Life of a SAHM

Little Misters birth in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 19:10:00 +0000

Little Mister's birth was just beautiful. I still can not come up with the words to describe it. So how about some pictures? My midwife and one of her apprentices took pictures of my labor. I am SO blessed to have pictures of this labor, since I have none from any of my other children.

One last belly picture in my kitchen. Just before being checked and being 8 cms.

The birth pool (before I hung pictures on the wall)

Some of the affirmations hung on the wall (and pictures the kids drew)

Checking my blood pressure before I got into the pool

The beginning of a contraction

Breathing thru the contraction

Stephen supporting me

Working hard

A nice rest between contractions

Stephen went upstairs to get a straw for my water, and my mom stepped in for a contraction.

I love my mom

Checking Little Misters heartbeat while resting

and checking his heartbeat during a contraction

"300,000 women will be giving BIRTH with me today!!" You are NEVER alone.

Almost baby time. My midwife, waiting patiently, hands off, letting me labor.

My mom waiting too.

He's BORN!

Getting a good look at him, and my midwife checking him out.

Daddy checking him out.

I love Brenda's (my midwife) face in this picture.

Checking him out

Washing him off a little

And daddy gets to hold him for the first time.

We moved upstairs to my bath tub for an herbal sitz bath.

Nursing. And probably pooping on me.

Still nursing

Look how freaking cute he is!!

In love already

Finally settled in my bed.

Daddy joined us

Nursing again.

Love

And his official birth weight: 8 lbs 10 ozs. My biggest baby yet.

Checking him over to make sure he is healthy

Daddy being.... well, Daddy. He's quite silly

My mom and us

And my lovely birth team

LIttle Mister's birth story.

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sun, 28 Jul 2013 01:10:00 +0000

**this story has been the hardest for me to tell. It was the perfect birth, but for some reason the words are not coming to me**

We have had the birth pool blown up and everything set up in the basement for a few weeks. Waiting on the arrival of our last child. A little boy. A planned home birth. Excitement and fear. Anticipation. Readiness.

7/17/2013 5:30 am

Still 5-6 days away from when I thought this baby was going to be born, I was woken up with contractions. I could tell the intensity had changed from the regular Braxton Hicks contractions that had plagued me for the past few weeks. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom to pee. I paced back and forth wondering if this was "it" or just more practice contractions. I decided to start timing them to see what they were doing, but I assumed that they would stop and I could go back to bed. They were coming consistently every 4 minutes lasting about 50 seconds each. I timed a few and decided to fill the bath tub and get in to see if they would stop. I went back and forth with this decision, because I was scared if they were real, that the baby could be born in the tub like Little Miracle was, and also if they were real, I would need the hot water to fill the birth pool in the basement. But I threw caution to the wind, assumed they were practice contractions, and got into the tub.

6:45 am

They kept coming every 4 minutes. Knowing the kids would be up soon, I woke Stephen up around and told him something was up. I was still unsure if I was in labor or not but I wanted him to know what was going on. I got out of the tub and decided to call my midwife to let her know what was going on, and since I deliver so fast, she decided to head my way.

7:00 am

The boys woke up and I stopped timing contractions and went into mommy mode. Boys had to eat breakfast. I called my mom to give her a heads up that she may need to come help with the kids. I also texted a friend to see if she could take the kids to vacation Bible school for me since I was unsure what was going on. My friend said she would take them for me, so I made them get dressed. I ate a banana and some peanuts. At one point I ran upstairs to get something. I was going back and forth as to if I should fill the pool or not, but I had a contraction in the middle of the stairs that stopped me in my tracks so I decided to start filling the pool. I went into the basement and lined the pool and started the hose to fill it.

7:30 am

My midwife arrived. A very welcome sight. She brought in her equipment and started setting it all up in the basement. She noticed my contractions and said I was coping well still. I told her that I was this way until just before Little Miss was born.

8 am

My midwife asked if I wanted to be checked. I wanted to, partly because I was still not sure if I was actually in labor. We went upstairs to my bed and she checked me. 100% effaced and 8 cms. I was in labor! We were going to have a baby that day! I came down stairs and told Stephen that baby was coming!

At some point my friend showed up and got the kids out the door. I told them that their brother was coming and I would see them after VBS. I called my mom again and told her that the kids were taken care of so she did not have to worry about coming to watch them. She asked me if she could still come over, and I said sure! After I got off the phone with mom, I went to the basement and got into the pool.

8:30 am

The warm water was so nice and the atmosphere was perfect. The lights were dimmed, candles lit, curtains opened to let the morning sun in. Affirmations hung on the walls with drawings that the other kids had made for this baby. Stephen got some music playing quietly and I had a few contractions while in the water. Everything was so nice. The contractions were still not too strong, and I was feeling great. Very relaxed.

