February 16, 2010

I'd like to get back into blogging, so here is my first post in awhile.

We just moved back to Fruitland from Meridian. It's so nice to be closer to Cameron's work. He's a one-man-show here in Fruitland selling onion seed, and he was commuting 45 minutes to and from work. Now he comes home for lunch, takes kids with him occasionally, and when he's done working he's here in less than 5 minutes. It's heaven!

Our house here has a swimming pool and a hot tub. I'm looking forward to using the pool this summer. The pool is above ground and has gates on the stairs, so I'm not as paranoid about the kids being outside. It's just their escaping out the gates and into the neighbor's homes that I have to worry about now. Grr!

Cameron's doing really well selling seed. He started in August and he's far exceeded every one's expectations, which were already set very high. It's a perfect fit for his amazing knowledge of business, his competitive nature and his sales talents.

Brady is in Kindergarten and is doing very well. He loves to read, play and laugh. His favorite pastime is still learning and talking about dinosaurs. He knows more about dinosaurs than anyone I've ever met. He knows well over a hundred dinosaurs and can tell you what they ate, how big they were and other strange facts about them. He's an amazing big brother. His brothers are his best friends and Maya adores him. Oh, and he has a Mohawk.

Brock is our little artist. He has spent the last three days drawing Transformers. He's drawn, colored, cut out and glued 20+ Transformers. He's very, very good at drawing, and his attention span for it is unreal. Today he told me, "I need to go finish my work!" Hahaha...the boy is so cute. When you ask him what is on his head he says, "fire hair!" He's a sweet boy who loves to help his mom. He loves to eat oranges and apples. He snacks on fruit, cheese, fresh spinach and whole wheat goldfish all day.

Ian is talking a lot. He just turned three and he is a happy, happy boy. He's also very mischievous. Whether it's drawing on everything, cracking eggs all over the floor, eating lotion, painting the walls, floors and furniture with my makeup, spraying cooking spray on the couches or getting into my dark chocolate, he's always busy doing something. He's so good-natured about it, though. When I discover what he's done and scream in frustration, he hugs me and says, "mommy!" When I say, "do you need to go to time out?" he replies with a smile, "Ok!!"

Maya likes to follow Ian in his mess-making. She's become very sneaky at it. She's also mastered some dirty looks. Ian threw a ball at her back (hard!) and instead of crying she turned around and gave him a nasty, dirty look. She's super cute and adores her dad. She calls him, "Dadden". She definitely adds an element of "girliness" to our home, but she's every bit as tough as her brothers. She's almost 18 months, which means she'll be in nursery next week! You have no idea how excited we are about that. This will be the first time that we'll have a child go into nursery when I don't have a new born, or I'm just about to have a baby. In fact, there's no baby coming in the near future, so it will be a quiet few years at church...well, post Sacrament meeting, that is.

I'm still very into my exercising and nutrition, but I'm having to re-think my workouts now that I don't have a gym. Cameron and I are beginning P90x next week. I can't wait! I need something new to work towards. I'll get our before pictures posted, and keep our blog updated with our progress.

That's all...until next time!

The boys and Maya

Our boys are growing up. They are getting to be more and more fun. They love to wrestle and climb on their dad. They are always asking Cameron to "get" them or to be a dinosaur. They are excited to have a new sister and have proven to be excellent big brothers so far, and with the exception of one toy that hit Maya in the head, they've been really good to her!

Brady loves Maya, and he tells me that often. He told a friend of mine that 'Maya and my mom have the same middle name, Careen'. Then he told her that his new baby sister's name is Maya and that he loves her name. He loves to hold her and he softly and tenderly speaks loving things to her. He's still as smart as ever, and he's so sweet. Everyday he either tells me that he loves me, that I'm his favorite mom, or that I'm his best mom.

Brock also loves Maya. He always asks if he can 'carry her'. He would hold her forever if I would let him. Today he sat on the couch next to where she was sleeping and before I knew it he had picked her up and was holding her by himself. I told him he can hold her whenever he wants, but he has to ask me first. He's really gotten into coloring. He will color in a coloring book all day long. He colors picture after picture, and he usually uses the same pencil the entire time, which means I have to sharpen it a gazillion times. He's also into doing everything by himself, which is nice for things like getting dressed, putting on shoes, and brushing his teeth. It's not so nice for things that he can't do by himself because when I help him he gets mad. I have to help him in a way that still makes him feel he's doing it himself.

