My Own

Ho Hum

2008-03-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

Busy busy busy that's the name of the game in my household. We really don't get out and do that much but yet our days seem so busy! This past week has been just the usual. Work, home, work, home! We had such nice weather the whole week but I never managed to find the time to take the kids to the park so now it is the weekend and I had plans to take them to the park and then it started snowing! That's Oregon for you though it will be sun shining one minute and snowing the next! Connor is back in swim lessons now and he is having a good time with it, Zachary is being Zachary meaning that he is getting into trouble left and right I swear he is a difficult child! Taylor is doing good just hanging out following you wherever you go! She has taken a liking to the stairs at our house and she loves to go up them but then she hasn't quite figured out how to go down them! We are still waiting on her to walk, she is taking her sweet time with that one, she's perfectly content to crawl her way around! I am doing well staying busy with trying to keep up on my workouts while trying to manage the home life! Hope you all have a great weekend!

We got Taylor a new hat for the summer, now if only she'd keep it on her head!

Kisses from mommy are oh so sweet!

Zachary being silly with one of our many toys!

Connor and his cousin were so excited to do this puzzle together and actually finish it!

Taylor striking a pose!

We have Survived!

2008-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

So we have survived moving to a new house! These past few weeks have been just craziness and right now I don't have internet service at the new house so I'm out at my parent's house right now and figured I'd update! The move actually went super smooth we managed to get everything moved over in one day and we had extra incentive to get things orgnanized at the new house because the day after we moved in we had Taylor's birthday party at the house! We had over twenty people there and it was so nice to be able to have the room for everyone to be there. Taylor had an awesome time and I can't believe she is one now! She is still not walking but we are practicing with her everyday. The babysitter said she took two steps at her house by herself but I haven't seen her do it yet, hopefully soon!
She has been enjoying walking with assistance! She'll use this thing as often as Zachary will let her get her hands on it! The minute he sees her using it he trys to take it being the two year old who wants what he wants when he wants it!

Taylor and daddy playing with her new ukele on her birthday! Grandma and Papa got each one of the kids one in Hawaii they are so cute!

She enjoyed her birthday cake! And luckily I didn't even have to clean up the mess that she made all over herself and the high chair!

The babysitter got her this balloon and she was fascinated by it! And she was even more fascinated by the fact that she can stand by herself and play with a toy at the same time!

The kids sure did enjoy the snow we had a few weeks back! I think this is one of my favorite pics of Connor!

Zachary enjoying the snow as well!

Last thursday I met my sister in law at my old house so we could clean it up and right when we got there Connor was playing right next to my sister in laws car. The neighbor two houses down had gone to get the mail and taken her two dogs with her. When the bigger dog saw Connor he starting running towards him and attacked him. Both dogs knocked Connor down into a mud puddle and it all happened so quick that I really don't know exactly what happened. Connor was so upset at the incident that it took me over thirty minutes to calm him down. When I got inside I took off his jacket and that is when we noticed these gashes on his back.

I didn't know what to do so I waited till Asa got to the house and then we walked over to the neighbors house and we talked with the lady. She felt incredibly bad and she said that the only other time that her dog has done that is when a kid in bundled up in snow jackets. But she said that her dogs are up to date on all of their shots so for now we are just putting medicine on it every night. I'm glad that it happened now since we don't live there anymore. Because I don't want Connor to be afraid to go outside when the dogs are around. His gashes are looking a lot better now and they look just like scratches now and he is not talking about it as much now so I hope he won't be too emotionally scarred from this!

So that is what I've been up to lately! I hope to post more pictures of the house soon because I am absolutely in love with it! I love how much space I have and the kids are all adjusting well to the changes going on!

Big News and Such

2008-01-24T21:42:00.000-08:00

Gosh I'm feeling really bad about my lack of blogging lately! I think about it but then just haven't been following through! But in the past week we have had some big news! Why don't we start with the bad and end with the good!? Taylor has pink eye :-( My little girl was not a happy camper at all and I had to stay home from work on Wednesday with her because it was still contagious until she had been on antibiotics for 24 hours! She was not a happy camper waking up looking like this but honestly who could be!

Her eye was so red and swollen but luckily it didn't stay like that for long because today she looks much healthier and happier!

The younger two were so cute tonight watching Moe and the Big Exit! Taylor absolutely loves that movie! Once it is on it has her attention for pretty much the whole 40 minutes!

And now onto the even better news! I am so excited because starting Feb. 4th Connor is getting back into school! He has been out of school since July and I am so ready for him to get back into a school envioronment and he is actually going to be going to the Montessori Center that I work at! So he is super excited and we already went and picked out his lunch box and then his slippers because each child who comes to school needs to wear their own slippers once they are inside the classroom. The owner of the school is seriously one of the nicest people I have ever met in my life and she told me that since she has never had an employee's child come to school she wasn't sure of an approiate employee discount so for now Connor gets to go to school for free! I feel so blessed because that saves us $500 bucks a month! And onto the other great news that I am so excited about as seen by this picture!

Asa and I are moving into a new house!!!!!!!!!! I am beyond excited because this house is so nice and we got really lucky to find it! We move in two weeks! The house that we are in right now is around 900 square feet, one bathroom, no dishwasher just overall way to small for a family of five. So this new house I found has four bedrooms, plus an office, two and a half bathrooms, over 2100 square feet! And a dishwasher!! Whohoo! I can't wait to move in! Here is a picture of our new house!

There you go that's what's been going on in my life from bad to good! Sorry for my lack of post lately I will try to do better!

Snow Day

2008-01-07T21:06:00.000-08:00

It's finally started snowing here! And because I am not always a good mom about taking my kids out into the snow yesterday was the first time Connor had ever been sledding! We had such a blast though. We had my brother and his girlfriend over for dinner last night and we decided to bundle all the kids up and take them across the street to this little hill. Taylor was not at all happy with her snowsuit! She couldn't crawl and she was getting so frustrated trying to figure it out but it was so cute to watch! Once we got outside though she was fine. Connor and Zachary had so much fun and it was so cool to see their faces just light up being outside playing! We ended up having an awesome night with my brother. I just love watching him play with my kids! It's nights like these that I am extremely grateful for the family that I have in my life, couldn't ask for anything more!

Everybody getting ready to go sledding! And just a little FYI all the stores that I went to yesterday were sold out of sleds so we improvised and pool toys instead!

Zachary's having fun here!

Connor's first time down the hill!

He's looking so cold here!

I thought this was such a great picture if only the snowflake didn't cover my face! I still like it though!

We even managed to get video of the boys sledding adventure!

Birthdays and Christmas Oh My!

2007-12-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

Friday the 21st was Connor's 5th Birthday!! He was so excited the whole day and he couldn't wait for his party to start! The babysitter even threw him a mini party earlier and gave him gifts and they ate cupcakes! I am so happy that they are with a great baby sitter who I know takes good care of them! So Connor wanted to do his birthday at Pappy's Pizza and he was honestly so busy playing the whole time that I got like literally 4 pictures of him! He got some awesome gifts though and we have already finished his own hand written thank you cards! Then it was onto Christmas which we had a great christmas busy as usual but it was a lot of fun! We spent the night at my parent's house christmas eve and spent christmas morning with them then it was off to Asa's moms to spend the afternoon/evening with her. The day was so jam packed and busy that the kids had literally no time to stop and so I thought today would be a laid back day around the house but the kids have been fighting all day and Taylor is sick with a cold now and whiny all day today but such is the life of a parent!

Happy Birthday baby boy!!

Zachary enjoying the finer things in life! ;-)

Zachary and Taylor were each lovin the carousel!

Taylor couldn't get enough of trying to get the pop out of this cup!

Someones happy with his birthday!

The annual tradition of going in the hot tub on Christmas Eve! It was extremely cold out though and I think that might be part of the reason why Taylor is sick right now!

The whole gang!

Connor and Zachary lovin' their new chairs!

The annual picture with the kids and my parent's dog Zeus!

The kids all had such a good time opening their presents!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and enjoy your New Year!

The Holiday's Are Here!

2007-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

We have had a busy few weeks around here! A lot of things to do and a lot of things still left to do! We had Asa's holiday party a few weekends ago and it was a lot of fun. I got a super cute dress, got myself all dolled up and spent a night out with Asa. We even got on the dance floor which I am not at all interested in but Asa wanted to go out there so I finally relented! I am seriously a horrible dancer! And then a few days after that I went to another holiday party with my sister in law Becky for her work. My brother didn't want to go so I took his place instead. I took the boys with me and they got to see Santa again and they played and ate lots of cookies! And now this next Friday is Connor's 5th Birthday!!! I can't believe he is almost five! So we are having a little party for him which he is super excited about and then it's christmas time which the kids are even more excited about! We weren't going to do a christmas tree this year but some good friends of our graciously donated a tree to us so we got that set up and we got lights on our house. Makes it all feel a little more christmasy! Now off to the pictures of our last few weeks!

All dressed up for the holiday party!

Dancing the night away!

Connor visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus!

Zachary looking oh so happy after Santa gave him a gift to take home!

Daddy holding the kids by our tree

Mommy holding the kids by our tree

Taylor loves to break out her dance moves too. She doesn't care if you're singing or an actual song she just likes to dance! She espicially loves to dance to Veggie Tales!

Checking out some snow so stayed in our yard for about half a day! The snow tends to melt pretty quick here.

Uncle Brent helping Zachary hang some ornaments out at Grandma's house!

I'm Here

2007-11-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

Here I go again with another two weeks in between blog posts. I do think about it and say I need to update it but then time just goes by and it doesn't get done! I've been definantly feeling overwhelmed lately with everything in my life. I have so much going on and sometimes it doesn't all seem to work out the way I had hoped but life goes on and I will just continue to focus on me and my family and hopefully the rest will work itself out. My kids are doing awesome. I've had the past week off of work so we've had a good time spending our days together. Taylor had her 9 month check up and everything is going along just as should be except her weight right now. I guess right now she is in the 5th percentile and my doctor is worried because at each appt her percentile has lowered and lowered. He wants to start her on iron supplements to help her gain weight but Asa and I need to discuss it more before I start doing that. She is crawling all over the place now and getting into everything! We had a wonderful relaxing Thanksgiving with our family. The weather was freezing cold but all in all it was a good day. I did a little bit of shopping the day after and got a few things for the kids. So now onto the pictures!!

The boys got some tattoos and so Taylor had to get one too!

Taylor hanging out on Thanksgiving day!

She loves to give kisses, espicially to her brother!

Standing tall! Connor loves to help her stand up and she loves all the attention he gives her!

Connor loves to get behind the camera and take pictures and for the most part he takes a good picture!

This and That

2007-11-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

So here I am finally sitting down to write a blog. Things are as always crazy busy. I didn't even have to go to work today since it was a holiday so it gave me some time to clean up the house and now onto blogging before I go to bed! But in my absence Taylor has been growing bigger and bigger! She has three teeth now! Two on the bottom and then she just cut one through on the top so I can't wait to finally get a picture of her new teeth! And her biggest accomplishment is that this past weekend she learned how to crawl! It is so cute to watch her because she is not crawling in the conventional way but it is still crawling none the less! Connor was so excited to see that she learned how to crawl. He just got back from California Sunday morning. He has been gone since Halloween night! It's the longest I've ever been apart from him and I was worried about how much I'd miss him but honestly it wasn't too bad at all. I got to talk to him daily so I think that helped. My mom even took him to Disneyland which he was obviously very excited about! He came home with a ton of new stuff which means that today my boys were constantly at each other's throats arguing about the new toys. Yeah it was a fun day in my household ;-) Work is still going well for me. I get all next week off for Thanksgiving so I am looking foward to that. I think that my mom and I will be shopping the day after thanksgiving sales which I'm looking foward too! So now onto the pictures and video!

Taylor making one of her silly faces!

I finally got their christmas picture done! And suprisingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!

