THE VOLLMER FAMILY

Houston....Again

2011-09-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

While in Houston, we hit up the Downtown Aquarium and the Zoo............

Next up.....pictures from our trip to Galveston and the beach!!!!!

Houston Part 2

2011-09-14T00:33:00.000-05:00

The kiddos and I ventured to the Children's Museum one day. Earlier this year, Parent's Magazine did an article on the 10 best Children's Museums in the country, and Houston's was in the top 10. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! It was an awesome Children's Museum! We did not even make it through it all! The kids had a blast! I would definitely recommend anyone to try it out if they are ever in Houston!

I had to take a picture of my bridge. Nate is usually the one who is good at figuring these things out (hence him being an engineer) but I was pretty proud I figured it out! I'm surprised it didn't get destroyed by Toby before I took the picture!

My kids could have spent all day in the main hall. They had various activity tables set up. The boys loved the "Tetris" pieces and Lainey was happy to sit at the coloring table!

Corbin LOVES puzzles. He really is amazing at them! He's been able to figure out jigsaw puzzles on his own for about a year and a half. He was happily entertained here for quite a while!

They have one of the coolest water areas I've ever seen at a Children's Museum. Another cool part....it is OUTSIDE!

Toby lost interest in the water toys once he found the slides!

After the Children's Museum, we hit the mall again. We were there the night before and saw the train, but it was finished for the night and Corbin was pretty disappointed. So we headed back to take a ride!

The BEST mall play area EVER! It was a HUGE castle with so many bridges/rooms/tunnels/etc to play in. The kids had a blast!

Well, had to attempt for a group picture....didn't turn out so well!

Houston Part 1

2011-08-08T00:26:00.000-05:00

In June, Nate had a training in Houston for work. We decided to go as a family and spend the week in Houston with him and then head to Galveston for a few days! We stayed right by Nate's training so we could take him each morning and then venture off to have some fun during the day! My best friend for the week was "Garmin".....it literally saved our lives and my insanity! Houston is a crazy awful place to drive! Whew.....there are days I was surprised we made it back in one piece!

Lainey and Corbin excited to go to bed the first night! These two LOVE staying in hotels.

On our first day, we ventured off to the Houston Space Center (aka NASA). It really was a lot of fun, minus the "accident" we had and had to find someone to get us stuff to clean it up. Is there anyone else besides me who decides to potty train their child right before leaving on a trip? (He actually did very well on the trip minus this "little" incident).

Corbin talked about astronauts for weeks after we went!

He still mentions them and wants to go back to see them!

May 2011 Part 2

2011-08-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

My good friend's brother was here from Seattle and going through Starbucks withdrawls, and it was his birthday, so I did this cake for him.....

Lainey with friends from school at end of year party......

Feeding birds at the zoo........

Playing at the zoo........

Merry Go Round at the zoo.........

Our good friends have 3 boys, the same age as our 3 kids (within a few months of each other). Their two oldest both have birthdays in May, and they usually do a joing party. This year they had a camping party, and here's the cake I made for it...........

Toby is ready to grill his hot dog at the camp out........

Just playing around.............

May 2011 Part 1

2011-08-01T00:13:00.001-05:00

Nate's Birthday.......

Corbin may have a future in cake decorating....watch out Duff!

Our snake.......

I was watering our newly planted garden one morning, and noticed something black laying on the deer netting between the garden and the fence. I ~~didn't think~~ was praying frantically that it wasn't a snake. I sprayed it with the hose to "just be sure" and sure enough, it started to wiggle and squirm (it couldn't get out of the net). Great I thought....what do I do now? Neighbors weren't home.....so I called Nate at work and told him I had a fun job that had to be taken care of immediately. So here he is trying to figure out how to take care of the "issue". It was really long, he held it up at one point and it was about as tall as Nate! ewwwwwww! Needless to say, our snake had a nice little meeting with our neighbors gun. And to date, I have not found any more.....thank goodness!

Lainey's Field Day......

I didn't get to see her here, because I was helping at another station, but Nate said she was making basket after basket.....right in a row!

Nap time????...........

Reading Kick Off.......

Our school district started a summer reading kick off 3 years ago (the first year they did it, I was intering for my Master's and was excited to get to be a part of it, but Corbin came early and well, that was that). I was VERY impressed with the program they had for all the kids this year. They bussed all the K-5 students to the high school stadium and had a program for them. They did an American Idol/Reading Rainbow type performance. They had high school students dressed up as characters from various storybooks. It was really neat (all except for that darn "bad wolf"......Corbin saw him right after we got there, and well, let's just say Corbin was pretty upset.....it was a pretty scary costume). At the end of the day, at their own schools, they were given a reading bag full of books based on their grade level. It really is a neat thing!

Mommy's Little Helper.......

Toby LOVES the vacuum....small or large, when I turn it on, he will RACE across the house and just start grunting, pointing, and grabbing.....he LOVES to vacuum!

April 2011

2011-07-14T23:57:00.000-05:00

We flew some kites.....

I love how Corbin is just staring straight up at it!

Made some cakes.....

Celebrated a THIRD birthday! He wanted a Toy Story Rocketship. I can't believe he's THREE!

And just wore ourselves out!

March

2011-07-14T23:32:00.000-05:00

In March, we ~~conned, begged, convinced, bribed~~, had Nate's brother come down to help us put a sprinkler system in our yard. Since it was the slow time of the year for him, we were lucky enough to get him to do it!

Our backyard has never really been a user friendly backyard. With one kid, we got away with it, with two, it was doable, with three it was just time to get something done! The previous owner at one time had an above ground pool. They had to dig the yard up and make a level spot for it. Well, then they got rid of it and stuck a tramp there to "fill the spot". We inherited the tramp when we moved in. These before pictures don't show how bad our backyard was uneven, but it's the best I have.....

To make our backyard more usable, we needed to haul in some dirt to raise it up and level it out. We had 7 big truckloads of dirt brought in. We probably could have used a couple more....but we stopped there. The kids didn't mind the dirt...especially the boys!

Our backyard "in progress"

I will post some "after" pics as soon as I take some!

The kids really enjoyed their Uncle Aaron being here. They loved to help out, too! Corbin is putting together the sprinkler heads. He has a bit of OCD.......he would take the time to make sure that when he put them back in the box that they were all lined up the exact same way! He loves to do this with other things around the house!

To make the job easier, Aaron brought his DINGO machine with him. Corbin was sooooooo excited to get to drive the "tractor"!

Lainey's spring break happened to fall during one of the week's Aaron was here.

Here are the kids at the South Arkansas Arboretum in El Dorado.....

We took Aaron to see a few places while he was here. It couldn't be all work!

We went up to LR for the day. It rained and drizzled most of the time we were there, but we tried to see some things! We were going to go on a tour of the USS Razorback submarine, but they don't allow you to go in it when it is raining.....too slippery......so we looked around outside.....

This picture was taken on the bridge connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock.....

I love how the kid the stroller was really inteded for isn't the kid using it!

We took Aaron up to White Oak State Park one night for a weiny roast and some s'mores

Uncle Aaron made cookies with Lainey and Corbin....

I made a birthday cake for our neighbor's grandson's first birthday!

February 2011

2011-07-12T00:55:00.000-05:00

February found us celebrating TWO birthdays! Lainey turned 6 (really???? 6????? already?????) and Toby turned 1!

Lainey wanted a castle cake this year......so I tried to oblige (migraine and all!). She was happy with it! This was her cake for the "family" party (the 5 of us).

All she had wanted for MONTHSSSSS was a pillow pet, so Corbin willingly obliged and got her a pillow pet!

Lainey lucked out for her birthday this year. It seemed to be the never ending one.....Her real birthday was a Sunday, so Saturday we went to Chuck E Cheese, Sunday we celebrated as a family, Monday she took these ice cream cone cupcakes to school for their snack (and she still had her friend party to do)!

We had a nice day in the middle of the month and they decided they needed to drag out the beach umbrella, a blanket, their chairs, and "lounge" in the sun!

Toby became quite attached to Lainey's pillow pet!

Toby turned ONE! I'm so sad! My baby is growing up. Since he is pretty much (98.9999% sure) our last one, it is sad to know this will be the last time we celebrate a 1st birthday in our family! This was the family cake.

He got a snake cake to tear into all by himself!

He had so much fun opening gifts!

We got him a wagon, which he just thinks is the neatest thing!

Starting to "test" out the cake.

"After"

Lainey wanted a bowling party this year, so this was her cake for that! (By this point, the thought of making another cake made me ill!)

Opening presents at the bowling alley

A "just because" picture.....isn't he adorable!?

Uhhgggg.....

2011-06-02T00:35:00.000-05:00

That's the thought that comes to my mind with how far behind I am on my blog! I know, I know, I don't have to put everything up there, but in a way, it's the only way I remember a lot of things since journaling just doesn't happen (I have good intentions, just doesn't get done). Also, our computer hasn't been the most cooperative lately (maybe it's because there are 300 billion gigs-no not really, but it seems like that of pictures taking up space and making it slow) which makes it even more of a drag to update!

December 2010

Christmas Eve

The BEST Christmas gift ever.....well worth the $$$ and time to put together! The kids LOVED it, and still do! Something we definitely needed to invest in!

They LOVE to bowl!

The BEST play idea ever! The boys love to play with their cars and trucks. One day, when we couldn't figure out what to do, I asked Corbin if he wanted to draw a town for his cars so they could drive to things. It was a hit! I think we left the pictures up for like a week because the kids kept playing with it! (PS...why does Blogger take it upon itself to rotate your pictures and not give you a way to rotate them back????)

January 2011=SNOW!

We got dumped on here in South Arkansas with snow this year (yes, I realize in UT or CO it would be considered a "dusting", but for here, it was a LOT...we got 5 snow days from school out of all our snow storms)! It brought a smile to my face! I REALLY miss it!

Corbin snowbowling in perfect form! We sent this pic in to the local news and they posted it on their site!

The following are pictures of our snowman wars! So much fun!

November 2010

2011-03-16T00:24:00.000-05:00

Playing in the leaves

2 wedding cakes...the grooms cake.....

The brides cake

We have a CRAWLER! When he first began to crawl, he loved to get under the table. He is by far my worst about putting things in his mouth-he finds the teeniest, tiniest, random things and will start chomping away, and he (still to this day) gets VERY mad when you take these things away from him!

Yes, his mouth is on the floor and I'm taking a picture instead of running over there to stop him!

Lainey's Thanksgiving Feast at school (it keeps turning sideways in Blogger and I don't know why)

Our Thanksgiving....since we've lived in Arkansas, we have yet to be with family for Thanksgiving. A few months before Thanksgiving, Nate said he'd like to just go somewhere for a couple days since we don't have family in town anyways. He had a business trip in September, and they booked him at a Marriott Suites, he loved it and we figured that would be awesome for us at Thanksgiving to allow us to still cook our own dinner. Well, then we decided to see if my parents wanted to meet us at a half-way point. So we packed up and headed to Midland, Texas (which I really actually liked). We had a lot of fun, shopped a bunch (I LOVE day after Thanksgiving shopping, and I hit it HARD this year), played, and just spent time together, and watched a very sad and disappointing football game :( (Boise State vs Nevada). This may have to turn into an annual trip!

Lainey at the park. Funny story I have to add.....Lainey HATES dogs.....FREAKS out whenever one is around. Corbin has a "thing" with strangers....doesn't like other people to be around......So, we pull up at this park and there is no one else there playing. HOWEVER, there is a dog running around the parking lot and his owner sitting in his truck. As soon as the kids see this, they REFUSE to get out of the car. Lainey is crying over the dog and Corbin is crying over someone he doesn't know being there in the parking lot. It took a bit, and some convincing, but we finally got them both out of the car!

Exhausted children!

Halloween 2010

2011-03-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

Halloween was a blast!

For the second year we went out to our good friends house for a weiny roast and trick or treating hay ride. They have three kids (all boys) who are all the same ages as our kids. They love playing together (and shhhhh.....I think Lainey has a bit of a crush on their oldest-WAIT, she's too young for that!).

It's a lot of fun. They live out in the "country" and no one ever trick or treats out there. So she sets it up with a bunch of her neighbors for us to come, and we go on a hay ride to each house. The kids LOVE it!

A witch, a train engineer and a dinosaur!

He is such a doll! Love this picture!

Corbin with his buddy!

I always have to expect a picture like this from Corbin....but it's adorable!

Our cute pumpkin patch witch!

Toby loved it!

Roasting hot dogs!

Corbin at the end of the night. He has an OBSESSION with lining things up. He does it with his cars, rocks, trains, books, you name it. They have to be in perfect order. He sat here for quite some time at the end of the night taking one piece of candy out at a time and lining them all up!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-02-10T22:48:00.000-06:00

We spent the day up in central Arkansas at a pumpkin patch with our good friends. The kids had a blast playing around and looking at all the animals and riding a tractor out to the field to pick their pumpkins. Both Lainey and Corbin wanted the huge pumpkin that they saw, and we told them they could have it if they could pick it up!

September

2011-02-10T22:06:00.000-06:00

It's been awhile.......I've sat down to update many times, but blogger would just be a pain, or I'd think of all the stuff I've meant to post and haven't and it was just overwhelming and time consuming. So in an effort to catch up a bit, here's the first of a few posts to catch you up on the end of 2010!

The Army Corps of Engineers brings their barge to our town every year and does a dinner and cruise. I thought the kids would enjoy seeing it, so we went to look at it afer school one day (blogger keeps uploading it sideways....sorry!)

We enjoyed some nice days playing at the park....

I love this one of Corbin-so him!

Went with Lainey and her class to the county fair. For the second year, she entered a bunch of art work.

Soccer season began. Here is Corbin with his good friend Jack....

Lainey playing goalie. This year was MUCH better than last! Last year we could hardly get her to go out on the field. She had a lot of fun this year!

A cake I made for our good friends sons first birthday!

