Wow, something crawled out of the woodworks

And that would be me. I know, I've disappeared, three kids keeps me sort of busy. I need to start posting again more often. I plan to try!
Seeing that this is sort of a journal I wanted to post a blog about my Aubrie...

I have made many comments about my Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad AUBRIE. She was lovingly nicknamed Diablo for quite some time. I am very enthralled to announce that she has relinquished that title. Aubrie has turned into a sweet, loving, caring, obeying, and most of all HAPPY little girl. Before, she threw at LEAST 4 tantrums a day. And when I say tantrum, I mean laying on the ground kicking, screaming, and hitting herself. They would easily last 20 minutes, only for another thing to set her off 2 hours later and begin again. Over the past 4 weeks, she has thrown probably 5 of those tantrums TOTAL. I have had multiple people comment on how different of a child she is. She was never horrible for other people, but she was also, not social, and very distant. She now is happy and chats everyone's heads off.
Why you ask? What caused this sudden change in personality? One can only speculate. BUT here is my speculation...
On October 2oth I noticed a very large bump on her gums above her tooth. It seriously looked as if a pea was stuck underneath. It was swollen and looked awful. Rewind back to July 2008. Aubrie fell off of a picnic table and knocked her tooth at our family reunion. She chipped both front teeth, mostly her left one though. We immediately took her to a dentist in the middle of no where Utah. The dentist told us there was no emergency and to just make an apt with our dentist in Idaho. When we returned to Idaho we took her in to a pediatric dentist. He said that none of the nerve was exposed and sent us on our way. He said she didn't need to be seen again until she was 3. Fast forward 8 months later. Aubrie is now 2 and a big fat pain in the butt. I blame it on terrible 2's. 1 month later I noticed the inside of the tooth turning a green color. I take her back to said Dentist and he takes a 15 second look at it and says that she must have ate something green and dyed her tooth. No x-rays, nothing. Sent me on my way again. Aubrie now earns her nickname, Diablo. She was horrible! Chances are if you called me at any given time of the day, she was screaming in the background. I even had to quit nursing Brooklyn because it stressed me out too much because Aubrie would lay on the ground and scream bloody murder the entire time. We then moved to Arizona, Aubrie remained the same. I continued to blame it on the big changes in her life, a new baby, moving to a different place, living with grandma, etc..
Back to Oct 20th. I noticed this mass in her mouth and immediately call a local pediatric dentist. He says that she MUST be seen that day. We get in for a 3 o clock apt. I drop my other two off at my cousins house and off we go. Dentist takes one look at it and says, that tooth needs out NOW. It had become infected and was so bad that he said if we had waited much longer (like 2 days) she could have gone blind. We took x-rays to make sure no other tooth was infected. We waited until Michael got there and as soon as he did we held her down best we could, he numbed her up and yanked that tooth out. Long story short, he said that he has never seen a tooth that infected and his guess was that it has been infected since I went in in April. The dentist put her on antibiotics for 10 days and said that she should feel much better soon. Well lets just say that was definitely an understatement. She has become a different child.
I have finally gotten over my guilt of not noticing the infection sooner and getting something figured out. There was really no way I could have known and I am just glad that I DID catch it when I did.
Let's just pray I didn't jinx myself and Aubrie stays the happy little girl she has become!

Yogurt Bandit

I rolled out of bed this morning around 8:45, sort of wondering why neither girl had woken me up yet.
And this my friends, is what I found...

Yogurt #1
#2
#3
More #3#4
#'s 5, 6, 7 & 8
And now, the culprit...I suppose I should go clean.

Easter Festivities

Today I let the girls color Easter eggs. I really didn't wanna deal with the mess by myself, since Michael is at work all day, but when I went to the store a few days ago I found this cool set that lets you dye them by shaking them in a cup. So no messy blue/pink/yellow/green/purple water that will inevitably be knocked over and turn my kitchen into an Easter egg. They very much enjoyed themselves and wanted to do even more. Now they're just counting down the minutes until the Easter bunny comes and hides them, and as Hailey let me know, leaves them candy, eggs, and toys.