Almost enough hair for barrettes!

Taylor's Video

2007-10-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Okay so Taylor has been cracking us up this week with the use of her vocal cords! She makes the silliest sounds and she gets so excited! I managed to capture a few on video so here they are!
We have been singing this song every night before bed since Taylor has been born and even longer than that so she is very familar with the words and has been getting so worked up when we start singing it!

Taylor being super crazy cute!

Taylor wore this dress last Sunday and I thought it was so adorable so I had to do a cute picture with it!

Pumpkin Patch 2007

2007-10-20T16:28:00.000-07:00

As promised here are some pictures from the pumpkin patch and then at home with the pumpkins!
Our attempt at a family picture! Good gawd it is nearly impossible to get all these kids looking in the direction let alone all smiling!

The cousins all together and this is still super cute even though my kids aren't really looking or smiling!

It's a bird, it's a plane, oh wait it's Taylor in the sky!

The kids had a blast riding the hay ride back to pay for the pumpkins!

Okay so my attempt failed to get a cute picture of Taylor on a pumpkin!

The kiddos with their pumpkins!

Zachary having fun with the pumpkins!

Taylor somewhat having fun with the pumpkins!

Connor having fun with the pumpkins!

So there you have it so we just have to find the time to carve the pumpkins! We finally went and got Connor a halloween costume last night and he is super excited about it!

Hello, Anyone Home!?

2007-10-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

My life is crazy busy right now! I've been thinking that I need to blog for a week now but just haven't had the time to sit down and go through what I want to go through to do a blog! I've now been at my new job for two weeks and I like it. It's definantly a different expierence with a Montessori school versus regular school but it's amazing and eye opening to see what these kids are capable of and able to handle. The kids have adjusted well to daycare. Zachary was having accidents daily the first week and I kinda expected that since he didn't really know the daycare provider so he didn't really want to tell her that he has to use the bathroom. Connor of course has had an awesome time and everyone loved Taylor and everytime I picked her up it seemed like some new parent was ooing and aaing over how cute she was! But my time at that day care has ended because I thought that I would be able to qualify for child care assistance through the state but it turns out they say we make too much money so therefore if I was to stay at this same daycare all of my income plus an additional couple hundred dollars would go to daycare and that just is an impossible situation. I did get lucky and my mom's coworkers daughter who I went to high school with has two kids and stays home with them so she agreed to watch them for a third of the price so starting tomorrow they will go over to her house. I hope this adjustment goes as well as the other daycare but we'll see! The kids are getting excited for Halloween although I do not have halloween costumes yet so I need to get on that! Connor is leaving on a vacation with my parent's in two weeks and he gets to go to Disneyland so he is just over the moon about his upcoming events! Taylor seems to be doing just fine. She is wanting to crawl so bad but just can't figure out how! When she's sitting she'll put her hands in front of her and lift her butt off of the floor but just can't seem to figure out the rest of it! I'm staying busy between working and exercising but am happy to say that I am only four pounds away from my pre pregnancy weight and twenty pounds away from my goal weight! I get to go out with my friends next weekend for the first time since Taylor was six weeks old and I am so ready for it! It shall be a blast! We went to the pumpkin patch today with Asa's brother and his family and I hope to upload those pics this week! We got the kids pumpkins and I look foward to taking cute pictures with the kids and their pumpkins! But for now I will leave you with a few pictures from Taylor's flickr project!

Taylor and Connor sharing a moment! Connor can make her laugh harder than even I can do! I love watching them interact together!

Taylor enjoying her mirror time! She has all of the sudden enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror

Just a cute pic of Taylor! The boys stayed the night this night at their uncle's house so I tried to take some cute pics of Taylor that night.

My little gangsta baby! She looked soo cute in this outfit! The weather was so cold last week so this looked like something warm for her!

Pictures and stuff

2007-09-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

Tommorow I start work, and I am honestly dreading tomorrow. I am so nervous about every aspect of it. But mainly I'm nervous about putting my kids in daycare all day long. As the day gets closer I get more and more scared. I just hope that they do okay. I also have to work at my other job Monday and Tuesday so the beginning of the week is going to be a long one for me so I might not be around much on the computer! This week I managed to spend a lot of time with the kids and even did a couple photo shoots. I absolutely adore these pictures and get wait to get copies made of them! But I do have to say it is so freakin' difficult to get all three kids looking at me and smiling! I am dreading doing their christmas pictures, I think I need to start practicing more of my photoshop skills!

Seriously how cute is this!? I am so in love with this photo!

I think this is the only shot I got of all three of them looking in my direction and smiling!

Now this is what a normal shot in my household looks like! Connor generally always smiling at the camera, Zachary being uber crazy as usual, and Taylor looking at me less than thrilled that I am not holding as she would like me to do all day long if I would let her!

I am getting so involved in this photography with my kids, it has been so fun for the most part! I think it's time for a new camera for me espicially with christmas right around the corner!

Color Selection

2007-09-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

I learned a new trick with my Adobe photoshop and it's been fun to play with! All of the family that I've shown so far as seemed less than happy about it but I love how these turned out and think that they are absolutely adorable!! Also a little FYI for those of you who having been following my Project 365 for Taylor over at Flickr I am going to be changing all my pictures of the kids to be viewable by friends and family only so you would need to sign up for a flickr acct and add me as a friend to see the pictures. I guess some people over at another website are stealing pictures of our kids on flickr and using them to set up their own profiles and I have seen quite a few of my friends kids from flickr on there and I don't want to chance it. So sorry for the hassle about it but you know... Have a good day!!

Taylor is having so much fun standing up on her own now with minimal support from the couch! It's her new favorite thing to do until of course she face plants, then it's not so fun!

Standing tall nowadays!

Her first swimsuit when she was six weeks old! Hard to believe how tiny she was then!

All American in her red, white, and blue!

Interview

2007-09-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

So I told my friend Christy that I'd be up for an interview from her which I thought would be fun so I got my questions this weekend and here they are!

1. What is the worst and best parts of motherhood?
Okay so for me I feel the best part of motherhood is the fact that everyday for the rest of my life I have three faces looking at me daily so full of love. They love me so unconditionally and I love them the exact same way. I would say the worst part of motherhood is the fact that I don't have the freedom that I once had. I don't get to wake up in the morning when I want to and I have three children who seem to constantly have a need for something from me.

2. What is your biggest fear about raising a child with NF1?
My biggest fear about raising a child with NF1 is actually two fears. Since everything is seemingly unknown about this disease I fear that if she does develop tumors on her body that she will grow up being made fun of by her peers and that it will affect her self esteem. My other fear is that when she does decide to have children or not that if she does have children that the child that she carries does not have NF1 that is a severe case. There is a 50/50 chance of her passing this disease on and it tends to be a more dominant gene.

3. What career did you want to pursue when you were a kid?
I always wanted to be a dolphin trainer at Sea World growing up. I have always loved dolphins but never been a good swimmer and I came to find out that that is very important for dolphin trainers! I did get the opportunity to swim with dolphins when I was 14 in Hawaii and it was so incredibly awesome and I want to do it again! I still love dolphins and actually got a dolphin tattoo on my 18th birthday!

4. What is your favorite junk food, and how often do you indulge?
Lately my favorite junk food has been a Snickers bar. I usually eat them when I get to work so I have about three a week and I usually pair it was a Mountain Dew! Perfection to me!

5. If you won $100,000, how would you spend it?
If I won the money I would pay off my current debt, buy a new car (Nissan Armada!) and put some into savings to purchase a house!

Well that's my interview so if anybody is up for an interview just let me know and I'll see what I can come up with!

Life = Busy

2007-09-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

The days just seem to get busier and busier for me! I never feel like I have any free time and now my life is about to get 100% busier. Why you ask? Well I accepeted a full time job position at a preschool here in town! While I am excited as to what this job can offer us it's still a little daunting for me. I haven't worked full time in almost six years! It's going to be incredibly hard to leave my kids in the hands of a daycare provider for the first time ever. I have never handed my pride and joy over to someone I didn't know and honestly I'm scared. Not so much for the boys as they seemed to care less if I stayed or went when we met with the daycare provider. But scared for Taylor. She is such a momma's girl and still so young. I'm not looking foward to being apart from her all day long :-( I know it will all be an adjusting period and life will go on. I just wish financially I could stay home all day with my kids but that is not the case. I was hoping that Connor would be able to go to school there with me but it is a Montessori Center and the lady told me it is a three year program that starts at age 3 so the fact that Connor is almost 5 he's missed out on almost all of the program, but next July when Zachary is three he'll get to come to school with me so that's exciting! I start work on October 1st so this next week I'm just trying to be around the kids as much as I can playing and laughing with them! In other news Taylor has started her monthly visits with the physical therapist and we just had one last week. She said that Taylor is progressing very normally right now and her only concern was that she seemed to have a slight head tilt to the right so she gave me some exercises to do with Taylor to help stretch out her neck and back. A few weeks back my mom had a dermatologist appt so she took Taylor along with her to get a doctor's opinion on Taylor's hand because it looked like she might already have a tumor and low and behold the doctor confirmed that it was a fibroma tumor. He said that as of right now we should just leave it as is and as she gets older if it starts to seem to effect her or bother her then we can remove it. It was sad to get this news because now there is no denying that she does in fact have neurofibromatosis. I was enjoying living on the hope that possibly she doesn't have it! Taylor is a growing girl though, we had her check up last week and she is 14lbs 8 ounces! Still on the small side but so were the boys so no worries there!

Cuteness Overload

2007-09-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

So my parent's got a new camera which means I have taken over using it whenever we are at their house! I want a new camera now! The picture quality is so much better than mine! For the past few weeks when we go out to my parent's on Sundays for dinner I've been having photo shoots with the kids and it's been fun..... for the most part! Zachary didn't enjoy one aspect of it as you can see!

Taylor was really enjoying the red licorice!!

Holy cuteness! As soon as I put this outfit on her I wanted to start taking pictures! She looked so adorable! It's actually a shirt that is a size 3 but it fit her as a dress so she will wearing that for a long time!

Daddy took this picture and him and Connor were being silly together! I love how it turned out!

Zachary being silly!

Taylor in another one of her super cute shirts!

Connor playing a little peek a boo

She loves sitting outside watching all the kids and dogs run around!

Okay so my dad has this ski mask that he has had forever and Zachary absolutely despises it. As soon as he sees that someone is wearing it he instantly freaks out but Connor got such a kick out of wearing it! So here is Connor wearing the hat.

And here is Zachary's reaction to seeing someone in the hat, priceless if you ask me!

Have I told you my son is Crazy!?

2007-09-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Okay Zachary is my special child. I believe he is going to be the one to give me hell through all childhood! He is extrmeley stubborn, extremely opinionated, and an extreme annoyance to his older brother! Zachary is also extremely prone to hurting himself. He likes to do this cry where he doesn't breathe and then he passes out because he didn't breathe. Yeah great fun in my house when he does that! I've actually called 911 on him back in September for that because he honestly scares the s**t out of me when he does that! I can think of at least five incidents in the past 6 months where he has gotten hurt, started crying, and passes out. I've decided already that this kid will not play football when he gets older! Anyways moving on to last Saturday night. I was on the computer editing pictures for Taylor's 365 project, Asa was outside, and the boys were jumping on my bed. Zachary somehow manages to fall off the bed and instantly starts his cry where he is about to pass out. I drop the computer on the floor run over there and pick him up so that I can blow in his face to get him breathing again. When I pick him up he won't stand on his legs at all. I got scared picked him up got him somewhat calmed down and then took him outside to Asa. Asa looked over his leg said that nothing appeared broken so I took him back inside and set him down on the couch to watch TV. After 20 minutes or so I tried to stand him up to walk and his legs were all wobbly and he would instantly start crying. I decided I should take him to the emergency room. So 8 o'clock saturday night I take off to take him over to the hospital. Three and a half hours later, multiple x-rays later, I was informed that there were no broken bones and he more than likely tore some ligaments on his foot and basically sprained his ankle. They wanted him in a splint for 2-3 days and then let him slowly get used to putting weight back on his feet. So this is what he's looked like for the past few days, wobbling around the house! This morning I took it off and he appears to be walking normally and everything looks good! On a side note I would say as of right now he is 99% potty trained!! He goes without a diaper all day and will tell me each time he has to go pee and we've only had one accident in the last week! Yay!!

