New Years Resolutions

So a little late but I wanted to make sure I wrote these all down so I can reflect at the end of the year. I'm hoping to stick to them this time.

#1 My biggest goal is to lose weight. It's no secret that I don't look like I use to look. I gained almost 100 lbs with Jacob, 30 lbs with Logan and 19lbs with Emmie so thats a lot of pounds. So my mini goals is 35lbs by my Matilda Jane shopping spree in June and then 55lbs by Christmas.

#2 I need to organize my life! I've got so much stuff in this house and I can't take it. I have high anxiety and all of these boxes and boxes don't help!
#3 Play with my kids more. Simple as that, take a break to enjoy life with my kids!

#4 Cook more. I cook dinner almost every night but I'd like to expand my cooking skills. Stay tuned for that

#5 Sew sew sew! On that note I leave you with my newest creation. Not hard to make by any means, but a lot of work for me :)

If I die young....

I've had that stinkin song in my head all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw8W6hYGZ0E

Today I went to a funeral. This was an extremely sad funeral because it was for a 12 year old little boy. A friend of mines son passed away on Tuesday. He had asthma bad, went into cardiac arrest and died in his mother's arms.

This situation has drained me. I find myself crying constantly for my friend. I cannot imagine how she must feel. The night we went up to the hospital she looked so tired. I couldn't stop crying. I had to walk out of the room numerous times. I tried to be strong for her, but all I could think about were my own kids.

Today was the funeral and she was calm. She had color back to her face and even was smiling! She made a speech and told everyone that although this was hard on her and her family, her son had asthma for 12 years and struggled everyday and she felt at peace to know that he was in heaven feeling no pain.

I have been hugging my babies extra tight the past week and trying to make sure that I'm not sweating the small stuff. Life is so short. Look at my little family. I feel like just yesterday I was bringing my brand new baby boy home and here we are with 3 kids, one about to be 3, one about to be 5 and the other about to be 1 already.

So please kiss your babies, kiss your husband, don't go to bed mad, make sure you take that extra 5 minutes at night to read them a story. When they are bugging you all day to play the silly and messy Elephfun game, PLAY it. Because you truly never know when it's your time.

2011

I'm trying to get back into this whole blog thing, so bare with me as I'm trying to make it over as well. I use to be really good at writing in this all the time, then I had Emmerson ;)

Not only that but I started my own business so things have been very busy around here!

I guess this first post will just be an update on the kids :)

Let's start with Jacob. Jacob is 4 1/2 and is already talking about kindergarten like crazy :( We've been getting flyers in the mail almost every day with invitations about open houses so I guess it's time. It gives me panic attacks to think about him being away from me all day. I keep asking him if he wants to stay at his preschool one more year so he can go to school with Logan and he says "nope I'm ready for kindergarten"

Logan has hit the terrible 3's a couple weeks early. It's been extremely difficult around here with sharing and going to bed. I've said this before but he was born the middle child :) His birthday is around the corner and he has requested a scooby doo birthday :)

Emmerson...oh Emmerson. She is almost 10 months old and has been walking since the day she turned 9 months old. Brad and I always call her little diva and she holds up to that name. Everyone warned me how different girls and boys were as babies. Now I believe it. If the girl doesn't get what she wants, she falls flat on the floor and bangs her head into the floor and screams. It's hilarious almost. It's a preview of her teenage years and it scares Brad and I to death :)

As of now I'm enjoying life with my 3 little monkeys and trying to get through all the craziness! I'm hoping I can really come back to blogging again!

Update on the munchkins

Let's start with Jacob. Oh my Jacob. He's becoming such a big boy. I seriously look at him and want to cry. He's turning 4 in a few short months and I honestly have no idea how it came so fast. I know people say "It seems like yesterday" but it seriously feels like yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital in his preemie clothes, which now fit on his teddy bears :) He loves preschool and has had the same "best friend" since day one. He is so polite and respectful. He loves his baby sister so much. About once a day he tells me "Mommy, thank you so much for getting Emmerson out of your belly."

It has been an amazing thing to watch how much he has come out of his shell since starting preschool. I remember last year when we would go to playdates he would stay by my side and not play. But now he barely knows I'm there. I didn't think it would happen so soon, but he won't give me a kiss on the lips anymore either. He either gives me his cheek or forehead. My little guy is growing up on me. Pretty soon he will be slamming his bedroom or in my face :(
Logan, man what can I say about Logan. I have said from the very beginning that he was born a middle child. He has such a personality on him. Sometimes that's a good thing but it's also a bad thing ;) He can be such a sweet little guy at times. He loves giving mommy and daddy hugs and kisses and right when you think that he's the most sweetest thing you've ever seen, he runs by Jacob and smacks him. Seriously, Jacob will be sitting on the floor playing quietly by himself and for no reason at all Logan runs by him and just hits him. I swear Logan has been in time out 100 times this month already.

He loves his baby sister like crazy though. He wants to hold her all the time. Today though, I left her on the floor on a blanket and went to the kitchen, which literally was 10 feet away and came back 3 seconds later to find my 10 day old daughter with a piece of pop tart in her mouth. I explained to Logan that although it is very nice to share with his baby sister, she doesn't eat food yet. Of course that resulted in a full on temper tantrum on the floor :) I think it's safe to say Brad and I are scared to see what 3 is like with Logan :)
Now let's talk about this little princess that has taken over in our house. I didn't think I had enough love in my heart for another baby, but boy was I wrong. Don't get me wrong....I love my boys to death, but there is something different about having a daughter. I felt an instant strong bond with her as soon as she came out and it gets stronger everyday. She is such an amazing baby and she has her daddy wrapped around her finger already. I'll be holding her and brad will ask me "Do you want me to take her" and I'll say no and then he will say "What I meant to say is can I please hold her." It's so sweet. And he will hold her for hours.....

