Valin's turned two!!! Party time!

The kiddos are napping and I've already finished my P90X workout, so it's time to do some blogging!

Over the course of about 6 months, Valin has literally falling in love with to movies, "Cars" and "Toy Story" (1-3) from disney and pixar.  He has Woody, Buzz, and Lighting McQeen pjs, shirts, toys, bedding, and he asks to watch the movies almost everyday.  So for his birthday, I decided that I would attempt to make a Lighting McQeen cake, since it would be the easier than Woody or Buzz.  I had been planning and working it out in my head for about a month before, so it all took mostly and afternoon to do. And I think it turned out pretty good.  I goal was for it to be good enough so that Valin would recognized it and scream "Queen!" like he does every time he sees him.

Since I used oreos for the wheels, I still had an almost full bag left over and there was no way I was going to keep it in my cupboards because I would eat them all.  So I decided to crush them, pour melted butter over them, and surround McQeen so that it would be as if he was driving on asphalt.  I thought it was pretty creative, if I do say so myself.

Here's Valin seeing it for the first time:
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One of the coolest thing was that Patxi got on Skype so he was able to "be with us" when Valin blew out the candles and opened his presents.  Patxi had to get up pretty early to do so. It meant so much to me and I'm sure to Valin as well.  I love my husband so much!

And here is Valin opening he's presents:
(it's pretty long, but the kids were hilarious! )


I think Valin totally enjoyed himself and I love to see him so happy! It was a great success!

P90X

Since my knowledge of fitness is somewhat limited, I decided to buy P90X to get me pass this spot weight that I can't seem to get over.  I am way excited to finally have the ability to get where I want to go! I can do it!

The first day went okay.  I slipped up twice. Yesterday my car decided it needed a new full pump and today, wonderful men from my ward fixed it for me.  To thank them, I got cookies, but some were broken and didn't fit on the plate so...you can guess the rest.  Then I went to pick up my car an missed the window I need to cook a good dinner, so it was a fast one that didn't quite fit within the P90X nutrition plan. But it wasn't that bad.  Anyway, I actually feel like I can follow it pretty well, that and I can do the workouts as well.  Sure there was times when I didn't have great form, but I did better then I thought.  So overall, I think I can do this! I feel as if my fitness dreams are in sight and on the horizon. I can do it! and will do it!

I'll try to give updates, but I'll be busy actually working out, cleaning the house, and taking care of my children, and sleeping which is all I seem to fit with 24 hours.  But I will post my beginning stats for historic purposes.

I think I can, I think I can. I know I can, I know I can.

Patxi's Christmas present

For Patxi this year I decided that since we couldn't physically be with him for Christmas, we could symbolically.  So I got nice framed pictures of us to take with him wherever he may be.

I bought three black frames and sent three different pictures for each so he could rotate them when he got bored.
So here is what I put in Boston's picture frame:

These are what I placed in Valin's frame:

These are the pictures I chose for my frame:

Major thanks to my dad for taking the pictures.  It took us like two minutes to get good ones of Boston, but it took an hour to get Valin's pictures.  That little boy would not sit still.  

Patxi got the package on our wedding anniversary (December 29th) and I talked to him on Skype the next day.  I was happy to see that he had hung the pictures up on the wall over the head of is bed.  He told me that he really liked them, and the smile that came acrosss his face proved that it was the best gift to give him. 

Some cute pictures of my amazing kids

I just uploaded pictures from my camera, so now it's time to put them on the web.  Since my house is getting closer to being in order, I can spend some time with my computer.  Duplex pictures are to come soon.

 My little stud-muffin watching a movie.

Boston loves to play with her feet. This is her at bath time.

Valin playing with the curtains at our new place. 

And he static hair that follows. 

Sometimes he reminds me just how small he is.

He's intensely watching a movie, with his fingers in his mouth.

Here Valin is singing "Popcorn Popping." Well, I'm mostly singing it while he does then hand motions.