My mom got there and joined us in the basement. Contractions started to pick up. Still not too bad, but I leaned on the side of the pool into Stephens arms to breathe thru them. I was so thirsty and kept asking for my water to drink. Stephen had to run upstairs to get me a straw, and my mom stepped in and held onto me thru a contraction.

My contractions were getting very strong and harder to breathe thru. I could tell he was coming soon. I was on my hands and knees in the water breathing and mooning thru them. I started to feel pushy, and went with what my body was telling me to do.

8:54 am

I started pushing. I remember the break between contractions being so nice. I pushed thru about 3 contractions and felt my water break. I knew he was almost here. The next contraction his head come out, and the next thing I know my midwife is telling me that he was coming under me and to bring him up to me. I looked down and he was in the water! I grabbed him and pulled him up to my chest, flipping from my hands and knees and into a sitting position.

I looked at him. He looked JUST like my father in law and had a FULL head of hair! He was beautiful. Born at 9:01.

The next few minutes were spent snuggling, loving and staring at him. I got him to nurse and delivered the placenta. After that, I got out of the tub and went upstairs to my bed. The midwife had filled my bathtub upstairs with an herbal bath so we climbed in. He nursed some more and even pooped on me. Several times.

My midwifes apprentice cooked Stephen and I breakfast, so when I got out of the tub I crawled into bed and ate eggs, toast and fruit. So nice to eat right after having a baby. As I was eating they weighed him. 8 lbs 10 ounces!! I was in shock! My biggest baby was 8 lbs 3 ozs, and the boys were both 7 lbs 5 ozs so I did not expect this baby to be that big.

After he was weighed, he was brought to me and they did the newborn exam while he was laying on my chest. Everything was perfect. 10 fingers and 10 toes (and a LOT more things checked). After that, my minor tear was sewn up (he was born with a hand at his face) and we were tucked into bed. My midwife and her apprentices cleaned up and left. It was SO nice to be home and in MY bed.

12:30 pm

The kids came home shortly after the midwife left. They were in love with their brother as soon as they saw him.

His birth was everything I have wanted in the last 3 births. Everything I searched and researched for. It was.... perfect.

We have a gender!

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000

We went last week to our gender ultrasound. We opted to do it at 16 weeks at a 3d place to find out early. The ultrasound was less than 5 minutes, and when they got to check the gender, I covered my eyes. You see, we had the ultrasound tech call my sister, who is also a photographer, and tell her the gender. My sister then filled a massive piñata that I had made with pink or blue confetti and candy. We took it to a local park to open up and reveal the gender. It was really fun!

The moment we opened it and it dawned on us what the color coming out meant

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another boy coming! Little Mister will be here late July.

Head over to my sisters blog, Shot From The Heart Photography to see the rest of the pictures!

I'm BACK!

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:25:00 +0000
Why hello blog world. I have missed you. And do I have the news for you!! Little Man is 5. Holy cow!! When did that happen?? We are trying to figure out what to do for schooling for next year. He will start kindergarten! He LOVES preschool and has learned so much there! We didn't do any sports with him this year, since he liked soccer practice, but not the games. He is talking about wanting to do soccer again, and we may try again soon. He is also about to start speech. He has been having some troubles pronouncing words, so we got him evaluated, and sure enough, he needs some help. The earlier the better, so we are doing that now.

The boys went ziplining in early November
Little Miracle is 3! He also LOVES preschool. He already knew most of what they are working on in his class, but he loves his little friends. He has no interest in sports. We just last week turned him forward facing in his car seat! I cant believe he is FINALLY big enough! He sleeps in a big boy bed, in his brothers room (now known as the boys room)and is completely potty trained.

Brothers

Little Miss. Oh my. She is almost 18 months. She is walking, talking and has become a toddler overnight. She sleeps most nights and is still the easiest going child we have ever had.

She has gotten SO big!

And all that news I keep talking about? Well, we were surprised by another baby!! I found out in November that baby #4 is on the way! I am due in July and PLANNING a home birth this time! We are all excited to be adding to our family again (and also for the last time). The boys both want another brother, but I think Little Miss needs a sister. We will find out the gender this time, since we got rid of our baby stuff after Little Miss was born.

12 weeks!

Stephen is still working HARD and I am still staying home and chasing kiddos all day. I am going to be blogging a little more now that we have another Little Bean on the way. I will blog about our birthing plans, and of course, once the baby comes, another birth story! Those seem to be the favorite posts!!

Hello!!

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:01:00 +0000
Hello poor, neglected blog. I'm working on updating you with BIG news and plans!! Keep an eye out!!

