It's been too long with far too little to say

I was just reading my sister-in-law's blog and admiring how much she wrights and thinking about how awesome I am and how much I should be writing about my super interesting life how little I have to say about my life which I find sometimes interesting but may not be so interesting to others... So I decided to blog! Yay me! Also there will be cute pictures of adorable children so enjoy.

I was recently released from the Relief Society Presidency in my branch and called to be a sunbeam teacher in the Primary.  I am both relieved and super excited.  You see, with little children they will tell you exactly what they are thinking, and if they like you or no,t or think your outfit is dumb looking, or if they don't like your lesson plan, and by next Sunday they will have totally forgotten if you made any major mistakes... and all of life's problems can all be solved with fruit snacks.  Relief Society not so much. However, I will say is was a huge learning and growing experience to serve in the presidency. I was able to take a good long hard look at myself and who I wanted to be when I grow up. I might get there some day.

Andrew graduates from his Masters program in Athletic Training next month. No idea what we are doing with our life after that. He is applying to more Physical Training schools and taking the test to be a certified Athletic Trainer and we will see from there. He just started running again (last time being last year leading up to the St George Marathon) and he even found himself a running buddy.  His running buddy goes 3 miles then Andrew drops him off and goes 3 more on his own. His birthday is this Friday! He will be 28! I'm taking him on a date that night to celebrate. Which is a pretty big deal because we hardly go on dates due to my baby sitter anxiety issues. 

 

The kids are still as hilarious as ever.  Anne is working on her ABC's slowly but surely.  She is the resident know it all at our house.  She also never stops talking.  Andrew once noted that if she worked as hard as her mouth she would get a lot more done.  True.  She has had a lot of headaches over the past few months and that has us concerned.  We are working with her neurologist to see if we can help her.  She is on a medication that helps with the headaches and also a bonus side affect is that she may have an increased appetite! That could never hurt our 28 lb 4 year old.  The other day she explained to Dallas that fish don't have names except for Nemo and Marlin.  Also, fish can't wear bracelets because they don't have hands. 

 

 

Dallas is still potty training.  Shiloh is still trying to get up the courage to trust him all day in underwear.  He is funny and intense and crazy.  Whenever I say "I love you Dallas" he always responds with "I love Daddy and Walter and Anne and Mommy." This was frustrating to me so I tried to teach him to say just I love you Mommy and all he got out of it was that he could only love one person at a time. So now he says "I love you Mommy, not Daddy, Anne, or Walter." He got a skateboard from one of our friends and mostly he carries it around just to look cool. 

 

Walter is the cutest little cuddly flirt of a baby I have ever met.  His four little teeth on top are always on display. He has a bit of an over bite so he just sucks in his bottom lip and smiles all day.  Melts my heart even when he is trying to pull my hair out.  He also likes to bite. Mostly he just bites clothes playfully but occasionally gets skin. Ouch. He loves wrestling with Anne while she just lays there on the floor not fighting back. Not so much Dallas. He fights back.  He can say uh uh and uh oh. That's about it.

 

 

Good Story here. I was upstairs will all the kids trying my hand at cutting Dal's hair.  Walter found a dark chocolate orange and ate a ton of it without me noticing (he was only 3 feet away from me) until Anne noticed and pointed out the mess occurring. I let him continue because it kept him occupied while I was finishing the hack job I inflicted on Dal. Then I took pictures. He was pretty proud of himself. I find more and more that Walter and I like all the same foods. You see my other kids love tomatoes and avocados and spinach... yuck. Walter will spit out an avocado and go for the dark chocolate orange. That's my boy.

 



Maybe I don't write so much because I always write lengthy grammatically incorrect essays! Few. Matthew if you are reading this try not to cringe. I won't make any promises about posting more often so my posts aren't so long... but you can always check back just in cases.

Looking back a whole year! and some short comments...

 

I think I have this very same picture with Anne.

I think this was the first time they met.

Dallas takes pink baths.

Tiny happy Walter

 

The Easter hunt!

 

Anne potty trained so she got a bike!

Dallas' birthday bubble machine

Walter meeting Nana, and his cousin who is younger and bigger than him.

They like to dress up. Dallas' costume combos are always the most creative... a fairy fix it guy.

Memorial day tradition. Dallas and Dallas.

That one time we dressed as cows to go get free food.

Anne got a black eye at the park and loves her brother.

Dallas sucks his pointer finger and loves his blanket.

These are their helmets for going 4-wheeling at the cabin.

Anne is a hooper hero and Dallas is a bat-fixit-fairy

Walter is just crazy.

That time the kids begged to wear my lipstick.

