Oh the horror!

I still can't believe I did it. It has probably scarred me for life. I may never recover from the trauma. I....I...served.....a frozen lasagna for dinner last night. It was truly awful. It had no flavor aside from sodium and something that may or may not have resembled tomato sauce. It was truly horrible. Kind of sweet with some kind of chunks of "meat". The noodles were disgustingly thick. Gross about sums it up. I love to cook and never serve these boxed convenience foods. I even make my own mac n cheese. No blue box. No fake cheese sauce. I still don't know what possessed me to serve this monstrosity. Oh wait yes I do. Since I have been attending births on a regular basis Adam convinced me to buy a frozen lasagna to keep in the freezer in case he needed to cook. For whatever reason I agreed. From now on I will keep at least one meal in the freezer that I have made. No more boxed disgustingness! Dear family, I promise to not make you eat it again. I will make a luscious lasagna for you. (I was going to take a picture to commemorate the horribleness of it but couldn't bring myself to do it.)

Julie

No this post isn't really about Julie. I do know a few but it is about something else entirely. Do you ever get stuck on a word? You just keep repeating it over and over. Each time it sounds more strange than the last. That word this week has been Julie. I know some perfectly lovely Julies out there and I do like the name. For some reason it has been stuck in my head though! Thought I would share. Now I am off to bed. Night night.

Are you trying to get yourself killed?

What is it with random people on bicycles? Riding on the wrong side of the road! Bicycles move WITH traffic, folks! NOT against. If you are on a bike you are considered a vehicle. You must obey all posted signs and rules.

The Plague

Ok so it isn't really that bad! We have ALL had a cough and congestion this week. Seriously, all of us at the same time? The happy part is that no one is completely miserable. I am headed to the Dr this afternoon though because I think mine has turned into a sinus infection. We should be back to normal soon. I had a birth yesterday morning. Lovely birth! Congratulations happy family! A few more due later this month. It seems like this next year could be busy. I am really enjoying these births and the privilege of attending them.

It's a cookie turkey

Tiny Sister came over and made oreo turkeys with the girls.
Here is their silly face picture.

The Good Ol' Days

Once upon a time back when I was way younger I shared bunk beds with my middle sister. Middle sister and I only shared them a few years and then middle sister and tiny sister shared them. Now it is time to pass down the tradition. Bella and Monkey are now the proud owners of bunk beds. They have been wanting them for a very long time. I had major hesitations and was able to put this off for about 18 months. My hesitations you ask? Broken arms, stitches, dislocated elbows/shoulders (from one sibling dangling the other off the top bunk). Yes I have issues thanks for asking! Why the change of heart? My dear husband was helping out my dad this past week and somehow the topic came round to bunk beds. Darling husband says, "yeah Mimi won't let the girls have them." My dad, "That's crazy SHE had bunk beds." Umm thanks Dad I will direct the hospital bills to your house. So, we now have bunk beds. Nightly prayers might include pleas for safety. The girls are beside themselves with joy. It has been hard to get them down. They now have some extra floor space so I think I will make them some floor pillows. I have a great Amy Butler design I have been wanting to try out. Here are some pics of their beds.

Happy as clams.
Lots of space for Barbies and dollhouse stuff.

Maybe some padding on the floor would help my nervousness!

Lonely widow

This afternoon my darling husband is driving about an hour away to work out at a gym. He does powerlifting and this is how all the guys at this gym train. He was very excited to go. He will be gone during dinnertime so that leaves us all alone. I don't like eating dinner alone with just the kids. It feels so incomplete. We are those oddballs who have family dinner every night. When someone is missing it is a bit sad. The girls have decided we should have Chinese with chopsticks. I don't think they have really ever had Chinese food before. They are fascinated with chopsticks after watching Kung Fu Panda. There is a neat tutorial on the DVD about chopsticks. Since darling husband doesn't like Chinese food or for that matter any Asian cuisine we are jumping in with both feet. I love both Chinese food and any Asian cuisine for that matter. Sesame chicken here I come. We know a couple who live in China and have commented on how Chinese fast food is nothing like real Chinese cooking. I would love to visit China someday and learn how to cook authentic food. I hear this is quite a process not just toss some things together. It must be cut up a certain way, certain vegetables go with certain meats etc. Now I think I am just rambling so I better get moving.
BTW-I have lots of post ideas and am hoping to get better at this!!

