I'm Back! Where did I go?

Okay friends & family, I don't know for sure why I stopped blogging.  At first I think it was just time.  I never realized how busy it would be having a kid in school!  Also, I wanted to put pictures up and our camera was broken, thanks to Darren throwing it across the front room.  Then I got distracted with facebook.  And the games there.  Nobody needs to tell me they are a waste of time.  I know, yet I'm still addicted, but I'm missing keeping in touch with people.  So...I'm going to make an effort to do better. 

What's new in case you haven't heard from us?  Something very new is that Rick will be starting school, hopefully in February and hopefully at Western Governer's.  He is very excited and was hoping to be started by now, but had a hang up. 

Carlyn is in 1st grade and at a different school than Anneliese thanks to her being in the Gifted program in the district.  She also won at her school & region for her Reflections entry which was a 3D image of a girl and her mom flying a kite.  I'll have to post some pictures when I get a chance.  She also participates in the 1st grad book club which we hosted at our house on Friday.  They each have a month assigned when they choose a book and do an activity & snack related to the book.  Carlyn chose Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine.  We had a tea party and made paper dolls.  She also lost her first tooth and learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike over the summer and then taught Anneliese and two cousins! 

Anneliese, who has told us that she wants us to call her Anneliese and not Annie, is in Kindergarten.  She loves it and loves her teacher, who is about to have a baby so I hope that the change to the substitute isn't hard on her.  She's doing well and beginning to read, but isn't half as confident as her big sister which I hope she can outgrow.  She still loves to dance & draw and is always smiling.  I don't mean to say less about her because she has the middle child syndrome going on enough, but this last year did mean as much change for her. 

Darren is 3 now!  He's in Sunbeams at church and I love his teacher and hope that she'll teach him how to sit still better than I have!  He's driving me crazy because he technically is potty trained, but he just doesn't care if he has an accident.  I've tried treats, stickers, working up to a date with mommy or buying a toy, but nothing seems to work.  I'm trying to be patient but I think I'm failing.  He's getting really good at video games, especially considering how young he is.  And don't forget, he thinks it is just the funniest thing to go cross eyed or burp on cue. 

Charlie is so big!  I can't believe my baby is over 18 months!!!  He thinks he's as big as the other kids too and gets really mad when he can't do something like one of the bigger kids.  That kid can really throw a fit!  He's at the stage where nothing is safe.  I'll hide something up high or where I think he can't reach it and the next thing I know, he has it!  He is super ticklish and has the best laugh ever.  He's in nursery now and seems to love it when he finally gets distracted enough to stop crying.  He's turned into such a Daddy's boy too. 

This last year was also the year to get tonsils out for the Dansies.  Anneliese had hers out in April, Rick in May, and Carlyn in December.  I also had my niece Jaycie the weekend after she had her tonsils out this summer so I really am a pro at helping tonsillectomy patients. 

As for me, I love volunteering in the girls' classes and I also love being a stay at home mom, but I do look forward to the rare date with Rick or girls nights out. I also recently became a consultant for Usborne Books and I do book parties and have a website.  I would love to catch up with any of you in Utah and get you some free books in the process of you having a party.  If you live out of Utah, you can still have a web party, we just wouldn't be able to visit in person.  

This year was the first year when Rick and I got away without kids when we actually left our house!  We went to St. George in October for our 10th Anniversary and just after Christmas for a disaster of a trip (long story) but it was still nice to have that time together. 

I may be forgetting something, but it has been a long week and I really should be in bed.  (9 o'clock church!  Yuck!)  Rick has been sick since before Christmas with a cold & cough and is finally getting better, but has been having muscle spasms in his neck which has made for a really rough week.  Overall we are doing really well and I really just want to stay in touch better.  Love to you all!  

PS, I obviously still have a lot of updating to do, so be patient with me!!

Mini Cheer at Hunter High

Murray friends don't be insulted, we have a family tie to Hunter High. Chelsea is my sister-in-law Belinda's almost sister-in-law. :) She's a cheerleader at Hunter High and they were doing a mini cheerleader clinic and Belinda really wanted the kids to go so she set it up. It was adorable. I'll get a video on if I can get Rick to download it. They did a dance and then a cheer. Too cute.

