Eden - 4 months

Here they are....as promised! Month 1,2,3 & 4!






And here is a short video for your viewing pleasure. ;) Please excuse the annoying monkey noises.

Eden dancing

Here is a silly video on her 4 month 'birthday'! (Pic to come tomorrow....)

The Mother Letter Project

This was passed onto me and I wanted to share it with you guys. There is the sweetest request that has been made from a husband, wanting to give his wife something very special for Christmas. Here is the website if you are interested in reading it...

http://www.motherletter.blogspot.com

Here is a small write up:

As you may already know, I am creating Christmas for my wife this year and this is the site devoted to her present. Simply stated, I am collecting a series of “open letters” from mothers, to mothers. I am asking you to share your stories—no matter how raw or difficult. Share you concerns or worries—no matter how foolish they may seem. Share your wisdom—no matter how you came by it. Share your mother story. The only request? Start the letter “Dear Mother” and sign it. I will compile all of the letters in a Christmas book for both my wife AND YOU. If you share a letter before Christmas you will receive an electronic copy of the Mother Letters. Submit your letter by leaving a comment here, or email you letter to motherletter@gmail.com.

Soooo...I decided to take part. Here is the letter I submitted and I cannot wait to read them ALL! Being a Mother is the best part of my life.

"Dear Mother,

In 8 months I will have a 1 year old. I don’t want a 1 year old; I want this chubby, smiley 4 month old to stay 4 months old……maybe forever. I don’t know what the world needs with more adults. Adults are big and lanky and have to do special things to be cute. Babies are always cute, no matter what they do. This baby is the last of my three children. I have already watched chubby babies grow up into precocious toddlers and curious little boys. That has been a joy, too….but now I want to keep my baby. Forever.

You see, we weren’t ‘supposed’ to have this baby. We were all done….but God had other plans for us. When I got pregnant with her, my second child was only 17 months old. I felt like I already had a baby and I didn’t want another one. I was upset over it and it took a month or two for me to be OK and excited about it. Now she is here and she is the light in our lives. We feel a sense of completion that we never knew was lacking.

My day consists of running myself and my children all over creation. From school to the gym, then errands, then pick up the boys from school. Then a few hours later there is usually some kind of practice, followed by getting dinner on the table, baths and bedtime. Our baby goes in and out of the car all day long. All I want to do is sit on the couch with her and make her smile. Watch her blow spit bubbles and talk baby talk to her. Soak up every ounce of her and bottle up her smell so I will never forget. I have already forgotten what my boys smelled like at this age. What their baby breath smelled like. How their head felt when it was nuzzled in my neck. I don’t want to forget her and I know I will. This makes me so sad.

So I want time to stop for a while. I don’t want to have her in the car all day. I don’t want her to be 5 months, and then 6 months, and then 7 months. I want her to always be my little baby girl. The girl I didn’t expect. The little thief who has stolen my heart. She is truly a gift from God and I am so thankful for her. I just hope I can be the Mother to my children that mine was to me.

Love, Jessica"

I am so thankful!

There are so many things I have to be thankful for this year. Here are a few of those things...

Us


My loves









Our incredible family













Such great friends





A beautiful house to raise my children in



Being able to help others while doing what I love



And these are just a few. I hope everyone has a very blessed Thanksgiving. I wish we could all be together. I love you all!!!

Parker talking to "Baby Gay-uuul"

And here is another video....taken almost exactly a year ago! Parker looks so little...he was only 17.5 months old. And I wasn't even preggers with Eden yet! Oh wait...yes I was. I just didn't know it! LOL!

On the mend......

I am speaking for myself here, as the boys are still sleeping. Of course, it is 6:45 and they still aren't awake....which could mean they are not 100%. But since I wasn't woken in the night to clean up throw up, I will assume that all is well and that we are all on the mend. I sure hope that's the case, because I have a lot of Thanksgiving grocery shopping that I need to do today! The kids are out of school this week (of course) so I will have them all in tow.

We are spending Thanksgiving at Chris & Ana's this year. They are 'taking in' all the poor souls that have nowhere to go for Thanksgiving. We will join them, along with Pam and Travis and their kids, and Kat and Scott and their kids. That will equal 8 adults and TWELVE children. Yikes!! Should be a lot of fun though. Ana, Jen and I are starting the morning with the famous 'Turkey Trot' in Dallas. It is an 8 mile race that helps get your blood flowing and clear your stomach for all of the food you will be ingesting that day. After we get home and I shower, we will head over to the Jordan's to eat early afternoon (I believe). Later in the day, the Kieffers will be having their annual 'Turkey Bowl'; a flag football game for moms, dads and kids to enjoy. It should be a lot of fun!!