Update

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Oh lord. I had every intention of getting back on the blogging bandwagon. I was going to post at least once a week. Then.... life got in the way. Ill give you a quick update of life in our house. I left you last with the post of our new dog. He is a giant LOVE. He has fit into our home like he was always here and the kids just LOVE him to death. Maybe a little more than they love me.

Little Man just finished up his first year of preschool. He had so much fun and really enjoyed going, which is good since he goes back in August! He also started soccer and loves the practices. Games, not so much. There are only two more games then the season is over, so he is sticking it out!

Little Miracle started potty training for serious this week! This is the third time he has shown "ready" signs, so we once again jumped on the bandwagon. He is doing really well and I think the third time will be the charm!

Little Miss. Oh my. She is growing up! She started crawling a week ago and is crawling like she has been doing it for YEARS. She can now go after that toy that she wants. This makes Little Man and Little Miracle kinda worried, since she usually wants the toys in their hands!

Stephen and I are doing good. We are about to celebrate 8 years of marriage (May 23rd). He is busy busy with work, and I am busy busy with the kids. We are looking forward to two vacations coming up next month and the month after!

A New Baby

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

We have a new "baby" in our house.

He's 3 years old, 75 pounds and jet black.

His name was Aristides and he was living at the Jefferson County Kennel Club track in Monticello, Florida before he came to us thru Southeastern Greyhound Adoption.

That's right.

Our new "baby" is a retired racing greyhound.

He had an impressive racing career with 106 races. Winning 14 of those and placing second in 15 of those. His entire pedigree is interesting to look at.

He even has a video of him racing. He is in 1st, then 2nd in this video, until he gets bumped in a corner and ends up losing the race.

Why a greyhound you ask?

Greyhounds are sprinters, so they do not NEED a lot of exercise. About 10 minutes a day is all they require. They are used to laying around all day in the kennel and are content to do so in the house also. They are loving, loyal and great companions. They come to your home crate trained so they are easy to house train.

We never would have considered this breed until we met them at our local farmers market in the summer of 2010. We started seriously considering getting a dog in September of 2010, but then found out we were expecting Little Miss in December of 2010, so it got put on hold.

We contacted the adoption group a few weeks ago and they set out to find a greyhound to fit our family. One that does well with small children and a cat. They called us and let us know they had two that they think would work great for us, so I went with the kids (and a good friend of mine) to look at them.

We picked Aristides because he was playful, loving and didn't even flinch when Little Miracle started to throw a massive meltdown fit when we were with him.

Ari (as we are calling him. We decided to keep a little bit of his past with his name) came home on Sunday night. He fit right into our house and routine. He loves laying around and does not mind the kids playing near him while he sleeps. He still spends a good amount of time in his crate during the day (when they were racing, they would spend 22 hours a day in a crate, its their security blanket) but he will eventually have free range of the house.

We are all excited to add this new "baby" to our ever growing house.

Love Story

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:38:00 +0000
Stephen and I had our first "official" date on March 25, 2000.

We got engaged on March 13, 2003.

We got married on May 23, 2004.

Little Man joined us on October 10, 2007. Little Miracle on December 8, 2009 and Little Miss on August 14, 2011.

Whats your love story?

p.s. Happy 6 months to my Little Miss. Now please stop growing so fast.

How Many Men Does It Take...

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:59:00 +0000
The power guys showed up today to fix our power. We had been living off the portable breaker box all weekend.

Little Man was quite excited when a truck showed up and two men hopped out.

Then another truck with 3 men showed up. They got off their trucks and started poking around in our front yard. They found the place the line was broken at and grabbed the shovels.

Little Man wanted to help.

In no time, they had the bad line exposed. Then another truck (with 2 more men) showed up. This one had a tractor on the back.

Little Man was over the moon excited. He wanted to see that tractor digging up our front yard.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were already done, and the tractor would not be needed. We headed inside because Little Miracle was awake and I had to get him up, and Little Miss was demanding a nap.

They quickly filled in the hole and turned our power back on. Less than an hour from start to finish.

So, the question is: How many men does it take to fix a less than 6 inch piece of power line buried 2 feet under ground?

Answer: 7

Powerless Sleepovers

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:29:00 +0000

Little Man has been asking for a sleep over party since he got his bunk bed . He wanted his best “boy” friend over but he is busy busy on weekends, so he then asked to have his cousin over. She is 8 months older than him and they are the best of friends.

Last night we picked her up and brought her to our house for a fun night. We were going to play, possibly bake some cookies, and play glow stick hide and seek. You would think I would know better than to make plans and expect them to go accordingly.

