Oh Baby!

 

 

November 28 , 2012

 

Tuesday morning at my house was a very normal morning. I started cleaning out my fridge, my freezer and getting everything back in order from the weekend. (Monday I didn't get anything done :) I was too tired! )

So imagine my surprise Tuesday night, when I finally sat down to relax, and suddenly started having signs of labor! I was surprised, excited and panicking all at the same time!

Surprised because it was a whole 3 weeks before my due date, excited because I really was ready to have this baby, and panicking because I didn't have anything packed or ready to go!

Joel was at a meeting...the kids were still up...and I was trying to function and think and remember what all I needed to get ready to take along to the hospital.

My friend came to the rescue. She picked up the kids and me and Joel flew around trying to get stuff ready. Joel wanted to go. There was no way on earth he wanted to deliver this child! ;)

A whole 12 hours after labor started, Ms. Madalyn made her first appearance.

We fell in love! Her tiny hands and feet. Her innocent little cry. Her tiny nose.Her soft little lips.
...It was perfection...

 

 

 

 

 

I am amazed, and humbled, grateful and so excited that God blessed us with another healthy, sweet baby to love on. The responsiblity of raising these  precious ones is great. We count it a priviledge that God chose us to parent these three. We count on Him to give us the wisdom needed to raise them for Him.

 

 

The hospital stay was great! I was spoiled. I could call anytime I needed something and it was handed to me :) I loved the opportunity to look through the menu at mealtime, call the kitchen and order MY choice of food. It was good food! :)

 

The nurses were great!

I got to rest up.

It was wonderful.

 

I was excited to come home though! The first night I was home, we sat down to eat supper and Brax looked at me and said "I'm so glad you're home mommy." I melted!

 

The first day here was exhausting.Reality hit hard with the two oldest. Tears came alot quicker, attitudes soured a bit.But I think after 5 days they are slowly adjusting to a "new normal." So am I. Part of the new normal for me is getting up every 3 hours during the night. I cheat a little sometimes and let her sleep till she wakes up and then it's closer to 4 hours. (Don't tell Doc that!) ;)

 

Now I'm doing this thing called "recovery." This is the hardest part for me. I feel like I recovered well. But everyone here seems to think I dare not do much! I guess with my history of hemoraging, everyone is scared. I try to obey - somewhat. But I think it's good for me to do what I can, a little at a time.I can't wait to go shopping and all that kind of fun stuff. It will come.

 For now I'm feeding and cuddling my baby -  and sometimes doing dishes and laundry and cleaning up the house : D All on a moderate level of course! :) Angela glories in her power to tell me to sit down, or take a nap!

 

A big thank you to everyone who has given time towards helping us out! From taking our children for the day, to bringing me shampoo, washing baby clothes I didn't have time to get ready! :) making us meals and cleaning up the house etc, etc. It is greatly appreciated and not taken for granted! I hope to be able to do my share of helping others before to long!

 

Today Madalyn is 1 week old!

I really can't believe it's been a week already!

 

 

We love you Madalyn Skye!

We thank heaven for you!

You're our beautiful little girl. A touch of heaven in our home.

So innocent. So sweet.

Forever we will love you!

 

Pictures :)

Ok, so I decided now that this blogger is finally letting me upload pictures I will sit down and make time to update with a few pictures, for those of you that love to keep up with me and mine :). The kids just TOTALLY enjoyed the beach the other weekend. It's actually fun taking them now that they can occupy themselves.

And they think sleeping in a motel is THE COOLEST thing ever! I love my kids :) and how it doesn't take much to make them happy :)

I can't believe my Braxton is 4 1/2 already! He lights up our home with his sense of humor and charm! He definitley uses his humor to his advantage at times ;) He's a fun loving little guy with a very strong personality. His memory amazes me! Right now we are working on memorizing Psalm 23 and he knows up to verse 4.He looks out for his little sister. She's lucky to have him for a big brother! He thinks stuff through as much as she doesn't, but he's right there to help her out if she needs him :) Bella, our puppy is a playful puppy that jumps and runs and wants to play all the time, but sometimes she's to much for Hailey. She can actually knock Hailey over and Hailey gets so upset.But it warms my heart when I look out my window and see Braxton go over to Hailey, take her hand and come walking my way with her.He's definitley got his daddy's soft heart!

