She's Here!!

Okay I'm behind on posting this since she's been here a whole month already. Kelsey Grace O'Dowd was born September 27, 2012. She wieghed 8lbs, 5oz. and 20.25 inches long.

  

We showed up at midnight for a scheduled induction. Labor was quick and delivery went well despite my epidural not working and it being a super busy night of births that my doctor didn't make it to the delivery. My mom came out just before to stay with the other kids while we were in the hospital. We were all very excited for her arrival. Later that night about an hour after her feeding she started to choke and turn blue. I patted her back with a little extra force and she started to breathe again. A couple hours later it happened again. I called the nurse and she was concerned and took her to the nursery to check her out. A few hours later the nurse returned to tell me she had another choking episode and they sent Kelsey to the NICU for more tests. I was starting to get worried. They wouldn't let me feed her or touch her and they had started a round of antibiotics. They did chest x-rays and blood tests. After about 12 hours in the NICU they recieved tests results all being normal and I was finally able to hold her and feed her. Unfortunately because they had started a 48 hour antibiotic they could not release her until she had received the last dose. So from 1am on Friday until Sunday at 10am she was there. In retrospect it was overkill. It was most likely leftover mucus she was having difficulty swallowing. It was difficult for me to leave her there and walk back and forth from my room every 2-3 hours. I'm thankful she was and is okay and have a better appreciation for those who have spent numerous days, weeks and months with their child in the NICU.

Now, a month after her birth she has made her presence known. The kids love her and give her lots of hugs and kisses each day. She is pretty demanding and when awake she just wants to eat. She can only handle smiling and being talked to for so long and then gets fussy. She has already traveled overseas!

We still haven't settled in to a routine. My world pretty much revolves around taking care of her and thankfully the rest of my kids are understanding and able to do a lot for themselves. We'll eventually get back into a routine and back to school work and cooking proper meals and cleaning. For now, I'm enjoying every minute I can with her despite the fussiness. They grow up too fast.

Thanks Aunt Amy for the cute shirts!

SUMMER VACATION!!!

Why is it summer seems to be the shortest time of year? Ours wasn't even that busy or jam packed with activity, yet it has already come and gone.

Since my last post which was the end of May we:

1.Finished up the school year
2.Attended VBS at our church
3.Went to the pool or waded in our kiddie pool
4.Endured 2 1/2 weeks without daddy when he went on business trips
5.Started our next school year in July
6.Road tripped it out to Colorado for almost 3 weeks

The highlight of the summer was our trip to Colorado. We had all been looking forward to this for a while. Mind you travelling across the desert in the middle of summer at 7/5 months pregnant was not the best part. We saw things like the Grand Canyon and Four Corners. We stopped in Durango for a couple days and visited with Devin's parents and rode the Durango Silverton train. We then spent 4 days in Breckenridge where my parents, my 2 sisters and their families rented a house. Some of us had not seen each other for 2 or 3 years! It was a great time and great to see everyone and meet new nieces and nephews. The rest of the time we stayed at my parent's out in Peyton. We joke that they live in East Kansas because it seems so far. But even though it's on the eastern plains of Colorado, you can still see the mountains and it is quite peaceful. The surrounding neighbors have horses, goats, roosters, geese and others. Their 5 acres gives the kids lots of room to roam and explore. While there we, attended my old church, a concert given by my brother in law which everyone should check out at www.collinstoddard.com , took the kids to Santa's Workshop, went swimming, and had a get together with many of my relatives.We enjoyed our time there and visiting with lots of family. Our hearts are still there and we hope to one day be living there again.

While we were in Breckenridge my brother in law snapped this great photo of all of us together!

Yosemite

I know I need to post some pictures on here and I keep forgetting. So I'm finally getting a few up. Here are some pictures from our trip to Yosemite. We had a blast but it was much colder than expected. The first 2 days were 45 degrees and snowing/raining! We also learned going over a holiday weekend is not a good time to go (we sat in traffic a lot just to get into the Yosemite Valley).  And don't bring the dog. Yosemite has a silly rule that dogs are not allowed on any unpaved trails. This prevented us from seeing most of what we wanted to see. For a state with more dogs than people you would think they would be more welcome! Oh well.

The boys, trying to be cool.

Bridalveil Falls

This tree had fallen over and was hollow. The kids could walk/crawl inside all the way from one end to the other!

Tenaya Lake

Half Dome from the other side

It's a Girl!!!

