update

Well i'm almost at 25 weeks in this pregnancy, every week feels like a milestone. Last week when i saw the dr he told me the exact numbers they look at to classify how high risk my pregnancy is. Right now they test the protein in my urine weekly by making me collect it for 24 hours and then doing a quantitative analysis of exactly how much protein is present. Last week the protein had jumped up from 150 which it had previously been (and is the normal range) to suddenly being 242, which was a large jump and i was worried about it. However they said the exactly number when they start to worry is 300, when it's over 300 accompanied by blood pressures over 140/90 then they officially classify it as pre-eclampsia, which left untreated can result in restricted growth of the baby and seizures in the mother. Once pre-eclampsia has officially set in they watch it close to see how fast it gets worse. During my pregnancy with Elaine (my oldest) i had pre-eclampsia, which after having the baby (which is the only known cure) turned into something even more dangerous called HELLP syndrome. HELLP is an acronym for the symptoms of a disease which shuts down the kidneys and liver and kills red blood cells, in many cases it can be deadly. Because it is a pregnancy related illness, the only cure for HELLP syndrome is delivery of the baby, in rare cases like mine, where it occurs after the delivery, there is no cure. My body eventually fixed itself but it was a very long recovery. Now you can understand why we adopted Maggie after Elaine :) We were not in a hurry to have another pregnancy like that. Our pregnancy with Katie was not as bad, very easy until the end, the blood pressure spiked at the end of the third trimester which is why she was delivered early.

Now to the current issues, after further tests my protein is now 312, and my blood pressure when i have been up is in the 160's/100's we're looking at official pre-eclampsia, now it's just a waiting game to see how quickly it progresses. There is no other way to get it to stop than to eventually deliver the baby. Because this set in so early, the dr is very concerned about it turning into HELLP syndrom again, we're crossing our fingers and arms in prayer at this point. I don't know when this baby will be born, but the dr says we're probably looking at yet another february birthday. none of my babies were ever due in february, but somehow that seems to keep being when i have them. Katie and Elaine were both due in March, but born in February, Catcher is due in April and may be born in february....i can't imagine that again lol. Just waiting around and thought i'd update you.

bed rest continues

I saw the dr on Christmas Eve, he was concerned about me being out of touch for Christmas and wanted to keep tabs on my blood pressure. The blood pressure was even higher at the appointment and he was very not happy about that. It seems at each point he tries to give me his most optimistic opinion of how far he thinks this pregnancy will go. In the beginning we were shooting for 35-36 weeks, which is fine, that's what the other babies i've had were born at, i know what to expect of a baby born at that gestational age, they do fine with just over a week in the NICU. Then his estimate went closer to 34 weeks. At this appointment, his optimistic opinion of the length of this pregnancy is 30-32 weeks, that's a little more scary when the dr is hoping to stretch it that far. Now i have to see the dr every week, and hope i don't end up in the hospital waiting for 30 weeks. He also said he's gonna give me the steroid at 28 weeks to help baby Catcher's lungs mature, as it is going to be some time around then that he's most likely going to have to be born before my body tries to shut down.

I'm trying to be okay with having a baby that early, knowing he's going to be in the NICU, and just hope he's going to be healthy eventually, but truthfully it's all really scary. a baby this early has chances of so much going wrong, most survive if born after 28 weeks, but it's going to be a long road and i'm just hoping i have the stamina to not fall apart during the whole experience. Trying to take care of three kids and recover from kidney stone surgery and the c-section, and having a baby to visit in the NICU which will most likely be in Stockton, it just feels like a lot, and i'm not even there yet. I'm trying to remember to breathe and just hope that all goes well until 28 weeks, a baby born before then has much lower chances of health, let alone survival, i'm trying really hard to keep my body together, but it's just so strange that my body is trying to shut down and fall apart just because i decided to have another baby.

Sometimes i wonder why i decided to have another baby, well not just i, it was Adam and i both who decided we wanted this. But this is now the third time i've put a baby at risk because my body didn't handle being pregnant, so far this is the worst yet as far as pregnancy goes, but there's just no way to predict how a pregnancy is going to turn out, and i wonder if i had known that it would have been like this, would i still have chosen to do it?? I don't know, i mean if i knew the future and knew that the pregnancy would be like this, maybe i would also know the outcome of the baby, and if he'll survive, or if he'll have permanent life-long problems from being so premature, would any of those things really make me not want him any less....i can't imagine anything that would make me not love this little guy and i haven't even met him yet. I live in fear of the future of his little life, and how much my body is putting him through. I know in the end it's all up to Heavenly Father, but i hate not knowing.

Aside from all of that, Christmas was pretty good. The kids loved everything they got, they got less than we normally would buy, but they were happy anyway and didn't even notice the smaller amount. they got the things they asked Santa for, and that's what they were looking forward to. Several times i heard the kids say " i got exactly what i wanted!!" It was good to hear. I suppose that balances it all out.

how early is too early?

It's been a long few weeks. three weeks i think now, since the start of all the drama, the kidney stone and now the blood pressure. My blood pressure's been creeping up every time i get up it shoots up high, when i lay back down it goes back to normal, so bed rest has been the name of the game for a while now. The OB dr was getting concerned about the rising blood pressure and whether it is because of the pregnancy or because of the kidney, it's hard to tell. He ran several blood tests to make sure other organ functions were normal.

You see when i was pregnant with my oldest daughter Elaine i had what is called HELLP syndrome, it's not common, but my current dr is trying to make sure i don't have it again. HELLP syndrome shut down my liver and kidneys and caused my body to start destroying it's self from the inside out. As is obvious i did eventually recover, but having blood pressure problems this early could be a sign that HELLP syndrome is going to recur in this pregnancy, which could have disaterous reprecusions. Well the blood tests showed that i'm not currently experiencing any symptoms of HELLP, however they made me collect my urine for 24 hours, which i've had to do several times during this pregnancy, so they can get a quantitative analysis of how much protein is in my urine, excessive protein is a sign of kidney failure. Well i saw the results online and compared them to the past results i've had and it is about twice as high, and VERY above normal. So i know i'm going to be hearing from the dr about this and i'm just a little concerned to see what he says he wants to do. Protein in the urine combined with high blood pressure usually means immediate delivery but it is just way too early to deliver this baby. The big question right now is which is causing which. Is the kidney stone shutting down the kidney, which is causing the protein in the urine? or is the pregnancy causing the high blood pressure which is causing the kidney to have more trouble than it would? We already know this baby is going to be early, it's just a given at this point....but the question now is....how early? i'm getting nervous about the whole thing, i thought i'd post a blog to put the questions out there and when i know the answers, i'll post about that too. keeping our fingers crossed.

