Wednesday, November 2, 2011

It's a jolly Halloween with Mary

We love the Fall and the kids have been watching anxiously for the leaves to fall off the tree. Finally one day it seemed to happen all at once and they didn't waste any time-not even to change out of dance class clothes :)


Getting ready for Halloween and carving our Pumpkins! Love Maisley's face!


Bert the Chimney Sweep

Mary Poppins
The crew
The maid

We had a GREAT Halloween. RV trick or treat street-where the kids had to empty their buckets 3 times! Chili and Witches brew at Aunt Carolyn's house and then trick or treating with Oogie and Bill! Fun Fun Fun

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Little Update

MaiMais!!! (but these' pictures are a little old, so multiply the hair!!!!-we're talking AAAFFRRO!)


Goof-ball, smarty pants Merik!
Sass Princess Karma!
I wrote a friend an email and kind of updated her on my life so.....wrote it once, post it twice? Sorry I'm such a bad blogger but here's a tiny summary.
We're doing a kind of preschool co-op thing with Merik and we love it! But, we are definitely excited for merik to start school next year tho. We've found a language immersion school for him and are really looking forward to that experience! Learning a language early has always been so important to me-considering my time in moscow, so this is perfect! He'll be learning Chinese! Karma is still a TOTAL diva/wierdo/drama/princess/GIRL! She's hilarious! And just today told me there couldn't be any girls that dressed scary for halloween because that wouldn't make them ladies. Right then. I do preschool with her 1 day a week with 2 of her little friends and she loves it so that's fun! Maisley is the ruler and terror and light of our house! She is 14 months old and walking like a champ. She broke her leg a couple months ago and we wondered if that would stunt her walking but she's a head strong little thing and didn't waste much time after getting her cast off. She's a terror and EXTREMELY demanding but also such a sweet sweet little thing. She just makes us all smile with her love (and her full white-girl curly hair Afro doesn't hurt the laughter). She's very fun. We actually have our 4th on the way! It was probably sooner than we would've planed on our own but when you feel the promptings-you don't really argue. We're excited but definitely stressed about it at this point because i've been sooooo sick and it just doesn't seem to be letting up-which makes the excitement start to die :) I'm about 13 weeks and due the beginning of May! Crazy! Pat is a Firefighter/Paramedic and loves it! He had to have shoulder surgery a few months ago and is actually just going back to work after being on modified duty for 3 months, tomorrow-so that's exciting! He wrecked his mountain bike and had to have full rotator-cuff and labrum surgery-rough; so we're glad he's able to go back to work again. I've had a desire to do something little on the side for work and finally I think I found something but it's still VERY new so we'll have to see how it goes. But I went out to Utah and became a certified Eyelash Extensionist. Crazy-but if I can do it out of my home...when my kids are in bed...perfect! You can look at my website if you want butterflykisslashes.blogspot.com. We'll see but I'm very excited about it so far! We have a 8 month old goldendoodle and he's plenty for me to handle-but totally adorable!! That's us as we sit today! Love you all!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Maisley

Maisley is just an incredible baby and is so fun and happy ALL THE TIME! We are so lucky! Here's a taste of our darling girl!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Off to see the wizzard!!

Halloween Time!!! This year we had a GREAT Halloween. It was Pat's 1st year off with kids and he was SUPER excited to take them trick or treating. The kids dressed up as Dorothy, The Tin Man, and a Wicked Witch and no I don't think I was a terrible mother for dressing my 9 week old as the witch, even though several others expressed their distaste for my choice. I think she was cute! We carved pumkins a few nights before and Merk drew his own face!! Impressive!


Our ward Halloween party was the first time the kids got to get dressed up and of course because Merik got to wear "make-up" so Karma had to also! But she got to wear "mommy make-up" and she did some of it herself! Note the concentration-I dont' think we'll have too hard of a time teaching mascara.






The kids got lots (way too much) candy and had a blast with dad.......


And then the sugar high kicked in! :) She twirled forever and Merik just ran around screaming! (but that doesn't translate well on a camera) and we only let them have 2 pieces! Happy Halloween everyone!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Blessing day






Maisley Nichole Berry was blessed a few weeks ago and it was a wonderful occasion and she looked beautiful! We are so lucky to have her in our family! She continues to be such a sweet, calm, patient baby and we are loving her! She seems to have a special attachment to her daddy and is constantly giving HIM smiles, and coos and only occasionally giving her mother any attention. Already a daddy's girl! She's so fun! PS No comments from the peanut gallery- we got NO pictures of us with her or with her bro and sis! Crappy parents! Maybe we'll stage it another day.

Friday, September 10, 2010

It's a.............

Ok. Yes I know it's been since parachute pants were cool that I've blogged, and yes the rumor is true... I was deflated!


The birth story: (if you don't care you are allowed to scroll down!)
At 39 weeks and 3 days I went into the hospital to have my water broken. They opened the flood gates at 10am and I had my first contraction 5 minutes later. Pat and I went and walked for about an hour and a half and I was then dilated to a 4. My mom and sister got there shortly after that and about 45 minutes after that I was to a 6. I thought it would be this great thing to have my mom and Joslin in the room for the delivery...and it was...what was not such a good idea was having them with Pat in the room for my labor! They were obnoxious, sarcastic, annoying, and hilarious-but they're hilarity was not what I could see at the time!