We pulled into our driveway and hit the button that is built into our van to open the garage door. The door did nothing. I pushed it again, and again the door did nothing. I pushed the button and held it down hoping the garage door would open, and it did not.

We got out of the car and looked around the house. All the windows were dark. I am good at leaving at least one light on when we leave the house, because I do not like coming home to a dark house, so this was odd.

We peeked in the garage and saw our chest freezer light glowing. We could not remember if it had a battery back up or not.

{You may be wondering why we didn’t just go thru the front door this whole time and check breakers and such. Well, we have a toddler lock on the front door that makes it impossible for the kids to open the door when they are on the inside, and I am diligent about making sure that lock is closed when we leave the house too, thus making it harder for someone to break in. Or making it impossible for us to get in if the garage door is not working. I must rethink this plan}

We went to the front door and opened it as far as it would open with the toddler lock on it. I pushed the doorbell and it was not working. I reached in the house to try to turn on the porch lights, but could not reach. I grabbed a stick from outside and finally hit the switch for the lights, but the lights did not turn on. Our power was off, or so I thought.

I looked back in the garage and saw the plug that has its own breaker glowing. The power was on. Or was it. I was over confused at this time.

We called the power company to see if they could tell us if the power was off. They could not.

Stephen remembered he had the original garage door opener in his work, so off to his work we went. We were thinking maybe the opener in the van was not working. Returning home we discovered that the original door opener did not work either.

I called the power company again and reported an outage. I told them we could not get into the house to know for sure if the power was out, but it seems it is. Our neighbors on both sides of us had their outdoor lights on and the street lights were on too but our house was dark and the garage door was not working.

The power company told me they had a crew working 5 miles from our house and they would be out shortly to look at it. If the power worked, we would just have to break a window to get in. Not what we wanted to do but it would get us in the house.

We went next door and our neighbors were nice enough to let us hang out at their house to wait for the power company to come. While we were waiting I got a phone call. The power company had run a test on our meter (smart meter, so it was done electronically) and he was only seeing 50% power coming into our house. It seemed the problem was on their side.

About an hour went by and I finally heard a big truck outside. I went out and it was the power company. They ran tests on the meter and discovered it was a line coming into our house that was bad. They could not fix it that night since it was underground. They set up a temporary fix to give us full power until they could come out on Monday and dig up the line to fix it. This explained why the outlet and chest freezer were glowing, but the door bell was not working.

What is powering our house until Monday.

We were finally in our house! It was now an hour past bedtime though, so all my fun “sleepover” plans went out the window and the kids went straight to bed. They did play in Little Mans room for over an hour before they finally decided to sleep.

They both wanted the top bunk.

This morning I picked up donuts so we could have a fun breakfast. The kids have been playing for hours and although they are tired, I will say Little Mans first sleep over went well!

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I know its a little early, but I just finished up the treat bags and Valentine's Day cards for Little Man's preschool class.

I am so happy with the way these turned out!! I can't wait to hand them out!

More Glow Stick Fun

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000
We love our glow sticks here.

We play hide and seek with them almost every night.

Hints why I was at Target buying more today.

So I am standing in the check out line with Little Miracle and Little Miss {while Little Man was in preschool}, waiting on my turn to pay for the random things that I have in my buggy. The woman in front of me {with 2 small children herself} sees me putting glow sticks up on the check out counter. She starts talking about her friend.

Her friend who puts her kids in the bubble bath with the glow sticks and turns off the lights

I’m standing there in awe. Why didn’t I think of that already???

So, tonight we gave it a try! I filled the tub with water and bubbles. I did not tell the boys what my plan was.

Boys, not knowing what’s coming!

With the tub full of water and bubbles and two boys happily playing in the tub, I cracked the glow sticks and then turned the lights off.

The boys were not sure what just happened. They were wondering why they were taking a bath in the dark.

I let them wonder for a few seconds, and then right when they were about to ask for the lights back on, I tossed the glow sticks in the tub, lighting the tub up.

And they LOVED it. They did not want to get out!! They played happily for almost an hour. I felt the water temperature at the end of the bath time and it was ICE cold. But neither of the boys was complaining. They did not want to get out!

What a grand idea!!

Any other ideas for glow sticks??

Little Man's First "Camping" Trip

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:18:00 +0000

Stephen was at drill last weekend when I pulled the tent out and put it up in the play room to amuse the kids for a while.

We "pretended" to camp that weekend and the following few days when Stephen was out of town. We roasted pretend marshmallows, we told ghost stories, made pretend dinners and hid from pretend bears. The whole time Little Man kept asking me to let him sleep in the tent.

I told him when he Daddy gets home he could "camp" with Daddy. Little Man was SO excited when Daddy got home.

