Ben is OLD now too :)

Ben turned 29 this year the day after Isaiah was born. I was almost able to hold on so they could share a birthday, but even though they don't share the date, I think Isaiah was a pretty awesome early birthday present.

So, since we spent his special day in the hospital,we had to do his birthday dinner about a week late. We ordered pizza and his Mom made him a homemade German Chocolate cake for dessert. We had the "party" over at his parents' house as I didn't have the energy to make sure my house was perfect since I had only had a baby the week before and was still pretty sore from my c-section.

The best part of the dinner was when Ben was opening his gifts and came to the one I got him from the kids. It was a Supermanshirt, since he is definitely our Superman. He opened the shirt and even though Antonio knew what it was it was like he was surprised too. He was so very excited and when Ben put it on, he jumped into his arms and gave him the biggest hug. Then for the rest of the night he kept telling him all about how much he loved his shirt. It was so precious. :)

Happy Mother's Day TO ME!

What a wonderful Mother's Day this one was for me! I was given the best gift EVER! Isaiah Howard Veloz arrived on Mother's Day, May 8, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. He was 7 pounds 2 ounces and 18.5 inches long. Although, when he was measured at the pediatrician's office four days later, he was measured at 19.25 inches long.

He is amazingly perfect. For being born at 36 weeks and 4 days, he is just perfect! He went straight to the nursery, and after an hour in recovery for me, I was taken to my room, and he was brought right to me. So much better than the 13 - 14 hours of recovery I had with the twins. I was able to nurse him right away. It was just fantastic.

The kids are so in love with him, too. They love talking to him and holding his hands and giving him kisses. They want him to be able to play more than hedoes, but other than that they are great with him.

They try to comfort him when he is crying. I think the crying makes Antonio nervous. As soon as he makes a sound, Antonio is saying, shhh, its okay little buddy. I just love it. And even though Analise and Antonio are having a little trouble adjusting to not being the center of attention, we are doing just great.

I never thought I could feel so complete. I always knew something was missing, I just never realized once he was here how perfect everything would feel. And it truly does feel perfect. Life is so great!

New Mommy-mobile

In preparation for our new bundle of joy's arrival, Ben and I have been looking online for Honda Odysseys for several months now. We knew we wanted to get his student loan paid off first to help off-set the cost of a car payment, so up until recently we have only been looking.

We paid off his student loan at the beginning of February, so the looking really began. We found a couple that were good deals, but they were 200+ miles away, and we were worried about driving all that way to not like it or have it not be what we wanted.

Then two weeks ago we found one in Vegas that was an amazing deal. We decided to get pre-approved for a loan first before we went and looked at it so we would be able to tell the seller that we could get it right then. So we spent the time at the bank, got it all set up, gave the seller a call and...it was already sold! :(

That night we decided to look online again and I told Ben I was going to email about one that was posted a week earlier. It was more than we wanted to spend, but I thought it was worth a shot. I sent the email and it was still available. Then I asked them about coming down on the price. We asked them to come down $900. We didn't feel it was too much to ask, and worth a shot. They agreed.

So we headed back into Vegas, gave it a test drive and decided we wanted it. The husband's name was the name on the title so we had to wait nearly a week to make it happen because he was out of town, but it was worth the wait.

We picked it up, handed over the check, headed to Carmax and sold the Pacifica. We even got home in time to register it at the DMV! It is all ours, and we now have plenty of room for Isaiah when he makes his appearance. One thing off the to do list. We also got the dresser situation sorted out, so that it is another thing off our to do list.

Now to get the clothes out of the crawl space and all cleaned up and ready to go. And then to finish the Twin's closet situation and I will feel much better about the fact that the little man will make his arrival in 10 weeks or less!

Here is a pic of my new Mommy-mobile. :)

Getting closer

You know, the end of May seems like it is still a considerable time away, but in reality it is right around the corner.
I can't believe in just a short time we will be a family of 5. It makes me feel very nervous and some what unprepared. I better get a jump on getting the baby's room/clothes ready. How am I going to fit everything I have to do into the next 12 weeks? Ahhh!

