Colbie Ann

I thought since she's almost 8 weeks old {oh my word, that happened fast!}, I'd take the time to write out her birth story. You know, for the 3 people who actually care about that sort of thing.

Let's start by giving some background. Until I had Colbie I'd never gone into labor naturally. I was induced with both other kids and had a great experience. A smooth 8 hour induction with Hails and 6 with Owen. I loved scheduling my labors. I had no clue until they told me I wasn't legally able to schedule this one that I was such a control freak! ;) Apparently the state passed a law that you can't be induced for a non-emergency reason until 41 weeks. I've only ever been 39 weeks pregnant, so that freaked me out! 

As I got closer to my due date I began to get really anxious. How long will I be pregnant? Will I even know what normal contractions feel like? How long will a natural labor take for me since my inductions were fairly short?? This last question had me especially nervous being that my mom had a 53 minute labor with my youngest sister Alicia. Yeah, 53 minutes. As in, my dad ran every red light and she still had the baby while he parked the car! 

At my 38 week appt my doctor did my first cervical check. I was so excited to know. How far was I dilated? A 2? Maybe a 3?? "Well...baby is high, your cervix is thick and closed right up. I predict a February baby", he said. WHAT?? A February baby?? As in, I'll go past my due date?? This is just not acceptable! "Ummm...ok, thanks". 

I am fairly certain I cried when I finally got in my car. 

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "what a baby?? Doesn't she know how lucky she is to just have a healthy baby? She won't be pregnant forever!" Yes. Yes to all of this. But pregnancy...especially the last weeks of pregnancy are highly emotional. I was a basket case. There. I said it. My husband will surely corroborate this assessment. 

As the next week passed by, I had several bouts of timeable contractions. I'd sit at dinner with my iPhone out timing them with a free app I downloaded. It was as if I was waiting for it to ding and alert me to head straight to the hospital! But, no dice. I still had to determine on my own whether or not it was "time", and I was so unsure of what to expect. All the books said that if you're not sure, get in a warm bath. If your contractions stop they're not real ones. And this was true. Every.time. 

At my 39 week appointment I was sure that after all of these contractions I'd have a good progress report. My OB was in Hawaii, so I saw a midwife in his office. It was time for the moment of truth. She checked me. "Baby is high, dilated to almost a 2 and cervix is still pretty thick." WHAT?? All that walking and timing and ridiculous nightly baths and I had barely progressed?? "Ummm...ok. Thanks."  

She did notice that my BP was a bit higher than it had been and there was some protein in my urine, so she ordered a 24 hour urine catch. This was just peachy, by the way. Imagine being as big as a house with a large baby punching your bladder and having to collect every drop of urine and STORE it in a plastic jug...in the fridge. It took me several hours to realize that I would be less grossed out if I put it in a cooler in my closet. Which also solved another inconvenient problem. I mean, I peed about a hundred times that 24 hours and was less than thrilled every time I needed to hoof it down the stairs! 

The next day I headed straight into the lab with my urine jug discretely disguised in a Bed, Bath and Beyond bag. The tech said it was the weirdest way anyone has ever returned their jug. Yay for me. 

I waited for the call. Now, I am not saying I wanted to have pre-eclampsia. But I am saying, in the interest of keeping it real that I wouldn't have hated having a mild case that would cause the need for me to be induced. A reading of 300+ would result in a pre-e diagnosis. Lucky for me my # was 295. What do you mean, 295?? Like, I have JV pre-eclampsia?? Kind of. I was told to pay attention to several warning symptoms and call if I experienced any of them. This was very disheartening. It would have been one thing to have not had it, but to be borderline really made me nervous. 

Fast forward to Todd's birthday...3 days after my urine dabacle. We went to Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse, our family fave, and had a great dinner. I had a great time, but I was really feeling off. My mom insisted that before I go home to bed that I go get my BP checked at Safeway. I went and my BP was high. Significantly higher than it had ever been. I called the on call doc expecting him to need me to go in and be evaluated and he told me to stay off my feet for the next day or so and follow up with my normal doc in a day or 2. HUH? Like, go home and hope for the best? Nah. 

I was so discouraged as I crawled into bed that night, and thought to text a few of my girlfriends to pray specifically that I would either wake up with no more pre-e symptoms or just go into labor. This was around 11 pm. Little did I know what God has planned...