Dallas the king in his king robes and hat sitting on this thrown that is only dirty laundry. He comes up with this stuff on his own I promise.

Anne's version of repunzel. Note the frying pan and the monkey that is actually a chameleon.

Dallas drew a unicorn.

Halloween. Just try and guess what I am... I am a last minute my swimsuit and a mask might make me look like a superhero person thing

Stickerface, kinda looks like one of Liz's kids.

Anne started it.

Walters just crazy.

Dallas the fairy ballerina elephant

Anne the much more conventional fairy princess.

Hope you all feel caught up. Mostly I just needed to empty my camera card for the holidays!

Why Do I Always Blog About Stacey?! And Other Random Thoughts.

 

 

Found this the other day while looking for a good picture to put on my new debit card (not sure which one of my kids lost/ate the last one).... Hmmm this could make a good debit card don't you think?

 

We have a garden this year!  No pictures sorry.  We planted summer squash, onions, cucumbers, and green beans.  So far the onions never came up, a few of the cucumbers died and none have born fruit... or vegetable for that matter.  The summer squash has a few baby squashes one we ate yesterday, and the green beans have been harvested 3x already!  Also, I found a neglected (I hope its neglected) plot that was popping up volunteer veggies.  It needed attention.  So I watered it and replanted the vegetables in rows.  Now I really hope it was ignored, because I may have just messed up some free style gardeners hot mess of a plot.  I got dirt under my nails and up to my elbows and I LOVED IT!  I didn't know I liked gardening.  I do.  I wanna go read a book and figure out why our plants are not growing well and how to better prepare the soil and when to water... My adopted garden has tons of tiny baby carrots, tons of radishes, a squash of some sort I think, what looks like lettuce, Something else that I don't know what it is, and a dead onion that I wonder if I can bring back to life.  As you can see, I'm really enjoying it. 

 

I taught a water aerobics class today!  I think I fumbled a bit but luckily I only had 3 or 4 attendees and 3 of the 4 were under 12 yrs old.  So I think they were mostly excited to be at the pool. 

 

Anne has woken up dry from nap time for so long I can't remember the last accident.  Today she even woke up dry in the morning!  I told her maybe she should start wearing panties to bed... she said she needed to be bigger. She loves to mother Dallas. Frequently I will say something to him and she repeats it word for word but louder and cuter and with poor pronunciation.  So helpful.  She is getting better at tolerating me doing her hair everyday.  I'm getting better at doing hair.  She loves to talk.  I love to listen. She is shy of new people.  She wants to be a fix it guy and fix elevators and light bulb when she grows up. 

 

Dallas talks a lot... I don't understand 30% of what he says.  He is nervous of most things that could be slightly dangerous like going up ladders... not at all shy about jumping off the couch and landing on his bum hard.  Go figure.  He loves to go for walks.  Anytime we ask what the kids wanna do before dinner "Go for walk!" He also like to eat every meal while standing up in his booster at the table... we are working on it.  He loves Walter.  I came to pick Dallas and Anne up from Grandma's after a Dr appointment with Walter and the first thing he did was pull up the car seat cover and woke up sleepy Walter.  Then he proceeded to cuddle/crush him with love. Did I get any I missed you Mom or hug or anything? No.

 

Walter weighs 15 lbs! He is just the smiliest happiest little guy ever.  Except when he is hungry... don't mess with him when he is hungry. He is an expert roller! I think he might end up being our earliest crawler... but i don't remember when Dallas started. He won't take a bottle to save his life or a binky to save my sanity... but he sure loves sucking his toes or anything else he can get in his mouth.  He loves Andrew and smiles at him any chance he gets... even when Andrew isn't paying attention.  He also loves to pull Anne's hair and eat it. 



Andrew, painting away his summer as always.  He has painted every summer since he was 16 except the two years on his mission.  I think he is ready for school to start.  He is also training for the St George Marathon this October.  He misses a few training runs here and there mostly because we stay up to late watching So You Think You Can Dance after the kids are asleep.  Last night I had was doing something away from home after the kids were in bed and he did the dishes and tidied up and read his scriptures before playing Civilizations on the computer.  He said he figured he should be useful before sitting down and doing nothing. WHAT?! I love him.  He does not play computer games often, but I'm totally down with it if the house gets cleaned first!  What a good guy. 

Whelp, that's it. 

My Life By The Numbers... also know as Stacey has too much free time on her hands

Things crammed in my pockets while trying to carry three kids down the stairs
8: three bottles, one people, spoon, phone, two blocks

Number of diapers changed a day average
15

Number of times I've been to the bathroom by myself this week
maybe 3

Number of things found in Anne's case/purson/purse
two necklaces, some play makeup and maybe 1,000 goldfish crackers, one diaper wipe, a block, and that is all I can remember but I'm sure there was more.

