Holy Cow...3 years!

Where has the time gone? Someone asked me recently if I still maintained my blog and I had to remember that yes, at one point I had a blog!

Geez, where has the time gone. Isaiah is crazy big, almost three-years-old now and the twins are seven...seven! Seriously, I don't know where the time has gone. I promise to try to be better at posting. I have a lot to update!

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!

Stress!!!

Oh gosh, has it been a stressful week! First I was excited/stressed/nervous about finding out how many babies were in there - in case you didn't see my last post, there is only 1!! And then I've been stressing about my Dad. On Friday he was put in the hospital after a test for bloodflow to his left came back showing that it was diminished. On Saturday they did the first surgery, where they went into the ulcer, cleaned it out and removed a piece of his bone to determine if the bone was infected.

It came back showing that it was slightly infected, but with the IV antibiotics they are very hopeful that it will clear up. Then, today they went in to work on the blood flow problems. They found multiple blockages, but were able to fix them and as of right now he is doing well. We are still praying that the infection in his foot and bone continue to heal, at hopefully a much quicker rate now that he has good blood flow to his foot.

God does answer prayers, and I'm so thankful to him for answering mine for my Daddy!

Just 1 Baby

Today I had my first ultrasound for this pregnancy. I had been so anxious, nervous, nauseous over finding out how many. While I had thought it was just one, Ben had convinced me it was going to be two again.

He said he was just preparing me in case it was two so I wasn't freaked out if there were two, but it just didn't help my lack of sleeping due to nerves.

So I climbed up on the ultrasound table, took a deep breath and thought to myself, here we go. I looked at the monitor as she ran the wand over my stomach and there it was...just 1 baby!! She confirmed it by saying, just one in there. I looked over at Ben and my two adorable kids who were so very excited to be seeing the baby, and grinned. The ultrasound tech said "sighs of relief around the room". I grinned again and said oh yeah!!

While I would have been perfectly ok with two more kids, I was really worried about the pregnancy with two. I was worried about the stress on my body and how I would take care of the two kids I already have while pregnant. While being pregnant isn't easy with one or two, I have a feeling it is going to be so much easier with just one.

I'm so very excited!! The next excitement will come in 8 more weeks, give or take, when we get to find out what we are having. Although, both of us predict girl, we shall see if we are right. :)

Expanding Family

Expanding one's family is a tough decision. One that we certainly didn't take lightly and are very excited that we made the decision me did.

Along with all the normal "concerns", including, money, space, time, etc., we have the fear of two again. Not that we won't lovingly accept two more, just the fear of the pregnancy of two at once. It was very hard on my body the first time, because as my doctor said, a woman's body is not designed to carry more than one baby at a time. And I was able to rest A LOT the first time. Now, I have two very energetic three and a half year-olds to keep up with. Resting a lot is not very practical this time.

While we won't know until sometime later this month how many we are having, we are excited either way. If it is two, great. If it is one, great. If it is three, like people keep teasing me, I may need to be checked in somewhere! :)

No, in all seriousness, we are just so excited to be expanding our family. No matter how many there are, we are just praying for healthy.

The kids are very excited too. Analise wants a baby sister and Antonio wants a baby brother (of course). When we try to tell them it could be just one baby, they aren't okay with that. They each want what they want and aren't afraid to let us know that. It is rather comical. Antonio seems to be more go with the flow about it, so for Analise's sake, I'm hoping it is a girl. Of course, we don't care either way. They both have such great aspects, we are going to be happy no matter what.

I want this pregnancy to go slow and fast both at the same time. I want to enjoy this time I have with us as a family of 4 but I am excited to see how my kids react to a new baby. Life is good and I'm so blessed.

Blogging Slacker

I feel like such a blogging slacker!! Life has kept us so busy this summer and there are certain priorities that we must stick with...and this just wasn't one of them.

Since my last blog, we have celebrated Ben's 28th birthday, our 5th wedding anniversary, our 10 year high school reunion, the kids and I went to Kentucky for a week, we went camping and have filled our days with work and play. A little more work than play most days but we still have managed to have fun!

