SLACKER!!!!

So not a whole lot going on other than the day to day kid stuff. You all know the routine...3 year olds can swing from a good mood to super whiney and insta-cry over the most insignificant thing, then charm you again within seconds! :-) Getting puked on and smelling like rotton warm baby urp all day long, finger smudges on the glasses, and spending 25 minutes making the stupidest faces all in the attempt to get one smile out of the little one. And when you get it it makes smelling so bad that your husband mildly unattracted to you worth it! lol

We are all doing good, we were concerned about Richie about a month ago because he's been extremely fussy, and well just screaming constantly. We took him to Dr. Azores and had him checked out. We were really worried about him developing allergies to milk, or possible ear infections like Livie had constantly that first 6 months. She deemed him healthy as a horse but colicy. In the last month the screaming has calmed down so much and he seems to be becoming a much happier kid. He's also started smiling in response to a person now which is fantastic. He has THE GREATEST grin and only gets fussy every few days and then it's not the constant screaming it once was. Thank god, because you always feel terrible for the kid and wish to the lord you could fix it for him. Also, i am regaining my sanity, because to be honest for a week or two there i thought i might loose it. lol

Livie is still attached to the baby but is having much more to do with him. For the first few months she always knew where he was, made sure of that.... but now she actually touches him and interacts with him and gave him his first kiss this week which was the greatest thing as their mommy to see that. (sniff sniff) :-)

Rich is doing good, got a raise he deserves for being a journeyman. But more importantly haggled with them and only works 4 days a week now which is FRICKIN FANTASTIC. lol he still doesn't get home until around 8:30 or 9 at night, but that's just fine with 3 days off. We almost don't know what to do with ourselves we're so happy about that. lol

I don't have much to say, so i'm gonna post some excellent pictures from the last few weeks for everyone to take a gander at!

Love to everyone!!!

Richie's Strength

So just like Livie, Richie has been able to hold his head up since the day of his birth. Here's a nice little video of him a few days before his 1 month birthday!

Livies 3rd Birthday Party

Since Rich works tomorrow we decided to have Liv's birthday party today. She had a great time. We had our next door neighbor, Sue and her grandchildren Ellie and Mason come over and play. They spent a good long time with her Play-Doh, then had cake and ice cream with sprinkles!!! The kids all had a lot of fun and all the adults had a really good visit.

Visit with Grandma

Rich's Mom just came for a visit and we all had a really good time. Livie was really happy to have her here. They played and spent a ton of time together and it was great bonding time.

I think grandma was having major de'ja vu from 28 years ago. lol It was neat to get to see her lookin at him and how she loved how much Richie looks like her Rich as a baby. It's so neat to see the ones you love repeated in their children I think.

Now can you believe the first picture?!!! How great is it that I got lucky enough to catch one of his smiles??? I think that's a framer.

Grandma got Livie her birthday present a little early! It is a pink princess bike of course! Livie has a ball on it and does a really good job with her peddling. I'm glad Deb did that because although Liv LOVES recieving packages in the mail, I think it was great for her to have her grandma there while she gets her present and I think it was great for Deb to be able to be there for something that important.

We're all doing really well. Rich is back to work and hating it, Livie is becoming more affectionate with her brother in little sweet ways, the weather is getting a little warmer.

Hope everyone is doing well.

'Till next posting!!!

Birth Video

Here's a video clip of little Richie a minute or so after his birth!!! Enjoy

Richard Allen Brock III

Okay people the newest member of our family has arrived and he's doing GREAT. He was born the 23rd, 8:42am, 8lb, 10oz, 21" long! Very little jaundice, hardly enough to worry about. He's wonderful. So sweet and easy going and we're just loving on his cute little face. Had his first doctors appointment today and they're very happy with him.

The hospital was good but scary in a few parts. We of course went in knowing what to expect but we had a little glitch cuz my veins were not doing all that great. So after a few tries the anasthesiologist wanted a dependable vein so he had to go in at my neck with an iv. They did an ultrasound to make sure it was good, numbed the spot and covered my face with the paper and inserted something that Rich describes as a guitar wire I guess. lol We had a few attempts at the spinal as I've gained a lot of weight with this pregnancy cuz of the diabetes... but we got it in. Dr. Harding the anastesiologist was just wonderful and made it much easier for me. This spinal was wierd though, with liv i was numb from insertion down and wide awake during the surgery and crashed for hours after Liv was born. This time i was numb even in my shoulders and was in and out a lot during the surgery. After Richie was born though it wore off and I was actually really coherent after his birth.

