Oh the Joys

Whew! Just spent 15 minutes arguing with a 6 year old about the best way to remove a thorn from her foot.  It wasn't bothering her until she saw the blood blister that resulted from the thorn.  She wanted that dried blood removed but of course she knows the only way to get it out and her way would cause no pain and it could be done softly.  I said I would remove but I would not be bound by her rules.  Wouldn't agree so I said just leave it alone but she wouldn't agree.  Can't wait for the teenage years.

More exciting stuff happened last week.  To make it a quick bath night I put all three kids in the bath tub together.  A little tight but they sort of fit.  When Kelsey bathes with Braden she loves to dump water on his head.  He must like it because he loves once he can catch his breath.  Well with 2 girls dumping water on him he had a hard time getting this breath and would suck in water.  I kept telling them to stop it or he would drown.  Of course they didn't listen.  Braden threw up his dinner in the tub thanks to them, but he laughed and smiled right after.  The joke was on them because they had to jump out and take a shower.

At our house we have had one more lost tooth (again the tooth was lost before it could make it under the pillow) and 4 more gained.  Macy is also ready to lose another 2 teeth.  Soon her mouth will be empty.  Braden is filling the gap.  He has 3 molars, 1 eye tooth and 1 more eye tooth on the way.  Yes he loves to bite.

We have a drunken sailor in the house (not sure where he gets the booze in our dry household).  The little man is finally taking more than one step.  He does a lot of standing and clapping because he has misinterpreted what he all get excited for.  He thinks we are proud for him standing.  During FHE he was wobbling all across the room.  Very distracting.

Went to the school carnival.  Brought home only one goldfish.  Forced to make a trip to the pet store the next day to get another a goldfish.  After $20 we are the proud owners of 2 goldfish.  The only reason we have a goldfish is because I convinced Macy to play the game.  Kelsey really wanted the fish.  I was afraid she wouldn't win.  I knew Macy could win and thought she wouldn't care enough and would give Kelsey the fish.  I was wrong.  So Kelsey went to pick out the new fish and Brian said at one point she refused to pick a fish because she wanted a parrot or a guinea pig.  It was quite the ordeal at the pet store.  Luckily Brian held his ground, he is not on the couch, and Kelsey has her fish.

Sunday we went to my uncle's house to celebrate some birthdays.  It was such a perfect night.  Macy loves to go over there because she loves to hang out with my cousin, Noah.  He is closer to Macy's age than mine (he is in third grade).  She had such a good time hanging out with him.  She asked when we could have a playdate with him.  She wanted to go back today.  I think Noah is a little old for that but I didn't tell her that.

My aunt invited us over because she wanted us all to share in the gift she gave my uncle for his birthday.  While my dad and his sister were cleaning out my grandma's house they found the old chalk board the family used for FHE.  The board still had some writing on it from my grandfather.  It was so clear as if he wrote on it yesterday.  He passed away 27 years ago so the writing had to be at least 37 years old if not more.  They decided to let my uncle have it so his wife had it framed (my uncle never new they had found this chalk board until that night).  The best part was the words that were left on the board.  There were 3 statements and they said something like: "Who am I?  Where did I come from? Where am I going?"  It was neat and I am a little envious of such a gift.  I am glad they gave it to him and we can still get together as a family.

Kid update and funny sayings

Back at the end of November Macy came home and told me how she went to the "dessembly" at school today. She said she really liked the "dessembly".

A couple of days later she told me about the "unicorn" thing she made in her yellowbook. Because Thanksgiving was nearby I was able to decipher it to be a "cornucopia".

Recently we have been having some issues with hating things. Kelsey has hated almost everything and she says it with such venom. Well Brian said if she said hate again she was going to get soap in her mouth because we don't need hate and we need to choose to be happier. Well in December we were having FHE and Kelsey was a little grumpy. At one point she said "I hate Jesus" with such fury and contempt that Brian said all right get the soap. Of course she was crying and screaming in the bathroom. Brian tried to explain that he was doing this because she said hate and not that is was because she hated Jesus. All of the sudden she cried out "I love Jesus. I don't hate him." Obviously she didn't get it and Brian was laughing and a little taken back so the soap was not administered. We haven't really heard the word "hate" since then.

As my grandmother was dying and after we had said goodbye, Macy asked "How far is heaven? Is it on Earth?" She also asked if we will still have our bones when we die.