Ta-da!

He ate almost a whole apple!
It was very warm hence the sleeveless shirt.

He sucked all of the icing off first then ate the rest.

One of his favorite new toys.

The family!

LOOOONG break

Ok so I took a really long break. In the time that has elapsed we have been quite busy. As much as I hate to do it I am going to put it into bullet points!

• We started school the first week of September. Everything is settling nicely into a routine. Both girls are enjoying their work. Bella is studying math, history, language arts (do they still call it that?), astronomy and handwriting. Matilda is working on phonics, writing some letters, basic math, coloring and scissor skills.
• We had the in-laws in town the second week of September. They arrived on our 10 yr anniversary. My FIL had his gazillion year high school reunion. Can't remember which year. We had a good time with them. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows one night. Introduced my MIL to smores. I still can't believe she never had them. Went to the apple orchard. Very nice visit!
• Celebrated Biscuit's first birthday! He had quite a good time with his cake. He had a zucchini cake. He began walking a week or two before his birthday. Now he runs everywhere. The child never stops moving! He eats like a linebacker but has the metabolism of a hummingbird!
• Darling Husband and his dad cut down a tree. Only one more to take down and then we should be satisfied with the tree situation. DH said next time we move we are moving into a neighborhood that doesn't have trees. Have I mentioned it is autumn and we have LOTS of leaves.
• Our homeschool group is going very well. The girls are enjoying the classes and getting to know some other kids. The group has a family that has several horses. Each fall the kids get to go for 3 weeks and ride and learn a little more about horses. The girls were in heaven. I had to pry them away each week. One of the weeks it was drizzling and upper 40's. Would this deter them...NO. I am glad they enjoyed themselves.
• DH was able to go to the Men's retreat this year. He had a good time. Good challenging talks. Exciting to see where God is leading the men of our church. Hopefully, as wives, daughters, sisters, mothers we can encourage the men to lead. I have a feeling this will end up a blog post soon.
• Bella and I are attending BSF this year together. We are studying the book of John. Good study thus far. I love my discussion group and Bella seems to be enjoying her group as well.
• Last weekend the kids and I loaded up to go see my brother and sister-in-law. We had a really great time. I think my SIL might be regretting taking both the girls to the pumpkin patch by herself though. Two pony rides, large pumpkins, the petting zoo, a ride on the ferris wheel. The girls loved it! They love their Auntie and Uncle. Biscuit thought Uncle was the best ever. As soon as my brother arrived home from work the first night Biscuit marched up to him and wanted to be picked up. He sat with Uncle in his big chair most of the weekend.

I think that hits the highlights. I will try to put up some pictures of all this sometime soon.

It's Dinner time

And I have the motivation of a slug to do something about it. After wasting time on FarmTown I decided a little blog update couldn't hurt. Don't even ask about FT. It is all my sister-in-law's fault! And I still have no clue what I am doing! Moving on. This is what my children are doing at the moment.

Angelic child number one is reading (per usual).

(That large blob of fur is our kitty Moses)

This angelic child is sleeping on the floor.
Angelic child three is sleeping and just beginning to wake up. Husband is off looking at tents. I must pretend to be the mother now and get my hiney in gear!

Heylerhe

A shout out to my mother-in-law who is celebrating her birthday today!! Happy Birthday mom C. Hope you had a nice day. Sorry your card is late again this year. I need to implement my sister's magnificent organizational system for birthday cards!

Also, I added a little survey to the left. Leave a comment too, if you like, explaining your answer.

PPS- I wish I would have paid better attention during grammar class. I can't remember where commas go anymore!!! Sorry Mrs. Bleicher I tried to listen but I had you first period and was never really awake.

Surprise

This past weekend was my Dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It ended up being quite successful. Dad was completely surprised. There were a few near misses but in the end we were able to pull it off. I don't have any pictures. I need to get some from my tiny sister and anyone else. Hint hint! Here are some pics of the kids.

