k, not much time to blog so here's some pics. :) this one's in my in law's basement.



this is there too that's where we had cake and ice cream for x's 5th bday! we are going to grow butterflies! that's the gift from grandma.

my big baby boy is 5! holy cow!

they are so sweet together. i took pics of them playing before the birthday party but i was baking a cake and making homemade pizza when all the kids were over so i forgot to take more pics.

sweet Antony.

the wonders of bubble wrap. :)

i love this kid! he was at his dad's one day short of 3 weeks this time! i hope we never have to do that again. what happened was he went for two weeks for november because he missed october then he got snowed in down there so we traded thanksgiving for christmas. so i'm excited to have him for Christmas again this year! :)

my boys and bubble wrap :)we are all doing wonderful. never been better! i hope you are fantastic too. Andy, i'm so excited for the end of february when we come to see you!!!! love you.

well... Antony will be 6 months old soon! :( i actually am excited for him to start crawling because right now he wants to be on the move so i end up holding him just a little more than i want to... i do love holding him! i just want to be able to do a couple of other things, like, clean my house. it's complicated when holding him, AND he can literally jump OUT of the moby wrap and/or the snugli when i bend over, so they are no help. have you ever tried to clean your house without bending. i cannot bend at the waist at all or his little feet push off of my thighs and i am now catching a baby. :) but i guess it's a good enough excuse to not have the cleanest house. it's not like it was always spotless before. Antony gets even more fussy on the week that Xavian is gone to his dad's. he misses his brother like crazy! already. :( poor baby. but eventually he might like it a little, alone time with mom and dad.
i've started to do at home preschool with Xavie again. We are doing it every day of the week this year. he can spell and write his name. recite his alphabet and recognize most of them. (all of them sometimes, i think he just pretends like he doesn't know other times just to irritate me. ;)) he can count to 12. i guess i need to work on that. :) i've been more concerned with letters and reading. prolly cause i don't want him to be a slow reader like me. we are learning signs to communicate with the baby and it's really fun and totally amazing how fast Xavie picks them up. it's made me think i should really work on learning my spanish so i can teach him now, while he learns so quickly. oh, he's way too smart. and i swear i'm not just saying that because he's my kid. the other day on his online preschool games, there was a game that would say four letters. like, here's ABCD in the questions click on the right letter. and each question would show 2 letters and you pick the right one. the first time he played it he thought about which letter they said and would click it. the second time, he figured out that they never said the same letter twice so the only question he had to think on was the first one, because then he would click the letter they hadn't asked yet! did i explain that ok? well anyways it blew my mind. it only took one game for him to realize that and then he'd whip thru it it less than 2 seconds.
So, Mark was suddenly way concerned that we hadn't sided the house yet and i could tell, so i looked on craigslist and found an amazing deal, got new vinyl siding for our whole house plus our someday addition for $400! i just had to go get it up in columbia falls which turned out awesome because my best friend from jr high lives in missoula! i hadn't seen her for 7 years! i picked her up and brought her to c falls with me to help me pick up the vinyl. we got to spend tons of time together traveling talking and taking care of my kiddies. she and her hubby will be trying for a baby soon, so it was way fun to have her around the baby and tell her all of the positive things! :) there really are a lot. Mark started putting the siding on today! yay!
also, my mom got me excited about decorating and remodeling stuff, so i finally added color, lots of color to my great room! yay! i just need to finish trimming it out.
Mom and i drove down to utah and stayed for a week. we saw all her family and i got to see a couple friends. i saw chacyne, and i'm sorry to say she is really struggling. she needs prayers. i saw leigh right before she moved to s.c. it was a great visit. i love her. i saw amy aka mo in manti. :) and i saw Trena! she met me in Gunnison and we stayed at her folks house. i thought about going to see your folks, Andy. but i didn't think they'd care to see me. and i did go visit Tanae real quick before leaving town. it had been 4 years since i'd been there to gunnison. i really don't like that town. :) but it was AWESOME to see treen bean. and brailey. brai and xae got along great! now i need to go see Andy! i miss you!

it is sad how quickly 4 months go by! i measured the boys yesterday and in two months Xavian gained half an inch and one pound and Antony gained 3 inches and 2 pounds! i started Antony on rice cereal last night even tho i was trying to solely nurse til 6 months. he needed more! it's really hard to blog right now cause the kids have been especially demanding lately. in fact, i gotta go. Antony won't stay calm for more than two minutes. i miss you Andy! :) ttfn

new family member

yay! he's here! and i got my vbac! natural. 2nd stage labor was 4 hours, owie :) i had to push 20 times!!! but, being a vbac it was probably safer to progress slower like that. well, a few details, my water broke at 7 am on the 12th. no contractions. per orders, i walked on the ellipticle for 30 min and ate breakfast. i cleaned up my house a bit. no hurry cause mark went to work and only needed a couple hours to finish that job. then packed the car and took Xavian down to my brother's house in rexburg. drove myself to rigby where i met mark at the birth center. our branch pres was working with mark that day so he came in and they gave me a beautiful blessing, (it was the only reason i was able to keep faith that i would make it thru without being transferred to the hospital. i knew me and baby would be fine.) took castor oil to start contractions and was in stage one all night and the next day until between 3 and 4 pm. after i had taken more castor oil and walked around the mall i finally went into stage 2. (oh, btw, i was using a hiblicleanse to be sure no infection would occur since my water had been broken so long.) the whole experience was very faith-building for me and my husband. it was also a marriage strengthener. he was perfect. i needed him! at 746pm on march 13th Antony was born.
this is the first seconds of his life.

then Xavian came in to meet his baby brother. we are now a family of 4! :)


he had been in the lobby with my dad and brother and sis in law. during one push i did scream. i found out later Xavian asked papa why is my mom screaming? and papa said, "sometimes it hurts to get the baby out." Xavie, using his wonderful logic, said, "then we should just leave him in there." :) he wants a brother so bad but if it was hurting his momma he could do without!!!! so sweet! :)
here is beautiful angel Antony. and his awesome big brother.

ok, i'm 32.5 weeks pregnant with Antony. the second boy! yay! he is set to come march 17th i wouldn't mind a little earlier, but Xavian came late so i don't expect too much different. Xavian is 4 years old! ah! it's been a hard one. haha! just because mommy thinks he's growing up TOO fast! apparently i can't say that out loud because he feels the same way and i have to discourage this. he stops eating and says, but i don't want to grow up! he knows that eating makes him grow, therefore stopping must make him stop. i have to be very forthcoming and tell him if he doesn't eat he'll die! it's aweful, hence i cannot say outloud that I don't want him to grow!!! he seems to be coming to terms with growing as he hasn't done this for over a week now. :) my marriage is awesome. i love my husband more than i can dare try to say!!! i am so grateful! we had our 2 yr anniversary in december09. We just got back from a week and a half of vacation in mt/wy. we saw some of his family whom i love very much! and we had the pool to ourselves all week at the time share! what more can you ask, you're family and a pool, heaven! :) I can't wait til Antony gets here! Xavian is WAY excited to be a big brother! he is even excited to share his room. when i put Antony's dresser together in the other room X got all sorts of nervous asking why Antony's dresser was in THIS room! i told him just his clothes would be in it Antony would still be in X's room. he sighed a breath of relief, and i ended up putting the dresser in his room anyway after figuring out it wouldn't be crammed in there. hope you feel caught up! :) i'll post a few new pics. i should have someone teach me to work with this site better!