Phone Pictures

I got some more pictures from my phone off, and thought I would share a couple with you. Sorry they are not the best quality.

Emma with her cute new hair do

Michael at the dentists

What our morning walks look like

Michael's reward for being good at the store, I don't put the money in, he just gets to sit in it and play until I tell him it is time to go.

Michael with the pig outside the Children's Hospital

Trying New Things

A new hair style for Emma. I'm still trying to get use to it, and learn how to do it well. So I guess we'll see how it goes. :)

Pajama Time!

I would have to say that one of my favorite times of the day is after bath time. When the kids are all clean and smell so good. When they have their pajamas on and we get to snuggle together with a book, and do all of our night time routines. It's a good time of the day!

Blessings

We are very blessed, in so many ways. Our kids are healthy once more as are Kent and I. I am amazed at what wonderful children I have and the sweet spirits they have brought to our family. I am enjoying watching Emma’s personality come out more and more, and seeing how loving Michael can be to her. We are so blessed that Kent actually has not missed a day of work, even though he was laid off, and we were worried for rough times ahead. They never actually came. He found work the next Monday being promised only a few days as the company didn’t have much work themselves. Yet Kent has gone to work every day for the last 1 ½ months with work still coming in. There is never a promise of work and we go week by week, but the work always seems to be there. It is a wonderful blessing in our lives, a testament to the power of paying our tithing. Of course I wish there was a steady promise of work, but in this economy this is great. And the miracle of it all, is actually Kent is now earning more money then he was before working for the other company. Of course we learned a number of lessons through this all. To spend wiser, to have more is savings, and to get our food storage in better shape. If we stop and look, we can see the little miracles that God is performing in our lives day by day. We are so very blessed!

Easter

Easter was good, except that we all had bad colds. But we tried to have fun none the less. So Saturday we went to our little city annual Easter egg hunt. It was tons of fun. It is free for all and the kids have to be line up by 9:30am because they say “go” and it is over by 9:31am. I was able to get my sister-in-law to bring her kids this year too. We didn’t see them during the hunt (all her kids were in a different field than Michael) but we meet up after. (here are our husbands with the kids after the hunt)

Then we went to a ward party for lunch and Michael got to do another egg hunt. For him the fun of just putting eggs in his basket was enough to make him happy. (I actually haven’t let him eat any of the candy in the eggs as he was/is sick; poor guy, but I don’t think he realizes that he’s missing out)

Sunday morning Kent got up with Michael and Emma to let me rest some, but I couldn’t miss Michael discovering that the Easter bunny had come. I had put plastic eggs all around our house for Michael and Emma to find at their leisure (I didn’t put any candy in them, which Kent said was cruel, but I don’t see why, Michael wasn’t expecting candy, and I would like to keep that expectation off as long as possible). So Michael found eggs and we cheered when he found some. I hid some in places that I knew Emma would be the first to find (places that she goes to play). We would just cheer and clap when an egg was found during the morning routine, and that was enough to keep Michael and Emma happy. Eventually I asked Michael if the Easter bunny brought baskets. It hadn’t dawned on him yet that morning so then he looked around and found them on top of the piano. He was excited to get a new coloring book, a few pieces of candy, and play dough. Emma got some “little people” figures and an adorable stuff monkey, which has been great for cuddling with as she has been sick.

Sunday I was feeling so miserably sick, but had to go to church to teach sharing time as our President had her baby and was getting released, our secretary was just called and didn’t know what was going on, and we don’t have a current chorister nor pianist. So I couldn’t miss and give everything to the 1s counselor to run as she was already conducting and being the chorister. Kent stayed home with the kids and I taught sharing time and helped keep things running, luckily we got two subs for classes that we didn’t have teachers for and I was so happy when church was over. (that sounds bad, but it was a hard day for me, luckily the primary kids were great!)

Then it was on to cooking for our family Easter dinner. I worried about going, and was willing to stay home to keep everyone from getting sick, but we were told to come anyways. So we had a good dinner and chatted with family. Michael saw parts of Bolt and played. Emma would scream if anyone but me was holding her, so I just cuddled with her most of the time. But all in all it was fun to chat and catch up with family. We got home late. Kent some how still thinks that if the kids go to bed late they will sleep in late, like that has ever happened. Nope they went to bed 3 hours late and woke up 2 hours early! But none the less that was our Easter, and it was a good one. Next year I will try to teach more about Christ, lets hope that we are not as sick as we were this year.

