Monday, May 2, 2011

Disneyland on a Monday Afternoon

One of the benefits of Ryan going to school here in Southern California this year has been that she gets out of school each Monday at 1:15. We have been able a few times to leave right after school to spend a few hours at Disneyland. It only takes us 45 minutes to get there and usually the crowds are pretty light. We spend a few hours wandering around and riding rides, then it's time to head home (because a certain 6, almost 7, year old has school tomorrow!)
Today was one of those Mondays! I was extremely tired from the weekend, but since I had promised them we could go, I loaded things up and away we went. I even took my camera this time! We had such a nice day. It was WARM out, but that just made rides like Pirates of the Caribbean even better!! I never thought the day would come that I would go to Disneyland by myself with 3 little girls and not think it was a big deal. I definitely have my system down and each time it gets easier!

My girls love the tea cups! Sophie wanted to turn that wheel SO bad, she just couldn't figure out how to reach far enough without falling over!!
My girls favorite ride is Storybook Land. I let Ryan take a few pictures here.


Do all kids love carousels? My girls LOVE going on carousels. I even sit on a horse with Sophie and she is happy as can be to hold on to that pole!

We went to the petting zoo this time. Sophie hung out in the stroller!
Peyton made sure to give equal petting time to each goat!
I know most of this is boring to everyone but my Mom, but I'm trying to be better about taking pictures of my kids. I'm HORRIBLE at it and someday my kids are going to wonder why there are no pictures!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Happy Number 7!!

My "little" girl is turning 7 next week so we had a party tonight to celebrate! She chose to have a "movie" night here in the theater room at our apartment complex. We figured we needed to take advantage of some of the amenities we have here while we can.

She invited lots of her new friends here in California and all of them came, including her 1st grade teacher! We ended up with 21 kids and lots of parents!!! We had pizza, chocolate popcorn, salad, strawberries (fresh from the field today!), candy, and cupcakes! The kids watched "Despicable Me", but in all honesty they only lasted for about 30 minutes of the movie.

They then entertained themselves by doing shadow puppets on the movie screen and playing "ring around the rosies". Each time they would try to sing louder and jump to "fall down" harder! It was REALLY loud!!
Ryan's friends gave her so many wonderful gifts. She says her favorite was the "Squeakies", I'm still not sure what they are!

We then sang happy birthday and had cupcakes, which were super yummy if I do say so myself!!! It was such a fun night and I really appreciated all the wonderful friends that came to celebrate Ryan. This is the complete opposite of when we moved here and she was so lonely and crying to go home. Now I watch her with all her sweet friends and know it's going to be so hard when it's time to leave. That is something I'm not looking forward too. What a fun night!!!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

1st Grade!

My very "big" little girl had her 1st grade program tonight. I have been watching Ryan so much lately and realizing what a "big" girl she is becoming. Her performance was so sweet and fun to watch. The program was called "How Does Your Garden Grow?" They sang the cutest songs and did the cutest actions. She really enjoyed preparing for this and learning all her songs. She was so proud of herself and I couldn't have been prouder.
I have seen Ryan make such amazing progress this year both emotionally and academically. Her teacher, Miss Paddock, has been such a great influence on her. I am so very greatful that Ryan has had the opportunities she has had this year!


Friday, January 28, 2011

My American Girls!

After months and months of promises, we were finally able to take our girls to American Girl! After searching the whole store for the perfect doll, they BOTH settled on Laynie, the 2010 doll. Heaven forbid we be different.

Sophie's Blessing

While we were in Arizona for Christmas, we had the opportunity for Troy to give Sophie a name and a blessing. This was such a sweet experience because were were able to have so many loved ones with us. Three of my siblings and their families were there, Troy's sister, Mary and her family, my parents, Troy's parents and our good friends J and Shannon who happened to be in town from Vegas. For both Ryan and Peyton we were only able to have both sets of parents and a few close friends, so this was a new experience!
Our family of 5! And this was on December 26th (not really missing Seattle)!