Where is the baby?
There you are!

New shoes from Auntie C and Uncle J

The new shoes in all their monster glory!

Mr. Biscuit seems to think shoes are chew toys. He hasn't ever worn shoes before. Socks a few times over the winter when we went out. I have instilled in my children that socks and shoes are only to be worn during the winter months. I am all about bare feet. Flip flops and sandals are great!

The three monkeys. Ignore the ugly wallpaper! It is coming down VERY soon.

Terror in the park

No not a cheesy horror movie that I saw. A real story! Two weeks ago we went picnicking and hiking at a state park with my parents and sister/brother-in-law. The kids played on the playground near the picnic area while we set out food. We ate a delicious lunch of cold fried chicken, potato salad, macaroni salad and fruit. After lunch we decided to go for a hike around one of the lakes. Darling husband carried Biscuit in the backpack carrier, Matilda, Bella, Uncle with niece in other backpack carrier, Poppy and myself set off. We saw so many cool things on our hike. To name a few: mushrooms of every color and size, turtles, fish, remains of beaver gnawings, a snake, wild blackberries. As we were about done with the hike Darling Husband and Matilda were walking in the front about 10 feet ahead of everyone else. From this point on everything happened so quickly I really have no clue what it looked like. Matilda turned around and stepped off the trail. She fell down a steep bank about 7 feet to the lake. I couldn't see how deep the lake was so immediately slid down the bank also. By the grace of God the lake there was very shallow, a few inches of water and muck. She was absolutely terrified. I can still hear her terrified scream. I lifted Matilda up to Poppy. There were no hand holds. I was wondering how I was going to get up. Poppy and Darling Husband were able to pull me up. There were some benches a few feet ahead on the trail. We sat down and hugged Matilda and gave her a little water to sip. We rinsed her arms off a bit and looked her over. She had not a scratch on her. We finished the hike and walked back to the van. We stopped at the campground and they let us use the showers to wash Matilda off. I changed her clothes and wiped myself down. Unfortunately, I had no other clothing! Extremely scary! I am so grateful that God was watching over us and didn't allow something worse to happen. There are plenty of places around the lake that are much deeper. We went back to the picnic area where Nanny and Auntie were. Nanny held Matilda for a bit and gave her something to eat. She went and played on the playground with Bella. They both wanted to play in the little creek by the playground. I took them down so they could dip their feet in. It was very shallow and cool. A nice ending to an exciting day.

The Fever

Last weekend Matilda Monkey had a fever. No other symptoms, just a fever. We missed church. She was fever free late Sunday. We had a pretty uneventful week. I met with a local midwife to talk about labor assisting (doula) and birth assisting. She assigned me to a client who is due the beginning of August. I can't wait to get started. I have met the client already and she seems very nice. Bella had an MRI on Thursday. We should get results today. Saturday we went to the Central Library with my dad. Such fun! The children's section was very nice. So many books. Lots of comfy places to sit and read. Can't wait to go back again. Saturday when Biscuit woke up from his afternoon nap he felt hot. The Fever! We missed church again this week. :( Yesterday Mr. Biscuit had his 9 month check-up. Healthy (minus The Fever) and nice and plump! He is 22 lbs 6 oz and 29.5 inches long. I think he lost a bit of weight since he hasn't been eating well. He is now doing better. However, yesterday after lunch Bella says, "Mom, I think I have a fever." Sure enough she has The Fever. She moped about last night as though she was going to die from The Fever. She is in much better spirits this morning. Partly, because the tooth fairy came last night! She lost her second tooth on Sunday evening. The tooth had been hanging on by a thread for two days. She and daddy were wrestling and he bumped her mouth and out fell the tooth!
Sunday was my 30th birthday. It was very uneventful. Crabby baby, no cake, lots of birthday calls, visit from a friend, ice cream from DQ. I finally got around to making my cake last night with help from Monkey. Darling husband got us pizza from Uno's. YUM!

It has arrived!

My new swimsuit has arrived! And...(drum roll)...it actually looks decent! No, I won't be posting a pic of myself modeling the suit. However, I will put a link to the Land's End website so you can see it on their rather svelte model! Linky-loo I can't wait to go swimming! Now everything that needs covering will be covered! No more maternity suit!