At 12:15 I woke up in a fright with a monster contraction. Then another one 2 minutes later. And another. Todd woke up and started the bath to try our little test. I got in and within a minute I knew this was it. We needed to go. And since my contractions were consistently 2 minutes apart we needed to go quickly. My mom was on her way to stay with the kids and got pulled over on the way! When the officer approached her door she had her hand out the window with her license in her hand screaming, "Hurry! Write me the ticket, my daughter is in labor!!" His response was priceless when he waved her on saying, "go!! Just go!" Bless you, Mr. Policeman!! 

When we got to the hospital they got me right up to a room. But not before I stopped 3 times to stand up and wait through a contraction because it hurt to sit in the wheelchair! I got checked and was at a 5-6. I asked right away for an epidural. She checked me moments later and I was at a 7. I got the epidural right after that, but it didn't help the pain at all! I kept telling Todd that it hurt too bad and I couldn't do it and he was a ROCK STAR, you guys. So confidently and calmly he just told me that yes, I could, and that he was right with me. The nurse checked me again right after the epi and I was at a 9 1/2. I waited to be complete but baby was still at a zero station so I anticipated laboring down before I started to push. Then her heart rate started to drop. Scary, much? Once I was a 10 the nurses helped me figure out how to get her out quick! As I started pushing the nurse was surprised to find that my water had broken. I had no clue! It must have broken in the bath at home because I didn't notice it. But no wonder my contractions hurt so bad this whole time. The most intense 15 minutes of.my.life! I have big babies and Colbie was my biggest yet! She was born at 3:17 am and I was completely SHOCKED to have another daughter! I was so convinced she was a boy at the end. But we were thrilled to meet her! She nursed well right off the bat and that first hour of her life that she was laying on my chest was pure bliss! 

We waited until the big kids came to finalize her name. We wanted them to have a say and spend some time with her before we decided. Colbie Ann was just right! 

Adding this sweet thing to our family has been an absolute joy! I thought we were done...and am so grateful God decided we weren't! 

Life These Days

So, I haven't had tons of time for blogging as of late (as you can plainly tell), but I am currently on hold with our appliance delivery company and have been told I would probably be experiencing a "longer than normal hold time".  Perfect time for a quick update, I'd say...

Our Christmas was awesome.  Here are a few pics that I have to share.  Honestly, we've been more engaged in our time with people than remembering to take pictures of it, so these are the best I have... ;)

Here is Hailey wearing her new Christmas outfit.  She loves it. 

 

 Here is Owen stowed away in his new pop up tent castle from his Nana.  He plays his leap pad in there often.

 When the Camps came home for their Christmas visit in mid-December we got to have Case over for a cousin sleep over.  The kids had a BLAST! 

 It's so fun to watch the age gap melt away between Case and Owen.  They played so well together and miss each other terribly! 

And here is the girl with her Betsey Johnson clutch.  I mean, what 6-year old has a nicer clutch than her own mother?!?  Thanks to the "Aunties" for that one! :)

This is Owen's face after he spent 2 days being an only child...Hailey had a weekend at Nana & Papa's by her request WITHOUT her brother.  He had a great time, too and as you can see his love tank was FULL! :)

 

(Sorry about the huge picture.  Blogger is being finicky) :/

And here is a pic of Owen at his first Taekwondo class!  He had so much fun.  He's been asking and asking to take "Karate class" and was on cloud 9 when he finally got to go. Isn't he cute in his uniform??

 

That's the best I have for now...happy Tuesday!

 

Our Family Miracle

So, I realize it's been over a YEAR since I posted on here, and honestly probably very few people will ever find this, but if I have an avenue to proclaim God's praises I'm gonna use it...

On this past Thursday, I had a mammogram scheduled to have them check on a lump I'd found.  Life had been so busy that I hadn't even thought much about it until I was in the car on the way to the clinic and began feeling really nervous.  I checked in, got my cape on and got the mammogram done.  Not fun, but part of being a girl, I suppose.  After that, the doctor needed to do an ultrasound of the lump just to be thorough.  When he was doing the ultrasound I could see it.  A black speckled lump that the doctor stared at and began taking measurements of.  I was still not totally aware of what was going on.  He finishes and says to me, "I'm not going to lie.  I'm very concerned about this lump in your breast and would like to perform a needle biopsy right now to confirm my suspicion."

Wait, what??  Breathe, Jessica...just breathe.

I called Todd and told him the reader's digest version of things and asked him to pick up Owen from school for me since I'd be late.  He was shocked and really concerned that I was at the appointment by myself. 