I feel so blessed because I actually got to see livie see richie for the first time and video taped it too. lol that was really neat to experience.

Liv really likes baby brother, doesn't really want to touch him a whole lot but sure keeps close track of where he is and keeping him supplied with all sorts of stuff. lol

We got released on Friday and have just been taking it very easy. I am starting to feel pretty good now and only have a few more doses of pain killers. This time I am actually taking all my pain killers because I figured I might have a harder time this time. With Liv i weaned myself off the drugs a day after getting out of the hospital. So I am being good this time. lol

I wanted to get some pictures posted and a short video that Rich took of Richie a few minutes after he was born. I really wanted to get that up as soon as possible so that everyone can see him moments after his birth. Such a special thing. Love to everyone.

July 3, 2008

Forgot to upload a short video that I took of Liv helping her Daddy wash the Tank.

Wow, has it really been 2 weeks?

That went entirely too fast. :-) This whole due date has been so up in the air until this last month of the pregnancy. We only found out a few weeks ago for "sure". And time has FLOWN since then. TOO CRAZY

Not much going on here, just hanging out. Trying to get things done and satisfy my nesting instincts. Which as you all know if frustrating the life out of me since I'm on bedrest.

Rich has been just great. (I HATE asking for help even with simple little things, but as part of life's growing process I know it's something that I need to conquer personally.) He helps me remember all sorts of things and is always jumping up and taking care of things before I can. I love that he's so pro-active and takes the initiative. He works so much that I hate asking him to do simple stuff for me all evening when he comes home. Doesn't feel right. But he seems to want to, and it's cute because he just keeps getting more and more excited about the baby coming. He says he's ready already. lol

Just a few days now. Doesn't seem real. Because everything has been so up in the air I don't feel like it has really sunk in. Now it's coming so fast I almost feel like I'm not ready and havn't had time to adjust to it. lol But i'll be adjusting soon enough huh? lol lol :-)

Dad and Steve get in this Sunday. Although Steve's had tickets in hand there's been problems at his work with staffing. So until yesterday he's not known for sure if he was going to be able to come. I was so upset and was feeling really terrible for him. I felt awful that he might not have been able to be here for the baby coming and the fact that he hasn't seen Liv since Christmas.

Rich's mom is able to make a trip up here too and for a long weekend too which is great. She'll get in on the first Sat of August and gets to stay until Tuesday afternoon. Liv is so excited and is really looking forward to her visit.

Monday we've got a pre-op appointment with Dr. Souri, a pre-op appointment at the hospital and our last non-stress test. Rich will work on Tuesday and then we are scheduled for a 7:30 c-section on Wednesday. I am excited and just working on working my to do list down!!

Prob won't write again, but the hospital has free wi-fi so I promise Rich will send out an email that evening or the next morning with a bunch of pictures!!! Love to everyone.

Countdown

So, we've got a date scheduled for a c-section on July 23rd!!!!! We're so excited and can't believe we finally have a countdown and it's less than 3 weeks now. There are a few factors of course, my gestational diabetes which is pretty under control now and the high blood pressure I seem to have developed. Correction, by nature I am a professional worry wart and stresser so my blood pressure usually runs a little high, but right now I am spiking REALLY high. lol :-)

I'm now on bedrest and just as long as the blood sugars stay good and I don't develope Preclampsia (sp?) then we remain on schedule. Dr. Souri has warned us that if they get wacky we will pull the baby early as these are a larger danger to the little one than possible fluid in the lungs. I have faith that everything should go along just fine. Last week at all my doctors appointments my blood pressure was still high but much better than I had been running the week before. yeah!!!

Livie is doing really well but is worried about me. This is the only part I hate. We downplay everything and smile through all my insulin shots and finger pricks but she still gets upset a little. Now that I am laying down all the time she's sticking really close. I have THE most sensitive sweet little girl born to God's green earth. She's always asking if i'm okay, if i'm tierd, if i am drinking from my water bottle she just runs over and helps hold it, if i try to shift around on the couch she always runs over and tries to help. Every few minutes she will run over and give me repeated kisses or gives me eskimo kisses, or just wants to sit on the couch next to my head and talk and talk about all sorts of stuff. I am so proud and love my little girl so much for the great person she is already and she's not even 3 yet. But I hate seeing her worried, and I can't stop it. I stay as upbeat as possible and tease and play with her from the couch as much as possible, we don't use the words sick or anything that will worry her, but somehow she seems to know.

