April in Review

April came and went so quickly! So quickly I failed to keep the blog updated. Sheesh! So here's yet another month in review:

 Before I got pregnant I signed Lylee and I up for a kid's run in our local Pear Blossom event. Then I got sick. But then I became not pregnant anymore and seized the opportunity to exercise again! It felt great! I lost by baby on Tuesday and we ran this on Saturday. I was totally out of shape but we ran the whole mile with just a few breaks. (as Lylee's request, not mine thank goodness.) It was a lot of fun!

Then the next weekend we got a trampoline. FINALLY!! I've been wanting one forever since I grew up with one and my kids LOVE them. Jeremy was the skeptic thinking everyone is going to snap their neck and DIE but I think I wore him down. I saw that Toys R Us was having a sale so this over $300 tramp was only $260. I had been saving cash from the girls' birthdays for a couple years. I never really knew what to get with it any time they got a little birthday money not wanting another toy and too lazy to get them bank accounts so I had about $140 from that. Ta-da, cheap trampoline! The girls LOOOOVE it and it's the best babysitter ever! They jump on it constantly and it wears them down and they go to sleep so fast now! I jumped for a little bit (before I felt like I was going to wet myself!) and it felt like I was a teenager again!

 And then the next night the reminiscing continued as I took the big girls roller skating. Boy did I love me some roller skating in middle school! It was very comical! Lona had "cheater skates" as I called them. The wheels were tightened, on purpose I'm sure so they barely roller. Really she just walked around the rink. I couldn't figure out why she was so good at it while Lylee was flailing all over the place. Lylee reminded me of Bambi on ice. She would be fine and then her legs would just go crazy. It was so funny! But she got tons better by the end of the night and could skate all by herself with minimal falling. I, however, am still a rockstar as roller skating! Growing up ice skating, I think roller skating is much easier and was doing all kinds of tricks and skating backwards in front of them. They were impressed by their Mom's mad skillz. At one point they had a speed skate for boys and then girls to a song and I went out there to show all the little girls how it's done. Some day they won't think I'm as cool so I'll take what I can get for now! :)

 We of course had to get some treats so we got some cookies and they shared an Icee.

 It has turned HOT for Spring! We've had some beautiful weather and some days it's so warm we need to pull out the water slide. (The trampoline is also a blast with the sprinkler under it. ) We had a playdate with some Mommy friends from church at our house with a potluck bbq lunch and the kids got to jump and slide and have a blast.

Tenley wanted me to read her this book that Lylee got from school. It is a very easy book so I told her to have Lylee read it to her and Lylee was happy to do it. I am going to love having the older girls read to their younger siblings!

*Lylee started soccer midway through the month. It is getting more and more fun the more seasons she plays. The first game she made 4 goals. FOUR! She was on fire! The next games she made 1 and then 2 this last time. I hope she continues and just gets better. We really enjoy watching her games! I have a cute picture coming soon from my friend Jen. Her daughter from Lylee's class is playing this season and she sent me a cute picture of Lylee giving Elsa a pep talk. The email is lost so I asked her to send another... until then. 

*Lylee's school had grandparent's day where the kids get to each lunch with grandparents. Lylee was lucky enough to have both Jeremy's Mom and my grandma Braden come eat lunch with her. She LOVED it and both ladies were just thrilled to get invited! They both still talk about it with her when they see her. I didn't get a picture of course because I wasn't there but so glad she got to have that!

A couple weekends ago after Lylee's soccer practice we went and hiked Table Rock. There are 2 and we usually do "Upper" but decided to try "Lower." It is longer but supposed to be less steep. We decided that we liked Upper better. The kids (Alona) got really sick of walking and whined the last little bit up the hike. But down she was a champ and Lylee was awesome the whole way. She thought it was a race and was always 20 feet ahead of us.

I've still been exercising at the church Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. My friend Jodi from my ward goes with her 4 kids (Isn't she a champ?!!) 3 of her kids are the same ages as my 3. Her older two have afternoon kinder and preschool so she get to bring them ALL! Thankfully the most I usually have is Lona and Ten. Wednesdays I only have Ten. ANYWAY, We have been trading kids about once a week. It actually is great because they keep them busy so I can get things done. First I had Mady, her 4 year old and then Monday I had Taylor, the newly 3 year old. I had to get some of Lona's milk at the store real quick. They were so giddy and wouldn't stop laughing at the excitement of Taylor coming to our house. This was her first trip away without any of her siblings and her parents.

