"Labor?"

Hi everyone right now I'm writing this post from a hospital room in Portland. How did I get here? Well here's the low-down...

On Monday, I was supposed to have my 36 week appointment. It was canceled due to my Dr. being sick. I was resceduled for Friday. In the last two weeks, I have experienced some pretty intense swelling and started keeping track of my blood pressure. Last night, it was 145/100. So, I was very anxious for my appointment. However, once again my appointment was canceled. I called to see if a nurse could see me or something. After I explained my situation, they called the Kaiser Dr. on-call at the hospital (Dr. Pugmire who delivered Jozen). He wanted me to just come down to the hospital. While I was there, I started early contractions. None of my tests showed that I had pre-ecclampsia, but because I was having regular contractions (starting at 1pm) they decided to transfer me to Portland. And since I was in "labor", I had to go in the ambulance (which I am sure will be very impressive to my boys). Now I'm here, it's 9pm and there has been no change in my contractions or my other stats (3 cm dialated/90% effaced). They still want to monitor me and have me stay the night. They won't induce me because I'm not quite 37 weeks. So, it's up to my body to do its thing. I'm only annoyed that I have to stay in bed because of my blood pressure (which is now 130/82, much better than this afternoon).So that's it for now, and we are going to use our blog as a way to keep everyone updated.

Luke and Ella

Here are our new puppies. We were in the process of getting one new puppy when Leia died. After hearing about Leia, the family that had Luke offered us a girl as well. Luke and Ella are now about 7 weeks old. It's been nice to have both of the puppies and the boys are so crazy over them that they have stopped jumping on me all day long! Woo hoo! The puppies have been a nice distraction for me since I am pretty impatient in my 34th week of pregnancy. It doesn't look like I'm going to develop pre-ecclampsia this time, which is good, but it also means I will probably go the whole term, and I have been ready to be done for a long time now. Anyways, the puppies are very funny. Luke is a love-bug and Ella is a spit-fire. It was hard to pick the puppies out of the litter (there were 10 puppies all together) except for the fact that Ella kept following Evan around and Luke kept following Caden. It's difficult to photograph black labs, and it's hard to tell the puppies apart, but I will do my best.

Ella

Luke

Snuggle time (Caden has Ella and Evan has Luke)

Sleeping beauties (they do a lot of this Ella is on the left and Luke is on the right)

Evan's Birthday Pictures

Okay, make sure you read the next blog for an explanation of Evan's party.

Thomas (the front engine), a freight car, and James (the back engine)


Our first stop with a very helpful James


Unwrapping presents is a serious business.


Thomas cake without much of a face.


My Cutie pa-tooty 2 year old!

The Boys' Birthdays

First, I wanted to say that I really appreciated everyones comments about Leia. They really did mean a lot to me and were a great comfort to me and the boys. Now for more fun stuff...

Well our side of the crazy birthday month is now over, and here are the latest pictures and party descriptions. Caden's party was a Super Why party. Super Why is a show on PBS where kids go to storybook land and solve problems through traditional folk tales by becoming one of the Super Readers (storybook characters turned into super heroes). Caden was Super Why, of course. Brett was Little Boy Blue (this is not a typical character, but it goes along with the whole trumpet thing). Evan was Alpha Pig (one of the 3 little pigs). Bean was Wonder Red (Little Red Riding Hood). I was Princess Presto (the daughter of the Princess and the Pea), and Grandma was our photographer. We had to solve the problem of where Caden's presents were hidden. It was very cute and worth the effort!

We had to delay Evan's party on account of the snow!! Luckily, Oma and Opa's Toys-R-Us card came right on time, so we were able to go and get some presents for Evan on his birthday. Evan's party was a Thomas the Tank Engine party. Anyone who knows Evan knows how crazy he is about his "choo-choos". We made a Thomas poster for Evan, a James poster for Caden, and a freight car poster for the boys' dump truck. Brett was the signal-man, and I was the station master. They just went along the "tracks" to pick up Evan's birthday packages. And, we even got to have cake outside.




Little Boy Blue and Alpha Pig (without the pig nose)


Super Why Cake


Caden finding his presents. Notice that the only part of the Super Why costume he would consider was the why-writer used to zap words.