Between a stone and a hard place

It has been at least two weeks since i've been on the computer. No it's not intentional. About two weeks ago i started suffering severe stabbing pains in my back, and on a pain scale of 1-10 i rated this pain somewhere around a 9 and a half. To give you some perspective the worst pain i've known prior to this, having had two c-sections, was about an 8. I couldn't sit or stand, or lay down or move anyway that made it more comfortable. AWFUL! after only an hour of this, i was shaking and in tears, so my husand took me to the ER. They were concerned because being 20 weeks pregnant, there's only so much they can do for this kind of pain. Well after a quick urine sample it was diagnosed as a kidney stone. Now i had gall stones during my last pregnancy, that lasted a few days then eventually disipated and wasn't too bad at all, pain level of around a 7. This was completely different. They sent me home with HEAVY pain medication, which they assured my was safe during pregnancy. then other medication was prescribed for the side effects of the medication. So all told i was taking three or four different pills every four hours or so and if i missed a dose by even a half hour, the pain was horrendous. So we went back for a follow up appointment with an OB doctor. My doctor wasn't available but the dr who saw me said i needed to have more tests done so that i could go see a Urologyst who would decide what if anything could be done for the stone.

The problem was that the tests the dr ordered were x-rays. During the second trimester of pregnancy it is NEVER advised to have an x-ray if at all avoidable. So the tech refused to do the x-ray and sent me back to the OB with a note for him to call them. So here i am, in pain and pregnant and tired, and my medication is wearing off and now i've got to go back up to the third floor to give the note to the dr and wait to see what he wanted me to do. So i did that. But i had to wait and wait while the dr fought on the phone with the radiology department, now i think that if the OB says it's ok, he probably knows a little more about what is ok for the baby and what isn't, the fact of the matter is, to be able to help this stone get figured out....they needed to see where it was and how big it was. So he conceded to doing a CT scan instead, i don't know if that's less radiation or not but he said to go back down to the first floor and get a CT scan done. So i again marched down to the first floor, and waited for a CT scan. Well because it was the day after thanksgiving at this point, the building was not fully staffed so they had to send me over to the hospital portion of the building to get the CT scan. Now this is not a small building here, the is the Kaiser Medical Center in Modesto, half medical offices, half Hospital, and now i had to walk all the way over to the other side of the building to get the CT scan, i'm hurting a lot by now because the medication has long since worn off and my husband had taken the kids to get them food becasue we'd been here so long by this point that they were starving for lunch.

When i get to the CT room, the tech tells me that because i'm pregnant he can't do the scan. I broke down and started crying at this point... I tried to explain everything to him and finally he said "ok if you sign this paper i can do it" Well the paper says i know all the risks i'm putting my unborn child in and in short says, i'm a bad mom, and i know it and i want to get the scan anyway. I'm crying as i sign this because i know i can't see the urologyst if they can't see the stone. (the OB did tell me this was all not going to harm the baby but i was quite worked up at this point and was thinking more about the pain and hassel i'd been through than anything else) So i get the scan then eventually meet back up with the husband man and kids.

when i finally saw the urologyst after all of this i had stopped taking pain medication because on the days my husband works i simply cannot be comatosed on the couch all day which is what the pain medication does. So by the next friday (the day of the appointment) i was hurting more than i'd hurt in SEVERAL days, somewhere between an 8 and 9 on the pain scale. So i was already i a little cranky and weepy from hurting, but i had to drive myself to the appt, because Adam was working and my mom was watching the kids, nobody left for driving, so i get there and i'm starting to feel positive that maybe there's something this dr can do to fix this and it'll all be over soon.....BOY I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!!!

The dr shows me the CT scan (kinda cool to see i must say - saw the baby in there too) The stone looked rather big to me so i asked her how it compared to the average stone.... it's 7mm (millimeters) which sounds like a relatively small measurement, but people rarely pass anything over 4-5mm. Which then of course means the only option left for removing it is surgery. Because of where it's located they can't do shock wave therapy and becasue of what it's made of there's no medicine that will dissolve it. ok so surgery. the catch is, they won't do the surgery until after i have the baby, because it requires at least 2 hours under anesthesia and they WILL NOT consider doing it while i'm pregnant. However, if the pain is unmangeable they will consider putting in a stint (i'm hoping this is an alternative that will fix it) this is a straw they put in to allow better urine flow around the stone and that would stay in until after i have the baby also, it might relieve some of the pain associated with the stone....however it causes pain all it's own. You see the stint, although it is a straw, it's rigid, and it's like having a stick in your back, and movement can cause it to push on the muscles around it, causing back spasms. Oh joy.

Well the dr called today, (monday), and at this point i've pretty much been laying around doing nothing because that's the only way to not hurt without taking heavy medication. She says since laying around keeps the pain at bay, they won't put the stint in unless i show signs of loss of kidney function. So at this point i'm on couch rest till either the stone passes, or till the baby comes. Either way it appears to be a long road of laying around. You have no idea how boring this is!!!!!!!!!! I can't even lay or sleep in my bed, laying flat causes more pain, i lay on our new couch (which i love thankfully) in a semi sitting up position which seems to be the most comfortable...i even have to sleep out here. I've tried a couple times to go sleep in bed and it just doesn't work....i end up needing pain meds, where as if i sleep sitting up on the couch...i can make it without pain meds. I know that not using pain meds is the safest thing for the baby, and not getting a stint is also safer because even that procedure requires some short sedation. I know this is all for the good of the baby, and maybe i won't be the mom who guilts my kid with the story of the 15 hour labor....but i can be the mom who gives the guilt trip about the 4 or 5 months of bed (couch) rest and kidney pain!!! hey a mom's gotta have something.

The great baby name debate....

Adam and I have had a hard time finding a name we like for our next baby. We're excited that it's a boy but for some reason we've had a hard time agreeing on a name. He likes longer distinguished names, like Gideon and Tiancum, which are great names, but if the name is long i want there to be an easy nickname for it. Gid is the only nickname for Gideon, and i don't really like it, and i don't know what you'd nickname a child called Tiancum. So anyway I liked the name Jack, but Adam wanted a longer name than that...but Jackson doesn't sound very good with Hoskins and we debated about it for a while because it's the only name we both kind of agreed on, but neither of us were terribly happy with it.