Toby-6 months

2010-10-14T00:51:00.004-05:00

I can't believe he's six months old! (Okay, 8 months old now, but these pictures are his 6 month old pictures)!

We've had nice pictures taken of all the kids at 6 months. Where we live it's hard to find nice places for pictures (and people that don't charge you a down payment on a car for them). An organization here was doing a fundraiser with pictures about a week after his 6 month bday. So I jumped at the chance to have them taken. She did such an awesome job! I am so in love with them! We were there and done in about 10 minutes because he was just so easy going and happy. Here is a link to her website for anyone around here looking for someone!
http://www.clcarterphoto.com/

August-It's come and gone!

2010-10-14T00:23:00.006-05:00

Another birthday has come and gone...I think Nate and Lainey got the numbers backwards on my wonderful cake they decorated for me. It should be "2" "3"!

We just love this face!

So, after sending Lainey upstairs to get her jammies on one night, she walked down with this get up on. She insisted that was what she wanted to wear! Let me remind you, this is Arkansas, middle of August, HUMID (Yes we have A/C, but sometimes it just doesn't make much difference)!

FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN! This is the day Lainey has been looking forward to since her birth (seriously, I think so). She has wanted nothing else but to be old enough to go to school! When preschool ended, the beginning of kindergarten still seemed so far off and that I'd have loads of time to spend with her this summer. WRONG! I can't believe how fast it went by. As much as I was ready for her to go....I was really dreading it and really wishing she didn't have to! She was so excited! Our school district went to uniforms this year, so back to school shopping was really quite simple!

Here she is before we loaded up to head to school.

All in the car and ready to go.

Sitting at her table and coloring right when we got to school.

Corbin was kind of lost without her all day (but was also very mellow!). Nate had taken the day off to be able to go with her on her first day, and he and I each had a few errands to do that day. Whenever one of us would walk in the house, Corbin would get all excited and go running to the back door calling Lainey's name. He was VERY disappointed when he saw that it was just one of us. I guess mom and dad are second and third on his priority list! He really missed her those first few days!

Lainey has been bugging us for a scooter since last Christmas. Lately we had been telling her to save up her money so she could buy it herself. She had been working hard at it. Then a dear friend of mine from Denver sent a gift card for Toby's birth, and added some money on there for Lainey and Corbin to be able to also get something for themselves. Lainey was ALMOST there with her money saved up, so we told her if she wanted to use her portion of the gift card for the difference she could. After we told her that, we couldn't get to Walmart quick enough! So thank you again Margy!

Baby shower cake. LOVED it. I was so happy with how this one turned out! The stripes were a killer though. Thought it would be easy cheesy and over in a snap....WRONG! They took HOURS to do! Remember the car cake and road cake from the previous post? This cake was for the same family.

Toby is turning into such a thumb sucker! I was always so glad when my kids weren't pacifier kids....but at least you can take those away! A thumb is always there, and even though he looks so cute right now-I am hoping he will quickly grow out of it since we've already got another kid who will need major orthodontic work because of her thumb! And no....he does not have the chicken pox. If there is a mosquito within 25 feet of my children, bug bites just appear....seriously!

July....FINALLY

2010-09-23T23:44:00.014-05:00

Well, I've been asked by some family for an update....I know, it's been awhile and it's been the same old story with the last few posts.....So to make those happy who have asked, here's the first of a few posts to come....
July was busy. We blessed Toby and both of our parents were able to come out for it. They timed it so we got to spend time alone with each of them. So we were busy entertaining!

We took Grandma and Grandpa Vollmer up to White Oak Lake one night and made smores...yummy.

Here is Toby in his blessing outfit. He's such a cute baby!

Of course, no visit from Grandmas and Grandpas would be complete without a trip to Chuck E Cheeses. My parents were kind enough to take a road trip and deal with it!

A lady Nate works with has a private pond on her land. She invited us to all go fishing. Toby and I stayed home while the rest went. Corbin never did get a chance to get on the boat, but he got a new Toy Story fishing pole and didn't mind one bit. I guess there was a boat docked on the side, so he had fun in that, too. Lainey was the only one who caught a fish!

Toby had his first serving of cereal! He loved it after he got the hang of it!

We took a day trip with some friends to the Crater of Diamonds State Park. It is an actual diamond mine open to the public. You get to dig in the dirt and try to find your own diamonds. You get to keep what you find. I've heard of people putting their children through college doing it! It was fun, but HOT! We really didn't know what we were doing, we were pretty much just there for the kids to have fun. We want to go back and be a bit more serious about it. Maybe when the weather cools! There is a water park there, and of course we just had to do that, too!

Lainey decided this month that she was going to put her head under water in the pool. THANK GOODNESS. We thought the day would never come! Nate took her to his works day at a water park in Little Rock, and while there she just decided to do it! This is her showing me for the first time over at our neighbors. She's so excited!

Did I mention somewhere that it was HOT!!!!!! This picture was taken at 11:39 AM. Add the 90%+ humidity, and yeah, it was miserable. Heat indexes in the 120's!

Recent Cakes

2010-08-26T10:53:00.004-05:00

Hunting cake for a birthday.....

6oth Birthday cake (went along with the 57 Chevy below)

57 Chevy Cake....I was soooo excited and soooo scared to do this cake. I have never completely sculpted out a 3-D cake on my own! I LOVE how it turned out! They were so excited when they saw it and they said he loved it!

Wedding shower cake.....

W-I-L-D-C-A-T-S spells BOISE STATE

2010-07-16T00:44:00.002-05:00

One Sunday after church Lainey and Corbin were anxious to change and get outside to play. I told Corbin to go find a shirt and he came back carrying Lainey's Arizona Wildcat cheerleader top (My parents are HUGE UofA fans). He was adamant about wearing it, so we let him. This video was taken a bit after his original actions, but we had to get it on video to send it to gmas and gpas (one set loved it, the other not so much!). When he first got the shirt on, he pointed to "WILDCATS" and said what he said all on his own. He really had no prompting in it at all. What a good boy!

Randomness

2010-07-15T23:51:00.006-05:00

Here are some random pictures from June. I keep thinking I'll get more postings in each month, and then the next thing I know, the month is gone and I didn't do any! So here are some pictures from June...

Trampoline time....

We've just started letting Corbin have more freedom on the trampoline and he LOVES it!

My happy, content baby boy!

My very unhappy boy! We went with some friends to go pick some fruit at a fruit farm, and Corbin WAS NOT happy at all. He was whiny and fussy and cranky the whole time! Come to find out (after going to the doctor) he had an ear infection! Poor guy!

Lainey in a berry patch....

Fun in the water....

Toby's version of "fun in the water".....

I canned some diced tomatoes for the first time! (and without calling my mother in law even once....I usually call her about 25 times with questions each time I can something).

New bike! Lainey really had outgrown her old bike and has been asking for a new one. We told her she had to earn part of the money herself. We had a yard sale and she decided to wash up her old bike and sell it. She also had an "art" sale. She drew a bunch of pictures and sold them along with lemonade and punch. She earned herself a good amount of money. When she heard she had earned her share of the bike, she insisted that Nate take her that minute to go get it. She was very proud of it!

Hard-working husband.....
Nate really works hard on projects around the house and does an excellent job on them (he's really a perfectionist-probably has something to do with being an engineer). When we first moved in, there was actually a gate/fence here already. It was old and falling apart and an eye sore. Under it was just patchy grass and some bricks in a path (and lots of mud when it rained). Within the first week of living here, Nate tore the fence down. Later we laid the brick patio. It was nice to have an extension off the deck, and at the time we really didn't need a fence or gate up. Fast forward a few years and add a rambuncious two year old boy into the mix, and we needed a fence/gate. It was impossible to "keep him" in the back yard. Nate worked really hard and this and did a very nice job. He started VERY early in the morning and finished VERY late that night (or VERY VERY early the next day, depending on how you look at it). But it looks great and I can't wait to get it painted!

I made a camera cake for my neighbor.....

Utah-Idaho

2010-06-16T23:39:00.009-05:00

Well, we did it again......3702+ miles, 70+ hours, 6 days of driving and 9 states.....all at the last minute. About 9:30 PM on Mother's Day, when we called to talk to Nate's mom, we found out that earlier that morning his grandma on his dad's side had passed away. We decided about 10:00 PM to get ready and make the trip for the funeral. So we spent about 4 hours packing, getting things ready, etc....slept for about 3 hours, woke the kids up and headed out the door......We were going to make this trip this summer to bless Toby in Idaho, so we decided to just stay a while and make a trip out of it now and we'd bless Toby here in Arkansas later on. Nate was able to take two weeks off, so we made the most of it.

Leaving Camden. Nate got Lainey some BIG earmuffs to wear to drown out the noise (she HATES noise) of Corbin and Toby if they got fussing. She thought that pulling out of the driveway called for the need to use them I guess. (By the way, she really only needed them like once. The kids did AWESOME the entire trip.) But she would just randomly throw them on. They'd be watching a movie and we'd look back and find her wearing them!........

Holy moly......We hit the WORST dust storm driving through New Mexico. There were times when I was seriously scared we were going to rear end someone, be rear ended, or run off the road. We would have stopped, but that would have been more dangerous. Here's a look at what times were like.......

So, we figured since we were driving all this way, it would be fun to see a site or two along the way. We decided we would stop by 4 corners since we've never been there before. Well, here it is......so much for trying......(Seriously????? What kind of construction is needed for a big concrete slab in the middle of no where?)

We're "HOME".....or almost anyways.....but boy, was this sign a sight for sore eyes!........

What a B-E-A-utiful sight! We sure have missed you. (The mountains and snow)......

Roasting marshmallows........

Corbin loves the song "Big Green Tractor", I'm not quite sure how, but he knows where it's at on the ipod and he'll set it to repeat and listen to it over and over again. Well, Nate's brother has quite a bit of land and we were there for a cookout one night. Corbin saw the riding mower, which he kept calling a tractor, and just sat on it for most of the night. He was in heaven when Uncle Aaron got the keys and let daddy take him for a ride!..............

A picture of 28 of the 31 grandchildren (the 3 missing are sisters and the oldest had seminary graduation).....

For whatever reason, the nieces and nephews LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOVE Nate. Whenever he is around, they flock to him and attach themselves to him. They love playing with him and horsing around. Nate was tossing a ball to one of the nephews to hit, and the next thing he knew he got roped into playing 1 on 25 baseball.....but they all loved it.........

Nate's parents have a huge yard that is perfect for family get togethers and plenty of room for all the cousins to play and have fun........

All these cousins share the same birthday...04/15.....

The three youngest cousins (#29, #30, and #31)....a December birthday, a February birthday, and an April birthday.....

Picture with Grandma and Grandpa Vollmer before we left.....

Corbin worn out.....

Nate and Lainey like to go out and do geocaching. Nate had found a "travelling" one that wanted to see space stuff, so we dropped it off at a cache out by Thiokol.

While in Utah, we had to stop in Bountiful and enjoy a Neilsen's frozen custard!

This is a picture of Lainey with my cousin, who is 8 months younger than Lainey. We stayed at her house on our way up to Idaho and for 4 nights when we came back down to Utah. They had a BLAST playing together every second that we were at the house.....

We were able to spend time with my grandma while in Utah. She's in a nursing home and has dymensia. We were lucky to catch her on good days and she remembered Nate and I and really enjoyed our visits. It was nice to spend some time with her, because every time I see her I keep thinking it will be the last. She got to meet her newest great grandchild, too!

We had SOOO much fun on this trip. I think this trip, more than any other, realllllly made us miss "home" and want to be closer to family. We saw some really good friends, whom we miss dearly. It just really hit hard this time. Being so far away from family and friends is the hardest thing about where we live. Come on Lockheed....hurry up and build a plant in Idaho!

Toby turned two months old

2010-05-29T01:39:00.002-05:00

I am truly blessed with a fabulous baby! He is so easy going and mild mannered. Hardly ever cries (less than a half hour total all day, seriously) and SLEEPS ALL NIGHT (like 8:30/9:00ish to 6:30 or later)! Aren't his cheeks the cutest! I could take a few more babies like him if pregnancy weren't such a killer on me!

Brown and Pink Wedding Cake

2010-05-29T01:35:00.002-05:00

This is the third BIG cake I did within a 4 week span! Whew! It should have been the easiest wedding cake I've ever done, but it gave me such problems! It was fun to learn to make chocolate fondant (and it is rather yummy). The bride said she was happy, so that's all that should matter!

Corbin is TWO!

2010-05-29T01:17:00.005-05:00

Well, I'm up late and can't sleep. I decided I should do some updating.....
Corbin turned TWO in April! I can not believe how fast he is growing up! We kept it low key for his birthday. I took him and the kids to the park after Lainey got out of preschool and invited 3 of his friends to come join us for a picnic of PB&J sandwiches, cheetos, and bananas. Oh, and blue cupcakes. Then they enjoyed some time playing. I never did get a picture of all of them together. That night we went to dinner at (where else) McDonald's. Then it was time for cake and presents. I started to make him a Diego cake, and for some reason, just had a hard time. Around 3:30 I realized it just wasn't going to be done in time, so I frantically called (where else) Walmart to see if they had any "decent" boy cake I could pick up in a couple hours. We settled on tractor trucks, and he loved it. He got some fun presents....a Tonka truck, a water table for outside, a Toy Story ball, clothes, Toy Story the movie, a puzzle, a game, a coloring book, and some other things.

Yummy cupcake.....

Playing in rocks at park....

Toby at the park.....

Dinner at McDonald's

Blowing out candles.....

Presents....

Corbin is such a great addition to our family. He's had a hard time adjusting to a new baby, and I never knew the "terrible two's" really existed until now, but when he's not having fits, he really is such a sweet and caring little boy. He loves to help put Lainey to bed each night. He turns on her nightlights and her music and always has to give her a kiss. Whenever you sneeze, even if you're rooms away, you'll hear a tiny little "bless you ". He adores Lainey and will follow her around copying her. And best of all, he still lets me snuggle with him and loves hugs and kisses!

