Where Have I Been???

I can't believe my last post was Halloween. I have got to be the biggest slacker ever! Between Volleyball tournaments, football games and everything else that keeps us busy, there has just been very little down time.

In February I was the Chaperone for Tristyn's team in Colorado. Dave stayed here with all the other kids and Spencer and Annie stayed here to help him.  It only took me two weeks to recover after I got back. Then a few weeks ago Dave and I took our two little ones and Tristyn to California for another tournament. Our older boys had to stay back for their games. It is not very often that a team from Arizona does so well in a SoCal tournament but they played awesome and took second. They qualified to play in the highest division in the National tournament in Ohio in June where I will again tackle the duty of Chaperone.

 

 The team after they took second!!

While we were there we took Troy and Trulie to their first trip to the beach. Troy had a ball even though it was freezing and it took Trulie a little while to warm up the idea.

 

 Trulie not so sure about this...

 Getting a little more comfortable..

 Finally a smile:)

 Troy after getting pummeled by a wave!

Trulie is getting so big. She is nine months already and it is so fun to have a baby in our home again. There is just such a sweet spirit about her and our older kids are so good with her. She is pulling herself up on everything and it is only a matter of days until she starts walking and then the real fun begins.

My Crazy Life!!

Anyone else addicted to Pinterest?? It is so fun to see all of the cute things that are out there but then it makes me crazy because I want to change everything in my house. I spent the last few weeks decorating for Halloween trying to update what I have without spending very much money. These are a few of the things that I made.

I also had to get ready for Trulie's baby blessing. I found the cutest little blessing dress on Macy's website that was normally $75 on sale for $16.99. It said that it would take 3-5 business days and I ordered it on Monday. I refused to pay the extra 10 bucks to get it here in 2 days and then found out that it wasn't going to be here until the Tuesday after the blessing. So Saturday I was on the hunt for another dress. I think I was being watched over because I found a darling little dress, the only one they had with sleeves and it was her size at JCPenney. I got it for $15 after all of the sales, so it actually worked out okay. We had about 60 people at the church taking up 6 rows and then had everyone over for lunch afterward. Dave is the baby of six kids and Trulie is the 34th grandchild on his side and she is the 15th on my side. So you can imagine the crowd we had to feed. It is safe to say that I am wiped out.

 Dave, his mom and Trulie

Four Generations

 Desserts I made for the lunch. Girls are so much fun!!

Now I am looking for ideas for Thanksgiving stuff to occupy "all" of my time so that I can have my house ready for Trent's Baptism and luncheon on the 5th of November. It seems like there is always something to get ready for but that is how I like it.

I "Love" October

October is such a busy month for me. I have two birthdays, one on the first and another on the 10th. Then you throw Halloween in there which makes me crazy trying to find costumes for everyone and then top it off at the end of the month with Pomegranate picking. I do not do parties every year for my kids; however this year I have Troy who turned 5 yesterday and Trent will be 8, which is a big year for him, hence a friend party.

I am one of those people that doesn't have a good idea until the last minute and then I try to do too much. So yes I do realize that most of my stress is self inflicted. We decided to have a Mario party for Troy. There were some really cute ideas on Pinterest (which is my new favorite website) so I got busy getting everything ready.

The treat and food table!

This is what I spent hours doing for the last few days.

I could not find a Mario cake to save my life, so we had to improvise. 

My sweet Troy Boy is 5, I can't believe it!

 

I forgot to mention that Dave was out of town last weekend and then yesterday he left to go to Green Bay to watch the Broncos lose today. So I was on my own for the party. It is safe to say that I am exhausted.

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It's About Time I Post...Huh?

So my mom just gave me the ol' "I can't believe that you haven't updated your blog yet lecture," so here it goes. When I was 28 weeks pregnant I started to contract and was dilated to 1 1/2 and 50% effaced. I was given the two rounds of steroids, put on modified bed rest and given one of the worst medications ever. It made my blood pressure drop really low and my heart beat really fast and almost everyday I would get a terrible headache. At 32 weeks I was dilated to a three and 80% effaced. I was then put on total pelvic bed rest. Basically, I was not supposed to do anything. I did the best that I could with four kids during the Summer months and with a lot of help from my ward and my family I was able to make it to 36 weeks.