We are bringing Dressing, Green Bean and Portabello Mushroom Casserole (not your traditional soggy slop casserole *shivers*), Apple Pie and Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake. I am also Making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies with Maple Frosting for Mike to bring to work. My schedule is as follows:

Monday: Grocery Shop and make cookies for Mike's work

Tuesday: Chop and bag veggies for dressing, cook fresh green beans & dice Mushrooms for casserole, set out bread for dressing to stale, peel and slice apples for pie, and make Cheesecake.

Wednesday: Make dressing, Make GB casserole and make Apple Pie

Not too bad! It is super easy when you are sharing Thanksgiving duties. Although I secretly love to be in the kitchen all day for a few days straight so it would be OK if I had to make it all!

Other activities today include making lemonade for a lemonade stand. Yesterday Jacob picked ALL the lemons off my lemon trees...and got about 20-25 lemons. He wants to make homemade lemonade to sell, so why not. I have a good book to read so I don't mind sitting out on my rocking chairs while he tries to sell lemonade.

I will leave you a pic for the day!

Sick

Well the stomach bug is making it's way through our house. Eden, Parker and I have had it...let's see who is next! So nothing much to say today. But here is a picture of our little cupcake!

Eden & Mommy!

OK...I did it!

It isn't as short as the pic....a couple inches longer maybe and no bangs....but I do like it lots!! He thinned it out TONS...Ana said it looks like my volume of hair went down by half.

So here are some pics. I apologize for the quality and the angle....Jacob took them and he kept moving to the side of where I wanted him too....darn 5 year olds. ;)

BEFORE (keep in mind I got home at 3 am!!...LOL)



AFTER





On to other news.....a couple friends and I went to the Twilight midnight movie premiere last night. It was a terrible movie, but still a fun night. We have 10 miles to do tomorrow morning in the cold...so I am off to bed. Yes, it is 7:34. So! ;)

Do I dare??

I need honest opinions please, so if you visit, please leave me a comment. I am getting my hair cut tomorrow and am wanting a change...

***image has been removed***

I want it a little longer than this, maybe sitting on my shoulder rather than chin length.

So??

You know you're old when....

There are many things that make me feel old.

- Maybe the fact that I now have 3 children. THREE!
- That I 'carpool'.
- Because my car smells like food and spilled sippy cup (you know that smell I'm talking about).
- I am 'thirtysomething'.
- I go to bed by 9 usually....10 at the LATEST.
- I have a medicine case FULL of medicines.
- I don't flick other drivers off anymore.
- I use the phrase 'because I said so' all the time.

The list goes on and on. All of these things that have the potential of making me feel not-so-young anymore...yet I still feel pretty damn young. Way younger than my age. UNTIL! *dum dum dummmmmm* (insert spooky music here)

Jacob has a loose tooth. A loose tooth! I don't know why this makes me feel so middle-aged, but it does. People my age have babies, and carry around stylish diaper bags, and are still obsessed with the latest and greatest (which I consider myself in that category also). But to have a kid with a loose tooth? Now that's old. It just is.

Now excuse me while I go take my handful of medicine, brush and floss my teeth, apply my carmex, and fall into the bed without so much as watching the news. At 9:11 pm. I may as well be changing my own diaper! *sigh*

GAH!!!!

I love my kids. I promise I do. But I HATE that they crap up all my stuff! :(

I have the three CUTEST baby books in the world. They go from Pregnancy - School Years and they have the cutest inserts, etc. Put aside the fact that they are so cute LOOKING and don't have child things such as Winnie the Pooh all over them. You can see them here:

www.lulubloom.com

Anyway, I came into the office this morning to find this.



*sobs*

Parker colored all over my beautiful baby books! I am so sad. I wish I could lock up all of my nice stuff until my kids get out of 'destruction mode'! At least the pen was blue and you can't really see it on Jacob's blue one.

Boo hoo.

Chicken salad heaven

So yesterday, I was totally in chicken salad heaven. I am doing a Christmas luncheon for the teachers at Jacob and Parker's school, and wanted to serve a good chicken salad. While there are many good chicken salad recipes out there, I wanted to find the best, most holiday-ish one that I could find. I spent the morning in the kitchen yesterday mixing up different kinds of chicken salad until I could find the perfect one. And folks...I DID IT! And wouldn't you know that it was the simplest one I tried. Sometimes the right combination of yummy ingredients is the best...in this case it definitely was.

So here you go!

