my extra hands

My Mother in Law has been visiting this week and we had a lovely time!! This morning my friend Tiffany called and we were chatting and I said I was going to be losing my extra pair of hands and I was sad. A few minutes passed and while still chatting Rori came over to me with a very concerned look on her face and said "Mommy I don't want you to lose you hands..." I said "What?" She said it again and hugged me almost crying. Tiffany said what I had said about my MIL and I got it and kind of chuckled when I understood what she had thought. Funny girl!! Now I have an idea for a photo coming soon!! :)

bowling! a first time for the kids!

Pierce using the ramp to bowl.

Rori rolling granny style

Liam anticipating his roll

The final scores!

Lance's mom is here and so we wanted to do something that kept us cool out of the 114 degree day so we drove around and ended up at Texas Station's bowling ally. The only thing that would have been better is if it wasn't bed time for Pierce, he had a meltdown, because he wanted every turn not just his. We will definitely go again especially when we now know Thurs are 1 dollar games!! :)

my favorite's this week

I had a few favorite photos I've taken this week. I couldn't narrow it down so here they are.

This photo I took for a childhood toys theme. Most of my main toys are in storage in Boise still. This was one of my best friends as a child.


A photo I have wanted to take for weeks but didn't want to waste water trying. In photo groups the theme childhood summer memories keeps popping up and playing in the gutter building dams and making things float were among my memories. (We won't mention drinking water off the sidewalk) Someone wasted water for me when we got home from running errands yesterday, I again ran for the camera as the kids ran for the water.


It rained ever so slightly and Rori ran to her rain boots and didn't bother to check the right feet or not. I of course ran for my camera.

Nana has left the building.....

Nana and Rori on Brendan's first night home.


Liam crying for Nana and Dude to come back

Now pouting

Now watching for them to come back. It took almost 10 minutes and a lollipop to get him back in the house!

Saying goodbye!


A moment with Brendan


A good picture actually of Nana and Dude and all 4 kids


Kisses for Nana

When someone comes to stay with you for 10 days, especially when it is your mom you feel a huge void when they leave. My mom has come for every child being born and I am so grateful for her help and love. My kids love her so much! I miss her so much already! I wish we didn't have to live so far away. Rori cried the night her and my dad left to go to the hotel. Liam cried the day they left. Things are going back to somewhat normal. Although this is the 1st day I am flying solo with 4 kids. I am not sure what to think yet. I need to get some batteries for the swing for sure!! Brendan is 2 weeks old today. I can't believe how fast time passes!!

What is considered natural???

I belonged to a group on cafemom.com for natural childbirth. It was good support to read and hear from moms who have gone through the process and also had some doulas and midwives who gave me some good advice as I could not afford the extra cost of a doula. My friend Tiffany who would like to be a doula was my acting doula.
If you don't know what a doula is:
A doula is an assistant who provides various forms of non-medical and non-midwifery support (physical and emotional) in the childbirth process. Based on a particular doula's training and background, the doula may offer support during prenatal care, during childbirth and/or during the postpartum period. A birth doula provides support during labor. Thus a labor doula may attend a home birth or might attend the parturient woman during labor at home and continue while in transport and then complete supporting the birth at a hospital or a birth center. A postpartum doula typically begins providing care in the home after the birth. Such care might include cooking for the mother, breastfeeding support, newborn care assistance, errands, light housekeeping, etc. Such care is provided from the day after the birth, providing services through the first six weeks postpartum. In some cases, doula care can last several months or even to a year postpartum - especially in cases when mothers are suffering from postpartum depression, children with special needs require longer care, or there are multiple infants.

I am not good with pain at all. The thought of a natural childbirth scared me to death especially since I remember the pain at the end with Rori when my epidural wore off. Anyway I got some good support from a few of these ladies and I think the research I did and the help of them, my friend Kathy and Tiffany and a few gals on my babyfit group also helped me be able to do what I did even with the extra hard contractions that came from induction. I posted a birth announcement to my natural group and referred them to my birth story on my blog here and after a day (so it was today) the owner of the group closed my post because she said it was not considered a natural birth because I elected to induce. WTF?? I know to each his own, there are extreme people out there that feel that it is only natural if you do it on your own from start to finish, no aiding except for the midwife or doula. But what about people like me that have never been able to go into labor on their own?? Just because there is a little pitocin makes this an unnatural birth?? I did not use any drugs to aid in pain, I did not have a needle in my back, I had my "doula" in Tiffany. It was really an accomplishment to me and this lady really hurt my feelings telling me my birth was unnatural, am I wrong?? Does pitocin make it unnatural? Well I left the group anyway since I can't give "natural" advice. Augh!!!