I waited for what seemed like an eternity to start the biopsy and just started praying.  I called my mom to let her know also and then just waited.  Suddenly everyone in the office started treating me very gingerly and looking at me with a twinge of sadness in their eyes.  I mean, I'm 33!?!  This can't be happening. 

They finally started the biopsy (not fun at all, by the way) and I asked the doctor to be straight with me.  What were the chances that this was indeed the "C" word??  He said, "I think I made myself clear.  I believe you have breast cancer.  It's the size of a large raisin.  It doesn't appear from the ultrasound to have travelled to your lymph nodes, so hopefully you'll just need a lumpectomy and radiation to take care of it.  A speed bump in your life."

A speed bump.  What, like JV cancer?

He finishes the biopsy and leaves me to get dressed and said he'd be in to chat with me one last time before I left.  I look at the counter and there is a paper with instructions on how to care for my biopsy site and a long stemmed pink rose.  I didn't want it, but know they were just trying to be nice.

The doctor came in one last time to reassure me that he believed we'd caught it early and would call me within the next 24 - 48 hours with my biopsy results.  I asked him not to call me until Saturday since I had a big day on Friday that I didn't want clouded by being glued to my phone.  I asked him one last time.  "Is there any way this isn't cancer?"  His reply was, "I know what I saw.  I mean, I guess I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.  I'm really sorry."

The next 24-48 hours could have been horrible, but by God's providence my good friend Sarah was getting married and it would be the perfect thing to make the time pass by without dwelling on my circumstances.  And it was perfect.  I nearly completely forgot about everything while at the rehearsal dinner, getting ready the next day, and enjoying their amazing wedding.  But then the wedding was over.  And I got scared.  Todd was such a rock for me.  He let me cry and talk it out, all the while being so confident that our God is good...whether it's cancer or not.  But also He is powerful and sovereign and is in control over what this turns out to be. 

The next morning we got ready to spend the whole day together and I saw a voicemail on my phone.  It was from the doctor and it said that he had "good news...no, great news for you".

When I called him back the first thing he said to me was that he was in shock.  He said that he spent the better part of Friday after getting the results looking over my scans and pictures and that he would have said the same thing again.  That's what it looked like, but the biopsy came back benign.  He said that in his entire career he'd done over 10,000 biopsies and has been wrong twice.  My case was the second time.  I told him that I believe God changed the results.

Praise the Lord.  God is good.  But that would have been the case even if He had decided to allow this for me.  He's always good and always in control.  My life doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Him and had He asked me to go through this for His glory I would have.  But it's not His plan for me today and for that I am grateful..

We're all alive! I promise... :)

This is a post for all of the people (maybe my Dad and our Granny Yost?) who randomly check in on our blog.  We are alive and well and so excited to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas soon. 

 

Here are some pictures that our wonderful friends at Studio 517 took...thanks Andy and Laura!  We are so pleased. :)

 

Life is full...which is why our blog is so neglected. ;)

Family Update

Oh, hi there.  Remember us??  I know, I know...we haven't been keeping things updated here on the 'ole blog, but we've been too busy living our LIFE!  I know, crazy...huh?  ;)

Here is an update of what's been going on in the past 2 months...bullet style...

*Our house was on the market for several months, and after 3 agressive price drops and no interest, God has provided a way for us to STAY here while we build the other homes!?  We are so grateful.  It's off the market for now...but as we've learned the hard way, we'll hold this home with an open hand and let the Lord have His way...

*The first of our 3 additional homes to be built on our newly subdivided property is currently being worked on!  It's taking shape quickly and the roof is going on as we speak!  I love the floor plan of the new house.  Now let's pray for a buyer for it soon!! :)

*Hailey and Owen have spent several weeks of the summer in swimming lessons!  Hailey has passed level 3 and is now working on her crawl stroke!  It looks more like a doggie paddle right now, but she's working hard on it! ;)  And Owen...he started the lessons so terrified of the water that the teachers had to rip our screaming son out of my arms.  Just 2 days ago he got in trouble for jumping into the kiddie pool by himself when it wasn't his turn. We'll take the progress!

*Our family got the amazing priviledge of serving up at a Freshman camp at Rockridge Canyon, a YL Canada camp in Princeton, BC.  It was amazing!  Lots of work and very little sleep for me, but it was such a treat for our kids...and such fun watching Todd be "Mr. Mom" for the week.  He was a trooper!!