A few days later i was bugging Adam to pick a name, it was evening time and i wanted to have something hammered out as the name by that night. Which is silly if you think about it....i've got a LONG way to go, but for some reason i can't stand not having a name to call the little alien inside me. So anyway we were throwing out random names and words left and right, and every show we watched we read all the male names in the credits outloud to each other and still none of them clicked. Then randomly he started saying the names of objects, and he saw a Ketchup bottle and jokingly said Ketchup which of course is said no to but then i said "how about Catcher" and we both stopped. We listened to the names in our heads for a little bit and it seemed to fit. It's a unique name and i suppose there are a million ways to make fun of it, but for some reason, it felt right. We continued to bring it up for that evening and i posted on Facebook about it and received a LOT of comments on it. Most people really liked Jackson better than Catcher. But for some reason the more comments i read of people liking Jackson, the less i liked it. I did not realize how POPULAR that name is right now...seems like everyone knows a jackson, or wants to name their next boy that. It's funny but that really cinched it for me, after reading all the comments, Adam and i both unanimously said, Catcher it is. He'll be Catch for short. But official name will be Catcher Lee Hoskins. We felt Catcher pays homage to the sports side of Adam's family, and Lee is my dad's middle name, it incorporated both families well.

We were at Target after making the official choice and the kids each got to pick out a new ornament for the upcoming Christmas season, Elaine picked a ballerina, Maggie picked a Dora ornament and Katie picked a soft elf ornament and we all picked out one for Catcher too. It was a little cliche i suppose, it's a baseball with a snowglobe middle that has a catcher's mitt inside. I kind of hope as he grows up that Catcher ends up being good at some sport that has nothing to do with catching, like golf or something, just for the irony of it :) But the ornament was cute and made it feel more official that our son is really going to be Catcher. I know everyone will still have their two cents on the odd name, but in the end, he's our little one, and only we know what name is right for him, and we like this, we hope you will too!

Virus and Hacking

It's been one of those days, you know the kind, the kind that sucks from the moment you do one thing in the morning and it just gets worse as the day goes on...and on and on????!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you can't hear the tone of my voice while i'm writing this, and you probably should be glad, because i'm mad, and annoyed and angry and grumpy and well i guess you get the idea.

YES I KNOW I WAS HACKED THIS MORNING....please stop calling and emailing and texting to tell me about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've had people tell me very rude things about the spam that was sent out through my facebook account....when duh, i was hacked i didn't send it!!!!! I had several viruses all jump at me at once and apparently my wimpy virus protection decided to stop catching anything and my computer was going crazy for a while this morning. Even when i wasn't on the internet, windows would pop up from internet porn sites while i was playing solitaire minding my own business!!!! ARGG! then when i DID go on the internet to get a better virus protection (AVG) and discovered what was going on with my facebook, my internet was running so insanely slow because of the viruses that i couldn't really do anything about it at the time. I didn't want to change my facebook password while the virus was still running, it wouldn't help, so please stop telling me to change my password, it was a virus, once i finally got AVG downloaded and running it took two hours to scan my whole computer where it found nearly 30 viruses and trojans running. Then once it took care of them all , THEN i went on facebook and changed my password. This was all around 1 this afternoon, so if you got a suspicious email from me AFTER 1:30 or so, then let me know, otherwise.....STOP TELLING ME!!!! I KNOW!!!! yes i'm probably being rude, and you're saying to yourself, 'hey, i was just trying to be a friend and let you know' but why don't you read my status which i posted several status's through out the day telling everyone, that yes, i was hacked, and yes i was fixing it, and don't open anything from me.

It's just that this isn't the only thing going on in my life right now, i've got a sick kid (Katie has an ear infection) and she's cranky constantly, and i've got a trouble maker of a 4 year old who keeps doing things to get in trouble then lie about it to see if i'll let her out, then there's the cat who had surgery last week so he can't go outside or risk further infection of his wound...and he's meowing at me all day long in protest. Then there's the puke from katie i had to clean up, and with being pregnant, it was all i could do not to puke from the smell of it. Then there's the fighting the older kids do, which makes me want to rip my hair out....and trying to take Elaine to dance class and figure out how to keep the other two entertained in the car, all the while fielding your texts, phone calls and emails about the stupid facebook hack, which by now i've already resolved....so maybe now there's a little more information about why i'm so annoyed right now. I'm sure by now i've worked you up and made you mad, but just getting it all out and hopefully you'll all read it, makes me feel a bit better.

So in conclusion, i appreciate your concern, but i really have fixed the problem.

Halloween Costumes and Trunk or Treat

The girls love the Trunk or Treat at church.... it isn't Halloween unless you celebrate it at church! Here are pics of the girls having fun at the big night!


Maggie the Pumpkin Princess

Elaine, or Lainey Bug....the bumble bee.

and Katie Kat, she liked being a kitty. MEOW!

All three ready to trick or treat!!

The only costume i bought this year was Maggies, because she wanted to be a pumpkin and i just didn't have everything to make that myself. But the other two i made myself and i am very proud of them because the kids loved them so much. We had great fun!

The cat who grew horns

As odd as that title sounds....that is exactly what happened to my cat. And before you ask, no, i don't have any pictures of the horns, they were small and painful and you wouldn't have been able to tell what they were.

A couple of days ago i noticed Rook (the cat) had some wounds on his head, they had something protruding from them and i assumed they were foxtails, he gets those often. So I got all ready to pull them out like i usually do, with hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound and tweezers to get them out. However, when it finally came down to it, they wouldn't budge, not an inch, and they were hard, not at all like a foxtail. So I called the vet right away and they got me in right then (love my vet by the way!!!). The vet tried to pull them out, similar to what i did, and because they were hard and wouldn't move he said maybe it was from a fight and it was another cat's tooth, or claw maybe (because that's how hard it was.) He said to bring him in the next day to have them surgically removed.

The next day i brought Rook in for his surgery and they told me to pick him up in the afternoon. I got a shock when i picked him up and talked to the vet. He said they were not a foreign body at all, they were actually growing out of the cat, he said he had to look it up because he'd never really seen something like that. They're called Horn Cysts. They call it a cyst to give some sort of a reason why a cat would grow a horn where there clearly is no reason to. The tissue mutates and grows a horn, much like cancerous cells simply mutate and grow cancer (thankfully the horns were not cancer). Nobody knows why a cat would grow a horn, let alone two, but he said if not removed they would have kept growing and could have invaded his brain or glands. And while having a cat with horns could have been cool, having a cat who is not in pain or danger is more important, i mean he wouldn't be able to play monopoly with us if he were in pain or impared...... oh have i not told you that he plays monopoly? Well that's another blog all together, and while you may not have believed that my cat can play monopoly maybe now you will, after all what's weirder: a cat who plays monopoly or a cat who grew horns? He does both! He is a rare one indeed :)

and the gender is.........

Drum roll please...!! We got to see the baby today at a dr's appointment. Adam and all three girls got to come in and watch and we got a big surprise when the dr showed us between the baby's legs. Our dr is quite the pro on the ultrasound machine....we got an obvious clear view and.....it's A BOY!!!!!!! there was no mistaking it, two little legs, and a "third leg" in between! yipee! We have three wonderful girls and we are so excited to be adding a little boy to the family. We don't have a name picked out yet but will let you know if and when we decide on one!!

