thumb sucker

Kali turned 5 on the 18th and on the 19th was day 1 of the journey to no more thumb sucking.

She receives 1 dollar each day she does not suck her thumb.

If she does, she has to give me a dollar.

Today was day 3.

She has earned 2 dollars so far.

At night time we tape it so she can't suck it while she is asleep.

She has had several heart wrenching breakdowns, but I am determined to help her stop.

I seriously feel like I am helping a drug addict get off drugs, 

she acts like it physically hurts her not to suck her thumb.

She gets mad if she sees Krew sucking his thumb so I tried to put tape on Krew's finger

and lets just say, he is not ready to stop.

6 weeks

This was supposed to be posted on January 22nd
but a month later I am finally finishing it up and posting;)
These past six weeks have kind of just been one big blur.
A brief run through of the blur:
Kolt was the perfect little birthday present for my 31st.

In the hospital Monique, Leisl, BriAnne, Bishop and Lana were my visitors,
along with Shandiin who was right down the hall with her precious new baby girl.
When Kali and Krew came to visit with daddy, Kali was excited about holding baby Kolt
while Krew wanted nothing to do with him.
Grandma and Grandpa Wood drove to WA from UT and picked me up from the hospital.
Kali and Krew got to play at Grandma Yount's house, Lana's house and Hawkins house while Aaron was in Walla Walla finishing his finals for his Masters program.
Once Kolt was home, Krew finally showed interest in him and loved him and the first night wanted to
do everything Kolt was doing, sitting in a car seat, drinking a bottle, etc.
Luckily he was over that by the next morning;)
With Christmas right around the corner family came flooding home which is ALWAYS a good time.
With fresh snow on the ground Tucker took the kids outside to play and build a snowman
which became so big he had to call for reinforcements to get it put together,
the end result was a 9 ft masterpiece.

Excitement filled the air as Christmas Eve rolled around and we read and acted out Christ's birth,
I got to watch my kids faces light up on Christmas morning as they saw what Santa brought them,
and later tore threw neatly wrapped presents.
Aaron gave Kolt a wonderful blessing which was the last major family event before some of the family
boarded the jet planes and headed back to their current homes.

A couple more days passed when all of a sudden I found my self all ALONE with 3 children.
3 am tends to be Kolt's magical hour to wake up and be fussy,
I usually have him calmed, fed, changed and ready to fall asleep around 6 am
7 am Kali and Krew wake up and want me to make them breakfast after asking them to let me sleep a little longer about a dozen times I finally roll out of bed and help them with breakfast, turn on a movie and pass out on the couch.
Walking around like a zombie all day trying to be somewhat coherent for Kali and Krew.
Kali wanting to do the routine we normally do, school, projects, etc. and Krew wanting to get into and play with all the things he shouldn't made it a little rough.
I ended up putting Krew back in diapers until he was ready to be a big boy again.  He would dance around and I would ask if he needed to go to the bathroom, when he said no, I would pick him up and put him on the toilet, he would hold it and tell me there was not pee in there.  When I finally let him off the toilet he would pee on the floor.  So, I decided to deal with that later when I was not so sleep deprived and could think straight.
On the up side I loved watching Kolt smile and laugh in his sleep.  SO CUTE!
He really is sweet, he is just EXTREMELY gassy, which in return makes him fussy.

Then there are the days when Aaron is home, those are my vacation days, he watches the kids while I get sleep in the morning and he will feed Kolt while I play with Kali and Krew.  Those days are nice.

New Years happened somewhere in the blur:

New Years Eve

7:30 pm Aaron decideds he can wait and breaks into the martinellis

we all drink.

10:00 pm

Aaron holds Kolt while Kids and I go downstairs and watch bedtime stories on my laptop

Krew falls asleep

After movie Kali and I go upstairs to check on daddy and Kolt

20 min till midnight Aaron gets tired goes to bed

Kali, Kolt and I are up watching Carson Daleys NYC NYE countdown

And kali asks why we are not at some big party or at a concert

I explain we couln’t really go anywhere this year with Kolt but promised her we would make next years new years eve  BIG.

