Yikes, yikes, YIKES!!

There is a big change taking place today. I am now done nursing. The reason for the lack of posts lately is b/c I'm dealing with some very heavy hormone changes due to weaning and it has me very down and out. And, since it is SO bad, I have decided to stop completely as of today. I am down to only twice a day anyway, and I know it'll be a crummy few days, but we'll be away relaxing in Breezy, so that will be a good distraction. This weaning experience makes what I went through with Tate seem like a walk in the park. I have been told by the doctor that I can expect relief within two or three weeks of being completely done nursing so I can now start the countdown. I appreciate all the encouraging words I've received from friends, all the meals lately, and I am overwhelmed at how much you all care about me!!! Thank you guys SO MUCH!!! Please pray for comfort for me and also for the transition for Callie. Soon this will be over.

Recent Happenings

Despite the reason my parents came for the extended weekend, we did have a great time. I spent it all on the couch while mom(and Brent) pampered me. It was nice to not have to change diapers, cook, and do laundry. We watched Fireproof, and I took a lot of naps. We also celebrated Callie's birthday a little early. She got an adorable doll stroller walker from Gma and Gpa and liked playing with it:
The boys liked it, too, b/c it was a good place to store their guns and swords:
We were sad to see them leave.

I sure wish that it would be at least above 0 so I could send the kids outside to play! They are really going stir crazy in here. Since it was -24 out this morning, I brought some snow IN for them:
They had fun playing in it.

Then they made up some sort of game with a golf ball and their sword. They ran around yelling, throwing it and tackling each other:

Callie got in on it and was being a great cheerleader:

Callie is still doing great with her sippy! She enjoys just lounging around on the couch with it:
I wish I was doing better with weaning. I'd forgotten how hard it is on me. I remember having an awful feeling like I can't catch my breath and feeling like my heart is beating really fast when I was weaning Tate, but I thought it'd be fine since I stopped nursing Tate so abruptly. It seems, however, that I'm having the same problems weaning now. I really don't like this feeling! I hope it goes away soon. I'm sure its just the hormone changes taking place, but I don't like it at all!!

I'm going to go have some extra chocolate, it couldn't hurt, right??

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for their prayers the last couple days!! The surgery went well, and I was able to pump once then nurse Callie around bed time, so she was fine also. I think the surgery will greatly help my weaning her, she is down to three times a day nursing, almost two. She's taking a cup really well. It is a little crazy around here, the kids all have head colds and the doctor confirmed this morning that Tate has strep throat, so he's on medicine for that now. We had the people come for a second bid this morning, and I'm sure they thought we were crazy b/c of all that was going on and how terrible I looked. I'm in pain, it feels best just to lie flat, so that's what I'm going to do for as long as I can. I haven't figured out a pain free way to sit up yet, so I hope I can figure that out soon. Pray that I heal QUICKLY!

EEEK!

So, I'm just a little bit stressed right now. I'm going to go have some chocolate after I type this. Here's whats going on:

-we decided on doors, windows, side panel, siding colors and styles, the way we want our addition to go, what kind of insulation we will use.

-we have contractor number 2 coming Friday morning. This is good b/c we HAVE to have at least two bids, so we will and it won't hold anything up! The date the bids need to go in is Feb 9.

-we might get to start as early as a week after we accept the bid, which could mean late next month!!!

-my parents are on their way up. I will be GLAD to see them!!!

-Tate has a fever and looks absolutely miserable. Brent has a cold and Callie has one, too. She was up in the middle of the night crying, but luckily I got her back to sleep WITHOUT nursing her.

-I've been taking vitamin C and eating clementines like they're going out of style to prevent myself from getting sick...recovering from hernia surgery and sneezing don't sound like a good mix to me!

-I am so incredible stressed that the people in my family are getting sick. I am going to need to rely a lot on Brent for a couple days, and Callie is clingy, fussy and wants to nurse more when she is sick, so this is not great timing!

-I can't eat anything past midnight, so I'm looking to have a giant 11 o'clock snack; ;)

-I asked Hunter to go clean his toy room b/c that is where my dad likes to sleep, and he did a fantastic job, it was very cute to see everything lined up and organized.