I'm looking forward to being back into a routine this fall. The kids have gone back to preschool, I'm still cranking out work from home and Ben has switched from 6th grade Science to 8th grade Science. I love my kids more and more every day...more than I truly thought possible. They are amazingly smart and are so funny. They make disciplining them very difficult some times as it is hard not to giggle or just flat out laugh at them!

Analise starts ballet next week and she is beyond thrilled. She asks me every day how many more days until she gets to be a ballerina. Antonio is excited to play t-ball in the spring.

Ben and I are doing amazing. I love him more everyday too. It is amazing to me that we have been together for 11 and a half years! I barely remember what my life was like without him in it. I promise to do a better job keeping everyone apprised of our goings on.

Here is a picture of Ben and I at our 10 year reunion.

Barbie

Oh my goodness!!! Peaches 'n Cream Barbie is now available at Wal-Mart! Now, granted...it costs $45 and is supposed to be a collector Barbie, but I want it so bad. I always wanted that Barbie when I was little. She had the most gorgeous dress - still does, and smelled just like peaches. It was so hard for me to just walk away from that doll today. But I just can't justify spending that much money on a Barbie. And, there is no way I would leave it in the box. That would be pure torture for Analise! Oh, who am I kidding...it would be torture for me too! So...if anyone wants to buy me a gift, I would gladly accept Peaches 'n Cream Barbie! ;)

Disney on Ice

This past week, we took the kids to see Disney on Ice. Learning from the past, we didn't tell them we were going there until that day! I didn't want to hear, "when are we going to the show?" for a month and a half.
So, I told them about it that morning on the way to school. I told them they were going to be at school all day - eat lunch, take a nap and then Daddy was going to pick them up and bring them to Vegas for a show. I had meetings in Vegas that day, so they all met me there.

That is exactly how it happened, minus the nap. They didn't nap at school. They aren't usually there for nap time, so when they have to be, they don't nap well. But they did great, despite no nap! Ben and the kids met me at Chili's for dinner around 4:30. We had a great meal and then ran into the Party City to check a few things out. We decided we would buy them a "souvenir" from there instead of the show and save us a little money!

Then we rode together over to the Thomas & Mack to see the show. It was so fun. Other than it was pouring the rain, it was a wonderful night! We got in to the event center and were able to go over and see the "Princesses". Cinderella and the new Princess Tiana took turns coming out and waving at the kids that were gathered around. When Cinderella locked eyes with Analise and mouthed "hello" and waved Analise was probably the happiest I've ever seen her. Her face just lit up. It was perfect!

We got to our seats and waited for about 20-30 minutes for the show to start. Then the magic hit the ice. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy were there and there were skits by the characters of "Cars", "Little Mermaid", "The Lion King" and "Tinkerbell". The kids loved it. Mommy liked it too and Daddy seemed to have a good time. I love that they are old enough to take to shows like that and have them enjoy it. I can't wait to see what comes next.

Enjoy the collage of pictures below. :)
Amy

Fun at the Park

The best thing about living in the desert? Winter weather can be beautiful!
Last week, it was in the 60s and sunny all week. Not to brag to my family that lives where it is FREEZING and has been snowing like crazy, but the weather was just gorgeous.

I had a mental lapse and decided to take my two kids and Katie Floyd's two kids - Jackson and Travis, to the park, by myself. I was watching them as their normal sitter, Grandma and Grandpa, had a doctor's appointment. It was a fun trip, but shew, getting 4 kids ready to go does take so much more work than just 2. Just a reminder that I'm not ready for any more kids.

Here are some pictures of our fun trip to the park.

Clumsy and Feeling Old

So, last week, I got a small glimpse of what it will be like to be older. I was carrying two plates of scrambled eggs for the kids from the kitchen to their picnic table in the living room. I let them watch cartoons while they eat breakfast.

