Life Is Good!

i've been slacking on the blog, i know. it's nice to know that a few people do actually read this :)
last week the kids and i were busy being outside all day- from morning til dark. ty had 2 days off school, and i had the best time just sitting in the sunshine and watching them play together. i can't tell you how much better i feel after some sun therapy.





a few of those days i actually got myself to go for walks around the nieghborhood........it's funny to hear the neighbors' comments when they see there's another baby on the way. "so, another one, huh?" ....yep.
we have one other family with young children on our street, and they have 2 kids. i watch their 6 yr old on tuesdays, and when he found out we were having another baby he said, "how many kids are you going to have??!!" this same child is constantly asking me how the baby is going to get out. i've tried to tell him that well, he should just ask his mom, because, you know, she had him. to which he answers, "well, you had ty, shaeya, and tekoa, so i'm asking YOU." what do you say? i usually just use the distraction method with my kids- when God says it's time, then we go to the hospital, and the baby is born, and look there's a bird right out that window!! it works great for my kids but apparently not for all kids.

anyway, things have been going great here- apart from one random puke in the van for tekoa (she now calls herself the pukey girl.......okay i may have started that one......"mom, here's the pukey girl! she's right here! she puked in the van!")



and one incident with hand soap- i got her dressed, did her hair, and just took a minute to put myself together during which she pumped out half the hand soap in the bathroom and rubbed it all over her face and hair and the counter and mirror.
but otherwise, life is good!!

-it's almost april, which means it's almost may (baby!)
-we've traded socks and shoes for flip flops (that's 8 socks per day i don't have to wash!)
-i'm not pasty white anymore
-spring break is coming up- i get to sleep in! (okay, maybe)
-only 9 more weeks til i can have a bowl of popcorn and drink a big diet pepsi without puking
-i had a wonderful and rejuvenating "girl's night out" last night that involved lots of good food and a hot tub and (strangely) a cat giving birth. :)

Happy Birthday Tekoa!!

i can't believe that my baby is 2!! i would be such a wreck if i didn't know there was another one coming. it's truly amazing how fast those first years go, yet i feel like she's been around forever. i can hardly remember what my life was like before tekoa, but i do know that it was a lot calmer. she keeps me on my toes, that's for sure...... i'm smiling to myself right now just thinking of the other day (this was so not funny at the time, but i can smile about it now). i had just sat down on the couch with a book i've been trying to finish, when tekoa came up to me daintily sipping from a princess tea cup. "i got water, mommy, it's good!" i reminded her that she's not allowed to get water by herself, and then asked shaeya to go into the bathroom to make sure tekoa had shut the water all the way off. shaeya headed in there, and then yelled back "uh, mom.....i don't think that water came from the sink." sure enough, the sink was dry- but the toilet had water all over. so gross. she got a good scrubbing, but it still took me awhile to be able to kiss her again :)

and, i just want to mention that since i started this post, she has climbed on me and back down about 10 times, unrolled almost an entire roll of toilet paper, brought me a few things from the garbage, and has not quit talking about shaeya, her new toys, and a penguin who's crying somewhere. when i ask her to go find some toys to play with she says, "no, koa's busy." yes, you are tekoa.

anyway, we had a birthday party for her on tuesday night and she had a great time. when she first woke up from her nap and saw all the decorations she said, "aw, that's so cute!

i really wish i would have videod us singing happy birthday to her- it was so great. she was dancing and hopping- she could not hold still for a second because she was so excited to blow out the candles.




i wish i had half her joy and excitement and ENERGY.




she opened her presents -with the help of all her cousins and siblings, and then worked hard to keep them all to herself ...."that's koa's! give it to koa!!" (she still has to fight for them, shaeya has tried to claim a few).




of course we had cake and ice cream, then let the kids play with some little animal sponges in water. tekoa was the only one who came away completely soaked.



she had a really good time, and is still singing happy birthday to herself :)

Wal-Mart Disaster

i think i left off on sunday, with me feeling a bit better.
that night, tyden told us that he was feeling sick again and needed to lie down for awhile. he curled up on the couch after dinner and fell asleep, so i knew he really was feeling sick.

i was pretty bummed, but at least i knew he had monday off from school for the pulaski guy's birthday.

