Baby News

I am behind on my blogging, sorry. But the biggest news is that Jordan will be getting his little brother!!!! All the kids are very excited for their baby brother. I happen to be on Craigslist last week looking for some gifts for the kids and came across a really cheap wooden toddler bed and mattress so I had to get it! I wasn't planning on that expense till after Christmas but I knew I wouldn't find anything as cheap so I went ahead and splurged. Luckily the boys (ok, young men) down the street were kind enough to follow us to the lady's house with their truck and bring it home for Callie. She was SOOOO excited for her new bed! That night and every night since she has had no problems going to bed. She now points to the crib and says "Baby brother's bed!" I will probably be moving her to Jordan's room and moving Jordan to her room, but we're waiting till after the holidays to do that. That way she gets one change at a time. She loves to kiss my belly and say hi to her brother. I took her to Once Upon a Child today and she saw a baby swing and said "Baby brother swing!"
No, we don't have a name picked out yet. :)

6 More Days!

Okay, so we're just a bit anxious to find out what the baby is! We are going to take Jordan to his first ultrasound because he's very excited to know whether he's getting a brother or not. Whatever it is, we will be happy for a healthy baby!

Trip to Orthopedic Doc

I went to the Orthopedic dr on Monday to see what was wrong with my knee. I signed in and sat down. A few more people came in and the X-Ray tech came out and said "Chad." So this guy got up and went to get x-ray'd. I didn't think much of it--Chad is a pretty common name. So on the way out, I was standing at the counter making a follow up appt and the sign in sheet was right there and my mom said "Why did you sign in as Chad?" I was like "What? I didn't." So I looked down at the sign in sheet and sure enough, 3 people after me was "CHAD GARDINER!!!" The odds of actually meeting someone with the same name (spelled the same too) are pretty low and then for him to be at the same dr at the same time as me I thought was incredible. My dad said "He stole Chad's identity!"
Anyway, the dr said that since I'm preggers, he wasn't going to do an MRI (which my ob today said was ok to do), but he did different movements with my knee/leg and felt around and asked what hurt and he thinks either 1. Partially torn medial collateral ligament that would heal on its own in 4-6 weeks OR 2. tore my meniscus which would require surgery to repair but couldn't be done till after I have the baby---and how will I have a newborn and 4 kids, then go have surgery and be down for days?????? So I'm hoping that it is #1 and I will be healed and not need surgery (and not continue to have knee problems as my weight increases with each passing day!) So that's the update on that problem. (I won't give details about my horrid evening last night but am thankfully feeling better than I was thanks to some meds the dr gave me today.) What else is going to happen to me this pregnancy? Geez!

Weekends are Weekends!

Last week Chad got a page from his "duty officer" (boss) that said "call me." So he called him and he was offered a new position as an O2 driver, delivering oxygen tanks to patients and picking them up. One of the perks is that he works Mon-Fri and gets Sat and Sun off!!! Woo hoo!!!! We are all so excited to have Daddy back on Saturdays! He has been doing it for a week and says it is so easy and is the same pay that he was already making. What a blessing!

Pain Woes

It hasn't been a good last couple of weeks for me physically. It started with nausea for the last 6 weeks or so. Then daily headaches for the last 3 weeks. Then a Sinus infection last week--still can't breathe through my nose which is awful and makes for chapped lips and a sore throat.
Then Saturday morning I woke up to my knee hurting really bad. So bad that I was limping on it at first, then it started throbbing really bad and I had to sit down and put it up and ice it. Of course with 4 kids at home, I could only do that for so long. The icing I did do, seemed to help with the swelling and I was able to do what I needed to to get thru the day. Sunday was okay--still bothersome but not throbbing like before. Then it seemed ok for the next couple of days. Wednesday was Kate's birthday so we went to McD's for lunch and it wasn't bothering me too much. But after I laid down for about an hour, I got up and it was killing me again!! Luckily my mom and dad were here so I could elevate it and ice it while they tended the kids. It was swollen again and throbbed so bad and I could barely move it. My dad left to go ref and my mom left with my sister to go to Brad's concert at about 6pm so I was left to bathe the kids and put them to bed all the while hobbling along. The icing helped numb it so I was able to make it through putting them to bed. (I forgot to mention that also over the weekend I developed another not-so-pleasant infection--that I won't name--that I had to deal with too!) By the time they were all in bed, it was throbbing SO badly!!! I was on the couch with ice on it and could not move. Finally about 9pm, Chad, my sister, and my parents came home and were so worried about me because I seriously could not move it an inch without it killing. I took some Tylenol that seemed to help just slightly, not nearly enough to relieve the pain.
Let's just say that I did not sleep very much last night and was in tremendous pain. Thank goodness Chad had today off so he could help out. Today I am able to limp for a bit but then when I sit down, it starts throbbing and paying me back for being on it when I was. I've considered going to urgent care but I think they will just say that I strained a muscle or something and to ice it and rest it. I don't know if they would prescribe me with any pain medication since I'm pregnant. So basically I'm icing it and elevating it as often as I can. I can't get in a comfortable position to sleep so I'm sure tonight will be another nightmare.

