2011 - 2012.... The Updates

OK!!!!!!!!!! So I have been a little LAZY about updating our blog... SORRRY! Its been such a busy, crazy and hectic year that I havent even caught up on our pics from 2011...and now its 2012. Needless to say that the ONLY new year's resolution that I am willing to commit to is to organize our life, at least, when it comes to photos, scrapbooks, blogs and all of the stuff in between.

So for now, at least till I can get my office organized to find my camera and put pics online so that I can blog about them, here is basically what our year has been like... since my last post... anyways.

1. Thanksgiving 2010: I think this was the LAST post, we spent Thanksgiving with Levi and Susie and their super cute kids, we got to skype with Aunt Linda, Granny and some other family members....That was soo fun to see everyone, even though it was through a computer.

2. Christmas 2010: yes now its time for my brain to start working on trying to remember what we did last Christmas. So correct me if I am wrong on anything here, I think that we spent the night at Levi and Susie's Christmas eve at their new place and spent Christmas morning with them, opening gifts and stuff. Or maybe we didnt spent the night and we just stayed at their house really late and opened gifts on Christmas Eve. Either way that is basically what we did... for the rest of the Christmas break we shoveled snow and attempted to build a snowman, which melted soon after.

3. New Years: we went to bed before midnight.

4. School: So the girls started school after the break, Jamie in Kindergarten, Liz in First grade. Once school started it was basically walking the kids to school at 830am, walking home by 9am, then going back to school to pick up Jamie at 1125am and walking home in time for lunch and naptime. Once the new year started Liz walked home with a group of kids after school so that I didnt have to wake Jared up from his nap. We started taking Jared to playdates while the girls were in school. On Mondays, Jared had Music Makers, at the Church, where a few moms would organize some fun songs and stuff for the kids to sing to. Then on Thursdays, we had Craft Day. A playdate where the toddlers learned a new color, letter or animal. They would make a simple craft to accomodate whatever they learned, this was done at the playground. It was a lot of fun to be so busy...

5. V-day: Probably the first Valentines day that Jared and I got to celebrate since we have been married... I know, pathetic really! However, we did go out to a fancy place for dinner... I cant spell the name but it was a Italian resturant, we saw a movie and basically enjoyed each others company for a whole 5 hrs! It was great. It gave us some time to talk about what we wanted to do for the summer.

6. March: I dont think we did anything fun or exciting for March, other then the regular school, playdates, work, etc there really wasnt anything exciting.

7. April: Jamie turns 6... she asked for rainbow cupcakes.. those were fun to make, and a big hit in her Kindergarten class. Needless to say, she wants a rainbow CAKE for her birthday this yr! We will see how that goes. Then there is Easter. I really wanted to do some family pics at Temple square, but that required new outfits... yes! So we went shopping for the Easter holidays. Got the girls some adorable yellow, black and white dresses, some navy blue dresses and coordinating outfits for the boys... it was a bit hectic trying to decide on at theme for the family pics but we got a great color combo. Granny had her big birthday bash.. which we missed, go figure. We really couldnt afford the trip, sad I know, It was going to be really difficult to rent a car big enough for all of us and pay for the gas, food and hotel on our already tight budget. We were REALLY sad to not be there, it was hard to be stuck in UT working extra hours, while the WHOLE family was celebrating Granny's bday. But we are determined to get to AK soon....

8. May: Warm weather came in.... FINALLY!!! It was the best time to take family Pics. And at a huge discount how could we not take pics... plus I needed to update our last photos so... why not right! We got all dressed in our Yellow, black and white outfits and headed to SLC for some spring pics at Temple Square. They were great... and the highlight of our month.

9. June: Liz turns 7!! OMG!!! I have a 7 yr old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how did this happen???? well this was a birthday that caught us by surprise... I was completely surprised when Lizzy's teacher called me one day and asked me if was going to do anything special for Liz's bday at school the next day.... I am a bad mom, I know! I mean how could I forget her birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, I told the teacher that I forgot, and that I hadnt planned anything. She understood, but I felt really bad. Usually we take the kids somewhere special for their birthday. Liz wanted to see dinosaurs. Again our tight budget wouldnt allow us to do that, so I opted for a special movie night. We had her cousins (Abigail and Rads)spend the night and watch a movie. The next day Uncle Levi brought Liz her gift (a slip and slide) and the kids spent the afternoon playing with that... Once the cousins left I went to the store and got Liz a giant cupcake (her choice) and we shared it after a simple birthday dinner of mac and cheese. I hope that this year I can remember and do something really cool for her 8th birthday!

