Has it been 6 weeks?

I can't believe that it has been six weeks since Miranda was born. For me, six weeks is the magic number. I start feeling much better by six weeks and that seems to be true for this baby as well. In some ways it seems like she has been around longer than that but mostly I can't believe how fast time has gone. When she was just about two weeks old and I was still feeling really uncomfortable and sick and not doing very well I remember saying, "If I can just make it to six weeks, I know that everything will be better." At the time, it truly seemed like six weeks would never come. Now I look back and it seems like it went so fast.

I am enjoying my time off work. Miranda is starting to smile quite a bit and she isn't scowling quite so much. Many people have told me that she looks like my dad. Len thinks she looks like my brother, Paul. I think that it is because of her eyes. She has dark eyes and she can do some funky things with her eyebrows (like my dad!) --notice the picture to the right. I truly think that she has a bit more Fuller in her than FitzSimmons but who knows. I don't really think that she looks like my other kids, although she has some qualities that Kanyon had as well. She is starting to get better at holding her head up. Her eyes are getting brighter and she seems to see more around her. She smiles at the kids and they laugh! It is music to my ears. She is starting to talk and coo at us as well and the kids think this is hysterical. She is a great blessing in our lives. I feel much calmer with this baby than I have with any other. I don't stress about other things. I have really taken time to just ENJOY her and love her. I love to just sit and hold her after I feed her. Sometimes I realize that I have held her so long that it is time to feed her again. She melts my heart when she smiles at me. She also melts my heart when she smiles at Leonard. There is somthing about seeing two people that you love more than anything forming a bond that will last forever. It nearly brings me to tears when I see Len talking to her and her responding to him. I feel so blessed that we can be an eternal family. I am so blessed that my husband still loves me and that he still wants to share eternity with me. And for the record, I love him too and I want to be with him forever as well. We are blessed with three beautiful children and I am grateful for the time we have together to form bonds that will last through eternity. I love my family!

Spring Break?

We went to beautiful Coeur d'Alene for Spring Break. We had a great time and loved spending time with Leonard's parents. Unfortunately, the weather was not very "springy". It snowed a couple of days that we were there. We really wanted it to be warm and beautiful. The kids were able to play outside in their mud boots and warm coats. We did manage to make it to the city park one day. It was pretty cold but the kids seemed to have fun. I packed Miranda in the front pack for the first time and she slept the entire time. We did manage to lose a pacifier somewhere in the park but otherwise had a good time. We walked to the beach and let the kids throw in some rocks and sticks and chase the geese that were wandering around. We had a good time.
The kids traveled really well to Coeur d'Alene. I think it was one of our best trips. Kaydra and Kanyon were very good and Miranda slept pretty much the whole way there -- other than to eat of course. We got there late but Grandma and Grandpa were still up waiting for us. I think they may have been a little excited to meet their newest grandchild. :) Then, because of Leonard's night shift schedule he and Neil (mostly Len) decided that they would continue to drive to Orofino that night. Len was very excited to go steelhead fishing. Mind you, we didn't even arrive to Coeur d'Alene until 11:00pm our time (10:00 in CDA). But they packed up and took off to go fishing. I will never understand what drives my husband! Thankfully, the kids went to bed well.

The next day we dyed Easter Eggs (the kids and Grandma did - Miranda was having kind of a fussy day). They had a great time doing that. Then Markell and her friend Josh came from Moscow to spend the night and have Easter dinner with us. When Neil and Len got home around 4:30 (they were unsuccessful with the fishing) we then went to town and took Markell and Josh to Tomato Street for dinner. It is a fun italian restaurant in CDA. The waiters/waitresses wear funny hats and they let you color on the tables which are covered with paper. They also brought out some play dough and a bag full of noodles and some string to make necklaces while we waited for our food. The kids thought it was great. The next morning we had a small Easter party complete with baskets and an Easter Egg hunt. The kids found all the eggs before everyone was even awake. We visited with Markell and Josh and then we had a fabulous dinner/lunch. Kay did a great job and the food was delicious. Thanks again for letting Markell and Josh share with us. We had a short lesson on the Resurection and the true purpose of Easter while we were eating dessert. I think that the kids understood what I was trying to teach them. It is so hard to know sometimes but we keep on trying, hoping that at least parts of the gospel are getting through. We went for a walk in the rain after dinner -- it was COLD! Josh and Markell went back to Moscow after that. We were very glad that they could come and visit us.

