The start of Ragnar

These people had a blow up turtle strapped to the top of their car.

This one had a hula dancer strapped to the front.

This lady had one of those fake butts, I couldn't resist.

This car was a pig.

As you can see, those who are running this race have a lot of fun with it. There were cars that were decorated with lights and most cars had team names with sayings written all over. One car had WTF in huge letters on the sides and back of their car. On the back of the car it said: "Where's The Finish?" I had a good chuckle. The lady runner with the fake butt was the only runner I saw that dressed up in the festive spirit however. 

While sitting outside watching our mini parade go by, a guy who has bigger pecks, all muscle, than I do was running without his shirt on. Alexis says: "Mom look at that guy" in a voice louder than normal but not a yell. I acknowledged, quietly, that I saw him and hoped she'd drop it. But no, her next comment was: "Look at his boobs Mom! Do you see that?" Honestly, we're only across the street from these people it's not like he couldn't hear what was being said. I was praying that he was listening to music while he ran and that he didn't hear, although he might have laughed to himself if he had.

John should be starting his first run sometime in the next few minutes, here's hoping that he doesn't eat too much dirt while he's running! We get to go pick him up in Park City tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn and see how the race went, we can't wait!

Rain Rain we want to play

Sitting in front of the apartment waiting for the Millville Days parade to start.

It was freezing cold, it felt like March instead of June! We ended up sitting in the back of the Pathfinder to keep warm.

They threw a lot of candy and the kids loved running to pick it up. It took about three days to eat all the candy that they received.

Alexis came up with the idea to take the pillow cases off of the pillows and go bunny hopping through the house.

Alexis found a dead bird in the grass and decided that picking it up and carrying it across the yard was the best idea. She was being so kind though, she made sure Drew and Madison each had a turn to touch it! Then she came to get the sanitizer so they wouldn't be nasty. It still makes me shiver thinking about it, yuck!

The kids decided that running in the rain would be great fun. It was freezing cold, again, but they still played for about fifteen minutes before they were too cold to go on.

It reminded me of playing in the rain in Hawaii. We would throw our swimsuits on and go play in the gutter (nasty I know). It was so warm and we could play as long as it was raining, it was so much fun!

Daddy playing with his "grown up" toys while the kids ran in the rain. He is cutting boards for a "fun", as he was describe it, project that I came up with. He secretly enjoys being able to play with his toys no matter what he says! I'm excited to finish these projects and be able to post them, sometime at the beginning of next year.

John started his Ragnar race this morning!

Madison's birth

Madison was born at 38 weeks, but I'd had the steroid shots, like I had with Alexis, so I wasn't worried about her lungs at all. 

Because my contractions don't get really painful until after they break my water, I requested that they give me the epidural first and then break my water. I think this is what slowed her birth down. When I hit five centimeters dilated I expected to go really quickly, but she went one centimeter per hour.

When Eric broke my water there was blood in it. I like to think that I'm fairly well educated about things that can go wrong and what to watch for but this one threw me for a loop. I told Eric that they never covered anything like that on the Discovery Channel and I wanted to know what it meant. Turns out that it means the placenta is ripping off and you have to be monitored extra closely. This time Eric told me that if her heart beat when funny we'd be running for a c-section. Eric doesn't tell me things unless he's positive that I need to know them, so as not to worry me. When John came back from getting some food I told him what was going on and we all settled in. Sometime during the birth Eric and the nurse came running in and started rolling me and trying to get Madison's heart beat back to normal. They were able to, and Eric just stayed sitting on the couch with Jana after that. Madison took about half an hour of pushing to get her out and she was ready to eat as soon as she came out!

After having Drew, Madison was a breeze. She wasn't a sleeper either, but she also didn't scream bloody murder like Alexis when she was put in her bed.

Drew's birth

Drew's birth was an experience all it's own.

I was 37 weeks and had had preterm labor, which wasn't really doing anything. I told Eric he wasn't allowed to go on vacation because I was going to be having Drew but he said that I'd be just fine and he'd be back in three days. HA

I started contracting and it was actually doing something so John and I went to the hospital. While there Drew's heart rate was all over the place and I had three nurses running in to break my water attach the heart monitor to his head and roll me every which way. They also threatened to c-section him out without Eric if things didn't improve. They then called Eric to tell him we were in fact having a baby. We caught him just in time. He was at WalMart, in their motor home, getting stuff for the camping trip. Yes, he was trying to leave but I was having none of that. When Eric got there I was at a four and he didn't get what the nurses were all up in arms about with the heart rate. He looked at the heart rate recording and when they left he said that it wasn't nearly as bad as they were saying. Since I still had a little while left, he went to help Dr. Frandsen c-section twins. I knew that going from 5 to complete would go super quick but I didn't think that going from 4 to 5 would be quick. Shortly after he left they told me I was a five and I told them that it would be super quick after that. Half an hour later they checked me again and I was complete and ready to go. We decided that since Eric was busy we would wait to push until he came back, which was fine with me, I had an epidural and I didn't feel a thing. When Eric came back about half an hour later, we got ready to push and Drew's head was already crowning and it only took one push to get him out.

