Thoughts...

So my baby (Ruth) started school in September. Kindergarten is all day! That just started this year all my other kids went half day so we really ripped the band aid off with our last one! I have had kind of a strange adjustment to this and I wanted to put a few of my thoughts about this down before they are gone forever. 1st off I am just NOW adjusting to the empty house during the day in a few ways. In the fall I am super busy preparing for the Holiday Bazaar. So I spent every minute while they were at school doing bazaar projects, paper work, advertising.... work. That or I was teaching dance (I do have one day time class for preschoolers), helping in the classroom, or helping out with Grandma Lucy. Then as soon as the bazaar was over I go in to full Christmas mode. I am doing all the things that mom's do to make Christmas magical for their family. During that time we got the news of Larry's mom's cancer and I knew I wanted to help more. So right after Christmas (even before kids went back to school) I started spending many of my days in Salem helping Glenn and Nadine or Grandma Lucy. Then after Nadine passed I spent the next week doing things to help with funeral arrangements and such. After the funeral was over it was the first time I really had my days be so free of structure that I could really look at my days and decide what I wanted, or needed to do. There is still plenty of things to do trust me but as I do these things with NO ONE here with me my mind has been thinking of somethings that I am surprised at. After 15 1/2 years of always having little ones here to fill my day I thought I would feel so lonely that it is quiet I wouldn't be able to stand the quiet and I would have music playing all the time. For the most part I LOVE the quiet. Which really surprises me! Once and a while I do listen to music but it was mostly during Christmas time and it was all carols. If I listen to anything it is usually another conference talk or a lecture from "Mother's who know". Which I highly recommend!!! Another thing that if funny to me is that every time I vacuum (which is a lot lately), when I am done I realize I miss having a little kid run to unplug it for me. Not that I can't do it, it was just a fun thing my kids always loved to do. I thought I would miss sitting at the table listening to the chatter at lunch and some times I do, but I also am enjoying the fact that I can "work" through lunch. Grab my shake and just keep going! I remember being overwhelmed one day (ok probably more then one day) and calling my mom, feeling exhausted and like the diapers, fits, and way to short of naps to get anything done, and always trying to put shoes back on every time we get in and out of the car would never end... I remember her telling me it was going to go by faster then I thought and I honestly didn't believe her. I thought yeah right 10 years is a LONG time. Well here it is 15+ almost 16 of me being a mom and I can't believe it. I think I blinked and here it is. I remember thinking the mom's with teenagers, or all their kids or even some of their kids in school were so much older then me. Now I think I am the same age as the mom's just starting out and forget that to her I am the "old mom". I spent my WHOLE live wanting to be a mom. I remember taking a doll to school on "career day" because I wanted to be a mom. I dreaded them all going to school because then what would I DO! Well I still DO a lot and I love it and I wouldn't trade one minute of it! It is the best job the hardest job, the most exhausting job, and the most rewarding. My heart is full with the gratitude I have for the privilege I have of getting to do this most amazing thing that I always wanted to do. It fulfills me in more ways then I ever dreamed of. I get to live, do, love, and grow as an individual as I get to help these other 6 (yes I am counting my husband not because he is my kid but because in all honesty we help each other grow in more ways then I imagined as well). I am full of gratitude and love and just happy to be living my dream! I have many goals of things I still want to learn to do and I will start working on them as well. I just wanted to stop and take note of these thoughts that have been bumping around in my brain for the last few weeks before they were gone. (That tends to happen to me, after 5 kids I don't remember things all that well unless I write them down).

Journaling

Ok this is small but I am feeling thankful for the prompting I had this morning, and wanted to write it down before I forgot. (Not sure if I will publish this or not.) I was taking Hayden, Ruth and Jace to the library for story time this morning and I had a thought, grab your cell phone. I brushed it off thinking I am not suppose to have it on when I am in there anyway. But decided to grab it anyway. We finished story time and just as I was finished picking out books and ready to sit and watch kids do puzzles for the next half hour or so my phone rang, it was the school. Amelia had fell and split her chin open on the monkey bars. So I packed everyone in the car, went and grabbed the first aid kit, and went to the school (not knowing if I could super glue or if she would need stitches). Luckily it was a quick clue it back together job and I took care of her right there. But I was just so glad to not only have had the prompting but that I listened. She would have been sitting at the school for an hour by the time they would have gotten a hold of me if I hadn't had my phone. I know it wasn't life or death. But I know to my little girl it made a big difference that I was there quick. Which makes a big difference to me.

