Quick Thankful List

For Family Home Evening one night we made a turkey and listed some of the things we are thankful for on the feathers. In no particular order here is our list:

Hot Water

Baby

Cars

Sunshine

Jesus

Santa Claus

Freezers (for ice cream)

San Diego

Gospel

Store

Earth

House

Space (because it's a home for Jesus :)

Holidays

Air

Family

USA

Food

Friends

Batman

Weekend Recap

Joe took Tyler to San Diego this weekend. He went with his friend/coworker Nate and his little boy. They left at 4 AM Saturday morning and drove to Sea World where they let the boys run around and look at WHATEVER they wanted to. I love this first picture of Ty because it shows a classic expression of his. He has a love/fear relationship with the whales. He loves them, but is a little afraid they are going to eat him I think.

This is also such a fun picture for me to see. Tyler has had an obsession with penguins for the last several months, probably since we went to Sea World last time. He sometimes has pretend penguin friends that follow him around. Incidentally they have very Russian sounding names. One day he was coming in from outside and we went to shut the door. Tyler panicked a little because we were squishing his penguin friends. He then proceeded to lead them into the house one by one with his hand. He doesn't talk about them so much anymore, but Kelley thinks it's really cute to ask him about them every once in a while. The other day while we were out driving Kelley asked where they were and he answered simply they were "home playing with my toys".
Saturday night SUU closed their football season at San Diego University. Joe reports it was a great game and SUU won! Tyler of course loved the music at half time. He's such a fiery fun kid.
On Sunday morning they took the kids over to the San Diego Temple. Tyler wanted to pick some flowers for Kelley. Joe told him that he couldn't pick the flowers, but they could take a picture for her and so that is what they did. What a sweet boy. Tyler also really liked the "singing guy" on the top of the temple. :)

AND - Happy Birthday to my "Ty Ty" today! He is now officially four years old. If I can get to it in the next few days I'll post his birth story as well. Although not as "exciting" as the water breaking in the grocery store, I think it would be fitting.

After looking at the pics Joe took on this trip I've decided that he has a much better eye for photography than I do. One day I'd like to develop that talent, but for now I think I should give the camera to him when we go anywhere :)

Kelley and I spent the weekend at my parents house. My sister, Kember, was Maria in the Sound of Music at Millard High. I have to say I would have never guessed she could sing that well. She did AWESOME! It was so fun to watch her. A great part of the fun also was seeing so much family. My extended family has always been really supportive of each other and they came to a lot of my plays and events growing up. Baby blessings, graduations, etc are usually big family events as well. It's been a little more complicated in most recent years as some have moved farther away and everyone's kids (my cousins) get older. My Aunts and Uncles become grandparents and since we moved to Cedar it seems like we rarely see them. But it worked out so there were Aunts, Uncles, cousins, Grandpa and two Grandma's there. It was great to see and talk with them.

We spent Saturday lounging around mostly and trying to get some more done on my scrapbooking. I have to say, I don't enjoy it nearly as much by myself. I'm too indecisive. I can't decide what I'm going to do and just do it. If I have other people there I can bounce ideas off them and get their advice. Something as simple as what color to matte my picture with. Oh well. At least I am making SOME progress eh?

We are all back home again. As fun as it was, I hate being apart and am glad to have everyone safely gathered in :). We'll have a short week this week spending Thanksgiving at Joey's parents in New Harmony. We'll likely head back to my parents house on Friday again and hopefully get a Christmas Tree this weekend. Tyler has been asking to go to the "other grandpas" for several weeks now. Fun times!

A few things

OK - Quick baby update. Going to the doctor is good...it makes me feel better. Everything is fine. No indication this baby will come very soon. For all the contractions I've had I'm only dialated to a 1 at 35 weeks. I was at a 2 with Kelley at 36 weeks and she wasn't born until 2 1/2 weeks later. This is good...as uncomfortable as I am... Also no signs of the preeclampsia yet. I need to get through at least this week and next would be nice too. Have to drink more water or something though. These "braxton-hicks" can be strong enough to take my breath away sometimes...