Beginning of April

2010-05-08T02:22:00.008-05:00

I'm not sure where the month of April went to, it kind of (okay, really) flew by. But here's some highlights of the first half of the month.....

We took the kids to Shreveport to play and do some birthday shopping.....

We played at the children's museum.

We saw Billy and his brother from the show "The Exterminators". Nate kept telling me to get a picture with them, but I wasn't pushy enough.

I'll have to keep this handy when they're older to show them that they really do love each other.

Lainey took this one. We may have to enter it in the county fair this year.

The Easter Bunny came and visited us......

We were attacked by the greenish-yellow stuff again......

This is our carport covered in pollen, you can kind of see some footprints in it. It is nasty, and it happens every spring and it covers EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGG, and it lasts for weeks. Then you get to spend hours spraying off everything once it's finished!

We took advantage of a great spring day and played at the park.....

I made a cake......

My next post will be of Corbin's 2nd birthday!

End of March

2010-04-02T05:29:00.010-05:00

Here's what we did the end of March.....

A wedding cake. LOOOOVVVVEEEED it.

The bride requested 'sparkly' swirls to go along with the silver colors they had with their decorations. I was worried because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do it or if it would turn out. I found 'sparkly' cake gel, and scrolled the decorations on, but did not think it was bold enough, so I also had some 'sparkle flakes' for cakes and ended up hand painting a mixture over each gel decoration. I guess it worked because the bride emailed me and told me she loved her cake.

An egg hunt (one of many it seems). Nate's work put on an egg hunt for the employees kids. I don't have too many pictures of them hunting for the eggs....But they had a little area set up where you could take pictures

and then we let the kids stay a bit and play at the park. You can see that Lainey enjoyed the teeter totter,

Corbin, not so much!

We colored Easter eggs.

You can plainly see Corbin enjoyed it. Here's his famous cheeser smile.

It's an automatic smile he gives you whenever he sees or heres the camera! I only got one half way decent photo of Lainey.

Lately it seems that she manages to close her eyes or have a really wierd look captured each time her picture is taken. And, I now know why they advise you on the coloring kits to put newspaper or wax paper down. With Lainey we never had to worry about it. You can see that is a different story with Corbin! He even managed to color his forhead!

Thank goodness my table will look normal again thanks to the 'magic erasers'!

We put puzzles together.

Corbin lovesssss puzzles lately. He is so patient and will sit and figure them out all on his own. He'll do puzzles for an hour if you'll let him. I was so proud of him one day. I was in the chair feeding Toby and Corbin sat down to play with puzzles. He put this puzzle together all by himself with no help. If he couldn't figure out a piece, he would put it off to the side in a seperate pile and go back later and try to figure it out until the puzzles was all put together!

Way to go buddy!

Had another egg hunt with the MOPS group.

See, the cheeser smile!

And Toby was just along for the ride.

This was so cute.....

Nate was laying in the chair one night with Toby on his chest. Toby would lift his head up and just stare at Nate. He's growing up too fast!

One Month

2010-03-18T14:29:00.002-05:00

I can't believe he is ONE MONTH OLD!

How time flies by! Toby is such an EASYYYYY baby. He has MAYBE cried a total of 2hours from the time he's been home from the hospital. He sleeps 3-4 hours a time during the day and about 6 hours a time at night! Dirty diapers don't even bother him. I am not sure how I got so lucky! He is just a happy, easy going guy....must have got it from his daddy! He is starting to wake up a bit more and will just sit and look around at what we're doing (I'm sure he thinks we're all crazy). Then he'll just doze off to sleep by himself when he gets tired! The last time he was weighed he was 9 pounds 10 ounces. He had some trouble gaining back his weight at first, but now he's on track. We're stilllllll waiting for the state to send back his blood work from his second PKU test. We're still hoping it was a false positive the first time. I guess we'll see. It's been about 3 weeks since the retest so we should hear any day.

Daffodils

2010-03-18T10:56:00.004-05:00

Last weekend was the annual Camden Daffodil Festival. Here are some pictures from our adventures.....

WARNING....Not pretty

2010-03-18T06:11:00.002-05:00

Okay, I'm obviously not posting this because it is flattering by ANY means....it's the complete opposite. Maybe it will help someone in the future recognize it in them, and frankly, it was just so crazy! Anyways...

A couple weeks back I had a BADDDDDD sinus infection. I was on an antibiotic already for the Bronchitis, but it obviously wasn't doing anything for the sinus infection. So my DR put me on a different antibiotic for the sinus infection. I had taken the antibiotic before, and most recently around November. I was actually on the tail end of the antibiotic. I woke up one morning and saw what I thought were hives (you know, the little red dots) all over my arms. Called a nurse friend and she told me that benadryl was safe to take while nursing. It was probably because I had been out in the daffodils all day the previous 2 days. But if I started to run a fever, then it wasn't allergy related (like seasonal/outdoor allergy stuff). So Nate and Lainey headed up the airport with my mom. I ran to get benadryl. Later that afternoon, the hives were spreading and I started running a fever. Great I thought. Every joint in my body ached...I felt like I had arthritis. My arms, hands, feet, knees were swelling up. It hurt to even walk! Made it through the day and night (and faithfully took my antibiotics like I was suppossed to). I was starting to think it was Fifths Disease or Shingles or something else from teh Chicken Pox line. First thing Monday I called to get in to my DR. I took my meds with me because they always ask what you're on. He looked at me and knew something wasn't right. He asked about medications and I handed them to him. The minute I handed them he held one up and said "you're having an allergic reaction to this...I'm positive". I was shocked, but also relieved. I was shocked because I had that medicine before, and a couple times within the last year. He said with it that it was not uncommon to break out the 2nd, 3rd, etc...time you take it. He even said some people do not have the reaction until MONTHS after finishing the medicine!! I was told to NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER take that family of medication again. I went home and researched it online. Now the constant headache I had had since starting it made sense. The awful stomach pains that had started a few days before made sense. The trip to the ER in December with what I thought was another gall bladder attack made sense. So I guess my point is, if you are on antibiotics and have silly side effects that are not "uncommon" (headache, stomach ache) that you just brush off.....DON'T! I'm just thankful and lucky that it didn't attach my respiratory functions and swell my throat!
So, here are some pics of my arms, legs and face....this is Monday morning! I have to say, when you look like this and you're walking through Walmart to the pharmacy to get your steroid prescription filled, you get A LOT of wierd and worried looks!

Toby is here!

2010-02-27T12:30:00.004-06:00

Toby-9 pounds 7 ounces!

(It's a long post...at the end of the pictures, I'll tell ya who won!)

He's here! And we're excited! For the last month and a half, I had been really miserable. I kept telling Nate and my Doctor that I didn't think I was going to make it out of January! January came and went, and luckily, no baby (although I didn't feel too lucky at the time!). Then came Lainey's birthday at the beginning of February. We kept telling her she may be celebrating her birthday in the hospital, just so she was prepared. I had even put off doing her friend party because I figured we'd have a newborn, or I'd be in the hospital. Her birthday came and went, no baby.

Nate's been really busy at work. They're doing a bunch of renovations and upgrades and he's had a lot to do. For about 3 weeks, Nate had told me each Sunday night that since I had not gone into labor over the weekend, if I could just hold off until Friday he'd really appreciate it. He'd been telling people each night when he left where he was at in the process of things and what needed to be done next.....but then he was always there the next day. My 34th week hit, and I thought for sure it'd be soon.....no such luck....no dialating, nothing but contractions and pain. 35th week hit, I thought for sure it'd be any day....I'd never gone over 35 weeks and I feel VERY sorry for anyone who is made to go over 40 weeks! Nothing....still not dialated.

I had an appointment on Friday at 35 1/2 weeks and was just praying the doctor would tell me I was dialated and far enough dialated that he could go ahead and deliver me. NOPE. He did admit that he did not think that I would have made it this long and that a month ago he was really worried. He told me to keep resting, stay off my feet as much as possible, and he'd see me in a week. Gave me pain meds so I could sleep more than 2 hours a night. Sunday came and I got the same speech from Nate. By then, I'd just given up hope and gave up even trying to make a guess as to when! Roll around Wednesday morning.

I had taken the pain meds the last few nights and had been getting a glorious 5 hours of sleep a night. It felt like heaven! Around Midnight on Wednesday morning I suddenly woke up after about 2 hours of sleep. Something was different...something just felt like it was going to happen. My contractions were the same....sporadic, nothing too serious. So I just laid there and tried to go back to sleep. I figured if it was time, the contractions would get worse. I drifted in and out of sleep. Nate woke up for work and I got up about 5:20 am with him to say goodbye. I made mention that I thought it may be soon, and he asked if he should go to work and I said yep, nothing was really telling me it was "time". So he left. Previous to the goodbye, I had a couple instances where I kept thinking, "okay, I'm not peeing on myself, but my contractions aren't really picking up either." (I figured I'd get heavy contractions again like I did with Corbin). Anyways, about 15 minutes later I finally decided that yes, my water had broken and called Nate. I told him he needed to turn around and come home and that we needed to head to the hospital. I was really surprised things weren't happening as fast as they had with Corbin, that was my biggest fear. So we got checked in, in the bed and waited for the Doctor. He came and checked me, said yes my water had broken, my contractions were good, but still not dialated (seriously?). He said he'd do the c-section around 12:30. I was thinking....what......6 1/2 more hours? Nate actually had to go home and take Lainey to our doctor that morning, she had been getting pretty sick. When he was there, our doctor did tell him that if my labor started going faster and I was getting closer to delivering, that he would do it sooner, but if not, he'd see us at 12:30. I made it to 12:30, and I have to admit I was surprised. I actually got a bit nervous and started second guessing having a c-section again. Since Corbin's was an emergency (and happened in a matter of minutes) and I was knocked out, I really had no recollection of anything. But now the thought of being awake and not really knowing what to expect was scary. But then the thought of pushing out a possible 8+ pound baby didn't sound fun either. The c-section actaully went well, except for the nausea and almost throwing up, but I got over it. Nate and I both thought all along it was a girl (we hadn't found out what we were having, it was just our gut feelings), so we were very surprised when they pulled out the baby and it was a BOY! Everyone in the operating room starting actively talking about how big he was. They were even making guesses at like 11 pounds (but they don't weigh the baby in the OR, they take them back to the nursery). When we saw him, he sure was a cutie and a CHUNK! What a big boy he was!

I got really sick Thursday night and broke into a 102.3 degree fever. They did a bunch of tests and a chest x ray for pneumonia. Finally they said I had bronchitis! The doctor figures I came in with something and it just progressed from there (Lainey and Corbin had been fighting colds). I lost my voice, had a horrible cough (which is not fun with a c-section) and just prayed I wouldn't get pneumonia. Then, Toby's billirubin levels shot up and he had to have the lights for jaundice (we've done it with each kid so far, so we weren't really surprised) and we had to have the lights at home for a couple days. Then yesterday, the doctor's office called and said that Toby's newborn screening (PKU) came back with amino acid abnormalities and that he needed to go back to the hospital to be retested. So we took him in this morning and now have the grueling process of waiting a week or so for the results. I researched the tests they do and none of the diseases are any good if he has abnormalities, so we're just praying it was a false positive. The nurse at the hospital tried to reassure me that things were probably okay, that there just must have been something wrong with the blood on the original test that sent it back abnormal. I guess we'll see. We'll let people know when we find out something! But for now we're home, he's sleeping VERY well, eating not so good, and being adored by his big sister and brother (and mom and dad, too).

And the winner is.....
Heather! She guessed February 19th. So Heather, I'll get something together and get it to you in the mail (who knows when I'll actually make it to the post office, but I promise, you'll get something!).
But there's some runner's up......
Jaime guess February 26th, which was actually my scheduled c-section date. I had not told anyone that date, so I think she deserves something for guessing that on the nose.
Aleen did 2 guesses, her original one was the same as a previous guess, so she also guessed that I'd have the baby sometime between Feb 14th-17th!
So Jaime, email me your address, I'll get something to you and Aleen, too!

Little Rock

2010-02-26T06:50:00.002-06:00

I had a doctor's appointment the Friday before Toby was born. I was HOPINGGGGGG that he'd say I was dialated, and that since I had been having contractions for the last 6 weeks that he'd go ahead and deliver me. No such luck. He said the baby was VERYYYYY low, but I was not dialated at all. Although he did tell me that he did not think I was going to make it as long as I did, and that a month ago, he was really worried. He told me to continue to rest, stay off my feet as much as possible, and that he'd see me in a week. He told me he was sorry I was so miserable, and that wasn't his goal, but regardless, this baby was still premature and he was going to leave the baby in as long as he could. He was kind enough however to give me some pain meds so I could get more than 2 hours of sleep a night! Anyways, I was really disappointed and frustrated...I was just tired of being miserable. So I went home and got a crazy whim to go to Little Rock for the night. I asked Nate if he wanted to get out and get away and he was for it, so we packed some bags, loaded up the car, got directions to a hosptial up there (just in case) and left. Nate asked me if I had asked the DR if I could go, no I hadn't, and he probably would have told me no if I asked, but we chanced it. It was nice to get away, go shopping, play, and eat at yummy restraunts. I was completely miserable, but had fun with the family. Friday we went shopping and went to the mall. I had about 15 total strangers stop me and tell me that I was going to have this baby at any time. One lady was quite adamant that it was coming within the next day. On Saturday we woke up and took the kids to the Children's Museum in downtown Little Rock. They had an amazing "little" kid area, and we had a lot of fun playing around. I made it through our quick trip with out going into labor, and it was nice to get away and get my mind off it for a bit!

SNOW!

