My child is my greatest teacher

I am a terrible, horrible blogger. I try to stay away from blogs because I end up going to one to another to another and finding new blogs to follow. It's fun and I love it, but before I know it the afternoon is gone, or the evening, or both. I figure if I just don't look at all, I won't get sucked in!
This is definitely blog worthy though. I think so. It is one of those days that I don't want to forget the details or how I felt. Hmmmmm.......where to begin?

Mackinley loves to drink milk. She would drink it all day. So would her dad. When we are eating, he pulls out the glasses and gives me water, Macey water or juice, and Mackinley and him get milk. I have to buy 2-3 gallons of milk a week. I'm sure there's people out there that have me beat, but the milk is only going to 2 people. And one of them is 4. I think it's a lot of milk.

So one day Mackinley starts to complain about having stomach pains. It kept happening more and more frequently. I tried to keep a mental note of what she was eating, drinking, doing those days. Nothing really seemed to really stand out. After about 6 months of this I took her in and they told me that it was normal. She was probably just stressed from getting trouble about something is what they told me. I was a little irritated, but that was my answer. A couple of months later I took her in for something else and I asked them about it again. They ran some blood tests to check for Celiac's and some other things. She came back negative for the Celiac's, but they told me she has low iron levels. Welcome to the club little one! It's not a fun one to be in, but there are worse. I'm gonna blame my mom for that one. ;) So that didn't really give me any answers either. It started to get worse. She was complaining more and she started getting diarrhea with it. I knew there was something more going on.

I noticed that after she drank a glass of milk she would complain about a stomach ache. I took her off milk and told she wasn't allowed to drink it anymore. This seemed to help out a lot. She would still get tummy aches sometimes.....like after eating Kraft dinner. I felt so bad for her. Kids seem to be so much more littler when they are sick and not feeling well. She would come up to me and say "Mommy, I had a bad poo." It always made me laugh, but I tried to keep it stifled. My heart was hurting, don't worry. I'm not a horrible mother.
This week I went visiting teaching and dropped the girls off at a friends. When we got home later she had cramps again and more diarrhea. I asked her if she had drank milk that day. "No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did you have to drink?"
"Just eggnog."

I booked an appointment the very next day. At this appointment we got a resident. He was pretty good, but I wasn't too impressed when he told me that a lactose test isn't really necessary. He told me that as long as withholding milk was working than that she be good enough. Obviously he didn't know that milk was such a huge thing for her. It's not even that she likes it so much. It was a thing she had with her dad. It was something that bonded them. They don't have a lot, so I wasn't about to so easily give up on this one. I wanted to make sure that she for sure wasn't allergic to milk or was lactose intolerant. What if she's not and I take it away from her? I didn't really think it was very fair to her. So we booked the test.

She had the test today. I had mentally prepped her for it. She knew she was getting a needle. I didn't want to just show up and surprise her with it. She had to be fasting for it, so I figured she was going to be miserable because she was hungry. She was completely the opposite! We went in and they took her blood. She was a little apprehensive, but she didn't fight me or cry. I have a tube of Lidomax, so that helped as well. It was my 'magic cream'. She then had to drink a HUGE amount of.....something. She drank over 3 full glasses of the stuff. The lady was so impressed with her she gave her 5 stickers. Then we had to wait for an hour and take her blood again. Mackinley was a little bit more nervous this time and I had to hold her a lot tighter. She still didn't cry or fight, but you knew she wasn't liking it. They gave her 10 more stickers. After another half hour she had her last needle. She didn't cry or fight again and she went in knowing that this was the last one. She sat good and was much more relaxed. The lab tech had brought out 2 stuffed bears for her to pick out of. A pink one and a brown one. She told her to decide which one she would like while she was poking her. She of course picked the pink one, but they ended up giving her both! They were really great with her!

This is were my lesson comes in. The lady also gave her some papers with the last 10 stickers so she could put them on and have something to do while we waited. Mackinley went straight to work making cards. One for me, Macey, Jar, and then herself. She is always making me things and drawing pictures for me, but this really touched me. It was all I could do to sit there and watch her and not start crying in the middle of the waiting room for no apparent reason. I was so amazed that a 4 year old could do that. They were her stickers that she got for getting a needle. She was scared, that was her reward for being good and she made cards for everybody else first. So simple, yet so powerful. Why is it that kids are so amazing? She didn't even think anything of it either. She didn't have any ulterior motives. She was making us cards to make us happy because she loved us. She was serving us. I was definitely a very proud mom.