Picking

This morning the girls and I picked beans! Our first round of picking. We got quite a few. We will probably be picking every few days. I told the girls next summer this would be their job. They seem pleased with the prospect at least for now. We also have a few zucchini ready. There will be quite a few more in a few days. The tomatoes are getting there. I can't wait to have fresh tomatoes.

Yesterday, we hung out at home. Matilda Monkey had a fever and wasn't feeling well. Must have been something viral as she is fine now. We are sticking around home today again and tomorrow might head to my parents to swim and have a cookout. We aren't doing fireworks this year. Hopefully, next year though. Mr. Biscuit is just a little too young to stay up so far past his bedtime. Fireworks don't start until 9:47pm! Crazy!

Mr. Biscuit right before swimming!
Monkey sleeping on the couch after swimming.

Bella reading! She is reading Meet Kaya. (American Girl book)

Yesterday, we went swimming at my parents' house. Everyone had a really great time. Mr. Biscuit loves to swim. He splashes quite a lot. My medium sister came also with her baby, Miss Sweetiekins. The babies had such fun. The big girls are using only arm floaties this year. Bella can touch. She jumped right in. Usually, she takes a few minutes to adjust not this year! Matilda Monkey had a lovely time. She still wants someone near but was busy moving around. She will jump in if someone is catching. No pictures because mommy can't swim, carry a baby, and take pictures.

Ch-ch-change

I have decided to allow all comments. Which means you don't have to have a Google ID. If spam becomes a problem I will switch things up again. Leave a comment. I like to know I am not talking to myself.

Busy Busy Busy

The title about sums it up. We have been on the go for the past few weeks. I don't really even know what we have done. Dentist, doctor, family, library, play dates. Plus it has been hot and humid! I loathe humidity! I detest it. Death to humidity! Well, you get the point. We are planning on swimming at my parents' pool today. I can't wait. I am still swimsuitless. I am hoping to remedy this next week. Although, Darling Husband will be working everyday from 3p-2a so my shopping plans might be thwarted. Sooo, I guess it is back to the maternity suit for a bit longer.

I am off to the grocery store now. I will try to post some pictures later and update on the swimsuit search.

Nifty Fifty!

Supposedly, this is my fiftieth post. How special! In honor of this momentous occasion I shall name all fifty states. I promise I will not look at any sources. Scout's honor!

1. Maine
2. Vermont
3. New Hampshire
4. New York
5. Rhode Island
6. Massachusetts
7. New Jersey
8. Delaware
9. Maryland
10. West Virginia
11. Virginia
12. North Carolina
13. South Carolina
14. Florida
15. Ohio
16. Indiana
17. Kentucky
18. Michigan
19. Illinois
20. Tennessee
21. Mississippi
22. Alabama
23. Georgia
24. Louisiana
25. Missouri
26. Kansas
27. Iowa
28. Minnesota
29. North Dakota
30. South Dakota
31. Nebraska
32. Colorado
33. Wyoming
34. Montana
35. Texas
36. Oklahoma
37. Nevada
38. Idaho
39. Utah
40. Arizona
41. New Mexico
42. Washington
43. Oregon
44. California
45. Alaska
46. Wisconsin
47. Hawaii
48. Connecticut
49. Pennslyvania
50. Arkansas
WooHoo!! I did it. Only four that I had to really think hard about! Now if I was really cool I would try to name all of the state capitols. At one time I could have easily done this. Right now I am just grateful to remember all of the states!

A side note! Mr. Biscuit is an absolute handful! If he wasn't so cute and cuddly we would sell him. His latest escapades...I put him down after changing his diaper and walk to the kitchen to start dinner. He starts petting the kitty. Awww how sweet. He is being very quiet for a few minutes. I walk all the way over to check on him. He is pulling tufts of hair from the cat and shoving it in his mouth. GROSS! I scoop as much hair from his mouth as possible and rinse his fingers off. My precious little girls were never this ummm...energetic. The girls were both busy and would get into things but not to this degree! He also managed to break a night light bulb in the girls room. And I used to wander why African women strapped their babies to them! Not any more!!!