Count Down starts, I ask kali if she is still awake she said she was going to fall asleep, I told her she had to stay awake for a few more min.

Count down comes when they say 1 Everyone yelled Happy New Year, Kali said we didn’t yell Happy New Year, So we yell it.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Jan 1^st 2011

6:00 pm

I explain to Kali we probably won’t be able to go to church tomorrow

Because everyone is sick
Kali freaks out she hates missing church

Kids are out of control

Aaron goes down stairs and puts them to bed

10:00 pm

kids wake  up

Aaron is tired and wants to go to sleep

I am tired but someone has to take care of the kids

Kolt falls asleep after eating, so I only have to worry about 2 kids

Kids want to make brownies, Kali has been asking me to make brownies for 2 days now

I decided now is as good as any

We make brownies

We start a movie in hopes the kids will fall asleep

I fall asleep kids stay awake

Brownie timer rings

We all have a bite

Movie ends

1 am

we go to bed

Kolt wakes up

Finally Kolt goes back to sleep at 3 am

I wake at 6 am

And think wow I wonder I can’t believe I am up in time to get ready for church

And the kids, including the dad is sick and hacking away

Next thing I know I wake up and it is 10:30 am

Kali wakes up and asks if she can go to church, I tell her church is almost over and she is sick we don’t want to get others sick

She is worried because she is supposed to say a prayer today in church

I tell her I can call someone and see if she can do it next week.

Now six weeks later, I can work out again and Kolt has been doing better at night time, not being so fussy, so I finally feel like myself again and might be coming back to the world again and getting back into a routine.

As you see everything has been a little crazy around here.
It is time to dust off my camera and start taking pictures.

Kolt's photo shoot:sneak peak

Photo's by Janica LaRae Photography

Kolt Roy Jones

Kolt Roy Jones

Born: December 11, 2010 

(12/11/10 that should be easy to remember;)

Weight: 7 lbs 10 oz

Height:  21 in

the birth story:

Having four ultrasounds and all confirming Kolt was measuring a week big, 

I was a little nervous about waiting to deliver at 40 weeks pregnant.  

My last ultrasound showed Kolt weighing 7 lbs. 

with one month left to go, 

meaning he could be around 9 lbs or more at 40 weeks.

Having that in the back of my mind and the fact that Aaron's finals week for his masters program

was December 13th -16th, Kolt was due on the 18th.

I was worried if I was to go into labor myself in that last week,

Aaron would not be able to be there.

I know this happens where women go into labor and there

husband for what ever reason is unable to be there, 

but I didn't know if I could do that.

Aaron is always a big support for me and I NEED HIM THERE!

The last concerning element for me was the weather, the roads had been icy and

I was REALLY nervous about having a baby at home or in the car,

not my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.

So my doctor and I early on in my pregnancy had

planned on inducing one week early,

which happened to be my birthday.

This was the plan up until the week before my scheduled induction date

I go to my appointment only to hear my doctor say,

I am going to let you go full term, 

maybe longer, 

and don't worry we will be monitoring your babies size,

and out of the room he went.

My jaw just dropped.

WHAT?

Maybe let me go past my due date and you are monitoring my babies size?

HOW?

The last ultrasound had been two weeks ago and I hadn't had one since.

Feeling my temperature rising, 

and knowing Shanae-nae was wanting to break free (my mean self)

I decided to keep my mouth shut and waited to confront him the following week.

All week long I was wondering what his reason was for this decision.

Was he confused?  Did he have me mixed up with someone else?

The day finally came for my appointment, it was a Thursday, two days before

 my once scheduled induction.

I really wanted to be calm and not cry but after waiting over an hour and a half

in the waiting room, (which was normal in this office)

I was in tears before I got into the room.

When the doc came into the office he asked, what was wrong?

I just went off, I asked him why he changed his mind about the induction,

and if there was something that was concerning him,

I wanted to know if thought I should get a c-section, etc.

