Monkeying around

I met up with a friend of mine who was in town for vacation last week.  We haven't seen each other in 9 years, it was so great to catch up!  Last time we saw each other, we were both working as tellers at the same bank and neither of us had kids.  She has two adorable little girls now, and I, well you know.....

We went to Monkey Bizness down by Park Meadows and chatted while the kids played.  My Ashten and her youngest are very close in age, just a day apart, so it was fun to see them interact a little.  And Preston and her oldest were off playing together and it looked like they were having a lot of fun!

 

I had reconnected with this friend over Facebook (seriously, what did we use to do before there was Facebook?) and so it was great to see her in person again after all these years!  I can't wait to do it again!

Happy Easter

I really feel like I should do an Easter post.  I mean it is probably the most significant Christian holiday and I do love to celebrate it.  It is so important to remember what Christ did for me on the cross and the victory He gained over death by raising to life.  I love that story, and I love to be reminded of it. 

But I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately.  I have some cute pictures of the kids all dressed up for Easter, but those will have to wait as they are still on my camera.

So I'll leave you with one of my favorite songs of all time, and a very applicable song for Easter! 

HE IS RISEN.  HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

Ashten loves the outdoors.  Loves them!  If it's nice and I have the back door open, she walks over to the door and lets me know she really wants to be out there.  If I'm nice enough to take her out, then she walks to the horse swing and then I spend the next 20 minutes at least pushing her.  I shouldn't be surprised, all the boys like to be outside and use that same swing too!

Yet another video

I've been posting a lot of videos lately, I know, but they're fun!  And poor Ashten just hasn't been feeling herself at all lately, something with her ears, so to see her happy and singing in a video really makes my day. 

Theater a la "the boys"

The boys wrote, directed and performed in a play all about sea turtles:

I don't know about you, but I think they could be the next big thing!!

Peek-a-boo

Interruptions

I am currently in a ladies Bible study and we are studying Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer.  Basically, through looking at the life of Jonah, we are encouraged to take life's little interruptions as a chance to partner with God and make a difference instead of just getting frustrated or upset when our life doens't go the way we think it should.

It has been challenging to view the interruptions in my life not as annoying circumstances that I have to deal with, but as opportunities to partner with God and make a difference for eternity, no matter how small.  Mostly I have been very convicted to try and be a more attentive and involved mom, staying home with my children in mind and actions and not just in body.

I got one such interruption yesterday.  As we were getting ready to leave for school yesterday morning, I went to open the garage door.  It went up about 2 inches and stopped.  Weird, I thought, but maybe one of the sensors was off or something?  Checked that -- nope.  Tried again.  Garage door went up about 2 inches and stopped.  I tried a number of things to get it to go all the up, but nothing worked.  I even tried to manually open it using that little red, hanging-down cord.  But who am I kidding?  I'm not that strong!! 

First I panicked.  I tried calling Chris, my dad and even my mom, but no one answered and I don't even know what I expected them to do if they did since they were all at work.  Then I called a garage door repair place.  Turns out it was a broken spring and it'd cost close to $200 to fix.  See -- that spring on top of the garage door is supposed to be in one piece, not two.

(As a sidenote, I don't understand why in the world this kind of thing happens when it's just me at home and Chris is at work.  Same thing happened with the fridge, on a Friday as well.  I like having Chris there to help me solve problems, he keeps me calm and helps me figure out a solution faster than if I'm just on my own.)

So I finally found a place who could come out and fix the garage door within the hour, which was good since I couldn't leave to take the boys to school till it was fixed since my car was stuck in the garage.  The boys welcomed the "interruption" to their day, I was still not sure. I had two grocery stores to get to and brownies to make and kids to get to school.  It was not what I needed. 

So instead of doing all those things, I checked email and facebook and put Ashten down for a nap and sat down to read a chapter in my book.  About halfway through the chapter, I heard God saying "this interruption is for you to be with your kids, use it wisely and don't waste the time you've been given".  Wow!  Okay, God, you're right.  So the boys and I all played a couple games of Uno Attack.  It was so much fun and not really that significant, but it was a good reminder that I should really slow down and take the time I've been given instead of just getting irritated when things don't go my way and wasting my time.

So, all in all, I think I learned a good lesson yesterday: don't try and open the garage door manually by myself welcome the interruptions in my life and make the most of the opportunity in that moment!  Definitely easier said than done, but thank goodness I'm a work in progress.

Logan's friend party

This was the first year that Logan got to have a friend party.  We wait till they are in school to open up that can of worms!!! 

Logan wanted a world-themed party.  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.  I decorated in blue, white and green, with a few globe pictures here and there. 

We played "put the sticker on the map where we live", kind of like "pin the tail on the donkey". The kids enjoyed that one. We also played a balloon popping game, but that was just for fun, it had nothing to do with the theme.

I made a world cake with blue frosting and green fondant.

