I'm moving to a new blog address. I hope you will follow me there...

www.witneyfamily.blogspot.com

More fun times...

Carrie and Duncan are participating in a "play school" group. They both started this week and so far, they really like it. I am excited for them to learn new things and make new friends.

Because of some concerns with Carrie's development being delayed, we are starting the process of getting her tested for it. She meets with an audiologist first, and go from there. If she qualifies for help, she will do preschool through the school district. As much as I hope there isn't anything "wrong" with her, it would be such a blessing to have her get some extra help.





















This is Carrie right before I dropped her off...





















This is Duncan before we dropped him off. I can't believe how big they are both getting. :)



Now, 2 funny pictures.















I don't even know who or what Jack looks like in this picture, but I laugh every time I see it. We went swimming with our ward and this was the only shot I got of him before we left.















Carrie loves to put in ALL of her hair bows to look like a crown. This day, she snuck the camera and took a picture of herself. Not too bad, huh?! Just disregard her cut and small black eye- her brother threw a water bottle at her and got her right under the eye. Don't worry, she gave him a bloody nose today.

Kids will be kids- or maybe my kids are just crazy....

New hair

I know- another post?! What the crap. Get over it. :)

I am currently growing my hair out. My family thinks I will give up any moment and chop it all off. They have good reason to think that. I have no patience with my hair, and when ever I get bored I chop it off or color it. Not this time. I have stuck to my guns and have been growing it out. It is now to my collar bone and looks awful. The layers are chunky and gross and it just doesn't look good unless it is up in a ponytail. I am trying hard to avoid the ponytail- which means I need it cut so it looks good down. I found 2 pictures of what I would like done. Let me know what you think.






















I should note that this picture is from Jenna Nelson's collection. I was looking through her photo's and saw this picture and liked the cut. I hope that it is legal to copy and paste...

Camping Fun

Even though our camping trip involved a lot of blood, tears, mud, smoke, sun and wind, we all left with smiles on our faces!

Jack was an awesome camper- he only made a peep when he was hungry, and I think he slept warmer than we did at night.

The kids had fun playing with their new friends and Scott & I enjoyed getting to know our new friends even better.

We did spend several hours at the ER in Price, after Duncan's head was split open from shooting a gun and having the recoil hit his head. He is fine- other than a fun scar that he'll be sporting the rest of life.


Just a few pictures...





The property we were at had this awesome cabin. It isn't finished, but the kids loved playing inside of it. I'd love to have family pictures taken here. What an awesome structure...










Carrie and her new friend, Catie. Those two would not leave each others sides- it was so cute to see them play together.

I love this picture. I don't know what could be so serious that they had to sit down and discuss it, but you can tell they are deep in thought. :)







This is Duncan and Johnathan. Even though they are several years apart, they still had fun playing with each other. I am looking forward to more camping trips with this family. It is nice for the kids to have little playmates.










Scott and Duncan shooting. This is not the gun that was used during the accident. That would be his 9mm handgun... Duncan and Scott are best of friends- it is fun to think about what else they will do together throughout their lives.






I hope to go camping a few more times this year. It is nice to have children (including a newborn) who do so well when camping. Although it is nice to come home to a shower and clean bed, I love the chance we have to spend time together as a family building memories for a lifetime.

Wow- has it been 5 months?

So, I have been thinking a lot about how I wanted to update my blog. Something witty, fun, clever, etc... I can't think of anything. So, just to get you up to speed, I'll just list what has been going on since March.

-I graduated from school. (technically I am not done until I do my externship, but whatever. I totally rocked the stage at graduation)

-Our Geo died. Sad times. But we did get an awesome piece of junk subaru for Scott to drive for free.

-I shaved my mom's hair. She finished chemo, and had her "girls" cut off. She also got a tummy tuck as part of the deal. I am so having that done when I am finished having kids.

-I finally got caught up on my laundry. I swear it has been a year in the making, but I did it.

-We also cleaned out the garage, and I am parking in it. This is a new concept to me as we never parked the cars in the garage growing up. That is what the driveway is for.

-Oh, and I crapped out a kid on July 21st. We named him Jack Bringhurst Witney. He was over 4 weeks early, but when your water breaks, you have now choice but to have the baby. After 2 hours of labor and 1 contraction worth of a push (and no epidural) he was born. He has been such a GOOD baby. I feel really blessed to have another baby, and am excited to be his mother.

Jack Bringhurst Witney

He is 1 part old man and 1 part monkey. :)

I will try to be better about posting, but I am not promising anything....

I love my mom

I'm sorry if this comes off as a ramblings of sort, but I have a lot on my mind today. My mom started chemo today. She was diagnosed in January with Breast Cancer, and while I know the odds of her beating it is really good, it is still a scary time for all of us. The word "cancer" is not something that I like. It is scary, mean, horrible and life changing. Don't get me wrong- I am SO grateful for modern medicine and all that it can do to help my mom out right now. The alternative would be planning her funeral, I suppose.

I am hopeful for her future. My brother is getting married and 2 grandbabies are on the way. She is young (56) and still has a child living at home. There are several more of us to get married, and lots more babies in the future. She is strong, courageous and always positive. She has already been faced with struggles and challenges in her life- more than I would ever care to see. Her head is always held up high, and I am constantly amazed at the service she gives.

The first week of April will be bittersweet for me and her. She will be visiting us and since the effects of chemo will make her hair to start to fall out, she has asked us girls to shave her head. I know that it will be the hardest on her, but it makes me sad to think of her loosing her hair. I still don't have an image yet as to what she will look like- but I know that it will all be ok. For the occassion, we have decided to shave Duncan's hair as well; to show some support for Grandma. We already talked to him about it, and he just laughs when we tell him that he and Grandma will have matching bald heads!