Crazy thing is, this means that expensive gender prediction test was right!!! what the heck does that test for and how does it know?????

cleaning and stuff

So I started to write this in my status update on facebook, and after i had it all written out and clicked send, it THEN told me it was too long...what's up with this? the old facebook used to just stop you when you were typing too much...the moment your space was up, it just wouldn't let you type any more....instead this let me keep on typing and after i had it all worded just right...THEN it tells me it's too long...what the heck? anyway....

Today i finally got around to the vacuuming. I've been meaning to do it for a few days now and there was a possibility of a friend coming with her two preemie twins later on and i figured that was a very good excuse to get some extra cleaning done. So i got the vacuum out, i did the whole floor and noticed it didn't seem to be performing as well as usual so when i was going to put on the hose attachment i took the head off and realized it was seriously dirty!! So i took the head all apart and took the belt off and replaced it ( i bought three the last time i went to the Kirby store) and i decided since i was spiffying up the vacuum i would also change the bag, so that was all fresh, then i took the little dust buster and sucked out all the excess dust and fur and hair that was clogging the head. Then after reattaching it all i decided to vacuum again since now it would work even better....then i decided to vacuum the couch too, get off any fur from the cat, who loves our new couch as much as we do i think. I took a little break after that and Elaine asked if there was any cleaning she could do (she's a little obsessive about the cleaning...she loves to do it!) so i decided i would sweep and mop and since i'd be moving the chairs out of the dining room, Elaine and Maggie could use clorox wipes to clean them. They thought that was the greatest thing ever. Maggie spent about thirty seconds on one chair...whereas Elaine spent about fifteen minutes on a chair cleaning every edge and nook and cranny. So after sweeping and mopping they wanted to know what else they could do....so i decided to let Elaine dust and then Maggie brought dirty clothes out to the garage for laundry (from the hampers in the bathroom). While Elaine was dusting i noticed the higher shelves which of course she couldn't reach and i noticed how seriously cluttered with random junk they had become...so i worked on that. I organized book shelves and on top of the Entertainment Center and in the kitchen too....i liked how clean everything was getting and i loved that girls were really excited to help.

Elaine had taken something to be put away in Katie's room and noticed how messy it was. It's been in a state of disarray as Katie is moving up a size in clothes and i'm trying to wait until i know if i need to keep her girl clothes for the new baby, or if the new baby is a boy and i can get rid of the clothes that don't fit her anymore. I've avoided cleaning Katie's room until i know for sure what to do with her old clothes...but in the meantime the rest of the room is a bit crazy too. Well this really bothered Elaine, Elaine can't handle a mess without at least trying to clean it. She makes her and Maggie's bed each morning and cleans their bathroom each morning too, any little mess and she's on it! So apparently Katie's bedroom was a big need for her, so when she asked if she could clean it i said sure. Normally if she asks to clean her room or the bathroom she's back out in ten minutes....she spent an HOUR in Katie's room! I didn't get a chance to look in there until i was putting Katie to bed and when i took her in there i hardly recognized the place! She had cleaned off the dresser and put every pair of shoes on the dresser organized by size and color. She stood all the stuffed animals upright by height. She put all the rest of the toys away more neatly on the shelves than i've ever seen them. She made a new place for diapers and wipes that i never would have thought of and they fit perfect. She also hung up every bib (there was a pile of clean bibs in a basket) between each rung on the crib. Now of course i had to take them down or Katie would have had a field day with them, but it looked so cute...they were hung up by height. She put a giant teddy bear in the rocking chair which looked so adorable....she worked so hard in there, i don't think it's been that neat since before Katie came home..when i very first set it up as her room.

I know that the kid's loving to help me clean won't last forever, especially for Maggie who mostly just likes to do it because Elaine does. But Elaine has a serious need for organization, i'm not entirely sure where it comes from, i love clean and organized but i don't think i was like that as a child! And i can almost guarantee it doesn't come from Adam, he likes it when i clean, but he doesn't care if it's a mess either. It's obviously very engrained in her to be like this though, i mean as a baby she used to sort her fruity cereal by color before she would eat it, even before 1 year old! crazy! cute though....not sure how this will play out later in life, but for now, i love it!

Obviously this is way more than i originally tried to post on facebook, but i love cleaning so much and with this pregnancy i don't always have the energy to do much of it....so this was a great day for me, and the girls too. And my friend with her twins did come to visit, and i felt better knowing she was visiting a very clean house!!

Grosgrain: Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

amazing giveaway, impressive talent

Ok so there is a website where this lady makes these really amazing things. She is having a giveaway for a totally insanely beautiful costume set she made of Alice in wonderland costumes. While normally I am not as obsessed with Alice as others, i thought these were too amazing not to share, i'm entering the contest by telling all of you about it! go check it out!!

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-hearts-and-alice-in-wonderland.html

In pain in general.

ok so it seems like it's been one thing after another since the moment i got pregnant. First of all i was so much more sick during the first trimester with this one than i had been with either of the other two. Sick and so tired i can hardly function most days, it was all i could do to get out of bed and somewhat get dressed. Taking care of three kids under 5 when i felt like that has been awful. Then just as the sick part was starting to go away, i developed a sore throat. And we're not talking a little sore throat, we're talking it hurt to swallow so bad i would cry every time i had to swallow. Plus i kept waiting for more symptoms, i mean who ever heard of just a sore throat, but i never developed a runny nose or fever or even cough or anything, just purely a severe sore throat. that lasted for over a week, then just as that was going away i started to develop an odd aching pain in my upper right jaw bone. It was nothing major, but it was there every single day, the same dull pain, then it started to cause headaches which is when i finally decided i needed to do something about it, but it was such a vague pain i couldn't tell if it was a tooth ache or something else, because it also was making my ear hurt a little. So i decided it was cheaper to go to a dr first. I saw a dr i'd never seen before but she was pretty nice, she looked around and asked all kinds of questions but couldn't really find anything that could be causing the pain. Then since i was there i decided to ask her about another weird and totally unrelated pain i'd been having.

Several weeks, if not months, ago i noticed an odd growth on one of the bones in my wrist, it feels like a deformity on the bone itself. So i asked her to feel it and she became very intrigued. She asked if i ever had wrist pain and i realized that i often get pain in my forearm just up from the growth. She said it is a bone spur, an actual piece of bone sticking out from the normal bone, and that it was catching on tendons and ligaments and was probably causing tears in it when over-exerted. Well that's just lovely because i have the same problem in my knee, which once i told her that she put all the pieces together and basically told me that the arthritis in my knee (which is also in my hip and shoulder on the same side) is probably now in my wrist as well. For some reason the form of arthritis i have is well known to grow in patterns like this, and she said that it's probably active since it's getting worse during the pregnancy. The thing is my arthritis has been dormant for years and if it's spreading during pregnancy that means it's back because the hormones can cause it to spread and grow faster. So this just gave a whole new depth to life after this baby. I'm really feeling like this is the last baby i'll have, if we want more after this, we certainly know how to adopt!

