A Grateful Heart

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed today, I saw a link to an article about a little 3 year old boy that was killed in a car crash last night.  My heart aches for that family and causes me to feel a deep sense of gratitude that my little ones went relatively unscathed in our accident last week.

 I'm grateful for…

• the 5 AM snuggles when we just don't want to sleep in our own bed. 
• the "I'm hungry mom" right before meal times.
• the giggles and squeals when they're playing together.
• the "Mommy your home!" shouts when I get home from teaching.
• the tugs on my pant legs while I'm getting ready in the bathroom.
• the sprints to keep Noah from hurting himself across the room.
• the "I'm sorry mom" and sweet I love you's from my two year old.
• the tupperware strewn all over the kitchen floor.
• the messes that are made when I get "help" making something.
• the adorable smiles when I get them up in the morning or from naps.
• the toys that I can never seem to stay on top of.
• the food that can constantly be found on the floor by the kitchen table.
• the screaming when I leave the room or get out of sight.
• the sound of "crashing" from cars, trucks, trains and tractors.
• the crying when they wake up from naps.
• the excitement when we get him from nursery and the crying when we leave.
• the mound of poopy diapers that my children produce.
• the splashes during bath time.
• the sticky table tops.
• the stroke of little hands caressing my face.  
• the crumbs all over my couches at the end of the day.
• all of these things because they mean I still get to see them in the morning.

I realize that some of the things that I find annoying or tedious are such precious memories in my heart. Future memories could be taken away in a moment and I'm grateful for the memories of my children that I have and for one more day to be with them.  I'm grateful it's not my time to say goodbye for a time and that I get to hug and kiss them tonight before bed.  Even through the crazy times and when it feels like I'm at my whits end, I wouldn't trade them for anything!  

The Evolution of Noah (a.k.a. Photo Dump)

So I kind of haven't been really good about updating my blog.  I guess that what happens when you don't have a lot of down time and if I do, I usually sleep, clean or veg out.  Hopefully Noah will be okay that every month of his life was not documented on the blog (just in the baby book) and won't be jealous of his brother…. ( ha ha ha).  I still find it hard to believe that he is almost one year old.  Time has gone by so fast and he has changed so much!  He is busy, busy, busy and too smart for his own good!  I think having a brother running everywhere has really motivated him to be mobile so quickly.  So here is my photo dump of the monthly pictures I took with my phone.

 Not excited about having his picture taken and not being held.

 A little happier about having our picture taken and cracking a smile.

Not sure what he thinks but at least he stays in one spot!

And the moving and blurry pictures begins!

I wish my phone camera had a faster shutter speed to catch this kid.

Look at those rolls!  It's a lot of work to keep those up!

I think it took me like 10 minutes to get a still shot of him.

I forgot to take a picture with a sticker until he was a week away form 9 months, so this random picture will have to do.

Standing and ready to take off!

Noah really is such a sweet baby!  Not that he doesn't have his moments of being cranky and angry but he is usually all smiles for anyone he meets (although we do frequently start with an open mouth stare:)!  He sleeps mostly through the night, but still wakes up once or twice.  We call him the boob snob because he refuses to take a bottle.  Before Noah, I thought that you could get any baby to take a bottle if you gave it enough time, and then I had Noah and that opinion went swiftly out the door!  To clarify, he has taken a bottle at times but it is very rare.  He LOVES Steven and get so excited when he gets up from a nap and comes out to see us.  Steven isn't always as excited to have Noah follow him everywhere since he just woke up.  I have absolutely loved having two boys together!  I feel very blessed to see them learn and love each other!  Melts my heart when Steven does "big brother" stuff and loves on his little brother, even though some times it is a little less gently.  Noah does not like to be alone, ever…so it works out that he is the second child.  He is also my little socialite and follows us all over the house.

Steven at 2!

Steven is my ever so handsome, melts my heart with a smile (while driving me up the wall within seconds of said smile J ), sweet little boy!  I still can’t believe that he is two and has grown up so much.  I can still remember snuggling him as a newborn.  At his two year check up he was 36.5 inches tall and 31 pounds.  He is still in the upper 90^th percentile in everything… don’t think that is going to change anytime soon.  My love continues to grow for him, as does his need for independence.  He is learning new things everyday and he amazes me with each new “thing”.  It really is so much fun to see him discover new things!  While the terrible twos have been happening for quite some time now at our house, I am so grateful to be his mom and learn new ways of how to be a great mom for him each day.  Here are some fun facts and memories about my sweet little heartbreaker/destroyer:

·      He wants to do everything by himself… everything.

