Merry Freaking Christmas...

Or whatever.

I had a fabulous Christmas with my family. My sister and brother-in-law came up from California (which is always wonderful and never long enough) and my nephew is landing in Idaho as I type this (LITERALLY) and I can't wait to see him, it's been over a year.



We got lots of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. Love it all.

So I have a bandaid on my finger because I ripped my fingernail off and it's impeading my ability to type, which is frustrating so I will just have to type later. :) Here are some pictures.



Christmas was great and to quote my dad, "Aren't they obnoxious?"



Icky nasty colas. FYI.

Annalise Elaine

Oh my golly my little girl is already four months old!! She's sweet, beautiful and such a joy in my life. Blessed...

Taking A Break

I'm exhausted...not from anything in particular, but from everything. It isn't as though I never have (or take) a moment to sit down and be, it's just that I have so many things to do.



This afternoon while Gavin was in school and Owen and Annalise took a nap and I made lists...grocery lists, to do lists for the next 3 days, Christmas stuff, to do before Christmas, etc. It took a big load off my chest, I felt I could relax more, enjoy my day. Not 15 minutes after I finished those lists I got 2 telephone calls with things I had to add to my "to dos." It's really isn't a big deal and both are things I need to do, but still...it's 2 more things.



I'll survive. I think. Here's hoping anyway. :)

Gavin has just informed me that his nose feels better now and he is no longer sick. Owen has chimed in, "I'm still sick." And Annalise sleeps not-so-soundly in her swing amidst the chaos of "Hell Time" (the time before Johnny gets home from work!!) It appears to be starting a tad early today. Better enjoy it now; Johnny goes back into nights in just one short month.

My baby is almost 4 months old. Time...It just flies by...almost as though if we blink we'll miss it.

Thanksgiving, My Birthday, My Anniversary...

Yes, I had a very busy "weekend"...

I shall start with...Thanksgiving...

It was fun!! Went to my mom and dads. I ate and ate and ate and ate and ate and ate. Oh the food. I love Thanksgiving!! My sister Katherine and I joked most of the day which is always fun. Laughing is pretty much my favorite thing -- that and a venti Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks. :)




So we did the usual Thankgiving stuff, eating, talking, laughing and games. We played "Killer" and I pretty much ruined that game for everyone with my poor memory. Explaining how and why would take too long, but lets just say that I made the same mistake 3 times!!! Not the brightest gal here! After I ruined "Killer" we played Taboo...fun fun fun!!! I kick ASS at that game!! And I'm aparently also quite vain.

And for those of you who were there -- "Not Usual" ;)

KILLER!!!


My BIRTHDAY...

I'm older and wiser. Spent most of my birthday celebrating Thanksgiving, but I got a few phone calls and several messages and that was wonderful. It always means so much just to have someone call and remember you. Thank you to Lori and Auntie Natalie for the blogs!! And thank you for the happy birthday comments as well, made my day!!

My birthday cake is behind Johnny in this picture...can't see it very well but it's there.


My ANNIVERSARY...

7 years! Even though Johnny worked 13 hours that day he still managed to make it special. He had roses delivered and called me at various times throughout the day. It was very sweet. Then he came home and gave me my anniversary gift...it was a jewlery store box. I was excited. When I opened it I saw my wedding and engagement rings in there...they were so clean...and he had them sized for me (I haven't worn them in over a year and a half)...and then I noticed he had my wedding ring engraved...I was thrilled. So he says, "Do you notice anything else?" Well, I hadn't really looked at them much in the last 18 months (as though my fat fingers were unworthy:) so he told me he had the diamond replaced and doubled the size to over half a carat and a much better quality diamond. Wow!! He's just so sweet, I love him so much. Sure, we annoy the other from time to time and we nag and argue ocassionaly, but most of the time we talk and enjoy each others company. I love him so much and I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of my life with him.

The picture isn't the greatest, but here it is anyway. :)



I had a wonderful 2 days and now I'm getting ready to go to April's house for my birthday.

I just have so many things to be thankful for...

Is Someone's Birthday Tomorrow??

YEP, MINE IS!!!!! Get busy people, only 11 shopping hours left until the event of the year!!!

;)

For Kat, My Friendie

My HOT friend Kat
She’s where it’s at
‘Cept really she’s in Utah
Which makes me feel so Blah
I miss you on Sundays
Those were our fun days
So Kat, what can I do
‘Cept write this for you
To make sure you know
Before I must go:
Tho’ living close we may not be
You still mean the world to me!!