I also braved the cold with all three girls this morning and took them to the Annual Kuna Easter Egg Hunt at the local high school. They LOVED it. Hailey took off right away and started grabbing them. She would shake them first to make sure something was in them, lol, and if she threw them back on the ground, it means she didn't hear anything in them, so I quickly picked it back up and threw it in her basket, knowing that it meant there was a prize. Silly girl! Aubrie on the other hand didn't want to pick up all the eggs. She only wanted pink ones. It took her a few minutes but she finally started getting whatever was closest. I forgot my diaper bag, which had my camera in it, so I have no pictures of that. Bummer! Hailey's little friend Shad won first prize and got a new BSU bronco bike. Yay Shad!

Just a cute girl...

To answer a few questions, yes, I found my camera. Lol, it was in the coffee table. There is a little slot underneath where we keep the laptop and a few other random things (read- crap). Aubrie pulled it out of there one day and I was like, Oh Duh! I guess it was just too obvious of a place to even think to look. So I've been trying to be better at taking pictures. These are of Brooklyn a few days before she turned 2 months. I managed to catch a smile in one of them even. She smiles here and there, but never when a camera is around.

Tubby Time

These pictures are of Brooklyn's first (or 3rd) time in the big bath. She doesn't LOVE it, but she doesn't cry at all either. The other two girls love to help me bathe her. Each time I start the tub for her they take off their pants so they can stand in the tub and help clean her. I'm sure they can't wait until she can sit up and join them in their fun tubs!

She rolls!

I tried to get Brooklyn rolling on camera the other day. But each time I stopped recording she would roll, or she would roll before I got the camera recording, so this is the best I could do! I kind of just caught her mid-roll.

100th Post!

Yay me!!! As a tribute to my blog, and myself being such an awesome Author, I'll post a picture of myself for my 1ooth post (yes people, the song, You're So Vain, is playing in my head too).Of course, you getta see cute Brooklyn too. Unlike my sister Heidi, I don't generally take pictures of myself at arms length from my camera... so this'll do!

The Reason I don't buy Marshmallow Cereal

So a few weeks ago while Hailey was at preschool, and Brooklyn was sleeping, I thought it would be safe to take a quick shower. So I left Aubrie in front of the TV and hopped in. Normally she comes in the bathroom 10 times while I'm showering to just bug me. Well after about 5 minutes I still hadn't seen her, so I got a bit nervous. Hopped out real quick to find her. And this is what she was doing...
Those were Marshmallow Mateys that my mom bought while she was in town, but if you look closely, there are almost NO marshmallows left. Silly girl!

Aubrie's Birthday

So I'm not feeling wonderful today, and don't feel like doing anything productive so I figured I would update my blog a little.

We kept Aubrie's birthday pretty low key, no party with friends or anything, just small family get together. She got to spend the night at Nana's house the night before, which is her favorite thing ever.

For her present she got a "My First Doll House". She LOVES it. They both do actually. It provides HOURS of entertainment. Definitely a hit!

Wow! A picture!

So... my camera is MIA, seriously, I can't find it ANYWHERE. And my house was cleaned top to bottom recently, so who knows! Anyway, here is a picture from my phone that I took today of my baby Brooklyn. She's getting so big already, I can't believe it.
Hopefully I can find my camera soon and take some more pictures of her. I'll come back later and post pictures of Aubrie's birthday, since I was able to use my mother in laws camera.

