"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experiences." ~Gordon B. Hinckley

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Extreme Makeover

This is how our adventure begins----cute kid!
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We donned the apron---expression is exactly the same.
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Daddy starts the process...
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And suddenly we had this face!
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I think he was frightened by this MOP on the ground!
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But in no time at all we are done and lookin' GOOD!
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Not even still sure why we had the tears. I can't imagine that it was hurting him. Perhaps it was taking too long and he decided it needed to end. Either way I am very greatful to Court for giving the boy a very much needed cut. Did you see all that hair on the ground? You know it's bad when I was spending as much time on his hair as Delainee's. Soooo, it had to go and just in time for summer!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Who Wants a Kiss?

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(Especially love the line of drool hanging straight down from the chin!)

Aaaah Waverly

The child is so gross and so cute in the same instance. But I gotta give credit to the blog. I was cooking dinner when in walks my rabid daughter---she was foaming at the mouth. What in the world.... In one instant I was mad that Laetner had fed her CHALK, but immediately got over it as I rushed for the camera to try and get a shot...

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And then there is her new favorite place. The oven drawer! Shelby was over and we were talking when we suddenly looked down and there she was.
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Now I can't seem to keep her out of it.

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Tally Hoo Hoo!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Julie Squared

It was Spring Break and my guilty husband informed me that I HAD to take the kids on some sort of vacation. Mind you, he wouldn't be joining us, but he fully expected me to pack up the three kiddies BY MYSELF and head up north. I sent out a mass e-mail to my Book Club girlies to see if anyone wanted to join in on the festivities and luckily my good friend Julie Spilsbury was in! The kids thought we were kidding when we told them that we both had the same name.


The kids all played really well together and Spils was such a good sport that she kept taking the kids on rhino rides the whole time whilst I was able to read my latest book HUNGER GAMES---highly recommend it! I am still trying to forget the quad ride with Cambryn and Lauryn where we were sliding down a hill together. All three of our lives flashed before MY eyes! But we all made it through the weekend without any injuries and Waverly was an ANGEL. Although I cannot say the same for Biggest Loser or American Idol contestants---WE TORE THEM APART!


We ate like KINGS for the whole time. Homemade pizza, hotdogs, mac'n'cheese, RAMEN---the kids were in heaven.

We Made Some New Best Friends




Lydia wasn't too sure about going on rides, but I managed to take her and Wavee on a little baby one.



Laetner was so excited to have a boy to play with. In the bunk room he was so specific that he wanted to sleep on the bunk under 'the boy.' Hope Brigham did not mind his new shadow.



Cambryn was constantly taking care of Wavee for me! Made my job E-Z!



Here's the whole crew!



And here's the whole crew screaming for their life on the rhino.
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After the first day my kids gave up asking me for anything and would always ask 'other' Julie. Clearly they would be OK to jump ship and move into the Spilsbury Household.
Thanks Spilsbury's!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Go, Delainee, Go!

We are huge procrastinators at our house. Potty training usually happens close to age 4----yeah, you heard right! Which if you can make it that long, I would highly suggest. No accidents, no NUTHING! Just a simple conversation of, "Hey don't you want to be a big girl/boy now?'' "Yes?" "Okay!"-----DONE!

Well I am reading my sister-in-law Tara's blog about her 4 year old Reese learning to ride a bike, and a huge wave a guilt rushes over me. Ummmmm, yeahhhh. Delainee's sad little barbie bike is sitting outside with broken training wheels on it and cobwebs in the spokes---and did I mention she will turn 7 in May!!!!! Soooo, since Court was home this weekend I begged him to tear the training wheels off, clean it up and spend a little daddy/daughter time outside. Delainee acted all excited at first, but as soon as Court held out the training wheel-less, precariously balanced bike she suddenly broke out in exclamations of "I don't wanna ride" that sounded an awful lot like Wilbur in Charlotte's Web when he exclaims "I don't wanna die!"


This fall landed her in the bushes and she claimed she was done!


Well a very nice neighbor girl came over to help. She said when she learned to ride her bike that it was easier to learn in the retention basin. So 'the group' headed down the street. She lined up Lainee on the top of the hill.......gave her a little push.......





And away she went!
Simple!
Done!


She immediately transferred her madd skillz to the ashphalt and off they drove into the sunset.


I don't know who was more proud.

Her or me!

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Facing up to Some Hard Truths

First hard truth: I will probably never weigh 125 pounds, but a girl can dream can't she? No that is not even the worst of the hard truths I must face today. Laetner and Waverly and myself headed to Kiddie Kandids for the annual free 8x10 for your birthday photo. I LOVE kiddie kandids. They get you right in, work with your child to get some smiles, and then print up your FREE picture in about 10 minutes. Well while we waited for the printing I ran around the corner to a little jewelry shop to exchange a ring. I was making good time. We went back to pick up our photo which ended up being these sweet, little, innocent, angel shots...