Sunday July 3rd I woke up having contractions. I contracted all morning and I just knew that this would be the day. I was afraid to go to the hospital too early and have them send me home, charge me another $1000, just to be right back in there a few hours later.  I waited until about 6:00 that night to go. I was at a 5 when I got there and they said they wanted to give me a couple of hours to see if I would progress. An hour later I was dying; she checked me again and I was to a 7 with a bulging bag. Within a matter of minutes I had an IV and an epidural and we were ready to go.  I tried really hard to wait and have a 4th of July baby but it just wasn't going to happen. She was born at 9:57 pm, weighed 6 lbs. 5 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.

 Here She Is! Trulie Ann Moser

 Our New Updated Family

 Happy this day is Here!!!

 

Grandma and Grandpa Greer 

 My Parents

 My Cousin Mary and Sister-in-law Jen. 

 On Our Way Home

"Sweet" Experience

Well we found out that we are in fact having a baby girl. We have known for awhile but I just have been so busy getting the house ready. We have been moving kids around and adding a bedroom to make room for our new addition.  I have also started to contract so I have to be really careful not to over do it.

I have always felt like I had another girl waiting to come to our family and I was sure when I was pregnant with Troy, that he was going to be a girl. Turns out I was wrong. I had preterm labor and he was born at 36 weeks and spent a week in the NICU. After that awful experience I just decided that my feeling must not really be true and I was done; our family was complete. However, I had something happen to me that made me realize that our family was not yet complete.

In July of 2008 our family suffered an imaginable loss which most people are aware of by now. My 2 year-old niece drowned and our family was just devastated. It is hard to believe that amid all of the sadness I could have what I would call a "sweet" experience. When it was time for the family to dress her for burial, we were all invited to help and all of the aunts got to paint her fingernails and toenails. Before we dressed her I got the chance to hold that sweet little girl. It was a strange sensation because I knew that her spirit was no longer in her body, yet I could feel her all around me. As I looked down at her little feet the feeling came to me that there IS in fact another girl that is waiting to come and join our family. It took me awhile to understand it all and what had happened to me. So you can imagine how we feel knowing that Kamber is up there waiting to send this little girl down to our family.

My Crazy Life!!!

So for the past two months, any free time I have had has been spent working on the yearbook for the kids school. A few years ago I was asked to help and each year since then a little more of the responsibility gets put on me. This year I was the only one and it is a 72 page book. It is basically digital scrapbooking but it just takes hours. Needless to say that it is finished and I am so relieved. My house has really taken the back seat and you should have seen the pile of dirt that I swept up today. I spent most of the morning cleaning my filthy house.  There is just something about having a clean house that puts me in a good mood.

Yesterday I got up and got my kids all off to school. It was the first time in a long time that all of them were gone. We have had a few minor illnesses and injuries that have kept at least one of my kids home practically everyday for a couple of weeks. Troy has told me everyday since he got back from Colorado that he doesn't want to go to school and yesterday was no different. I finally got him to go after bribing him. When I went to pick him up he looked terrible. He was holding his stomach, could hardly hold his head up and  was burning up with a fever. What a terrible mother I am. I felt so bad. I took him in and he has Strep throat.

So on Tuesday we had an ultrasound to see what we were going to have. After doing all of the measuring of the brain, spine and organs she tried to find what the sex was. Our little stinker had it's legs crossed at the ankles and so tight that we could not see a thing. She gave it a few minutes and tried again with no luck. So what we are having still remains a mystery. I remember that Tristyn did this to us when I was pregnant with her. The only thing that I can hope is that it is a little girl who already knows what it means to be moral and keep her legs closed. It was nice to see the baby moving all around though and I hope all of the results were good. I can go back and they will check again for free and then I can go at about 24 weeks and they will do a 3D/4D one for free too. Our kids are sure excited.

 

Baby's legs crossed and profile.

Alone

It has been a long time since I have been alone during the day with no kids and no one that needs me to help them. Last Tuesday my mom took Troy and went to Colorado to spend a week with Spencer and Annie. I still can't believe that she went but I am so proud of her for doing something that I know was so hard for her. They have had a lot of fun but I am sure they are getting ready to be back at home.