Joys of Toddlers/ Preschoolers

Ruth is the Joy of our home! Ok they all are pretty awesome but there is something about a "baby" that everyone loves. She may not be A baby but she is our baby and she fills each day with EXCITEMENT! She is 23 months old, wears 12 month (some 18 month clothes), is potty trained, and makes a funny sound like kkkkkk kkkkk when she needs to "go" and I never have to remind her. She climbs EVERYTHING, she will even push chairs to get to what ever she wants to climb, This morning she fell off the piano because I turned around saw her on it and told her to get down... she fell getting down (I should have helped!) She loves to yell mom mom mom mom mom mom till I look right at her and say RUTH. She loves peek a boo, and will say it every time you put clothes on her, she loves to be tickled, hates to wear clothes (prefers totally naked if possible), loves to drum on EVERYTHING, this morning we discovered her "art" on her bedroom wall she did in the night. Luckily it was chalk so it washed right off, she will attempt to copy things the kids say, like DUH BOB, (hers comes out more like Buh bob!) She gets new words all the time, she won't stay in a shopping cart to save her life. (I say this thinking of my old self who would probably judge a mom for saying "I can't make her stay put" I would have though yeah right just make them... I can't she can get out of the seat belts even when I cinch them as tight as I can, and she can climb out of the baskets too...) But she makes everyone laugh she is so stinking cute, and all of these things are things that I just love about her. These pictures I just had to take because she has found where I HIDE the pan lids and loves to get them out and bang them together. You can see she makes a funny face some of the time because it is loud in her face. She also loves to put them on the floor and rub them around (making and awful sound on the wood floor). She cracks me up. It is even funnier when she does this when daddy is home because he HATES it. But I am just cool like that so I let her. Larry says it is because I spoil her, I say it is because it just isn't worth the fight, it doesn't bother me, and it isn't hurting anyone... Anyway She is tons of fun, high energy, and makes me so so glad that she is the last one. She will keep us busy enough for 3!
Who wouldn't love this Peanut. (Peanut has been her nickname since the minute she was born at a whole whopping 5lbs 7 oz)Preschool so far (the whole 2 weeks of it) have been a lot of fun for Hayden and myself. Last week we did letter "A" number "1", circles, and Red. This week we did "B" "2" squares, and Orange. This was her letter B art notice it is covered with Band aids and buttons. Then today we made Brown Binoculars, and drew pictures of B lettered things all over them then went on a hunt for B things all through the yard, and house. (We found LOTS!) Then I read "Betty Bunny loves Chocolate Cake" and had her find all the B's in the book as we read. I have to say I LOVE teaching preschool to one kid! I can think of something that morning while in the shower that goes with what we have been learning and have enough of what ever it is I need, plus it is so much fun to just be focused on the one. I hope things continue to go this well all year.
I should post about the rest of the kids too but I did just post Ethan in his football gear, Brock is doing football too but doesn't have his shirt or anything yet. I will have pictures tomorrow from his first game I will post about him later. Amelia and Hayden are both taking dance lessons from me now. I lost my babysitting job since she lost hers, so I don't have the money to pay for the lessons they use to take. Besides that I went to college to do this and it was the reason I took dance was so that I could teach it when I was the mom... I finally rounded up a few students, I have 6 in Hayden's class and 4 in Amelia's. I am teaching in a friends garage for now. It is pretty exciting for me, a little scary, but fun at the same time. I will post pictures of that later.

50th Anniversary

Here are a few of the cousins. Ethan, Hayden, Dwight, Whitney, and Ruth. They had so much fun getting to know each other. Larry's parents have been married for 50 years and the family came out for the celebration. It was nice to get to see the cousins!
This is Larry's sister and her kids. Her husband couldn't make it. With Grandma Lucy and Larry's parents Glenn and Nadine.
This is Larry's Brother Lance, wife Karen, and 2 of their 4 kids. Sariah and Josh. Jake is married and couldn't come (he starts law school soon) and their other daughter Hanna is on a mission in Brazil!
This is Larry with his siblings and parents!
All of us! I didn't get pictures of our family or Scott and Annette's family because my battery died. I also very sadly didn't get a picture of the quilt! Back in March I told Larry about how my family had made this quilt for my grandparents for their 50th anniversary and each family did a square. Larry loved the idea and said why don't "we" do that! (This meaning I do it!) We called his brothers and sister and checked to see if they would participate if I sent them a square to do and they all agreed. I got all the fabric cut the squares and mailed them to each family. They all got them back to me "on timeish" So I could quickly put the top together before girls camp, then hide it so Grandma wouldn't see it while she was here taking care of kids while I was at girls camp. After camp I spent the next week + getting it on the rack, quilted, and bound. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally!) went into it. They love it and everyone said it looked good. I hope they just don't look to closely. I am not a perfect sewer but it turned out. I stole this picture off of Scott and Annette's blog!
I embroidered a family tree for our family square. It had Larry+Amanda stitched on the trunk, each of the kids were a leaf, then I had a little spotted dog sitting there (our dog Dottie) a bike sitting against the tree (Larry and I have been riding together pretty regularly lately) and I had a tire swing hanging from it. I also did one for each of the kids. Ethan's had a lot of stuff on his because we couldn't decide on one thing he would have represent him, he had piano, music, bike, water skiing, Boy Scouts soccer, and baseball. Brock had a long neck dinosaur (I know big shocker!) Amelia had a ballet dancer, Hayden had a butterfly with flowers, and Ruth had tracings of her hands and feet. I also stitched the temple they were married in and I did a 50th anniversary square. Larry's contribution was scanning and printing on a fabric square one of their wedding pictures. It turned out nice. I sewed 9 squares! Then put the whole thing together.... now I need to get busy on my holiday bazaar projects. I am starting to feel behind. It is almost August and haven't done a thing! Plus there will not be a grandma camp this summer so I will not have a full week of work work work with out interruptions to get a jump start on my stuff... So I better start busting some stuff out next week!!! Soooo don't come buy for a while my house will be a "work zone" I guess that is a nice word for PIG PEN! Oh but next year I will have the girls all moved into one room and I will have a craft room! That is another project I have to get done this coming month, paint bed rooms, pain beds, move all the bedrooms around!!! I think I am tired thinking about it now!

The Tree

We have more of a memory tree for Christmas. It doesn't have a color theme, just lots of things that have memories behind them. Some from Larry and I's childhoods, some from our marriage, and children. We love our tree and telling all the stories behind them. I thought I would post a few pictures of some. There are many more these are just the ones that showed up nice.
This bell was one of my Grandma Workman's. I still remember them on her tree. It is my most favorite thing I have that was hers. Lots of things make me think of her, canning, making bread, and mostly at Christmas. I love and miss her but know that she is happy and I will be with her again... all because of Christmas!

This is one from the year Larry and I got engaged.

I love this time of year...

