Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for-
1. My Dad being able to come and stay with us for a week. He is the only member to have met Coen in person. Hopefully others will be able to come in summer.
2. For early school let out and Jarrod's early day being Thursday. I love having everybody at home and this makes Thursday like a special bonus day.
3. Restaurants-b/c I don't like to cook. Don't get me wrong, I can cook and I'm a pretty good cook, I just don't like to do it. I would much rather go somewhere, have someone serve me a decent meal and then they can clean it all up. No dishes for me.
4. A washer and dryer that function. While they are scratch and dent models, they work and they get our clothes clean which is AWESOME. The washer shut itself down for a little while the other day. I said a little prayer and it started back up right about the time I went to go start pulling the clothes out of the water to rinse in the tub and wring out as much as possible. I don't know what I'd do if I had to hand wash or they broke. So, please washer and dryer don't fail me anytime soon. I love you and I NEED you!
5. Naps. With Coen waking up a couple of times at night and Jude waking up somedays and joining us in our bed in the middle of the night, I am not getting good sleep. Plus, the kids NEED atleast one nap a day or they are grouchy. So, nap time is. so. awesome!
6. Good teachers. This year the kids have gotten some pretty good teachers. I absolutely love E's Kindergarten teacher. She's great and soooo sweet.

Productivity

Well, I haven't been very productive since Coen came home. I am extremely super tired and everyone has been feeling under the weather for the last week or so. I'm pretty sure the word lazy has popped into my husband's mind a couple of times, but he's done a pretty good job of keeping his mouth shut. I have done quite a bit of laundry and I did the dishes this morning. Jarrod as taken over lunch and dinner duty and the kids do their own breakfast (the big ones get for the little ones). This has helped a lot since I have been able to get a little bit of rest. Coen doesn't go to anybody but me unless he's asleep. In fact, if he's not asleep and I try to give him to someone so that i can do something, he screams and I mean he screams. This kid has got a set of lungs on him. He doesn't like it when I put him down to get food for myself, go to the RR or anything else. So, this morning when I put him down so I could make some breakfast (which is when I noticed you couldn't see the sink anymore)he was NOT happy. He screamed the entire 3 minutes it took to make my oatmeal and the 10 minutes it took to put away dishes, rinse and load the dishwasher. It probably took less than 15 min., but it felt like forever with the little one screaming. But, through the screaming I could hear this sweet, tiny little voice singing "I wuv jou bushel and peck" to his little brother. Jude does not like it when Coen is upset, so he was trying to make him happy by singing a song that I sing him all the time. I thought it was the cutest thing ever and if I hadn't been wet from doing dishes and I had been a bit faster, I would have tried to catch it on video, but alas I'm not that quick. So, while I have not been that productive, I do catch more of those special moments like this one when I'm hanging out holding baby Coen and that's productive enough for me.

Short Term Goals

Well, my friend Bertie posted her short term goals oh her fitness blog (see links on the right), so I thought I'd come up with some too. Since my body is still healing I'm going to be taking it slow. Plus, I liked the challenges Bertie posted about, so I thought I'd do each challenge one at a time. Here are the challenges and I will mark them off as I complete them. Each one is a 6 week challenge. Here they are-

1. 100 Pushups Challenge

2. 200 Squats Challenge

3. 200 Situps Challenge

I think I'm going to start with the squats 1) because I love squats and 2) because they will be the easiest while I'm healing. Then, my plan is to do the situps to get my core back in shape and then the pushups last b/c it's easier (for me atleast) to hold that plank position when my core is at its best.

CHeck out the challenges for yourself. They are pretty cool and he is even going to be adding a 25 pull ups challenge.

Thankful Thursday

Ok, so I've done a couple of these and I do enjoy reading everybody else's so I've decided I need to make it a weekly thing. I also think it will help me with my word of the year - CHERISH: to show great tenderness for: to treasure, to consider something or someone precious or valuable.

