Another one bites the dust

Alaina and Kase have been begging me to take the guard rail off of their top bunk beds for weeks now. Alaina thinks it is totally babyish to have it on there. I wanted it to stay but told them they could ask dad and see what he said. Of course he said, "Sure." So about a week ago, down they came.

I told them the story of when I fell off my top bunk bed, as a kid, and they all laughed. Dan told me not to worry, his logic is that if they've never fallen off of a bottom bed then they won't be falling off of the top one; because a bed is a bed.

Well last night it happened I was laying in bed and at about 1am a huge, loud thudding crash came from the girls bedroom. I ran in and Alaina was lying on the floor moaning and crying while holding her back. YIKES!

I noticed that she had put her ladder in the dead center of her bed, instead at one end of the bed which meant that she had tumbled and thudded her body down the entire length of her ladder on her way down. Everything on her dresser was knocked off because she had slammed her head into that also. Ouch!

Surprisingly enough she was still about 90% asleep so I checked her all out, got her some ice and put her back in bed, with a huge stack of pillows as her guard rail :)

In the morning she limped out to breakfast like she had been run over by a truck and asked if I would send her with a note to be dismissed from P.E.

This is what her back looked like.

She had four other matching ones up and down her legs with a huge goose egg on her shin. Ouch!

Alaina says she still doesn't want a rail on her bed but I'm sure she will be hugging her wall a little tighter from now on :)

Finally

59 doctor visits

57 shots in the butt

22 sticks in the arm

and.... 14 ultrasounds later.... and I think I'm finally in the clear.

My doc thinks that my numbers are high enough to go off of everything. Yea!

What will I do with all of my free time?

Can you believe Alaina is 12!

Last Friday Alaina celebrated her birthday with a few good girlfriends. They got pedicures, had a little DQ treat, and then back home for a little P.J. movie night.

Today on her actual birthday she celebrated with family. Alaina loved getting jewelry, make-up, iTunes gift cards, and a summer clothes shopping spree with mom.

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday (Mutual Night) so later that night the whole Beehive class came by to kidnap her in crazy outfits. They made her the Queen Bee and took her to 7-11 for slurpees and a little embarrassment.

Seriously… Can you believe Alaina is already in Young Women's?

We’re really glad that she’s our oldest, she sets a great example for the other kids. We appreciate that she makes good choices. It sure makes our life easy as parents. Happy Birthday Alaina!

Halfway

So I've made it past the halfway point. My doctor told me that I can stop being nervous about losing this baby. He told me to get excited! He says that I have as good a chance as anyone at this point.

I'm still going in every other day for progesterone shots and having weekly blood draws. This is longer than he thought but he has lowered the dose and says I will be off of them soon.

The big news from today's ultrasound is the sex of the baby...

It's a BOY!

Here's a profile pic...

and the boy parts.

Baby Blanket

I finally finished up the blanket for this sweet little baby girl.

Kaelyn Daniella Godinez

Born, April 2, 2011

Congratulations Danny and Becky, she is beautiful!

Ky turns 11!

For the most part we had a family birthday party for Ky this year. He opened presents, took his new bike out for a spin, and chose the menu for tonight’s dinner. Steak, of course.

Last week he was able to invite a few friends over for some playtime and a trip to the theater to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2.

Happy Birthday Ky! We love you!

Coconuts

This morning after taking a shower I stepped out of my bathroom, wrapped in a towel, and Hudson came running into my room to ask me a question. Instead of quickly spitting it out he just stood there, staring at me. I said, “hey bub, what do you need.” But he just stood there mesmerized, staring at me in my towel. Weird huh???

I started shooing him out the door, telling him that I need to get dressed but he whipped back around, cocked his head to one side, and while staring at my breasts (covered in a towel of course) says, “Coconuts are like those.” Ha Ha Ha Ha

I didn’t even know what to say. Yes Hudson… I guess coconuts ARE like those :) (Especially when they are attached to a mama who is growing a baby inside her)

Kids truly say the darndest things :)

I seriously would love to keep a 3-4 year old in my home for the rest of my life just for the comic relief :)

Squinkies

For Christmas Hailey received a huge collection of Squinkies; a popular toy for little girls. They are little rubber toys that come in individual plastic balls, just like the toys you get out of a gumball machine at the grocery store. She has a ton of them.

There is a hole in the bottom of each Squinkie so that it can sit on a little peg in a carrying case like the one shown above. Which Hailey owns.

