Summer fun!

The kids are trying to find ways to entertain themselves this summer.

In the morning we work on cleaning up or tidying up the house and their rooms. This is also the time that they do their reading. I let them watch TV or a movie in the early afternoon, and then they swim after 3 or 4 pm. The sun is way too hard on their skin before then. We have been going to the park on Tuesdays for the potluck picnic at the park. Sometimes on Thursdays we have been going to the Thursday playgroup to different places within a half hour drive. One day this past week, they pulled out the marble racer game and played with it for hours.

Today they got out Jileigh's tea set and had a tea party. They got all dressed up and the girls put on make-up. So we gathered them together outside and took some pictures just for fun.

1 month old Bear picture

Today Elody is 6 weeks old, but this was taken a couple of weeks ago when she was 1 month old.

Teeth cleanings

Today I took my kids to the dentist for cleanings and exams. We went to a new place that our insurance covers now that we have dental insurance. It was pretty cool. Their x-ray machine was hooked up to a computer so that one could see the x-ray full screen. They also had a big room with 4 exam beds in it. Above each bed was a TV screen with a choice of 4 different movies with ear phones. They were able to work on 4 kids at a time. I only had one kid with one very tiny cavity. Angelique has a permanent tooth growing behind a baby tooth that isn't loose at all, so it needs to be extracted. Beauchene cried with his mouth wide open, so he got his teeth cleaned too. The dentist said that we really need to get rid of the pacifier. All in all, I was pretty impressed with the results of my kids teeth and impressed with the office.

Afterwards they all thought that they were starving, so I took them to Wendy's. On the way home, I had to stop at Walmart to get diapers; so I let each kid pick out a flavor of Yoplait yogurt of their choice for their treat for being so good at the dentist. We got home just in time to get Jileigh off to Young Womens. Matt is working evenings this week so the kids got chicken nuggets for dinner. How lame am I?!

Jileigh's accident

Jileigh had her turn cutting her hand pretty badly. She won't let me put it on my blog for now, but is having me refer people to her blog: http://jileighsjournal.blogspot.com/

Jileigh's accident

Tonight, Jileigh voluntarily took out the garbage.

She was pulling the strings on the top with her right hand and went for the bag with her left hand. Unfortunately, she cut her hand on a piece of broken glass. We called Dr. Dave and he met us at his clinic. She got 8 stitches in her left hand at the base of her thumb. Now Matt and Jileigh are walking around with their left hands bandaged and elevated. Please don't let there be and "next" one.

4th of July fun!

We went to Matt's mom's house to spend the afternoon with his family. The kids played outside most of the time on the slip and slide. We came back to town for the fireworks. It was a nice display.

Matt's accident

Yesterday morning Matt was doing a side job at someone's house wiring up an outdoor shade. He was using a hole saw at an angle and ended up cutting the base of his left thumb pretty badly. He went to his cousin Dr. Ed and it took 8 stitches to put his thumb back together. Then he went off to work. As long as he doesn't use that hand it really doesn't hurt him. So this morning he was reading Brandon Sanderson's newest book, Warbreaker, while I was getting after the kids to get their chores done. The little kids were also taking turns holding her.

Babysitting and dinner

Last night I was so please myself that I was able to get my all kids to bed at 9:30 pm. Safia gave me excused until 10 pm, but that still was pretty good for us. I was so happy to get to go to bed by 10 pm too. Well, at 2am Elody wakes up like usual for a nursing and went back to sleep. Then Beau wakes up right after that coughing. That kid did not go back to sleep until 5:30 am. Then Elody woke up again for a nursing and was back down. So I finally get to go back to sleep a 6 am. That was my night. Then Candy calls me at 9:40am pleading for me to babysit for her while she goes to scouts. I was so dead tired but agreed. So I had her baby Hannah and 3 others for almost 2 hours. Fortunately, both Hannah and Elody were content for most of the time. I had Jileigh and Angelique for helpers too. After lunch, I was able to rest for a while.