Simple machine....

Rori went on an outing with her daddy to one of his havens of Lowe's. When they got home she said look what I got. She pulled out of the bag a pulley. I said "What is it?" She said "It's a pulley.." I said "Do you know what a pulley is?" She said "It is a simple machine." She then proceed to tell me how they are going to build a tree house so they could use the pulley to bring her toybox up. LOL Thanks Sid the Science Kid!! She is so smart she soaks in theses facts and things!! :)

Brendan day 2 photos

Brendan Landry

I made it through the full moon until my mom came to town. Her connecting flight was canceled and she was moved to a later flight which put her into town after 11pm so by the time we got home it was after midnight and by the time we got to sleep after 1am. I got up at 6:30 am to take Lance to the school he was subbing at then headed to my Dr appointment. I was 39 weeks and 5 days with no change, the baby was still high and I was only 1 cm dilated. I wanted to wait to go on my own but at the same time didn't want what happened with Rori to happen and loose that time with my mom and having help, so I opted for induction once again. He called the hospital to see what was available and they said 2am the next morning. No sleep for me! When we picked up Lance we went to the store to get what we needed. The kids love Nana!! We got to the hospital at 2am and had to wait as 2 other ladies had showed up in labor. By the time we got in and hooked up to the IV it was 4:30. We thought we would be able to sleep a bit but NOOOOOOO by the time people stopped coming in to get me settled and checked and new nursing shift it was 6:30am and the construction noise started. Yes construction and not far away I am talking heavy sanders and hammering and some other loud noise right on the opposite side of my wall. (they were building a new wing) I was so tired and cranky I wanted to scream! I asked the nurse if there were quieter rooms but she said that they were all equally noisy!! My friend Tiffany showed up about 8:30am to help me with massage and meditation. The first thing she said was "Are you Serious??" to the noise, but I have to say she was able to meditate me out of the noise a few times. Thankfully most of the work stopped by the time my heavy labor started. I opted to go natural this time, because my last epidural was such a nightmare and because I have had so many back to back when it takes on average a year and a half to heal. I did not want to take the chance of hurting my back worse than it was already. I also have done more research with this pregnancy than any other and learned a lot about epidurals and other things I didn't even know! I have to say epidurals do make child birth a much nicer experience on the pain scale. I am not good with pain at all. This is the worse pain I have ever experienced! As the last 2 deliveries went this one did as well. It took forever to start dilating but once I hit the 5-6 mark I knew the baby would be there within the hour. The nurse did not listen to me to call the Dr. I scared the ladies in rooms on either sides of me into epidurals with my screaming.(I am not a screamer either) I hit 8 and felt the baby coming down and the Dr was still not there but on his way. The nurse was still not in a hurry to get things prepped even though I told her to get ready. Once again I had to go against nature to hold the baby against contractions but feeling it was awful and unbearable. I had my legs down together and she had me holding them together. Instead of getting a Dr on call or something she ended up delivering me. But the head came out and then they yanked my legs up into stirrups. I ended up with 2nd degree tears I think for this reason. The Dr made it about 2 minutes after he was out. Brendan Landry Waters was born at 1:52 pm July 9. He was 9lbs even and 21 inches long. I am so thankful to my friend Tiffany for getting me through it. I almost caved for an IV drug but didn't. I found out I would have never gone into labor on my own as there was too much amniotic fluid and he was not able to engage. He was just floating around. That explains why I felt him floating around. It was a weird worrisome feeling when you feel the baby just float up or down inside you with out squirming on their own. It has been a very tiring few days. My body feels like it ran a marathon or something. So far the kids love him, I am certainly going to have my hands full though as if I didn't already. So far he has been a great baby! I am in love all over again!

a 2nd fave!!!

I took this this afternoon so I have to say this is my Favorite of the week!!

my fav this week

This is a combination of photos. One of a hat balloon I took from the parade, one of the fireworks I took and 2 textures overlayed together.