A Year Passed

2007-08-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what a difference one year can make when you work hard! The thing that sticks out most to me in this picture is how big my arms look back then! I was just going through some pictures tonight and came across this so I thought I'd share!

I'm Back!

2007-08-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm back and hopefully in action! I had a completely hellish week last week but now we are moving foward so now I have a tad bit more motivation to blog! In my absence Taylor learned how to sit! I worked with her hard for over a week because I'm neurotic and right when she turned six months and she wasn't sitting up and I know that with neurofibromatosis there can be developmental delays I went full force into wanting her to sit! I was constantly propping her help and slowly but surely a week later she got the hang of it which makes me happy! I am staying busy trying to keep up with my Project 365 for Taylor over at flickr! I'm trying to work on my photoshop skills so some of these pictures are edited not the greatest cuz I lose my patience after working on a photo for so long! The boys are doing good, I'm working on potty training Zachary right now. He went pee in the potty once yesterday and once today. I had him without a diaper for four hours this morning and finally he went pee in the potty! I knew he was holding it in so Asa and I are going to try to go full force in this potty training thing and hopefully he'll start to get the hang of it quickly! One less diaper to change would be nice! Taylor had her genetics tele medicine appt last week and while it went good the doctor didn't tell us much that we didn't already know from all the sites we've been to on the internet. He did take a look at quite a few of her spots and he said that we are going to need to come see him in person in a year over at OHSU and he wants to do a full exam and have one of his genetics opthamologist do a vision test on her then as well. And Asa and I are still discussing about the gene testing. I thought it was agreed upon that we would do it but now he is saying that he doesn't want to so him and I need to discuss that more in depth. So for now with Taylor we will just continue to do her monthly visits with the early intervention center and go from there!
Okay so I totally stole this idea from another photographer but it was so cute and I think it's absolutely adorable! Gotta love baby butts!

Taylor's first tattoo! She actually got one on each arm. She could care less about it as seen by her expression but Connor sure got a kick out of seeing her with a tattoo!

It's amazing what fixing my hair and putting on some makeup will do to my mood! I've been feeling all sluggish and in mommy mode so I decided to jazz it up a little!

My boys being super cute!

Gotta love the big cheeks! I love when I take her picture and her cheeks pop out like that! Zachary has those same cheeks and I remember when he was first learning how to eat real food I couldn't tell if he had food in his mouth or not cuz his cheeks were so big! Obviously I'll have that same problem with Taylor :-)

Because I'm Insane

2007-08-13T21:58:00.001-07:00

Day 1 of 365, originally uploaded by amberdean.

Okay so I've been working myself up to this for about 7 months. But I've finally decided to participate in a group on Flickr It is called Project 365 Kids and you take a picture of your child daily for an entire year. While the task seems daunting to me it's something that I know I will love to look back on when it's over. So join me if you'd like! I'd love the comments to keep me motivated! To start the day off I wanted to use some of the boys body paint soap in the bath tub but it didn't work out the way I wanted it too so I settled for this instead!

Neuro-What!?

2007-08-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

As some of you know and some of you don't know my life in this past month has been a mixture of ups and downs. I have been knocked down from my pedestal of thinking everything is fine and I have healthy children. By this I mean that we had Taylor's 4 month checkup about 6 weeks ago. Two days before her appt I was in the gym working out reading a Parent's magazine. There was an article about certain birthmarks on babies and what they mean. Well I came across these café-au-lait spots and realized that these look a lot like some that Taylor has on her back and on her chest. At the appt I talked with my doctor about it thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal but it turns out I'm wrong. These café-au-lait spots are a symptom of neurofibromatosis which Asa's uncle has. When we realized that Taylor is having symptoms of something that is in Asa's family I have started to worry constantly. I have been seeing the kids pediatrician for almost five years now and I have never once seen that concerned look on his face that he had that day. Right now we are busy reading all information that we can about this disease and getting appts set up for Taylor. Once a year she will have to go in and have her vision checked and this last Friday she had her first eye appt. Everything checked out good that day but the doctor also said that he wasn't necessarily expecting to see anything. He said that the Lisch nodules in the eye (extra pigment in the eye) that are associated with neurofibromatosis don't generally show up until a child is between 5-7 so while it was a little comforting to hear that so far she has no problems with her vision at her age but he wasn't expecting to see a problem. Then this past tuesday we had an appt with the early intervention center because people with NF1 tend to have developmental delays. At that appt we were informed that she is behind in certain areas that other children her age do. But there is no way to link these delays she's having to having NF1. They gave me a list of activites that I need to be doing with her to help strengthen her body. They say that she needs to build up her core muscles more and she tends to be a bit lazy and I need to work on more tummy time with her and getting her to put weight on her forearms which she hates doing! With this early intervention center they want to see Taylor once a month for a minimum of 1 hr till she is 3 years old! And today I got the long awaited phone call from the genetics dept at OHSU We are going to be set up with telemedicing through them meaning that Asa and I will go over to the local health dept and we will be able to communicate with the genetics doctor via web cam and talk with him about our concerns and where we should go with all this. I'm hoping that he will want to do some genetic testing because as of right now with NF1 there is no certain test that says yes this is what you have or no this isn't what you have but if she goes in for genetic testing and they find out that she does in fact have the gene for NF1 then it is a more likely scenario that she does in fact have NF1 so that appt is in about 3 weeks.
So there you have it, I'm still a little shell shocked that something could be wrong with my daughter, my little girl. And I find myself thinking about the future, her future. If she does have NF1 if she chooses to have kids she will have a 50% chance of passing this disease on and if she does in fact pass it on her children might not have a mild case like she seems to be having. While I know that I need to focus on the present and not so much about the future I can't help it when my minds wonders sometimes.

Video time

2007-07-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posts lately, I seem to be so freakin' busy nowadays! But I did manage to take a few pictures and videos this week since I know that's what you all want to see is more pictures/videos of my kids ;-) Next week I shall have a more interesting/sad/hopeful/nervous/a lot of emotions blog post because it's been something that I've wanted to talk about for quite some time but haven't but next week I shall so stay tuned.... On a side note here a few videos of Taylor and the first one she is totally Asa's child. All of my kids (including Asa!) have an obbession with hair and nobody's hair is as good as mommy's hair. While it constantly annoys me if the boys try and run their fingers through my hair with taylor she is just a baby and I love how excited she gets so it's okay for now! The second video is just her talking a little in the bathtub. I was hoping for more talk from her that's the most I got! Enjoy :-)

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Zachary's Birthday Party!!

2007-07-16T08:05:00.001-07:00

My little guy turned two on Saturday!! Where have the years gone!? We decided to do a party at the pool for him like we did last year and it was awesome! Everyone was there for over three hours playing in the water and eating good food! Got some awesome pictures and we actually bought an underwater disposable camera that I'm going to get developed this week and I will post those pics when I get them. So without further adieu pictures from the party

Zachary was not in the mood for anything when we first got to the pool, he was very clingy to me and wouldn't talk to anyone or even look at him. So during presents this was the best attempt at a smile I could get! After he ate some food though he was good to go and enjoyed himself!

He was doing good at opening the present not so good about sharing the presents with his brother later!

Connor and Daddy having fun in the pool

Connor was so happy that his best friend Makayla was able to come to his party and they had such a good time playing together that after three hours there both of them still didn't want to leave! In this picture I was trying to get the three kids to jump in the pool at the same time but Corbin decided to jump a little early so that is Corbin in the water right next to them!

Most of the family enjoying the water together!

Ready, Set, Catch!! My kids love to be thrown into the air!

Connor getting thrown by Gregg!

Connor being cute :-)

Zachary riding on mommy's shoulders

Zachary's new bike!! His feet are just a little bit too short for the pedals but hopefully soon!

Fourth of July

2007-07-06T22:16:00.000-07:00

We had a busy fourth of july here. It was such a nice day that we decided to take the kids swimming with some of our friends. The pool wasn't too busy at all and we ended up spending two hours there! Taylor decided that that would be the prime time to fall asleep and she slept in the pool for about an hour and a half. After the pool it was off to an awesome bbq with the family at the park. The kids all had a blast playing together and it was a great time just spent hanging out! After the bbq it was again off to a friend's house to watch the fireworks. We stopped and got a few for the kids to do and by the time the firework show started at 10pm the kids were exhausted and falling asleep! By the time we got home it was almost midnight and I was exhausted but all in all it was an awesome day!

The best shot that I could get of my kids together with their patriotic shirts!

Taylor sat in her chair almost the entire night! She was not startled at all by the fireworks she just sat around and watched everything going on without a peep out of her!

My boys and their sparklers! Zachary was a little afraid of all the noise and fireworks going on!

The fam damily together! But if you notice there was a firework going off in the bottom right corner and that is where all of my kids eyes were instead of on the camera!

A few milestones

2007-07-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

My little Taylor is getting so big!! And techinically she's not so little anymore! She's tall and skinny according to the charts at the doctor's office :-)

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This and That

2007-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged, everyday life gets me so busy! We haven't been doing much in the Dean household. I've been taking the kids swimming quite a bit since the weather has gotten nicer. We have a new activity pool that is outside and has a water slide and all sorts of fun stuff for the kids and my boys absolutely LOVE it there. I even took Taylor in last week and she enjoyed herself! But to someone's request here are some pictures of the kids from the last few weeks!

Taylor's first time outside in my parent's hot tub with the family! She liked it in there too! As long as it's not too windy she's okay but as soon as the wind picks up it is no longer fun!

My boys enjoying their ice cream sundae on Father's Day! Connor is still talking about that nice man who gave him the ice cream sundae and how we need to go back there to get another one!

Taylor in one of her super cute bikini tops! She loves to sit in that chair! As long as she is sitting up able to look around at the world she is most likely happy!

Zachary being cute, and yes I know he needs a new haircut, it's on my list of things I need to do!

Taylor hanging out waiting for mommy to quit taking pictures of her! I swear when I put her in that outfit everyone thought she was a boy! I went to a baby shower that day and not one person thought she was a girl!

For some reason Connor is looking so big in this picture! He is having such a good time making his sister laugh and cooing at her!

Taylor's first taste of baby food, she wasn't too sure of this new idea and after a couple spoonfuls she spit it back up!

Again looking super cute in one of her bikini's!

