Another Year Older

Saturday was Desiree & Ben's birthday party. It was a lot of fun. Even though Desiree's birthday was actually on the 12th of February, we celebrated it then so we could combine the parties, the kids really love being able to get together & play. Oh, how big she's getting, I can't believe she'll be starting school next year! Anyway, back to my story. We had planned to have the party in the evening because Nick & I were going to go look at cars during the day, so I asked Hila if she would mind watching Desiree while we do that; because it's just not very possible to look at much with her there because of how wild she is. So, I have to wake up at like 8:20 in the morning to get Desiree up, fed, & dressed & ready to go with Aunt Hila to the Primary Olympics, where Mom would be watching her while Hila started the grocery shopping; & make the cupcakes for the party (since I was slacking the night before). Meanwhile back on the home front, we finally get Emily completely ready to go & calmed down so we can head out to look at cars. Let me tell you, we didn't have too much of selection as far as mileage & price range goes, thank goodness for my wonderful Dad :). We're buying his Jeep Grand Cherokee from him, & he's going to drive it up at the end of March, beginning of April; I'm so excited, a car with all working doors, heater, CD player, & a bonus of AC :). Sorry, tangent. Anyhow, after we decided to get my Dad's Jeep we drove over to Barnes & Noble so I could buy the first three books in the Twilight saga (I know, I could've bought them cheaper at Wal*Mart, but they only had soft-back books), YAY! Then we went & picked up the topper & frosting for Desiree's cupcakes & a gift bag for Ben's present, I didn't think he would really want Disney Princess wrapping paper. After all of that we get back to home to get the presents, cupcakes, & pickles (Hila needed them for the chicken salad sandwiches we were going to be eating with the rest of the finger food). We had planned to be at Brad & Tarylyn's by 3:00 so we could work on the food & decorate the cupcakes, needless to say we were all late getting there. Nick, Emily & I were the first to arrive, followed by Hila & Desiree, & finally Grandma (or Mom to us) who was so late because she HAD get her hair cut because it was driving her crazy. Once Mom got there we started on the food & decorating the cupcakes. I bought butter cream frosting because it's oh so yummy :) & Mom brought the food coloring for us to do half of the cupcakes blue & the other half pink. After the frosting was colored & put on both sets of cupcakes we put the toppers on, Ben's had little cars to go on his cupcakes & Desiree had a Princess Aurora doll on the cupcake she was going to get to eat.


Sam thought Emily needed a party hat.


While we waited for our food to finish.

After we finished with that it was time to eat (sorry I don't have any pictures of the food, except the cupcakes, maybe Hila has the food pictures, she usually does); we had simple smokies, chicken salad finger sandwiches, chips & salsa/dip, & crackers with cheese spread. It was really yummy. After we finished eating we sent the kids upstairs to play while the adults played Apples to Apples (it was Nick's first time playing), it was so much fun, I can't think of anybody better to play with than my family, especially if Mom & Brad are in the same game :).



After a couple games of Apples to Apples we sang Happy Birthday to Ben & Desiree & had cake & ice cream, my cupcakes were awesome & very moist (no, I'm not conceited).


After the cake & ice cream the Birthday kids opened their presents.


Ben got LOTS of cars, but he loves them so I guess you can't go wrong with those, Mom got him a big Mustang that plays 'Life is a Highway'; poor Brad & Tarylyn, he also got some really cute clothes & a gross ball from Aunt Hila. Desiree got some really cute clothes too, & she got a couple of Barbies, some other little dolls, a noisy wand (that's going to drive me nuts...that's what I get for buying it for her) & these really awesome felt "paper" dolls with a ton of little clothes & a carrying case for them all. I have too many pictures on here, I think I need to open up a Photobucket account :). Well, after all the presents were opened all the kids went back upstairs to play & the adults, well, we played more Apples to Apples. Again, you can't go wrong with Mom & Brad in the game; Nick threw a really funny one out there for me, Hila & Tarylyn (& all you other Twilight fans); the adjective was 'sparkly' (I'm pretty sure that's what it was, correct me if I'm wrong Hila) & Nick put down 'Vampires', hahaha :) that was great. We finished up playing a little after 10:00 & got home close to 11:00, where Desiree wanted to pull out all of her new toys & play with them; haha, NO, I was exhausted & she needed to go to bed. So that was our day & the kids party, probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in like 2 weeks.