Carlyn and Anneliese with Chelsea.

This sweet cheerleader, whose name I never heard, was buddies with Annie. Annie's never been in dancing or any classes and was really shy. This cheerleader helped Annie so much and she did the dance really well. Thank you so much, whoever you are!

Can you see Annie in the middle on the right? She didn't want to go too far from her favorite cheerleader friend.

Carlyn is in the middle with the long pants. She was a doll and I think she'll be a great cheerleader if she wants to be.
The kids with Josh and Belinda. They are getting married in October and we love them both! They were exhausted by then, especially Annie who was a little sick.

Carlyn's First Day of Kindergarten

Carlyn is loving school, but she is having some issues since starting. She's exerting her independence and being really sassy, but I think its from being really tired. Its a lot to get used to.

Carlyn's kindergarten breakfast. This was her request and I was happy to make it. I messed up on dinner though because she wanted lasagna and I didn't have sauce and she told me I messed up her kindergarten day and that I didn't care at all. I reminded her of the breakfast and she later took it back, but it was a really big deal. I'll learn from that mistake.

Just before Daddy took her to school on the motorcycle. He wanted to take her, but I feel like I missed out. I didn't cry this way, but I might have if I'd taken her.
Carlyn, Daixa, and Emma. Three of the several neighborhood kids that are in the same class. Look at those pretty girls!

A busy week

We started our week last week with a family home evening flying kites in the park. It was a really windy day so I cajoled Rick into going. He really didn't want to but we had a lot of fun when we got there. We had cheap kites from Wal-mart and they were amazingly good flyers. Carlyn had a lot of interest in flying them but Anneliese lost interest after a few minutes. Darren played with a ball for a few minutes and played on the playground, mostly throwing wood chips, the rest of the time. Carlyn said, "Look. I'm a master at this!" She was great too. She got it really high all by herself.

Darren with his ball.
D on the slide. Probably with wood chips in his hands.

Daddy running after helping Annie get her kite up.

I know its hard to see but Carlyn is there all by herself and the kite is pretty high. She was doing it by herself. I let it go and she did the rest.

St. Patrick's Day was on a Tuesday and didn't turn out as we expected :) My mom couldn't come for our regular Tuesday visits. I had called my grandma to tell her we would eat at home and then head out. As soon as we were ready to leave my friend Denise called and said she was on her way to visit and also had some things to drop off. She had a garbage bag of barbie dolls and brat dolls. It was like Christmas at our house :) I have some extra brat doll bodies if anyone wants them. I don't like to keep the ones that don't have clothes. I never did make it to my grandma's house but we had a great visit with Denise and her two youngest kids. Carlyn must have been excited for St. Patrick's Day because she came up all in green and helped Annie wear green too. She kept asking when I was getting dressed so she could pinch me. :) I told her when I got dressed I would wear green. I made green eggs and ham for breakfast and it grossed me out and I don't think I'll do that again! I forgot what we had for lunch but we had taco salad for dinner and I figured the lettuce was green enough for me.

Annie in her green. She has on one of Carlyn's denim skirts and red tights. I did their hair all fancy too with lots of green bands in it (not in these pictures). They loved that.

Carlyn in her first outfit. The green sweater and tights are so cute, but don't match. She also decided it was too warm to wear the sweater and changed into a cute green top.

Rick wanted me to take this picture because Darren never sits still like this. I think he was watching Jungle Book, his new favorite movie.

Our ward had a Primary talent show on Saturday. I'll have to put a little clip on of Carlyn later, but I don't know how to do it from the other camera. Rick used our digital one and took several pictures of Carlyn's dance, but the lighting didn't work well so he took video of Annie's on it. This is part of Carlyn's dance class that are in our ward doing "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted. It was super cute and Carlyn was very enthusiastic. She's on the left and I'm sad I didn't get a better picture of just her. They have aprons on over their leotards and holding scarves.

