Incredibly Amazing Week

I just downloaded pictures from this past week and there were a ton!  Kindergarten graduation was on Monday and Emma graduated!

 With her teacher-Ms.Crosier

Field Day was Tuesday which was lots of fun too!  A few people made me sit down, because they were worried about me.  For good reason, since I started having contractions that night.  Scott had me go up to my class to pack up.  I stayed there till ten and got a ton done!  The contractions stopped for five(ish) hours and then started coming once an hour.  I was still able to sleep in between!

 Emma is in a sack race behind my kiddos

Emma on the bouncy slide

Wednesday was the last day of school and Movie Day!  We made a Father's Day craft and I thought I did a good job at not flinching during contractions!  I even did Just Dance Kids with my kids!  I wanted to encourage the contractions, because I had just received a phone call to set up an interview in Emporia!  That's on Tuesday!  So, I needed Samuel out asap, to give me some recovery time!  I knew my doctor's appointment was at 4, so I just went to see how things were going.  It took over an hour to see the doctor and my contractions were getting closer and ouchier.  He checked me and I was at a 4!  What?!?  Then I started making frantic phone calls!  I called Mom and left a message.  Then I called Mandy and Scott to let them know we needed to head to the hospital.  Scott got Shelby to watch our kiddos while I preregistered at the hospital and got all the kids an overnight bag packed.  We dropped them off with Shelby with profuse thanks and headed to the hospital!

We finished the registration and headed upstairs.  I was super excited that my nurse was a lady from church!  Woohoo!  She helped me out a ton!  I got an iv in and an epidural.  The doctor wouldn't break my water.  He wanted to sleep instead.  Mom, Mandy, Alexis and Kim headed down and got there at around one.  Kim helped out with kiddos.  Josh was having a hard time, so she picked him up.  I started pushing at two thirty (ish) in order to get the baby's head down and try and get my water to break.  It didn't work.  I was pushing for an hour.  Of course that was with some breaks, because I cheated and would keep breathing through two contractions without pushing.  The monitor wasn't working, so I was able to not tell them when I was having a contraction every time.  I know my limits, and knew I couldn't handle that much pushing.  The doctor finally came and broke my water.  Then I pushed for another hour until the neverending push came that finally got him out!  He was not a small baby!  He was born at 4:35am on May 22nd.  He was 8 pounds 15 ounces, and he was 20 and a half inches long!  And he was a week early!  Wow!  He ate pretty well and then got cleaned up.  I think he's adorable!

On Friday we left the hospital in the morning.  We got my prescription and the stuff we needed from Walmart.  Then we worked on my classroom!  We were finished by 12:30 and I turned in my classroom keys, signed a couple papers, and we went home.  We packed like crazy for the next day!  While in between we drove an hour to pick up the moving truck, to having the check engine light come on, shopping at Target, getting the oil changed and diagnostic codes printed.  Then we headed back the hour home to start packing the truck.  After all the boxes that were packed were loaded we saw there was no room for furniture, so no beds (other than Josh's and Samuel's), no dressers, no couches, and no table.  I packed the rest of my stuff that night and helped in Ben's room.  Then Elder Starkey cleaned behind packing!  So our house looked pretty amazing when we left!

We left at noon on Saturday and slowly made our way north.  We stopped every couple hours to feed Samuel and potty break.  We stopped at a park first, then gas, food and feeding.  Then we had an awesome rainbow and a huge rainstorm before our ice cream break/feeding.  We all got 2 scoops and Kira was the only one who ate all of hers, though Emma was close!  We finally made it and Scott had already had my family help him unload the truck into the storage spot!  So, we're all in Olathe!  Now to organize and put stuff where it can fit here!

Today we went to church with my family (after dropping off the Uhaul truck).  I only made it through Sacrament meeting.  Then Kim took me and Samuel to her house!  She fed me and played with Samuel while I napped.  Very nice!  I'm exhausted!  I think my body did what it had to do to get here and then just stopped.  I'm still super impressed!  It's amazing what a body can do!