They thought "family night out" at Frankies Fun park was pretty awesome. I thought so too! I love time spent with my little family. They had so much fun mini golfing. We got our laughs, that's for sure!

Hailey is definitley a mama's girl but in the last 6 months I have seen her draw near and dear to her daddy! She'll get up in the mornings and ask where daddy is and run and squeal with delight in the evenings when he comes home. Her daddy (and mama ;) )  love to tease her because she is so funny when teased! She is learning to stand strong and hold her ground! The other night Joel was teasing her, and he had her swallowing hard a few times but she stood firm and strong and stayed on top of that one. I thought it was so funny! She loves to kiss the baby and will randomly walk over to me and kiss my stomach. She's going to be quite the "mommy"  this this next baby :)

In just a little over a week I get to spend an anniversary weekend with this man. I can't wait. I am so blessed to have my best friend as my husband! It's been a wonderful 6 years and I'm excited to see what the next 6 years hold for us!

I love my little family and time spent with them!

Well, I can do more pictures later. My little ones are now stirring so that means I will have to go get them breakfast :) And, it is high time for me to run and start my day! Hope all of you have a great day!

Summer Fun and 28 weeks

Well, whataya know!? We're still alive! I know it totally goes against blog manners to ignore your blog for so long! I mean, really, pretty much all summer I've ignored this part of the world. Lack of inspiration and time. But here I am, to give you a quick update of all that's going on in our world.

This summer has been a challange. I'm not even gonna go into detail but lets just say I'm a work in progress,one of God's slow learners but I am glad for all that He's been teaching me.And in those low times, it always helps to remember that He teaches us because He loves us. Still sometimes when God starts pointing things out, it's tough! And with the pregnancy hormones to place on top of that, it's alot tougher! :) But He saw me through - and my husband, he's been such a dear and stuck right with me. I love him more as the time goes by.

Talking about my husband...the six short years we've been together have been so incredibly awesome! After Jesus, he is my best friend and I can't ever imagine leaving him for the love of someone else! And the reason I say this, is because yesterday my mom told me this story of an 80 year old guy that divorced his wife of 60 years for a "younger chickof 70 something." Yes, that makes my blood boil! 60 years!!! Still makes me mad everytime I think of it! So sickening... On to happier thoughts...

Since I started this post last week, and am finally back to finish it, I have actually reached my 29 week mark. Yes, I am so not ready yet! I have alot of cleaning to do yet, we have names to pick out and I have shopping to do for the baby. whew!
Joel came home last night and said (very jokingly of course) that we need to have another baby after this one because of all the cleaning and oraganizing that is suddenly going on. Help!! maybe I should quit the nesting process ;)
I considered myself a fairly good housekeeper until I got into the corners and cabinets! Horrors..but I guess this summer has been unusually busy so I'll blame it on that! ;)
I'm having to remind myself that I need to make time to do some fun things in between because my mind is one track right now and that sadly is cleaning! :(

Braxton and Hailey are growing up too fast! They are both riding bikes without training wheels now.Not sure why that hit me the way it did but suddenly I'm like, "ok you two, you may slow down the growth process just a tad now!" If you know me, that's amazing I even feel that way because ever since they'd been born I was so excited for them to hit the next stage -( would you already just pee in the potty, or walk, or talk or eat by yourself!) I guess once they hit age 3 I start enjoying them a whole lot more. They're so funny and keep me laughing!We can communicate well, be silly together and they start asking the cutest questions! ("why mommy?" is not included in cutest questions, just in case you wondered!) I think it's funny because sometimes when something goes wrong they'll wonder why it happened that way and I just tell them "oh because, sometimes things like that happen." So when Braxton asked me why something was the way it was the other day, Hailey answered "cuz, somtimes things like that happen." :) It scares me how much they pick up! Definitley keeps me on my toes!

Well, since blogger will NOT let me upload pictures I'm going to quit writing because this is looking like a rather boring blog update! I need to figure out what the problem is but I did wanted to let you guys know we're still around! :) Just pretend this is a snail mail letter, you know, like the ones back in the 60's and 70's that you would so eagerly grab out of the mailbox and  read, even if there were no pictures included and it was incredibly boring! ;)

hope y'all have a lovely week! I'm off to more cleaning and organizing ;)

If this ain't the truth...