Love ya Kit-Kat!!

A Repost

I originally posted this July 22 2006. I wrote it for one purpose but it may have been taken the opposite way...so I am posting again for the same reason. ;) I feel it adequately states my feelings, both then and now.

A Lesson For Me
Life is full of experiences both good and bad; usually the bad seems to come in hordes, or whenever we feel least capable of coping. Yet for the most part we survive and are usually better for it; whether we were in the right or the wrong, or if we learned all we could have or not…it’s best that we lived it. Or at least that’s what I believe.

The Buddha said this:

For those with no anger,
how can anger arise?
When you practice deep looking and master yourself,
you dwell in peace, freedom, and safety.
The one who offends another
after being offended by him,
harms himself and harms the other.
When you feel hurt
but do not hurt the other,
you are truly victorious.
Your practice and your victory benefit both of you.
When you understand the roots of anger in yourself and in the other,
your mind will enjoy true peace , joy and lightness.
You become the doctor who heals himself and heals the other.
If you don't understand,
you will think not getting angry to be the act of a fool.

It just fits. I realize that in my life I’ve made serious mistakes; I’ve been rude, unkind, manipulative, angry, unforgiving, selfish…the list truly does go on…but the point is that while some of these characteristics may still break through from time to time, it’s been my practice to avoid them whenever possible: To be a better person. And this is not only for me, but for my young children as well, so that hopefully, while they will inevitably inherit a multitude of my negative qualities, with any luck a few of the better ones will rub-off on them too!

Reflecting...

I love my kids, guess that goes without saying. But lately I've been watching them while they play and realizing that they are growing up, and so quickly. Gavin is 4 and a half years old. Owen is 2 and a half. Annalise is almost 3 months old already. I need to slow down and enjoy these times; even those frustrating, everyone is screaming, trying to cook dinner, answer the phone, and clean up a mess before it stains moments.

I have a lot to be thankful for...

Here are my kids again. They all wore the same costume (lil' devil) on their first halloween (the Gavin and Owen were 6 months old, however, and Annalise was only about 2.5)

Twas a Happy Halloween

Here are some pictures of the kids from Halloween!! :) No time to blog today have a billion things to catch up on before Johnny's weekend is over...

Just Life

THE PICS BELOW ARE OF MY KIDS THE DAY THEY WERE BORN...Gavin, Owen then Annalise.




I've been dealing with some postpartum depression issues lately and haven't felt much like updating, but I'm feeling a bit better today so here it is.

My back is dead. Killed it. I've had back problems for years but they've just gotten worse recently. I have been the to doctor a couple times and now I'm going to physical therapy. They have dertermined I have a few problems: I have some pelvic issues because of my pregnancy, I have a lower lumbar "something" that will never heal but they can teach me how to deal with it, and to make matters worse I do not have the abdominal support for my back that is necessary because of the 2 c-sections I've had...they cut into your abdominals and it just kills them. So hopefully I'll be better with the physical therapy.

My grandma is recovering from her mastectomy quite well. For some reason in Idaho they don't do reconstructive surgery at the same time, but hopefully she'll get the reconstruction in 6 months or so.

I got a new computer!! A MacBook!! LOVE IT!!! It's been a while since I've used a Mac, and the'y completely changed the OS since then, but I'm falling into it quickly. LOVE IT!!!

Alright, my kids are great. Gavin is getting so great with letters and numbers and I'm anxiously awaiting the parent/teacher confrences in November. I want to hear how he's doing...listening, learning, playing, etc. Owen is just talking up a storm now, though I forget that just because I can understand him, doesnt mean everyone else can. :) And Annalise had her belated 2 month appointment last week. She weighed 11 pounds 6 ounces and was almost 24 inches long. She's getting so big, I can't believe she's almost 12 weeks old.

So there you go. I'm going to go mess around with the programs on my new computer and attempt to make something AWESOME. :) Take care everyone!!


STACEY'S BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN: 24 DAYS!!! That's right folks...it's on Thanksgiving this year!! And my 7th anniversary is the next day, and my husband will be working both. :)

5 Of My "Weird Things"

Here they are, some I've mentioned before...

1. I have a hair pulling thing...it's actually an impulse control disorder called trichotillomania

2. I have a numbers thing. I can just remember numbers and birthdays, my Dad has a numbers thing too.

3. I have a fear of opening doors the wrong way. LOL. Crazy isn't it? Something must have happened when I was a kid, because I don't like opening a door or the first time because I'm afraid of pulling when I'm supposed to push or vice versa.