Taylor started getting a bit rowdy and didn't want to stay in the cart so I bribed them with some cookies near the checkout. Taylor was VERY serious about not getting out of the cart. Ten got out to fix her shoe and she said, "Tenley! Don't get out! We won't get a cookie!" Now I know how to make that girl behave!!

I made them eat them before we got in my car!

*And lastly I wanted to tell about Lylee's job-a-thon her school did. I remember jog-a-thon's when I was in elementary school but it was a bit different. I don't remember if I did them as young as kindergarten or if I only remember it once I was in 4th grade (my first recollection). But we would get a pledge for as many laps as we could do and once you stop running you were done. There wasn't really walking. It's not a walk-a-thon! But this one was 2 different days and they just did as many laps for the 20 or so minutes as they could. I volunteered to help and the kids each had a sign on their back and us adults would put a tally on their back as they finished a lap. Lylee ran 9 laps the first day and 9 laps the second. She rarely stopped running and as far as I could tell she had the most laps!! She was the first to get 9 laps the first day, although other kids finished with 9 laps that day. But I don't think anyone got 9 laps the 2nd day. They were pretty sick of it by then. She took it very seriously and thought of it as a race. It was really funny! We were really proud of her! I told Jeremy and he picked her up a treat on his way home that she got to have. She shared some of her berry skittles with me the next day and they were amazing!! Jeremy and I have been not eating any "junk" and no carbs after lunch and minimal sugar. That last one is the awful one!!! I couldn't cut it out completely and have been satisfying the chocolate craving after dinner with a handful of chocolate chips and calling it good. Doing good so far! Jeremy of course is loosing weight already. Men! But I am starting to finally shave off the unwanted belly fat that lingers. Now onto the love handles! Slow process. Back to Lylee, proud of that kid and amazed at how fast and athletic she is!! 

*Another thing keeping us busy this week is getting ready for HAWAII!! You read that right! We leave on Saturday to Eugene where we fly out of. My awesome Mom is coming down for most of the week to watch the kids.They are super excited for her to be here which makes me feel so much better about leaving them. Have I mentioned we've never left them before? Not both of us at the same time and each other for only a couple nights at the longest. Lylee and Lona show some reserve about us being gone so long. But I got them each a little present each day we are gone to keep them occupied and minds off us being away. They will have lots of fun! New coloring books, bubbles, painting a magnet, bug catchers... SO excited!! I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Hawaii so I feel like it's a dream come true!!! Thank you Jeremy's boss, Bret for taking us or who knows when we would've been able to go!!

Unfortunaly...

Well, sadly I have to announce that we lost the baby. I went in on Monday for my 1st doctors appointment and he did an internal ultrasound like normal. However right away he knew there was no heart beat. I was blindsided. I was just in shock. That hadn't occurred to me that anything was wrong since I was still sick. However the last week or so I was feeling so much better. Still feeling yucky but a big difference than before. I guess my body didn't know the baby had died and that's why I was still feeling yucky. He said from the size he predicts it stopped growing at 8 1/2 weeks.

I think the best word to describe how I feel is disappointed. We of course were expecting a baby in the Fall and the girls were over the moon excited to have a baby. I am bummed I had to be sick for 6 weeks for nothing and will have to start all over. But other than that I am not sad or heartbroken. I think others are taking it worse than I am. I am very grateful that it happened early on. I would've been really sad if we lost it after I was showing, after we found out the sex and given it a name. That would've been really hard. But I feel very scientific about it, that it wasn't developing properly and glad that it happened sooner rather than later. I believe when we are through with this life our family will be reunited and that includes this baby we lost. It will be interesting to see if it was a girl or a boy. I also realized today that it happened at the right time in my life to not be upset about it. If it was my first pregnancy, I would definitely be upset! Wondering if I would ever have a successful pregnancy... Obviously I know I can. Maybe even my 2nd or 3rd. But I have 3 beautiful children that I feel blessed to have and am OK with what happened. I know many women who have had miscarriages and know there are so many that have but it's weird now being one of them. When I fill out a form for my pregnancies I have to say I had 4 pregnancies but 3 births. So weird!

