Tales of a Mountain Mama

October So Far

2011-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ezekiah did a cartwheel off our porch steps

Urijah decided to try his hand at photography

We had our first snowfall!

Little Eskimos

Zarik and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and actually got to go out to dinner (double amazing was that I found something I could eat on the elimination diet at our favorite restaurant, Danny's Corner Bistro!!)

And we made our own cheese crackers. So yummy! This is going to be a regular activity in our house for sure.

One Cleanse Down

2011-10-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

So I finished my Isagenix Cleanse (detailed here) At the end of September. October 1st I started a "Comprehensive Elimination Diet" that my awesome Dr has put together. More on that later. First, the Cleanse:

I was surprised how ease I found it. Except for the last week. My 2nd to last cleanse day found me sick with a cold, so I decided it wasn't wise to continue as a cleanse day, and instead just had chicken soup all day. Then I struggled to find another day to fit that cleanse in, so it just didn't happen. That was the week I was on a jury, so yeah. Not the easiest week to stay on track. I was proud of myself, considering everything, though. On the last day, I measured and weighed myself to see the difference. Here are my results: (Oh, and I'm not going to tell you my actual weight and measurements, ha. Just how many pound and inches I lost.)

Weight - 10lbs lost (YEAH!)
Neck - 2" lost
Upper Arms - 1" lost on each arm
Chest/Bust - 4" lost
Diaphragm - 2.5" lost
Waist - 7" lost!!!! (I was most shocked and excited by this!)
Abdomen - 3" lost
Buttocks - 2" lost
Upper Thigh - 1.5" lost on each leg

All in all I was really excited. Although for me weight loss is a secondary thing right now, I know it's a byproduct of all I am doing. I was really nervous I'd get to the end and there'd be no outward change, though. I was scared my body was broken for good. This really gave me a boost of confidence.

So now we're onto this Elimination Diet. It's kinda the opposite side of weight loss from the Cleanse. In the Cleanse I wasn't restricted (beyond sugar and drinking anything but water) in WHAT I ate (although they encouraged you to eat "healthy"), but I was restricted in HOW MUCH (calories). The Elimination Diet is restricted heavily in WHAT you can eat, but NOT in HOW MUCH, or calories.

So here are the things I'm avoiding: Citrus, Dairy, Eggs, Gluten (ie wheat), Corn, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Egg Plants, Peppers, Pork, Beef, Processed Meats (ie hotdogs, coldcuts, even though I can have turkey), Shellfish, Soy products, Peanuts, Butter, Margarine, Processed Oils, (ie most condiments), Alcohol, Caffeine, Coffee (even Decaf), Soft drinks (even caffeine free, sugar free ones), Sugar (brown or white), honey, maple syrup, HFCS, cane juice.

Amazingly, I'm 8 days in and not starving! The nutritionist that works with Dr. J gave me an awesome 1 week menu of ideas that has helped a LOT. And the way we eat (multiple small meals through the day, almost like snacks) I still haven't gone through a lot of the recipes. I'm looking forward to trying a lot of them. Here's a couple pictures of things that are helping me through this:

This is my breakfast most mornings - A protein smoothie: Mixed Berries, Chocolate Pea Protein Powder, Coconut Milk, and Flax Oil.

This was a yummy Applesauce Bread. The kids LOVED it, ha! They ate the majority of it. I liked it with a little Apple Butter or Pear Butter spread on top.

Colors of Fall

2011-10-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

I love fall. I love taking drives with my family. I love Colorado. I love combining the three of these things. Coming from a place where there weren't really any deciduous trees at all, I absolutely LOVE taking drives with my family in Colorado in the fall. Aspens are so amazing this time of year! I love watching as Pikes Peak's lower half starts looking like it's on fire. Everywhere you look there are splashes of color among the dark green Pines. When I was driving to Cripple Creek for jury duty a couple of weeks ago the leaves had just started to turn, so the following week I convinced Zarik that we should go out that way and take a drive. I'd also found a cool scenic drive website that gave us a great idea of a route to take. Here's a glimpse as to what we get to enjoy every fall.

God is in Everything - Even Jury Duty

2011-09-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

This last week I had Jury Duty. Honestly, I didn't really think I would be picked, even if I had to go the one day. The day of I was driving there (we have to go to Cripple Creek, which is about 45 minutes down a wind-y road), listening to worship music and really just having an awesome time with the Lord. After getting there, signing in, and watching the "orientation" video, we were given assigned seats. Well, mine was front and center. And from my previous experience, I know they pick the jury in order of seating. Sure 'nough, after a long, boring morning (Thank God they let me bring my crochet in! It kept my ADD hands nicely occupied!), a nice lunch, and another hour or so, I was put up in the jury box.

It was a civil case, so there were 7 of us (6, plus one alternate). 4 women, 3 men, and I was the youngest by at least 15 years. I'm guessing I was for sure a defense pick because I was younger, in jeans and a t-shirt, multiple piercings, and a Christian. But I was just safe enough that the prosecutor didn't mind me there (mom of 3 who crochets). The case was a rancher in his 70's who was hauling cattle for auction and had stopped by the side of the road when a young guy (I took him for about 25) reached down for a cigarette, veered to the right striking the cattle trailer, and possibly clipped the rancher who was at his driver side door. The reason I say I was a defense pick was the young man was young (yes I know that's redundant, ha), had multiple piercings, is in a band, and plays on his Church's Worship Team.

As the week went on I got to know the other 2 women who were on the base part of the jury (the 4th was our alternate). One of them was a new Moppets teacher in my MOPS group that I just didn't get to meet in the chaos of our first week (in fact, she's Mika's teacher for this year). They were both amazing Christian women and we had some great discussions. The first night of the trial, I had a dream where the light of the Holy Spirit was shining down on me and two other jurors (the other women) and the peace of God was on the defendant. I kept praying into that, wondering how this was going to play out. Unknown to me, one of the other women was also having similar dreams during the trial. On the second day, there was a witness by video that I really wasn't comfortable with. The Lord was really speaking to me about that and how to pray for that guy on the drive home that day.

While most civil cases here take about 3 days, this one ended up going 4 very full days. The prosecutor was taking his sweet time with all the witnesses and really painting a picture of this poor old man whose dreams were crushed because he was injured so badly 3 years ago in this accident. Despite that, I really didn't have a peace about just awarding him all these damages. They were asking for almost $400,000. When we finally got to the Jury room and got to deliberate, it was amazing for me. Not a single other juror was convinced he was actually hit or even tapped by the car or that any resulting injuries would have caused the long term issues he was dealing with. So all we were comfortable doing was giving him 3 months worth of ranch help and 50% of the medical bills for that time. So we awarded him about $6,500. And here in his closing statements the defense was begging us to just not go over $25,000!

The only way I can account for all of our hesitation and unity is the Holy Spirit. This whole experience proved to me once again something I should know without hesitation by now: God is in EVERYTHING - even Jury Duty.

Oh, and I got myself a reward for going through this week. It's something I've been wanting for a while now - Whaddaya think? :-)

Hint: it's the bottom one.

A Quest to Find My Healthy Self

2011-09-19T12:05:00.000-07:00

The last few years have been really tough on my body. Namely because I had 3 babies in 3 years. After Mika and Urijah my body seemed to react fine: I lost all but 10lbs pretty quickly and after I quit breastfeeding I lost half of that, so I was only left with 5 extra pounds that didn't go away before I found myself pregnant again. Ezekiah's pregnancy was a little different. First, I didn't have my normal weight loss at the beginning because I was able to manage my morning sickness better than I had with the older 2. Second, I had low progesterone and spotting in the beginning which made me scared to death I was going to miscarry again. Third, near the end of the pregnancy I ended up with PTSD caused by my previous miscarriages and fear of the problems that led to Mika's C-section possibly repeating (there was never an indication of this, but it's a fear that has followed me into the end of each of my pregnancies). Fourth, the little bugger decided to stay in until 42 weeks and 2 days. After he was born, I didn't lose a pound. Not even his body weight! Everyone told me to take it easy on myself. I was breastfeeding and since I've always had supply issues I couldn't risk going gung-ho on my weight and killing my supply. Then after I stopped breastfeeding (This past June), to my horror I gained 10lbs in one month and 5lbs the following month. WTH was going on here????

I called up my PCP and we started trying to figure out what was going on. Both he and my chiropractor came to the conclusion that my adrenals were completely exhausted and I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue. Because light is just really being shed on adrenal fatigue, there is a lot of conflicting or wishy-washy information out there about it. Most of the websites I've found (except for this one) make it sound like a fake I've-just-been-overworked excuse. However if you look at the function of the adrenals, you see that they control hormones. What led to my diagnosis was that I've been having typical signs of hormone and thyroid issues, but all my tests were coming back normal. So something wasn't right. Our theory is that my body had too much stress over the last few years with my pregnancies and breastfeeding and the fact that I'm a single mom almost half the month. My adrenals were on overdrive for so long they finally couldn't keep up. So my body went into lock-down/survival mode by lowering my metabolism and screwing with my hormones. According to my doctor, the things that help to heal this are sleep/rest, exercise, and no caffeine/sugar.

I was miserable. I hated the way I felt, the way I looked, how tired I was. I found myself in a deep depression. I was desperate to find my previous healthy self. First of all, I cut out caffeine (waahhhhhh!). Then, my chiropractor and doctor had a few different options they presented to me. The 2 that appealed to me the most were Isagenix and an Elimination Diet. Because of the place I was in mentally I decided to start with a 30 day cleanse. Here's why: 1)I've heard of the Isagenix products before. I trust them, although I don't like their business perspectives and think they're pretty overpriced. 2)I knew I needed something that was stupid simple to do and completely laid out for me. 3)I wanted the month to prepare for my Elimination Diet, but wanted to start doing SOMETHING. The Elimination Diet is a program put together by my doctor. You eliminate a ton of foods that can cause common issues: Gluten, most meat, shellfish, soy, peanuts (no other nuts), dairy (including butter), sugars, and a few select veggies specific to me (corn, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and pepper). These are basically to see if there are reactions I am having to any of these. If I gain more energy on the diet and then adding in, for example, milk makes me feel sluggish or makes me break out, etc, then we know I have a problem with it.

Now I feel it is important to say this: I know there are many types of products, cleanses, diets, etc. out there. It seems that everyone has the "best" one that everyone else should use and nothing else compares and you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you use anything else. (note* This is a huge reason I can't give my full support to Isagenix even though I do think they have a great product. Their consultants can get downright degrading) However, after looking at quite a few of them, I decided this was right for me right now. Maybe one day I'll do a juice cleanse. Maybe one day I'll try P90X. I probably won't buy protein from a specific company because my hubby is a genius with finding cheap ways to get us amazing products that just don't have name brands stamped on them. So please, don't read all this just to tell me that I should really be doing it "your way". This is one reason I've stayed away from mentioning much about this on facebook.

Today is day 21 of my 30 day cleanse. I'm actually taking a break today because I've come down with a bad cold and today was supposed to be a cleanse day (vs a shake day). But I'm still just going to eat small, healthy portions of chicken (some soup, some breast) and veggies today to try to kick this thing. Zarik and I can both see a huge difference in my body and energy levels already. I still struggle to exercise, (that's a whole other post) but I've really been trying to do 20 minutes of SOMETHING a day, be it walking, the gym, a Wii game I love called ExerBeat, or taking the kids to the park and running around with them. To help with my nighttime snacking addiction I've been knitting or crocheting, which has been fun to learn.

WHEW. It feels good to be able to share this. I've been keeping in close to me, but longing to share what I'm doing. It's been easier than I thought, but I know I can't do this alone. Thanks for coming along on this journey with me.

A Year in Pictures

2011-09-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! Has it really been almost a full year since I posted?? I guess as a mom of 3 now I don't feel like I have much to say besides "Fed the kids breakfast - Changed a diaper - Picked up toys - Changed another diaper - Fed the kids again - Changed ANOTHER diaper - FINALLY the kids are in bed and I get a feaking second to myself".

Now that we finally moved the baby out of our room (Ok, ok, we actually put him in my closet so he's not really out of our room, but I'm getting a lot more sleep!) and dealing with my health (more on that in another post) I'm finally feeling more like myself and like I can update on what we're up to. PLUS, we got a new camera! My big Sony Cybershot SLR wasn't holding a charge anymore so besides our smartphones we'd been camera-less for a while. I was looking for something smaller that could fit in my pocket and work with just one hand since I'm quite often carrying a kid or two plus diaperbag and food and sweaters......you get the idea. So I got this pretty little number:

So here we go: A year in pictures

DECEMBER

Starbucks in Reno while Driving to Grandma's

Cousins

JANUARY

Babywearing Daddies are Hot!

Bumps and Bruises

FEBRUARY

Learning to eat the "Baby Led Weaning" Style

Naps with Daddy

MARCH

Sibling Fun

Naps on Mommy

APRIL

We love Chick-Fil-A - This was Family Night

Up close and personal at Earth Day

MAY

Ezekiah got his turn with the nebulizer

Pioneer Days Train

JUNE

We got to ride on Daddy's plane!

Family vacation in Telluride

JULY

Renaissance Festival

AUGUST

In the airport flying home from Grandma's

Facepainting

Mama's big helper in the kitchen

SEPTEMBER

Astronauts at the Denver Museum of Science and History

Getting to ride on our first school bus (just from a parking lot to a Patriots Day Festival)

Pictures

2010-11-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

Ezekiah's Birth Video!