Combine the following:

1 roasted chicken, deboned and cut or pulled into small bite-size chunks ( I like them cut into uniform pieces. I am weird that way. I don't want a long piece of pulled chicken in my chicken salad. *shivers* Pulled chicken is for barbecue!)
1 – 1 ½ cups dried cranberries
½ - 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Mix:
½ cup plain yogurt (I used 0% fat, Greek Yogurt. Very tangy and creamy.)
½ cup sour cream (I used light)
½ cup mayonnaise (Also used light on this...and don't you dare use that Miracle Whip crap)

Combine with chicken mixture, place in storage container and refrigerate.

THAT'S IT!! 4 ingredients; 7 if you count the dressing. I ate it on wheat thins and it was delicious. Make it for dinner one time this week.....you won't be sorry!

"You are so mean!"

"You are poo-poo!"
"I am not your fwend. EVUH!"
"I dont yike you, mommy."

These are just mere examples of what I hear multiple times on a daily basis. God forbid I try and help him put his shoes on. Or help him into his car seat. If I even dare to pull his pants up after he goes to the restroom! *faints*

Parker is in the 'I-want-to-do-it-all-myself-and-if-you-should-dare-to-so-much-as-think-about-helping-I-will-scream' phase. Sigh. It is exhausting! Now that we are potty training it has gotten even worse. A simple pee session takes about 10 minutes per time. He has to unsnap his pants, pull them alllllll the way down to the ground. Sit on the seat BY HIMSELF. Point down his penis BY HIMSELF. Get off the toilet BY HIMSELF. You get the idea. And Lord help us all if someone flushes for him. Let's put it this way; I don't even want to THINK about what is on the floor surrounding the toilet when that happens....because it usually results in a full body 'pancake' on the floor....screaming...with his mouth open! *shivers* And the hand washing. Lord have mercy. Don't even think about squirting the soap for him!!

While I am so glad to be rid of diapers, this potty training stuff is for the birds. Looks like we will be a slave to the ten minute toilet sessions for the next 6 months.

ACK!

Eden 'talking'

My little love muffin at 16 weeks. :)

Weekend fun

Well, we had quite a fun weekend! Friday night was spent at the Jordan's beating them in Pictionary. (lol Ana)

Saturday I went to Team in Training in the morning and then came home and chilled the rest of the day. Saturday night we went out with The Jordans, The Kieffers and The Havlovics for Mike's birthday. We went to a bar called Blackfinn and had an awesome time drinking, eating, dancing and acting crazy. It was pretty much the first time I have been out like that since I had Eden and it was great!

Us and Jen and Kevin Kieffer

The girls and Spencer!!

The boys



The girls with the birthday boy..



The night started getting crazier.....

Group shot

I don't think any of the pictures taken after this one are appropriate for family viewing. ;) Kidding of course, but the night did get crazier and crazier! It was super fun.

After we rolled in at about 3 am, we got home to find a shivering puppy in our driveway. We brought him in, made him a bed and gave him a warm place to sleep until the next day where hopefully we could find his family. I posted about him on the neighborhood website, and about mid-day someone called and picked him up. I was sad to see him go...he was SO CUTE!! But Parker was scared to death and spent most of the morning cowering in the pantry on a stool, chanting "no doggie, no doggie!" over and over. It was rather comical actually! Here is a pic of him. You can see he had one brown eye and one blue eye. I made his bed in the guest bathtub and covered him so he would be nice and warm. I named him Finn. :)

Well, our mileage has gotten up to 10 miles this week, so this will be my longest run in a long time!! I am looking forward to it...oh how I love my long runs! I will update more about my training later. To those who have donated. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! You donate to the cause and I will do the hard part....training in the 20 degree weather! Anyway, thanks again and I look forward to seeing how much we can raise.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

Beads of Courage

I wanted to take a minute to share something with you. Many people think I am "crazy" for doing Team in Training...not only for the long mileage, but mainly for the great amount of fundraising I commit myself to. I wanted to give you a perfect example of why.

There is a little boy named Austin Moreno who is one of our Honored Heroes, and also the son of Kim Moreno, one of our Mentors. Austin is the "friend's child" that I mentioned in my fundraising letter (for those of you who have received and read it). He was diagnosed with Leukemia at about the same age Parker is now, maybe even a few months younger. He is now an amazing 4 year old and participates in a program named Beads of Courage.

Beads of Courage is a unique program designed to honor the challenging journey children take while experiencing cancer and related treatments. Through the program, the collection of 'Beads of Courage' symbolize not only courage, but also serves to honor milestones achieved along each unique treatment path. Each individual bead he receives has special significance about his treatment. Below is the guide to the beads:

Beige - A Bone Marrow Biopsy/Aspiration
White - A course of Chemotherapy
Orange - Central Line/port insertion or removal
Blue - Clinic Visit
Magenta - Emergency/Ambulance/Unusual Occurrence
Brown - Hair loss/thinning
Lime - Isolation/fever/neutropenia
Tortoise- Lumbar Puncture
Purple - Morphine/Dopamine/PCA Infusion
Silver/Black - Pokes (IV starts, Blood Draws, IM Injections, Port Access)
Glow in the Dark - Radiation treatment
Light Green - Test/Scans (EKG, ECG, MRI, CT, Bone Scan)
Red - Transfusions
Aqua - tube Insertion (Catheter, Chest)
Yellow - Overnight at Hospital/ Inpatient Admission
Dark Green - Stem Cell Harvest/Dialysis/TPN
Silver - Surgery & Dressing Change
Square Heart - Transfer to PICU

Now check out this picture of Austin...

