Note Worthy

Lee and I celebrated being married 10 years this past June!  As I look back on the last 10 years of our life I think, "Wow!"  Never in all of my dreaming could I have dreamed up all the things, places, people, etc. that has made up our life together!   We have been truly blessed!  It makes me excited for the next 10 years (and hopefully many more) and how God will work in our lives!  And that is our desire, to keep serving Him together and see where He takes us!  

We were talking tonight with the girls about Job and all the things in life God gave Him, but all the things He allowed to be taken away.  And Jobs response through it all was that He still trusted God through all of it!  I want that to be my prayer for us.  No matter what, the good, the bad, and the ugly...we keep trusting The Lord in our marriage & in life.  

Lee is such an caring, awesome Husband who more often than not puts everyone else before himself, probably me the most.  This past week while he was home recovering from his surgery we had some of the best laughs, even though he kept saying, "don't make me laugh, it hurts."  Which of course made us laugh all the more.  We always say, "I love you more...than yesterday."  So thankful how true that statement is!  

I love you Lee!

Soccer

The girls have played soccer this fall.  It's the first sport we have put them in.  They both have had so much fun playing.  We've had to work with them some on not being such girly girls and getting in there and being aggressive...ha!  Each game I see them get a little better and it's fun to watch.  Their teams are the Panthers and the Cheetahs!  It's been stretching for me cause I'm pretty much a fair weather soccer fan!  You know, when it's warm and nice I'm loving it, but the 40 degree games, not so much!  Although, we all bundle up and still get out there and cheer!!!  I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of excited the last game is this weekend.  It's gets a little bit colder each week.  Since last night was the last practice (they have practice once a week), the parents got to scrimmage all the kids, while playing with their left foot.  Fun times!  I might have been a tad sore this morning. 

It's a rough life cheering on sisters!  

Trying to get past Mom

Ana playing goalie

 

Maya Leigh - 6 months

Maya Leigh is 6 months old today. Her smile is contagious. She more than puts up with her sisters excessive affection, and thoroughly enjoys all the tight squeezes and being carried around here and there (most of the time). She has nick names when the occasions arise, "miss over-achiever, miss fussy pants, snug bug, maya papaya"...the list could go on. We love this just plain sweet baby girl!

Medical stuff

Yea, we have kind if been through the wringer with medical stuff lately.  My wisdom teeth out, followed by some complications from that, followed by Lee having surgery just yesterday to repair a hernia.  It seems like a whirlwind of activity nonetheless.  There have been times if stress, there have been times I wanted to pull my hair out dealing with girls, but despite all of that I see God in every step, in every hurdle, and for that I am grateful and truly blessed.  

I was talking to Isabel tonight about playing sports (she is playing soccer this season).  Telling her how growing up I played about every sport possible, yet despite that I never became a famous sports player.  And she said, "yea, good thing cause you wouldn't have time to be a sports player cause you have four girls to take care of."  My thoughts exactly.  The best job I could have.  Our conversation ended with saying you never know what direction God will take you, but whatever it is, we can know that He is in it and knows all the details.  

Best Job

With that being said, I'm exhausted!  Goodnight!  

How do I catch up?

I used to blog.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with this blog...but I just downloaded the blogger app...so maybe that will help!  

Since I am so far behind with what has happened in life...here are a few quick recaps...

We had a spectacular summer!  We got to see lots of family that we never get to see, travel, and enjoy having a new little Maya part of our family. 

Lots of visitors...

Lots of adventures...

And [just] a few celebrations...

Maybe at some point I'll get to share more about our adventures in more details, but for now this is all! 

Maya Leigh - A baby story

[I just found this draft of Maya's birth story on my blog.  I have no idea when I started it (maybe on maternity leave), but it's finally finished - 5 months later.  Glad I started it when I did because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have remembered some of these details.]

Maya Leigh was born on April 5, 2014 @12:27 p.m.  She weighed 8lb. 5 oz. and was 21 in. long

We feel SO incredibly blessed to have her part of our family!

Here's her "baby story" (men beware)

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, April 7, but baby girl had other plans.  My contractions started around 3:00 a.m. Saturday morning, April 5.  I finally ended up telling Lee around 6:00 a.m. that we both needed to shower, get ready, and baby was coming.  By this time my contractions were only about 2-3 min. apart.  I also called my parents to come over to get the girls.  We ended up getting to the hospital around 7:00/7:30 (something around there).  I remember walking into the hospital and the chaplain came in over the intercom and said, "Let's stop and pause for a moment of prayer."  I told Lee, "Oh believe me, I am praying, but there is no way I'm stopping."  We got to the birthing center and the nurse at the desk says, "May I help you?"  I never know how to answer this question when coming in during labor.  Um..."I think I'm in labor."  Sure enough, after going through triage, they determined I was already 6 cm. and ready to be omitted.  My contractions were really strong at this point and I told them right away I wanted an epidural. 