 

 

 

 

More Journaling

Ok I am TOTALLY Lame! But we went to Prineville for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time visiting with family and stuffing our faces with lots of yummy food! But I didn't take any pictures. I did how ever take some video of my boys shooting big guns while at grandma's house... But alas I do not know how to down load the video from my video camera to my blog... So just trust my my little boys shot shot guns over the weekend and LOVED it! The elders quarum put on the activity and they also had a great time frying stuff. They had fried chicken, onions, mushrooms, shrimp... then it was time for dessert. There were fried twinkies, Snickers, Resses peanut butter cups, M&M's, Cola flavored noodels, Gummy Worms, and much much more. I tasted the Snickers, and the gummy worms. Lets just say I won't ever need to eat them again but fun none the less. It was wonderful to have lots of time with family and we all had a great time. While the boys were shooting the girls went to the movies with Grandma. They got to go see Tangled. They all loved it! I look forward to seeing in on Netflix! Grandma also did lots of crafts with the kids. Which my kids LOVE! Anyway it was a great weekend and now we are in the full swing of the holidays!

Holiday Bazaar/ Journaling

So I don't have any pictures and I will mention this in the next entry or two down but I thought I would do a little journal for myself. This year I have been buying out the past owners of the Gentle House Holiday Bazaar. So I spent my summer getting vendors signed up and getting all the publicity together.... all that entails running an even. Plus doing as many crafts of my own as I could come up with. I had a lot of fun with the whole thing. Then last week November 9-13th we set up and ran the show. Things went smoothly (other then when I ran out of checks while writing checks to vendors on closing night and had to run home for more). I had a lot of fun but am still happy to be a stay at home mom. It was a fun little outlet to earn a little extra money for our family and be creative, and not have to work outside the home full time. I think my kids enjoyed it too, even if it was a little crazy for a few days. I am even looking forward to doing it next year and for many more to come!

New Addventures

Well, I finally bit the bullet. I have been admiring some friends etsy shoppes and kept wondering if I should give it a try. I had made a bunch of things last summer and tried to sell them at a craft bazaar in November. Notice I said Tried! I sold about 5 things. Bummer! I considered trying ebay but the more I looked at Etsy the more I thought that was where my stuff belonged. (It is just for selling all handmade things.) So I finally totally wasted an entire afternoon getting my stuff listed. Now I am just hoping it isn't a total waste! If things sell well I might list more stuff but we will see how it goes for now. I guess we will see how things go! So now you can click on my cute icon on the side and go check it out!

Just what has kept us busy...

So we are all back in line with our computer and I am feeling somewhat back in order. But I have to admit I was getting lots of other stuff done with no computer. I am trying to keep up my dejunking gig though. I am trying to get one of my clutter spots cleaned up a day, one day I tackled the desk, then the junk drawer, utensil drawer, you get the idea. Maybe next I will get the closet taken care of. The hope is to keep things tidy, and not let things build up... We will see how that goes. I have also started working out and eating healthy to get rid of the "baby" weight." We have been keeping pretty busy around here so I haven't really been putting stuff up here. So I thought I would take a few minutes and post a shot or two to show some of what we have been up to lately. Oh and Ruth is now 3 months old (I know I can't believe it either!!!) So I will try to get some pictures taken and on here to show her growth! I can hardly believe how much she looks like Hayden! We were looking at pictures of Hayden at the same age and you could mix them up... maybe I will work on posting one side by side so you can see... tomorrow or Sunday's project I suppose!
Monday I took the kids to the Gilbert House in Salem. We get in for free with the OMSI pass that Larry's parents bought us for Christmas. We made it a quick trip because we also needed to go to Costco, and the grocery store that day. But it was enough that they got to do something fun, and I got them to clean their rooms as bribery to go!


Ethan has been playing Basketball since soccer got out in November. But games just started in January. He is loving it and it is a totally new sport to him. Our Bishop is his coach so that is a lot of fun for him too. I have to say that I secretly (or not so secretly now that I am posting this) love it too because we worked it out that I am not having to drag all 5 of my kids out 2 times a week for practices because he picks him up and drops him off.


This picture is funny because Amelia was having so much fun playing Barbies last Saturday. The funny thing is that Brock was playing with her, I am all for boys playing with Barbies, I think it is good for them just like it is good for girls to play in the mud, with frogs, and with cars. Plus they play nicely together! Anyway Larry snuck up there to snap a picture of it but Brock caught him and ran to hid, If you look closely there is is leg in the corner I think.

Hayden has been practicing her big sister skills.

Technical Difficulties!

So I have gone a week and a half now with NO computer! Our old one died unexpectedly, our dear friend tried to save it, he did save the information (aka all my pictures) but we still had to get a new computer. So here we are off and running with our first ever purchased computer. Ever computer we have ever had has been a hand me down, or built out of several computers. (It pays to have amazing friends who are so technically suave!) But the free computer days are over and we broke down about paid for one! Now maybe I can get caught up on all my other stuff... It will take me a few days I think!

Best Doctor Ever!

Ok so I just have to say that I am certain that we have the best family Doctor in the whole world! He is really funny, cracks jokes, and tells funny stories, he is great with my kids (they actually pretend that they are him when the play doctor), but he actually takes time caring for his patients. Last year when we switched to him Amelia was the first one to have an appointment and she needed a well child check up and to get 5 shots so she could go to school. He was so nice to her and he actually helped give some of the shots (we have NEVER had a DR give shots before just their assistants/ nurses!) So then a few days later she gets a postcard in the mail from him, written by him telling her she is the bravest girl he has ever met and all that nice stuff. Then a week or 2 after Ruth was born he removed a bunch of warts off the bottom of my feet. He "entertains" while doing the procedure. He sent me a postcard a few days later and then called to double check that I was doing well. I know that we have never had a doctor do that before. The only other Doctor we have had come close was the one that we had when Ethan was brand new. He did Ethan's "little boy" procedure. There were some small complications and he gave us his home phone number and told us to call if there were any complications. It was a good thing he did because I did end up calling him at 10:30 that night and he opened the back door to the office and took care of him in the middle of the night. He left when Ethan was about 6 months old.... it hasn't ever been the same. This great doctor also has been helping me figure out my heart burn problems that seem to have gotten much worse after Ruth was born (backwards I know!) But he gave me 10 days worth of meds which were about $100 worth of medicine, then after one medication failed and I came back a month later he wouldn't let me pay for my office visit, and after my blood test results came back he called me right away to let me know the results (which were negative so no ulsur.) Only once have I had the actual doctor call and give me test results and that was after my last miscarriage and they did testing and she told me what the results were and what I needed to do to prevent miscarriages. Our new doctor also had a big Christmas party for seniors and invited his patients to come and serve dinner to the seniors, and those of us with to many little kids were invited for pie and visits with Santa at the end of the party. My kids had a blast! We love our new doctor and hope he never gets so busy things change. That is why I won't be publishing his name so that all of you that live anywhere near here won't switch doctors and crowd up his office!