She fits so perfectly in our family. I feel so complete and I have never been happier. Can't wait to see what the next couple months hold for us <3

Welcome to the world Ms. Emmerson

I haven't updated in this in a while and it makes me sad because so much is happening and I really need to start recording all of these things before I forget about them. So my new goal is to try and write in here at least 3 days a week.

So let's start with our big news! Emmerson Nicole Bowen was born on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 5:59am.

I went to the hospital on Sunday the 14th at 6pm to be induced due to my kidneys being backed up again. When we first got there they hooked me up the monitors and came back in 30 minutes later and said checked me and I was 4cm dilated (I was 2 three days prior) and was contracting on my own. So they went and checked with the midwives and instead of doing cervidil over night and then pitocin in the morning they decided to just start with pitocin. I remember looking over at Brad's face when the midwife said "Whose ready to have a baby tonight?" We were fully expecting him to go home and come back in the morning to get the show on the road.

Then anxiety set in. We have never left the boys before overnight so the thought of them sleeping with someone else besides us really got to us. I had my mini panic attack and then relaxed so I could "enjoy" my labor.

So about an hour after the pitocin I could start really feeling the contractions. They came in and checked me at 11pm or so and I was at 5cm. I asked for the epidural. (which is another entry on it's own) I felt awesome after that and decided to get some rest. I slept on and off for 3 or 4 hours and they came back in to check me about 4:30am and I was still at 5cm. I cried. I had this fear that the pitocin was going to slow my labor down and I was right. My midwife came in and broke my water (which was way less traumatic then having it break at home twice) and I immediately felt all this pressure. She told me to sit through 2 more contractions and she would check me.

I kept telling her "I have to push, I have to push" and she checked me and sure enough her head was right there. I was under the impression that an epidural would take away all the pain in labor, including the pushing but boy was I wrong. It all happened so fast and all I remember was screaming and my midwife telling me she was right there and one more push would bring her into the world and my mom telling me that she had the dark hair I wanted.

After 1.5 pushes she was here. I never cried after delivering my boys, but I bawled my eyes out when she came out. I don't know if it was because I was so relieved that after this horrendous pregnancy that she was out and healthy or if it was because the daughter that I have wanted for so long was finally here. Either way there were a lot of tears in the room that morning.

So now we are home and she is 3 days old. She's an amazing baby already. The first 2 nights she gave me a run for my money by not sleeping at all at night, but last night she did really well and only woke up twice to nurse. She needs to sleep laying right next to me and I swore I wouldn't do that again, but I believe Little Ms. may be our last baby so I'm enjoying every moment with her.

I feel like my little family of 5 is complete and I couldn't be happier!

Forget it

Well as you can see I haven't posted every day like I wanted to, but I have good reasons. I've been in the hospital twice since Thanksgiving for these stupid kidney stones so I've just been trying to do what I can. I'll try and play catch up but I have no idea what days these are from.


Our little horse drawn carriage rideLogan painting his cup for Santa

Jacob painting the plate for Santa's cookies

Snowman pancakes (Logan ate everything but the M&M's) ha

Jacob at his Christmas program next to his best friend Kaiden

Logan opening his Christmas gift from Greyson

Jacob open his Christmas gift from Ayla

Logan writing his letter to Santa

Jacob's letter...in which he wrote his own name!!!

Day 6-10

Hmmm, I got a little behind so let me see if I remember what we did ;)

Day 6- We woke up and painted our yearly ornaments. Jacob just wanted to hurry up so he could sprinkle glitter on it. Logan had such a great time! He loves anything artsy this was right up his ally. Jacob painted a snowman and Logan painted a Santa. After they dried, they both picked spots on the tree they wanted their ornaments to go. I can't wait for them to look at their yearly ornaments when they are older....

That night we went to the Lights Before Christmas at the zoo. Nana, Papa, Misty and Alex joined us. Logan LOVED every minute of this! It was a bit chilly, but the boys did awesome! I think Jacob's favorite part was the Hot Cocoa!

Day 7- We did our gingerbread house Monday night after dinner. I hot glued it this year so the boys wouldn't pull it apart. It worked perfectly! Jacob had a great time decorating it and I think Logan put one gum drop on the house and 10 in his mouth :)

Day 8- Mama was lazy this night so we watched Christmas movies!! The boys didn't mind a bit :) Oh yah and we ate Christmas cookies! That counts right? :)

Day 9- Ok ok mama had another lazy night! I made chili for dinner because it was FREEZING and Nana and Papa came over and watched a Christmas movie with us!

Day 10- We painted paper plate wreaths after nap time and the boys decorated them with gems. Again, I think Logan had the most fun! He just loves to paint and color. After dinner we went to this little museum and saw Santa and Mrs. Claus. Jacob went right up to him and sat on his lap and told him just what he wanted for Christmas. Logan wouldn't go near him so I had to inch as close as I could to get him in a picture. Afterwards Mrs. Claus gave the boys a candy cane and Logan decided it was ok to give Santa high five! We went and looked around at all the Christmas trees in the museum! It turned out to be a great night!!

Whew.....now I'm tired ;)