Me, me, me

2007-06-13T22:45:00.000-07:00

It is very rare for me to post pictures of just myself but today my friends is a special day. I am a daily step on the scale kind of person and today when I stepped on the scale to weigh myself I have officially lost 50 and a half pounds in the last 15 months! I am so incredibly happy with myself that I can accomplish weight loss and do it in the same year as having a baby. My self esteem has improved in leaps and bounds which for me is a good thing. A little insight on me is that I have never in my life felt completely confident in myself. For many years in my childhood a person wrecked my self esteem. I got told on a daily basis that I was fat, I was ugly, I was worthless. I felt like such a bad person and that I didn't deserve happiness. I kept it all inside and took the pain out on myself. I did things that to this day I still have the urge to do when things get stressful. So after Connor was born I basically just let my body go. I kinda just assumed the weight would come off and when it didn't I just again assumed that this was the way it had to be. Exercise had never been a word in my vocabulary in those years. Then I got pregnant with Zachary and the weight gain continued. I felt gigantic and so not happy with my body but I didn't know what to do to change it. When Zachary was about 6 months old I got a coupon for a free one week trial to my parent's gym so I figured I'd try it out and so I went. 5 of my 7 day trial I was there and I was a little shocked that after each workout I was feeling a little bit better about myself and was starting to have a clearer image of what I wanted to accomplish within myself. Once my one week trial was over I took another break from exercising but I found out about a job opening at our local pool/fitness center. I got the job and the second day on the job I was in the fitness center working out. I have to say it was incredibly embarrasing at first. Here I am well over 200 pounds busting my a** on the treadmill. After a few weeks of just walking on the treadmill I mustered up the courage (cuz no one else was in the room at the time!) to actually try running on the treadmill. And once I took up the running that is when I really started to see the weight come off. I lost 25 pounds in a matter of two months but then the unexpected pregnancy came into the picture. Since I was so focused on weight loss and seeing other moms who were pregnant and exercising I made a goal within myself to continue to exercise. I exercised until I was 7 months pregnant and then I got lazy and did nothing at all the last trimester. I was anxious for her to be born so I could go back full force into working out and when she was 3 weeks old I made myself find the time to go in and exercise. I'm very happy that I can motivate myself and that I am realizing that I am worth it as a person and that I do have something to offer this world. So with my weight loss goal closer than ever I'm very happy with my body and what it can accomplish, so yay to me!! :-)

Slowly but Surely

2007-06-12T22:16:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely Taylor is putting on some weight! The first shot was taken when she was 6 weeks old, the second shot is 12 weeks, and the third shot was 16 weeks. I can't believe how tiny she looked at six weeks!

Hmmmm

2007-06-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

So I decided what the hell I'd give Connor a haircut a few nights back and since his cousin just got a mohawk he wanted one too so we gave him a mohawk. After it was all done he whined and said it looked different than his cousin but I tried to explain to him that he has lighter hair color than his cousin so it might look different because of that. That answer seemed sufficient enough for him for now :-) I actually really like the mohawk and I think he looks good with it!

Zachary decided that the prime spot to fall asleep in would be with Taylor and he had to have his hand over her like that. She was sleeping peacefully until Zachary started moving too much and then she awoke as he fell asleep. But at least she was all smiles after waking up!

I always love all the pictures I see of little baby feet so I thought I'd try my own version. Taylor didn't want to cooperate too much but two out of three sets of feet aren't too bad for getting a good shot ;-)

Nothing new to report with me. Same stuff different day. Still taking the kids to the park and to the pool quite a bit, I gotta do something to occupy these kids time cuz if we sit at home all day and do nothing they aggravate eachother and therefore aggravate me which makes no one in the household very happy :-) I'm excited for this weekend, hopefully the weather will start to clear up cuz Asa and I are supposed to be going to the outside activity pool with my brother in law and my niece and nephew! Shall be fun!

All about Taylor

2007-05-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

When did by little newborn turn into such a baby! She is growing up so quickly and I'm happy to report in the last 3 weeks she has put on 2 pounds! She's finally growing and starting to fit into ALL of her 0-3 month clothes! It's about time since you know technically she could be in her 3-6 month size at this time! She is doing awesome all around. She loves to watch her big brothers play and sing songs to her. She loves to be involved and sitting up watching everything. She loves her binky and her sleep at night! She is a perfect baby to me and only cries when she is hungry or needs to be held, all in all can't complain about anything with her!

This girl is getting cuter and cuter by the day! I love to make her smile!

She is starting to get the big cheeks like her brothers!

Lovin her bumbo!

This is what I love about finally having a daughter! I couldn't resist and had to try on her swimsuits today and she was all smiles threw all of her outfit changes so mommy could get some pictures!

Her first trip to the swimming pool. It was so busy so I think she was too overwhelmed to know what to do with herself. She fell asleep after 30 minutes so we didn't stay too long!

There is a Reason

2007-05-25T14:26:00.001-07:00

See there is a reason why I haven't posted in awhile. If you just so happen to notice there is a fourth little child in that picture above and adding one more four year old to my day this whole week has been busy! I had been watching my friends daughter this week and it has been an interesting week to say the least. But now the week is over today she is with her grandma, Connor is at school, and Zachary and Taylor are sleeping so I finally get a chance to sit down and write. But to be completely honest that isn't the only reason I haven't sat down and blogged, the other reason is that I am just feeling completely overwhelmed and exhausted right now. We are expierencing financial difficulties, marriage difficulties, work difficulties, you name we've probably got a problem and when I am facing all these difficuties together I'm just flat exhausted. But hopefully with time things will start to look on the bright side. I do have some good news though in my absence from my blog lookey what we did...

It has been and continues to be a struggle but we transitioned Zachary into the bunk bed and out of his crib! He fights us on it every night and it usually takes him an hour or more to fall asleep because of his new found freedom once he is asleep he is sleeping all through the night. The only down side is now he is up earlier than usual but hopefully as he gets more comfortable in his new bed that will change. Now the next step is potty training and he is soo not interested in it at all. We talk about it all the time but he shows zero interest in the potty. Even chocolates and lollipops won't intice him to pee in the potty :-( I'm getting really tired of changing two kids diapers day in and day out so I'll keep trying and see if he'll do it.

The Craziness of My Life

2007-05-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

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Just another day in my life with the kids!

3 months

2007-05-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's already been three months. Seems like forever ago that I was pregnant. My life is crazy hectic since Taylor has arrived. It's very busy and at times overwhelming but I absolutely love having 3 kids. You should see the looks people give me when I'm out with them by myself, they look at me like I'm crazy! I think at least 3 times a week people tell wow you look like you've got your hands full. No s**t tell me something I don't know! Taylor is doing awesome though. She is such a good baby, I really have nothing to complain about. She only cries when she is hungry or when she wants to be held. She's getting to that age where she is starting to interact more and I love to sit down on the floor with her and the boys and we all play together. Connor is just absolutely loving his sister. Everytime she is on the floor and I'm trying to play with her he'll run over and take over. The cutest thing though is when I'm taking a shower and she is in the bathroom in her car seat. Connor is usually playing games on the computer but if he hears her crying he comes in and puts the binky in her mouth or feeds her the bottle without me even asking! One time I heard him running all over the house while she was crying and he finally came into the bathroom to tell me he couldn't find her binky to bring to her! It's so cute to see him be the big brother! Cuz when Zachary was born Connor was 2 and a half so while he was helpful he wasn't as helpful as he is now! Since the weather has been so nice lately I've been taking the kids to the park a lot which they have absolutely loved! It helps them run off their energy too so I don't mind! Work is work, it's going well not working too much only about 15 hours a week so not too bad. And really that's about it for what's going on in my world. Kids are growing as you tell with the pic of Taylor, she is smiling all the time! Not much cooing though. Zachary is a talking maniac now starting to put together 2-3 word sentences pretty cool..... Hope all you mothers out there have a truly wonderful Mother's Day!!

Photo Shoot

2007-05-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight I decided to venture on my own photoshoot and suprisingly I like the results! I don't always find I'm the best photographer or capture the best moments with my kids but these pictures fall pretty close to being my all time faves. I actually "borrowed" some of these photo ideas from a lady I follow on flickr.com Anyways enjoy the pics :-)

Teeny tiny Taylor weighing in at just under 9 pounds at 3 months!

I don't know if you've noticed but she's got quite a bit of an outy belly button there!

It actually only took two photos to get the one I wanted with all three of them and that in itself is a miracle!

Taylor hanging out waiting for her picture to be taken

Zachary hammin' it up for the cameras! I love his pose here, too cute!

My kids love their hair gel!

Now this is a funny picture because if you look closely Taylor has decided that she just has to go potty at that paticular time and I didn't realize she went potty until I was looking at the picture on my camera afterwards but my facial expression seems to say that I knew what she was doing!

2007-05-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yes Connor decided to join in on a little photo shoot and him and Taylor were having so much fun together! She was laughing and smiling so much and that was making Connor laugh too!
Taylor and her big smiles!
Taylor sitting in her bumbo seat! I'm so happy that I have one of these because everyone who I've talked to has loved theirs! She's still a little small for it so she only lasts a few minutes in there but hopefully in the next month or so she'll start enjoying it more!
Zachary and his cool leather jacket! He's becoming such a little ham for the camera..... I love it!
Zachary and his mamma having fun in his room!

The Time Has Come

2007-04-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

Our before and after shot! He didn't want to give me a cheesy grin whatsoever!

He was all happy and up for anything, but that was before he knew what was about to happen!

As soon as she put the smock over him the tears started and didn't stop the ENTIRE time! You would've thought we were actually hurting him from the screams he was making! Not even a lollipop would soothe those tears! The only thing that made him stop crying for 2 seconds from the Thomas the Train DVD that was playing!

And now we are in the car and everyone is happy and now he can finally enjoy his lollipop!
So there you have it, we finally went in for Zach's haircut! He didn't enjoy himself at all but suprisingly I like the haircut! Although I still love what his hair was before this makes Asa a little happier to see him with short hair! I do like that it is still a longer haircut and not totally short like Connor's!

Bubble Party

2007-04-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

We got the kids this cool bubble generator thing and they loved it! Everyday they ask me to go outside and it lets them run off some of their energy!

Zachary couldn't get enough of these bubbles!

As you can tell Connor ran a lot and jumped a lot! For some reason jumping off the deck a hundred times is so much fun!

And this is what Taylor did the whole time we were out there!

The Week in Pictures

2007-04-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

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Zachary is finally starting to learn some of his colors! Plus he is just so darn cute in the videos! And besides Connor's little peep in this video he has been MIA everytime I get the camera out to take some pics so that is why lately it's been only Zach and Taylor!

Taylor has already been getting a little camera shy so she'll be all happy and cooing and then she sees the camera and her face goes from happy to nothing! So I have to be a little sneaky with the camera when I try to get her to smile!

She's starting to make a lot of silly little expressions and it's so much fun to get her going when she is laughing and cooing and smiling!

Uncle Brent showing Taylor some love!

So this last christmas my niece suprised me with a present for Taylor, when I opened it I was suprised because she had made Taylor a mobile on her own. She hadn't told her mom what she was doing or anything and I think it turned out absolutely perfect! It was such a heartfelt thing for my niece to do and makes me realize that much more how much I love her! Taylor enjoys her mobile immensley, she was smiling at it and staring intently at it! So cute :-)

Picture time!

2007-04-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been in a bit of a funk lately and it's not something I really want to get into at this point. But things have been going on normally. The kids are all doing excellent. Taylor is starting to be more awake during the day and starting to give me more sleep at night! For the past week she has only been waking up once between 10 and 7 so I can't complain too much anymore! She's been smiling all the time and it's so fun to watch her when I'm talking to her. She kicks her feet and her hands are all over the place the whole time I'm talking! It's very cute! I find myself indulging in all of my time spent holding her. I know that there is going to come a day when she won't want to sit with me so I'm content with holding her in my arms and kissing her soft hair below me!

As you can see in some of the pictures Zachary enjoyed helping giving Taylor a bath! He didn't want to touch the water but he kept laughing and talking about the water the whole time. I think he didn't know what to think of a bathtub on the counter! And I finally got a few decent shots of Taylor smiling! I love to see her smile and I always try to have my camera ready!

I've even managed to go on quite a few play dates and it has been so much fun reconnecting with people who I haven't seen much of lately, espicially when we have babies that are so close in age! The picture to the left is my friend's baby who is a month older than Taylor but outweighs her by soo much! This girl is already in 6-9 month clothing that is too small and she's only 3 months!

This picture is one of my good friends who I actually met when I was pregnant with Zachary and she was pregnant with her first boy. So our boys are a month apart. And then when I told her I was pregnant with Taylor they had just found out they were expecting again too so she had another boy three weeks after Taylor was born. It's been fun since the kids are so close in age! As you can see we tried to get a decent pic of us with the kids but they didn't want to cooperate too much! Of course her little boy is huge compared to Taylor!

