Halloween Is Coming!

Looks like everyone else is more on top of it than me this year. Every year, as most of you know, I make our Halloween costumes. I usually start in August so that if I need to order something online or something goes wrong with the production I won't be stressed. The other reason why I start so early is because I like to plan out fabrics to buy when they are on sale and I don't have to pay a fortune. I have been so crazy busy with the kitchen remodel that August rolled around and I haven't even thought of it. Everyone at work kept asking me what we were going to be this year. One night when I didn't have to work they were all trying to come up with ideas and they posted them on Facebook for me. Some said Goldilocks and the three bears. Others said Cinderella or Snow White but none of those really caught my interest. One day I was sitting at a friends house and noticed that Addison's ponytail had migrated to the top of her head and was sitting straight up. I said, "Hey doesn't she look like Cindy Lou Who?" Ah Ha! That's it! I have always debated whether to keep our costumes a secret until presenting them in flesh and blood but I do have a big mouthed sister who tells everyone everything. Plus I would get sick of everyone begging me to tell them what we are so I give in.

Adam will be the Grinch, I will be his girlfriend Martha May Whovier, Addison will be Cindy Lou Who and Landon will be Max the dog.

The one thing that I am concerned about it how am I going to get Landon's one antler to stay on his head. Suggestions anyone? I don't want to attach it to the dog costume because if I need just a plain dog costume in the future or if someone wants to borrow it then I don't have to remake it or take it apart.

So I will post my progress until October!

My Crazy Life

I know that I have been saying that I am almost done with my kitchen for a long time but now I can really say "I am almost done!" I came to the conclusion that I can't do it on my own anymore. My dad took his tools back since he started building the cabin. I still had to cut all of the baseboards but had no saw. I thought, Do I try to borrow a saw, buy a saw or just put the money towards someone doing it for me? I found one of my friends from high school on facebook and he has a tile business. He is doing the backsplash and also new tile in the bathroom. He told me that he had a brother-in-law that is a general contractor and could come finish the doors, paint them and also do the baseboards. SOLD! Everything is taking me ten times longer. I work full time and am with the kids when I am home. I try to get things done when they are asleep but only if I am lucky to get them both asleep at the same time. Mostly I am trying to paint right now. By the time I get the paint out plus all of my supplies and start painting one of them wakes up. I then have to clean everything up and wash the brushes before my 3 years old "helps" me paint. There is a certain moulding around the doors that I want but I had to special order it. It will come in this week and then they can install it. Woohoo! Then I am really done. I do have to do a good cleaning from all of the dust of remodeling. I can't wait until Adam quits his job in November then I will have more time to finish things.

Addison decided to start walking now. I knew that she knew how to walk but she just didn't want to. We would barely hold her by one finger and she would walk fine but when we let go she would just sit down. She still crawls a little bit but now when she falls she will pick herself back up and start walking again. She is kind of bow legged which is a little funny but hopefully it will straighten out the more she starts walking. I think it's her big thunder thighs.

Landon starts preschool tomorrow and he is so excited. He has been asking me everyday for a month if he is going to school yet. He will say things like, "Mom I will take a nap and then go to school okay?" Or he will run, get his backpack and say, "I go to school now okay!" On Sunday morning he even made Adam play school with him.

So I am thinking about going back to work in the ER. I love the babies but I miss the variety of the ER. I am also losing all of my skills. Since we don't use much medications for babies then I forget things. I used to know tons of medications, what they do, how they should be taken etc. Now when people ask me questions about meds I unfortunately say, "I don't know." I applied for a couple ERs so we will see! I have to get recertified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). My class is this Thursday and next Thursday. I have to review all of the cardiac rhythms and medications to give when someone codes. It's a lot to remember and since I haven't done it in a long time I will need to study. This is one more thing I have to do on top of my crazy life.

I am trying to eat better and lose weight now. I gained about 30 pounds with this kitchen remodel. I wasn't able to cook anything with having no kitchen so I went out alot. I am also going to not drink soda anymore. I had my last soda today. I will let everyone know about my progress. If people know my goal then I am more likely to do it.

