aahhh, the joys of catching up!

This blog is all about catching up, Easter, Dar's birthday, silly kids..... where to begin! I guess I will just begin with the easiest section, Dar's bday.

For Dar's birthday I decided to get a little creative and I was really tired of eating cake! So I decided to try and make an ice cream cake! I'm not one that likes to follow recipes word from word, sometimes I like to try my own thing or skip some steps! Note to self.... don't try that again on your first try! I decided to make a mint chip cake with twix and caramel. It was really good, but I found out that caramel doesn't freeze! At least not the kind that is for sunday's! It turned out pretty good, except for the caramel melting and oozing all over the counter! Over all though, I was pretty proud of myself! I will defidently be making it again, except I will be using melted chocolate in the middle so it can harden and freeze!
While I am on the subject of Dar, I just want to brag about him for a minute. He is on his last phase of Refrigeration school and then it's off to graduation! They don't usually have any kind of ceremony but some of the guys decided to have the very first one this year! They want to make it as official as possible which means the Valedictorian will give a short speech. As of right now, thats Dar! I'm so proud of him! He also is trying for the honors program which he is exceeding in. After he graduates he will be taking a 5 month course to get his associates degree.  After that, we will see where that takes us, not naming names or anything, hopefully it will take us to a town that has the initials of J.C. : )

For Easter this year we had a lot of fun! We tried decorating Easter eggs with a new little kit that was supposed to be mess free.... haha, guess again!! It spilled all over and the lids came off and we couldn't get the eggs out like we thought! We ended up trying a different method that I actually enjoyed so much we will do it again next year!

 

Ashlyn's favorite was the Christimas one that is red and green, Rusty's was the orange one that looked like a dinosaur egg, and Aimslee's favorite was the2nd front last on the top row, above the yellow and blue one.
They didn't get their  Easter baskets until after Church and I was luck just to get a picture before church!

They loved their baskets and all of their presents. Since Dar's sister lives with us, there was more than 1 Easter bunny! I did eventually get another picture of each of them in their Easter clothes but I'll save that for last!

For Easter dinner, we got together with Dar's side of the family. We ate dinner, played games, and then the kids went on a Easter egg hunt! 

I love my kids to pieces! They always make me smile everyday! Especially when they smile so cute for pictures!

Keep smiling kids! You have diffidently mastered the art of melting your mama's heart!

True Wildlife Adventure

We actually made it out to the Wildlife Zoo in Phx, different than the Phx zoo. I had saved up 2 buy 1 get 1 free admission coupons just for the occasion, other wise we wouldn't have gone. Prices were really high so they were awesome. We actually got away with only buying Dar's admission and the rest of us got in for free! How did this happen you may ask? Well, we took Dar's 2 sisters with us and we used 1 coupon for mine and Dar's admission. WE used the other coupon for the tickets for his 2 sisters. One of them paid for herself, and the other used her money to buy the kids tickets (kids were half the price of adults). It worked out way better than I had expected! If you havn't been to the wildlife zoo before, you should go if you get the chance. It was not really crowded like the Phx zoo is, and it all just blends together so you don't miss a section of animals! It was also so big that having lunch and walking around took us about 5 hours! They also have a baby nursery where you can see the baby animals, a petting zoo with deer, llamas, goats, chickens, etc., a giraffe feeding station, TONS of birds and monkeys, a station where you can touch sting rays, starfish, sea urchins, crabs, and a bunch of other stuff! I was so amazed at all the different types of animals they had. We took a lot of pictures of the animals, but sadly didn't' think to take pictures of the kids exploring. I was going to do that towards the end but my camera died after we ate lunch! So sad...

Because there are so many animal pictures, I'll just tell you about the kids' favorite ones and the main attractions.

Aimslee's favorite was the penguins. She was so excited to see them and the were towards the middle of the day. She kept asking us when the penguins were coming up so when we saw the big group of kids yelling, we knew we were there! This little guy kept showing off his stuff for everyone. He loved to pose for the cameras! I wanted to get one swimming but none of them would take the plunge. The were cute though!!! She also informed me that every animal that was sleeping, looked like they were dead, especially the sloth!! He was cute all cuddled up!