so that night we put the kids to bed, and i was once again woken up by tekoa crying. i went to check on her, and she was burning up. here we go again.

monday morning i had to get shaeya off to school, even with tyden, tekoa, and i all not feeling great- and we desperately needed some food in the house.
we were down to pretty much nothing, since i had been sick since wednesday night.

tekoa was pretty out of it, and still had a fever, but i thought she could make it for a quick trip out, and i was really thinking that it was probably just an ear infection anyway.

so somehow i managed to load up all the kids -i was still pretty weak and groggy- and we got shaeya to school.
then we pulled up to wal-mart.
tyden said "do we really have to do this?" and i told him if he wanted to eat today, then yes, we had to.

we got out of the car and made our way into the store- i felt really bad for them cause it was freezing outside- but we hurried inside and i grabbed a cart and stuck tekoa in it.

i was just starting to buckle her in when she started puking.
all over.
all over me, herself, the cart, and the floor. i just stood there looking at her, wanting to cry.

there was no one around (thankfully) so picked her up and carried her to the first unfortunate wal-mart employee that i saw and told him i was really, really sorry but my daughter had just puked over at the carts.

then i turned around and walked out of the store with tyden following behind saying "but what about our food???"
i told him that we couldn't get food today, we just had to go home.
it was a fun ride home with 2 of us covered in puke, but we made it, and i got us all cleaned up (and the van, too) and then we sat on the couch and watched elmo's world til it was time to go get shaeya.

in case you are all worried, over the next few days, we did eventually all get better, and we did eventually get some groceries.
i really, really hope that was the last sickness for us for the season.

only one good thing came of it all......i lost 3 pounds (you can TOTALLY tell when you look at me- i look way less huge than i did before :)

it's so encouraging to have some warm weather, it's encouraging that it's march, and it's encouraging that i now have 7 months down and only 2 & 1/2 more to go.... i'm getting very anxious to meet this baby.

More Fun With The Flu

well, i guess i left off with wednesday....backing things up a bit, i have been leading the children's music for my church on wednesday nights. and this particular wednesday night was our performance for the adults in the church.
i was a little nervous but mostly just really, really tired. i couldn't figure out why i was so exhausted, and i had a hard time dragging myself to church. (dave had to miss it in order to stay home with our 2 sick children).

well, the performance went just fine- the kids all did a great job, and i think everyone else enjoyed it.
but by the time i got home, i was ready to crash. and i did. only to wake up a few hours later feeling really, really awful.

of course, another blessing of pregnancy is that any little sickness that the kids get i always get too, only much worse somehow.
so thursday, friday, and saturday i spent mostly lying on the couch with a fever while the children ran wild.
you can only imagine what the house looked like with 3 kids having free reign- luckily i was too out of it to really notice.
so, thursday, i couldn't hold any food down (the kids never puked, so why was i puking??) it's a whole different level of sickness when you have a 2 1/2 lb. baby inside pumeling your stomach, and then children on the outside wanting to be right in your face, and laying on you, and following you as you run to the bathroom to throw up.

and then saturday was pretty rough.
dave had to work all day.....i mean like early morning until late at night.
so i was alone, with the kids, feeling the worst yet.
poor tekoa learned to just go to one of the other kids when she needed something.

i vaguely remember her asking shaeya to take her to the bathroom, and asking tyden to get her some milk....poor kid. and a couple of times shaeya came up to me and said, "i'm just ready for my daddy to come home".
i was too.
i almost called him a couple of times, but i knew he had a lot going on, and i had told him we'd be okay.

my mom thinks i'm too much like her, and i don't realize when it's just time to ask for help. when she found out how sick i was she let me know that yep, that would have been a really good time to ask her to come help me out.
so she came on sunday -dave had to work at the NHS booth at the home show for the day, so it would have been another long day alone.
she bathed the kids (i wont say how long it had been since they'd been washed) and changed them out of their pjs (once again, i won't mention how many days they were in those same pajamas) and took them to church, and then back to her house until dave could come and get them.

i spent an entire day alone in my house. i don't think i've ever been alone in my house before....ever. it was really strange and really quiet, and at first i thought i might not know what to do with myself. i was actually feeling a little bit better. but after she left i laid down on the couch and didn't wake up again for a few hours- it was wonderful!!!!

the day flew by, and before i knew it dave and the kids were back. and i was really glad to see them. especially now that i was a little more with it. things were starting to look up (or so i thought...)