2010-09-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ezekiah Pictures

2010-08-20T15:39:00.000-07:00

Birth Pictures

2010-08-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

Ezekiah Mitchell's Birth Story

2010-08-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ezekiah's birth story begins with desparation. Monday, August 16th, I was 13 days past my due date. I was in pain, I was anxious, Zarik was looking at rescheduling his checkride for a second time, my mom had just extended her trip out here for the second time and I'd had a bunch of "false starts" aka prodromal labor. I kept telling Zarik that this game was NOT fun anymore. So that night I decided to take castor oil. 2oz in a glass of OJ. An hour later I was so sick to my stomach and tired and just plain sore that I was bawling on Zarik's shoulder about how I just couldn't do this anymore and the only reason I wasn't begging for a c-section was I knew if I did that I would never bond with this baby because I was so upset with him over how much pain I was in. I finally calmed down and went to bed. Sure enough I was up and in the bathroom several times that night.

Tuesday, August 17th, I woke up with decently hard contractions that were 4-5 minutes apart. The castor oil had worked! I was still depressed from the night before and I really didn't want to be around the kids so I stayed hidden in my room for a while. And then I took a shower. Which spaced the contracts out to 10 minutes. I was frustrated. About noon Zarik convinced me to go to the hardware store and Starbucks with him. Then when we got home my mom and the kids packed up and went to my sisters house. I'd updated my doula and midwife throughout the day and finally about 8pm I called my doula in. She watched me for a bit then suggested we try to sleep. The contractions spaced to about 15 minutes during the night but required help through them.

Wednesday, August 18th found my doula going home, and me STILL in "just" early labor. I had a midwife appointment at 1, and decided to get into the chiropractor as well. The chiro spent a LOT of time with me making sure I was well adjusted and going over some emotional points in the body. Then we saw the midwife who checked me and found me at a very stretch 6cm!! You should have seen the look on her face, lol! The combination of the adjustment and finding I was 6cm relaxed me enough that I was hungry (I hadn't been hungry or eaten anything big for a couple days. I had made myself eat things like cheese and turkey). So Zarik and I went to Panera for lunch. It's always interesting going out to eat in labor because I'm trying not to scare everyone in the restaurant, haha! (I did in labor with Urijah, too) After that we had to get his tux for a wedding that weekend. By the time we left Men's Warehouse I told him we'd better get home as quick as we could - 45 minutes up our mountain pass. I definitely felt myself shift into active labor during the drive home. We're probably the only people who had to rush HOME to give birth, lol!

Once home, I wanted to get into my birth tub right away so I changed clothes while Zarik finished getting it ready. This only took 5 minutes and Zarik made me call the midwife and doula while I waited. They both said they'd be right there. This was about 3:20. I jumped into the tub and contractions immediately picked up. The water felt AMAZING. It gave me a few longer breaks which were nice. I would just float in the water, looking out our open sliding glass door at Pikes Peak, amazed that I was doing this in our home! Despite the water, the contractions made me feel like I would split apart. I looked at Zarik and said "Screw active labor, I'm in transition!" It took the doula and midwife about and hour to get there. The doula got there first and as she put her purse down she stopped, looked at Zarik who was in the tub with me as I was having a contraction and said "Is she pushing?!" He just nodded. The midwife got there 3 minutes later and they quickely and quietly got everything they needed ready. The next 30 minutes were spent with me in such constant pain that I couldn't tell when contractions started or stopped. Zarik described me as a defiant 2 year old because I kept yelling at them that baby wasn't coming fast enough and it hurt SOOOOOO bad. During the last few minutes of pushing I was just focused on getting him out when the midwife had to ask me if my contraction had stopped and if so to stop pushing. I honestly hadn't realized it had because I was in so much pain in my pelvis. I waited for the next one, my water broke on the first push, I have 2 more pushes and he was OUT!! PRAISE GOD!! It was 5pm. Zarik almost got to catch him, but I twisted around at the last minute and caught him myself!

Now the only complication happened - his cord was so short it snapped as he popped out, spewing blood out. My awesome midwife grabbed the cord and pinched it calmly but urgently telling her assistant to grab the umbilical clamp. They clamped Ezekiah's side, while my side just went back up! It took about 10 minutes before I delivered the placenta, which wasn't bad and it looked great. I just sat in the tub during that time and tried to nurse. Ezekiah was telling us off though, which made it difficult, haha! Also, because the sac had popped so late in the game he had a little "skull cap" of amniotic sac on his head. I thought that was pretty neat! After that I got out and moved to a blow up bed we had set up for after, and I successfully got him latched on. After about 30 minutes or so the midwife did the assesment and he was 7lbs 2oz, 20.5 inches long, and a 14" head! Our biggest baby, haha! And no wonder my pelvis kept feeling like it would split with that head!! They also "dated" him at acting and looking like a 40 week 5 day baby - over a week younger than when he was born. I guess he just needed the extra time. I don't remember the apgars, but I'm sure they were high.

Now I'm just on a baby high while I snuggle with our newest li'l miracle. :-)

Renaissance Fest!

2010-06-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday, for my birthday, Shanna and Bobby took the kids and I to the Renaissance Festival. It was a blast! Despite being rained on for about an hour. I got my hair braided, a henna tattoo on my belly, a cool lotion candle for labor, and to hang out with my sissy! Her friend Alex joined us too. Alex was the only brave adult in our party to dress up (I would have but I don't fit into my Ren dress right now. Boo!) but we did turn Mika into a fairy princess!

Urijah playing in the kids play place

Our Fairy Princess petting a goat

"The goat's funny!"

Bobby, Alex and Shanna hanging out while the kids play.

Shanna and Mika on an elephant!

Ezekiah's Belly Pics

2010-06-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

Here are my belly pictures taken while pregnant with Ezekiah!

13 weeks!

22 weeks!

31 weeks!

34 weeks!

Henna Tattoo

Not Just for Baking

2010-05-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

I love baking soda. It is really cool stuff.

First there's what it does with baking - combining with other ingredients to make dough and batter rise and become light and fluffy. It creates the big air bubbles in sourdough, too (mmmmmm....sourdough).

Then there's that science experiment that if you didn't do, some other kid in your class did at some point with a volcano.

You can also use baking soda for health! Dissolve a little in water for an antacid. Women - put a cup in a bath to help balance your vaginal PH (Besides the cool reaction to acidity and vinegar, baking soda's main use is to regulate PH - that's why it's great for cleaning, too) and help soothe yeast infections. Use it to take the sting out of a bee sting.

And cleaning? Why there are dozens of ways to use it for cleaning!! Although there are many more, I wanted to mention the ways that I've been using it frequently in my house. For more you can visit the ARM & HAMMER website, or google "cleaning with baking soda".

One thing I've always done is create a paste to help clean those pans I've seriously burned food onto. I put it on, let it sit for a minute, and voila, I can get that gunk off. I pour some into the sink and use the residual water to scrub and sanitize the sink, too. Then there's those cool fridge/freezer boxes to help deodorise the fridge/freezer and to help stop smelly stuff (pastrami, anyone?) from ruining more delicate flavors (cheese!). And yesterday? I re-created that volcano experiment in my sink (one cup baking soda, one cup vinegar) to clean out my pipes! Mika thought the bubbles were really cool.

Now most of you know I cloth diaper my kids (for the most part, lol). This is what made me start LOVING baking soda. First I sprinkle a little in the bottom of my diaper pails with a little lavender essential oil to absorb smell. (This also helps when cleaning out the pails, which I do about every other wash). If they start to get really smelly before I'm ready to do laundry, I'll sprinkle a little more in with the diapers to help with the smell. Then when I do wash them, I add another cup to the diapers (and actually 1/2 cup to all my laundry) because since the baking soda helps balance the PH balance of the water and boosts the liquid laundry detergent (we have and HE washer) my diapers (and all laundry) gets cleaner, and fresher. And no more diaper rash thanks to it balancing the diaper's PH!

What do YOU use baking soda for in your house?

PS

2010-04-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to scroll down to look at our fabulous pictures MckMama took for us, but this is what April 23rd looks like in CO:

Pictures

2010-04-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago, MckMama was in town! We were able to have fun meeting her and Prince Charming (her husband) at Focus on the Family. She was also doing photoshoots, so we decided to participate. Here is the end result. Thank you, SO much MckMama! We love them!!

It's a.......

2010-03-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

BOY!!!!

That's right!! I'd like you to meet Mika and Urijah's li'l brother! No name quite yet, but soon, I promise.

The umbilical cord was being obnoxious and was hanging out between his legs, so at first the midwife was like "giiiiirl? maybe?" but he was a good boy and moving around being cute, and got that cord out of there to show us the "goods", lol!! He was opening and closing his mouth, kicking around, and at the end was sucking his thumb. So cute! Our other kids were usually pretty still during u/s's so I loved this one! A treat to see him being so adorable!

Since these were taken by our midwife at her home, we didn't get a good "money shot" to take with us, but it's 100% sure!

His li'l face!

Sucking his thumb!

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

2010-03-13T12:00:00.000-08:00

Wednesday we decided to take the kids to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Zarik and I have been there once before, about 4 years ago, and I brought it up as something fun to try with the kiddos. Since they're both under 3, they were still free, while the basic museum was just $11 for each of us. Not bad! Our favorite part was the space exhibit. There's a TON for the kids to do in there and they loved it! They liked the animals too, but I think there were a few too many of those exhibits, lol. All in all it was a fun day!

Wedding!!

2010-03-11T19:41:00.000-08:00

January 23rd my baby sister go married!! We are so blessed that she found Bobby. He is an amazing addition to our family. And their day was amazing!

They chose The Pinery for their big day. SUCH a great choice! Highly recommend them to anyone wanting to get married in Colorado Springs. The coordinator and her assistant made the day so stress and wrinkle free. They have their own florist/decorator in house and she was fabulous! It was so much fun to work with her and dream up the perfect Winter Wonderland theme. And the DJ kept the reception jumping and fun but on track (and our track was tight!). He was amazing!

The big day started with all of us bridesmaides at the hairdresser. We love The Edge! They did such a good job and it was such a fun and relaxing way to get te day started!

After getting pampered I finished up the cake and left to go set it up while the girls got ready, got Starbucks and got down to The Pinery for the wedding!!

The brides and grooms rooms are amazing! They are such nice places to hang out, get ready and try to relax. They gave us some yummy fruit, cheese, and deli plates, water, and champagne. I think I was the last one dressed as I helped Shanna with her dress, then got Mika dressed, lol.

Finally it was Wedding Time!!

Mika did such a good job of walking with me and throwing her petals out! I did let her keep her binky so she would have a "comfort" measure, but it worked! (She had been starting to freak out in the brides room, so I was worried!) We had a "backup" of Grandma, who of course was sitting up front as Mother of the Bride, who had snacks and toys, just in case. However, the ring bearer ended up standing with us instead of the groomsman (his mom and dad were both in the wedding) so he kept her plenty occupied. (They're the same age. I think Logan's like 2 weeks older than Mika)

Shanna was so beautiful walking in! I was wishing I'd stuffed a tissue down my dress! The ceremonly was short, but gorgeous, just like Shanna wanted. And a good thing too! Mika and Logan were having TOO much fun. Everyone said they were great entertainment, but Kaidi (Logan's mom) and I were scared they were going to knock something over. And they almost did knock a big pillar of flowers over, so our fears were justified!!

After the ceremony, all the guests went to the banquet room for finger foods while we got some pictures done. Again, short and sweet, which was nice. Then Shanna and Bobby had a few more done while the rest of us got qued up and the family went into the banquet room. Next was the "grand entrance" and let the reception begin!! The food was AMAZING. I've been trying to recreate their sauteed vegi's ever since. Prime rib cooked perfectly. Ok, now I want to go back in time!

The DJ kept us hopping with things to do. I was in the reception the whole time with my "maid of honor duties" while some of the other bridesmaides and groomsman got the limo all packed up. I got to dance, give the toast, help with the money dance, and try to give my poor husband a break from our antsy son! We were all exhausted afterwards, but it was amazing! Shanna and Bobby left amid a ton of bubbles, and then cleanup time. Many hands make light work, though, and we had all the cars packed with everything in no time. (Notice I didn't say it was ORGANIZED in our cars, lol)

Congratulations, Shanna and Bobby!!!

For more pictures, you can click here, or go to my facebook page and I have it linked from my profile. Enjoy!

Do Dogs Sleepwalk?

2010-02-09T12:09:00.000-08:00

We are quite used to things that go bump in the night. After all, we have 2 Huskies, 3 cats, and 2 toddlers in the house. If the kids aren't fussing, then our outdoor-sleeping husky (her choice) is howling at the moon or barking at a fox or bear, or the cats are coming and sleeping on us, or one cat will jump on another causing a big hissing/jumping/running fest that wakes our indoor-sleeping husky up so he chases the cats down the stairs, or some other "bump".

Here is Juneau, our indoor-sleeping, puppy-like, incredibly loyal, sweet Daddy's boy of a husky

Now, think back to the last scenario I gave. The cats hissing and running and dog chasing one.

At 2 am this morning, Zarik and I were suddenly awaken by what we believed was the above scenario. After a minute though, we realized Juneau was going crazy! I flipped on a light and we watched him as he flung himself around the room like a fish out of water flopping about. Zarik tried gently to stop him until he almost flung himself down the stairs and then Zarik jumped over and grabbed him. Juneau yelped as his paws went over the edge of the stairs and Zarik realized at that point that Juneau was sleepwalking! He was being so violent Zarik picked him up and shook him awake, which took a minute or so. After that Juneau just lay next to the bed for a few minutes, ears back, tail between his legs, looking SO scared. We checked to make sure he wasn't hurt anywhere and then brought him up on our bed to pet and snuggle him for a few minutes while he calmed down.

He's always done the whole "running in his sleep" thing, but this was brand new. Maybe we've been watching Eight Below too much and a Leapard Seal was chasing him. Poor boy.