4th of July

For being 39 weeks pregnant and having the temps hit 107 I had a surprisingly nice and enjoyable 4th. We haven't got to do our sparklers yet since it got a little windy. So those pics will come soon! We got up and went to the parade here in Summerlin in the morning. It was already 90 out. The kids enjoyed it for sure. Then we went to my friend Tiffany's for dinner and fireworks. She lives a few blocks up from the Fiesta Henderson which shot fireworks off. We ended up having to stand on chairs to watch over the wall though. My firework photos mostly turned out blurry because I had to hold my camera on the wall instead of having it on the tripod. We swam and ate, the kids played and played and played. No signs of labor at all. He is still up high and boy is it tight in there!!

The most annoying Dad in McDonald's play area.

I have to blog this because it drove me completely insane! We went to the 4th of July parade this morning, and we had to walk a ways to get down there so Lance walked us to McDonald's to wait for him to go get the van while the crowds cleared out. I got the kids some scrambled eggs and milk, and me a breakfast mcmuffin and iced coffee. I had to wait so long for a stinken lid for my coffee that by the time I wheeled the stroller into the play area and put the tray down Lance was already back. Here starts the story of the most annoying dad. There were about 4 other families in the play area. We could only hear him and his kids... what were there names??? Nicholas and Luke. What were the other kids names?? I never heard any other parent. This man was so loud and obnoxious. His kids were out of control. When we first got in there the dad was telling the kids to get out of the play area and freaking out saying they had to go. About 5 minutes later he was telling them to go play. Nicholas the older appeared to be about 3 or 4 and had a frisbee from the parade that he kept trying to throw. It narrowly missed Pierce's head and all three other families. The dad yelled at him to "Stop throwing the frisbee" kid ignored... dad changed to "I told you to watch out for people" kid keeps throwing as he pleases. Dad keeps yelling his name over and over. The dad kept contradicting himself saying NO and then changing to something else. He then proceed to play a blocking game with Luke who appeared to be about 12-18 mos. The dad was saying (trying to be cutsy but at the top of his loud voice) "No you can't go that way" moving back and forth over and over, between yelling across the whole play area at the out of control Nicholas. All of us other families were looking at each other and rolling our eyes. Hoping they were leaving but NOOOOOOOO waiting for lunch to start. So dad says to Nicholas "you want a hamburger" no reply from the kid, the mom brings in lunch, Nicholas comes and takes a bite and then we have to hear Dad keep yelling for Nicholas to come eat his burger over and over. Oh my gosh!!! It makes me proud to have the kids I do, for even their out of control days at home that I feel like I am talking to the air, when we are out in public they are so good. The kids sat and ate their eggs without trying to get up and run off. We told Rori and Liam they could play for 10 minutes but we had to get to the store and naps done before going to our friends house for the 4th festivities. I told Rori when we say come on to go you come or we wont go to your friends house. They took off had a blast and when we called them they came and got their shoes on. Liam gave slight opposition but not anything like a tantrum. I am grateful for that. Of course annoying dad left at the same time as us. I definitely wont be going back to McDonalds for playtime any time soon!! It is a wonder some of these kids are so out of control when they have parents like that. It was confusing enough to listen to and watch. I would have been taking the frisbee away from my kid, and taking him out of the place if they kept not listening to me.

America's Got Talent..... I don't get it!!

I watched America's got talent last season and this started bothering me then, but already it is really bothering me. Maybe it is because I live in Vegas and know what shows we have here, what shows make it and what shows don't, but it seems like America's got talent has two different agenda's. While it is nice to see some of the talent out there some even giving you goosebumps or making you tear up, I can't forget that the winner's prize is a SHOW in LAS VEGAS!! It doesn't seem fair to me to move up these people that are talented like little kids and cheerleaders or people that sing pretty good but the fact is a little kid cannot headline a Las Vegas show and make it. A. there is too much competition B. It has to be profitable to the hotels and who will pay 60 plus bucks a ticket to see a child sing. C. Child labor laws would not allow a child to perform late nights and only a certain number of hours a week including rehearsals. To me we either need to have a talent competition for money or a Las Vegas act competition. Last week they put through some cute little kid dancers, that are going to get their heart crushed like the girl last year that they kept moving up week after week until Piers finally said to really think about her being a Las Vegas act. Tonight they have pushed through some dancers and some magicians that could not make it against what is out there in Vegas. Where are the Terry Fators' from season 1. He is a true Las Vegas act. Last Year's winner Neal Boyd got an album and is touring and is amazing don't get me wrong, but he isn't a Las Vegas show I am not sure if he ever was I never heard his name around town though. Anyway I wish they would really be looking for a Las Vegas act to not waste the time of us or the people who get their hopes and dreams crushed int he process!!