*We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new niece OR nephew...Christy is due any minute day now and we are dying to find out what the baby is!?! I also just booked tickets for Hailey and I to visit next month...and she promises that she'll do diapers. ;)

*My children are such fun right now...they play together so well (most of the time ;) and are getting so independent! Love those kids... :)

Well, that's all I can think of at the moment, but I promise I'll try to be better about updating the blog...and I'll do my best to put some pictures up soon too.

Mother's Tea

My sweet Hailey invites me to a tea at her school this week. It was such a fun morning! The kids sang to us, the teachers read letters written to us by our kids, and served us treats and punch. Hailey was so excited that she came bursting into my room at 6:30 in the morning wearing her Easter dress! And she made, er, um...asked me to wear a dress too. ;)

All in all, such a special morning. The highlight was when the kids got up to sing I'm a Little Teapot and her teacher informed all of us that they'd also be singing the second verse that Hailry taught the class!! She remembered it from her old preschool... ;)

Before & After

We purchased these 6 chairs on Craig's List for $70 and then bought this fun fabric for $20 and some scotch guard for $7. For under $100 we replaced the chairs at our kitchen table. Not bad! :)

The process of re-upholstering these babies was far easier than when I did my two in the dining room...I just in-screwed the seats, stapled the new fabric on, and Todd re-attached them. Easy-peasie!!

Shhh...

You didn't hear it from me, but Sweet Pea had a little work done... ;)

Let me back up a bit...nearly 2 years ago Hailey made Sweet Pea at Build a Beat. She's been loved on and played with daily since then and let's just say she was getting a bit...ragged. We asked the kind folks that work at Build a Bear and they unofficially said that should she find herself "un-stuffed" and run through the wash in a lingerie bag they could re-stuff her and see her back together free of charge! So nice.

She spent one night in the "ICU" (Hailey's baby crib) in a flattened state and now today she's good as new!

We are so happy to have her good as new and smelling fresh as a daisy. ;)

The Lord Giveth...

...and the Lord taketh away.

Nearly 6 months to the day after moving into our new house we're putting it on the market.

Things in our business have been very challenging (to say the least) since moving in here and we can no longer afford to stay in this house. There is definitely some sadness in leaving this home that we poured so much of ourselves into. What a blessing this home has been as we've already hosted many family dinners, birthday parties, and playdates here...but at the end of the day it's just a house. Our family will be in tact wherever we live. That's what matters.

When we finally reached this conclusion (after much prayer and tears) I found myself with a twinge of sadness and a huge sense of peace and relief. God is going to care for us. No matter what.

What's next for us? Well, to be honest your guess is as good as ours. We have many different options. We could buy something cheap and renovate, we could rent somewhere for a while and look for a less expensive lot and build smaller, or maybe even cozying up with our folks at one of their houses?? Wherever we end up, we'll be just fine.

When in the midst of deciding what to do, I was very worried about what moving again would do to our kids. I mean, they anticipated and helped in the building process too and have loved it here. I asked Hailey, "So, are you going to be sad if we end up having to move out of this house?"

Her reply was, "Nope. Can I bring my chandelier??" Sure Hails...or maybe we'll even spring for another one. It was $40 at Ikea afterall. ;)

Then came discussion of whether or not she could handle sharing a room with her brother...

"Sure! It'll be like camping!"

Love that girl.

The best thing that's come out of all of this? I've never clung on to my Jesus so hard for every drop of energy, hope, and peace.

I'll be honest...the thought of moving again (maybe even twice) for the 3rd time in just over a year is exhausting to me. I'm literally tired just thinking about it, but I know that when my energy runs out His takes over and that's just a good place to be...

Yep...that is my kid.

Owen gets more wild and crazy by the minute. He's...mischievous, let's say...he locks doors when he's not supposed to, has poured his cup of milk into my bowl of soup while I wasn't looking, and has overflowed our master toilet (to the point of the water traveling down the exterior wall of the house).

BUT, at bedtime, he holds me so tight, kisses my face all over, and whispers sweet things like, "wuv you mommy" and "you sweep in my bed?". Sweetest.thing.ever. Makes the exasperation of my day just melt away.

Some of my favorite Owen-isms are "push the bunt" (push the button), "zhup" (yup), "I really guck" (I'm really stuck), "faffle" (waffle), and my newest favorite is that he thinks Case lives in "fun lolly" (Sun Valley). :)

(and no, I didn't put him in the laundry basket... ;)

Books!!