The next few days were nice and quiet. Len went fishing again with his dad and the kids and I enjoyed the farm. The kids love playing there and it was nice to be able to send them outside. It was cold but seemed warmer than it has been here. We woke up to snow a couple different mornings but had a good time anyway.


The kids also managed to travel back home well. Not as good as on the way there but it was good.


I wish I had taken more pictures and when I got home I realized that I didn't take any pictures of Neil or Kay holding the baby! What was I thinking! That was the main reason that we were there -- so they could meet Miranda and I forgot to take pictures of the event! Oh well. They will be here when we bless her so I will take some then. We plan on blessing her on May 4 for those that are interested. Call me if you need more details.

All in all it was a good spring break but I will be glad for school to start again tomorrow. It also made me realize that I need to get some good ideas for entertaining my kids before summer break comes. It is a full time job!

Miranda - one month old

Here are some updated pics of Miranda. I also took a short video of her. Enjoy!

Update

I haven't posted for a long time! We have been very busy with mostly nothing! It has taken me longer to recover from this baby than the other two. I have decided that it is because I am now 30 years old. I am not sure how this happened, but it has. My body is taking longer to respond to everything! I celebrated my 30th birthday on March 5. Len let me pick out a new snowboard for my birthday to go with my new bindings. We went shopping about a week ago and I bought a K2 snowboard that is white with purple and pink swirls. I love it! I would love to use it this year but the season is ending soon and I don't know if I will make it. I am still recovering and not sure I will be up to boarding before the hills close. I am hoping!

Miranda was born four weeks ago. Today she is one month old. I still cannot fit into my regular clothes and I am still sore all over. We are driving to Coeur d'Alene this weekend and as much as I am looking forward to visiting, I am not looking forward to the long car ride of SITTING!! The kids are very excited and every day they pack a bag of toys that they are planning to take with them. They usually unpack it the same day because they start playing with the toys but it gives them something to do the next day! I have misplaced my camera. I plan to clean house today and start laundry for the trip so maybe it will show up and I can take a picture of Miranda for her one month birthday. She is a sweet baby. She loves to be held but sleeps pretty good at night in a cradle in our room. Last night we went to bed at 11:00, she woke up at 3:00 to eat, and then slept until 7:00. It could be worse. She has been going through some sort of growing spurt and often wants to eat every hour. She loves her pacifier unless she is hungry and she can throw a pretty good scream out there if she is not happy. She still has a ton of hair all over her head and usually it is sticking up in several directions. She is starting to smile but you have to really fight her for one -- they come most often in the morning. She has a scowl that she uses most of the time when she is awake. She loves her baby swing and will stay awake for awhile looking around before she is overcome and falls asleep. She is very cuddly still and fun to hold because she snuggles up so easily. The other kids are still infatuated with her. They love to hold her and I have to remind Kanyon that he cannot lay on her very frequently. I will post pictures this week sometime so you can see her. She is still very little. I would guess she is now about nine -ten pounds. We are enjoying our new addition. More to come....

A day of Birthdays!

Today is Kanyon's birthday. I put together this slide show yesterday evening to remind me about my little boy and how much he has grown. He is a great kid and so much fun to be around. Kanyon is such a happy boy and he loves life and every thing about life. I am proud of him and feel blessed to be his mom. I was looking through his baby book to find some pictures for the slide show and came across the part where we wrote about his baby blessing. He was blessed to be a peacemaker, to grow healthy and strong, to be inquisitive and to want to know about things. All of this is true about my son. I love him so much. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KANYON!

It is also my Grandma Parry's birthday today. She and my Grandpa Parry are two of my favorite people and I wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday as well. Kanyon is so proud to share a birthday with Grandma Great and I hope that it will help him to honor you for the rest of his life. How blessed we are to have such a great family!

Kanyon's Party

Today we celebrated Kanyon's 4th birthday. His actual birthday is tomorrow but we thought we would have some family over for some pizza and cake today. We had a great time and there was a house full of people! We invited all the local cousins that are around his age. Which is Courtney's family and Justin and Lisa's family (Lisa is in New York though). My parents were also there as were Jackson, Scott, Jake and Jana (and Riley). We had a good time. He wanted a smiley face birthday so that is what we had. The hat he is wearing he got from his school on Friday when they celebrated there. He loves to wear it. We had a great time and managed to eat five medium pizzas (I had ordered six) from Pizza Hut. So much love for a four year old. He loved all the attention.