He already outweighs her by a few pounds and he's younger but I don't think she minds too much as she seemed to enjoy his company as you can see in this picture! So that's about it for what's new in the life of me!

Easter Fun!!!

2007-04-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Easter was a blast! The kids had so much fun, they got to do two easter egg hunts and now we officially have too much candy! It was a day spent entirely with family so all in all it was a good day! Although I guess I should take into account that I had the boys dressed alike and looking oh so cute until Zachary decided that he wasn't feeling well as we were walking out the door to church and he decided to throw up all over himself! So that was not too fun but he seemed to be feeling okay after that!

As you can tell in one of those pictures he felt well enough to fill his belly with some easter candy :-)

Amazing

2007-04-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Make an on-line slide show at onetruemedia.com

Cutie Pie

2007-04-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

Taylor's first swimsuit!!! How freakin' cute is this!? I couldn't resist as soon as the package came I opened it up and tried it on her and I love it! Now I just need to wait till she gets a little bigger before we take her to the pool! We had her six week checkup yesterday and my little girl weighs in at a whopping 8lbs 3 ounces! So needless to say she is a petite little thang and she's in the 5th percentile! The doc says he's not too worried about her weight...yet so hopefully at her next check up at 4 months she'll have gained a lot more weight! Other than that she is healthy, we're dealing with a bit of thrush right now but she's on some medicine to take care of that. She's been smiling a lot more but every single time I take out the camera she instantly stops smiling and just stares at the camera! Sleeping wise she's still not doing that great. She'll sleep for about 3 hour stretches at a time. I'm trying hard to remind myself that every baby is different but it's hard when I know that I had both boys sleeping through the night at 6 weeks and i'm doing nothing different in her bedtime routine than I did with theirs. Every baby is different and I guess she's just not ready to give me a decent nights sleep! Also wanted to give out a special thank you to Mama Beans for these awesome cherry overalls that Taylor looked super cute in yesterday! I love hand me downs :-)

Fun Times!

2007-03-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

So last night was the first night I had gone out drinking with friends in a REALLY long time! I had such a blast hanging out with these people. These were all friends from high school and some of them I hadn't seen in 5 years!

The night started out with dinner at Shoji's which is always delicious! We only went to two bars which I prefer versus going all over the place. Since it had been awhile since I drank I forgot what my limit was and drank a little too much and ended up paying for it as we were about to head home for the night!

It was so nice to all sit around the table and reminisce about high school and all the memories that we shared. My mouth literally hurt from smiling so much! These people were what helped make high school some of my most favorite times of my life! All in all last night was absolutely awesome and I can't wait to do it again! It was really nice to have an evening out and not have to worry about the kids!

6 Weeks!

2007-03-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pics! Connor is a good photographer :-)

Zachary thinks he is the coolest little guy around when he has his sunglasses!

Taylor is 6 wks old! I can't believe it's already been that long! She is starting to smile and it's so cute! I've been trying to capture it on camera but no luck so far. Hopefully as she starts smiling more I'll be able to get a cute pic! She is still a tiny little thing according to my scale she weighs between 8 and 8 1/2 pounds! She'll have her 6wk checkup this saturday so I'll know for sure then! I had my 6 wk checkup yesterday and I've lost 16 pounds! Who hoo! Espicially when I only gained 4 pounds total! I hope to continue to lose more weight. I've been working out at the gym about 3 times a week since Taylor was 3 weeks old. Asa and I actually went together yesterday and it was nice to have a workout partner even though we didn't talk too much! When I'm busy running on the treadmill the last thing I want to be doing is having a conversation! But hopefully him and I will start to make this a routine of going together. I start work next week so it'll make it a little more difficult for us because I'll be working till 7 at night but we'll see. I really don't want to go back to work but financially it's what we need to do. Not too much else going on in my life, trying to keep the kids entertained while keeping myself sane!

2007-03-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

"Mom, what's this?"

"Oh sweetie it's just Cheez Whiz and you probably won't even like it...okay okay I'll let you try some but only a little bit" Zachary takes a bite and then continues on with "more? more? more?" After mommy says no he thinks to himself I can get it open all my myself then...

"Why won't this d**n thing open!?!?"

Even Connor tried to get in on the action of opening the cheez whiz bottle but alas it was child proof!! Just another day in the life of arguing with my son! But this battle I have won because he has had no more cheez whiz since that day because that stuff seriously grosses me out!!

It's good for a laugh!

2007-03-20T16:20:00.000-07:00

Can I just say yesterday was AWESOME!

2007-03-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

If you can't tell by my title I had a really good day yesterday, in fact the whole weekend was just plain awesome! It was spent entirely with family and close friends and no poker! (Some of you know what I'm talking about with poker!) Yesterday was Taylor's baptism! Our good friends Gregg & Tressa were Taylor's god parents.

We had quite a few family and friends there with us to celebrate in her honor and it was a lovely time had!

Taylor in her super cute dress for her baptism!
After church was over we gathered all our friends and headed out to lunch where we always have a good time! Lots of laughter and it was so nice to have everyone together and just hanging out!

It was such a nice day yesterday that after lunch we decided to take all our kids to the park. Connor finally got a chance to run around and play with his friend Makayla! So then after the park it was time to move on to the next event and we headed out to My sis in law's house for an awesome dinner in honor of Taylor's baptism. The food was good, the conversations were good, and that was just the icing on the cake for how good of a weekend we had. By the time we got home and got settled into bed it was almost midnight and we were wiped out from everything! Asa got to go right to sleep for the night where as I on the other hand was up just two hours after resting my head to feed Taylor! This girl is in no hurry to want to sleep for any good amount of time at night....

Sleepy time

2007-03-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

I guess my peanut butter and jelly sandwich was too much for him and he couldn't take it anymore!

Love it!

2007-03-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

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He finally learned how to say "I love you" It makes me incredibly happy!

Randomness

2007-03-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

I love this picture of my kids!

Miss Taylor is 1 month old!

I've been trying to get a good picture of the three of them and this one turned out okay!

Asa thinks it's time for Zachary to have a hair cut but I can't do it yet! I absolutely love his hair and look at how cute he looks right there :-)

So really I have no new updates so that is why I post pictures instead! Life is busy as usual!

From pregnancy to birth

2007-03-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

I absolutely LOVE how this turned out! Something I will cherish forever! I only wish that four years ago I had documented my first pregnancy as much as I did my second and third. I have only three pictures of me pregnant with Connor but plenty more with Zachary and Taylor. Oh well nothing I can do about it now! Pregnancy is such an amazing expierence and so far I don't miss my belly but I know down the road I will so it's nice to know that I have this to look back on and remember!

2007-03-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

Pretty amazing how much children change in their first few weeks of life! Taylor's already looking so much different than her hospital pictures! Things in my household are going on as normal. We are trying to adjust to life with three children. It makes getting out of the house and going somewhere a big ordeal! It takes me quite awhile to get everyone dressed, ready, cups, diapers, bottles, and wipes and out the door! Whew it's exhausting just typing all of that! ;-) Taylor is finally starting to gain some much needed weight. At her two week checkup she was only 6lbs. 8 ounces so she hadn't yet gone back up to her birth weight of 6lbs. 10 ounces. The doctor was somewhat concerned and wanted me to work with Taylor on trying to get her to eat more at each feeding and I had to bring Taylor back in to get re weighed. So today I went back in for her weight check and she's up to 6lbs. 14 ounces! So not quite as much as they'd like to see her but they were still happy to see her gaining weight! Her jaundice appears to be resolved and now we're working on getting the infection out of her eye. It turns out her clogged tear duct turned into an infection so I had to get some ointment that goes on her eye each morning and night. Since I've started that ointment in her eye she's seems to be able to focus on things much better! Not much else going on here so enjoy the new pics!

Birth Story

2007-02-27T16:43:00.000-08:00

The day started off just like any other. I had an appt early in the morning so trying to get the boys both up and ready is always stressful! We made it to the doctor's office in time and then we ended up having to wait. The boys were getting anxious so I gave them each a lollipop to help tide things over and then the doctor finally came in. He asked how I was doing, I told him pretty uncomfortable. I asked him if there was a change in my cervix from last week if we could possibly strip my membranes that day instead of waiting till Valentine's Day. He looked at me said usually they like to wait till 38 weeks. I said well I'm just 3 days shy of 38 weeks and he said he'd go ahead and give it a shot! I was thankful but then reality hit me once he did that! I was now 4cm dilated and with the doctor appt over I came home loaded the boys up in 35 degree weather to go take a walk. I called my parents and told them what was going on because they were just starting to drive over to Portland for the weekend. I wanted to tell my mom to stay in town so bad but without knowing for sure if this would start my labor I told them to go ahead and still head over and I would keep in contact with her throughout the day to keep her updated. My walk with the boys only lasted less than 30 minutes because it was so cold and I came home, took a shower, and then googled on the computer all about stripping membranes. My heart sank because everything I was reading was saying that it more than likely wouldn't start your labor. It was around this time that I started feeling contractions but nothing painful and nothing too consistent. I took Connor to his preschool and then when I came home I had more time to sit there and actually pay attention to the contractions. They were starting to come about every 10 minutes, still nothing too painful though. I called my parents again told them it would be in their best interest to head back home and just make it a day trip. They wanted to have dinner with some friends in Portland i said that should be fine and I'll call them when I know more. As of this point I still hadn't even called Asa because he was due to get off work within the hour so I figured I would just wait till he got home. Once he came home I was ready to go to the hospital and get checked. Contractions were about 7-10 minutes apart but getting more painful. I called my friend Becky dropped the kids off with her and off to the hospital we went. Once we were there time dragged by. We were just waiting in a triage room watching her heart rate and my contractions had now got less intense. Taylor seemed to be asleep too and the nurse and I were trying to wake her up cuz labor isn't supposed to make a baby sleep! After some apple juice she finally started waking up. Asa decided to go pick up the kids from Becky and bring them back to the hospital so after he got back with the kids we decided to walk around the hospital to see if things progress from there. I was now at 6cm dilated so I thought walking might help. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves getting to walk all around the hospital we even walked up five flights of stairs and back down which by the end I was just about at my limit for wanting to walk no more! Asa's mom got to the hospital around this time to take the kids overnight and now we were just waiting on my parents. I got put into a labor room and got the IV put in. It was around this time I asked for the epidural not necessarily because I needed it right then and there but because the anthesteliogist was in the area and he was about to head home so it was either now or maybe never. So as he was putting the epidural in at around 11 pm my parents showed up and I was just thankful that they made it back home in time. I no longer felt guilty for telling them to come home early! With the epidural in and running I thought we were good to go but boy was I wrong. At around midnight I started feeling my contractions again. i thought that it was odd considering I just got the epidural. I called the nurse she came in asked a few questions and then decided to check my cervix. In that two hour span since my last cervix check I had gone from a 6 to 9 cm dilated. She said that I must be feeling the pressure from the baby and that is why I'm feeling my contractions. After another 40 minutes of starting to get uncomfortable the pain was getting pretty intense for me. I was starting to feel a lot of pressure down there and I was getting seriously bummed that I had no epidural. With each contraction that came I started crying and I couldn't contain myself. I'm not the type of person who cries too easily in front of other people but this pain was getting to me. The nurse told me I could try to push now if I wanted because there was only a tiny bit of cervix left. That's when I went into freak out mode, it hurt to push so I was trying not too and the nurse was trying to calm me down and get me to focus. After she got two good pushes out of me the room turned into chaos. I was screaming out in pain, crying, and the baby's head was right there. It was then that the nurse was trying to get the doctor in there ASAP and she was telling me not too push but at this point in time there was no stopping her from coming out. She literally almost fell out. The doctor barely got there in time, nurse had to put the gloves on the doctor about 2 seconds before Taylor was all the way out. That pain was so intense but I'm glad it only lasted for less than 15 minutes. So four pushes and Taylor welcomed herself to the world. Much different than my labor expierences with the boys. I had a little tear that needed to be stitched up but other than that everyone was healthy and happy. With the boys I had to push for an hour with each of them so it was definantly nice to only push a little bit with Taylor. After spending another day in the hospital we were sent home to begin our life as a family of five!