2010-02-22T04:08:00.002-06:00

We were told that we were going to get some "good" snow in southern Arkansas around the 12th and 13th. Sure enough, around 4:30 on Thursday it started to snow! The snow was the big, wet, flaky kind....perfect for playing in and building things with!

It was starting to stick and accummulate pretty fast, so Lainey and I woke Corbin up from his nap, bundled us all up and headed outside. Needless to say, they both had a BLAST and did NOT want to come in at the end!

Our neighbor brought over a sled for them to ride in, and it was just about perfect timing because not too much later, Nate got home and wasn't even allowed to go inside! They loved being pulled around the yard.

It snowed for quite a while, and it was still around in the morning! So we had to bundle up again and go for round #2! I loved our multi colored snowman (there's suppossed to be a picture of Lainey with it, not sure what happened to it on here). It didn't last too long the next day when they went out to play. They loved taking it down!

The snow was a great distraction. We do miss living where we got quite a bit more and were able to do more in it, but this was great snow and a great chance to make some memories!

Happy #5 Lainey!

2010-02-22T03:35:00.002-06:00

Lainey is FIVE! I can't believe it! (First off, does anyone else have any problems uploading their pics and on the posting screen they just show up as rubish????)
Anyways, I can not believe that I have a FIVE YEAR OLD! The time has flown by! Lainey is such a wonderful girl and a great big sister. I'm so happy that she is my daughter and part of our family! So far, we've just celebrated her big day as a family...her friend party is in the works, figured we needed to get another member of our family here before I tackled that! We went to El Dorado for the morning and she went to Home Depot and did their "kid workshop", then we ate lunch at Applebee's. We spent the day at home and had dinner at where else, McD's. Then it was time for cake and gifts. No, I did not make this cake.....I honestly thought we'd be in a hosptial room for her birthday, so I just ordered one! She is now looking forward to her COWGIRL birthday party which we'll have in the next couple weeks!
She is excited because she knew when she turned five, she would be almost ready to go to kindergarten! So that's our next big milestone (don't want it to happen!). Anyways, Lainey is such a smart and talented little girl. She loves to create things! She's such a big help (most of the time) with things around the house. She loves to dance with Nate and teach new things to Corbin. She usually doesn't mind him following her around and copying her all day long! I could go on, but I'll stop. We're just glad she's ours!

Who's still in the running?

2010-02-08T07:27:00.003-06:00

Well, I didn't think that anyone who guessed after around the 6th of February would still be in the running, but it looks like you are! So I am 34 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I've never made it past the 35 week mark, so if I do, I think I may go crazy! Anyways, here's who is still in the running for the closest guess as to when this baby is coming!
Heather M
Crystal S
Kim J
Jaime G
Mary S
Aleen V
Trina H
Sherry T

I'll give ya a hint...it WILL be a February baby (even though my due date is March 17). My c-section is scheduled for sometime this month. One of you lucky guessers even guessed the right day...but I'm not telling who yet! But please, I do not want to have to make it to then! I'll keep ya posted!

2010-01-31T21:13:00.003-06:00

Okay, when I find good deals, I like to pass it on. I just got some good deals (made my mom do an order, too) on diapers and some other things at www.diapers.com

I've got some promo codes for you, that you enter at the checkout. You may have to play around with them and do 2 seperate orders (I'm not sure if it will let you do both at one time, I've tried to set up an account under Nate to see if it will work, but it remembers our computer and won't take one of the codes off again). AND, order $49 or more and the shipping is free.........

Here are the codes:

NATE5752-$10 off your first order of diapers

10PAMPERS-$10 off pampers

10PERCENT-10% off anything besides diapers (I ordered some sippy cup replacement spouts and nursing pads).

Now, I'm thinking the NATE5752 and 10PAMPERS should be able to be used together, but if not, and you're wanting to stock up, do two orders, but use the NATE5752 on your FIRST order, because it states it is good for a first order at their website only. Then you should be able to use the 10PAMPERS on your next order.

Play around with it, try them out if you want. I just placed my order and it says I should have it by Wednesday!

Things in January

2010-01-28T06:17:00.005-06:00

First, I'm hoping the pictures show up okay, because right now it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but on the "preview" they are okay.....
So here's some of what's happened in January...

Lainey's first two teeth came out. Yes, that's right, our FOUR YEAR OLD lost two teeth. It was quite a dramatic experience and even took a trip to the dentist where he said, yes, they are BOTH (I thought just one) quite loose and ready to fall out at any moment. No, it didn't look like she had damaged or hurt them to cause them to loosen, they were just loose on her own. WHY it took her as long as it did to tell us, we don't know. Anyways, 2 weeks to the date after the trip to the dentist, they FINALLY came out while she was helping Daddy paint the baby's room. Here she is proudly showing them off.

I came home from work one night to find an interesting concoction on the stove. Lainey asked Nate if she could make up a recipe and bake something, so he let her got to town. Here's a picture of her creating it. Any takers?

Another cake for my neighbor....Nate says it's his favorite yet.

One night Lainey was drawing on her easel and drew a picture of Nate. I told her to wait a minute while I got the camera because it was a really good drawing. When I got back, it was gone. So this is a "duplicate", and a pretty good replica of the first. I just love it!

We've had some pretty cold weather for southern Arkansas and have been cooped up inside for days. With the way I'm feeling, too, there are some days where we're ALL (minus Nate) lucky to get out of pajamas. This wasn't one of those days obviously. But to entertain the kiddos for a while I built them a blanket tent and they played under there for a few hours.

NOTE: Utah and Colorado friends...no laughing. Earlier this month, we got SNOW! It's been 2 years since we've seen any of the white stuff around here and Lainey had been much anticipating it. One morning, sure enough, it started coming down. So we got bundled up and headed outside. Lainey really wanted to build a snowman and make snow angels, but we weren't lucky enough this time to do that. This first picture is the snow on my neighbors garage.

Lainey kept trying to convince me that they should be able to jump on the tramp with the snow...didn't happen!

There was enough to pick up and hold.

Corbin had fun.

Ready to "play" (or just watch) in the snow.

Baby update.....I'm 33 weeks and 1 day. I've got to make it until Feb 3 (next Wednesday). I'm not feeling any better, but some days are better than others and I can get things done. The baby's room is painted, I've got some baby clothes washed and ready for the hospital, and I've begun to get my things ready for the hospital. This is the MOST we've had done for any pregnancy (previous 2 came with NOTHING ready). Which means I'll probably hold off now until my scheduled c section (ha ha ha, not likely). I have an appointment tomorrow so we'll see what the DR says then. I was really thinking it would be in January, which is still possible, but I'd say by the first weekend of February.

Any Guesses???

2010-01-11T06:03:00.003-06:00

Let's see if I get more than my 2 readers to respond to this. Actually, I know there's more of you out there because of my blog tracker, but let's see if I get more than 2 responses! My comments should be open to anyone, so you don't need a "google" account to send me a comment.

Let's have a little contest with this baby! Leave me a comment with your 3 guesses......

1. Boy or girl?

2. Date it will be born (if you're adventurous, leave a time)

3. How much will it weigh?

If you don't have a google account, make sure I know your email address or leave me your email address so I can get ahold of you if you "win" (not promising anything big, but a little something).

Here's some past info to help you out. Today I am 30.5 weeks (My due date is March 17). Child 1 came exactly at 35 weeks. 8:18 am and 6 lbs 4 oz. Child 2 came at 34 1/2 weeks. 9:35 am and 8 lbs 10 oz. I'll tell you though, I already feel like I did with Child 2 at around 33 weeks. So let's see what you all think!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-08T07:40:00.009-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Well, it's been here and it's gone. This was our first Christmas to spend totally alone, with no outside family. While it went well, it was wierd not to have anyone else around. Our days were pretty low key. On Christmas Eve we opened the traditional pajamas and then let the kids open their ornaments and gifts to each other. We had decorated cookies for Santa, left them by the fire with a note, milk and carrots. We sprinkled our lawn with reindeer food and read the Christmas story from the bible. Then we got the kids headed off to bed so we could get ready for the next morning. Lainey went to bed just fine. Corbin on the other hand is a whole different story. He usually goes to bed just fine, maybe some light fussing for 1-2 minutes, but for the most part he does well. Tonight was just not his night. We put him down and he screamed bloody murder for about 15 minutes. We had already started to pull things out downstairs, so I couldn't bring him down to rock. So I ended up getting him and laying down in our bed with him (that was about 8:45 ish). Around 9:30 Nate came to check on us. Corbin was out so he picked him up and thought it would be a sinch to put him to bed. Wrong! As soon as Nate laid him on his bed he popped up and started screaming again. So Nate took a turn and laid down with him. About 10:45 I got done with everything and headed upstairs. Nate said Corbin had just laid there and looked at him the whole time, didn't move, just looked. So we tried again, and he just did not want his bed. So I stuck him in bed with us. He laid there for a bit and would just look around. Nate and I were both dozing off. Then Corbin decided it was play time. We could not get him to lay down or sit still for anything. About 11:30 we had enough and decided he just would have to scream. So I put him in his crib and went back to bed. The screaming was unreal, and at midnight I hauled some blankets and pillows into his room. I closed his door, took him out of his crib, told him to play and I made a bed on the floor and a bed for him on the floor in case he decided to lay down by me and I fell asleep! He played! Around 1 am I heard a knocking on the door. I woke up and he was at his door (inside his room) wearing a princess slipper and knocking in hopes someone would let him out. I told him enough was enough. Put him on the floor next to me, turned off the light, and he fell asleep! I woke up a few times (not the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements for a pregnant lady) and around 7:00 I guess I finally woke up for good and headed to my own bed. Around 8:30 or so Lainey came to inform us she could not get downstairs because the gate was up. We made her lay in our bed until Corbin woke up and we were all ready to go downstairs. Then the fun began. Lainey could not wait to rip into the presents and we had to keep telling her to slow down. We'd turn around, trying to take turns, and she'd have another one unwrapped! But it was fun to see their excitement and watch them play with their new toys. We just enjoyed a cold and low key day at home with each other.

2 Wedding Cakes

2009-12-25T03:38:00.004-06:00

I was asked to do a bride's a groom's cake for the 23rd. These are probably my two favorite cakes that I've done to date! I love how they both turned out. I hope they enjoyed them at the wedding!

Small town frustrations

2009-12-02T06:38:00.005-06:00

Let me start off by saying I am extremely grateful for a husband who can fix things and figure things out around the house. Even if in this instance, I would have much rather paid someone than chance him getting hurt....anyways...

Small towns can be great, but sometimes have their downfalls. Like this.....

At the beginning of October, we had some HUGE rain storms....bigger than anything we'd seen (up until our tornadoes a few weeks later). One night about 2:30 am a huge storm was coming through. I got up and checked online to make sure there were no tornado warnings with it. When I came back into our room, it sounded as if it were raining in our room. I walked over to the window, touched the blinds to peek out, and found that the blinds were soaking wet. Flipped on the light to see water running down our blinds. I couldn't believe we had water coming in from a window. We weren't exactly sure how or where it was coming in.....it was 2:30 in the morning, so we put a bunch of towels around the window, and went to bed. Two days later, another huge storm came through during the day. So I was able to remove the blind and see what was going on....this is what I found (don't pay attention to the paint job....not our doing...haven't done a thing to our bedroom yet!)....water coming in between the window and framing of the window!

So, what do you do? Call your homeowner's insurance...right? Well, I did and they informed me that they did not have any adjusters or contractors in our area with whom they called out for jobs, so it was up to me to find a contractor, get them out to my house, determine the cause and damage done. Well, easier said than done. It took me weeks of messages (20+ with the same 5 contractors) to get the first to come out. This window is a second story window, but more like a third story with the way our foundation and yard is on that side. So he looked inside, went outside (but never up on a ladder to actually look at the top of the window), and proceeded to give me his opinion and that if we wanted to even see if any damage was done to the inside of the walls, it was going to cost at least $600 for him to remove the siding down to the window, remove our window, look inside, then cover our window hole back up with 'something' to keep the air out. Wasn't too impressed with that idea. Took a couple more weeks of messages and finally got a second contractor to come out, looked around inside, went outside (again, no ladder involved) and told me it was probably from the attic vent above our window, and if so, it was probably a 'fluke' occurrance considering the rain storms weren't normal, and there wasn't much we could do. Told me to have Nate go in the attic and look for signs of water and moisture. But he also wanted to get his extension ladder and come back and look at the top of the window (never heard from him again). His idea made more sense, until Nate examined the attic during another rain storm and found nothing.

Now, the insurance is hounding me because they want to get this closed. I finally vent my frustrations and tell them I'm doing their job and getting nowhere and in a sense, being punished for living in a small town-where if I lived in a bigger town, someone would have been out in 24 hours. I proceed to tell them they need to find an adjuster for me and send them out, because I'm sick and tired of doing it all with no results. Didn't think I'd get very far with that. But then they told me they hired out an adjuster to come look (GREAT!). So, he comes out and the first thing he does is get on my roof! And this is what he found....

Apparently, it seemed that at one point one of the two previous owners had a satellite or antannae up on the roof. WHYYYYYY, when it was removed, they DID NOT FIX IT...I have NO CLUE, but there was our culprit. Sounds really bad, to have a hole about 3 inches in your roof, but he said it was actually in the best spot possible...right above our faucits (sp?), so it wasn't really going into the wall, just down the studs into our window (the point of least resistance). Since the hole had obviously been there for at least 3 years, we would have seem mold, water stains by now if there was real damage done. So, some of you may be thinking....home inspection before purchase???? Yes, we did that. Like I said, this part of our house is like a third story, not too easy to get to. So the inspector physically got onto the lower parts of our roof, did an inspection on them, then visually (with binoculars) inspected the highest part from the ground below. This hole was right on the tip of the ridge....would have never been seen!