Sick and prego=overwhelmed Mom

With being sick and pregnant, my house has been neglected for a while. This morning I am feeling a bit better and am just walking around the house thinking "I need to do this and this and this and this and this and this...." Now I'm completely overwhelmed and don't know where to start. Once I start one task, I get distracted and start working on something else. I feel like I'm making no progress and I still have to go to the grocery store with the 2 girls (which I'm not looking forward to). Not to mention that I still have 2 girls at home who constantly need my attention--give baths, clean poop off the floor, change diaper, feed, get drinks....
I'm hoping the "nesting" instinct will be coming to me soon and I'll feel like I can conquer the world and be somewhat organized again. Right now I just feel like I'm hangin' on by the skin of my teeth! And I hate that feeling.
If I could afford one, I'd definitely hire a cleaning person to come in the morning once the kids are off to school and then come again after dinner to clean up the kitchen (I never feel like doing dishes after eating dinner, who does?).
I know I'm not the only mom who feels this way, but it's nice to get it out of my system.

It's Official!

Today I went in for an ultrasound that measures the fluid on the back of the baby's neck to find out if the baby could have Down Syndrome. The measurements were good and I got to see the baby! Still too soon to know the sex, but hopefully in about 6 more weeks!
My due date according to the ultrasound is April 27th.

You've Been Punk'd

Let me first start off by saying that for any of you who don't know my dad, he is the biggest joke-ster I know. He's always looking for a way to scare, trick, or tease people. So on Saturday, my sisters, my mom, and I went to the Womens Broadcast. After dinner, we came out and the car wouldn't start! So we got it jumped and drove to Auto Zone and got a new battery put in (I'm sure it helped that we were dressed up!) for free! So we decided we would make up a story to tell my dad about how we had to pay $100 for the battery and for someone to put it in for us. We knew he'd be so mad that we paid because it was still under warranty so it should have been free.
So we went home and had our story straight and told him what happened. He kept saying "Yeah right, yeah right" but still wasn't completely sure whether we were lying or not. Then he walked out the back door and went to the car. We thought that he might be going back to Auto Zone to try to get "our money" back. We thought it would be hilarious to watch him go in and argue with the guy so we all jumped off the couch, grabbed keys and jumped in my van! As we were running out the door, Teddy said that he was going to Kohl's but we thought he still might go to Auto Zone first. Lexee sat in Katee's carseat--it was hilarious! So we went to both Auto Zones but he wasn't there. So we decided to go to Kohl's and see if he was there. We found his car and saw that he had found the receipt for the battery so he knew we didn't pay anything. So we felt the need to still get him back. We first though of moving the car to the other parking lot, but Trini didn't have a key to the car. Then we thought of taking something out of the car. Then Trini said "Let's hide in the car and scare him!" So she hid in the trunk with her cell phone and we were going to park inconspicuously somewhere we could still see the car and when he came out we would text her that he was coming. So we ended up waiting for him to come out about 40 minutes!
So he comes out, gets in the car, and Trini covers her mouth and starts yelling "HELP ME! HELP ME!!" He didn't hear her at first, then thought it was the radio. So he finally turns down the radio and can still hear her! So he stops driving (still in the parking lot), gets out of the car and looks under the car with this horrified look on his face!! My mom, Lexee, and I had gotten out of the van to see better and we are just cracking up! So once he realizes that there's no one under her car, he KNOWS there's someone in the trunk! He was so scared! He kept looking around like he was looking for someone to tell, but there was not a soul in sight! (Thank goodness) He stood like 10 feet away from the car and kept scratching his head like "What the crap am I gonna do!?? I don't wanna open the trunk!" So he remembers that there's a button inside the car that will open the trunk, so he pushes it and stands to the side of the car--still afraid of what's inside! So when the trunk opens, Trini jumps up and screams thinking that he would be standing there and she's thinking "Where is he??" He peeked his head around to see who's there and Trini is busting up laughing! He said he still didn't know it was her because he was so scared and it was kind of dark and she was covering her face. So by this time, Lexee,Mom and I are laughing so hard and we drive over to them. He still had this spooked look on his face and still isn't quite sure what just happened. So we get out and are like "We got you!!!!" So we're standing outside laughing and asking him what he thought was going on, and the whole time he was still spooked! It was like he was so in the moment of someone being trapped in his car that it still hadn't hit him that it was a joke.
So we came home and told Chad and Teddy what happened and finally Dad was laughing and joking about it. I wish we would have had a camera for the whole thing. It was one of the funniest things ever!!! We couldn't believe we actually pulled a prank on the prankster himself!! It was awesome!! He told us to watch our backs, of course.