So back to the jaw pain, i went to the dentist today, after having a VERY painful night. He said it is the wisdom tooth on that side, especially because none of my teeth actually hurt, just the bone mostly, he thinks the tooth is still growing and is trying to stretch bigger in the bone, and that's why it hurts. So he wants to pull it. Which is all ok while i'm pregnant and everything, i already checked. The problem here is that i have a heart defect called a prolapse mitral-valve, which basically just means a wimpy spot in my heart. That means they have to give me a full course of antibiotics before they can do any dental work (before any surgery or anything i have to have it too), so i get to deal with the pain for a few more days until i finish the antibiotic before he can yank it. But the pain is so bad most of the time i wanna reach in there and yank it out myself! Even after two vicodin i still hurt, this is insane....i will be so glad when this is done! i feel like i'm falling apart, it's getting a little tough to deal with, the pain, the medication, being pregnant, and trying to take care of three kids and a house....somedays i don't think i can do it. Thankfully my mom helped me out a lot today, but i just hope i can make it through all of this.

just needed to rant and whine a little, now i'm gonna go take some more drugs (don't worry they're perfectly safe while i'm pregnant) and go to sleep and pretend i don't hurt...we'll see if it works.

Baby number 4

It's still a little hard to believe there is a baby number four on the way. Well hard to believe except for the insane morning/all day/ sickness i've had for the past month and a half or so. It's been killing me! I seriously could not function, i felt so sick just to stand up eating made me sick, but not eating made me sick too. I wasn't able to keep the house in order, and trying to take care of the kids was near impossible. However this last week things have seriously turned around. Since the exact day of 9 weeks i instantly felt better, not perfect, but certainly BETTER! Enough i've been able to get the house back in order, and to top it off, The Husband Man bought me the couch of my dreams!!! I LOVE IT, love the way it looks, love the way it feels, love the way we rearranged the living room to make it work....in LOVE! The couch alone has made life easier, but to add more goodness to it all, we brought the satellite tv back out to the living room, so i can watch a few shows from the comfort of the couch while the kids play, life is great!

Yesterday at the Dr's office i got to see the baby, keep in mind 'it' has only been in there for a little while, but we got quite a clear picture. i've never had such a clear picture of a baby at only 9 weeks! the baby is floating upside down so the head is in the bottom and the feet are at the top.


It was so clear, in one picture we could clearly see the full length of the umbilical cord, attached to baby and placenta, seriously never been this clear at 9 weeks! I saw the baby wiggle around a few times, weird to see that when i can't feel it yet, but exciting none the less....it's feeling a little more real now, a real little baby is in there....boy or girl is still anyone's guess. Adam is trying to resign himself that it's a girl, even though he secretly wants a boy but doesn't want to get his hopes up, we'll love whatever it is, and are looking forward the next several months. The big girls know there's a baby in there, but of course little Katie is only 19 months and has no clue, once my belly gets bigger and they can feel it move maybe it will sink in....either way, it'll be interesting to have two this close again. Elaine and Maggie were 18 months apart, 18 months and 18 days to be exact, but i didn't have to be pregnant with Maggie, so that made a bit of a difference. Katie and this new one will barely be 2 years apart, luckily Katie is more clingy to daddy, so hopefully that will help the transition, plus Katie loves when i hold other people's babies, she is very interested in them and has figured out if i'm holding another baby, i can't jump up to stop her from doing something....oh boy this outta be fun!

Follow the Fortune Cookie

Last week i took a pregnancy test and it was positive. somehow you'd think i'd be saying that in a little more exciting way. I mean it is totally planned, we've been wanting to get pregnant for the past several months but for some reason i did not feel the usual overwhelming excitement that being pregnant brings. So i waited a day and tested again, just to be sure. Yep, positive. Still, it just felt like "oh, ok." strange for me, because i'm also usually the type who can't wait to tell EVERYONE about this kind of news. But again, that was not the case, i told Adam, and one or two other people, and then just sat on the news for a while. I had an appointment on monday and i told myself that maybe after that appointment it would feel a little more real and official and then it would be good to tell others, we hadn't even told our parents yet! so at the appointment i saw the little black dot that the baby is at this point, which is not all that exciting but it definitely was there and that was good. Yet even after that, i still didn't feel that need to tell everyone. Then i got chinese food for dinner, which was very yummy and made me happy, then i ate the fortune cookie, the fortune read: "NOW IS THE TIME TO CALL LOVED ONES AT A DISTANCE. SHARE THE NEWS." how hillarious is that?!! suddenly i went...ok! i got excited and then called everybody to tell! it was funny how that silly little fortune gave me the push to just go ahead and "share the news." one more reason i love chinese food!! I'm saving this fortune cookie for the baby book for this one.

I know everyone is saying "are you hoping for a boy? I bet adam is!" but you know what's funny, we're kind of expecting it to be another girl....we already have a girl name and everything, so if it's a boy it'd be a nice surprise, but we aren't setting ourselves up to be let down by being told it's a girl. We still have a few months till we'll know, but the first words any of the kids said when we told them was Maggie who instantly said "is it a boy????!!!" funny, she must be the one wanting a boy! At this point i'm just hoping for a full term baby, it would be great to be able to bring baby home the same time as me for once! boy or girl doesn't matter....full term does! Each of my other two natural daugthers was five weeks early, in fact so was my adopted daughter but that wasn't my fault! we're hoping for a boring pregnancy rather like the last one was but just to have it end better, no more NICU, although, that being said, if it were to be another NICU baby, that certainly is old hat to us and we'd totally know how to handle that too.

Thankfully the new Kaiser Hospital in Modesto is hiring a full time Neonatologist so they can be upgraded to a level 3 or higher NICU which is what my babies needed when they were born and needed to be transferred to have it, this way if they get that certification before i deliver then we wouldn't have to worry about an early delivery and having the baby get transferred. Woo Hoo!! speaking of delivery dates, this baby is due to arrive sometime in the beginning of April, let's hope we make it there! Elaine and Katie were both due in March and born in February, it will be interesting to see how this works out, either way, i love having spring babies!! I'm more excited now and looking forward to everything that will be happening in the next few months as our little peanut grows.

Elaine starts Kindergarten

Elaine is now a school girl....i can hardly believe it! She started Kindergarten this afternoon, August 3rd. Afternoon class works well for us so we have lots of time to get ready every day and not feel rushed in the morning. She starts school in early August because they get a full month off in December for Christmas and two weeks (instead of one) for spring break. I'm looking forward to these extended holidays. Adam and i were proud to see Elaine start school, but Maggie cried, she is used to being able to do all the same things that Elaine does. But she also enjoys being the bigger kid at home while Elaine is gone. Excited for this new adventure in our life, parents of a school age kid, and next year two in school! Here are pictures from the first day.