The estimates for the repairs didn't exceed our deductible (which is fine), so now we're left to fix it....which means try to get a contractor out again......messages and messages later (and one call back with the promise of being out Monday or Tuesday), nothing. Finally tracked down a contractor in person who did come out and look and give me an estimate. But, Nate decided he could do it on his own. (Again....not my choice at the time....would have rather kept my husband alive). But, this last weekend....

he spent the morning up on the roof removing old shingles and the hole and laying down part of a new roof! And, he's still alive! Like I said, I'm extremely grateful for a husband who knows how and can do these types of things!

School Stuff

2009-12-02T05:52:00.004-06:00

In November, Lainey's school walked to the fire department for a visit and tour of the fire truck. Lainey was picked to come up from and demonstrate the famous "stop, drop and roll".

The week of Thanksgiving, they had a Thanksgiving Feast for the kids and parents. The kids visited with some 'pilgrims' who showed them how to grind corn and make cornbread, an 'indian' who showed them some of the tools he liked to use, they got to see a real live turkey, play in some teepees and eat lots of food.

Corbin was not too sure of the turkey. That is as close as he would get to it!

Big Boy Haircut

2009-11-29T03:34:00.002-06:00

Corbin officially has a big boy haircut! Nate and Lainey took Corbin to the barber shop for his first "professional" haircut. All his baby hair is gone! He looked so much "older" when he came home.

Super Yummy Rolls!

2009-11-12T06:18:00.003-06:00

We love homemade rolls at our house! We got this recipe from Nate's sister-in-law. They are soooooo yummy! They make BIG, soft, fluffy rolls. I love finding new recipes from friends and thought I'd share this one!

Hansen Dinner Rolls (this is NOT the real name, but the name that we had passed to us)
375 degrees for 10-12 minutes (may have to take about 15 minutes)

2 cups warm water
2 Tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour
Let sit for 5 minutes.
Then beat together the following and ad to above mixture:
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp salt (I used a slightly heaping tsp and it's perfect)
Then mix in 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups more flour until slightly sticky.
Let rise for 45 minutes. (the key to this recipe is really letting them rise!)
Roll into a long strip.
Melt butter (how ever much you'd like) and spread on top.
Fold in half.
Cut into 1/2 inch strips. (if you want smaller rolls, cut these strips in half again).
Tie in knots. Place on greased cookie sheet. (I put a bit more melted butter on top of them at this point)
Let rise until doubled (do NOT skimp on this step).
Bake until browned.

Sooooo yummy!

Louisiana Tech game

2009-11-12T06:01:00.003-06:00

Last week Boise State played at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, LA. We decided to head down for a few days and catch the game. We actually stayed about 1/2 hour away in Monroe. When we pulled up at the hotel, it said on their sign, "Welcome Boise State Football". We somehow managed to pick the same hotel that the team was staying at. So it was fun to see them around. Lainey kept picking out the players and getting excited when we'd see them.

Before the game, we burned off some energy at the Children's museum in Monroe. It was great (especially after the school group left-but the girls kept Lainey entertained). The kids loved it and played for a few hours.

This is Corbin at the sand box. I think he spent a good hour there!

After the museum we headed to the mall for some lunch. They had a 2 story carousel. Of course, we HAD to ride that.

The game (sorry-I'm not posting the family pic this time!).
Both of the kids had a lot of fun. It was perfect weather. Louisiana Tech's stadium is set up MUCH better than Tulsa's! So the kids had plenty of room to move around. Corbin stayed awake the entire game. The game was on ESPN again, and we made it onto TV a few times! There's even a "speed game" here http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4635009 and you can see us in the crowd a few times. Boise won again, and should finish their season winning. So it will be fun to see where they end up in the rankings (right now they are #6 in the BCS) and what bowl game they go to. Maybe if they play somewhere in the south we'll head to a bowl game!

The kids were EXHAUSTED when we got back to the hotel. On our way to the game, there was a major hold up on the freeway, and we didn't stop for dinner. So after the game we had to find something open. I think it was close to 12:30 or 1:00 am when the kids finally got to bed! They sure slept late that morning. And this is how they looked.

Happy HaLlOwEeN!!!

2009-11-09T05:29:00.003-06:00

There's not much to do around here for Halloween. Other than go downtown and then hit our neighborhood, there's not much else. Our branch is so small here that we don't do the "trunk-or treat" that we were able to do in our big wards. There's churches around that do a lot on Halloween, but then we don't really get to spend time with our friends. So this year we were excited that some of our friends we going to have a Halloween party! More on that in a minute....

Here's Corbin and Lainey getting ready to hit our street....

Not sure what Lainey is doing, just thought it made a cute pic...

Onto the party.....the people who hosted it have 3 kids. Lainey is 3 1/2 months older than their oldest, Corbin is 1 1/2 months older than their 2nd, and their 3rd is going to be about 4 months older than our 3rd! So we'll be spending lots of time together at the same functions!

Here is Corbin and their 2nd child. I just love Corbin's belly...he and I were matching (belly wise that is). Anyways, they live out in the country and no one really goes trick-or-treating out there (because unless you know this neighborhood is out there, you wouldn't have any idea to go out there). So she prearranged stops with about 15 of their "neighbors" and the kids got to go on a hayride and trick or treat to each of them. It was SOOOO much fun! Can't wait to do it again next year!

Here's Corbin ready to get some loot!

Lainey and their 1st child....

Not sure about the guilty look, but this was so cute. About 1/2 way through the stops, Lainey is sitting by her friend and she looks over at him and says, "*****, would you like to hold my hand?" And they reached out and starting holding hands! It was toooo cute! They just sat there and held hands until we got to the next stop!

If the dentist thing doesn't pan out.......

2009-11-09T05:19:00.002-06:00

One of Corbin's favorite things to do (besides brush his teeth) is to go outside and play baseball. Nate got Lainey a T-ball set for her birthday last year. One day a few months ago Corbin got ahold of it and knew just what to do! He gets so mad if we head out to the car and the bat and ball are in sight and he can't stop and play. He also now thinks he owns this set and DOES NOT like to share it with Lainey. He's pretty good, too, if I must say! So if he decides not to be a dentist, maybe we have a future baseball player on our hands!

School Party....More Trick-or Treating?

2009-11-09T05:10:00.002-06:00

Lainey had her first "school party" for Halloween this year. It sure was nice to be on the other end of the party rather than stressing about it the entire week before the party! Lainey wanted to be, surprise suprise, another princess this year! Her first idea was to be a cat and have Corbin be a mouse, which we thought was cute......but didn't happen. So the chosen princess was Ariel. Maybe next year we'll move away from the princess theme!

They had the obligatory parade with all the classes, then they had them all do a few cute Halloween songs.

Here's Corbin feasting on some of the goodies back in the classroom!

Okay, I just had to post this. Do we even need to go Trick-or-Treating now? In ALL my years (like 5 is a huge amount, but still) of teaching, never did I see this much stuff head home with the kids! Lainey had a HUGE bag filled with treats. It seemed like every parent (but myself and one other that I know of) brought a goody bag for each kid! I was amazed!

Dr. Bag

2009-11-09T05:05:00.003-06:00

Once again, my neighbor asked me to make a cake for her. I had previously made a DR bag for her and she wanted a second one. This one is a little different than my first...it's all fondant. I like doing the same cakes a second time, because I get to redeem myself and fix what I didn't like the first time!

Future Dentist or Just Obsessed?

2009-11-09T04:59:00.003-06:00

Corbin LOVES to brush his teeth. He'll brush them 10 times a day if we let him. I have to watch when the bathroom door is left open, or this is what I'll find......

He and I were upstairs one day and it got quiet. So I went to check on him, and he was up on the stool reaching for his toothbrush and toothpaste! What a cutie! I guess we won't have to worry about cavities with him! Although, if he heads to Dental school, he's on his own financially!

Soccer time.

2009-10-28T06:27:00.003-05:00

It's soccer time. Lainey has always enjoyed playing soccer in the yard at home. This year she was finally old enough to sign up to play, so we thought we'd see how she liked it. Her first practice went well. Then came the first game. I didn't get to see it all pan out, because I had to run to the pharmacy and pick up meds before they closed. Anyways......I guess her coach put her in to start the game, which she was excited about, for a brief moment. As soon as all the kids started running around her and past her she started to cry and said that the other kids 'were just too fast for her'. So that was the end of game one. At half time, her coach tried to get her to go in again, and said, 'you'll have to run Lainey' and that was all it took for her to decide to sit out. So we thought, oh no....is this what it's going to be like all season? She did tell her coach at the end of the game that she wanted to be the goalie next time. So the next day, for game 2, Nate told her that her new shin guards were to help her run faster. She liked that idea. She got to play goalie in the first half, and did a good job and had fun. Then in the second half she decided to play on the field. She did just fine and ended up having fun. We'll have to see how game 3 goes next week after a long break. We've had so much rain lately, that all our games this week were cancelled.

Mommy's helper

2009-10-28T06:19:00.003-05:00

I had to post this because it was too cute. A bit of background. We never had a problem at any age really with Lainey drawing on things she shouldn't have. For this reason, you'll find markers-even permanent ones, crayons, pens, pencils, etc....all within her reach at our house so she can use them freely. Well, her reach is now within Corbin's reach, and he's a different story (not that my walls are covered in drawings, but we've caught him a few times doodling where he shouldn't). So Lainey has an easel with a chalkboard and white board on it. They were in the playroom playing while I was doing something in the kitchen. I went in to check on them and saw a nice black line across my carpet. I figured if it was going to come out, right after the fact would be my only chance. So I pulled out my carpet cleaner to attack the spot. I pulled out the water tank and was filling it up. When I was done, I came back to this. Maybe it was his way of saying sorry and that he was trying to help me? Either that or he thought it was a new ride on/push toy! And...the marker came out!

BOISE vs. Tulsa

2009-10-28T05:45:00.006-05:00

We took off for a road trip to see the Boise vs Tulsa game in Oklahoma on the 14th of October. We decided to stay a few days and do some things. Tulsa is actually a pretty nice town. There were parks everywhere (something about Denver that we miss tremendously), too bad it was a bit too cold and drizzly to play while we were there. The trip was worth it (Boise pulled it off 28-21, although they should have won by more) and we actually made it through the entire football game (I'm not sure how, but Corbin slept for over half of it). Note to anyone who may work for University of Tulsa---seriously....could you not have given the visitors section a bit more leg room?

Before the game, we headed over to the MALLLLLL (I get excited when we get to go to an actual mall) to burn some energy, and oh, to shop a bit. The kids loved their play area (once again, made me miss the Colorado Mills kids play area)....

The fire truck had this tunnel in it, and Corbin LOVED it. He would go through and right back around and do it again. He had to have repeated it over and over for 10 or more minutes.

Family pic at the game.

Lainey had fun, except I'm not sure whose kid she was. For some reason, she kept cheering for Tulsa (and knew she was....I think she knew it would be 'funny').

One of the times Corbin was actually awake during the game. There was a lot for him to sit and watch. Kept him content.

We visited the Oklahoma Aquarium one day. It made me miss (for a brief moment) my kindergarteners and our ocean unit and trip to the Denver Aquarium. They both had a lot of fun looking at all the sea animals. Lainey was excited because she got to feed the turtles.

Freebie

2009-10-01T13:33:00.002-05:00

I think I emailed everyone that I could think of that may want one, but in case I missed someone, or those of you out there that I don't know about....
You can get a free nursing cover at this site:
https://www.uddercovers.com
When you get to your shopping cart, enter "onefree" in the promo box and all you have to pay is shipping! There were 6 different designs. Also, if you like the gift sets, I found it will take off the $32 discount towards it.

Details

2009-09-26T04:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks for all the emails, comments and facebook posts about the baby news. We're excited and need to get on the ball getting ready! I've had lots of questions, so I'll answer them all here.

I'm due March 17, 2010...which means I'll deliver most likely right around the beginning of February (Lainey was due March 13, born Feb. 6....so she may have to share her birthday). I'm 15 1/2 weeks, which means I have about 19 more to go (should I follow my patterns). I'm feeling great (which is a HUUGGGEEEE blessing considering my last pregnancy), and didn't even realize I was pregnant at first. Some other concerns are what led to finding out. We thought at first I may be miscarrying or something else was wrong, so we've had 2 ultrasounds already. Found out I had a hemmorage (which we think has cleared up) and some cysts (which may have to be removed...we'll see at the next ultrasound). After those things seemed to put themselves at bay, we're doing good. Just tired a lot. I'm 99% sure I'll have another c-section...but the doctor says I'm keeping him on his toes because he really can't schedule a c-section for 5-6 weeks early! But c-section is the plan right now. Lainey thinks we need a girl, because we already have a boy (I guess she doesn't count into the mix). Nate was driving by the hospital one day and he pointed out that is where we'll have this baby, too (I guess our thoughts that possibly each kid would be born in a different place is out of the question!). He asked her what she wanted and she told him a girl. Nate pointed out that it's possible it may be another boy, and would she be happy. She said yes, but that she was going to pray right now to Heavenly Father for a baby sister and told Nate not to listen. I guess she said a prayer right then in the car for a sister....too cute! Today is the Camden Barn Sale, and my goal 20+ weeks ago was to run the 5K at it, well, around the 6 mark week of training is when I found out I was pregnant and had some problems. So to protect the baby and not do anything further to loose it, the running stopped since we didn't know what was wrong for about 5 weeks. That means I will not be running the 5K today, which is kind of disappointing. I'll just have to find another one somewhere that takes place around July or August next year! I guess that's all the details/updates for now. We'll keep ya posted! And yes, that picture at the top is what I actually look like already!

Destin 2009

2009-09-21T13:31:00.007-05:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We took an anniversary/family trip to Destin, Florida at the beginning of the month. It is absolutely beautiful! I decided that we are beach people and that we need to live on the beach. Our only problem is we'd have to put a tent on the lot we'd buy! We had so much fun and I'm ready to go back or move there tomorrow! We found fun things to do each day....a science museum, Destin Commons, Fuddpuckers, Gulfarium, The Race Track, and more....ate good food (too bad I hate seafood), shopping, swimming each night at the hotel, and spent LOTS of time on the beach! We tried out a new beach each day! The water was crystal clear, you could go out a hundred yards and be knee deep, and the sand was sugar white and so soft! The kids LOVEDDDDD the beach. It was fun to sit back and just watch them play and have fun! I highly recommend to anyone who can to try out Destin!