Rusty's favorite was actually the little frogs, but we weren't able to get those so instead he picked the seahorses. Honestly, he didn't pay too much attention to them but when he looked through the pictures, that what he said he liked best. He also liked the shark tank. We actually ate lunch right next to the sharks but I will tell you more about that in a bit.

Ashlyn's favorite was of course the monkeys. If she was ANY animal it would be a monkey. She went crazy the first time we saw the monkeys, and still went crazy 4 hours later with more monkeys. She also really enjoyed looking at all the colorful birds. She tried to like the goats when they were feeding them but kind of got intimidated with them bigger than her.

My couple of favorites were feeding the giraffes and also the monkeys. More specifically, the monkeys at the end. Even MORE specific, the capuchin monkeys, like the one in Night of the Museum. He was so smart and funny! I wish I was able to take of video of the little guy! There was a piece of popcorn outside of his cage that he just HAD to have so he grabs a stick, pushes it through the cage, and tries to scoop it closer to his cage! When that stick didn't work, he found another one and did the same thing! It was so funny watching that little monkey! While he was busy at "work" the other monkey was showing off. He was swing around in circles in his cage showing us all of his tricks! They also had these sting rays that were polka dotted. I thought they looked really cool and picture worthy.

Dar didn't really have a favorite so I'll just say lunch was his favorite, since he is a guy, and it had food! Plus, this is a good time to tell you about our lunch. I don't remember what the restaurant was called but it was busy and good! They had a huge shark tank in the room that we were excited to eat with. Turns out we got the best seat of the house and out table was right next to the tank! It was amazing! The service was good, the food was pretty good, (not the best BBQ I've had), and the kids loved it. Rusty absolutely loved the sharks, as I've mentioned before, but he liked them so much we couldn't get him to sit in his chair to eat! He just wanted to watch the sharks swim around. He was even laying on the floor by them so he could pretend to sleep with the sharks! My fearless boy! Aimslee on the other hand, was scared of them for a while. When she would get brave enough to put her hands on the glass, the big one would swim by and she would freak out and get away! Ash was just scared of any fish bigger than her, I don't blame her though! I managed to get a couple of pictures of them all being brave at the end, so cute!

The petting zoo had a place to get food for the animals to feed them so I got some for the kids. Aimslee liked them all except the llama, because it was taller than her. Dar just kept petting the deer telling them that when they got much bigger he was going to hunt them and eat them for dinner! Just kidding, he didn't' say that, but he was thinking that! He did however tell me how cool the fox would look on his wall. I just smiled and gave him a look that meant 'it will never happen dear!'

Here is a picture of the sting ray exibit. Aimslee refused to put her hand in the water, Rusty enjoyed it, and Ash just liked the water. I didn't touch it because I was too busy with the camera and was content just watching. They described it as slimy and weird feeling. I think this is Rusty's hand.

The giraffes had a stand up high that you could walk up the stairs and feed them. I thought the kids would enjoy this so I got a lot of food for them. Rusty tried to feed them but when he saw how long their tongue was, chickened out and didn't want to look at them anymore. Aimslee enjoyed feeding them but got tired of it when it got some slobber on her. Ash had fun throwing the food at it, poor giraffes. There was even a baby giraffe but it was on the other side and the kids' arm, as well as mine, were not long enough to reach it.

All in all it was the perfect day to go. Dar didn't have school, I didn't have to work, and either did his sisters. It was a little bit on the cool side but nothing a jacket couldn't fix! Later on in the day it did get too warm for a jacket! My kids really enjoyed it and I enjoyed having a family outing. Maybe when the perfect day comes around again we will go but only if I can find more of those coupons!!! I now leave you with this last picture just because I can't look at it and not think of "Scurry, sniff, FLINCH!" Can anyone name the movie?

Our merry christmas!

So, I didn't forget about my blog, I was just to busy procrastinating! I really do have a hard time wanting to think of things to write. It's not that life stops and nothing happens, it just that I don't want to stop with everything and write. Now that my husband had decided to go running with me and make me run faster and harder than I want, my legs and hips are too sore to do anything else! So today, I decided to procrastinate doing dishes and cleaning my house to sit and share with you a couple of things that are actually blog worthy.