Even though Sophie was a little older than Ryan and Peyton were at their blessings, she was still able to wear the same dress, that was my niece's dress. It is so sweet that my sister and I were able to have our blessed in the same dress!
Such wonderful men who are great examples to our girls!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Our New Arrival

Little Miss Sophie FINALLY decided to enter this world on September 12th! My due date was the 9th, but for months I had been telling everyone that there was no way I was going to make it to my due date. This baby was coming early, I was sure of it. Peyton was six days early, so surely Sophie would be even earlier. Man was I WRONG! My mom arrived on the 8th and Troy had been home for over a week, but nothing was happening. We went downtown Seattle on the 11th and went to the market and had dinner. I walked up and down those stupid hills two days past my due date.
Finally at 3am I was woken up by my water breaking. This was a strange surprise as my water has never broken with my other girls. Troy and I arrived at the hospital at 4am and as the nurse was checking me, we discovered that due to "stress" Sophie had pooped already. So apparently we were going to have to pay attention to that. I was dilated to a 4 and got settled into my room, got an epidural and began the wait. Lucky for me, my doctor was on call that day. Things progressed fairly quickly from a 4 to a 6, but then things stopped. I probably sat at a 6 for over 6 hours. They moved me around a bit, but each time I laid on my right side, Sophie wouldn't do well. By this time, it was 2pm and nothing was happening. I was still having contractions, but they were pretty weak. My doctor was concerned that her cord must be hung up on something and determined that she was not going to come out naturally. Dr. Channell decided that Sophie was going to arrive via c-section. I wasn't happy about this, but I was obviously going to do whatever was the safest for my little girl and myself.
Once a c-section was decided, things moved very quickly. I was prepped and wheeled off to the OR and Troy was busy sending texts to let my family know what was happening. Troy's not one for blood so he stayed up behind the curtain with me. Sophie arrived and was perfect. As Dr. Channell was pulling her out, she even commented on how chubby she was!
She weighed in at 9 lbs. 14 oz. and 21" long. I knew she was going to be big, but I was not expecting a 10 lb. baby. She was almost a pound bigger than Peyton! They cleaned her up, sewed me up and then I was able to see my beautiful baby girl. While laying there, the anesthesiologist said to me, "and now they're putting your uterus back inside your tummy". Seriously??? I don't think I needed to know that it was outside my tummy! I did remember to ask Dr. Channell what Sophie's cord was hung up on and apparently it was her neck. I am very grateful to an amazing doctor who acted on the best interest of me and my baby. However, I don't know why people choose to have c-sections voluntarily because I have never felt such horrible pain in all my life. The next morning they made me get up and walk to the bathroom, HORRIBLE PAIN! The girls were so excited to come see their new little sister and it was so fun to see their excitement and immediate love for her.
Because I'd had the blood clot back in June, there was concern that I could develop more having had surgery so my doctor started me on blood thinners that night. By late morning on Monday, I was having a lot of pain in my leg. One of my veins was completely inflamed and bright red. I had been telling my nurses (all four of them) throughout the day that my leg hurt and each one just kept saying, yea, varicose veins, Sorry! Really people?? So finally that night, I had Troy go find out which doctor was working. Luckily the doctor arrived right away and knew that I had developed blood clots. I had another ultrasound done on my leg and I hadn't just developed blood clots, the ENTIRE vein was clotted, from my hip down to my knee. Good thing they had started me on the blood thinners the night before. So now I not only had the pain from my surgery, my leg hurt so bad too. Plus the privilege of giving myself shots in my stomach twice a day for a couple months!
This was definitely a new experience for me. I had planned to bounce back from having Sophie very quickly as I had with Peyton. This definitely made me slow down. I spent most of the first couple of weeks sitting on the couch or my bed. At least I was able to have a lot of cuddle time with my baby thanks to my Mom for taking over things with my other girls. I never once had to worry about them and was able to get the rest I needed. It took a good two weeks until I really felt mostly normal.
The pain finally receded in both my stomach and leg and the girls and I were able to get on with life and get things back to some sort of routine. Even through all the complications, I wouldn't trade it for the world, we absolutely LOVE our little Sophie!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Halloween 2010

We had a fabulous time for Halloween this year. We took the girls to the church party on Friday night, carved pumpkins on Saturday night and did a bit of trick-or-treating around our little neighborhood Sunday night. It was a fun weekend with lots of family time, which was desperately needed!!
We had the beautiful princesses "Belle" and "Cinderella".
And, our sweet little witch.