Christmas is coming.......

On Saturday, Orrin and I decided to go ahead and put up our Christmas tree. We usually wait till after Thanksgiving but we didn't want to wait this year! We will be busy this weekend so we knew we wouldn't have time. So we arranged furniture and vacuumed, trying to find the perfect spot for the tree. We (and by "we" I mean "Orrin") kept moving the tree from corner to corner and finally made a decision. Within the first five minutes of getting out the decorations, Adilynn had already broken one of the glass christmas tree balls and was taking out the hooks and trying to put them in her mouth. Hmmm. Not good. So we decided to forego those this year....I could just imagine me being in the next room, her breaking one and slicing open her tiny little finger. So with that being said, our Christmas tree is a little bare this year, but it'll do. We are big on teaching her to leave things alone that she can't play with, but having those ornaments up this year was just too risky. Oh...and she loves the tree. She'll stand and point at it and babble away like she's having some in depth conversation with the tree.

We snapped a few pictures yesterday morning before church of her by the tree. We were already running late to church (we didn't get to church till 8:45 am! yikes!!) so we thought...hey, what's the harm in taking a few minutes for some cute pictures?

And we most defintely will NOT be telling Adilynn that there is a Santa Claus. Why any parent would intentionally deceive their child is beyond me. I grew up without ever believing in one and look how great I turned out. Ha. Anyways- no believing in Santa in this house.

Wow..I can't believe I'm posting about Christmas.....where has the time gone?

Just a side note that I love the fact that I have a husband who does everything he can to make me happy. Friday night I grabbed a pen and paper and excitedly told him "let's make a to-do list for the weekend." He was all about it, and giving serious thought into what we should do. I think all he came up with was vacuuming, but that's GREAT. We ALWAYS need the living room rug and bedrooms vacuumed! He also worked his tail off in our utility room / office! He moved the washer and dryer and vacuumed the floors. He moved our big storage cabinet and vacuumed. He repaired a small hole in the wall and cleaned off his desk. Wow. What a dude. OH....AND he scrubbed the tile floors. He knows that a clean home = a happy wife!! :) I don't function well in a mess and he knows that and helps out to get things done. We've definitely had our moments of ive-done-everything-today-what-have-you-done? But when it comes down to it, we both enjoy a clean and organized home. And he did all of this on Saturday with extreme pain in his right shoulder and neck.

Well, the little miss has just awoken from her beauty sleep. I had Parents As Teachers come again this morning and she said Adilynn is doing great. She has very good eye-hand coordination and problem solving skills!! That's my girl! :)

Caught red-handed!!!

(Is "red-handed" hyphenated? I'm not sure....)

Okay, on with the post......

Yesterday I was doing some cleaning and Adilynn was wandering around. She's become quite independent lately and since she's walking now she explores every inch of the house. Anyways, I knew she was in the kitchen and she was quiet for a couple of minutes. I peeked around the corner and this is what I found......

She decided she was going to help herself to some Cheerios! She couldn't actually get to them because the bag was folded down but she sure did try! Awhile back Orrin and I bought some of the cabinet lock things but we decided against using them. We decided we were going to teach her to stay out of the cabinets (most of them anyways) instead of locking them. She actually caught on pretty quickly. She's not allowed to get under the sink and in the one with our big pots and pans, but she can get into the tupperware one and a couple of others. We never really addressed the pantry with her but it looks like now we might need to! *note to self: throw away some of those Wal-Mart bags!

Saturday Orrin and I are going to put up our Christmas tree. We figured we might as well go ahead and do it. Why wait till the day after Thanksgiving? We'd rather go shopping.....

Speaking of Orrin- he's seeing the physical therapist twice a week now. The accident messed him up more than he likes to admit! He is unable to work out his upper body at this time, but can work out his legs. It's hard on him because he loves working out and it's a good stress reliever for him. He's in quite a bit of pain so hopefully after all this PT he'll be back to normal. He's a trooper and doesn't complain at all.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of Adilynn. This was from last weekend. She loves to sit on the couch now and this time she insisted on gathering all her babies and holding them all at once. She seriously sat like this on the couch for a good 20 minutes. She's a good little mommy to her babies.

Oh yeah....I'm reading the book of Job now. It's such a great book! That man went thru the ringer and still blessed the name of the Lord! WOW!

Baby babbles.

Although Adilynn was talking in the wrong end, it's still cute! :)

Food for thought.

"Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be." --David Bly

Random pictures.

With this girl now walking and being on the move, I steal my kisses whenever I get the chance!

Cheerios before bedtime.

Her birthday cake. This was as messy as it got!! (she's very much a girly-girl)

Big smile.

The rocking chair.

Here is a video of Adilynn in her rocking chair. The neat thing about the chair is that it used to belong to me, my sister and my brother when we were younger. My dad cleaned it up and brought it to Springfield for Adilynn. (thanks Papa!) She loves that chair! She climbs in it, finally gets situated, then climbs down only to repeat the process again. *note* Please ignore my messy house in the background!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY ADILYNN!

