New Years Goal

So there is always the typical goals...lose weight, be a better housekeeper, keep up on money management..things like that. But this year I am adding two goals that I really really hope to accomplish.

The first is to read the Book of Mormon with my hubby all the way through. I'm ashamed to say I've never read it all the way through and I think it be about time I do so! So why not do it with my best friend. :)

The second is to write in journals...yes you read that right journals. Not only mine but I'm going to start a new project. I will have a journal for each of my four children and write down things they accomplished, funny things they said or thoughts I had about them that day or week. I know it won't be a daily thing but I hope to write in each of them at least every two or three days or when the thoughts arise. :) I thought this would be a fun way for me to remember things and them to read later in life. I'm actually really excited about it!

what are some of the goals you have for this upcoming year?

My boys

I just have to share this. I absolutely love love love my boys! I love how much they love each other.

Seriously Brian adores his son and Dean feels the same way about his daddy. Dean can be all wiggly and uncomfortable with me and calm right down and be at peace the minute he hits daddy's lap. Even when I'm nursing him and Brian is sitting next to me he would rather watch daddy then bond with me. haha.

Here is a picture to show just how much they love and adore each other.

don't you absolutely just love this picture? I do. I love my boys.

1900's

On Friday I picked up the girls, then we drove to Dean's daycare and picked him up. As we were driving to meet some of my family at McDonalds the girls sang Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer to me. They were forgetting some of the special inserts like "like a light bulb and HoHoHoHo" so I helped them out when they got stuck. After the song, here is the conversation that we had...

Bethanie: Mom how did you know all those words to the song?
Me: That song has been around for a very long time
Juliet: Ya from like the 1980's
Silence
Me wallowing in the self pity of knowing my kids officially consider me old!

It was pretty funny actually. :)

Should have

so for weeks Brian and the little nagging voice in my head kept telling me to get all the pics off my phone. Tomorrow I kept telling it, when I have time.
Again - get the pictures
Tomorrow I kept telling it, when I do my blog
Get the pictures.
I will right after I take this last video of my darling baby boy.

Too late.

That's right....my SD card corrupted and all my pictures and videos from the last year and a half are gone....Gone. Brian looked and looked and he couldn't bring them back. I am going to try to take it to the Sprint store to see if they can recover them, but I have a feeling its hopeless.

I'm devastated. Thankfully I did send various family and friends some of the cutest pictures or uploaded them to FB...so not all is lost...just most. Like Bethanie's spelling Bee and the girls's kindergarten graduation. Halloween and birthdays....all of it.

so moral of this tale. Always back up your pictures and never ignore the voice in your head!

Delay

I know I said I wou;d post about the added drama of Dean's birth.....but he has been verry needy lately and i'm plain tired. so it will come. but it will be delayed. :)

The end of the beginning

On this day last month Dean was born. So here is his story. I will spare you the other details ;) other then say Dean was conceived in love with the man I can't imagine my existence with out. I was so excited to be pregnant and we both prayed for a boy. Then came the joys of pregnancy...I was sick for almost five months, living off of protein shakes and chicken nuggets.

Brian was a doll and even rubbed my back a few times while I puked yet again on an empty stomach. Not my finest moments! and I thought it would never end. Everyday I would get up to go to work and pray I wouldn't puke in my car that I would be able to make it to the office. A couple times I would work my second job which is bar tending for the local theatre and some of the customers would come over smelling of assorted drinks and snacks and it would take everything I had not to yak right there at the bar!

Then one day my sickness subsided and I was overjoyed....until the next wave of joy came along. Hurting joints and hips. My hips hurt so bad I thought it would be better to just rip them off and go thru the rest of my life legless! There were days I couldn't get out of bed without Brians help and it still took me several tries because of the pain.

But through it all I watched my belly grow and round out. :) and I felt my precious baby moving. It really is an awe inducing moment to know that you are carrying a living being inside you...not only carrying but growing. That you are the only one that can give this child what it needs and protect it completely. And even though I was super sick and I hurt sooo badly. I wanted to keep him for as long as possible.

I was due October 28th, but because it was a scheduled C-section they had me come in for the surgery on October 21st. I worked up to the 20th and can I tell you I cried the night before because I wasn't ready to be apart from him. I know I would have him but I wanted it to be just me and him still...I wasn't' ready to share. Brian was though. He was so ready to see his boy.

So morning of surgery. I woke up at 3am to eat a meal...I couldn't eat for 8-9 hours before surgery so I had a bowl of cheerio's with banana's. I played on the Internet and then went back to bed. A few hours later we got the girls up and drove them to boys and girls club. Then we tinkered around a bit and then made it to the hospital for our 11am check in.