Braden hasn't said anything funny and is still happy. He is becoming trouble. He gets around. No crawling though. He does the army crawl thing like his legs don't work. He gets up on his knees but doesn't quite get it. He can get from his tummy to sitting now. He prefers paper to toys and scoots across the room for the tiniest bit. He likes the shredder and garbage cans in the computer room and likes to unplug the jump drive.

Blessings and lost teeth

Another fun week has gone by. July 3 the kids and I went for a picnic up the canyon with a friend/Brian's cousin. It was a lot of fun. Her husband was off work so he was there too and took the kids climbing and into a cave. He has a bunch of head lights (don't now the technical name). He set them to flash and hid them in the cave. The kids then had to find them. They loved it. Brian had the day off too, but he went horseback riding with his grandpa and brother instead. We had a great 4th of July. We bought Macy a new bigger bike and I did some swimsuit shopping (this has been an experience that I won't ever have time to write about but if I talk to you I am sure you will hear about it). The bike thing was almost a fiasco because Kelsey was sad because she didn't get to buy anything so we were going to get her a pack of gum. Then Macy was upset and wanted to trade in her bike for a pack of gum. Monday I put Macy's bike together and put the training wheels back on the old one for Kelsey. I now have two bike riding fools and Kelsey never seemed to enjoy it before. We bought helmets from a local law firm that sells them for a discount and they are very good about wearing them.

Back to the fourth. We came home and had a BBQ with the neighbors and lite off our own fireworks. The idea was so we wouldn't out too late because the next day was another big event. We still didn't come in until late.

On Sunday we blessed Braden. Some family members had been giving us a hard time because we hadn't blessed Braden so we finally got around to it. In my church babies and young children are given a blessing through the priesthood. In this blessing the child is given the name that will be on church records. On the way to the church Macy says "finally Braden is going to have a number".

It was beautiful weather and we had a dinner afterwards on Carol and Alan's back patio. I finally had enough people over to justify getting Costco's chocolate layer cake. That made my day.

Here he is hanging out with his cousin Makalah.

Here he is with his grandparents.

Here is four generations.

And here he is being loved by his great-grandmas.

Another big event happened on Sunday morning. Macy lost her first tooth. I was getting ready for church and she came to me and said her tooth came out. It was loose and so I thought Brian pulled it our for her. I was wrong. She did it all by herself and there were no tears. Of course it had to be her idea. I am sure that if we had tried to coax her into pulling it she would never have done it. The tooth fairy came that night and left her a dollar.

This past week we went swimming at my grandma's pool. Macy is still a fish and had a great time with Grandma Bonnie. I think we will be out there a whole lot more.

Accidents do happen...

... but hopefully they will be exceptionally rare and Macy will learn to listen to her mother.

There is this ongoing battle at our house. Macy thinks she can do more than her mom thinks she can do. She also thinks she knows a whole lot more than her mom knows. Braden has been caught in the middle of this battle and has received the harm. He has now fallen 2 times in 2 days.

Macy thinks he is her baby doll (he will have 2 mothers for the rest of his life) and thus she carries him and lays him down all over the house against her mother's wishes. Yesterday I was on the phone with Qwest and before I knew it she was in his room with him. Of course the rocking chair's footstool seemed like the perfect size and spot for him. That is until Kelsey pushed the rocking footstool and he fell off.

This morning I was out of the room and again he was swooped up. Next thing I heard was a small thud and a loud cry. I am still not entirely sure what really happened.

I have to go now. According to Macy, Kelsey has taken Braden's diaper off because it is full. She says to hurry because he is going to poop on the blanket. I am not sure who actually took the diaper off (another issue in our house) but Macy is the one grabbing diapers and wipes.

Wish Braden luck and pray that we have no more drops.

Braden Update

This guy is great. He may be loved a little too much by his sisters, if that is possible. His cheeks might get worn out from all the kisses they give him. They never seem to stop. I get a little clausterphobic when I am feeding him his bottle and they kiss him over and over again. I wonder when the novelty will wear off. Besides kisses, Kelsey likes to come up to him and scream "hey baby". I hope he doesn't loose his hearing because of this. Hopefully this trick is coming to an end. Macy loves to hold him and she is a great helper. She is a little confident in her ability to hold him and move him around but I think she can do it.