Make sure you go through the entire slide show, or you'll miss out on something!

Our new toy

2009-09-16T23:17:00.003-05:00

I've told Nate ever since we first got married that I wanted one of these. I've been looking lately, and found one someone was selling that was actually in really good shape and at a reasonable price! YEAH! Lainey loves it and can't wait to start taking lessons.

First Day

2009-09-16T22:48:00.003-05:00

We enrolled Lainey in a private preschool at a local church this year. She has sooooo been looking forward to it! She could not wait for her first day of school (the day after Labor Day).

So I walked Lainey into her class, to help her get all settled. She could have cared less! When I left, she didn't even hear me or look my way. She was already ready to start school. When I picked her up, she was really excited and happy and said she had fun. As we were getting in the car, she get really upset. She was like, "Mommy, but Mrs. N$#*@^* didn't give me any homework. I don't have any homework to do." I told her that was okay, but she was ADAMANT and VERY DISAPPOINTED about the fact that she was suppossed to have (in her mind) gotten homework and wanted it and didn't have any. She reminded me in a very worried and sad voice about 5 times in our short drive home. Then later, we were talking about school again later and she looks at me and says, "Mommy, I don't want to go to recess tomorrow." I said, "you don't? why not (thinking something had happened you know)?" And she gets this annoyed tone in her voice and says, "Weelllll (huuu), it just takes tooooo long and you get all hot and sweaty and stuff!" Go figure! I knew she liked learning, but enough to give us recess (it's only like 10 minutes!).

Zoo Trip

2009-09-16T22:25:00.003-05:00

At the end of August we ventured up to the Little Rock Zoo for the first time. School had already started, so for the most part, we felt like we had the zoo to ourselves. I wasn't sure if we'd make it through the entire zoo being August-hot-humid and all, but we did it and the kids had a blast!

Feed the fish.

Enjoying the train ride just moments before this.....

I guess he was a bit tired!

Lainey and the tortoise!

#31 and #8

2009-09-12T08:08:00.007-05:00

On the first of August, I celebrated my 31st birthday. I used to remember looking at different people who were 31 when I was like 18, 19, 20 years old and thinking to myself how old that was! I still can't believe I'm in my 30's. I feel like I just graduated from high school a few years ago! Anyways, it was Nate's weekend on at work so we celebrated a few days early by going down to Shreveport and going shopping. Lainey wanted to buy me a new dress and Nate got me a new cell phone. We went to the Boardwalk and walked around, rode the trolley and the merry-go-round and ate some yummy food at Joe's Crab Shack.

Lainey was so cute. She spent the day making "games" for us to play that night. They didn't have any names, really, but they all had something to do with us drawing things on the paper with a marker either in the dark or with our eyes closed. She was pretty proud of herself!

Corbin enjoying some birthday cake!

On the 4th of August, we celebrated our 8th anniversary. We didn't do a whole lot on our actual anniversary, just went down to El Dorado for dinner and I got to pick out new pots and pans and Nate got an ipod touch. Our real anniversary celebration was our trip to Destin, Florida at the end of the month (PARADISE!). I'll get around to posting those pictures later! You won't want to miss that post! We were married in Salt Lake City, and when I first called (in April) to schedule our time at the temple they only had late times left (like 3 or 3:30, something like that, the last time of the day and we would have been wedding number 80 that day! Didn't sound too fun), so we took it and were on a waiting list for an earlier spot if one opened. They called a few weeks later and said they had a cancellation for 7:00 am. I thought I must have been crazy, but we took it. We had to be there by 5:45 AM and our guests by 6:30 AM (I thought no one would come, but we had a full house!)! Looking back, it was perfect. We were the 2nd couple through that day and had all the time in the world for pictures after without having to fight with other wedding parties for spots. Also, we didn't have to stand out in the sweltering August sun in the late afternoon! So while I was running on 2 hours of sleep, all was well! What a perfect day! For now, here's some pictures from our wedding day!

It's Been Awhile

2009-08-14T22:29:00.010-05:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything, so here are some pictures and brief explanations of what we've been up to in June and July.

One of the last days that Nate's parents were here, his mom helped me make and can some pickles and homemade salsa. YUMMY!

Lainey has been wanting to go fishing and get her own fishing pole for quite some time. So for Father's Day, we got Nate a new pole, some fishing stuff, a fishing license, and Lainey her own pole. She was so excited when Nate took her to the lake! She's quite the fishergirl! She caught a fish on her first cast!

Lainey's FIRST fish!

June 26-11:03 AM...This is what my outside thermometor read! CRAZY! I would really take an Arizona or Utah summer day over an Arkansas one any day!

Lately I've been into "really" couponing. I've cut coupons and used them for years, but never really "got" how to make the most bang for your buck. A while back I started following

krazycouponlady.blogspot.com

and there I finally figured out how to do it. My only problem is that we don't have the big chains like Albertson's and Smith's that do these outrageous deals! So my times are limited to when I can really do some major savings with them. This trip in June was close to $170 before any discounts, after store savings, coupons, and double and triple coupons, I paid just under $50!

Don't have the before total, but I paid $3!

Lainey and Corbin on the 4th of July waiting for fireworks.

Lainey's 2nd fishing trip.

Lainey has wanted rollerskates for about 2 years now. I've been going to yard sales looking for some furniture pieces that I can redo. At one yard sale, Lainey found her coveted rollerskates....couldn't say no to 50 cents!

She was so excited to use them!

Corbin watching Lainey rollerskate.

Our MOPS group had a swim party in June. let me preface by saying that up until this day, and even when we first got in, Lainey has been DEATHLY afraid of swimming by herself. She would have the grip of death around Nate and I's necks whenever we went swimming. When we got there, she had on her floatie swimsuit, ring, and arm floaties. Somehow, I convinced her to try swimming around on her own. Soon the arm floaties came off.....

....then we were down to just the floatie swimsuit, and before we left, she was down to just her regular swimsuit and wanted to do that all by herself! AMAZING! I was really proud of her! She's been like that ever since. Our neighbors have a pool and let us use it whenever we want, so she has been very excited to go swimming over there this summer and we've used it A LOT more this year than in years past!

Corbin just relaxing after swimming....I'm going to have to watch this little daredevil in the pool!

Our neighbors own a respiratory medical company, and she is their sales rep. She likes to take the DR's things on their birthdays, and she decided she wanted to start taking them cakes decorated with things they like.

This same neighbor also owns race horses. For her husbands 60th birthday, she wanted me to make a cake that looked like the silks their jockey wears.

I think that about covers June and July (for the most part anyways). I'll get some August pictures up here sometime.......

Gma and Gpa....Day #4

2009-06-29T05:46:00.004-05:00

On Monday, we ventured off to Historic Washington to see what was out there. It's an old town that is still as it was in the 1800's. There wasn't much going on the day we went (park info was a bit deceiving), but we still had fun (in the HUMIDITY). We ate lunch at the tavern and walked around. We got to tour a few of the buildings and hunted for a geo while we were there.

The three pictures above are of one of the largest Magnolia tree in Arkansas...on the sign can you see when it was planted? Crazy, hu!?

Grandma, Corbin, and Kati under the Magnolia tree.

Here's Lainey in the Blacksmith shop. No...she did not just run through the sprinklers, that is how HUMID it was that day!

Grandpa and Corbin

On our way home, Nate took us to a conservation area to look for another geo. Here he is with Corbin searching for it.

Gma and Gpa...Day #2

2009-06-23T14:51:00.004-05:00

On our second day, we took Nate's parents up to Hot Springs. It's a resort town with and has spas/bath houses that are still up and running, but back in the days, people used to come to Hot Springs to soak in the natural springs for it's healing elements....anyways....we went and spent the day there. There's an alligator farm/petting zoo that we had not been to yet. So we tried it out. On one side there are some animals that you can feed and pet, and on the other side are the alligators. We chose to go on a day when they actually feed them and you can watch. Don't think I'd want that as a job!

After the alligator farm and some yummy mexican food for lunch, we took them to the Hot Springs tower. You can go up to the top and look out of two observation decks onto the national park. It was really pretty!

Lainey thought it was pretty neat that she could see the van from way up top!

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa V

2009-06-22T23:52:00.007-05:00

Nate's parents came down to visit us for a week. First off, THANK YOU Grandpa and Grandma for a great visit! We wish we could see you more often! Second, sorry about the humidity! At first, they had talked about coming down in August, and Nate advised them not to because the humidity at that time of the year is REALLY bad.....so they came earlier, and had to deal with the horrible humidity anyways (the bad stuff came EARLY this year...can't wait to see what August is like). So we had temps around 94* all week with 90% humidity which = HOT AND DRENCHING. Anyways, we still had fun. There were some new things we wanted to go see, and unfortunately, pretty much all outside, but we braved it and did it. Just look "beyond" all that heat and humidity in the pics! On our first day out, we went over to Warren for the Pink Tomato Festival.

Here's grandma and the kids digging for treasure. At the festival, they had a huge mound of sand that they hid "treasure" in and the kids got to dig and find things.

For his birthday, the kids and I got Nate a handheld GPS so he could do some geocaching. Basically, "treasure hunting". He thought it would be fun for him and Lainey (and Corbin when he's older) to do around here. Lainey is all excited about it and they've gone out a few times to find things. So, on our way home from Warren, Nate wanted to go find this one geo...but it was neat because right there in that area it was hidden, was some Mormon history.

Here's the first "treasure" that we've actually found (we've been out a few times, but had yet to be able to actually find the hidden object). And I was the one to actually find our first (hence, Lainey's not so happy face.....she wanted to be the one to find it). The pink hair...that's from the festival, not a normal everyday thing!

More of our other adventures from the week to come......

5K...motivation, accountability

2009-06-09T00:20:00.004-05:00

I used to be a pretty good runner back in the good days. When I was younger, and lived in Casa Grande, AZ, I ran in quite a few track meets and have quite a few "gold" medals and records set (that I'm sure have been broken) from those days. I used to really like to run...just not to practice it (hence, didn't want to do track in HS....went to a couple practices, but then gave up). So I've mentioned to Nate a few times that to get my butt in gear and in shape, that I should set a goal to run a 5K here in Camden. I was talking with my neighbor tonight and told her we should start walking/running early in the morning before Nate leaves for work. She said she wanted to, and that she was wanting to do a 5K! So we got talking about it for a bit. So I got home and starting thinking about it, and really just need to do it and quit procrastinating. So I found a beginning running/jogging schedule. It lasts 8 weeks. Then another 8 week schedule to train for a 5K. So, we're having a 5K September 26th in conjunction with our annual Barn Sale here, so I'm posting this to have some motivation and people checking in on me to see how it's going. It will give me some accountability. So my goal is to run that 5K! There, it's out there...now if I don't do it, I'll have to come back and tell you all I failed! I better have some of you bugging me about it!

3 Printers....All Broken!

2009-06-01T23:07:00.003-05:00

Seriously, we have 3 printers, and not one of them works (maybe not broken, but not functioning)...

Printer A: Bought when we first got married, still works GREAT, used for 95% of our printing still. Ran out of ink....refuse to pay $70 for new ink cartridges. Would just refill the old cartridges again, but they were no longer refillable.

Printer B: Came with our first digital camera. Used mostly for photo printing, would occassionally do word documents on it. Nate bought 2 brand spanking new cartridges right after Corbin was born so he could print some photos to take to work. Printer WON'T work! Seriously...2 brand new cartridges inside printer, and printer will not work. Won't read that there's paper in the tray...done EVERYTHING the company has said to do.

Printer C: Printer, copier, scanner, fax machine. Bought when Nate was in grad school and I was looking for teaching jobs out of state. I had a lot of faxing to do, and it was much cheaper to buy our own rather than pay Kinko's. Anyways, used mostly to fax. Would copy things here and there on it. Would have liked to scan photos, but it's not a flat bed kind...I would have to send the pictures through the machine and I wasn't willing to scratch up any. Anyways, it works, but out of ink. Again, refuse to pay around $60 for new ink.

So, what do I do?

Finally break down and buy a new printer! But I'm so excited! It's the new Kodak printer that only costs you like $25 for both ink cartridges, and the printer alone was only like $20 more than buying new ink for the old printers...will definitely be worth the purchase! But, I'm so excited because now I can go back and do this....

Scan in all my old photos before we had digital! Here's a few I tested from our wedding. Sorry about the upside down one. I'm still figuring it out! But I swear it said I could scan multiple pics at a time and I could save them as seperate photos...so I've obviously got a lot to figure out still! So Christina and Jaime....paybacks are in the works....I have a lot of old photos myself!

33 Things

2009-05-07T22:58:00.005-05:00

Nate just celebrated his 33rd birthday. Here are 33 random things about him.

1. He is the 5th child born on 5-5!

2. There are 6 kids in his family: 3 boys, 3 girls.

3. He played football and wrestled in high school.

4. He worked in Alaska for a few summers during college.

5. He DROVE to Alaska.

6. He likes to snowboard (took I don't know how many semesters of it in college).

7. He makes really yummy homemade rolls.

8. He has 25 nieces and nephews with 2 on the way.

9. He has a Master's Degree in Engineering and Technology Management.

10. He never complains when the dishes aren't done when he gets home from work.

11. He LOVES Boise State Football (when we first moved to Denver, we didn't have cable yet, and Boise was on ESPN, so we rented a hotel room to stay in for the night so he could watch the game!).

