A weekly recap (kind of)

My plans never ever ever work out. Perhaps it's just me (it is!) or perhaps it is something else.  I was hoping that I would have more time to update this for everyone but I do not.  At least not right now.  Actually, I blame Scott. It HAS to be his fault. When in doubt blame the hubby. Ha!

Anyway here's what we did this last week plus a few days:

Sunday - My parents headed home to Harker Heights with Avery - he will be back this Saturday.  I can't wait to see him! It has been two whole weeks and I miss him so much!  Chuck and Sarah stopped by for a few hours and hung out with us, which was so fun!

Monday - Scott, Noah and I had our first official day together since returning home after all the hospital drama.  We took it easy! It was perfect!

Tuesday - We took it easy again!

Wednesday - We took Noah to meet his great great Aunt Nettie.  He slept the whole three hour visit!  I absolutely adore Nettie!  She's THE definition of an old southern belle and she is SO sassy!  She's the kind of lady I want to be when I am her age. She told Scott and I a story about her father in law.  He was a preacher and he was long winded with a habit of talking after 12pm (I guess that church should have been over by that time.) One day she told him if he didn't stop talking by 12 she was going to start coughing really loudly so he knew it was time to stop.  And she did.  His sermon went past 12 o'clock and she started coughing. She said he looked right at her and she kept coughing and he ended the sermon.  When her sister told her she could not do that she said "Well I did." HA!

Thursday - We had just Alec over to stay the night and we got him take out from one of his favorite places to eat, The Olive Garden.  Scott spent some time with Alec upstairs watching "boy" movies.  It was really nice to be able to spoil him a little and give him some individual attention.

Friday - Scott and I went to Home Depot and bought some stain, so we could, or he could start one of the many DIY projects I want done.  He did a small amount of staining and showed me what he did and I said "Oh no! That is NOT how I wanted it to look, at least not how it looked in my head."  A second trip to HD is happening this week!

Saturday and Sunday - We had both Brooke and Alec for the weekend.  We hung out and had family over.  Scott's mom, and sisters, Ginny and Ally along with her friend visited for a few hours on Sunday and it was a lot of fun!

So far this week Scott, Noah and I have been just hanging out at home, enjoying our time together.  Noah has grown out of all his newborn clothes and diapers.  I was teary-eyed gathering up all his little things and getting all his 3 month stuff together and ready to be worn.  My sister's mother in law gave me some pretty good advice that I keep telling myself:  the days may seem really long right now but the truth is the years go by so quickly. Enjoy the time you have even when its hard for you to do!  Scott and I are both trying so so hard to just enjoy Noah in every single way we can right now.

Here's Noah in his THREE month pjs.  Both sad and so cute!  So cute not just because he's my son but because he has my favorite dinosaur on his feet.

Here are some other pictures from the week:

I made this onsie for Noah to wear home from Harker Heights.  It says heart my dad.

 Here is Noah sleeping in his Maya Wrap! I wanted this thing so bad and my mom and dad surprised me and sent it to me!  It is the best hippie carrying thing for your baby!  It took me a while to get Noah comfortable in it, he would protest being in it so much, but not anymore.

  

Noah got Scott's pointy elf ears and so we have been jokingly calling Noah an "angry elf" whenever he gets really mad, in reference to the movie ELF.  Here is an example of Noah being an "angry elf" after I put a giraffe hat on him. Let me just say he hates hats!  Like absolutely detests them!  Naturally, I thought it would be funny to put one on him anyway.  I know, I know, mom of the year over here.

Lastly here is Scott putting Noah's stroller together!  It came today, a day early!  The plan is to start taking Noah on morning walks tomorrow after breakfast. Wish us luck!

Lots of love to y'all

Playing and SMILING!

Here's a video of Noah smiling and playing with me.  Enjoy! Pretend to not notice the 4 baskets of clean laundry in the background.  Please. Ha!

Last week at Papa and Mamoo's

The last week at my parents house was filled with visitors of all kinds; both family and Arthropods. No. Not aliens. Bugs.  I caught a centipede, Avery caught a scorpion.   The centipede I caught happened to be the biggest one I have ever seen in real life and the prettiest.  I know it's strange to call a centipede pretty BUT this guy (or gal) had the brightest orange legs!  Side note:  he is still alive in the picture and he was let go in the woods.  I do not kill bugs or other things, I put them back outside where they belong.  Most of the time.

Noah finally got to meet his uncle Nick which was so exciting!  Noah also got to play with his cousin Blake which was so cute to see.

