Growing pains. . .

Hey, look at these cute shoes, they look just a little bit too big. .

I wonder why?

Maybe because they are MY shoes on my 9 year old daughter!!

Just in time for Halloween.

The other night I heard a little "scratch-scratch" coming from inside the fire-place. Hmm. A mouse? IN the fireplace? How would it get in there?



"Matt"



"What?"



"Come down here. . ."



"There's something making noise in the fireplace? I think it's a mouse"



He grabs our videocamera to use the light on it.



"Um, yeah, NOT a mouse."



"What is it?"



"It's a bat."



"WHAT??" As he begins to OPEN the fireplace doors, and I quickly leave the living room "I'm NOT watching this."

He grabbed his gloves and took the bat back outside (my HERO!). The bat was making some great cries and Matt said it was trying to bite through the gloves.

I have no idea how or why it was in there. . .does it prefer to eat ashes? We also have a nice grate/cover on top, I guess it was small enough to sneak inside.

Now fastforward to last night. . .Matt has his big flashlight out for something else and decides to take a peek up the fireplace. . . .check it out.

Here's what he saw. . .

Now, I promise the thing was NOT that big (maybe the size of the small part of your palm). Apparently my husband is an expert on bats, because he quickly said. . ."It's dead, hanging on the damper." I however, was not convinced and left the room again when he got out his 9-iron to knock it down. I did stay close enough to listen for him to scream like a girl when it flew out. . .but I stood corrected. Dead. Eww.

p.s. When he first came and showed me a picture, I smiled at him and said "could you get a better picture for my blog??" thanks honey, it's all for the bloggers.

Road trip!

Just a couple of weeks after Simon was born, Matt and the girls loaded up in a 15 passenger van with 15 passengers (no empty seats!!) with his family and road-tripped to Maryland to see his grandparents. I humbly volunteered to stay home (post coming soon about how crazy of an idea THAT was). Let's see. . . .15 people, 6 kids, 9 adults, and about a 22-24 hour drive--both ways. Matt said it best. . "well, it'll be an adventure." His sister even designed shirts for the crew. I had told her about my idea for a new reality show, Family Vacation Survivor, so she designed the shirts after the Survivor logo.
I think the "Stop Touching Me" was particularly a nice touch.




They did have a good time, but I'm sure no one will want to make that trip again for a LONG long time.

These next pictures probably deserve their own post but I'm too tired, so I'll entitle them

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP MY HUSBAND AT THE BEACH!!"
Alternate title: "A lesson on skin cancer."


Matt had sunscreened up the girls when they hit the beach at Ocean City, but then was all by his lonesome to get it on his back, and he thought "Well, that should be good enough."


I present to you PROOF that sunscreen works. . you can even see how far his fingers could reach.







And this is even a good week after the "incident". Ouch babe.

Sigh

Wow. Simon is 10 weeks old today. I finally feel like I'm coming out of that "sleepy-fog" that overcomes you when you bring your newborn home. Here's what I CAN remember.

Simon's delivery was by far my easiest. All the more reason that he should be my last.

Madison was born 2 weeks early, labor was only about 7 1/2 hours but I was pushing for 2 1/2-3 of that. NOT fun, and exhausting.

Molly was fast and furious. I was dialated to a 4 for about 3 weeks, and by the time we made it to the hospital in the wee hours just a day after Madisons 2nd birthday, I was already an 8. I begged for an epidural and she was born just 30 minutes later.

Whitney was my longest labor, 11 hours. I'm not complaining, I'm fully aware women are in hard labor for much longer than this, but for me, it WAS my longest, hardest labor. She was a sunny-side up baby, making for some great back labor. She finally rolled over and decided to come out and see us.

