Liberty turns 4!

I know, it is so awful that I am still trying to catch up with things I haven't posted about over the past two months! Liberty turned 4 on June 28th. WOW, she is one 4 year old drama mama!! But she still manages to win us over with her adorable smile. It was really fun being pregnant with her because I was pregnant with my sister, 2 sister in laws, and one very dear friend (probably more than that if I thought about it long enough) I was on the list for induction at Chandler Regional and instead of going in the afternoon like I was supposed to, they called me at 2 a.m. Our super best friends (that were expecting their 1st) came and hung out with us; it was a lot of fun to visit and just hang until it was time to actually do something. I don't remember all the details for sure, but I know it was early in the morning when they started the pitociin and I decided to just wait until I needed the epidural (bad idea!) Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was our first experience of letting it be a surprise. I was FOR SURE it was another boy, but desperately wanted a sister for Emberlyn, especially because they would be 18 months apart, which is what my sister Tiffany & I are, and we are best friends! Anyways, things were going slow so Devin & our friends decided to go down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Devin double checked to make sure that I was ok if he went b/c the contractions were starting to pick up and I assured him I was fine. Little did I know that in the 20 min. they were gone my contractions went from fine, to bawling b/c they hurt so bad. Good ol' pitocin! I have NEVER had that happen before and it was SO awful. I was crying for the nurse to hurry and get the anesthesiologist there, who was of course not available for 30 min. After about 15 min. I asked her if she could turn down the pit to see if that would help and her response was, "oh, yeah I could do that, I'm sure that would help a lot" Well geez thanks lady!! Shortly after that the Dr. showed up and placed my ever wonderful epidural and I have a picture of me smiling and re-applying my makeup after he left. Dr. Lamb came and broke my water and withing 30 min. it was go time. The coolest thing about Libertys delivery was that the Dr. had before hand asked Devin if he wanted to help deliver the baby and he said no thanks, so I asked if I could pull the baby out and he said "sure". (Dr. Lamb is the BEST most AMAZING Dr. ever, by the way!!) So I pushed her head out, and delivered the shoulders, then I reached down and pulled her out. It was so cool!! I laid her on my chest and Devin looked to see what we had and as soon as he said, "it's a girl" we both started crying because we were so excited for Emmy to have a sister. It was so wonderful to have my sister and our friends in the waiting room so they could come in as soon as she arrived. She weighed 8 lbs. and was so perfect. When the kids came to see her in the hospital Emberlyn refused to let anyone hold her, except for her. We have another pic of Emmy screaming b/c Tiffany tried to take her away. Despite all the drama, I do love my girls. And I love my little Liberty and the sweet smiles and love she brings into our home.

Food for thought

I keep wanting to start a new blog for recipe sharing & cooking tips, but it hasn't happened yet. (I know....I'm so lazy!) ;) Anyways, I just wanted to share something in the mean time. I am trying to find ways to sneek in more healthy things for my family. My husband is even worse than the kids sometimes.....even with things like trying to drink 1% milk instead of 2%! Anyways, one of my new favorites is using flaxmeal! It has TONS of nutritional benefits & I am learning about ways you can use it to substitute things like eggs, oil, & butter. I have done this in my breads and even in a store bought muffin mix (cuz I was out of eggs) and it turned out wonderful, you would NEVER know I had changed anything. PLUS I think one of the best things about learning to use flaxmeal is that we can store it in our food storage!!! Instead of paying for very pricy powdered butter and powdered eggs, you can use the flaxmeal, which is fairly inexpensive. Here is some info I copied off the web. Happy Baking!

1T flaxmeal + 3 T water (let sit for afew min.) = 1 egg

"Here are a few ways I've used the flax meal so far:
I've put a teaspoon in the kids' chocolate milk-they didn't notice.
I added a few tablespoons to my cookies- can't tell.
I put a few tablespoons in my banana bread- can't taste it.
I sprinkled a teaspoon on my oatmeal- I could taste it, but it was good."

(http://www.agardenofblessings.blogspot.com/)

Happy B-day Mason!