Off to Church the Girls Go

This may not be the best rendition of this story because I wasn't at church, I was at work. Anyway, yesterday, Sunday February 8, Desiree & Emily went to church with Hila & my Mom. I was told that they both did really well in church & that it was Desiree's first time in Primary & that she absolutely loved Sunbeams. I'm so proud of her. Mom said she sat down when she was asked to & listened to the teacher for the whole lesson. She got sung to because it was her first time in Primary & got to pick out a surprise/treat of sorts for being new to Primary, she picked the stickers; which she didn't have anymore of by the time I went to pick the girls up...but that's later. She was so excited about going to church & being in Primary that she said to me last night: "Mommy, can I go to church with Gramma again next time they go?" She's so cute, how can I tell her no?! I'm sure Mom & Hila don't mind taking the girls with them. Oh, & yesterday was Emily's first time at church ever & her first time wearing a dress. She wasn't too happy during the process of dressing her, & was even less happy when I put her in her car seat. But she looked so cute; yes, I have some pictures. Julie thank you so much for the cute dresses, she wore one of the ones you sent. The dress is 3-6 months, the dress portion of the little outfit fit her pretty well, but the little bloomers were HUGE, by the time I picked the girls up her little bloomers looked like ruffly shorts. Haha, it was so funny looking, but so cute too. Oh, Hila got some really cute pictures of Emily smiling; I can never catch her doing it with my camera. Little stinker smiles good & long for her Aunt Hila...haha, I'm just kidding, I'm not really jealous. That was pretty much the most exciting thing for me to blog about today. All I did was work yesterday, & today I've been doing laundry...more work, joy :P. I'm pretty boring, but I'll start posting more. Oh & here are some pictures that have nothing to do with my little story, just because they're cute.

Firsts

So, last night I decided to cook Pepper Steak (see the Family Cookbook). A first for me, & it was pretty good if I do say so myself; I also made rice for the pepper steak to go on, from scratch for the very first time ever, as my friend Nicole says, I was a rice virgin (haha). Hila came over before she was headed to a movie night with some of the ladies from church, which ended up canceled & Hila didn't know, so she just hung out for a little while. She helped me a little with dinner & a whole lot with the girls while I was cooking. Here's the work in progress.


Both Nick & Hila said it was really good & that my rice tasted great, that's wonderful news considering I've never made rice before. And here's the finished product.


Other than my cooking firsts, Emily wore her bunting & actually fit in it for the first time that night.

Here's Emily, ready to go out in the cold. While I was still working on dinner Hila went out to her car for a minute & took Emily & Desiree with her. It was so cute. I can't believe how big she is. While we ate dinner we watched Roswell (t.v. show that used to come on FX), I put the first episode on for Hila to see since she'd never watched the show before; the show's got a sort of Bella & Edward feel to it (as far as the forbidden love thing, & fantasy aspect). It's a really good show that I recommend to everybody reading this (if they don't already like the show). Anyway, after that I gave Emily a bath. She really doesn't like those very much, she has some of the funniest facial expressions.

After Emily's bath was done, Desiree got one. I took some really cute pictures of Hila with Emily before she had to go back home. That was my night of firsts for me & my family. Oh, & since it took me two days to get this post up, here's another first. Emily wore her cute little yellow ruffle-butt outfit that Julie sent her (see the baby shower post), she finally fit in it so I put it on her since we were going somewhere (I wanted her in something cute).