He just asked me what I wanted to do and said he was not concerned about inducing me.

He is always really vague with me and just not helpful, it was frustrating.

I told him I still wanted to be induced, he asked for when, I said today, tomorrow what ever is available.

He called the hospital and put me on a waiting list which was weird for me,

You just wait around for the hospital to call you and tell you there is room for you to come in. 

He then stripped my membranes and said maybe this will help you start into labor yourself,

then as I was leaving the office he decided to inform me that if I was to go to the hospital

on Friday that Dr. Lorenzo, his partner, whom I had never met, would be delivering the baby.

For some reason he was afraid to tell me he would be gone for the weekend.

So I waited all day Thursday and nothing, Friday, nothing, 

ok now Saturday was my birthday, 

so I called the hospital that morning and asked them if it was a possibility 

that I would be coming in, they said it looked like Monday would be the soonest. 

At this point I decided to take things into my own hands.

I drank a concoction of 1 egg, 2 cups of vanilla ice cream, 2 tbls of heavy whipping cream and

2 oz of castrol oil.

Yes, I did.

And it worked like magic.

I drank it at noon.

One hour later the side affects started and by 4:30 pm my contractions started.

We dropped the kids off at Yount's house,

and headed into the hospital by 6:00 pm, 

the snow was falling and I was nervous about

bad roads, so we were on our way to get this party started.

When we got to Kadlec Medical Center they put us in a room to check if I was dilated 

and hooked me up to monitors to check my contractions.

I was dilated to a 3 and they decided that was enough to put me in a room.

After in my room I had asked for an epideral before they broke my water.

They were getting me hooked up to IV's and taking my blood

and having us sign consent forms when we came to the VBAC consent form.

The nurse who brought it to us was anti-vbac and wanted to make sure 

we totally understood all the ins and outs of it.

Of course we didn't know all the risks since my doctor had not informed us.

After reading over it and Aaron giving me a blessing and praying we decided to

do a c-section.  Aaron was just to nervous about the risks.

It was a hard decision, I was worried about my recovery and the fact

that it would limit the how many kids we could have.

c-sections are must so weird to me, you just go into a room,

they cut you open and the next thing you know you hear your baby crying.

It always makes me cry when I first hear my babies cry.

When they first showed me Kolt I thought he looked just like Krew.

After Kolt ate for a few hours he slept for 12 hours.

I would try to feed him and he just wanted to sleep.

I was concerned and kept asking the nurse if this was OK.

She assured me he would be fine.

He was fine but he did lose more weight then they liked.

He lost 10 oz. so he was just 7 lbs.

Then they were worried about jaundice.

The poor guy got poked 3 times.

He started eating like a champ and it was just a mild case of jaundice so he is just fine.

Now a week later, I am so glad I have my sweet baby boy and my recovery has been

AMAZING. 

 It has not been bad AT ALL!

I am a bad photographer, I did not get a picture of the whole family together in the hospital.

When Kali and Krew came to visit, 

Kali came right in and wanted to hold Kolt and wanted to feed him and help with him.  

Krew on the other hand did not want anything to do with him.

He just ran over to the other bed and played around 

while watching How to Train your Dragon on TV.

I asked him if he wanted to hold his brother and he said. NO.

Kolt getting love from me, Kali, and Grandma

Kolt's poor little foot was pricked 3 times, checking for jaundice. so sad.

As soon as Kolt was brought home Krew was very interested in him and wanted to do

all the things he was doing.  

He wanted to sit in a car seat and drink a bottle and have a blanket.

That only lasted for the day, now Krew is becoming protective of his brother

saying, "that is my baby brother Kolt."

Krew if very gentle with him.

Both Kali and Krew LOVE HIM!

getting ready for the holidays.....and baby

We headed to the mall yesterday to go see Santa and get or annual pictures:)

Kali was so cute, she was nervous about remembering everything she wanted to ask

Santa for, for christmas.  She seriously repeated the list to me 100 times and

then would ask, "am I forgetting anything?"