Ian is extremely animated in his facial expressions, personality, mannerisms and movements. He's getting better at playing with his big brothers and entertaining himself, but he's still pretty demanding. He throws everything he gets his hands on. If it's any kind of stick he swings it and smacks things with it. He likes to sit with me whenever I'm holding Maya. He doesn't have any animosity towards her, but he just doesn't want to miss out on any of the action. When Cameron is home Ian is attached to him. He doesn't want anything to do with me if Cameron is around.

Maya Careen

Maya Careen

Not everyone likes the labor details, but some do, and it will be nice to be able to refer to this if ever I forget. If you're not interested you can skip the next paragraph...

So my Dr. was going to schedule me to be induced on the 12th or the 15th, but I had a thought the first week in August (although it seems like it was a lot longer ago than that) that I would go into labor on my own before that scheduled date. Well, on Thursday, August 21st I began having some contractions. Every evening after that I had contractions, and each day they would get a little bit more intense, and I would have more of them. Finally on Wednesday, August 27th I had contractions on and off all day long. Cameron had flown to Salt Lake that morning and left in the evening to drive back a new car. He arrived in Boise around 10:30 and helped me pack up the kids. We drove separate cars back to Fruitland, and just before we got there I called to tell him we needed to head back to Boise. After arriving home we grabbed a few things, switched the kids and the carseats to the new car and headed back to my parents' house. We dropped the kids off to them and drove to the hospital. Cameron slept through them checking me, calling my dr, walking the halls for an hour and one more check-up. We woke him up in time to move to labor and delivery. That was 4am. At 8:30 they broke my water, and my contractions intensified immediately. My labor began progressing so rapidly there was no time for an epidural. They did a spinal instead. The relief was immediate! It was amazing. Maya was born at 10:30am after pushing through only one contraction. A very smooth delivery!

Maya weighed 7lbs, 2oz and she is such a beautiful baby. She sleeps all the time. A lot of babies have their nights and days mixed up. Not her. She sleeps day and night. She has dark blue eyes, which makes me think her eyes will be blue, but it's still hard to tell at this age. She has light brown hair which is incredibly soft and evenly covers her perfectly shaped head. She has long fingers and toes, but she wasn't very long at birth. Only 19". When she was born she didn't look skinny at all, in fact she looked very full, and I'm sure it's because she is shorter.

July 11, 2008

The Dam:

• We took the boys to the dam a couple of weeks ago. They were having fun riding with Cameron on the tube. Even Ian loved it. We talked Brady and Brock into going by themselves. After only a couple of minutes the tube, now front heavy, was pulled under the water and sucked the boys in. Cameron jumped in to help because of the cries of disapproval to an uninvited swim. It was good for them to see that they could survive falling in the water.
• There was a lot of algae in the water. It looked like the tiniest little leaves you've ever seen. When Cameron asked Brady what was in the water, Brady pondered a minute and replied, "fingernails".

Camping:

• The weekend of the 4th I took the boys camping with my parents, as well as one sister, her husband and four boys. They all had a blast. When I asked Brady what his favorite part was he said, "playing with cousins". He kept calling them "crazy", which, as my mom pointed out, means "really cool". Brady woke up at 5:30 am the first morning because he needed to go potty. We were going to go back to the tent, but one of Brady's "crazy" cousins was just getting up with his mom. We lit a fire and waited for several hours before everyone else woke up. Papa took Brady fishing with my sister and a couple of her boys before everyone else woke up. My kids have never been fishing before so it was a big deal.
• Ian spent the entire time walking around getting dirty. He was in heaven! He would pump his arms up and down with a grin on his face that was indicative of a baby who has but few boundaries. His mouth and hands were constantly dirty, but he didn't care, and I, for once, had to not care. When we went down by the water, he sat on the side throwing rocks the entire time. I washed all the boys in the icy stream and they all cried. Ian took it the best. He fussed while I was doing it, but was fine once I finished. The other two cried and pouted for quite sometime afterwards.
• Brock, we discovered, is fascinated by fire. He was always picking up cups, forks and other garbage off the ground and asking if he could put it in the fire. I knew it was becoming a problem when he began pulling clean forks out of the bag to put them in the fire. He would just sit on the ground and run his hands through the dirt. He didn't go through as many sets of clothes as Ian, but he was so dirty. He got pitch on his face and in his hair the first day. One half of his face was covered in dirty streaks that would not come off. I just cut the last of it out of his hair yesterday. The first night we were there a lot of them went fishing, but Brock stayed. He talked about fishing the entire time. Finally the morning we were leaving my dad took Brock because he had his heart set on going fishing. They weren't gone for very long, but he had waited so long, and asked so many times that I couldn't see us going home without him having a chance to go.