Annie was in a group with the Sunbeam girls (and a cousin of one girl-she's the tall one) and they did a cute little dance. I chose this one because you can see Annie best. She's in the front right to start with the pink leotard and shoes. She's the smallest I think.

On Sunday the kids went with Aunt Belinda and Josh while Rick and I went to the Draper Temple dedication. They were so excited, even Darren, as they waved goodbye to us from Belinda's truck. Mathew came up last night too and we finished the night with a game of Cities and Nights (Settler's expansion.)

It was such a nice week weather wise. We went for a walk everyday. Yesterday was fairly cold and rainy and this morning we woke up to snow. What a change! I think it was last Thursday we were walking around the block and a neighbor lady came running out and gave us St. Patrick's Day bags of candy. She said she just missed us on St. Patrick's Day. It was so sweet and unexpected. Carlyn now wants to take her something in return. She's so thoughtful. I love it.

Good Example

Carlyn did the cutest thing the other day. We needed to go to Wal-Mart for diapers and a few other small things. Carlyn said, "Mom, can we get a treat at the store to give to someone?" I said, "Sure. Did you have someone in mind?" She said she did and named a neighbor family. I asked her what kind of treat and she said she'd have to see. So we got to Wal-Mart and did our shopping. I had forgotten all about her request but she hadn't. They had packages of cookies along the ends of the rows by the checkstands. She stood there carefully choosing the cookies that she thought our neighbors would like best. She chose the snickerdoodles and put them in the cart. We didn't have time that night to take them to our neighbor, but the next day she insisted on doing it the first chance we got, even though it had started snowing (which was enough to deter me.) She got a baggie from the drawer and put half the cookies into that baggie. She got on her coat and we walked a few houses. As we walked I asked why she wanted to do this for them. She told me that it is because so many people do such nice things for us and she wanted to do something nice for someone else. What a good example to me! Its not that I don't want to be nice, but I get so overwhelmed with myself and my family that when I do think of others, the thought is quickly gone or I never follow through. She also said that she just thought they would like that someone was thinking of them and that they would enjoy the cookies. :) My sweet little girl! Thank goodness that she is giving and thoughtful like her daddy because I need a reminder sometimes. She was so cute giving them to our neighbors and told them it was all her idea. They did actually seem pretty happy too. It really made my day.

Pictures, Funnies, & Early Valentines Date

We'll start off with some recent pictures. Last time I tried to do "preschool" with Annie she had no interest, but she seemed more interested lately "writing" all the time and wanting to write her name. So yesterday we did the letter A. As you can see, she did a great job and is very creative :) I only told her to write a few more A's after tracing the ones I'd written. When we were doing Valentines she started writing other letters, like T and I & E and was so proud. I didn't know she could do that. She really wants to write her name, but can't remember the letters in the right order for Anneliese. She says, "A-N-N-E-L-E-S-E-S-E". Pretty good, but not quite right. She knows how to spell Annie, but that's not what she wants.

This was the girls making Valentines cards today. Annie is really great at tracing letters and Carlyn wants to copy them. When Darren woke up he wanted to draw too. They were very serious about it and took hours making them.

Darren at Grandma's the other day. He LOVES Thomas the train and even though this isn't Thomas he doesn't care. He made the same noise for it as when he asks for the Thomas movie. We went to Circuit City's store closing sale out of curiosity the other day and Darren magnetically found a Thomas movie. He was so excited I couldn't tell him no and he ran to Rick practically dancing and hopping to him while screaming excitedly, "Mama. Mama. Mama." Which meant, "Daddy, I really want Thomas!" because he calls Rick Mama and Thomas Mama too. :) Rick couldn't tell him no either. I wish that we'd gotten a video of it.

After coming back from St. George Sunday night, Darren fell asleep on my lap. He never does that. It was so sweet I didn't want to put him down.

Before he fell asleep he was running around like a free child again (after being cooped up in the hotel and car.) He figured out how to climb on my FHE file boxes. Guess they need a new place now. Now I can see why my parents called me an imp! Look at that expression!

The is Sharice, Darren, Evynn, & Annie in front of the St. George temple. It was very cold for St. George. 50s with a cold wind.