Here's a funny story. Last night we had Uncle Kelly over for dinner. Out of no where Kanyon said to Kelly, "You are still a boy, Uncle Kelly, you are a big boy but you are still a boy." Leonard, joking said, "Because he's not married, huh." Kanyon said, "Yeah." He then pounded his fist on the table and said, "Hurry up and get married, 'cause we want some more cousins!" It was SO funny. It took all of us by complete surprise. It only could have been a better moment if Kelly had been with a date at the time -- no such luck!! We love our Kanyon!

Our Baby Story

Okay. The baby is sleeping right now so I thought I would sit down and try to write out what has happened to us the past few days. This is a warning to all reading this. I will try not to be too graphic for anyone but be prepared that the following is the story of my baby's birth and you are free to stop reading now if you do not want too much information! :)

Last week I had come to the conclusion that I would never go into labor on my own and I would have to wait to be induced by the doctor. With my other two kids I had to have pitocin and I wasn't really sure that my body would know what to do. I also continued to have many contractions throughout the day and night. Sometimes they would be very regular for a couple of hours but then stop completely. I had convinced myself that I would have to wait for some help with modern medicine before I would have this baby. I hate that as women we have to place this magical "date" in our heads. Of course every woman hopes that she doesn't make it to that date and so as it gets closer, we just get more and more upset! Why do we do this to ourselves? If I am ever pregnant again I am going to tell myself that the actual due date is two or three weeks later than it really is so that I may avoid the very frustrating last week!! I should learn my lesson though as Kaydra was born the day before her due date and Kanyon was born two days before, and now Miranda was the day before her due date. I don't vary much!

So, as I was putting my depressed self to bed on Saturday night I said to my husband -- "I wish my water would break or something so that we would HAVE to go to the hospital!" He just smiled and started going to sleep. I am not kidding that I started having contractions right then! I layed there for awhile, assuming that they would go away like ususal but 30 min later they were getting stronger and I didn't want to lay there anymore. I got up and went downstairs and watched television for awhile. They continued to get closer and stronger. I debated about calling my sister (Markell) to come over just in case we decided to go to the hospital but I was sure that they would stop again just like they always did. Then about 2:00 am I finally decided that this was actual labor so I started trying to decide if I needed to go in now or if I could wait until morning so I didn't have to wake anybody up. The mind of a pregnant woman doesn't work so well sometimes. At about 3:00 I finally decided to wake up my husband and tell him that I think we need to go. For the record, he said "Do I have time to take a shower?" and I told him that would be okay (my mind!) so he got in the shower while I continued to have contractions about every 3 minutes! When he got out I called my parents and they sent over Markell to stay with the kids. Len gave me a blessing while we waited for her to come over (so grateful for my husband). I am now starting to get kinda scared and thinking -- I remember this! WHAT ARE WE DOING?! It is so wierd to be waiting and waiting for a moment to happen for weeks and then when it does to start thinking "When will this be OVER?!"

