believe that my initial dates were correct, which would put my due date on July 4th instead of the 10th and me at 38 weeks at this point.  I will have to see if they will change them back or not. 

As of now my plan is to just wait him out and see if I will go on my own.  They will induce about a week overdue, which with my current dates would put him getting here sometime after July 17th (which seems a LONG ways away).  Part of me is hoping that I am right and he will come "early" because my dates are right. lol I am already miserable and I can't image lugging around Beckah and 8lbs of baby in belly around in the heat and humidity. Yuck.

Good news is that my mom is coming up next week!  We are very excited for her to come and stay with us a while and hope that she can be here when the boy child is born.  It would be awesome for her to be here and very helpful not to have to round up babysitters last minute, though we do have many friends here who are willing to help.  :o) 

So that is the baby news.  I am tired, sore and feel pretty yucky most days.  The girls have all had colds this past week, and Brady and I celebrated our 8 year Anniversary this past Monday.  We went out over a week ago, knowing that it would be hard to find a sitter close to our actual Anniversary (all the girls at church were going to girls camp :o).  Father's Day was pretty darn good and we were able to give Brady some gifts he wasn't expecting (which is hard to do with him sometimes).  We also got a VAN not to long ago!  I will have to dig up pictures.  And the girls got a much anticipated trampoline for the back yard!  They love it!

And I think that about wraps things up on this end.  Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer!  

Pictures...

The girls like to flop around and play on the bed in Beckah's room after she wakes up from nap time.  It's super fun and usually I join them but I decided to take some picture instead.

Daddy kisses! 

Even our nutter of a cat (Rockstar) will try and get in on the fun from time to time.  He gets kicked off the bed pretty quick though since he thinks teeth and claws are appropriate at play time and the girls don't agree. 

I love how Beckah will just flop down on pillows and blankets!  Then she lets out this sill belly laugh that makes her sound like a lunatic.  It's awesome.  

Oh I have an idea!!  Lets take a picture of all three of them...still in their PJs and with crazy hair!  Yeah!  

Okay...not so much but they did sit together so I'll take it.  

Yesterday we had a sunny day for the first time in a week.  It's been raining a lot, which we are grateful for but I have to admit that it was so very nice to see the sun.  So Cadence and Rory let me take some pictures of them in the pretty evening sunlight.  

I really just love how much they love each other.  It's like pulling teeth to get them to take pictures separate.  

This next one is the same as the one above but it is right out of the camera so you can see how rosy the light was as the sun set.  

Jumping!!!

Wiggle those hips!

No no...for real this time!

 

I just love these girls.  

Hope you are all having a wonderful March!

It's a.....

Whatever will this house of pink do???

:o)

Just a little about our ultrasound appointment...I didn't get to see anything for the first half of it.  There was only one screen and the girl doing the first part (I'm pretty sure that she had newly finished with her training) had the screen turned completely away from me.  I'm all for people doing their job, but I'm not just an incubator.  I'm a mother.  I would like to see that baby moving and all his little parts.  Thanks. 

Another tech took over to get some of the more difficult shots.  Baby boy wasn't making things easy.  He was all but hugging the placenta.  In fact the second tech felt awful that they couldn't even get any nice "fridge" shots for me because he had found a little nook and tucked his little head into it and wouldn't turn around at all.  No amount of nudging, poking, shoving, and me coughing would get the kid to move.  

So different from my girls who were little hams in the womb.  He pulled the classic boy move and refused to take a good picture.  ***sigh*** And so it begins.  

The tech did tell me to come back when I had my next OB appointment and she would try and fit me in and get some better shots.  Very nice of her really.  I am thinking that I might just wait and pay for one of those fancy ones though since (with any luck) this will be our last.  Might as well splurge a bit right?  

Anyway, it went well and baby looked good!

Now to switch some gears and think blue. 

Hello 2012

This past year has been full of ups and downs for us.  It is pretty sad that when I look back on 2011 I mostly feel tired.  It was a long year full of illness for us.  But it was also full of so many good things.  