I have found myself feeling guilty that I can just take a walk by myself or go lay down and take a nap. Why is that? I guess that after you have spent so many years taking care of kids and having them demand so much of your time, that when they aren't there for a period of time you don't quite know what to do with yourself.  I have been able to work on the kids yearbook for school without Troy sitting on my lap wanting to help, which has been nice. This year I have the majority of the pages to do so I am glad to have gotten a good start on it. They will be home on Wednesday and I can't wait to have Troy drive me crazy again. Can you believe that I miss it? I am going to try to get as much done as I can before the rodeo returns to Arizona.

Volleyball Update!
Over the weekend we had our first volleyball tournament in Avondale. Our girls did really good. They are a 14's team and they beat a 16's team and lost to two 18's team. Basically our 12 and 13 year-old girls were playing against 17 and 18 year old girls. There was a bit of an intimidation factor there but they still did great. We got 4th out of 8 teams which isn't bad. It is so fun watching Tristyn grow and develop her talents in volleyball and being able to be a part of it makes it that much better.

Update...Relief!

I am slowly but surely coming out of the nasty early pregnancy sickness. You really do forget how crappy you feel. Of course I start to worry that because I feel better that maybe something is wrong. (I have so little faith).  Anyways, yesterday I had my 10 week appointment at the doctor. I was so afraid that I would be there by myself and they would not be able to hear a heartbeat. He said that even if we don't hear it, that doesn't mean that something is wrong. I prepared myself for the worst by saying that there are quite a few layers of fat to go through to be able to hear it. However, it didn't take him long to find it. When I had my ultrasound at 6 weeks the heartbeat was 113 and he said that it a little bit of a concern but sometimes because it is so small that it doesn't read all of the beats. Yesterday the heartbeat was in the 170's. Everything looks great so I am feeling a little bit more at ease. I know that there are never any guaranties but I feel way better about it today. 

Sick and Tired!!

I think it is okay to admit that I am one of the most pathetic bloggers around. Really, has it been six weeks? Boy how time flies by. Lately, however my days are just dragging on. You will understand why in a minute.

Back on Thanksgiving Day I was talked into attempting the Turkey Trot again. I was quite humiliated the last time I did it because I was one of the last ones to finish and they were waiting for me to pass so they could take the barriers down. This time I ran the first three miles without stopping and then my hip started to really hurt. I was all by myself so I just decided to walk, ponder my life and finish it. I beat my last time by twenty minutes which was an accomplishment for me. Anyways, as I was walking I just had this feeling that I was pregnant. Of course I started to worry that if I was pregnant, was it a good idea that I just ran three miles and walked another three? I got home and of course did a test and it was positive. After my miscarriage in April we had just about given up hope that we were supposed to have another baby. A couple weeks later I had an ultrasound and we saw the heartbeat. It only took a couple more days for me to really "feel" it. The last pregnancy I felt great which turned out to be a bad thing for me.

Now here I am right before Christmas almost nine weeks pregnant and I am so sick. I feel okay in the morning and then after lunch I start to go downhill. I am really trying to be grateful that I am sick but it is really hard. Some say that the sicker you are, the better your pregnancy. Not sure if it is true, but I am going to believe it for my sake. I am so tired and nauseous all of the time. Nothing sounds good to eat but I am so hungry. Then when I do eat, I feel good for about five minutes and then I am nauseous again. You really do have to forget how hard it is to be pregnant or we would not do it again. I hesitate to tell anyone because I know how quickly something can go wrong and I could miscarry again. I am trying to have a lot of faith that everything will be okay this time.  Now you know why time is dragging on for me. I am just trying to get through this first trimester and the busiest time of year at the same time. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

OUCH!!!

So Dave has joined my dad in the Extreme Body Shaping world and is losing weight and looking great. They alternate kick boxing and resistance training with bands. I had Dave buy me a set of bands so that I could do some of the workouts at home. Yesterday I did lower body and it kicked my trash.