So we drove to the hospital and they wheeled me to Labor and Delivery. They put me in a room and hooked me up to the monitor. I was having contractions every 2 minutes and baby was doing well. They checked me and I was 4cm and 100% effaced. This means that I was not going to be sent home -- I was in actual labor! I got an epidural (LOVE THEM) and then we rested for a few hours. I was Group B strep positive so they wanted me to have two doses of antibiotics four hours apart before the baby was born if possible. I got my first dose at 4 am and then we rested. I continued to have contractions every 2-3 min and continued to progress every hour. I couldn't feel the pain of the contractions but I could feel pressure with each one so I knew when they were. This kept me from sleeping but at least it didn't hurt (too bad). At 8:00 they were able to give me another dose of antibiotic and they checked me and said that I was fully dialated but we needed to wait for the antibiotic to go in (thank you again for the epidural!). At 8:30 the nurse said she was calling the doctor and at 8:45 she came back and said, you may want to push that epidural button again because the doctor is delivering another baby at the other hospital and she will be a little while! WHAT!!! At this time I am REALLY feeling pressure/pain with every contraction and I keep telling her that I feel like I should push and she keeps telling me that I should wait if I can but if I can't then to let her know. Again, thank you for the epidural! The nurse was really awesome but I was so READY!! I managed to wait and wait. The nurse set up everything in the room so when the doctor got there at about 9:25 she just had to put her gown on and sit down. My baby was the third baby she had delivered since 7:00 am that morning! I was SO glad to see her! I pushed for about 10 minutes and Miranda was born at 9:42am on Sunday. We didn't know if she was a boy or girl. The nurses and doctor were rubbing her down and I could see her on my lap and the doctor said, "I haven't looked yet -- are you ready? It's a GIRL!" I was so surprised! I looked at Len and he looked surprised as well. We had kinda thought that it was a boy! I was crying and we were just so excited! It took her a bit to take a breath but then she let out a great big scream. Len went with the baby to the warmer and put a diaper on her and watched her while they checked her out. Her apgars were 8 then 9. (FYI those are good numbers) They wrapped her up and brought her over to me. I held her with Len over my shoulder and they finished cleaning me up. Then we just sat and held her. I nursed her for about 15 minutes and she just stared at us. We just held her and looked at her for about an hour. I ate some breakfast. Then Len went with her to the nursery where they assessed her and gave her a bath. They let Len give her the bath. I was cleaned up and then moved to the postpartum room where we stayed the rest of the time. Len stayed with her in the nursery for about 2 hours and then came to see me and then he went home to take a nap because he had to work that night. I tried to rest but was very unsuccessful because of people coming in and out (mostly staff) and I had too much adrenaline from delivery still. I ended up not really sleeping until that night about 9:00pm so I stayed up about 36 hours before finally falling asleep. Sorry this is so long and if you made it this far, you are a real trouper! Things are still going well. Miranda has a bit of jaundice which we are going to recheck tomorrow but otherwise things are going well. The kids are so excited and actually very helpful. It feels good to finally have her here safe and sound! Well, time for another feeding so I best be going. We are so happy to have Miranda in our home.

DRUMROLL PLEASE....

It's A Girl!

For those that haven't heard, we finally had our baby! She arrived Sunday, February, 17. She weighed 7lbs 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Her name is Miranda May FitzSimmons. Miranda is the name of a friend of mine in high school and I always liked her name. May is my Grandma Fuller's maiden name and we thought it went really well with Miranda. She is beautiful and we love her so much. We just came home from the hospital today and I promised some people that we would post some pics. I am tired but I thought I would quickly post these pictures and then maybe tomorrow I will post again with a little story to tell about her birth. Enjoy these pictures ... Until later!

Another day as a mom

So, my husband bought these new bindings for me for Valentine's day. I know I won't be able to use them right now but I am hoping for at least one day of spring skiing -- maybe in April. I am excited about the bindings because they are much easier to get into and out of then my old ones. We are looking for a new snowboard for me too -- for my birthday. Anyway, they arrived in the mail yesterday. They came in a box that was about four times the size that it needed to be in. Needless to say, my kids thought that was the best part. They can both fit in the box and they have colored it and they played with it for a long time yesterday evening. Anyway, last night I was up with contractions AGAIN. I was awake for about an hour and a half and was just about to call Len (he was at work) to let him know that I was going to take a bath and that I would call him when I got out. The contractions were close together but not especially painful. Anyway, I got up and noticed a light on downstairs. I went down to the t.v. room to find the television on and Kaydra awake sitting in the box. Mind you, it was 4:30 A.M.!!! I couldn't believe it! I said, "Do you know what time it is?" She said, "No." I said, "It's 4:30 and the sun won't be up for 3 more hours. You need to go back to bed!" She did go back to bed and eventually fell asleep. For the record, my contractions slowed down after this and I was able to go back to sleep. It makes me wonder though, if she has done this before. I wouldn't have known she was awake if I hadn't already been awake. Crazy kids! :)
Continuing on with the theme, yesterday I had to put Kanyon in time-out. I am not really a time-out mom. I prefer to be a "go to your room" mom. I don't know why, but it always worked really well with Kaydra. Kanyon, on the other hand, will not stay in his room and I usually resort to holding the door closed while he pounds on the other side. This has brought "time-out" to our house. For some reason, he understands this concept better. We have a rule in our house that if the kids don't listen when we ask them to do something, then they have to go to time-out. Usually I ask them to do something three or four times before I warn them about time out and then if they still don't listen, the punishment is enforced. They are both very aware of this rule. Yesterday when I went to the doctor we took the kids to Courtney's to play. We told them both that we had things to do after and so when we came to get them they needed to come right away and not hide or run away like they (mostly Kanyon) sometimes do. Both kids agreed. Well, long story short, Kanyon was not listening at all when I went to pick him up. I finally said, "when we get home, you will have time-out". This upset him but not enough to listen. Finally, we made it out to the car and in car seats with Kanyon crying, "I don't want time out" over and over. He also managed to throw in, "I am not your son" a few times too. He was pretty mad. I mostly ignored him and reminded him that he had made his choice when he didn't listen. He then yelled, "MOM, EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES!!" That is family home evening coming back to haunt me!! I thought it was pretty smart of him to think of that by himself -- however, he still got time-out!

