Kate's Two!

Our cute little girl is finally two.  She's already showing us what the terrible two's are all about. She is into everything.  Grayson has started using Jared's favorite nick name for her, "child of darkness." Despite it all, you can't help loving this girl. Her smile and eyes just melt your heart.  And, even though she doesn't say much she has a big personality and a love for life that draws you in.  She loves to cuddle, look at books, dance, be tickled, go for rides, animals, and be outside.  

She was thrilled to get a new bike so she can ride with Grayson and Lydia.

First Two Weeks

Our first two weeks have been crazy but we are surviving thanks to the help of grandmas and neighbors.  I don't know what I am going to do once I get back into my normal routine. Claire has been a great baby and lets me get some sleep at night.  

We had a very festive St. Patty's Day.  The kids loved looking for leprechauns and eating green eggs and ham.  Lydia was thrilled to be matching with the baby. Grayson learned to step dance at school, he was so excited to show us his new moves and asked, "do you know how to dance in Irish."  We ended the day with a corned beef and cabbage dinner.  Not such a big hit with the kiddo.

 

My kind aunt Jammie, who loves to spoil Lydia rotten, invited her to the Beauty and the Beast musical. All the little girls were encouraged to dress up like a princess.  She cherishes this little rose given to her by Belle. She came home singing all the songs at the top of her lungs.   

Kate finally made an attempt to get out of her crib by herself.  I think it will be her last for a while. I heard the thump and found her crying frozen the way she landed.  I knew she had hurt something but seamed fine. After watching her for a day I realized that she wasn't using her left hand and would cry if you touched her wrist.  Being the bad mom I am I still didn't worry about it, until Sunday night when my family saw her crawling around using her left arm to hold herself up instead of her wrist.  With everyone telling me to take her in, she had x-rays done last night and found he wrist is broken. It's just a small hairline fracture, but she is now wearing a splint.  The stinker has already taken it off twice so I have to watch her.

She's Here

Clarissa Jayne Wright

Born: Tuesday March 10th

8 pounds 7 ounces

22 inches long

After a few hours of regular contractions and a few extremely painful contractions we went into the hospital Monday night (Tuesday morning). I was only a four but they admitted me anyway because they were worried about me going fast because it was my fourth baby.  After several more hours and lots more contractions, I was still a four. No surprise, since I can never get over that hump on my own. They finally decided to up the patocin.  Clarissa came a couple hours later. I had the privilege to experience some of the labor for an hour when my epidural wore off.  To anyone who choses natural child birth, I am sorry but you are crazy.  She came out in three pushes and brought the most beautiful spirit with her.  We are all doing great. A big thanks to everyone who helped with the kids.

No Baby Yet!

I was waiting to post till I knew what was going on. I wish I finally had a plan but I don't. This last week was both amazing and very hard for me. It was amazing because I experienced life with one child for nine days. It was hard because I was told by my doctor that he would induce me last week, but went back on that after an ultrasound.
I have a high amount of amniotic fluid and my doctor wanted to check it out with an ultrasound. They were only suppose to check the fluid but measured the baby for fun and found her to be almost 9 pounds. My doctor said that it probably wasn't accurate but wouldn't induce me because there is a higher risk of c-section when you induce with a larger baby. Lets just say I am emotional and left the doctors office crying. My doctor is hoping I'll go into labor on my own any moment, but for now I'll have my fluids checked again on Wednesday and then meet with him afterwards to schedule being induced. I have little hopes in going into labor on my own as I have never been able to do it with the other kids. I have tried everything to make this happen and nothing is working. I am honestly getting tired of torturing myself.
Now that I've gotten all the the depressing news out of the way. I have to brag about what an awesome sister and parents I have. Tami and I were trying to figure out a time when I could send my kids out to Georgia to spend some time with her kids as they were dying to see each other. After giving it some thought we convinced our parents to fly them out with them on their way to Korea last week. They were already going to have a stop over in Atlanta so they agreed to drop them off and pick them up on the way home. We thought it would be perfect timing since I was going to be having my baby and things would be a lot easier with the kids gone. I don't know how Tami managed my kids with three of her own, but my kids had the best time. Even though I didn't get my baby, I had a very relaxing week. I took lots of baths, read a couple books, enjoyed good one on one time with Kate. I am very grateful to have had some time to myself before I become a mother of four. THANK YOU TAMI, from all of us. The kids are already talking about how excited for your kids to spend time here this summer.

My parents brought this cute outfit home from their trip to Korea for Kate to dress-up in. We've put her in it a couple of times and both times she's had a major meltdown when we've taken it back off. She didn't seem to excited to have Grayson and Lydia home, I think she loved having us to herself. As an update, Kate's tubes seem to have done the trick she is talking more and more each day. She still has the vocabulary of a one year old, but at least I can now say she has a vocabulary. We hope things continue to go as well. Hopefully next time I post I'll have pictures of our beautiful baby girl.