 

The frosting turned everyone's tongue blue!

I said "Logan, you don't look happy in this picture, weren't you having a good time?"  Logan said, "Yes, I was, but I was just embarrased when everyone was singing to me!"

The nice thing about friend parties?  Cool toys as gifts that adults are just not cool enough to pick out!

Logan is 6!

This guy turns 6 years old today!!  Happy Birthday "Logee"!

  

Likes: playing with Ashten, reading, helping me in the kitchen, sharks, school

Dislikes: losing, being rushed, time-outs, chores

Since I started writing my blog after all three boys were already born, I didn't get a chance to record their birthday stories, like I did for Ashten.  I've decided that, although the specifics are a little fuzzy now, I'd like to try and record each of the boys' birthdays to have on record.  So, I will be doing that on each of their birthdays this year! 

Logan in his going home outfit - April 1, 2005

Logan was born at 5:04 am on Thursday, March 31, 2005.  But my labor actually started the night before.  I was giving Brayden his bath at about 6 pm when I noticed some slight cramping that was coming and going.  Nothing too urgent yet, but within an hour, I knew it was definitely the start of labor.  I got Brayden to bed around 7:30 and started emailing my work and getting things in order to leave for the hospital soon. 

Meanwhile, Chris was in Colorado Springs at a lacrosse game because at that time he coached JV lacrosse at his school.  He had driven separately from the bus, in the event that I went into labor and he had to leave early.  Unfortunately, this particular night there was a pretty bad snow storm, especially in Colorado Springs.  Chris called me about 8 pm and told me he might not make it home and was thinking of stopping at a hotel for the night because his little truck was having a really hard time on the roads (even I-25).  I told him he better get home soon because I was in labor and we needed to go to the hospital!  Apparently he just drove behind a semi truck the whole way home, very slowly, but he said once he got to the south end of Denver, the roads cleared up quite a bit.  But I was praying for him the whole time, because he said he was seeing cars sliding off the roads left and right.  By God's protection, he was home safely by 9 pm. 

So when Chris got home, we called his parents to come over to stay with Brayden and Chris called a sub for school for the next few days.   We left for the hospital by 9:30 and by that time I couldn't really stand up during contractions and was having to do my breathing a little.  The drive to the hospital was good, considering the snow.  I don't remember the roads being that bad, and it was late at night, so there weren't many people out.

When we got to the hospital, they put me in an observation room, even though I was obviously very uncomfortable and having horrible back labor.  They said they were going to monitor me for 2 hours to see if I was progressing at all.  During this time I was supposed to lay flat on my back with monitors strapped to my belly.  That is VERY hard to do with back labor.  I was in so much pain and so uncomfortable.  I remember that I kept telling Chris "I can't do this", and he was very encouraging and reassuring.  Thankfully, though, after about 20 minutes, the nurse came back in and told me they were going to admit me because the baby's heartbeat was decreasing a little with each contraction and he was in "distress".   I think this was totally just a God thing though, because after I was admitted and moved to a L/D room, Logan's heartbeat never dropped again and the nurses never seemed concerned about it. 

About 12 midnight I got my epidural and the nurses told me to "get some rest".  Haha, ya right!!  On top of being all excited and not sleepy at all, I could still feel each contraction just a little in my tailbone.  I think that must have been because of the back labor, which I found out later is because of the way the baby is facing, with the back of his head pressing on my tailbone.  Poor Chris had to try and get a little rest on the teeny, tiny "couch" in the room.  I don't think he slept much that night between not being able to completely stretch out and the nurses coming in and out.  I tried to distract myself with the TV, but, just FYI, there is nothing on worth watching from 12-5 am!!

At about 4:45 or so, the contractions were getting very uncomfortable and almost painful in my tailbone area.  I told the nurse and they checked me and I was about 9-1/2 cm.  The nurses paged the doctor and got to work getting the bed and room ready.  By the time the doctor got there, I was feeling very ready to push.  I pushed for a few minutes and the doctor noticed that the baby wasn't really descending.  So, on the next contraction, he turned Logan around, so he was face down.  After that, it was only about 3 more minutes of pushing and Logan was born! 

After I had been holding Logan for a few minutes, I looked down and noticed my arm was HUGE!!!  Apparently my IV had come out of the vein while I was pushing (but not out of my arm), and it was pumping fluid into my arm.  It was very scary looking, but it went down within a few days with ice.  You can kind of see it in the picture below, especially on my hand.  Don't I look tired?  By this point I had been up for probably 22-23 hours!

 

But even with the exhaustion and arm problems, Logan was probably the easiest labor and delivery I had.  And what a precious boy God has given us, I wouldn't ask for anything more!

Happy birthday Logan.....you are very special and loved a bunch!

Brayden plays Bball

Brayden has been playing on a spring basketball team for the past few weeks.  He has improved quite a bit in just a short time and seems to enjoy it!