I am thankful for:

1. My Husband: He is a great man. He is kind, loving, generous- everything you'd want in a husband. He loves me no matter what and he's there for me whenever I need him. He is a great father and our kids just adore him. I am extremely lucky and blessed to have found such a wonderful, godly man.

2. Jarrod's job: While it may not be in the town or state I'd like it to be in, his job has been a blessing to us. It has been almost a year since he took the job and it has been really nice to be able to finally pay all of our bills. While we have had to have some help every once and awhile with things that happen to spring up like dental stuff and a new baby, we have been able to pay all the other stuff and it has been great.

3. The kids: While they may drive me crazy sometimes and they have been having trouble getting along, they are extremely sweet kids. They are kid and loving to everyone they meet and they are just sweethearts. This afternoon, Jude wanted some of Mia's chips but she ate them all, so she gave him her empty bowl. He looked at it and said, "thank you Mia" and put it in the sink for her. What kid does that? Most kids I know would have thrown a fit, but not my sweet Jude (atleast not at that moment)They are well behaved when we visit people and go places and it makes me proud when people compliment us on how good they are especially when we have so many. Believe me, they have their moments as all kids do, but I wouldn't change any of them for anything.

4. Our newest bundle of joy: Coen has been great. He truly does eat, sleep and poop with the majority being sleep. He is a cutie patootie and the kids absolutely adore him (which is something else to be thankful for). Jude loves him sooo much. Anytime he's out of his sight Jude is running around going "where baby Coen go" and if he cries Jude wants to know "what matter baby Coen". It is so sweet, I absolutely love it! The girls think he's cute and just love to hold him.

5. Our health: We have all stayed unsick so far during this crazy season people in MT call winter. I had a healthy pregnancy and Coen is completely healthy. So, we have definitely been blessed in this area and I thank God for that.

Well, that looks good for this week. Stay tuned for next week.

Holiday catch up

I don't think I've posted anything about our holidays, so here is a quick update and then I'll have a post this week about Coen's birth w/pics.

Thankgiving- The inlaws came up and we went to do the Huffing for Stuffing run/walk in Bozeman. Jarrod ran the 10k, the kids ran a 2k and then everybody but Jarrod walked the 5k. We had our Thanksgiving Dinner on Fri.- it was catered by Cracker Barrel and sooo yummy. (Plus I loved not having to cook.)




Christmas-We wanted a relaxing Christmas, so we went to a log cabin and hung out as a family playing games and just hanging out. It was very relaxing and we hope to make it a yearly tradition. Since we were in the cabin on Xmas, we did presents and had Santa come visit a little early. Xmas was great and I wouldn't change anything that we did. It was a great time of just being "family" without any interruptions.

Coen's Birth Story

Ok, I have never done one of these before, but I thought it would be fun to have a record of the day to remember. I may even go back and sum up the other kids' births without as much detail since I can't remember exact times and stuff anymore.
It all started Jan. 4th at my Drs. appt. My group B Strep test came back positive, so Dr. Givler did not want me to go into labor on my own b/c we needed to get some antibiotics in for a certain amount of time before Coen came out to meet us. So, we scheduled an induction for 7:30a on Jan. 11th. Jarrod's parents were scheduled to come up on the 14th to watch the kids, so we had them reschedule their flight so we'd have someone to watch the big kids. Thankfully they were able to change everything and get here the night before. Thankfully, I am a big planner and I was packed and everything in mid December -just in case. So we were fully prepared for the hospital trip (when I say we I mean Coen and I, Jarrod is a little bit of a procrastinator, so he packed Sunday)

