Blackmail Material for Future Use

Warning - disgusting content :)

Rob has the flu or something, so yesterday I spent the afternoon in a recliner in our upstairs living room (every house in TX has at least two living rooms so one can be used as a tv room) so he could sleep. I haven't spent much time out there recently. The recliner I chose was off in the corner and as I sat down I notice specks of something all over the wall next to the chair. They were almost hidden by the bookcase on the side of our entertainment center. I asked the kids if they knew what it was and Megan nonchalantly replied "oh, that's Kylie's booger collection. She asked if I wanted to include my boogers too, but I said no". Needless to say, the booger collection is no more. Kylie got to scrub every last part of it off the wall. One of the parts of parenting that you never hear about :)

We're still hanging in there. Rob's sick, so he's home today. We think it's the flu and are keeping our fingers crossed that the kids and I don't get it too. My contractions have gotten bad again, so we'll see what the dr says this week. I was able to decrease my meds to every 6 hours for about three days. They've been back to every 4 hours since Thursday. We expected this though. Your body gets used to the meds and they don't work as well anymore, so you have to up the dose. I've made it two weeks so far on this first level of meds (which I learned is the maximum dose prescribed for those who usually take this medication - the original use of the medication is to treat asthmatics). I don't know if my dr is going to up the oral dose or just put me on the pump, which is like an insulin pump and is injected into my leg. I'm trying to wait until my appt on Friday. If the contractions get any worse though, I'll go in earlier. I'm almost 25 wks though! 7 wks of bedrest down. 5 wks to go until I hit the 30 wk goal :)

For Grandma K

One set of Rob's grandparents (his paternal grandparents) are about to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. One of Rob's aunts asked us for a picture of our family for something that she's doing for that event. Rob's mom asked which picture I sent and when I tried to look it up, I realized that I never posted pictures from that photo shoot on this blog. The photo shoot was done right after Travis got home from his mission, so about 2 years ago. Granted, all the kids are much younger; however, it was taken only a few months after our last visit with Rob's grandparents (on that side), so they would probably be more likely to recognize the kids at that age anyway :) Since Rob's mom hasn't seen it, here it is, just for her :)

1st Day of School 2010-2011

Today was the first day of school for this school year. Meg is in 3rd grade and Kylie is in 1st. We're very excited about the teachers they got. Kylie has Mrs. Brauer, who seems very nice. Her quote on her classroom webpage is "a day without laughter is a day wasted". We think she'll be a really good teacher for Kylie and we've heard a lot of good things about her :) Megan has two teachers this year - one for science and math and one for english and history (I think). Her science and math teacher, Mrs. Williams, is her official teacher. We were worried about her getting a good teacher after last year, but Mrs. Williams seems awesome! She was teacher of the year last year and her webpage says her mission is to "center on educating the whole child by modeling and setting high expectations for life and high academic achievement". I asked a friend who has older kids if she knew anything about her. My friend said that a couple years ago there was an autistic boy going into the grade she taught. She asked that he be assigned to her class and he excelled that year. Any teacher that cares that much about each student is a good teacher in my book! Mrs. Williams will be out for the first six weeks though as she's having a baby any day now.

Rob went with the girls on Friday night to "meet the teacher" night and dropped off all their school supplies. This morning we all woke up early. I have to admit that although I really miss my kids when they are at school, I enjoy the structure that school adds to our schedule. I even went downstairs this morning to help get them off on time :) All four kids had breakfast and Meg, Kylie and Rob were out the door by 7:40am. The girls picked out their own outfits yesterday and backpacks were packed with snacks and water bottles and homework, so it wasn't quite as crazy as it might have been.

After Megs and Kylie left, Jack and Beth parked themselves in front of the tv, so I started working on homework. That didn't last long. The first few weeks of school are always a bit difficult for everyone to adjust to. The kids who go to school are always tired out by the time they get home and the kids that stay at home always require much more attention than normal. Today was no exception as about 10 mins after the girls left, Jack was climbing all over me. I sent him downstairs to bring up some blocks and Jack, Beth and I spent a bit of time building towers and spelling names with the blocks. Jack surprised me by knowing that "frog" starts with "f"! :)

A friend messaged me to let me know that she watched Meg and Kylie as they got to school this morning. Megan helped Kylie find her locker and then got Kylie to her classroom before setting off to find her own locker :) I love my kids!

A few pictures from the last few days ~

Meg and Kylie with Susie before Sus headed off for college ~


Self portrait of Megan with her earrings ~


A few days ago, Megan gave me and herself a pedicure ~


This morning, heading off to school for their first day ~


Playing blocks on my bed (Beth was there too, but backed off when I took out the camera. You can see her legs, wrapped in her Nona quilt) ~

Good-bye Childhood Fantasies :(

This morning Megan was up in our bedroom spending some time with Rob and I. The topic turned to Santa and Mrs. Claus as Megan found a recipe for eggnog on northpole.com and has been trying to convince Rob to let her make it. Rob and I looked at each other and knew it was time to have THAT talk with her.