The nurse handed him to me and while I was holding him I could tell something wasn't right. I kept trying to give him back to the nurse and she kept telling me that he was fine. She finally took him and agreed to take him to the nursery to clean him up. She thought that I just wasn't bonding with my baby and that with some time I would and then things would be fine. John went with Drew and about an hour later he came back and told me that Drew was in the NICU because of breathing problems. 

He was hooked up to the CPAP machine when I was finally able to go and see him and they had put surfactant into his lungs to help him. They kept telling me that because he was full term he would be fine and it would only be a couple days. SIX days later we were able to take him home, with oxygen and a heart monitor. When we left they told me that he'd only need the oxygen for a few days, MAYBE a week and then he'd be fine. THREE months later they came and picked up his oxygen container!

Needless to say, Drew's birth and subsequent aftermath was much harder to deal with than Alexis'. He was a great sleeper, but he was also sick for most of the first two and a half / three years of his life.

Alexis' birth

I haven't fully recorded the births of any of the other kids and I wanted to make sure they were written down for future use, ie when they are teenagers or parents themselves.

I had preterm labor for the second and third trimesters and I had bed rest for nearly four weeks. When they took me off the medication and let me get up and move around nothing happened. Finally FIVE days after my due date Dr. Eric decided to induce me. 

Before I went to the hospital, John and I went and grabbed a Jamba Juice and then stopped by Wendy's for lunch with my family. We were in the hospital room by 1 pm and then they started hooking everything up and getting the pitocin going. Alexis' heart rate was dropping lower than they would like so they broke my water and attached the fetal monitor to her head to keep better track of her heart rate. They went so far as to tell me that if it didn't fix itself they would c-section her. Luckily Dr. Eric came shortly after and calmed them all down. I was stuck between a three and five for hours and hours. Once I was five centimeters dilated it took off and I was at a ten when they checked again an hour later. At the transition stage as they call it, my body decided that it didn't appreciate what was going on. I was hooked up to oxygen and had to take off the oxygen mask every contraction so I could use their pink buckets to empty what was left in my stomach. After pushing for an hour and half she finally came out!

When she came out, lets not lie, she was hideous. Her nose was swollen, she had two black eyes, bright red hair, a deep red tongue that she kept sticking out like a snake and some swollen lips. I will take the blame for the red tongue, I had Jana Hogenson go to the doctors lounge and get me a red popsicle while I was laboring because I was so hungry (Ha ha). The nurses weren't happy about it when they found out, but I didn't care.

Once she came the nurses left and no one came back for hours. I kept calling them because I had to use the bathroom, my leg had fallen off the bed and I couldn't get it back up and I wanted my baby back (they took her while I was feeding her and then told me that her sugar levels were to low and needed monitoring). Needless to say I left before Alexis was 24 hours old. The nurses weren't happy and kept telling me that it wasn't allowed, but I had Dr. Eric and he told them I was leaving!! That was my last baby delivered at Mountain View Hospital.
For anyone who has had a child, you know how important the bathroom is to you and first few days. Well, when we got home our toilet was not working and the plumber couldn't get there until the next morning. I felt really bad for him when he finally got there.

Alexis was a night owl as a baby. She wouldn't go to sleep until two or three in the morning and then she'd sleep until about eight and be up for the rest of the day with small (half hour) naps a few times a day. It should have shown me what was coming later on. She also wouldn't "cry it out" in her crib. They say that if you let them cry it out after a few nights there will be no more crying it out. HA HA HA. It took SIX months of crying it out to get her to sleep. 

No global warming here

It has been COLD this year. I don't care what people say about global warming, it is not happening up here in frigid valley. At the beginning of June it was FINALLY warm enough that the kids could play in the water. (It only lasted for two days and then it got cold AGAIN.) While it was warm, the kids LOVED playing in the water!

Drew couldn't decide whether or not to get wet.

Alexis, Madison and the neighbor kids climbing in the buckets they filled with water.

Doesn't she look excited to go and play?

And then the water was moved under the trampoline, which kept them happy for almost an hour! I can't wait until it gets warm and stays that way!

After the kids had played in the water we took them to a mini car show. They had free cotton candy and popcorn as well as a big slide for the kids, which they loved. John and I enjoyed looking at the cars and having the kids entertained with food!

