Be patient with me...

I'm still trying to adjust to having a new little baby and 3 others kidlings so please be patient with me and I'll have something new to report within the next few days.

The Wait is Over!

Bella (Meaning: Beautiful)

So our little bundle of joy has arrived! This pregnancy has had it's ups and downs like all of them, but since I've never actually gone to my due date this pregnancy felt like it was never going to end when I was 3 days over my d-date and no baby. (I know that's nothing compared to most of you who have gone as far as 2 weeks over!) Bella arrived Wed. morning bright and early at 5:46 a.m. I started having labor pains around midnight on Tuesday and decided at 1:30 am that these contractions were the real thing and that we needed to get to the hospital. So, I woke up Jesse from a deep sleep, got his mom Karen to come over and stay with the kids and off we were. Things progressed rather quickly as soon as we got into the labor room. I felt like Jesse and I were working as a team through the contractions because he was there through each one pushing on a certain spot on my back or rubbing it to help with the pressure and pain of labor and I really appreciated him for that. Anyhow, this story will be short because the labor was short! :) I'm so thankful for that and am thankful that Bella came out healthy and free from any problems that could've occured. When she arrived I can't explain the relief and pure happiness I felt having her born! She was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 3/4 inches long. My smallest baby. She's just a beautiful little girl and so far she is a very content little baby who has a nice soft cry.

It's always neat to see the kids reaction when they see a newborn brother/sister for the first time. Bryson and Cameron were so intrigued by her umbilical cord and her tiny hands and toes. They looked proud when they held her in their arms. While Cameron was holding her today I caught him singing twinkle little star to her which just melted my heart. Claire just adores her as well. She's always pointing to Bella and says, "be-bee sizzter..mine!" She's always bringing me blankets because she insists that her "sizzter" is cold. She's so cute with her. So, we're all very excited about Bella coming into our lives and want to thank everyone for their prayers!

Child's Play

This week has been one rainy week. I'm not complaining though because it's been a nice relief from the heat. I've loved every minute of it and so has my lawn. :) From time to time the kids would go outside with the umbrella and find frogs in the yard, but when the rain stopped I decided that the kids needed to go splash in some puddles since we don't have that luxery very often. They had a great time and didn't want to go inside, but when the sun came out for awhile it started getting very hot and humid and I couldn't sit out there anymore! Thursday morning it was raining again and I woke up to the sound of a leak in our bedroom roof and so poor Jesse had to get out of bed, climb up on the roof while it was pouring cats and dogs and fix a few trouble spots. I was watching him under an umbrella scared to death that he was going to slip and fall off the roof, but luckily that didn't happen and the leak was fixed! A new roof is in order. By the way, no baby yet....

Reunited!

Hope everyone had a patriotic and happy 4th of July. Every year we make the trek to Artesia and spend the holiday with my side of the family and enjoy barbecuing and catching up with my sisters while the cousins and brother-n-laws hang out. There's always a GREAT fireworks display there and we sit very close to where the fireworks take off and so it's always exciting.

This year right before the fireworks my family and I attended my 10 year high school reunion picnic. I've always wondered what it would be like to attend my reunion. What I would say to childhood friends that I've lost touch with or have a history with. But, surprisingly you just pick up right were you left off! I of course was big and pregnant which I thought might happen when I started having kids every two years, but that's o.k. It was an excuse to not have to worry about being fit and skinny. :) Plus, it was a nice ice breaker. I was proud of my family and felt like I had accomplished something special. In school I hung out with 3 other girls and we called ourselves J.A.C.K because our first names were Joyce, Amy, Cami and Kristy. I know, we're silly, but we had so much fun together! Anyways, it was wonderful seeing them. When we saw each other we just hugged and laughed at how exciting it was seeing each other. The next night we had a nice adults only steak dinner at the Country Club with some of our favorite teachers who gave great and humorous speeches.

I unfortunately forgot my memory card to my bran new camera that Jesse bought me for my b-day so I was so bummed that I couldn't capture the moment. We stayed at my sister Jeanine's house and my other sister June and her boys came down and we stayed up so late talking and I just couldn't get comfortable being so pregnant. I didn't get much sleep (which you can probably tell by the picture that I look exhausted). It was worth it though. Great weekend!

Oh baby, Oh my BODY!!!