My Montage 1/2/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sorry that these pictures are out of order for our year but after spending close to 2 hours on this I wasn't about to spend more just to put them back in order! So watch at your own risk I guess! It has been a great year! On to the new one!

Season of Change, and Thankfulness

I love all the seasons because I love change. I love fall for all the beautiful colors, the cooling off of the hot weather, the holidays, going back to school and so much more! I have another change this fall along with adding a member to our family making us a family of 7, this week I received a new calling. I only had my last one for a few months but I had started enjoying going to Relief Society. We got a new bishop in our ward at church the week Ruth was blessed and a lot of times that means changes in other areas. (Not always) So this Sunday I received a new calling. I was called to be the 2nd Counselor in Young Women's. This is a whole new thing for me! I haven't served in Young Women's ever. I haven't had anything to do with the Young Women's organization since I was one which was 12 years ago. Some things have changed I hear but they are minor. I am looking forward to this experience. I already love the group of girls I will be working with since I have spent lots of time with them while they were in primary. They are also my favorite girls to call when I need a baby sitter! It will be fun, and much busier then I have ever been. I thought being Primary President had a lot of meetings.... Good thing I have a wonderful, supportive husband who does a wonderful job putting kids to bed at night and even does a great job giving the baby a bottle every once and a while so I can leave her when need be.
Since this week is Thanksgiving yesterday at church the talks were all about Gratitude and being thankful for the blessings in our lives. I know I did this a couple years ago but I thought maybe it was time for me to count my blessings again. I truly am blessed and am so thankful for all the things my Father in Heaven has given to me and my family. I truly have much to celebrate this holiday season. I think I will just list some of my blessings, I know I can't write them all this would be incredibly long.
I am thankful for: My family, my mother who raised me and taught me so much about the gospel, motherhood and being a good person all around, my dad who taught me tons about service, work, honesty, what being a good man is (this helped me find one!) and tons more.... Brothers and a sister who I fought with as a child but totally love to hang out with now! They are some of my favorite people, they make me laugh, and bless my family in more ways then they know! My grandparents who are all passed away now taught me tons of things and more then I can list. I love them and am so grateful they paved the way for our eternal family! My husband and the wonderful man that he is. He makes me a better person, he strengthens me and blesses our home with his priesthood. I am grateful for his parents who taught him many things. I am so grateful for my 5 healthy children. They bring me more joy and love then I ever imagined. They each have wonderful traits that bring joy into our home.
The Gospel: Priesthood blessings, leadership, a prophet that leads and guides us today, scriptures, inspiration, Temples, Eternal marriage, tithing, hymns, and all that comes from living the commandments of our Father in Heaven.
This country: The freedoms that come from living in the USA. Even when I can complain about how messed up some of the stuff that goes on here is we still live in the greatest country in the world. We have more freedoms and rights then anyone and are truly blessed to be a part of this land! I am thankful to all those who helped make it what it is, and fought and died to make it what it is!
Friends: All of them passed and present. The ones who helped me when I was younger shape my testimony of the Savior and his teachings, who taught me how to have fun and still be good. The ones who help me now as a mom not feel alone when I am struggling, who help me when I need it, teach me ways to be a better mom, and wife. I know I wouldn't be able to function, with out the love and support of good friends in my life. There are so many times when you just need a break, a time out, or support as you care for your families and I love having friends who help me with this and I love being able to help them with this also! I think my life would be so lonely with out good friends in my life!
There are so many temporal blessings I have been given I can't count them all but I will list a few, a warm safe beautiful home, (a husband that takes good care of this home and is able to fix anything in it,) 2 vehicles that run well, are dependable, and affordable. Food that is abundant in our home. Clothes that are abundant in our home (hopefully mine will fit again soon!) scrapbooks and scrapbook supplies that help me remember all the wonderful times I get to have with my family and friends. There is much much more but I need to go care for my family now so I will just say, I am grateful for all the things I have been blessed with. I often feel more blessed then I deserve!