PAIN!!

A pain like I’ve never experienced! Friday night, there I was minding my own business. I had finished dinner and my stomach was starting to bother me. It was up under my ribs and in my upper back and I thought that maybe it was gas. You know, pregnant women tend to have a little more gas than normal.

The only problem was, the gas was kind of growing in intensity. We went to the pharmacy to get some Gas-x in hopes that it would gobble up the gas and I’d be all better in no time. I drank a diet sprite in the hopes it would help me burp and relieve the gas pressure.

All of this started at about 7 p.m. By 11:30, I was about ready to die. I had tried everything I could think of. I put a heating pad on my upper belly and my back in hopes it would break up the gas. I had wiggled and shifted and tried to get comfortable in any way that I could. By 12:30, I woke Ben up and told him we needed to go to the hospital because my stomach hurt so bad and I was at the point where I just couldn’t stand it anymore.

We quickly grabbed some stuff for the kids for the next day. Antonio was already awake as he had woke up crying just before I woke up Ben. Antonio, the bossy little thing when he is tired, told me if my stomach hurt then I needed to go to the bathroom.

We went in to Analise’s room to grab her some clothes out of the closet and turned the light on. She woke up and asked what was going on. We told her they were going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house cause Mommy needed to go to the doctor.

At this point I was crying because it hurt so bad, which made Analise cry. I sucked it up the best I could because I didn’t want her to be upset. Ben drove and called his mom over and over until she woke up and answered the phone. We were able to drop off the kids to them and then head in to Vegas. There is a hospital in Pahrump, but it is rather scary and I was in so much pain I thought it was a better idea to go in to the hospital where my doctor is occasionally on call just in case. Plus, if there was something wrong with the baby, I wanted to be at the best hospital in Vegas.

It took us about an hour and a half to get there. We went to the ER. I told the lady at the counter that I was having abdominal pain and pain in my upper back and that it was causing contractions. Now, what would you think if I said a pain I was having was causing contractions? Would you think it meant I was pregnant?

She told me to fill out a paper and turn it in when I was finished. So, I did. One of the questions on there was, are you pregnant. I marked the yes box. Would that make you think I was pregnant?

So after waiting for nearly half an hour, she called me back to do a pre-registration. After about 5 minutes of questions, she looks at me and says are you pregnant or… as if she was going to ask if maybe I was just fat?

I said, yes. Well, that changed everything. I wasn’t supposed to be in the ER, I was supposed to be in labor and delivery. I told them it wasn’t the baby that it was something else, but that didn’t matter. She then proceeded to tell everyone, well she never said anything and she doesn’t even look pregnant until she sits down.

While normally that would make me very happy…at this point I was rather frustrated. What more did she want me to do? Jump up and down, or scream at her? I wasn’t going to be rude for fear that it would cause the wait to be longer.

After getting wheeled over to labor and delivery and waiting for a clean/empty bed, I was finally where I needed to be. They put on the monitoring strips and I could hear Isaiah’s heartbeat. It was a very strong heart beat, but the monitoring belts sure hurt because they put pressure on my stomach which was already killing me.

After being at the hospital for more than two hours, I had been seen by the doctor who told me what I had suspected, a gallbladder issue. After four very rough pokes, the I.V. was in and I was able to get something for the pain and nausea. I had thrown up several times and was very dehydrated which made it difficult for them to get the I.V. into my veins.

I was told I was going to have to be there for 23 hours of observation. They did an ultrasound on my gallbladder and determined I have multiple stones. I am too far along in my pregnancy for them to do a surgery now but they will supposedly after I have the baby. This means I have to spend the rest of my pregnancy on a low-fat diet. Which totally stinks since everything that I’m craving is certainly not low in fat. Oh well, as long as Isaiah stays in there as long as he is supposed to and I can not have that immense amount of pain ever again, it will be totally worth the low-fat diet.

