Incredible Family

he’s 3!

elastagirl — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:32:08 +0000

my sweet baby, you love all things pink, adore care bears, and have a tender heart. You love to snuggle and give big hugs. Your favorite thing to do is sit in mommy’s lap wrapped as tightly into me as possible while watching TV and eating a snack. You love to read books with your stuffed animals. Despite your gentle love, you have a flair for mischief and get a twinkle in your eye when you dangerously run away from me, which you enjoy doing at every opportunity. You can eat more than me some days, and you are strong, big, and can be incredibly stubborn. Your best friends are Zoe and Cali and you play so sweetly with them. You can wear some of your big brothers clothes, and enjoy playing with him, but definitely assert your own opinions in your play together. We love you and pray for you to grow into a strong man of God each and every day. Happy 3rd birthday!

adventures with Jack Jack

elastagirl — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:16:31 +0000

Being a parent to Jack Jack is exhausting. At the end of the day, when he’s still alive and finally asleep, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. If there is trouble or mischief to be found, it is guaranteed that he will find it! :)

In the past few days….

he climbed up on a banister rail and stood balancing on the end of it

he climbed up on the shopping cart top (its a little car) while I was searching the aisle for something and stood balanced on top of it, causing multiple people around me to go into a panic

he decided to jump up while sitting in my lap at library story-time, which threw his head into my chin and caused me to bite my lip. Do you know how much lips bleed?! I alarmed several people sitting around me by bleeding profusely all over my hands and into a kleenex

he ripped up Dash’s valentines (a quick trip back to the store before picking up Dash from school guaranteed that he didn’t have to know about it)

he jumped down a flight of stairs (20 stairs) and told me he was trying to “glide”

he unwrapped and put an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet to “make a flower”

he informed me that his poopie looked like a ship

the next day he informed me that his poopie looked like a J (it did!)

I know there are more things, but I can’t think of them right now. He drives me absolutely crazy and makes me so tired being on the watch all the time, but the funny thing about kids is that you love them no matter what they do

babycakes

elastagirl — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:08:11 +0000

Nine years ago we started down a road that no young couple anticipates finding themselves struggling with: infertility. The extremely abbreviated version of our story is that we were blessed with our two miracles through the help of modern fertility treatments, for which I will always be grateful. The road wasn’t easy and with it came unexpected decisions, the biggest one being that we have one remaining embryo that we chose to freeze and have prayerfully agonized over for years. This past June I went to the clinic to start the process of trying to become pregnant with our emby-baby, and ended up having an emotional breakdown. Our infertility years, particularly when trying for #2, were the darkest time of my life. I just can’t put the agony into words. Walking through the doors of the infertility clinic unleashed some seriously painful and possibly repressed memories, despite the joy we’ve received in our boys. I sat in the waiting room sobbing and I started experiencing stomach aches and insomnia and panic attacks and depression just thinking about going back. We made the obvious decision this past summer to put the process on hold because despite all of my rationalizations for timing (all my kids would be exactly 3 years apart! we’d get rid of a monthly large bill! we’d finally know!) I just emotionally couldn’t handle it, at least not yet. The clinic has restructured their storage time allotments so we’ve been getting pressure on that front too. When I say I’ve agonized about this, I mean it. I have thought about it every.single.day with significant stress and had to make decisions we never imagined making – is an embryo a life? could we ‘let it go’? should we do this? should we just say its too much and let it go? with all the extra struggles we have with Dash can I handle a 3rd child? shouldn’t we just adopt and provide a home for a baby already here? Since my two previous pregnancies wreaked havoc on my body and resulted in me being on bed-rest both times, how will this affect our family, my business, our finances? Tough questions. Tough emotions.

I took a day in January to fully lay out the decision. What could all the possible outcomes be? And I prayerfully gave it to God and asked Him to give me peace. You know what its like to know that you’ve really surrendered a decision? Sometimes I’m a little slow to surrender and sometimes I’m a little slow to find the peace of being confident in a decision from God (it took me forever when deciding to leave my social work job, but when I finally knew, I knew it absolutely). I’m reluctant to talk about infertility and I’m often shy about talking about the ways that God is working in my life, but I have to share the incredible joy and peace I am feeling. And it’s from God. I have never once faltered in my belief that our embryo is a life. I saw my boys become babies from embryos so I could never doubt it anyway! I have only wrestled mightily with the prospect of being pregnant again because it is so hard for me physically, mentally, emotionally. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I’m not. I’ve tried too hard to become pregnant before and I have too many dear dear friends struggling to become pregnant to ever doubt the miracle and joy of pregnancy.