Beckah was born in March. Her birth was one of best experiences of my life.  She brought a feeling of completion to our family that I had never felt before.  Her personality really started to blossom in December 2011.  She is very vocal and super busy.  And she finally fell in love with her daddy.  That had to be one of the sweetest things I have ever watched.    


Cadence started school.  Holy cow.  She is so grown up.  She always has been to grown up for her age, but her starting school was really a shock to my system.  It's crazy that something you have known is coming for years could be a shock.  She is excelling in school.  Loves her friends and can read now.  She is so brilliant and wonderful and makes my job as her mother so easy.  I feel extremely lucky to have her.  She is an awesome big sister and is probably the most excited about the new baby. 


Dear Rory.  Rory turned three and entered my least favorite year in the process of growing up (so far anyway).  She is stubborn and difficult (wonder where she gets that from?).  But she is so witty, loving, and very defensive of her family.  She has so much personality packed into her little tiny frame.  We have slowly been able to get her allergy/sensitivities under control and despite being perfectly capable of using the potty, she more often chooses not to.  I have a feeling that Rory and I are the most alike and will be bumping heads more often than not.  She will help me learn and grow as a mother in ways that I know my other children will not.  


Probably the biggest surprise of 2011 was finding out about our 4th baby.  It was a huge shock and I was very surprised by my reaction.  I am slowly starting to get excited for another baby.  Part of me is super sad that I won't have the time with Beckah that I had with my other girls.  I will probably always feel this way.  Deep down, though, I know that I wouldn't be pregnant right now if the Lord didn't think this child needed to be here now at this time in our family.  So far my pregnancy has been crazy and everything has been upside down and inside out compared to my other pregnancies.  I am hoping that things calm down soon so that I can just  enjoy this time.  This will be our last baby and I want to enjoy every moment that I can.  I don't want to look back and wish I would have done things differently.  


Brady.  He is my rock.  He really is.  He is so steady and reliable.  He is such a good dad, always stepping up without complaint when I am exhausted or at my wits end.  He is excelling at his job.  I am loving that he enjoys the work he is doing.  I am so glad that I look forward to him coming home everyday, and not just for the break from the kids, but because I want to see him and tell him how my day went and here all about what he did today even if half the time I have only a vague idea of what he is talking about.  I still love to hear him tell me about it.  


So on to 2012.  I was going to set myself some goals.  I had a few in mind but in the end I decided that my goal for this year is to improve.  Improve myself, my family, my photography, my motherhood, my relationships, my ability to serve, my relationship with God...you get the picture.  I don't want to over do it, but I need to start doing little things that make me feel better about me and help me to grow into a better me.  


Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that 2012 is our best year yet!

Yes it's true...

We are pregnant.  Again.

As some of you may have guessed already, this was not planned.  At all.

So lets go back to Beckah turning four months old.


*******Disclaimer!!! I am about to talk about female things. Not in great, gory detail, but I know some of the guys out there freak out if the word 'period' is mentioned in a 30 foot radius of their person.  Consider yourself warned!********

Beckah turned four months and annoying Aunt Flo decides it's time to make a come back.  As you can imagine I was less than thrilled.  I was, in fact, down right surly about it.  Not only was she back I was now getting ovulation pain.  It was so bad that I had to take a prescription Motrin left over from Beckah's birth to go about my day in a regular fashion.  The only good news in all this was that I knew exactly when it was possible for me to get pregnant (something we didn't want to do any time soon) and my new visits from Aunt Flo were insanely regular.  Every thirty days on the nose for 3 months.

During this time, Brady and I had been considering the possibility that we might be done having kids.   My pregnancy with Beckah was so incredibly awful that we were both hesitant to go there again.  Plus Beckah really is an angel of a baby.  We were starting to think maybe we should be ending on a great note, you know.  There was still a part of me that really did want another one, though, so I told Brady that we should wait and talk about it in another year and see how we both feel.  That would give me a year to take stock of my feelings, either way, and I would have time to be sure of my decision.