10. July 4th: A holiday that we usually dont celebrate too much. It happens to be a really busy day for Jared at work so we never really celebrate it. Plus I am not a fan of fireworks or the summer heat so.... yeah. But this year our son was old enough to enjoy a derby. Jared got some FREE tickets to attend the biggest Derby in UT and we thought it would be great to enjoy it with friends. Mainly because I get bored at the derby and need someone to talk to, I hate the heat and shuffling the kids around with all those people takes a few hands. So we invited the Stevenson Family to go along with us. They have three kids of their own, 2 girls and a boy, just like us. SO ofcourse all the boys we mesmerized by the derby and fireworks, while all the girls enjoyed the food. Other then that we spent most of the time shuffling the kids back and forth to the potty. And then trying to get snacks from the cars.... we lost alot of weight that day with all the running back and forth we did, but were able to sit and enjoy the firework display.

11. Anniversary #8: WOW! 8 years of marriage FLEW by.... but luckily we were determined to celebrate at least one anniversary in our lifetime. I was attempting to renew my TT passport (a whole other story) and came to the realization that I HAD to travel all the was to DC to do that!!!!!!!!!!! it was the ONLY way. Soooooo, I thought, IF we can manage it, perhaps we should leave the kids in UT and take advantage of this chaos and celebrate our anniversary in DC. Its a place we always wanted to visit. AND I had to be there anyways for my passport... Kill two birds with one stone!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The process however was not so simple. Trying to organize a sitter for the kids for a week and a half seemed to be the biggest set back. Due to last min changes, the kids spent a few days with Levi and Susie and then spent a few days with our friends, the Bingham's. Then Jared and I managed to rent a teeny tiny Spyder car to drive for 36 hrs to DC and back.... we rented the cheapest room at the nicest hotel and renewed my passport, saw a few sites in DC, and most importantly ate some REAL Trini food. Easily the best part of the trip was being together, but the doubles was a close second ;) and I will attempt to post pics of this trip, sometime this year!

12: August: its the hottest time of the year in UT.... this is the month that I start my hibernation. I had no motivation to get out in the heat, having a tight budget only encouraged me to stay inside and not go anywhere for most of the month. And then school started, again that happened a little too quick for me. NOW I had a second grader and a first grader..... all day school.... all day without my girls.... I didnt know if it was a blessing or a curse. One, cus I missed them sooo much and two, they helped with the chores. A curse, cus when then came home they were swamped with homework, class parties, events and all that come with having multiple children in school.

13. September: It starts..... I couldnt tell if I was tired cus of all the crazy things we were dealing with or tired from chasing after 3 kids every day.... but I started to feel like I wasnt sleeping or getting enough sleep, I felt drained of energy. But life goes on right, Mom's dont get sick days...EVER! so when my birthday came around, which I completely forgot about, Jared decided to get a sitter. We really needed a break, me more them him, and we really wanted to see a movie.... that didnt involve cartoon characters, princesses or fluffy animals. We saw Captain America.... nice eye candy for me, and blowing stuff up for Jared. A perfect combo. But I felt a cold or fever coming on.... I started to feel sick.... I went through the whole movie feeling worse and worse with every minute. Then I thought.... am I late? how late? oh ... just 3 days.. no big deal, but then again, this was more then just a cold. SO as a precaution I took the dreaded test... you know the one that holds my freedom in the balance..... POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you gotta be kidding me, I thought this was wrong." How could I be pregnant... AGAIN!!! I thought we had a deal God!!! "I shouted. IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!! so number #4 is on the way!!!!!!!!!!!