Addison's 1 Year Pictures

So I went to picture people and they were actually good today. They didn't make me wait an hour like last time. Addison did not have a good time though. I sat her in the middle and went behind the photographer to make her smile. She got about 2 pictures where she was straight faced and wouldn't smile. All of a sudden she looked all around her and then busted out in the biggest cry I have ever seen her do. She was crying so hard that she was shaking and hyperventilating. So the photographer decided to give us some blocks to play with and stepped out to get her familiar with her surroundings. She played for a while and crawled around gathering and stacking the blocks. Once the photographer came back in she dived towards me and clung on for dear life. What we had to do then was have me sit in the picture and sit her on my outstretched legs and have her play with the blocks. She was still able to be with me but they got some head shots of her without me. She then started warming up, crawling around by herself playing with the blocks but the second the photographer would try to take a picture she would see and dive towards me again. We finally got some good shots so I decided to forgo the second outfit that I brought. The pictures that I posted are from the website so they have that logo on them but atleast you can see them .

4th of July

So we had a typical 4th of July except for working on the kitchen. In the morning we went to the pancake breakfast at the church. It was nice because we got to see some people that we haven't seen for a while. Oh how I miss our old ward. We had a lot of good friends there and it was so fun. After the breakfast we walked down to watch the parade. Nothing much to it. It was a typical parade but we were laughing saying it seems more like an advertisement parade then a celebration parade. We ended up leaving part way through because we were sitting in the sun and all the kids were getting too hot and grumpy.
After the parade Adam and Landon went swimming at grandma's house while I went back and finished putting the front door in. We also painted some of the baseboards so I could put them in the pantry. The next priority for me is to make the shelves in the pantry. I couldn't do that until the baseboards were in there because it would be awfully hard to reach under the shelves to put them in. Once the shelves are in I can organize the kitchen and just do the rest of the projects here and there. So what is still on my list?...paint and put in the doors, paint and put in the molding for around the doors, paint and put in the baseboards, finish installing the speakers, cover the seats on the kitchen table, make the curtains, and tile the backsplash. Then I am completely done. We are getting our new couch on Monday, our refrigerator on Tuesday and our TV installed on Friday. My dad came over on the 4th and finished installing my faucet, garbage disposal and dishwasher. Thanks Dad! Now we can actually make food in the kitchen and clean the dishes. YES! I thought this day would never come, a functioning kitchen. Check out my little model with our new dishwasher.

I Am So Embarrased!

Today the electricity was being worked on so Adam took the kids over to grandma's house while I got my haircut. Addison was still asleep so I relieved Adam of the kids so he could go to work. I was sitting in my parents computer room talking to Melanie and Landon was in the living room playing. We walked out and noticed Landon was gone. The back door was open so I thought that he just went into the backyard to play on the swings. I went to go check on him and suddenly there was a knock on the front door. It was Charles the little boy who lives across the street with his nanny Amy and her daughter Abby (I am friends with Amy and we go over there to play alot) She said, "I have come to bring back Landon" I looked down and he was completely NAKED! I then found his clothes in the backyard. I guess he went back there took off his clothes and then ran across the street to see if Charles can play. Oh Boys!

Just Go To Bed!

My kids never sleep now. We have been sleeping at my parents house because of the kitchen remodel. We would always take them over right when they would wake up so that we could feed them. We figured why keep going back and forth. Landon has been the worse about the sleeping. We put him to bed and he just plays in the room. It is partially our fault because ever since the chaos of the kitchen we haven't been really strict on a bedtime. Last week I put him to bed and went to watch some TV. I checked on him and he was still up at 10pm. I told him to go to bed, sang him a song and tickled his face. His eyes started really drooping and he got really quiet. I slipped out of the room. I went back downstairs to watch TV. It was midnight and I was getting tired so I decided to head to bed. I walked upstairs to find the light on in the room Landon was staying in. I opened the door and got a surprise. He took all of Melanie's scrapbook paper and laid it all over the floor and the bed. Then I saw that he got a hold of one of her orange markers and drew all over both of his arms. The paper was up on top of this tall dresser and he figured out how to get it. There is a porta-crib that was put away so it was in a rectangular shape. He pushed it up to the dresser to stand on it and get the paper. I was so mad for multiple reasons. He was still up at midnight and that he got into Melanie's scrapbook stuff. Thankfully he didn't mess up any of her paper. He helped me put it back and finally went to bed. Saturday we had a little family party for Addison's birthday. By the time everyone left it was 3:30pm. Landon usually goes down for a nap at around 1:00pm. I said he should still go down for a nap but Adam wanted to wait and just put him down for the night. Well 5:00pm comes around and Landon is just melting. Adam takes him up to bed and laid him down to sleep. He fell right asleep. I thought, great now he is going to wake up in a couple hours and be up all night. He never woke up. He slept through the night until 5:00am and Adam made him stay in bed until 7:00am. He just played in his bed, reading books until 7:00am. I guess he was catching up on all of the sleep he has been missing.