Beginning of our last week here

We all spoke today at church, since it's our last Sunday here.  Kira told a story about a little girl who stood up for her beliefs and didn't drink tea.  Emma told Kira's story of not drinking tea at a tea party (and she read her talk from her notebook)!  Leah said her testimony and Ben told the story of the guy on his roof in a flood who prays for help and then refuses help from the boats and helicopter that were sent to save him.  Yeah.  Then I spoke on Reverence.  It's such a hard topic, because I didn't want anyone to feel bad, but there's a huge reverence issue!  My kids see it and think it's okay for them to do the same and it's not.  Not that my kids are anywhere close to perfect, but we're working on it!  Scott spoke on the 12-step program and how it helps draw us closer to Jesus and use His Atonement.  Josh fell asleep and slept most of Nursery.  He was so tired!
This past week has been crazy!  We've started packing and collecting boxes like crazy.  I've stayed up till midnight/one every night doing grades/report cards/graduation prep.  That's after staying at school until 5-7pm.  My poor kiddos have hardly seen me this week!  I just keep reminding myself that I'll have the summer to spend more time with them!  When I'm not applying to more jobs or interviewing (I hope)!  This week is going to be CRAZY too!  We have field day and Graduation and packing up my classroom...  Plus packing the rest of the house, trashing stuff that needs to go, donating things we just don't want to move, deciding what will go into storage and what will be needed the next few months.  We have a lot going on, but hopefully not having a baby until we're all moved!  We're just putting everything in storage but our clothes and the baby stuff, so it will be an easy move into my parents' house.  They're so awesome to be willing to let us live with them for a little while until we figure out where we're going to go!  My kids can't wait!  I'm sure it will be lots of fun!

What is love?

I was asked to do a fun blog post on what my kiddos think love is.  Thanks to Brilliant Earth for asking me to do it!  They are a place to go for ethically sourced diamond rings!  Here we go!
My kiddos are pretty funny!  I know that they love me for every flower they pick off the rose bush, thorns and all, for every snuggle, for every time they hold my hand and give me big hugs to tell me I'm the bestest mom ever!  They show their love for me every time they work hard to help our house be cleaner and lean over to pick something up for me.  I love being their mom!

Ben (11):  "Love is when you really care for somebody, so much that you will actually marry them."

Kira (10):  "Love is when you care for someone and don't want them to get hurt, or if they do get hurt you feel bad for them.  You don't want to do anything to hurt them!"

Emma (6):  "It's when you love them enough to be husband or wife."

Leah (5):  "Whenever you find someone you love and then marry and then want to have a good time."

Cecilia (3):  "Love is when you don't care enough.  They want to marry theirselves."

Josh (22 months):  "Aboo."

Getting bigger

Let's see, Ben graduated from Gang Resistance Education and Training on Monday.  He was excited to get pizza!  The Officer that taught him recognized me from when I had seen him at Project Rock at our school last week.  He told me what a great kid Ben is!  I can't hear that enough!  Then Wednesday was Activity Day girls, we made play dough sculptures.  Along with all of my kiddos (but Ben).  Thursday was the last day of the After school program and my Doctor's appointment.  I gained another three pounds this week and I"m measuring 39 weeks.  That's six pounds in two weeks.  I'm feeling every pound!  It's super hot out too.  I'm very tan, which makes me look so much younger!  All from recess duties.  Kira and Ben hadn't missed much (if any) Project BEST, so they each got a bag, and Kira got a ton of other stuff.  We also had a Mother/Daughter Pamper night on Thursday.  While Scott taught English/Spanish.  Friday I remembered to send the Teacher Appreciation gifts with my kiddos.  Emma lost the original two presents for her teacher.  Grumble, grumble.  I even got a present from one of my kiddos!  So sweet!  My school kiddos all did very well on their big MAP tests (so far).  Emma is in the 96th percentile, Ben is off the charts and Kira beat what she needed to!  I'm so proud of their hard work this school year!  Just another week and a half of school left.   I've started packing things up at school and Scott has been packing at home.  We're building up our supply of boxes thanks to Wal-mart!  We're desperately hoping that Samuel waits to come, even if it makes me a little on the miserable side.  I'll be fine, so long as he is!