4. My friends actually make fun of me for this one but I'm full of odd facts and useless information: Every human body consists of 10 quadrillion cells, but about 100 quadrillion bacterial cells! Ooh. Cool eh??

5. I type 75 wpm. I guess that's not weird, but I'm having problems thinking of my weird things tonight for some reason. I know there are lots more, but I'll just have to add them when I remember them.



There you go. Sorry it took so long. :)

Your turn Kat and April!!

Haven't Forgotten

THE PICTURES BELOW ARE OF ALL MY KIDS AT 9 WEEKS OLD!! First Gavin, then Owen, then Annalise. :)

I just haven't had time to update for a while, so I'm sitting on the edge of the couch bouncing Annalise on my knee while I type one handed...so far she's content and I've not made many mistakes.
Quick Updates:

I'm getting over a bad stomach "thing" so hopefully I'll have more productive days ahead.

Johnny has his four day weekend and I'm enjoying it

Gavin stayed home from school on Thursday because he was throwing up, but he's better and we still managed to turn in the Otis Spunkmeier Cookie Dough Fundraiser stuff (Thanks Dad!!) so I'm anxiously awaiting the second week of November!

Owen's crib broke so he got his first Big Boy bed!! Last night was his first night in it and he fell asleep on the floor. :) Little sweetie.

Annalise started smiling more often and especially at my Dad, she thinks he's a riot. :)

That's really all. Boring, I know...but it's an update!! Thinking of you all.

Gavin and Dasia

How cute are they?? This was taken at the pumpkin patch last week...LOVE IT!! And I'll always remember my little slip-up: When I opened my car door at the preschool my camera fell onto the concrete and I said, "SHIT!" not even a second later every little voice in the car (with the exception of my 7 week old) said, "shit," "shit," "shit," shit."

One mistake. Luckily there hasn't been an utterance from the little ones since, and I'm keeping my mouth shut too! :)

Motherhood

We keep deluding ourselves that happiness is just around the corner, but always in the future. “If I could just get out of school”, “if I could only find a better job”, which becomes, “If I could just find someone to love”, and so on, potentially for the rest of our lives. How many of us said, “If only I could have children, then I’d be happy”? We soon found that children brought us great joy but also countless hurdles and frustrations. With happiness always round the next corner, we could come to the end of our lives to find that we never allowed ourselves to be happy in the present moment and that we therefore wasted countless opportunities to experience joy.

We ceaselessly categorize our experiences into “good” or “bad”. Then we try to arrange our lives so that we can avoid the “bad: and attract the “good”. Despite these efforts we live in failure: Life presents “ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows”. We must meet pain as well as pleasure, so we can’t afford to hook our happiness to external circumstances.

In our clearer moments we may glimpse what’s going on—this endless pursuit of transitory happiness seems futile but what can we do? Rather than acknowledge the inner deprivation we try harder in the outer world because we obviously need more of what is can offer. We might convince ourselves we need a world trip, new things, or an exciting new career change. And we’re back in the cycle of demanding from the outside world.

Happiness, or the lack of it, can be an issue that mothers feel desperate to resolve. This is especially the case on the arrival of a second child. A parenting magazine reported the results of a study which found: “…a woman’s life satisfaction falls to its all-time low the year after the birth of her second child. Another sturdy found that many second-time mothers had stress levels high enough to warrant medical treatment.”

Mothers spend so much time attending to the “have-tos: of life: housework, errands, paper work, phone calls, taxiing, appointments, birthdays. We need to give all our family members quality time and maintain contact with a string of relatives. Our brains are shuffling so many details that they feel close to exploding.

With family responsibilities we are far less free to seek our own happiness. We have less time for our careers, hobbies and friends and we may discover that a ‘family holiday” is a contradiction in terms. At times any hope of happiness for a mother is quashed by a baby’s bellowing, a toddler’s tantrum, a sons sleep problems, a daughters anti-social behavior or workplace inflexibility. There’s no end to the hoops our children and others can put us through. At times happiness is the most distant of our dreams and we humbly confine our wishes to “a little peace and quiet”.

Certainly a mother has new sources of happiness from the world outside her: watching her children grow into little characters, laughing at their capers, perhaps a new circle of friends. Still she may find herself in the cycle of postponing happiness, wishing, “If I could just have them all at school”, “If we could just get through this stage”, “If they’d just move out!”