Our New (To Us) Dave Ramsey Car

2010-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Well, with baby #3 on the way, we had to start looking for a new (to us) car. (We will NEVER buy a NEW car. It's really not a good investment) Zarik, in true Zarik fashion, had to go out and start looking at cars, putting ours on craigslist, and just generally sniffing around. That boy gets obsessed when it comes to buying/selling cars. I didn't even realize he'd listed our cars until I started getting offers for them in our email! Well, we talked and decided that since I was only like 6 weeks pregnant, maybe we should slow this train down a little bit. We have time to look, pray, and find the right car for us and buyer for whatever car we wanted to sell.

Yeah right.

About 5 days before we were to leave for California for Christmas, Zarik gets a call from someone who wants to drive about 2 hours to come look at our WRX. And here I though we were selling the Outback Sport! We both LOVE the WRX! I didn't want it to go anymore than Zarik did! But Zarik said he'd been feeling since the car we were leaning towards would be almost $10,000, that the WRX was the only way to get it "The Dave Ramsey Way" IE: CASH. Cold, hard, CASH. No car loans, no borrowing from parents. CASH. Now Zarik HAD agreed to wait until January to actually sell the car. And he told this girl that. But she wanted to come look anyways. But she'd wait to actually buy until January.

Yeah right.

About 30 minutes after they got here, Zarik comes sheepishly up the stairs. "Honey, we need to talk. They want it now. And I think this is the right person for the car." So we prayed right there. And we sold them the car. Now we only have one car. And 2 different places to be the next day. So the kids and I got up at 4am to drive him to the airport. That was fun.

Zarik starts feverishly looking at cars online. We decide by the time we get out to California that we are looking for something VERY specific: a 2004 AWD Toyota Sienna with under 100,000 miles for under $10K. Ok God. There you go. Zarik is literally looking all over the country for one. There's a couple possibilities in New Jersey and New York. And then, BINGO: An hour away from our parents gated community, the perfect car. So Zarik and I go to see it. I think it's PERFECT. But I defer to my husband. There were a few things he wasn't happy about: it was salvaged, the ac wasn't charged, some clips were missing, etc. And he wanted it for $8,500 and the guy wouldn't go below $9.

So we went back to our parents houses. Zarik left on his trip. And we prayed. The more we talked, the more we realized it was the right car, and Zarik agreed to the $9. So we called the guy back. Well, he didn't have the title yet. That would be the final deal breaker. So we said call us the SECOND you get it. Zarik had a very small window to come and get us and the car to drive back to Colorado. Then Skywest calls. They added a day to Zarik's schedule. Not good. Now the window was down to nothing. So he threw the day on the swap boards and we prayed. And prayed. And prayed. And as Zarik was sitting at home about to call off coming back to California to get us, Skywest called again. To say the trip had been picked up. Then the car guy called. He had the title. So it was a GO!!! At the 11th hour!

So Zarik flies out. We go buy the car. I drive it back to my parent's house. We start loading up all our presents and stuff. Dad gives us a BBQ. We fit that in. Mom gives us stuff for Shanna's wedding in January. We fit that in. We sleep. We wake up. We say goodbye to everyone. We leave. ROAD TRIP!! It was actually pretty fun. I only drove about 3 hours a day, and Zarik did the rest. We did it in 2 days. Stopped in Salt Lake City to sleep for 8 hours, then hit the road again. The kids did FABULOUS. And now, I am the proud driver of a minivan.

I'm still kinda in shock.

Christmas!

2010-01-29T12:00:00.001-08:00

For Christmas we went back to California again this year. Lots of fun! The kids and I got to be there 2 weeks and Zarik was there a week, then flew back out for 2 days to pick us up (watch for the post on that!).

We had lots of fun hanging out with our families! Flene is pregnant again and was looking so cute with her baby belly! Jonathan's fiance Brittany was pregnant for Christmas (popped about a week later!). The kids loved seeing all their different aunts, uncles, grandparents, grandmother's dogs, cousins, etc. We were bad about getting pictures, but here are some from Christmas. Be sure to look through them all as I have pictures of my new nephew, Kayden at the bottom!

The Christmas Tree

Mika brought an Ariel with her, and got another one for Christmas! TWO Ariel's!

Grandma Minnie, Urijah, Jon, and Brittany

Shanna and Bobby - Brandon got them cool shirts that light up when they're close to each other, and go out when they're separated!

Papa played Santa

G-ma made sure she got it all on video

Mika had fun opening all her presents!

Kayden Scott! 12-30-09 7lbs1oz, 19"

Here's a cool montage of Kayden's first photoshoot!

Kayden Parsons from LivingStone Photography on Vimeo.

And baby makes three FIVE!

2010-01-27T19:25:00.001-08:00

So I know this is really late coming out. But here you go!

We're pregnant! Again! And if this baby comes on it's due date, We will have 3 under 3 for 2 days. And the crazy thing is, this baby was planned. I know. We must be nuts, haha. But we definitly felt that it was time.

So, as most of the women I know know, I am very in tune with my body. And as I joke, I know too much about fertility. I knew over a week before I could test that I was pregnant. And a few days after I knew, I had my first scare. I was spotting. I know most women would just say "oh my period's coming", but like I said - I'm very in tune with my body and knew I was pregnant already. I suspected that I had a progesterone deficiency, so I anxiously waited until I saw the proof the dr's would need:

(BTW, isn't that ClearBlue test cool? It actually tells you how far along you are! The tests aren't available in the US yet, but I found them on EBay. I'm a nerd.)

I called my Certified Nurse Midwife immediately and they sent me for bloodwork that day. The next morning I got the confirmation and they called in a prescription for synthetic progesterone for me that day.

About two weeks later I went in for my first appointment and got an ultrasound! We could barely see the baby, but it had a heartbeat!!

During the weeks before my appointment, Zarik and I had been talking and praying about the care provider and place of birth we wanted for this birth. Our insurance changed as of January (locked in as of October) which opened up different options to us. After much consideration we decided on going with a midwife and a homebirth. So when we came back from California after Christmas, we met with our new midwife. She had a bit of a hard time finding li'l bean's heartbeat (li'l bean is my nickname for this one) with the doppler so she did an ultrasound too!

So far this has been a decent pregnancy. I have had morning *ahem* all-day sickness since about 5 1/2 weeks along. However, it's been better than with Mika and Urijah. I haven't lost any weight this time. I've been able to eat more than cheese and crackers. And at 13 weeks (where I am now) I'm starting to get my appetite back even though my gag reflex is still sensitive. We'll be seeing the midwife every three weeks for our appointments and I'm getting chiropractic care weekly like with Mika and Urijah.

So there you are! As crazy as we may be, at least they'll all be out of the house early, haha!!

Better late than never!

2009-11-29T14:16:00.001-08:00

So, my muddled brain thought that I had no Halloween pictures from this year. I was right that I didn't get any from Boo at the Zoo, Treat Street or the Harvest Fest. BUT - when I turned on my camera to take a couple pictures this last weekend (I know, I really need to step up the pictre taking, lol) I found a bunch of cute pictures of the kids at Shanna's work! They had a little "trick or treat" time the friday before Halloween for their workers kids, and Shanna invited us. So here are my "better late than never" Halloween Pictures!

A General Update

2009-11-13T06:51:00.000-08:00

So it was pointed out to me that it's been a while - again. I guess when there's not a lot going on I find it hard to find "exciting" things to blog about. I should probably get over that, huh? :-) So, what has been going on with us lately?

Mika can now count to 10 and do most of her ABC's! Such a smart girl. :-) She still is completely in love with animals. We haven't started potty training yet because she is just not ready. We may do a "crash course" to see if we can get going on that before Christmas, though.

Urijah is now 1!! Big guy! As Halloween was his birthday, and Zarik was gone, we didn't to a traditional party. We just did all the "Halloween-y" things like going to Treat Street at the High School and the Harvest Festival at a local church. (Can I say how grateful I am for indoor Halloween activities here in Colorado? I can? Good. I am very grateful for them.) I don't know if I ever mentioned, but he started crawling about 2 and a half months ago and is now all over the place, up the stairs, and into the dog food. He also cruises along furniture VERY well and we are encouraging his walking skills. His favorite thing in the world is DOORS. Yes, you read that right. DOORS. He could open and close doors all day long. We don't usually have to worry about him going into a room we don't want him because he stops at the entrance and plays with the door!

Zarik has been working a lot. Last month I saw him a total of 6 days, and the 6th he wasn't actually supposed to be here, so it was a blessing! Some of that was other trips, but it was really hard. He's going to be here a lot more this month, and I'm grateful for that. The kids and I have been busy with MOPS, Bible Study, and just general day to day living. I also had Munchkin Market though my MOPS group last month, which is a HUGE consignment sale/kids rummage sale. As a steering member, I am there the entire time, so my mom came out to watch the kids for me. A million thanks, again, Mom! You Rock!!

That's pretty much it for now. I've been really bad about taking pictures, but I'll try to put some up soon.

Random Wanderings

2009-09-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

*NOTE* This is the third post I've done today on activities we've done this summer. So don't forget to scroll down and check the others out!

Lately we've discovered that one of our favorite things to do is take random road trips. Just in the last two weeks we drove out to Buena Vista just to see the river and get some coffee, to the Denver Aquarium, and finally on a loop from Woodland Park through St. George to Tarryall Rd, then took Tarryall to the Reservoir, then up to the 285, then down Pine Valley Rd to Deckers, over to 67, and back to WP. Ok, ok, just look HERE to see where we went. Anyways, here are some videos and pictures from our trip to Tarryall:

Walkin' around the shore of Tarryall Reservoir

Throwing Rocks in Tarryall Reservoir

Aren't they cute?

Mika in front of the Reservoir

Urijah found some things to play with on the shore

Pretty Girl

On the Road Again...

Self Portrait (hey, I gotta get myself in here somehow!)

Pit Stop!

Mmmm...Ice Cream!

Adventures in Feeding...

...on the Road

Fishies!

2009-09-12T17:06:00.001-07:00

One of the things we really wanted to do this summer was visit the Denver Aquarium. Although it doesn't compare to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (really, what aquarium does?), it's very cute, has a good amount of sharks, TONS of fish (Dori was in almost every other tank - a real crowd pleaser, lol), and you can pet sting rays!

Mika wasn't quite as excited as we thought she'd be - I think the bigger fish and some of the dark "tunnels" scared her - she did LOVE finding all the Dori's, haha!

A video of Zarik and the kids in front of one of the big tanks

This video is dark, but I think the effect with the sharks is cool

Our friend Sean joined us. Group shot!

A random trout

Look! Dori!

We see you! (this was a bubble where you can look out of the bottom of the tank.)

Hi Mika! (ditto)

See Dori behind her?

The 5 Days That Became 3 Weeks

2009-09-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

We had an extended vacation to visit our families this summer! Although, it wasn't planned to be as long as it turned out...

We planned on staying for five days. I had to tell my mom that we were going to be spending most of the time with the Brost family, since we hadn't had a lot of time with them since Christmas. She understood, but was bummed, of course. The reason we "had" to leave was because Zarik had to be at work. So after our five days were up, we go to the airport. We went later in the day because the loads looked decent. Well, unfortunately, a flight was delayed and screwed everything up. So we were stuck for that night. On the way home we decided that the kids and I should stay for another 3 days to a week while Zarik went to work, and then he'd come get us. When he came back, we went wakeboarding with his brother, and Zarik broke his face.

Do I have your attention now? Hehe!

What happened was Zarik fell hard - on the handle or just the water, we're not sure - but didn't know he'd really hurt himself. Later on he went to equalize the pressure in his ears (you know - plug your nose and blow) and all the air escaped his sinuses and went under his eye!!!

After calling around to Stara and Flene (who are both into medicine - Stara has her EMT licence and is looking at Physical Therapy while Flene is a Physicians Assistant), my mom's eye doctor, and Kaiser, we determined that what had happened was his eye was tramatized, but it displaced the trama to the bones around his eye. This cracked the ethmoid bone which allowed air to escape the sinuses. We decided it would be best to go to Urgent Care because it probably wouldn't be good to fly with this injury and Zarik would need a note for work. Sure 'nough, he was grounded for at least another week! Since he had about five days off after he was cleared to fly again, we just stayed for a week after that, too! It was a total God thing that Zarik got the injury he got, with no complications (his sister was all "I'm glad the air bubble didn't go to your brain!"). We couldn't think of any other injury that would totally trap in California, and yet not really limit his fun.

So here are some snippits from our trip:

We all drew "tattoos" on eachother

I keep trying to convince Zarik he needs a real one

Swinging on the Rope Swing at Kidd Lake

Hanging on my parents' pontoon boat

Mika swimming with Mommy

Urijah swimming with Daddy

Sleepy Boy

Sophie!

Cute couple, if I do say so myself. :-)

Lion Towel

Mika turned 2! Mommy made her cake!

Hanging with Mommy

Janis, Jackie, and Kailah dancing on the pontoon boat

We got lots of Grandma time in

Splish Splash I was taking a bath swim

2009-07-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying time out on our deck in our splash pools this summer.

Fun With Family

2009-07-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we went to Breckenridge with my family. It was a ton of fun! Here is our trip in pictures:

When we got there it was Kingdom Days which is Breck's celebration of their heritage. We got these fun old time pictures of everyone but Zarik. Zarik unfortunately had to work, so he wasn't with us for the first 3 days.

Mom and Jon played a little plastic horseshoes.....

While Mika played in the sand.

Shanna and Bobby were lookin' cute...

As was Brittany who was playing with Sophie.

Oh, and did I mention we watched Outhouse Races? But we never found out who won because we had to leave early due to rain.

We waited out the rain at (where else?) Starbucks, where Mika got a chocolate rush.

Back at our condo, we discovered a family of foxes lived under one of the decks!

A couple days later, Shanna and Bobby had to leave us, and I had to come back for a meeting, so Jon and Brittany joined us and we went to the Zoo! Jon had fun rockclimbing...

As did Bobby.

Brittany fed the giraffes...

As did Jon.