Here is the one of the first times Boston actually laughs, which isn't like her normal giggle. 

Snow!!!!

Our weather is making up for the mild winter last year, inch by inch of snow.
   Usually I am all for it.  But now that I have kids who get cold easily, I hate to take them out in it.  So I'm pretty much stuck in the house all day.  If I do take Valin out to play, what do I do with Boston?  It's be better in our new house because we'll have a real backyard.
   But the worst thing is that I'm planning on moving this Saturday and guess what the weather plans on doing then?! Snowing!!! Ugh!

Halloween

We went up to Pilot Rock for Halloween because it was a Saturday and we had made plans before we moved.  Valin was a Knight and I tried to put together a kind of flower costume for Boston.

We went to the primary trunk-or-treat.  Valin had a mixture of confusion and utter joy as we went from trunk to trunk in the rain.  It was as if he would say, "I have no idea why you are placing candy in my pumpkin, but I am loving it!" I had Boston in my front pack, one hand holding the bottle to feed her, and the other one on Valin's keeping him in line.  It was one of the many times I was glad that Boston was bottle feeding because it would have been hard for me to bring Valin around the indoor carnival while nursing her.  So it was fun.

Four generations

Here is Valin with his stickers. He loves to place them all over his face and hands.  It's the cutiest thing!

 My Grandfather (Dad's dad) came up for a visit during the first of November.  We had to get a Four Generation picture.  We didn't get one with Boston because she was sleeping through most of it.

 But at the last minute, she woke up and Dennys got to feed her.

  

A crazy quick trip to visit the love of my life!

To kind of set up the story, about a month ago Patxi called me to ask if I was planning on coming down for a 4 day pass he was granted for the beginning of November.  At the time, we had just moved to La Grande and I was dealing with that stress and the apartment mess.  Plus, I was stick and my kids looked like they were getting it to, so the idea of me traveling alone with my two kids under the age of two made me cringe.   Plus, he said, if I were to go, he wouldn't buy my earlier argument about not wanting to drag my young kids all over Europe. (For Patxi's mid tour leave he wanted to spend those two weeks in Europe) So, needless to say, I said no, we wouldn't go down, even though I wanted to be with Patxi more than anything, I hated to imagine him alone in his barracks while everyone else was with their families.  He reassured me that it was okay because they were planning on taking trips with others whose families wouldn't be coming.  So I didn't feel too bad.

Then, Sunday the 7th- the first day of his pass, during our usual phone conversation, Patxi tells me that his trips had been cancelled because there wasn't enough people.  I could tell he was bummed.  And that picture of him reading a book in an empty barracks entered my mind again.  That picture and the desire to be with Patxi ate at me for the rest of the day until I found myself looking online for plane tickets.  I was still torn between the wanting to go and knowing that it was going to be a huge hassle.  Finally after a phone call from my sister, Jen, I pushed the "book tickets" button, and went crazy with the preparation.  My mom came over and we stay up til 2 getting everything ready.  With the help of my friend, Jamie Law, I felt pretty confident about the plane rides, but not about Patxi's reaction.  If you know Patxi then you know that he shuns hassle like the plague and doesn't appreciate anything spontaneous or expensive.  And as you can imagine, this decision was a huge hassle, rash, and pulling from our savings.  But I was bringing his kids to him, right?  He was sure to forgive me.  Late into the night, after I swear I was getting an ulcer,  I continued to repeat to myself, "The tickets are non-refundable, there's nothing I can do now but choose to make the most of it."  I texted that to Patxi and hope he would do that too.

So soon, I find myself, numb from only 3 hours of sleep, driving to the Pasco, WA airport, not knowing the way because the printed directions fell out of my pocket.  I franticly call my dad and find it.  We race to check in, then back to the car because i forgot Valin's car-seat, and then through security (which was a huge ordeal, even with the help of three different officers). I had just enough time to text my mom that we made it before they started to board the plane.  The ride was nice because Valin was quiet and observant since it was a new experience.