Monday morning at 5:30am the hospital called and said that they had filled up overnight and we couldn't come in at our scheduled time and to give them a call at 10 and see if anything was available. So, I called at 10-nothing avail. I called again at noon-still nothing. So, I finally caved and told Jarrod to go get us some lunch b/c I was starving. he looked at me and said- So you don't think we're going in today? and I replied either we're not or you'll get my lunch and they'll call and say we need to come now. So, he got home with my lunch, the hospital called and said they had a room and we hurried over to L&D. I did not get my lunch, but we were having a baby and thankfully around 11 I had some toast. We arrived at the hospital around 1:30. They got us set up in a room, put my IV in and started me on the antibiotic. I got a round every hour (they atleast wanted 1 round, but 2 rounds is what the Pediatricians usually like- I got 2). They checked me when I got there and I was at 5cm. 80% effaced and a -1 station. I hung out reading and getting short naps until epidural time. I got my epidural around 3pm- oh how I love epidurals. They broke my water at 4:30p and we waited to see if I would progress at all on my own b/c we wanted to try and do it without Pitocin. After an hour I was still a good 5cm, but the contractions weren't too close or anything so I decided to go with the Pitocin. We barely used any since I really didn't want to use it in the first place, but I also didn't want to be there all day waiting- I was ready to see Coen. After the Pitocin got started around 6p it was about 30 min and I was already at a 9 with the "pressure". So they checked and he was close, so they had me roll over on my left side and after a few minutes (an I mean a few) he was ready to go. I rolled back over and pushed maybe 3 times- I was slow pushing b/c Jarrod got to deliver him and I don't think we wanted COen coming out too fast and Jarrod missing =). So we took the delivery part pretty slow so the Dr. could tell Jarrod what to do. After Coen popped out I got to kangaroo hold him while Jarrod cut the cord. I got to hold him like that for about an hour and feed him,then we went to go to the nursery to show the kids and Jarrod's parents baby Coen through the window.

We got this awesome room. Normally it is a ward, so it would have held 3 beds, but we got it all to ourselves. We decided to stay just the one night. I was feeling fine, Coen was doing great and we all wanted to get restful sleep at home. We left the hospital around 8pm on the 12th b/c they had to do Coen's 24 hr. oxygen check. Thankfully it went quick and we got out of there before it got too late.

We are all doing great. Jarrod took off until Thursday, so he is getting in some good Coen bonding time until then. I am getting to hang out and relax- loving my PJ day today. Coen is a great nurser and the only thing we need to work on is he is a night owl. Even in the womb he slept all day and would be up all night kicking me and moving around, so we need to reverse that. Back in the day, I wouldn't have minded b/c I was a night owl, but not so much anymore. It's hard to get up at 6 and get the kids to the bus when you've been up all night. So hopefully he'll catch on sooner than later.

Here are some pics of our newest little angel. He's a cutie and the kids love him sooooo much. Jude just adores him and the girls think he's great-which is awesome!

Word of the Year...

I love fun blogs- blogs that give me crafty ideas, thought provoking blogs, baking blogs, etc. I am a pretty creative and thoughtful person, but I love new ideas and sometimes people come up with things I NEVER would of thought of. One blog that I check daily is Tip Junkie. She is having a giveaway right now, but it's not so much what the winner gets as what you have to do to be entered to win. Tip Junkie challenges you to come up with your WORD OF THE YEAR. It is the word you think of that will define 2010 for you.

I thought for awhile about what I wanted this year to be, how I wanted to define this coming year and ....I did it! I came up with a word! Drum Roll please.......my word of the year is CHERISH. I plan on taking time to slow down and CHERISH everything around me. I want to Cherish God more, my husband, my kids, my whole life in general. So, I plan on using this contest to take a big step in my life. It is hard to slow down- especially for my get everything done, perfectionist self. I am going to try really hard to not let ME keep me from accomplishing this task.

So, funny story to go with this. I asked my thoughtful, spirit-filled husband what his word would be last night. I, knowing how he usually goes all out coming up with insightful stuff, was expecting a word sort of like mine or something even better and totally awesome that would leave me wanting to come up with a better word. But alas, my husband's word for 2010 is "SHAZAM!". I sat bewildered in bed when he told me his word. I even asked if he was joking, but he said no and still today says that's his word. When I asked him why, he told me that when he thinks about 2010 the first thing he thinks of is "Shazam, 2010 is going to be a great year".

So those are our words of the year. What would your word be?

Oh and if you're interested in putting your word in the contest- the giveaway is going until the 11th at tipjunkie.com. You would comment under her post for today (the 5th).