This morning Hailey thought it would be fun to take all of her Squinkies into the bath for a little play time. About 30 minutes later I heard her yelling for me in the bathroom. When I got to the bathroom she was standing in front of the mirror staring at herself. I asked what was wrong. She turned to look at me and was covered in little red hickey marks all over her body. I asked, "What in the world happened?" She said, "If you squeeze the squinkies they will suction to your skin. I stuck them all over my body." Hilarious! She looked like she was covered in chicken pox.

I begged Hailey to reenact it for me so I could take a picture of her with squinkies suctioned all over her but she was too embarrassed. This picture was taken a few days later after most of the little red hickeys had faded away but you get the idea. Silly girl :)

Hailey’s Birthday Bash!

Hailey really wanted to play Laser Tag for her 9th birthday. Problem is the closest Laser Tag place is about 2 hours and 15 mins away in Spokane. Luckily for her our family was in need of a little road trip and her cousins live in Ritzville, which is right on our way. So we talked the Kelly Family into joining us on our little road trip and that’s how her party begins.

We started at a place called Wonderland. It was like a Chuck E Cheese on crack. It had pizza, video games, tubes and slides to play in, indoor glow in the dark mini golf, laser tag, batting cages, outdoor golf, bumper boats, and go carts.

We probably spent 5-6 hours at Wonderland and then on our way out of town we stopped by Laser Quest, which is a huge 50,000 Square foot Laser Tag place, to let all of the kids and dads experience a big kids version of the game. Everyone had a blast!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Happy St Patrick's Day

GOING GREEN!

Still growing...

12 week ultrasound pics

Fondue Party

Have you ever noticed that when you do something one year your kids can dub it a "tradition" by the next year. That's what happened last night. As I was tucking the kids in bed each one whispered in my ear about how excited they were about Valentines Day tomorrow and that they couldn't wait to see what the big surprise from Dad and I would be.

Hmmmm..... Surprise..... For tomorrow.... Right.

In years past it has been heart attacking their rooms, sending flowers or balloons to school, or filling their bedrooms with 100's of pink and red balloons. But this year I thought I would just take a break. Honestly I didn't have anything planned and I didn't really think they would notice. Boy was I wrong.

So after everyone was in bed, and now knowing their expectations, I got to work. I made each one of them an invitation to a Valentines fondue party to be held when they arrived home from school. Then while they were at school I was able to set this up for a little Valentines Day Surprise.

They had a lot of fun and it seems like I passed for this year anyway...Until next year :)

Crushes

Alaina came home from school today and I asked how her Valentines Day was?

She said," it was okay."

I asked, "why just okay?"

She said, "well Kendra was sitting next to the boy I kind of have a crush on today in one of her classes and she heard him say that he has a crush on a different girl, so I was sad. But then I got to thinking there's a long time between now and when I'm 16 (the age she can date) and things can always change between now and then."

My only thought was hunny... things can change by 6th period :)

My little Gummy Bear

The one good thing about having a high risk pregnancy is that you get to have weekly ultrasounds. With all of the miscarriages I've had in the past, getting to see the baby each week really helps settle my mind and nerves. I can see that our baby is progressing, growing, developing and has a super strong heart beat. These "good ultrasounds" have been an awesome reward for having to endure so many bad ones over the last 3 years.

Here's a pic from today's ultrasound.

This could probably be my most favorite ultrasound picture of all time :)

9 weeks and growing!!!!!!!!!

Week #4:Looks like I'll be keeping my "Muffin Top" after all

This is the long version... (scroll to the very bottom for the short story)

So this week hasn't been going well. I have been sick most of the week and had a really hard time working out without feeling like I was going to faint or throw-up. This morning when I weighed in I had actually gained 1.4 lbs. Ugh. After the weigh in I didn't stay to work out with the ladies I just came home and went back to bed while Hudson was at preschool.

While I lay in bed the thought came to me... Maybe I put on weight this week because it's about time to start my period... when was my last period anyway... Wait a minute, am I late? I knew it couldn't possibly mean I was pregnant because after my 3rd miscarriage in October I decided to take a break from baby making. I stopped seeing doctors, went off all medications for infertility, no more IUI's, no more tracking periods, and no more timed intercourse. I just wanted to enjoy the holidays with my family and not be working my way through another disappointing loss. So absolutely NO way I could be pregnant.

But... I did have an extra pregnancy test in the bathroom cupboard and it wouldn't hurt to take one just to be sure. I definitely wouldn't be telling anyone that the thought actually crossed my mind and that I secretly had my hopes up. I would just take the test really quick, see that it was negative, and throw it away. No harm done.

Weird thing was... after peeing on the stick... it had a big + sign on it. SAY WHAT?????

