Halloween is coming along with my birthday!

My dad came home from California this weekend, so the kids and I decided to stay at my parents this weekend. First, we decorated here. We put upo all of our lights and decorations. The kids put up all of the window clings, including some in their rooms.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party at my grandmas then the kids went to a Halloween party. The babe and I rested and just hung out. I rented What Happens in Vegas, which I tried to watch several times in the hospital but was too drugged and tired to make it through. Sunday, Mom came to help me with my antibiotic, then we headed to their house. The kids made caramel apples and carved pumpkins.

My brother and SIL, and nieces came over for dinner and the activities. While I was there, I also got to order my birthday present from Tim, which I got to pick out. I am so excited, it comes tomorrow morning. I bought myself a camera a few years ago. It was the first thing I had been able to buy that was just for me, since I had become a single mom. During our vacation to Bryce Canyon in July, I dropped my camera coming down Bryce Canyon. So, for my birthday, I am getting this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120285&nm_mc=OTC-C173T&cm_mmc=OTC-C173T-_-Digital+Cameras-_-Canon+USA++Inc.-_-30120285
No more stupid crappy phone pics! I get real pictures! I cannot wait, I am like a little kid on Christmas Eve.

James fell asleep in his swing during dinner. It was so cute. Here is him just waking up.
And a pic of Grandpa and James:


We all had a great time!

What would an update be

without a bunch of new baby James pics?

I'm back ;)

And I swear I am going to get this updated. There is so much to share. I went in for a hysterectomy October 1st and ended up with infection and was there 18 days. Here's the long/short version of what happened.

This a c and p from one of my boards.

At my 6 wk check up after James, I had an abnormal pap. I went in for a culposcopy, the cells were severely abnormal and were advancing fast, since my pap in Nov was normal. My cervical canal was too narrow for them to remove the cells. I was done having children(my tubes were tied). So my dr. and I made the decision to do a hysterectomy abdominally since I had had three c/s's. My hyster was Oct. 1st. I went in, surgery went well, but was lengthy. He removed 3 1/2 in of scar tissue and gave me a bonus 2 1/2 in tummy tuck I was running a very lowgrade fever but did my discharge paperwork fri night, my dr came in sat morning to discharge me and my fever had spiked to 101. They kept me and a barrage of tests started. They did:
EKG
3 CT scans
a TON of blood workblood cultures
HIDA scan
u/s of abdomen
u/s of legs for bloodclots
xrays of my lungs and a bunch I cant remember.

I had my reg dr, an infectious disease dr, and a surgeon seeing me daily. For a week and a half they couldnt figure out was wrong, I was on high dose antibiotics, and they kept me pretty drugged so a lot of t is a blur. Two weeks ago tonight, my fever spiked to 104, and they couldnt get it down. They made the decision to go in vaginally to remove the mesh they had put by my bladder thinking my body was rejecting it. They also wanted to get a look at the small mass that was forming in my pevis that they could see in the last CT scan. They couldnt get it vaginally, so went in with a scope in my belly button and still nothing. They ended up reopening my incision. My poor incision runs hip to hip They took out the mesh, the mass, and put in two drains. I still had the fever, and they switched abx again. It made me deathly ill, so after two days I made them switch my abx back. My fever broke last Saturday and they let me go home. Somewhere about 3/4 of the way thru my stay, I gave up. I had been pumping and dumping every 2 hrs for sweet baby James the whole time, and after the second surgery, it was too much I was physically exhausted, I couldnt do it anymore. I had fought so dang hard to keep nursing him and keep my milk in, but it just was too hard. I could barely get out of bed. So I quit. Now that I am home, I am costantly nursing him, and my milk is slowly coming back. I think we are making huge progress. He went right back to nursing easily, its just a matter of getting my supply back up. If you have any suggestions please throw them at me. I am hoping my Dr. will clear me on Monday to take Reglan, but last week he wanted me to wait becuase of the ten millions meds I was already on. I am now down to two meds. I still have my Picc line in and give myself IV abx every day and give myself a shot of Lovanox every day. But, I am home with my kids. And that is the best. I am getting stronger very day and am doing great.Here's some pics:

The roses the kids bought me:

My pretty arms:

The tooth fairy is going broke

Payton lost one of his front teeth after over a year since he lost his two bottom teeth. It has been losse for weeks and it finally fell out. Two days later, the other front tooth fell out. So, now he has a big huge gap in the front of his mouth. Alexis also had a molar pulled on the day in between Payton losing his two. Pulled molars pay big bucks from the tooth fairy ;)

These are after losing the first tooth.

Payton showing off his tooth.

New random pictures of the kids

What would an update be without new pics of my beautiful children? Sweet baby James sleeping in an outfit that Payton wore when he was two lol.

Payton promoting peace ;)


Alexis ignoring her brother.


new baby James pics:

Oh my goodness, I have some major updating to do!