This is Adam wiping peanut butter off of Elaine's cheek, as she had just had a PB&J sandwich before heading off to school. So cute.


Looking beautiful and excited. She is such a lady, she picked this outfit herself and was quite particular about looking fancy.


obvious photo op...'welcome to kindergarten'



Going into her class by herself.

They have the kids sign in each day, it helps them practice writing their names and it helps take roll too! what a great idea!

a new nephew!

finally a boy has been added to the family....no not mine, but at least my girls have a boy cousin now! Michael Joseph Scott was born on Wednesday, July 29 at 2:40 pm after only five minutes of pushing...craziness! Here's my stolen picture of him...what a cutie! Congratulations go out to my older brother Joseph and his awesome wife Sarah...way to go guys!

Yesterday i felt....well, hurt. I am tempted to say "betrayed" but i don't think that is accurate.

I had made plans with a friend to spend time together tuesday, it's not like we made plans to go somewhere, or to do something specific, just to hang out, and maybe for her that's no big deal because she can "hang out" anytime, with or without me. But for me, this meant time away from my kids to have adult time with my friend. I get adult time with my husband in the evening after the kids go to bed, but the only adult "friend" time i get is with my best friend and pretty much only on my husband's days off which are sunday, monday and tuesday. Nearing the end of his days off, I had called my friend Monday to see if she was available that evening. She was with her boyfriend so i asked about the next day, tuesday. She said other than a dental appointment in the morning that she would be available the whole rest of the day. She did mention during, during our conversation monday evening, that her boyfriend would be leaving for a week long out-of-town vacation with his buddy, but not until the weekend sometime. I knew that she would miss him, but figured that she had plenty of time to spend with him before the weekend, their schedules don't always mesh and i get that but the next day was only tuesday, and he was right there when she told me she was available, he usually speaks up and says something if he thinks there is a conflict. No comment from him meant plans made.

so tuesday.....
i took my older girls to the free movie on tuesday, since i knew the friend's dental appointment could take a while, I waited until around noon to first try to get a hold of her, she often sleeps in too. She didn't answer. So i took my cell phone with me as i went to get my hair colored FINALLY. I've only got four months worth of red growing out blonde...yikes! I thought for sure she'd call me back while i was at the salon.....nope. Now i must say this didn't get me terribly down because she can be bad about checkin her phone, so after a 4 hour hair color i was done and i text her on the way home. She mentions the dental appointment and waits until i ask when we can get together that she says, oh the boyfriend is there. Now i often hang out with her and her boyfriend and i considered that for a moment and then she says that this is the last day she'll have with him before he leaves saturday....not sure how that math works..... so maybe some other day or something. some other day? are you kidding? she knows my free days, my husband's days off are my free days, and since she doesn't seem fond of coming over when my kids are awake, that doesn't give me any time to go over to her house except on the husband's days off, and today is all that is left of it.

Now it used to be that sunday was the hang out day for us, because she was off, and it was one of the husband's days off, but the boyfriend has taken that day, which i understand, with conflicting schedules, this is the ONE day that they are both off, ok, i don't even bug about that anymore. But then monday, she gets off early monday, so i figure that usually gives us time....but every single monday it's boyfriend time instead. and now tuesday too? I lost one best friend this way, now it appears i'm losing another. I totally get that when you are serious about someone you are dating that you want to spend every second with them, i totally get that. I know i was like that while engaged to the husband man. However she is not engaged to this person, at least not that i know of, although considering how luke warm her friendship with me these days seems to be, i suppose they could be and i wouldn't even know it. Anyway, i'm trying to be understanding of where she is in life, i know we're doing totally different things, she works and is un married, i am married and stay home with three kids, i suppose that's about as opposite as it gets. I know i can't fully comprehend being where she is because it has been so long since i was there, but i don't think she even tries to understand what it's like for me. I look forward all week to a chance to hang out with my dearest friend. I spend all day every day surrounded by children, i love them, but i'm starving for a little me time. Our weekly game night used to help but she hasn't been coming to that because of her schedule so i'm the one reaching out trying to make other times to hang out.....and to it appears to me that she doesn't care.

I hate harboring bad feelings toward someone you love and not telling them, because they don't know unless you tell them. So i texted her, i didn't want to call because i didn't want to get overly upset and get into a fight or say something i didn't really mean. So i simply stated my feelings in a text. I told her i felt hurt, i felt that we had made plans and that it was very inconsiderate of her to just pretend that we didn't and devote the whole day to her boyfriend instead. Now i can think of several scenarios here, i mean i could understand hanging out with him until she and i were finally able to get together, then sending him home, they would have had some time together, and she and i would have. I mean i'm not asking her to dump her boyfriend, but this is now the second time in two days that she made it clear to me that her time with her boyfriend couldnt' include me. But i felt like tuesday was our time, our time to connect and talk about girl stuff that he doesn't need to be there for, and instead he took precidence over our plans. Now albeit she says he just showed up and i get that, but he was there when she told me over the phone that she would be available to hang out the next day, so when he showed up i would expect that he would have some respect of those plans. and at least he should have been able to say hey, when Vera comes over i'll head out, or at least ask when i was coming over, instead of now occupying the whole day and closing off my one day to spend time with my friend and get a break from my kids.

I suppose there are many ways to view this, and i know that from her view she probably doesn't feel like she did anything wrong. I'm sure to her it feels perfectly reasonable to want to spend lots of time with this person she cares deeply for. But i wish that she could picture what i do all day every day as work, work with stress and frustration, and see how it would feel to not ever get a day off to spend with someone. Now i know that i have the greatest man in the world for a husband and i love it when he and i get alone time, but there is something fundamentally different about getting alone time with a friend that isn't my husband. He already knows what's going on, sometimes it's fun to tell stories of everyday life to someone who doesn't already know them. I guess that's why i'm writing this as a blog. I mean this conversation i'm having with myself, that is now unfortunatly public view, is the kind of thing i love getting to chat with her about. This is the exact kind of thing she and i are great at, listening to each others problems and helping to solve them. Not that most of our problems ever really need "solving" but it's nice to hear that you're not insane and that someone else totally gets feeling hurt over something like this, and being there to say "i'd feel the same way if it were me." so instead because she's not here to say that, i'm left to say it to the null void of the internet, and to my own mind, i'm tired of losing friends to boyfriends, and sad to say it is often to boyfriends who don't last, and the last friend i lost to a boyfriend, she broke up with him and moved away. And i think we've begun to mend our friendship, but it's hard with such distance between us, i don't want to lose another friend to the black hole of boyfriend-dom. it seems like they suck you in the point that you don't spend anytime with anyone else, then if something does happen between them, there are no friends close enough to reach out to and tell.

