Story Time

I don't want to forget these stories so here's a quick post reminding me for later when I forget.


STORY 1:


At the OB's office during one of my prenatal visits, I had all three of my kids with me. As always the doctor did the measuring and then listened with the Doppler for the heartbeat. After finding the heartbeat and explaining to my kids what it was, he asked if they wanted to say hi to the baby. Of course they all wanted to - so he held out the "listening" end of the Doppler and let them say hello. They were all thrilled that they "talked" to the baby - not realizing, of course that on the other end of the listening part was just the speaker box - it was no where near the baby at all.







STORY 2:


After I had Dallin and had begun nursing, Gwendalin was very intrigued by it. She proceeded to tell me that after she has a baby she will let him suck the blood out of her too. She didn't get it that it wasn't blood, but milk. Random random thought - I have no idea where she got the idea that blood feeds infants...She hasn't been reading the Twilight Series like I have....Vampires and all. :)





STORY 3:

I fear that I am raising an angry 6 year old. I hope not, but he tends to throw fits when he doesn’t get his way and here’s a good example. We went to dinner with Tricia and Matthew and Lynn and left all 6 kids (we didn’t have Dallin yet) with a babysitter. Well, when all the girls wouldn’t do what Hunter wanted to do, he threw a fit and proceeded to bang a drawer around in the kitchen until he completely broke the face off of the front. It was rough punishment for him that night- he couldn’t come out of his room for the rest of the night. I think it was the hardest on Lynn- she felt so bad for the little dude…but I think it was a good lesson for him to have to be in “solitary” while the rest of us chatted and played.










STORY 4:


Hunter comes in one afternoon and says "mom, can I go to the Merc (our local grocery store) with Jake?...Doug is taking us." FYI Doug is Jake's dad...so I agree. Well, later (2 hours) Travis and I are going to take Alicia to dinner and we go to Jake's house to bring Hunter home...lo and behold, no one is home at Jake's, so Travis calls Doug and finds out that his boys (Jake and Kenner) are with another boy from our ward - so we went to that family's home. At their house we found out that her son is with Jake and Kenner gone to the Merc on their bikes...after further questioning we find out that Hunter is with them too. So, we go to the Merc....I went in and talked with one of the cashier's and she said that there had been 4 boys in there about an hour ago and they bought lighters (the little blue eyed boy with the Boise State shirt on, said his parents needed them). The little blue eyed boy is Hunter. I came out of there furious. We checked the place the cashier thought they were going next (the skate park at a local community church) - but they were not there either. So, now we have Doug driving around looking for the boys and we are driving around looking for the boys. Finally, Doug finds them at a park down the street from our development. Doug asked Hunter if he knew his parents were looking for him and explained the situation a little bit...Hunter's response was "Well, I think they must've misunderstood." HA! When he got home on his bike I knew he could tell he was in trouble...he came into the driveway very slowly. The punishment was the evening in his room while we still went to dinner...after we got home we (or Travis rather) talked to him rationally about it and he got grounded from friends and his bike for the next week - which is too bad because it's the last week of summer. Travis and I were beside ourselves. We would never let our 6 year old ride his bike to the creepy Merc on busy streets...I am grateful that he was with Kenner who is 9 but still...it was very scary for the 30 minutes we were searching our booming metropolis for him.

Story #5:

Tyler walks around looking for anything that has legs and moves (bug like) and insists that it’s a PIE-DUR. He will squat down and call for Huntr and Gwenlin to come “getim”. It’s very cute! PIE-DUR…GETIM!

He also wanders the house looking for any one person and yells, “Are you?!” And when he finds you he beams with joy “here he are!” He’s at such a cute stage.

The adjustment stage: aka the learning curve

Acutally I started a post of cute stories that my kids have been doing lately, but I haven't finished it and the computer I started it on won't hook up to the internet...so I will post it later.