Into our room we go.  I was SO thankful for the nurse who got my IV in on the first try!  That had NEVER happened before!  I told her right away, just FYI, they ALWAYS have trouble getting my IV in.  She did a great job!  Not much longer the lady came in to give me my epidural.  The contractions were really strong at this point and I just wanted some relief.  By the way, has anyone ever noticed they have these white boards on the wall and one of the things you can write down is "Your pain goal."  Um, no offense, but my pain goal is ZERO!  The nurse was like, you are doing so good and you are already at 6 cm., you can totally do this natural.  Sorry nurse, that's not how I role.  After my epidural, they told me the epidural would kick in in about 10-15 min.  The only problem was, it didn't kick in.  Nope!  I had a little bit of relief for a few min., but then they contractions got worse and worse again...as in the epidural was not working at all.

In the mean time, the Dr. came in and was going to break my water.  The only problem was even though I was really dilated the baby was too high and he was concerned if he broke my water the umbilical cord would come out and it would be a dangerous situation that could result in a C-section.  I told him to just wait then and let's see if the baby would drop.

But she was a stubborn little girl and just would not drop down.  The pain got worse.  I asked if they could redo my epidural.  My Dr. was scheduled to do a c-section for another patient, but he had delivered all our girls and said he would hold off on the c-section until our baby girl arrived.  After another try at the epidural he tried to break my water and they pushed hard on my belly so that the umbilical cord wouldn't come out.  Praise the Lord it didn't.  They told me to try & relax and baby girl would be here soon.  The only problem was, I couldn't relax.  Epidural #2 didn't take either.  Finally I couldn't take it any longer and told them I needed to get baby girl out.  I remember at one point screaming so loud and looking to Lee and thinking to myself, did I just do that?  It was like an out of body experience or something.  Thankfully only a few pushes and Maya Leigh was born into this world!  The Dr. literally said congratulations and then ran out of the room to start his c-section on his other patient. 

Lee stood up to get a few pictures of her on the scale.  And then I hear commotion.  People asking him if he was ok and if he needed some juice.  Yea, he said he started to get that narrowing tunnel feeling and all sound goes away.  Thankfully he didn't pass out!  Don't worry about me, I just had a baby, take care of my queasy husband:)

What can I say about Maya?  She is a sweet sweet girl!  She is smiling almost 99% of the time!  She is LOVED, probably overly loved by her sisters!  They do not leave her side when she is awake.  She sleeps!  Praise God she sleeps!  She goes with the flow, which is probably how all 4th babies are, but it's true and she is good at going with the flow.  Maya aka overachiever is already army crawling everywhere at 5 months old.  I guess she's just trying to keep up.  Blessed...so very blessed!

life

Life is going by...fast and then slow and then fast...

We've traveled, we've had visits with relatives, we've baked, we've done school (and not done school with a billion snow days), and in between the here and there we think about the little life that will soon join our family.  Soon, like in about 3 and half weeks!  People ask me if I feel ready.  I'm not really sure how to answer that sometimes...I guess so, not really, I don't know...

There is probably more than this, but I wanted to make note of a few recent happenings in no particular order...

I went to TX back in February for a weekend to see my dear friend, Audrey, and to also attend a Mom Heart Conference.  It was a refreshing weekend and I'm thankful my family gave me the opportunity to go.  I still have so much to learn about being a mom, but I think the main thing I look away from the conference is to keep on keeping on, don't get down on myself, and enjoy the little things.  Also, "you can't give what you don't have," staying in God's Word is essential!  Audrey and I then had an extra day to spend together when the conference was over and it was just so refreshing to sit an chat with this friend I have known since the 9th grade, who I don't get to see except for maybe once a year, and who is still one of my dearest friends that I can laugh, and cry, and share life with like we live next door.  I am sincerely thankful for her friendship.

A few friends of mine are having babies as well in the coming months.  I've had the opportunity to celebrate with a few of them.  My friend, May, who is Japanese is having her first girl.  Several of my Japanese friends threw her and I an American baby shower, something they don't have in Japan.  It's always fun sharing with them the difference between Japanese and American traditions.  They were telling me how in Japan after you have a baby your family/friends give you money and then you can buy things for the baby, instead of having a baby shower before the baby is born.  I told them I definitely like that Japanese tradition.:)

And then there is my friend Mandy who is having her first baby (boy).  We took this picture at a baby shower for her recently.  Too cute...(I'm on the right)

 
Then there are these two girls who are growing up way too fast.  We were super proud of Isabel who received a student of the month award for her 1st grade class!  Here we are celebrating with ice cream after she received her award.  We're going to register Ana for kindergarten in a few weeks.  She continues to be my little helper at home and is always right by my side most of the time helping with this and that.   

And then there is this child, who quite frankly is SO independent!  She does and says the funniest things and knows how to push your buttons just right.  Don't let her "Mommy's little angel" shirt deceive you.  My friend called her a "package" the other day and she is truly that!  Our sweet little Klara Jane package!  

And lastly, my love and I when we attended a Married Couples Dinner/Dance our church had back in February!  Other than God's Word, he helps keep me sane most of the time!  He has been such a servant to me and the girls, especially during the times I haven't felt well or am exhausted because of this pregnancy.  I still have such a crush on him! 

Not quite sure when my next blog update will be, but maybe it will include a new baby girl!:)  YAY!