Ruth's Birth

I know I said I wasn't ready to tell many details yet and I think I am feeling like I can put into words all I think and feel about her birth. It sounds kind of funny I guess that I wasn't ready to share it all publicly but it feels like a very personal story to me and the more I reflect on all that happened that week and day the more personal it feels to me and the more grateful to my Heavenly Father I feel that things turned out the way that they did. Her birth really kind of started the week before she was actually born. Which is not a surprise to those who know me and my pregnancies well. It takes me a week to have a baby for real! I do what they call "patrimonial labor" Sorry if that is spelled wrong but I am not a doctor! It means that my body will labor for weeks or more and not really progress with out help. I have done it every time!!! Anyway Thursday before she was born I was tired of having contractions that were keeping me up all night, and hurting all day and knowing that stuff was happening just slowly as usual. So I had my 38 week check up and figured if I was having real contractions maybe they would help me speed things up like they ALWAYS have in the past. 38 weeks was my longest previous pregnancy (BROCK)! So I thought surely this would be the week they would HELP! I went in and the Doctor checked and said I was at a 3 and if I walked for an hour and she checked me again and there was change she would send me to the hospital. I did and actually did progress to a 4 (which for me is a big deal!!! Normally at a 4 I am begging for an epidural!) She sent me to the hospital and they got everything checked in. I called my husband to the hospital (who happened to be working out of cell phone range that day!!!) Called the school sent my kids to friends house, called my mom and she drove the 3 hours to get my kids and stay with them while we were in the hospital. We spent close to 14 hours with pit, having good contractions, and doing my normal thing, no change. I told the mid wife this is what I do until you break my water. I have done this 4 times and this is what happens I could do this for weeks and will do this for weeks!!! She refused to do anything other then give me a sleeping pill which I refuse to take because I am dis functional if I take them! She sent me home at 10:00 at night. I was in tears and frustrated!!! I thought maybe I could get things going again in the morning and get a different doctor who might actually help me. I walked and walked, I even tried pumping (I know TMI). But nothing kept them going. It was like my body was tired of having contractions so it just refused to have more then a few at time. I called and made my next appointment with the doctor. Since I hadn't because I fully expected to have a baby by this time. Monday was my appointment. I was kind of hoping that maybe there would have been some change and they would have mercy on me and send me back. But I told Larry I wasn't going to go unless they promised to break my water because I know pit wouldn't do anything but make me hurt. There was no change but the doctor said Friday (my 39 week mark) they would induce me if I hadn't gone into labor on my own before then. I was feeling hopeless that that would actually happen at this point. So figured I would stop trying to make it happen at least I knew there was an end in site and I could just try to rest until then.
Oh and the day after they had sent me home from the hospital I was feeling so discouraged and actually kind of nervous because I hadn't ever had this happen to me and what if things actually did happen fast this time and I didn't have time to get everything taken care of.... scared and a little overwhelmed to say the least. I wanted Larry to give me a priesthood blessing so I could feel more comfortable in our situation but he was feeling a lot of the same feelings and felt like he was to close to the situation to give me a blessing that he didn't feel was coming from him and what he wanted me to have and not what Heavenly Father truly wanted to bless me with so we called our very good friend (who also happens to be our bishop) and asked if he could give me a blessing. He came and gave me a blessing that evening and I can't remember all of what he said but there were a few phrases that stuck with me. That my body would be able to rest, that the delivery would be speedy, and the baby would be safe. This was a big comfort to me because I had never been pregnant this long and I was a little worried that the baby would end up being to big to deliver. But then I would remind myself also that for the last 4 check ups I was measuring a week behind, and the last 2 there was no change so technically at this point I was 2 weeks behind. (This should have worried me but didn't for some reason.) Anyway I felt like everything was going to be ok and let myself rest for the rest of the week.
Wednesday night I noticed baby wasn't moving much. Usually when I go to bed there is a circus going on in my belly and there was almost no movement that night. In the morning when I first wake up is usually a really big movement time and the baby only kicked once or twice all morning. I started to get worried and called a friend to see if she would be worried, or if she thought I should call the doctor. She told me absolutely call the doctor. So I dropped Hayden off at a friends and went into be monitored at the office. They monitored me and the baby's heart rate was just fine and she actually woke up a little while I was there. I went home knowing everything was ok but was very terrified on the way there! The doctor said sometimes baby's do this right before they are born, so I figured maybe stuff was going to happen on it's own anyway... My mom came that night so she would be there with the kids in the morning when we left for the induction. We were scheduled to check in at 10 am. I woke up having real contractions that morning and figured my body was getting a jump start on the action. Although I had multiple dreams that night that they sent me home because they were to busy for me. When I was having the contractions I knew that they wouldn't send me home because I was actually doing this on my own finally and they surly couldn't send me home now being dilated to more then a 4 and a good 70% effaced. So we got there got checked in and they got my IV in and the midwife came to check me and broke my water right then! It wasn't even 11 am yet! I was so happy that we were for sure staying now and there was going to be a baby soon! They started pit about an hour later because my contractions weren't really progressing and speeding up the process is great by me. I went in wanting to see how far I could go with out an epidural. I have always had one before and was very glad to have one but this time I thought maybe I had done enough prep work I could labor in less then a day and if it was going to progress fast enough maybe I could do it. Larry was really helpful, comforting, and supportive the whole time. We had our favorite nurse there (who also is a member of our ward and has been there during part of all of our girls labor, or right after). She was really helpful in giving me suggestions as to things I could to to help myself be more "comfortable" help things move a long, I was in uncharted territory for me and hadn't ever been able to move at this point of delivery before due to the epidurals. But things were moving a long ok but I reached a 6ish or a 7 and knew I wasn't going to make it drug free but was afraid I would have such a strong epidural I wouldn't be able to feel to push (I have had one of those before and it was kind of hard) The magical man with the drugs offered me what we called an intrathecal (spelling???) when Ethan was born I don't know if that is what they still call it. It is a shot of pain killers in your spine but there is no catheter, and it only lasts 3 hours. You still have sensations, you feel the contractions only with out pain. I opted for that. It was wonderful!!!! I knew exactly what was going on, could move my body my self, and was totally comfortable. I knew when it was time to push and the drugs were really starting to wear off when it was time so I was kind of in a hurry to finish. The whole time the baby was having what they were calling "earlies" which means with every contraction the heart would decell but would recover quickly so they weren't to worried and thought it was actually a good sign at first that things were progressing well. But once I told them I thought it was getting close the decells had changed drastically and the mid wife was in a hurry to get the baby out too. So she told me to go for it. From there it took about 7 minutes to deliver her (a record for me. I think my shortest was 15 before that!) The first scare was, as soon as her head was out the midwife yelled at me to stop pushing they had a cord. The cord was around her neck 3 times and looped under itself so it had tied a knot in it. She couldn't just cut it and unwrap it she had to cut it and untie it to get it off the baby's neck. It was around there so tight they couldn't just slip it off either. Once they got her untied she came out with one more push. Larry was accutally able to deliver her. The mid wife let him do this when Hayden was born and it was such a great experiance for him that we asked if he could do it again. He did a great job! They let me hold her a little while they rubbed her down and she was so tiny. My smallest baby ever at 5 lbs 8 oz. She has a head full of hair though! Now if you don't want TMI stop reading for a minute. Then I delivered my placenta which was very very little, the cord was also pretty small. Our nurse told Larry that she has only seen placentas that little from smokers, drinkers, or heavy heavy pop drinkers. Which I am neither. I have pop about 2 times a month and even that it is a glass with pizza. So part of me wonders if she had stopped growing, or even started loosing weight in there since things weren't quite right. The doctor did say she needed to come out because much longer in there like that wouldn't have been good for her, and as far as the delivery if she had taken even 2 minutes longer coming out they would have ended up resuscitating her and she would have been in the nicu. As it was she was in the nursery for an hour just getting checked, getting some extra oxygen and all that just as precautionary. But was doing very well very quickly! She even started nursing very very quickly and has been a very good eater from the beginning. She came out hungry!!! I guess I am feeling very blessed and watched over by my Heavenly Father that she came as quickly as she did, that everyone that was there to help us did such a wonderful job, and that she came when she did which was just the right time for her. She is so beautiful, sweet, so snugly, I couldn't ask for anything more. Her brothers and sisters all love her and are so proud to have her in our home it is truly wonderful to have her as a part of our family. I get so teary when I am holding her watching her sleep and she smiles in her sleep. Only a few days old and those little twitches of smiles are so beautiful to me. I always have thought when they do that they must be dreaming of heaven, remembering something I can not. She was there such a short time ago with our Heavenly Father, so fresh so sweet and innocent. How can I be so blessed to have her in our home?