Two Little Piggies Went...to the WIC Office

So yesterday was a pretty busy day for me & the kids, & poor Hila got pulled into the mix to (just because she was driving). We had a couple of appointments, one of which (thankfully came to me). So Hila got to my house at about 11:30. She helped me with Desiree & Emily while I did the dishes & got Desiree's lunch ready. At 1:00 the Public Health Nurse came to the house just to check on how things were going with Emily & Desiree. After she left we got the kids & ourselves ready to leave for the other appointment I had, in Silverdale. When we got to Silverdale we still had 20 minutes before my appointment at the WIC Office so we stopped at Sears to pick up our family pictures; they turned out really good, with the exception that the photographer chose the wrong family picture for the 10x13 that was going to my dad, but other than that, really good. So we leave Sears & get to the WIC Office right on time. The lady calls me back & weighs Emily, let me tell you, she is a little piggy-piggy! Last time she got weighed (about 1-1 1/2 weeks ago) she weighed 8 lbs., well, she's gained a whole 2 lbs. & like 10 oz.!! She's almost 11 lbs & is only 1 month & 4 days old!!! Wow, Desiree was a little bitty thing for the longest time; they are so totally different. Anyway, next the lady decided to go ahead & weigh Desiree & get her checked & such to get her restarted on WIC rather than me having to go back on the 27th for Desiree's appointment to get her WIC reinstated. Well, it turns out that my other little piggy-piggy is just a little piggy. She was a little under weight from other kids her age, but she's still my little piggy, just in a different way; she's a little piggy for certain foods, like candy, chips, snacks, or other such treats. So we got both WIC appointments out of the way & got a buttload of WIC checks, 3 months worth for me, Desiree, & Emily. After the WIC appointments we went to the Social Security Office so I could find out what was going on with Emily's Social Security Card. Hila dropped me & Emily off there & she took Desiree with her to Albertson's to pick up a few things for dinner. We both expected it to take me longer, A LOT longer, than it did at the SSO (sorry being lazy). I got in the office, got a number, & went to sit & wait with Emily. But before I could even get my butt on the seat my number was called!! Of course they were closing in like 30 minutes, but hey, it's a Government office so I figured it would take longer. So, I get to the window & explain to the guy there that I still haven't received Emily's SS card & that I was told over the phone (called Social Security the day before) that I should have gotten the card at about 3 weeks after Emily was born so it should have already been in my possession. Of course we didn't take into consideration that the hospital hadn't sent the forms off yet; but I thought they would have gotten it done while we were still in the hospital (or right after we got discharged), but no, they didn't send the forms off until the 9th!!! What the crap?!?!?! I mean hello, by that time Emily was only 2 days away from being 1 month old!!!! Oh well, I was able to get a copy of her SS number for my DSHS application so I could finally finish it, after having started it a month ago. Sorry for the ranting, I'm done with that now. Anyway, on with my story, Hila got back to the SS Office to pick us up & then took us up to my Doctor so I could give her my paperwork about my Maternity Leave for work so she could fill it out & fax it to my HR. Yes, I know, I'm supposed be off leave next week, but apparantly Best Buy HR is retarted & doesn't understand the concept of being on time for anything! Those of you who were up here a few days before the family reunion know what I'm talking about. Ok, so I got that taken care of too, yay!! Now I just hope Dr. McMillen gets it filled out & faxed before, WAY before, I'm supposed to start back at work. After I finished with that we headed back to my house. Unfortunately Hila had to leave to help make dinner. It was very busy, good day. Thank you Hila for ferrying me all over the place :). Here are my little piggies, & Aunt Hila, the day before & the day after (today) the WIC appt.
Heehee, see Emily's little chunky cheeks :).

The Government is Really Messed Up!

Take a look at this thing I found...thanks to Kira's blog! I can't believe the government is trying to do this. Consignment shops & garage sales are the best ways to get baby clothes & little kids clothes, I'd have hardly anything for Emily if it weren't for them! This is really messed up. Anybody who agrees with me on this go to this website & sign the petition. http://www.rallycongress.com/make-second-hand-kids-clothes-legal-/

The Sleepover

Ok, so I know I haven't blogged in a very long time. So here's the most blog-worthy stuff that's happened lately (other than Christmas, which I forgot to blog about). First of all let me tell you about this WONDERFUL swing that Ben & Michele got me for Emily (Baby Shower present). It's the most amazing creation there is! I put Emily in it & in a matter of a couple of minutes she's out. It's so great :). I know that sounds terrible, but I just have to have time to my housework & me time. The swing is the perfect baby accessory & I recommend that everybody with a new baby have one. So again, thank you my saviors, Ben & Michele; you guys are so wonderful!