So much to say

I haven't posted anything in a while! Sorry! The past few weeks have been a blur. I took a neonatal resuscitation class so I can work with a midwife as a birth assistant. I will be doing another class this week and the week after that. I am pretty excited. I love anything to do with birth. If I am done having babies I will live vicariously through others! I will need help with child care. So, if you might be interested let me know. (I plan on compensating whomever helps)

The girls have played in their wading pool and slip n' slide! They have really enjoyed it! The weather has been very warm and humid. I don't think I was quite ready for summer. Spring could have lasted a few more weeks.

Our garden is growing. We have tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans and strawberries this year. I am planning on freezing green beans. I don't have the storage space for canning. I do plan on making strawberry jam. I plan on canning that though.

Pop Quiz

This picture makes me...

a. very tired

b. afraid

c. like a zookeeper

d. all of the above

Water Park

We went to the water park on Wednesday. Such fun! The girls had a really great time. It wasn't too crowded. The water was warm. They have two different pools. The biggest one is a zero entry pool with a small water slide (think playground slide) and a part that curves around. All at a max of 3 feet. The other pool is a small lap pool that goes from 4 ft. to 6 ft. They also have a really big slide. We didn't go on it though. Matilda was too short and Bella was just barely tall enough and she couldn't ride down with one of us. She is a bit timid with new things. Maybe next time. My parents kept Mr. Biscuit for us. He loves to swim but we wanted to be able to spend time with just the girls. Of course Biscuit didn't mind. He got to take a nap with Nanny holding him! Rough life! After swimming we went back to my parents' house for dinner. I dropped off a casserole which mum put in for us. As promised there are no pics! My camera stayed safely at home. Besides, I had to wear my stupid maternity suit top! Not taking pictures in that! Sigh! I think I better find a new suit before my parents open their pool.

Look at all those teeth. He has one more than when this pic was taken.
New dresses that Grandma made.

The girls favorite thing! Reading!

Close up of Matilda Monkey's birthday cake.

A few more pics! Tonight we are going swimming at the local waterpark. Can't wait! I don't think I am going to take my camera though. Water and electronic devices never do well with me in the vicinity!

Weekend Report

Last week my in-laws were in town. We had a good time. The girls were positively thrilled with Grandpa and Grandma's attention for the whole week. We went to the zoo one day. The weather was gorgeous. Gpa and Gma took each of the girls out individually for a treat. Since it was Matilda Monkey's birthday on Friday. Her treat involved the toy store! We had a birthday party on Thursday evening. Delicious cake and ice cream and presents what more could a girl want! I will post more pics and details of the past week or so later!

83

The weather has been glorious today. We enjoyed some play time. The girls have a bit of pink on their shoulders and cheeks. I filled up a few buckets for them also. Water is so fun to play in. Bella wanted to know if we could go to the pool today. Bummer but it is still closed for a while yet! Plus I can't imagine how cold the water would be. Matilda Monkey's birthday is coming up. We are planning on going to an indoor waterpark so the kids can swim and play. Which, unfortunately, means I must find a swimsuit. (insert scream of horror) My sister's solution? "Just wear your maternity suit." Remind me to kick her next time I see her!

Sickies

I am so tired of the sickies! Mr. Biscuit has been sick for the past 3 weeks. Initially, I thought it was a cold and teething. Then on Easter he developed a fever that then disappeared on Monday morning. Tuesday he was acting awful again so I called the pediatrician (who had seen him the previous week for a well baby visit). He called in an antibiotic. We started it right away. So, here we are on Friday morning. Still sick! Cough sounds worse. Can't decide if it is in his chest or just junk draining from his nose. I have a call in to the pediatrician again. I will keep you posted! The only bright spot in all of this is that the past two nights he has slept a bit better!

Easter

Easter 2009

Please don't drop the baby!

Dyeing eggs with Daddy

Choices Choices

New Dresses from Grandma

Easter started off nice and ended up pretty crummy! Daddy had the day off. We headed to church. Mr. Biscuit ended up with a fever midway through the service. We went home and called my sister to let her know we weren't coming for dinner and festivities. Biscuit's temp ranged from 102-103. Thankfully it responded to Tylenol. Daddy dyed eggs with the girls and we watched movies.