I can't wait to have baby boy and complete our little family. I can't wait to be healed up so that I can play with Livie again. I look so forward to being able to lay on the floor with both of my kids and interact and play with them both. Livie keeps asking more and more about baby brother and has started asking when he's going to come out of my tummy. It's really neat. It's neat to KNOW that she's going to be a great big sister.

A Pirate Daze

Okay, everyone knows the movies "Pirates of the Caribbean" well, the ship "the Interceptor" is actually named "The Lady Washington" and her home port is actually right here in Grays Harbor. On the Fourth of July she and another "tall ship" the "Hawaiian Chieftain" will have a battle here and be open for tours along with going for cruises at the cost of $60 bucks a person for a few hours!

This weekend in Westport (20 min away) they had Pirate Daze (days) both ships were there all weekend, the main street along the marina was shut down and filled with booths, everyone was dressed up like pirates and they also had a parade on Sunday that we were able to go to. It was a tad hokey, but it was great because all the people were SOOO into it. We loved it and had a ton of fun. Livie had a great time, collected many necklaces, ate a whole thing of blue cotton candy (otherwise known as fairy dust) :-) ate a ton of suckers that were thrown with the floats and in general had a hell of a day!! On the way back there was a little carnival set up at the mall that we went to. Liv got on the airplane ride all by herself and did really well until the guy went to strap her in!! lol The guy was awesome and yelled for Rich, so daddy to the rescue and strapped her in and we stood and watched her go from sobbing to maniacal laughter and back again for her 3 minute ride. lol It was great and we were really proud of her. She kept saying "I fun, and scared too!" We told her that it was okay to be scared just as long as she kept trying and she seemed to get it. lol LOVE MY KID. :-) I didn't have any pictures of that though! Damn.

Blue Skies

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. a blue sky! can you see it?!!!! lol Okay, this year has been WIERD for our weather. Last year when Rich moved to WA it was beautiful, sunny, 60-70 every day. When he came back for Liv and I and we got to WA it was beautiful, sunny 70-80 every day. Perfect temperatures, amazing breezes, just a dream of weather come true right? Now all last summer was great. They said it got up to 100 for a few days, but I can honestly say that it did not feel like it. Felt like a really nice 90 degrees. :-) So, when we moved here almost everyone was warning us how terrible the weather was going to be, how much rain, how cold.... And everytime Rich and I talk about it we both feel really pleasantly suprised about how unterrible the weather was this winter. It was usually around 35-40 degrees with only about a month and a half to two months where it actually froze a few times and got down below freezing at night quite a bit. We did have snow more than the 5 times a year which is average for here as we were told. Now that winter is over all the locals have mentioned how WET this year was. How much SNOW there was this year. That it's never this cold or this much rain. So, that was cool to hear since we didn't think it was really all that bad! lol yeah. But I do have to say that DANG it is overcast here in Aberdeen A LOT. Every day through the winter talking with rich while he was at work, olympia or north of there the weather was nicer there than Aberdeen. lol But the weather should be nicer than this starting about a month ago and I am starting to get tierd of the overcast. So, every time that sun is able to make a showing it's like the Halleluiah corus is blasting and I'm SOOOOO greatful that this is where I live. Nothing beats last summer here in WA or this summer too I hope. So like anywhere it's got it's good and it's bad. But Rich and I both strongly agree that we love living here for the weather. We don't miss Idaho with it's frozen tundra for months on end, it's short springs and falls and it's hot hot summers from hell. lol We breath easier here, we feel healthier here, our skin is better here, my cronic cough is gone. :-) We love living here better than in Idaho.
But WA doesn't have our family.
It doesn't have the people we know and love, the laughter, the strong bonds, the good shared memories, the good memories and experiences to be made. No BBQ'S, no camping, no fishing, no loud rowdy groups of laughter, teasing, and good old fashioned talking and time spent together. No history, no soul deep satisfaction and feeling of home with the people you love.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Our Anniversary was great. We left the house arou 11 am and had a really nice drive into Olympia, just talked A LOT and joked and listened to non Livie music. lol Went straight to the movie theater to find out times, pre-bought our tickets to Narnia and debated over lunch. My man has been hard-core craving Round Table for about....oh geez I guess it's been 9 or 10 months. So we hit the buffet they have there which was a real treat. Went and checked in at our hotel. Called the Govenor Hotel, it was pretty nice, a little dated, but the fact that we were on the 7th floor with a GREAT view of the capital, Sylvester Park and Capital Lake was fantastic. Could even hear a musician down in the park playing his trumpet for a bit. Great breeze coming in from the sliding glass doors...really nice. Watched cable which was huge for us (no cable at home) and just chilled. Went to our movie (pretty good flick) and came back to the apartment to wait for dinner crowds to thin. We were going to go to a resteraunt there in olympia named Tugboat Annies we've been dying to go to,,,but then got a whiff of the BBQ smoker outside.
NOw, there's a BBQ place off the highway that is really well known and supposed to be AMAZING that we wanted to go to, but bless their hearts, during our big storn a muslide went right through the building. Went downstairs in our hotel and low and behold...it's that resteraunt!!!!! Tugboat Annies went out the door. We ordered our food and took it to our room... rich got a really good stead, potatoes and amazing baked beans (which neither of us really is a big fan of, me in particular) i got beef brisquet, potatoe salad, coleslaw. All was great, holy cow!!! yummmmmmmy. oh, they also have THE best BBQ sauce i've ever tasted. mmmm good.
anyhow, watched more cable (okay, i don't think we hardly got off the history channel) until around 12 that night and crashed. Had our complimentary breakfast buffet, pretty good stuff. and headed out for our doctors appointment. Got lunch before heading home to baby girl who we were missing pretty hard core by then. :-)
Returned home to a chocolate cookie smeared and encrusted baby who was thrilled and obsorbed by her brand new season 3 scooby doo dvd compliments of nana on their outing the day before.
Best anniversary to date. We got to relax and have FUN with each other, got to go and do whatever we wanted and just had a really good time alone. Well needed.