I want my body back!

I've been telling people, I'm in no hurry to have this baby, because honestly I am scared to death. I don't know what I am going to do with a fourth child. We really are not ready.  Unfortunately I have crossed the point were I don't care that I'm not ready, I need to get this baby out of me. Nights are really hard for me. I have contractions all day long but as the day goes on they get worse and worse. Every night I have to deal with regular painful contractions that don't go away until the middle of the night. I can't imagine four more weeks of this.  I'm tired of being tired, feeling like I might die because I went up stairs, hitting people with my belly, having a foot in my ribs, and people asking when I'm going to have this thing. Oh and did I mention that I'm pretty sure I have gallstones because if I don't watch what I eat I get extremely painful attacks. 

Now that I have that off my chest, here are some of the other things that have been happening in our busy lives. 

We finally got Kate in for hearing tests, thinking that maybe all her ear infections might have something  to do with the fact that she doesn't talk.  They gave her three tests and she failed all three.  I am so relieved that this might be something we can fix. We met with an ear nose and throat doctor and she is getting tubes next week. Both her pediatrician and the ears, nose and throat doctor, said that there should be a dramatic change in her speech immediately after the surgery. We have our fingers crossed. She is such a social little girl with so much personality that we can't wait to see what she has to say. 

We are so proud of our Aggies.  Jared and I have been lucky to go to three of there games in the last month. We figured we better get some date night in now before we have too many kids that we can't get a sitter. We went once with our good friends the Perry's, once just us, and this last time we took my sister Shelly and her husband Chad. Chad doesn't like basketball, in fact he kinda hates it. Jared thought that if he could get Chad to go to one game in the spectrum he would be converted. I didn't think it would work but, you would have thought Chad was a life long Aggie fan the way he was yelling and cheering. He even bought an Aggie T-shirt to wear during the game. 

Grayson was a duck for a program at school. He really got into all the dancing parts, I wish I had gotten it on film. (Not really an option when you have a two year old sitting on your pregnant lap.)

We are all enjoying winter. The kids love playing in the snow. Kate runs as fast as she can and starts shoveling handfuls of snow into her mouth, before I can stop her, every time we go outside.

I've been nesting, trying to get all the loose ends tied up around our new house. I'm not done but I am to a point were we are comfortable and I am content. I am especially grateful to my busy mom who has spent many hours helping me do all my projects. She helped me sew all my curtains and recently spent a week with me reupholstering a chair for our basement. We LOVE our home especially when it's full of friends and family.

WELCOME 2009!

I don't know what is coming. Will we survive another child? Will Kate start talking? Will Jared get his dream job or be stuck teaching another year of TV West? Will our house ever be finished? I don't really know or care.  I'm finally getting to a point in life were the unknown doesn't scare me. I know everything with turn out just as it should.  I have my family and the gospel of Jesus Christ, what more could I want. Each year I ask, "can life get better than this", we are so blessed.  We send our love and best wishes to all of you this new year.  

Holiday Highlights

We had a great Christmas and Holiday Break. Here are some of my favorite things...

BRUNCH WITH SANTA:

I wasn't sure I could do the party this year it just seamed like to much, but after my kids kept talking about it like it was going to happen I decided I couldn't let the tradition go. Everything turned out great and I loved having more space for all those kids. Luckily our basement was finished a couple days before the party. I love seeing all my friends I don't ever see.

SPENDING TIME WITH THE COX FAMILY:

We don't see Jared's sister and her family enough.  As you can see my kids love every minute with their cousins.

SKATING WITH SANTA:

Luckily my kids have great aunts and uncles to help on the ice. Jared can't skate because of his leg and I tried skating while pregnant with Kate (not worth it).  Grayson and Lydia had a great time but I was shocked at how much Kate loved it.  We cheated and just let Kate slide on the ice in her boots. She couldn't get enough of the ice.

ACTING OUT THE NATIVITY CHRISTMAS EVE: Always a favorite. It wasn't the same though with out Max attacking everyone like last year.

HAVING TAMI STAY WITH ME: I don't know what I'll do when the Kamerath's don't come home for Christmas or decide our house is too crazy.

KATE'S POPEYE SMILE: Kate picked up this funny Popeye smile for all of her Christmas and Christmas Eve pictures.

SEEING WAY TOO MUCH OF JOEY IN HIS ONE PIECE PJ's

MY JEDI KNIGHTS: I made these robes for the boys. I was so proud of me. I made them without a pattern and no measurements. I didn't want the boys to know I was making them, so it was a Christmas miracle they fit perfectly.  