 Last Sunday I was feeling very cute in the skirt I made!

 Lil' man falls asleep after his tiring 2 hours in Nursery every Sunday!

 Getting our Weekend Snuggles in!

 Ben's GREAT diploma

 See how dark I'm getting?

My new nails courtesy of nail polish with Jamberry on top.  I love them, but I need to buy the white chevron too.  These are a little loud for me.  Yes, I am holding Josh's hand.  He falls asleep so much better when he's holding my hand!

Sunny days

And wow am I tan!  Just having recess duty everyday had me tan, and then the School Carnival actually got me a little burned.  So, I'm looking a lot like I did when I was twelve and lived outside!  It's interesting to see myself looking like me again!
I gained a whopping three pounds this week, although I did eat dinner right before my appointment.  I also gained 3 and a half inches around my middle this week, so I stopped measuring!  I'm still measuring three weeks big, so still going to be a big baby!  The good news is that my placenta isn't low anymore, so I don't have to worry about that!  Woohoo!  He still hasn't moved down, although he is head down, so I'm not concerned about having him yet.  Which is great since I haven't even packed my bag yet.  I've been putting it off in the hopes it keeps him from wanting to come out!  Doesn't hurt to try!
Ben has been super active this week.  He ran out of his medicine on Wednesday and his Doctor's appointment isn't until Monday, so I gave him placebos (ibruprofen) every morning, so he still felt like he was getting medicine.  He got Student of the Month on Wednesday!  I cried.  It was for Integrity.  Just the fact that Ben is doing well enough in school to get Student of the Month is amazing!  I was so excited!  I had no problem asking my awesome paras to cover me that morning, so I could go!  My Principal okayed it too, of course!
Kira desperately wants to run, and I slacked off this week with all we've had going on almost every night.  So, we'll start back up this week.  Poor Kira cried when she found out that I was going to make it to Ben's Student of the Month Ceremony, since I didn't make it to hers (I didn't know about it).  Kira works so very hard!  She's hoping for Student of the Year, and I'm hoping that she gets it and they tell us, so we can be there!  She did amazingly well at fasting for over 24 hours!  She even bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting!  I'm super impressed with her!
Emma lost another tooth.  It has been loose, but an incident with a fight over a mop helped knock it loose enough that it finally came out yesterday!  She's pretty excited.  I'm worried that she doesn't have much for front teeth now, although the middle teeth are coming in, it's just slow!
Leah is doing better with self-help skills and she's learning her letters!  Hurray!  She's getting there!
Cecilia finally got over her three day fever!  I was not getting enough sleep during it, so I was super glad when she started feeling better!  She's very into ballerinas and babies right now!  She's also very snuggly.  Especially when Josh is snuggling with me.  She usually tells me that I'm the bestest mom ever.  Or that both of us are the best moms ever.  She does take very good care of her favorite baby doll!
Josh is also loving baby dolls and his cars.  He will pick up the spare baby doll that Cecilia isn't holding and he'll hold it for her!  He's been talking a lot more this week, and his jibberish is so cute!  Every once in a while he'll say something understandable, like "Josh."  This week he picked up this crazy fit where he holds himself ramrod straight, sticks out his tongue and shakes his body till his face turns red.  Craziness!  He sits on me whenever I sit down and when I come home, he always screams "Mom!" and hugs my leg!  So sweet!
Poor Scott hasn't had a great week, but I'm hoping this next week is better!  He's so worried about me going into labor as we move!  Whatever happens, happens, but I refuse to worry about it!  I read somewhere that if you worry about something and it happens, then you had to live through it twice!  No thanks!
In the meantime, I only have four days of the After school program and only 13 days of regular school!  Fun times!