The night Daddy came home we tucked Little Miracle into his bed while Little Man and Daddy headed downstairs to "camp". Little Man had SO much fun sleeping with Daddy in the tent.

I think when it gets warmer, I may send the boys on a REAL camping trip with Daddy.

Kids Are Weird

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:54:00 +0000
Little Miracle sat like this while watching Toy Story.

Not for 5 minutes of the movie, not for 10 minutes, no.

The entire movie.

I'll give you a minute to Google that.

Or, here, Let Me Google That For You.

81 minutes.

Kids are weird

Teething.

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I am beginning to think Little Miss is teething. What do you think?

Bunk Beds and Toddler Beds

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000
A few months ago we went looking for bunk beds. We knew we would need one when we moved the boys into the same room. We found one we liked, but I really did not want to spend $1000 on it. So off to Craigslist I went. Almost every day for the past 2 months I looked for one on Craigslist.

Monday was my lucky day. I finally found one I loved that was in my price range and local. We went to look at it and it was perfect so home it came.

On the way home we stopped to let Little Man pick out sheets. He picked out a Toy Story set. We picked up a plain one for the other bed since it will eventually be Little Miracles but I want him to pick out what he wants when that time comes.

When we got home, we set up the bed. Little Man was SO excited to finally have his bunk beds!! He {of course} chose the top bunk.

We moved his train bed to Little Miracles room fully expecting to start Little Miracle in the toddler bed that night. When Little Man was moved to a toddler bed, he went in no problems at all. I kinda hoped that Little Miracle would do the same.

I should have known better.

When the train bed was in Little Mans room, Little Miracle wanted it. He would climb up into it every night and tuck himself in under the covers, waiting on his bedtime story from Daddy. But once it was moved to his room, he wants NOTHING to do with it.

I tucked him in it last night, kissed him good night and left. 10 seconds later he is SCREAMING. I went back in and ended up sitting on the floor next to his bed rubbing his back and talking to him. Finally, almost 40 minutes later, he said “I crib please?”.

Sure thing Little Miracle. Back in his crib he went.

I guess he’s not quite ready. We will try again in a few days and see what he does. Once he is sleeping in a toddler bed, we will move him into Little Mans room then I get to redecorate the nursery for Little Miss!

{We are also using the toddler bed to take away the bottle. He only gets a bottle at nap and bed time, so when he gets the toddler bed he has to have a sippy cup. He drank all of his milk from the sippy cup last night while I was in his room, so we may be getting somewhere on that!}

Roller Coaster

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000
The past 5 months have been such an emotional roller coaster in this house.

It has nothing to do with the birth of Little Miss or the fact that we went from 2 to 3 kids.

You see, Stephens dad had surgery on August 3rd. What should have been routine kidney surgery {removal of a kidney that was cancerous} turned into a 5 month hospital stay.

Stephens’s dad was over weight and in pretty poor health when it was discovered that he had cancer in one of his kidneys. The doctors recommended removing it. The surgery was supposed to be mid August, but since I was due with Little Miss around that time, my mother in law decided to see if they could do it earlier.

August 3rd he went into surgery. The surgery went well and he was sent to recovery at the hospital. On August 7th, we got a phone call from my mother in law. Stephens’s dad had taken a turn for the worst. His other kidney had failed {which was almost expected}, but his heart and lungs seemed to be failing also. The doctors had placed him in the ICU. We were told he had muti-organ system failure and that he had about 24-48 hours to live.

Stephens’s older brother from Chicago and his younger brother from Washington DC flew into town. Stephens’s aunt drove down from Tennessee. Lots of tears were shed.

We all camped out at the hospital waiting on news. My massively pregnant butt was chasing Little Man and Little Miracle all over the ICU waiting rooms. Every time we walked into the main entrance of the hospital, a doctor would remind me they “do not have labor and delivery at this hospital, and if that is why we were here, you need to go to a different hospital”.

Over the next few days he slowly improved. His other kidney never started working again {so they started dialysis}, but his heart and lungs did. We had a glimmer of hope.

Over the course of the next few weeks, he came out of ICU and was placed on the regular floor of the hospital again. Little Miss was born and he heard that he had his first grand daughter {he has 5 grandsons}.

{My memory is blurry of the dates and times in-between things from this point, since I was now taking care of a newborn also}

A few weeks later he was placed back in ICU because they thought he had pneumonia and his organ systems looked to be failing again. We were all on edge again, thinking he would die.

He once again pulled out of ICU and was placed back in the regular part of the hospital.

In mid October we brought Little Miss to see him. I felt she was old enough, and he was not with “sick” people in the hospital, but on a floor specifically for kidney patients.