On Tuesday Hila came by & stayed the night with us. It was a fun night. We can't call it a girl's night because Nick was at the house & involved in some of the stuff we did. First we went to Ben & Micheles for a little bit to visit & give Michele back her book, New Moon. After that we went to the store & picked up a few things for dinner & for the cookies we were going to make later. When we got home at around 5 pm we started dinner. We had hamburgers & chips (appropriate food for a sleepover, in my opinion) for dinner. While we ate dinner we watched family videos, which are totally hilarious! Nick got a kick out of them, especially because I felt the need to strip in the majority of the videos (I was only like 2 years old so lets not freak out) haha! Man I had issues. After we finished dinner & Hila got her shower we started on our cookies, YUM. We made Melt in Your Mouth Sugar Cookies with powdered sugar icing. Desiree told us that she wanted pink flower cookies to eat, but as the evening progressed she forgot about the flowers & told us she wanted pink heart cookies; which was a tiny bit of a problem considering the fact that I don't have any cookie cutters. We were able to improvise on the hearts at least. Hila cut one of the finished cookies into a retarted looking heart (sorry no pictures of her botched heart....haha, I love you Hila) & I molded some of the dough into little hearts for Desiree. Once the cookies had cooled Hila dipped them into the pink icing (Hila brought food coloring just for Desiree's pink cookies). While we were finishing the cookies we watched the two first episodes of the new season of Scrubs, the first episode wasn't that great, but the second one was pretty funny. After Scrubs we watched the Mentalist, well Hila did anyway, while I did some mom stuff. Once the shows were finished we went back to watching the rest of one of the Family Videos DVDs...we really are a crazy family (especially then). It was so much fun. After the end of the DVD we all went to bed, well, Desiree went to bed about 9:30. We had such a fun & busy day that she zonked out after about 10 minutes of being in bed, a very rare anomoly (spelling?), especially for the tiny bit of a fit she threw to stay awake (those are worse if Aunt Hila's not here to witness them & offer incentive); my poor baby was so exhausted, here are the results of our fun & busy day with Hila, & Desiree's hear cookie.

Even Emily couldn't keep up, my cute little squeaker :). We didn't get to bed until like 2 am. So the next day when Desiree woke Hila up at 9 am I felt so awful. But Hila didn't mind, Desiree was just so excited to see Aunt Hila & tell her about sleeping in her own bed all night without any accidents. She's my cute patoot. Poor Hila didn't get very much sleep, but she got up with Desiree & made her breakfast (Princess cereal). Emily & I got up at around 10 something & while I was feeding Emily, Hila made Egg in a Frame for us to eat for breakfast. After breakfast we watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, it was a pretty cute movie. I watched more of it than Hila did, & here's the reason why.

That's me looking at Hila's blog & laughing about the picture of my little frog (little squeaker laying on me). After the movie we had lunch & watched tv before Hila had to go to take Grandma & Grandpa to an appointment. Poor Hila. That was our sleepover.

Feats of Getting Festive & Early Christmas Presents

Getting Festive

So I know I haven't blogged in quite a while & that this latest post is super late, but it will probably be extra long. So here it goes.

The last two weeks have been really eventful for me & my family. On Saturday, the 6th, Nick, Desiree & I went to get our Christmas tree so we could start decorating. Now usually we wouldn't have started so early, but I wanted to be able to help with the decorating (no matter how minimal it was). So, we went up to Safeway to pick the perfect tree, once we decided on one we had to get it tied on to my car (for those of you who don't know, I have a little '89 Mustang, two door, one of which doesn't open) to get the tree home, thank goodness we only live up the road from Safeway. So we finally get home with the tree & poor Nick has to make some 'adjustments' on it so it would actually stand in our tree stand, once that's done we got the tree inside & started putting the lights on it. Once we got the lights on we ran up to Wal-Mart to get some little adhesive hooks so we could hang our stockings. When we got back home we lit up the tree & Desiree & I started putting the ornaments on the tree, she did such a good job (when she wasn't playing with the ornaments), after the tree was all decorated Nick put the hooks on the wall & we put our stockings up, Desiree put her stocking & baby Emily's stocking on the wall just like a big girl. Here are some pictures of the finished product (it's not much).

So that's our festive living room, not much, but Desiree was excited about it (especially the Christmas tree). The days that followed consisted of us getting ready for our new addition. I washed all of her baby clothes & crib bedding so it would be all ready to be worn & slept on when she got home. Nick put together the crib & the changing table in Desiree's room. I also busied myself packing up baby Emily's diaper bag with some clothes for her to wear home from the hospital, & a bag of clothes & other essentials for myself to have too.

