Baby Corban

I need to find my camera and start taking pictures again. Then you can see how cute my new nephew, Corban, is. He was born March 15th at 3:00 in the morning. Luckily, he was nice to me and I was only in labor for about 5 hours, and had to push for only 10 minutes. He was 8lbs. 9oz. Everything went well and his parents couldn't be happier.

I have been overwhelmed with all the love and support I have received over the last couple of weeks. My family and I have gotten gifts, meals, phone calls, letters, etc. It is an awesome feeling to know that we are so loved.

Everyone has been asking how I am doing emotionally. I am doing fine. I expected it to be hard, but it hasn't been worse than I expected. I tried hard to not bond the being growing in my belly, but I don't know if that is possible. I'm going to miss having him with me all the time, but I know he will be well taken care of, and I'm not worried about him. His parents are going to make sure that he knows that I am his favorite aunt and that good enough for me.

I'm sure that in a week or so when my hormones return to normal I will be fine and not cry everyday. Although, most of tears that are shed are tears of love, not sadness.

Some of Ben's family wanted to do something nice for us, so they are sending us on a trip to San Diego. We decided to go on my birthday, so in a few weeks. I will make sure to take some pictures so I can post them. we are very excited and grateful. It has been a while since we have been on a vacation outside Utah.

Updates

I don't think anyone ever reads this blog, but I don't want to clean and if I am posting something I feel productive. I have some news: I am going to have a baby! The thing is, it's not mine. I am carrying this baby for my brother-in-law David (Ben's brother) and his wife, Katrina. They have been wanting children for the last 12 years, but are unable to have them. I am a good pregnant woman, so I said "I'll carry a baby for you", and they agreed. I am 15 weeks along and they are very excited. It's a good experience and I'm sure it will end up being one of the most rewarding things I ever do.

On a different note, our family is doing great. Mary just started 2nd grade, and is loving it. Sara is in kindergarten and is a great student. Baby Ben isn't much of a baby anymore, he is 18 months old and loves playing with the daycare kids all day long. Ben is still framing and the daycare is full and busy.

Summer came and went way too fast, other than a couple trips to Bear Lake and a camping trip with my family we didn't get away much. The girls played with their friends and Ben and I worked all summer. In a few more years I think we can afford a real vacation, something I am looking forward to.

Sorry I have no pictures this time, but I promise my kids are all super cute! Maybe I'll post again in 6 months or so.

NORWEX

Anyone need Norwex products? Call me, I am now a consultant. I never saw myself as a sales lady, but the opportunity presented itself and I took it. Norwex is an innovative way to clean your home. It's a way to improve your quality of life by reducing chemicals in your home, thus reducing chemicals in the environment. As an added bonus, it saves you time and money. I have been using Norwex products for the last 3 years and love them. I wanted to order more, but couldn't find anyone in the area that sold them. So, I decided to sign up as a consultant to get what I wanted at a discounted price. I received my starter pack for free and after reading through the information, I realized that I could easily make $600-$700 a month selling the product part-time. So, considering that Ben's job is very unstable lately, I figured I'd give it a try so when Ben is out of work we can still afford to pay the house payment. Check out my website at wendysnorwexonline.com and let me know what you think!

2010 Top 5

I have been terrible at posting lately, but I thought that I should at least list the top 10 things that highlighted our year. Then, I realized that our lives are so boring that I am lucky to find 5. Here goes (dotted with some random pictures of the kids):

NUMBER 5. "911, What is your emergency?" Our family has never had the need to call 911 until we had our baby boy. There have been 3 calls in the last 3 months. The first two don't really count, Baby Ben just has a knack for dialing 911 when he plays with our cell phones. So, we get calls back making sure everything is okay, but nothing too exciting. The third time was for real.

I was on my way home from a child-care training course one night when I got a text from my next-door neighbor that said, "Is everything OK at your house?"
I immediately called her to find out what was wrong with my house. She told me that there was ambulance and fire truck parked out front and emergency personnel going in. I told her that I wasn't there, but that Ben was home with the kids.

I then called Ben to find out that Baby Ben had been choking on something and couldn't breathe. Luckily, by the time 911 got there, he had swallowed whatever he had been choking on and everything was fine.

I hope this isn't a preview of raising a boy, I don't think I can handle too many 911 situations.

NUMBER 4. For over a year now, I have had my sister help me do daycare. I figured that I should increase my child-care licence to be able to have more children in my program to make more money since there are two caregivers. I did all the paperwork and had the inspections, but my home is only big enough to increase my license by one. So, I can now have 9 children instead of 8. Not really a big deal, but it does qualify me to get $1,000 in grant money in 2011 instead of the $600 I got in 2010.

NUMBER 3. Mary is now in first grade. She stays at school 6 hours a day. It seems weird to me that my baby girl is old enough to not need her mom all day long. She is a good student and I know she is fine, but I worry about her during the day. Sara is starting kindergarten next school year and then I'll have another kid worry about when they're not with me.

NUMBER 2. Considering the current condition of the nation's economy and all the financial turmoil going on, #2 is more about what didn't happen instead of what did. Due to some bad investment decisions and financial choices we made, I am glad our house didn't fall into foreclosure. Money had been tighter in 2010 than ever before in our family, but we still have a place to live. 2011 will be better, I can just feel it!

NUMBER 1. Of course, the #1, most exciting thing that happened in 2010 was the birth of our son. He is such a joy to have around and always has a smile for everyone. Not only was he born this year, but has also learned to sit-up, roll over, crawl, pull himself up and walk around furniture, eat solid food and get whatever he wants with one of his cheesy grins. We love his so much!

4 months old

We are loving having a baby in the house, and Ben is a really good baby. The girls love taking care of him. They can both change his diaper all by themselves and they like to do it.

It seems easier having a baby in the house this time around. When Mary was 4 months old, I was pregnant with Sara. When Sara was 4 months old, I was chasing around Mary who was 17 months old. I feel like I have more one-on-one quality time with Ben than I had with the girls.

I forgot how awesome it is to watch a baby grow and learn. It almost makes me want to have another one (almost, but not quite).

9 Weeks Old

Kindergarten Graduation

Mary graduated from kindergarten yesterday. Her class did a graduation and slide show in the classroom and then all the kindergarten classes did a progam in the gym. She is very excited to be moving on to first grade.