He's here!!!

Big sister Brooklyn and big brothers Blake and Gavin are proud to announce the arrival of

Preston Milo

Born Saturday, December 27, 2008

8:01am

8lbs. 9 oz.

20.5 in.

We're all home, healthy and doing well! Everything went great with the c-section and I would have to say that was the easiest one yet, although I did have one little blip when the lovely "spinal headache" showed up on Monday. Not fun having a raging migraine the second you sit up and practically the only thing that magically helps is lying flat on your back! A quick visit from the anesthesiologist and an epidural blood patch later, I was good to go. :)

I was most surprised by the amount of hair Preston has because Gavin was pretty much bald!! And we didn't escape the funky hair "issues" with this one, either! He has a double crown on the back of his head! He's a pretty good size baby for being a week and a half early - he surely would have been over 9 lbs had I gone to term! Although 8 lbs 9 oz SOUNDS decent size, it's amazing how tiny he still is! You forget how small they start out!!! After staring at the baby and comparing pictures of the other kids as babies, we think Preston mostly looks like Blake, just darker. You can also see a bit of Gavin, so maybe a good mix of the two boys? We shall see in the next couple months who he evolves into.

Life is good and I'm so glad that we have been blessed with another tiny spirit in our home to love and care for!!

Now some pictures ~~

Last belly shot, taken right before leaving for the hospital. I know I look tired; I got less than 5 hours of sleep the night before! Oh yah, I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago, too! :)

Fresh out of the womb! Mommy, Preston and Daddy

Hanging out in recovery, waiting for MommyGavin gets to love on his new lil' bro!

Checking out the baby

Doing what newborns do best!

All dressed up and ready to go home!Not sure whether he's liking the carseat, but he was a good boy
on the way home and didn't make a peep!!

Can't get enough of this little munchkin!

We have a DATE!!!

We'll be meeting our little mister on Saturday, December 27th!!! C-section is scheduled for 7:30am, which means we have to be there bright and early at 5:30am for prep! *yawn* I can't believe in a little over two weeks he'll really be here! No name yet either.....

Showing off the baby belly

What a way to kick off the holiday season! :)

Last Monday night (December 1st), Brooklyn and Blake's school had their Winter Sing. They had been working on their songs for the past few weeks in music class and I was privileged to hear bits and pieces before the actual performance. ;) I fondly remember performing in the very same event, year after year, in elementary school. Now it was MY turn to have little ones up there on stage! I couldn't have been more proud!!!

On stage

Giving a big-belly "HO! HO! HO!"
(check out the cutie on the bottom far right, LOL!)

All dressed up! No smiles.Listen to these cute lil' kindergarteners!! How could this not put you in a jolly mood?? Enjoy!

On Call

Once every six weeks, Matt is required (for work) to be ON CALL for a week. Up to this point, it hasn't been too bad, just a few calls after hours, nothing serious.

The week of Thanksgiving was Matt's week to be on call. Well, he was actually supposed to be on call the week of Christmas, but he switched with another OD because I'll be hugely pregnant by then. Since the office was closed on Thursday and Friday due to Thanksgiving, people weren't able to just schedule an appointment and come into the office like they could on any other Thursday or Friday of any other week.

I am not kidding, Matt's phone must have beeped (he gets a text from a call center) a HUNDRED times that week!! We groaned OUT LOUD every time! Luckily, not every call requires a trip to the office. Some people he can just talk to and figure out how to tide them over until an appointment can be made during regular business hours. The CRAZINESS started Tuesday night when Matt had to leave just before the kids' bedtime to see a patient and he didn't return home until after 10:30pm. Thanksgiving day, he had to go down to the office TWICE. Friday, I swear it was another THREE times, including one that required us to cut our plans short with friends that evening, drive home to get Matt's car so he could go to the office, I had to drive back out to my mom's house to pick up the kids and then drive back home and get them in bed all by MYSELF when I was beyond exhausted. Yes, these people all needed care at that moment. But aren't people supposed to be EXEMPT from having emergencies over a holiday weekend??!?