The results are in and Brian and I think he is a spitting image of Macy. Brian about fell over when I showed him a picture of Macy at about 2 weeks old. He is a little bigger. I measured his feet to Macy's hospital footprints and he has her by at least a fourth an inch. He is quickly filling out in his face and thighs. The scale at his 2 week check up helped solidify our observations because he was 8 lbs. 11 oz.

He is a decent little sleeper. He doesn't have a set bedtime or even a relatively consistent bedtime, but he always gets up at about 1 AM and 4 AM. He eats and is back to sleep in about 30 minutes time. He generally wakes up for the day at 7 AM and is awake for a hour or two.

I think his right eye has a little bit of a clogged tear duct, but of course I forgot to mention this to the doctor. Next appointment I will mention this.

He only likes to poop in clean diapers. The following situation has occurred at least 3 times. I will change his diaper and before he is all dressed again I can smell something funny. I have to change his diaper again and in the midst of the second change he poops some more. I will wait a bit to make sure he is finished. I put on the second clean diaper. And then I will hear or smell something and he will have pooped again. I try not to think of the money he is wasting. He must think it is funny to do this stuff already.

He is a very gasy guy. The first couple of nights he spent in our room and he was always passing gas while he slept. Yesterday I showed him to a friend of mine when I picked up the girls from a friend's home. All the kids were cooing at him while he was in his car seat asleep. Out of no where he farts and all the kids start giggling. My friend had to ask if that was him. He is always burping too. I hope this is not a foreshadowing of things to come.

Introducing...

... Braden!

And our family is excited to have him hear. I know for many of you the name may be in a shock because it was not even on the radar. Brian made me sit down with him the night before the little guy came and come up with a name. Carter wasn't sitting right with him and Ethan was a little too popular. So I started throwing out some more names I liked. Two I really liked were Braden and Kaden, but our cousin already had a Kaden. So we decided to go with the first.

He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and a height of 20 3/4 inches. The labor was not so bad especially because I had an epidural and was induced (I love knowing the end date). From start to finish labor was about 5 1/2 hours. Brian and I were expecting it to go a little faster, but the first time I saw my doctor was 30 minutes before Braden joined us. That was when he broke my water and soon after a healthy, content baby was born.

Here he is getting his first bath/shower. See that smile. He let the doctors and nurses do everything to him with so much as a whisper during the entire hospital stay. The one exception was the circumcision, but who can blame him for that one. Every nurse commented on his easiness. Hopefully he stays that way. So far he hasn't let us down.

Here he is all warm and snugly after his bath.

The girls were very excited to see their new brother and all through the day they would ask "when is our brother coming?" They couldn't wait to get to the hospital. When their Macy couldn't stop holding him and that still hasn't worn off. We only stayed 24 hours because the girls never wanted to leave, but they hated staying couped up in the hospital room. Since the hospital practiced what is called "couplet care" (meaning the baby never leaves you so you can take care of them) I thought what is the difference between the hospital and home. Comfort!

Here he is all ready for the ride home.

Here is the proud big sister. She is such a good helper.

Here is my other big helper. Her favorite thing to say is "what's his name again?" I guess we confused them too. However, now it is a fun game to play.

And of course the proud daddy.

I, myself am doing great. I am feeling good and healing well. Sometimes I wish it could be a little faster along with getting back into my pants. (I am a little worried with the heat fast approaching and no "fat" shorts in the closet.) I am also wishing my chest would return to normal a little faster. Hopefully in the next couple of days. At that time I am looking forward to a long, warm, relaxing shower.

Life is wonderful (another long post)

So instead of getting rid of all the candy and treats I bought more. Partly because I took my husband shopping with me. But oh well the chocolate covered pretzels and dark chocolate cherries taste really, really good.

So why is life wonderful? Because Brian's company offered to let him stay if he would take a new position with them. They have been doing better than expected for the last 3 months (sold more homes than predicted) so corporate said that they could keep one more person and they chose Brian. It isn't exactly what he wants and he had to take a small pay cut. It was a difficult choice because we were all set to try our hardest to get back home and the thought of getting out from under our home (even if it was difficult) were very tempting and obviously the home industry isn't stable yet. However, we feel like this is Heavenly Father's will for the time being and I am happy to stay around some of my many good friends. I am not looking forward to the summer, but I am looking forward to swimming. We truly have been blessed to not have had to go through any time of unemployment and it has helped us see and feel what many others are going through at this time.