She asked him for a world globe, computer, dinosaur book, 

reindeer puppet (not sure what that is, she came up with this one while in line?),

and Toy Story 3 the movie.

Krew just asked Santa for candy:)

I was nervous to see how Krew would react to Santa, since the past years

he wanted NOTHING to do with Santa.

This year, he ran up and sat on his lap and gave us a big ol' smile.

While at Costco, I picked up one of these gems.  

A pre-built gingerbread house, all you have to do is decorate it.

This had my name written all over it.

PERFECT!

I put on the icing, the kids put on the candy.

It was a great time!

 Can you tell which one is ours:)

I know, I struggle, but as least I try.

I should have let Kali put on the icing, she may have done a better job.

 I have been trying to make sure I have everything accomplished before this baby comes.

Decorating the Chrismas tree √, Christmas shopping √, Picture with Santa √, Gingerbread house √,

getting kids caught up on shots...

Since I moved to WA, I took the kids to the doctor when we first moved here.

I think they had gotten sick and I thought I should find a doctor around here for them,

so I did, and they have not gotten sick all year and I have been lazy and slacked on their

shots.  I thought I better get this all taken care of before the baby comes.

So we go.

5 shots for Kali and 4 shots for Krew,

and a thumb prick for each to test for anemia.

Kali had been nervous for awhile about getting shots and wondering if it would hurt.

Well let me tell you I have one TOUGH cookie.

She did not cry AT ALL.

The nurse what shocked, she could not believe Kali wasn't crying,

she even told Kali she could cry if she wanted, but nothing.

Seriously the stinking nurse was acting more nervous than Kali.

Poor Krew on the other hand, cried when he got is shots,

and said, "please, no more."  It was cute and sad.

He stopped crying though and soon as she was done with the shots.

They both got succors and stickers, which made everything better for Krew.

 Krew was funny, he got up on the counter and stuck his head in the corner and said,

 "mom, take a picture of me."  

So of course I ran and grabbed my camera, he never lets me take his picture.

One more thing on the agenda before the little one is born.

Take the kids to see Tangled.

THEY LOVED IT!!!

I did to:)

and I may have shed a few tears.

Kali had to comfort me.

She gave me a hug and told me it would be OK:)

The kids both got popcorn and a treat.

I wish I could remember which preview Krew was watching here,

but he had a kung fu grip on his popcorn and Rolo. 

 In case you were wondering we went to the 4:02 showing.

How funny is that:)

christmas tines

Decorating the christmas tree, setting up the nativity, and wrapping presents, 

while listening to Christmas music just puts a smile on your face.

There is just something about Christmas that brings excitement.

Our ornaments consisted of these red balls and candy canes, for about a day.  

The candy canes were cute but the kids could NOT keep their hands off of them 

so now we just have red balls on our mini tree that 

grandma bought for us before she left to travel the world, 

watching Coriann play basketball.

 Kali loved helping me wrap all the gifts we need to send to our cousins.  

Our family picks names and this year we had my brother Brandon's family.  

Kali was so excited to write who they belonged to.

Thankful

This was Kali's list of what she is thankful for.

This year I would have to say the thing that sticks out most in my mind is how thankful I am

for my family.

We have spent more hours together this year than ever before.

I am so thankful for my children.

They keep me in line.  I have no choice but to progress.

I have to be a good example to them, and children make you do what you say you will do.

I learn daily from them.

My husband.

What an amazing man.

I know he was made just for me.

He compliments me.

He keeps me on my toes.

He knows how to make me laugh.

He loves me.

I am so thankful for him in my life.

He is an excellent father.

I love watching him play and interact with the kids.

He knows how to motivate Kali in a way that no one else can.

His kids adore him.

I am so thankful for my parents.

They have made this year so comfortable for us.

They are the most giving and generous people.

They have always and continue to be a huge example in my life.

I am thankful that we have been able to see and spend time with

so much of our family this year.

I am so thankful for my family!