I LOVE Matt and I LOVE that he LOVES his job and is dedicated 110% to helping the patients he sees to the best of his abilities. I just don't LOVE when he's on call! ;)

Twilight, the Movie Event

My little sis, Brittney, and I saw Twilight opening day. Neither of us could wait any longer than that! We caught a 9:30pm showing and I can't believe I actually stayed awake!! There were plenty of die-hards there and a couple of guys that I'm sure were dragged into coming along! I was really excited to see the movie, but I didn't go in with high expectations just because movies hardly ever do the book justice. And just a disclaimer- I'm not completely obsessed with the whole Twilight series like a lot of people are. I just really, REALLY enjoyed the books and had to see the movie! :)

All in all, I thought the movie followed the story line very well. However, I can't say that I was super impressed. It was just *eh* for me. Obvsiously low budget. Too many of the actors didn't jive with the characters I'd pictured in my head. Alice was the most perfect match, though!! How cute was she?!?!? I wanted to feel much more passion and desire between Edward and Bella. And the vamps were FREAKISHLY white!!!!! I seriously almost laughed OUT LOUD when Carlisle appeared on screen! It was like he was dipped in flour!! The first half of the movie was a little slow going but it picked up in the second half. I LOVED the baseball scene and the end of the movie was cheesy, but a perfect set up for the next movie.

Of course I'll see future movies that are released and probably buy them as well. I can't wait to see where they go with the rest of the books, especially the last one!!!

$$ BLACK FRIDAY $$

{this is not what I looked like yesterday morning!}

I'll just preface this by saying YES, I am crazy!!! Good. I'm glad we got that out of the way. ;)

I LOVE shopping on Black Friday!! Heck, who am I kidding -- I love shopping on ANY day!! I poured over the ads, listed out the items I was interested in getting at each store on a post-it note and attached the post-it to the corresponding store ad. There was no one item I just HAD to have, but there were a lot of things I WANTED to have. LOL!

My stops for the day included:

KOHL'S - Opened at 4:00am. I arrived at the store at 2:30am and was 10th in line! Told you I was crazy!!! ;) It paid off because I got *ALMOST* everything I wanted including a keyboard, a bedding set for Matt & I (hooray!), a new memory foam pillow for Matt. various bath towels, a rug, a couple kids books and a throw blankie for snuggling on the couch in the evenings. The only thing I didn't get was a 600 thread count sheet set for $40, but I'll be heading back for that next week and using my Kohl's cash that I acquired. Let's just hope it's back in stock by then; I'll be one happy girl!! I stood in line for over ONE HOUR, but it really didn't seem that long. I did good!

TARGET - Opened at 6:00am. I was in line outside the store at 5:45am with HUNDREDS of other people. There were two entrances and 3 minutes before the doors were supposed to open, a Target employee so kindly tells us that they will only be opening the OTHER doors, not the doors I'm waiting in line at. You'd think they could have had a sign or said something maybe 10 minutes before they opened??!? This created a mad chaotic rush as people were hustling to the other line, but then just decided to cut in front of people that had been waiting much longer when the doors opened. I waited politely until a good majority of the line had gone in before I entered the store. I had grabbed a cart, then quickly ditched it in the toy section when it was apparent there was no way I was going to be able to navigate through the masses with that thing + my pregnant belly. I got all the items I had intended (6 to be exact) and headed to the front to check out. The lines were super quick and I was outta there! Probably because half the Queen Creek population was back in the electronics department!!!

TOYS R US - Opened at 5:00am. I think I got there around 6:45am. Lots and LOTS of people, of course!! I do have to say that they are very organized with the crowds, only allowing certain amounts of people in the doors at a time, then keeping the check-out line around the perimeter of the store as not to clog up the aisles for the people still shopping. Again, I got every item I wanted, plus one extra. ;) It felt like I was in line for forever here!!! I'm guessing probably 45 minutes or so.

HOME DEPOT - Don't know when they opened and I only wanted ONE item here for Matt. I got it and was in and out of there in less than 10 minutes. Not busy at all!!

I made a quick trip inside a different Kohls on my way home just to make sure they didn't have the sheet set I wanted but no luck there. :( And the line was still insanely long to wait for just one item.