Just look at that face. Could she ever do wrong? I think (or rather I should say thought) not. After picking up the photo Laetner and I pushed the stroller as fast as we could back to the car because we needed to get home for preschool. We had made it all the way out of the mall, back to our car in the parking lot , I had already buckled Laetner in his seat and was finally pulling Waverly out of the stroller when I spied this clutched in her hands....




It is a sad day for a mother when she must face up to the fact that her baby girl is heading toward a vicious alcoholic addiction with a klepto habit to boot!

Yes, of course I marched her back into the store and made her apologize to the store clerk. I had to teach her a lesson didn't I?

Monday, March 9, 2009

Laetner is 5!

The following post is brought to you by Kiddie Kandids

We love our baby boy Laetner. Okay, maybe he is not our baby anymore, but since he is our only boy he will always be MY baby boy. He is defenitely a phenomenon. While in one instant he is crazy loud and constantly banging things on my walls all day long, the next instant he is completely an emotional basketcase----can a 5 year old be bipolar????

What makes Laetner special......Laetner is always non-stop energy. He has a very special bond with his daddy. He is always aware of his baby sister Waverly and always talks to and includes her in things. He is very artistic. He is very studious---at school they call him the little professor. He loves jumping on the trampoline. He loves playing with his cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, etc. He finds excitement in everyday small things--you canNOT get into the holidays with him around. Laetner is very sensitive---just today in the car he said he wanted to hold my hand, FOR NO REASON. And to top it all off, he is one cute little boy--especially when he wears his glasses. Can't believe how much he has changed in five years....

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My little boy is already a man---ALMOST!

Laetner's 5th Birthday Party

We always keep things simple around here. Laetner wanted a batman cake, so we did our best to theme things up for him. Because Papa and Grandma had come over for Waverly's big shin dig, he was insistent that they should be here again. We actually celebrated Laetner's birthday on Sunday night (the 8th). Court had been out of town since Thursday night and would not be home until this next Friday, so in Amazing Race style, Court managed to make a 13 hour pit stop from 6:30 Sunday night to 7:30 Monday morning just to celebrate Laetner's big (pre)day. Laetner didn't seem to notice it wasn't the EXACT day. He was just excited to get some new games for his ds.

He was so proud of MY cake. We had searched for ideas online and he picked out that he wanted a yellow batman cake like THIS!

Showing off his new video games.

Makin' his big wishes

Just enjoying the day!
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Happy 5th Birthday Laetner!

Laetner's Pregnancy and Birth

As I read back through what I wrote down about two weeks after bringing Laetner home, I am surprised at the length. It isn't that I didn't love this baby as much. This pregnancy just did not have near the drama that both of my girls had. I guess the DRAMA only happens when it is a girl. Figures!

A little after Delainee's 1st birthday we discovered we were pregnant. I personally felt like we weren't ready to do this all over again--especially if we had another Delainee on our hands---but once you are pregnant there really is no turning back, right? We were at a family reunion at the Fischbeck cabin in August, and Megan and Tanya (sister in laws) started talking about how we should all get pregnant the same time next year. Much to their surprise I said I thought this was a good idea (little did they know that I was ALREADY pregnant!) We still waited to tell people till the obligatory three month mark, mostly becuz I didn't want to deal with my mother hovering over me every second.

Due to how the whole Delainee pregnancy went down, Dr. Holmes bid me a farewell and I was sent to a group of specialists known as Phoenix Perinatal Associates (PPA). I never would see a certain doc---just whoever was available--which usually meant I never had to wait long in the waiting room! From the beginning I had appointments every two weeks and an ultrasound once a month. Once I hit 6 months I had appointments every week---TWICE a week. On Mondays I would show up for the doctor visit and an ultrasound and on Thursdays they would do fetal monitoring for 30 minutes. Better to be safe than sorry, but it got old pretty fast having to find sitters for my 1 year old at home. I was actually PREGNANT this time, meaning I had SOME sickness and nausea. But none of the swelling like on Delainee, and I actually showed pregnant in my belly instead of my cankles this time. During the ultrasounds the techs started telling me that there was a BIG kid inside of me. They started threatening that I would have a 10 1/2 pound baby. At the start of this pregnance I had signed papers saying that I wanted to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean) but once they saw how big that this baby boy was weighing, they informed me that I would be having a repeat c-section.

We had a tough time agreeing on a boy name. One day in the car we were discussing what to name this baby. As a joke Court asked if we could just name this baby Lainee 2. Growing up his family had A LOT of pet birds. The first one was named Pockets, the 2nd was Pockets 1, then Pockets 2 etc. I laughed and said no, but asked what he thought of the name Laetner. This was one of those names that I had actually written down in my journal from long, long ago after watching a certain college basketball player shoot a winning buzzer shot for Duke University. "As in Christian Laetner," Court asked. Yes, that was the guy. Court said he actually liked it. We played around with Layton or Lathan, but ended up just keeping it Laetner. Shoulda changed the spelling to Laytner, becuz most women mispronouce his name as Let-ner. But I have never heard any guy mispronounce it. I think it is so cute that my Delainee came early but her little brother came LAET!