Meeting Little Miss for the first time {and almost 50 pounds lighter!!)

Oh my how happy Little Man was to see him!!

Loving on the boys!

In early November, he was sent to a rehab hospital. All he needed to do was gain his strength back and he would be sent home. We were all hopeful that he would be home for Thanksgiving.

He developed an infection at some point at the rehab hospital. The area where his kidney used to be had an abscess. He would need surgery again. He was sent back to the regular hospital where they did surgery to clean out that area. A minor setback.

Thanksgiving came and went, and then Christmas and New Years did the same. In early January we found out he needed another surgery because an aneurism developed in his arm {I believe due to the dialysis port}

At this point, we were all just thankful to have him alive, and had no idea when he would come home. We were shocked after this surgery that the doctor declared him well enough to go home!

After 5 months and 1 day in the hospital, 3 surgeries, 2 ICU stays and 100 pounds lost, he is HOME!!!

He still has quite a road to recovery since he has to get up and moving again after spending so much time in the hospital. He will also have to do dialysis for the rest of his life, but he is home!

It as a roller coaster we are glad to be off of!

Busted

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000
Little Man loves playing with my camera. He knows he is not allowed to, but I often find him with my camera strap around his neck, pretending to take pictures. Telling his brother and his toys to all say cheese, standing back and saying “click” to take a picture.

To keep him from playing with my camera, we bought him a “kid” camera. One that takes crappy pictures, but will not break when dropped. Bad thing is it eats batteries so fast he hardly gets to take a few pictures before its dead. Then he is left looking for my camera again.

He finds it and continues to "take" his pictures until I spot him playing with it, take it back and remind him that we don’t play with Mommies camera because it would take all of the money in his piggy bank {and then some} to fix it if it breaks.

He says "yes ma'am" and goes off to play. I then put my camera up in a high place where he can not reach it and go about my day.

He has not played with the camera to my knowledge in several months.

Imagine my surprise when I went to get pictures off of it yesterday and saw this.

Funny. I didn’t remember taking a picture of my living room. With the snow flakes hanging from the ceiling, so within the last month.

The next picture was this

My Little Miracle, taken from a height not much taller than him. With a long sleeve shirt on. Hum. The past few days have been really warm. We did have a cold snap a few weeks ago, but I still don’t remember taking this picture.

I continued flipping thru the pictures. Some more of the living room, some of the ceiling fan and a few that were too blurry to decipher. I was beginning to suspect Little Man.

But this picture gave him up

Ah, yes, those would be Little Mans new light up Cars shoes.

Busted.

How To Amuse Kids

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000
I learned a 10 step process to thoroughly amusing my kids today.

Step 1: Spend half your morning building a really cool blanket tent

Step 2: Tie a safety pin to the end of a piece of thread

Step 3: Attach safety pin to top of tent

Step 4: Tie the other end of the thread around the ceiling fan pulling as tight as you can {thus raising the tent}. Tie the thread around the fan.

Step 5: Wait a day. This whole day, the boys will ignore the tent, refusing to play in it. But they will beg you to leave it up for tomorrow, because they swear they will play in it then. The next morning wake up feeling like crap and lay down on the couch while the boys go play in the tent

Step 6: Realize after about 30 minutes of it being *too quiet* you are now hearing something that sounds like the boys hitting each other, but with laughter involved

Step 7: Drag your sick self off the couch to see what they are doing

Step 8: Find this

The tent you took half the morning building on the floor. Two boys on the top of the tent, clapping and trying to catch *something* that is swinging in the air

Step 9: Freak out when you realize that something is now an open safety pin, swinging right at your child’s eye.

Step 10: Close the safety pin, and let them continue their game.

Seriously, the boys have been trying to catch that safety pin ALL day today. This is a “why play with the toy when the box is more fun” type thing I suppose.

I have since packed away all the blankets that made the tent, but Little Man requested “you please leave this up?” {talking about the thread and safety pin}. Sure Man, you got it.

Made To Love

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

I usually do not talk about religion on my blog {or in person for that matter}. I feel religion is a very personal topic so I am reserved in talking about religion and my feelings on the topic.

That said, I do have to share this story. It is not preachy, I will not tell you that you are going to hell or share my faith. Its just a neat story.

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Our pastor challenged us to a 21 day fast yesterday. Give up one thing for 21 days. Or even for certain hours during the day. When you crave what you gave up, use that time to focus on God.

I knew immediately what I wanted to give up.

You see, I have a small {ok, big} addiction to Twitter and FaceBook. I find myself checking it at random times thru out the day. Kids playing quietly, Mamas on FaceBook. Daddy home from work and watching the kids, Mamas on Twitter.

Even while playing with the kids I find myself messing with my phone.