Kids update....

So there are some funny things my kids have been doing lately that I don't want to forget that I thought I would just write down. Lately Hayden will tell me "I don't like that" to what ever the food is that she thinks she might not like. Even though sometimes it is something she has eaten before and loved! I don't push it I just put it on the plate and figure we'll see what happens. Most of the time she will see her brothers and sister eating this and she will taste it and then with a really cute surprised voice say, "I do like it! I do like this!" It cracks me up because it makes me think of Green Eggs and Ham. She will tell me she doesn't like it and then decide I do like it! She is also really into being "independent" She wants to do it herself. She will tell me "I do it!" What ever it is, buckling her seat belt, buttering her toast, cutting her food... what ever the task is. Again I figure why fight it she has to learn it some time anyway. So I let her try (unless I am in a huge hurry which involves a huge screaming fit) But after just a minute she will say, "I need help." I love that she wants to try but is still willing to accept help when needed. Even though most of the time she won't accept the help from daddy, only mommy! I think this will change when baby gets here... Hayden is also really into getting me to watch her do what ever it is she is up to. Usually her trick is jumping off of something (usually the bottom step of the stairs. She will tell me "watch me mama!" So I will look and she will count to 10 then say blast off! And hop off the step. It is pretty cute. She also knows most of her colors, and some shapes! I think she is brilliant! I know I am biased but I don't think Ethan could count to 10 before he was 3, or know as many colors as she does... I am sure it has a lot to do with the coaching she gets from her 3 older siblings but I think she is amazing!
The boys are very interesting lately too.... With the impending birth of our 5th child there have been lots and lots of questions from our boys! They amaze me at the things they ask about, and what they come up with. I don't remember having these questions as a kid but my mom didn't have a baby when I was 9 or 7. Her last one was when I was almost 3. But having bigger kids has opened up a whole new vocabulary at our house, as well as late night topics. Although not always late at night. We often have these questions come up on the way to school, soccer practice.... It is quiet interesting the things they come up with. But I feel confident that my boys now know exactly how babies are made, and how they are born. Both ways! Brock was very fascinated, and worried about the option of c-sections so we actually found one on line and let them watch and have explained that mommy will not die if they have to do this. I had a Doctor's appointment Monday and we knew there was a chance that I might go to the hospital to have the baby from there... (that was the hope anyway!) When the boys got home from school Brock walked in looked at me very puzzled and said, "did you have the baby today?" I chuckled a little and told him no, I wouldn't be home if I had. I told him that the baby was going to be born on Friday and then a whole other gamete of questions came as to how do I know and how can the Doctor make me have the baby.... It is kind of funny. My boys even know now that the doctors can take "eggs and seeds" and put them in another mommy so she can have a baby. It is pretty interesting the things we talk about in our house now days.
Amelia is kind of stuck in the middle of it all. She is loving kindergarten, and soccer. She seems to be distracted enough by all of that that she doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to the rest of the goings on. She will join conversations if the boys are asking questions and she is there, but I think she is just more excited about Grandma coming and spending some time here then any of the rest of it. Oh not to say she isn't excited about having a baby, I know she is going to love love love having a baby and will mother hen this baby, I just don't think she is as concerned with the hows and whys there is a baby coming. Either that or she is just holding it all in better because she is waking me up at least one time a week if not more with "bad dreams" Which I think could be stress related, I am not sure. She had me up 2 times last night which really stunk because it was the first night in a few days that contractions weren't keeping me awake! I think I am getting better at sleeping through them because I still hurt in the morning like I had been having them I just am getting immune to the pain...
It is quiet the interesting time in our house waiting for this baby to come! Only a few more days thankfully!!! We will post to let everyone know what we have when baby gets here!

This Old House!

A few posts ago I talked about finding a bunch of our old pictures and wanting to post some of the pictures of our first house. These are all the "before" pictures. So for those of you who have seen the after will appreciate all the work we did. Those of you who have not seen the after I will try to wrangle a few after pictures and post them soon... but hopefully I will be in the hospital and won't. We will see. But for memory sake here are some before shots of our first house.
This first picture is the front of our house. Cute right.... never mind the fact that there are giant bushes that we ripped out, and it was right on Hwy 99! The second picture is just the other half that I couldn't fit in the picture. The "garage" they had started to turn into a "bed room" or storage room of some kind but was never finished and was some what falling off the house. It was torn off the first few days of us owning our new home!