Yesterday I took the medicine that the dr gave me to induce a mini labor to get the baby out. It was all so weird since I didn't really know what to expect. He gave me some percocet to handle the pain and that made me nervous. It is a big pain killer that people get addicted to. I had heard stories of people waking up in the middle of the night having a miscarriage and were just doubled over in pain. But I was ready to move on and have my body back (I was still feeling nauseous. To feel sick with no baby is just mean! So I did start bleeding slowly and by late that afternoon the baby was out. I had some uncomfortable cramping but was no different than a bad round of cramps on my period. I kept waiting for it to hurt so bad I needed painkillers but I never did. Thank goodness. I got to see the baby when it came out. It was very interesting. I don't know how else to describe it. It was much smaller than I expected, a little bigger than a nickel and of course gooey. But you could plainly see the black spots for eye balls and a teeny tiny hand with five itty bitty fingers. What a miracle that they grow inside our bodies! And how did something so tiny make me so sick?! Glad I didn't have to have any procedure and it came out easily and fairly pain free. Wasn't a fan of all the bleeding. So much bleeding! But it's in control and I feel great. I'm so ready to start exercising again. Jeremy's boss is taking us to Hawaii in May for all the great work Jeremy has done for him. So I have 5 weeks to get off all the mushy belly I gained in 6. Gotta do it! I ate reheated frozen food for 6 weeks and it was awful! Oh to clean up our house and make dinners! I never thought I would say that because I hate them both but it's even worse when you can't do it and your husband doesn't get home until 7pm.

Anyway, I am doing good. Moving on and will try again later. Who knows what the future has in store but feeling lucky and blessed it turned out OK. Not as predicted but could've been a lot worse! I am overwhelmed by the love of friends and church members! We have gotten 3 offers to make dinner just today. I declined them all (to Jeremy's dislike) because I am up and fine. Monday when we found out the Harmon's offered to bring dinner but Jeremy's Mom watched the kids for my appointment and had already made dinner. Then yesterday my friend Jan from church offered to make us dinner and I accepted since I wasn't sure what to expect with that day. Glad she did too. It was such a delicious beef stew with cheese biscuits and a delish salad AND a chocolate pie. Good gravy was I thankful for her!!  Many leaders from church as well as friends have texted or called to make sure we are OK and don't need anything. We are a blessed family indeed! Thank you everyone for your wonderful thoughts and well wishes!

Updates

 Right before I started feeling so awful Lylee and I went on a date to see Oz in 3D. It was AWESOME!! I loved it!

 It takes me a long time to get going and feeling ok in the mornings so we have very lazy mornings after sending Lylee off to school. On Monday Lona didn't have preschool so after watching some cartoons Lona asked for her tea set. So we had a funny little tea party. They were cracking me up!

 Then I started to feel better so we went to go sign the taxes and take the car to DEQ. Simple enough. DEQ took forever and I started getting very hungry and then sick. For some reason I had really been feeling like some Olive Garden for the past couple of days and remembered we still had some money on the gift card. So I went on a fancy date with these two girls. It was SOOO good! I haven't eaten that much since I've been pregnant. It was amazing! Jeremy was a little sad he didn't get to go on the date with me. And thankfully they both were SO well behaved. It was the best lunch and everyone ate a bunch!

 The other night (April 1st) Lylee brought me her tennis shoe tied and proclaimed "I tied it!!!" I thought she was pulling an April fools joke on me! But then she showed me that she tied it. I guess they had been practicing it in kindergarten. Kindergarten saves the day again! It's so cute to see how proud of herself she was. And I was pretty proud of her too!

I pulled this out of Lylee's homework folder today from her reading teacher. I thought it was so nice I almost cried (hormones!) She really is SUCH a good reader! She is reading some really hard books lately and I know I didn't read that good probably until at least the end of 1st grade if not 2nd!

I wanted to remember a funny thing that happened yesterday when I picked up Lona from school. I asked her what she did and she was telling me about how she was playing in the housekeeping area with Jada and then she started giggling uncontrollably about how they had boyfriends and hers was Justin Beiber and they pretended to dance with them. It was SO funny.

A quick baby update: I'm 10 weeks tomorrow and doing OK. I feel like I'm slowly getting better. I still have moments, hours really, where I am sick and on the couch. But I haven't thrown up in at least a week. I have periods of time where I feel OK enough to move around, slowly.  The girls have been SO helpful and good it just makes me so happy! Last week I had a day where I was so sick. The sickest I've been yet and couldn't get off the couch unless it was to puke. Lylee was such a sweetheart and made lunch for the girls (turkey dogs with yogurt and cutie oranges). I was so grateful for her! I have the first dr.s appointment next Monday and am excited to hear the little heart beat. So far things are good, just can't wait to get over this nausea!

