Where did he come from?

At the beginning of January we started a new session of swimming lessons. I wasn't overly excited about the fact that we were going to be doing them at the same facility, as I haven't been too impressed with the instructor that one particular child kept on getting. I was too late in registering with another facility, and wanted to keep the lessons going. I decided that it was better to have them in lessons to keep the confidence and hopefully progress up, than to not have them in any at all.

I had also made up my mind that if this particular child was given the same instructor, that we would be OUT of there!...I'll give you some background information.

The child I am referring to is, Marshall. Getting comfortable in the water has not been an easy thing for him. Up until he was about 4 years old, he was severely afraid of the water. He would be okay to play in the tub, but as soon as it came time to wash his hair, no matter which way I tried to do it (because trust me, we tried several ways) he would freak right out. He didn't even like getting sprayed at the water park.

The past two summers Marshall made a lot of progress in the water, he was no longer playing on the pool deck, but IN the shallow water. He even got to the point this past summer, that if he was wearing a life jacket, he was okay to swim in the deep end...BIG improvement!!

Now my 'beef' with this instructor is that I didn't particularly find he was paying as much attention to the children in his class as he should have been, he just seemed to be laid back and not overly observant. There were at least two separate occasions where I thought Marshall was going to drown...that's how much attention he 'gave' to the students.

He spent too much time sitting on the side of the pool talking with the kids, I only assume it was about water/pool safety...but when you only have a 30 min class, don't spend the bulk of it out of the water! This happened every.single.class. I was so frustrated. I kept thinking 'What on earth have I paid for!?' 'My child does not know how to swim...I'm paying you to teach him how...so DO IT, Please!"

When we arrived for our first class this session, and I saw that Marshall, yet again, had the same instructor, I was SO ready to go get Marshall and leave. Irish was there with me and I started to tell him about how this was the same instructor he had last time, and tell him all about the instructor...again. That is until, I saw my boy jump care free, chest puffed out, feet swung up behind him into the water (during a "if you like ____ jump into the water game")

I was IN SHOCK! I could not process what had just happened. The entire last session the only way Marshall would jump into the water was to hold onto the side of the pool and then jump in. I was so incredibly happy for him. Throughout the lesson he continued to blow my mind. He was so brave, doing things he wouldn't even try in the previous session. He even tried diving (from a sitting position), swinging off the rope & even went as far as to try to 'swim out' to get the rope, all of this in the deep end.

As for now we have decided to leave him where he is. I am SO incredibly proud of him, he is so proud of himself (he has every right to be!!). I really want to work hard with him before summer comes so that he can get to the point where he can swim all by himself. What a confidence booster! Keep up the good work Marshall!!

You better believe that I will be first in line to register somewhere else for next session though...especially since our current location decided to increase the price $22/child PER session...that's a 50% increase from what we paid last time....

Promotion

The other day my manager came into the ChildCare and asked if he could talk to me once all the kids were gone. I said sure. Not really knowing what he wanted to talk about my mind started wandering in many different directions.

We have had a few major changes at our gym as of late. Another gym here in town closed down and all their members were transferred over to us (those that wanted to) ...so needless to say it has been quite a ride the last few weeks! New kids...a lot of kids, new parents (some nice...some think they own the place and give me attitude! some not so much), new employees, more paperwork, confusion about payments, and no one feeling on the same page as anyone else!

Since I went back to work in October, I have kind of taken it upon myself to keep things running smoothly in the childcare and making sure everything was being done properly. Since I was the only employee who had been there the longest, and new what should be going on and how things were done...I just took 'charge'.

WELL, I was called into my manager's office to be asked if I would like to be the Child Care Supervisor! In my head I smirked because I'm pretty sure I was already doing the duties of the supervisor anyways...but just to be sure what I might be getting myself into I asked what that entailed!

Their response was (both my Manager & Owner of the gym were present):
-Checking receipts & the sign in book to make sure everyone was paid for
-Getting new parents to fill out info/waiver forms for their children

-Manage 'my employees' (making sure they are doing what they are suppose to be doing)
-Making the schedule for 'my' employees
-Hold staff meetings

Oh and of course a raise! :)

Since I was already doing the first 3 things they said, I said YES.
I'm on a three month probation and then I get to talk to them again and see how things are going!