One of my friends had the above picture posted on facebook this morning. It cracked me up. It is so true! I don't have to more than sit down for a little bit and all of a sudden one of the kiddos needs a drink RIGHT NOW, needs to pee ASAP or they are HUNGRY!
Yep, the joy of motherhood ;) Wouldn't trade it tho', crazy as that may seem to some people :)

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."
Lin Yutang

"A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
Tenneva Jordan


"Good family life is never an accident but always an achievement by those who share it."
James H. Bossard


Wishing all of you moms, and everyone else too ;) a great day!

The yucks of life...

 This week has been a rough week - no sugar coating it! :) There's things ( yucks as I like to call them) that God has been asking me to deal with, things I don't understand. I wasn't ok with any of it either and I've been fighting it by being in a bad mood and grumpy!
  It really was bad because last night when we were playing the "Thomas Memory Game" with the kids, one of them flipped over the picture of "cranky the crane" and Joel just looked up at me and pointed at me - I got it - he really thought I was "cranky!" :) It's kinda funny now...
 This morning I sat down to have my devotions and simply cry out to God asking for His help. It's amazing what a little God time can do for a person!
 Did all my "rough" things fly away? No, not really but He's able to give me peace in the midst of the storm. And even tho' I'm still having to deal with the very same issues, I know God is with me, He'll give me the strength to deal with it!
 And in the mean time I want to let the pressure shape my life into a diamond that God can use at His dissposal. 

Wishing you guys a great week! :)
 ~Staci

"...Jesus Made You All Good"

This child keeps us laughing! She's in a totally halarious stage right now. I really should be the good mom and write everything down - but I don't.

~ There was that time we borrowed the pull behind camper to go camping. Before Joel had it hooked up to the durango and it was just sittin in the yard, Hailey, looking very serious asked how we are going to drive that thing.She wondered if it has a steering wheel. I know, she's just 3 and she had no clue, but I just laughed, it struck me so funny!

~ Last night she asked me if she could have Joel to eat :) ( sweety, I know he's sweet enough to eat, but not literally!) ;)

 ~ And then we just have to laugh when her "boot hurts" or when she's hungry and needs some "bood" or when she sees a "bishy" swimming around.

~ And she's forever kissing our "baby"

~  She LOVES Bella, our lil' boxer puppy! Random times during the day she asks if she can go out and play with Bella. I have learned she loves animals of any kind! Rabbits,dogs,kittys...you name it! The other night I was asking Joel if he can imagine how nice it would be to have a cow to milk - we'd have all the milk we need and more! Hailey caught wind of what I was saying and the excitement that mounted in her at the thought of having a cow was so incredibly funny! Her face lit up, I think she even kinda put her hands in the air and she looked at me and said in her little excited, high pitched voice "ya, den I cud wun and play wif it!" Me and Joel just looked at each other and laughed. I really can see it - her and that cow would be Best of Friends!

Although our kids keep us laughing daily, sometimes they say things that are totally profound, and make you stop and think!

Braxton and Hailey are both at the stage where they just randomly come kiss me or hug me and say " I love you so much" or "I wyke you".

So the other night when I was fixin' to bathe Hailey it was nothing new to hear her say " I wyke you..." But she didn't stop there, she went on and said "Jesus made you all good."

That phrase surprised me, it was like a little gift from heaven actually. But it got me thinking and my thought was - if she can overlook the million flaws that I have as a mommy, then how should I not be able to overlook the flaws of others.

As humans it's so easy to look at each other and see the flaws of others and harp on those, never stopping to think that we are all made in God's image and that  he "made us all good." ( So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God He created them... Genesis 1:27a) ( God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31)

I don't know, maybe you're super human and never need reminders like this, but I know I sure did! I want to look for the good in others and not let the flaws in a person determine to me who that person is. I want to see people as God sees them. I want the love of God to fill my life and mind.

And the next time you start feeling down, feeling like you're not really worth anything, just remember - "... Jesus made you all good!"

Hope y'all have a great day! Here before long I'm off to do some corn.Oh yes, I know I've got some jealous people wishing they could take my place, right!? Haha ... for some reason I am pretty sure that the thought of corn day doesn't really rouse jealousy in people - sure wouldn't in me anyway ;) But at least we'll have corn in the freezer for this winter! :)

Staci

Why God Made Little Boys...