Anyways, this boy was sooo big, and he wasn't dropping, and I wasn't having any contractions, NOTHING! So the doctors schedules us a c-section for Tuesday March 9th at 7:00 a.m. We needed to check into the hospital by 5:30 a.m., so the night before we decided to spend the night at Byde and Pams house so that we wouldn't have to yank Delainee out of bed at 4 a.m. to drop her off, and then go to the hospital. This way she could just sleep and hang out with Papa all day. We got Marissa (Court's sister) to babysit Delainee and went out for our 'FINAL' date night. Must have been slim pickings at the theater that weekend, cuz we saw Starsky and Hutch and then went to eat at McGraths's Seafood. Spending the night at my parents was a good idea in theory, but Lainee wouldn't sleep, and we were all pretty restless. Court ended up driving her around most of the night. By 4:00 a.m. I was up and getting ready to go to the hospital.

I never did have a single contraction. At least not that I know of. We checked into the hospital and went into pre-op. And right on schedule at 7:00 a.m. we went in---I was scared out of my mind! They sat me up and gave me THE shot that started numbing me from the waist down, and I slowly started losing feeling. This was such a difference experience from Delainee's c-section. Everyone was very calm and even joking around. As expected of my sight of blood fainting husband, Courtney stayed on MY side of the blue sheet. I never felt ANYTHING until they were actually stitching me up and then it just felt like someone was tugging on me. When they lifted Laetner up over the sheet I couldn't believe how big and round he was. This perfectly rounded head came floating over the sheet, and I joked aloud that, "That's not a baby, that is my almost 2 year old TODDLER at home!"

From the start he looked at me with a huge frown on his face like he was so mad that we had forced him to come out. He honestly looked like my brother Scott to me---but maybe it was just the frown! By 7:30 they were wheeling me back into post-op where I stayed FOREVER. Turns out the hospital was pretty busy that day and there weren't enough rooms, so I literally stayed in post-op until 3:30! Laetner weighed in at 8 lbs. 5 ounces. Not near the poundage that everyone had threatened, but he was still HUGE compared with Delainee. The hospital was very hard for me. I cried a TON. Nursing wasn't happening as easily as I thought it would, and I was so completely worn out. My stomach was KILLING me and the moment they ripped my bandages off of my incision is still imprinted in my brain as the WORST pain I have ever experienced! But once I got home things started getting easier, and when it comes down to it, Laetner is a much easier baby than Delainee still is.

Laetner is very easy going, and is generally pretty happy. We give him six months to catch up to Delainee in weight---she is 21 months older. He loves his big sister and smiles anytime she comes near. At first he slept in to port a crib bassinet, and Delainee would lob all sorts of things up on to him. But he has now moved into his bedroom into Delainee's old crib.



first moments
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first weigh in---man alive look at that frown!
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first daddy time
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first outfit
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Monday, March 2, 2009

Snow Day at the Cabin

Courtney REALLY wanted to get away to the Fischbeck Cabin this weekend, and I REALLY wanted to just stay home this weekend. Guess who got their way???? I am glad he did, cuz the kids had so much fun. We took the Globe route on our way up so we could stop at our newest hole in the wall---GUAYO'S. It definitely is a dive, but man alive their chips and salsa are THE BEST! As we were driving there, we had been talking to the kids about going to Rocky Point for Spring Break. As soon as we got seated in the restaurant, Delainee took a look around and not too quietly asks, "Are we in MEXICO?" Hopefully our waitress interpreted it as the authenticity of the food being spot on!

If we had gone for our snow day any later I think we would have been out of luck on finding ANY snow--as it was we had to head towards Sunrise before we found a patch worth sliding down. Because the sun was melting everything, the snow was actually perfect to just slide away without a sled or anything. The kids tried every angle possible.

On daddy's lap...

sitting up...

on their stomach...

wow! perfect finish!

And Delainee proved to be quite the little dare devil by going down blind on her stomach!

This video happened to be the very first slide of the day.....
(pause the tunes so you can hear)
At our house everything is colors. And I don't know why we don't just call it soda, but root beer, and/or colas is called 'brown juice' at our house. Well, just as we were hiking our way up the snow we hear Laetner call out, "Hey look, brown juice!" He was sitting down on the snow and looking downward and I honestly figured he had just dug down in the snow until the snow met the mud and was calling it brown juice. Once we made it up to him she showed us that he had indeed found some brown juice.
Yes that is an un-opened bottle of Coors Light! Some classy individual must have buried it in the snow to get cold, and then couldn't remember where it was buried due to their drunken haze.

We had borrowed snow gear from Shelby---so glad we did. I don't think Waverly had any idea what it means to be cold.

It was pretty funny trying to get her to walk in all her winter apparel.


Thank you Court, for MAKING us go have some FUN!
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