I think it should be fine...as I have fun, easy going girls to work with!

The thing I am most excited about is I now have Friday's OFF, I have to do a double shift on Tuesdays...but Irish will be home in the afternoon so I won't have to bring the kids with me! I also may have to work the occasional Saturday...but that's no biggie!

One for the baby book

Okay, so I am aware that it was just good timing, and nothing really that Paisley did knowingly...but tonight my little girl (10 months) POOPED on the potty.

It was bath time, Marshall was all done and I just put Paisley in. She started playing and splashing like she usually does...and then she sat there very still! All I had to do was look at her face and I knew what she was about to do! Without thinking I grabbed her and sat her on the potty. I told her "no pooping in the tub missy" and she actually kinda giggled! She sat on the potty for a couple minutes...and then she did it! I was so happy!

5 years of Happiness :)

Yesterday Irish and I celebrated our 5th year of being Married! We have reached half a decade!! What a milestone :)

I remember when we were newly engaged and people told us to 'just remember the first year is the hardest'...so we braced ourselves and willingly took on the 'challenge' :)

After we came upon our 1st anniversary we both looked at each other and said "well if that was the hardest year, bring on the rest!!" Neither one of us thought that it was all that difficult!

Now 5 years later we have two wonderful children, Irish has one year left here at the UofL (hopefully) and we are just one happy family :)

This morning I looked back on previous anniversary pictures, just to see how we have changed, what situations we were in at the time, and where we were living. It was fun....here is how the last 5 years have been for us

April 28 2005- we got MARRIED :)

We lived in Lethbridge for our first 2 years, in 2 different places. 1st a cozy little apartment so close to the college I could walk there in less than 10 minutes. Our 2nd place was a cute house that Irish's parents bought, which we helped touch up the upstairs (the previous people smoked...so washing and repainting the walls was necessary!) renovate the basement. We lived upstairs with my sister (Kristi) and rented out the basement to college students.

Our 1st Anniversary

We Went to Banff, rode the Gondola, went into almost every shop, had an amazing meal at 'The Keg' and just had a nice relaxing weekend away!!

Our 2nd Anniversary

For our 2nd anniversary we decided to go to 'The Keg' again...you can never go wrong with a meal there! We didn't do too much else as I was almost full term with Marshall (He was born 10 days later!)

Two days after Marshall was born we moved to Calgary for the summer (May-August) and lived with My Aunt and Uncle, until we moved to Regina for School!

Our 3rd Anniversary

We actually don't have a picture of just Irish and I on our 3rd Anniversary as we moved back to Lethbridge two days before our Anniversary and were busy unpacking and getting settled in with Irish's Brother and family. As I recall I ended up making supper for everyone and some of their friends on our anniversary...oh well!

Our 4th Anniversary

We hired a babysitter, and went out for sushi...except I didn't get sushi as I had never had it before and didn't think it was the best thing to try while I was 6 months pregnant with Paisley!

Our 5th Anniversary

With the help of Marshall I made Irish 5 Black forest cupcakes, as that is his favorite cake...so I thought I would make him a mini version of the cake...one for each year we have been married



Irish surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of roses at the restaurant we went to, which also was a surprise! All I knew was that I was picking up the babysitter at 6:45!!



I love my man! :)

So this past Valentines day I made Irish a list of 100 things I loved about him. I knew at that point I wanted to do something more with it...i just didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. This past week I was scrapbooking with two different sister in laws, and I finished my mini album!



I decided to 'highlight' a few of my favourites....


#03 You hold me tight
#25 You have amazing eyes


#66 You let me squish your smooth shaved face
#80 You are a fantastic father



#100 You took me to the Temple so we could be together forever


There are two pockets which hold the entire list (1-100 in no particular order)

The Paisley Story

This one is all about Paisley and the progression on how she came into our family. So if you don't want to read about labour and delivery...then stop now.