We sometimes catch more experienced mothers musing: “They grow up so quickly, don’t they?” Some of us don’t believe them but still, this period of our lives will pass and that makes it precious. In postponing our happiness until the children are older, we lose sight of the importance of this stage of our lives. When we’re older, perhaps as we leaf through a scrapbook brimming with images from their childhood, we might regret that we didn’t allow ourselves to enjoy our small children as much as we could have. The studies keep finding that the first few years of life are the most important to a child’s psychological and intellectual development—another reminder of the preciousness of our moments with our young children…

Love you gals...

enough said.

Happy Birthday Sara!!!!!!!!

Today was a fabulous day: My friend Sara turned 21! We had lunch at our friend Lori's and it was so wonderful. Lori is an absolutely amazing hostess and made the day so special; I intend on taking tips from her for the next event I host. She made these incredible fajitas (both chicken and beef), had wonderful salsa, and an ice cream cake (always welcome to my taste buds).

We ate outside and it was beautiful our kids played and there were many people there to hold Annalise so I could actually eat. Thank you for all your hard work and hospitality, everything was just lovely Lori…I owe you one…or several. ;)

As for Sara, she’s one of my best friends and I love her to pieces. After everything that she’s been through this year she deserves a nice 21st year and I’m going to try my hardest to make sure that happens, not that I have any super-special-wonderful-year powers, but I’m hoping just being in my presence will help with that. (You know I’m joking, right?) She's had some very rough-goings and through it all has remained so sweet and attentive to me and others. She even stayed with me at the hospital after Annalise was born to help out. It was actually a difficult night and she was so helpful, she just has a natural kindness...and she's spunky too and I love that.

Well Sara, I love you and I’m looking forward to our tattoos. You’re amazing and I don’t know what I’d do without you. Your friendship really means a lot to me, you’re always there for me, and even when you’re working your ass off and I’m not able to talk to you on the phone…I know I’m can just call your cell and listen to your outgoing voicemail message to cheer me up.

What-ev! ;)

Love you sweetie!

PS Could my face be any bigger in that picture? The answer is yes but lord forbid! Yikes! And a little color (other than RED) would be nice. :)

This is for you Apes...

Roses are red
Violets are blue
And I wouldn't keep blogging
If it weren't for you...

Here are just a few of the millions of things I love about you:

You're sweet
You're kind
You're loving
You're giving
You're funny
You're adorable
You're somewhat gassy
You're talented
You're a wonderful mother
You're an amazing friend
I love the way you eat doritos
I adore your daughter
You have a gift for finding wonderful deals
You appriciate my quirks and don't judge me for them...

You're just fraggin' awesome!!

Love, Stacey

Shannon Elaine

September 15, 1981 – January 10, 2003

My sister in law. She died almost 4 years ago at 21 years old. It sucks. Johnny was very close with his sister in the end, though they had a period of time (their teen years!!) where they didn’t get along well, and losing her at such a young age and only a year and a half after our son died, really hit him hard.

Shannon…what can I say about Shannon??? A lot actually. We hated each other in high school. I hated her friends, she hated mine. And when I started dating her brother…whoo! Let’s just say that they got a new puppy shortly after Johnny and I started dating and she wanted to name it after me…but not in an endearing way. LOL. It took a while before we connected.

In early 1999, during our senior year, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Not just any leukemia either, but the most aggressive kind; Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and had the most aggressive sub-type of that as well. She started her first round of chemotherapy shortly after her diagnosis and went into remission. She very dearly wanted to be a nurse and started school at Cal State Long Beach when she was well enough and worked at In-and-Out Burger part time during that period.

She stayed in remission for 18 months before her leukemia returned. Another round of chemo. In February 2001 they decided she needed a bone marrow transplant and found a match in an umbilical cord blood donor. A month or so before the scheduled transplant she visited Johnny and I in Washington state, where Johnny was stationed in the Navy. This trip marked the turning point for our relationship; Johnny was working a lot during that week and only had 1 or 2 days off, so it was just her and I most of the time. We had a blast. We played video games, watched tv, watched movies, ate junk food, drove around and got lost a lot, we went to see model homes and would plan our houses as though she would move up to Washington and live with us. :) It was just fun. I cried for a long timewhen she left.

Early April 2001 she had her bone marrow transplant. I was pregnant with Ethan at the time and 1500 miles away so I never saw her. We talked to her on the phone though. June 9, Ethan was stillborn. We had his funeral and burial in California in the town we grew up in. Shannon was still quite weak from her transplant and on immunosuppressant medication, but came to his funeral anyway. She had to wear a mask and was in a wheel chair…but she was there. It meant a lot to Johnny and I.

