What We Have Been Up To: June 2009

Its been another busy month here. A quick update to let you know what we have been up to.

Visiting Great Grandma's and Grandma Karen's. The creek.



I love this tree in Great Grandma's front yard. I used to play under it in the summers. There is almost no traffic in this end of the highway (literally) town. I spent many summers coloring the road and bike riding here.


Grandma Karen with the older two kids exploring the creek.


All the kids throwing rocks. Naomi climbed right in and sat down in the water.


Marah tired of rock throwing quickly so we joined Great Grandma on the bench overlooking the creek and lake. Her house is in the background on the right. Her "boyfriend" lives next door. lol It is a good thing she does not have internet access cause she would not be pleased with me about this.


We got a really large egg one day and this is what was inside!! A triple yolk.


A recent activity in the backyard. We filled socks with cornstarch and sprinkled them in different spots to find spiderwebs. It was a lot of fun.


Uncle Robbie came to visit and brought Flower Girl shirts for the youngest, a Ring Guard shirt for Michael (its the camo one above), and Maddy's Jr. Bridesmaid shirt is on the way.


Michael dug a hole in the digging spot. Nomy likes it I think. :)


We met M, L, and E at the zoo. The kids playing in the grassy area after lunch.


This is L. Joe's "mom", isn't she beautiful. Maddy took all the zoo pics.

E making a goofy face. Some how we have no pictures of M.

We played in the grass.

Lots of grass.

The grass is always greener on the other side, at least to the chickens.

They also had some fingers. I think they think hers are worms. I keep hoping she will learn soon but she does this over and over and over. They do not break skin or anything but I am sure it is not a pleasant feeling.

Madeline

Nomy has helped herself to most of our strawberry harvest this year. She eats them stem and all.

The reason for the lack of June updates. Yeah typing was not easy, or cutting, or diapers, or well anything.

Another zoo trip just me and the kids this time. Self portrait by Maddy.

An old man, a fish, and some hair. Lots of hair.

Yet another birthday in our household. Check out this old man!

Check out his birthday cake I made! Vanilla bean ice cream, oreo crust, oreo layer, topped with carmel, hot fudge, and what else but more oreos.

A beautiful girl.

Madeline made carmel corn.

Such long hair!

A large pile of hair!

A brand new haircut!

Another haircut though no personal haircutting was involved with this one. lol

The cat loves to bring us mice, moles, birds, and other such treats. We were a bit shocked one morning to see that he had brough us a fish! Where you ask in the land of suburbia did he find a fish? Umm in the neighbors Japanese Garden. They won't miss it right?

Sick Nomy on her favorite sleeping spot. She won't sleep on me as she just wants to nurse (and puke).

Other news. We got rid of the two aggressive chickens. Love Craigslist where we sold them for $15 each. The 4 month old pullets seem to have adjusted now. Took about 3 days but they will now come out of the coop and run into the outside grassy area. The other chickens don't seem to notice them. With the exception of Goldie who I believe is now top hen. She definately tells them she is boss but does not attack them like the Rhode Island Reds. We are down to 10 chickens now with 6 laying currently.

More Birthdays and other Random Photos

Marah celebrated a birthday! 3 years old.


She had been asking for pink cupcakes. Well the day came and she decided she wanted purple cupcakes with pink frosting. I made a new recipe out of the cookbook and added purple food coloring. They turned out this funky mauvish color and taste awful! The kids enjoyed them but a friend and I agreed they were bad. At least the frosting was delicious.

He is so a little brother. Notice the mischevious grin.
Now he lets go. Marah was annoyed at first and then realized what was happening and thought it was great fun. lol

Madeline taking pictures of her siblings.

She is saying "let me out!" Now that she has discovered outside she will always go outside if you ask her. She practically runs for the door when I say "do you want to go outside?"

I was inside with the other kids doing something and as I walked by I noticed Joe and Marah playing ball together. Marah was just so excited to be actually hitting the ball and Joe looked like he was really enjoying the one on one time with Marah. I had to snap this quickly before Marah noticed. Not sure whats up with Joe though. lol

This is Marah's garden. Notice the large patch in the middle thats snap peas, on the right pole beans, on the left radishes and carrots. She also planted lettuce, corn, squash, zuchini, pumpkins, tons of flowers, cucumbers, and more. Note that her garden is only about 2 feet by 1.5 feet.

We had to put the Rhode Island Reds in chicken time out. Someone at 4H suggested it as they were tag team attacking the new chickens.

Joe went to St. Cupcake for my birthday cupcakes. YUM!

Happy Birthday Marah and Her Birth Story

3 years ago you made your entrance into the world. It was a wonderful day and though it did not go as we had planned I loved your birth. You are very strong willed and have opinions on everything. I love seeing you explore new things everyday and swear I can see your brain thinking about things.

Happy Birthday Marah!

Here is Marah's birth story cut and pasted from a message board I posted on shortly after she was born. Its long!