Happy Birthday Addison!

Today is Addison's birthday and the 1 year anniversary of my VBAC. (vaginal birth after Cesarean) As most of you know I had a horrific experience with Landon. After my research and also my experience with working in Labor and Delivery I have concluded that there was no medical reason for my C-Section. I didn't have a fever, his heart rate never dropped. It was really just over management from the doctor and the nurse. I was induced with pitocin, had an epidural and the nurse started pushing me way too early. (there are many more things that happened that contributed to my C-Section but I won't go on about it) They said my 8lbs 2oz baby was too big for my pelvis and that I shouldn't even try with my next one because most likely it will be a bigger baby and not fit. I talked to a lot of other mothers who were told the same thing and went to have bigger babies just fine. Being the planner that I am I researched the pros and cons of each situation, C-Section or VBAC. Pros with C-Section: it's scheduled and that was about it. Cons: Blood clots, placental problems in future pregnancies, infertility, hysterectomy, damage to bowel and bladder, hemorrhaging, infection, recovery pain plus potential problems with the baby's lungs and not breastfeeding well. I have to say I have seen a lot of these things first hand at work. Now VBAC Cons: labor pains, don't know when it will happen, uterine rupture (you have a higher chance of having cord prolapse in a normal birth then having a uterine rupture). Cord Prolapse is when the water breaks and the umbilical cord comes out first, gets pinched off by the pelvis and baby's head to cut off the blood supply. This is a true emergency that need a C-Section. Pros on VBAC: less blood loss, with natural hormones the babies breath better, recovery is quicker. (obviously the pros also are that you don't have a chance of all the problems with C-Section)
Well I do have to say my C-Section experience was not bad. I recovered well, breastfed fine but I knew I wanted to have more kids and the risks get higher and higher with each C-Section. I looked into homebirth. I had the greatest experience. My midwives were so good. Soft spoken, gentle, truly cared about me and what I wanted. Addison was born at home, vaginally, 9lbs 2oz, a pound bigger than Landon with no tears at all! It was much easier than I thought. The pain was intense but I wouldn't trade 12 hours of pain for 6 weeks of pain with a C-Section. I felt so empowered after her birth. To have people tell me that I couldn't do it and then to go on and have a bigger baby with no complications was great. Going through what I did with Landon was horrific but I wouldn't change it. I learned a lot about birth, and also about myself. So take that Doctors who said my pelvis was too small!

Swine Flu!

My parents house is busting out of the walls with people and now all of us are sick. My sister, her husband and kids are living with my parents now and we are here everyday because our house is in shambles from the kitchen remodel. Well it all started with Melanie getting sick on Sunday. Then on Wednesday night we woke up to Landon throwing up. He got better on Friday and that is when everything else when haywire. Adam came home from work throwing up then it went Mykell, My mom, Addison, Casey and now me. So all at once 6 people were struck with the flu. Lets just say we were glad that my parents have 3 bathrooms. I wasn't feeling right on Friday but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. I had a really bad headache but didn't feel nauseated. I just felt blah. I decided to call into work sick because I have been up all night for the past 2 nights with Landon and I was exhausted. Well good thing I did because in the middle of the night I started throwing up. It is so funny because when I called into work and they were asking me all of these questions thinking that I have the swine flu. I think this swine flu scare is ridiculous. It's just like any other sickness....stay home, wash your hands, stay hydrated. The regular Influenza make millions of people sick and unfortunately some die. Why is the media playing up this to be ten times worse than the regular flu? They should educate people, not cause mass hysteria. Well I will get off my soap box now. The only people who haven't gotten sick from this is my dad and Kaylee. Then again my dad just said...I just don't feel right. Uh oh he is the next victim. So we aren't going to be around people for a while until this passes.