14. October:" I dont care. I just dont care. Leave me alone.... Dont talk to me, I dont care." This is basically what I said to everyone that talked to me. Here is the thing about morning sickness. It isnt JUST in the mornings, its all day long. And its not just throwing up every ten minutes, or not being able to eat, or not being able to smell. Its a whole body thing. Every inch of my body hurt, I was tired beyond tired, I couldnt sleep, I was starving and nauseous all that the same time. The only good thing was I was losing this baby weight, however I would gain it all back soon enough so whats the point. Miserable doesnt even begin to describe the feeling. I was depressed, I lost my ability to care, I lost my patience COMPLETELY and I felt like crawling under a rock.. and those were the good days. I scheduled my First prenatal visit, thinking to myself this is only the beginning... that I had another 2 or 3 months of feeling like crap...then the doc recommended a ultrasound. Good news!!!!!!!!!!! I was 11 weeks along!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait... WHAT????? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!! I wasnt late ever!!!!!!!!!!!! 11 WEEEKS!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

15. 11 Weeks and counting: Well I suppose if I am ALMOST done with the most horrible part of the pregnancy that has to be good right? I mean who wants to be sick for 2 months? who wants to feel tired all the time? I would be getting back my energy soon, I would be able to eat and I can start wearing my "real" maternity clothes... always a comfort. Well that totally didnt happen. Who knew that being 11 weeks along would be so .................... I dont know, I cant find a word to describe it. But basically nothing I hoped would happen would ever happen. I remained sick, tired and annoyed at everyone. The house smelt, so did the kids, Jared, the car...etc.... eating wasnt as great as I thought because now that I could eat all I felt like eating was soup, jello and fruit. I was starving, but couldnt eat more then a handful of food at a time, then the heart palpation started, struggling to breathe when all I am doing is sitting down and of course the fact moving took every single bit of energy out of me, a normal pregnancy for me anyways. I hoped for a better month... next month.

16. 16 Weeks.....Maybe?: Ok, you would think that by the fourth kid I MIGHT have learned a thing or two about pregnancy, my body and of course what its like to have a prego belly, but no. That didnt happen to me. I planned for my 16 week ultrasound, a new doc this time, a new place to drive to for them to poke at my growing body, and luckily a doc who is really mellow and not freaking out about my medical history and preterm labor. So we get the ultra sound done, the one to find out the gender of the baby.... keeping our fingers crossed that at least this would be another bouncing baby boy, and I would have EVERYTHING this kids needs, as I gave away all my baby girl clothes... and everything I have for a baby is for a boy... But, alas..... I plan... God Laughs.... Another little girl! So back to pink I thought...I think I can do that again... how hard is it to go back to pink? I like pink... right? Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that baby #4 is on her way... I really dont have the energy to think about another little girl in the house and then the due date is May 5th... but the ultrasound says May 7th, I am going to go with April 20th... that is my hope anyways.

17. Moving: November is just another month to some people, a month to prep the house for family members, thanksgiving and Christmas. Not us, its a whole Move-your-whole-family-to-a-bigger-place-cus-you-wont-have-another-opportunity-to-do-so-anytime-soon month. We had been scouting the area for a place to rent for months. We had finally out grown the basement apartment and with a new baby on the way, it seemed logical to move asap. We got a great place a few houses down, same ward, same school district.... same everything... except $100 more in rent and we have to pay utilities. More stairs.... not cool. We have more space, more room and for NOW it will do. For now!

18. Oh Thanksgiving...Already: I think 3 days after we moved into our new place it was Thanksgiving. With me just getting used to the whole being pregnant, moving, morning sickness thing and Susie almost ready to pop with baby #3, I really didnt have a clue what to do for Thanksgiving. I was hoping the boys would figure it out, and cook everything and organize everything so that Susie and I could be pregnant and miserable in peace. But that didnt happen either. I made macaroni pie, apple pie and we brought drinks. Levi managed the rest...i think. Altogether it was the best Thanksgiving meal I ever had. Maybe it was because it was the first real meal I had in weeks but it was the best meal ever, so there.

19. Wind Storm: And then the winds came.... Knocking down power lines, uprooting trees, ripping off roofs and more... what a disaster.... we didnt get much sleep those nights and then when we thought we had finally cleared away the trees on the streets and fixed broken windows and assessed all the damage....then the weather guy says... that another wind storm about the same wind speeds and will cause more damage. SO our community came together, called off church and put themselves to work. Moving, hauling and chopping down uprooted trees, carrying truck load after truck load of branches away... it was truly something worth seeing.... and participating in, however not I. I was stuck at home with three very sick children, and being sick with morning sickness myself, all I could do was sit and watch everyone come together and work and do nothing.... yep. Yay me! But the work got done and everyone made it back to their homes safe and sound before the winds started to pick up.