Birth Story

February 2nd:

Alarm went off at 6:00 so I could get up and get ready. Called the Charge Nurse at the hospital first thing to make sure it wasn't busy, she said to come on in.
Michael dropped me off at the front door at 7:05 told me to go get checked in.
I went upstairs and filled out a few papers and waited for the nurse.
The nurse came out to the waiting room and called my name. Being the overly judgmental people we are, we both kind of sighed thinking, by the looks of our nurse it was going to be a long day.
Went in got my IV hooked up and fluid pumping.
Realized that I shouldn't judge people by their looks, my nurse was AMAZING.
I started getting some anxiety and felt really nauseous.
At 7:35 Dr. Hodges came in, told the nurse to give me some Zofran, and broke my water. I was at 1.5 to 2 cms dilated.
7:45 the nurse started my pitocin drip.
8:00 sent Michael to the gas station to get me some candy to suck on.
While he was gone the nurse offered to give me (TMI ALERT) an enema. She told me the biggest reason women get one is so that they don't have to worry about it the next day while recovering. I opted to get one. Woooow, feels not so wonderful. But it definitely worked :).
8:30 started feeling good contractions 2 minutes apart.
9:00 decided to start pumping me with more fluid and call the epidural man.
9:15, after squeezing the crap out of the nurses arm, the epidural is in place. Maybe I can nap now. Still only at 3 cms dilated. Getting prepared for a long day.
10:00 starting to feel sick again, threw up whatever was in my stomach
11:00 I tried to nap, wasn't happening. Just laid there and rested. Since only Michael and I were there, it was nice and quiet, which was PERFECT.
12:00 I'm starving and want some ice chips or something, nurse suggests a popsicle. Not 5 minutes after I finish is, it comes right back up. Nurse checks me again, at a 4. Gives me some oxygen for the nausea.
12:35 Mom makes it there.
12:45 Nurse says, "I keep hoping I'm gonna check you and you'll be at a 7". I say, "You and me both". She checks... "You ARE at a 7!".
She scrambles around to finish getting things ready.
12:50 checks me again, 9 and crowning. Pages Dr. 911
Once the dr. got there (out of breath from running) he told me I could start pushing. First contraction comes and I push, her head is out with her hand by her face, so he tells me to stop pushing. I guess he was trying to push her elbow around in a way so I wont tear as bad. I ask if I can push again, he tells me no. Then tells me to give 1 LITTLE push. So I do. 1 more little push, and out she comes.

She was born at 1:08. Her face was very bruised from coming out so fast and having her hand up against her face.Hanging out while the dr. stiches me up, 3 total.

She looks like she has her daddys asain looking eyes in this picture.

Brooklyn Jade

February 2, 2009
1:08 pm
7lbs 9 oz
20 1/2 inches
Birth story to follow, when I'm not falling asleep sitting on the couch.

My cute brother and my cute kiddos!

I haven't posted a picture of my kids in FOREVER. Honestly, I haven't taken any in a while. I think I took some in the snow the other day, but haven't put them on the computer yet. That will be tomorrows chore. So for an updated picture, I stole one off of Jessica's blog. This is one of my favorite pictures! You can NEVER get Aubrie to smile like that for the camera. But she LOVED Uncle George (both the girls do!), so she smiled.
Thanks for all the votes on my poll. It's actually kinda funny how it's panning out because the order of favorites is exactly opposite of my order of favorites. We'll see if it sways my decision. Time will tell.

Blog Funk and Poll

So... I have totally not been in the mood to blog. I really haven't even had anything to blog about lately. Life is just monotonous. Wake, eat, play, laundry, pick up toys, eat, nap, play, pick up toys, eat, put girls to bed, watch tv, pick up toys, sleep. Rinse and repeat. Although I bet in 12 days I will look back on this normalcy with fondness, because I'm pretty sure a newborn is going to throw us all for a loop.
Which brings me to my poll. I didn't really care to throw any names out there because, quite honestly, I don't care for some peoples rude, uncalled for opinions. So you hate the name? I don't care, just tell me you like one of the other options better. You think I should name her Petunia? Well honey, it's my kid, not your garden, let it go.
But I'm down to the wire and can't decide which I like best. I like all three fairly equally, but none feel quite right. I suppose when I see her I may just know, but I seriously doubt it. I couldn't decide with Aubrie so my three-year-old niece made the final decision.
So go vote... Her middle name will most likely be Anne, with the possibility of Jade.

