Annie's blessing

At 5 weeks old, Annie Kayleen Ray was blessed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today. We were happy to have Grandma Mary, Uncle Joey, and Aunt Jodi join us on this special day. It was a very spiritual church service, as there were two baby blessings and the confirmation of my friend, Gina Snow, during the Sacrament meeting. The testimonies born today were so wonderful; it was great to see all the children get up today and tell of their love of the Savior along with the adults. I felt the spirit strongly and was very emotional as my friend, Jeanne Bradley, gave me a note at the end of church with the blessing written down.

Standing in the circle along with Barry were Bros. Horvath, Snedegar, Player, and Johansen. Some of the things that were blessed upon Annie were strength, guidance by the Holy Spirit, diligence and faithfulness in her faith, that her bright spirit will not fade away, that she'll mature in the gospel, that she'll feel the love of her parents, sisters, brother, and other family members and that she will turn to them during difficult times, that she'll rely on the counsel of church leaders, scriptures, prophets, and the Lord for guidance, and that she'll be a wise and dedicated student and learn the things Heavenly Father wants her to know.

I am so grateful to have this beautiful child from Heavenly Father to raise, love, and cherish. She is a wonderful baby, and I feel so blessed to be her mother.














Daddy and Mommy with Annie.





Gracie wouldn't pose with her sisters and brother for us to get a picture of the four of them, but Fischer went out of his way to wear a shirt and tie that matched their cute polka-dot dresses. He's such a handsome young man isn't he?!

The family picture: Aunt Jodi, Uncle Joey, Grandma Mary, Barry, Annie, Chloe, me, Gracie, and Fischer.

Regular Jeans

After being pregnant with the miscarriage and then pregnant with Annie, I have been in maternity clothes for the past 12 months! I can't wear the "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant" shirt now because I'm just FAT. I know it's baby fat, but it's still fat. I take Annie everywhere I go so people understand I just had a baby. Okay, that's not the real reason, but it's a perk :) So yesterday, my old jeans were kind of poking out more than the rest of my clothes in the closet like they were daring me, and I thought "yeah right" but I decided to be brave and try them anyway. One leg in, okay this is good... two legs in... now here come the thighs... ERGH! They're on!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're a size bigger than my smallest from last summer, but they're regular jeans nontheless. I thought I was going to have to go buy jeans another size bigger, but I was pleasantly surprised I get to NOT go shopping and save some money :0 (Well, Barry will be happy about that part anyway) hehe

Annie has arrived!

This picture was taken shortly after I was admitted to Redlands Community Hospital around 3pm on Friday, September 4th. We were so excited that Dr. Goo offered to keep me for induction even though I wasn't having contractions anymore. She knew that I lived an hour away and had other children at home, so she figured it was the best option for our family. She was right!!! Grandma Mary was already at home with Fischer and the girls, so it was the best bet for everyone.



My doctor (Dr. Beitel) had stripped my membranes the day before at my regular doctor appointment and I was dilated to a "3" at that time. My contractions started around 4pm on Thursday and were 5 minutes apart for a good 3-4 hours. We decided to go down the hill and stay in a hotel to be closer to the hospital for when active labor began. After we checked into our hotel room and I went to bed, the contractions stopped. I woke up at 5am on Friday with contractions 10 minutes apart, but they shortly subsided as well. We went to the hospital around noon before driving back to Victorville to wait for labor to begin when we got the good news we could stay.

My first nurse, Jackie, was fantastic. She and the entire staff treated us so well and didn't act like we were crazy for coming in early like most hospitals do. She started the Pitocin drip around 2:45pm and my contractions started within 30 minutes or so. They were bearable and I had done this three times before without any medication, so I knew I was doing well being dilated to a "6" without too much pain. Even though I knew I could make it through the whole labor going "au natural" again, I decided to try an epidural just to see what it was like. The anesthesiologist inserted the epidural around 5:30pm and I immediately quit feeling all pain. It was great!!! Unfortunately the trade-off was that labor subsided and I became frustrated with that. Then, Dr. Goo broke my water around 7:20pm to get things going and upped the Pitocin from 4ml to 6ml. I told her once I hit "7", I usually moved to a "10" within 30-40 minutes. She said she'd stick around and wasn't going anywhere.