I have been meaning to get to this for two weeks, but life has been unbelievably crazy around here. So much to tell, some very exciting, some unbelievably sad. But, all extremely important in my little life. I am going to try to go back as far as I can and get you all updated. This may take several posts. Two weeks ago, some of the girls from my downline and I got together to make dreams boards. It was just such an enlightening experience for me to let go a little bit of my goals, and to actually dream. I had small things and big things on there. Material and non material, but all importnast to me inb some small aspect. My sitter brought James to me to nurse and he fell aseep on the shoulder of one of the girls in my downline. He was so comfy. I was able to spend some time with some of the girls and really get to chat with them. It was great. Thanks girls.

I finally got my two dozen prefolds in the mail that I ordered quite awhile ago. I got them prepped and thw two older kids and I took on the job of dying them pretty colors. I was in charge of orange, Alexis did black, and Payton did blue. James slept in his swing nearby LOL. Here is our finished poroduct in bad light. I swear I am getting a new cam for my birthday, and my pics will get better. Im so mad I broke mine in Bryce Canyon. . When we were done, we all took off our gloves, and poor little Lex's hands were dark black. . We scrubbed and soaked for hours. I finally had to mix a little bleach and water to get them decent enough to go to school. We had a blast dying them though ;)

I got all of my banana bread done. My mom, and Jessica and I spent all day last Wednesday making 60 meals, (30 for my family and 30 for Jessica's) It took us about 12 hours burt was very rewarding when we finished. Heres what 60 meals look like crammed into a freezer LOL. Jon (my brother) and i are going to get my new deep freeze tomorrow. I am so excited to get it. Oh, I also froze 15 bags of corn last week as well. I never made it to peaches or tomoatoes but worse things have happened. So many other things have happened the last two weeks, but they all deserve their own posts, so I'll keep blogging away.

Preparation and Procrastinatron

Knowing a month in advance of my upcoming hysterectomy allows me a few weeks to prepare for the time I will be down. The baby and I are flying to Reno for three days in two weeks for Summit for the ACS Relay for Life training. Four days after we get back, we leave for Chicago to go see Tim! Wahoo! Two days after I get home, I go in for surgery. Six weeks after y surgery is my wedding. So, until I leave for Reno, I will be busy getting everything ready for my down time. There are a few things I want to accomplish before then.

1. Make 200 mini loaves of banana bread. I finally figured out the recipe and the right amt today. Here is the finished bread.
I made 80 mini loaves today, 120 to go :)

2. Pump approx. 150 oz or about 30-5oz bottles of breastmilk to have for James when I am under anesthia and on drugs. This has been difficult since this is in addition to the amount that I am nursing him. I am averaging about 2-4oz bottle a days. I have 20 oz. so far.

3. Make 30 freezer meals, so my family doesn't starve while I am down. I am preparing to do this, selecting my recipes. I want to have my complete menu and shopping list ready when I leave for Reno. I will be shopping the morning after I get back from Chicago and spend the next day cooking all 30 meals.

4. Can peaches and tomatoes and freeze corn and green peppers. This is at the minimum. I would like to do at least these four things this year, and then branch out to more veggies/fruits next year.

5. Do as much wedding stuff as I can. I went shopping for my flowers last week with Melissa. I really wanted her to do my flowers and since she is moving to Atlanta, we decided to do silk instead of fresh. She finished them up today and brought them over. Sorry for the crappy pics, my camera broke. My bouquet:

Nat's bouquet:

Throw bouquet:

Alexis' corsage is on the left. It is a wristlet. The one on the right is what my mom's, and both my grandma's look like.

Boutonierre(sp?): Tims, the middle is what ric's, my dad's, my grandpa's, and Payton's all look like. The tiny one on the right is for little James.


So, now that I have made myself look all prepared, let me show you my procrastination today. On Thursday, Payton's teacher sent a note home stating that Payton is going to be the start of the week next week and to send some items to hang on the wall for several different categories. I remembered this at about 5:30 pm today. So, here are a few of what I put together.

My Family:
My Favorite Place:

My Favorite Book:

My Favorite Toy:


And since our day would not be complete without a picture of James, here is one Payton took.

How freaking cute is he? And so begins the banana bread

The pictures of James keep getting better and better because apparently I have nothing better to do than to take a ton of pics of him. This is my second favorite pic ever, next to the eyebrow one.
James is just starting to play with toys, so big brother gave him his giraffe to play with while I was getting him settled for bed tonight. He LOVED it, wouldn't let go of it.

So, for our wedding I am making 200 mini loaves of banana bread for our wedding favors. My goal is to finish them in the next two weeks before I leave for Reno, and I am freezing them asI make them. I am using Tim's mother's recipe for banana bread which I got from his sister. I made my first batch tonight and they actually turned out really well. I am 10 down, 190 to go LOL. I was going to use the mini loave pans but decided to do the mini bundt pans. I am going to put a poem and our wedding info on little scrolls and put them in the center, then wrap them in tulle with a ribbon in our wedding colors. Here is a mini from the first batch.