This past Monday we recieved highly anticipated news when we went for a scan to find out the gender of our baby. While Bailey and I along with many other friends and family were rooting for a girl, the boys in the family including Devin were hoping for another boy. So when the doctor said it's a girl there were mixed emotions among the crowd. We are all excited and happy to be having another healthy baby but the boys were only a little disappointed. Teagan, our most stubborn is the only one still holding out, believing there is a margin of error to the doctor's guess. Anyway, now we can start working on names and unpacking baby clothes, and sewing projects. Bailey is thrilled to be getting a sister and I'm happy it's even with 2 boys and 2 girls. Let's just hope the doctor's margin of error it very very small. ;-)

As for other news, we've been busy with the usual things like school and appointments. Just about every week in April and May has some appointment. By the end of this month we will have been to the dentist, the vet, the OB, and the optometrist at least 3 times each. I like the fact that since we homeschool we can have morning appointments when these place are typically less busy but it also interferes with the school schedule and leaves us missing more days than we should.

This month wraps up our extracurriculars like cub scouts and the boys' Bible study. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with something for them to do over the summer but they don't want to do anything I come up with. I may just have to pick for them.

We have several trips planned for the year. We are taking a long weekend over Memorial Day and headed up to Yosemite. We are staying in a cabin outside the park. I am not a Californian and haven't learned the art of booking campsites 6 months in advance! We've never been to Yosemite and are looking forward to a nice weekend spent mostly outdoors! Just not the 6 hour drive with a dog. :-) If anyone has tips or suggestions on what to see there please let me know!

In August we are planning a family reunion (on my side) in Breckenridge, Colorado. So far my sisters and their families, An Uncle and his family and possibly my Grandparents are planning to come. It will be a long drive especially while being 34 weeks pregnant by then. We are so looking forward to getting away though and seeing family. Some of which I haven't seen in years!

In October we plan to go back to England for Devin's graduation from University. He has really wanted to do this and we had to postpone going in March because we thought he would be deployed. So now we plan for October. We will be leaving our bigger kids with my parents and be bringing along a 1 month old. Not ideal but I'm going to support my husband and I'm proud of his accomplishment. We will finally be able to call him Dr.!

Well time to end this long ramble. I haven't been very good about taking pictures lately. I hope to get some recent ones put up here soon!

Cub Scouts Fun

The boys got to check out some of a police officer's gear when he came to a cub scout meeting. You'll see Austin in vest and helmet. Teagan is holding a gun.

Create a photo slideshow

Random happenings

April already!

The months are going by quickly this year it seems. It's already April. It appears summer is just around the corner and while I'm longing for warm weather, I'm also overwhelmed with the amount of work needing to be done. Specifically school. Taking all of February off has put us a little behind and I've threatened my boys with no summer break unless they really buckle down. And thus so, it is spring break here this week and they do not get a break. They don't seem to mind though.

The month of a March went rather quickly. It was less rainy than last year but at least a little more interesting than our February was in terms of weather. In March we celebrated 2 birthdays. My two boys were born 2 years and 2 weeks apart. They turned 8 and 6. Being so close together makes it difficult for party planning. The boys had talked about having a party. We threw around some ideas. In the end with them each wanting different things and inviting certain friends it just wasn't going to work out. There were some other factors in the mix that just made having a party for them seem like we were rewarding them with something undeserved. I felt bad and my mother will never let me live this one down but their birthdays have passed and they haven't asked about it. We did celebrate just as a family by doing something special on their day and having dinner together and they opened gifts from grandparents.
I love my boys and they are growing up too fast. But they get harder to handle with each day it seems. I don't know what people mean when they say girls are more difficult than boys. I feel exactly the opposite!

I mentioned earlier we took all of February off of school. That was because I could barely handle being out of bed more than a few minutes at a time. We are expecting baby #4 and I was so sick that month! I'm feeling much better lately and have finally resumed normal household duties like cooking, cleaning and teaching school. Oh yes and trying to potty train my 3 year old. She seems very uninterested and just doesn't get it...still. So far the only thing that works is setting an hourly alarm. It feels so long ago that I potty trained the boys that I'm forgetting how I did this with them and wondering why it seems so difficult this time around?

So busy...

I want/need a vacation....

February is over!

Honestly, I've never been more happy to make it past this month. February has been pretty blah. Lots of sickness going around. Very little schoolwork got done. The weather has been fairly nice but for someone used to having seasons, 60 degrees and sunny everyday gets a little boring. We did spend a day at Disneyland. A morning at Santa Monica Pier. But there were only 2 highlights during the month of February.
#1 celebrating Bailey's 3rd birthday. How can she be 3 already? She had so much fun with friends and a bouncy castle she didn't want the day to end. She is our sweet and precious little girl!

#2 Leap day - which happend to be the day Devin was promoted to Lt. Col. His parents flew out for the ceremony. It was really nice and we enjoyed the day with friends and family. I am so proud of him! I hope to get more pictures posted but this will have to do for now.