Wow....my eyes filled up with tears as I typed that subject line. I can't believe it's been a year already. So of course I have to write out the story of her birth. Especially since I someday want to print out my blog and have it bound in a book....this way Adilynn will have it on paper!

In February 2007 Orrin and I decided we were ready to have a little one. We just had a "whatever happens, happens" attitude and didn't stress over it too much. At the end of February I took a pregnancy test and it came up positive. Two days later I took another one, just to make sure. It was positive so I decided it was time to schedule an appointment with the doctor. On March 5th, 2007 the doctor confirmed I was pregnant! Yippee!! We were both so excited.

March was a good month. I didn't have any morning sickness at all. Other than feeling incredibly tired ALL THE TIME, I didn't feel pregnant at all.

On April 20th, 2007 I woke up in the middle of the night with a dull ache on my right side. Although it bothered me, I was able to go back to sleep off and on throughout the night. By 6:30 that morning, I was in a lot of pain. I woke Orrin up and told him that something was wrong. I called my doctors office and they told me to come in for an ultrasound at 10. I was worried that I might be having a miscarriage so I was doing a lot of praying that morning!! At the appointment they did an ultrasound and found the reason for all the pain.....there was a cyst the size of an orange on my right ovary! YIKES! This was a great moment for us though to know that I was NOT losing the baby. Plus we got to see Adilynn for the first time on the ultrasound. I was 11 weeks pregnant at this time and she was like a little jumping bean in there (we didn't know she was a "she" at this point yet). By 3:00 that afternoon they had decided to go ahead and take me in for surgery. They decided in order to protect the baby as much as possible, they were going to keep me awake for the procedure. (however at the minute they had to put me to sleep) I asked what would happen to the baby if something started to go wrong....would they be able to save it? The anethesiologist put his hand on mine and said no, there would not be anything they could do since at 11 weeks a baby could not survive outside the womb. However, God was with me that day because I had such a feeling of peace and I knew that everything was going to be okay.

And of course, by the grace of God, everything WAS okay. As soon as they woke me up my doctor let me hear the baby's heartbeat. It was strong and beating fast.....I was so relieved!
So after that setback, I was back at work six weeks later and feeling good.

In June we found out we were having a girl. It took THREE ultrasounds to find out what she was. She was being modest and didn't want anyone to see her! By the way...I swore up and down I was having a boy and that little Solomon would soon be joining us. Obviously I was wrong....

July, August, September, and October came and went. My due date was set for November 8, 2007 so we were all anxiously awaiting that day.

November 8th came and went.

So did November 9th and 10th.

Then FINALLY.....some action. I woke up on the morning of the 11th and was having contractions. I called my parents and my sister at 4:30 in the morning and told them I was in labor. HA! Talk about a false alarm! I went the rest of the day with nothing happening! By that point my mom was already in Springfield and my dad had his bags packed and ready to go at the drop of a hat. I had an appointment already scheduled the following day on the 12th. Since my mom was already in town she decided to go with us. They did an ultrasound first thing that morning and discovered that I had no amniotic fluid whatsoever. They did a stress test on the baby and then immediately took me to labor and delivery to induce me.

The next 14 hours are a little hazy for me. My sister left school, my dad left work and my brother drove three hours to be here for the big event. I dialated to a four (I think) before I got my epidural. After that it was just a bunch of waiting. I received some great leg and foot massages by everyone, vomited a few times and slept.

The day came and went and around 11 pm (I think) Adilynn's heart rate started to skyrocket. The nurses came in and told everyone to leave the room. They did an internal heart rate monitor and gave me oxygen. They said she most likely rolled over onto the umbilical cord. Let me just note here that my regular doctor was not on call for the evening, so I had Dr. McCorcle, the oncall doctor. So Dr. McCorcle came in and said they needed to go ahead with a C-section. By that time, I really didn't care...I was just ready for it to all be over and to see my baby!!

They wheeled me back, got me ready and little miss Adilynn Grace debuted at 12:22 am on November 13th, 2007. She weighed 9 lbs 11 ounces and was 23 inches long. We were all shocked that she was that big!!!

She was having some breathing troubles, so they had to give her oxygen and then send her on to Intensive Care. I was so sad that I didn't really even get to see her or hold her!!!

When I got back to my room after my C-section, I started hemorraging. This was not just "bleeding", but actually hemorraging. They were giving me shots in my hips to try to stop the bleeding. Dr. McCorcle came back in and said if this one last shot didn't work, then they were going to have to go back in, open me up and do exploratory surgery. Obviously I did not want this at all and all I wanted was to see and hold Adilynn!!!! Thank the good Lord above that He was watching out for me because the bleeding stopped after about five hours!! They gave me two units of blood to make up for all that I'd lost.

I was in the hospital for 5 days total and I had a quick and easy recovery. I think a C-section must be the way to go from now on!!!