Number of times I shower each week
3-4

Number of times Walter has smiled at us today
7ish

Average naps I get a week
3

Number of naps I need a week
7 I'm not lazy... CNN told me I need this many or I will go crazy and need medical attention.

How many naps Walter gets a day
4ish

How many times I have thought about cutting my hair this week
to much

Strange dreams I have had while Walter is drooling on me in the middle of the night
3 (one involved Travis being a polygamist and he also ran a successful company with really relaxed/unprofessional working environment... I blame the drooling baby)

Episodes of Star Trek Generations watched with Andrew after kids are asleep
20

Times Anne let me do her hair this week
2

Trips to a store of any kind this week
5

Times Anne and Dallas dumped out bottles or sippy cups of water on every flat surface in the living room
4

Naps Anne and Dallas have taken today
0-still talking to each other...

Times Dallas has told me he loved me this week
2

How much I love being a stay at home mom
A bunch

Amount of garage space organized
some

Pounds Walter has gained since birth
4 1/2 ish  he is now 8lb 8ish oz

Oz's of milk in the freezer
250ish

How much I could make selling all of that milk
$300ish

Number of times Walter has slept in his own bed instead of on me or in the bouncy seat
0

Number of Pizza stones cracked
1

Number of tasty homemade how awesome is Shiloh pizzas made on pizza stone
1

Bags of cereal/gold fish spilled all over the floor while making said pizza and being awesome
2

How many times Dallas poops everyday
4

Number of times Stacey checks my blog for new posts
too much

Cute pictures I will leave you with
a few

 

 

 

 

 

Food For Facebook Thought

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/25/opinion/rushkoff-why-im-quitting-facebook/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Proof that I have been right all along!

unexpected arrival

 

Walter James Stradley

Born December 28 2012

12:27 PM

4lb 2 oz

18 inches long

 

story to follow....

 

Ok its following.  Felt more appropriate to just add it here since, I don't know it has been 7 months since Walter was born.  I'm not so on top of things I guess.  So we all knew Walter was due a month after Stacey and Travis were to be joined in holy matrimony and we all knew I'm no good a making it to my due date.  Everyone said, don't you do it Shiloh, hold him in there! I tried. I really did.  We even took hypno birthing classes with every intention of going natural and on time!!! Did it matter.  Nope.  There was no warning, no early labor signs, no nothing.  Morning of Stacey's glorious day I was up at 4ish feeling really uncomfortable, so I took a warm bath thinking this is strange maybe I just need to relax.  I've never felt contractions you see, so I had no idea what was going on.  I think my water kinda broke too (just a little mind you), but again, never experienced it so didn't think anything of it.  I started getting ready to go to Logan and was all dressed and Andrew was in his suit, but I was experiencing contractions 4 minutes apart!  So we went to the hospital instead.  Something was wrong I thought and I would rather not get stuck in a canyon not knowing what was going on.  I felt really bad, like maybe I was crazy and I should just suck it up and go to the wedding.  We had been at the hospital twice that week already! Once for decreased fetal movement and again for a regular scheduled appointment.  I got there and they had me do some fetal monitoring.  Walter was in distress with the contractions so they gave me something that was supposed to slow labor if it wasn't true labor.  It was, so the medicine didn't work.  They checked my cervix and I was dialated to a 3.  They decided because Walter was having heart decelerations while I was contracting and I was having some stabbing lower right side abdominal pain that this was going to be an emergency C-section.  I was trying so hard to breath and do my zone relaxation techniques.  They hooked me up to an epidural but a low one.  I could still tell when I was contracting.  Andrew and I kept watching the screen to see if Walters heart rate would keep dropping with every contraction.  We noticed that I was contracting every 2 minutes.  Everyone was all suited up to go to the operation room including Andrew.  The Doctor came in to ask if we had any final questions and I asked her to please check me again and if it would be at all possible to deliver without C-section.   She checked and laughed... Walter was crowning.  So she told me to push!  She said I would have probably delivered in the hall way if she hadn't checked me.  That would have been nuts!  I think I maybe pushed 3 times?  Maybe I should consult Andrew, he remembers details better than I do.  Anyway, Thats all folks.  We sent a picture to everyone at the wedding lucheon happy wedding day Stacey! So from 4am-Noon I was in labor.  Walter spent the next 3 weeks in the hospital learning to eat and breath.  It was rough.  I don't like NICU stays.  I have many journals pages full of stress from that month.  He is happy and healthy today and we love our little family even though every stinkin cute one of them has landed in the NICU. 

Another Installment