The Dam (again):

• We had some friends visiting from Detroit/Florida who were staying with Cameron's parents. We went up to the dam and spent the day boating, jet skiing and sitting on the "beach" (not much of a beach). It was great seeing them, and it was also a lot of fun. They are adventurous and spontaneous, which I love!
• Everytime the boat was moving Ian would just sit or lay on me with his head buried in his blanket. He wouldn't budge. Once the boat stopped he would wander around again. I wish there was an easier way to recreate that feeling in him that makes him want to be calm and cuddle.
• Brock loved sitting in the front of the boat and letting the wind blow through his hair. He was a little too bouncy and out of control for my comfort level, so I had to keep reminding myself that he was wearing a life jacket, and that I'm a little over-protective.
• Brady preferred playing in the rocks and the water, or up in the grass. In the boat he had to just sit, and he much prefers playing with friends and cousins. Besides his cousin who is his age, there was also a "friend" a year older, and one a year younger. He just lives to play!

The Water Park:

• We went to the water park the next day. Cameron went with our friend who happens to be a big guy. He's about 6 inches taller than Cameron, and weighs about 130 lbs more than him. They went on one of the water slides together and Cameron said as they reached the top all he could think of was this friend falling on top of him and crushing him.
• Brady loved the kids' area. He would go on the slides by himself and loved floating on the "river", but when we took him on some of the bigger slides he cried and said they were too scary. The smaller pool was his dreamland!
• Brock would not touch the kid pool for the first half of the day. He would run up to go down the slides with Brady and the girls, but he would end up coming down the stairs. When we took him on the bigger slide which blasted you with water at the beginning and the end, was pitch black, except for some small flashing lights, and was quite fast, he loved it. We took him on that one four times. When we got home he said, "the slides were too scary for me".

The Beginning

Well, this is our first post...For those who don't know where we're at or what we're doing, I'll start by outlining what's going on in our lives:

• As a family - We are living in Fruitland, ID. For those who don't know where Fruitland is, it's on the ID/OR border. It's a 20 minute drive to Nyssa where Cameron's from. It's a 45 minute drive from Boise, where I'm from.
• Cameron - Working hard and back in Nyssa. We don't see much of Cameron because he works a lot, but when we do see him he makes sure it's quality time. A valuable lesson Cameron has learned over the last 3 years is that his family is the most important to him, and he doesn't forget that even when he's exhausted.
• Sarah - Pregnant (of course). I'm almost 26 weeks. I still have 3 months left, and if feels like an eternity! We're excited to add a girl to our bevy of boys. We're curious to see how she will fit in with the craziness that currently exists in our home!
• Brady - 4-years-old - Brady never ceases to surprise us with his whit and observance. He is a sponge with knowledge and loves to learn new things. We have become extremely proficient on Google simply because he's always asking us questions we don't know the answers to. He lives to spend time with his extended family, and loves every second of it! He constantly reminds us that "we don't live in Las Vegas anymore, we live in Fruitland."
• Brock - 3-years-old - Brock has a sweetness that will melt you, but he's rough and tough. We constantly have to tell him to be soft with Ian, and even Brady or anyone within arm's reach. He gets so excited and has so much energy that he doesn't always know how to safely channel it. He has the cutest, deepest little voice which is joined by a funny little vocabulary, hilarious facial expressions and honest curiosity.
• Ian - 17 months - Ian is one intense little guy. We thought the first two were intense, but have since discovered that we didn't know what intensity was until Ian! He is extremely social and loves to laugh. He loves animals, playing outside and playing with balls and sticks. He loves to throw things and gets extremely angry when things don't go his way. He didn't like food for the longest time, but has recently discovered how great it is and is trying to make up for time wasted.