This is my "yes, you're so funny to be saying that you think I'll be in labor until 7 pm tonight!" "I'm laughing so hard" face. aka "shoot me now I'm dying" face.

Yes I did the whole birth natural which wouldn't have been a huge deal, considering I've done two other natural births, except.....

About an hour later I was to an 8 (per my sweet, obviously optimistic nurse) and a few minutes after I was checked I knew I NEEDED to push!!! No getting around it, no relaxing through it, I NEEDED TO PUSH!!! My nurse went and got my Midwife who promptly came in, checked me, and notified me that not only was I not fully dilated but that I was only to a 7 and could not push or I would tear my cervix! Yeah right! Since I was doing it natural and that urge to push was so strong the only other option was for her to stretch me to a 10. Yes ladies-that means exactly what you think it does. Pleasant...I think not! Needless to say I was not the model of strength, endurance, and control for those next 25 minutes! Yes there was yelling, and maybe some screaming but I can't be sure. All I know is that I've NEVER felt pain like that before and just about blacked out because it was just too much for me to handle. Wimpy I know. Finally I was to a 10 and life was good again! I was back to having contractions I knew, was prepared for, and could handle and the baby was ready to be born. Because the baby was right there for so long and was waiting for my body to catch up I was reassured that pushing would be quick.


My wonderful paramedic husband got all "dolled up" in his "catching" attire and prepared to deliver his third child, whatever it was going to be! I began to push and the baby was born after 2 pushes! Well I'm used to midwives who immediately hand the baby to me after it's born, but Pat apparently missed that memo and delivered the baby and just held it! I quickly, in the nicest way possible I'm sure, said "give it to me!" Which he quickly did. In all the excitement neither of us remembered to check under the hood to see what the new addition to our family was! Joslin (who took a fabulous discrete video of the whole thing for anyone who's interested) said "well, what is it!" I'm incredibly impressed by her because she'd already seen what "it" was and still had the self control not to blurt it out! I quickly lifted the legs to reveal....It was a GIRL!!! Wait.....What?!?!?! Ok, not what I was expecting. I thought I was prepared for either, until it came out a girl! Then I realized just how much I had been expecting a boy. I was in total shock! On top of that, this little baby looked nothing like our other kids! This was going to take some getting used too!

Ok not that much getting used to!


Maisley Nichole Berry was born at 2:35pm August 23, 2010. She weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 19 7/8" long!
Well the kids, especially Merik, had been calling the baby inside me a boy since the beginning. When we told him he had a sister, he just stared at me and finally said "what?"
They quickly became bonded and in love! They absolutely adore their little sister and are such big helpers! :)


When I got home from the hospital Merik looked at me and said "mom what's that?" I explained that I was wearing a belly band and what it was. He quickly shot back "no not that, why is that so big?" Thanks kid! Not only did you just call me fat, but you referred to my entire mid-section as "that!" Gotta love 'em!
We've been home for a couple of weeks now and everyone seems to be adjusting to the ever so demanding, but ever so cute munchkin in our house. She's a very good baby, very happy and very patient, and she will be an even better baby when we get her on a schedule so she sleeps longer than 45 min through out the night.

We've already had some Priceless experiences ! 2 year old Karma is ALWAYS carrying around her accessories! She has several purses, a pumpkin(usually full of things), ponies, bracelets, phones, and babies and ALL must be with her at ALL times! One day Mais was crying so I went to hunt down a bink. I came back to find that selfless Karma had carefully tried to comfort her with her treasures.
Another night Merik wanted to hold Mais so I put them together on the rocker and quickly Karma climbed right up next to them. I hurriedly ran into the other room searching for the camera hoping to catch this precious moment and when I returned I found Merik and Karma singing "I am a child of God" to their new little sister. Yes, tears flowed!

Maisley has already truly blessed our family and her sweet little spirit fills our home with joy! We are so lucky to have been given her and are so excited to get to know her and her little personality better! It's a girl, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Karma Sue turns 2!

There's our typical 2 year old- Climbing! We can't believe it but Karma is 2!! We had a couple great celebrations for her! We have great friends who's daughter also turned 2 on the same day! So we all got together for a fun double 2 year old birthday party at the park! My darling friend Joy made the girls little tu-tu's that were a HUGE hit! Karma just ran around swinging her arms to hit the skirt-it was so cute and a really fun night!


The next day we had Karma's Princess Party! It was really fun! But definitely one of those parties where the vision was a lot better than the execution! I had bought Karma a whole little princess get up with a crown and wand and little princess shoes that we let her open right before her party. Well I ended up having to WAKE her up from a nap 10 minutes before her party started so she was in no mood for the get up! The dress was all we got on her and that only lasted half the party! She loved her new stroller from Grandma Oogie (Pat's mom, whose real name is Susie) and new baby from G-ma Karma (my grandma). She was very cute opening presents on her throne and blowing the candles out on her castle cake! Merik was hilarious as always and decided at the last minute that the knight costume was good enough and that the ninja was a better option. Over all it was a great party and I think the birthday girl had fun!


Karma is so fun and getting so old so fast! Typical of a 2 year old her favorite things to say these days involve yelling at me or Pat "no you stop it" or "don't talk to me"---she's so cute :) No, we do adore her but her attitude is definitely here and causing us worry for the teenage years!

Happy Birthday our little Angel Bug!