Only a little bit more to the story, I promise. I took her out for lunch where ever she wanted. She of course picked McDonald's. Jaron took Macey out hunting while we were out and he met us at Walmart. He dropped Macey off and headed into Lethbridge. After we were done shopping we went into the car and Macey saw Mackinley's new bears. Mackinley told Macey she could have the brown one. Again, she was so giving of herself. The brown one instantly got named Chocolate by Macey. Then she kept biting it and laughing, "It's chocolate!"
Mackinley named hers Tongue-y, because tongues are pink.

How I love my kids! I'm glad that we can have moments like these. I'm grateful for the example she has given me of service and love. Especially at this time of year. So, Mr. Resident Doctor, whether you deem that test to be necessary or not, I'm glad we did it. Without it I would never have gotten to have that experience with Mackinley. What a great kid I was given!

Love you Mackie!

I haven't blogged for awhile, but this is definitely worth it!!!! I think I will die if I win, and I will die if I don't win......so it was nice knowing ya!
A girl I know from Magrath is doing a photography giveaway. It is one of a kind. It's for mom's. You get your makeup and hair done and then a photo shoot afterwards! I better freaking win.
Check her stuff out. She is great! She is the one who did our family photos on this blog. Check her out at www.mandybakerblog.com.
Wish me luck!