Not much to report other than the learning curve with #4 has begun and continues. It has been by far the roughest adjustment for me. Two was hard to get used to but this one I think is harder because I am keeping up with three and still losing sleep at night with the fourth. Fatigue plays a huge role in my postpartum mentality. Needless to say, I sometimes think I am doing just fine but then I feel completely useless. I don't want to leave my house. I don't really like any company, and I feel like I am neglecting everyone and everything I care about because I can't do anything to full capacity like I want to.

Dallin is a fantastic baby. I really can't complain and the spirit he brings into our home is genuine and sweet. We are fortunate to have such a good bunch of kids. Although I must admit some fault at this point and that is with my sweet little Hunter. We butt heads so bad lately and my fatigue doesn't help - he has me in tears a lot. I am sad to admit that tonight (Travis is gone working) I lost my temper with the little dude and I feel awful. Especially now that he's sleeping and so sweet and doesn't yell back...ugh! This mother thing is so hard, rewarding, exhausting, fun, emotional, etc.

I think a lot of the drama at my house is just the adjustment of the new additon and how to make life feel somewhat normal again. We are getting closer every day and if I can ever get thought a day without "losing it" (yelling or crying) - then I will consider my feat conquered.

Lots of good help!

My niece Alicia was sweet enough to come and stay with us for a week to help out. She came the day before Marie left (also very good help - couldn't have done it without Marie either) . She (Alicia) entertained my three older kids while I rested and took care of Dallin. She made trips to the grocery store for me, ran other errands for me, took the kids to the park, Burger King/McDonalds, gave them baths every night, went with us to Dairy Queen, took the kids on rhino rides (it's a golf cart thing Travis uses for hunting), endured our family scriptures/prayers every night, and survived the whole week. It was an amazing help to have her here with all of her energy helping me out! There are a lot more pictures than what I have uploaded- but you can get the general idea of how much she was able to help us out. Gwendalin's hair got cute braids in it every night after her bath. My kids fell in love with her as did Travis and I - we are so grateful for her willingness to come and help out. Thanks Alicia!

08-08-08

So- we had a baby on 08-08-08! Here's a quick post of pictures...


Dallin Slade Chesley
6 pounds 13 ounces
20"
5:34PM


This is just prior to leaving for a scheduled induction at noon- final prego picture.

I only pushed once when I finally dilated completely...it was so great!


Perfect head....looks just like my other 3!

Daddy and Dallin...

Hunter had a karate tournament (he took first in 2 of the 3 events he was in!) so he wasn't at the hospital...but Gwennie and Ty were and they loved the "beh- bee" as Ty called him.


Gwennie holding him while I post this blog.

Ty attempting to hold him with Ree's help while I post this blog.

Tricia's Shower

So the day of Tricia's shower arrived...and Lynn put together the most beautiful decor, food, displays etc. It was so nice. We had a great turn out and she seemed to enjoy the company. We made cupcakes on Friday night allowing the kids to do a "late night" rather than a sleep over...we stayed up until midnight. I think Tricia, Lynn, and Marie did a lot of chatting, but I fell asleep on the couch...I still enjoyed being in their presence. ;) The next morning we dipped strawberries and frosted and baked more cupcakes (we ended up with way too much food....). At lunch time we ordered pizza and let the kids picnic in the front room and grandma and grandpa's -they were threatened with their lives not to get off the pink plastic table cloth. They did a great job. Then we cleaned up and had the shower. The little girls (Jocilyn, McKenna, and Gwendalin) handed Tricia the presents one at a time and we played a few little games and had some munchies...The little girls rather enjoyed the cupcakes and strawberries especially.









Fun times it was! I was super sad to see Lynn go- she is a doll and I enjoyed every minute she was here - she and her sweet Annabelle. Tyler loved the baby and would always go to her and say "Hi baby." It was so cute! But alas, still no baby (I was hoping to get one while Lynnie was still here). We even tried a good foot massage last night...but nothin'.