Near the end of the week we drove through Rocky Mountain National Forest. Jon and Zarik pose at the highest point in the road.

Wow! Zarik and I got a good picture of the two of us!

This is what Mika thought of all the driving this day...

But Urijah was cool about it all.

And we got to enjoy some wildlife along with the view!

My Dave Ramsey Stroller

2009-06-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

The deeper I get into Mommyhood, the more I am amazed by all the baby "stuff". As a mom, everywhere I go "stuff" is shoved in my face and I am told that I "have to have" this or that or I risk not being a good mom, or at the very least, not a very cool one. And at times I buy into it. I decide I really should get something so I can be "cool". Then I look at the price tag.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!

You want how much for that?! My kid's happy with rocks and sticks, for crying out loud!

When Mika was first born, Zarik and I took a class called Financial Peace University taught by Dave Ramsey. It's an awesome class that really shows you what you need to do to take control of your money and your life. It was a complete blessing for Zarik and I as he had just gone from working pretty much the max hours he could as a First Officer, to being a Captain on reserve. If we hadn't sat down to look at what we made vs. what we spent, we would have gone from only having car debt and student loans to adding a LOT of credit card debt to our lives. It was definately a God thing that Dave came into our lives at that time.

Since that time we've been trecking along on our Debt Snowball. We had lost sight for a bit, and were eating steak and lobster rather than rice and beans, but once I told Zarik he could NOT have a big screen TV until we'd paid off his dad (our last debt besides the house), we got gazelle intense again!

Just like Zarik and his TV, I get tempted too. Zarik has been encouraging me to work out with my stroller workout group. The only problem: I now need a double jogging stroller. So I started researching. It was hard, man.

Think of it in terms of cars:

This is what I dream of:

This we could afford with a reasonable car loan:

However, this is what we actually own - our "Dave Ramsey" Car we bought for $3000:

I quickly realized that it was much the same with strollers.

This is what I dream about:

This is what I found that we could technically afford:

But after doing the budget for the month and thinking about "WWDD" (What Would Dave Do), this is what I bought today for $30:

I've gotta say, I'm feeling pretty proud of my stroller and can't wait for people to give it weird looks so I can tell them it's my "Dave Ramsey Stroller"!

WWYD?

2009-06-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

Since becoming pregnant with Mika, I have been trying to find more natural ways to clean my house. Cheap natural ways to clean my house. For example, I bought a big jug of Simple Green something like two years ago, and it's still half full. (Now, as a disclaimer, I don't use it for everything around the house, and probably don't clean near as often as I should, so it probably won't last you something like 3-4 years)

As the hospitality director of my MOPS group, I have been given the task of taking the white tablecloths home and bleaching them. Well, I don't like bleach. I really don't want it around my family. Especially since my family (specifically Zarik and Urijah) have sensitive respiratory systems and Chlorine Bleach is a respiratory irritant. So now what? I start googling bleach alternatives, of course. (I love google, don't you? Even googled sycamore tree after watching Pocahontas and neither Zarik or I knew exactly what a sycamore tree actually was)

Anyways.

Now I have already washed the tablecloths with 1/2 cup of vinegar, and most of the coffee stains came out! Now I have just a little juice stain and stubborn coffee stain left. Now I come to a crossroads. Passionate Homemaking has some GREAT ideas, and after googling "homemade oxyclean" (again - I ♥ google!) I now have to decide to use the homemade oxyclean, or lemon juice and cream of tarter.

Decisions, decisions. I'll let you know what I decide.

Night Night, Baby, Night Night

2009-06-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

Zarik's li'l Mini-Me is getting so big!! He's officially 7 months old now!

I still carry him in his sling and beco most of the time, but when Mika decides to walk, sometimes I'll give myself a break and pop him into the stroller.

As much as we like to get out and walk, we haven't been able to much lately. Urijah had another bout of bronchiolitis. The pediatrician we saw when I took him back in echoed our normal pediatrician that this is probably caused by RSV. She said that unfortunately because of that, most likely every time in the next year or so that Urijah gets sick he'll relapse into the hacking, wheezing baby boy we've come to know. We have his (late) 6 month appointment in two weeks here, so I'm going to talk to the pediatrician about what we can do to prevent it from getting too bad.

Urijah's been sleeping a lot because of being sick. Twice in the last 3 days I've set him down to play only to find him like this 10 minutes later:

Rest well, baby boy!

I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strenthens Me

2009-05-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Right now Philippians 4:13 is kinda my mantra. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Zarik and I agree that right now we are in a season of our lives where God is calling us into action. For me in particular, God really spoke of me creating a ministry with my life of being able to help women to turn ashes into beauty in their lives (see this song by Crystal Lewis) There are three big things that God has specifically called me into right now that deal with this. When each of these were presented to me, Zarik and I prayed over them and agreed they were a part of this call to action.

Church Nursery
We've been going to New Covenant Christian Fellowship for about 3 years now. There have been a lot of changes within our fellowship lately, and one of those was the nursery coordinator stepping down. I found out threw roundabout means and prayed about taking it over. God said yes, so now I am in charge of coordinating the volunteers for our nursery. I really see this as a way of blessing the parents, mothers in particular, in our fellowship so that they can have ~~five bloody minutes~~ time to focus fully on worshiping our Lord and thinking on Him.

Pampered Chef
I LOVE The Pampered Chef. Almost my entire kitchen is Pampered Chef products. I have actually attempted to sell Pampered Chef before. However, this time the Lord's had is really in it. I'm still not entirely sure how this is going to unfold in what the Lord has given me to do, but I know that it is a way for me to be in contact with a lot of women.

MOPS
I have mentioned MOPS before. It stands for Mothers Of PreSchoolers. It is an awesome mom's group where you can go two times a month, eat, fellowship, learn something, and have a little time away from the kids and with other adult women. I have been a part of one of my local groups since Mika was about 5 months old. As this last semester (we go off the school year calendar) was winding down and the steering team was looking at what positions were going to need to be filled for the 2009/2010 year, I was approached about taking a position. Zarik and I spent a weekend talking and praying about it and decided this, too was in God's plan for us right now. This one will take a lot of commitment on both my and Zarik's part as there are going to be a lot more times I'm going to need him to watch the kids, or times I'm going to be saying "sorry honey, you're on your own for dinner". My position will be Hospitality, which means I need to get to the church early on our meeting day to make sure everything is set up, coffee made, food set out, and the tables have everything they need on them. I will also be welcoming new moms and babies, giving out birthday gifts, and doing our on-time drawing, which means I need to look out for cute, cheap, gift ideas (got any for me??;-D). The Munchkin Market that I mentioned helping out with last week is the largest kids stuff yard-sale-like sale in our county, and a few counties near us, twice a year. We have about 80 or so people who sell their unused kid stuff and we make thousands of dollars! It is crazy and awesome! But it also requires a TON of work. For the one in the fall, I've already decided I'm flying my mom out. (Got that Mom?)

I am really excited about everything God is doing at this time in my life, but I also covet your prayer. If you know me, you know that I ~~like~~ need a lot of sleep and when I get stressed it brings me back to when I struggled with depression. These are two things are are almost a certainty in this coming season, aside from God's provision and help. In the same chapter of Philippians, verse 6 it says "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;". So that is what I am doing now, knowing that HE is the one who is bringing us into this time of action and that HE is the one who will bring me though it.

Professional Pictures

2009-05-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

While my Mom was here she offered to have some professional pictures done of the kids. Despite Mika having a mini-meltdown, we did get some cute shots. Enjoy!

Princesses

2009-05-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I decided long ago that my kids would not be into Dora. She totally annoys me. I know it can be a good thing to teach your kids another language at a young age, but she just seriously bugs me. My friends tell me I'm crazy and that Mika will probably get into her around age three or so. Well, I have a plan of attack - I will get Mika into Disney Princesses! While we were recently in MN visiting friends, we went to the Mall of America and got Mika her first barbie-ish Ariel Doll.

I've already decided for her second birthday I'm going to make her a princess cake. I decided this after I made two mini-princess dolls for the joint 1 year/3 year birthdays of some friend's daughters. They were SO much fun to make!!

Obviously I still need to work on my icing/decorating skills, but it'll be fun!

I'm trying, I really am!

2009-05-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, this post was SUPPOSED to be typed out and posted on May 4th! And here it is May 21st, and this and other posts I've had in mind ~~got totally forgotten about~~ fell by the wayside of during a trip to Minnesota (Hi Nikole, Riley, Evelyn and Ireland!) and our MOPS Munchkin Market sale (more on this in a later post), amidst everyday life with 2 under 2.

Now for the REAL subject of this post.

As anyone who has eaten with me knows, Dr. Atkins and I would never get along. My favorite foods are (in no particular order) pasta, garlic bread, sourdough bread and potatoes. For example, at the start of each of my pregnancies, the only things I could keep down were sourdough bread, saltines, and a tiny bit of mild cheddar. Then I would graduate to plain pasta with cheese. Then, after I started having serious contractions ~~a week~~ 4 days before Urijah was born, all I wanted to eat was baked potatoes with all the trimmin's.

Unfortunately, that doesn't really make for the healthiest of diets, or the healthiest of me. Fortunately, I have a husband who is very in tune with how what he puts into his body makes him feel. Because of this, he eats very healthy. He eats lots of lean protein, a balanced amount of carbs, and lots of veggies. Since having Mika, I have been trying to get more on track with Zarik's eating habits (obviously I was sidetracked throughout Urijah's pregnancy - especially since had a hard time keeping food in my body until I was about 16-18 weeks pregnant).

We usually go to Costco once a month and stock up on big things. The last couple of trips I've been getting more veggies that I can slice up and eat. I also made a hummus-like dip to go with them (note - I really have never liked hummus, but I think the large amount of garlic in this dip makes up for it, so this recipe I like!).

Greek Dip

1 cup each canned chickpeas and chopped artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup reduced-fat mayonnaise (I used Fat-free Miracle Whip for extra flavor)

2 tbsp grated Parmesan (I LOVE fresh grated parm. I buy in bulk and grate my own with my Pampered Chef Micro-grater)

1 clove garlic, crushed (ok, ok, I used a VERY large clove - equivalent to 2 cloves)

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp chili powder, or to taste (I used a pinch of Cayenne pepper 'cause that's what I had on hand)

1/8 tsp pepper

1/8 tsp onion powder

In a food processor, process the chickpeas until chopped. Add everything else and blend until pureed. Enjoy!!!

And it looks something like this:

I also got a bunch of veggies and cut them up in sticks so I could just grab some dip and veggie sticks and munch!

The best thing about all this was that night for dinner all I had to do was chop some of the veggies I'd already prepped, add some chicken I cooked and chopped, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a crust of Bisquick and voila, I had a potpie!!

SO yummy, filling, and we all loved it. Mission Accomplished!

Not Me Monday

2009-05-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is where I am taking the liberty to NOT admit to ~~all of my shortcomings~~ to things that go on around here.

I am NOT the only one in my house right now who is not sick.

I did NOT finally take Urijah to the Pediatrician on Friday, after he started coughing really bad on Monday, fully expecting to be told that it was just a virus and we'd just have to wait it out only to find out that he has Bronchiolitis and an ear infection.

Zarik has NOT taken hits off of the nebulizer we were sent home with for Urijah and he definitely has NOT wished he'd had one before this for himself.

I most certainly did NOT tell Zarik I had to go to church today since I was in the nursery and then scrub myself in a really hot shower to kill all the germs while praying I didn't bring any of said germs with me that could jump off onto any babies, just so I could get away from all the germs.

I was NOT so depressed and grumpy because even though Urijah is looking better he is sounding worse and I am worried about him, that my dear, sweet husband sent me to Starbucks to be by myself, chill, and read for an hour while he (though himself sick) took care of the kids by himself for the second time today.

And I most certainly did NOT actually go to Starbucks by myself, chill, and read.

And to redeem myself a little, even though I am depressed and grumpy because I am worried about my boy, I did NOT praise God that Urijah only has a Bronchiolitis (and maybe mild RSV) and a mild ear infection and spend time praying for MckMama's Stellan and his chronic heart condition.

And that dear friends, is about all I am willing to NOT admit to today. Tune in next week to find out what what else I did not do.

He Takes After His Daddy

2009-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

Urijah has been coughing since Monday. It started just as a mild chest cold with a small temperature (never above 101.3). But as the week wore on, no matter what we did, his cough kept getting worse. Even though his temperature was gone by Wednesday night, by Thursday night he was having a tough time breathing and everything was making him cough. Thankfully he slept OK at night (I would get up once or twice and give him a dropper of water when he would cough really bad). By Thursday afternoon even Zarik was saying we should take him into the Dr. So today (Friday) we did.

Turns out our poor baby has Bronchiolitis and an Ear Infection. I was actually kind of surprised.

You see, with Mika it seemed like every time she got kinda bad we'd take her in and be told "It's just a virus. She'll be over it soon." We did get close to taking her to the hospital for an illness once but she that was a flu-like virus. She has never had an Ear Infection or actually needed an inhaler/nebulizer. (She was given an inhaler once, but it turned out to be the wrong treatment for what was going on).

All that to say, I was kinda surprised that Urijah actually had something more than "just a virus" and needs actual treatment for it. Since the Ear Infection isn't really that bad, we aren't doing antibiotics yet, but have a script for them if it comes to that. We did get ear drops to help with the pain, though. And for the bronchiolitis, we were given a nebulizer.

As for the title of my post: Zarik is thrilled about the nebulizer because now he can use it when he gets sick! You see, whenever Zarik gets sick, it goes straight to his lungs and he ends up coughing for like 3 weeks. So it seems that Urijah takes after his dad.

Big People Food!