So, Simon. I was again dialated to a "good-3" for about 2 weeks. I actually was able to convince my midwife to induce me. (The stars aligned!!). She broke my water about 9am, and I walked and walked, and walked AND walked. Just after lunch I was a little more uncomfortable, about a 4-5, and my nurse asked if I wanted my epidural. Honestly, it wasn't bad yet, but we decided, why wait until it's bad?? Let's get that epidural on board. So my midwife finished up her appointments and came right over about 1 to hang out and wait. Just when we were ready for some pitocin to keep the party going, I was complete. After about 4 pushes at 3:48pm our baby boy was here! It's amazing all over again. I remember saying to Matt that "we KNOW there's a baby in there, but when he's right there in front of you, it's a complete miracle!!" Matt's sister Tyley was there videotaping (my view only please!), and she had made it BARELY in time. Matt's mom made it just a few minutes later. She had been watching the kids and was going to take them to a friends and come up, but we called and said "you may as well just come up here with them, he'll be here in a few minutes!!" The girls were in the waiting room, so they got to come and meet Simon just a few minutes after he was born. One of my favorite things that my midwife does is that she brings in a little tub and helps Matt give the babes their first little bath. I get to just sit back (and take photos) and watch my amazing huband interact and bond with our littles ones right away.

Coming soon

Hah, you just THOUGHT you were going to breast-feed!

Oh, no, it's a "Whitney" all over again.

How many different meds does it take to cure reflux?

Are you SURE it's even reflux?

Why did you leave me all alone with a newborn and go clear across the country?

"if you see any sanity at the store, go ahead a buy that too."

Don't worry, he won't be newborn forever.

Sounds fun huh?

Oh, and a teaser of what Simon looks like now! Givivg a cute little smirk!

What's for breakfast??

Well, when Mom sleeps in a little too late, apparently, it's BROWNIES for breakfast!!

Smokey

April 1991-September 10, 2008

"It's not about you. . .it's about THEM."

Today has been declared Nienie day. In efforts to raise money to help the Nielsons in their recovery (months=big bucks), the blog world has come together to have several online auctions/giveaways/raffles in their behalf. Please visit these sites and spend, spend, spend!!

http://www.designmom.com/ (Gabby came up with this fabulous idea of Nienie day and has a list of sites that are doing auctions)

http://www.ohjudy.blogspot.com/ (Maroon 5 guitar and tickets!!!)

http://www.reachelandrew.com/NieRecovery/Home.html

http://blog.cjanerun.com/

and check out my favorite auction of the day (and SO Chris.) www.thejollyporter.blogspot.com

If you'd like to just make a donation toward this cause go here http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

wishing

In the last week, I don't think many hours have gone by that I haven't thought of the Nielson family. Many of you already know that Stephanie and Christian were critically injured in a plane crash just one week ago. You can read more about and keep updated with their progress at http://blog.cjanerun.com/ . I remember meeting Stephanie for the first time (I think) in the Clark home with Lisa when I was out visiting her. I remember her as a young dark-haired beauty that chatted with us in their kitchen. I have "re-met" her a few times since then. The last time I think was as we swam at their Grandma's pool with the kids a few years ago when I was visiting again with Lisa.

Since then, I have come to really "know" her as Nienie through her blog (click here), like many of you. What a zest for life. Sometimes I would think, "can it really be THAT great?", after seeing post after post of crafts and smiling kids and love like crazy, I think I've come to the conclusion, that YES, that's how it is. That's how she chooses it to be. I'm sure she's had her fair share of screaming kids, breakdown, and mommy meltdowns, but she was able to find the great part of her day to focus on and to remember. In the last week, as I think of their sweet family, I have tried, like many of you, to find that zest for life that she had. I try to find the "perfect" in my own day and remember that as I lay down to sleep. I try to squeeze my children a little tighter, love my husband more, appreciate my life more, and most of all, thank my Savior more each day for the sacrifice He gave in our behalf.