We've had an Ikea Expedit bookcase in the playroom for a while, but it never looked very appealing because the books were always disheveled and you couldn't see all your options. We came up with this brilliant idea so the books would be facing out and look more inviting! :)

We just used some picture ledges from Ikea and Todd had the last minute idea to stagger them on the wall. I LOVE it! We have some really cool books to show off thanks to lots of generous grandparents, aunts, uncles...that sort of thing, but the majority of the collection comes courtesy of Todd's auntie Beth! Over the years she gave Todd more cool books than I can count, which of course got passed on to the kids.

Here's to hoping the playroom book wall stays like this! ;)

Little projects

I bought this table for $10 at a garage sale over the summer, intending to paint it a funky green or maybe a mustard yellow. I finally got it out of the garage and put it in the spot that I wanted it and started looking at color swatches.

Then it hit me...leave it alone, Jessica! It looks so rustic and is the perfect table right by the door to the garage for dumping our keys and such on.

Yay for $10 garage sale finds!! :)

My baby girl is 5!! :)

She woke up feeling sick, but after a little medicine and some rest this morning she's acting more like herself... :)

How did this happen?? She's getting so big so fast! :)

Par-Tay!!

Today we had a little party to celebrate Hailey's upcoming 5th birthday. It was so fun!! We limbo'd, played balloon volleyball, scavenger hunted, ate cake, and had the best time! It was the most simple, but most fun birthday party yet!

We love you Hails!! :)

Thirty-Three!

Happy 33rd Birthday to my hubs!

We love you, Toddler! :)

A few random pics...

Why aren't these random pics of your children, you ask? Maybe because trying to get them to hold still long enough for an "un-blurry" shot is nearly impossible these days. And since my camera is still dead I'm trying to take shots with my phone.

So here are a few of my current favorite things in our new home...

Firstly, Owen's big boy bed! I love how this room looks. It might be my favorite room in the whole house at the moment. It's just a happy place... :)

Here is my newly organized pantry! We've only lived here for nearly 2 months...and it was time to organize since I kept buying duplicates of all of my canned goods. ;)

Here is a picture of my dining room with my beautiful white mirror!! I just love it! We got it for a steal at a garage sale and then had a heck of a time figuring out how to paint it, but in the end just love how it turned out. The dining room is about to get a little makeover in the very near future. Very excited about that. :)

Speaking of this dining room makeover, were you thinking I was leaving these red snowflake chairs in here?? No sir. I'm going to make an attempt to re-upholster them myself. :/ Let's be honest, I'm probably going to have to call someone and pay to have them finished, but I'll give it the 'ole college try anyways.
Imagine this beauty with a fresh coat of glossy white paint and some new grey and yellow fabric on them. I'll let you know how it goes.

And I promise to keep making attempts to get some sort of kid pics up!

We are Alive!! I promise!!

We are alive over here, I assure you! :) between the exhausting task of moving and getting settled, Hails getting settled into her pre-k routine, a laptop with a crashed hard drive and misplacing the charger to my camera blogging has been difficult.

I will, however, be getting my fully functional laptop back tomorrow and will order a new charger for my camera soon...maybe my sister has some pics I can steal, er...I mean borrow... ;)

Oh, Mikey...

Here's Mikey...as a horsey...or maybe a pack mule?? At any rate, the kids had a blast playing all together on Sunday. Here's the action shot...
Ah...good times. :)

I drank the Kool-Aid... :/

Or at least that's what Todd and my dad keep saying. ;)

My sister recently started selling Norwex products and to support her new business I hosted a party.

It.was.awesome.

Here is the pile of things that I got FOR FREE just for hosting.

Who'da thought I'd ever get this excited over housework?? It's magic, I tell ya! ;)

Milton Festival

One of the things we are really going to love about living in a smaller town is stuff like this! A parade in the morning...that we walked to from the new house...

Here is Hailey...in heaven after finding the princesses! Owen wasn't sure he liked them. Then Todd made a comment about it being "too girly"...right in front of Peter Pan. Oops! :/The Boy Scouts had a rope to walk over for the kids. Case and Hailey did so awesome! Neither of them were scared one little bit. ;)

Here's Maggie talking to Alice...you know, from Wonderland. She had a "british accent". I use the quotations because it wasn't very good. :/

This was Case right as he walked up to us. He's so cute...er, I mean cool in these sunglasses! Love that kid.

All in all it was a fun day had by all. Except the people that got dragged on stage against their will to learn to hula dance. Let's just say we practically dove under the table and slinked away when that all started! ;)

In the words of little orphan Annie, "I think I'm gonna like it heeeeeeeeere!!"