2009-04-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well, seeing as Urijah is almost 6 months old (the 31st is his *half* birthday!), we decided to go ahead and try big people food! Going along with our semi-crunchy lifestyle, I decided not to start with rice cereal - it's not really very nutritious, usually just sits like a brick in baby's tummy making them feel full when they aren't getting much nutrients, and can constipate. So we're starting with Sweet Potatoes!! I did make my own, thanks to the help of a homemade baby food website that I used for Mika too. After a few days of this, we're going to do avocado.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Spring

2009-04-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh. Springtime in the Rockies. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's you're 1K for today:

(BTW, this storm started as a THUNDER-snow storm! How bazaar is that?!)

Update on Mika's brace and Urijah's Reflux

2009-04-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Since my last post I've been meaning to post pictures of the brace, but Zarik has been monopolizing the laptop, which is where I upload my pictures. Bad, Zarik! (LOL!)

Here are a couple of pictures I got of her when I'd first put the brace on for night time.

I also called the orthopedic back, and we now go for a checkup on her feet in August, when she turns 2, instead of just October. So about 4 months instead of 6 months. We'll still have an x-ray of her hips in 6 months to see where those are and if we need an additional brace for those.

She has done remarkably well adjusting to the Denis Browne Bar. She does wake up and fuss for a minute when she tries to roll over or pull her feet under her, but she goes right back to sleep. She doesn't protest us putting the shoes on for bedtime and naps either, which is definitely a small miracle! We call them her "Night Night Shoes" and try to be upbeat when getting them and putting them on her, so I think that helps the situation.

_____________________________________________

Urijah's reflux is really good now! We had a friend of ours suggest we try using Dr Browns Bottles for him, and even gave us one of hers to try. After just 3 feedings we were convinced and ran out to Walmart to buy our own! We had been trying soy formula, which had made a little difference, but not much, but we decided to see if he could handle regular formula on these new bottles, and it worked. Which is great on our budget, lol. I talked to the pediatrician, and she is thrilled that these bottles are working so well. We have a plan to start weaning him of the previcid next week and see if we can control the reflux with just these bottles. Yeah!

For Grandma

2009-04-17T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some videos of Mika, specifically for Grandma to watch over and over again, but I hope everyone who reads my blog enjoys them. :-)

The first is of Mika trying on her Easter dress. At first she was dancing around in it and I was trying to capture that, but she decided she was done when I pulled out the camera. Oh, well.

The second one is Mika singing our "Night Night, Baby, Night Night" song Zarik make up for her to one of her babys and putting her baby to sleep. Note that moments before she was doing the "Mommy Sway" with the baby while singing the song. SOOOOOOO Cute!!

More Medical Mumbo-Jumbo

2009-04-07T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today consisted of two different Dr. appointments.

___________________________

First was Mika's Orthopedic, Dr. Siegel (finally!). It was waaaaaay back in January when our pediatrician, Dr. Cunningham, told us we should probably go see her because Mika was looking pigeon-toed. To refresh your memory, we also needed to make another appointment for her hips to be checked at about 21 months because of her hip dysplasia so we just lumped it all in now.

So, should I give you the bad news or the bad news first?

OK, I'll start with the bad news.

Mika's x-ray on her hips show that they are not progressing as we would like. I don't fully understand all the angles and such, but I know that at 1 year we wanted the angles to be less that 30% and at 2 years they want them to be less than 20%. At 1year they measured 28% and 27%. Well, now 8 months later they still measure 28% and 27%. Not good.

As far as the other bad news goes, Dr. Siegel explained that when a kid is pigeon-toed they look to see what joint/bone is causing it: is it the hips, tibia, or feet themselves? We already know Mika's hips aren't perfect, so that is a little bit of our problem. Most of it is her tibia's, however. Her right isn't as bad as her left, but they both still turn in.

So, here is what comes next: We are going to first deal with the feet. Dr. Siegel has prescribed what is called a Denis Browne Splint for Mika. I believe she wants to be this aggressive because a) we need to deal with the hips as well, and b) Mika's getting to an age where she can get out of/take off braces and splints. She will only wear this at night. We have an evaluation with the prosthetic/orthopedic people tomorrow to get Mika fitted and find out more about her wearing it.

At this point here next appointment is in 6 months, when she'll be 26 months old (2 years and 2 months for those of you who need it broken down). Looking back on that I'm not sure if it was a mistake, or if she really doesn't need to be seen with the Denis Browne Splint for 6 months. If the people tomorrow don't have any insight into this I'll call Dr. Siegel's office back and ask them.

_______________________________

As for Urijah, he had his weight check today. He is a whopping 13lbs10.5oz!!! Eat boy, eat!!! I can't tell you exactly how much he's gained 'cause I can't find my record right now, but if I do, I'll update this post. The only bad thing is that I've had to completely stop nursing him because I just completely dried up. :-( I'm bummed about that, but happy my boy is getting fed.

His reflux is still going strong, unfortunately. So we'll just keep him on the Previcid until his 6 month appointment (which will be when he's 7 months, thanx to me not knowing I need to schedual his appointments 4 months in advance), then wean him off and see how he does.

Urijah did get 2 shots today - PC and HIB. He's a little grumpy so far but not bad, poor boy.

A Cleaning Vent

2009-03-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

I really hate cleaning.

Don't get me wrong, I like things to be clean, I just hate the process of getting them that way.

Yesterday we did a big "spring cleaning". Oh joy. Zarik even comments a couple hours in "Man, you get really ornery when I make you clean."

Yes. Yes I do.

When we were first married, laundry would give me panic attacks. No joke. And suddenly last week we were discussing (maybe a little heatedly) chores, stress levels, etc, and Zarik comes out with "but I left you laundry and dishes because you like those things". Like those things? LIKE those things? At what point in the past 7 years did I start to like laundry and dishes!?

So, yes, I get a little ornery when I have to clean.

I think part of it is the "frustrated perfectionist" piece of me. When I start something I want to do it perfectly. But as I go, I undoubtedly will see more that has to be done within the task I am doing. ie: I am cleaning the kitchen and notice the cabinets need to be washed down. So I wash them down and notice the drawers need to be cleaned out. I clean them out and notice the backsplashes need to be scrubbed. I scrub those and notice the fridge needs to be wiped down. You get the idea. And I get depressed and feel a bit like a failure when I can't get to all that. I know I'm not, but it definately doesn't make me feel better. So I tend to avoid cleaning when I can. Especially a full day of it in many different rooms where I end up noticing all the litle things.

Whew. That felt good to get off my chest. I'm done venting now

___________________________________________________________________________________

Please continue praying for little Stellan. You can go and visit MckMama's blog for updates by clicking on the "Praying for Stellan" button on my left sidebar. The li'l guy is still in SVT and they aren't sure why. I thank you and MckMama and Stellan thank you too.

Please Pray!!

2009-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

I have been following a blog of a lady I pretty much think of as my hero right now - MckMama. If you have time, stop over and check out some of her thoughts on photography, babywearing, cloth diapering, healthy eating, her faith etc. (Are you getting an idea now of why she's my hero?)

Today, however, she, and her sweet baby Stellan (who is 2 days older than Urijah) need our prayers. Long story short, Stellan's heart had Supra Ventricular Tachycardia while in the womb, but God healed him and he was born healthy. Not long after, the poor li'l guy got RSV and was REALLY sick in the hospital. Last night, MckMama took Stellan to the ER with what they were hoping was a bad cold. 2 nebulizer treatments later, his heart flips back into Supra Ventricular Tachycardia again. Right now they think it was the 2nd neb tretment (they can cause a racing heart) that caused it. Normally, when a neb treatment causes this, it can easily be gotten out of, but they think that because Stellan already had this condition, it's making his heart not want to act like it should. Please, Please, pray for little Stellan and his Mommy and Daddy. I keep finding myself hugging my li'l guy, crying and crying out to God on their behalf.

Thanks.

I Qualified!!

2009-03-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Whoohoo!! I am officially a REAL Pampered Chef Consultant!!!

I almost though I wouldn't do it in my first 30 days, too. But God is good and I DID! I submitted the show that qualified me with 3 and a half hours left on the clock. Now I just have to figure out how I am going to spend all the extra Pampered Chef Dollars I got for qualifying in 30 days. Hmmmm.....

Fisheys!!

2009-03-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

Busy Bees

2009-03-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's almost been a month since I last posted! Bad me! I'll try to update most everything, so this may end up kinda long.

I'll start with Mika. Her rash has been completely healed! Praise God! We took the pediatrition's advice of just using plain ol' vaseline on it, and it worked. Who woulda thunk? I also had a Physical Therepy evaluation done on her through Early Intervention just to see what they thought about her being pigeon toed. Basically, because of being pigeon toed, she is a little behind developmentally, but not enough that PT is a must for us. So when we see the orthapedic next month we are most likely getting special shoes for her, and we'll ask the Dr what she thinks about PT.

On to Urijah. Sigh. The problem here is actually more me than him, but it doesn't make it any easier. Basically, my milk supply is a bit low. Which means Ri Ri isn't gaining weight. Not good for a bitty baby. So I am now taking feenugreek, drinking Mother's Milk Tea, pumping a LOT and suplementing Urijah after each feeding. Not fun. But nessesary. And now that he's full, he's my happy baby again! (He'd been getting really grumpy since he was so hungry)

Now for Zarik: He actually got a line this month!! (for those who don't know airline "speak", that means he actually got a schedual where he has to go to work) He's been on reserve (or on call, if you will) for over a year now, so this is huge. However, his schedual looks like this this month:

2 days off, 6 days on
3 days off, 4 days on
3 days off, 6 days on
3 days off, 2 days on
2 days off

That's 13 days off, and 18 days on. And by on I mean he is not home at all (except for maybe 8 hours at night, one of those nights)

We've already gone through the first 6 day stretch and it was hard. But God is good and we got through it with a lot of hard work and a little separation anxiety (on all our parts, lol)

Ok, I guess it's my turn now. As I posted about last month, I have started my own Pampered Chef business (again). God is totally blessing it! I will be closing my second show tomorrow and I got enough commissionable sales with just these two shows to qualify! (Meaning I'm a real consultant now and will have a website and other benefits) However, between that, taking over church nursery, no husband 18 days this month, and a 4 month old and 19 month old, I am definately tired. God is definately teaching me that my only means of survival is to trust in Him and the only way any of my endevers are going to succeed is because of Him. But He is definately faithful.

So now to close with the words of Tiny Tim:

"God Bless us, every one."

Fabulous (aka Mika's 18 month checkup)

2009-02-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

So. Today was Mika's 18 month checkup.

Let me preface this by saying that we woke up today, immediately got dressed and hopped in the car by 9am so that we could drive down to Focus on the Family for an all MOPS playdate. We had a blast! We were having so much fun I dragged leaving for the appointment, so we ended up 5 minutes late.

At this point both kids are now asleep in the backseat. I sit for a second looking at them through the rearview mirror, and the kid's monkey mirrors, wishing I didn't have to wake them up. I notice that Urijah needs his snuzzler replaced with our strap bears for more support 'cause his head is at a very odd angle.

So I fix Urijah's head, get the carseat out (with him still sleeping) then wake Mika up and haul them, and the diaper bag, into the Dr's office. Urijah immediately wakes up. I put Mika down and she runs for the toys. I then deal with one $15 past-due co-pay, today's $15 co-pay, call Zarik for Mika's insurance member # (since he has her card because he picked up her prescription last week), give them Urijah's card to copy, write her card # down, and try to start filling out all the paperwork. Before I even get her name on it all, we are called back.

As soon as we get to the room, Urijah starts crying. The nurse kindly looks after him while I strip Mika for her weight and height. After that's all done I take Urijah out of his carseat and try to fill out the paperwork again. The Dr comes right in and starts talking while I finish up the stuff pertinent to the appointment.

Rundown:
Height - 31" (30%)
Weight - 23 lbs 1.5 oz (30%)
Head - 46.5 cm (48%)
Shots - DTaP
Speech - Dr was amazed she says more than one or two two-syllable words (said bubbles and backpack just today!)
Milk - Whole until 2 years old
Diaper Rash - Ahhhhh. Here is were things get interesting:

The terminology she used is that Mika is allergic to diapers. ALL TYPES OF DIAPERS. Cloth included.

Basically, she gets yeast rashes. Then because of the dark, damp, constantly-on, always-rubbing-against-her-bottom environment it turns scabby and stays that way. Basically, this is not fully going away until she's potty trained. We are trying an antifungal mixed with Desitin right now per the dermatologist, and the dr wants us to try plain vasaline and cortaid for a few days instead and see if that helps the scabbing now that the yeast is gone (for now).

PTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, after all that I put Urijah in his carseat so I can get Mika dressed and hold her for her shot. He starts screaming. We're finally ready to go so we go to the waiting room to make our next appointment (2 years old) and so I can fill out the insurance paperwork. Urijah is screaming the whole time. I really hope they can read my handwriting.

And hear.

We finally get to the car and both kids immediately fall asleep.

Ah, Bliss.

Gone and Done It

2009-02-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

Well, Dear friends and family, I have gone and done it - again.

I have become a Pampered Chef Consultant.

Something I promised Zarik I would never do again.

But who am I to say no to God?

Ok, does that sound a little cheeky? Let me 'splain...

First of all, I have ALWAYS loved Pampered Chef. I was hooked from the first time my mom took me to a cooking show with her. Even my bridal shower was a Pampered Chef Show! I tried to be a consultant twice before, but couldn't get enough shows booked. (Only 2 the first time - none the second)

Well, I can really be a walking advertisement for Pampered Chef. "This recipe is awesome! Can I have it?" - Of Course! And it's Pampered Chef! "That is a cool kitchen gadget. Where'd you get it?" - It's Pamered Chef! "How did you slice your apples like that?" - With this really neat Pampered Chef tool! I guess I've been doing it a lot lately, because I've had a bunch of people tell me I should just be a consultant.

Then I heard from God.