Every once in a while the gym lets the members bring a friend. Dave has been asking me for a couple of weeks to go with him. I'll be honest, I really did not want to go. I used every excuse I could come up with and in the end it was just better for me to go and appease my husband. It was kick boxing today. I have the mindset that because I am so fluffy, I would rather exercise within the walls of my own home, not in front of a huge mirror with a bunch of strangers. Anyways, being the good wife that I am, I got up this morning at 4:00 a.m. to go with him to get my butt kicked.  I usually get up early, but not nearly that early. (I have been on my butt all day by the way. I don't know how they do it everyday, then go on to work all day too.)  I have to say that it really was quite fun and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It helped that I was not the only petite elephant there too.

Then to make matters worse we went and took a pilates class for mutual at the Freestone Rec Center tonight. So between lower body bands yesterday, kick boxing this morning and pilates tonight, I can hardly feel my body; and what I can feel HURTS!  I really do like being sore like this though. It makes me feel that I am actually accomplishing something. I am just hoping that I can walk in time for our volleyball game tomorrow night.

It sucks being out of shape. I was wondering today how many times in my life I have lost weight and gotten in shape only to gain it back again. It was usually with my pregnancies and this last time was after Kamber died. Our world kind of fell apart there for awhile.  It is interesting to me to see how the trials and situations that we have throughout our lives affect us. For me, the first thing to go is exercise. I hope I can find a way to stick with it this time no matter what life throws at me.

Attitude

I woke up this morning with a bit of a bad attitude. Mondays are usually hard for me, especially because Sunday is not really a day of rest. I can bet that most mothers feel this way. Everyone still has to eat and live and with that comes a lot of dishes and messes. So to all of you out there who feel the same way I do, "Happy Monday!"

As many know, my mom had her hip replaced a couple of weeks ago and she really cannot do anything for herself. I know that she is struggling with that. This puts most of the responsibility on me which has been a challenge for sure. All I can say is that I am tired. My grandparents have come over a lot to help her and to keep her company which has been nice. She keeps telling me how sorry she is that I have to do so much. I wish she could understand that serving others is a part of life, especially serving your family.  That is what keeps us going. Where would we be if not for the service of others?

I have also been thinking a lot about the quote "The greatest gift a father can give his children, is to love their mother." I know that there are a lot of kids out there who live in hostile environments and I am so grateful for a husband who loves me and treats me with respect. He does not put me down and he is not afraid to tell our kids how much he loves me. He is by no means perfect but he is quick to acknowledge when he is wrong and I am quick to forgive. The same is true the other way around. I don't think my kids realize how blessed they are. It is so easy to take things for granted and to look at others and wish your life was different. The only way to change someone else is to change yourself.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!!!

I got up this morning and got all of my kids ready for school feeling really good about my day. Our Big Boy tortoise came to the back door. He usually dang near breaks it down until I feed him something. Then he likes to crap right outside the door. You can only imagine what an 85 pound tortoise leaves behind. I really don't get it. He has almost two acres to roam and he picks my porch to do his business. This morning however he did not scratch. He just sat there, so I threw him some lettuce and finished getting my kids off to school. I went back outside and started to sweep off my porch. This was only one of the many things that I had on my list to do today. There was a horrendous smell that slapped me in the face as I walked outside. It was like I was sitting in the middle of the Elephant Display at the zoo. Right outside our door are two Ponds that have water turtles in them. I looked over and saw that one of the ponds had this grassy stuff floating in it and the water was really muddy looking. Then it hit me! That was Tortoise POOP! It did not take me long to figure out that our gigantic tortoise decided he would take a dip in the pond and relieve himself. SICK!!! Then I freaked out because I thought he had sunk to the bottom and couldn't get out. For a minute there I was really concerned for him. I grabbed a stick and started to move things around and realized that he was no longer swimming with the turtles. Then I got Pissed Off!! This was not on my list and I really didn't know how I was going to clean it out by myself. My mom is having hip surgery next week and is really limited to what she can do and no one else was home but Troy. If I wasn't so mad I probably would have sat down in the mud and cried. I took a few deep breaths and started bailing out 5 gallon bucket fulls at a time. It finally got light enough so I could lift it out and spray all of the CRAP off. I found a nice Black Widow with an egg sack and quite a few other insects while I was at it but that was nothing compared to cleaning up that poop. I spent the next hour trying to clean up around the area and figure out a way to Keep Him Out! We definitely have to do something. I am hoping to get a little more accomplished tomorrow.

August is Crazy!!!