The Big Day

So, Thurday got here super quick! Let me tell you, it was by far the wierdest day of my whole life!! I had an appointment to have a baby....how wierd is that?!?! So, it's Thursday morning & Nick & I are getting ready to leave for the hospital. We of course had to get all of my stuff together & wait for Hila & Mom to get to our house so they could watch Desiree while we were in the O.R. When they got here Mom had a HUGE grin on her face (I love you Mom), she's hilarious; I was nervous & so was Nick (he was going to be in the O.R. with me). We got to the hospital & got set up in my room. When we got in there I was told to go in the bathroom & get my gown on after I took a dry bath...haha, that's what it felt like to me anyway (wierd). After I was done with that the nurse came in & hooked me up to a monitor to listen to baby's heartbeat & monitor my contractions. By this point I'm super hungry (I wasn't allowed to eat or drink after midnight on Wednesday night) & thirsty. Nick went out to get the bags out of the car while the nurse started my IV. That was an experience. She started my IV in my arm, but it wasn't working so she had to pull it out & start again, so she put it in my hand instead. She got the needle in, & when she pulled out the needle to leave just the tubing, SPLAT, I leaked quite a bit of blood on the floor (she said that she had found a good vein, but it still wasn't a nice experience). After that I got another nurse (the nurse that was gonna be in the O.R. helping w/ my C-Section). She got me all prepped up for my surgery & brought in the gear Nick had to wear in the operating room, then the Anasthesiologist (spelling?) came in to meet me & tell me exactly what he was going to do & tell Nick where he was going to be sitting for the whole thing. About 10 minutes later it was time to go in to the O.R. Now I was getting really nervous & poor Nick was getting whiter with every step closer to the O.R. We got in there & I sat on the table to get my epidural done (thank goodness I didn't see the needle, Nick said it was HUGE), that didn't feel too good :( I hate needles. After that, they helped me lay down on the table (I couldn't move my legs) & got me all hooked up to the monitors. While they were doing all of this & we were waiting for Dr. McMillan to get in I started freaking out! I did not like the feeling of not being able to move my whole lower body at all, & then it started getting hard for me to breath!!! Talk about scary & uncomfortable. They assured me that all that I was feeling was completely normal, but I still wasn't calming down much (poor Nick, I scared the mess out of him, he was white as a sheet!) I was moving my upper body around a lot, the Anasthesiologist thought I was gonna fling myself off the bed (or table....whichever you prefer) & tried to calm me down. I finally started to calm down & stopped moving, but I still was scared of what I was feeling & was now hot & sweating. Dr. McMillan got in & they got started. First they put the sheet up, then Dr. McMillan said she pinched me super hard to make sure I was good & numb (apparantly I was because I didn't feel a thing), then they got to work on my tummy. Poor Nick was pretty scared & he could hear everything that was going on & being said, I could too, but I could also hear like a fuzz noise (kind of like white noise) & was trying to block it out. I guess I didn't look too good because Nick wanted me to look at him & talk to him to make sure I was doing alright (I had my eyes closed & my hand on my forehead...it helped me stay in the zone to stay calm, helped me feel better). The Anasthesiologist kept checking on me to make sure I was alright & was telling us what was going on (with the baby & what he could see of her), he told Nick that he could look over the sheet to see Emily's head Nick who looked like a ghost by now just gave a scared shake of the head & stammered that he was gonna just sit here with me (I don't blame him). At 12:17 baby Emily was completely out, the minute she hit the air she was screaming & crying (that made it all worth while!) & ready to go into the nursery to be cleaned up. Nick decided that for last part of the surgery he was going to go w/ Emily into the nursery. Here are her very first pictures, taken right after they cleaned her up in the nursery. She was exactly 7 lbs. & 19.7 inches long. when she was born. I'm glad he did because I started feeling nauseated. So the Anasthesiologist gave me something for nausea & then brought me a little basin to get sick, i won't elaborate why i got sick (Tarylyn, you probably know why). They finished getting me all back together & then took me back to the room. It was just me & Nick for an hour after the C-section for my recovery. When I was able to have visitors Hila, Mom & Desiree came up to see me & baby Emily, I still didn't have the use of my legs but all in all felt much better now that I was back in my room. When the nurses came to check on me, they told me that I wasn't warm enough (even though I was burning up) from the surgery so they kept putting warm blankets on me to try to get my temperature back up; they also had to keep pumping fluids into me because I was dehydrated, so even though I felt "fine" (as fine as can be expected after major surgery) I apparantly wasn't doing very well. Thank goodness for all the wonderful nurses that took care of me (& baby Emily) while we were at the hospital, they were absolutely wonderful! Here are our first pictures together.

She's so beautiful!! Don't I loook gorgeous too.....HAHAHA. :) Thursday was a very busy day. We were in the hospital for a total of 3 days. We got discharged on Saturday, & even though we were all expecting me to get discharged in the early afternoon at the latest, the doctor didn't get in todischarge us until like 8 pm!!!



How absurd, he didn't even have a good reason for not discharging me at around 3 pm he was on the labor & delivery wing to see patients at that time, he left to have dinner or something at like 5 pm & still hadn't come to discharge me, while my doctor came in, the day before, on her day off to see me & check my incision. So that was about the whole of my hospital visit. Here are more pictures from our stay at the hospital.