Tea Party

I had fun putting together this party. I went a little crazy but had fun. Part of the fun in the party planning is doing it as simply and cheaply as I can but keeping it pretty awesome. The hard part of doing it cheaply means that I have to take more time creating and baking instead of buying it all put together for me. Say the pinata. I could easily bought a pinata. but it is incredibly cheap to make just takes time.

Or the paper banner and pinwheel decorations. Takes time but so cheap. The other part of keeping it cheap is that even 25 cents adds up pretty fast.

The tissue paper flowers were used for decorations and we used them for their fancy headbands they wore for the tea party.

I have no idea I spent or how many hours I put into putting this party together for my dear Boo. But I loved doing it for her and she loved it. Now, I am anxiously awaiting to have another tea party. And I really really want another petit four....plenty of work but so so yummy.

 We played musical chairs and sugar cube drop relay game (no pic of that one though)

 The lovely ladies:

This picture makes me happy, Boo's face makes it all worth the work!

Love this girl!

Squishy

So obviously I have a post baby body and I am totally okay with it. I'm okay with little miss calling my tummy squishy all the time ( don't love her pushing on it however. ) I know my body has paid a price for my sweet babes and that's okay.  I will exercise and feel good about my body.

But when you go in for the post-baby check and your doctor checks your tummy and states " you have a lot of loose skin. You're going to need a tummy tuck.".

Say what?!! Who says that, especially so soon. I wasn't concerned.  And in fact i'm pretty sure it's normal.

I'm glad i'm happy enough with my body and confident that I can exercise and know my body will be fine in a few months (or many months). Otherwise that could have really hit my self esteem.  Goodness. Her statement comes to mind often but I just roll my eyes and laugh it off.

All worth it. If my squishy tummy doesn't go away. I hope I can wear it like a badge of honor, being a mother of my 3 wonderful girls.

Wanna be farmers

GG had the day off yesterday,  ya you heard me right. :) happens once in a blue moon that he has no church or work stuff going on... ( I really don't know how rare blue moons are, but it may be more rare than a blue moon).

Anyway we decided to go and pick a pumpkin ...and raspberries and apples, just a few for the fun of it. I wish  that we picked more and either froze them or made yummy food with them. Oh well. Harvesting the fruit makes me want to have a big garden but them there is the planting and making them grow thing....

 They also had a few other fall activities.

Will we go back there for picking pumpkins instead of the big Halloween pumpkin patches in the future? don't know. I liked it but boo remembers the other patches and she wasn't as thrilled, I don't think. But I liked the simplicity, the price and the produce. 

Upload...maybe overload.

So this is going to be a picture blog so far behind compared to number of pictures on my phone :

 Love this binkie sometimes super helpful other times cumbersome but more helpful than not:

 One week old:

 Blessing day.
We were able to have the baby blessing at our home,you know, we are pretty tight with the bishop, so it wasn't hard to get approval. ;)

 Nonna came that weekend too. She was such a help with the kids.

We were also blessed with other family there to join the special moment who were conveniently here for a football game...well some of them anyway. 

 Grandma time:

 Ain't this the truth?:

 Totally zonked out :

Little miss insisted babe have glasses.

 I know we have a picture of Boo doing this to little miss too but it's not readily available on my phone to add to this post.

When did little miss grow up so much? She looks so old in this picture:

 Lots of snuggles, she loves sleeping like this:

I loved general conference this weekend, more than usual. Usually, I don't love it. it's 8 hours of fighting to stay awake and being distracted by other things and missing most of it. But there were definitely talks that I loved and so many I need to listen to again (or for the first time...I still was distracted or dealing with yelling and screaming children). My favorite talk was Elder Holland's about mothers. So beautiful. 

I loved the last part:

"To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle—and all will—I say, “Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth [Moroni 7:46; see also 1 Corinthians 13:8].’” I can pay no higher tribute to anyone."