I was home shortly after 9:00am. I'd have to say my experience was pleasant over all! I didn't see any pushing and shoving and everyone seemed to be pretty polite. It would have been fun to have someone to go with, but people in line were friendly and chatty. And I did happen to see THIS lovely blogging friend and her hubby! I can't imagine those who stand in line for HOURS for the limited number big ticket items!! If we ever want one of those, I'll for sure be sending Matt in cause I'm not mean enough to fight through! ;)

I did go to bed at 9:45pm the night before so I got SOME sleep, but still had to take a nap and then was EXHAUSTED by 8:00pm last night! Oh, the sacrifices we make for good deals!!

I Am Thankful

I know Thanksgiving is over, but I was busy yesterday and didn't have a moment to express my thoughts and feelings on my blog. So here I am, a day late.

My kids are in love with the Charlie Brown movies. I've always been a fan too for each holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) and bought the trio of DVDs to have for our very own. But I never realized how many times the characters say the word "stupid" until Gavin pointed it out EVERY.SINGLE.TIME by saying, "We don't say stupid," or "They said stupid!" This coming from my sweet two-year-old that says "stupid" at least 15 times a day. We're trying to curb that, albeit unsuccessful at this point.
So Tuesday night, we had psuedo-FHE. We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and then we talked about things we were thankful for. I asked each child of mine to list three things they are thankful for.

Brooklyn ~*~ leaves, turkeys and flowers ~*~ HOW FESTIVE!!

Blake ~*~ my brothers and sister, toys and Heavenly Father ~*~ At least we're doing SOMEthing right as parents!!

Gavin ~*~ Jesus & Joseph (????), cake and cars ~*~ Gotta love the toddler mentality!

Look what I picked up from school earlier this week!!! :D Gobble, Gobble!

Brooklyn felt bad that Gavin didn't have a turkey hat
so she hand-crafted one for him all on her own! What a loving sister!! ;)

We had a very nice Thanksgiving linner (same concept as "brunch" except between lunch and dinner times) yesterday with my family. Lots and lots and LOTS of food and yummy desserts! Stuffed myself full!!!

Here are my thankfuls, in no particular order::

* I am thankful to have a hard-working husband that supports our family and wants nothing more than for me to be able to stay at home with our kids.

* I am thankful that we're done with school and have moved on to the next phase in our lives.

* I am thankful that Matt has a good job, especially at a time where the economy is suffering and many are struggling to make ends meet.

* I am thankful for each one of my children and the unique personalities they bring to our family.

* I am thankful for this sweet new spirit that will be joining our family in less than 5 weeks.

* I am thankful for my beautiful home - my OWN home!!

* I am thankful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the peace and happiness it brings to my life on a daily basis.

* I am thankful for my goodly parents and each of my five siblings.

* I am thankful for Matt's family, that they are such a wonderful addition to my own family.

I know there are countless other things to be thankful for. My list could be a mile long!! I'm glad that we have a holiday set aside for us to pause and remember all these wonderful blessings in our lives!! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!

{the word "thankful" looks weird, like it's spelled wrong, after typing it out that many times!!}

Mommy's Little Helper

Monday is my day to get the kids' laundry done. I had pulled the first batch of clothes out of the dryer and Brooklyn told me that she wanted to fold them. I set the basket down, walked away to do something else and came back to THIS --She had folded all the clothes and piled them according to "shirts" and pants." What a sweetie!!!

Of course I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd be refolding and reorganizing those piles after she went to bed that evening. ;) Darn OCD!

Please feel free to make fun of my one and only couch. I know you're jealous!!

What is THIS??!?

In my beautiful backyard????????? MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!!

Matt confessed that he couldn't hide his side job any longer. ;) How do I get rid of these things??!

TADA!!! We have a backyard!!

When we moved into our house, I told Matt that the backyard HAD to be done FIRST, before we did any inside projects. I simply could not put up with a huge, plain dirt backyard and kids begging to play outside with nowhere to go! I wanted a nice backyard to be able to enjoy while the weather is pleasant and cool here in Arizona and I knew if we didn't do it NOW, it wouldn't get done for another year.