Just out of the kitchen I stepped on a toy horse that caused my feet to fall out from under me and I landed smack on my hip on the hardwood floor. I had to cry as there was nothing else I could do. I slightly raised my voice to the kids telling them they needed to pick up their toys! It could have been worse, I wanted to yell and scream and punch the wall, but I refrained. Instead, I just cried.

My hip hurt for days. Thankfully the pain has gone now, but they keep reminding me they have too many toys and that I fell like Spencer's Mommy. This is from their favorite book Too Many Toys by David Shannon. Ben reads that to them almost every night. It is really a funny book. And yes, I was like Spencer's Mommy and fell over their too many toys. I'm glad I'm not older as it could have done some serious damage.

Now, we just need to work on putting their toys back into the toy box when they are finished playing with them. Before Mommy breaks her hip!

Christmas in Kentucky

This year, we left for our trip to Kentucky on Christmas Day. Thanks to Santa coming early, it was a smooth exit. Reynaldo, Ben's brother, rode into Vegas with us so we didn't have to leave the truck there and pay for parking.

The flight there was very nice. We each had our own rows. The kids were very well behaved and even napped for part of the trip. We spent the first night at my cousin's house in Louisville, so we didn't have to drive all the way across the state that night.

We spent the next day at my Grandma's house. It is always nice to see my cousins, aunts, uncles and of course - my Grandma! After that, we headed back to my parent's house. It was nice to break up the travel.

We spent the next 5 days at my parent's house in downtown Russell. I am so glad they are back living there. I love the people there, the fact that it is close to civilization, and that my parents are so happy there. It isn't any fun to have them live somewhere that they are miserable when we come to visit.

While we were there we went to a couple movies - one the whole family went to was Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakquel. It was so cute!! Everyone liked it. Analise was a little tired as we went during naptime, so she slept through half of it, but it was really cute. Antonio loved it.

The next movie we went to was just the girls. Mom, Carol, Beth and Me. It was "It's Complicated". AWESOME MOVIE!! I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a while. It was just funny. Not stupid funny. I really really liked it and would highly recommend it.

We had presents there too and my kids were thoroughly spoiled! We almost didn't have enough room in two designated suitcases to get everything back!

It was a fun week. Too short as always!

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Christmas at Our House

We had to write a letter to Santa this year and ask him if he could come on Christmas Eve as we had a plane to catch on Christmas morning. So, we had my birthday dinner a day early and then got everything ready for Santa to come.

The kids set up the cookies on the plate and grabbed a couple carrots for the reindeer. They were so excited to go to bed knowing that Santa would come. The next morning they woke up to a living room filled with presents as well as their stockings. They were very excited about the stockings and of course, excited about the presents under the tree.

Ben's parents came by to watch the kids open their presents, which the kids were so excited to tell them about. They spent a good deal of time opening presents and looking through their stockings. Then his parents left and we had breakfast and spent the day just playing with toys. Then Ben and I spent the evening finishing packing and getting ready for our trip to Kentucky the next day. It was a great Christmas!

Here are some pics of our day.

Christmas at the Veloz House

This year we had Christmas at Ben's parents' house a little early. Lorenzo was down from college for Uncle Ben and Aunt Becki's vow renewal (they are his God parents). So, we did Christmas on the 22nd over there, before he had to head back to Reno.

Tradition at their house is to have fried tamales, beans and rice for lunch. I had been asking Janelle for weeks what we could bring, as I am a planner for the most part. Janelle is not. At 1 p.m. the day before she texted us and Armando and Desiree that we could bring an appetizer/finger food, anything like that we wanted.

So, Ben looked through some of our recipe magazines and found a yummy looking recipe for cocktail wienies. We had never made them before so we figured we would give them a try. We stopped on the way over to grab the ingredients and then would throw it all in our little crockpot when we got there. Now, remember I said we had never made them before, and to the best of my knowledge hadn't had any made by Armando and Desiree either. But wouldn't you guess, we showed up and Armando and Desiree made the same thing!

They didn't have a recipe so to speak, so theirs just had barbeque sauce on them, but how hilarious! This is why I like to plan. :) But, they were delicious anyway.

Here are some pictures of the day.