ALSO - Please consider signing this petition. With the economy the way it is it feels totally useless to even try, but I feel like we have to. Currently there is an awesome art program in place in elementary schools (maybe others???) around the state. Kelley has one of these programs at her school and she LOVES it. Research shows that children involved in the arts do better academically. But it is difficult for the people financing that to see that through the dollar signs and the program will likely be cut at the end of the year. We can let our voice be heard. Perhaps if they see that we care, there is a shot at saving the programs. The site is http://www.artworksforkids.org/get-involved/get-involved. They don't need a lot of information. Please look at this and consider signing the petition, even if you don't have kids currently benefitting from the program. I think the arts benefits us all in so many ways we don't even know. Please also consider ways you could spread the word if you feel passionately about it as well.

Kelley's Birth Story

Many of you have probably heard this story, but I think it's always fun to share these and since many of you might not have heard it, I thought I'd share it here.

We had been anxiously awaiting the day for months and it had been getting worse over the most recent weeks. I was so uncomfortable all of the time! I had started to get nauseous at six and a half weeks and had thrown up the whole pregnancy, with the exception of about 2 weeks right in the middle. On top of that it was now June (summer heat) and I had started to swell like a marshmallow. At our appointment on June 18, Dr. Barton was a little concerned about the swelling in combination with high blood pressure and so suggested I get induced on Friday, June 20^th, if the baby hadn’t come by then. That would be 10 days early. He’d told us a week and a half before that it could be any day as I was already dialated to a 2 or 3 then. I finished things up at work over the next day and a half and Thursday evening we headed to the store to get some things for the next day. It was about 7 pm and I was starving! (I hadn’t eaten since lunch.) In the produce section we ran into someone Joey knew from scouts. I was standing there, minding my own business while they talked when I began thinking “I wonder if my water just broke and I wonder if I should go to the bathroom…” Then without warning, the flood gates opened! There in the grocery store I stood, both legs soaked and a puddle on the floor. Neither Joey nor his friend had noticed what happened so I stepped quietly behind Joey, waited for a minute then whispered urgently in his ear “Joey, we have to go…NOW!” Joey at first wondered why I would be so rude until he looked down and saw the puddle. He hastily ended the conversation and we jetted out to the car, leaving the cart with the grapes and gummy bears we had picked up at the front of the store. (Incidentally...it only happens about 10% of the time that your water breaks before you are actually in full blown labor...)

We ran home, grabbed a few necessities, changed clothes :), paused for a picture and headed to St. Marks. We arrived at about 9 pm and I still hadn’t really had any contractions that I could feel. When we checked in they said “We’ll put this lady who thinks her water broke in room 4…” Kristy just laughed inside as she was pretty sure it could not have been anything else. After we got all settled the contractions began coming steadily and quickly. Soon they were right on top of each other and I asked for the epidural. It was now about 11:30 pm. Before I got pregnant I thought "I am getting an epidural in the parking lot!" I felt sure I was a total wimp and couldn't deal with the pain. But after the birthing class, I felt really brave. It was helpful to have more information on all the options and the actual birth process. I thought I would see how long I could last before I got one. Bravery is fleeting amidst that much pain and the epidural couldn’t come quickly enough. In my class they had told me that "some women even sleep between contractions". Well maybe some people do...but my labor progressed so quickly that there was no "between" contractions. They were literally one right on top of another. So I go the epidural and it was just what the doctor ordered. I was ready to start pushing about 12:30 AM and finally at 1:53 in the morning, June 20, 2003, our baby girl was born.