Oh, and thankfully I only had to be there about 16 hours. I was able to go home on Saturday and sleep in my own bed. Thank goodness!

My Babies Are 4!!

I just cannot believe that my babies are 4. It seems like only yesterday I was having them. It doesn't seem like they have been in our lives for as long as they. On the other hand, it seems like they have been a part of our lives forever. I don't even remember what it was like without them here.

For their fourth birthday party, we did it a little smaller than we have in the past. Because of our birthday party day luck, we decided keeping it small was a good idea. The past 2 years, it has poured the rain and been very cold on their birthday party and we have ended up with 50 plus people in the house. Not that I mind all the people in the house, but it is just very crowded and hard to have a good time. Not to mention, in the past we have spent the whole party barbecuing the food. This year we made it easy...we ordered pizza!

We had a Princess/Superhero party. We had the kids come dressed up in costume, or borrow one of ours if they didn't have one, and had a blast just playing outside. The only organized "party game" we had was a pinata, which they had a blast breaking. Overall, I think it was a fabulous party. :)

Here are a few shots for your enjoyment.

SNOW DAY!

I still get so baffled when there is a snow day here in the desert. Growing up in Kentucky, snow days are pretty typical but here in the desert, not so much.
The first scheduled day back for school was canceled due to a snow day. And I am so grateful for the extra day with Ben. The Sunday night before, we had gotten quite a bit of snow already. I was exhausted and went to bed early, but Ben and the kids went out to play in the snow and built a snow man.






The next morning we woke up to even more snow. Ben had gotten a call early in the morning canceling school for the kids, but they contemplated making the staff go in. So, he got up, got dressed and just before leaving for school he got the call that he was out for the day as well.

So, when the kids got up it was time for playing outside again and building another snow man. This time they made her a snow woman, and she was the snow man's girlfriend.


It was a great, relaxing day even though I did have to work some.

2011?!

I just can't believe we are already into 2011. When did this happen? What an amazing year we have had. There have been struggles, but that is with any year. Some amazing things that have happened this year:
* The kids turned 3 and have shown us how to be patient. :)
* Ben and I celebrated our 10 year high school reunion, 5 years of marriage and 11 years together. It feels like I have loved him forever.
*Analise started ballet and is a natural at it. She had her first little recital at the Fair and Festival (aka Harvest Festival, aka Fall Festival) and her Mimi was able to be here to watch it with us.
*We took our first trip to Disneyland. We spent a little time at the beach and an entire day at Disneyland. It wasn't nearly long enough, but the kids loved every second of it.
*Ben and I decided to have another baby - even if it meant we got two more, but were thrilled to find out we are having just one this time. It will be a whole new experience for us. And the little bundle of joy is a boy. We are still deciding on how to spell it, but his name will be Isaiah/Izayah.
*We spent lots of time together as a family and have loved every second of it.
*We have also spent lots of time with friends. I love watching the kids interact with their friends and have their personalities shine.

We spent Christmas in Nevada this year. We missed our family in Kentucky so very much, but still tried to have a great holiday. The kids were so excited Christmas morning to see that Santa had come and brought them some terrific presents. They already can't wait until next year!

We spent New Year's Eve up in Trout Canyon at the Floyd's cabin with our friends. The kids and Ben played in the snow, while I watched. I didn't want to be a party pooper, but I wasn't sure how good of an idea it was to rush down a hill when I'm almost 5 months pregnant. I had a blast watching them have fun. It was fun for me too. :)

Now we look forward to all the wonderful things that will come to us in 2011.
*The kids will turn 4! Which is so very hard for me to believe.
*God willing, we will welcome our newest little addition to the family.
*The kids will start t-ball, which they are both thrilled about
*Analise will have her first, formal ballet recital.

I know there will be so many more wonderful things to come to us this year, and I'm excited to experience them all with my amazing children and my wonderful, loving husband. I am such a LUCKY woman!