I had been having contations on and off for about a week. They would start about 7pm and go for a few hours. On Wednesday, 4/5/06, I was having alot of them and though this may be it. Well contax continued for most of the night but I was able to sleep in between them. Finally about 6am I could not sleep through them and got out of bed. I went back to bed about an hour later and slept for a little while. The contrax were strong but not regular in length or time between them at all. So I decided to go do a bunch of errands (had to get my drivers license renewed before the 11th) in town. I asked my brother to go with me in case I went into labor he could drive me home. So I continued to have contrax through out the day. Some of them were coming closer and at one point I really though I should not be driving around. LOL. So errands done I dropped my brother off at his house and started for home. At about 1:00 I called my DH to ask him a question and he answered the phone with "no you cannot be in labor now." He was joking and I told him no I was not. He was in class until five. When he got home I thought that maybe this was it but did not want to get to excited in case they stopped like previous times. So we took the kids on a walk and I had a ton of contrax while we were out. Then we went to dinner and the grocery store. I think I scared some guys (we live in a college town) in the dairy aisle. I had to stop and breathe through some of the contrax. When we got home we put the kids to bed, by now it was about 7:30pm. We did some cleaning and then decided to watch a movie. About 30 minutes into the movie I said I cannot watch any more because I cannot remember what is going on. I decided to call my best friend who had a three hour drive and tell her that it might be tonight. We decided to set up the birth tub and make the bed up, which I had been holding off doing because I was still thinking that these would stop. Well this took 45 minutes and I called my friend back and told her she should come. A while later ( I think about midnight??) my DH called our doula who said she was on her way. I asked her if I should call my MW (she is also this MW's apprentice) and she said that was up to me and do what felt right. So I had Joe call her because I was being very vocal through the contrax. MW heard me in the back ground and decided she should leave for our house which was 30 mins away. Well MW arrived first and then our doula. My friend Jennifer arrived shortly after this. I asked MW to check me and I was about 5cm. I was a bit dissapointed because I had been 3-4 about a week ago. Because baby was still posterior I had been laboring on hands and knees as this was most comfortable. But our doula suggested doing stairs with my feet really far apart. I could get down and then back up the stairs before a contraction came and I would plop down on my hands and knees. I had to have someone doing the double hip squeeze on me!!!! I have no idea how long I did this. At some point in here my DD woke up and we decided to call our "kid doula". DS slept through all of this though, except for yelling about tractors in his sleep, LOL. But finally I decided I wanted a shower. The shower was not that great so I got out and did more stairs. At one point my MW ( who had been resting) came up because I was making some "good noises" (her words) and said that why don't I try the tub. The tub was good but I still needed someone to do the hip squeeze. My DD wanted to get in the tub with me and DH said no to her but I told him to let her because I was thinking I would rather have her there now than later. Well after a few contrax in the tub I felt a gush of fluid and looked down. I thought my waters had broken but all I saw was red. I knew it was alot of blood because as it spread in the water it get darker instead of lighter. I called to my MW and she asked me to get out of the tub. I was still bleeding and she wanted to check me thinking maybe I was fully dilated. Well I was a 7 and she could strech me to an 8. Blood was still coming out, but baby's heartrate was perfect even through contractions. I was pretty scared a this point and MW asked me to go downstairs. So they wrapped me up and downstairs we went. MW went off to call some of the other MW's in the area (by now it was 2:30-3:00am) She came and asked if she could check me again once we were downstairs and I was a 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From a 7 to a 3. She came and talked to us about transfering. She also asked if there was anyone we knew in Spokane that would let us labor at their house. She said that she still felt comfortable doing a HB at this point but would want to be closer to the hosp (we were a good 30 minutes away). We did not know anyone in Spokane that we are that close to so we asked her about txfring to Holy Family Hosp. Which is farther away but one of the docs is VBAC friendly. She said she would call and see who was the on call doc. Thank God it was Dr. B. He said to MW that yes bring us in but he is thinking I would have the baby in the car. Well we finally got all loaded up and left the house at about 3:50-4am. We arrived at the hospital about 4:45 am (MW rode with us so she could check heart tones on the way) and made our way up to L&D. I still could not sit so I rode in the wheelchair backwards. This was a sight and we have some pics of it, LOL! When I arrived Dr. B came in to talk with us and asked me what I wanted out of this birth. The staff was very respectful of us and knew we were a HB txfr. I did have an IV and they put me on the monitor. Baby was still looking great so Dr. B asked if he could check me I was at about 7! I was so happy, I thought it would take forever to get back from a 3. My MW had said that it would not take as long, and I think that once I knew we were on the way to the hosp I felt safer. The Dr. talked alot and I don't remember alot of it. He talked about putting in an internal monitor but I said I did not want my water broken. He said he would give a few hours to see if baby would turn and if not then he would like to break my water and try and turn baby. After he left I talked with MW about this and she said that this is one of the reasons she likes Dr. B so much he is really good at turning babies so she said after a few hours maybe we should try that. So I labored on the bed on hands and knees (still needing the hip squeeze). After a while I was grunting every now and then and MW checked me. I don't remember what I was but she said keep doing what I was doing. Well a little bit later I grunted/pushed uncontrollably and my water broke everywhere. It was the loudest pop. MW and doula both said it was the loudest they had ever heard. LOL. Well the nurse asked if I could try and get up so she could clean up the bed. It was soaked! MW suggested the toilet and I said after this contrax well they could see baby at this point and I yelled "she's coming" The Dr came in and said he had been praying my water would break. I never made it out of the bed to get it cleaned and they threw some more chux pads under me. I pushed for 9 minutes on hands and knees and she was born at 6:09 am (a little over an hour from arrival). Her cord was wrapped very tight around her neck but the Dr. managed to get it over her head so that DH could cut it. Well she came out and they bagged her for a few minutes her apgar was a 3. Later my MW and doula said that she was really okay and was sneezing and starting to cry but the hosp just wanted to be safe. I was able to hold her a few minutes later and she was beautiful!! I did it!!! the placenta came out a few minutes later and about 15% of it had abrupted. You could see the spots where it had torn off the uterine wall. We asked to keep the placenta and they bagged it up and gave it to our doula. Marah latched on a little while later and nursed for the next four hours. They did not even get to weigh her. She weighed in at 7lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long. Her head was 13 inches. She did not have a bath, rec'd no vit K, no eye ointment, no shots, and did not leave her mommy or daddy's arms the whole time. The pediatrician cleared her to leave the hosp at 9 am but I was not cleared until later so we finally got out of there at about 3pm. Our kids were excited to see us, DS did not seem to care that we were gone at all, he woke up to "Aunt Jenny" and the "kid doula" DD was upset that she did not get to cut the cord but we told her that she got to help give the baby her first bath instead and that we could all look at the placenta later. It was amazing, It was not what I wanted, a HB, but she made it here and I was not cut again. I thank god that Dr B was on call the other hospitals would have wanted to section me right away. The staff was really supportive of our decisions and it was a very nice experience. Not at all what I expected from a txfr. But all is well and Marah is still nursing like crazy she is one week today and now weighs 8lbs 6oz. We did look at the placenta the next day and it was great. Nothing like 2 kids covered in blood at the dining room table. My DH thought it was so gross but the kids were amazed. The sac was still there and some of the cord. So it now sits in our freezer waiting for a tree.