Another day with the Mallard's

We decided yesterday to go for a trip through Logan's Pass and got eat at our favorite restaurant in Kalispell....HuHot! Of course we (I) had to some Ross shopping and check out the new 24 hr Walmart in Kalispell. 24 hr Walmart bring me great happiness. I don't know what it is, but when we're in the states and are by a Walmart that is 24 hr I won't go during the day. Well, I do, but I will go for sure in the middle of the night. Just because I can. And it's awesome. It's a good thing this Walmart was open all night because we would be driving home right now instead of actually being home. I'll get to that later.
So we leave and get to the pass. We bought the annual pass because if we spent $25 we had a pass for a week which actually was only the day because we won't be going back this week. If we spent $10 more we had a pass until the end of August next year. Ummmmm, it only made sense to buy the annual. We got to the pass and it was beautiful! As always. It was fun to drive through with the girls and see them all excited to see the water coming off the rocks and the cliffs and all the flowers. I really hope they love it there as much as I do one day. It was a little slow going because of some construction, but other than that it was great! I hung my feet and my arm out the window, we had the music going and everyone was singing. Fun times!
We go to Kalispell and went straight to Ross. It was grand. Then we hit HuHot's. I can't tell you how awesome it is to eat there. I will never eat at Mongolian Grill again. Ever. Unless someone else is paying. I had a $36 bowl at Mongolian once and ate the whole thing. Coincidentally, our entire bill last night for 2 adults and 2 kids was $36, tip included. And I ate more. For those of you who don't know what HuHot or Mongolian Grill is, first, you need to get out more. Second, they are restaurants where you go up with a bowl and pick out your raw meat and fresh veggies and then you put sauce on it. You take it to the cooks and the fry it up for you on a big huge grill. At Mongolian Grill they weigh your bowl and that's how much you pay for your meal. You can go up more than once, but you get your second bowl measured too. If you don't get meat they will charge you less. Just in case you want to save a few bucks! They don't grill it in front of you, they grill it and your waitress brings it out to you. At HuHot's you do the same thing.....you go get your meat and veggies and sauces and you take it to the grill and you get to watch them cook it for you. The cooks toss their.....I don't know what they are called....let's call them metal cooking things. So they toos their metal cooking things around in the air while they are cooking and it is pretty impressive. If you give them a tip you get to ring the gong. The girls love doing this! They give you your plate and you go sit and eat. It is a beautiful dining experience. Until the 3rd helping and it's time to go to the bathroom. I was in the bathroom yesterday and while I was in there making some more room, I thought that restaurant must have more pooh go through it than any other restaurant. There's your thought of the day!
After stuffing ourselves we went to Walmart. It was grand! It is brand new and did I mention it is open 24 hrs? I took my time. I wanted to see everything! We looked around and got a few things. Now that I think about it, I didn't look at the shoes. How could I not look at the shoes?!?!?!? I'm a little upset right now. Even Jar says that's sad. I think he's being sarcastic. By the time we're done it's getting late and the girls are getting tired and cranky, so Jar took them out to the car while I took everything through the till. I'm always surprised to see how many people shop so late at night. I finally got through and went to the car. Mackinley said something about her little puppy that she put in her purse and my stomach felt sick. While we looked at the toys we saw these little tiny stuffies that were $2.50. They were cute little things so I told the girls if they were good I would get them one. I took them out of the cart later because Macey didn't seem that interested in them and I thought I had them all out. Lo and behold she had one that she had put in her purse and when Jar took them to the car, the little puppy went with them. So my kid stole a toy. I'll be honest, the thought did cross my mind to just forget about it, not a big deal. But, I knew I couldn't do that, so I grabbed it, put it in the box, grabbed Mackinley and off we went back into Walmart. She was crying because I got mad at her for stealing, so when I took her in to take it back the ladies already knew what was going on. They were really great. The one lady knelt down on the ground and I told Mackinley to give it back. She just stood there and cried. I knew she wasn't going to say sorry like I told her she needed to. I had to hold her arm so she could give it back. I don't know if it was because I was embarassed or I felt so bad for her, or both, but I started to to choked up. I apologized for her and the lady said thank you and we left. How awful. I know Mackinley didn't really know what stealing was, but hopefully she does now. At least enough to not do that again.
We got gas and headed home. So we thought. We were 10 minutes from the border and all of the sudden we see police lights flashing. Oh great. Just what we need. Jaron wasn't driving ridiculously fast, but the night speeds are different and he didn't take that into account. The cop clocked him at 78 mph. So he asks for our license and registration...the routine. I had our insurance papers in my purse because I kept forgetting to take it to the car. I figured if I had in my wallet then if I needed it I would know where it was. I went to get it out of my purse and I couldn't find it. The cop said he'd go and when he came back he would look at our other papers. We gave him our registration, but I told him the insurance was in my wallet and it's missing. He let me go and look in the trunk and it wasn't there either. He let us go with a warning. I think he felt bad for us. I don't think he believed us, but he felt bad for us. So we turned around to drive the hour that we had already driven. I got our states phone out to try and phone Walmart to see if they had it. As I was trying to figure it out Jar slammed on the brakes. I knew something bad was happening even before I looked up. Stupid deer. There were 2 crossing the road. We knew the first one wouldn't be the issue it was the 2nd one. It's always the 2nd one. I was prepared to hit it and at the last instant Jar was able to swerve and just miss it. We kept driving. I couldn't get a hold of Walmart so we had to stew for an hour.
We got there and they had it. Yay! It happened to be one of the ladies that I had just dealt with when I took Mackinley in. How embarrassing. She told me "When we looked at your license and saw Alberta we were hoping you wouldn't get too far. And then I saw picture and thought 'I remember you." Great. That's what every mother of a thieving child wants to hear.
So we were back on the road. It was after 1:30 in the morning. When we got to Eureka we saw the same cop driving through town. He saw us and you could tell he recognized us. Hopefully he believed us now for sure! We got back in with no hassle and then made it home safely. There were a couple more deer and elk on the road, but none as close as the one we almost hit.
When we got home we put the girls to bed and Jar set up a mattress on our deck on top of the garage. The stars were amazing. We laid there and talked about our crazy, yet great day. It was 5 in the morning. The sun was starting to come up. We went in to bed and nobody woke up until after 10. It was good.

My baby's turning 2!!!