Well, I'm not sure how long it's been for me not to notice, but I just realized that on my baby time ticker that the last baby is highlighted now which makes me even more excited/scared for our little baby to come. I'm going through so many mixed emotions right now. Moments of where you just feel like you can't go on anymore and you wish the baby would just be born RIGHT NOW and then an hour later when it's just me and I'm finally sitting down relaxing and feeling the baby move around that I just wish I could always remember that feeling and enjoy having another LIFE inside me. This pregnancy has by far been the most difficult as far as the way my body feels. Lately, it's all I can do to get out of bed in the morning and with this week being above 100 degrees is sure can wear a person down. It makes me appreciate feeling well when I do and I'm looking forward to feeling normal again. By the way, the photo above was taken by my wonderful sister-n-law Cody who worked so hard to make this photo shoot turn out great. Thanks Cody so much for capturing this time in my life.

I'm ashamed to say, but I guess my patience has been wearing thin with the kids because for awhile when Cameron would say his prayers he would pray that I could be nicer. (which always breaks my heart) But, on Sunday Cameron prayed at the dinner table for everyone else to be nicer and for me to be pretty. :) I couldn't help but giggle out loud. I guess I'm looking like I need some help in the makeover department. But hey, that's better than being mean right! :) Then, tonight he just prayed that I could get a good nights sleep. So, by Cameron's prayers I guess I can judge at how well I'm mothering him. ha ha. I love being a mother and know that it has and will continue to refine me into a better person if I work hard and do the things that Heavenly Father would want me to do. I've realized that by taking the easy way out isn't always the best way when it comes to parenting. I'm thankful for Jesse and love it when he comes home and the kids just swarm him. They love him so much and I appreciate what a good husband he is. Life is good.

Happy Anniversay to us!

7 Years ago...

It's been a week, but I wanted to mention that Jesse and I just celebrated our 7th Anniversary. I remember when my sister Jeanine and her husband David hit their 7th Wedding Anniversary and I was of course a much younger person, but I remember thinking that 7 years was a long time. Now, 7 years is nothing; I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Having 3 (pretty soon 4) kids, Jesse completing Optometry School and moving around to 3 separate states and then settling down into a home and just enjoying raising our family is what I call squeezing a lot of events into 7 years. We had a nice Anniversay. Jesse took me out to go -ol Olive Garden and then we were gonna shop till we dropped at the Outlets, but since it was Memorial Day the stores were closed by the time we got there. So, instead we went to the movies and watched Indiana Jones.

I'm so blessed to have a husband who loves his wife and family more than anything. I always knew that if I married Jesse that he would be fun to live with and a great father. Thanks honey for a great 7 years...looking forward to eternity. :)

Our road trip

It's been a while, but I wanted to share our RV experience that we had at the beginning of the month when we traveled to San Diego, CA. Well, we started out in Pheonix where we stayed the night at the Hilton and probably got our best night's sleep there at the Hotel because the next day we picked up our RV and headed towards Calif. Here are the kids as we're getting ready to leave. We're all so excited. I was going to try to not use Jesse's laptop for movies because I wanted a break from all media and so I had games for us to play, new coloring books for them and was just looking forward to the adventure. Well, as we started down the high way I tried to get out some things for the kids to do and the ride was so bumpy that it made things very difficult. I gave up after a couple of hours and ended up getting the laptop out! I layed down next to Claire in the back and tried to sleep, but it was so bumpy, the baby would not stop kicking. She was probably wondering what was all the racket about! So, we arrived in San Diego late at night and decided to just spend the night in a Wal*Mart parking lot. The next morning I made eggs for all of us (we had cold cereal the rest of the week because after this day my energy level shot way down!) and then we went over the Sea World!

Bryce and Cameron rode their first real rollar coaster ; "Journey to Atlantis!" It's looks pretty scary AND you get wet....let's just say that I was glad to be pregnant that day so that I didn't have to ride it.

