Creating Spring

I came to the decision that I wasn’t going to have a garden this year.  With a newborn baby – I just didn’t think I would be able to maintain it properly.  I also didn’t want our raised gardens to just grow into a weed garden.  I decided I should plant some flowers in there.  All I have to do (or have the kids do) is just water it.  Let them do their thing and admire the fun flowers.  These gardens are huge though and it would cost a fortune to plant enough flowers. 

We are attempting to grow our own!!

Jesse was snowmobiling last weekend and I was feeling patient so I had the kids help me plant the seeds.

When Max is concentrating really hard he opens his mouth like this.

I took the above picture of Mallory and went… oh girlfriend we need to wrangle that hair! 

It was messy!  But I was so relaxed and was trying really hard to not be a perfectionist about this and let the kids just do what they had to do.

Here are the seeds we picked out.

Mallory is very much Type A personality… she filled hers row by row.

Max is Type B – sporadically filling his.

Each one of them picked out sunflower seeds to plant.

Planting the seeds was a bit crazy.  So I didn’t get any pictures of that.  It required my full attention.

Do you know how tiny flower seeds can be?!  Wow!  They were kind of a pain to plant.  Mallory was really gentle when planting.  Maxwell was really aggressive and I’ll be surprised if any of his sprout!

Exhaustion

When Mallory is not in school – I still give her naps.  She needs them yet.  She just gets really sassy and doesn’t act like the little Mallory that she is – if she doesn’t get those naps.  She of course thinks naps are over rated and doesn’t want them most days.  However, she is sleeping before she knows it.  Every once in awhile I let her skip them – but she still needs to lay down quietly and read her books.

Last week she didn’t get a nap on Wednesday.  Wednesdays are really long days for us because of awanas.  We get home really late.  Then she has school on Thursday and has to get up to leave on time. 

So when I picked her up on Thursday I could just see exhaustion on her face. Max didn’t take a nap that day because I was watching my friend’s little guy and they were busy playing – so no naps.  Max fell asleep in the truck on the way to pick her up. 

I get Mallory – she climbs in and she is sleeping before I know it!!! 

I get home and I think… I’m exhausted too!  I think I’m just going to let them sleep a bit longer in the truck and I’m going to join them!

But I couldn’t sleep. I tried!  I was tired!  I can’t sleep in vehicles anymore!  I use to be like the kids and I’d be sleeping in 5 minutes… now I just can’t. 

So I sat in the garage, in the truck, surfing my phone while they took a bit longer nap.  You have to time these naps just perfect… if you wake them too soon they are cranky the rest of the night.  Too late and they won’t go to bed on time.  It is a risky situation!! 

Pics of Baby Girl–Round 2

The day after we found out we were having a girl – I got a phone call from my mid-wife about my ultra sound results.  Of course my heart stops and falls into my stomach.

She tried to reassure me that she was 95% sure that everything was going to be okay – but I stopped listening and instantly went into panic mode. 

Baby Girl had two cysts on her brain. Which is a normal part of development – however they are typically dissolved by 20 weeks.  These weren’t.  Again she was 95% sure that they would dissolve and that I should not give it another thought.  There were no other red flags on the ultra sound – which is a wonderful sign.  They have to call me and inform me and schedule a second ultra sound to check on them.

Well my pregnancy hormones kicked in and I was hot a mess.  I couldn’t stop crying!  Jesse came home and I took one look at him and burst into tears!  To which he got on the computer and started researching and found out that yes, 95% of the time the cysts dissolve and there is nothing wrong with baby! 

We had to wait 4 more weeks until our next ultra sound – which was last week.

She is checking around on baby then grabs another ultra sound tool and says, lets try this one.  It was her 3D ultra sound!  She said, we do not do this for everyone!  However baby is in perfect position and I just want to see her.

Here she is with her hand/arm over her face.

The ultra sound tech wanted her to move her arm away from her face – so we poked and wiggled… and she finally moved it and put her hands under her chin.

She was super wiggly that morning!  When we first started the ultra sound she was way up by my ribs on the right side.  Within 3-5 minutes she was way over on the left side!!

Then we got a picture of her whole leg stretching out!

At the end of the ultra sound I asked the tech if she knew if the cysts were gone.  She said, “I know – but I can’t tell you.  I will tell you though – that you shouldn’t worry about it anymore and do not expect a phone call.”  Whew!!!  They were gone!  And I have not received a phone call!!  No call – is good news! 

Mallory & Maxwell came to this appointment too.  Mallory was so excited and had to get dressed in full girly attire.  She wore a skirt & lip gloss & her paper princess crown!  She skipped every where she went! 

We get to the waiting room for the ultra sound and there are three elderly people in there.  They see the kids and they get big smiles on their face and are watching them find a chair to sit in.  They look at Mallory and say, “Are you the queen?”  To which she replies, “I’m a princess.”  They ate that up!!

Then Max was looking for a hunting magazine.  Max is totally into hunting right now and he knows there are hunting magazines here (because he looked at them last time we were here) and they were over in the rack by the three elderly people.  So I go with him to find it and Max tells them that he is looking for the hunting magazine.  They start laughing and asking him questions about what he likes to hunt.

We get called back for the ultra sound appointment and when we are done and we are coming back the three elderly people are still in the waiting room and when Mallory & Maxwell enter they say “Oh here comes the princess and the hunter!”

I am pretty sure we made their day!  And I’m so glad because I really have a hard time letting Mallory dress herself like this and let her leave the house.  She was totally not matched!  She had on a black & white stripped shirt with a brown & pink flowery skirt… with gray leggings underneath… with her pink and white tennis shoes!  I don’t even remember what her socks looked like but I am sure they were just as bold and I so crazily bought her fluorescent socks!  And then to top it all off with her paper crown that she made at Awanas!

I just have to bite my tongue and tell her she looks beautiful and let her wear it!  And I’m glad I did!  She truly felt special!