THIS is why I do this.

Horray!!

I think it's safe to say that Parker is officially potty trained. Its been 4 days and we have only had one half-accident. A little too much came out when he realized he had to go, but he still told me and made it to the potty to finish. I call it an accident because we had to change his clothes. BUT...the diapers have been passed on to Reid and he is in 100% undies...even for nap time.

He is even mostly telling me that he has to go now instead of me staying on him and asking every 20 minutes. I guess he was just ready...it was even easier than with Jacob and that was a piece of cake. Maybe I'm just the pro. ;)

HALLELUJAH!!!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MIKE! He turns 34 today. Of course he has to go to work (which is totally unfair...birthdays should be holidays!), but then I made a big pot of Gumbo last night - by request of course - and am making a chocolate sheet cake today which was also his request. So Happy Birthday Daddy...we love you!

Pic of the day. :)

PS.....Day 2 of no accidents....and we went out and about for several hours! (still knocking on wood...)

Potty training update

I am scared but excited to report.....that we had NO accidents yesterday! I am scared to say that because I am afraid that means today we will have lots. So I will knock on wood. :) I have a couple things that I have to do today though so I have to bring him out in underwear! I dont want to put a pull up on him because I know he will pee in it (since it seems just like a diaper), so I think I will gamble.

Wish us luck and I will update tomorrow!!

Guess the culprit....

Notice the blue lips. The blue tongue. Imagine my surprise when I walked up on Eden like this and Parker sitting like the cat that ate the canary. Little punk! He got a gumball for pooping in the potty and decided he would let Eden have a taste. When he fished it out of her mouth is when she started crying...and when I came to see what was wrong. SCARY! Thank God he got it out and she didn't choke on it. I will have to be more careful around those two. I have gotten a lot more relaxed lately since he is so good and gentle with her.

In other news...as stated above...Parker has been really good about peeing and pooping in the potty. To the point that he will hold it sometimes and then pee for like 5 minutes when he gets home on the potty. YAY! So I have been putting it off long enough out of sheer laziness...and decided that I would put him in undies today. Here are a few pics of my big boy donning his 'Naughty Nascar' undies and all! ;)



Some other weekend festivities included a trial 'wash' in mine & Ana's hair. Hers looks great, mine...not so much. I actually picked a darker color on accident (read the box wrong and didn't realize it until it was in), but you couldn't even really tell that much. Oh well, it was fun!

Here's one of me playing hairdresser...



Now Ana's turn....

And lastly...one of my sweetie pie. Hard to believe that she will be 15 weeks tomorrow. I already miss so many new baby things, although each week rewards us with new skills. I wish I could freeze time. :(

Well, it's done.

May the best man win!

Chicken chili

Yummy, fast, low fat/calorie and makes a lot. Could there be anything better for fall? I don't think so! You'll need:

1 yellow onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 - 8oz. can chopped green chilis
2 t. cumin
1 t. oregano
1 t. cayenne pepper
1 - 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes ( I use the Mexican style), drained
1 - 32 oz. box low sodium, fat free chicken broth
2 cans white beans, rinsed & drained
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1 shredded rotisserie chicken

Saute onion and garlic in a tiny amount of olive oil on med-high heat. When starting to turn opaque, add chilis, spices and tomatoes and cook at med. heat for about 5 mins. Add broth, beans and chicken and simmer for about 15 mins.

At this point, I usually move it to the fridge until dinner time. It is much better made earlier in the day or the day before. Reheat it and serve with shredded cheese, tortilla strips, cilantro, lime, sour cream, or any other topping you think may be good. Mike likes it with cheese and I like it just plain. If you have an aversion to spicy food you may want to reduce the cayenne pepper by at least half.

Delicious!!

Eden's first official photo shoot......

Did not go as well as planned. It was a beautiful day, I had a cute outfit on hand and she was in a great mood. What more could we ask for, right? Wrong.

Not so sure about this....

Oh hell. Im not in the mood.

*Looks around suspiciously....*

I said I wasn't in the mood!

Oh hell!

AHHH!

(so I tried the chair....)

I guess I'll have to try tomorrow.