THE TRAVELING GARDNERS

I was in the Labor and Delivery level of our hospital from 9am - 8pm last Friday. I was doubled over with front lower abdomen pain, 100' fever, lower right side back pains, and my whole right side of my neck was swollen and tender to the touch. My OB was worried that I had appendicitis. And that would cause the baby to have to be delivered. Thank heavens it was not appendicitis. My white blood cell count was 18,000. And the normal is 14,000 when pregnant. After a few ultrasounds, they found 2 cysts on my right ovary. But everything was fine with the baby and the placenta. My fever was 100'. I was also severely dehydrated. I was given a few bags of Iv fluid. My OB originally wanted to keep me over night as a precaution. The high white blood cell count was worrying her. But I really just wanted to sleep in my own bed. And I promised that we lived 3 minutes away, and I would be right back at the hospital if the pain worsened. I can be pretty convincing. (I keep telling Dan I sho...

Happy Birthday to our Superman! (Ben truly and honestly believes that Dan is Superman and can really fly.)                                      For his birthday morning, Dan got a special egg, pancake, and sausage breakfast with orange juice.The boys were pretty excited about Dan's special day. He took the day off from work.   And then it was present time!  Dan was so excited to open his presents that tissue paper was flying!  The boys got Dan a new baseball cap for the upcoming hot summer days.  Dan was totally not surprised, but super excited over his new heart monitor from me.  Dan's request for his birthday cake this year was an angel food cake. This is Dan's favorite cake. My mistake was attempting to get all 29 candles on a soft sponge cake. Lesson learned.  Poor D...

I love my little men. They have so much energy. I took them to the side of our house and let them race each other and play in the grass. Dan was in the house hanging pictures on the walls. They needed to get out some energy. But, I was not feeling well enough to walk them to the park. It had been raining non stop for a few weeks prior to this day. The sun finally came out long enough to dry the grass. I love having our SLR camera lens fixed. These are the memories I want to take pictures of and always remember. These boys are growing up too fast.

Pictures taken on 3-18-11    24 weeks and 5 days pregnant Pregnancy Update Info: Because of my post partum complications with blood pressure after Zach was born, Benjamin's platelet and other health complications after he was born, and the fact that I had a stroke, this pregnancy is considered high risk. Along with my regular OB, I also see a Perionatoligist. He specializes in high risk pregnancies. Because I had a stroke in September 2009, my chances of having another stroke are increased when pregnant. I did not realize this until I was already pregnant. So, this will definitely be our last baby. Also, to decrease the risk of another stroke, I have to give myself an injection needle into my stomach every night. This medicine is called Lovenox. It is an anti-coagulant. It prevents my blood from clotting. It stings, and causes bruising. But, I know it is keeping the baby and I safe. I am scheduled to have a C-Section. So just in case the baby comes sooner than sched...

The leprechauns came and turned our milk, eggs, and pancakes green!                                                                                                     When Dan came home from work and saw the eggs he was totally grossed out. He said that the eggs looked like play dough. The boys loved it.  Dan and I surprised the boys with buying them the book GREEN EGGS AND HAM. Dan took over the boys bedtime this night. Down the hall in the master bedroom, I was laying down res...

Today sweet Benji turned 5 years old. Dan and I are still in a bit of shock that we have a 5 year old! It feels as though just yesterday we were in Hawaii getting ready to welcome our very first child into our life. And now he is 5 years old and dreaming of super hero's, pirates, and monster trucks. I love Ben's imagination. I am amazed each day at how smart he is. I feel joy when he shows us how a big brother should protect and treat a little brother. I get excited at the thought of how great he will be to Isabella. Looking back at his medical problems, we feel so blessed that he is a healthy and happy little man.  Playing with birthday presents from Grandma Liz. Tough guys with their monster jam sticker tattoos. Roller skating through the house birthday morning with his new spider man roller skates and green lantern under roos! Driving his new trucks through his monster truck birthday cake.

We are so excited for our little princess to join our family! Dan and I have picked out the main theme for her nursery.  We came across this bedding set from Pottery Barn for kids. Dan and I both instantly fell in love with it. Isabella's name will be monogrammed on the quilt. We usually do not splurge on bedding. However, this little angel coming is going to be our last, and she is a girl. So she is getting spoiled!     We love white for the furniture. We really love the sleigh bed design for the crib.    And here is the adorable wall decal that I found online. The theme of her room came from an idea that we saw. Love this retro owl look at Target. Back about a year ago, I saw this bedding set at Target and fell in love with it. I said, "If we ever have a girl, I would love to decorate her room in this design."We recently discovered this only comes in twin size bedding. It does not come in crib bedding size. We will still be using th...

Last month we bought Zach his own potty chair. Zachary named it the potty frog. And about twice a week for a month, he would go into the bathroom and just sit on it. For a few weeks he would rip off his diaper. He really wants to wear super hero underwear like big brother. We just didn't think he was ready to completely potty train. So, we let him put underwear over his diaper. Then this past Monday we had to buy Ben new underwear. Zachary of course wanted his own also. So we bought some Toy Story pull ups for Zach. We filled up a "potty treat" jar with hot wheels. And then Tuesday evening he ripped off his pull up and HE DID IT! This evening was the very first time that Zachy went pee pee in his potty frog! Benjamin was the best big brother EVER. He asked Zach if he wanted a hot wheel car. And told him to drink his blue Gatorade and sit down on the potty frog. He then sat in the bathroom with Zach for 10 minutes until he went potty. Originally I thought that Zach had ...

So at the beginning of the year, Dan and I were discussing New Years resolutions. One of our resolutions was that we both wanted to focus on making our family a priority. I gave a suggestion of Friday Family Movie Night. I remember looking at my friends blog(Melanie) and thinking what a great idea that was. This also went perfect with my idea of having "themed ideas" for dinner nights, (Ex: Meatless Monday) So Friday has become Family Movie Night at our home. And dinner every Friday night is called Family Fun Friday. Our "Fun" dinners have consisted of breakfast for dinner, making own pizzas, take out dinner made into living room picnic, movie food like nachos or hot dogs, ect. On Friday Family movie night there are no "rules" for dinner. Soda is okay to be drank. Vegetables do not have to be eaten. Dan made this yummy Garlic Ranch Chicken pizza! The boys picked out their own toppings. And put the toppings on themselves. Daddy and Mommy decide on the d...