I have really gotten bad at this blogging thing. It is hard to keep up with everything especially through August. I assume that everyone else is as crazy as I am with school starting and everything that goes with it. Throw in a few birthdays and parties you have a recipe for a nervous breakdown. I am alive however and am doing well. Besides, my mom has gotten really good at this so you know what I am doing if you read my mom's blog.

Now that the kids are in school and have somewhat of a routine I have a list of things that I want to get done. One is that I have decided to get caught up on my scrapbooking. Wow am I behind! Who knows how many years it will take me to catch up. It is a little overwhelming but I am really having fun going back in time when my older kids were so little. They really do grow up fast. Tristyn is LOVING junior high. She made the volleyball team and they started practice this week. She is having a blast with her new friends.

 Trace started tackle football this year and he is really excited about it. I was a little worried about him playing. Not because I am afraid he will get hurt; just that he would hate it. I have two brothers, one who had a great experience playing football and the other who had a terrible one. He really has a great group of coaches and he always tells me how excited he is to go to football. That is defintley a plus and we are looking forward to this new adventure of real football. Right now he is a little afraid to hit but I hope that as he gets more comfortable he will be able to get in and make some tackles.

Trent is still playing flag and we are hoping to get him into tackle next year. I may have to get a job to pay for it though. It is so expensive for kids to play sports and it sure adds up. Right now only three of our four are playing. Soon Troy will be in the mix and then it will really get fun.

Troy is at home with me and we are really getting a lot of time to bond. He wants me to play Shrek 2 on the XBox with him all day. I have to tell him to let me run on the treadmill and then I will play a level with you. Then let me get in the shower and then I can play a level with you. This is what I do all day. School cannot start soon enough for him. He is sure bored without "His Boys" here to play with him. (that's what he calls Trace and Trent)

This really is an exciting time for us. Spencer is playing his third year with the Broncos and we love watching him play. For a sports loving family, this is the best time of year. Right now Troy is at my feet asking me to play Haunted Mansion on the XBox. If nothing else, I am getting really good at playing XBox.

Is July Really Over Already?

I spent most of July getting ready for girls camp. As a young woman, I hated girls camp. I think I only went a couple of years and so I was a little nervous about going again. It made it easier that Tristyn was there for her first year. The first couple of days were so HOT!! I had sweat dripping in crevasses that I didn't even know I had. We had to wear pants and tennis shoes which made it that much hotter. On Thursday the bishopric and their wives came up. It was nice how they came all "dolled up" and we were dirty and stinky and just plain "hagged out." They were so fun though. They played lots of fun games with the girls and after a little while we had a horrendous thunderstorm blow through. One of the cabins that we were in started to flood. Thank goodness all of the men were there. Bishops from other wards started helping to make a barrier for the river of water to go around the cabin and not through it. It was quite an experience, one we will not ever forget.

That night we had our testimony meeting. I think this is why I hated camp so much. I have an intense fear of public speaking and I always have. I am embarrassed to say that I am 33 years-old and had never born my testimony until then. Something was different this time though. I was at peace and was able to share my feelings about the gospel with the girls. I have never felt so relieved in my life. I think it helped that it was pitch black but at least it was a step in the right direction.

All of our first years and YCL's.

 The girls going "Snipe Hunting." With so many gullible first year girls, this was a blast. For anyone not familiar with snipe hunting, they put toothpaste all over their faces to ward off the snipes that don't really exist. Then with flashlight they take the girls out and scare the crap out of them. The girls love it. We laughed almost the whole time and had so much fun.

I had some good friends that helped my mom with the boys which made it a lot easier for me to leave my family for four days. I did however have a ton of work to do when I got home. It has taken me a good week to get back to some sort of normalcy, if you can call it that.

This week Tristyn turns 12. I cannot believe it. She has grown up so fast. We are having a "Bubblegum Bash" for her on Saturday. We are making bubblegum necklaces and I am going to attempt to make a gumball machine cake. Wish me luck!!  A few years ago we decided that having a friend birthday party every year was a bit much, so we are only doing them for big birthdays. This is a big year for her. She is graduating into Young Women's and starting Junior High within a week of each other. On top of that we are trying to get everything ready for school too. This is definitely going to be an expensive couple of weeks. I hope we can get everything done in time.