When I heard the idea of a balloon launch in their behalf, I knew I wanted to take part in it. Tonight we were getting together with some gals from church to celebrate a couple of birthdays, so Christy said she would bring along some balloons that we could set off with our wishes in Stephanie and Christians behalf. We shared their story with these wonderful women and had everyone write a wish for them. As we talked of this sweet family, I watched as each of these women, as mothers, ached for Stephanie, and ached for her husband and children. Instantly I could tell that they were touched by her story.



I had talked with my children about doing our own balloon launch. I had briefly told the girls about what had happened and about the Nielsons tradition. On a funny note, when I initially told Molly about sending a wish up on a balloon, she got all excited and said, "Oh, I'm going to wish for a dog!!". I quickly explained that this was not about her. . .it was about them. As I talked with her more seriously about their situation and how it made me feel, I hoped she understood. I didn't realize until tonight that she completely did. I took a quick glance at her little note she wrote down, without any prompting from me. It said,


"Heavenly Father knows you and loves you." I couldn't have said it better myself.

Our wishes are on their way. Nienie's blog

Tribute video to Nie

Handsome.

Yep, Handsome. That's our Simon.

Check out some sneak preview pictures of our announcements. . .courtesy of my fabulous Sister-in-law Tiff.

Whitney lovin' her little brotherLOVE the baby feet. . .Hi little dude. . .I love those little newborn wrinkles.Simon's blessing day at home. . .Saturday July 19thSimon and his daddy. . .Look at those faces!

An Olympic competitor

Matt missed the big "proud-dad" moment, but I was there to recount ALL of the details.

Now Matt says that Simon will win the official 3rd grade boys competition.

We were at the Dr. for his jaundice check and the nurse had him all worked up after all the temperature taking business, and weighing him totally naked in a cold room. She picked him up with just the little paper cover underneath and he calmed down and was giving her the "big eyes/Ahhh/he's so cute" look. And Whammo.

He totally sprayed ALL over her shirt, and once she moved out of the way he sprayed all the way to the wall, down the wall, soaked the carpet, the cabinets, everything. We (my mom, me and the nurse) were all laughing so hard we didn't know what to do, so we just let him finish his business (who knew that a baby that small could hold that much??) and then the nurse spent 5 minutes cleaning up the whole mess.

As the nurse left the room she said, "Well, now I have something exciting to talk about at dinner tonight, and I need to go find a new shirt."

I guess we should have brought along those Pee-pee Tee-pees.

And I knew I couldn't post without some more sweet pictures of our BOY!!

Simon Matthew

This is Matt. Wendy wanted me to post some of the photos of our son. I will let Wendy give you the details of the labor & delivery. Wendy was a trooper, I'm not saying that it was a very difficult labor & delivery, it's just she did gave birth to a baby. It's really an amazing process. Well, here are the stats, 7lbs 15oz & 20.5" long. Mom and son are doing well. With out further ado...

Progress. . .

No, not in the baby department, in the house department!!

After our big waterproofing last fall, we needed to fix up our main room in the basement (rec room/family room/craft room/play room, etc.), so paneling was pulled off, glorified-cardboard/particle board ceiling pulled down, recessed lighting added since we have 2 incredibly small windows in there, drywall, paint, trim and now carpet!!

Of course I didn't take any "before" pictures so the best I could come up with was the photos from when we had our tornado warning. . .

Here's a look at that fabulous wood paneling! Not only wood paneling, but REAL wood paneling (I guess this was before "fake" wood paneling was cool.)

and now for the new!!

Boo! Maddie! Caught you by surprise.

And of course, what is the room best for (before it's all filled up?), Cartwheels and somersaults!!

And now for the "compromise". . .

When Whitney's room was finished, we had painted it a fabulous pink/pink/with a stripe , and as soon as we were done, Matt said "you know that this means that we're having a boy next". . .little did we know it could be that easy!!

So, what to do? I decided we'd just split the room. . .

Quite fabulous if I do say so myself, and once again, completely stolen from a pottery barn catalog idea.