There was a Word spoken over me that I would have a ministry with women helping them create beauty from the ashes in their lives. God REALLY impressed this on my heart while I was contemplating all the people telling me I should do Pampered Chef. So I started praying about it. And praying some more. And some more. And I really felt like God was saying "DO IT!!!"

So I done it. Er, did it.

So my Dear friends and family, don't be suprised if you get a call (once I work up the nerve) and tell you that this is what I am doing and ask if you want to help me by hosting a show. And don't be suprised at the excitement (or nervousness) in my voice. 'Cause it's not easy to call a bunch of different people and try to get them as excited as you are about something. But I am determined. :-)

The Zoo (again, lol)

2009-02-06T17:35:00.001-08:00

One of our favorite things to do you (if you haven't yet figured it out, lol) is to go to our local zoo. Thursday we went with some friends of mine from my Bible Study. (Incidentally, some of their husbands are in a Bible Study with Zarik)

Pictures

2009-02-06T17:14:00.001-08:00

Mika Update

2009-01-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, we got in to see the dermatologist on Thursday. We saw the dr who usually does the office's surgeries and such, since he was the only one not overbooked. He thinks is yeast and that the Nystantin was keeping her too moist which was in turn feeding the yeast. So he gave us a new antifungal prescription, and told us to put that on, then an zinc oxide ointment on top of that to dry it all out. And we are supposed to do "bare bottom therapy" as much as possible. Lets hope this all works!

Poor Baby Mika :(

2009-01-28T12:32:00.000-08:00

Honestly, I was waiting to write about this because I was hoping we'd go to the Dr really fast, and I'd be able to give a great pro-active update. Unfortunately, that is not yet the case.

Since Mika was a year old she's been getting really bad diaper rashes. REALLY bad diaper rashes. The scabby, won't-go-away type. Fortunatly not the open-bleeding-sore type, but almost there. We've taken her to the pediatrition a couple of times for it, plus our pedi glanced at it at each of Urijah's appointments, and at Mika's 15 month appointment. We feel like we've tried just about everything - Aquaphore, Nystantin (a yeast med), Bacitracian (an antibacterial OTC med), a special compound of Aquaphore and a steroid, plus Courtaid 2x/day. We think that her last round of a rash was Staph (scary, I know! But the pedi says it's not as bad as it sounds) and that the Bacitracian helped it. She still had red spots, but we were told that they were probably scars from how bad the rash was.

Well, now here we are about three weeks later and she has ANOTHER rash. I know what started THIS one. A week and a half ago we gave her a LOT of bluberries. That really affected her pooping. (TMI, I know) I mean, it turned terquoise!!! And she immediately got a rash. We started immediate action with all of the things above, and.....nothing. It's still horrible! It will start to get better, then she'll poop again and it's back to really bad! She's definately in pain, too, poor baby.

So I called the pedi again, and she's reffering us to the dermatologist. Only problem is the pedi wants us in THIS WEEK and the dermatologist can't get us in until February 4th. So today after Mika started gasping in pain I called the dermatologist in tears begging them to find a cancellation or gap somewhere so my baby can be seen. The nurse was really sweet when she called back, and now we're hopefully going to get a call from another nurse tomorrow telling us they talked to a different Dr. and he can see us.

I just hope we have a good update soon!

Not Me! Monday

2009-01-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Not Me! Monday was started by MckMama and is a fun way of being TOTALLY honest about how imperfect we are by pretending we so did not do that!

Like I so did not leave the HUGE pile of dishes and other assorted used kitchen ware dirtied to make my fabulous turkey dinner Thursday until Saturday! Not Me!

And I did not subsequently leave Saturday's dishes for Sunday, and Sunday's dishes for today (which are still sitting all over the counter waiting to be done!) Not Me!

While making dinner/dessert for our bible study Sunday I did not let Urijah go 6 hours between feedings since Zarik kept putting him back to sleep with his binky and a blanket over his eyes. Not Me!

And I most certainly did not sign up for twitter when Zarik always tells me I'm online too much already and then spend 2hours+ revamping my blog just a bit, and then almost complain that I never get any time for myself!

That was most definitely

Not Me!

My first turkey ever!!

2009-01-17T13:23:00.000-08:00

Thursday night marks another milestone in my life:

I cooked my first turkey by myself EVER!!!

And it was GOOD!

For the past 5 years Skywest has given Zarik a free turkey at Thanksgiving (in coupon form - we have to go and actually pick it out ourselves) Up until this last year we had either given the coupon away or thrown it away after it expired. Honestly, the thought of cooking such a big piece of meat intimidated me. Plus, I don't really like meat that resembles the live animal - just cut it up and give it to me, thank you very much.

This year, we bought a turkey with the intention of donating to Shanna's church for their big Thanksgiving Meal. By the time we were going to drop it off, though, they didn't need/want any more turkeys. So into our freezer it went. Since then we've been trying to figure out a time to cook it up, so this week, out of the freezer it came. After a day or two of looking up how Alton Brown cooks a turkey (he's my cooking hero!), I pulled it all together and we had turkey!!

If you can't tell, I am proud of myself. :)

Urijah's 2 month Dr Appointment

2009-01-08T19:28:00.001-08:00

I've totally been slacking in posting this, since the appointment was Monday, and it's now Thursday, but such is my brain and my life. :)

The appointment went great! Our big guy is now 10lbs, 9oz (25%) and 22 3/4" long! That is 4lbs, 4oz and 2 3/4" bigger than when born. Way to go big guy! Besides a li'l diaper rash he looks completely healthy and happy. (The diaper rash is gone already, BTW. It was gone by Tuesday night.) He got 2 vaccines: the DTaP shot, and Rotovirus by mouth. He cried just for a second, then was all better. I talked to the pediatrition about him possibly having reflux (he spits up every time after he eats, and does a "spit up face" then "chews" and swallows it back down [gross!]). She agrees that he does have it, but for now we're just going to watch it and pray he grows out of it with none of the weirdness Mika had.

Speaking of Mika, the pediatrition saw her walking down the hall, and noticed that her feet go in when she walks. I had noticed it too, and was going to bring it up at her 18 month appointment next month, so I was glad the pediatrition noticed this time and mentioned it. She wanted us to make an appointment with the orthapedic to have it looked at, which works perfectly because we needed to make an appointment for when she is about 21 months to get another check up x-ray on her hips. So we're doing the whole shabang in 3 months (April) when she's 20 months.

Baby Feet, Mommy Feet

"I'm SO bored"

Pink and Brown Day

2009-01-08T19:17:00.001-08:00

For the last year I have been following the story of "CFHusband" and his family. They are truly all miracles: Tricia, who has Cystic Fibrosis; baby Gwyneth who was born very premature; and Nate, who has watched his girls come to the edge of death and back.

Today is Gwyneth's first birthday, and to celebrate with all his blog readers, Nate started Pink and Brown Day! How could we not help celebrate?!

Urijah the Corpse

2008-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

Urijah fell asleep on my dad Saturday night, and my dad joked that he looked like a corpse, then started posing him! Lol! Morbid, but funny!

Our Christmas Trip to Cali

2008-12-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

We just got back from our Early Christmas trip to California. It was great! We had a great flight out where we got 2 rows to ourselves, so Mika slept next to Zarik while Urijah and I snoozed in the row behind them.

We stayed at the Brost house and everyone had so much fun seeing how much Mika has grown and meeting Urijah. Flene, Justin and their daughter Hailey came out Wednesday and we had a ton of fun with them since it was our first time meeting Hailey! She is so cute!

Friday night I took Urijah and we went with my mom to see a "family friendly" Nutcracker (shortened and done by local dance studios, with just a few professionals). My brother Brandon was in the part scene as one of the adult guests! He did great!! So did Urijah, thanfully. :)

Saturday night was our night with my family and we had a ton of fun opening presents, cooking, eating, and playing games. My poor mom got sick that day, though, so although she was enjoying it, she kept having to run to the bathroom to throw up. That didn't keep her from trying to help finish dinner and clean up, though, crazy Mommy! (;P Luv U!)

Between both families both the kids and Zarik and I really "made out" this year! Mika got TWO ride on toys, while Z and I got a laptop from my parents! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!!

Getting home was a lot more of a hassle as it took us about 14 hours. We got to the Sacramento airport at 5am and I believe the flight we finally got on to Denver was at 2pm. It was a loooooooooong exhausting day for everyone but Urijah (he didn't care as long as he got fed enough!). We did get first class from Sac-Den though!! Yeah for big comfy seats and fruit'n'meat plates! Both kids slept the whole way, too.

We are now home and recovering, lol. Poor Zarik got called into work this morning, though. Just for a quick "repo" to Denver and back, though, so not too bad. He should be home by noon or one. We plan on just taking the rest of the week easy. Zarik does work on Christmas, but should be back by bedtime.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Aunt Mriah holding Hailey with Urijah in the forground

Burrito Urijah

Mika using her sleeve as a teeting item

Helping out in the kitchen

Mika and Mommy

Hailey "holding" Burrito Urijah

Cousins!

Running Away!

Who are you?

Urijah and Hailey

The boys with their babies

Sister and Brother with their babies

Kissin' Cousins!

Story Time!

Zarik and the kids

Mika watching the planes

Mika helping with Urijah

Sleepy Airport Babies

Win an Ergo!!

2008-12-22T07:24:00.000-08:00

As I think most of you know, I love babywearing (carrying my li'l ones in a sling, wrap or other type of carrier). While I do not have the Ergo personally, I love what I've seen of it, and wish I had one! It's a great way to start or continue wearing your baby.

Win a Free Organic Embroidered Ergo Baby Carrier Hands Free System from Along for the Ride

November Pictures

2008-12-11T18:46:00.000-08:00

Keepin' on Keepin' on...

2008-12-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well here we are smack dab in the middle of the holiday season, '08. Urijah is a month old now and Mika is 16 months. Urijah is cooing a lot and smiling now. It's SO cute! I'll have to focus on getting a picture of it - I've just been enjoying all his grins myself, for now. :) Mika's learning new words and phrases every day and loves trying them out on Zarik and I. Grandma got her Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer for and early Christmas present and she loves watching it.

My mom has been out again for another week and we've had fun doing lots of projects. We put up all our Christmas stuff this week, made Christmas cards, Birth Announcements, did a scrapbook (for a present), and sorted through toys! The next two days before she leaves are busy ones and I'm already tired lol!

Next week we'll be in California for an early Christmas since Zarik couldn't get it off. It'll be the first Christmas I've ever been away from my family Christmas morning! Hopefully this will be the only one!

Merry Christmas Everyone! Jesus is the reason for the season!

Family Christmas Portraits

2008-11-19T17:20:00.001-08:00

Newborn Portriats of Urijah

2008-11-19T17:12:00.000-08:00

Urijah's 2 Week Doctor Appointment

2008-11-14T14:52:00.000-08:00

So when we went for Urijah's newborn appointment, we saw a different pediatrition than our normal one because ours was sick that day. Everything looked good then, and he only lost 3lbs from his birth weight, but she said she wanted us to come back when he was 2 weeks old anyways. I'm glad we got to, though, so our pediatrition could look at him, too.

Breastfeeding is going VERY well and Urijah has already gained over a full pound over his "leaving the hospital" weight, which at 7lbs, 3.5oz is 14.5 oz over his birth weight! Go Tiny Man! She did a full exam on him since she hadn't seen him herself yet and said that everything looks great!! He lost most of his cord at 4 days old, and the last little piece a few days ago. Even though it's still oozing a tiny bit, she said it looks good.

Mika is doing very well with the transition to being a big sister. She has been a little more moody, but then again, she's a toddler now!

Mika's 15 Month Doctor Appointment

2008-11-14T14:43:00.000-08:00

Monday we went for Mika's 15 month appointment. Our girl is getting so big!! She's 21lbs, 12.5oz (the 40th percentile), 30.5 inches long (50th percentile) and her head is 46cm around (46th percentile). Her "curve" on the growth chart is staying nice and consistant, except for her weight which is going up, and that's what we've wanted since she was 6 months old, so yeah!!

The pediatrition was VERY impressed by Mika's verbal skills. We guess-timated that she has about 35 words that she says, plus animal sounds. We were told that most kids only have a couple dozen at MOST and animal sounds are more like 18m-2y! She's a li'l talker!! Now if only we can get her to USE her words when she actually wants something.... ;-)

There really wasn't a whole lot we needed to talk with her about, so it was a pretty short appointment. It did end with the inevitable shots, though - HIB and flu. She did so great though! Cried just for a minutes while I frantically grabbed for her binky, then walked out of there like it was nothin'!

Urijah Andrew

2008-11-02T13:09:00.001-08:00

More to come, but they're on Mom's camera. :D

Urijah's Birth Story!!

2008-11-01T20:13:00.001-07:00

Short Version: Urijah Andrew was born at 3:35am on Halloween by VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesearean)!! He was 6lbs,5oz, and 20" long.

Long Version: I had had pretty intense pre-labor since Monday night with contractions no more than 20 minutes apart. Thursday I was going crazy and decided I HAD to go with Zarik to pick up my mom from the airport - I just needed to get out!! We picked her up and went to Chili's for a late lunch. I must have looked pretty funny as I had to stand up every 10 minutes or so and lean through a contraction! We got home about 5 and my contractions immediately picked up to about 8 minutes apart. They were also getting pretty intense. My mom and sister went to the store, and while they were gone I realized this was probably it. The shower I took even made them more intense! Zarik was going to work out when my mom and sis got home, but I told him it was a bad idea - I think this is it. After the last 3 days he was sceptical, but after an hour and a half he was convinced and we were off! I have to add here that he was awesome at stalling me during this time. We have taken Bradley Birth Classes, and he knew I wanted to stay home as long as possible. He kept puttering around getting us ready, doing little chores, making me a protien shake, etc. Then on the way down(it's a 45 min drive down a mountain pass and through the city to the hospital) he casually says "I'm going to swing through the Starbucks drive-through if that's ok." I was remembering during Mika's labor when he left me to go get a cup of coffee, so I replied "Fine. Just make it fast." His response? "YOU FAILED! We'are going back home!" It was another "test" to see if I was truly ready to go down, lol! At the time he got growled at, but now it's pretty funny.