Still Pregnant

I thought I would write a little post to let you all know that I am still pregnant. It seems people have stopped calling me now because they don't want to bombard me with "Have you had the baby yet?" questions! I am also leary to call anyone else because they think we are calling to let them know we had the baby. I have to start every conversation with "No baby yet" and every time I call my mom, if she doesn't answer, I leave her a message that starts with, "I am still doing fine." This is because she will most likely be the one we will call to watch our other kids when I go to the hospital. I don't want her to see my number on the missed calls list and think that she missed something big! Anyway, I am progressing and I have another doctor appointment today so we will see how things go. I am leaning toward asking for an induction later this week if the baby hasn't come on its own. I am not sleeping well at all and my back/pelvis/belly are REALLY starting to hurt now. This past week I woke up a couple different nights with contractions every 5-8 minutes that lasted about and hour and then went away. The other thing is that Len has Thursday thru Monday off and I know that if I don't have the baby by then that he will just be staring at me for 5 days wondering why nothing is happening! I don't know if I can stand that! : ) Plus it would be nice to have him home full time for a few days after the baby comes. I also worked my last shift on Friday so this week starts my 12 week maternity leave and I would like to spend as much of that with the baby as possible. But, I don't want to do it if the doctor thinks there will be a problem. Any opinions?

Edited later: So my appointment went just fine. For those that are curious I am dilated to a 3 and I am 80% effaced. She said that she would induce me next week if I haven't had the baby by then. So here we wait....

Growing up

This past week Kanyon started preschool! I had signed him up to start next fall in the district co-op preschool. It is really hard to get into. Basically, I had applied and we were waiting to hear if he was randomly selected by lottery drawing. I had told them that I would be interested in putting him in to start now if they had an opening. Anyway, that was about a month ago. Last Tuesday I got a call from the preschool saying that they had one opening right now and that if I put him in now, he would be guaranteed a spot next fall. I jumped at it! The school is an Early Intervention program so it is funded by the state for kids that are developmentally or behaviorally behind their age group but they integrate it with other children that are not delayed. These children have to pay a mothly fee (only $25) and the parents are asked to help with classroom time once per month (that's why it's co-op). Anyway, for those that don't know, that is really cheep for preschool around here and it is really a good school. They focus mainly on learning through play and that is perfect for Kanyon. We were so excited to get him in! He could hardly wait to start. I was called about it on Tuesday last week and his first day was Friday. Every night he would ask if he got to start school the next day. When the day finally came he was smiling from ear to ear. I had to work on Friday so I took him to Courtney's house and then picked him up on my lunch break to take him to school for the first day. Thanks to Courtney for having him all ready to go! He was SO EXCITED. It is so fun to see your kids enjoying life! Today was his second day of school and he again was very excited to go . I hope the excitement of school continues throughout his life (yeah, right!). It will be a great opportunity for him, and also for me to have a little 1:1 time with the baby (once the baby gets here) a couple times a week. They grow up so fast though and I said to Len today, "It's kinda sad that my baby is so excited to be away from me." I am sure I will feel needed again very soon! :)


On a completly different note, this past weekend my sister-in-law Michelle came over from Boise and blessed our lives! She came over on Friday night and stayed the night then we woke up Saturday morning and started cooking. We cooked all morning, stopped for lunch and then continued for about another hour. My freezer is now full of meals ready to pop in the oven whenever I need them after the baby is born. The freezer looks so awesome that I wanted to take a picture of it but decided that would be a little wierd. Either way, I am truly grateful to her, to her husband who stayed home to watch their children, and also to my husband who took the our kids with him to Salmon for the day to go hunting with his brother and a friend. It was so nice (and really quite fun) to have an empty house with just the two of us cooking all day. It felt VERY productive. So THANK YOU Michelle!!