We spent two days there and loved it all. The weather was overcast and about 65 degrees. There wasn't a lot of people there so that was nice when it came to rides and finding a seat. While watching the shows Jesse always put us just barely in the "Splash Zone" and I was sooo worried I was going to get wet and cold, but we only got splashed a little at the dolphin show. It made things interesting anyway. So then on the way out of Sea World we drove by a u-pick strawberry farm and I just had to stop and get some yummy strawberries! So, while Claire slept Jesse watched the boys and I treck through the mud and pick some strawberries. Our shoes were just sinking in the mud, but it was soo worth it!
The next day we took a break from the Amusement Parks and spent the day at the beach. We were lucky because it was the only day the sun came out. Still too cold for me though. Bryce and Jesse on the other hand were gun-ho about getting into the water. Jesse bought some boogie-boards and when Jesse helped Bryce catch a wave all I could hear from Bryce yelling sufer words like, "AWWWESOME, EXCELLENT!" Meanwhile, I let Cameron and Claire buri my tired legs under the sand. Afterwards, we walked down the boardwalk and had ice cream and then later ate at an outdoor restrauant that had a surfer machine. We had fun watching people wipe out.





After that day we headed to Lego Land which was so neat. I never knew you could make so many things out of lego's. Bryce couldn't wait to hit more rollar coasters whereas Cameron wasn't getting talked into doing one for awhile. There's too many things there to go into, but one thing that I think the kids liked the most was when they got to drive their own little lego cars. It was set up like a real street system with stop lights and other signs and when they finished they got their drivers license. They're so proud!


One of our favorite snacks there was the Granny Apple Fries. SOOOO GOOOD!!! I really want to learn how to make them someday. After a day and 1/2 at Lego Land we drove up to Anahiem and went to Medival Times. We had a good time cheering for our night (who died) and experience eating a full meal with our hands. That was kind of our last who-ra beacause after that we drove back towards Phoenix. We spent Sunday afternoon with Jesse's College buddy Rob Warcup and his wife Sarah. They made up some good food on the grill and we had a good time with them and their kids. The next morning was spent cleaning out the RV (which was the hardest part) and returning it back to the rental place. Needless to say we got home feeling more tired than when we left, but all in all it was wonderful getting to have some personal family time. You can check the slide show for more pictures of the trip.

Tag, I'm it!

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago around this time I would've probably just graduated High School (class of 98). I remember being excited for a new chapter in my life and wondering what the future held, but also I was very sad to leave all of my friends from High School. Our class of about 350 people were all very close. That summer (actually I left on my birthday, July 2nd) I was going to travel to AUSTRALIA for a 2 week trip down under to play some volleyball along with some other people representing New Mexico. Then, it was off to college to work my rear-end off some more in volleyball (it pays the bills right!) and school. I also hoped to find my true love there as well, but that didn't happen for another 3 years.

High School picture

2. List five things on your to do list today. (I wish it were only 5 things)

Well, since it's Sunday I'll list what I have to do tomorrow.

*Finish organizing Bryce and Claire's room. (We put a little toddler bed in the Boys room so that Claire wouldn't be bothered by the baby at night. She acted excited about sleeping in it, but tonight she wanted back into her old bed. I think it's going to take time. I have 8 weeks for get her used to it. )
*Laundry
*Clear my desk especially and the rest of the house!
*Take the kids swimming
*Go on a date with Jesse to celebrate our anniversary.



3. Snacks I enjoy.

Chips and salsa, cold cereal with fresh blueberries or bananas (whatever I have on hand), popcorn, something sweet that I can sink my teeth into.


4. What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire?

I would totally build my dream home(s) with a huge room for all of my 1 to 2 year food supply and other things I might need. I would help all of my family get there's filled up too. I would travel and scout out places to build vacation homes for us to visit. Also, I'd invest in either wind energy or solar energy. Who, knows what I'd do!


5. List three bad habits!

I hate to list them, but I guess I'll pick the ones I don't mind sharing... :)

*Starting a project and taking forever to finish. It's hard to stay focused and motivated on a certain task when you're constantly interupted by the kids, life, etc. Especially sewing projects.
*Thinking the grass is greener on the other side.
*Leaving the folded laundry in the basket forever before I put it away. I just hate putting away laundry for some reason!

6. 5 places I've lived.

*Las Cruces, NM (My home now for 3 1/2 years)
*Mesa, AZ
*St. George, UT (loved it!)
*Forest Grove, OR (loved it!)
*Hobbs, NM (some college)
*Artesia,NM (where I was raised) I threw in just one more town.