Just as i know my friend can't read my mind unless i tell her how i feel, i hope that she knows i can't read hers either, and making excuses for why it was ok to spend that whole day with her boyfriend instead of even carving out a little time for me, i would like to know i'm still valued as her friend, because right now i really don't feel like it.


on the lighter side (literally) my hair looks great and i was really looking forward to showing her.

some more pictures from camping

Katie's first time having s'mores....needless to say...she LOVED them!


Elaine was a "Litter Getter" they give them a bag to fill up with trash and when they bring it back they get a sticker, collect all five stickers and get a surprise, they can't wait to go back and collect more trash!



The Lady Bug class, a puppet, a story, a lesson, a song and an art project...just like kindergarten

Katie's mode of trasportation


tree so big it wouldn't fit in the picture!


(above)Katie loves her daddy so much, you can tell big time in this picture!


splashin around in the river
(above) the stanislaus river from the bridge on the south grove trail
(above) sun through the trees on the south grove trail, beautiful evening!

BIG trees!!

Camping at Calaveras Big Trees

Elaine will be starting Kindergarten in only a few short weeks so we're trying to fit the last of our summer fun into ONE month...JULY! So we took the kids camping at Calaveras Big Trees during Adam's days off last week. So we left Sunday after church and came back Tuesday afternoon. The drive was beautiful and the kids all got good naps on the drive, which was nice. We got to our campsite around 5pm and the unpacking went pretty fast. Adam and I set up the tent in a few minutes and then Adam started the fire so it would have good cooking coals for cooking the hot dogs for dinner and s'mores later. Elaine was obsessed with the idea of s'mores from the moment we told her we were going camping. I don't even know when the last time we had them was, but she certainly expected it, and must have asked four or five times on the drive if we were going to have them that night, so it was a must! While Adam tended the fire i set up the beds in the tent and then we cooked hot dogs and sat around the fire, then enjoyed our s'mores and headed to bed around 8:30pm. It was still a little light outside but Adam and I decided to go to bed when the kids did so as not to wake them when we came into the tent later. Katie loved running around in the tent, it was one of the few places she had freedom, we let her run all over in the tent, our tent is pretty big, it has three rooms and we left the doors to each room open during singing time and prayer. Then we put all three kids in one room for bed, then the middle room was open and Adam and I slept in the third room with an air mattress. The big girls were very excited to use the sleeping bags "santa" brought them for Christmas this year. They're adult size so they'll be useable for years to come, so i just folded the bottom of them under to fit both of them and the play pen in one room of the tent. The night started out pretty well, Katie cried at first when we closed the door to their room, but she fell asleep after a few minutes of crying then we enjoyed the silence and Adam and I drifted off to sleep shortly after. At about 2:30 am, Maggie woke up crying, it wasn't loud but it woke me up instantly and i jumped up and went to their room and unzipped the door. That was all it took to wake up Katie. I comforted Maggie who was merely dissoriented and then i tried to sneak out, but Katie started screaming. It was one thing to let her cry it out at 8:30 in the evening when most other people aren't asleep yet, but not at 2:30 in the morning when the campground is SILENT! I picked her up and comforted her back to sleep and laid her back down, she woke up when i laid her down and the crying continued. so Adam and i took her to bed with us where she tossed and turned and wiggled and cried and eventually fell asleep somewhere around 4am i think (she wanted Adam more than me so i fell asleep sooner than they did) Monday was an early morning, Elaine and Maggie woke up around 6am, up with the sun. we all got up and dressed and had breakfast and headed to the visitors center around 9am, right when it opened. There was a kids class at 10am for 3-6 year olds. The class was all about Lady Bugs and Elaine loved it! Maggie was in a bit of a mood and opted out of this activity. Elaine was very proud of the lady bug picture she painted at the end of the class and we put it on the windshield of the car to dry while we went on a walk around the North Grove.
The North Grove hike was short maybe 2 miles, and very flat and smooth and easy, Katie rode in the backpack carrier with Adam and Maggie and Lainey ran most of the hike. They kept complaining they were tired until we would tell them how strong they were and then they would show off their strength by running ahead, it worked quite well considering i think they were more bored than tired. Adam and i enjoyed the trail and all the GIANT trees, but i don't think the kids were very impressed.
Later that day we went down to the river and let the kids put their feet in, they loved that, so did i! It was hot and Adam and I both really would have rather gone swimming but it just wasn't safe with the kids and the current of the river. Then that evening after dinner we drove all the way to the end of the park and went to the South Grove parking lot. There was maybe one other car there and they were leaving when we were getting ready to head down the trail. The trail was absolutely beautiful, so amazing that despite serious uphill parts of the trail and over 3 miles of hiking there was not a single complaint from the kids. Katie often thrilled us with her " ooh's" and "ahhs" as we hiked , we had to push aside many branches and the trail was almost as opposite as it could get from the North Grove trail, hilly, rocky, and thin....but amazing! the kids really liked the bridge over the river, this part of the river was quite low and on the way back we let the kids play in the water a little bit before finishing the trail back to the car. We were so glad we did this trail and hope to go back again just to do this trail again, it had a side trail that we didn't take and wished we had....so you can bet we'll be back there again soon! Here are some pictures from the adventures!

(above) Elaine and maggie getting ready to get their feet wet in the river

The bridge on the South Grove Trail
hiking up hill on the south grove trail.

last day, had to get this shot before we left, this log was a bench next to the fire pit (metal ring in right side of pic) the kids loved to sit and climb on it!

ARGGGG!!!!

Ok so i know i'm still new to blogging, but why in the heck am i having so much trouble lining up text and pictures, it never comes out the same in the final product as it does in my preview...isn't that the whole point of having a preview option? argg! so frustrated, i need to take a class this!

San Francisco Zoo and Beach

Our Zoo trip happened kinda randomly. My mom, Pat, and her husband, Louis, have two boys ages 9 and 10. Louis' grandson Desi who is 13 and his friend Stephen, who is also 13, were visiting for a while and there had been some boredom and poor behavior going on. Mom and I both felt it was due to a lack of structured time, too much free time. So we decided the next day we'd take all the kids, including my own three girls and all her hoard of boys, to the zoo and then the beach, which was only right across the street from the San Francisco Zoo. Here are a few pictures from our trip!

Here's all the kids together (and a statue of a baby elephant too :) top one in the cap is Stephen, then Lainey, hugging Maggie. Next to Elaine is Sam, and next to him is Ben, these are my brothers, then sitting on the ground is my nephew Desi and he is holding Katie, the sun was in everyone's eyes so that's why they all look cranky :)

Ben, Sam, Louis, Mom






The Giraffe's were Katie's favorite thing! She called them "Gaff" she got so excited and didn't want to to leave them at all!