Can you guess what Drew wants to be when he grows up? A firefighter. He was so excited to sit in the fire engine and have his picture taken.

I thought this "motorcycle" concept was cool. It's big enough that people can see you, you can sit next to your sweetie, it had a radio and it's open to the air. Maybe a sports car might be a more realistic option.

I know this picture is blurry, but I couldn't resist putting it in.

John went to check on the kids and found Drew watching a movie with this wig on. He wore it around the house for the next hour!

John and I, lets not lie, mostly John painted this desk black. It looks SO much better than it did!

I caught Madison playing with school supplies while the kids were coloring in the kitchen. She'd pulled the piano bench over and was completely content to play with mommies stuff instead of coloring with the kids. I found coloring all over my new desk after this picture, little stinker.

For Family Home Evening we talked to the kids about what the house rules are. #1 - Show Love. #2 - Obey Mom and Dad. The next day Alexis and Drew were arguing and I asked them if they were showing love to each other. Alexis looked at me and said: "It's not on a sign, so we don't have to yet." Yep, she did.

A favorite saying of the kids lately is: "If I eat all this food, I'll get as fat as you!" Needless to say I'm getting much bigger the closer our due date comes. I'm having lots of fun contractions but they aren't doing anything yet so I can't complain. However, Dr. Eric is going out of town and that is NEVER a good sign with my pregnancies. So, lets all cross our fingers that things go well and she stays put until he gets back.

Madison's antics

Monday night Madison decided to be part Indian. Thankfully I was able to stop her before the rest of the war paint was applied.

Wednesday Madison decided she needed a haircut. I was not quick enough to save her hair.

This picture is her showing me how she cut her hair while I get everything ready for the chop.

Don't worry the scissors have a protector covering them so she couldn't do anymore damage.

Madison lost her baby curls and now has a short bob. It was a sad moment in her moms life watching the curls fall to the cement, but the hair cut is cute and it could've been so much worse!

Madison decided to give herself a facial. That is chapstick all over her face. It is also on her hands and my counter and my silverware and my floor. 

Madison is relaxing after a long hard week. (Her hands are in her hair because she likes to twirl her hair, by the handful, and will do it to yours too if you aren't quick enough to get away.)

We went to Malibu campground up Logan canyon to check it out for a family camping spot at the end of this month. We found this bunny eating the dandelions and not caring that three small children were so close to him. I couldn't get the kids to all look at the picture at the same time and when John popped his head in, this is what we ended up with, I thought it was adorable! One looking at daddy, one looking to the right, one looking to the left and one looking at the camera!

Somebody built a little "shelter" just off the path to the bathrooms. The kids thought it was great. Drew wanted to make sure that he had a rock in his lap for the picture and Madison had to hold one too.

Although they were afraid that there were snakes in the plants they decided to go wading in them anyway. We assured them that there were no snakes, and they now call it snake eating grass.

Alexis was looking for Madison who tripped and fell.

And then she came back.

A picture of our backyard during the spring/summer. I'm not sure what season we're in. It's June and we haven't had a day warm enough to let the kids play in the water yet.

You'd think that with all Madison has been up to we would've had a full week with just that. But, alas that is not to be in this house! 

Monday was a nice relaxing day with daddy just enjoying family time. 

Tuesday I took the kids to the Dr. because Alexis and Madison had conjunctivitis. We also tested Alexis for strep throat and she got a steroid to see if it will help take away a rash that she's had for nearly two weeks. Madison has a nasty cough and he gave me an antibiotic for her if isn't wasn't better in a few days, to make sure it didn't turn into a bacterial infection. (We're going to pick that up today!)

Wednesday I went to see the chiropractor because the nerve in my neck was pinched and driving me crazy.

Thursday all the kids had teeth cleaning appointments with the dentist! They did great, even Madison! No one cried or whined and they didn't bite the dentist or his assistant! He gave us a prescription for fluoride tablets for the kids, which is spendy I found out. I also had a nasty head cold and body aches. Thankfully it was only for about 24 hours.

Today I was looking forward to a relaxing day of cleaning my house from top to bottom, since we've been running all week and things haven't been getting done. However, we are going back to get another prescription because Alexis has a UTI!! I'm wondering why kids don't mention things like this when you're at the doctors office instead of a couple of days later when you have to pay to go back. Hopefully putting her on this medicine will help her to quit being so cranky and irritable.

Tomorrow we are cleaning out the storage unit and moving it all to the garage. I should say that John is doing it, lets be honest, I'm not lifting a finger! I will make lunch for him though!

We're hoping Sunday is nice and relaxing.