They got me in a little pre op room where both Brians parents and mine met us to see us off to surgery. so one of the awesome things about having a baby is you get to get poked and prodded all the time. I was getting an IV....easy right? they give IV's all the time. Nope...not in my family. The nurse started on my left hand and was digging and digging and finally found the vain....but once she put in the needle to the vain she hit a nerve. I thought I was going to die. It was one of those pains where you couldn't even scream right away because it literally took your breath away! My mother in law took one look at my face and told the nurse that wasn't going to work. I"m so glad she was watching me and told her that or else she might have kept going! so they took it out and re did it on my right wrist. Do you know to this day if you touch my left wrist the wrong way that hit nerve still flares up and hurts. Its insane.

Finally the doc came in, we chit chatted with her for a bit. I love my doctor, she is simply amazing. and then off to the surgery room we went. Brian went one way and I went the other. He had to put on his fancy scrubs and they had to get me all prepped.

As I sat on the table while they did the epidural, I realized without a doubt this was the last one I was having. Not that the epidural was super painful or anything. It just brought back the memories of what I was about to put my body thru and I knew without a doubt I was done. I had an inkling before but this was absolute. So I was numbed up and ready to go. Brian finally came in and sat next to me. He had his camera at the ready. :D

At 1:53 they cut into me and started getting all the nasty stuff out of the way. I could hear the docs giving their doc lingo about what they were cutting and fluid volume and color. I kept looking at Brian and he kept squeezing my hand and smiling. At 1:54pm they pulled him out and we heard his first little cry. It bring tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I told Brian to go cause he wanted to tape all he could. So off he went to be with Dean and there I lay being sewn up. I could hear him crying and whimpering and every fiber of my being wanted to be reconnected to him to make him safe and warm and make the hurt go away. I was instantly in love with him as I was with Juliet. My life was yet again changed forever!

After getting him all cleaned up and cleared out Brian brought our baby over to me to see. We looked at him like what he was, the most precious gift we had been given on this earth and we were the luckiest parents in the world. A little while later I kissed my boys good bye so they could get situated and I could finish getting repaired.

I was wheeled into my room, which was humangous. I will post pictures of that probably tomorrow. And was able to hold my baby for the first time. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The absolute love and trust they have for you is indescribable. They way they recognise your voice and grow attached to you all over again and me to him. Its something no one can really describe until you've been through it. New Born's are simply amazing and such a miracle.

The rest of the day was us watching him, him watching us. ....a few dozes here and there and of course the food network. :D

I will tell the rest of our stay tomorrow and probably the day after that I will tell you of the other 'adventure' we got to go thru. But for now I think I've yacked your eyes off enough for today...plus I've got a little one who is vying for my attention!

Happy One month baby boy!

Dean Harrison Snyder

He has arrived. He's actually been here but I've been trying to get the hang of being a new mom again, dealing with hospital visits, learning how to breast feed, entertaining guest and trying to balance my other three into the mix, not to mention deal with the baby blues.....so blogging has been on the back burner. I apologize. For now I will give you the basics and of course a picture or two and then I will decide wither to do his birth adventure now or when he turns one. ;) I'll take votes if anyone cares to tell me when they would like to hear about it.

Dean Harrison Snyder was born on October 21st 2011 at 1:54pm,

He weighed 7lb 11oz and was 20 inches long,

He has olive skin and sandy blond hair. Blueish eyes (for now) and poor thing...mommies eyebrows and daddy's monkey toes.

He is a great mix of the whole family and sometimes I can't even believe he is mine.

Brian is fantastic and loves him to bits. He is over the moon about having a boy ( and I think it helps that he had him with me - excuse my big head hehe).

The girls are loving him, especially Juliet. She is constantly getting me things and helping me or just watching to see how to change a diaper or feed him or change his clothes. She says she needs to know all of this because she is going to have (depending on her mood) anywhere between 6 to 10 babies when she grows up...some from her and some adopted. Man I love that girl!

I love all my children!!! I love my family. Happened kinda fast but thats ok. One of our friends the other day mentioned how fast we did things, Got married, bought a house and then had a baby all within a short time. Brian said "we were slow finding each other so we had to catch up" I freaking love his answer.....I freaking love that man!!! I'm so glad Heavenly Father let me find him and let me have our family complete with a baby boy! We...I am truly truly blessed! I just can not put into words how much so.