God made the world out of His dreams

of magic mountains,oceans and streams,

prairies and plains and wooded lands,

then paused and thought

"I need someone to stand,

on top of mountains,to conquer the seas,

explore the plains and climb the trees.

Someone to start out small and to grow,

sturdy and strong as a tree..."

And so,

He created boys,full of spirit and fun,

to explore and conquer to romp and run.

With dirty faces and banged up chins,

with courageous hearts and boyish grins.

When he had completed the task He'd begun

He surley said "A job well done!"

I love my son! He has brought me such pleasure and joy since his birth! I never dreamed how awesome it would actually be to be a mommy and my sons birth brought feelings I've never had before because he was my first born!

Joy and wonder at such a miracle! The mother henish feelings, pure awe at how God can create such a special little being.Those first moments of holding him were absolute bliss!

Now he is 4! I have a hard time believing that just 4 short years ago I thought he would never grow up fast enough!! After the first two weeks of his life he started his colic and I tell you , that is something that I sympathize with every mom, especially brand new mommies! The feeling of being watched and having so many suggestions thrown at you, at what you could do or possibly what will make it better - it's overwhelming.

My mom was my huge supporter.She went through two biological colic babies and when third sister came along, she may not have been biological but she gave my mom the grief and stress of fussiness just like us two oldest. My mom understood. She said I could do it. And four short years later, it's proven to me that she was right! ;)

Here we are, with our little colicy all grown up! ;) ok,not all grown up, but gettn there.You know what I mean :) And I thank God he chose us to be Braxton's mommy and daddy!

This stage brings a whole new set of challanges but it's a stage I greatly enjoy!

And this year he asked for a party with "his little friends" and how in the world could this mommy resist! Braxton's little friends mean the world to him.And he is lucky to have a whole set of little boys around his age.

1...2...3...4...5...6...7....yep, there were 7 little boys here that evening and there was one or two missing. Full of energy, full of fun.They were running around here like little indians enjoying every second.Well, my son had a few freak out moments, I think he felt a little overwhelmed but nevertheless,he had the time of his life!

And it was totally adorable how each one was very proud of the gift they brought and each one of them was sure that theirs was the best gift there! ;)

While they were eating supper they started talking about what they brought for Braxton and one of them piped up "I brought a monster truck!" :)

At the end of the day Brax was very sad that his friends had to go home! He wanted them to stay at his house. And he kept telling me that evening after everything was over, "tonight was fun."

At bedtime he came and wrapped his skinny little arms around my neck, laid his head on my shoulder and said "tonight was fun!"

Definitley made it worth it for this mamma!

And just for the record...

...I'm very much in love with my little girl too! She'll get a post all her own sometime ;)

I'm a blessed mommy!









Birthdays and Such

May is always a full month for us. My sister has a birthday on the second, Braxton and Hailey have birthdays on the 17th and 27th, mom an dad have an anniversary on the 20th, and of course there's Mother's Day and my grandma's birthday...ya, it's just a full month! :)
This year I kept all of it simple. I didn't have the git and energy to things done like I normally do! Being I was pregnant? or just because we were extremely busy most of the month? I don't know, could be a little of both but the busy part really made it worse!

I always try to make the children's birthdays special.And this year it was very special for them because Papa and Grammy came to spend the weekend.They waited and waited for that weekend and now it's over already! But we had a great time with them while we had them!

The morning of Braxton's birthday ended up being a dreary,rainy morning and Joel had off of work so we all headed to The Little Bake Shoppe to celebrate with his favorite powdered sugar doughnuts.

 

Yes, they LOVE those messy, yummy, sugary, delicious doughnets!

In the evening took him out to eat at the restaurant of his choice. Which ended up being Pizza Hut when it was all said and done :) We had a fun evening - he was quite dissappointed when he discovered he left his race car card from us at pizza hut. He settled for the puppy card we gave him to replace it :)

Mom and dad were here over Hailey's birthday so that was special for her/all of us!