Macey turns 2 next week. She is growing up WAY too fast. Which means Mackinley grows up WAY too fast. It's kinda sad. She really is fun right now though. She copies everything Mackinley and I say. She calls her sister Mackie. I think that's one of my favorite things. She really loves her sister and when they play nice, it is so cute.
Macey is one of the most thoughtful and caring little ones I know. She can also throw a nasty tantrum. She's quite evenly balanced in the naughty and nice department. She is a great Mommy's helper. She loves to help with anything...the cleaning, cooking, Mommy's make up.....you name it. If I'm doing it, she wants in.
She started off as the most relaxed baby I ever met. She has always been a cuddler. I absolutely LOVE this about her. The first few months of her life I wouldn't put her down unless absolutely necessary. I love holding my babies and she loved to be held. She didn't like baby food. I tried for a couple of months to get her to eat it, but she just wouldn't. I ended up giving her whatever we ate just in small pieces because she didn't like it pureed. She started walking at 9 months. She developed into a monster shortly after this. Once she could walk around she became independent and my personal nightmare. Looking back it couldn't have been that bad because I can't remember specifics, or maybe it was that bad and I am so traumatized by it all I've blocked it from my mind. She was my birth control for a long time anyways.
It took a year for me to get pregnant with her. And after I was pregnant I didn't want to say anything about it until the first trimester was done. I had just found out that I had a blood clotting disorder that increases my chances of miscarriage and I have a hormone disorder called PCOS which doesn't really help either. We were moving a few weeks after that, so we kept it quiet until after we moved. I didn't want sympathy help. Yes I'm stubborn. Once we were moved we finally told people. I was 16 weeks pregnant.
I was always told each pregnancy feels different. I found they were exactly the same. I was tired, nauseous, had aversion to smells in the first part, but I never threw up in the first trimester. The second my sciatic would start to act up, I could eat and eat and eat, and I felt really good. The third trimester was long and uncomfortable and painful. Not only did the pregnancy feel the same the babies felt the same. They were both stretchers and they were in the exact same position. I truly felt like the same baby. They both would push their little feet under my rib cage on the right side. Macey did flip to the left once for about a day and it was so bizarre to feel her kicking somewhere else. I didn't really like it.
Macey was born on the 25th of August 2008. She was born at 7:37 in the morning. It was Monday morning. I took castor oil right after church hoping to have her that evening. Nothing worked so I went to bed thinking that I'd just have to wait. I wanted her to come sooner than later because after everything that happened with Mackinley I couldn't be induced and I didn't want to have another C-section if I didn't have to. I woke up around 12:30 with contractions. I laid there trying to switch positions in bed to see if that would stop them, but they kept coming. I called my mom to see what I should do. While we were talking my water broke. She was coming down to stay with Mackinley so we got off the phone so she could get down here and I called my friend Alita to come and stay with Mackinley until my mom could get down here. By the time we got to the hospital it was 2:00. I was indeed in labor! I had to have a nurse with me at all times to watch for any stress signals just in case I needed a c-section. I was able to get an epidural which was sooooo great! They told me around 5:30 to start pushing. I was in active labor for 2 hrs! It was awful. My doctor kept trying to get me to try pushing in different positions......lay on your side, try pulling yourself up with the bar, try turning around.....all I want to do is lie on my back! Leave me alone! I wasn't excited this time to be going through labor. I was nervous and apprehensive and scared. As I was pushing Jaron sat at the head of the bed talking to the doctor about hunting. Seriously. Hunting. Good thing I had such great nurses to help me out. She finally came after 2 long hours. She was perfect. She looked like Mackinley. I didn't bond with her the same way I did with Mackinley. It wasn't instant and I thought there was something wrong with me. We went home the next day and I thought I would be able to relax and get to know the newest member of the family. I was wrong.
The next evening Jaron was on the computer and I turned on the TV. America's Got Talent just started. As I was watching I noticed that I couldn't see the left side of people's face. Their left, my right. We have a projector so I thought maybe it had something to do with that. I looked over at Jar and his face was gone as well. I tried to stay calm. I went upstairs and looked in the mirror. I couldn't see my face either. I went and sat upstairs and I started to develop a scintillating scotoma. It was a gold ring that I could see and anything in my field of vision that was near it was swirling. It was weird. I tried to see if it was a side effect of the blood thinners I was just put on, but I couldn't read the paper. That's when I told Jar he needs to take me to the ER.
We got there and they saw me pretty quickly. I told them what was happening and they said they needed to make a few calls. It's a small ER. You hear everything that is going on. I could hear them talking about me and I heard "STARS". I started to get worried. He came in and I already knew what he was going to say. They wanted to make sure I wasn't having a stroke and they needed to fly me up to Calgary. I called Jar because he took Mackinley to go get A&W just down the road. He was on his way back and he dropped their food and booked it back to the hospital. I called my mom so she could meet us in Calgary to pick up Mackinley. We ended up having to go by ambulance because STARS was busy or something. I was okay with that. As soon as I got there they started doing tests. The CAT scan showed a blockage in an artery in my brain that was already breaking up. This meant stroke. I still had to have an MRI the next morning to see if there was damage. I had a bunch of heart tests. One was called a bubble test. They injected bubbles into my heart and it was supposed to show if there were leaky valves. It was kinda cool.
I was put in the trauma wing for the first night and part of the next day. Then they moved me to the stroke floor. I had the worst nurse in history. She gave me too much blood thinners. My levels were WAY too high. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know there was investigation done about it afterwards. They weren't very helpful and I got put in basically a closet. There was a bed and just enough room to fit the pump. I wasn't allowed to nurse for about 36hrs because they injected me with dye for the CAT scan and MRI. It was so tiny. And boring. It was good for me though because that is when I got to start bonding a bit with Macey. We were holed up together in the tiniest of rooms and couldn't leave. We got released on the Saturday and we went up to Lacombe and got Mackinley. We drove home after that and I stayed on blood thinners for 2 months. My stomach looked pretty gross with all the bruises from sticking myself that many times.
So, that's Macey's story. Different than Mackinley's by a long shot. Both scary. People ask if we're going to have more. I am a little hesitant. Can ya blame me?
It was all worth it though. Life just wouldn't be the same without Macey. She is a special little girl that I love to pieces!