So that brings me to present day. What a year it's been. I have been blessed to be able to stay at home with her and I have enjoyed every single moment. She has been a wonderful joy to Orrin and I. She makes us laugh and smile all the time. Children are truly a gift from the Lord.

Happy birthday baby girl.....we love you more than you will ever know.

Daddy's girl.

Here is a picture my sister came across tonight. It's from August of this year at the Missouri State Fair. Adilynn's loves her daddy!

I will never understand...

I will never understand someone using their kids to do their dirty work....nor do I ever want too. I will never understand having a bad childhood and using it as a crutch during adulthood. I will never understand sleeping the day away instead of spending quality time with your children. I will never understand involving young children in adult converstations, or burdening them with adult issues. I will never understand teaching young children adult responsibilites in order to lessen your own responsibilities as a parent. I will never understand how to play the role of a victim and how to take on a "everyone else owes me" attitude. I will never understand how to NOT constructively deal with bitterness, resentment, anger, or frustration. I will never understand fighting endlessly with someone in front of your kids and somehow expect them not to do the same. I will never understand how to be incredibly rude to someone one day, but turn around the next day and be nice as pie when a favor is needed. I will never understand developing an incredibly unhealthy, co-dependent relationship with my children.

I'm glad I will NEVER understand those things.

So sweet.

Orrin's sisters usually come over on Thursday afternoons for a couple of hours to play with Adilynn. This always give me a chance to do some deep cleaning so I'm not stuck cleaning all weekend. They weren't able to come on Thursday this past week, so they came over yesterday. It just so happened that Tiffany and Christian were out of school, so Tiffany came over as well. I sent her an email last night thanking her for helping with Adilynn. This was her response this morning:

Dear Adilynn , ( and you of Course!)
I cant wait to see you guys ! Your welcome ! It was fun .Thanks for letting us come over .I cannot believe how strong and fun this little lady is. Its so amazing watching her . (She grows SO fast )I cant wait to watch her eat the cake.

My love is unexplainable for this little girl,
Tiffany

Now if that doesn't tug at the ol' heartstrings then nothing will!!! Adilynn LOVES Tiffany and when she comes over Adilynn doesn't want anything to do with the rest of us. I'm so thankful for their bond, even though they are eight years apart!!

"I can breathe! Praise the Lord!"

First things first.....that title comes from a post in THIS BLOG. Please read the story of Stephanie Vest and say a prayer for her. She is struggling to live and has two young sons and a daughter that was just born in June. Please think of her throughout your day and pray for complete and total healing of her body.

Secondly, I voted today. I am now parked on the couch with a pop tart and a can of coke (healthy, I know) and I keep seeing more and more states turn blue. UGH. I literally vote with ONE main issue in mind, and that's the issue of abortion. Pro-choice, no thank you. Pro-life only please. I can do without talk of taxes, the war in Iraq, the economy, immigration, etc. Not that those things aren't important, because I know they are. They just don't hold a personal belief for me like abortion does.

Speaking of personal convictions, it's with great shame that I say that I have not spent time reading the Bible lately like I should. I know it's not a good excuse, but the days are just so busy that by the time bedtime rolls around, I'm exhausted. I am going to move my Bible reading time around and do it during the day, most likely when Adilynn is snoozing. I so notice a difference in my attitude, my approach towards things and my general outlook on life when I've been skipping out on my Bible reading. Again....shame on me. I don't particularly want to get to heaven and if asked by God why I didn't spend time in His Word like I should.....I don't want to say "well, God, let's see....I was just so busy! There was laundry, and cleaning, and running errands......." I don't think that will hold much weight up there!! So, I will....I must....get back to that.

On a lighter note, we had a Parent / Teacher conference with Christian's teacher tonight. He is advanced in reading and math!! That's so great!! He has done so well this year in 1st grade and he is always reading. Tiffany's is on Thursday and we're confident we'll get a good report from her teacher as well.

Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Adilynn was a flower, Tiffany was a cowgirl and Christian was Iron Man. Suprisingly enough, Adilynn didn't try to remove her head covering thing! And by the way, Adilynn is completely walking now. She hardly crawls at all and her little waddle / walk is the cutest thing ever!! I would talk about how she's going to be a year old in 9 days, but I'll blog about that later! (*sniff*) She's such a little lady.

Well, I'm going to get back to my poptart.

Again, please pray for Stephanie Vest and her family.

I hope everyone is having a great week.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

I have the sudden urge to put up our Christmas tree. We always do it the day after Thanksgiving, but I'm not sure I can wait that long this year. If the tree / decorations weren't up in the attic, I just might have started putting it up today.

Anybody know what time it is?

I seriously have had no clue all day as to what time it is. I woke up this morning and my clock said 7:45 am, but I knew that it was really 6:45 am due to daylight savings time. It all went downhill from there. Orrin decided to change only HALF the clocks in the house instead of ALL of them.....therefore leaving me clueless as to the actual time. So right now, my laptop says 8:47 pm, but for all I know it could be 7:47 or 9:47. Oh well.