Siblings

2007-02-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

Can you tell they're related?? These are each of my kids newborn pictures. The one on the left is Connor, Taylor's in the middle, and Zachary is on the right! My best friend got me the blue cloud blanket right after I gave birth to Connor and it worked out perfectly to use it for his first photo. When Connor was about 2 weeks old I knew I wanted to go get a pink one just in case I ever had a girl that way they could have matching pictures. So I've been holding onto my pink cloud blanket for over four years now and it's nice to finally see my daughter with the blanket! I love how each of these three pictures turned out and I can definantly seem some resemblance to all three of them at that stage in their life!

Taylor's first video

2007-02-21T12:28:00.000-08:00

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One week old!

2007-02-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's already been a week! My sweet girl is one week old! Not sure if this time has flown by or dragged on, a little of both. It's been quite an adjustment for me going from two kids to three. I feel like I'm all over the place trying to take care of everyone and everything. Connor is doing exceptionally awesome with Taylor, he gets so excited when her eyes are open. And he's been talking to her and each time he starts out with Hi I'm Connor and this is mommy and she's gonna take care of you! It's so sweet to listen to him talk to her! I hope to get it on video soon :-) He's only held her a couple times and he's gets bored of it quite fast so it only lasts about 5 seconds. Zachary on the other hand could really care less that she's even here. Only in the past three days has he even acknowledged that she exists. He'll say baby and then touch her head but I've been trying to get him to say Taylor or to give her a kiss but he is not interested at all. Although he is interested in her binky and proceeds to run off with a big smile and the binky in his mouth whenever I'm not looking! Asa was able to take a few days off this week and help me out with was good. I was definantly nervous for him to go back to work but it was more relaxing than I thought it would be. I even managed to take Connor to his preschool with all of them and it wasn't stressful for me. My mom purchased a stroller for us that holds the car seat so I take that and Zachary loves to help me push the stroller and it has so far worked perfectly when we take Connor to school! Taylor is doing well. As of this point we're still having some issues with her jaundice. I've been having to take her to the doctor everyday since Wednesday to get her bilirubin levels checked cuz I guess that they're not going down fast enough. We go back in tomorrow to test the levels again and hopefully this will be the last time. Her one foot is all bruised from where they keep poking her and I've been rotating which foot they poke each day. She also has a clogged eye duct right now so I've been trying to keep up on that. I have to rinse her eye with a warm washcloth everytime she wakes up and then massage the inner part of her eye and so far it's helped it go down a little bit on the gooiness. It was getting to the point where she couldn't even open that eye cuz it was so much gunk there but now it's not so bad and she opens both her eyes right away when she wakes up. Feeding time with her as gotten better since I started pumping instead of breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is something that I have never enjoyed with any of my kids and I only do it strictly cuz it's what's best for them. Taylor was having trouble latching on and then she'd fall asleep right away even after repeated attempts to wake her up to eat more. I was getting frustrated and decided that it was in my best interest to pump instead and she's been taking to the bottle good and eating more at each feeding which in turn helps her sleep longer than a half an hour period at night! Asa's been pretty awesome with helping me at night. He usually stays up later than I do so if he's still awake when she wakes up he'll take care of her so I can get more than a few hours of sleep at a time! And that's about it for what's been going on in the past week! Asa gave the kids a bath last night and I think it's safe to say that they had a good time! Ahhh they are so cute!!!!

Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T21:50:00.000-08:00

So for the past few months I have been talking with Megan and it has been a pleasure getting to know her. We were each due to have babies in February and as luck would have it ended up delivering our children within an hour and a half of each other! Well she purchased this outfit for Miss Taylor and she has a similar one for her boy Davin and since today is Valentine's Day what better day to put her in the new outfit? She was of course swimming in the outfit like everything else I put on her but still cute none the less! So thanks Megan, we appreciate the outfit! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

And Now Our Family is Complete

2007-02-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

Very proud to introduce the newest member to the Dean family! Taylor Elizabeth was born on February 10 at 1:03am. She weighed in at 6 pounds 10 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. Everyone is healthy and happy!

A Brother's Love

2007-02-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Connor and Zachary's first pictrures with their sister! Not quite sure what either of them think yet!

First Moments

2007-02-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of our first moments with Taylor!

2007-02-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Even quicker update here, we're heading over to the hospital to get checked out right now so hopefully they'll keep me there and we'll have a baby soon!!!!!!!!!!!! Contractions are starting to get more painful and coming 7-10 minutes apart. If they send me home I'll blog later and if not I'll post as soon as I can :-)

A quick update

2007-02-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you guys know I just got back from my appt with the doctor. I'm just shy of 4cm and I convinced him to strip my membranes today instead of next week! So hopefully today or tomorrow I'll be in labor!! I was told to walk so I'm now going to dust off the double stroller that hasn't been used in months and take the boys for a walk. I'll write later if nothing has happened but hopefully something will happen!! Wish me luck :-)

Do you see what I see?

2007-02-05T21:50:00.000-08:00

So if you can't tell the first picture is what I see when I look down! Can't even see my feet at all and I don't even want to know how far foward I'd have to lean to see them! I decided to take out the camera tonight and yeah there you go! I'm now considered "full term"! Over the past few days I've even started feeling some contractions. Don't know if they're Braxton Hicks or real ones but I'm hoping for a baby soon! Anybody have any guesses as to how much they think Taylor will weigh ? Humor me and take a guess!

Baby Showers!

2007-02-04T21:43:00.000-08:00

Yay for new clothes!! Had my baby shower this weekend and I got a ton of clothes for Taylor. I even got a dresser so now I have somewhere to put all her clothes! It all started Friday evening when I went to work. I had the kids with me and Asa was going to come when he got off of work. While I was waiting for the child care to open one of my good friends who brings her daughters in to child care while she exercises came in with two huge bags full of balloons, cake, fruit, her husband, the kids, everything! Turns out she had planned a suprise baby shower for me at work with all the staff and parents who bring their kids while they work out! Let me tell you I was suprised! Because had I known this was happening I would have made myself appear more decent, I had come to work with no make up on, hair a mess in a ponytail, looking very relaxed. But we had a good time none the less. I got lots of stuff and it was nice of all these women to come just for me. I was so happy that my friend went out of her way to do this for me. It really meant a lot, probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me in my life! After that whirlwind of a shower I had to get ready for my regular baby shower the next day. This time I felt more comfortable, got my hair looking decent, put on some make up, nicer clothes! It was a small gathering of women at my best friends house. I think there were 10 of us and 3 kids so very relaxed, which I honestly prefer. I'm a pretty shy person so I don't like a ton of people all focused on me, makes me nervous! We sat around talking with one another, had some good food, opened presents, and we even played a baby game. My best friend got an awesome cake as you can see in the pictures, it's from a place called Westside Bakery and there food is absolutely delicious. I'm not normally a big cake person but this cake tasted excellent! All in all I had a very good weekend and got a ton of stuff ready for Taylor! I even packed part of my hospital bag!

Am I excited?

2007-02-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

So this question has been asked to me numerous times in the past few weeks and I honestly don't know the correct answer to give. Of course I'm excited to meet my daughter but at the same time I'm still scared to take on three kids. Zachary and Connor already have me where I'm feeling soo busy so I'm just not sure how I'm going to be able to do all three and have everyone get the attention they need and deserve. But I have I feel turned over a new leaf in the past few weeks where I'm not as scared as I was before. I'm ready to face this challenge head on and find a solution that works for me. Yes it'll be hard right in the beginning but hopefully we'll all fall into a routine and adjust okay. So to answer everyone's question yes I'm excited but just a little worried right along with the excitement! I still just look down at my belly and stare in amazement that I am almost done with my final pregnancy. This time has overall flown by and I can't believe she's almost here. I'm very happy with this pregnancy. I feel awesome. No back pain, no new stretch marks, I can still put my shoes on somewhat comfortably, and best of all the fact that I've only gained 3 pounds!! I know I've talked about it before but I'm honestly pretty proud of myself and even better my doctor is pretty proud of me for my weight gain. I attribute feeling awesome in this pregnancy to that very fact that I haven't gained much weight. On a side note another doctor visit down yesterday and I had him recheck my cervix because of a certain need to change my underwear too many times in a day and I'm now a little over 3cm dilated which isn't much of a change from last week but I'm now 90% effaced! So in the last week I've gone from 50% to 90%!! My doctor says my cervix couldn't be more ready than what it is so now we're just waiting on Taylor to decide when she's ready to come! Of course if Taylor decides she doesn't want to come too early I have a doctor appt on Valentines day and we will strip my membranes and hopefully go into labor that day. So while you all enjoy your roses and chocolate I'll enjoy hopefully holding my daughter in my arms!

36 Weeks!

2007-01-31T14:54:00.000-08:00

Doesn't look like there's much room left in there! Nothing new to report on the pregnancy aspect just trying to get everything prepared for her arrival. I think within the week everything should be taken care of and all we need is her! Not much else going on in my neck of the woods, stil working a lot. Asa's enjoying his new job and I'm enjoying him being back at work and not at home so much ;-p The kids are good full of energy, all the time! Connor's getting excited to see his little sister, he's been talking more about it in the last week! He says he wants to hold her while he watches his cartoons! I think that can be arranged for him!

2007-01-31T14:43:00.000-08:00

Oh yeah, they both thought they were pretty hot stuff with their sunglasses on! Now if only they would keep them for the approiate reasons but I think they each just like to take them off and put them back and take them off and put them back on!

Who-Hoo!!!!

2007-01-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

So another doctor visit down and I'm now on to every single week appts. Lost 3 pounds in the past two weeks so that brings my grand total to 2 lbs!! I'm pretty happy with that :-) I long for the days when I can exercise and start losing more weight again. I mean I can exercise right now if I want to but who ever wants to do that when they're pregnant!? I was really good at first about riding my bike and exercising but let's just say it's been non existent in the past 3 months! I had to have my blood rechecked today because I guess at my last appt the blood platlette (sp?) count was low so it has to be rechecked today. We'll see where that goes. And on to the most exciting part as far as I'm concerned.....got my cervix checked today!! And dum da da dum I'm 50% effaced and 3 cm dilated!! I was expecting to be at least 1 cm dilated so was rather happy with 3 cm! My doc says he's guessing I'll go two weeks before my due date which is in like two and a half weeks! But if I don't go that early then at my doc appt on Feb. 19th we'll strip my membranes which should hopefully start my labor! It worked with Zachary so I'm hoping it'll work this time although if I can go into labor all on my own I'll be happy too! So crazy to think that I'm about to be a mother of three! I'm anxious to meet my little Taylor and see what she looks like. I think I'm more curious this time than before just because it's a girl this time. When Zachary was born he was the spitting image of Connor so I'm curious as to if she'll look like them too....

Photo Shoot Part 1

2007-01-17T09:30:00.000-08:00

So I was going to wait to post the pictures of my photo shoot but since my friend Shasta has received some devestating news I'm not sure when she is going to be able to get the rest of my shots for me. We had a blast doing the photo shoot, took over 120 pictures! The weather outside was freezing cold! The kids were cold, we were cold but you always get nice pictures outside! We decided to go down to our local park which didn't turn out as well as we thought because the wind was going crazy down by the river. Every shot my hair is all over the place! Overall lots of laughter was had and it was nice to hang out and just talk, something we hadn't done in a long time! I appreciate her doing this for me so thanks Shasta, again!

