Pneumonia

I am here in the hospital and since I just get to sit here, you get a really blog post with no pics. And the full story, if you like. If not, stop reading and say a little prayer that I can get out of here soon!


Here is the story: I have been seeing a chiropractor for an injury I had on my mission that didn't totally get better. He was fixing the problem and adjusting my neck and back at the same time. I started getting really bad headaches. And then on Wednesday, I had one of the worst migraines ever. (It felt similar to when I had concussions in high school.) Well that continued through Saturday. I had started getting a cough and had a fever but I just thought it was another cold.
Saturday, we called my brother-in-law who is an ER doctor just to get a second opinion. He said to go to the ER because something may have happened to my neck during all the adjustments. So we went to the ER and got a CT scan. Neck is fine, they give me some meds to get rid of the headache.
Later they decide they are going to take some chest x-rays. Come to find out, during the CT scan, they found pneumonia in my lungs. The x-ray confirmed that. So they sent me home with antibiotics.
Sunday night and Monday morning I felt like I could hardly breath. So back to the ER we go on Monday. They then admitted me to the hospital. I have been on oxygen and do breathing treatments every 4 hours. I have a-typical pneumonia so they can't figure out which bacteria they are fighting. So I am taking 2 different ones and hoping and praying I can get better soon.

The lessons I have learned are quite a few:
1) Life can always get worse.
2) Being a mom is the only thing in this world that I want to do.
3) I would take the craziest day with my kids over any day in this hospital.
4) I love my family.
5) I get homesick easily.
6) I really like to breastfeed. (Especially compared to pumping all the time).
7) I really hate tv.
8) Sometimes a trashy magazine is really great entertainment.

Most of all, I have come to really appreciate my life. So often I think I look around and see others and think, 'man, if I could just have that' or 'if my kids could just act like that' I would be happy. I really am happy. I have a good life. I have a great husband and wonderful girls. I now just hope I can get better quickly so I can enjoy this great life that I have.

The Epitome of Mother's Day

Mother's Day dawned bright and late a few Sundays ago. Kevin let me SLEEP-IN! As if that isn't the best gift ever! And while I was enjoying my well-rested state (which hasn't existed due to the new babe in my life:) I came down the stairs and found this:

So I am basking in the glow of loving motherhood and appreciating my husband's wonderful efforts (did I mention my in-laws were in town and he still put this together?) The girls were so excited to show me their art work. I love my kids' drawings! I am just soaking this all in.
Then my 5 year old announces, "Mom, I drew us all naked in that corner!"
Seriously!?!
You can check it out in the top right corner in the close up below (don't worry, its rated PG).
And then all the glowing and basking is over. And later I have the conversation with my MIL how it is so easy to feel guilty on Mother's Day because I am not the best Mom and how someone in church always gives a talk about their rockin' mom and how I feel like....crap! I am not doing half those things! And my kid draws...hmmm....well you know.
Anyway, it was a great day and we got to share it with Kev's mom which is rare since he is one of ten! And Kev spoiled me! Which I always love. And I will keep plugging along and loving my kids and teaching them what is appropriate. :) And trying to get over feeling guilty.
Happy late Mother's Day to all the Mommas out there!

Out of Survival mode

Greetings family and friends! Do you ever feel like you are drowning in life? Well that pretty much sums it up for me. a.k.a. survival mode! I can't decide if it is because of a busy tax season, a new baby, the adjustment to 3 little girls or maybe a combination of ALL of that! So here is a bit of what has been happening with us. And here's to hoping I am out of survival mode. :) And will stay updated better.
So these pics aren't going to be in order, because I can't fix it or am running out of time and patience. I took the girls to Disney on Ice when they came to Oakland. The girls were totally into it. It made me really want to take them to Disneyland. They had an entire segment of the Disney princesses which my girls ATE UP! All the princesses were there and they danced to the song from Enchanted "That's how you know." (That's one of my favs...see song list below:) L-O-V-E-D it! So after the song, Emma realized that SLEEPING BEAUTY did not show up and she was upset. She then pouted the rest of the show. Dang Aurora...how could you miss Disney on Ice? So I asked Emma to smile and this is what I got. Posing in front of the princesses and we are still mad!
A shot of the show!
Cami was happy to be there!I can't get enough of this sweet face!
My birthday! Isn't this a true 'mom' pic? Holding a baby while blowing out candles? I didn't even realize I was. :) My other fav? Check out Cami's face in the corner of the pic. She is helping :)
More Miss Olivia!


This handsome guy made me a cheesecake from SCRATCH for my b-day!
I also got this for my B-day! Olivia smiled for the first time. I think she knew it was my special day!
This pic cracks me up! Cami was mad at me and gave me a Care Bear stare! (We had her reenact it for the pic.) Funniest part, I totally did this to my dad when I was a little girl.
This is a nightly routine. Kev gives the girls 'horsey' rides to bed each night. This night, Livvy wanted to join in the fun.And that is us in a nutshell. Hopefully it won't be months before I post again. :)

More happenings

So I came across this pic of Camilla at about the same time as Olivia. What do you think? Do you think they look like sisters? I can't really see it. I think each one of my girls is very unique and has a different look. Some couples have a 'mold' and all their kids look the same. So far, ours all look different!Here is Olivia at 1 month!Here is a map that Emma drew. She was playing Dora and the ending is the castle in the middle. Emma also loves to write all of our names. You will see Emma, Camilla and Dad on the map. Mom is upside down in the top left corner.

Here is a fun pic of Livvy in her bumbo. Don't mind the recent trip to Costco in the background. :) Kevin made these tables for my cousin. Aren't they awesome?!? He did such a good job. He made two side tables and a counter-high computer desk for them. Now just to get him to do it for me. :)

And here are the girls modeling off the tables. Don't you love it when their foot goes through the jammies? I love it!