The weekend before last we went to Rick's sister Belinda's house. They have a dog, Nala. This is Darren in her crate. I love the red eyes. I could have fixed them, but it looked too funny. I swear he climbed in there and shut the door himself. Nala was a little jealous and would go in there with him when he'd open it. It was so funny! Darren also loves their fat old kitty and kept climbing up on the table to pet her. I couldn't get a picture because she'd run away before I could.

I remembered a couple other funny things. When we were in the pool in St. George I asked Darren if he could say Sharice (remember he's mostly a grunter) and he said, "EEEE." We clapped appropriately and then Sharice said, "Can you say Evynn?" He looked at Sharice and looked at Evynn. He said, "EEEE," as he looked at her then turned to Sharice and said, "EEES." He was so proud of himself that he figured it out. Annie and Carlyn are a little jealous because he won't say their names again, but he calls them Mama which he thinks is funny so I guess it works.

I have to note here a few of the more annoying and also cute things that Darren does. As a Mom I have to note how different he is from the girls and how he's so persistent that it drives me crazy. Slapping his hand or saying no does not have any effect on him. I'm determined to never say, "Just wait until you have children," though. Here goes:

-I can't open the dishwasher with Darren around because he pushes the shelves in and shuts the door. He can also open it, so I have to keep the gate up to keep him out of the dishwasher and other cupboards he can reach. He loves to play with the grater if he can and colanders are his favorite but he'll take lids or anything he can bang together or anything sharp he shouldn't have.

-Then today as a bonus he climbed OVER THE GATE! So much for that. I don't know what I'm going to do.

-He also learned how to turn the doorknobs recently so I can never leave him out of earshot or become too distracted because he'll run to the bathroom and play in the toilet. He loves to splash in it. UGH!

-He also loves to get the bucket that has the bath toys and empty it into the bathtub. Luckily the toilet and tub are in different rooms or you could see where that might lead!

-He loves to climb on the little table that we have (one of the wooden circle ones) and just stand there. Recently he realized he can push it or the chairs around to get himself into things that are supposed to be out of his reach.

-He also loves his milk bottle. I can't lay him down without it, but I'm working on that. If he's still awake and bored he'll push the nipple down in the bottle and make a big mess. Gotta say I really hate that one.

-Its getting hard to change his diapers because he really struggles and he's too big for the changing table now. (Did I mention his growth spurt? He's now in the 75% for height!) He does love to sit on the training potty when we do so maybe potty training won't be too far away (cross my fingers!)

-I can't use the computer during the day or somehow he sneaks over and will turn off the computer when I'm right in the middle of something. That or he'll turn up the speakers so loud that it scares me to death. The girls would love to play PBSkids.org all day, but he does the same to them.

-He hates to blow his nose in a tissue, but he'll do it on his hand or my shirt. Ewww.

-He loves balls and throwing them, but sometimes he throws things that are inappropriate. Tonight he threw a keyboard (one Rick let them have as a toy) at my HEAD.

-He gets really jealous of Annie or another baby sitting on my lap. He'll push them out of the way and climb up. I explain to him that I have to legs and he can share. He's getting better when its Annie.

-He's at a very klutzy phase due to his growth spurt. He trips or runs into things constantly. I hate to see him get hurt but I have to admit that I don't usually react anymore.
-This isn't too new, but he's a picky eater and I never know what he'll eat. If he doesn't want it he throws it. Sometimes he shreds it and then throws it.

Can you tell I love my son? I really do, but he's all boy and so different. Well, enough of that. Annie's new thing is saying, "Its important and its not important," when someone is getting upset about something. I don't know where she got it. She also says, "I'm not kidding (tidding)," after everything. Or she'll say, "Are you serious or are you tidding me?" She also started writing letters in the air. Guess she visualizes them better that way.

Rick and I had an early Valentine's date. We didn't know when we'd be able to get a babysitter and we had one scheduled for Monday night when our plans fell through. So we decided we'd better take our chance. We went to eat at Goodwood BBQ. YUMMY. We shared some ribs and they were delicious. Thanks to our friends who gave us that gift certificate for Christmas. Then we went to see "New in Town". It was silly, but we laughed through the whole thing so we considered it a success. Plus all the kids were asleep when we got home. Thanks Belinda and Josh for babysitting (and the movie gift certificate). You are great and we had a wonderful time.