7. Five jobs I've worked at.

* Lifeguard/ swimming teacher during High School
*File clerk at Yates Petroleum
*Wal*Mart (I was in the Manager Trainee/Future Buyer Program)
*My current job and most important...being a mother!

8. Five things that (some) people might not know about me.

* Someday I want to get really good at the violin and/or cello, but everytime I try to practice my kids try to steal the bow from me. Either they want to learn too, or they're trying to tell me something. :)

*I know this is silly to mention, but it's something no one knows...but, beautiful music makes me cry. Not like a baby, but just get teary-eyed. The first time this happened was at a Yanni concert in Oregon. Jesse and I went and I was pregnant (which might explain the tears), but in general ever since I've had kids I'm able to feel different about music.

*I love acting. I'm probably not very good at it, but someday I would love to join the city drama club. If my family did it with me it would be even better. Comedies would be the best.

* In High School I did Volleyball (played in college as well), Swimming and Track and was named Miss Bulldog for exceeding in those sports. I worked really hard, so I feel justified in bragging just a bit. When I'm going through something physically hard (like childbirth) I think back to my hardest practice days and that helps me get through it.

*I just did a radio ad for my father-n-laws campaign. He's running for congress and you can listen to it by clicking on his picture. It's pretty funny and I had a good time making it. It reminded me of the good ol' days when my sisters and I would record ourselves and make up different skits and stuff.

*I have to add one more...in the beginning of my meeting my husband Jesse we were playing Ultimate Frizby and afterwords we were playing around with the football and when I saw Jesse kick the ball up in the air for what seemed like 500 ft and noticed he looked so dang good doing it I couldn't help but notice him even more. I had to get to know who this guy with an amazing smile and strong legs was! The rest is history.

I tag my sisters Jeanine, June and Janet, my mom, Jenae, Abby P. and whoever else want to participate!

1. Post the rules

2. Answer all the questions about yourself

3. After you are done posting, tag 5 people

Claire Turns 2!!

CHEESE!!!

The cake I made Claire was taken from the Family Fun magazine and was suppose to be like a sand castle, but for some reason a few of the cones kept falling and breaking off pieces of cake and then when I tried to pipe frosting on it the tube got clogged and it wasn't piping out the way I had planned. So, I gave it to Cameron and Bryce and let them pipe out and do with the blue frosting whatever they wanted. Her favorite gifts were the little purple and pink tricycle (she can't quite reach any of the boys pedals on their bikes) and a little monkey stuffed animal that we're trying to keep away from getting chewed up by Bandit. Claire is growing more precious to us everyday. We love her very much.

CALIFORNIA CRUISE!!

Jesse & I have decided to take a road trip! But, since I can't sit in a car for very long without having to go to the bathroom or just move my legs we've decided to rent an RV! I'm so excited!! It'll be so nice for the kids too. We're gonna hit the beaches and just enjoy the California Coast! It'll be nice to be away from it all and just spend some time with the kids and each other.

Cameron was a baby when we lived in Oregon so he doesn't remember the beaches there, but Bryce does and they're both just so excited that I almost wish I would've kept it a secret until we got there because everyday they ask me, "Are we going to the beach today!" Bryce will have to miss a week of school, but we figure since he's in Kinder. and he's doing well in school that he can miss. They've been going on a lot of field trips lately which has been a nice break for him. Today they walked to Lowe's and made an Ant house and so tomorrow we're going to look for some Ants to put in it. Hopefully they stay and not escape!

MY BUCKET IS FULL!