We landed in Salt Lake were Jen was meeting us.  It turned out that we barley had enough time and I would have missed my connection if a pilot hadn't helped me to the gate.  We landed in Menphis and by then Valin was so tired that as we were walking to our next connection, he triped and wouldn't get back up. There I was with a 3 month old in a front pack, with a huge backpack, and holding on to the leash/backpack that was on the back of an almost 2 year old who would only crawl.  Finally a personnel came over with a wheelchair and Valin got to be pushed to out next gate; there was no way that I could have held him.


After a shot of sugar, Valin was his normal self and he would have crashed if his dad wasn't at the other end of the terminal when we landed in Mississippi.  I really can't describe how wonderful it was to see Patxi's brilliant smile, to be hugged and kissed by him, and see the smile he brought to our children.  We were all so happy to be together, that we stay up til 1 that night.  The next day, we mostly stayed in the hotel, napping and trying to get a rental car.  We had dinner at Red Lobbter which was fun.

Then the next day we decided to go the the gulf coast which was about an hour from Hattiesburg (town

we were staying at just outside Camp Shelby). 

 These are pictures of us on while on the road.  Once we got to Gulfport, Valin had fallen asleep, so we decided to drive to Alabama for lunch which was about an hour from there.  Then from there we thought, "well, why not, let's go to Louisiana." On our way back we stopped to wade in the ocean.  The weather was amazing and the beach was great except for the garbage.  On our rode trip, we saw these small restaurants called, Waffle House, about every 8 minutes.  They were more abundant than Mc Donald and Walmart!  The people of the south must love their waffles.

Then we got so hungry that we stopped at the first restaurant we found.  It was the saddest mexican restaurant we've every visited.  But as we changed our direction and got back on the interstate, we saw tons of wonderful places we should have eaten at.  As we drove back to Camp Shelby to drop Patxi off, we heard the song, "I'm Already There" by Lonstar and it touched me so much that I cried on Patxi's arm.  I missed him already.  We sadly said our good-byes and drove back to our hotel.

It was a long trip home.  We got back to Pasco at 10:30 pm and I still had 2 hours to drive.  During that drive I got to thinking.  I felt, deeply, almost to the over-powering of my body, that I loved Patxi.  I realized that I had gone on autopilot with my married, and wasn't striving to deeply love my husband like I should or had in the past.  But after this reflection, I truly felt that I deeply, passionately loved him. Since I went though "emotional" fire so that he could see his children and so I could be with him, I was able to realized how much I really loved him and was willing to sacrifice anything for him.  Was it worth all of the hassle just to say good-bye again...? Heck yes! I would never take back those long, expensive, and wonderful four days.  Thanks to everyone who helped. But I'm most grateful for my Heavenly Father who had blessed me with the ability to make this trip and the reflection I had afterward.

So...here is a short update on this month

 Have you ever heard of the saying, "When it rains, it pours," because the author must of had me in mind when that phrase was created.  First off, my husband's deployed, so that leaves me as a single parent with two children under the age of two.  Then during the first weekend of the October, I decided that the best thing for me was to move from my in-laws, to a place of my own.  So in comes the stress from moving.  After about three days of living in the apartment I found in La Grande, I realize that it's not going to work.  Valin's bedroom is separated from the rest of the apartment and there's something in here that I'm allergic to because I have to use my inhaler more often.  So I stopped unpacking and started looking for another place.  Then this weekend, while my grandparents were up for a visit, my cold turns nasty and travels down to my lungs.  I was having a heck of a time breathing, even while using my inhaler.  After talking to my family physician, he deemed it something like bronchitis. Then, to tip it off, my milk supply, for nursing my two month old, started to dry up.  I'd try to nurse her but she couldn't get enough to satisfy her hunger, and what I do get out, is from an hour of much effort.  So I decide to bottle feed her, after a huge inter struggle with myself.  Of course, she doesn't like the taste of formula (who does? especially if it taste anything like it smells), but I force it down her throat, all the while wondering if I made the right decision.