This is a side shot of our house. Notice how they had put nice siding on the front of the house. Then if you look you can see this old green wood siding. We loved this pear tree that was a good 30 plus feet tall. It gave us so many pears that we usually were sharing them with our ward after we had canned and dried all we could! The grapes had grown up into the pear tree also! These grapes were ready to pick when we bought this house and I was canning grape jelly and grape juice off of it that season. I think I must have done it at our apartment the first week or so before we had moved in because the house didn't have electricity or water.
The second picture is of the "bonus room" we used it mostly as a storage/work area for the first couple of years we lived there. It had the really ugly striped carpet and black chimney in there!!! But eventually we painted it beautiful yellow, had really nice carpet put in and had a really great play room up there. I also had my elliptical up there and a tv. We loved that play room!!!

This one is of our "master bedroom." The closet thing was so awesome we ripped it out right away. Which was replaced with a walk in closet off the back of the house along with a master bath! We also sheet rocked this room due to all the construction done. We closed off the door to the right that led into the kitchen. Oh and we also updated those light fixtures you will see in many of these pictures with the shoe strings to pull them off and on! There were only 2 light switches in that house when we bought it. We had more then that in the living room alone with the remodel!
The second picture in this group was of the "nursery" we didn't do a lot to this room other then fix the closet, rewire all the lights and plugs, new windows,carpet, and paint! It was a very pretty soft green.

This is another picture of our Master bedroom. You can see these awesome shelves that they had in EVERY ROOM of the house. I am not joking they were in every room! Living room, kitchen, bonus room EVERYWHERE! They were all mismatched hangers hung with huge screws or 16 penny nails (that is a very big nail!) And they didn't have nice pretty shelves on them most of them were just old pine boards, many of them very ugly wood that they had painted weird things on one side... What were they thinking?
The second shot is of the living room showing the 2 bedroom doors from the living room. It also has a picture of our awesome heater. More on that in a minute.

The fist one is more of the living room going into the kitchen. It shows that awesome heater again. I call it awesome because it was a gas furnace that worked even with out electricity. It didn't have a fan but it would heat that living room, which is what we needed. We moved into this house the day after Thanksgiving. The great part about that is that we had torn off half of the house and many of the doors and windows that lead out to the torn off part that we were rebuilding were only covered with plywood! We lived in the living room. We set our mattress on the floor right in front of the heater. It was our only luxury. We had no lights, or running water! I was 5 months pregnant with Ethan when we moved in!!!
The second photo is of the stairway. It was right in front of the door. If you hung a coat on the post at the end you couldn't open the door all the way. We also loved these posts because one morning while we were laying in bed we noticed that they were colored peach, pink, peach, pink all the way up the stairs! This was funny to us, as well as most of their paint choices. But they were eventually removed and replaced with a beautiful oak that Larry built! He also took out the little cupboard under the stairs and built in an entertainment system there. We loved it!

This is a picture of our kitchen showing the door into the bathroom and the back door. The backdoor lead to a "mud room" that was falling off the house. The bathroom was so ridiculous I don't know how they lived with it. The plumbing was beyond ridiculous! Both were ripped off the first weekend we owned the house. In their place was a new wonderful bathroom, although the entrance was off the hall from the kitchen, a pantry for all our canning/food storage, and a laundry/ mud room.
The second shot of the kitchen shows the kitchen counter tops. For those of you who don't know those counter tops were "low." That is to most people standards. I remember standing at them one day doing dishes in the sink and realizing that I could do that with out having water run into my arm pits! (Which happens at tall kitchens because I am reaching UP to reach the sink!) But these were just the right height for me. When Larry was ready to tackle the Kitchen remodel I asked for the counters to be the same height! Because he loves me and it was "my" kitchen he did and I always loved it! Although when we did remodel we had to make the counter that went over the dishwasher bump up about 3 inches. Still looked great! We also closed in a few of the windows that looked out into the mud room but kept the low long one. I loved the light it let in and it made a great place to put plants.

This last one is of the kitchen cabinets. They were so ugly with the gross green and grey paint that was everywhere in the kitchen. But when Larry redid the kitchen and I had all oak cabinets I loved them! I also loved that they were "low" and I could reach the second shelf easily. It was like the kitchen was designed for me even before Larry redid it. We were able to just leave everything the same size just put new ones in that weren't smelly and dirty and falling apart! Larry did a wonderful job making that house beautiful, new and fresh! It was hard to let go of all we had put into it but we knew it was time to get off the Hwy, and move our kids to a quiet street. We love our quiet dead end street! What a great adventure that house was!

Nesting and Memories

My due date is technically October 16th. That being said, I haven't once made it all the way to my due date. In fact the closest I got was 38 weeks. The other three were born either exactly on 37 weeks or a day or two into week 37. So you can guess that I am starting to do a lot of prep work as I will be 36 weeks this Friday! I can hardly wait. But also feel the strong urge that there is so much to be done that I need to work like crazy to get things ready, which means I may not be napping even when I really need to or want to, plus I haven't blogged any of my canning like I did last year. So I don't get to brag about a lot of the things I have done thus far. So you will have to imagine pictures of peaches, peach jam, pears, speghetti sauce (still in the works), whole tomatoes, jalapeno jelly (a new one for me!)... Much to still be done. If I had time there would be beats among other things. I think there will be prunes done this week as well! Anyway canning is being done and I am also working on getting the house ready. I know babies don't care if there is mess in a house but I want to not care about anything once the baby get here. So I am going to get things organized and in order so that if there are messes they don't bother me quite so much. Well that is the thought anyway. (I am not an imaculate house keeper typically but I do like some order so we can find things!) Anyway I am taking this project one room at a time. Unfortunatly (or fortunatly depending on who you talk to) I don't nest like Allison. You can see her nesting experiance on her blog to the right. I just want to get things organized and clean. Although if I had the money I would paint the entire down stairs I think!!! But I don't have $500 laying around for that. So I will just make everyones room clean and reorganized every container in the house. In the middle of this organizing I have found some treasures! While cleaing out the Nursery I found a box of old pictures. Most of them are from when Ethan was a baby (99% of them are just Ethan laying on a blanket drooling.) But we found some great pictures that I have wondered where they were since I never scrapbooked them (shockingly enough!!!) About 3 rolls of film that are of our 1st house from when we first bought it and it was a total DUMP and then quite a few of the remodle phase. I know there are more somewhere... We will find those I am sure in another room. Only one bed room to go but it is the worst one! (THE BOYS!) That one might take me till this baby is born! I plan on starting tomorrow!!! Amyway bellow are a few pictures I found in that same box.