I seriously couldn't believe my eyes. How could this just happen on it's own? I definitely had mixed emotions. I was surprised that this could even happen with no outside help, I mean, we had been making babies the "romantic way" in a doctors office for so long, did we actually just do this the old fashioned way? I also felt nervous and NOT excited and found myself saying in my head, "don't get your hopes up, this may not even work." Such a weird spot to be in.

I had a positive pregnancy test though and I needed to move forward to see what the outcome would be. I called my doctor right away and his response was to do bloodwork every other day for a few weeks to see if this would even be a viable pregnancy. It was pretty much like hearing lets see if we have a real live baby to work with, then I'll take time out to see you. That feels pretty bad to hear... No... Congratulations! No... here's your due date, let me schedule an appointment for you to come in. Don't get me wrong I actually really love my doctor and the office I have been going to for the last 13 years but I want help now. I want someone to keep this baby alive not to wait and see if it will stay alive. I need help!

I started thinking...

In December I felt prompted to go to a new doctor for another medical condition that was going on. Although this doctor was not an OBGYN we were randomly talking about some of the pregnancies I wasn't able to keep and she urgently encourage me to go see a different doctor, someone she knows, who specializes in this sort of thing. I was hesitant to go then because I really did love my doctor and had be going there so long but at the same time, today, right now, at this moment I am feeling prompted and maybe a little desperate to take her advice. So I got his number and made the call, he was able to get me in immediately and is very confident that he can get me a real live baby!

I've had bloodwork done and my progesterone is too low to hold this pregnancy so he wants to do progesterone shots for at least 12 weeks. Until my body starts producing it and takes over. That will mean coming to his office every other day to get a shot in my rear end. Yay! (Totally worth it though) He will also be doing weekly ultrasounds and bloodwork and has asked me to take a baby aspirin everyday for the first 3 months to help prevent blood clots from stopping the flow of blood to the baby and placenta. So he's doing something.

Right now I'm 7 weeks pregnant!

I am still nervous about the outcome of this pregnancy but I also feel very peaceful about it. I have always felt that there were more children that needed to come to our family. After the last few years I wondered how I was ever going to get them here. But now I really feel Heavenly Fathers hand in every part of this pregnancy. I feel blessed. I feel loved. I feel like I'm part of a miracle. I feel inspired. I feel watched out for and taken care of. I feel like this is right and will actually happen.

Little Miss Smarty Pants

Hailey has been struggling a little with her reading this year so we went to have her eyes checked. It turns out she has pretty good vision but her head injury from a few years back may have done a little damage to her tracking abilities. Which means her eyes aren't working and tracking well together when she is reading. So while she is trying to read a sentence her eyes will skip around to other parts of the page instead of working together on the same sentence. So the game plan is... vision therapy and glasses for a while. She is actually super excited to wear glasses and can't wait to show them off at school tomorrow!

This year's creation

Ky searched online for different pinewood derby car ideas and this is what he came up with.

A Wii Remote!

Ky and Dan have spent weeks recreating this wooden Wii Remote to race in the pinewood derby tonight.

Not to shabby, huh?

"Put a stop to the muffin top" Week #3

Everyone is doing really good with their weight loss so far. It's fun to have a support system like this while trying to shed some pounds. This week I lost 4.4 lbs. I am in 3rd place, this week, for % of weight lost. Yahoo! So far, as a group, we have lost 58.10 pounds. Can you believe it? Keep it up ladies!

"Put a stop to the muffin top" Week #2

My first weigh in went well, I worked out everyday this week and lost 5.7 lbs. Jenne and Kathy made all of us these cute matching t-shirts. Aren't they sweet?

Looks who’s 4!

Hudson has been planning his 4th Birthday for months now. Here’s what he has come up with… “A trip to the Gas Station”. Yup, that’s all folks. That is what he wants to do for his birthday. He wants to take his money and go buy some candy and a drink at the gas station. He has been so excited and will not stop talking about the birthday party he will be having at the gas station.

So, being the awesome parents we are, and finding ourselves looking to save some money a couple weeks after Christmas, we were on board with Hudson’s plans. On Hudson’s birthday we would take the kids and a cake to the gas station out on Leslie Rd. (because it has tables and chairs to sit at). Hudson would spend his money on a couple of candies and a drink, we would sing happy birthday, eat cake and voila… A 4 year old's dream come true.

A couple of days ago Hudson excitedly told the big kids in the family where we were going for his birthday. They evidently weren’t as keen on that idea as Hudson was because after hearing about it, they spent hours talking to him and finally convinced him that the gas station was totally a bad idea and he should pick Chuck E Cheese.

Darn it! They were persuasive enough to change his mind. But rather than totally bagging the gas station idea……we compromised and did a quick stop at the gas station on our way to Chuck E Cheeses. It turned out fun. For both him, and the other kids.