12. Likes to watch college sports over professional sports.

13. Speaks Spanish (went on a Spanish speaking mission and took 4 semesters in grad school).

14. Likes to go camping.

15. Makes really good enchiladas.

16. Has a complete daddy's girl in Lainey.

17. Can figure out how to fix, do, make a lot of things....if he doesn't know how to, he'll figure it out.

18. When we first got married (he's eased off it now) he used to sort our grocery's in the cart (engineering mind I guess).

19. Irons his own clothes for work.

20. Is VERY easy going and mellow!

21. Is always ready to go out and play with Lainey right when he gets home from work.

22. Never complains when the laundry still isn't all done Sunday night and he has to work Monday morning!

23. I HATE cleaning toilets and he does it.

24. Doesn't care for video games (he was playing a football game with a friend one time, had no clue what he was doing, and his friend was mad because Nate kept beating him).

25. Likes rock music and 80's music.

26. Likes to eat corn bread.

27. He is such a good dad and doesn't hesitate to dance around the house with Lainey or play princess or dress up or barbies with her.

28. Loves to take random road trips. When we were first married and before we had kids, he would tell me to get in the car and we'd drive off and find something new. I always hated not knowing where we were going, but we always found interesting and fun places. Harder to do now with kids.

29. He puts up with me....need I say more.

30. Is not a morning person, and likes to stay up late....not the best for someone who has to be to work at either 5 or 6 am then work 10-12 hours! But he's getting better (sometimes).

31. Likes to watch old western movies.

32. Can make up crazy lyrics to songs at the spur of the moment.

33. Is just an all around wonderful guy-we're lucky to have him for a husband and dad!

We took Nate to a seafood restraunt in El Dorado that we never knew existed. I HATE seafood, so I never fix it for him (and he doesn't complain), so I figured tonight I could deal with it.

Lainey and Corbin at the restraunt. I'll have to post some more pictures of Corbin. He is a TOTAL cheeser...he KNOWS when the camera is on him and will pull the silliest faces. The minute the camera disappears, he's back to normal...it's really funny!

Getting ready for cake and ice cream. Notice the strips of old scrapbook paper hanging on the walls? That was Lainey's idea. She thought we needed to decorate more so she cut them into strips and hung them up!

We took a cherry cheesecake out to Nate at work. On our way home, Lainey said that he HAD to have a birthday sign hanging up when he got home. So we pulled out the paper and made one. She said it had to say: "Welcome Home! Happy Birthday!" She worked on it for over an hour!

The finished sign hanging on the back door. She wrote "Happy Birthday" all by herself..."Happy" is hard to see because the marker was drying up. She was VERY proud of the sign.

More Cakes

2009-05-07T22:26:00.006-05:00

I've made quite a few cakes the last few weeks...here are a few I've done for some people.

This cake was for my neighbor's sons birthday. It was really last minute, so not too exciting (if I'd had more time, I had some fun ideas in mind). There's a horse race track (Oaklawn) in Hot Springs (about 1 1/2 hours away). I guess when you're 18 you can bet on your own there. So they were taking him there for his birthday, and I thought we'd do something to go along with that.

While decorating the horse cake, Lainey was persistant in wanting to do her own cake. So after I was done, she got to bake her own cake and decorate. Here's what she came up with!

I did a cake for a 90th birthday. I took Lainey with me when I delivered it and set up. To keep her occuppied, I let her take pictures. Here's some she took of the flowers...not bad!

Here's the cake......

Nothing too fancy with this one. A friend wanted me to do this cake for her sons birthday.

He's ONE!

2009-04-16T16:01:00.008-05:00

THE BIRTHDAY BOY! He was soooo excited to have his car seat turned around! He just sits there (still) and his eyes fixated on things outside...he's mesmerized by it all!

I can't believe Corbin is ONE! His birthday was this past week. Here's what happened just a year ago....(skip down to the pics at the bottom if you don't want to read!).

Let me preface by saying that this pregnancy was soooooo completely different from my 1st! If it had been my 1st pregnancy, I don't think we'd have another child! It is a WHOLE nother story about what took place the first 34 weeks....pain, headaches, extreme nausea, multipllllle UTI's, gestational diabetes.....but we won't go there.

Sunday April 13, 2008-It was Nate's weekend on at work (12 hour shifts 5AM to 5:30PM, he wouldn't be home until 6PM or later....I had a WHOLE day ahead of me with a toddler). I was yet again so uncomfortable, miserable, in pain, feeling awful, etc....that I was NOT about to take Lainey to church by myself. So I drug myself out of bed, went and rented a few new movies to keep Lainey entertained. Spent yet another day miserable on the couch. Was reminded once again by my branch president's wife that I needed to get my bag packed NOW (considering Lainey was born at 35 weeks)...just could not muster up the energy...tomorrow I told myself.

Monday April 14, 2008 (34 1/2 weeks pregnant)-Lainey had a DR. appointment. I was MISERABLE! When we got into the exam room, I asked the nurse if she thought the DR could also just check me out. She said she wasn't sure, she'd have to check. Came back in a minute later, said she had a cancellation, hop up on the table and he'd check me first. DR came in, examined me, said the baby was down but I was not dialated but cervix had softened....wouldn't happen this week, but probably next week. Told me if I was still in that much pain, to take the pain meds as needed that I had. Went home, exhausted (thank goodness Nate's days off were Mon and Tues) and just thinking I couldn't go through this until May 1 (my due date was May 23, but with gestational diabetes, Lainey being a premie but weighing close to 7 pounds, my DR was going to induce me early). Thought about packing bags, but the thought of it wore me out. Went to bed...in pain.

Tuesday April 15, 2008-Woke up with Lainey, went downstairs trying to muster up the energy to deal with her and 3 other kids (my friends) that I was babysitting all day. Turned on cartoons for Lainey and went to the kitchen to get her her morning drink. I remember standing at the counter getting her cup and saying to myself that I could not go through this for a few more weeks. I was in pain and miserable. I remember saying...I AM GETTING AN EPIDURAL THE MINUTE I WALK IN THE HOSPITAL. 8 AM.....I hear a "pop" and now know what it must feel like to be a coach who has multiple water buckets dumped on you. Yep, that's exactly what happened! I couldn't move because I was literally standing in a pool and didn't want it to get anywhere else. I was shocked! I somewhat calmly said, "Lainey, please go wake up daddy." "No mommy, not right now, I'm watching my cartoon." Once again, "Lainey, please go get daddy. It's the baby sweetie, the baby is coming. I need you to go wake up daddy." "Not Now Mommy!" So, I just started screaming Nate's name. He comes barreling down the stairs asking...is it the baby???? He sees me standing in the pool in the middle of the kitchen and is as shocked as I am. He asks if he has time to shower, and I tell him yes (why wouldn't he....Lainey was born 18 hours after my water broke with her). I get on the phone and call my friend who is already on her way over. She says she'll come get Lainey. I grad a blanket to mop up the mess and waddle up stairs to pack a bag. By now, I'm in PAINNNNNNN. I call my DR's office (the receptionist must have sensed my urgency--I didn't tell her I was in labor...just that I needed to talk to a nurse--because you usually have to leave a message, but she put me right through), spoke to the nurse and told her my water had just broken and we were on our way to the hospital shortly. My friend gets to our house about 8:15/8:20. I'm on the couch having major contractions. She's trying to frantically give me some quick lamaze lessons. We finish getting a bag ready and head to the hospital. We get to the hospital (8:45), they wheel me down to labor and delivery. The first nurse I see, I said, "I want an epidural NOW". She tells me she can't yet, they have to call my doctor, exam me, etc....They ask me how far along I am and when I tell them 34 1/2 weeks, I can tell they almost don't believe me. I'm already nervous about it, too. My DR had told me that if I went into labor earlier than 35 weeks I would most likely be sent to Little Rock or Texarkana. Anyways, they get me in a room and up on the bed. It's 9 AM. I'm SCREAMING by now from the pain. The first nurse checks me, tells me I'm a 7 and that there's no way I can have an epidural. Doesn't say much else. I can tell by her face that something wasn't right. She calls another nurse to come in and just says "check her please". I'm asking for the epidural AGAIN and they tell me that I'm too far along that they can't give me narcotics and that it would take too long at this point to even get the epidural. By the way, I'm screaming between all this. Nate looks at them and says, "can't you give her SOMETHING". They say, "we're still trying to get a hold of her DR, we can't give her anything until we talk to him." In the meantime, the 2nd nurse had checked me. The 1st nurse and the 2nd nurse look at each other and at the same time they both kind of say...."that was a butt, wasn't it....? Yeah, it's a butt." By this time, I'm SCREAMING..."I NEED TO PUSH". They are telling me to hold off. They decide to try to start an IV so the minute the DR okays it, they can give me something for pain. They check me again (9:20 AM) and I'm a 9 1/2. They are telling me they need to do an ultrasound to check the baby. They do the ultrasound and confirm the baby is breech. The doctor comes in, I'm still screaming, and he tells me on my next contraction to push. So I push 2 times with the first contraction. Next contraction, I push once. I'm screaming because I still have no pain meds and I'm telling them I can't do this without something for the pain. Right after that last push, all I remember is that my doctor starts giving a million instructions to people. I remember him saying we needed to get to the Operating Room, and not to move me off the bed, there's no time (the nursese were like...You want us to push her to OR on the delivery bed? and he's like YES and they are saying, Okay...It's going to be hard, but okay.....) I hear them start telling Nate to sign all these forms. Then the next thing I remember is someone telling Nate, "we'll show you where you can wait for her". This freaked me out and I said..."Oh no, isn't he coming with me?" and they say, "not for an emergency c-section"...then I started getting freaked out. Next thing I know, I'm in the OR and see all these people and they're poking me and I can hear the doctor ask if the drugs are in yet, I remember seeing the oxygen mask come to my face, and the next thing I know it's about 2 1/2 hours later and I'm just waking up! And he was born at 9:35 AM. The first thing I asked when I woke up was, "Is the baby (didn't know it was a "he" yet) still here?" It took the nurses a few times to figure out what I meant (I was worried that they had life flighted him to Little Rock or something, since our hospital doesn't have a NICU), but they finally "got it" and told me he was here in the hospital with me. We had some scares/concerns the first few day/weeks, but everything worked out and he's just fine!

Whew...once again, had this been my first pregnancy, I doubt there'd ever be another one! But it's over with and I wouldn't change anything (other than probably having that bag packed at 33 weeks like I had planned). Corbin is such a blessing and happy part of our family. He is so mellow and easy going (just like his father) and just plain happy. He makes the cutest faces, has the biggest smile, is very sensitive and gets his feelings hurt easily, and is so cute when he wants to cuddle (FINALLY). I'm so glad he's with us!

Here are some pictures from his birthday. We must not have much luck for 1st birthdays. Corbin was sick on his birthday, too. (Lainey was miserable with double ear infections for hers and cried the entire night) He didn't do too bad, though.

The cake

Easter

2009-04-15T23:35:00.004-05:00

Tuesday before Easter we spent the night dying Easter eggs.

Nate is the best husband and father. I had to work Saturday day (our neighbors own a restraunt and I work 2 days a week for them) and Nate took Corbin and Lainey to 2 different Easter activities that day (I knew they were going to 1, but when I got home, he had decided to take them to another one). He is great about taking them to do things! It's something I really appreciate. Anyways, here's Lainey in the car all set to go have some Easter fun!

Lainey showing some loot at one of the Easter events.

Well, it's the best I got of both of them!

Corbin's happy with what the Easter bunny brought him.

FINALLY...she got Thumbelina!

Finally....we're done!

2009-04-15T23:08:00.003-05:00

Here are some pictures of our finished kitchen and dining room.....okay, 98% finished. I need to find some window coverings and install those and put wainscotting on the island and paint it. Then it will be 100% done.

What we've been up to.....

2009-04-08T00:19:00.006-05:00

We've been busy around here the last few weeks.......

This is what our kitchen looked like when we moved in.

Our dining room when we moved in.

What the layerSSSSSS (yes, plural) of wallpaper look like coming down. I will NEVER put up wallpaper in my house!

The popcorn ceilings.

The new looks for cabinets...oh just kidding. Here's what the kitchen looked like as we were covering the cabinets to keep the dust and junk out of them while Nate scrapped OFF the popcorn ceiling.

The new ceiling.

The new walls.

Pictures of the "after" will come soon. Just have to finish touching up, and cleaning up!

Gotta Love the Orange Cars

2009-04-08T00:13:00.003-05:00

I just had to post this picture of Corbin and Lainey. Corbin is so happy in it! He's in the cart clapping while we waited for some paint to be mixed at Home Depot. Love the cars...don't think we'd make it through Home Depot without them!

Daffodi Festival

2009-03-12T23:53:00.004-05:00

March 6th and 7th was the annual Daffodil Festival here in Camden. Downtown we have arts and crafts vendors and food vendors who come into town. They do some Civil War re-enactments during the festival. There is a cemetary walk and they have people dressed up as people who are buried there and they tell stories of them. Then they have the daffodil tours. I believe there are 5 "farms" that are on tour. Until this year, we have never gone out to see the daffodils (just spent our time downtown shopping). However, this year we ran into a lady Nate works with and she said we just HAD to go out to Grace Hill Estate and see all the daffodils and eat lunch out there. So we decided to go see it. It was AMAZING! Fields of daffodils. Lainey had a lot of fun! After we spent some time there, we headed over to the Daniel's Farm (which is just down the road from our house) and toured their garden. It really was a great afternoon. I felt bad when we got home and realized how sun burned we were! I felt bad for Lainey and Corbin (especially Corbin) who were not dressed for 80 degree weather (it was not predicted to be that nice). {{{FYI...last year for the Daffodil Festival, Nate was supposed to be home from a business trip but was stranded in Memphis due to SNOW! Yes, last year we spent the weekend in mid 20 temps with PILES of snow! What a difference!}}} On Saturday, Nate took Lainey back downtown and did the cemetary walk with her. He said it was really neat. So maybe next year we'll have to do the complete package, instead of just a few of the destination.