WARNING: May be a little lame. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I am the worst blogger ever!!! I always intend to update my blog, but I always get distracted reading all the DIY blogs I follow. By the time I'm done I've wasted all my time and don't get a post in. Anyone else follow dozens of those blogs? It seems like I am always adding new ones too. It makes me feel crafty just reading them!
So we have had a CRAZY summer so far. This is the first week that we have been at home. It's been so nice knowing that I don't have to pack up again for a long time. We've been gone to Cold Lake, Edmonton, Cranbrook, Magrath, Calgary, Lacombe.....I think that's it. It's been fun to see family and friends. The girls have really loved going to Nana's house so much. We got home on Monday and the first thing Macey said when we got home was "Nana's house".
I've been quite busy with my vinyl business lately. I was busy when we lived in Cranbrook, but Lundbreck doesn't seem to be booming for some reason. Can't imagine why.....It's been sooooo nice to get some craftiness out of my system. I need to start decorating my home though. I'm always making for someone else. I got to make a huge vinyl floor mat with my brother last month. My brother got married and they wanted a dance floor monogram. Easy peasy......not. They wanted it to be as big as possible. It was a 9 ft circle. It turned out great, but it was horrible to make. Everything went well, it was just so long. Good thing I didn't have to do it by myself.
My brother got married last month. Just in case you didn't catch that from the last paragraph. It was a beautiful wedding! He married Kimm and she is pretty great! They compliment each other quite nicely. Jaron's sister got married a couple of months ago so now I get to have hopes for cousins for my girls. Maybe that will relieve the pressure for me to have more kids. I doubt it, but here's hoping!
The last little while Macey has slowly started turning from terror to fun. She is quite the kid. The girls play together. Do you understand the full meaning of the last sentence. My girls PLAY together. They still fight, but there are moments. Moments that are so.....nice. Their new thing right now is hide-n-seek. I absolutely love watching them play. It gives me hope. Mackinley is also changing. Hers is not quite so great. She's turning into a child. With the attitude of a teenager. She's not bad, she just thinks that she knows everything. I thought was supposed to start later on. She's quite funny to watch still. She LOVES to dance and sing. Yesterday I was getting ready to go out with some friends and this is how our conversation went......
Mackinley: Can I get ready?
Me: No. Just Mommy is getting ready. I'm going out with some friends.
Mackinley: What friends?
Even my 4 year old knows I have no social life! Not really, but the way it came out, it sounded just like that. I really do have friends, it's just hard for us to do stuff with Jar being gone so much with shift work and living out in the boonies doesn't help either. One more year and Mackinley will be kindergarten and hopefully we'll meet more people close to our house that we can be friends with. It's not far to drive to our Pincher friends, but it just makes it harder to do stuff sometimes.
This has been a random post. Once again. I really need to blog more so I can organize my thoughts better. I hate posting one post for months worth of stuff. I apologize for my boring, random ramblings. I have also learned today that I shouldn't blog when I am starving! I just need to eat but if I don't finish this now it will get sent to drafts and never get finished!!!! I guess I'll end with that and hopefully I'll get my butt in gear and post something before Christmas.
I do need to share Macey's lovely birthing story. She turns 2 in 2 weeks. I will definitely post that on or around her birthday.

Annoying comments I can't read are not welcome!