For dinner tonight I made a new recipe that I got off of Americastestkitchen.com. It is Baked stuffed manicotti with a marinara sauce with sausage. It turned out pretty good and everyone enjoyed it.

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary

We have spent the weekend celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. We decided to do projects for each other. Friday I spent the day cleaning our bedroom and then hired a guy to clean the carpet. It looked so much better. (Our bedroom is the only room in our house that still has carpet.) Then Friday night we went to see Transformers 2. I left the baby with Jileigh and Angelique to tend. They did a great job with her. Then on Saturday, Matt put in a fourplex outlet in my bathroom. Now I can plug in my blow dryer, my curling blow dryer, my 1 inch curling iron and my 1/2 inch curling iron. All my girls require a different tool to do their hair and now I don't have to keep changing what I can plug in. He also put a can light in my shower. Today we had a nice family dinner after church. We set the table with the fine china, goblets, and nice flatware. We made a salad, grilled steaks for everyone, grilled zucchini and marinated cucumber from our garden, oven roasted diced potatoes, and tapioca pudding that Jileigh made. Then to top it all off, our five older kids gave us foot massages. While each kid had a foot to massage, Matt told us stories from his childhood about the covered-wagon trips on the Honeymoon Trail. He used to go on the trips to enjoy the pioneer life and help out his uncle who ran them.

Facebook

I finally gave in and joined Facebook a few days ago. I have already found a bunch of Matt's cousins, my best friends from my high school days, my friends here in town and where we use to live, some of my mission companions, and my college roommates, one of which I didn't think I would ever hear from again who has joined the church and been through the temple since I last saw her in '93. That was exciting to hear about. Now my days consist of checking email, checking my facebook wall and checking my blog and my friends blogs and if I so desire, adding to or commenting on blogs and walls. I have got to learn to not let this occupy too much of my time because I certainly have a ton enough to do with my house and my kids; but I really do enjoy my communication with others outside of my kids.

Ridin' Cowgirl!

Matt's aunt Rosemary got this onesie for Jileigh when she was a baby and we've enjoyed putting it on all our girls. She's too cute to not take a picture of her!

Our Saturday at the Ranch

Matt and Dave came up with an idea to have light put up in the pavillion at the Ranch. So they bought a solar panel, wired it up to a battery and then wired it to the lights. I am sure it is more complex than that, but that is how I understand it.

1 week old Bear picture

My friend Hydee took a picture of her baby with a bear every month and posted it. Then when her baby was a year old, she posted all the picture in chronological order so that we could see how she grew compared to this bear. I loved the idea so here is her first one at 1 week old. She really hasn't grown yet. She lost 9 ounces and now she has gained it back.

My kids decided that we needed to gather all of our stuffed bears around her for her picture. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Laundry room construction

Matt went to Home Depot yesterday to get the shelving he needed to put up in the laundry room. So today he has started on it. These are the before and after pictures of today's work.

My glowing baby

We have spent the week taking Elody to the local lab to get a blood draw and then to the PA to decide what action to take next to get her bilirubin count down. The count continued to climb until yesterday when it finally went down into the low risk section. We have been seeing the Physician's Assistant all week and finally yesterday my doctor, Dr Dave Grygla (Matt's 1st cousin), finally was back to work. At our appointment yesterday (Friday), the PA was there first and he wanted me to keep her on the lights for the weekend and take her into the nearby city (30 minutes away) to the lab at the hospital on Sunday. We told him that we have had enough of this and that she is fine, she's out of the risk zone. He still argued his position until Dave finally came in. The PA told him the situation, his position and mine, and then Dave said, "You can tell her what you want, but she is going to do what she wants to do." With that, the PA walked out. Dave said that she is fine and not to worry about it anymore. Dave respects us and trusts us to do what's best for her. I will still take her out into the sun for a few minutes a day until all the yellow color is gone. I had to give her formula as a supplement until today now that my milk has evened out. It is hard for her to get out the colostrum and then the milk when I go through the engorgement stage.