So, with a lot of help from my awesome brother-in-law, Taylor, our backyard is finished for the time being!!! Taylor did a lot of the arranging for work to be done (trenching for sprinklers, curbing, etc.) and then poured the concrete for the back patio extension. He spent a lot of time over here and I thank him for that!! Matt did his fair share too, when he was able to, after work and on weekends.

This is what we started with:

October 9 - Trenching done for sprinklers and drip lineOctober 11 - Sprinklers

October 22 - Curbing done, concrete poured to extend back patio

Planter for garden in place along north wall
October 23 - Topsoil for inside curbing, rock for outside
Starting to look like a backyard!!!
October 25 - Round 1 of grass seed and manure laid - peeeeeeeeeeyew!!October 31 - GRASS!!!!!!











November 4 - Grass filling in, citrus trees planted (1 pink grapefruit, 3 navel oranges)











November 12 - Even more grass!November 14 - Matt mows for the first time!Today - LOVIN' my backyard!!

After Matt mowed the grass, he gave the kids permission to run around on it. They just were ECSTATIC to be able to finally go on the grass!!! They have been asking for weeks now and I'm so glad that we finally have a place for them to play outside. There has been lots of bike riding on the patio and I can't wait to enjoy the cool Fall nights on the back porch with my family!! :)

Sick Days

Yesterday, Blake had his very first sick day of his educational career. Wednesday night, croup came on fast and furious. We were up several times that night, spending time in the bathroom doing the shower-sauna routine, getting him settled down, fetching drinks. Thursday morning, it was obvious that he wasn't doing much better so he stayed home from school.

The thing with croup (from my experience) is that it usually gets better during the day and hits hard at night. Well, that wasn't the case this time. I watched Blake get progressively worse during the day and I actually got panicky a couple times when he would start coughing and coughing and coughing and it seemed like he couldn't even get a breath in! I had him camped out on the couch and the poor thing was just miserable! I could tell he was burning up but Blake kept saying that he was cold and needed his fleece blanket. Matt insisted that I take Blake into the pediatrician's office so we wouldn't end up in the ER that night. We saw a physician's assistant since our normal ped wasn't in the office that day, and he confirmed that it was indeed croup (DUH!) and prescribed steroids that would hopefully get it under control. Within one hour of taking the meds, Blake's breathing calmed and he wasn't coughing nearly as frequently. Such a relief!!

I kept him home from school today as well. Even though Blake is doing MUCH better than yesterday, he still was coughing a lot and I just couldn't imagine him making it through a school day sitting in his desk, out to recess, being able to focus on any task in the classroom. I figure that he'll have the weekend to recover and hopefully he'll be ready to go on Monday.

Getting a nebulizer treatment, which did nothing whatsoever to help his condition.
He's not sleeping, just doesn't want the "clouds" to get in his eyes!

Poor little Blakey! :(

Now of course Gavin started up with the honky cough last night. Keeping our fingers crossed that his round is much more mild!!! Brooklyn already went through her spell last week, but it was pretty short-lived with some residual coughing still hanging on.

I'm pretty sure I brought this all upon myself, by simply stating just a couple weeks ago that we'd managed to escape any real sickness as of late. Guess I didn't knock hard enough on that wood!!! As long as everyone gets in out of their system before the baby is born.....

Pregnancy Update

I'm currently 31 weeks 1 day pregnant and all I can say is WOW!! Time is flying by fast!!!!!! In less than two months, we get to welcome this baby boy into our family!!

I had a doctor's appointment today, routine and boring. My belly is measuring at 34 weeks (has been measuring consistently big for the past couple months), baby's heart rate is nice and steady between 130 & 140 bpm. Blood pressure is good. I passed my 1 hour GTT by a landslide. My OB mentioned that I gained a bit of weight this last two weeks (oops!) and I replied that it's probably because I need to stop shoving food in my mouth!! Will do better on that, I promise. ;) Really, I'm doing pretty well in the weight department. I'm still 10 lbs UNDER what I STARTED at with Gavin, which is just plain sick and embarrassing. I've only gained about 20 lbs so far and hope that it isn't much more. Baby is already head down, but not that that matters since I'll be having a c-section.