I feel very ready for the baby to come although the past couple of days I have felt disappointingly comfortable. Not much going on and I have come to start to face the fact that the baby will probably not be here until my due date (or later!) This is my last week of work so I am looking forward to having that behind me for now. The kids are excited as well. Well, I guess that is all our news for now.

It's SNOW COLD!!

This winter has been SO COLD and there is SO MUCH SNOW! I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago before the weather got so cold that no one wants to go outside unless they absolutely have to and I thought I would post them because they are so cute. We had so much snow that we were able to pick up the kids and throw them in the snow bank where they sank into soft fluffy powder. They loved it! We had a great time outside with them. Now, we just sit inside and wonder if the weather will ever warm up again! I usually enjoy the winter while it is here but I feel like it is such a hassle this year. I can't go snowboarding and I feel like I may break my neck anytime I walk outside. Here's hoping that the groundhog will not see his shadow in a couple of days and that summer will be "just around the corner!"

The Baby's Room

Well, I have finally finished the little details of the nursery so I think that we are ready for the baby to come! I love the new room. I feel so happy in it. Len's brother Kelly came over and saw it last week. (For the record, he came over because we invited him to dinner, not so he could see the nursery!) Anyway, he said, "Man, this kid is spoiled already!" I said, "This room is for me, not the baby!" That is how I feel. I know that I will be the one spending the most time in the room for the next year so I want it to be a place for me to be happy and peaceful. I love it and I think it is beautiful. Len works at night so during the day I plan on using the bed to sleep while the baby is napping because he will be sleeping in our room. It will also be used as our guest room for the next year or so as it will be easy to move the baby to our room whenever someone comes to visit. I made the bumper pads for the crib and the quilt in the bed. I also made a skirt for the crib that is chocolate brown that you can't see in these pictures. I bought the curtains and I found the bedding for the bed on ebay. I got a great deal and I really like the set - it was totally worth it! I plan on painting white letters of the baby's name once we name the baby and hang them over the crib. Then it will be finished. For the record, these pictures do not do the room justice. It is so much better in person! Anyway, baby, if you are listening -- WE ARE READY!

The lessons we have to teach...