I have a blog to keep people updated. I have it public so I don't have to deal with sending out invitations all the time and people can just read it if they want to. Now I am dealing with people commenting on my blog that is in chinese. I can't read it and if you click on them it leads you straight to a page of half naked girls. I do not have a blog so that I can be subjected to porn, or anyone else for that matter that happens to read my blog.
I have changed my settings so that comments are moderated so that I can delete them. I find it rude and annoying that someone would do this. Does anybody else have this problem?

Love ya Mackinley!!

I should be going to bed, but my blog is sorely neglected.
My baby girl turned 4 on Friday!!! How quickly time flies! I love thinking about what I was going through on the day that they were born at what time. Well, with Mackinley anyways. She was born in the afternoon where as Macey was born early in the morning, so I can't really think about it. I didn't know exactly what I was going to blog about, but now I know. I will let you in on my awesome experience of giving birth for the first time.
Jar and I met in Lethbridge at the end of January. He conned me into going on a date with him the beginning of February. We were engaged the beginning of March, married at the end of June, and pregnant the middle of August. Mackinley was born 4 weeks to the day of our one year anniversary. Talk about quick!
I had a great pregnancy. I got queasy around smells (especially Jar's breath), but never threw up. I didn't gain weight until about 5 months along which was nice. It all came at the end in the form of water retention. I was pretty swollen. I felt great. I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the baby move inside of me. It was such an emotional, spiritual time of my life.
Mackinley was due the 27th of May 2006. I tried the castor oil trick 2 weeks before her due date because the doctor told me I was dilated more than what I should be. It didn't work. Well, it worked as far as cleaning out my insides, but no baby. A couple days later I tried it again....and again. For those of you who have never tried it. Don't. It doesn't taste bad, but the texture is DISGUSTING. It's like drinking oil, and for some reason it is gross. For those of you who will still try it, don't leave your house to go for a brisk walk until after it has left your system! I am speaking from personal experience. You're better off at home!
Anyways, after some castor oil and some walking my water broke. I was so excited! We lived a block down from the hospital, so we got there and sure enough it was broke and I was going into labor! I was giggly and excited, so I wasn't too happy when they told me I should try and sleep. They gave me some morphine and I did sleep. I stopped having contractions all together. The next morning we waited for something to start, but it didn't. It had to be soon because my water had already broken, but they tried breaking it some more to see if that would help. They called in the nurse to give me an IV so I could get an epidural and some oxytocin. The next 3 hours were the worst 3 hrs of my entire pregnancy/labor.
I always get poked and prodded when getting an IV, but this was the worst I've ever had. The nurse came in and tried getting the IV to work, she missed, so she dug around for awhile. She tried again and didn't get it again. The next nurse came in and tried and poked around for a little while. She proceeded to poke me again with the SAME needle. She dug around for awhile. She got a new needle and poked me again. She used the SAME needle and dug around again. They finally brought in another nurse and she poked and prodded and FINALLY got it. I got poked 7 times and it took over an hour. One full hour of being tortured by psycho-never-give-up-nurse. I had tears streaming down my face. I wasn't crying, but they were coming down like when you get hit in the nose and the tears just automatically come. It was awful.
Once the IV was up and running they gave me the oxytocin to help speed up the contractions. It was working. They upped the drip a little to get going even faster and that's when everything started to go wrong. I didn't have an epidural yet, so I was feeling the pain. It wasn't too bad until I had a contraction and it wouldn't stop. It just got stronger and stronger and wouldn't let up. 5 minutes then 10 minutes. That's when all sorts of nurses and doctors where in there. Someone kept shoving nitroglycerin under my tongue. The doctors where checking me and thought that she was breech. Mackinley started to go into stress and they had to take me down for an emergency C-section. There is something unsettling when you can sense that something is really wrong by the way the doctors and nurses are calmly freaking out. Does that make sense? You could feel the tension. It was scary.
They had told Jar that he needed to get dressed so he could come down, but by the time they were rolling me out they told him he couldn't come. They wheeled me down to the elevator. I am still having this one long contraction. It's been 30 minutes. I was laying on my side death-gripping the railings on the bed. No, I was not screaming. I prefer to suffer in silence. :) While in the elevator, we go to the wrong floor. So we have to wait and go to the right floor. We once again go to a wrong floor. We finally got to the right floor and they kept bumping the bed into the doorway of the elevator. They couldn't get the bed out. It was excruciatingly painful.
They finally got me into the operating room and they put me on another bed. They mad me lie flat on my back and tied my hands down. I know this is standard, but when you have been having the strongest contraction for 40 minutes you wouldn't like it either. They finally put me out. But not before I told the doctor to tell Jaron that I didn't want anybody holding her until I got up there. I didn't think it was fair that I had to go through all of that and everybody else gets to enjoy her before I even get to see her. Selfish? Maybe. Do I regret it? No.
When I woke up the first thing I asked was "What did I have?" A girl.
"Is she okay?" Yes.
So after 19 hrs of labor, an hour of torture with needles, a 45 minute long contraction, and an emergency C-section I finally got to see my baby girl! They took me up to my room and an hour after she was born I got to see her perfect little face! She was beautiful. She had a major cone head though. It was the back of her head that stuck out really far. I wasn't too impressed that I had a C-section baby with a massive cone head. It went away though, so it wasn't too bad.
I instantly fell in love with her. It was amazing. She was the best baby. She was a great nursing baby. I didn't know that I would love nursing as much as I did. She was also instantly a momma's girl. I didn't know they preferred someone when they were that little, but she did, and I loved it.