I love this little outfit on my little girls. It is a preemie size so they only get to wear it once or twice the first couple of weeks.

My parents visit

My parents and brother Nathan came on Tuesday night. My mom spent Wednesday doing all my laundry and Thursday washing all the bed sheets. Angelique was a little trooper. She was right by her Grammy helping her and directing on whose clothes were whose. Jileigh took off on Wednesday morning for her first Girl's Camp. Angelique has done this amazing transformation becoming my helper, rescuer, baby and toddler caretaker, dishwasher loader and unloader, etc. My parents left this morning (Friday) to go back home. It sure was nice having them here. I got a picture of me with my mom and Elody. All three of us are the youngest in our families, My mom was the youngest, I was the youngest and Elody is my youngest and we are all girls. I just thought that was cool and it is not something you see everyday.

She's here!!!

I would like to present Elody Elizabeth Heaton. Born on June 7, 2009 at 3:03 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 3 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Sunday morning at 5:16 am I woke saying, "My water just broke!" I ran into the bathroom and cleaned up. My adrenalin was going and my thoughts were scattered. Then I heard a little voice outside my bathroom. Beauchene had just woke up and came into our room. Of all the timings, of all the mornings. (My first thoughts were, Elody came and woke him us telling him that she is coming!) I tried to cuddle him for a few minutes, but he was not being sleepy. Matt finally went in and got Jileigh to come in our bed and cuddle him. He accepted that and we continued to get ready to go. I had only had a couple of contractions, but history tells me that I only have a couple of hours after my water breaks to push out the baby. (That wasn't so in this case.) Matt called his mom and off we went to the hospital.

The contractions were coming very slowly, about 1 an hour. I finally consented to having a pitocin IV put in my arm. I was still at 3 cm dilated. At 4 cm the contractions started getting hard. I spent about an hour with Matt and the nurse pushing on my knees during the contractions and I was listening to my hypnobirthing CD. After I had had enough of that, I was barely at 6cm. So I went into the shower on my hands and knees with Matt spraying the water on my body and pushing on my hips during the contractions. After an our of that, she checked me again and I was at 6+ cm. The contractions were as painful as if I were 9-10 cm, but I wasn't and I had a long way to go before I would be. That's when I threw in the towel. I got my very first epidural. I still went another 4 hours before I was dilated to 10 cm; but instead of being in murderous pain, I took a nice nap. After my first push, the doctor realized that the baby was indeed posterior. He tried to turn her, but she turned right back. So I pushed a couple more times and she was out. My doctor was rather amazed that I pushed her out so well and that I didn't tear or damage my perineum at all. She cried when he was cleaning her out, but she settled right down after he gave her to me. She already likes her momma. She nursed really well on both sides and was quite content. It was so weird for me to have my lower half total numb. Once I made a slight turn and my leg fell off the bed but I didn't even know it until the nurse picked it back up. After they moved me to the recovery floor and the numbing wore off, I surprisingly felt really good. This is the best I have felt after giving birth to a baby.

Mom and Dad and Grandma H with Elody

"Trying" to leave the hospital

My doctor released me first thing this morning, but Elody's doctor wasn't about to release her. Her bilirubin count was too high too fast. They had to put her under the bili lights all morning, bring her too me only to nurse. I've never had a baby be under the lights before. They did another test later in the morning and the count had gone down enough for us to take her home, but we had to rent what is called a bili blanket. It is a rectangle pad that shines the lights that we can put on her bare back or belly. The little pink nightgown is same gown that I have brought home all of my girls, except for Safia because she was born at home, from the hospital. I love to take a picture of the back of my baby's heads because that hair usually doesn't stay there.

First Family photo

The first thing we did when we got home is take a family photo. My family is compete!