I think where it all started is Thursday July 23rd. Irish got home from work early and suggested we go walk around the mall. Marshall was excited because we told him he could drive his own car around (those little carts they have to push your kids around). After spending a couple of hours walking around, we headed home. We arrived home to an OVEN. Our upstairs was soooo hot! We had been thinking about the possibility of switching Marshall's room to downstairs, and when we walked in to the oven we thought we better switch it (maybe he will even sleep better)!!

So we got started switching Marshall's room downstairs and my craft/irish's lego room upstairs. We got all of Marshall's things into the room and semi set up before it was time to go to our ward's Pioneer picnic!

That night...allll night I had minor back pain. I thought it was maybe from too much activity that day (walking at the mall, going up and down the stairs switching rooms, etc). It didn't even occur to me that I could be starting contractions until 6:30 that morning when Irish's alarm went off (and a back pain had just ended), he pressed snooze (which is for 5 min later) and when the alarm went off the second time my back started hurting again. When Irish's snooze went off the third time and it was starting up again...I told Irish he better go put the car seat in the car, before he left for work!! After an hour of watching the clock and contractions being an average of 5 min apart I went up stairs and told Irish I didn't think it was a good idea that he went to work that day. I ate something, and then jumped in the shower to see if things would slow down or if it would continue. Sure enough after the shower I was still experiencing the back pain.

I wanted to stay at home as long as I could before going to the hospital. I was still unsure if I was actually having contractions or not...as I still wasn't experiencing anything in the front. We spent the morning watching 'Horton Hears a Who' and 'Kung Fu Panda' with Marshall!

Contractions were becoming an average of 2.5 min to 3 min apart, lasting on average a minute. I was walking around up stairs when the phone rang and Irish answered it. He came upstairs saying it was for me...but at that moment I was having a contraction and told him to take a message! Turns out it was a nurse from the hospital calling to book a time for me to come in and pre-register at the hospital!! Irish told her "uhh, well she's actually going into labour right now..." to which her response was "...okay...I guess we will see you later today"

We had realized that we were running extremely low on diapers for Marshall...so after this phone call Irish asked me if I would be okay if he ran to Costco and got diapers. I told him "I think I'll be okay, just go there and come right back!!"

So not too long after Irish leaves to make a diaper, nursing pad run I have a contraction that lasts a minute and a half! I grab my phone and text him saying "I think we should go to the hospital as soon as you get back"

So in between contractions I change Marshall's diaper, get him dressed, finish packing my bag for the hospital and a bag for Marshall. We dropped Marshall off at our friends place (Kipp and Laura Boehme) around noon and head straight for the hospital.

The whole drive there (all 5 minutes of it) I just kept thinking 'I don't want to get sent home, I don't want to get sent home'. We arrive at emergency and go straight up to labour and delivery. Up until now, I hadn't been emotional at all, but as soon as we got off the elevator going down the hallway to the labour and delivery unit...I start to cry, I don't know why, but I cried!

They put me in an assessment room and check me. To my surprise the nurse tells me i'm 5 cm! (Which means I'M STAYING). I was placed in delivery room #1....cause I am #1...haha!

I spent the next couple of hours in the shower. The hot water felt great. Which is weird cause with Marshall the shower didn't do anything for me! In between contractions Irish and I were talking, he was cracking jokes, and we were both laughing...I thought to my self..."Should I actually be here yet? Do I have a long ways to go?!?!" Once I got closer to 'the end' I needed something for the pain! Morphine was my friend.

The nurse kept checking on us and told me that if I felt any pressure on my bum, or the urge to push that I was to call her right away and get out of the shower. The first time I felt pressure I got out and she checked me and I was about 7 cm. The second time she was about to check me, but I felt like I had to puke. So she waited...and was like "I think this is the 8 cm puke"...which never came. So once that 'died' down, she checked me and I was 8 going on 9 cm. They called the Doctor (Dr. Malach - who's office is right across the street from the hospital). He arrived and he was like "Okay Karley, you can start pushing anytime"

Now the weird thing here is that I still hadn't felt the urge to push, I just had the pressure in my bum. But with Marshall, I had the urge to push, and they kept telling me not to push (REALLY hard to do!!)