-I have everything but two things done on my list of things to do before tomorrow, so I'm right on track.

Pray that everything goes well tomorrow!

Gulp!

Well, I had my appointment with the surgeon this morning and I will be having my surgery on Thursday, January 29. That is NEXT WEEK! I supposedly won't be able to lift over 25 pounds for SIX WEEKS! I'm not sure how that'll work, but it has to be done. I'm pretty excited to not have this nagging pain anymore, so I'm actually looking forward to the surgery. What I could use prayer for is how the kids will do. I won't be able to nurse Callie for a day, so she probably won't be overly happy. Pray that she is a good girl for the lucky person watching her. I'm not worried about the boys, I'll just have to make sure they don't push my stomach. They were asking what I was going to the doctor for yesterday and I told them I have to get my belly button fixed up and Tate almost started crying! He told me to be brave and then he grabbed my hand and told me to hold it. He's very sensitive(and sweet!)

Gma watched the kids while I went for my appointment and I got the privilege of listening to Focus on the Family on the way down to my appointment. I highly recommend listening online to today's speaker. This week is sanctity of life week and it was about a former abortionist worker. I can't wait to listen online to the rest of it tomorrow.

I stopped at Target to get some panty hose for a wedding we have this weekend, and I had seen on a blog an idea with these little mailboxes they're selling in their dollar isle. So, I picked up three and am going to make these for the kids.

Here's a picture of our little leopard:

I did it!!!

I finally made an appointment with the surgeon!!! I haven't really said too much on the blog about the pain of the umbilical hernia I got while pregnant with Callie. I asked about it all the way back at my six week follow up and the Dr. said that if it wasn't better in six months then I'd need to have it repaired. Well, Callie is now almost 11 months and I still have pain and the pain is getting worse. So, I'm getting over my "not being able to nurse while I'm at the hospital for most of the day" thing and getting it taken care of(besides, she's kind of winding down on the amount of nursing she does anyway). I want to exercise, but I can't b/c it hurts so bad after. I know I wont' be able to exercise for awhile, but at least I'm getting it over with. I have to pick the kids up all day long and it hurts every time I do that, and my belt pinches it. I'm so HAPPY to be getting this fixed!!! I made an appointment for the 19th of the month, so I figure by the time I actually have the surgery Callie will be close to a year anyway and then.....weaning! I really don't mean to sound so negative about nursing, it definitely has its perks, but I've been doing it for over two years pretty much straight(except for pregnancy of course) and I just want my body back and to be able to fix the things I need to fix. All the gallbladder pain I experienced with the pregnancy is pretty much gone, Praise the Lord. I guess it was just pregnancy and post partum that did it to me. I've even begun having lettuce again! But...the belly button thing isn't going to go away on its own, so on to the next step!!!

The weather outside is frightful

When the view from your window is this(it's been snowing steady all day):
The best thing to drink is this:
I enjoyed my hot chocolate today. Today has been a challenge. Hunter woke up crying this morning and said he'd had a bad dream. Well, I thought he was just being crabby(b/c some days he wakes up really crabby...I usually send him back to bed and tell him when he's more ready to be happy to come on out and it works every time) but today was different. He wanted me to make him Malto Meal but once I did refused to eat it, and wouldn't get off the couch, so I figured out it was more than just the bad dream. He's got a fever of 102 and has been sleeping all day. I'm not kidding ALL DAY. I wonder what this will do to bedtime??? I'm really hoping he feels better by tonight or tomorrow morning, I'd hate to miss out on all the fun Christmas things we have planned. While I was trying to coerce Hunter into eating something this morning I turned the corner to find Tate using HIS Malto Meal as finger paints on my walls. That was a mess that took a while to clean up. Then, after Hunter was in bed and Callie down for a morning nap(the first one in a week Praise God it was today!)I decided to whip up some banana bread with some bananas that were going bad. Tate wanted to help, and while I was measuring the second cup of flour out he turned on the mixer and banana bread batter went flying everywhere! It was another big mess, but the stove top is nice and clean now;) I've decided not to expect too much out of this day. Tate ate about half the loaf of bread for lunch. It felt like I just had two kids all morning. I got to spend some one on one time with Tate and I've never heard the kid be so chatty before! He talked the whole time. We built some towers with his blocks:

We are VERY excited to not have to drive to Iowa in this snow, we have over a foot, and when we went over Thanksgiving there was no snow at all. We are also excited to be able to be at our own house on Christmas morning this year. I love being able to see my family for Christmas, and I will miss seeing them, but it is SO nice to be able to have our first family morning Christmas EVER! I'm so happy the kids will get to open their presents on the actual day of Christmas. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to make my mom's homemade cinnamon roll recipe for us to have on Christmas morning.

Hunter was a shepherd in our church's Christmas program the other night. He had a hard time keeping his hat on and he tried to talk into the mic(even though he didn't have any lines). He looked pretty cute, though, and Brent was sure that he was wearing his old bath robe from when he was a kid.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

A little catch-up and Callie is 10 months!

Well, I've really enjoyed this blogging break. I don't anticipate blogging as often as I have in the past b/c naptime seems to be a thing of the past around here. Here's what we've been up to the last 10 days:

-Callie had her check-up/immunizations and weighs roughly 18 lbs. I can't remember how long she is, but she is percentile-wise tall and skinny, just as her brothers are. Everything looked fine.
-I got an X-ray done on my back that same day and found that I have spondylitis, and a few other problems with my back. This comes as no surprise to me, b/c I've been having terrible pain in my hips since having Callie. I'm not really sure the best route to getting to feel better, the chiropractor wants to do ultrasound, but it seems sort of temporary to me.
-I made the boys snow men for breakfast one day and they had fun eating them:
-Brent had some fun with his beard:(I did not care so much for this look)

-Callie came down with a fever on Thursday. She was very cuddly all day and slept a lot, and felt better Friday. I liked the cuddling.
-Hunter was suddenly hit with the fever/aches on Saturday and was miserable. He asked to go to bed and took a long nap. That was also the day of the Christmas parade/fireworks, and we weren't sure whether or not to go, b/c he'd been looking forward to it for so long. We decided to take him and I think he had fun.
The kids all liked the fireworks. We saw the parade from S&D's front porch and the fireworks from our van. Callie was mesmerized by them and kept saying, "Dat!" I think she was mimicking the boys saying, "Look at that!"
-We kept the kids home from church on Sunday so as to not expose anyone elses kids to the fever flu, so Brent went to church and I went to my Sunday school. I stopped by the store for a few things on my way home, and after I got home I couldn't warm up and...you guessed it...fever flu. I felt LIKE CRAP. Yikes, it was a miserable time, but Brent was awesome and took good care of me(and the kids...I'm lucky I got sick on a Sunday when he was home!) I felt better on Monday.
-I've used my crockpot every day this week. Here are a ">couple recipes I've used, and one I am making right now for the first time.
-Brent somehow managed to injure his knee, the same knee he blew out in high school playing football. He has bruises where his screws are, so we are heading to the hospital tomorrow morning for an MRI on it. Hopefully it is treatable and quickly recoverable.
-We've been getting a lot of sub zero temps and have a lot of snow on the ground. The boys liked playing outside last week:
-and we read a lot of books...



Callie is 10 months today!!! She has now reached the double digits of months. Here are some things about her at 10 months:


-we haven't seen any more teeth through yet, but she is working on a bottom one.
-she is getting more and more independent. She likes feeding herself more and more.
-she loves the sound of her voice. She screams and shouts all throughout the day. The boys will be singing or talking loudly and she comes over and joins in.
-she says, hi, Hunter, Tate(tate is more like Taa) dada. Notice she can say Hunter, but doesn't say mama.
-she likes playing peek-a-boo and So big!
-she's starting to wear 12 month clothes.
-really likes being near her big brothers. (They like being near her, too)

Here she is with her rabbit:

And I just love the way she smiles at me!