Easter at Our House

 Easter morning started with my laying in bed at 7am realizing I didn't put out Easter bunny stuff. Darn it! Every time I come down the stairs and past Lona and Tenley's room no matter how quiet I am the floor squeeks a little and Lona comes out. So I went past the room into the office where I had the few things I got and of course she came out. I stayed in the office and heard her walk into the family room and then back into her room. So I snuck out to the family room and set up their baskets and then went and got Lona. She was SO excited!! I kept the baskets very simple. I saw so many pictures on Facebook of friends who gave their children baskets filled with trinkets and candy. One friend had huge baskets full of stuff AND skooters for each kid. Is this Christmas? Honestly I really don't want the Easter Bunny to take away from the REAL meaning of Christmas. It's like Christmas, the kids get so swept up in the commercial side of the holiday they forget to remember the miracle of Jesus being atoned for our sins and 3 days later being resurrected! So I got them each some delicious Annie's organic fruit snacks (that are shaped like bunnies, hehehe) that are expensive for fruit snacks in my book and really yummy so it was a fun treat. And then they all got the movie Rise of the Guardians. My friend seemed to think that them sharing a movie was lame. I am very happy with what they got (and so are they!). Simple but quality in my opinion. Not to mention my Mom always brings tons of candy for the egg hunt so I wasn't even going to get them candy! And is it so awful that they share things?

Before we headed to church we watched a cartoon church movie showing the resurrection and talked about why we celebrate Easter. It's really important to me that they understand the importance of this day.

 This year Easter was a little different. We ALWAYS have Easter Sunday at my Grandma Braden's house. However, she went to Spain with my aunt Debbie. SPAIN!! I'm so happy for her! But she didn't realize that it was during Easter. So instead we are moving our family gathering to the 21st of April but Mom still had the day off and decided they would come anyway. I was glad she did because we had a great day. We went to sacrament of church and then came back and picked up the house for company. Then my Mom, step-dad and brother Clifton came. We started out dying eggs. The kids LOVE this. It brought me joy to see how much fun they were having.

Saturday was GORGEOUS and so hot. Sunday of course was rainy and cold. Figures.So the Easter Bunny hid them in the house. I do not remember believing in the Easter Bunny when I was little. It was just a fun idea to me. I am surprised that my kids actually believe, Lylee most of all! She was worried there were no eggs in the morning. So I told her he comes to our house last because we wait for Nana (who brings the candy). We did it after we had some lunch (Thank you Mom for making pretty much everything because I don't make food these days.) and he hid them in the house while they played a game with Uncle Clifton in the other room. Lylee kept asking if we saw the Easter Bunny, what he looked like, if we talked to him. It was so cute!

 Getting some help from Nana...

The finds! ( We gave 1/3 to Uncle Clifton) however most is already gone. I may be sick but conveniently still can fit some york peppermint patties and butterfinger eggs in my diet!! (Mom, Lylee and I fought over the Yorks! :) )

It was such a nice Easter. Thank you Mom and family for coming down even just for the day!

Happiest Girl on the Block

 Last week Lona learned to ride her bike without training wheels and she's been on cloud 9 ever since. I don't think I've ever seen her so excited and proud of herself!! A few months back Lona left her bike in the driveway right behind a car. Lets just say a certain Mommy was in a big hurry to get to a church meeting and didn't think to look behind the car. So it got ran over. Mainly the training wheels got screwed up. One pedal and handle bar got a little scuffed but other than that it was still rideable. She didn't want to touch it after the training wheels came off. We tried working with her but she wasn't very excited about it. But Jeremy worked with her for a night and she got really good and was finally able to ride by herself.

She rode and rode and when she finally came in that night she said, "That was the BEST day of my life!! I had so much fun!!" That just made my day!!

Surprise!!

 Here's a hint for you...

In case you didn't get it, here's another...

 

In case you STILL don't get it...

 Ok, you have to get it by now. Because of the new bean in the belly I've been doing a lot of this...

 But let's be honest they aren't actually in the bathroom with me!

 A big thank you to my friend Sarah Molloy who came over a couple weekends ago and took these for us.