Birthdays and Legos and Anniversaries oh my!

March was a busy month. Nomy turned one, Michael turned 6, and Joe and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I cannot believe we have been married 7 years and together for 10! I have been planning our garden and enjoying the sunny weather when it comes. April is coming which in our family means birthday season. There are at least 7 April birthdays I can count off the top of my head!

We had Uncle Terry over for birthday cake and dinner on Michael's birthday.

The chickens are all laying now. We regularly get 8 eggs a day and come July will be getting even more once the others start laying. We have started selling eggs and have someone coming weekly to pick up. Aren't they so pretty!

Michael recieved a bunch of Lego's for his birthday and this is a Mars Mission umm alien thingy. He was very proud to finally get it all put together! Look at his face, such excitement!

Nomy is now walking more than crawling. It is really cute to see her toddling all over the house.

Michael had a birthday party and invited some of his friends. He only wanted to invite C, G, and N but I told him their sisters would most likely come too. lol

One night after dinner (an early 5 o'clock dinner at that) I was loading the dishwasher while Nomy finished eating only to look over and see this. lol

Bread Recipe

I keep getting comments and emails to share my bread recipe. First I will say it is not my recipe. :) I found it on someone elses blog (drawing a blank on who???) and tried it out. Now I just want to say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe. It is so easy. It requires no kneading and it keeps in the fridge for a few weeks, that is if it lasts that long. We have yet to make it three days with a batch of this bread. I love that I can make so many different things with this one recipe by just adding different ingredients. I have made Naan, dinner rolls, sandwich buns, loaves, cinnamon rolls, and even made it in a loaf pan for white sandwich bread. I also use the whole wheat recipe, which is several pages in to the article. I make at least 2 or 3 batches of ww dough a week and we use it for toast, sandwiches, everything. I do find that I get less loaves per batch but I make them really big. :) So no more from me here is the recipe:

Five Minutes a Day for Fresh Bread

Okay just a little more from me. The article suggests reading the whole article/recipe before you start. Take their advice. lol There are lots of tips in there on how to handle this gooey, sticky mass of runny wet dough. It took me several batches before I understood how to shape the loaf. The ww dough is even wetter! Each recipe has a different technique on how to do it, well the artisan loaf and the ww anyway. I have not made the other recipes just made variations of my own. So go enjoy some fresh bread!

Today's loaves of ww sandwich bread baking in the oven


Tonight's sandwich rolls rising for Salmon sandwiches.

Happy Birthday Michael!!

Happy Birthday Michael! I cannot believe you are 6. You have grown into such a wonderful person. You are everything boy and love to run, jump, build, and play rough. You are also very kind and gentle when you need to be.

One day old

Yes thats you in your sisters pink pajamas at about 6 months old.