She recovered well from her transplant and was ecstatic in April 2002 when our son Gavin was born. She adored that boy and I always loved watching her hold him. Sometimes I could see in her eyes the pain she felt knowing she’d never have biological children of her own. To take her mind off her health problems she busied herself with school and making plans for her future.

In October 2002 she had recently finished a pharmacy tech course and was working on nursing school again when she started feeling sick. She knew the cancer was back, though everyone else was in denial about it until the test results came back. So more chemo, this time it took over a week of VERY aggressive chemotherapy to put her in remission, and even then the bone marrow biopsy still showed 2% blasts. We celebrated Thanksgiving together while they looked for a new bone marrow donor.

In December they found 2 donors, both of whom were better matches than the original umbilical cord donor. The transplant was scheduled for the week before Christmas. Unfortunately an ultrasound just prior showed her liver was too damaged from all the cancer fighting meds and she simply wouldn’t be able to survive a transplant. She was going to die.

Shannon came up for Christmas with her parents and Johnny’s other sister, Natalie. We talked and talked. She took us all out for dinner, on her, to an expensive seafood restaurant in Seattle. We went bowling with her and Johnny's two cousins (whom we were very close with) and had an absolutely fabulous time, it was a really special day for us all and one that I'll always treasure. Saying good-bye to her knowing I’d never see her again while holding little 8 month old Gavin in my arms was incredibly difficult, but watching her hug Johnny for the last time broke my heart...I couldn't watch and had to leave the room.

She died 2 weeks later, at home in her bed with her mom by her side. We were flying down to be with her and I remember looking out the window of the airplane and feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and the feeling that everything was going to be alright. My watch said 2:30. When we landed Johnny’s dad told us that Shannon had passed while we were in the air…at 2:30. I'm not a mystic and usually don’t tell stories like that…but I believe it meant something.

I miss Shannon a great deal and my life will never be the same without her. I had planned my future with her in it... She was just amazing. She delt with her illness with such grace and dignity, and bore it as I know I never could have born it. She was all strength and heart, but she was strong willed and let you know how she felt most of the time...I miss that. My children will grow up knowing about their Auntie Shannon and that she was such an amazing person, someone to look up to and strive to be like. I gave Annalise her middle name…Elaine. It meant a lot to do that for her. I just miss her...damn.

Happy birthday, Shannon. I miss you and love you.

Sorry this is written so poorly, but I'm really tired and a bit sick to my stomach this evening.

More About Me...

I love to organize -- And I really hate it when I'm not...it's almost as though I can't function as well.

I like to clean -- Sad but true. Cleaning is just fun for me. I especially love to vacuum!! Anyone want to hire me to vacuum your house?? I'll do it for a nominal fee. ;)

I hate ironing -- Though I'm sure you can tell that by my wrinkled clothes.

I'm a terrible swimmer -- embarrassing.

I have a red heart shaped birth mark! -- Ooh cool, eh??

I love children -- And not just my own (though I am pretty fond of them especially), I've always loved babysitting.

I absolutely HATE the heat -- Grew up in a high desert, but I hate the heat. Don't mind when it's warm out but can't stand that super-hot can't do anything heat...ick. And I really can't stand humidity. Maybe it's because I'm overweight and can't wear cute clothes?? Nope, even when I was thin I hated the heat.

I'm a pacifist -- Though there are a few friends with some husbands and ex-husbands I could really hurt right now. :)

I've been married almost 7 years -- And we've been together almost 10!

I have an autoimmune disease -- And it causes blood clotting disorder that affects my pregnancies so I take heparin (it's a blood thinner) injections twice a day throughout my pregnancies.

I hate mushrooms --yuck!

I hate leaving telephone messages -- and will only rarely do it.

We just got a new car -- A Suburban

I simply adore my children -- and love being a mother!! I'm so blessed.

Well, Annalise just woke up so I should go feed her now before she wakes her daddy.

Ciao peeps!

P.S. I tried to add more pictures but they wouldn't post. Dang.

Some Stuff About Me!

Most of you know me pretty well, but there may be one or two people who read this that don't so here goes...

I am a realist -- not really an optimist and not a pessimist either. I tend to take life as I see it and roll with it.

I don’t hold grudges -- I truly am a forgive and forget kind of person, though if things are left unsettled I tend to want some sort of resolution. Honestly in most cases if someone tells me they are sorry, even if it’s for something terrible, I will forgive them and totally mean it…it feels better that way.