We got to the hospital at about 9:45pm, walked up to triage (in between contractions), got the "ok, you're in labor!" and got escorted to the same room we had with Mika! Zarik got our stuff from the car, I got settled in, and our midwife, Sharon, showed up. Contractions were every 2 minutes at this point and I was 6 cm dilated. They needed to do a hep-lock (the arm part of the IV - but not a full IV) since I was a VBAC patient, and it took them FOUR tries!! They'd just about get it in and the vein would blow. UGG!

As labor got more intense, I found my favorite position was standing hanging over Zarik's right arm with Sharon pushing on my low back. I figured since Zarik can bench press 385 lbs, he could hold me up, lol! I went from having no back labor when we arrived, to almost complete back labor by the end. After a couple hours I was still at a 6, so Sharon asked if we wanted the water broken. We said we'd wait a while longer - I was scared at how intense that might make it. An hour or so later (I lost all track of time so these are guestimates) we gave our ok since we were still at a 6. I decided I just wanted him OUT and I better just get it over with. OMG contractions immediately got SO much more intense! I pretty much immediately went into transition (the part right before you're ready to push) and was at a 9! It took another li'l bit of me baring down to get from there to complete (10 centameters), and during that time they put up the squatting bar because that position felt best. After that Zarik joked I looked like a weird pole dancer - I was up, down, twisting, sqatting, biting the bar, swaying. I was "shaking the baby down!" I had hardly any breaks at all now and next thing I knew I was pushing! Sharon quickly saw sqatting wasn't going to be good for me tearing wise, so they got me in a side laying position and got a mirror. It was SO amazing seeing his head crown! I reached down to touch it and decided I was just going to leave my hand there. About 3 contractions later he was born and I was helping pull him onto my chest!! I did have a 1st degree tear 'cause I wasn't a good girl and didn't listen when Sharon was telling to slow down and let the skin stretch. I just wanted him out!!

I cuddled my boy for about 5 minutes before they insisted on taking him for a minute because he really needed his throat suctioned out. They gave him back as my stitches were being finished and he immediately went to the breast and stayed there for an hour and a half!!

The rest of our stay was just too many nurses and blood draws, lol. We're home now and adjusting to life with a newborn who LOVES to eat ALL the time, a toddler with a bad diaper rash, and all our assorted animals (we have 5) and helpers (my mom, her dog, my sister).

Pre-Labor

2008-10-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

I am currently in a land called pre-labor. It's an encouraging, but not so nice place between Braxton-Hicks Contractions, and 2 minute apart/4 centemeter dialated active labor. Basically, I am having quite painful contractions every 20 minutes that I have to stop and breathe through, and wake me if I'm asleep.

I was contracting pretty regularly last night - every 10 minutes until about 4am, then because I hadn't eaten in a while they were at 2.5 minutes. I took a shower, ate (a protein bar and baked potato of all things - I think my body was telling me I should carbo-load, lol!!), had a gatorade and spent time timing them. I was about to tell Zarik we should put our hospital stuff in the car when they started spacing out again, so I went back to bed and they spaced back out to 20 min where they've been ever since. I had my chiropractor appointment and saw Sharon (my midwife) today, and they pretty much just said hang in there, you're getting so close! I just really hope I can last until active labor - these contractions HURT and are draining me. Zarik is making sure I stay hydrated and eat enough to keep my body functioning through this, though. He's the best! I think he just likes being able to put all our labor practice into play for the first REAL time, lol.

Please pray for me (for all of us) as, even though it is exciting, I am getting tired and a little frustrated, especially knowing it could be days of this. I really want to stay positive and optimistic, but it's not easy.

Mika Really Loves to Dance!

2008-10-23T11:31:00.001-07:00

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day

2008-10-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today is October 15th, which is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I don't know that I've shared my story here, so I though today would be a good day to talk about my babies.

Zarik and I first decided it was the right time to start a family New Years, 2006. 3 months later we had our positive pregnancy test!! We had our first doctor appointment at approximately 6 weeks. The doctor had a free ultrasound machine, and decided to do an quick ultrasound just for fun! Well, low and behold, it looked like there were TWO sacs!! TWINS!! It was kinda hard to tell though, so we scheduled another ultrasound/appointment, and I was supposed to get my HCG (the pregnancy hormone) levels tested. Well, after 2 more ultrasounds, appointment, and blood draws, it was apparent that yes it was twins, but they didn't grow even to the point of their hearts beating. That last appointment was the only one Zarik was unable to make and I really wish I'd waited an extra day so he could be there with me. We decided to let the miscarriage happen naturally and 2 weeks later it did. That was definitely one of the hardest times of my life. Maybe THE hardest time. A few weeks later a young man at church had a vision of Zarik holding a blond baby boy, and I had a vision of a blond girl running towards us from the gates of heaven. So that is how I now picture my babies. We never found names for them, but figure we will find out their names when we see them again.

This is the memory box necklace I got to commemorate them and their story:

Please join me tonight at 7pm in lighting a candle and saying a prayer for all the mommies that are remembering their little ones today.

The Colors of Autumn

2008-10-08T19:53:00.001-07:00

While we don't get quite as much or as spactacular a change as the east coast, the Rockies definately go through a seasonal color change that is just beautiful. Here are some pictures Zarik took from the ridge above our home.

Our house is straight down the hill in this picture - you can kinda see the roof

I'm a big girl! Look what I can do!

2008-10-07T21:10:00.000-07:00

Our pediatrician recommended at Mika's 1 year appointment that we start giving her a spoon or fork while we feed her so that she can start imitating us and learn to feed herself. Well, as you can see, it's going very well! This was taken October 5th, 2 days before she turned 14 months!

An eventful week.....

2008-10-07T20:55:00.001-07:00

Well, it all started with Zarik FINALLY going to work again. He went on a four day trip that had LOTS of overnight time in Chicago. With an all women crew. Hehe!! Poor guy. He got home Wednesday night.

Thursday, due to an series of unfortunate events, Sierra, one of our huskys, got out and gave Zarik a good run through the Safeway parking lot, in and out of stores and everything. He decided then and there to shave her neck and put our shock collar on her. We just needed new batteries from WalMart.

Friday, we woke up to go to WalMart, went downstairs to go to the car, and found our bottom floor flooded. Zarik did a little damage control then we left. After we came home, he went to clean it up better and figure out what the problem was. He came upstairs a few hours later to tell me that while he didn't know exactly what was wrong, he knew what the flood was - it was sewage. Flooded all over. Great. We quickly figure out that ANY water poured down any drain, or any toilet flushed makes it back up, so we have to stop using all water and toilets. And I'd had a very productive day and was halfway through boiling and washing cloth diapers, and cleaning the kitchen top to bottom, including 2 loads of dishes. All that came to a grinding halt. The night ended with Mike throwing up all over me, and us having to leave 2 blankets and all our clothes stinking up the laundry room.

Saturday, Zarik was able to get a hold of a sewer and drain guy who rushed up and fixed what was a clog in our sewer line. Yeah!!!! And it only cost $120 on a Saturday! God is Good! Needless to say, we spent the rest of that day SCRUBBING.

Sunday about 3am, Zarik woke up throwing up. We now knew that Mika's throw up incident wasn't random: it was the flu. Poor Zarik spend all day in bed aching and feeling downright miserable. The worst part was that Zarik hadn't really had any time with his baby girl in a week and they were both missing it.

Monday morning, I woke up throwing up. Thank God Zarik was feeling better. It was JUST the 24 hour flu. So he got to spend that much desired time with Mika while I lay in bed aching and trying to rest.

Today, Tuesday, we are finally all doing much better. The carpet still needs some work from our "sewer" incedent, we are about 4 days behind on chores and such, and we still have NO energy, but we realize it could have been a LOT worse. I just hope our lives get a little more eventful between now and the time Urijah comes.....

Bla, bla, bla.....

2008-09-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Zarik and I have been telling people different numbers as far as how many words Mika has (I would say 8, he would say 15), so I sat down to figure it out yesterday. Here are the words she knows:

Dada
Mama
Baby
Juneau
Aw-ooh (for dog)
Key or Maw (for cat)
no
nose
hi
bye bye
night night
nana (banana)
baba (bottle)
pree (pretty - as in a necklace or hair clip)
t'ank you (as she hands you something, in expectation of you saying it!)

So that's 15 or 16 (however you count cat!) words that she knows all ready! And of course there are always the 3 or 4 that she's in the process of learning that she just mimics right now (milk, pet, quack, poo-poo). I was definitely amazed when I realized it was that many. I knew I had a smart daughter, but I guess I was underestimating her a wee bit!

Mika The Hiker

2008-09-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

Mika went with Daddy and Aunt Shanna on a small hike to Rampart Range Reservoir yesterday. They took it slow and had fun with Mika and the dogs on the trail. Mika even got some hiking of her own in!

We love the Zoo!

2008-09-20T11:02:00.000-07:00

We absolutely love our local zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We got a membership this year so that we can go as much as we want. It's so big that if you want to actually stop and watch some of the animals or feeding times, it takes about 4 hours to go through the whole thing! (At least that's our usual time.) Mika LOVES looking at all the different animals. So far her favorites are the meercats and wolves - especially the wolves! We just walk into the wolf den and she starts howling! So cute!

Here's some pictures and video of our latest visit...

Mika and a Gorilla Mommy sucking on their fingers

Mika in the "Beaver Dam" watching the River Otters

Waiting for the River Otter feeding to start

The Grizzlies giving us a show during feeding time

Not just sick....

2008-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Mika and I have been fighting colds since this weekend. It started with her getting a BUNCH of milk down the wrong pipe Friday morning. She was still coughing a really barky cough by Monday, so I called the pediatrician just to make sure they didn't think it was anything serious. She said it sounds like a cold and that the milk aspiration just aggravated the chest/cough part of it. Mika's been acting really good through all of this. She has woken up a couple times per night, but puts herself back to bed.

Well then yesterday she found some dog hair or paper on the floor and put it in her mouth. I went to fish it out (unfortunately I wasn't fast enough - darn belly, lol!) and found something totally unexpected....

HER FIRST TOOTH!!!

WHOOHOO!!!

So it turns out her symptoms are doing double time - teething and a real cold. (I know it's real cause there is NO WAY she doesn't have a little bit of what I have - I'm dying here!!)

The cold mornings have started here....

Dancing Baby and Play Time

2008-09-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a short video of Mika dancing, and a couple of pics of play time IN the toy box, lol!!

Mika's first steps!!!

2008-09-06T20:16:00.000-07:00

Mika took her first steps tonight!!! Shanna and our friend CJ came over to do a "Sushi Night" at our house and Mika decided that she was going to bless us with her first steps!! Yeah!!!

Daddy Time

2008-09-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

Zarik took Mika on a hike up the back side of Pikes Peak called the Craigs. It's beautiful up there and if I wasn't 7 1/2 months pregnant, I would have gone with them! They had a ton of fun together. Zarik said there were like 6-7 other young couples with babies going up there today!! Mika got to make a lot of friends!

Urijah's Baby Shower

2008-09-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I took my last trip (for this pregnancy) back home to Cali for Urijah's baby shower!! It was so much fun! There were so many people to hug and say hi to. Thanks to everyone who came! It's awesome to be surrounded by people who love you!! We started out by eating a yummy buffet that my mom, mother-in-law Linda and sisters-in-law Stara and Mriah, and friend Vicki set up for us. After that we did games. First we played a "guess that baby food" game. Without smelling or tasting we had to guess what was in 5 different jars. I did so bad!! Then there was one where everyone had to put a paper plate on their head and draw a picture of a baby on it. It was so funny! Last we split into groups of 5 and one person had to do scharades with 5 different phrases with the other 4 people guessing. My group won!! Our prize was a Starbucks card. Yeah!! Then everyone got cake while I opened my - I mean Urijah's - presents. The cake was SOOOOOO cute!! See the picture below! Everyone was SO generous. We now DEFINATELY have enough clothes for Urijah, plus all the other little things we needed. Thank you everyone!!

All about Kauai, Hawaii (Part I)

2008-08-30T17:51:00.000-07:00

Well, our adventure starts Friday with Zarik, Mika and I trying to join my parents in Honolulu. Zarik got called into work that night, but it was a flight to LA, so we decided Mika and I would hop onto his flight and we'd then grab a flight to Honolulu that night. The best laid plans of mice and men, right? We get to the airport to find that Zarik's flight was delayed 3 hours!! Which of course ment we'd miss the connecting flight. We decide the best thing was to still go to LA, spend the night, and get to the airport first thing to hop on a flight direct to Kauai (our ultimate destination - my parents just decided it was cheeper to get an overnight in Honolulu after their flight and hop over the next day).

After a long and eventful night getting to LA and getting a hotel (Skywest gave Zarik a room for the night since he was technically on duty, but it was not their normal hotel and it took an extra 45 minutes to get everyone {company, hotel, us) on the same page and get us a room. We woke up and went to LAX early the next morning, got through security VERY easily and amazingly got on the first flight we tried!! We even got seats together! We got to Kauai a few hours before my parents, picked up one rental car, and went to our home for the next 10 days in Kapaa (the middle of the Eastern side of the island). Everyone else got there that evening.

The next day was spent recovering for travel. We did go to the local Safeway and pick up our food for the week....aaaaand....my dad decided Mika needed a birthday balloon!

We also tried out the pool.