Noah got to spend lots and lots of time sleeping on his Papa and playing with his Mamoo.

Scott spent the week resting and recovering alone at home.  I am beyond happy to report:  he is doing pretty good now!  He has gained weight and is eating regularly.  Thank God!  I am looking forward to him being sick as a distant memory. I want to be like, oh yeah, I vaguely remember you being so sick.  I really do! 


Brooke, Alec and Avery are well! Brooke is helping take care of a family members cats and has been hanging out with friends.  Alec and Avery have been busy perfecting their video game playing skills. Avery is also helping with the yard work at both his Aunt Nell and Mamoo's houses.


As for me: other than taking care of Noah, I did get something I really, really wanted:  

Mmmhmm.  Finally.  I am only two chapters into it, but it is soooo good!

That's it for this update, I'm posting two more.

The past month

Hi Family and friends,

This is late. Really late. I am so sorry about that, we have had a ton of things both good and bad happen during this past month.  I am going to catch everyone up on all of it.  This may be long, but I will try not to have it reach novel proportions. 

Noah's first official outing was to a vineyard, cause you know, we keep it classy here in Texas. The vineyard is owned by old family friends of Scott's and is called Eden Hill Winery, it's located in Celina which is about 20 minutes North-West of us.  This place is beautiful! It was so much fun! I am not a wine person at all and I was fascinated by everything I had learned during our visit.  I now have an appreciation for wine and the care that goes into making it.  They have an orange flavored wine that is made from grapes that taste like oranges and it was so so SO good! The name of the wine is Orange Muscat.  Buy some. Buy some for your friends. Buy some for me! I promise it really is THAT good! 

One Wednesday evening with the kids we tried to make homemade pizzas.  Including the dough.  It was a total miss.  The dough tasted really doughy, and not in a good way, disgustingly so.  We all ended up eating the toppings off our pizzas and throwing the dough part away.  Oh well.  If you happen to have a really yummy pizza dough recipe please send it my way!  I am sure the kids will appreciate it! Ha! 

The kids are all officially on summer vacation, living it up a little.  They are all doing great and have been great older siblings to little Noah.  


As you all know Scott had his gallbladder removed two days before Noah was born.  Gallbladder removal is a difficult adjustment for anyone to have to deal with.  You have to completely adjust your diet and things you once loved to eat you may not get to eat again depending on how well your body adjusts after the surgery.  Scott is dealing with some complications right now because of the surgery.  He has been in the hospital for about a week.  He had an infection (now he is prone to them) and his pancreas was inflamed (common after gallbladder removal and from what I read online a recurring event for many.)  He was in a lot of pain and just super sick.  I am happy to say that he is doing really well and hoping to go home tomorrow.  He is going to have to take it super slow with eating and introducing foods back into his diet.  The thing I find the most strange about his diet now is that foods that are considered good and what are usually encouraged to be eaten, he can not have.  No high fiber, no whole wheat pastas or breads.  He gets to eat the bad stuff. Lucky him. 


I am doing okay, I am staying with my parents this week and stayed with them last week because I was driving Scott crazy.  I was driving myself crazy too.  I am a little OCD.  I am not ashamed or embarrassed or try to hide it.  My OCD ways have had to be put on the back-burner because I have been taking care of Noah and I don't have the time to sweep and vacuum everyday.  This bothers me.  Bothers me to the point that it was making me bitter.  I would see something on the ground and want to cry.  I am lucky to have a husband who helps out and wants to help out, but after he would clean something, I would just see what he missed or did wrong and not appreciate it at all, in fact I would flat out tell him he did a bad job.  I know. It was pretty terrible.  During my parents' visit Scott suggested I go down to Harker Heights with them to relax and not have to worry about anything but Noah and myself.  I thought it was a great idea.  I came back down this week because he is in the hospital and he didn't want me to be alone.  Avery and the family cat came too! Being with my parents gave me the opportunity to surprise my grandmother at work with Noah so she could meet him!  Noah behaved so well meeting her and visiting with the lovely ladies at the family business!  He even peeked up at his GG! It was so CUTE!

While visiting my parents I had the opportunity to spend time with Audrey and Hope, they are my family by God's grace - not blood related but family in every way else.  When I worked at Sam Goody I met a guy name Nick that became like a brother to Nell and I.  The three of us did everything together.  Audrey married Nick and I got another sister and a niece and now a nephew Blake.  I love the fact that Nick's son and mine get to grow up knowing one another, just like we did!  Anyway, my mom can sew and she helped teach Hope how to use her sewing machine.  