Home Again

Well we've finally made it back. Alive and well for the most part. And excited to be back home where we can resume a semblance of normalcy.
We had loads of fun, and I took zero pictures on my camera. I was too lazy to find where I packed it so most the time I just grabbed whatever camera was close by. So I'm sure there are pictures on Jess and Davids camera, my moms, and my sisters. Soooo if you're reading this, send them this way so I can post them! Thanks! Until then, I will just post the highlights (and possibly low lights) of the trip.

• 4 hours on the road, already 2 chips in our brand new windshield. Sweeeet.
  
• Made it to Vegas with great weather and a happy Hailey. (Aubrie left earlier that day to California with Nana- hallelujah).
• Stayed up way too late with my good friend Nikki playing Dr. Mario (and politely kicking her butt). Lol, love ya Nik!
• Enjoyed In-n-Out in Barstow {yum yum}
• Made it to Dana Point and got to see Aubrie, who only cared that Hailey -Shisshy- was there.
  
• Enjoyed a few days with LeeAnn, Jack, and Nana. Was politely handed a butt kicking in a game of Hand and Foot. For once ;-).
• Realized my stupidity (I'm a desert rat, give me a break) of turning the heat COMPLETELY off at our house.
• Denver breaking into our house and turning it back on, letting us know our house was 38 degrees. Niiiice.
  
• Drove to the desert in time for Holly's annual Christmas party. Enjoyed a fun night with friends!
• Slept on a decent bed for once this trip (thanks again Jeanny!!).
  
• Enjoyed a swiss donut, after sending my husband BACK to get me the right donut, and YES there is a difference between a cake donut and a regular one. Ugh! No one goes to Swiss Donut to get a cake sprinkle donut, might as well go to the gas station!
  
• Complained about high gas prices. It was 1.35 in Boise, and we were paying 1.80. But we should keep our mouths shut because last year we paid 4 dollars some places during this same trip. {locking it up}
• Got to spend time with all our Desert friends and family. Amy and Steve, Holly and Chad, Ninny and Poppy, Joe, Jeanny, and others.
  
• Surprised Mom by getting to Arizona early, yay!
• Got to see Brittany and her new baby Bostyn, who looks a lot like my Aubrie. And people often say our husbands look a lot alike (no relation).
  
• Enjoyed yummy Melanesia for Christmas eve.
  
• Got to spend time (as little as it was) with the whole family Christmas Eve, playing games, opening presents and eating.
• Slept in until almost 9 Christmas morning (much to Jessica's dismay ;-))
• Enjoyed the pleasure of watching our children open presents and play all day.
  
• Michael scoring a perfect 555 on the WiiFit soccer game. Him and David played for HOURS one night just trying to out do the other.
  
• Snacking on Sonic Ice.
• Hung out with Aunt Lorna, Bradley, Jamee, Fressia, and Tibbs.
• Attempting to walk around the Mall with my Mom and Jessica, and realizing I am huge and slow. Thankfully Jess walked with me.
  
• Forgetting that I can't walk for very long and attempting the outdoor mall the very next day, my other sisters weren't so nice, and left me in the dust.
  
• Took Hailey bowling for the first time. Mom kicked all our butts. I didn't do too badly for a huge pregnant woman.
  
• Hailey decided since Aubrie found and brought to her, some hair cutting scissors, she should take that for a hint and give herself a haircut. We were finding random tufts of hair for the next few hours. Thankfully she has loads of hair and you can hardly see the sporadic chops.
  
• 2 hours into the 16 hour drive home and Aubrie is throwing up, poor baby!

• 5 hours into the 16 hour drive (after leaving at 2:30 am) and I STILL CAN'T SLEEP!
  
• 17 hours later, HOME!

I'm sure I missed lots of things, and I'm also sure NO one has read this all, but I must document for myself. As soon as I receive some pictures, I will post them. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and enjoys this New Year!