From Grandma and Grandpa, Caden got a Spiderman scene carpet. He also got a Spiderman on a motorcyle to go with it.


This is from Oma and Opa (with a great influence from Opa, I think). This is a mini flight suit with actual patches! It's just like the real thing from Flyboys.com. Caden looked like a mini Opa. It was very cute and I already have a Holloween costume for this year. Woo Hoo! What's more impressive is that Caden wanted to where the suit and tried to go to bed in it, but I was afraid of accidents in the night.

Some sad news

I know I haven't updated the blog in long time, and I'm sad that this is what has been the next installment. Our beautiful black dog, Leia, was hit by a car today and died. There has been this stray dog in our neighborhood for the last 3 months which dog control has been trying to catch, but people have been feeding it so, it's been staying around. Anyways, our friendly Leia loves other dogs and went running after it this morning when we were leaving to run some errands. This not uncommon for Leia, so I didn't think much of it. She always comes right back (I didn't realize she had bolted after this other dog). I put the boys in the car and went to look for her since she hadn't come back yet. Two houses down, there is construction going on and the fence is down, so the property cuts through to Boone Rd which is a street where many people speed. I checked there I didn't see her then drove down the street to the Hansons' (our Home Teachers and owners of Leia's best dog friends). Still no Leia, so I went to Boone Rd. and saw her down the hill not very far from the construction site. Someone had already stopped to help and was trying to call the humane society. When I saw her, I immediately fell apart and I knew she was gone. As I put my hand on her heart, I felt one last heart beat, but just one. Another lady stopped, she was on the board of the humane society and had her vet's name in her cell and called him for me. She offered to put Leia in her car and take her to the vets so the boys would not see her. I followed her there and the vet took Leia in. He confirmed her death. I decided to have the vets office take care of her. They gave me Leia's collar and we left. I know by the way she was lying in the road that someone hit her really hard and I'm sure she went instantly. I am upset that who ever hit her did not stop and it was a visible area. I think that speed was probably a major factor. Leia was the biggest sweetheart I have ever known, and I feel blessed that she was ours for even a little while. She loved the boys and the boys loved her, and I loved having her curled up next to me by the couch every night. She was my angel puppy. I am also thankful that caring people stopped and knew what to do, because I didn't know what to do. I'm not usually the one who loses it (that is usually Brett's role). Anyways, I know that our family is very blessed to have had such a special dog and that as Caden said, "Leia is with Jesus and we don't want Jesus to cry."

Byers' Christmas

The day after Christmas, we traveled with Tia to Umatilla to see Jeanette and the Boys (that would include Aaron).


Hi, Buddy!


The Byers at Hat Rock. This was a state park 15 mins. away from Umatilla. The trail leads down to a pond/ lake where people like to fish and come to watch the ducks.

The Dynamic Duo. In the car, Kelton came with us to be with Caden. My favorite conversation was about how many girlfriends Caden and Kelton both have. They discovered that they both have two girlfriends each.

Evan and Jozen were allowed to stay up so they could have some time to entertain us without other distractions. They both loved this cow rocker and were pretty good at taking turns.



More Christmas, yippy!

Jozen thought the bubble wrap was the best present ever.


We went to this park that has the coolest play structure I've ever seen. It was like a small amusement park.






Kelton's 4th Birthday. We were all excited about cake (except for Aaron, of course)


Our train set-up...so far. We still need to add Evan's Thomas Tracks.

Grandma and Grandpa Christmas

Just before Christmas and Christmas day was spent with Grandma, Grandpa, Bean, Tia, Uncle Joel, Aunt Kris, Ashley, Katie, and Joshua. A good time was had by all.

Dancin' with my cousin (sung to the 80's song "Dancin' with myself")

Grandma graham cracker break (note the cheesy smile from Evan)

Evan and Katie loved to hug. It also turned into a tackle. Evan would lean back and knock Katie down on top of him.


Evan's choo-choo Christmas. This one is from Grandpa and Grandma (notice the pink color).

Caden's super hero Christmas. This is a Justice League video he earned because he pooped on the potty Christmas day. (The first and only time)