2007-01-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

Oh the cuteness! I decided to break out the camera today since it's been awhile to see if I could get any good shots of the boys. Well I got a few and here's one! Today Zachary is 18 months old!! I can't believe it! He's getting to be such a big boy but then in other ways still seems much like a baby to me! Hard to believe that he's gonna be a big brother next month! I know I know I've already talked about how much it freaks me out that next month I'm going to be giving birth! But seriously as each day passes and that means I'm one more day closer to having three kids I get more and more freaked out about it! I think I'm going to be purchasing one of those baby slings to carry her around in and hopefully that will help me manage all of them by myself! Anyone got any opinons on the baby slings good, bad or who knows? On a little bit of a different note I'm happy to say that Asa finally got a job!! Very excited, he starts tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready for him to start :-p I'm looking foward to not working so much myself now! I feel like I've been working so much and giving so much energy to all these other kids when I work that when I come home I'm so tired and don't have the energy to spend much time with my own kids and I'm ready for that to change!

Yay, Finally!!!

2007-01-07T19:54:00.000-08:00

It is with great pleasure that I post this picture because we finally agreed on a name!! I am super excited to finally refer to her as Taylor. It's a name that I've had in mind for awhile I was just waiting on the final word from Asa and today at my photo shoot with Shasta (thanks again Shasta!!) he said that we could do these blocks with her name! As it turns out this is actually a family name because my grandma's mom's maiden name is Taylor so it just seemed right! Her middle name will be Elizabeth which is a family name in Asa's family so we got lucky as to include both families in the name of our daughter!!

32 Weeker

2007-01-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

Wow it's hard for even me to believe that next month I'm going to be giving birth to my little girl! I'm almost done with this pregnancy and overall it's been a really good pregnancy. I have my moments of wanting to complain about being uncomfortable because yes she is jammed up into my ribs and yes it's uncomfortable for me to sleep at night but I try to avoid being too whiny! I think that part of the reason why it's not more uncomfortable for me is the fact that I haven't gained much weight. My body doesn't need any more extra weight than what it already has! Anyways there's the latest! My kids get so excited when they get the numbers on their belly!

Doctor's and Friends

2006-12-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

My doc and I seem to be seeing a lot of eachother lately! I've been in once a week for the past three weeks but he gets a break from me next week! I had the lovely pleasure (ugh) of visiting the office last week to get a non stress test done which I had never had one of those before so I decided to take Zachary along with me. Not a good idea! They hooked me up to the fetal monitor and I had to sit reclined in a chair for 30 minutes while Zach just hung out. He did okay for it but I was happy when I was able to get the monitors off. The reason why I had to do my test was because the day before I was running through the kitchen to get to my son who I thought was choking who in actuality wasn't, I tripped over a sock and tumbled onto the kitchen floor. Not a pretty sight. I scraped up my side on a box that was in our kitchen but I think thankfully that I didn't land on my stomach, just my side! So everything went good with the test and she is still thriving in my belly! And today's doctor appt went about as quick as one could go, checked the heartbeat which was healthy, measured me which was exactly where I should be and I was sent on my merry way 3 lbs heavier! She is head down for now but that could change more in the next few weeks but I hope she just stays head down so I don't have to worry about a c-section! Although it's not too fun when she decides to stretch her body with what little room she has in there cuz in that process she pushes with her head right on my bladder and I feel like I might pee right then and there! But I'm not complaining because I know that when I no longer have my pregnant belly I'm gonna miss it a lot so I try not to think about the more annoying things of pregnancy! On a different note I spent an awesome morning with my friend Katie at chatterbeans where my kids enjoyed themselves immensly playing! It was a nice relaxing time just hanging out and catching up! And there is even more fun happening this weekend because I am taking my pregnancy pictures with Shasta and I'm very excited about that! Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll get some good shots!

The holiday tradition continues!

2006-12-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

So this has been the second christmas spent at my parents new house and the second year that we've all gone in the hot tub before we open stockings. I think it's a good tradition that I don't mind continuing! I love to watch my husband and my brother play with the boys. They all have such a blast in there and it seems to wear my kids out right before bedtime which is always a plus!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone enjoyed there christmas! My family had a good time and I enjoyed everyone's company! It seems like we've been celebrating christmas for over a week now because we do stuff ahead of time with some of Asa's family and then with Connor's birthday right before christmas it seems like a week filled with family, fun, and presents! Zachary came down with a cold christmas morning which wasn't too fun for him. He didn't seem too bothered by it but you could tell he didn't feel completely well. He had a runny nose all day. When we finally got home and got him ready for bed I could tell he was pooped out just didn't know how pooped out until I checked on him before I went to bed. He had thrown up all over his crib and he didn't cry about it or nothing and he went to sleep. Luckily he was only lying next to his throw up for 15 minutes or so! We took him out of his crib and he spent the night on his bunk bed! Now I think that's one tired boy to throw up and not even have the energy to cry or nothing! Connor had the pleasure of staying at grandma's house last night as well and he had a blast! Today so far he's been just hanging out playing with all his new toys!

2006-12-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

The joy of opening presents! Connor had a blast and he helped everyone open their presents as well as his own! This was Zachary's first real christmas where he got to participate! Last year he was five months old so he didn't really do much!

Doctor's Appt

2006-12-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

I had my doctors appt this morning. It's hard to believe that I'm now on to my every two week appts. It makes me realize that yes this baby is going to be here sooner rather than later. While I'm extremely excited to finally see my daughter I'm definantly more than a little nervous as to how I'm going to handle three children. My life seems so busy with the boys and Zachary still seems like more of a baby to me than the little toddler he's turning into. But there's no turning back and I'll get through it! Anyways getting sidetracked my appt went well. I had my glucose screening test so I had to drink my lemon lime drink and then sit there for an hour. Don't know the results of that test but am fairly confident that there' s nothing to worry about. Gained two pounds in the past month so I'm at my original weight now. I need to get my butt into the gym to start exercising cuz I was told that at this point exercise will be the only thing that maintains my weight. I've been severly slacking in that dept the past 6 weeks. I'm no longer riding my bike to work since it's dark when I leave work and that was my main form of exercise. I'm hoping in January I can convince myself to exercise at least 2-3 times a week. We'll see! Our little girl was doing wonderfully in the appt, heart rate was strong and I'm measuring exactly as I should be. I had talked before about a name and I thought Asa and I were close to an agreement but he has since recanted on what he originally said. It might still be her name cuz I'm done looking through name books and if he wants to continue looking then he can but for some reason I don't see him doing that so it might just take more convincing on my part before I know for sure! Okay good enough update for you guys?

The joys of seeing Santa

2006-12-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

So I was completely bummed because since I've been working so much I missed taking my kids to see Santa. But Asa took them yesterday and they went to my mom's work to get their picture taken with Santa. Asa tells me that Zachary was fine with sitting on Santa's lap only until Santa tried to talk to him then all hell broke loose. They had to take a quick picture because Zachary was just screaming with his hands out saying "dada, dada" And then I guess Connor was looking at the elf's shoes and not at the camera! Oh well, can't get a good picture everytime! But Connor was very excited to talk to Santa and he told him that he wanted balls, trucks, and cars! So I'm sure he'll get some of that from Santa ;-)

Can you guess how many weeks?

2006-12-06T19:04:00.000-08:00

The latest in the happenings of my belly!

Holiday Card Fiasco

2006-12-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

So I decided to take on the task of getting the right picture for my christmas cards a few weeks back! After two photo sessions on two different days, lots of tears and lots of smiles it's done! It is such an adventure to try to get both your children looking in your direction and smiling at the same time! Asa and I were each in the room trying to get these kids to smile and in the end it all worked out!

2006-12-01T12:52:00.000-08:00

This is the way I felt while I was deep in the middle of getting the right picture! I don't think anyone in our household was a happy camper then we had crying kids and weary adults, not a good combo! But makes for a priceless picture that I will treasure when my kids are older! Next year is going to be even more interesting adding a third child to the mix of getting a good picture!

The Finished Product

2006-12-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

After much time and energy on my part there is the finished picture for my holiday cards! There could still be some improvements made to it but honestly I don't want to devote any more energy to making it look okay!

2006-11-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

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I decided to take some video last night and the first part is my kids version on giving my belly kisses! They love to sit there and do that and as I watch it after the fact it looks like it would hurt my belly but alas it doesn't hurt at all so no worries! Connor loves to start singing songs when I do the video of course this song he sings I'd never heard before but you never know what you'll get with him. He is singing about the cars movie from the tune of itsy bitsy spider! And the kisses at the end are for their Nana as Connor said once I turned the video off! Enjoy!

Belly Time

2006-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

There's the latest on the belly! I've been trying to mess around with photoshop and figure out how to use all the features so hope you like it! And I'm also happy to report that we are really close to having a name and hopefully in the next week we'll reach a final decision. I can't believe that I only have 3 months left in this pregnancy! It seems like time has flown by! I really enjoy my time at night with her because it's about the only time at all that I feel her move. I love to lay on my bed and just wait, sometimes she starts kicking right away other times she doesn't. I'm not too upset about not feeling her all the time cuz this is the exactly the way it was with my other kids as well.

Busy Busy

2006-11-17T17:50:00.000-08:00

Today was a busy day for me which was good because honestly with everyone home all the time besides when I work is sometimes more than all of us can take! There is no new update on the job situation but I appreciate all of your suggestions that I've received so far and hopefully soon I'll have some good news on that aspect. Any and all prayers would be much appreciated! But on to my day, my mom is a lucky lady and through my dads insurance she is able to get a massage every week that is covered and she has to pay a small co pay. So she has become really good friends with her massage lady and the lady actually teaches massage therapy at the college so the massage lady says they need pregnant women who are willing to come in and let students pratice how to give a massage to a pregnant lady. My mom volunteered me (much to my delight) and I went in today to get my free pregnancy massage! It was very relaxing and I am more than willing to do it again! It's about the only time I've been able to have some "me" time in a really long time! And then to add to my delight after the massage I went and had lunch with my best friend. It was nice to be able to go out to lunch with her without my kids in tow. We actually had more of a chance to just talk. While I love spending time with the kids it's nice to just be for a few hours and to not always having to focus my attention on them. After lunch it was time to go pick Connor up and take him to busy buddies. Once he got dropped off I decided to go to the library and look for a baby name book since I'm at a loss and I found 3 books so I will now be sorting through them and hopefully coming up with something soon. I have one name in paticular that I like but I am still trying to convince Asa of that name so if I don't see any new names in these books I will have to start bugging Asa more about this name until he hopefully cracks! With my library books in hand I head home to load up Asa and Zachary and we are then off to the doctors office. While waiting for our appt Zachary was cracking us up because he didn't want to play with any of the waiting room toys, he figured out that if you push the button on the water fountain that water comes out! This kid thought that it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't stop laughing! It was cute :-) Once we got in to see the doctor is was quick, quick, quick. I'm about the most boring pregnant women ever because I never have any questions so all he has to do is check the heartbeat (which was healthy and strong!) and then I'm on my way. I'm happy to report that while I gained a pound this last month I am still one pound below when I first got pregnant! So that's about it for my day today and hope you all have a good weekend!