This little guy was watching over everything while his buddies ate lunch. too cute!


This gorilla was so cool. I went to the low windows to observe, while everyone else was up above to see the enclosure with out glass. This gorilla came over and played "peek-a-boo" with me , yielding this great close up. Stephen had followed me over there and once the gorilla popped up right next to him, startled him a bit :) didn't get a good shot of the gorilla next to stephen, but this was so fun!


More Zoo stuff to come later, this blog is driving me nuts trying to line up pictures and text.

OUCH!

Here are some pictures of our poor little Katie Kat. She was bitten by another child her same age at a birthday party. There's really no blame involved here, i mean the other kid was all of 18 months, and she is 17 months. Katie often bites when she is frustrated or upset, but having not witnessed this first hand it's hard to say who started this whole confrontation but it's obvious who ended it :)
Now this bite turned into a lovely shiner the next day, a big bruise formed all across the bottom of her eye and she looked like she'd been in a bar fight! LOL! We got asked by everyone what had happened but nobody ever guessed that it was a bite...i mean who ever gets bitten by a toddler in a place like this? OUCH! She got over it pretty quick and even gave the boy a hug later, kids forgive so easily, if only we could learn from them :) And all in all the wound wasn't that bad and healed quite quick, it's been just over a week and not a trace remains of something that looked so swollen and awful! Quite the event.

preface to the Disneyland Blog

Ok so i am still getting used to this blogging thing and it is driving me nuts with how it looks while i'm composing it and even in preview and how it actually turns out on the page....i'm sorry that the captions i made for each picture did not show up next to the actual pictures, i can't even get it to leave the gaps between paragraphs or pictures, if anyone has any way to help me i'd really appreciate getting better at using this thing!!

Disneyland - a little more catch up!

May 9-16, 2009....Disneyland....wow, where to begin?! We have so many great pictures, it was an all around amazing week! For starters, we were staying at the time share condo that my mom has and it was AWESOME!! It had a living room/dining room, full kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a small balcony and a GREAT view of the fireworks at Disneyland. So the first day we got there we had left a bit late and really taken our time driving, stopping often for the kids to get out and stretch and eat, andthen we hit some SERIOUS Los Angeles traffic and what according the GPS should have taken us about 1 hour, took us more than 3 hours. So we arrived at somewhere around 8pm. The staff was very helpful to bring our things up the room as i was trying to corral the kids and Adam couldn't get everything in one load by himself. We were on the 9th floor (out of 15 floors) so from our sliding door we could clearly see the "Matter Horn" and "Space Mountain" as well as the giant Ferris Wheel at California Adventures. The kids were excited to be able to see a part of Disneyland even though we weren't going into the park until the next day. The next day was Mother's day, and Adam made pancakes and bacon (the kids call this 'special breakfast') for everyone, especially me and my mom. My mom and her husband (the kids call him Boppy Lou, because his name is Louis) and my brothers Ben (10) and Sam (9) were in the room right next door, she had called ahead to make sure they could accomodate us. That was nice, so we each got an extra key card to our room and traded so that we could easily access each others units, that was fun. Louis had gotten injured the day before we all left and his foot was bandaged up and he was pretty heavily medicated. He was a trooper though, never really heard him complain the whole time! There were lots of special fun things that happened but i'll tell them as i show pictures of them and that should pretty much tell the story of our week :)












Maggie loved the dumbo ride, when she finally went on it, but that's a whole different blog altogether!











Maggie finally got pooped out, this picture was too cute to pass up!

!!!Princesses!!!!


















































this was the Jedi Training Academy and my brother Sam got picked out the audience to participate. He got to fight Vader and Maul and he was the only one who force pushed the storm troopers, it was pretty fun to watch, he is now officially a padawan.













Meeting Mickey and Minnie was fun for the kids, we met them at their houses in ToonTown, we had to wait in line for each one and i snapped a few fun pictures of them in line and in the houses too!















































Now this was an interesting story. This little girl is named Isabelle Bautista. Her dad is Elaine's pediatric dentist, right here in Modesto. We happened to run into him in line for the princess vanity faire. he was holding the spot with his daughter Isabelle. Elaine and Isabelle became instant friends and as it turns out their birthdays are only a day apart and they both attend the same dance school and would be performing in a dance together in only a few short weeks! Crazy, it really is a "small world after all."



This was one of those special moments we had, Maggie and Lainey were both picked to dance in the parade with the characters, they had a blast, got to dance around all over and be a part of the fun. it was definitely memorable!!















Can you find Maggie in the first picture and Elaine in the second....look closer!!



























Posing in toon town, having a blast playing with Everything!!!
































































Every time we passed this statue of the White Rabbit, the girls had to stop and check him out, they really seemed to like it......this is the girls on the tea cups, we all rode it together and they had a blast! So did we, and amazingly no one got sick!




















Another great moment. We had been standing in line and were picked to open the park that day! They took a picture of us in front of the whole crowd of people waiting to get in, then a picture of us in the park before anyone else! then the girls got to push THE button announcing the park was opening, it was quite a special moment, they introduced us to the whole crowd and made a pretty big deal of it. We felt special and that's one of those moments we may never have again so we loved it!































knock knock...at the white rabbit's house, anyone home?

Tinkerbell didn't think it was fair that Katie couldn't be in the picture because she was sleeping, so she walked Elaine and Maggie over to the stroller and had us take this picture, it was so cute and sweet! We really liked the new Pixie Hollow at Disneyland, it was fun meeting the different fairies.

The last two pictures were taken while Elaine was on Splash Mountain, Maggie was a hair away from being tall enough but she was excited to meet a few characters instead. The great thing was that their favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Matter Horn, they totally loved the Matter Horn, they both rode it 4 times, crazy thing though was that Katie was only about 3 inches away from being tall enough for that ride too! CRAZY! They were real sports when it came to scary rides, they rode Star Tours and the Matter Horn and Splash Mountain, and were a little afraid the first time but i continually explained that every ride was safe if they stayed sitting in their seat and stayed buckled, after the first couple of rides they began to realize that it was true and they then LOVED every ride they went on! They even did Soarin' Over California in California Adventures. Katie was too little for a lot of rides but luckily she was able to ride all the kid rides which the other girls loved too. Katie is going to be a dare devil like her sisters, she was so excited for every ride she was able to go on...no fear whatsoever! She grabbed onto the bar or whatever was holding her (sometimes it was only our arms) and she grinned most of the time! This was such an amazing experience getting to take our girls to Disnyeland at this age, each age will bring new adventures and joys, we can't wait to go again!!