Christmas was really exciting this year, (and yes in case your wondering we were cheesy enough to find a fireplace on TV to complete our Christmas feel)! Aimslee understood Santa and everything he does. It was so much fun listening to her try and explain to Ash that she had to be good or Santa wouldn't give her any toys, only rocks. In all honestly, my kids would love rocks for Christmas. We let them go outside in our front yard and instead of riding their bikes they go rock searching for the prettiest rocks. Okay, wait a minute this is supposed to be about Christmas!

Dar was brave enough to take all 3 kids with him in the stores to go Christmas shopping for me. They loved it! They even picked out a pretty necklace for me AND kept it secret from me! I think Rusty just plain forgot but Aimslee is a good secret keeper when she want to! I had a much harder time going shopping for Dar as I was either working all the time, or didn't have a car to go to the store. I managed to get him some presents that were all surprises! Sadly I don't have many pictures to show for anything that we got. Dar's family came over to watch the kids open their presents and have breakfast.

Aimslee asked for a pillow pet, skates, Tinkerbell sheets, a new toothbrush, zhu zhu pet, and a picture of mommy and me. We were able to get her almost all of them except the picture, which is still to come just because it was so sweet! I had to post some of these, they were so funny!

Aimslee got her sheets and comforter of Tangled, not Tinkerbell but she was satisfied with that.
When she opened her skates she jumped up and down and immediately jumped on top of them and hugged them. It was so funny to watch! I wished I had it on video but I never imagined she would do that!


Rusty was a little different. He kind of understood that on Christmas he gets presents but that's about it. When we asked him what he wanted, he only gave us one thing, CARS! We tried to get him to say anything else but that's all we could get out of him. I asked him if he wanted a new blankett and he was excited about that. Then I asked him what kind? Of coarse he said 'CARS!' We tried several times to get more but he wouldn't budge so what did he get? CARS!!! Cars and a racetrack, a pillow pet, zhu zhu pet, and much more. By the way, our kids love to get spoiled by their Aunt who lives with us. It's fun to see their surprises!



Ashlyn had no clue what was going on. We woke her up and believe me, when that princess doesn't get all of her beauty rest, she gets mean!!!! She didn't cheer up until she got a dolly and a stroller. Of course we didn't get the baby in the sh0t because as soon as she saw the sock monkeys, she threw the baby on the ground and replaced it with the monkeys. Then she preceded to try and sit on the monkey's lap! She was so funny! She got the sock monkeys, a pillow pet, zhu zhu pet, baby and stroller, and a phone.

All in all it was a fantastic Christmas. After letting the kids play with their toys for a couple of toys, we packed up to go to JC for our other Christmas. Before leaving there, we got dressed up and went to Darwin's sister's ward where their choir sang their Christmas program. Then we got on the road for good ole JC. I don't have any pictures of anything there but it was so much fun. We stayed at my sister's house, (thanks Trina) had a wonderful Christmas dinner with almost everybody, and opened up presents after. All of my kids got another pillow pet, Dar got a paintball gun, and I got a Wii. All of us kids gave my mom and Dad the ultimate Christmas present, a bathroom makeover. As I had said before, I didn't take any pictures but let me just say, it looked TONS better. They put in tile floors, new bathtub, new toilet, tile halfway up the walls, and a new paint job. It now looks so much better! It was funny to see them open up new bathtub fixtures, towel hangers, etc... as their Christmas presents wrapped! We kicked them out of the house the next day and treated them with Gift cards and a reminder of the after Christmas sales. That kept my mom busy ALL day! She loves shopping! We stayed there for a couple of days just relaxing, playing games, visiting with friends, then came home for a vacation away from out vacation! It was nice to just relax and not really having anywhere to go.

That pretty much summed up our grad Christmas. So now I will leave you in saying that if there are any challengers for my Just Dance 3 game on the wii, BRING IT ON!!! (After all, Aimslee isn't much of a competition!)

