Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and usually we go all out with tons of decorations and dinner parties, but this year I was a little busy with a new baby. We did put up some decorations but we didn't throw any parties. A huge thing for our girls is Witchalena, she comes the week before Halloween no matter what. But this year even though she left treats there was no treasure hunts or hidden treats. Everything was left on the table with the lesson/poem for the day. I was proud that she even showed up, but Ruby told me she was really disappointed that Witchalena seemed lazy this year. I have to agree with her, Witchalena did not have the energy and time she normally has. Hopefully next year she will do better. I did however snap some photos of the girls in the morning.

As for Halloween night, I only snapped a few photos of the kids costumes.
Keaton went as a skeleton (an appropriate costume for the son of a radiologist).

Ruby and Lucy went as twin witches.

Haley went as a cereal killer.

That would never happen to me...

*** Warning, if you have a weak stomach you probably don't want to read this. Actually... no matter what you probably don't want to read this****

Eric rarely comes home from work late, but he was on call and had a procedure to do so he texted me that he would not be home until 7pm.  Being two weeks postpartum I was having a hard day.  I found myself crying at everything and being frustrated that I could not accomplish anything. I decided that my one goal for the day was to return dishes to people that had brought us dinners. So after dinner Ruby and Lucy left with me to go to three houses to return dishes. The girls were a huge help running the dishes up to the doors so I could stay in the car.

On our way back to the house as we turned down our street Eric turned in right behind us. It was 8:30 and dark outside, I could not believe he was getting home so late. Right as I drove through our gate, Cami walked in front of my car and stopped(not uncommon as she thinks she can heard the car). I waited until I could see her shadow on the passenger side then I started driving up the driveway. Immediately I realized I had had driven over Cami.  Before I could say a word, Ruby and Lucy were screaming because they knew exactly what had happened. Eric saw what happened, got out, picked her up and put her in the back seat of his car and drove her to the emergency pet hospital immediatly. I was trying to comfort Ruby and Lucy who were ballistic while I was totally nausious. I told the girls that Dad and the Vet were going to do what they could do and all we could do was pray that she would live. When Eric came home he did not say that much, just that we needed to wait and see. He let me know that he told the Vet to keep her comfortable, but we were not going to do surgery if that was necessary. He calmly reminded me that she was a dog and we were not going to pay thousands of dollars to save her. He was very kind and kept telling me he saw what happened and it was not my fault.

The next day the doctor called and told me that Cami was doing much better and they had taken her off oxygen but she still was not eating, drinking or going to the bathroom. The doctor thought this was just because she was nervous. I was relieved and decided to run by the hospital after Keatons 2 week Dr appointment because Cami would be happy to see me and I could get her eat. When I got to the hospital and saw Cami, my heart sunk and I felt like I was going to throw up. I was absolutely not prepared for how bad she was. She had blood coming out her nose and mouth. The right side of her mouth looked like it was hanging off. I put a some chicken (her favorite) in her mouth and it fell out. She had a tube stapled into her head and down her forehead and into her her nose. She had dried blood all over her legs and could hardly stand. She laid on the floor making crying noises from the pain.  I could not believe that I had done this to her. I totally lost it.  I could hardly drive home I was crying so hard. I knew we were going to have to put her down and I could not handle it.

 After 3 days in the hospital the Doctor called and said that Cami could come home. It has been two weeks since the accident and today there is a beautiful, healthy, happy Cami running around our yard.

I know there was a reason Eric's procedure took so long. I know it was not a coincidence that Eric was driving in right behind me. I know that Heavenly Father was watching over me. I know that logically a 90 lb dog cannot survive the weight of my car. I know that Cami is alive because our prayers were answered.

Guess what...

Professional photos of Keaton

My good friend Janet gave me a gift of having a professional photographer to come over to my house and take photos of Keaton when he was only 2 weeks old.  I am so glad that she did this because I was still in survival mode and never even thought about doing a photo shoot for him.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot.  Warning... this post contains some nudity that Haley and Eric find offensive. I personally think it's cute :)

Keaton photos in our kitchen

Grandma Bonnie meets Keaton

Grandma Bonnie flew in today to meet her new grandson and hang out with the girls.

 Her visit was timed perfectly because he has just started opening his eyes a lot. The girls now call him bright eyes.

Who do you think he looks like?

Harvest day for Keaton

Because I have c sections and don't really give birth Eric kept referring to September 29th as "The harvest day".  This photo was taken about 30 minutes before heading to the operating room. 