Mason turned 7 years old on the 16th. He is such a funny and sweet little man. As I put in an earlier post, this year I am going to recall events of each childs birth experience for journaling purposes.
At first when I found out I was having another boy I was sad, BUT only because I had a previous ultrasound and was told I was having a girl, so I was quite shocked. But when it came time to meet him I was very excited about having 3 little men in my life. This was my first experience with putting myself into labor. My sister in law is a mid wife and she gave me her recipe for her "bomb" that puts you into labor, and it did just that. Masons labor was actually the best experience I have ever had. I went into the hospital and I was at a 3 and started moving along quickly. This was also the first time that I had my mom there with me, which was really special to me. Anyways, I got to a 7 and was still pretty comfortable, which is ABSOLUTELY not my normal experience!!! I got too scared about how bad the actual delivery would be so I went ahead and got the epidural. I went from a 7 to ready to push in about 20 min. He arrived weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz., he seemed to tiny to me! We still had not decided on a name until he was born, Devin wanted Ammon and I wanted Mason; while I was pushing the Dr. asked me, "what is this little guys name?" And I just looked at Devin and he said, "it's Mason" What was he supposed to say as his wife was pushing out his 3rd son. HEHEHE! :)
Poor little Mason came down the birth canal so fast that his whole face was black and blue. The nurses had to put a little sign on his bassinet that said, "yes, my face is bruised" because they said they didn't want the Dr's & nurses to think he was purple from not breathing. The umbilical cord was wrapped 3 times around his neck and he was having a hard time breathing right after he was born so he was rushed off to the NICU. He stayed there for 24 hours under an oxygen bubble thing. He also had jaundice so he after he was home we had to sit in the sun with him every day. But regardless of all of that, he was perfectly fine and Austin & Hunter were thrilled to have a new little baby in the house.
Mason has always been our funny little man that makes us laugh. He has such a big heart and about a dozen times a day will come up to me and wrap his arms around me and tell me how much he loves me. He says the sweetest prayers too. The other night we explained to all the kids about my 3 Day walk and why I was doing it. His prayer that night was, "Heavenly Father, please bless that lots and lots of people will come to the garage sale, so people won't be sick and have cancer." You don't get much more pure in heart than that. He is such a blessing to our home and I don't know what I would do without all his hugs and kisses.

(Thank you Uncle Jacob for the WAY cool Spiderman cake!!!!)

5 1/2 months

I missed Rykers 5 month post and he will be 6 months in a few weeks so I figured I would do a 5 1/2 month post. :) I feel like my little baby is gone! He is so huge! Still such an angle baby, I really couldn't be more blessed. He has two new teeth that he got in the last week, he learned how to roll over and he is starting to hold his own bottle.....which he drinks 10 oz at a time, how crazy is that!! He loves to grab our faces and can hold onto toys and play. The other kids love watching all the new things he learns and get so excited when he does something new, but I usually cry. I was holding my friends 2 month old who only weighs 9 lbs. right now and I couldn't believe how super tiny she is!!! I guess that's what happens when I start out with a 2 month old baby. :) I really love him and it is fun to watch him grow and love his siblings!

And seriously, could he look any happier! He is like this all the time. Even cutting his new teeth, he had a couple of bad days and that was it. He is such a sweetheart!

Masons 1st ER trip

Mason finally got inducted into our family hall of pain! His 1st trip to the ER got him 8 stitches in his ankle. He slipped on the bathroom floor and sliced his leg open, and when Devin called me and said, "Mason needs to go get stitches" I knew it was bad, b/c there has only been one other time he has said that one of the kids needs to get stitched up and that was when Hunter was 5 and he gashed his head open and got 7 staples........usually we fix it up ourselves. (you gotta make do with 8 monkeys running around). Mason was a little nervous about going, but calmed down when Devin told him that kids that have to go to the ER get a kids meal from McDonald's when they are done. That made it feel all better! He cried and cried while they numbed it up, but overall he was really good. When he got home he was super excited to show off his stitches to all the other kids.

Our New Venture!

Just a little shout out for our new business! DK Services specializes in;

* Residential Cleaning
* Commercial Cleaning
* Professional Organizing
* Handyman Services
- landscaping
- concrete work
- painting
- drywall
- plumbing
- carpentry
- electrical
- pressure washing

Check out our website @ www.dkservicesaz.com
and our blog www.beorganizedbehappy.blogspot.com
Spread the word!!!
480-203-1831

We love rain!