Life is good because it cooled back down to the 70s. A recommendation to women who live or may live in Phoenix, AZ: do not have children anytime in the summer or in the fall. I feel for you poor women because for a brief time I experienced a taste of what you go through (mostly at night). I could handle the days but it wasn't cooling off enough at night. It was miserable because I couldn't sleep and when I did I would wake up sweating. I had to turn on the air conditioner. The problem was that it was just cool enough that the air conditioner only had to come on when I turned it down. So the fan remained on all night and Brian had to sleep with a blanket and a comforter for a couple of nights. I couldn't let him near me because his body produces way too much heat and he tends to move closer to me as he sleeps. One night I finally moved to the leather couch. Since we have cooled off I am getting much better sleep.

Last Wednesday baby boy got a room makeover. His room had been pink and yellow and since we are staying it had to go. One of the walls had big stripes and it was slightly sad to paint over all that hard work, but I am over it. Because my friend Kenlynne came over and helped the room was completed in a day. She is a perfect example of reaching out. The Sunday before she overheard me say that I was going to paint on Wednesday. She looks at me and says I have nothing to do that day and I can paint. Let me help you. At first I hesitated because I can be stubborn, but then I thought it was stupid to pass up help and I need to learn to accept service from others so they can have a chance to serve. What a great day it was to have her over and I will be forever in her debt because I thought it would take me all week; Tuesday - wash walls and tape, Wednesday - prime, Friday - paint color, Saturday - touch up. She was so quick, I was able to get rid of my kids most of the day and I did a wonderful job of taping so that afternoon everything completed. However, baby still has no name. We are thinking Carter Alan, Ethan Dee, or Jackson Alan so at least we have something.

The best news is 3 weeks and 3 days before mister arrives. I am all scheduled to be induced and I am counting down the days. I know he needs another week at least to be completely ready (and myself needs two weeks to get everything done because I am not ready), but there is a part of me that would love to be done with the pregnancy. I get to this point and my impatience shines. I know I need to live in the now, but I am ready to move on to the future. I just want my body back. I don't have terrible pregnancy, in fact compared to most they are super easy. But I have my complaints. I have the slight swelling going on. You wouldn't be able to tell, but I can see that my ankles are not as skinny especially at night. I have been craving diet coke for some reason. I would take a coke or Dr. Pepper too, but I don't need the extra calories. He has been finding 2 of my nerves that run down the inside of leg and he likes to play with those. I can't bend anymore and my pants don't stay up and my under garments slip off my belly so I feel draft sometimes. The good news is that 2 weeks ago at my doctors appointment the scale said I had lost 2 lbs in 2 weeks (must be from being sick). I felt so bad that for the next 2 weeks my body helped out and added 3 pounds. I like to be helpful. My last complaint is my hips when I wake up. I am tired of sleeping on my sides and my hips are letting it be known. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hard to roll over. Like I said these are minor things, but they do bother me and I want to remember so I can tell my girls when they are at this point in their life. I have been blessed to be able to exercise still. I can't jog everyday, but I can get some kind of cardio in and weight lifting. For some reason with this pregnancy my heart rate kept getting too high when I ran (with Macy and Kelsey I was able to jog the entire time). This started a couple of months ago. So I had to slow it down and I alternate between walking, jogging, elliptical and stair climber. If it is a good day I can jog and makes me excited to be able to get back to working hard (I am not always excited for this so that is good that I want to get back).

Something for me to Remember

The other night at dinner my kids were talking about their bellies. Macy said she shouldn't eat any more or else her tummy would get big like moms and then she would have a baby in it. Kelsey said hers is already big and she has a baby inside.

They have also decided to decorate his room with pictures for him. The have taped up a slew of them on every wall. All are meant for him. They have even colored some pictures for him that they placed in his dresser. I hope he can survive the mauling that is soon to come.

The poor boy might also be stuck with the name "Baby Boy" or "Boy Baby" because we have gotten no where with the name. My girls now refer to him as such. If any one has suggestions, we are open. I don't like way out there names, but I don't have to be traditional either. At one point in our lives we thought about using the name Cole. The idea has kind of worn off.

Its a ...

So the polling is over with and the verdict is in. The majority wins. There is no doubt about it. We are having a boy. I thought for sure it would be a girl. This just proves you should listen when your little ones speak. Macy has said it was a boy the entire time, lately it has been two boys so she was wrong there. I told Brian this means that we have to paint the play room. Brian said "or he can get in touch with his feminine side early on." By the way the original owners painted the room pink and yellow.