Goodbye!

The tooth fell out last night at dinner. We went to a friend's house for dinner. During dessert Bella exclaimed, "Mom, my tooth! My tooth fell out!" When we got home she was looking at it in the kitchen and accidentally dropped it. It fell almost under the dishwasher. Daddy saved the day and pulled it out! We put it in the tooth fairy pillow. This morning she came running in and said the tooth fairy left her a $1.50. She is pretty excited. The one to the left is just barely wiggly!

The empty place!

The tiny tooth!

The tooth fairy pillow!

It's officially official

I have a big kid! After church today we went to lunch with my sister, brother-in-law and niece. Bella was eating and told me her tooth hurt. I asked her if she had something stuck in it. She said no so we went back to eating. A few minutes later she told me, "something is wrong with my tooth." I actually looked at it this time. LOOSE!!! Very loose! We called Daddy and every other family member we could think of. She is pretty excited. I will keep you posted on the tooth saga! By the way, how much is the tooth fairy giving out these days?

PH

A certain key on my keyboard is not working. I will give you a clue. Think beginning sound in phone or ending sound in laugh. Yup that one. Here are some pics to enjoy! We were on the way to the park with my tiny sister. She took the pictures, not me! I was driving!!

New Fave Thing

A few weeks ago I had an eye infection. I threw my mascara out like a good girl! I am sure my ophthalmologist would be proud! I went to Target to replace it. I usually buy Neutragena mascara. I saw something called Lash Tint. Hmmm...sounds interesting. The premise is that it darkens lashes without looking mascara-y (not their wording) and doesn't make a mess. What the heck, I'll try it! As it turns out I love it. True to their promises it doesn't make a mess. I forgot to take it off last night before bed and there were no smudges, no black marks on my pillow! And my lashes still look dark! Sweet!

Happy Valentine's Day

The girls and I are making cookies today. We have heart shapes and letters to spell 'love'. My digital camera has been acting up but I will try to post some pics later! Hope everyone is having a great day being thankful for their sweetie!

Steak!

Mr. Biscuit is well on his way to eating steak. He now has one tiny tooth poking through! I can't believe my baby has a tooth and at 4 months old! His sisters didn't get any until at least 9 months!

Supa Dupa Bowl

Mr. Biscuit totally enjoyed the Super Bowl! Check out the guttular region! So cute!

Shoot me

My poor baby had his first vaccinations today. Right after he cried for just a few seconds and then I fed him. He was fine until late afternoon and then pretty grumpy! Hopefully, he will sleep well tonight! Since we selectively immunize he has had a bit of a break from the norm.

Poll

I have put up a very serious poll on the right side! Please answer. This is very scientific! Really! Well maybe not but I am curious!

Naughty Dog

I am in love! With who? Hank the Cowdog! It is a great series of books by John Erickson. Hank lives on a ranch as the Head of Ranch Security. Anyone who knows farm/ranch dogs will immediately identify with Hank. Absolutely hilarious. The books are geared toward readers 9-11 but can be read aloud to 4-6 year olds. Bella also LOVES Hank. We borrow mainly the books on CD from the library. Once again, the library rocks! Hank has his own vocabulary that has found it's way into our language. The bonus on the CDs is that the author sings a song or two. Hilarious! (Could I possibly use hilarious one more time?) Quick, check your library, Amazon or whatever you have and listen or read one of these books today! You will thank yourself.

Bella

Sorry this is a little late. I had needy kids all weekend!