I am at peace. I am at peace with going to the infertility clinic in the coming months (as soon as my health issues are resolved) and giving it my best shot. Our emby-baby is in God’s hands, always has been. Our future is in God’s hands. His will will be done and He will give me the strength I need. I may need a lot of extra help! I may need some serious hand-holding to get myself to the clinic instead of going by myself like last time, but I know I will be okay! I am genuinely ready, and not just ready but joyful, excited, and most importantly, I’m at peace.

As with so many parts of life, joy and pain walk together hand in hand. There are so many unknowns before us. Will God bring us a baby through our embryo or through adoption or will neither work? Whatever our future holds, I look forward to it with great joy, regardless of the potential for pain. We will start the process THIS YEAR towards Lyla-Kate or Carter, and I cannot wait. Please pray for me….for my health issues to be resolved right now and for our family as we embark in this journey!

i love my cat

elastagirl — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:10:49 +0000

We had a debate assignment in 7th grade: are cats better than dogs or dogs better than cats? And I was part of the winning ‘cats are better than dogs’ team when I pulled out some scientific article that cats relax people better thus helping them live longer. I’d love to dig up that research now I’ve been a cat person my whole life, and my favorite way to relax at the end of the day is to throw on a ratty old t-shirt of mr. incredible’s, crawl under my favorite old blanket, and snuggle with my kitty….and more often than not fall asleep at some point holding him too! I love my cat….

welcome home

elastagirl — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:01:19 +0000

I lust after houses.

Don’t get me wrong, I really love our house. It’s perfect and adorable and feels just right for us. I am quickly humbled when I think about how the majority of the world lives and how truly thankful I am for our home.

But, I lust and long and drool over other people’s houses. Every week I go to photo shoots in amazing, huge houses, with designer layouts and pottery barn furniture and lots and lots of space. And I fight against it, but sometimes I really struggle. The thoughts come creeping in….

….I just wish we had a huge yard for the boys to run in and big enough to hold a swingset

….oh how I wish I had a big enough yard for a garden I could tend without having to borrow other people’s yards to pursue my gardening love

….I really feel ready for adding a child to our home and I think about it every day, but we cannot foster or adopt because we only have two bedrooms and we need a third bedroom for the state to approve us

….I really want to decorate a little girls room

…I really want a big kitchen to spread out all of my ingredients when I’m cooking and to bake cookies with the boys

…I wish we had a guest bedroom so our family could more easily visit

….I wish we had an open floor plan with a bigger living room so we could host big church groups and children’s parties and all of the people we so love to have over

I wish, I wish, I wish. It doesn’t help when I torture myself with realtor.com and find houses that I could honestly cry over the amazingness of them. Maybe it sounds dramatic, but I’m nothing if not honest. The extra bedroom for another child is what hurts me the most. That and the yard. And we cannot afford them. Nor should we necessarily afford them–meaning, do we really want to be even more strapped with house payments then we already are?! We bought at the peak of the housing market, we put everything we had into the down payment, and we would lose too much to even try to sell. But I still struggle. I still look at this one house online all the time. And I will probably still decorate other people’s houses in my mind with our family’s possessions So even while I struggle with wanting another bedroom and some of the “extras” I see in other people’s houses, I will rejoice in how much we LOVE our neighbors and would be heartbroken to leave them, how much I love living around the corner from our favorite friends, how fun it is to do community gardening, and how amazing it is that we have a beautiful perfect house. I will embrace being content in all things.

Welcome to our home, our beautiful home:

Our bedroom on the main floor!

Main floor bathroom and hallway

Kitchen:

Dining room:

Living room:

upstairs landing and bathroom:

boys bedroom (I LOVE their room….my favorite part of the house!)

Basement, including my office! (which can’t be considered a bedroom, no windows or closet)

I really do love our house!

interview with a six year old!!

elastagirl — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:55:58 +0000

Exclusive interview conducted by mommy. I met with Dash on January 27, 2012, at our favorite spot the couch. My subject was dashing in a helicopter long sleeve shirt and gray corduroy pants and appeared quite interested throughout the interview. We spoke on the record for about 15 minutes.

What was your favorite gift that you got for your birthday? ant farm

What comes to mind when I say the following words:
home? playing with my pets
favorite color? purple
brother? he does crazy things
bedtime? time to sleep
school? my friends

What is the last thing you were sad about? my brother screaming and crying, hurt my ears

What do you look for in a friend? funny

Are you scared of anything? no

Have you lost any teeth yet? No, and I really want to lose one because I haven’t yet

What do you like to do on Saturday mornings? have a big breakfast as a family

What do you think you’d like to be when you grow up? its very hard to decide when I’m only 6!