I healed up good after it all and was excited to do it again as soon as we could. We were pregnant with Macey when Mackinley was 18 months old. But that's a different story. Maybe I'll share that horror of a story in a few months when my baby girl turns 2.

Jammy Days

We have been so busy lately. I'm not one for a busy schedule, but sometimes it just can't be helped. Today was supposed to be another one of those days, but the kids are sick and I don't feel like dragging them around all day. I cancelled our stuff so we can stay home and relax. Hopefully the little ones will start to feel better soon because there is a lot of busyness coming our way again! Busyness that can't be cancelled.
I am a huge fan of jammy days! I like them on days like this, where it's not nice out and nobody is feeling that great. We have baths, get in new jammies, watch TV and cuddle up in our heated blankets. So nice.

Green with anger

Jar and I have been thinking about becoming foster parents the last few weeks. Mostly me, but Jar seems to be on board. When I approached him about it he didn't even ask why....no questions, no nothing. Just "You should look into it". I was taken aback. I was at least expecting a "why?". Not a "why would you wanna do something like that", but just a simple "why". So I've started to look into it. I think I'm trying to satisfy my baby cravings without having to have a baby....but that's a whole different story.
Anyways, there are a lot of questions that we need answered before we commit to this and hopefully we will know this week. I am hoping for this to be a good experience for my own kids. I asked Mackinley the other day if she thought it was a good idea if Mommy and Daddy should let another little boy or girl come live at our house for awhile. I told her someone kids don't have very good houses and they need a good place to live until they have a better house to stay. She looked at me and said, "I don't like our house." I looked up, confused. "What do you mean, you don't like our house?"
"I don't like our house very much. It's green. I don't like green."
Phew! I was a little worried. It only got worse.
I decided I should try and explain it a little differently. "Some kids don't have very safe houses to stay in, so they need a safe place to stay until their house is safe again."
"Daddy gets mad a lot." Oh dear. This is not going very well at all.
I actually thought it was pretty funny, but I felt like I was already failing the home inspection. Jar wasn't too fond of her statement and he has been extra careful not to get mad at anything. This might sound like Jaron is an angry dad, but he really isn't. He's really great with the kids. We both could be more patient and we have been working on this. It's amazing the difference we can see in just a few days of being more patient with the girls.
Hopefully I will have more news about this whole thing in a month or two. Whether we do it or not, we have already learned and improved our home because of it! Mackinley will think our home is improved when the house is no longer green. hahahaha! I love that kid!