Some of you have heard this story lately but I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget so you will just have to indulge me. It's pretty entertaining anyway so maybe you won't mind hearing it again. The other day I made a steak stew. It was pretty basic and not too fancy. Kaydra really liked it and she ate hers pretty quickly. Kanyon was another story. He is having an issue with meat lately. This is not good for us because we eat meat with nearly every evening meal. Anyway, he wouldn't eat his stew. Len went to work and Kaydra asked if they could have some hot chocolate before bed that night and I said yes since you ate all you dinner but Kanyon can't because he didn't eat his dinner. Kanyon said, "That's okay" and got down from the table. I told him I would save it for him for when he was hungry and he said, "okay". So they played for about an hour and then it was near bedtime. Kaydra asked for her hot chocolate and I said that would be fine. Kanyon, of course, wanted some. I reminded him of our deal and he said, "If you warm it up, I will eat it." So I warmed it up. He sat down at the table, with spoon in hand, and said, "Well, here goes nothin'!" Where does he get this stuff? Anyway, I watched him eat for a little while and he seemed to be doing just fine. He didn't have that much left and was eating it without complaint. I got up to use the bathroom and noted that everything was REALLY quiet. When I came out, both children were in the hall and reporting to me, "Kanyon ate his dinner all gone!" I knew that he had not had enough time to eat everything so I said, "Did you really eat it or not?" Kanyon just looked at me and Kaydra, feeling guilty said, "He actually threw it away!" I looked at Kanyon and he said, "Kaydra told me if I threw it in the garbage I could have hot chocolate!" I looked back to Kaydra and she said, "No, Kanyon decided to do it by himself." What's a mom to do?!
They continued to blame each other back and forth until I said to Kaydra, "Kanyon is too little to make up that you told him to do it so I know that you are not telling me the truth." I was pretty sure that Kanyon would not have thrown it away on his own. He never would have thought of doing it and he really wanted some hot chocolate. Kaydra just looked at me. I said, "You will have to go to bed without a story tonight because you lied to me. Please go get your pajamas on." Without complaint she just went to her room. I was then at a cross roads with Kanyon. He didn't eat his stew but the only reason he threw it away was because Kaydra told him that if he did he could have hot chocolate. So I talked to him about lying and he said he still wanted hot chocolate so I said that he would have to eat more stew. He said, "okay". So I warmed him up more. Again he says, "here goes nothin'!" and starts eating.
I went to check on Kaydra and she was crying in her bed. I said, "What's wrong?" and she said, "I can't be with my family!" They know just how to break your heart! I talked to her about how she is a big sister and a teacher for Kanyon and that if she tells him something, he doesn't always know if it's right or wrong, he just believes her. So she needs to help him make good choices. We also talked about lying. Being a mom is so hard sometimes! I just want to hug her and say everything is just fine but I feel like she needs to learn this lesson too.
Back to Kanyon. He has finished all his soup except for two pieces of meat. I said, "Just eat one and you can have the hot chocolate". He said okay and put the smallest one of the two in his mouth while I made him his hot chocolate. He then proceeds to chew on that piece FOREVER! He says, "It's yucky, I can't swallow it". I am pretty sure he chewed for about 5 minutes before he finally managed to get it down with a glass of water. All for some hot chocolate!!! I don't know if I have the stamina for this sometimes! They both went to bed good, even without a story and they both seemed to understand that I had the most trouble with them lying to me -- but who knows what they remember now. It's times like this that I think, "How am I going to make it through the teenage years if I have trouble with this stuff?!" For now, it's just one day at a time!

Slacking

I have been slacking in the blogging world lately. I could blame it on many things but mostly it is just that I haven't had anything "blog worthy" to post. I decided today that I should at least write something so that the few of you that do actually read my posts won't think I have disappeared, or worse -- had the baby early! I am still pregnant and everything seems to be going rather normal in that department. I am really starting to hate bending over to do anything! (pick up toys, put on shoes - mine or the kids, ect) Kanyon prays every night that the baby will come out of mommy's tummy so I am sure it will happen sooner or later. I still love my kitchen floor and we have moved on to the next project of getting the baby's room ready. It is painted and I finished making the new bumper pads yesterday. They are so cute -- I really like them -- and the matching quilt I made last week (yes, I may possibly be nesting!) I will post a picture when it is all put together. Len painted the walls last week and just finished the trim today. I cleaned the carpet yesterday with a cleaner that Courtney had rented just because it felt like I should! Tomorrow we plan on putting the room together and setting up the crib! Only 5 more weeks left! Other than that we haven't been doing much besides day-to-day chores and lots of resting. I am starting to need an afternoon nap again and really notice when I don't get one. I think it's because I am not sleeping well at night - to be expected. Anyway, not much else is happening.

One thing I may want to remember later :
Yesterday, while making dinner Kanyon and Kaydra were fighting about who would take the jam from the fridge to the table. Kanyon got so frustrated with the whole argument that he shouted, "I am outta here!" and ran to the living room. It was really hard not to laugh! I tried to coax him back to the kitchen but he just kept saying, "I am outta here!" I just left him alone and after about 5 minutes he came back to the kitchen and fell to the floor when he realized that Kaydra had taken the jam to the table while he was in the living room. He couldn't even speak! He just got red in the face and screamed and pointed at the fridge then the jam. I calmly said, "Yes, Kanyon, Kaydra took the jam to the table because you told us you were leaving!" I thought that I was funny but HE DID NOT! It was probably not the best "mom" thing that I could have said. He went crying (read screaming) to Leonard and said, "Mom let Kaydra bring the jam over because she thought I was leaving but I really wasn't I just said that I was!" Len had missed the whole episode and was really confused at this point. Anyway, we finally got him to settle down and eat dinner with us - jam and all. What I want to know is where did he hear, "I am outta here" anyway?