I have a numbers thing -- it’s weird. I’m not very good with names, but if you tell me your birthday or anniversary I’ll probably remember it. Sorry Ang! ;)

I LOVE music -- almost all kinds. I have an ipod and when my husband listens to it he puts it on “random” so that he can hear a fun variety, but when I have control I like to put on whatever I’m in the mood to hear at the time. For example right now: Johnny Cash.

I LOVE to read -- I sometimes stay up very late even though I know the children will be up quite early the next morning because I want to read so badly.

All religion intrigues me -- I could read and hear about religion all the time. Spirituality is such an important part of our well-being and it’s fascinating to listen to others beliefs.

I have a tendency to tell it like it is -- that isn’t something that I am necessarily proud of nor would I boast about it, it has gotten me into trouble and hurt people (which I never like to do), but I also don’t like passive aggressive crap. Sometimes it really is best just to get it out on the table. We tend to just let things fester so long that there comes a point that there is nothing we can do about it any longer and we’re just miserable, that is the point where relationships begin to deteriorate and it’s more difficult to come back from it.

Well, I’m off to feed the kiddos lunch. Maybe I’ll do more later. :)

Suffering Makes Us Stronger

Living a spiritual life might seem relatively easy when our lives are going along swimmingly. On those days when the problems are few and the joys are many, we’re in good form and our practice may flow more easily. It might take a bout of suffering to see how much we have really progressed along the spiritual path. It’s during the hard times that we have the best opportunities to learn about ourselves and develop self-awareness. And there is no more testing time than when our children suffer.

With the demands of domestic life we may lament our lack of time for formal spiritual practice. Let’s not forget though, family life, if we exploit it, is spiritual practice of the most valuable kind.

Nothing Lasts

'Fed up.' 'Pushed too far.' 'At the end of my tether.' 'At wits end.' At the brink.' 'Depressed.' these are the emotions depths we can sink to as mothers.

When I'm feeling at my lowest ebb emotionally, I notice my tendency to generalize the negativity: everything is dreadful, it always has been and it always will be and it's all my fault -- and everybody else's too. It sounds almost comical when I'm in a lighter mood but at the time I believe these thoughts. With its emphasis on impermanence, Buddhism helps us at such times acknowledge that the mood will pass, that we won't feel like this for long and might even feel quite happy in a few hours' time; we can weather it for now and avoid assigning it any major significance.

I'll try to remember that the next time all three kids are crying or screaming. :)

I Have 3 Children!!

I must admit that the realization that I am the mom of three young children just kinda hits me sometimes: Like today at the zoo. While we were walking around I realized WOW -- I have three kids. They are amazing kids, as are all children, and I just adore them. I must admit, however, that I have significantly less patience with them when the pain from my c-section is more prevalent, but I’m working on that.

Nothing theological or philosophical today, and I’m sure that’s a welcome change. I realize it may not be incredibly interesting reading someone else’s idealistic notions; for that matter what I’m about to write isn’t going to be incredibly interesting either but here I go anyway:

We (my husband and 3 children) went to the zoo today with my friends Angie and April and their combined 4 children. It was a lot of fun, I'm still amazed I was able to walk for so long, but I'm feeling it tonight though darn it. We had a picnic afterwards which was also fun, the kids enjoyed being able to run around a bit. April took Gavin to the park, out for ice cream, and back to her house to play with her daughter Dasia…he had a blast and I believe it will be quite difficult to top today and he'll probably be quite bored tomorrow, as will Owen I'm sure. :)

Annalise had her two week appointment today as well and is already up to 6 pounds 14 ounces!!!! That is up from 5 pounds 5 ounces 11 days ago!! She’s also 21 inches up from 20 inches at birth. I can’t believe my baby is getting so big already. It goes so fast, seems like only yesterday we were taking Gavin to his 2 week appointment and Owen to his. Today though we had little Owen with us running amuck throughout the clinic. At one point he ran out of the room and almost made it to the front door of the clinic!! Crazy 2 year old.

That’s all she wrote folks…

Annalise Elaine

My little girl arrived safely via my scheduled c-section on August 10th at 8:19 AM. She weighed 6 pounds and was 20 inches long. She's such a sweet baby, and aside from giving us problems with her weight loss (got down to 5 pounds 5 ounces), hypoglycemia, jaundice, and some issues with temperature control, she's totally healthy!!

More to come...must feed my baby!! :)