Ashlyn, part 2. (The happy part)

Let's see, where did I leave off...... oh yeah, they rolled me into the cold surgery room. I remember looking at all the differant people and listening to the doctors talk amongst themselves about random things while I had anesthesia. I kept thinking to myself, 'I'm not sleepy! I hope this stuff works!!! I'm really cold!!' That was THE last thing I remember and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up to the nurse saying, "Oh good, she's awake!" I was so tired I couldn't even open my eyes. Then she asked me the normal things like if I remember what happened and where I was. I of course did, just couldn't keep my eyes open! I shut them for a split second then woke up some time later to the nurse asking if I was ready to see my husband. I nodded my head, unable to speak, and became instantly thirsty. Then nurse put ice in my mouth then my eyes shut again. I woke up when Dar came into the room and instantly realized how important it was to ask how the baby was doing. They both assured me she was fine, in the NICU, being evaluated. Just over 3 LBS!!! I don't remember how long she was, or rather how SHORT she was. I just remember they said she was tiny!! The nurse told me I could go see her when I was ready. I wanted to, but I couldn't keep my darn eyes open!!
I finally gained the strength to keep my eyes open and ate more ice. Eventually I had to drink some water before I was ready to go see her. I 'caught a ride' into the NICU (I was still in my bed after all!) and was able to see my baby girl for the first time!

She was so precious! I was allowed to put my hand in the little hole and touch her. She was so tiny and fragile! she honestly looked like a little dolly that's in the store, just hooked to a bunch of machines and being incubated! So peacefull.... I couldn't stay long because I had to get back into recovery and later go into my room.

I visited her every chance I got. I couldn't walk much, or very fast, because I was in so much pain from the surgery. On a scale from 1- 10 with 10 being painful, comparing it to a normal c-section, it was a 20! They had to cut me up and down instead of sideways so they could do the hysterectomy. Luckily, the cat scan's pictures weren't exactly accurate and my placenta grew UNDER my bladder, not into it like the results showed.That was a lot of good news, other wise I would have had a longer recovery!

She was perfect in every way, just small! She always had troubles keeping her oxygen levels up, typical for a preemie at 32 weeks! That means she was 2 MONTHS early! Needless to say, we were not ready for her! The nurses were able to let me give her her first bottle. She drank it! I was so excited! I then gave her to Dar and of course, she fell asleep. That little bit, less than an ounce, wore her out! We then had to put her back in the incubator with 2 blankets burritoing her up so she could keep her body temperature up.
I stayed in the hospital for 2 days after she was born then they reffered me to the 'Ronald McDonald house'. That place is awesome! I don't like McDonalds but I do like their charitable investments. The Ronald McDonald house is like a mini-motel that is for patients that travel to ST.Josephs and Phoenix Childrens hospital for differant medical reasons. (cancers, treatments, surgeries, etc.) Then they have a place to stay that is really close to the hospital. It doesn't cost very much, although my insurance paid for it. They go off of volunteer work, companies and organizations making dinners, and money donations. To read more about it click here. It really was a cool place! They even have the little volunteer dogs come in to see the kids!