I haven't even announced it to Facebook land yet so if you're reading this (Does anyone besides my Mom read my blog? Not that it matters...) you are a very special few indeed!

Some facts:

Don't bother asking, I AM crazy for having a 4th kid. I am excited but nervous, trust me! Nervous because I get so sick and it worries me having 3 little ones. Nervous because some days (most days) I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and why would I add another one to that? But excited. :) We've always felt that we were supposed to have four. So even though we thought maybe we should be done at 3 because it's hard stuff we knew there was one more.

I'm 8 weeks along and starting to get nice and sick. I feel like this pregnancy is different than the others in that I'm not AS sick. It could get worse though, I probably shouldn't say anything. Before when I was so sick I was not really that hungry. It was so painful to think of food. Now I feel hungry more often and sometimes I can keep the worst of the sickness at bay if I keep eating every few hours. However, all food seems discusting and I can't make real food. So sadly I've been living off cereal, quesadillas, frozen burritos, sometimes corn dogs, maybe a sandwhich if I'm feeling ok... It's awful because it has to be quick but that isn't usually very healthy. And vegetables are pretty much repulsive to me right now. Sadly. I love veggies. Fruit is a maybe. Can't wait to eat normal again in a few months. Right now I try not to worry about what's missing in my diet because I'm just trying to survive. I'm doing the best I can and it'll change and get better in a while. Don't judge. So maybe the difference is a boy?.. we shall see!

I haven't been to the dr yet. I go April 8th I believe. So November 1st is the estimated due date but in the past I've stuck with the estimated date. I've been going about a week and a half early so I'm guessing an end of October baby. It really is awful timing because Tenley's in October and Lylee in November. I really wanted another summer baby but Heavenly Father was trying to tell me otherwise obviously! Actually we were trying for a Spring (yes, this spring) ... and then summer... then finally a fall baby arrived. Can't always play God, I suppose.

We found out in Disneyland. I was supposed to start on our way down there and that worried me! And having to go to the bathroom all the time at Disneyland, how awful! But I never got it. Finally a few days later I took a test and sure enough it was positive. I was actually really not expecting it so it was exciting.

I will try to keep you updated. I miss working out! I am losing weight and getting soft, it's not a pretty combination! I'm nervous I'll show super early too since it is my 4th and you show earlier each time. Awesome! Cheers to feeling like a fatty!!

Sleep Walking

The funniest thing happened the other night. In fact, I think I label it the funniest, most bizarre thing that's ever happened to me in Motherhood. Jeremy agreed.

So a little background, Lylee woke up early Friday morning throwing up. She had the flu all weekend and today is Monday and I still kept her home. She hasn't been throwing up anymore but still had a fever this morning. Doing better now. Can't wait for her to get better.

Saturday night we were all in the family room watching TV before bedtime. Jeremy put on the last episode of Once Upon A Time that we hadn't caught up on yet. The girls really loved watching the girl who plays Snow White because it would flash back to when she was a kid on and off again the whole episode. They also kept pointing out the evil queen in the past and present in the show. Then Lylee asked to go to bed. (There's your sign she isn't feeling well.) I wanted her to take a shower that day but she just felt too crummy so I didn't push it. I told her tomorrow she would need to take a shower. So she went through the nigh time ritual and went to bed.

About 10 minutes later I hear her moaning, "Mom!!! Mooooooommmmm!" I thought she was back in the bathroom throwing up. That's usually what she does. So I went and checked on her and she wasn't in front of the toilet like I expected... and the water in the shower was on. I push back the curtain to a dark shower (no light was turned on for the shower.) and she was in the shower WITH her clothes on saying, "Help me! The queen is getting me!! Help!" I was shocked. I grabbed her and took her out of the shower and said, "What?!" At this point she was fully awake and I think realized the craziness that just happened. In her sickness she was having a crazy dream that felt so real and somehow made it to the shower to get the queen away from her. (I also had a cold and was having crazy dreams at night so I felt like I could somewhat relate.) I could NOT stop laughing. Jeremy came in and asked what was going on. I explained to him that Lylee ran into the shower to get the queen away from her in a half sleep. We thought it was the funniest thing and laughed for the longest time. Lylee seemed very confused. She said it felt so real and wasn't sure why she thought the shower would help. So we got her in dry jammies and sent her back to bed where thankfully the rest of the night was uneventful. I knew I had to document that one!