The new nurse, Rosy, had to go next door to do another delivery, so Eva checked me 40 minutes later and said I was still a "6". I couldn't believe it because the pressure was so strong and I knew she was coming soon. Rosy showed up about 15 minutes after that and I told her I had to push. Sure enough, I was ready!!! She got the doctor and we began delivery. I pushed through one contraction to get Annie's head out and her body slid out during the second contraction without any effort. We all said "wow" because it was super fast.

Annie Kayleen Ray was officially born at 9:19pm on Friday, September 4, 2009 (on her due date). She weighed 7 lb. 3 1/2 oz. and was 20 inches long. She has a quiet disposition and is so sweet. She eats well every 2-3 hours and sleeps well in between feedings. Luckily, her sisters and the other household noises do not disturb her at all. She has adjusted well to her new life with our family and we are so blessed to be called her parents.

Fischer was in love and delighted with her from the minute he saw her. Gracie is a mother hen and wants to hold her all the time. She likes to burp her and look at her with adoring eyes. Chloe walks around and says "baby" all the time and "niiiice" while she focuses to "nicely" and "gently" touch her. She also likes to kiss her on the head a lot.

It has been a good few days and we are looking forward to raising this new beautiful baby girl. I can only hope we are the good parents that Annie deserves. I am so happy to be a new mommy and look to Heavenly Father for guidance and direction as I raise all four of my wonderful children!

Ashlee's, Ashlee's, we all fall down!

HAHAHA... Gracie is singing this wrong, but it's so funny I had to share. I think she might be spending a lot of time with Ashlee lately ;)

Gracie Belle

Despite the anticipation of a new baby, I decided to go ahead and enroll Gracie in preschool at the beginning of the school year instead of waiting until October. Thankfully, we have friends nearby who have their son in the same class, so if I can't manage to take her one day, she can rideshare with them. Yesterday was her first day, and of course I forgot the camera. When we got there, she was very shy and timid at first. She went to find the toys and kitchen set, then quickly came back to me not knowing what to expect. I was catching up with an old co-worker of mine who was also putting her daughter in the class and was hanging out for a few minutes to see if Gracie would warm up to the new environment. Then lo' and behold, Carter shows up and she snaps out of her shy shell and instantly became the Gracie we all know and love. It was funny to see how quickly she relaxed. She kissed me goodbye and went on her way. At the end of the day, I was informed that she was singing really loudly and looking happy. I'm so glad she had a great first day without any tears!!!

She is becoming quite the little grown up. She loves to play with her sister, but easily tells her what to do as though she's the mommy. The girls were playing really quietly today under the kitchen table and I kept hearing "Come here, Chloe." "That's enough, Chloe." "Put that down, Chloe." "Relax, Chloe." "Now, go over there, Chloe." It was so funny. From what I hear, this is how I used to be when I was little too. Grrrreat... tells me what I'm in store for huh? And Mom always said, "Just wait until you have kids of your own." At least it's still fun... for now!!!! And quietly, the girls are both napping at the same time. Ahhhh, the sound of silence (and the laundry going).

Creativity Continues

After all these years of no sewing, it's so fun to jump in and start creating new things. We bought some Halloween material a while back so I could make candy bags for the kids this year. I decided to create the pattern and start working on them before I forget! They were so easy; it actually took me longer to create the pattern than it did to sew them together. I made three 11x16 bags with a yard of material and I think they turned out pretty good ;) We plan to use them when we go to Mickey's Trick-or-Treat party at Disneyland, then again on Halloween night.

Try it!!!