I dropped an egg on either the 11th or 12th of October (small biology lesson for those who don't know, sperm can live for about 5-7 days and a woman's egg is only good for a day maybe a day and a half max. So you have to be careful around the time of ovulation for a couple of days in either direction since the sperm can hang out for a bit, ready to pounce on the egg the second they make it into the fallopian tube...now back to your regularly scheduled story time).  Aunt Flo was supposed to rear her ugly head on the 23rd of October.

Nothing.

I was a bit surprised considering how regular things had been for the last three months, but I am still breastfeeding Beckah every three hours and in the world of breastfeeding there are no real rules.  It was entirely possible for my body to have just decided not to have a period anymore.  I looked it up online and everything.  And since Brady and I are always super careful about things like this it never even crossed my mind that I might have been pregnant.

So I give it some more time.  By Halloween I was starting to have some concerns, but I was also having mild cramping.  Any day now, right?

By Thursday the third I decided to get a test.  I figured I'd pee on the stick and then I could finally get Aunt Flo to commit.  It had worked before.

So after putting Beckah to bed I head to the bathroom.  Pee on stick.  Change into P.J.'s and head back.

Oh no.  Oh no no no no no. I shook the stick.  It's still there.  That's when I started to cry.  

Yeah.  I cried.  

It was too soon. We were smart and careful!!! I was thinking back to when it had to have happened and there wasn't any obvious cause for concern.  Maybe the test is wrong.  

I took the offending stick to Brady.  He took one look, his eyes got huge, and he asked me if it was a joke.  Nope.  I cried some more.  

Brady hugged me and said, "Honey, lets have a baby."  It was probably one of the best things he could have said.  

We talked about when it must have happened and when baby would be due and needing a new car.  We are hoping I won't be as sick as last time.  

I did pee on another stick the next morning to be sure.  That one said pregnant too. 

I wish I would have taken a video of when we told the girls.  Cadence's face was priceless and they are so excited.  Rory will just randomly hug me and tell me that she is so glad I am pregnant again. They have made me excited too. 

There are plans to make and stress ahead, but we will make do.  While unexpected, this baby is most certainly wanted.  

So here again is our new family tree, with my due date!  :o) The girls helped me do finger print leaves.  It was so much fun!

Our Family Tree

The girls and I did a little art project we wanted to share with everyone!

Yes there is a story to go with this.

Don't worry.

I'll tell you all more about it in a few days.  :o)

Halloween 2011

We had a blast this halloween.  I got to walk the girls door to door this year (Brady did it last year).  It was perfect that night, in the 50s I think.  For us that is warm!  lol 

Cadence was a vampire and Rory was a blue dragon.  Beckah was a ladybug, but only because we couldn't find the green monster sleeper in her size.  In the picture below Beckah was ticked because I wasn't holding her.  That happens a lot these days. 

Cadence wanted purple hair to match her dress.  The first can of spray we bought (said purple on the bottle people) made her hair bright pink.  She had a costume party for a friends birthday and she was pretty annoyed by the pink.  So we found another brand and it came out more purple than pink.  Cadence was happy with it. 

And what Cadence does, Rory must do as well. 

We had gone to the pumpkin patch while Uncle Kyle was here and he found us an awesome pumpkin. 32lbs of pumpkin if I remember correctly.  I picked up one more at the Walmart. When it came time to carve them we did a nice face on the big one and Brady insisted on doing a "Creeper" from one of the games he plays on the computer.  lol The girls really liked it.  

The "Creeper"

And the more standard face on the big pumpkin. 

The girls really enjoyed looking at them when we were done. 

Once they were on the porch our local squirrels decided they were fair game.  For whatever reason the liked the "Creeper" and didn't even touch the big one.  So after about three days you couldn't tell what the "Creeper" had been, they had eaten that much of it's face!  lol 

It was fun.  We gave out a ton of candy and the girls got tons more!  I really love living in a place where we can go door to door again.  There really isn't anything like it.