Eric took a bunch of photos of the surgery, but this is the only one that doesn't make me want to vomit.
The surgery took longer then normal because I had a lot of scar tissue that he needed to clean out.

After they pulled him out, they checked to make sure all was well and wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to Eric while they finished the surgery. He was our biggest baby weighing in at 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20 1/2 long. He has seriously kissable cheeks!

 Then we all went back to my hospital room and the girls got to watch the nurse give him his first bath.
They were asking Eric all kinds of questions about the surgery so he pulled up a video of a c section on tube and showed it to the girls explaining the process. I can't believe they have not had nightmares about watching that.  They wanted me to watch it and I had to pass.

The girls are all totally in love and obsessed with their new brother.

Keaton heading home from the hospital.

Getting ready for the little man...

My friends threw me a beautiful shower/ brunch. I took a few photos before but totally forgot to take any during the shower. I'm so bummed because the room was filled with women that I love and I wish I had documented it better.

As I was opening gifts I put each gift back in the gift bag it came in. When I got home I stacked them all around the fireplace and when my girls got home they got to have their own shower and open all the gifts themselves.  They were so fun to watch and so excited for this little guy to arrive.

I finally finished the little blanket for the girls to give Keaton when they visit him in the hospital.

I have received multiple requests to post photos of my prego body and I really don't want to, but since this is the only journal I keep I may regret not having a photo of my big belly. So here it is. The ultrasound says he is only about 6 lbs so I am guessing the other 29lbs are all in my face, bum and chest.  I shouldn't complain because with all my girls I gained 45-50 lbs.

I never thought I would be sporting blue gel toes... but my cute friend Jill told me that I had to have blue toes for when my little boy gets here. I listened to her and not only to my girls think I am so cool now, I actually kinda like them.

One week to go!!!

The nursery

14 days to go...

Honey, jam, peaches and eggs!

Brian, one of our friends is a bee keeper as a hobby and we have some of his hives on our property. We love it because he comes by every couple of weeks to check the bees and teaches the kids all about them.

Our bees were doing so well that he brought over more hives. We currently have a tower of four hives. Last weekend we went over to Brian's house to watch and help him spin all the honey from our hives. It was sooo interesting. I should have taken photos of the process, but I only have a photo of the outcome. He got TONS of hone from our hives and it tastes amazing. We came home with a gallon for us and my kids have just been eating spoonfuls of it. 

A couple of weeks ago I got together with some other moms and all our kids and had a strawberry jam making marathon. I could not believe how much jam we ended up making. We went through 3 or 4 50# bags of sugar!

Luckily we had several little worker bees that loved helping out and stirring. I don't know how we would have done it without all the slave labor!

Here is a sampling of some of the finished product.

One of my main cravings with this pregnancy has been fresh fruit. I have been eating watermelon, cantaloupe and grapes like crazy. When our favorite local orchard said the peaches we ready I was so excited I could hardly sleep. The fact that we all LOVE these peaches, the girls were having so much fun picking them and I have been craving fruit were a very costly combination. When we took all our peaches to get weighed it was $97.... What? I asked how many pounds of peaches we picked and it was 198 pounds- oops!

We spend the next 4 days washing, peeling, cutting and freezing as many peaches as possible. We also ate a ton just off the counter.

After talking about all the sugar... I guess I should show a little protein. All of our 40 chickens are now laying. We have been getting between 18-36 eggs a day!!! They are so beautiful that the other day I snapped this photo after washing them. Look at all the variation, I love it. The girls have been selling them on our street and I have been giving them away to the older ladies in our church.

My new/ old rocker

I wanted an apolstered rocker that was small, not a huge lazy boy, but something built for a little old lady to sit and knit in or for me (formerly little) and old to sit and nurse in.

I found this one, but just could not justify the price ...

Charleston rocker from Pottery Barn $749.00

So I started stalking craigs list for a few weeks and found this pink rocker for $60. I emailed them after a few days and asked if they would take $40 and they did. Score! It's super comfortable and a swivel/ rocker. It was perfect... except for the color and fabric.

So I decided to slip cover it. I have never done upholstery or made a slip cover, but after reading blogs and tutorials on line I decided I could do it. I have a huge bolt of great linen fabric in our attic that was left over from one of my Dad's old projects, so I decided to use that.

I will admit it's not perfect... but I think I did a pretty good job. The chair is really comfortable and perfect for me to nurse in and for $40 it was a steal.

The 1st day of school!

Ruby started 5th grade, Lucy started 3rd grade and Haley is now in 8th grade!!! (Haley left for the bus before I could snap a photo). I can't believe how fast time is flying by.