Some More About My Kids

I have an ultrasound update coming, but I wanted pictures so I'll get it up soon. FYI, I've posted several today.

I couldn't resist putting these pictures of the kids sleeping at their Aunt Belinda's house on here. Darren looked so big, not like a baby anymore. This was the night that we had a date night a few weeks back. The kids had fun playing wii, chasing their pets, and taking a bath in their huge tub. As I was typing this I looked over and saw Annie watching tv with a box on her head looking through the hole in the side. It was so funny I had to take a picture. Darren is often found with a box on his head, but its hard to take a clear picture of him.

This paper was Carlyn's first attempt at sounding out words to write them. She knew Carlyn and Annie, but guessed at Darren. In case you can't see it clearly it says "Dirin" in the middle.

On the outside it said, "SPRAS" for surprise. I was totally impressed. I couldn't do that at 5.

Just a cute picture of Carlyn.

And a cute picture of Annie.

Yup! That's my little guy. He always wants to get his hair done when the girls are getting theirs done. I usually put a head band in and he'll pull in off after a couple hours, but I was noticing how long his hair was and I couldn't resist. He looks so much like Carlyn did.

I know I've done mostly posts about my funny children, but their imaginations are in full bloom and I'm loving it. The other day at my grandma's house they were playing and one of them would be the doctor and the other would put the baby doll in her shirt. Then she'd call for the doctor to come take the baby out. Drama would follow about how they needed help walking and needed help with the baby. I wonder if that's how I seemed to them and that's what they remember from Darren being born. I have to write them down because I forget them. I had 2 others in my mind that I just forgot!

Darren only recently started watching videos. On the way home from CA, actually. He especially loves Thomas the train. This is him watching it in the waiting room of Carlyn's computer class. He never sits that still otherwise. Doesn't he look big?

I went to check on the girls after they were asleep one night and I found Annie like this.

Love the glasses!

Oh, my kids

I was doing Carlyn's hair the other day and I use Infusium 23 to brush out the snarls, then I use water and sometimes gel while doing it and hairspray at the end. I sprayed her hair with water and she said, "What are you spraying on my hair?" "Water." "Oh, if it was confusion or hair spray you'd better warn me." I laughed so hard imagining me spraying confusion on her. :)

Annie says nearly every day, "Mom. We should go to Disneyland today. We should go there everyday."

Annie still has some cute baby words she says. All of a sudden she says three "thflee". So I heard her say, "Nama (her grandma), I'm thflee and a half!"

We were looking at books yesterday and Darren pointed at a sheep and said, "BAAA." Really loud, then said duck as he pointed to one. He hardly repeats words yet though. I'm also trying to teach him that garbage is gross and not to play in and I say "Ka ka." He says, "Da da" back. It cracks us up, everyone except Daddy.

Funny Christmas Conversations

Mommy: Annie what do you want from Santa for Christmas?
Annie: A huge box of crayons.
Mommy: I'm so sorry honey, you've colored on too many things. I'm going to tell Santa you can't have crayons. (My piano was the worst. I forced myself to stay calm. I was really mad!)
Annie: Well, then maybe lip gloss. *pause* And nose gloss.
Carlyn and Mommy laughed for a long time after that.

Mommy: Great Grandma gave you $5 for Christmas. Do you think you'd like to save it or should I buy you a present with it?
Carlyn: (after thinking) I want a present. (Then a minute later) No, Mommy. I'd like to buy a present for Anneliese with it.
This is one of those times you treasure as a parent. SO SWEET!

This Weekend

I should have put all my posts in one, but I didn't realize I was going to do them all. Don't miss the others I did today. That said, I didn't really take pictures either.