An Annoyance

So because we live in a mobile home park the yard waste and recycling are a little different. For yard waste there is one big bin for about every 3 or 4 homes and they all have to stay in a central area, which means that we have to walk a block to pick up the yard waste bin, use it and return it the same day. You can imagine how annoying this is when I have to do it with Emma in a sling, and Michael riding his big wheel in the street, because there are no sidewalks, while I pull a half full yard waste bin a block and then weed or mow the lawn only to repeat the process pulling a full and heavy yard waste bin back. Needless to say I don’t do yard work often mostly because of the inconvenience of trying to coordinate everything between naps, lunch, and all.

However, that is not the reason for my blog post. I am actually more annoyed about our recycling situation. Everyone else in our city has big recycling bins like this


but we get three small open top recycle bins like this.


The problem is that it gets really windy here being near the mountains and if you put paper, etc. into the bins by morning it will be spread all around the neighborhood. I have asked management about getting the larger bins like the rest of the city, to be told that if we get the larger bins the city will require us to have central locations and not pick up house to house. Which would mean pulling a large bin to your house to place recycling in and then hauling it back. I’ve already talked about how annoying that is. And our manager knows that less people will recycle if that is the case.


Solution, I have noticed that some neighbors have just bought their own trash can, written recycling on it and fill it with their recycling and put it out. So I used one of our old trash cans and taped paper to it that said recycling and have been putting it out with our trash on our recycling days. Good solution right?

Well, no. One day I was looking out the window when the garbage truck came and realized that they threw the recycling out in the garbage truck with our other trash. Now technically if we put two trash cans out we are required to place a sticker on it that shows that we paid the extra fee to put out an extra trash can. I thought it was a fluke and forgot about it, until 2 months later I noticed the exact same thing happen! I got mad, I was going to all this work to help the environment and recycle, and what was happening? They were throwing it away as trash anyways!

I called the city telling them my problem asking for them to give us the big recycling bins. I was told no, because the truck was built to pick up the big bins without the use of people and they would only do that at the central locations like the yard waste. And since our management did not want to do that, they would only give us the little bins so that they would not be too heavy to lift by their workers. It all makes sense somewhat, yet I don’t see why the truck can’t go down the street and pick up the large bins, just like they do everywhere else in the city. As for throwing the recycling away as trash, I was told that they shouldn't be doing it. Yes, I know that! So the best I could come up with, larger signs with the recycling logo and one sign telling them NOT TO THROW IT AWAY AS TRASH. I will have to watch this Friday and see if it works or not. But needless to say I am annoyed about the whole thing.

Objective: To Learn and Play

Our adventure to the Seattle Children’s Museum was a long day packed with fun. We went with Nancy and her four little ones. It was funny to notice how when Emma, Michael and I were at an exhibit (which only happened a few times) it was very much one-on-one time with Michael, but as soon as Nancy and her kids joined it was an instant party! I can only imagine how hard four little ones are, but they sure are a BLAST too. Emma was so content to stay in the baby carrier and observe. She did not fuss at all (even though she missed both of her naps), and was such a sweet, happy baby just taking it all in. Michael also had a blast being partnered up with his cousin Naomi. There was so much there and so much to do, and I think we did it all! I think Michael’s favorite was the Curious George exhibit (Michael had just watched the golfing episode and had tried “golfing” in the house) and they had a Curious George Crazy Golf area. They also had a rocket slide, which I think Michael went down at least 20 times. His other favorites were the fire truck and Metro bus that the kids could pretend to drive, and ride. Here are some of the pictures of our fun adventure.

Michael dancing to the music in the dance room

Meeting Curious George

In the fire truck

Alain driving the Metro bus, with Naomi, Aunt Nancy, and Michael riding

In the theater (a place where the kids can dress up and put on a play, while other kids control the curtains, backgrounds, and lighting) I couldn't help but cringe at the thought of Michael putting on the clothes (how long has it been since they were washed?) But he had a blast as you can see.

The construction area, where they could build their own creations. Michael and Naomi building a dog house (according to Michael)

Warning!

Warning! The following is a birth story. If you choose not to read it I totally understand.

How We Met

It was a typical drizzly Seattle day. I was dying to meet my new baby, and had already experienced many Braxton hicks. I had just been to see my mid-wife and on the way home I decided to stop by a local baby store and buy an outfit for my baby that was girly, just in case they were right and she really was a girl. A few hours later the contractions started, but I didn’t believe it, I had been too excited before. But they kept coming and getting stronger. But still nothing I couldn’t deal with. I learned that if I did a hula-hoop motion with my hips the contractions were very manageable. Yet, I did call my mid-wife who happened to be an hour away and told her what was happening. She said she would check on me when she arrived back in town to see if this was the real thing. I also called my sister-in-law to let her know that this possibly could be it. She came and saw me chatting and totally with it, pausing a few moments for the contractions, and she said “oh, you’re having too much fun, it’s hard to tell between Braxton hicks, but this can’t be real labor.” Shortly after, around 9:00 pm my mid wife arrived and said, “Yes, the baby is coming tonight.”