     So here I sit, wondering when things were going to calm down.

i've never been stessed like this before

So, a lot has happened.  We moved to La Grande.  My in-laws were awesome, but it was time to have my own space with my own things.  We looked in La grande because Patxi wants to live there when we get back.  Anyway, we found a great 2 bedroom apartment. it has a fenced yard with a swing, great and safe neighborhood, all utilites are included in the rent which also includes laundry and internet.  But it's not perfect.  The one thing that's turning out to be a huge thorn in my side is the fact that its not self-contained. Meaning that Valin's room is separated from the rest of our apartment. I'll try to illistrate. The outside door opens out to a large room, i call the "common breeze-way." From there, there are four doors (not including storage closets).  Starting from the right, the first door opens to my apartment: living room, bedroom, dinning room, kitchen, and bathroom.  Next is the laundry room.  Then a  little bit down the hall is a studio apartment currently un-rented. Then, on the left side of the outside door, there is Valin's room. Do you see the problem? The reason why I accepted the problem and took the apartment was because we are hardly ever in Valin's room and the postives of the apartment, in my mind, would out way that negitive.  Now  that we are living here, it's become more of a problem and uncomfortable situation. Luckily, I sign a month-to-month lease, so if I find something better, we can move at the end of the month.  The stressful thing is that I've stopped unpacking so my house is a mess, I'm still trying to find something better, all the while trying to meet the needs of myself an my two children under the age of two. Crazy!!

Project: Fit within 1 year

I have a goal to lose all of my weight during the year Patxi is gone and will be blogging my progress.  Here is the address: http://fitwithinoneyear.blogspot.com/ Feel free to visit it, the more people I have to be accountiable to, the more successful I'll be. So please visit. Thanks 

7 weeks old!

We are all doing fine. It's been a week since Patxi left, and I am taking things a day at a time. So far things are managable and I'm not insane yet.  Valin had a little bit of a meltdown toady because he missed his daddy, but besides that he's been doing great.  Boston is great.  As soon as I stopped stressing about breastfeeding, it started to going much better.  Whenever anyone comments on how small she is, i really hear, "Aren't you feeding her enough?" And I need to get over that.  It's just a genetic thing and has no fault with me, right? Right.  Anyway, here are some updated pictures of Boston. I tried to get ones of her smiling, but this is all I got.

We're still alive!

Sorry that I haven't posted much.  I've realized that breastfeeding a newborn and caring for a very active toddler is a full time job.  So when I do have some time, I usually try to nap, shower, make dinner, or try to fit in the mounting landry. But next week Patxi will be here for a short visit before he is depolyed, so I hope to have some time then.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Please welcome...Boston Claire Waite!!!

So, to start off the story of Boston's arrival into our family, I have to say that my induction date finally arrived, though I was both excited and nervous.  We checked in at the hospital at 6:00 am and quickly got settled into a labor/delivery room in St. Anthony's family birth center.  I took to the bed with an IV and hospital gown while Patxi settled into the comfy couch.  Then we waited.  The Pitocin was put on a low dose to begin with, but not much happened. Then my doctor broke my water at 8:20 and I started to feel some regular contractions.  So we decided to get unhooked and walk the halls.  After about 20 minutes, they stopped.  I was so disappointed. 

Then, around 10:30 I got hooked up again, with the same level of pitocin, and my contractions came back.  Then, they increased, so much so that by 12:30 I was almost a 5 and getting my epidural.  I got labor shakes then, which is my body shaking as if it had the chills as a way to deal with the drastic changes in labor.  Anyway, it took some time to dull the pain, but then after a while I noticed that my lower left side was still hurting.  The nurses tried to move me around so that the medicine would flow to that area, with no success.  Soon the contractions were getting stronger and closer together and my lower left side was feeling all of it.  I asked for different pain medication, but couldn't get some because I already had an epidural.    The anesthesiologist couldn't come to give me more, or fix it because he was in surgery.  So I was stuck with feeling the pain.  Oh man, it sucked.