Ratting Myself Out

Okay, for a brag blog this isn't much to brag about...but I havn't been keeping up my beloved photo albums! (ducking my head in shame) I havn't put anything in a photo album since the month after livie was born, and havn't developed anything for the past year. (Toes are now touching my feet) But it's my goal to get myself caught back up before the baby is born. I'm proud to say that I've almost caught up the almost 3 years that have passed. That way when this baby is almost 3 i'll only be behind 3 years instead of six. lol ha ha ha.

I noticed in my comments that Mel didn't know what initially happened to Rich's leg (nice personal edit by the way Mel) He was unloading his dirt bike from his truck, and suprise suprise the truck bed was wet (in Washington you suprisedly ask??) He slipped, bike rammed into his leg and leg got a nasty big bump on it that eventually turned most of his leg and foot purple and black and then swelling because the blood couldn't get back out because of the swelling from his original poi. I'll try to find a pic... So there you have it for all 1 of my readers. Guess I could have just emailed you huh? lol :-)

NICE huh ?? ------------>

NOTE: This is the DAY of the bruise. No pic's of the swelling and whole leg being black and purple though...sorry to all you sick people that like that sort of thing!!

************Today is our anniversary, yes, 5 years.

(HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO NATE & TRACI TOO !!!)

Doesn't seem like it. It's gone so dang fast. Rich was going to try to get off around 5 today, but two of his co-workers called in sick. Again. So poor Rich will be spending our anniversary alone with a toilet auger or a jet vac. (whatever those may be) Which this really is okay. (well, not okay,,,you know what i mean!!!!!) lol We knew this would probably happen as everytime he tries to get off at a normal time he gets screwed. Easter Egg Hunt, his birthday, our anniversary.... He's getting burned out. So we had plan to make sunday our anniversary anyhow. :-) What are you doing you may ask? I have NO clue, but it's going to be alone together and that in itself will be enough.

Rich's Birthday

Rich's birthday was yesterday, and the day before. lol
We treated Monday as his birthday and he decided on pancakes and sausage for breakfast followed by a cuddle session with his baby girl and Scooby-Doo on the tube. He picked out the only existing Soda Shop around here which resides in our neighboring town of Hoquium. It's really nicely decorated and still has a lot of it's old charm. It has the original soda bar with stools to sit at, a "penny candy" section, a neat display of old antiques, old window curtains with matching table clothes and iron heart chairs. They had a nice menu of melts, salads and sandwiches, soda and ice cream. Neat place. :-)
From there we dropped off Nana and Livie and went to see Indiana Jones together, ALONE, together, by OURSELVES. LOL a present in itself right mommies and daddies? :-) Good movie, well done, but a very non Indian Jones twist to it. Good, but not what i was exspecting.
From there, we went and hung at the house for a bit then all of us went to a local resteraunt named Billy's. COOL place. Nice and clean, great ambiance, neat old building. Used to be a bar with an upstairs bordello back in the day. lol It's a cool place, they had a really nice old bar you could sit at, with a lot of great booths for dining. Definitely a place i wouldn't mind hanging out at. If we had friends, and wasn't preggo and could nurse a drink for the evening. lol :-) ha
The foods really good, juicy hamburgers, good menu. mmmm
Topped the night off with his favorite chocolate cake. can't get better than that for my Richie. Time with his favorite girl, good meals and chocolate. lol
On his actual birthday we did another of his favorites, steak burritos and the rest of his cake and some ice cream. He got off early and was home by 6!! that means he only worked a 10 hour day. lol