We had gone through several variations on her name prior to her birth, but hadn't been able to settle on anything. Joey suggested Kelley Madison. I loved it! Kelley is my mom's maiden name and one of my sister's was nearly Kelley. Plus we spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Kelley growing up and so it seemed perfect. When I was in college I went to New Jersey for the summer as a nanny and one of the little girl's I'd watched was named Madison. She was so adorable and I'd loved that name ever since. For a long time thought we would have a "Maddie" as our first little girl. In the end however I didn't love the fact that it was the number one name in the country (or close to it) and so it went in the middle. (As a funny side note I know relatively few Madison's, Kelley's age or otherwise :)

Kelley has been such a joy and a blessing in our lives. I was surprised at how instantly I loved her and how mothering came more naturally than I thought it would. I am truly blessed.

Oh Baby!

Current Pregnancy update: Things are going well. I can't shake the worry that I'm going to end up with a baby this month though instead of next. I think I'm just being silly. I do this every time...but I have some legitimate reasons to worry. I started having Braxton Hicks contractions about 2 months ago on a regular basis: about a dozen or so a day. I don't remember any with Kelley (although I had to have had SOME) and only a few episodes with Tyler. They have steadily increased so currently I have about 2-3 an hour most of the time. I talked to my midwife about it and she said not to worry: as long as they go away when I lay down they aren't a problem. So far they have been mostly. They do tend to get worse throughout the day though and tonight they are as bad as they have been. They were pretty bad this afternoon, so I laid down and they went away. But now, 2 hours later I have had 13 contractions in the last 53 minutes. They aren't really painful, but they are a lot stronger tonight than they have been. So I've eaten, drank some water and am laying down. We'll see what happens. Really don't want to spend the rest of my evening hooked up to a monitor in the hospital just for them to tell me I'm being a worry wort, I should know better (already having had two kids previously) and to go home and take it easy. But then again, I really don't want to get to a point where they can't do anything about it (my labors have historically progressed VERY quickly) and end up with a premature baby that could have been saved that struggle.

Good news though. According to my ultrasound I was 34 weeks on Saturday. That means they could deliver the baby here in Cedar if it came at this point and babies at this age generally do really well, without long term problems. That being said, I have stuff still to do and really don't want a preemie if we can help it. That just seems like it would be super complicated with the daycare and it being winter and all. I am starting to get really uncomfortable most of the time and tired really easily, but I'm willling to buck up for a few more weeks :)

Can I brag a little too? I shouldn't say anything because I'll probably balloon in the next few weeks, but I have still only gained less than 10 pounds this whole pregnancy. Now before you get all jealous on me or something you have to know that I started this pregnancy probably 20 pounds heavier than I did with my other two...as much as I hate to admit that! But the funny thing is if I keep this up I will end up weighing less AFTER I have the baby than when I started. Joey keeps laughing about it and calling it the pregnancy diet. It's really exciting for me though because maybe it will give me the motivation to shed the rest of what I gained pre pregnancy after I have the baby. I always find it easier to loose weight when I am nursing. Love that little perk!

Anyway, I guess I better LAY down, instead of trying to just sit here as that doesn't seem to be helping. I'll let you all know if anything dramatic happens in the next few days...

Notice something new????

When Kelley was two years old she fell and smacked her front teeth on the concrete at Park Discovery. They turned brown, but the dentist said we should just leave them in unless the started to bother her. Just before she turned 5 (Spring 2008) I noticed they were starting to turn pink. She also started complaining that they hurt. Had I looked behind them I could have clearly seen the problem, but the solution was the same either way. We took her into the dentist and he informed us that they were rotting and needed to be fixed. The "pink" color was from new blood draining through them. The backs of them were totally rotted and they were eating away the root.

At first he thought he could do it without pulling them, but when he determined the extent of the damage he decided they had to come out. He said it would probably be two Christmases where she could sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...." Eighteen months later we are happy to report that she only went one Christmas and now has two lovely front teeth coming in quite nicely! In a way I think she was actually kind of lucky. Instead of loosing them one at a time and then having one big fat tooth come in before the other, she gets them both at the same time. I don't know if that has anything to do with them being pulled or not, but it seems like a nice reward for having to go toothless for almost two years!