This was a pretty tough brain teaser; it took me three times to get 100%. See how many times it takes you!

www.humorsphere.com/fun/8787/colortest.swf

And a half

Enough posts about the baby right? But that's all that consumes my mind right now. I have 9 days to go until her due date and right now I am beyond being nervous. I am done being pregnant and want it to be over already! Yesterday was my 38 week check-up and the doc says I'm dilated to 1 (and a HALF). He "gave" me the half because I said I wanted to be at a 2 or 3. So reassuring huh? :) He also tells me now I just need to hurry up and wait... yeah, I've been doing that for a week now. I'm miserable. All I want to do is hibernate until she arrives, but there are two other little ones that need me all day and two bigger ones that need me in the evenings. There are a million things I can do to occupy my time but nothing sounds fun. I even tried to go to Michael's the other day to find a little craft to do and I couldn't find anything cute enough to spend my money on... silly huh? I have scrapbooks galore that need to be worked on, but if I sit at the table too long my feet and ankles swell to the point of pins and needles and my husband teases me that I have "cankels". I could do word puzzles or sudoku but that gets boring after about three puzzles. I could read but I like to have no interruptions when I'm reading and that just isn't going to happen with a 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old. TV is... I'll just say that I've had enough of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song.

I'm ready for Annie to come out now. Can you send contraction vibes my way? :-) Oh, and thanks for letting me complain. I don't care who you are, the end of pregnancy is NEVER fun. I really don't understand the people who love being pregnant. There isn't any part of pregnancy that I enjoy at all except the part where I know there's a little miracle growing inside me. You can all have the rest. I want my body back! And yes, I know I'm lucky to be in my shoes... I'm one of the very fortunate ones to be having a baby right now and I do count my blessings every day. I've been in circumstances where I didn't know if I'd have another baby, and where one more miscarriage would break me. But right now, I'm 38 (and a HALF) weeks pregnant and I'm ready to be done with the baby bump.

Happy Wednesday!

Really?

So my stork ticker says 17 days to go. I'm getting nervous. Not so much about the birthing process, although that is part of it. I am nervous about making it to the hospital on time, but I'm more nervous about bringing home a new baby when the older girls are still babies. They both want to cuddle with me all the time and usually take up the entire mass of my lap and arms. Where is a 3rd baby going to go? I need a third arm and leg! :) I'm also nervous about the lack of sleep and adjustment to nursing again. My body will be taken over by this new tiny little "bundle of joy," as if she hasn't done that already. People say things like "It doesn't look like you are about to pop" and "You're not that big." Well, that's because all 50 pounds have spread out over my entire body. My rear end is as big as my stomach! And the process to lose it all is also making me nervous. I know it will happen over time, but it will never be soon enough. Although it sounds like I'm complaining, I am really looking forward to meeting Annie. Who will she look like? What will her temperment be? I pray that she's healthy. I need to pack my overnight bag for the hospital and then I will have everything checked off on my to-do list. But somehow I think that I still have a lot of time. I'm starting to have some braxton-hicks contractions, but nothing to call Mom about. I don't feel like I'm that close to having her. I wonder if she'll be late like Chloe was? I hope not. 9 months is long enough without adding another week (or two!) But, she will get here when she gets here. And the countdown begins...

Josh Turner, take 2

It was so worth the 5 hour drive :) Barry and I left Friday morning and got to Turlock around 1:30pm, visited with my mom for a while, went to lunch, then took off for the Stanislaus County Fair at 5:15pm. My mom went with us to the fair, and I was so glad she got to spend the evening with us. We all had a great time. Here are some of the highlights from the show:

The Meet and Greet took place right before the concert. While I was waiting in line, I got a picture of the tour manager (his name is John or Jim, can't remember!), and I went to stand by the tour bus and out came the lead guitarist, Jared. He was nice enough to take a picture with me :)

Then, the moment we were all waiting for... Josh came out of this tour bus and you can see where the line is headed nestled in between a couple other tour buses.