My poor Richie, keep sending good thoughts his way please. His mouth is almost to a pain free level every day from having his 2 molars and 2 teeth pulled and thank god the swelling and bruising in his leg is finally down except for the original point of impact where he'll probably have a good hematoma for a while. But at least our fear of blood clots and possible surgary is over and we're thanking god for that. Those were a truly scary 3-4 days. "You have a really high red cell count, the ultrasound looks good except for one vein we can see because of the swelling, it might be a possible blood clot that could let go and kill you, but just go home, put your leg up for 3 days, if the swelling doesn't go down, come back, we can probably do a surgery and cut out the area where the blood clot might possibly be. Just keep your leg up and wait." (deep breathing is required for me at the memory of that) He's back to work now though and starting to feel better. But his life is always in 3's. And it's been his teeth, his leg... we're waiting for the 3rd. Good thoughts, prayers, whatever is your preferred method. lol

Kalaloch Beach

Backing up with this blog... A few weeks ago we were aimed at a beach, or rather a group of beaches along the WA coast north of us by some of the locals here! There's Kalaloch Resort, and below it are Kalaloch Beaches 1-6. Each having different qualities to appreciate. Beach number 4 was suggested for it's beautiful pebbly beach, roch formations and great tide pools. We were also told that Ruby Beach up there is a must. We only made it to #4, but plan on doing another trip at the end of summer after Bubba is born and I've healed enough to do the hike!

Number 4 is beautiful. It's a beautiful lush scenic short hike down, down meaning steep, not bad steep, but almost bad steep for preggos. lol Luckily daddy, nana and popa were all cool with my plodding and occasional break. lol It was worth it though people. Somebody took some huge driftwood and built a bridge over the little stream running to the ocean. This came out on a really cool rock formation that we got to do a little scramble over to a really cool pebble beach. Livie played while we walked down to the cropping of rocks we assumed would be the tide pools. It was great, waves crashing, an almost perfect kiddie depth tide pool behind the largest rock for Livie to play in. The tide was coming in, so we didn't get to appreciate the sea life and have Livie experience the sea anemones like we had hoped, so we are GOING BACK for sure. We had fun scrambling over the rocks, taking pictures and exclaiming over how great it was! lol

I have always loved the beach and ocean. For me it's a peace i can't find anywhere else, a humbling and appreciation for life that I get there. It's something that I need. And taking people there and having them experience and coming to love it as I do is a great feeling. Every time Rich goes, he loves it even more and more. Watching Livie having fun, chasing the water and running from it giggling hysterically, her rock and shell picking, and her wet little butt trudging along.....

Anyhow, we had fun and i would strongly suggest it to anyone to visit. At the end of the summer I'll post about Ruby Beach too!

A quiet day

Today is overcast with a really fine mist of rain. All of my rhodies are almost at a full bloom and I've got hanging baskets and pots filled with brilliant colored flowers. I've always wanted a beautiful and lush colorful yard. I struggled in Idaho and was never able to get a yard or plants TO STAY ALIVE lol

Growing up both my grandfathers had BEAUTIFUL yards they took a lot of pride in, but more importantly, received a lot of enjoyment and peace from. Then there was always Momma and Poppa Dohner....beautiful yards...

One of my blessings from moving to Washington is how much we love the weather here, the local plant life. Its so green, lush and colorful. We really love those qualities. And luckily whomever owned this house before us took advantage of that. We have a tree rhodie in white, a beautiful cluster the largest being a beautiful pink with a red and a purple planted beneath/beside it. Makes a beautiful boquet almost. :-) Along side the house and at the front corner with have two rhoadies, both a bright almost fuschia pink. I found two columbine (?) plants and I am now waiting for my blue hydrangia to bloom right next to my kitchen door and I will be in bliss.

My hanging plants are already growing over the sides and looking beautiful (can't wait to got to the store and get a few more to fill my sad empty hanging baskets!!)

It feels good to make a home, and a really sweet personal pride I get to take now. I love going outside with Livie and watching that little blonde head bent over these beautiful flowers and watching her concentrate so hard on holding the heavy watering can and her smiling as she gets to give "the pretty fowers a dink".

It's a good time. :-)