Dbacks game with 6 kids!

A friend of mine gave me 6 tickets to the Dbacks game but since Chad doesn't usually get home until late, I decided to take all the kids and 2 of their friends to the game by myself! Crazy, I know but I knew the kids would have a blast so I braved it. The older girls are such great help and my kids love them so much!
They had lots of fun cheering, clapping, and dancing. They lasted about 4 1/2 innings with all the food that I brought and only 2 potty trips. Once they were done with the food, we decided to go to the Sandlot play area and the kids played there for a while. They all had a fun time and I didn't go insane!
















Jodan and Kelly dancing video:



Callie thought it was hilarious to push the chair up and Kelly made a funny noise. She was cracking up! By the time I got the camera out, she was getting tired but still funny nonetheless.




Kelly and Katie were squeezing eachother's faces saying "Go D-backs!" Kate thought it was hilarious!



Kelly and Katee were dancing but since I was so close to Kate you can't really see her. Kelly's a good dancer though!

Surprise Teacher Meeting

So I went thru the drive thru to pick up the kids after school today and they got in and said "Mom, Jocelyn's teacher needs to talk to you right now." I was like, "What? Why? What did you do??! Why does she want to talk to me? Did you take something bad to school?" She looked all innocent and pulled out a paper from her backpack that had two lists of words on it. She said "She wants to talk to you about this." "Why? What about it? I can read the note on it without having to talk to her." " But Mom! She said she needs to talk to you!" "Okay, let's find a place to park."
So we walk to her room and the teacher is coming out in a hurry and I'm holding the paper with the lists and she shows me all the green dots next to 95% of the words. "Green dots mean she could read the word to me. As you can see, Jocee can read almost all of them. She's ready for the 3rd list! The most any other kid can read is 6 words! So I want her to start reading more difficult books every day and she'll probably be tested to see what reading level she's at so she can check out books at her level." So Franklin definitely helped her last year! Yay for Jocee!!!!

Cheer Bunny

Friday night was Jocee's cheer performance at the football game. Since I didn't know what side she'd be at we just found a spot where there was room for us. Then naturally, they come out and we can't find her among all the little girls out there! Finally we see her on the other side of where we were! So I have some video of far away, then I made a quick decision to (while holding Callie) fight my way down closer to see her better. So here's the two videos I was able to get:




You can see her better in this one but I missed the first part of the dance while I was making my way down the bleachers through the crowd. She looks so cute and was SO excited to be there!





Here she is after I got her. She was on cloud nine and couldn't stop smiling.
The picture is blurry, I know-sorry.

This is her best friend Maria that she made at school this year! They looked so cute!!


I made the girls matching bows to wear for their performance that they were very excited about. After I took this picture I decided to spray it with glitter too! It looked awesome and Jocee wore it proudly!

Happy 8th Birthday Jordan!

So this isn't in chronological order but at least I put the pics up! LOL!

Here he is checking out his new DC wallet. He loves it! Grandma Gardiner gave him a giftcard to Tartget so he immediately put it in his new wallet.


New sunglasses!

Lexee took him to Krispy Kreme to get his free 1/2 dozen birthday donuts and they gave him a WHOLE DOZEN!! Enough for the whole family!

New football!
I took the kids swimming while Daddy was still working.





Chillin' like a villain.


LOVE this pic of Callie!!



New watch!
He took this pic of himself!

I made him strawberries and cream pancakes for breakfast. He ate every last drop!

His Spongebob last minute (literally) cake! Not my greatest work, but he still loved it and that's all that matters!


The kids love playing with Uncle Brad!

Jordan modeling his new outfit from Whitcomb Grandparents. He LOVES it!! He wants to wear it every day to school. He's really into looking "cool" or his idea of cool anyway and he's somehow discovered brand names. Now that Mervyns is no longer, I have decided my new place to get decently priced clothes for the kids is Ross and they carry the brands that he likes.

Twinners!

Adventures in cute hair

For some reason, the last two mornings I have been in the mood to do a little more than the usual with Jocee's hair and she actually sits patiently while I do it. When I'm finished she's SO happy she looks "so beautiful!" Even Jordan came in and said "WOW!! Jocelyn you look beautiful!" Made her feel like a million bucks!






Her model pose.




On the topic of cute hair, if you need ideas for your daughter's hair or just want to see amazing hair-do's, check out this blog: http://hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/ So cute!! I want directions to follow so I can do them too!