Saturday night we took mom and dad, my little sister and the kids to Kobe for supper. That is a Japenese Steakhouse we have here.They cook the food in front of you, and just as a warning, if your children are a little on the nervous side you may not want to take them there! ;D Hailey had me flying out of my seat,running to the bathroom with her because she had to puke! or so she said :) She leaned over the pot and never did end up puking but I'm purty sure her stomach was in a turmoil because the fire the chef created had her nerves all afrazzle! : D She barely touched her food!

After supper we had a little birthday party for the kids at the park. Their cakes turned out less than perfect this year because it was the last thing I felt like doing Saturday morning! But because I dearly love them I wanted them to have their special cakes! ;) We hauled them up and tried to keep them cool while we were in the restaurant.Unfortunatley the icing started sliding till we got to the park but they were happy anyway! :)

It was their big smiles that really mattered!

Braxton looked at this picture and laughed a little and said " I think we liked our gifts" :) It was a special time for them.

Hailey loves her Papa! When I refused to hold her she ran to Papa...guess she knows he'll give her what she wants :D

My dad developed a liking for golf while he was here. I think with a little more practice he'd do well on the greens :)

Notice Bella chewing on my moms skirt?! ;D Mom and Bella didn't get along so well but Bella seemed to have quite the attraction to mom and her skirt! Was it the beautiful blue or was it the resentment she felt from mom that attracted her back to mom? ;D I don't know but it was kinda funny :)

I will once again say it was a wonderful weekend! I love having my parents come visit!

I  was going to add pictures of our fun camping trip the other weekend, but I came up with this very last minute idea to go spend the day at the zoo, so I'd better run and get ready because Jan will be here after awhile.

I can't wait to go see my great uncle! He's always the best lookin' there at the zoo!!! ;)

Y'all have a fabulous rest of the week! I will be back with more pictures before to long!

~Staci



Something to blog about...

Inspiration to write has been on a very low level the last while! But the newest member of the family inspired me to update our blog ;)

Last night we made a quick, last minute descision to go pick up a cute little,brindle colored, boxer puppy. We've been wanting a dog for quite awhile already and just never found quite the right one. Joel came home from work, was browsing the dog advertisments and came across these beautiful boxer puppies. Ends up they are only 5 1/2 weeks old and soooooooo cute! We called the people, hurried and got ready and off we went. (On the way home Joel looked at me and said, "this is so us. Last minute!" ;) That's how we roll around here.Last minute descisions seem to work well better for us most of the time! :)

This is just a bunch of cuteness!! ;)

This little girl is head over heels!

The pup will get lots of love and attention at this house! We can't seem to agree on a name for the little girl... dolly is my choice, dixie is Joel's choice, Braxton thinks poochy would be cute, and my sister thinks we have such a poor taste in dog names ;) I don't know, maybe that perfect "yay-we-love-it-thats-perfect-name" will surface in the next few days :) Naming a dog seems to be as hard as naming a child : D For now she's "Dolly" :)

Y'all have a great week!



Can I really!?

Today I decided to be brave and once again attempt the huge task of making bread! For some this is an every week occurence and is as easy as making pie, or no, actually more like,as easy as making cookies for them! ;)

Bread has always come hard for me. I don't like bread that breaks when I fold it.I've made bread that was absolutely gorgeous when it came out of the oven, but give it a day and it was the awful break-when-I-fold-it-in-half bread.

Some of my friends make the oatmeal bread and told me it's easy and yummy! The last time I made it I was discouraged. It was so soft I couldn't even shape it into loaves. I just baked it in one big blob!   : D

This morning I mustered up the courage to give it another try - and I MADE BREAD!

Nevermind that my loaves were three different sizes! My "guessing scales" didn't work so well ;) When I let it cool a little I FINALLY got the chance to try the bread! I couldn't wait! Maybe,just maybe there's homemade bread in our future : D We'll give it a day and see if it gets all yucky and hard ;)

Oh, and I was equally as excited about trying my strawberry jam I made last night! I found this awesome recipe that takes only half the sugar! Strawberry Freezer Jam always gave me the blues because I could never help but think about amount of sugar that went into it! Seriously, an equal amount of sugar and crushed strawberries! Anyway, everyone tells me , "well, you use only a little bit", and if you remember telling me that, it's ok...but it still bothered me ;)

Julia's Strawberry Freezer Jam

5 cups mashed strawberries

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

5 Tablespoons plus 1 Tablespoon Instant Clear Jel

1. Place smashed strawberries in a large bowl

2. In a smaller bowl, mix together sugar and clear jel,whisking until well mixed.Add the sugar mixture to the strawberries,whisking until very well mixed and sugar looks dissolved.If you don't stir it well, the starch will thicken in clumps.This should only take a minute or so.