What message is this showing my kids? That my all loved smart phone is more important to me than playing with them. I don’t want that!

So, I vowed to give up FaceBook and Twitter unless I am nursing Little Miss. So, that gives me about 10-15 minutes of social media time every 3-4 hours. Not bad. I can do this.

I started this morning. I did great. Nursed Little Miss and fiddled with my phone checking in on Twitter. Then Little Miss was done. But was I?

I had to be, so I put my phone up on the fire place mantle and went to play with the boys.

After about 15 minutes, I found myself reaching for my phone. As soon as I realized I was doing this, I put my phone down and went in search of my iPod so we could listen to music to take my mind off of the lack of social media.

Ah, the devil at play, my iPod was D.E.A.D. Like, wouldn’t even turn on when plugged in dead.

And the kids were screaming and driving me insane.

So I turned on the radio.

The station was 104.7 the Fish which is the local Christian radio station. You know what song was playing when I turned it on? “Made To Love” by TOBYMAC. Now, this song does not have too much personal meaning to me. Until now. The part that was playing was this:

“Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it all away (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)

Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it all away (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)

Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it, I'd give it all away, Oh yeah

Cause I was made to love you (I was made to love you)
Yeah I was made to love you (I was made to find you)”

Yeah. Process that guys. Think about that for a minute……..

The exact moment I was struggling with “giving up” my beloved social media, the radio was playing this song, and this exact part of this song, talking about giving up anything.

Isn’t God awesome?!

Glow Stick Hide and Seek

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:36:00 +0000

Santa brought my boys some glow sticks for Christmas. They have been itching to play with them for a while now.

The other night, we broke them out. We turned off all the lights in the house, shut the curtains to block the street light that is outside of our window, and played hide and seek.

Only the "seeker" has a glow stick. The "hiders" do not. The "seeker" then uses the light that the glow stick gives off to find the "hiders".

Glow stick hide and seek is so much more fun than regular hide and seek because you can hide out in the open. I laid down on the couch, and it took the boys 10 minutes to find me. They were RIGHT there at me a few times and did not see me.

Stephen laid down in a corner in the play room, and it took the boys 10 minutes to find him.

The most fun part of glow stick hide and seek? When they can’t find you and are so close, you can jump out and scare them, resulting in lots of giggles and screams from little boys!

{We got our glow sticks at Target. I read now that Target glow sticks don’t last long. I am picking up some more from the Dollar Store soon since we used the last ones from Target tonight}

Who Says You Need A Girl To Have A Tea Party?

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:51:00 +0000
Little Man met a little girl the other day at the park. She was talking about a tea party she was going to go to that evening. Little Man was intrigued and asked if he could go to. Since this was a birthday tea party (and a complete stranger) I told him he could not.

He seemed to all but forget about it until today.

This morning Little Man asked me to have a tea party.

I immediately said "yes!" because I remembered the tea set that Stephens mom had passed down to us many years ago in hopes that we would have a girl and be able to use it. I got the set down from the storage closet, opened the box and carefully unwrapped each piece.

Little Man set out a blanket for us.

I made the tea (milk) and got us some crackers. Little Man also set out some toys on a near by table for us to play with after we had "tea".

We then sat down to have our tea party.

Little Man LOVED his tea party. He even pretended that his tea was hot. He had to blow on it to cool it down.

Little Miracle got in on the fun too.

The boys loved the tea party. And why shouldn’t they? Society has a way of saying that little boys should play with cars, and little girls should play with dolls. Those rules do not apply at my house. If Little Man or Little Miracle wants to play with dolls or other "girl toys", they are welcome to it. I’m sure Little Miss will fight the boys for the trains and cars one day too.

Tea parties are not the first thing that society considers "for girls" that he has asked to do.

One day last summer when I was painting my nails, he held his hand out to me and said "red is my favorite color" in a "paint my nails too" kind of tone. So, I did.

He also LOVES to play dress up at his cousins’ house.

He also wanted to wear a hair bow on "crazy hair" night at AWANA.

Am I concerned that he likes all these "girly" things? No. He’s a kid. And if he turns into a teenager that likes to have tea parties and paint his nails, I’m ok with that too.

Introducing: My Kids

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:19:00 +0000
Since I started this blog, I have made it a point not to post my kids faces on it. I thought it was for safety, keep my kids faces off the internet. But now that I think about it, their faces are already all over the internet. On my FaceBook page, on my Twitter page. Yup. No hiding them.

Frankly, I am tired of trying to take pictures of them looking away from the camera just for the blog. So, here they are! My kids!

Little Man

Little Miracle

Little Miss

Aren't they cute? And now that they are out "in the open", I have a few more posts I am going to be sharing!!