Ramblings

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!!! Hope you had a great family day weekend!!! Happy St. Patty's day!!! Is that everything? Oh, Happy Easter!!
There, I think I have everything covered since my last post. It has definitely been awhile! I don't even know where to start!
We have been quite busy this year. We started on some minor reno's on the upstairs. We replaced all the doors in the hallway. We have one more to put in and then we can do the trim and be done with it all!
We just got back from our family vacation. We drove down to Vegas and spent 4 nights there, and then went to Salt Lake for conference. It was a long trip and by the end everyone was tired and just wanted to get home. It was a lot of fun though. We got to see 7 of some of our favorite missionaries that we have had since we've been married. It was great to see them! I also got to go on the roller coaster at New York New York, and the Big Shot ride on top of the Stratosphere! Talk about intense. I love rides, especially ones I have never been on. Especially when they are on top of the tallest building in sight and they shoot you up even higher! Can't get much better for an adrenalin rush from a ride.
I am going to start doing my Personal Progress again. A couple of months ago I was visiting teaching and my companion is the YW's president. We were talking and I found out that they had different jewelery than when I did it, and it was silver. I really wanted it and she said that I could do the new program to get them if I wanted. I really wanted to do it, but it kinda got pushed to the back of my mind. Then while at conference they challenged the moms to do it too. It renewed my desire to start it, so my mom and I both bought the books and journals to start. Last night in bed I was reading through it and I am quite excited to get going on it! I am hoping that it will help with the level of happiness in our home. Don't get me wrong, we are quite happy, but there is always room for improvement! Especially when it comes to me....let me explain quick.
I have low hemoglobin levels. I always have, not low enough for a tranfusion, but low enough they tell me to eat differently. Nothing major. I found out last year though that I have extremely low iron saturation levels. Almost non-existent. They prescribed me some iron pills and that should do the trick. I didn't take them though because they are supposed to bung you up. I did start taking a pill though that is an iron pill, but it comes from a different source other than minerals, so it doesn't make you constipated. Awesome! I started taking it, and then for some reason forgot about them and I didn't take them for months. I think last month was the worst month I have had in a long time! I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning I was soooooo tired! All day I would be tired. I could sleep all day and all night and wake up tired, and it's not just a bit tired. It's major tired. It's mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. It's tired like I've never felt before. It was awful. I thought working out would help, but it seemed like it was making it worse. I had surgery a month ago (another story that I probably won't share, it was minor...girl stuff) and so I thought that was why I was so tired, but I was getting worse and worse. I started to take my iron pills again and within a week or two all the tiredness was gone! One morning I woke up at 7 and I didn't have the desire to lay and sleep just a little more. My kids weren't even up yet. I felt great all day! Every day was better and better! I didn't link the two for awhile and now that I know, hopefully I won't have to deal with this again. So, the point of this story.....it was really hard for me that month to be excited or happy or anything fun. It drained me. I could still do it, it was just hard. When you get that tired everything and everyone suffers. I wasn't spiritually tired, but it started to feel like it. When that starts to happen everything else goes out the window! That is why I am so excited to start this program again. I am hoping that with my feeling better it will just help our house feel that much better after the horrid month I'm sure we all had.
On to some more interesting things! Macey is talking! She doesn't say sentences, but she can copy what you say. She tries anyways. I love this stage! She is so stinkin cute! She can throw the worst fits I have ever seen. Now that she can talk a bit better, they have become less frequent, which is nice. She is quite the girl. She loves jewelry and pink clothes. A couple of weeks ago we were getting ready for church and I put a cute brown dress on her with a multicolor flower print all over it. She screamed and screamed and pulled at her dress until I took it off and put on a pink one. Oh dear! Her daddy is kinda sad about this. He thought for sure she was going to be the tom girl. Sorry Jar, she's all girl! Oh, she also HATES to get her hands dirty! She won't go up the stairs to the garage because she gets rocks on her hands. It's pretty cute.
Mackinley will be 4 next month. Where does the time go? She is quite the mommy. She is almost done ballet for the year and I am excited to see their recital. She is also mommy's little helper, mommy's little sidekick, mommy's little everything. Our whole trip went something like this...
Mackinley: Mommy, you sit by me? (We are in a restaurant)
Me: I would love to.
Mackinley (as Jaron is walking towards her): Daddy, you don't sit by me! Mommy is!
She also always wants to cuddle with me all the time. Which is nice until Macey gets jealous and starts to throw a fit. We have discovered that if we want to get Macey to do something that she doesn't want to we just need to get Mackinley to do it. We have a system. It works.
Yesterday we were talking and I can't believe how fast time flies! This month is full for us with wedding stuff (my sister in-law is getting married, Yay!) and next month has a few big events, and then June my youngest brother is graduating and then it's summer. We all know how fast summer goes, so it's practically September already. Boo! Although I'm sure Jaron wants it to be September because that means hunting season. He has bought 4 guns I think since November and is itching to use them. Buying those guns h
as definitely benefited me though. I think my last post was about my first Lululemon purchases. They are not the last either! Every time Jar buys a gun, I get to go to Lulu. Good deal I think!
Enough of my random ramblings. Hopefully I can get these pictures to work. FINALLY!