Then went to dinner at a semi-nice restarant called the Hukilau Lanai‎. It had AMAZING food, but we got lousy service. Not even bread for 45 minutes! Mika was starving! (as were we all)

Monday we started exploring beaches by going down to Poipu. I'm still not sure how my parents found out about this one, but there was a beach with public access next to the Sheraton Hotel on Hoonani Road. The water was a little rougher and deeper than the others we went to later, but it was a LOT of fun for all of us adults (I can't believe I can call my baby brother an adult now!). It was probably a little too rough of a place to introduce Mika to the ocean. All she did was cling to me or Zarik, and then start crying! She did like the sand, though, and tried eating a bunch.

Later we drove to Waimea (continuing our journey west) and went up north to see the Waimea Canyon. Big!!

After coming back down the canyon road we tried to continue west to see the sunset from the west coast, but got lost so we saw it from a little bit inland. Still very pretty.

Tuesday was another relaxing day. We went out to breakfast at this GREAT little place called Kountry Kitchen Restaurant in Kapaa. Amazing and HUGE pancakes!! Even Mika got one (although we had to help her out)

Zarik still tried to stay active. He worked out in the morning, and then went boogie boarding/surfing in the afternoon at a close beach called Kealia Beach.

Wednesday we went north and then west to another beach called Ke'e. This beach is protected by the cove and was a GREAT kids beach. Mika still wasn't too happy about the ocean, but she liked the boogie board! And during lunch we discovered by belly is good for something - a table!

On our way back to Kapaa, we stopped at Lappert's, a famous ice cream parlor for an afternoon treat. YUM!!

Thursday Zarik, my Dad, my sis Shanna, and bro Jonathan went on a 17 mile kayak trip around the western side of the island. So my bro Brandon, my Mom, Mika and I had a relaxing morning in the pool, then went the The Smith's Family Tropical Paradise for a Luau! We checked in and took a tram tour of their grounds. Then we went and got her stroller and did our own tour looking at all the animals! They have 30 acres of gardens that are amazing! We then went back to the main pavilion for dinner. It was an amazing spread! Very yummy! After dinner we went to a stage that was built over a pond to watch the hula show. It was a neat "History of Hawaii" hour long production, complete with fire poi's!

When we got home our kayak-ers were home and dead asleep. I walked into our room and, according to Zarik, yelled at him to not fall off in bed! In reality, I walked in to find him half hanging off the bed (one arm and leg) and in an urgent whisper woke him and told him to roll over so he wouldn't fall off the bed, lol!

Mika's 1 year Dr. Appointment

2008-08-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

We've been so busy this week I forgot to actually blog about her dr. appointment!!

We went in last Thursday (Aug 21st) for her 1 year old appointment. It was a couple of weeks late because of our Hawaii trip (darn, huh?). She is 19lbs, 10oz; 21.25" long, and her head is 45.75cm around. That is 25% in weight, 52% in height and 50% for head. All in all she looks great!! She has added a few percentiles in weight, which we really wanted to see, and is the same percentile-wise in height and head. Yeah!!

We now have switched her completely over to whole milk (organic, of course!) from her formula. We tried to switch cold-turkey, but she wouldn't have it! It took us about 3 days to fully wean her over, but that's not bad at all. She's also good to eat everything but nuts and shellfish because they are the most dangerous allergens if she is allergic. She doesn't have any teeth yet (bet we're in for it when she starts teething!) but we mash up pretty much everything for her to eat.

She did get one shot, but only cried for a second and then was fine. My brave girl!!

I'll get our Hawaii pics/story up as soon as I can. 'Till later!

Back from Hawaii!!

2008-08-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

We had a great time!! Mika switched over to Hawaii time pretty easily. She loved seeing her Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles. It was definitely a little hard on me trying to have fun and not be left out while being 7 months pregnant and with a 1 year old, but my mom was such a help an let me go with Zarik on things I could a bunch. Zarik absolutely LOVED Kauai. He's already talking about moving there, lol! (Not going to happen anytime soon!) He woke up and went for a jog along the back roads we were saying along almost every morning. He, my dad, brother Jonathan, and sister Shanna went on a 17-18 mile kayak adventure, too! Zarik definitely wanted to stay there longer than we did, lol! We went to 3 beaches around the island (Poipou, Ke'e, and Tunnels) where we were able to snorkel and/or just hang out. Mika didn't like the ocean, though. She was fine on the beach, but hated being out in the water for the most part! Even the most calm beach (Ke'e) was a little too wild for her. She got to eat plenty of sand, though!

I don't have many pictures as my mom played photographer for the trip, but will be getting copies of her pics in two weeks so I'll post some then!! For now I'll leave you with my li'l "homegirl" getting a bottle from her Uncle Jon.

3D ultrasound of Urijah!!

2008-08-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on Mika's birthday, we got to see Urijah in 3D!! It was so neat!! The little goober wouldn't wake up and move around for us, though. Figures! He moves around all the time, and especially all night, then when we try to say hi he just snoozes!!! Oh well, it was still fun!! The black triangle on the left is his elbow. He had one hand up behind his head. Looked like he was comfy!! And watch out for the "boy oh boy" shot! ;)

On a quick sidenote, it was really fun being in my midwife's office on Mika's birthday! We were all saying things like "a year ago today we were at the hospital!" Even with the ultrasound technician we got to say "a year ago yesterday you were doing an ultrasound on Mika and found we had no amnionic fluid left!" It was special.

Enjoy seeing our li'l guy!

First Birthday Portraits!

2008-08-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Mika's first birthday party!!

2008-08-02T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today we had Mika's first birthday party!! It was lots of fun! We started it out in her splash pool where the kids all had a blast. Then inside for food and fellowship (this was more for the mommies!). I was very thankful that since Zarik unfortunately got called to work, a daddy came and manned the BBQ for us and cooked up some good hamburgers and hot dogs!! (GO RILEY!) After that we opened up Mika's present. Then onto Cake!! Or at least it was cake in Mika's case. I made "sand" and "aquarium" cups for everyone else, but Mika got to pick out her own cake from the store to dig into - although she didn't do much digging! In case you can't tell from the video, it's an "aw-oo" - Mika's word for dog. All in all we had a great time. I loved seeing all my "mommies", and Mika had fun with all her friends! But all that playing wore her out. She crashed right after the party. Just BEFORE everyone left, lol.

Fun in the pool!

"Uncle" Riley tickling some of the girls!

Presents!

About 15 minutes AFTER singing happy birthday...

3rd Trimester!!

2008-07-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's here already!! But yes, as of Wednesday, I am officially in my third trimester! I hope I can stay as busy the next 3 months as I have these last 6 1/2 or so and that it flys by! It's funny - I really missed being pregnant after Mika was born, but now that I've been pregnant 1 year and 3 months out of 1 year and 9 months, I am SO ready to be done being pregnant. I'm definately looking forward to having my li'l guy on the outside!

We've got a lot going on in the next couple weeks too - Saturday is Mika's birthday party here in Colorado. Next Thursday (Mika's actual birthday!) we get a 3D ultrasound of Urijah. Then Saturday we leave for Hawaii!! I hope to be able to get pictures of everything up and blogs written about it all as it happens (I'm not the best blogger in the world, I know - sorry!) and I'm hoping we have internet in Hawaii and I can load some pictures too!!

Urijah's Belly Pics

2008-07-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Here are my Belly Pictures taken while pregnant with Urijah Andrew! I will update and "bump" this post when I take a new one!!

9 Weeks!

18 Weeks!

21 Weeks!

25 Weeks!

25 Weeks Henna Tattoo!

Henna Tattoo!!

2008-07-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

We have a great li'l Farmer's Market here in town. Even though it's only 2 blocks long, it's always packed with people and booths. Today there was a Henna Tattoo artist there!! So I decided to get one on my belly to show who exactly is in there!

Fourth of July visit

2008-07-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

Mika had a blast!! We spent the first couple of days with Zarik's family up at Kidd Lake. Some good friend's of the family had come out too and brought 18 month old twins that Mika got to play with! They were so cute together! Then we spent time with my dad's mom and sister (my grandma and aunt) and my aunt's grandaughter, Hailey, who just turned 3. It was awesome to get to see and spend time with all of them! Here are some pictures!

Cool Chick!

With an "aww-ooh!"

Second Cousins!

Chasing Tirza!

Early Birthday presents!

This stuff is fun!

Pretty Flower Girl!

Pondering Life...

Naked Baby!

Going to California for the 4th!

2008-07-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

We were going back and forth about going out to visit our families for the holiday. But then we found out there's going to be lots of people for Mika to see and hang out with!! To start with we are going to be visiting with Zarik's family up at their property in Soda Springs (outskirts of Tahoe), which is on a lake called Kidd Lake. Some long time friends of the family are coming up, and the youngest daughter has twins that are 1 1/2 so that should be fun!! Then after Zarik leaves, my Grandma and Aunt Cathy are bringing my cousin's daughter, Hailey, up to visit from SoCal! She's turning 3 really soon here (At least I'm pretty sure. Preggo brain is making me doubt myself!!) Yeah for friends and family! I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to post when I get back!

Here's a cute picture of Mika from a Geoff Moore concert we were recently at

It's a......

2008-06-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've been a very bad blogger. I've had this post ready for two weeks, and just haven't posted it because I couldn't get my scanner to work. So finally I just TOOK pictures of the ultrasound so I can get this up here!!

Anyways.....It's a boy!!!! Urijah Andrew will joining our family in November! The ultrasound went great. Urijah was definately not being shy at all, lol! The ultrasound technition had barely put the wand on my stomach when she said "Oh, there it is!" I didn't get it at first until she wrote "Boy oh Boy!" on the screen! Our li'l guy is very healthy. He measured PERFECTLY to our due date, so November 1st it is!! The only "concern" was that the placenta is a little low. It's not placenta previa or anything, but they will do another ultrasound in about 10-12 weeks to make sure it's moving up (which they normally do) and not becoming placenta previa.

That's about it!! Enjoy our pics of our li'l Urijah aka "Rya" or "Rye Guy"! (Thanks for that last one, Shanna!)

First a few profile shots.....

Now a closeup profile....

And the "money" shot!! See the buttcheeks on the bottom right, with one leg extending to the left, and one extending up? Boy oh Boy!!

Big Ultrasound coming up in a week!!

2008-06-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

So I had an appointment with my midwife last Thursday. The appointment was good. I'm still about -2 lbs for my weight gain (lol), but with all my morning sickness and GI issues, Sharon says that's fine. She was happy I've found some stuff that is really helping with it all and says just to keep it up! We talked a little about what they would do should I not go into labor on my own. (A concern of mine since I didn't w/ Mika - it was an emergency induction then c-section at 41 weeks due to NO amnionic fluid due to something wrong with the placenta) Since Sharon is a midwife, she does do things more naturally than most OB's. I am going to start Evening Primrose oil to help ripen my cervix at 38 weeks. She will give me "tips and tricks" later on for things I can do to help get things started if I want them. She will let me go to 42 weeks (with weekly biophysical profiles after 40) before we start the whole "what now" talks, but she says she's only had 2 women ever not go into labor on their own at that point. In talking to her I realized what an exception to the rule I was with Mika. I really liked everything she had to say as it really lined up with my desires and helped calm some of my fears.

When she felt my belly she said my uterus does feel a little high for 17 weeks, but she's pretty sure my dates are correct, so I'm fine with that. I guess I'm just sensitive to movement and Munchkin has a strong heart!

We heard Munchkin's heartbeat again. S/he was moving around a bunch, just like his/her older sis did, lol, but we finally got it in the 140's, so yeah! And the best part - We go for our Big Ultrasound (where we find out the gender) in 1 WEEK!!! Whoohoo!! I though she'd have us just wait 4 weeks from our appointment (the normal appoint schedule), but she'll do a full appointment afterwards, too! I'm so excited!!!

SO...........Any Guesses??!!

Mika had a UGI test today

2008-05-28T11:55:00.001-07:00

aka an Upper GI test. Basically she had to drink a few oz of "vanilla" flavored barium while they took a fluoroscope x-ray to see how it went through her GI system and if there were any anatomical abnormalities. Zarik got called to work yesterday, so he couldn't be there. The Dr and assistant were great though, when I told them I was 4 months pregnant. I got to stand behind a lead wall and watch though a window. They did have to turn off the x-ray and call me in to help get the last 1/2 oz in her, but besides that Mika did great!! And the best news is that everything looks great!! The Dr did see her reflux, but it's, for lack of a better word, "normal" - not caused by something bad. So she'll probably outgrow it in the next 3-15 months!! Even though this has seemed like a huge ordeal the last three months or so, I am so glad we now know what the gasping is, what causes it, and how to treat it (basically to watch her outgrow it). So here's a big "WHEW!" and a couple of recent cute pics!!

With the Meercats at the Zoo

Playing in her new splash pool

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

2008-05-11T15:23:00.001-07:00

Riding a dino!

With Aunt Mriah at Grandma Linda's house

Mommy and Me - We're cool chicks

Too cute!

Waving!

Boxes are fun to play in

Hiking with Mommy and Daddy

I'm now a crawler!

Baby Picas-ette!

With Aunt Stara when she visited us

A quick blurb about "Munchkin" and me

2008-05-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

I did see the midwife a couple of weeks ago. Although Li'l Munchkin was running running around we did hear his/her heartbeat nice and strong after a couple of minutes, but didn't get the actual heartrate. Li'l stinker! The midwife did say I have an anterior placenta (up front) which I think is weird because we heard Munchkin's heartbeat earlier than usual (8w) and I felt movement earlier that usual (11w) and usually both of those happen later with an anterior placenta.

This pregnancy has definately been hard on me. Of course it is exagerated some because of poor Mika being sick so much and not sleeping though the night anymore. I can finally keep stuff down, but am still working on the GI stuff, which means I still get stomach/lower abdominal cramping and have to run to the bathroom. It is getting better though, and I can eat meat again, so that's good. I'm just really tired now.