When Megan first got old enough to have a stocking, we debated whether or not to perpetuate the myth. I didn't realize it, but there are a lot of strong feelings about it among parents and when we talked to friends about it, there were intense arguments made for both sides. One side firmly believed in the importance of the magic of childhood and argued that there would be enough time for reality later on. The other side felt that perpetuating those myths led your children to lose faith in things you told them and the belief in imaginary figures led to questioning everything (such as religious beliefs). I was all for it as I value the magical aspects of childhood and see nothing wrong with encouraging them. I saw the point of the other side though, and Rob's personal experiences with the issue illustrated the importance of considering the other side of the argument. When Rob was in Cub Scouts (about 8 or 9), the topic came up and it turned out that he was the only one (or the only one the troop found out about) that still "believed". He ended up getting ridiculed quite a bit for it (how can kids be so mean???) and wanted to prevent our kids from going through the same thing if we could. We finally compromised, deciding that we would tell our kids when they reached the right age.

Megan is now old enough that she was able to get baptized. As part of preparing for her baptism, we had the missionaries from our church teach her about our religious beliefs. We didn't want her just to make the choice based on us having made the choice. We only ended up having one lesson as it turned out Meg has picked up quite a bit from her Sunday school teachers and us and actually had a pretty good understanding of what she was deciding to do.

I think both of us sort of knew that having this discussion was kind of part of reaching the age where Meg developed her own testimony. This morning was the right time. She is old enough now to need to know the difference between childhood fantasies and things you have faith in. It was really hard though. Yet another milestone by which our baby is moving towards adulthood. I think we did a good job explaining it. We talked about how things can represent the spirit of something and in that aspect can be real, but that there was a big difference between believing in things like that and believing in God and Jesus Christ. We told her she could still enjoy the stories and look forward to the things related to them. She'll get to help us this year with everything and she's very excited about that :)

You know, I never realized how hard it was being a parent. So many choices, so many things to consider . . .

Having a Good Day :)

Friends dropped off pizza last night for dinner (which I was craving yesterday - I think Becky is psychic :) ). Rob took the kids over to Beca's house last night as she planned a sleepover for all four of them, so we got to spend some time talking and relaxing. Because all 4 kids slept over Beca's house last night, Rob and I got to sleep in until 9:30 this morning. Brittney came over to watch the kids while Rob and I went to the dr. The dr said I'm responding well enough to the meds that I can wait two weeks for my next appt! He said as long as they keep working, he will keep me on them until 35-36 weeks (this is the first time he's actually talked about me making it that far, so I'm doing good!). It will depend how well I'm doing - if they are having to put me on more and more meds, then by 35 wks (if I make it that far) Eva will be big enough that they would just let her come out. If I'm handling it well, then they'll wait until 36 wks. Of course, all of this is dependent on my contractions not getting worse again. As of right now, they are about 40-60 mins apart and sometimes I'll go a few hours without having one :) Much better than every 3 mins! If I keep doing well, he even said I could try to cut the meds down to every 6 hours in a few days.

Anyway, I got home from my appt and discovered that my school just announced the residency locations for next year (I had planned to go to Phoenix this coming Sept, but that obviously isn't happening). I get to do my residency in DALLAS!!! Yay!!! I won't have to travel far and won't have to buy two plane tickets (as we would have to fly Rob or someone out too as I'll still be nursing Eva).

We (Rob) has a busy afternoon planned. All three cats are going to the vet for yearly check ups, then he's taking Megs and Kylie to take their school supplies (which Beca got for us - thank you Beca!!!) to school and meet their new teachers for next year. Tonight I'm going to see if I can kidnap a friend to have a girls' night (granted, it will have to be in my bedroom so I can still lie down, but Rob said he'd get take out for us :) ). I don't have any homework due tonight and will be able to just chill out :)

Megan's Ear Piercing and Jack's Train

Megan getting her ears pierced (sorry for the poor quality - it was taken with my phone) ~


Jack's train ~






I forgot to add to the last post that to celebrate Jack's birthday, we got tickets to the Ringling Bros circus. The kids were so excited to go! Jack talked about it for weeks and weeks, telling everyone that we were going to "his" circus. Obviously I couldn't go, but we had gotten an extra ticket for Brittney (as she is his best friend) and Travis went in my place. It was Brittney's first circus ever and apparently a lot of fun :)

How Do You Celebrate Your Anniversary?

Apparently I celebrate it by having to make an emergency visit to the dr and getting put on medication to stop my contractions. On the plus side, I'm not dialating yet, so they didn't admit me to the hospital :) The medication I'm on is called terbutaline sulfate. It basically mimics adrenaline. Adrenaline rushes cause most of the muscles in your body to tense up, however it makes the smooth muscles relax. The uterus happens to be made up of smooth muscles. I'm on a pretty low dose, however I'm taking it every 4 hours (even at night - dr told me I needed to set an alarm so I didn't miss a pill). The effect of the first pill was wonderful. I hadn't realized how bad the contractions had gotten until they stopped. It made me relaxed and sleepy as well. Once taking the second pill though, the rest of the side effects kicked in and although I am no longer having many contractions, it feels like my whole body is constantly vibrating. It feels really weird. The dr said if we could just make it to 30 wks though, we'll be in really good shape. That's only 7 weeks away and I've already done 5 wks of bedrest, so what are 7 more? :) My goal is 34-35 wks as if I can make it that far, Eva would probably not have to spend much time in the NICU and might even just be able to come home from the hospital with me. I told the dr that I was shooting for 35 wks. He said right now just to aim for 30. I guess we'll work on 35 once we get to 30 :)