Noah has learned that car seat equals sleep.  It is so funny to watch him look around and figure out he is in it and then pass out.  He did so well on our trips back and forth to Mckinney, a 3 hour drive.

Noah is also a great sleeper!  He wakes up only one or two times a night!  Mostly just once, but every now and then he will wake up twice.  I am super thankful he is a good sleeper!  I am hoping he follows in Avery's footsteps and sleeps through the night at two months too.  He is also becoming more and more alert.  I am having to entertain him during the day.  I take him outside and show him toys and ring bells for him so that he can turn toward the sound.  I play classical and jazz music for him in the mornings.  He is really strong too.  He wiggles around on the bed and has rolled himself over from back to belly a few times.  Each time he has he looks up like "what was that?!"  Its adorable!

Now that Noah is on a "schedule" and I use that term lightly, I think I will have time to update like I originally planned.  Wish me luck!  LOL

Pictures Pictures

Here are some pictures from his first week.  

Love love LOVE this one

 Snuggled up with mommy

 Meeting his big sister for the first time

 Meeting one of his big brothers

 Meeting his other big brother notice their same faces! HA!

 With his daddy

 Sleeping just like daddy

 Cuddling in the blanket his GG made him

 With me

Noah's birth story

Hi all

Sorry this took awhile to get out, hopefully I can post pictures too!

I am going to tell Noah's birth story minus all the gross details.  Kinda.  I will be pretty tasteful, you can use your imagination though.

Two days before Noah was born (Saturday) Scott had his gallbladder removed.  Yep, he had major surgery.  The whole time he was in the hospital he repeatedly told the hospital staff he needed to get out as fast as he could because his baby was going to be born at any time.  So the surgeon who operated on him let him leave Sunday morning.  He came home and slept on and off most of Sunday day and evening.

My parents came up from Harker Heights for the weekend so that I would not be alone while Scott was in the hospital - just in case I did go into labor.  I asked them to stay an extra night because I had an appointment Monday morning and we would know more about when Noah would be coming or at least have a plan to induce or whatever.  They stayed. Sunday at dinner I had one legit contraction and that was it. I went to bed like normal.

I woke up at 10:30 because I had another contraction.  Not a bad one just one enough to wake me from my sleep.  Nothing followed. I tried to go back to sleep again.  30 mins later, another one.  This pattern continued until 1am when I had 2 contractions within 30 mins.  Again these contractions were not too painful.  My hip bones hurt which I assumed was "back labor" and didn't think much more of it.  I woke Scott up at 1:30am and asked him what exactly our plan was and he asked me if I was in labor and I told him I wasn't sure but I didn't think so, because I was not in that much pain.  He decided to get dressed anyway.  As soon as he went into the closet to get his clothes on, my water broke.  And when I say broke I mean exploded. Like a water balloon.  It was terrible. Terrible.  I immediately ran into the bathroom and locked myself in it.  Why?  I felt gross. I wanted to shower and do other things first.  I am really weird about things being clean. I believe a happy home smells like bleach.  I had a plan (fantasy) about what was going to happen and that plan (fantasy) involved me doing my hair and makeup and being showered when I left for the hospital. At this time Scott starts banging on the door telling me to come out so we could go to the hospital to which I kept saying no.  He went and woke my mom, and I told her the same thing, I wasn't coming out.  Scott, of course, got frustrated with me and said if you don't come out I'm breaking down the door. So, I reluctantly decided to come out and he led me to the car. Shoeless. I hysterically pointed out the fact that I did not have shoes on and he told me I would be fine.

We live ten maybe fifteen minutes from the hospital and the whole ride there I am holding myself up because I DO NOT want to sit in the drama that was going on all over the seat. Believe me it was an awful lot of drama!  It was gross. Meanwhile I am screaming bloody murder (looking back, I totally sounded like Bella from Twilight when she was screaming in her sleep, about something, I know totally lame.)  I was not screaming because I was in pain, not a bit,  but because I felt gross and dirty (which I was) and at one point I started to think about asking Scott to turn around so I could shower.  I don't remember now if I did or not.

My mom tried to console me by telling me that it was sprinkling out side because earlier that week I was texting my grandmother and she made a joke about Noah being in his "ark" and not coming out until after it rains. I did not want to hear about the rain! Nope! After that I asked Scott to run all the red lights.