It's hard being a mom. In fact there have been way too many moments were I feel like i'm barely staying afloat, and moments I haven't liked how I was parenting but I do love being mom. I love my children so very much. 

Ok all done! :)

Swimming picture

Boo drew this picture at school. ..apparently she did this at the beginning of the yeart given my belly. I looked at this at just laughed.

This girl's attention to detail is amazing.  Each person needs a closer look.  First, daddy:

Love the ears, the chest...so funny.

Next :

That is her green striped swimsuit with no outline.  And her hair!! Looks like some dunce cap or something.  Hehe

The next one is me...oh my belly! !!!

And the artist herself:

Well, I think she did a lovely portrait of herself. No craziness there. :) 

It just makes me happy.

Staying alive

Somebody help please! How do you keep a third child alive? And while we are at it, how do I keep the second child alive as well? Seriously. The second child is the root of these problems of staying  alive. She doesn't seem to have any concept of danger or understanding what it means to be hurt.

So let's  start with little miss's problems with staying alive. We have counted 4 times she could have died. Twice choking, once in a pool and once running across the street. Right now it is the latter that has us completely concerned. She knows the rules. She just gets a mischievous look and starts running across the street, other times she stops. And when you stop her from running she just smiles and giggles.  Oye!!!!!
Now, i'm terrified for the life of our baby ( possibly blog name sweet). she probably thinks she's being helpful but instead putting Sweet in danger, you know giving her blankets but putting them on her head, etc. One time running and jumping on the couch only to land in the same area where Sweet is resting. Thankfully, I have only been a minute behind her. How do I stay ahead of little miss? I feel like I need to hold Sweet all of the time while little miss is awake to keep her our of danger. It seriously takes just one minute of my attention to be diverted elsewhere.

 What is a mom supposed to do? How do you teach a two year old how to be safe and the right amount of fear of danger?

I haven't even gotten started about me staying alive or sane yet with three children...but then I have had people and meals that have been easing me into life with 3 kids. Total blessings.

The nicu and our miracle

After our sweet babe was born (blog name still yet to be determined), I was able to hold her for a bit before the nursery nurse came to look at her and noticed her labored breathing. They took her away to give her oxygen. They also had to suck stuff out off her tummy since she swallowed a bunch of stuff while being born.
After a a couple of hours in the nursey not improving they moved her to the nicu. They hooked her up to a cpap, oxygen and stuck a tube down her throat to keep I believe fluid and air out of her tummy. They did x-rays and found she did have some fluids in her lungs. And they put her on antibiotics. It is so sad to see all that happen.
I wasn't worried that something serious was going to be forever wrong with her, especially having been through something similar to Boo's birth. Besides being concerned about the pain and discomfort she was experiencing, and what she'd have to go through to being whole, I was worried about how long her stay would be. I know this might sound awful, but I was concerned financially how a possible 7 day nicu stay would deplete our savings. It was one of my worries from the beginning of this pregnancy, knowing how expensive boo's stay was in the nicu.
As they poked and prodded I remembered my prayer the night before and that we would be blessed with a miracle.
We decided to call my dad over to help give her a blessing.
It was a special moment to call in the blessings of heaven through the priesthood on the behalf our baby.
We could just sit with her and look in on her little bed all hooked up.

(This is after the cpap and tube down her throat )

It wasn't until that evening when we were just sitting in her room that a night nurse let me hold her and nurse her. This was a no-no since she had the tube down her throat trying to keep everything out of her tummy. But I believe that night nurse was our miracle.  She was kind and encouraging telling me that skin to skin and nursing help the baby. It was amazing how holding her calmed her breathing down, I noticed that while I was holding her. After awhile we left. And probably a hour later or so GG went back to get something and she was off the cpap.
So she only was on the cpap and oxygen for 6 hours.  We just had to wait out to make sure she was okay and to finish the antibiotics.
They wanted to keep her longer but I questioned it a bit since she wasn't on anything and was doing fine. They decided to let her come home with me when I was discharged.  I was thrilled to be done with our stay and going home!