How we have fun on cold days in March

Ahh...spring. Since March did provide a few spring-ish days, Elisabeth was able to enjoy her new gift from Pepaw...a scooter! And being the good Pepaw that he is, he even remembered how insanely safe Evan and I are and provided Ebeth with a new set of knee and elbow pads and a new helmet (since hers are in storage in Colorado). Don't worry, Ebeth's head is so big, that helmet is for ages 8+ and fit my own head just fine. (I'd make fun of her more, but she totally gets that from the Macfarlane side...sigh) Elisabeth was very excited and about her new set of wheels and, since it was kind of warm out, was able to practice.

Proud scooter owner.

She is so mine...look how lopsided she is. No balance whatever.

I love how she looks so sk8ter-y!


While Ebeth was practicing her mad scootering skills, Julala was inside helping Memaw with her Avon phone calls.
"What is this tail on your phone? It's so 'antique-y'. No one else I know still has a wall phone like this. It tastes divine!"
"Um, Memaw, you have about 5 seconds to get off that phone and get me some real food."



Last week, Julia and I decided to visit Ethan at the arena while he played with other children in the tot area. For one dollar, your child is able to roam the rainbow padded room and play with all the equipment. Now, while my child is completely immobile, Ethan had tons of fun. He even paused long enough to share a snack with Julia.
Julia was receiving her own snack, but decided she liked the looks of Ethan's more.
Look at him look at me for help. So cute. Too bad I was taking pictures and wasn't able to save him. (Just kidding, I continued to feed my fat, fat baby her own snack)
"Here, Ethan, let me help you take off your socks. You don't need them on."
"Thanks, Juju. Now I'll take yours off."
"Wow. We both have enormous feet for our ages."
Julia flapping her sock in the air like a pompom.
Eating Ethan's diaper that was being used to clean his nose. I did not get that information until after I let her suck on it. Thanks, Memaw.
Ethan trampolining.
Seriously, look how big his feet are!
Debbie helping Ethan on the balance beam. Isn't he so cute? I love that red-headed boy!!!

In other news, Evan has safely arrived in Washington DC where he will be hanging out until Saturday with his Air Force Jag schoolmates. (It's like a field trip paid for by taxpayers instead of fundraisers!!!)

Elisa-birth story!!!

At one of the parenting groups I am apart of (I enjoy meeting other mommies who boob their babies...we are way cool), the monthly meeting was about birth stories. Now, birth stories are exactly as they sound--stories of your baby's birth. I was inspired and have decided to share my birth story with you (they encouraged that at the meeting as well). To keep your attention, I will put pictures at the end. We will start chronologically with my lovely Elisabeth!

Baby B. #1 (as we called her in those days), was due November 9th, 2002. By my 8th month, my blood pressure was ridiculously high and I was told to be a "lounging lizard", which meant I was to lay on the couch all day and only make maybe one trip out. I hated it. I was so grumpy and bored. I was in my last year of college, and my professors had given me all my assignments early so that the majority of them were done for the fall semester by the time I was ordered to couch rest. On Friday, November 1st, Evan and I had our weekly doctor appt., and Evan drove us there in the trusty Nissan Altima (may it rest in peace). When they took my blood pressure it was the highest it had ever been, I was 1 centimeter and was having contractions that I wasn't really feeling yet. My OBGYN was extremely concerned for me and told me that he wanted me to go straight to the hospital because my BP was too high and he wanted to monitor the baby. I started crying because I hadn't eaten lunch yet and was starving. I asked if we could eat first and the Dr. stared at me for a few seconds (apparently determing if I was worth receiving lunch), and then said, "You have one hour. If you aren't there in an hour, you're in trouble." Then I asked if I could have french fries (because I was told no salt due to my swelling that made me resemble something of Jabba the Hut) and he laughed and said yes.After a joyful car ride to Arby's (where I purchased a roast beef sandwich, CURLY FRIES, and a Dr. Pepper), we went to Evan's house to make phone calls and pack up. The Dr. told us that if my BP didn't go down we'd be inducing, so the baby was coming within the next day or so.

We arrived at the hospital where I was immediately hooked up to machines to monitor my BP and the baby. Baby was doing super. I was bored, but, fear not, I brought crocheting! (Ahh...the joys of yarn) Nothing too exciting went on concerning the baby. My BP was still very high, but otherwise, there was no reason to start any inducing. The doctor told me that I could go at it naturally, but if my BP went any higher or hadn't gone down by morning, then we'd start pitocin. Evan and I had some visitors Friday night including, Brian, Bryan, Kyle and the Jimmy John's Turkey Tom. Yum.

Ugh...I look super bleh in that picture.