So many fun things to blog about, so little time! The other night when it started pouring down rain Liberty and I happened to be at Wal Mart. We walked around for 20 min. hoping that it would die down, but that never happened so we finally decided to leave. When I got to the front and saw the SHEETS of rain pouring down I thought, "hmm, this ought to be interesting." Libs was in her jammies and flip flops (it was like 9...and they were cute jammies!) So I decided that I would leave my cart at the front door and run w/Liberty to the van, then pull up to the front and load the groceries. Liberty was HILARIOUS!!! I gave her a sack to lay over her head (no, her head was not IN the bag, just laid over her hair), took her shoes off and we ran through the soaked parking lot and she was giggling hysterically all the way to the van! When we got in she said, "that was so funny mom, when we get home I am going to tell Dad what we did." And she did just that! It made me laugh, and reminded me how the simple things in life can bring us so much joy.

(I used this picture of the girls after they got new dangly earrings and were dying for me to take a picture. It was way funny how they would shake their head from side to side to feel them shake...I so remember doing that!)

Gas Anyone??

I had to take a min. and write about the fun time I had this afternoon! My gas tank was below the red line this morning so Devin left me afew $$ for gas. I figured I could make it to pick up the kids from school. HAHAHA!! While I am airing up my flat tire so I can leave, I have Liberty run back in the house and grab my cell phone...just in case. :) Rewind a sec; my kids school has 3 different schedules and kids are getting out at different times. They have a 1/2 day every Friday, but do you think the school could send home some info on how that is supposed to work? Or even what time they get out?? Heavens no; that would make this story boring!! Ok, so I leave to get the boys, (which I had to call just to find out what time they are getting out) who are supposed to get out at 11:55. When I get there at 11:50(praying all the way that I would make it there and to the gas station...why I couldn't leave early to get gas before is beyond me!) Mason comes out to the car right away...then we continue to wait until 12:10 when I finally ask an aide where the heck my 3rd & 4th grader could be. She leaves to go hunt them down. 12:10 Austin & Hunter finally get out to the car; which I have now turned off and we are all sitting in the HOT car! "Where have you been" I ask, ever so lovingly. ;) "oh, they were holding us until Emmy gets out @ 12:15" Well, the aide hears our conversation and explains to me that they hold all the older siblings until the Kindergartners get out to make it easier on the parents. Probably would have worked out to be easier HAD I BEEN TOLD THAT!! So Emmy is still not out and I know I'm running on fumes. So I leave to go to the gas station and come back for her.....I didn't make it very far. So I call my sister in law, who lives next door, and she says she will be right there to rescue us. She calls back 2 min. later to let me know her car won't start! YIKES! So I call a friend who lives a block away from me and she says she will come save us, in about 10 min. b/c she just got out of the shower. So by now it's like a thousand degrees in the van, so Austin, Hunter & I all grab a baby and we start walking back to the school. A super sweet lady sees us and pulls over. We all pile into her 4 door truck (with her 4 kids) and she drops us of at the school, where I find Emmy & my two nieces sweating to death outside waiting for me!! Luckily my friend is there waiting w/her nice cool suburban and she takes us to the van where she puts afew gallons of gas in to get me to the gas station. Holy cow, could she be any greater!!! So after all that, we made it to the gas station where we refueled, got hydrated and finally made it home! All in a day in the life of crazy ol' me! :)

First Day of School

Oh heaven help Masons teacher!!!!













































































It is always a sad day when school starts....no more sleeping in and staying up late! :( But this year was even harder because I was sending off yet another Kindergartner! Emberlyn couldn't wait to start school and has been counting down the days for about a year now!! I cried all the way home from dropping them off because when we got to her classroom she dropped her bag at the door and ran to sit with the other kids and I was left standing at the door, "bye Emmy.....bye....I love you......bye Emberlyn" yeah, she didn't even look back or wave bye. TEAR!!! I know she is just excited though. I did call and leave my mom a sappy message telling her that even though I am 30 (oops, I mean 29!) I still need my mommy!!! I just can't believe how fast they grow up! Austin will enjoy the 4th grade, Hunter is in 3rd, Mason is in 1st and little Emmy is in Kindergarten. Next year Liberty starts!! AHHHHHH!!! Where are all my babies going!?!