We talked about possible birth dates for this little guy and I'm not really liking my options!! We already determined that I will deliver between Christmas and New Years. Blech. #1 because the baby is measuring big (in the 97th%ile) according to ultrasound, doc says to expect another baby around 9 lbs., and #2 my doctor is so conveniently going out of town for New Years and won't be back until a couple days before my actual due date of Jan 6th. His scheduled surgery days are Fridays and Wednesdays. Friday would be the day after Christmas, but that is more than a week before my due date and hospitals won't schedule c-sections prior to 39 weeks. Wednesday would be December 31st, New Years Eve. That's ok, I guess, and further from Christmas but a New Years Eve birthday???? Maybe I'll actually go into labor on my own (hasn't happened with either previous pregnancy, except pre-term labor with B&B) and get a different day! ;) We can always hope.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good. I'm having a hard time bending over (and doing too much *trying* to bend over causes me heartburn) and sitting up straight. Baby is constantly moving, kicking, and rolling around. Matt thinks it's hilarious to watch my belly move and feel the baby doing gymnastics in there. I cannot wait to meet this baby- hold him, sniff him, nurse him- and see what he looks like. Names are still a source of contention at this point, and Matt has lovingly dubbed the baby as Voldemort, as in he-who-must-not-be-named. We do semi-agree on two names, but we're still at the drawing board. Any suggestions welcomed!

And of course, a belly shot. Here I am in all my glory, at 30 weeks 5 days!!

Election Day - 2008

I have to admit, I'm not very savvy when it comes to politics. It's just not in my blood. I don't study up on the candidates (national and local) or the issues at hand. Of course I know where I stand on important issues. I have not been thrilled with either presidential candidate, honestly, and just felt like I had to choose the lesser of two evils.

Still, I feel it's a privilege and honor to be able to vote as a citizen of the United States. Gavin and I made our way to the polls this morning. He thought we were going on a "BOAT!" Haha! We were in and out in about 20 minutes. I'm glad that I contributed my vote. I just don't know if I can stand to watch all the coverage tonight. Should be interesting!!

And being the cheesy mom that I am, I dressed all three kids in red, white & blue in honor of the day! When I told Blake it was election day, he thought they didn't have school because of it!! LOL! I don't know if they'll be "voting" in school today, but we told them who our vote was for.

Halloween festivities

I absolutely LOVE Halloween!!! {Nevermind the X number of pounds I'm sure I gained due to the Halloween candy I just couldn't resist! I'm pregnant, isn't that a good excuse?!} It's so much fun when you have kids to help you enjoy it! :) We did some fun things this past week with the kids to help us all get in the Halloween spirit.

Decorating Cookies

Wednesday evening, I made sugar cookie dough and we cut it into Halloween shapes. After the cookies baked and cooled, Brooklyn, Blake and Gavin got to decorate their own two cookies. :)

Have you ever seen a more pouty face??!? A little offended his cookie broke, hehe!!

Carving Pumpkins

Matt always gets really into pumpkin carving, creating templates for us and he does a dang good job! Last year, we never got around to carving pumpkins because we were moving from CA to AZ so Matt wanted to use the same "theme" we had planned for last year. But Blake was insistent upon having his own so it kinda changed things. We only got around to carving 3 out of the 5 pumpkins we bought, but I guess that's better than last year!!

Gavin a little hesitant, Brooklyn digs right in and Blake goes gingerly

My very professional hubby! LOL!

OUR PUMPKINS

Transformers logo (Blake's)

Rocket from Little Einsteins (Gavin's)June from Little Einsteins (Brooklyn's)

Trick-or-Treating

Can I just say how excited I was to go trick-or-treating in OUR OWN neighborhood and have trick-or-treaters come to OUR OWN house???!??! Loved it! Brooklyn and Blake picked out what they wanted to dress up as this year and since Gavin does his infamous "pirate eye," I decided he shall be a pirate. Everyone was excited to go trick-or-treating and Gavin did a dang good job of following the protocol for a two year old!! We got many comments about his enthusiastic "TRICK OR TREAT!" at the door!

Super cute craft B&B did in kindergarten on Halloween day

Brooklyn, the black kitty cat - MEOW!

Blake as Batman, showing off his cool moves, haha!

And pirate Gavin - Argh mateys!

TRICK OR TREAT!!!