I am wondering if anyone guessed that these are pictures of Amelia. I showed them to my 3 youngest kids and said who is this. All 3 of them said, "Amelia!" I chuckled and said, "Nope this is mommy when she was a little girl." The instantly wanted to know where the stroller was and could they have that. I told them I was sure it was broken and in a dump somewhere. I could see Brock's head working wishing he could get it and craft something out of it. (I am not joking that is what he does! He finds garbage and makes something new out of it. Then when I go to clean his room toworrow I will throw it all away AGAIN!) I don't know how old I was in the first picture.... I am guessing 3 or 4. Maybe my mom knows? The baby picture was taken on Chirstmas so I was only 6 days old. The last one is Christmas time when I was probably 5 or 6 I am guessing... Mom any clue? My kids thought they were great and it made me kind of laugh because they all thought it was Amelia, just like when we see kid pictures of Larry and they all think it is Ethan.

Maybe I will post some of our old house pictures if I get some time later. But for now I need to get back to laundry, then cleaning! We have a full week of soccer, extra kids, and cleaning and if I get behind now it will never get done! So off to the races! Oh and yes I will keep things updated enough that people will know when the baby arrives, please don't ask me every day if the baby is here yet, or if there is anything happening!!! I will drive myself crazy enough!

New Blog...

Ok so this isn't really meant for everyone else but I figured I could share some of my work if people are interested....
I have a note book that I started when Larry and I first got married, where I put all the recipes that I collect from other people, or places. Some of them are things my mom made when I was a kid and she gave me the recipes to get me started, and some are things from people from our ward here. Every time someone makes something I love I ask for the recipe and add it to my list. I like keeping track of who gave it to me too because I think of them every time I make their recipe. Anyway long story shortened... My book is starting to fall apart, and some of the pages have been spilled on enough that I really can't read them well or at all. They are getting transparent. So in order to save all my hard work of collecting recipes and in hopes of keeping them around longer I am following a good friends advice and putting them on a blog so I can keep track of them. I haven't entered everything yet. But for one afternoon I got a good start on it. If you are interested you are welcome to look through my files and try some. If not that is alright too. It is mostly for me but I thought I would share with those that are interested. Here is the link and I am going to add it to my side bar. http://davisfamilyfavrecipes.blogspot.com/

Weekend Up date

This weekend was so much fun! Friday we took the kids to Prineville for Grandma camp. We stayed Saturday and took everyone out on the boat in Prineville Res. It was a lot of fun! It was the first time my dad has been able to come out with us. The kids had soooo much fun with Grandpa throwing them overboard! They even "pushed" grandpa off once too. (ha ha) The only bad part was I got my camera out to take pictures of all the fun and found that my video card was at home in the reader!!! AHHHHH! So I have to pictures of all the fun. The kids had fun riding the tube, Ethan and Larry both water skied. And we all cooled off in the wonderful water! We got out just in time for the thunder and lightning storm to start. It was a beautiful storm and my kids were very impressed. We don't get those here very often. And I haven't seen one that big in a really long time! It was like God's fireworks! Way cool! Larry and I stayed till Sunday afternoon and then headed home with out the kids. I was soooo excited for this week to get some stuff done with out interruptions and a week free of whining and fighting... The farther we drove away I started to feel guilty, like maybe I shouldn't have been so excited, or maybe I shouldn't leave my children, especially Hayden. But I am feeling better about it this evening after getting a message from my mom. I knew they would have fun and they were just as excited as I was. So no more worries! They were all looking forward to this and I am glad that they love to be with Grandma and Grandpa so much. Plus I am so thankful for a mom who loves to do such fun things with my kids. I know she has a week planned of fun stuff. I will post pictures when they get back because I know my mom will send some. So my week is going to be jam packed! Today I went to my 29 week check up. I don't have diabetes! But I am anemic. Which is totally normal for me in my 3rd trimester. I have had this every time. So I will start my iron, and call it good. After the Dr visit. I did my normal pay day groceries shopping, and got home in the afternoon just in time to get my scrap projects started. I am excited about how much I have gotten done in just the few hours I worked on it today! Amazing how much you get done with out getting up a million times to get a drink for someone, take someone potty, get a snack.... Larry and I had a really quiet dinner where we could hear each other talk and not get interrupted at all. It was almost weird. Larry pounded the table a few times and whined that he needed to go potty just so we wouldn't feel to weird. The rest of my week will be filled with paper projects, a pedicure, and hopefully an afternoon at the movies! Oh and I will have to finish packing for vacation. But Larry and I will work on that in the evenings. Anyway Sorry no pictures again only boring journalling!

52 weeks to a more loving home

One of my most dear friends and her wonderful family are doing an experiment. Each week there is a new challenge and if you do it, it will help your home be a more loving place. She asked us if we would join them to help her a long this journey. I more then gladly accepted! I am always interested in trying new things to make our home a better place, be a better mom... So I am really excited when each week we get our weekly challenge by email. I asked her if I could blog this journey and she said ok. So I thought I would just do a little entry to say this is what we are doing, then each week I will update the thing on the side bar as to what the challenge is that week. If you want to join in Great!!! The more the merrier! I would love to hear others progress if you want to share. We are already two weeks in so I will always keep two weeks posted for those who are just starting now and want to join in. There will just be a quote on the side and do what the quote is suggesting. Good luck.