So the pool got set up in the family room, with warm water filling it up. As soon as it was high enough I got right in. I have always loved the effects of warm water, and laboring in the warm pool was wonderful. As the contractions got stronger and closer together I learned that if I let my body float in the water the contractions were very slight and it gave me the rest I needed and the strength to get back to work. I took some much needed breaks this way, but never let them go to long, I was anxious to meet my baby!

I was much more alert this time than with my first baby’s birth, enjoying the conversation around me, even though I was not able to participate in it much. They were telling funny stories about people and funny situations. It helped me focus on their stories so I didn’t focus on the pain. The nice backrubs and warm water pored on my back helped a lot, as well as being able to squeeze my husbands hand as hard as I wanted. I felt pampered and was going to take every advantage of it! The lights were dimmed, my favorite classical music played in the background, people spoke in hushed voices, and the aroma of the rose scented candles all combined to help me feel warm and at peace.

As things got harder I started to chant “out, out, OUT!” And I heard my husband comment “It’s enough to make me not want to have kids again, so she doesn’t have to go through the pain.” But by that time I was in my own world, focused on getting the baby out and doing all I could to make it happen. I was in the pool, in my favorite birthing position, hands and knees. The mid-wife kept telling me a few more pushes and she is out, just take it slow. After my son’s birth, I knew that I could endure the pain; I would deal with it happily to make sure all went well and soon it would all be over. My midwife offered to break my water, I thought about it through the next two contractions, and when I finally decided to do it (I knew it would bring more pain, but also a faster delivery) the opportunity was gone. But my baby soon arrived at 12:20 am (a little over 3 hours) and I was able to lift my little girl out of the water and with a loud cry she said hello. After my midwife got a look at her as I held her, I sat up and cradled her in my arms. She instantly was quiet as we looked into each others eyes for the first time, finally happy to meet one another.

Please Share the Good Stories Too!

Why is it that when a group of women gather around another woman nearing the birth of her child, the conversation always turns to the scary, painful birth stories? Is it that each person has to play the game “mine was worse than yours”? or is it that each person really has a traumatic birth story to tell. I thought I had great stories to tell, but quickly learned that I had nothing compared to most. Scary stories, of vacuum extractors, heart rate drops, c-sections, and episiotomies. Does the media depiction of birth lead us to tell only our scary birth stories, and keep the wonderful happy stories to ourselves?

After the birth of my second baby (a daughter) my husband stated that if I have another baby when she is older that she needs to attend the birth. I totally agree! I think of what a good impact would be made if young girls (I’m thinking 10 and up) were able to witness a live birth. My reasoning? To let girls know that birth is a natural process. That yes, it hurts, but it is a good hurt. That your body does know what to do. Heavenly Father created our bodies with giving birth in mind. That a woman’s body has all it needs to complete the process itself.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would not sign up to have teenage girls at my birth (just my own daughters, thank you!) I am not one who likes a party when I am in labor. But still what an impact I think can be made by letting our young daughters know that birth is a wonderful, miraculous process. That there can be much peace and joy in a room of a birthing mother.

I know there is a big debate over home birth verses hospital birth. And I totally fall on the side of home birth. But that is for me. That is where I can do the work (labor) the best, and therefore the safest for my children. But I know others do better at a hospital, knowing at a seconds notice the help they may need is there ready. Me, too much intervention which would do more harm than good. But that is a bog post for a different time.

My hope now is to encourage those out there with good birthing stories, whether at home or hospital or anywhere in between, to be more vocal about them. When everyone starts sharing their scary birth stories around the soon to give birth mother, could we not share the happy birth stories we have, tell what a blessing it is to give birth. What a miracle God gave us as women. And maybe sooth the nerves of the soon to be mother, and teach our growing daughters that when done at the right time, under the right circumstances birth is a wonderful thing, not to be feared.

Can I brag?

Sorry, this may bore some, but as a proud mommy I can't help but brag about my beautiful talented children! Emma is growing so much that I just have to let everyone know all she is now able to do. Emma is now pulling herself up on furniture, she says "mum mum" and "da da", signs "more", and signs "finished", and will "give you kisses" as in she will make the kissing sound with her lips toward you when you ask for a kiss, (a cute non-messy way to get a kiss :).

My Adorable Little Ones