20. My husband, the old man: lol I love my husband dearly... more then words can describe. But since the storm hit Jared was assigned to manage a few crews of people to clean up the areas, then he was the one called out to assess roof damage. So he called out his long time friends and roofer, Randy Olsen. With Jared's help they have gone to almost everyone in our ward to help them fix their roofs and to work with their insurance companies. Also working at Renegade Oil, Jared would have early mornings and then come home after 7pm. He was busy during the weekends trying to catch up on things for work too. So by the time he sat down to eat or talk to me about what his day was like, he had already popped 4 ibprophens and was half way asleep. But thats not it, Jared had worked on roofs for a while but hadnt done any hard labor for 4 years. Getting him back on the roofs was good, but he is really sore... and his back is sore, knees keep popping... all the regular old man stuff that he is now having to deal with. He thought that it would be easy to get back into roofing since he had done it for a long time, but his body is wayyyy to old to get doing that kind of work for too long now... lol

SO this is our life at the moment, Jared is keeping busy with work at Renegade Oil, and part time working on roofs, being sore and being a dad who has to help his pregnant wife. Liz is starting to bring home more and more projects for school, real homework in my opinion and she is struggling with keeping up with her chores, new chores and homework. But I am sure she will get the hang of it all, hopefully sooner then later. Jamie is having a hard time adapting, to what I still dont know, maybe its the move, the thought of a new sibling, school... whatever it is, everyday is a battle for her. But on the bright side I think she really loves school and her friends, she is learning quickly and seems to be doing really well academically. Little Jared has started preschool to help with his speech delay. We are hoping that he is going to learn alot. He is speaking more but having a hard time making friends. He seems to understand that mom is having another baby but shows this differently then the girls did. He is loving and a happy little boy most of the time, and that is all that matters to me.

I am genuinely happy. Excited for another little baby to be here... excited to be a mommy again. NOT excited about the hospital part of it. I am hoping for the best when it comes to my green card. I feel like I really cant plan for the future till I know what is going to happen with the green card. SO for now I am trying to focus most of my time and energy to keeping up with the family. Jared and his busy schedule and keeping up with the kids is about all I can manage for right now. I do worry alot about the new baby and my green card alot. Seems like a natural thing to do. I hope to get on a plane this year, whether its to go back to Trinidad or to fly to Disney world I hope to get my freedom back....

I hope to find the time to blog again... soon.

21. Christmas 2011: Wow.. thought I was just talking about our last Christmas a minute ago. Well with 3 GROWING children, it was easy to decide what the kids were going to get for Christmas. The same thing they get every year. Clothes. Yes we are the un-fun parents when it comes to spending money that we dont have on gifts for our kids. I really didnt think the kids needed anymore toys, as they were having a hard time taking care of the ones that they already had, and no need for educational stuff, because they had gotten alot of that stuff since September, now it was time to be real. The girls had holes in the knees of their good jeans, their shirts were too small and they were starting to look like they grew too quickly in a short period of time. Jared is a husky little boy, so while some of the pants still fit him from last year, his shirts and sweaters no longer fit in the chest area. Clothes it is then! Although we did decided to get Jared a ramp for his cars to drive down and the girls wanted something a little different this year..... Nailpolish and lip gloss!!!!!!! oh NO!!!!!!!!!!

22. what next?: Great now we can get ready for the next yr... right.. a new baby, a 8 yr old daughter, baptism, traveling.... and now (probably the most exciting and equally stressful news), my green card appointment! yep.. all that hard work.. all those restless nights... 8 years of marriage and almost 4 kids later.. the time has come to get my green card.... hopefully... Yes, I am the-glass-is-half-empty kind of person! Technically there shouldnt be any problems, according to my lawyer and friends and everyone else, but somehow the whole thing makes me really nervous and anxious.... should I worry. Should I not... Trust God right???? So now I am coming to the end of my time in limbo.... This interview can change my whole life, my family's life and everything in between. What if I am not so lucky and they say no, you have to go back to Trinidad. Not that I would mind but I know the kids and Jared would, plus a prego woman on a plane, with a history of preterm labor, and more isnt a good idea. But it could happen. Uprooting my family to live in Trinidad inst a bad idea, I would just like it to be on MY terms and on MY time. OR. It could be as simple as everyone thinks and I get a green card, can work, buy a house, get a life, finish school and more.... I like the latter idea better. One can only hope... and pray and hope,.... and pray some more. My appointment in Jan 31st. The day that changes the rest of my life.... excited? I think not!