My exciting moment came and went very quickly. Josh has the DEEPEST voice with the strongest southern drawl you'll ever hear. He was super nice. Our conversation went something like this: "Hi, how are you?" "Good thank you." I congratulated him on his newest baby boy, who was born 6 weeks ago. and he said "Thank you". There was an "It's nice to meet you" and one more "thank you" before I left the area and went back to my seat. Isn't he so cute?! He's much skinnier than I imagined though... look at my big legs compared to his!! LOL

This is my mom and me right after we got to the fair and after the ferris wheel ride. It was so fun to hang out... we don't get to do that anymore.

Here are some more shots while we're in our seats. We were about 15-20 rows back from the stage and enjoyed a really great show.

Mammoth Weekend

I posted this backwards, so the pictures are first instead of last... oops!

Last weekend, we got away from the desert and spent two nights in the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains. We were supposed to go tent camping in Big Pine, but at 7 1/2 months pregnant, I really didn't want to sleep on the ground, so we splurged and got a hotel in Mammoth Lakes. It was so nice! We enjoyed a cool 75 degrees all weekend, when it was 106 in Victorville. It was a great weekend to get away!

Here are some of my favorite pictures. We took a lot and Gracie took her very first pictures which I am posting too. You can tell which ones she took because both Barry and I are in them, and she was good about cutting off his head---- but I have to tell you the pride and joy on her face after taking them was priceless. It was so neat watching her taking the pictures, "1,2,3, CHEESE!!!"

Unfortunately, Fischer wasn't with us because he was enjoying a few weeks in Turlock. But I hope he can go with us next time. We had so much fun hiking to Devil's Postpile, looking at the earthquake fault, going to a concert in the Village, and stopping at a beautiful lake at the top of Tom's Place off the 395. We should get away like this more often!

Josh Turner, take 1

Alright, for anyone who knows me really well, you know how much I L-O-V-E Josh Turner. I think he's extremely handsome and talented, I love his deep voice, I love that he loves God and he's not afraid to show it, I love that he's a down-home southern man devoted to his wife and children, and I love his music (all of it). So, he's performing at my home town fair on August 7th for FREE and we are going to take the 5 hour drive to go see him. I love my husband even more by the way, but right now especially because he's taking me to see JT ;) So, when Barry told me he'd take me to see him, I joined the JT fan club and signed up for the meet and greet to *hopefully* meet him. After the registration, I was informed on the web site that the meet and greets are given out on a lottery basis and I'd be notified if I was one of the chosen fans. I thought, yeah right... I won't be one of those lucky girls. But, it will still be really fun to go to the concert with my hubby and sister and her hubby (and hopefully the rest of my family if they can go).


Then today, I received this from the Josh Turner Fan Club:



This email confirms you for 1 Meet and Greet pass to the following show:

Date: 2009-08-07

Location: Turlock, Ca

Event: Stanislaus County Fair



Can you imagine my reaction?! AHHHHHHHHH!!!! I'm sooooo excited!!!! WOOHOO!!!! :D So, stay tuned for the 2nd post with pictures!!! Yippee... this totally made my day.

Cricut

I am so excited! Barry bought me a Cricut for our anniversary in June. What a great husband, huh?! I've played with it a little here and there, but today was my first big day of cutting. I'm doing a surprise project for my sisters tonight and used the Cricut to cut out all the stuff I need for the project. Then, I installed the machine to my computer and used a new software called "SureCutsALot" to use the fonts already on my computer to design something for my scrapbook.

This software was only $75 and I'll never need to buy another cartridge for the Cricut again! If you're familiar with the machine, you know it costs between $30-90 for each cartridge, so this is a huge savings! Plus, I learned you can print all the fonts you have on your computer, but also you can also download a bunch of free fonts and wingdings or dingbats!! If you have a Cricut and are interested, check out scrappingtable.com for more information. The web site tells you how to get your machine hooked up to your computer step-by-step so there's no confusion. It really helped me out a lot.

Happy cutting!!! :)