I don't know how I could do this without Rob, the kids and our friends. Yesterday when the contractions picked up and the dr told me I had to come in, I called Beca and without a second's hesitation, she said to bring the kids over. We dropped them off with less than 5 mins notice and she fed them dinner and even offered to have them stay the night if I had to stay at the hospital. Today she had Rob drop all four kids off on his way to work and she told him to just pick them up on his way home. Brittany came over yesterday and took the kids to the pool then out for a picnic lunch at the park. She's coming back over on Wednesday and again on Friday this week since I have another OB appt on Friday. Friends from church have brought in dinner twice a week (they offered to do more, but we usually have leftovers plus Rob is home 3 days a week, so twice is perfect), I've gotten countless offers of childcare or house cleaning, and I have stacks of books and magazines to read :) We are so blessed :)

Sorry I haven't been updating this blog. Constant contractions tend to take a bit out of you. I missed Megan's birthday post and Jack's birthday post and our anniversary post. I posted a bit about Megan's birthday and pictures of some of Jack's presents from my family. Rob and I gave him an electric train set. He LOVES it! He kept turning to me and asking if he really got to keep it :) It's a very basic train set, but it's perfect for little kids. Kylie is a huge fan of it too and gets very upset by Jack not wanting to share the controls.

Our anniversary was yesterday. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 13 years! On the other hand though, it's hard to believe that we've only been together for 13 years. I can't imagine life without Rob :) I'm so grateful I have him in my life! We celebrated yesterday by getting burgers, fries and shakes from Johnny B's (which we had been told by several people are the very best burgers out there) for lunch. We decided that Johnny B's burgers were wonderful, but we think Twisted Root still holds first place :) We also ended up picking up homemade lemonades and chicken strips from Chick-fil-a on the way home from the dr. Chick-fil-a lemonade is awesome :)

School starts next week. I can't believe summer is almost over! Megan will be starting 3rd grade and Kylie will be in 1st. They find out what teachers they have on Friday. I can't believe fall is almost here! Not that it feels like fall here. The temps have been over 100 every day for the last several weeks and it doesn't look like it's going down at all. This time of year I always miss New England. Surprisingly (to me), I really like Texas though :)

More Pictures . . .

Sorry, some of the pictures I had posted didn't post. Here they are . . .

Megan and Jack opening presents ~


Beth opening her suduko book ~


Jack riding his rocket ~


Susie sporting her new Red Sox hat ~

Megan's Baptism

Last Saturday was Megan's baptism. Because there are so many Mormons down here, once a month all the kids who turned eight over the past month (who want to) get baptized on the same day. This was a slow month for our area and only four kids were baptized. Megan was the first one and Rob got to baptize her. After she was baptized, Molly helped her get changed into dry clothes (we bought her a special white dress just for that day) and Papa confirmed her with Travis and Rob's help.

Meg and Daddy before the baptism ~


My whole family afterwards ~


After the baptism was over, Megan, Kiki, Molly, Susie and I took Megan to get her ears pierced. Kiki used her iPhone to find a place nearby that did ear piercing for children and we found a wonderful salon that catered exclusively to kids. Megan got to sit on a plush pink throne while getting her ears pierced. She picked pink gemstone earrings that were cut in a star shape. They did both ears at once and she didn't make a peep! I got her a webkinz (the online game that goes with them expires after a year so her dog from last year just stopped working). She picked a chinchilla and named her "Cutie Pie".

Pictures . . . finally :)

I finally got the camera and the cord to download the pictures off of it upstairs :) Here are pictures from the last month or so (there aren't very many - not many photo ops from bed) . . .

Beth with Meg and Kylie's dog webkinz ~


Kylie just after she lost her first tooth ~


My family came down for Megan's baptism this past weekend. We took advantage of having everyone here and had a birthday party for Megan and Jack (Meg's birthday was a week ago and Jack's is this coming Friday). They got some wonderful presents :) Jack got a Radio Flier rocket ship from Kiki, Travis, and Ron that counts down and makes rocket noises. It was a big hit! Molly got all four kids a huge circus tent (I think it's 6ft x 4ft), which was also a big hit :) Megan got lots of earrings as our present to her was getting her ears pierced. Molly and Brian got her a jewelry box and a beautiful silver locket with her initials on it.

Even though it wasn't their birthdays, Kylie and Beth got movies and coloring books. Beth's coloring book was actually a suduko book for kids that used stickers instead of letters. Molly and Brian thought she would love all the stickers that came with it, but to everyone's surprise, she actually did the suduko puzzles, and did them all by herself without a single mistake!

Putting up the circus tent ~




Birthday cake time! ~