·      He is a pro at pointing (literally) out Noah’s eyes… LOL

·      He loves books!

·      This kid will go outside whenever he gets the chance, whether it is feeding the dogs, going on a walk, playing in the sandbox or watching Dad work in the yard. 

·      He has two speeds: 0 and 90 mph

·      He is our little parrot, mimicking everything we do.

·      He pretty much understands everything we say to him, although he is not so good on the follow through sometimes.

·      He loves his cousins!  Especially Parker, Makenna and Duncan-  It is so cute when he sees them!  #Ineedtorecorditasap

·      He is a great big brother and is constantly trying to “help” me take care of Noah.

·      Whenever he says, “love you”, he puts his head on his shoulder.

·      He LOVES my drinks.  It doesn’t matter if we have the exact same beverage.  He wants to drink out of mommy’s cup, no joke…every time.

·      He loves tractors, planes, trucks, bikes, trains, etc. 

·      His favorite show is Curious George, hands down. 

·      He hoards binkies.  I don’t know where he hides them.

·      He is pretty good and fessing up to whatever mischief he has done when I ask him about it.  Case in point:  I left the bathroom for a second while he was in the tub.  When I came back, the water was white and murky.  I asked him if he had gotten into daddy’s soap while I was gone.  He looked at me, looked at the water, paused for a second and said, “yessssss”.  Love him!

·      All blue trucks are daddy’s and all red trucks are “bumpa’s”.

·      He LOVES popsicles and frozen Gogurts. 

·      He still pretty much eats anything but some days he won’t eat anything.

·      He wants to be a part of pretty much everything I do and will literally push his way through to be able to see J

·      He loves his toddler bed and will go into his room just to play on it. 

·      He has no fear of anything on the playground and he’s going to give me a heart attack by 35!  LOL

Love my little munchkin!  Even though he can be so challenging and iron willed at times, I love him so much and am excited to be home with him permanently in a few weeks!

 

 At Thanksgiving Point with Duncan.

 My creative genius!  He wanted to keep dancing but I told him he had to hold his drink.  His solution... put the drink in his shirt and continue to dance!

 We love sitting in the wipes box apparently.

 He really does want to be just like daddy most of the time!

 Eating his birthday breakfast at Carl's Junior!  My parents always took just us out for a meal on our birthdays!  I loved it and want to continue that tradition with my kids!

 Riding the Frontrunner train for his birthday outing.  He was in heaven!

 Helping out by picking up rocks at Grandma Fieber's!

 Having a sleep over with Parker at our house!  

 "I wear my sunglasses at night!"  Crazy kid.

Moral support for Noah during Tummy Time!

Missing...

I miss my drama free life with my mom.  She was so simple and honest.  I wish I was more like her in that way.  She made everything go so smoothly.  She assumed the best in people and I can see now how that made her life so much happier.  I need to assume the best in people more often... I am so tired of the drama and backbiting.  Ugh.  Can the resurrection come sooner than later so that I can see her again:)

Noah Dale Fieber

10 lbs 4 oz

22.5 inches

Now that he is almost two weeks old, I figured that I should talk about his birth story.  We had hoped to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) with Noah but the condition was that I had to go into labor on my own by March 4th.  We waited and waited with contractions that never became regular.  March 4th came and we headed in to do another c-section early in the morning.  I was a little disappointed but happy to be able to meet him finally!  The epidural went in great and soon we were headed back to get that baby out.  He was out within 15 minutes of getting in the operating room and let out a good scream to let me know he was ready to go :).  I couldn't believe that he was 10 lbs 4 oz!  I thought for sure he would be around 9 but never imagined passing 10!  He had a few breathing problems at first because there was a lot of fluid in his lungs.  They put him on a CPAP machine for about 6 hours and then I finally got to hold him!  

I learned later that Heavenly Father was really looking out for me with this delivery.  Apparently the weight of little Noah and other factors caused my uterus to become thinner than usual.  The doctors were pretty surprised about it and told me multiple times that it was a blessing that I had not tried a VBAC.  If I had the most likely ending would have been a uterine rupture which would have meant no more kids or the worst case scenario could have been bleeding out.  I am so grateful that the Lord knows what he's doing even when I have my "plan".     

 We weren't sure what we wanted to name him at first and were mulling over about four names (Noah, Thomas, Luke and Jackson).  After we finally got him out of the NICU, we spent a couple of hours together and decided on Noah.  His middle name is Dale, my dad's name, and I love it!  It fits him perfectly and we are enjoying his "littleness".