I guess all her pictures can't be "cute"!

Lainey at Grace Hill Estate

Corbin FINALLY conked out at 1PM while driving out to Grace Hill Estate. I thought it was too precious how he fell asleep with his book wide open in his hands!

The best picture I could manage to get of both of them at the same time!

This is the back of Grace Hill (Don't know why I also didn't get a front picture, but didn't)

Second Set

2009-02-19T21:22:00.004-06:00

I love this digital scrapbooking! Even though I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing, and there's things I wish I could do, but not sure if it can be done! (HINT: Mary Lee...we've got to talk!). I also love that there are a TOOONNNNN of free kits out there to use! It's great! Anyways, here's the second set of pages I've done!

My first pages

2009-02-15T22:53:00.004-06:00

So, I've decided to give digital scrapbooking a try. I'm hoping it will save me money (I can reuse things once I've bought them, and I don't have to spend money on developing pictures), save me time (after I figure out exactly what I'm doing), it will be easier to do (I hate getting all my stuff out only to be able to do a couple pages before having to put it all back again), and it will help me get caught up. So my friend Mary Lee has jumped on board and been helping me out. I still need A LOT of help though! I've been playing around with it on my own and finally did a couple of pages that I thought turned out semi decent. Yes, these are pictures of Lainey when she was like 4 months old...that is how far behind I am! Anyways...here are my first pages.

Tinkerbell Fun!

2009-02-13T22:41:00.004-06:00

Lainey had a lot of fun on her birthday. On her actual birthday, we took her out for lunch and let her pick where. She wanted pizza, which was funny because her past record of pizza eating hasn't been overly great. But we went and she ate it like a champ. That night we had brownies (her cake was for her party the next day) and opened gifts from us and family. She got spoiled, as usual. Then Saturday we had her party, and she could not wait! She kept asking me when were her friends coming. Finally the time came! Instead of giving out party bags, I made each girl a fairy skirt, got them fairy wings (thanks to the $ store), got Tinkerbell crowns, and my friend thought they each needed a wand (thank you Amy). We played Tinkerbell bingo, pin the star on Tinkerbell's wand, colored Tinkerbell pictures, ate lunch, had cake and ice cream, opened presents, played with balloons and colored with chalk. Lainey had a blast!

Lainey eating her birthday lunch.

Lainey and her birthday brownie.

Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled....she got a princess clock, tinkerbell picture, books, tinkerbell toys, outdoor toys, princess stuff, coloring stuff, clothes, fairy tent and sleeping back, learning stuff, a new computer game and more.

Lainey is anxiously waiting for her friends to come for her party. (MH...she looked adorable in the outfit you sent her last year...it was the perfect time to pull it out!)

Her Tinkerbell cake.

Candle blowing.

Happy 4th Lainey!

2009-02-05T22:41:00.012-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAINEY! She is FOUR years old today! Hard to believe! Time flies by fast! Here's a recap of the events that happened at this time 4 years ago! (If you don't feel like reading it, skip ahead to the pics)

Friday February 4th (in looking back...it's ironical). My teammate had a substitute that day (Pat) who had taught kindergarten where I was at and had retired. She was going to be my sub while on maternity leave. Lainey was due March 23rd. I was hoping to have her around March 17th, which would have been spring break week. I only had enough time for 5 weeks paid, but if Spring Break happened to fall at the beginning of my time, I'd have 6 weeks! Anyways, I was kidding with Pat and asking her if she was ready to go. She told me no way.....she was going to enjoy her time until March.

Saturday February 5th. Nate headed up to school to work on some things that morning and study. That afternoon, we were going to go get a changing table and start to rearrange our 1 bedroom apartment to accomodate a baby. (I was also going to start my sub plans that weekend for my maternity leave.) I spent the day on a vigorous cleaning of the place. I felt great. Nate got home and we were about ready to head out the door when I needed to use the bathroom. Did my thing, and started to head out of the bathroom when I suddenly felt like I had peed my pants. Which I thought was wierd (but not unusual being this far along and BIG). Didn't say anything to Nate. Got some dry things, used the bathroom again, started to head out of the bathroom when it happened again! I got down on the floor to look at it, because it didn't look like pee...it was clear. I remember sitting in the bathroom and just thinking...what do I do? After a few minutes, I went out and told Nate that I thought my water had broke. He was like, WHAT? But I told him I wasn't sure (how could I be, I had no idea how all this was suppossed to happen and feel like). So we decided to call the hospital to see what they said (by the way, I was bawling the entire time) and they told me I needed to call my doctor's office. So I called and talked to the on call nurse. After going over things with her she said I needed to head to the hospital to get it checked out (And yes, I'm 5 weeks away from my due date). So we freaked out and started packing suitcases (yes....more than one) like crazy! I had no idea what to take and those baby books mention a TON of things. By now it's about 2:00. We head to the hospital (which, by the way is in downtown Denver and we had only been there once). We get up to the Labor and Delivery ward and the DR comes in to test to see if it is amniotic fluid. He comes back and says the test was negative, but he didn't believe it. They had hooked me up to a monitor and said I was having contractions (couldn't feel a thing though...I had no idea). They also did an ultrasound to see how things were looking. He said he wanted me to stay lying down for a while so it could "pool up" and he'd get a better test sample. So somewhere around 6:00 I think he came back to test me again. He said that tonight I'd either be here with a baby or go home with the deed to his house because he felt for sure I was in labor. He ran the test and came back and said it was positive. So they got me to my room and Nate went down to unload our 2 big suitcases from the car (the nurse thought we were crazy when she saw him come in). They started me on pitocin since my contractions weren't getting stronger. Around 6:30 we started making phone calls. I had to laugh when I called Pat and asked her if she was ready to go in Monday morning for me (considering the conversation we had had on Friday as a joke)! She was ready to go and was such a life saver! I was no where ready for a sub to come in for 5 weeks! She picked right up without my lesson plans and just took things over! The DR's were concerned since I was delivering 5 weeks early. So they were prepared. I was lucky enough to have a nurse and a doctor that night who were both LDS. Around midnight I finally asked for the epidural. I tried to get some sleep here and there, but didn't get too much.

Sunday February 6th. Somewhere around 4AM they told me I should be ready soon to push and should have a baby shortly. It wasn't until 5AM that I was actually ready and allowed to start pushing. At 8 AM after 3 hours of hard pushing, I was told that if the baby didn't come out with this next push, I would need to have a c-section (which, at the mention of, I started to bawl). The doctor said he would need to use something else to assist in the delivery, so we opted for the forcepts. Also, unbeknown to me (I didn't realize how completely unaware I was of what was going on around me), Nate told me later that our room was pretty full of Dr's and nurses, somewhere around 20 or so. This was because the baby was so early and they had no idea what to expect health wise when the baby came. So, on my next push, with the forcepts, Lainey was born at 8:18 am weighing 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 3/4 inches (good thing she was early). We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, and that was exciting! I got to see her briefly but then she was whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). She was put under an oxygen hood for that first day. I didn't get to see her until later that afternoon, but she had to stay in the NICU...she couldn't come to my room. Anyways, she gave us some good scares that first week. I was discharged and she had to stay (talk about the hardest thing ever....to leave your new and 1st baby in the hospital while you go home) in the NICU for a bit longer to see if some things would improve. She had some heart issues, some blood sugar issues, eating issues, jaundice that she needed to be watched with. She was finally released Saturday (12th) evening and had to have the bili lights at home. After quite a few DR's appointments those first few weeks, all her health issues resolved themselves. Today you would never know she was a preemie. This is something I am truly grateful for. It was very hard to see some of the other preemies in the NICU and the struggles they had been through. We were very blessed that Lainey's health issues were not extreme! Anyways...onto some pictures from the last 4 birthdays! And oh....I lucked out and got my 6 weeks. My Spring Break fell at exactly the end of my maternity leave rather than the beginning of it! So I still had my 6 weeks off! (But then I did have to go back and work longer before the year ended...oh well!).

Me in my delivery room.....Denver, Colorado.

Lainey in her crib in the NICU. The only reason she was allowed to have all those things in her crib was because she had nurses right there 24 hours a day. That afghan on the corner was given to her by the hospital. They had a group of grandmas who knitted them for babies in the NICU!

Lainey's 1st birthday...2006....Lakewood, Colorado

Lainey's first birthday cake. Her first birthday was not as joyful as expected. We had planned a party with some close friends. My mom flew in, too, for it. But she was miserably sick with double ear infections. That afternoon, she still wasn't 'happy' so we ended up calling off her first birthday party! She wanted nothing to do with her cake and just cried the whole time!

2nd birthday...2007.....Camden, Arkansas

2nd birthday.

3rd birthday....2008....Camden, Arkansas

3rd birthday.

I'll post some pictures of her 4th birthday soon! We love you Lainey!

Choose the Left

2009-02-01T14:32:00.002-06:00

Okay...I will admit I am HORRIBLE about journaling and writing the funny things down that happen in our home. I was doing good for a bit and had it on our computer, and would journal and copy emails that I'd sent to people as updates, etc....but for a while, I've just been slacking off. So I'm sharing one of those memorable/funny things here, in hopes of remembering it (and if I ever print off my blog, like I've seen done, then it will be somewhere forever!)....

Last Sunday Lainey was the only Sunbeam at church (which isn't unusually in our small, but growing, branch). So they put here in with the "older" kids. They were doing the CTR lesson where they were all given CTR rings. So Lainey was proudly displaying her's on our way home and kept telling us the letters over and over again. We were talking to her about what CTR means...how it means you'll be good, follow Jesus, listen to your parents, be nice to your brother, go to church, etc......We were asking her again if she understood what CTR meant. And she's like, 'yeah, choose the right, like right this way (pointing to the right out the window), cause if it said choose the left like that way (pointing to the left) it would be bad and not good'.

So I guess we'll have to work on not so literal of a meaning of 'right'! Anyways, it was really cute (and I know I left out some other details that I've FORGOT) and just a testament/reminder to me that I NEED to be a better journaler!

Goal

2009-01-26T22:44:00.003-06:00

I saw this weight loss ticker on my friends blog, and thought if I posted mine out there for all the world (ok...maybe the 2 people who read this) to see, then it would be some motivation for me to get it done! My goal is to lose 30 pounds by April 1st. You can see I'm off to a good start. Now I just need to kick it into high gear and get it gone! So now that I have you all to report to...I can't slack off!

Corbin

2009-01-21T23:45:00.005-06:00

Corbin turned 9 months old this month! I can't believe he really is that old! He will be 1 before too long! We finally have him sleeping through the night...yeah! And around Christmas time he decided that he would start rolling over for us. He's such a happy boy (most of the time), and lately a mommy's boy. We sure are grateful to have him as part of our family! He loves bath time. In this picture, it was the first time I had let him play with a duck. He LOVED it. He thought it was pretty neat when he figured out that the duck's head fit inside his mouth! He would just leave it there and use both of his hands to splash water and then just look at me and smile. What a cutie.

Hair Cut

2009-01-21T23:35:00.003-06:00

Lainey had her first real hair cut last week. (I took her in last year to have the ends trimmed-minimally, and I'll trim her bangs every so often...but this was her first major hair cut). So now all of her baby hair is officially gone! Kinda sad! Her hair was getting really long and had a pretty curl to it at the ends, but desperately needed a cut! Lately she wants me to just do her hair down, and it was always in her face driving me crazy and always looked like it needed to be "done". These aren't the best pictures of her and the cut, but I took these at the salon when she was done. She looks so much older to me now!

HIPPY

2009-01-21T23:06:00.006-06:00

In September, we registered Lainey for the HIPPY program through our school district (HIPPY is nationally based, it just may be ran by different programs in different states). HIPPY stands for Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters. Now, some of you might wonder why a former teacher (of kindergarten and 1st grade) would need a home based program....why not just use my own stuff???? Well, one reason-I don't have to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak and come up with my own ideas/lessons. Another reason-98% of my teaching stuff is out in a storage room off our carport, and it's a pain to go find things, put things away, etc.....So....we do HIPPY! It's really great. We have a home based educator assigned to us (they are not certified teachers, just an FYI for anyone who is interested in this program) and shes come to our house once a week. She goes over the new lessons with me, brings me whatever book or supplies they are providing, and picks up the old lessons. We get to keep all the books and supplies, too! I thought I would share some things from our lessons 2 weeks ago.....

This is the current book we were on. There is at least 1 lesson a week geared toward a book. You use the same book for about 4 weeks.

This lesson worked on some basic math skills that tied along to the book. Lainey and I split up the money. We laid the pictures of things out in a "store". Then we took turns rolling the dice. If it landed on "store", we were able to use a coin and purchase one item from the store. If it landed on a blank side, we did not get to buy anything.

This lesson focused on story comprehension. Lainey cut up the pictures and I made two piles. One for people/animals, and one for things. Then she picked a person or animal and had to pick the matching picture of what was bought for them. Then she got to glue them into a mini book.

This assignment worked on problem solving skills. I would give Lainey clues to who one of the children playing were, and she would have to find them and then color a specific thing.

The tree and the fish bowl were lessons working on the concept of empty and full.

Any of you moms out there that are looking for something to do with your 3, 4 or 5 year olds, I HIGHLY recommend it! As a former kindergarten teacher, I think it is wonderful. Now, just an FYI for those who are interested. It is NOT an ABC/123 program (at least not the 3 year old curriculum). They do not directly work on teaching numbers and letters. But the skills taught are very valuable and great! I think it really does help prepare kids for school! Lainey LOVES the lessons and she'll even want a turn to be the teacher and teach them to me after she's done them. It's nice, too, to give Lainey and I something interesting to keep from going bored in our small town!

1st Birthday

2009-01-11T15:05:00.005-06:00

A lady called and wanted me to do birthday cakes for her grandson's 1st birthday. They wanted the big cake to look like their napkins. The basketball cake was for the little boy to tear into on his own!