3. Let strawberry mixture sit for 10 minutes to thicken completely.Scoop into clean jars,seal with a lid and place in freezer.

                                              He didn't seem to mind less sugar in his jam :)

Just when you thought...

...I totally forgot my blog and may never post again ... here I am :) I didn't forget about our little corner on the internet, it's just, well, life happened and I was not feeling inspired ;) So when I don't feel inspired to sit down and blog it doesn't happen! :)
 Alot of things happened since I last blogged. March was really kinda busy and April didn't start out much better. When you think it should slow down, it only gets busier.So I guess I should stop wishin' for a slow down!
 Then end of March we thought we were headed to Ohio to go see Joel's family and celebrate his dad's 60th, but two nights before we left we decided to head to Florida to visit them instead.They were originally planning to be home by that weekend but Joel's dad had severe kidney stone issues, was hospitalized for a few days and then it was recommended for him not to travel for a little while. So instead of pushing our trip out a week we decided to just run to Florida.
 It was a nice visit. Florida is beautiful but I think Pinecraft would probably eventually get on my nerves if I was there to long. Their little beach towns were gorgeous tho'! As we were driving to the beach one evening Joel told me that he thought it looked like so much fun to walk the little shops down there in the beach towns :) I love it that my hubby gets in the mood for that kind of stuff :)

This spring weather has me so excited! I love feeling spring in the air. I really wanted to have a garden this year but we didn't work any place up here for one.I actually wanted raised beds but I think that's something that needs to wait till we have our own place before we put the time and money in for something like that. Liz did have a little raised bed thingy behind the house here where she had flowers in, so I took that and planted some lettuce and radishes and tomatos and peppers. My first batch of lettuce and radishes came up beautifully.I planted lettuce twice, since that and none of that really came up very nice.Not sure why.

I told Joel that this has been my hobby this spring. And I sit out there willing the stuff to grow so we can eat it! :) I'm just waiting for my tomatoes to come up.I think I'm probably most excited about those! I don't know what you think of when you think of summer but I think BLT sandwiches!

I also started growing fresh herbs. I just thought it sounded like fun and was wishing I had fresh stuff on hand to cook with.Some I started with seeds and others I got plants. I have parsley, cilantra,basil,thyme,dill and chives.It's been a fun experiment for me.

Yep, around here we love spring. It makes us feel alive!

The other day as I was driving down the road, the song "There could never be a more beautiful you" came across the radio.I'm thinking maybe Jonny Diaz sings it?  Go on youtube,I'm sure you can pull it up - since I have no clue how to download it and have no time to figure it out ;)

Anyway, as I was listening to it, the thought hit me that we are made exactly how God wants us made!I know this song is probably talking about outward appearance some but my mind also went to our different personalities and make up. Maybe you don't like your  quiet personality, or maybe you wish to be more quiet or more outgoing - who knows, seems us as humans always find something wrong with ourselves or each other.

But as I was thinking about it I guess it was made clear to me that we are where we are because God has us here on earth to fulfill a purpose - to glorify him. And we all glorify God in a different way. Maybe you glorify God by your friendliness, making friends easily and reaching out to people, or maybe you preach or maybe your just a natural teacher.Others glorify Him with behind the scenes stuff because they have a personality more suited for that.

So it's easy to look at ourselves and be discontent, wishing we could be more like somebody else...

Or me and Joel were talking about it the other day that sometimes it's easy to look at somebody else and be very critical - well, why can't they get up and give their testimony or teach or etc. etc. because I can! and get caught up in that rut not remembering that God made us all with different gifts,different personalities.

I think we all need to remember that God made us and others the way He wants us.And we have no right to be discontent or to judge another because "there could never be a more beautiful you."

This song spoke to me this week. I also read thoughts about this in my devotional this week and then yesterday the subject was touched on in our Sunday School. God must be trying to speak to me in someway I guess :)

I hope all of you have a wonderful week!

~staci