Bella's Birth
We found out I was pregnant in May 2002. From that first day I was convinced the baby was a girl. I just knew. I had promised back on my wedding day that as soon as I got pregnant I would tell my medium sister first. She was babysitting for a family so I hurried over to let her know. I handed her the pregnancy test and she asked what it was. I should have known a junior in high school wouldn't have a clue! It finally clicked and she was super excited. We went to tell my mom later. She was very excited also. The news trickled down pretty quickly. From weeks 6-12 I was incredibly sick. The rest of the pregnancy was very uneventful thankfully. I felt great minus those six weeks. On January 15th I had my last prenatal visit. I would be 42 weeks on Saturday and my midwives said it was time to get the show on the road. I decided to try a castor oil induction the following morning. For those of you who don't know you drink 2 oz mixed in with juice take a hot shower and repeat. I started this just before lunch on Thursday. I had to drive to Walgreens just a few minutes away in the middle of a huge snowstorm! The girl who rang me up said her mom did the same thing to go into labor with her. That made me feel a little better. The rest of the day was pretty boring. I was anxious for something to happen. My darling husband painted my toenails for me and we went to bed around 9pm. I woke up at 1am thinking I just peed on myself a little bit. I hurried to the bathroom and peed but it felt weird kind of like a UTI. I thought, oh great I won't go into labor but I will have a UTI. After another one of these sensations about 5 minutes later I realized they were actually contractions. They didn't feel how I expected them to feel. I woke DH about a half hour later. We timed the contractions for about a half hour. They were coming every five to seven minutes and very mild. I couldn't sleep so we started a movie "About A Boy". That movie will always have special significance to me! We finished the movie and by the end I was getting uncomfortable. We called our midwife to let her know what was happening. A friend (nurse/doula) who photographed the birth for us came around 6 am to start my antibiotics for Group B strep. She also checked me. I was at 4 cm. That was easy! We called my mom to come over and a dear friend who was acting as a doula for us. I labored in the tub for quite a while. The contractions were easy at this point just requiring a bit of breathing. Around 10 or 11 our midwives came. Baby was doing great so they went to the other room and just periodically checked the baby's heart rate. I sat on the birth ball for a while and then back into the tub. Around 3:30pm I was tired and really uncomfortable through the contractions. I thought I couldn't possibly do this any longer I was so tired. My support people were amazing! I had to do lunges with my foot up on the tub to help the baby descend. This was extremely difficult. Thank you R for encouraging me and telling me you had to do the same thing! I got back in the tub and after a few minutes told my midwives I needed to push. It is such an incredible feeling for your body to take over! I pushed for about 45 minutes. After not being able to do anything pushing was wonderful! I felt focused and ready to see my baby. I was able to sleep between contractions. Finally, they could see a good portion of the head. I reached down and felt her head. "I can feel hair!" One more push and her head was out. I had another contraction right away and pushed her body out. I caught her and brought her up out of the water. "It's a girl. She looks just like Dad." Everyone (but my mom and DH) mistook this comment to mean she looked like my DH. She looked a lot like my Dad. Definitely my side of the family. She was so beautiful and perfect. Covered in vernix! I don't think she was as late as everyone though. She weighed 8 pounds even and was 21 inches long. She was very content and alert from the beginning. My sweet baby! I love you sweet girl!

Sleep Deprivation

I am so tired I feel sick! Mr. Biscuit has decided to not sleep. He has a bit of a stuffy nose but no other symptoms. I took him to the doctor in case he had an ear infection. Nope! If this is any indication of future illness behaviour we are in for some serious trouble! Later today I shall post Bella's birth story in honor of her sixth birthday!

Help

Hey all of you friends, family and stalkers, I am looking for a pressure canner and any canning jars you may have. We are planning on a bigger garden this year and I am hoping to can and freeze as much as possible. Any gardening tips would be great also. Last year we had zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, and bell peppers. Delish! This year we are planning on all of that plus asparagus and snap peas.

Christmasish

I can't believe how big he is! Almost 4 months!

The girls with my small collection of Snow Village houses!

Sweetie Pie, Honey Bunch

Major pet peeve of mine...salespeople who are the same age or younger calling you sweetie, honey, hon or any other term of endearment!!!! I want to kick them in the shin! Now if it is an elderly person I can handle that.

And I shall name you George...

Bonus points if you can tell me where the title comes from! I have decided to rename my children! Not in real life...only on my blog! These new names are based on things I actually call my children! Eldest - Bella Middle - Matilda Monkey Baby - Mr. Biscuit. I really love nicknames for my children and have about twelvity-three names for each of them.