I must add here that right after I was released from the hospital, the first thing I did was go out and eat! I have never been so happy to go outside! Front not going outside for 4 weeks, it was amazing!
Anyways, I stayed there and the next day my sister came to stay with me for a week! I know I weasn't great company, all I did was go back and forth to the hospital to visit her, pump as much milk as I could, and sleep. We did do a puzzle and play some games but even that was limited. She also had her newborn Karly. I wasn't even supposed to pick anything up over 8 LBS but I still did. It was so nice to have somebody there who had gone through the whole NICU experience too! (She went through that a couple of times!!!) I was so grateful for her!
Dar and the kids continued to come visit every weekend but they had limited time with me. I couldn't cuddle with them, pick them up, or anything. Just hug them gently and give them kisses. Rusty even learned to put on his shoes by himself while I was gone! He grew up waaayyy too fast! Ashlyn on the other hand wasn't growing up fast enough! She was fed out of a feeding tube every 3 hours and twice a day I could try and give her a bottle. The problem with giving her a bottle was it would tire her out too easy and then she wouldn't have the energy to keep breathing normal. She was on oxygen most times. The routine was the same everytday. I walk into the NICU, scrub my hands, give the nurses all my milk, take her temperature, changer her diaper, THEN I was able to hold my angel and every now and then, give her a bottle. For a while, she didn't want the bottle, she just fell asleep. She was always falling asleep because, well, that's what babies do! It took me 4 days to even hear her cry! She never cried! She was the perfect little baby.
Two and a half weeks of this continuing, and they finally mover her down to the NICU nursery, where the babies arn't so closely monitored. This was great becuase before, only 2 people were allowed to go see her at a time. Now, you could have more people come in, but sit in a little waiting area. They even allowed my kids to come in and see her a lot. It was all a blur together doing the same thing every day, but eventually she got to really enjoy the bottle, and the pacifier. She was so cute with her pacifier! A week later, they took out her feeding tube! Every milestone was huge for her! Now all she had to do was keep her oxygen levels up for a continuous 48 hours before she could come home! She would always get so close! She would go 30 hours and then have a little spell and scare the nurses. I think she enjoyed teasing them! I even came to find out she doesn't really cry in the day, but at night she's noisy!!! It must be that I couldn't be there at night! Yeah, that's it. I was even able to bring in some outfits and dress her up! I loved playing dress up with her! It was so fun!
I was eventually able to bring her home after just 4 weeks. She was still under 5 LBS so she had to come home in a car bed. If you want to see what that is, click here. It's a special carseat for preemies since they can't be in a normal carseat. She also had to come home on oxygen and a special monitor that measures her oxygen levels and her heart rate. But, hey, at least she got to come home!!!! 2 months withough good ole JC was too long! I missed my friends, family, and of course my bed! Oh, and being home with Dar everyday and my kids were awesome too! My parents even bought a little doll outfit just to see if she would fit, and she did! I had many people give me preemie clothes which was awesome because she fit into them for a while. Newborn clothes were too big. I even made a good friend with someone from Showlow who had a preemie also! He was born a week before Ash and was able to go home 3 days before us. He was such a cute baby (and still is) with a cute name, Reese. Everytime I heard him name, I always thought of Resses PB cups, which made me crave them! She was also such a good friend, she gave me rides to the hospital so I didn't have to call for transportation. Heven sent....

She went to the doctor every week to get her oxygen levels checked and eventually was able to get off of oxygen completly! Quite honestly, I only gave her oxygen and monitored her at night. That was a decision I felt as a mother I could make. I had a good feeling that she was fine without it. One doctors visit took a turn for worse. Her doctor had a feeling that something wasn't right with her hip. He ordered x-rays for her and they confirmed what he thought, she had hip dysplasia. That is where the hip socket isn't deep enough to keep your hip in place. Another common thing for preemies. She then had to wear a harness, 24/7. I was able to take it off for baths, diaper changes, and she got breaks for 10 minutes at a time. It normally is very uncomfortable for kids but lucky for me, she still liked to sleep all day AND night so she didn't even notice it was there! She kept that on for 3 weeks fully and 1 week was spent weening her off of it. There wasn't any way of knowing it was fixed and healed up until she would start walking. Luckily, two months ago we went and got that done and it is perfect! Miracles of miracles.
She is now a feisty little thing that LOVES to tease her brother and sister. She had such a funny personality and is now by far my hardest child. My other 2 kids were quiet in church, this one, we had to sit in the back of the room during classes because she was so noisy people moved away from us to hear! She always takes toys from her brother and sister just to make them scream! Oh, her laugh, I can't forget about that. You know the movie 'Emperors grove'? Ezma's laugh? Yeah, that's hers! Exactly! It sounds so evil and cute at the same time! She is defidently something else...... I will say this, it's a good thing I was forced to have a hysterectomy because having her and everything she puts me through, I don't know when I wouldve been able to brave another one! We always wanted to have 5 kids, but ended up with 3. The good thing is there is always adoption. That is something that we will be looking into much, much in the future.
You are always such a pill Ash but you are a darn cute one! never change and always stay the way you are. I love you!