2011 In Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:15:00 +0000
2011 was a busy year for us!

In January, we got to see our precious Little Bean
and see that it was a baby and not another molar pregnancy. {Each time I get pregnant, the risk is higher that it will be a molar again, so we have early ultrasounds to rule this out}

We also decided not to find out the gender of our “Little Bean” this time around. It was something I had wanted to do in previous pregnancies but never ended up having the patience to do so.

In February, Little Miracle started walking and also weaned from nursing. Just like his older brother, he did both at 14 months.

In March, I played with chemicals again to get some “guesses” on the gender of the baby. Both tests said “BOY!”

We also painted our house and did lots of other small projects

In April, we had our 20 week ultrasound and stayed strong with not finding out the gender. At that appointment, Stephen swore he saw “nothing” between the legs {even though they did not even look}, so he was convinced from that day on that the baby was a girl.

In May we celebrated 7 years of marriage. We went out to dinner. I was craving a bacon cheeseburger so we went to Chili's. This was the first year we did not go somewhere REALLY nice, but the pregnant lady had a craving! We also went to The Melting Pot for dessert.

June brought us our annual Florida trip and my growing suspicions that the baby was, in fact, a girl based on how I was carrying.

July we finally redecorated the boys bathroom and finally got them out of my bathtub.

August brought us the birth of Little Miss. Another fast birth, though we {barley} made it to the hospital this time around {And Stephen missed the whole thing. He was parking the car.} I had it planned that no one would tell me the gender. I was shocked and surprised to look for myself and see that she was a girl!

In September we started AWANA and my Little Man started preschool. They both love AWANA and Little Man is doing amazing in preschool.

October my Little Man turned 4. We also spent lots of afternoons playing in the leaves. Our fall this year was absolutely gorgeous.

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. I hosted and we had 15 people in our house for Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of delicious food and great company.

December brought us another birthday. My Little Miracle turned 2 and shortly there after started putting himself to sleep

We also celebrated Christmas {and I have not written that post yet}. The boys LOVED their Santa gifts and the gifts that we got them. Little Miss also got some fun stuff from Santa and us, though most of it was socks and tights.

What’s the plan for 2012?

Well, we have our annual Florida trip planned in June. We are planning a Chicago trip {and TweetUp} for some time this year. Little Man will continue preschool and Little Miracle will most likely start preschool also. We have a lot of house improvement projects planned for the beginning of the year, and Stephen and I are going to be buying a whole new wardrobe for us. It’s seriously been 10 years since we bought anything significant for our wardrobe. Little Miss will most likely start walking and also celebrate her 1st birthday!

I am excited to see 2012 here!

Random Act Of Kindness

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:02:00 +0000
Last week we were eating at our new favorite pizza place and a man came up to our table and handed Stephen a gift card. He mumbled something about "it has $35 on it, but their machine was not working, thanks for your service" {Stephen was in uniform}. He quickly walked away. We thought it was originally a $35 card, and he was giving us the change that was left on it. Still a nice gesture.

We thought nothing more of it until yesterday. Yesterday the pizza place posted this on their Facebook page:

“So we had a family eating at one of the outdoor picnic tables and the dad was dressed in his military uniform... Another man walks in and buys a $35 gift card and then walks outside and hands the card to the soldier and says Merry Christmas and thanks for your service and then walks away... Huge brownie points to this man for the anonymous gesture!!! God... I love this country”

I called Stephen and asked him to check the gift card out, that the restaurant was posting about it on Facebook and it should have $35 on it. He looked into it, but the card was originally bought in June and had $10 on it. Some was spent in June, and the card was zeroed out in October. Talk about confusion.

I went back and forth for an hour with myself about contacting the company. I decided to contact them so they would know there was a mistake. Maybe their machine WAS down, or the man was just mistaken. I emailed them and explained that we were that family they were talking about on Facebook and that we had checked the card and it had nothing on it. I said that maybe the man was mistaken (like he had 2 cards, and gave us the wrong one maybe) or maybe their machine messed up. I was not expecting anything in return, just wanted them to know, incase their machines were malfunctioning.

Imagine my surprise when the owner of the company replied and said “I would love to fix this for you. The man did buy the card and we must have messed up somehow”. There was a new gift card waiting for us in the register.

I don’t really know why I am sharing this story other than to praise the anonymous man who gifted us with the card and also to praise the restaurant for fixing a mistake. It was such an odd thing, the man mumbling and handing the card over and leaving just as quickly as he came, then the restaurant posting about it almost a full week later and being so willing to fix something that they did not have to do.

We are so blessed by people in our lives, be they anonymous or ones we know.

Thank you to everyone.