And last of all, don't you love it when your kids dress themselves? They really love wearing dresses and skirts. That is about all they wear these days. And on this day they did the matching. :)

What a week!

This week was a crazy week! And today is our anniversary! Happy 6 years to my best friend. Don't you just love looking back through your pictures? Oh to be a princess for a day! And today is fun because we got married on Friday, and here we are on a Friday again. We were married on President's weekend right in the middle of the semester. Biggest bragging rights...we both got a 4.0 that semester! So let's look back to what has happened the past 6 years and admire my pretty dress :)
In the past 6 years: I graduated from college, Kevin graduated with his Macc, we had Emma, Camilla and Olivia, we've moved 9 times and started our first 'real' job! Whew! We've been busy.
Here's to all the adventures with the greatest guy in the world and here's to hoping there will be many more years to come. I love ya babe!

This week we also said goodbye to this good lookin guy. :(

My brother Brandon has been living with us for the past 9 months. My girls have loved having their uncle with them. He came out just as I was put on bedrest. He really saved us and has been such a big help! We will miss him dearly....on to his new adventures.

And Monday was Valentines! I made these fun shirts with my cousin and we had a photo shoot. BTW, I entered the shirts into a competition. I didn't win but I got an honorable mention. http://http//silhouettemachine.blogspot.com/2011/02/free-download-of-week-contest-winners.html

You can check it out at the above website. (I might feel kind of cool and a little famous being mentioned on someone else's blog :)

Silly faces! (Emma is really into this new face of sticking her fingers up her nose....nice!)

And Little Olivia. Her shirt stands for Sealed With A Kiss, if you didn't know. Sentimental moment...Kevin and I used to write this on the back of our envelopes as we wrote back and forth on the mish. But ours became very carried away and would cover the whole envelope and it was a test to see if you could figure it out. So it would look something like this: SWAHAAKFTDRTTLJ. Yeah, see if you can figure it out :)

Here they are with my cousin's children. (Don't you just love his little heart breaker shirt?)

What a crazy week! Full of fun celebrations!

What we have been up to...pic overload!

We have just been hanging out and enjoying our new bundle of joy! Can I just say how much I love newborns?
Here is Olivia at about one month just home from church. And being mauled by sisters.

Here's another pic. (For the grandparents:)

For Christmas, my mom made the girls matching p.j.s. Don't you love them? She made footie ones for my sisters too, out of the same fabric.

And this pic, we are all closing our eyes. They didn't plan it, I don't know why they did it. Crazy girls. And Olivia is screaming.

Smiles! I seriously can't get over these jamies!

Playing with Olivia. (if she makes it to age 2 it will be a miracle)

Chillin (or trying to eat) Daddy!

Breakfast dates with Mom! Camilla is so crazy! I love this face.

Emma was so excited for her breakfast date with Mom. She even invited Cami to come along with us, which made me very impressed. We can share!

Olivia chillin in her swing! She always has to be moving.

Emma and Cami thought she needed toys to play with while she was swinging.

Bathtime! Actually, Olivia hates baths. So we give her showers. And she loves it! But it is a two man job. Newborns are so slippery.

Having FHE. The girls BOTH lead the music. :)

Just chillin being cute! I just can't get enough of this cute baby!

Introducing......

Olivia Noel!
Born Dec. 27. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 8 oz. And is 21 inches long.

You can continue reading if you would like the rest of the story. :)
So I spent all month NOT being dilated (which is rare for me-since I was at least a one with my other girls). I had an appointment on the 23rd and I was finally dilated and to a 4! So I thought for sure I would be having a babe that night!

Little history lesson- my labors with my other girls were extremely fast and Emma was 10 days early and Camilla was 19 days early (so early that Kevin missed it:) So based on my past history, I thought for sure I would be getting a baby before Christmas. I kept feeling really bad for this babe's birthday if she didn't get here before Christmas.

So my OB says, "if you were 39 weeks we would take you over to the hospital and break your water right now. We can lie if you want." Oh I was so tempted! I was sooooooooo sick of being pregnant. (I know I wasn't even to my due date yet, but in my mind I was overdue since my other girls were so early). So the OB says that we should probably be honest just in case her lungs aren't developed. And if I don't go into labor over the weekend, come in on Monday and we'll be induced.
We sat around all weekend with really inconsistent contractions. And hoping I wouldn't go into labor Christmas Eve (seriously who wants to babysit then?) We made it to Monday. We calmly dropped our kiddos off at a friends house and drove to the hospital. I got checked in, I got my IV's in (stabbed 5 times-thanks nurses), and waited for pitocin (sp?) to start labor. BTW, this is also the longest we have sat in a delivery room-it has always been crazy!
Things started to pick up a bit. I got my blessed epidural (it didn't have time to work with Cami). And then the OB came in and broke my water.
I didn't feel any pain and an hour later, I had dilated from a 4 to a 10 and delivered my biggest baby yet! (And I barely tore!)
She is the cutest baby ever! I can't get enough of her. And she has a lot of cute dark hair. (Also different from my other girls-who were totally bald). So this babe makes her entrance very different from her sisters, but we can't get enough of her cuteness.

And her name you ask? Any family name, church history significance or a prophets' wife? (our other girls have all three) Nope, we just really liked Olivia. Nothing else seemed to fit for her. We have friends with the cutest niece named Olivia (that we hung out with in high school-she was 2 at the time and we all loved her!)-so we have always been partial to the name. And Noel? After much debate on the spelling, we settled on the traditional spelling. Yes, she has a December birthday and a mom who LOVES Christmas so she gets to celebrate all the time! I also had a really awesome mission companion whose last name was Noel.
And there you have it...if you are still reading!