 Finally at 1:40, my anesthesiologist gets there and pumps me so full of meds, it only takes a few minutes to feel the affects.  Seconds after that, my nurse checks me and announces that she can't feel my cervix anymore and rushes to get the doctor in time.  The room gets very busy as I concentrate on not pushing until the doctor gets there.  Finally, we are ready and her head is already starting to come through.  After about three pushes with contractions and a little cut from the doctor, Boston is out and laying on my chest.  She surprised me because she hardly made a sound, and she was smaller than I expected.

So Boston Claire Waite was born August 11, 2010 at 1:58 pm, weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces, measuring 19 inches in length.

The stomach flu, bladder infection, and "You're like a two"

To begin the story correctly, I have to start with Saturday night.  Patxi, Valin, and I ate at a local diner to mix things up a bit.  But later that night Patxi started to feel sick, which was strange because he never does.  But I thought that it might have been the prime rib he ate that night and prayed that a good-night's rest would set him right.  Well, 8:30 comes around Sunday morning (church is at 9:00) and he is still in bed stating that he still feels sick to his stomach.  So I quickly get Valin ready and off to church we go, hands full with my 18 month old and my primary things because I was teaching a new song that day.  Then halfway through sacrament meeting, I started to feel a little queasy.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was going to get sick.  So I said a little prayer that I'd get through Singing Time.  Miraculously, I didn't feel sick while I was teaching, in between those times, yes I did, but not during.  I was totally blessed.  I pretty much raced home and got Valin some lunch, just in time for me to re-encounter my breakfast in the bathroom toilet.

Well, of course after that I felt better and knew that I should at least try to eat something, for the baby's sake.  It didn't take long for the few pretzels and nectarine I ate to rebel being in my stomach and escape through my mouth.  The only good news was the fact that I was getting contractions, even though the thought of going into labor was the farthest from my mind at that point.  I did occur to me that this might be how Heavenly Father was going to help me progress to a 2 of a 3 cm.  Interesting how he works, isn't it.  Anyway, my next goal was to keep from getting dehydrated, so I sipped as much water as I thought was safe.  At 5:00 that evening, I threw that up too.  Man, I couldn't even keep water down.  However, I was determined to stay hydrated, so I tried eating saltines and chewing on ice next.  It worked.  Plus Nicki, my sister-in-law, offered to go to the store and buy me some 7up to help settle my stomach.  Since the "ox was in the Myer" I said, "heck yes!" It totally worked.  I still had stomach cramps and contractions, but at least I wasn't throwing up anymore.

So today I woke up hoping, praying, and worried about my doctor's appointment.  This was the one that would determined if I progressed enough for him to safely inducement me on the 4th or if we would keep the 11th.  Well, I woke up to a bladder infection brought on from the severe lack of liquids of the day before.  I usually throw back 96 oz of water a day and yesterday I was lucky if I keep down 16.  So, I was not feeling good at all as I walk into the doctor's office.  He did inform me that I had progressed to a 2, which was good news.  But, since I was feeling so sick (and Patxi too), he decided to stick with the 11th so I had time to get over this flu and infection before I would have to tax my body with labor.  Though I was some what disappointed, he was right, I didn't feel like going into to labor, especially since Patxi felt so crummy too.  But I was a 2, and that means when we do feel better and will try things that give contractions, I am more likely to progress into labor.  So, I'm not distrot, I just have a strong hope that I'll go on my own this week ,as soon as we feel better.

So, that's it for this crazy -long story.  Hope you enjoyed this novel of an update.  Hopefully the next post I'll do is of our daugther's birth!