2006-11-12T23:33:00.000-08:00

So really I haven't been doing that much over the past few weeks but yet I've still felt like it's been extremely busy, extremely stressful, and I'm just exhausted and haven't had anything to blog about! I'm hoping this new week offers a fresh start for us and a brighter outlook than last week turned out to be. The week started to go bad by Tuesday because I got really annoyed really quickly with Zachary's doctor's office. With my doctor he told us about a year ago that he was going to start praticing neonatal medicine in Portland and he would only be in the office a few days a month. So I've known that I need to schedule my appts in advance which is why when I called the doctor's office to schedule Zach's well baby check up I scheduled it a month and a half in advance. I was asked over the phone which office I preferred and I told them and thought everything was peach keen. Well we had Asa leave work early on Tuesday to meet me at the doctor's office and when we got there on time for our appt we were told that our doctor was not in this office today he was at the other office. I explained that I had made this appt a month and a half ago and I was told it would be at this office. The receptionist called the office where he was at today and told them that we were on our way to visit with the doctor. After we hauled butt through town to the other office we got the kids unloaded I went to the front desk only to have them tell me that the doctor had an appt that he had to go to so I could come back at 4 this afternoon. I said no I couldn't come back at 4 because I would be at work then and she got really snippy with me really quick and I was getting rather pissed with having driven all the way across town just for them to tell me he couldn't see Zachary today. I then got on the phone with the appt center to reschedule and the soonest they could see Zachary was a month away and I was not willing to wait another month so I rescheduled with a different doctor hoping that maybe I'll like this other doctor and will possibly switch pediatricians. So we rescheduled and went to see this new doctor this past thursday and I absolutely disliked this doctor! He did not talk to Asa or I at all, didn't explain anything just basicially wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. I was less than impressed. And as it turns out he told us that Zachary has an ear infection so I was then given a prescription and sent on my home after they gave Zachary 5 shots in his leg. Zachary was not a happy camper at all. I have to take Zachary back next week to have his ear rechecked so I am going to see Zachary's normal pediatrician and hopefully talk to him about who he would recommend if I was to choose to switch. I really love his pediatrician but with me having a new baby coming I don't think that the doctor can be or wants to take another patient when he's not in the office that much and I want my kids to all have the same pediatrician so we'll have to see. And to top off that bad day the next day Asa was late to work and they decided to let him go. When I had went on my vacation to California Asa had trouble getting himself up to go to work and they told him if he was late one more time that he would be let go and so two months went by and until last week he was on time. But that day he was only late by 30 minutes but I guess that was enough and he is now jobless. I'm trying not to stress out too much right now but it is definantly got me worried because his job was our main source of income. There is absolutely no way that we can live off my income alone so I'm hoping he'll get a new job quick. He put in a resume at a different airplane manufacturing company so hopefully he'll get an interview this week with them. And if this other airplane company falls through I'm at a loss for what we are going to do...But on a brighter note we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the monster trucks this weekend. I had forgotten how loud those monster trucks could be. Luckily we went with our friend Nick and he had brought ear plugs for everyone. Zachary and Connor's ear plugs didn't fit too well but they were better than nothing. I think we had to put Zachary's back in his ear at least 10 times because they kept falling out. I thought Connor would've enjoyed the monster trucks more than he did but he seemed less impressed with everything and he was already asking when we were going home after the first 45 minutes. And then Zachary was even more unhappy about the monster trucks than Connor. The noise level was too much for him to handle and after two hours of the noise he hit his breaking point. He was crying uncontrolably and nothing that Asa and I did would comfort him. I was more than happy when it was over and we could all go home. But my kids slept wonderfully that night for me and I got to sleep in so it all worked out! Not much else going on with me, I'll be posting some new pregnancy pics hopefully this week when I get them edited into my computer. We are still at a loss for names but hopefully we'll come up with something soon. I'd really like to put a name to the talk about this baby espicially with my children.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful halloween! The Dean family had an awesome time, we went to our church where all the kids can play games and then they get a trick or treat at the end of each game. I like it so much better than going door to door trick or treating and everyone stays warm! My kids did wonderfully well with their costumes and I'm glad my pics turned out cute! Enjoy :-)

Connor's Favorite Game

2006-10-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

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He absolutely loved to play this game and he was having so much fun trying to get the yummy powdered doughnut!

Game Time

2006-10-31T21:58:00.000-08:00

There were lots of games for the kids to play and here are a few that Connor had fun with!

Pumpkin Carving Time

2006-10-30T22:00:00.000-08:00

So the unimaginable has happened and we actually managed to get our pumpkins carved this halloween! I was very impressed that it actually got done and we all had a good time doing it, well everyone except Zachary cuz he conveniently decided to take a nap then! I think that Asa did an excellent job of carving out the faces and I'm very happy with them! On a side note I got a glimpse of my near future tonight because I got the long awaited phone call from N & S that their baby Logan is about to make his debut so I was off to the hospital to pick up their older son and have him spend the night with us tonight. The five of us all went out to dinner at Quizno's and then over to Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory. It was quite different when there is three kids and only two adults! Everyone did excellent. All the boys ate their dinner wonderfully and they each got to pick out their own chocolate to take home and eat but it was just more involved in getting three kids out the door, dinner ready, in the car and all that! Asa and I definantly have our work cut out for us in the future!

2006-10-30T21:57:00.000-08:00

Connor was somewhat less than thrilled about how we actually had to take all that stuff out of the inside of the pumpkin! He only put his hands in there twice and then insisted of wanting his hands washed right away! But he did have fun helping daddy decide what faces he wanted on the pumpkins and he watched while daddy drew them on there. Proud daddy with his artwork!

Proud Display

2006-10-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

I think my hubby did an awesome job!! I love how they turned out!

New Shots!

2006-10-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

So Connor and I decided to have some fun a few nights back when I was starting to feel a little better so we got the self timer ready on the camera and took some pictures! She's definantly in there!! And an update from the last post I am finally starting to feel better. My voice came back for the most part on Wednesday and I've only thrown up once in the past 3 days so definantly an improvement! Hopefully the worst is behind me and I can continue to feel better cuz man that sucked!

Gettin' Bigger by the Minute!

2006-10-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

Zachary is really starting to become a little toddler now, all over the place! The picture in the top right corner made him espcially proud that he could hold the cup in his mouth without hands just like Connor! And he espicially loves to ride that dump truck through the kitchen! We even had a ride on toy for him that actually fits and he could use that but it is just not as fun as the dump truck! Like I said he's all over the place and definantly keeps me on my toes!

Definantly not the best week ever

2006-10-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

This past week has been pretty excruciating for me. As of tomorrow morning I have been sick for 8 days and haven't had my voice for 7 of those 8 days. This sucks! I keep going to bed each night thinking I'll feel better in the morning but then when I wake up I feel just as bad as the night before. I've been tossing and turning every night because of my cough and runny nose that tends to keep me up. And you know one of the lovely symptons of pregnancy which is losing bladder control when you sneeze? Yeah I have that when I cough and I swear I have gone through more underwear than I thought was possible this week! On Friday I woke up with pain in my right cheek that has been constant now for three days. I called the doctor on Friday and talked to a nurse who prescribed me prescription cough medicine. I went and picked that up Friday night and started taking it right away and while it's helped minimally with my cough it hasn't done a damn thing for any of my other symptons! I have thrown up more times this week than I have through each of my previous pregnancies combined! I was told by the nurse on Friday to do nothing this weekend but rest. I talked with my boss at the pool and we found someone to work for me Saturday but I also still have my other job that I have to do on the weekends. My mom told me she would help me out with my other job so she worked for 2 hours for me and I worked 3 hours. Again not fun at all. I came home just exhausted, tired, and ready to lay down. So I spent the remaining Saturday laying down as much as I could and today spent the morning in bed. Asa has been somewhat responsive to watching the kids for this weekend. But if the kids see me in bed they automatically want in bed with me so they've spent a good part of the weekend in bed with me. Today as I was looking online trying to figure out why my face would be in so much pain I discovered that it might be a sinus infection. So I decided that I would call my mom to pick up the kids and Asa and I would go for a visit at the hospital. When I got to the hospital they sent me to the birthing center to make sure everything was okay with her first and thankfully she was fine. Her heartrate was 163 and was steady the whole time. I was at least happy for that part because with the way I've been feeling, I've definantly been more than a little worried about how she's doing. After the birthing center it was back to the emergency room where after discussing the same symptons with 3 different nurses I was finally put in a room. I waited in that room for 45 minutes before the doctor came to see me. He seemed confused as to why I was even in there and after looking me over he said that it's just a basic cold and he doesn't know why I'd be having pain in my face. He told me he wasn't going to give me antibiotics he just wants me to ride it out and see how that goes. I was somewhat dissapointed that nothing was wrong with me because I want some good medicine to make it go away! After dealing with all of this for a week already it was not what I wanted to hear. So Asa and I were sent home and now I sit here with a throbbing pain in my face and getting ready to take some cough medicine and go to bed. Say a few prayers for me if you can :-)

Pregnancy Talk!

2006-10-17T22:11:00.000-07:00

Today was our appt with our doctor! I was very anxious and excited to go. I always get kinda nervous that he might find something wrong with this baby but our baby is excellent. Great little heartbeat on her! You know when I had my first pregnancy I was so nieve about what was actually happening in my body and so with each subsequent pregnancy I find myself getting more and more worried about what could possibly go wrong. Now hopefully soon I can put my fears to rest but I don't know. Like take tonight, my kids and I have all had nasty coughs for about a week now. Today I lost my voice and had this cough which is just lovely when you spend your day talking with little kids! But anyways tonight after dinner, I couldn't stop coughing and finally I was coughing so much that I ended up throwing up, twice, in the bathroom. Not too fun. So then I start worrying about me throwing up and coughing so much and how this is affecting my little girl but from what I've read in my books it's nothing to be worried about unless it's accompied by a fever which it's not. Hopefully after a good nights sleep tonight I'll feel better tomorrow! But on a brighter note when I got weighed at the doctors appt today I had lost 3 pounds!!! So as of right now I am two pounds less than when I had started! Pretty amazing to be losing weight but yet she weighs almost a pound! Hopefully I can continue on this road of exercise and not gain that much weight. I am already anxious to start working out full force and losing more weight. I have pants that I refused to give away from pre kids that I hope to fit into someday! Other than that not much new on the baby front, just getting more and more anxious to meet her. I went to Target yesterday and found her outfit that I will be bringing her home in. Which if anyone doesn't know one of my biggest excitements is finding the perfect outfit to bring my child home in and picking the perfect outfit for my childs baptism! A few friends of mine from work who have girls have already started giving me some of their old clothes, which I love, so I've been anxiously sorting through these clothes picturing what they'll look like on her! I believe I have even found the dress I want her to wear for her baptism and some adorable shoes to go with it, all courtesty of my friends at work!

Pumpkin Patch

2006-10-16T22:54:00.000-07:00

So we had a wonderful time this weekend spent with Asa's family at the Pumpkin Patch. Both my kids enjoyed themselves immensly! The weather was fairly crappy but got a little better towards the end. The wind was extremely bad at first so we all got extremely dirty from all the dust kicked up into our faces! At the pumpkin patch we got to watch some pumpkin shooting, feeding the Clydesdale horses, riding an animal train, petting zoo, playing in the haystacks, and of course picking out our own pumpkins to take home! I think everyone enjoyed themselves that day and hopefully this week we'll get to carving our new pumpkins, of course that means I have to go buy some carving tools so hopefully it will get done!

2006-10-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

There was even a petting zoo and I was somewhat suprised at both my kids not getting scared of the animals all around them, espically the turkey cuz just a few weekends ago we visited my mother in laws neighbor and she had turkeys and Connor was freaked out by them and wanted to be held the whole time!

2006-10-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

The kids were all having fun playing on the haystacks!

New Belly Shots

2006-10-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm officialy halfway through this pregnancy! I've now had a few days since my ultrasound and it's starting to sink in that yes this is a girl cuz it was hard for me to grasp at first. I couldn't be happier than I am at the moment. I have a womderful husband, two beautiful children with one more on the way, and some of the greatest friends! So thank you to all of my family and to my friends out there for the outpouring of excitement and happiness for me! It is so nice to finally be able to refer to this baby as a she and not an it. I am just now starting to pour through the baby names that are available online cuz the ones that I liked so far Asa doesn't but I'm thinking it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a name since we've never had a chance to sift through girl names! I'm finally starting to feel her move! It's nothing consistent but I have felt her a couple times. It was pretty awesome to see her on the ultrasound machine because she was moving all over. Her hands were up and down back and forth. And her legs were moving around too. When the ultrasound lady was trying to get a good profile pic of the baby she started poking my stomach and it was funny cuz she would poke my stomach and my little girl would respond! Aaaahhh technology is awesome!