Who’s the last person you kissed? mommy

How much does our family car cost? 43 pennies

Who is the biggest person you know? daddy

Who is the littlest person you know? baby Nathaniel

If I gave you twenty dollars what could you buy? 20 things at the dollar store

How many people do you think live in our neighborhood? a million

How many people do you think live in the world? a hundred million

before/after basement pictures!

elastagirl — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:35:35 +0000

As promised, here are the before/after pictures of our basement following my “simplify project” for the basement! We moved things around to open up our basement and we got rid of a ton of stuff! I’m not sure the pictures do it adequate justice! Looking at the before pictures I DO love how cozy the basement felt separated into TV area and play area, but I am so loving the wide open feel we have now!

BEFORE

—————————————————————-

AFTER

long shot of room and re-organized playroom (all toys are now in one place and obsessively labeled )

I framed Dash’s recent artwork and love how it looks over the couch! The boys love the space to run around, throw balls, and spread out their car tracks

Close-up view of the playroom area

What do you think??

birthday brownies

elastagirl — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:47:44 +0000

These homemade brownies are super easy to make and a huge hit at our house!! We made these for Dash to bring and share with his friends at school on his birthday!

mix together:
3/4 c cocoa
2 c sugar
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Then add:
3/4 c butter melted
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Stir together and bake for 20ish minutes at 350 in a 9×13 pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar when slightly cooled for a pretty finish.

kidney schmidney

elastagirl — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:30:09 +0000

I figured it was time for a mass kidney update. Unfortunately, my pain has intensified to the point of being nearly unmanageable–at least some days it feels like that, yesterday and today being one of them. The nephrologist, who was initially helpful, reached the end of what he could do for me and referred me back to the urologist. Nephrologists can manage kidney problems, but not “solve” them so to speak. I need a urologist to take the next step, which is 99% certain to be surgery.

So, after numerous blood tests, ct scans, ultrasounds, multi-day urine collection, and monitoring how much water i’m intaking, the popular consensus is that I have scar tissue from my previous kidney stones that has caused a blockage in the ureter, which is backing up into my right kidney causing the swelling and pain. I’m having a renal scan tomorrow to better evaluate that scenario. Then they’ll schedule surgery to remove the problem areas.

At this point, I have mixed feelings. This whole thing has me feeling discouraged and tired and honestly I’m tired of dealing with this. The main symptoms are pain in the back and abdomen and “flu-like” symptoms–aches and exhaustion being my primary culprits. But I’m also relieved to be closer to having answers and a solution. I’ll keep you all posted! Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

under the sea

elastagirl — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:21:52 +0000

I LOVE love love throwing parties with a theme. This is Dash’s year for a birthday party (my kids only get parties on their even birthdays) so I asked him what theme he wanted this year for his 6th birthday! After much analyzing, he chose an under the sea/ocean theme. He and I spent hours and hours poring over themes, pictures, and ideas online. Such a great bonding time, and by the time his party rolled around, I was as excited as he was for the party

Here is the top half of his invitation:

Food: oyster cookies, cupcakes with blue frosting and swedish fish “swimming” out of them (I didn’t have enough energy to make the squid cake he wanted, so we settled for making the cookies and cupcakes!), bowls of goldfish, shark fruit snacks, & swedish fish

Activities: coloring fish treat bags, aquarium snow globes, making “jellyfish”, and doing magic scratch fish

The birthday boy himself, chowing down on his cupcake with eel candles!

Playing fish, fish, SHARK!

Bounce house fun!

Playing “What Time is it Mr. Shark?”

Enjoying the “shark tank”

I wanted to make this, but we could not find a watermelon anywhere, and got a lot of funny looks asking in stores for a watermelon this time of year

Treat bags: the craft projects they made, plus sea creature stuffed animals, fish straws, fish bubbles, and shark fruit snacks.

The only thing that greatly diminished my enthusiasm about the party was the last 30 minutes of the party, which was free play in the church fellowship hall and bounce house…..a dozen children + running in socks on slippery floors + too many in the bounce house = injuries of 5 children bumps, bruises, blood, lots of tears, and the majority of kids left either crying or cranky. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…..I hated having the party end on such a bad note.

Happy Birthday to my favorite SIX year old in the world!!! We love you and had fun celebrating with so many of the friends who love you!