Friday night we went to good old North Sanpete High School to see their annual musical, which was Suessical this year. My mom has helped for years but this year my older sister, Carisa, is the choir teacher, so she took over. She did the voice coaching and directed the orchestra. She was awesome. Her 4 girls were also in it and were so cute. The night we saw it Sharice was in the bird chorus, Jaycie was the little kangaroo (she's was Sharice's understudy and that cast was doing it that night), Aili & Evynn were Who's and were the Mayor's daughters and Evynn was the Elephant Bird at the end, if you've ever seen it before. It was very fun and even though it was a short trip we had fun.

Today in church Anneliese didn't want to be reverent during the Sacrament and I was telling her to think about Jesus then handed her a ABC reverent book and pointed to Jesus. She then said (none too quietly), "That's Jesus. I love Jesus," then she kissed the picture. "Jesus loves me." Then she kissed every picture of Jesus in the book and proceeded to the other pictures. Even though she wasn't very reverent, it was so cute and I couldn't really be mad. I love Jesus too and I would love to kiss him and tell him that. :)

A neighbor family does a Music Night occasionally and we went tonight. They invite you to join in, and for the most part it is children, but a few adults. The kids do as simple as sing "Yankee Doodle" or "ABC's" but it gives them experience in front of people. Last time we went Carlyn looked upset and when asked what was wrong she said, "I wanted to do something." She didn't know what she wanted to do though. So we went home and I pulled out my small selection of music and gave her some choices. She chose to learn "Reflections" from Mulan. I can't play it very well when I'm nervous, but it was really cute. She sang quietly and I know she knew it better than she let on, but for a 5 year old, I think she did really great. She didn't even seem nervous. I was shaking. I'm really proud of her.

Carlyn Birthday Party Pics

Okay, so I'm a slacker, due to morning sickness, because Carlyn's party was 2 weeks ago. I'm doing the best I can. I was a bad mom though and didn't take any pictures during the party, which I normally do, until the present opening. For her party, Carlyn wanted some friends to come for a Princess Tea Party. It was so fun. Thanks to my friend Alicia who helped me because I was really not feeling well that day and had already cleaned my messy house for the party. Anyway, we played Duck, Duck, Goose, Pin the Crown on the Princess, Musical Chairs, and had a little Dance Party (per Carlyn's request.) Then we had a fun little tea party (it kills me that I didn't take a picture) with a doily, plate, napkin and tea cup for everyone (the doilies were Carlyn's idea.) We had little cookies, pb&j sandwiches cut up into strips, tiny cupcakes and don't forget the pink lemonade. It was so cute and so fun! When we started to have the tea party some of the kids looked around nervously and said, "I don't drink tea." What cute kids! I said that was okay because it was lemonade and they felt much better. After the tea party we read a princess story and opened presents. We finished with a Disney Princess Sing Along movie.

Here is Princess Cinderella Carlyn ready for presents.

Here are the Princess sisters.

Carlyn's cousin gave her these vampire teeth. I just thought it looked funny.

Anneliese & her cousin Evynn were both Snow White.

After the friends party we had a family party. We had some pizza and cupcakes then opened presents. The only bummer about the day was that Rick was absent because he was working in our yard with a tractor to clear out the back yard (jungle) all day. I really missed him there, but he worked really hard and now we are ready for sprinklers and sod when we can afford them. We had a good turnout though. Grandma Hilton, Grandpa Hilton, Great Grandma Hilton, Parker, Maren, Mathew, Lindsay, Carisa, Sharice, Jaycie, Aili, Evynn, Grandma Linda, Maureen, Delenn, Belinda, & Josh. We missed everyone who couldn't be there but we had fun. The girls were really loving everyone, I thought, and Darren was a hoot.

The girls with Grandma Linda.

Carlyn and her birthday cupcake being held by Parker.

Sorry, baby D. This is what comes of having older sisters, but in my defense you put these on yourself but got frustrated trying to take the necklace off.

Rick does such a good job of decorating their room. It stayed up for a week and a half. She was asleep in her bed while he did this too :)

They make a big deal out of birthdays at preschool. This is from her computer class in the morning. Notice her new outfit. So cute, thanks grandma.

This is from her afternoon preschool. She was so excited to have Miss Jani give her her own cake. It was so cute. She got to take cupcakes to preschool for all her friends and she loved it.