FUNNY COMMENTS:

I can't remember all the funny things my kids said over the Holidays, but Grayson told us he was getting a Transformer because it was what he "ordered".   

Lydia on the other hand got just what she had wished for.

One of our 12 days of Christmas Presents was the Santa Clause Movies with Tim Allen.  After watching the show a few times Lydia was convinced that my Dad was Santa.  She's been calling him Santa ever since and asking him the funniest questions. I thought it would go away but as of yesterday he is still Santa and not Papa Jerry.

A VACATION AT HOME:

Jared had two weeks off. It was soooooo nice to have him home. He was nice enough to take on all six of mine and Tami's kids a few times so we could get away.  He cleaned moved a lot of stuff around for parties without any complaints.  Usually when we have blocks of time off and nothing going on we take off for St. George. I am so glad that we didn't do that after New Years instead we just hung around watching movies, playing the Wii, taking naps, and being together as a family. I don't think I went anywhere or showered for three days. It was great. 

Grayson's girlfriend

So Grayson has a little girlfriend at school. When he first told me I thought it was cute. Then he started talking about her everyday. Then came this conversation. "Mom, today Sarah gave me a pres.... never mind (present)." Grayson likes to say he has a present for me and  then give me a hug and kiss, so I knew where this was going.  So I asked, "did she give you a hug?" 

"yes."

"Did she give you a kiss?"

"yes."

"Where?"

He then points to his mouth. 

"On the lips?"

"Yes."

"Did you like it?"

"Yes."

So now this changes everything.  Luckily we had this conversation on our way to have lunch with Jared. I told Jared to deal with it. Jared told him he couldn't kiss girls on the lips that were his age. I was thinking great so he can kiss all the seven and five year olds he wants. Grayson agreed and told us the next day that he kissed Sarah on the hand instead of the lips. 

I know most kids have harmless boyfriends and girlfriends at this age but I didn't want him obsessing over some girl at school and forgetting about all his guy friends.  Everyday he would talk endlessly about this Sarah it was really annoying. 

A couple weeks later Sarah had a birthday and invited Grayson. It was again all he talked about all week counting down the days and hours till he could go.  It was a drop off party so who knows what happened. When I picked him up he told me that he and Sarah kept hiding so they could kiss. He told me "We didn't want anyone to see us." I can't believe I am dealing with this.  

Things have slowed down the last couple of weeks he started talking about Sarah less and less. He hasn't talked about her in a few days. I did ask him if Sarah was still his girlfriend and he said yes. I hoping he has moved onto playing superheroes with his guy friends again.

His teacher sent this picture home from school the other day. I hope they aren't like this all day at school.

 

Celebrating Christmas!

GETTING OUR TREE

Last week we finally got our tree. It was an interesting experience. There was fresh powder on the mountain side, so I wasn't able to climb up and pick the tree. Instead I stood at the bottom yelling back and forth with Jared. Apparently all  the trees I wanted were way to big. In the end we just picked one close to the bottom,so we could get out of Schuster before dark. 

Shelly was so nice to care for the kids who were freezing to death.

When got home Jared and I had a little argument on weather to trim the top or bottom of the tree off. I decided to compromise and let him cut the bottom  off.  When he brought what was left of the tree in we both started laughing. It was the tallest charlie brown tree you'd ever seen. Luckily we got Jared's mom a tree as well. So we switched her and I didn't have to cry because Jared ruined my tree.  The other tree was a little skinny as well, but still looks pretty when all is said and done.  Next maybe we'll actually pick our tree in the fall, so we don't have as many problems. 

THE NUTCRACKER

I've been waiting for years for Lydia to be old enough to go to the nutcracker.  She did really well. She only got restless at the end, when she started saying "this is boring," over and over again.  We all enjoyed a fun snowy afternoon to lunch and the theater.

CHOCOLATES!

This last week was chocolate week. We had a lot of fun this year making chocolates until the last day when we were all sick of chocolate and annoyed with each other. We also really missed having Tami with us. She dipped all of her chocolates after Thanksgiving before heading back to Georgia. It just wasn't the same without her. Hopefully next year we can work it out so we can do them all together.

This is what Kate looked like the whole week every morning I wondered weather it was worth it to put her in clean clothes.  We gave her one bite of chocolate on the first day and she spent the rest of the week crying for more. As you can see we gave in more than we should have. She's been on detox since we finished. 

Lydia loved doing her Christmas program at school. I love that her school puts on an old fashioned school program.  I love that she goes to a private school where they can not only say the word Christmas but sing songs like Silent Night. How refreshing. She did a great job learning her lines and singing all the songs.

SANTA:

I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of this guy this year.  We've already seen him twice and I know we'll see him a few more times before Christmas. Kate wasn't a big fan as you can see.