When we were less than thirty seconds away from the hospital I tell Scott and my mom I think he's crowning to which my mom replies, that's okay we are almost there.  I said no no you don't understand he is coming NOW.  Sure enough we pull into the hospital parking lot and I feel the need to push so I did.  Scott pulled up in front of the ER entrance and yelled that he needed help and as he came to the passenger side to help me out of the car I'm like he is here and I start to pull my shorts down and Scott grabs them and yanks them off and sure enough Noah's little head is out and Scott reaches down and pulls him out. The ER Dr comes running out and instructs him to unwrap his cord from his neck and tells us not to worry its not life threatening.  Noah took his first breaths and did not cry at all.  I am still shocked he didn't cry he just looked around. Then two male nurses came out and picked me up and put me on a stretcher and took me to labor and delivery.

While in the labor and delivery room with the Dr I said not one word, I seriously just laid in the bed thinking "oh my gosh this just happened"  I did not expect things to go that way at all.  I was shocked.  I told everyone my whole pregnancy I wanted to try to have a natural birth just to see if I could do it and sure enough, I did it!

Two random fun facts:  I was wearing the shirt I wore when Scott asked me to marry him when Noah was born.
And the first person my mom talked to after Noah was born was my Aunt Kerry, the same person she talked to first after I was born. Cute.

a little update on everyone

Hi All

Friday's appointment went pretty well, I am two centimeters dilated which means Noah could come any day now. I was hoping and praying that he would come THIS weekend but that does not appear to be the case.  The Dr did another sonogram to see how he was growing and he weights 6 pounds 2 ounces. I have to confess that he has probably gained a few more ounces in the past day because I ate half of a jar of french onion dip WITH chips. Not healthy chips, no no no I ate greasy artery clogging Lays potato chips.  I honestly could have eaten the whole jar in one sitting. I had to tell myself to stop. A few times (I obviously don't listen).  And I have been sneaking some on and off all day today too! Thinking about it right now makes me want more, but I will refrain. Ha!  Noah's umbilical cord is wrapped around his neck and the Dr assured us that it is not as frightening as it sounds and that it won't be a problem. Phew! That is good news! The Dr tried to get a picture of his face and.....  Oh yes! Yes, you guessed it - he had his hand in the way! Again.  I am not kidding. Why why why?  I do not know. I will post the picture we did get, its of his profile. Because it is hard to make out, I went ahead and labeled the picture. Hopefully it helps. Please forgive the photo quality, it is not that great - I took a picture of the picture on my iPhone.

Brooke, Alec and Avery are all excited about meeting their baby brother.  The level of excitement varies from kid to kid which is to be expected.

Brooke got her progress report and got several 100s and blew us away! We are SO proud of her!  I told her that I am officially on her about her grades and if she continues to do so well, she will have to take some AP classes.  She laughed and said she doesn't know how she managed that one and I said I don't care, I'm watching her! She is so cute!  I think she gets prettier and prettier EVERY TIME I see her!  Poor Scott!

I've been tutoring Alec after school helping him with his writing skills.  He has improved a lot since we began a couple of months ago.  I am really really happy with his progress!  He and Avery recently took the STARRS test, which is a typical standardized test that they give kids.  The scores won't be available  until next school year but I am dying to know how he did!  I know he did great!

Avery is doing well in school and I think it is safe to say he has adjusted nicely to his new school. He has made a lot of friends, boys and girls. Girls. Isn't he a little young for that?!  He volunteers during his P.E. time to help assist the special needs kids with their P.E. time and because he has been such a big help he and a friend were asked by the teacher to help with the Mckinney ISD Special Olympics.  He got to miss classes one afternoon and he said he had a really good time and that he would do it again. I am proud of him for doing something for others!

Scott is good too! He is super busy, like always working, working and working! I don't think I have ever known anyone who works as much as him!  His phone starts going off at 7 am (sometimes earlier annoyingly and irritatingly so) and there are nights where he is emailing and taking calls until well after midnight.  He has a couple of big meetings this week, so if you pray, please pray for him to be filled with wisdom and that his meetings go well.

I am good too!  Just a little uncomfortable with this growing belly and hoping that it won't last much longer.  I am excited about meeting Noah and anxious to the max, about when he will be here!

Side note:  I plan on updating this every few days or so, but no less than once a week.  I will try to keep it rounded out enough so that I give updates about all six of us. Ahhh! SIX of us!  OH! And I will try to take tons of pictures too!  Taking pictures has always been difficult for me to remember to do - hopefully the fact that family will be keeping up with this blog is enough motivation for me.  Hopefully indeed.

Love love to you!