Evan slept in a pull-out chair bed (which he did complain about, in case you were wondering), and I tossed and turned all night. I was starting to feel slight contractions...nothing like what they would be, though. I was also really nervous. As much as I wanted the baby to no longer live in my belly, I wasn't so sure that I was ready to be a mommy. At 6:00AM on November 2nd, the nurse came in to tell me that the Dr. had said to start pitocin at 7:00. My BP wasn't going down and, in fact, had gotten a smidge worse. For some stupid reason, I decided to shower before they put the IV in. Why, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe to smell good before I sweated and stank for hours on end? Maybe so my wet, curly hair would be completely and utterly crazy by the time the baby arrived. After my dumb-idea shower, they put the IV in. My contractions immediately intensified and my body went into defense mode, which for me, is sleep. I slept between contractions and don't really remember too much about labor except that if I didn't talk or move, I didn't cry or scream. I remember telling Evan that I still didn't want drugs (even in labor, the thought of needles completely scared me), that my mom was in the room with me, that Terra walked in with fast food and I screamed at her that she was going to make me vomit, that Evan held my hand, fed me ice chips, and wished for magazines because he was bored. :)

At 1:30PM, I started feeling the need to push. The nursing staff were wonderful this whole time and they went to get the mid-wife, Chris, who would be delivering the baby. Having a baby is really hard to describe afterwards. There are no known words in the English language for the pain or thoughts running through your mind. I remember not opening my eyes the entire time. I remember yelling, "Don't cut me!" when I saw Chris with scissors (turns out she was getting them ready for when Evan would cut the imbilical cord). I remember wanting to give up because it felt impossible. I remember Evan whispering me encouragement. Finally, I heard, "One more push", and then what sounded like a baby lamb. I was crying by now and asked, "What is it?", because we hadn't found out what sex the baby was (because the baby was uncooperative). Chris said, "Tell her Dad," to Evan. Evan said, "It's a girl!" and the entire waiting area outside of the room burst into applause. My parents, his parents, Terra, Kyle and Matt (and Shaman), my aunts and cousins, and my grandma were all out there waiting for us. And then they handed her to me. She was gorgeous; with her little cone head and her lamby cry and her perfect face. Evan cut the cord and then we introduced ourselves to Elisabeth Jennings. It really was nice to finally meet her.

We stayed in the hospital another night. Ebeth did not take to the boob very well, and I was very frustrated by that. We ended up leaving the hospital with her not ever getting a good latch. She only lasted 6 weeks with breastfeeding, something I still struggle dealing with today. Besides that hiccup, Elisabeth started out incredible.

The view from our hospital room.

Introducing ourselves to Elisabeth.

Her first "professional" picture taken at the hospital.

I think one of the things that I always come back to when I think about Elisabeth's birth, was that I was so unprepared. Not just unprepared for the responsibilites of parenthood (because no one is ever ready for that, despite age, finances, life experience, intelligence), but unprepared for how easily we got used to her. It was like she'd always been with us, always been apart of our lives. Watching her grow into this insanely smart, beautiful, weird, loud, amazing girl has been absolutely incredible. And the fun part is, she's only 6. We have a lot of time to go still (and some days feel even longer than others!).

Seriously? Another post in the same day? Wow, the girls must be in the basement with their Nina while Mommy is hiding in her room upstairs.

So very true. Yes, I'm hiding. I'm not scared to admit it. The girls are overwhelming today and at dinner I asked if I could have a bottle of wine to drink. By myself. From the bottle. I'm not ashamed. You haven't eaten a dinner with Julia. She's sooooooo loud. And you know Elisabeth isn't about to be outdone by her baby sister. And where's Evan while all of this is occuring? Oh, eating a steak dinner (or rib dinner) at a nice restaurant surrounded by peers. Now, I know Evan would much rather partake in our obnoxiously loud dinners because he does truly love his girls, but I would much rather be eating at a nice restaurant in Alabama. So jealous.

Anywhoo...I am merely posting the snow pictures I took today to prove to Evan that we had snow, it was very pretty, but I still was grumpy about it. You know, ironically, Evan can stay updated on the girls through this blog currently. See, so I have every right to post daily because Evan needs to be informed about how his girls are doing. (Nevermind I call him constantly and text him even more...)

I am addicted to this blog....for reals.

So, I am predicting that I will not always blog daily...like by next week I'm sure I'll have forgotten to blog at all. However, since this is so simple and since my kids are so cute (not that I'm biased at all), I choose to at least keep you updated on the happenings of this month. Aren't you so excite?!


