Almost March

So, life is unfortunately back to full swing. I always liked that little breather that you got from real life after you have a baby. I don't think you get that breather after six. Life still runs away with you, and five other kids still need to be taken care of.

I was so lucky to have my mom here with me for a week. She was such a big help. But I knew that eventually real life would have to set back in, and it did.

Emma is growing so much, but it feels like I have had her forever, so I am surprised that she is still so small.

Saturday, all the kids and Ryan were outside playing and working to clean up our backyard. I just couldn't stay inside, so I went out to help haul old wood and garbage to the fire. I really did feel fine, and was loving being outside on such a beautiful day. I guess I did too much though, because that night when I was trying to feed Emma, I had no milk. It was so frusterating to me. That has never happened to me before. I was so stressed that I didn't know what to do, or how I was going to feed her, which I am sure made it worse. I drank some peppermint tea, because I remembered that leafy greens and herbs are supposed to help. Wrong choice, turns out peppermint and sage dry up your milk. I finally got some stinging nettle and red clover tea, and drank apple juice, and that helped.

I had to talk myself into calming down, because I was such a stress case. I called the midwife who deliverd Emma and she said that I needed to take it easy, that when you do too much that can happen. I hope it is resolved, and I will be fine from now on. Who knew?

Mara is talking up a storm she repeats anything you ask her to say, and has started just saying her own things. Her favorite thing to say is 'YOU FUNNY' She has this great knack of saying it when it is really hillarious. So even though she says it all the time, I still laugh. We acutally get in arguments(friendly ones) about who really is funny.

The other day she was sitting at the counter and said 'The cow says MOOOOOO!' her first complete sentance. It was rather comical to hear that whole thing come out of her tiny mouth. She is alll girl. She loves tights and dresses and make-up and the purse that she got for her birthday.

Girls certainly are a diffrent breed than boys.

I was thinking about coming down to Utah for Spring Break, but we are going to bless Emma the sunday before conference (March 30) so I decided that I'd just stay home and get ready for that--Really her blessing is just an excuse, because when I started to think about driving 8-9 hours with a newborn and 5 other kids, I chickened out. I am turning soft in my old age, something I vowed I would never do. I'll have to make up for it when I get some energy back. Hopefully that will be really soon.

Sam turned 10 in December, and I have been bugging him to finish up his Bear badge, so we have been working on it a lot and really trying to get it all done by pack meeting this month. (January was the pine wood derby so they didn't do awards) We finally got them all done, and then I started reading what was required to get the badge. Turns out that I made him do all 24 of the requirements and he was only suppose to do 12. I know, I should learn to read the instructions.

He most certainly will have a lot of arrow points, and it didn't hurt him to do more, turns out though, he would have had his bear long ago. Sometimes I think i'm surly the biggest idiot. Good thing I can just laugh about it. Ryan and Sam both laughed as well, so all is good.

Can I just say I have three more boys to go through the scouting program. UGHHHH! Well enough of my novel, I have attached some more pictures. It seems like everyday babies change.

Mara Turns {2}

Still Here!

February 7, 2008 Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have written, maybe your glad about that, but I thought that I would fill you in on what has been going on. I went into labor on Sunday January 27th. Because I was way to early, I was put on bed rest. Yeah! That works with 5 kids! But Ryan was so good to help a lot and I had help from the ward, and then on Tuesday, my mom came up to help. It was so good to have her here. I was waiting to reach 36 1/2 weeks and to get my results from the strepB culture. I got those Friday,and because I was so sick of being in bed, I got up. ( I did have quite a few projects that still needed to be done before the baby came) And wouldn't you know. As soon as I got up and started doing things the labor stopped. Of course, It's Caleb all over again. So, on Tuesday I went to the doctor and she said I am only dialated to a 1 and will probably still go another whole week. I am sure I will probably go to my due date now. February 26th. My mom went home yesterday, and when we went to the school to tell the kids good-bye, Caleb was heartbroken. He had big tears rolling down his cheeks that he was trying desperately to wipe away unnoticed. It broke my heart. Poor kid. This morning he woke up and said "Mom last night I thought about grandma again and I couldn't stop the tears." We had such a good time with her. She is probably glad to be back home though so that she can rest. We made curtains for my room and Mara's, we put a continuous bias on a quilt, and did more laundry and ironing than you can possibly imagine and Ryan got the bathroom all painted and put back together. As a result, I feel much more prepared to have a baby. I have even geared myself up for the pain. I am so glad that she could come, but feel bad I didn't have the baby while she was here. She will probably come back up when the baby really does come. Today I am painting bead board that we are going to put up underneath our cabinets in the kitchen. It would be so nice if we could get the kitchen done before the baby comes, but we have to get new windows in the kitchen, and so we are waiting for them to be made and installed before we can finish that wall. We hope we can do the rest of the kitchen though, and I will be so happy to get rid of the baby blue paint and the flourescent lights. I was really hoping that we could get our Bathroom and Kitchen done before everyone comes up for the baby's blessing. We'll see. Well that's the news from Great Falls. We now just play the waiting game. I am fine with that, I like this part of pregnancy where you can feel all the little tiny feet kicking and I usually don't get to do this part very long. I'll keep you posted and of course let you know if it's a boy or a girl as soon as I can. Melly