Fun With The Flu

okay, let me start with the beginning of the week- it's been a crazy one. sunday was my mom's 50 birthday suprise party that my sisters and i had planned. it was a lot of fun and we totally pulled off the suprise, but afterwards i was pretty worn out- it was a lot of planning, baking, decorating, and lying to my mom before hand, and a lot of cleaning, dishes, laughing about it all afterwards.

we had a trip to fun city (an indoor water park in iowa) planned for monday-wednesday with my mom and all the grandkids (this was all she really wanted). so monday morning i was woken up (really early) by 3 very excited kids- "it's fun city day!!!!".
i asked them who got koa out of her crib- and ty and shaeya both said "not me". i looked at koa and she said "i climbed out". it was pretty funny.

we left that day after school with my mom- dave decided he'd rather just stay home and work- hard to imagine, i know.
anyway the kids had a blast that day swimming,









and were all really tired by bedtime (at least i was). but tekoa would not sleep, she just kept whining as she banged her head so i finally got up around 11 or so to get her and bring her in bed with me, and she was really hot.
wonderful suprise.
she was so delirious that night. at one point i woke up to her staring at me with her face about 2 inches from mine. i opened my eyes and she said "mommy, do you like the hot pool?"
yes, tekoa now go back to sleep.

that brings us to tuesday- tekoa had a fever all day, but still wanted to swim, so she walked around shivering and in a daze, and then would come to me and say "i need a hug" and then i would carry her for awhile (not easy to do being this huge and pregnant) while i watched the other 2 swim.
so my arms and back were killing me by the end of the day.

that night we all wanted to have dinner somewhere nice (by all i mean nate, brook, jared, amy, chad, justin, katie, mom and i and all the kids) and this is where things really got fun for me.

we walked all over the resort trying to find the best place to eat, and i was carrying tekoa and dragging shaeya (who had rubbed all the skin off her toes from walking around in the water all day, and just couldn't hardly walk).
all the while ty is looking pale and telling me he doesn't want to eat he just wants to go to bed- and sure enough he felt warm now too.

we finally sat down at a sushi place and ty laid his head on the table and never picked it back up. we ordered, and then koa said she had to go potty.
so i picked my tired self back up and took her to the bathroom (which of course was not in the restaraunt, but down the hall aways.)
we got back, and just as the food came she said she had to go again. i told her that she just went, and she needed to wait. she just kept saying it, and i kept telling her just to wait, and of course, next thing i know she's going- right there, in the high chair.

i picked her up and ran to the bathroom, but it was too late. she had diarrea and it ended up all over everything. so i spent the next 20 minutes or so scrubbing her, and the floor, the toilet, the sink and her underwear.
then i put her poopy pants back on her (disgusting, but what else do you do?) wrapped her underwear in a paper towel, and went back to the restaraunt.
i finished my cold food (trying really hard not to think about poop) and then headed back to our room with ty and koa.

of course it was a pretty long walk to get back and ty kept saying he was just so tired. i'm carring koa again in her poopy pants and holding her underwear.
we finally get to our room, and put the key in the door and it wouldn't open. i tried over and over.

ty started to cry and laid down on the floor- i really wanted to just join him there- crying on the floor- but eventually i had to pull him up and drag him and koa all the way back downstairs to the lobby to get a new key made.
still carrying tekoa in her poopy pants and the underwear.
my arms and back still killing me.

the whole way back to the room ty kept saying "i just hope it works, mom, i really hope this one works."
well it did.
and i finally got the poor kid to bed, and then bathed tekoa and put her to bed too.

i climbed in bed also and rested for awhile, but somehow my brothers and sisters convinced me to get up and go bowling later that night after all the kids were asleep- which ended up being pretty fun.
and i'm sure i looked hilarious being all big and pregnant and bowling.

so then wednesday.... koa was better, but tyden just laid by the pool most of the day. i felt so bad for him, but i had to watch koa and shaeya (who was having a blast with her cousins, and strangely not complaining at all about her feet) and i couldn't leave him in the room by himself.

then around noon or so we packed up and headed home. i felt like i had been gone for years, and was really glad to see dave again.
more "fun with the flu" yet to come.....