So, we woke up this morning to snow...seriously, I'm so done with winter. This is why old people move south (and by old people, I mean birds). I'm totally getting a condo in Florida and high tailing it there every September-April when I get old (and by old, I mean 30). Ebeth was so excited by the "Winter Wonderland" (which she called it at least 14 times on the car ride to church) but she's only 6 and her opinion on cold weather does not count what-so-ever.

Since I am mad at the weather, I shall post pictures of our recent trip to Nashville, TN to see Evan. My lovely and bestest friend ever, Melissa Danz, accompanied the girls and I on our trip. We drove down Friday morning, leaving at 9:00AM and arriving in Nashville around 5:30PM. I have been so lucky in that the girls are excellent in the car. They thoroughly entertain each other, and for that I am so thankful, because otherwise I'd most likely be hysterical the entire time. Evan didn't get there till around 10:00PM, but Ebeth stayed up long enough to see him. We spent Saturday hanging out at the hotel, going to the Country Music Museum and the Nashville Zoo. Now, for those who don't know me well, I LOVE zoos. I do not exaggerate. I try to visit a zoo as often as possible in any and every new town we visit. This zoo was lovely, but St. Louis is still my ultimate favorite. Anywhoo, we ate at two great restaurants--Jack's BBQ in downtown Nashville and Caney's Fork Fish Camp. Ebeth loved loved loved the fish place. There was a 3100 gallon pond in the middle, live music, and dead animals all over the walls. Totally her type of place. As much as I love seeing my husband (since I can't see him daily, which does suck, incase you were wondering), just getting him for the weekend was just not enough. If only I didn't like him so much...
We made a pit stop at Metropolis, IL to see the giant statue of Superman. We were not disappointed.
The giant pond I spoke of.
Ebeth talked Mel into dancing with her to the live music. Yes, they were the only ones dancing...does that surprise you?
Ebeth took this picture of us. Look how ecstatic Julia is about seeing Ebeth behind the camera.
At the meerkat viewing area. So cool.
Julia pointing at the fish. She was way jealous that she, too, couldn't swim.

Such hams, those EJBs.
Julia was all about eating the table. She did it all night.

Checking out the dead animals.
Julia is a fan of baths.

Elisa-hair

Recently, Elisabeth had her hair cut and donated the pony tail to Locks of Love.







After she'd heard my sister talking about it over a year ago, Elisabeth was intrigued by the idea that her hair could be put into a wig for a child who didn't have any hair. She had to wait for it to be 10 inches long and then we could donate it.


At the beginning of the month, we straightened it out and it was 11 1/2 inches!!! She was so excited. We're super proud of her. After she cut it, she told the hair dresser that she was going to grow it out and cut it again in 2 years. :) (Oh, and having her hair short is MUCH easier to deal with in the morning. All is well.)

Let's try this again...Google style

Ebeth and Jana reading together. Ebeth has become quite the reader.
Julia hanging out at meal time.
Julia fishing out whatever she can find in her bib. She's quite the oinker.
Julia thinking to herself, "Wow, I am really loud when I eat."
Julia in the morning, talking to the penguins on our sheets.


I know that for some of you, I sent a link to a webpage I'd created on shutterfly.com, but it was too overwhelming for me (I am easily overwhelmed) and found this Google style of blogging muuuch easier. So, here we go.

I would like to be able to blog to you all about Evan, me and the girls since we will be traveling so much now that Evan is in the Air Force. I feel it will be an easier way than by emailing you all individually with unique messages that are personal and sincere. Instead, you are going to receive massive blogs. Deal. :)

Let us all start with recent events. Would you like to hear about the girls? Of course you would! We will do this chronologically...

Ebeth recently performed in a talent show in her Kindergarten music class. Last performance she danced to a song from Hairspray and was the only talent show participant. Apparently, some of the children laughed at her (Ebeth is a serious dancer and very intense), and that made her a bit self conscience (and Evan very sad). So, this time around, she chose to take her harmonica and play a waltz on it for the class. It received rave reviews. :) She also inspired two other classmates to actually do a talent. One little girl sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. And one little boy ran around the room in circles. He was informed that it was not a talent and to please stop.

Julia is currently trying to pull herself up on things. Due to her massiveness, it is proving quite the task. She is also into growing teeth and is still quite the monster at dinner time. For those of you not yet priviledged to actually hear the child at any meal, I ask you to stop by sometime. Or perhaps I will post a video so you don't have to put yourself through the agony of a meal with her. She makes this grunting noise the ENTIRE MEAL. Not an exageration. I actually get headaches while eating with her sometimes.

Evan is doing well. He is leaving next Tuesday for Washington DC. He is excited. Of course, he'd rather see us...or that's what I'd like to think. But, he does love DC, so that might not be that true.

Alright, people, let's see how this website goes for us. I wish you all the best as you read these fine words that I continue to type to you all.