 He is a pretty chill baby and loves to eat, poop and sleep.  He really only cries, so far, when he's hungry or naked.  Diaper and clothes changes are a riot to watch :).  You'd think he was being shoved into a tub of ice water sometimes.

Steven loved seeing him at the hospital and wanted to hold him and give him kisses while telling us each of his body parts!  Now that we are home, there is some adjusting going on but he seems to be more frustrated with me rather than Noah.  He is such a sweet boy and he's learning with me!  Being a mom of a newborn and a toddler is definitely not a piece of cake but it's getting better and we're revamping our old routine everyday.  I'm enjoying my boys and still can't believe I have two kids... holy cow!  

 Here are some cute newborn pictures for your viewing pleasure!

 Look at those chubby cheeks and those fat rolls!

 My two boys posing nicely for the camera!  I wish it would have turned out that simply :).

36 Weeks and too close:)

There is nothing like thinking that your water has broke at 36 weeks and having the nurse tell you to go into Labor and Delivery to get checked out.  You realize all of the things that you haven't done, like take a picture of you pregnant, so here was what he hoped wouldn't be our last picture before having this baby boy.  I was at school and had felt a trickle and wetness for about two hours after lunch.  I asked the office ladies if any of them had ever had their water break and they told me I should probably call the nurse.  I called the doctor's office during afternoon recess and told them what was up.  The nurse told me that she thought my water must have broken and that would explain the trickle and wetness.  I asked her what I should do and she told me to go to Labor and Delivery.  I asked her if I could wait until school was over in an hour and a half and she told me "No.  Go to Labor and Delivery right now."  I went to the office and let them know and then began scrambling to get things organized for the sub that they were going to call.  I kept thinking, "This can't be happening... did my water really break or did my bladder just lose control?"
I met Adam at the house and we headed down to the hospital.  They did a couple of tests and monitored for contractions.  I told the nurse that I really just wanted to go home and not have a baby today because there were too many things I needed to get done before he came.  She told me that she would do her best, but if my water had broken, I would be having that baby today.  One test came back questionable so they did another test.  I was having my normal Braxton Hicks contractions and was grateful that nothing appeared to be getting more serious.  She came back in about 5 minutes later and told us that the test came back negative!  What a relief, but quite embarrassing.  I really didn't want to seem like one of those pregnant ladies that think they're going into labor all the time.  The main reason I went to L&D was because the nurses told me that if my water had broken my risk for infection was greatly increased and I figured that being embarrassed was better than saving face and possibly complicating things with the baby.
This pregnancy has definitely been different from the first and this was my second trip to L&D in the past three weeks.  Three weeks ago I was rear ended on my way home from work and that sent me into false labor for about 5 hours at the hospital.  This kid just needs to stay comfy for the next few weeks while I play catch up with house cleaning and sub plans:).  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about meeting this new little boy, but I can definitely wait another four weeks!

Christmas 2012

We had so much fun this Christmas celebrating with family and just spending time together!  Steven was a lot more interested in opening presents this year and has loved playing with some of the toys we got him!  I took him to SantaFly at Thanksgiving Point and had some cute pictures taken that I think capture his personality to a "T".  He was deathly afraid of the real Santa, so I got to dress up and play Santa in the pictures (ingenious idea if you ask me:).  Adam is finishing his last semester before graduating with a Bachelor's in Nursing and we are so excited!  

Celebrating Dutch Christmas with my mom's side of the family and Steven loved his new Adidas outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Tate!  He had lots of fun running around with his cousins and second cousins in the kids room.  I'm so glad that we live close enough to celebrate Dutch Christmas with my family!  It is one of the highlights of the season and a rich tradition!

 Steven got some bean bag letters and a basket from Aunt Brooke and Uncle Scott.  He and his cousin Duncan had a blast taking all of the bean bags out and then running around the house with the empty baskets on their heads!  It was really fun to see them playing together and how excited they were to see each other!

 We headed up to Idaho to stay with our friends, the Dutchers, in a cabin at Island Park.  Steven got to get all dressed up in his snow gear and play outside in the snow!  He also loved taking a little ride on the snowmobiles.  I've never been on a snowmobile before so it was a first for both of us.

 Christmas Eve 2012-- attempt at a family picture before we become a family of 4:)

 Steven was quite upset that he wasn't in the nativity and that "Mary" got to ride the donkey, AKA Grandpa Fieber, on Christmas Eve and decided to get on the donkey himself.

 Ready to play in the snow!  I love that little Tiger Hat and am so sad that it is getting too small.

 Christmas Morning

 Steven was so excited about his Big Truck and Adam couldn't open it up fast enough!

 You can see his annoyance in his little face while waiting for the Big Truck:)