...So I gave it my best shot! Now up until now, I had kept it pretty much together! I was pretty calm and not very vocal. BUT once I started pushing...I guess you could say 'I lost it!' I think I was grabbing Irish's arm, and shirt...pretty much whatever I could get my hands on...until I had to use my hands to grab my legs.

Between my screaming, Irish trying to say the right thing, my nurse 'coaching' me, and my Dr and his residency Dr discussing things between them, I could barely process what anyone was telling me. I could hear my Dr. saying "Okay Karley give us a nice big push, hold that breath, and push...come on keep pushing" and then it felt like the next second he was saying "no stop, nice small pushes, that's it, just small ones" It's all kind of a blur and I remember just not being able to concentrate. Until my nurse said "Karley, you need to relax your legs" and then the next thing she said was "Karley, Karley - Look down"....so (I think I pretty much had my eyes closed during the whole pushing thing) I opened my eyes looked down and I could see this little head, and with one more push @ 2:36pm our baby girl was born (18 days early) weighing 6lbs 1oz, measuring 18 3/4" long....and what felt like forever....was probably the longest 4 minutes of my life!

They placed this beautiful tiny baby on my tummy. All I remember is she felt so incredibly warm and soft. For some reason I remember the smell, and I never thought it would be like this, but she smelled so good. I had a huge rush of emotions and began to cry....again....but these were happy tears! (and somewhere in there Irish was able to cut the cord).

I kept thinking to myself and telling Irish "We have a girl....Irish we have a baby girl"

And then this whole beautiful, blissful moment came to a screeching halt when they started pushing on my tummy to get the placenta out! Now my placenta(s) must really like me, as this one didn't want to come out, some of it came out...but it was in chunks. After a while of causing me almost more pain than I was in during labour they decided I better go have a D&C to get all of it out.

I had retained placenta with Marshall as well...although I didn't know it until 4 days after he was born...and it didn't get taken care of until he was a week old...but that is a different story for another time!

After spending almost an hour with my beautiful baby girl, I was taken to the O.R. to have the D&C while my lil girl got to have some bonding time with her Daddy.

Later that evening Marshall was able to come and meet his little sister. The whole thing was really quite cute. At first he kept calling her baby Otto (his cousin who is 2 months older than Paisley), we kept telling him that this is his little sister, the baby that was in mommy's tummy.

He was pretty excited about it. (As you can see from the pictures!)

And that is how it happened!



For more pictures check out our facebook albums.

He did it!

I'm so proud of my little guy right now! He just went #2 on the Potty!! I feel now as if we are going somewhere!! Let's hope this happiness continues all day :)

(Sorry there are no pictures of this one...but I don't think anyone will be too upset!!)

Happy Daddy's Day!

Yesterday we had a great day as a family celebrating our Daddy! Marshall of course woke up too early, so thankfully he was satisfied with a movie to let both Mommy and Daddy catch a few more Z's!!

On Sunday's it is our tradition to have pancakes for supper, but this Sunday we were having a joint Father's Day dinner with some friends of ours. So I decided that I would make Irish pancakes for breakfast! Marshall and I tried to have it ready before Irish got out of bed, so that we could give him breakfast in bed...but that plan failed a little! We still had a delicious breakfast of Pancakes topped with yogurt, blueberries, and strawberries along with a strawberry, mango, peach smoothie!!



After Breakfast Marshall and I gave Irish our "appreciation" gift to him. As we both knew, he loved it.



After church we had our good friends over for dinner. Besides the homemade potato and yam fries, I think the highlight was the Skor Cake we had for dessert!! YUMM

Irish, we (Marshall and I) just want you to know that we love and appreciate everything that you do for us. We hope we let you know this not just on Father's day, but everyday!! We love you so much, and enjoy the time we get to spend with you!! Thanks for being such a great Daddy!!