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday, our busiest day of the week. So after her dance class we had lasagna, her favorite dish. We had some cake and gave her our present. She had requested a jewelry box and "real jewleries."

I had a hard time finding "real" jewelry that I thought appropriate for a 5 year old, but found these at wal-mart. In case you can't tell, they say "Angel" "Cutie" and "Princess" which suited her just perfectly. She's worn them almost everyday since.

This last picture I had to add because it is from Carlyn's favorite friend right now, Amy R., whom she sits with in Sacrament meeting and Carlyn just loves her. Thanks Amy for remembering Carlyn. It made her night.

My Little Linney

My little Linney isn't so little anymore. She's turning 5 tomorrow, November 5th. This is more for me, than anyone else, so skip this long part if you want to :)

5 years ago I was in labor, already for about 7 hours after being induced due to a major fluid drop overnight. I really wanted a natural birth but I didn't start out in the best conditions. I hadn't slept well the night before and I hadn't eaten anything since then either. I got up to have a non stress test, as I was a week overdue, and they told me not to eat. Then I told them I thought my water broke, so the checked the fluid. They said it didn't "break" but there was a definite loss of fluid. I waited an hour for the doctor to come talk to me and tell me she thought I needed to be started. They still didn't let me eat even though I waited another hour or two for Rick to finish the project he was on and come to the hospital. I was starving by this time and very anxious for a baby. To make it shorter, I was induced and didn't do anything much for hours and hours, so the Doc told me she wanted to "crank my pitocin". This was sometime toward the next morning and while I was doing my hypnobirthing pretty well, I was exhausted already. She said she would recommend having an epidural then because I wouldn't be able to handle the pitocin and I didn't want to put the baby at risk in case I had to have a c-section. I bawled and bawled, but finally got an epidural and was able to rest. After being on strong pitocin for hours and I was still only dilated to an 8 and the baby didn't drop, her heart rate did drop and the doc informed me that we were doing a c-section. NOW. I was scared to death and scared for my baby. Rick gave me a blessing and the surgery went well, but it was rough on both of us and they whisked Carlyn away to help her breath better. She was born about 4 pm and I didn't see her until about 9, I think. Anyway, I finally got to hold my baby girl and she was beautiful. She had the hardest time during birth and had to have an IV to hopefully prevent any infections from the long labor. She also had jaundice and I only got to hold her to feed her in the hospital.

Look at my angel! She worked the IV in her hand out and had to have it in her head later. It made me cry, but she smiled at me and it was okay.

This was a few days later. What a sweet thing, huh?

This began our journey as parents. Sweet Carlyn. We love you so much. We have enjoyed being your parents and continue to love you so much!

What Am I Going To Do With Her?

Okay, so I know I have an ugly couch. I'm okay with that with little kids, but still, I try to take care of it. So, when Carlyn started yelling at Annie that I was going to be mad, I was worried. She had taken a crayon to the couch! A green crayon. The little stink has taken a crayon to almost every surface in my house! I have tried taking the crayons away and just getting them out when I'm there supervising. I had taken them out and the girls were happily coloring in books. Darren was asleep, so I decided to check my email. So when my back was turned this happened. I took her to her "father" (that means she's in big trouble) and luckily he kept his calm and pulled out my "little green." Most of it came out, but it has a green tint now. Thanks Katie for letting me vent to you! Grandma Linda & Maureen were the stars of the show Monday when they brought pumpkins. Each just the right size for each kid. They didn't want to come in or stop playing with them.

Funny story: Whenever Mommy says no, the kids go to Daddy. Luckily, he usually says the same thing I said and then says, "Mommy and I are a team." Carlyn has often told us she didn't like that we are a team because she really wants that candy, movie, etc. The other day, Rick and I were in a heated discussion. Okay, it was a fight. You never fight, right? Anyway, we weren't ready to change our minds anytime soon. Then Carlyn comes in with her hands over her ears screaming, "Stop fighting. You are a team. You are a team!" I thought it was pretty funny and it really did help us to see that we were being stubborn and we should act like a team.