Ok, I've procrastinated enough...I've got to tell all of you about the "Time Out for Women" weekend I had. There were 7 of us total that joined the hundreds of ladies who came to Albuq., NM to listen to the speakers and musicians. Some of my in-laws came, but I was really excited to spend a few days with my mom, uninterupted, just sitting there getting some inspiration from the speakers. We listened to people like Micheal Wilcox, Mary Ellen Edmunds (who was so hilarious and easy to relate to), Emily Watts and Sharon G. Larsen and some other great speakers that I can't remember right now. The singers were great too. I felt that the lyrics to their songs were truely inspired and will later post some of their music to my blog. The speakers are all authors so I highly suggest checking them out. I would've liked to have bought all of them, but since that's not possible I chose two books by Emily Watts called BEING THE MOM- 10 Coping Strategies I learned by Accident Because I Had Children on Purpose and also Take Two Chocolates and Call Me in the Morning- 12 Semi-Practical Solutions for the Really Busy Woman. She spoke of something all of us Mom's feel from time to time...MOTHER GUILT! Her stories of being a mother were so funny and I easily related to her life as I'm sure a lot of ladies could. But, one of the most powerful quotes I wrote down in my journal was from Wilcox when he said: "Children first see God through the lens of the mothers soul." That hit me like a ton of bricks. I wondered how my children see me and felt the mother guilt swarm over me. I try to be the best mom I can, but I know I'm not perfect. I also know that I can try harder and that's what I've been doing. I feel like I came home a different person. With a better resolve. I'm thankful that Jesse is such a wonderful husband and loves for me to be able to do things like this and to spend girl time with the women I admire and love. Thanks honey!!

Hit the ball...RUN, RUN, RUN!!

Bryce & Cameron are on the same T-ball team this year and it's a first for both of them. Last Friday was their first game and very enjoyable to watch. Bryce played 2nd base and surprised me by making two outs in a row! I particularly like the way he does this sort of superhero/prance on his tip toes back to the pitcher and then back to his spot. Cameron played left field and since he likes lots of action he was disappointed at the LACK of action he was getting out there. Several times he ran to me during the middle of the game over to right field where I was standing and said, "Mom, why is this taking so long. I'm ready to go." (Keep in mind that the game started at 8 pm which is just 30 min. shy of their bedtime.)The coaches frantically rushing him back to his spot. All the while we're trying to keep Claire out of the dugout by coaxing her with lifesaver gummies. She so thinks she can do just about whatever the boys are doing. When it was time to hit I guess my boys were expecting to hit another one or wait until their picture was taken because they would not run! I think they got the hint though. Cameron started to have tears well up in his eyes when he didn't run and was out at first. He's not used to that since at home he's never out. :) Anyhow, it'll be an interesting season. Hope you enjoy the video and sorry about the poor filming job/quality....I didn't have enough battery in my regular video camera and had to resort to my digital, but at least it captured the moment.

Bryce's first musical debut!

All of the Kindergarten classes got together to sing songs to the parents a couple of weeks ago. Bryce is in the bilingual class and so he had to learn a few Spanish songs. I tried to video as best as possible, but at times I had to hold Claire so sometimes the camera is a bit bumpy. The whole evening Bryce was just a riot, but I choose this last clip because it was the last song and it was as if he were using the two boys next to him as curtains and just being so goofy! It's pretty funny.

I know...I'm playing catch-up!

How glad I am that I survived the month of March. I don't think I've done anything to this blog except play with the different background templates only to realize that I like the one I started out with better. I realized that the first week of April is almost over and I haven't even blogged about Bryce's b-day much less the whole month so I'm trying to play catch-up. Please bare with me and my jumbled thoughts.
Bryce, the poor guy hopes to never be in the Dentist's office for other than a teeth cleaning. He's a trooper though. He's had couple of teeth pulled and is now an avid flosser. We celebrated his 6th birthday while in Albuq. for the Republican Pre-Primary while supporting my father-n-law Greg Sowards who's running for Congress. We were able to swim and Bryce had so much fun swimming under the wall from the indoor pool to the outdoor pool. He couldn't talk enough about it! Later, we ordered Pizza and Salad from an Italian restraurant nearby our hotel that had the BEST food. I love the Olive Garden, but this place puts it to shame. I can't remember the name, but I'm going to eat there again next time I'm in Albuq.
We stayed an extra day to go and visit my Grandma who's in a nursing home while she's recovering from a Heart attack. We got to watch her do her therapy and the boys were able to play catch with her and I haven't seen her smile like that in a long time. Later we went to the Children's Museum to wear out the kids so that they could sleep all the way home. Boy, did they.

A little sister!

This morning we traveled to El Paso to get an in depth look at our precious little baby. We found out that Claire is going to have a sister! I thought it was going to be a boy and Jesse said a girl. It looks like Jesse was right again! :) So, all of you who placed your bet that we were going to have a girl congradulations! The whole time she was being shy and cuddled up on her belly so we couldn't get a good shot of her face, but I think it's cute how she has her little hand up to her cheek. We feel very blessed.