I love my mom, and pray that she will make it through this just fine. She has an amazing testimony and love of our Saviour. I know that it what is helping her right now. Whatever does happen, I know will be part of the plan, and that we will all be OK- especially mom. Life is good, no matter what happens. :)

Influenza, anyone?

I woke up on Monday to find myself feeling not so great. After realizing that it wasn't your typical "morning sickness", I curled up on the couch and hoped that it would pass soon. I knew something was not right when I started to get light headed and short of breath. A few times, I thought that I might pass out. I was so weak, I couldn't even pick up the kids. I spent my time between the bathroom and couch.

I had an ultrasound scheduled that I didn't want to miss, so I mustered up enough strength to get myself and the kids dressed. (Don't worry- it only took me 1 1/2 hrs) I then loaded them in the car, barely, and said a prayer. I didn't ask to feel better, but to help me not crash the car on the way to the hospital. My dear sister got to the hospital and took the kids, and I slowly made my way up to get the ultrasound. The baby is great, and getting bigger. I am still in shock that I have a baby growing inside of me, so seeing the baby on the screen helped.

When the doctor came in to go over the ultrasound, she asked how I was feeling. I told her not well. I explained that I had been throwing up all morning and now felt really weak. I was short of breath at that point and when I took my heart rate, it was at 120 bpm- after laying still for 20 minutes on the table. She quickly did another scan and said that she thought I had the flu and I should probably get checked out. She left to call my midwife, so I curled up in a ball on the table and nearly fell asleep. She came back to say that I needed to go the ER to get examined b/c of my fast heart rate, shortness of breath and possible dehydration.

Once I got to the ER and into a room, I just sat in the wheelchair- too weak to even get up in the bed. The doctor came in and asked a million questions. I could hardly keep my head up so he left and sent the nurse in to get me started. She helped me into bed where I got changed, she drew 4 vials of blood, started the IV, and then got me a warm blanket to cover me. I was then wheeled down to x-ray to see if anything was wrong with my lungs. After that, I crawled back into the bed, asked for another blanket and said that I was nauseous. The nurse came back and gave me some anti-nausea medicine in my IV, and then brought back some morphine b/c of the pain I was in from being so achy. I was hooked back up to the heart monitor and BP cuff and pulse/oxygen level. After that, a man came in and sucked out some snot out of my nose to check for infection. I laid back in the bed, wanted another blanket as I was shivering from being so cold. At some point, the nurse changed the bag of fluids and helped me get up to go potty for a urine sample. The doctor came back and said that I had Influenza Type A, which is viral- so NO meds for me to feel better. There is a medicine that will shorten the duration of time you have the symptoms, but since I am pregnant, I couldn't take it. By now, Scott had been in and out with the kids and had been given some tylenol to bring down my fever. Once I had finished the 2nd bag of IV fluids, they discharged me with some prescriptions for more anti-nausea meds and pain killers.

Although I don't feel like I did on Monday, I am still feeling weak and am now pretty congested. I am praying that this doesn't go to pneumonia (I guess there is a chance...) and that I can get on with life. I have done nothing but lay on the couch for 2 days with Duncan and Carrie on the other couch. Scott has been so wonderful to help out in picking the house up at night when he gets home from a long day at work. I have now eaten my 2nd full meal since Sunday night- and haven't thrown anyting up.

I don't think I have ever felt so sick before in my life! I would have rather been in labor on Monday, then felt how I did. I hope that none of you have to experience what I did, as it just plain sucked! Well, I am off to making Carrie a sandwich. Hopefully I don't get too winded from the task! :)

Frustrations

I have been dealing with feelings of inadequacy and failure for the last few days. It seems as though people are concerned with only telling me what I am doing wrong, or how to do something better. Am I overreacting, or is there validity in their statements?

I can't get over the fact that maybe I really am a bad mom... Carrie is still in diapers; her hair isn't in cute bows; Duncan can't sit still; we hardly ever make it through church without a melt down; my house and car are usually not clean; I'm behind on laundry- all the time; I let my kids watch too much tv; my kids usually end up in my bed at night; I let Carrie sleep in and the list could go on...

I have been trying hard to let the comments roll off of my back, but they don't ever end. I ended up in tears yesterday because of something I hadn't done right with Carrie and Duncan. As I have talked to Scott about it, he reassures me that I am a great mother, and appreciates all I do with the kids.

So, I started to think about what I may be doing right with kids. They love to say their prayers, and remind me of when we need to say them; Carrie and Duncan (for the most part) aren't rude and say please and thank you; I hear "me loves you" all day long; Carrie has been able to get herself dressed since she was 2; they both would rather hear Primary songs than Disney music; they love going to see temples; they make me laugh all day long, etc...

So, forgive me if my kids noses are running, or if they don't go to bed in their jammies. I am NOT perfect. I am learning to be a better mom. I am trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. I'm sorry that my house is messy, but at the end of the day, I love my kids more than I can explain, I am trying to raise them to love the Lord, and hope that despite my shortcomings and faults, people know that my family is the most important thing to me. Maybe one day, when I grow up- things will be different. People won't be so critical, and I won't be so sensitive about it. Until then, I'll keep trying my best to be a good mom.

WOOHOO

If you can't tell by the odd looking thing floating around on the page... I AM PREGNANT! We have been trying to get pregnant for nearly a year, so we are VERY happy to be bringing a new little one into the world. We are due August 24, 2009. My others were 3 weeks early, so who knows when I'll actually have the baby. From July 29-August 22 there are 6 birthdays in our family, so maybe this baby will share one with an aunt or uncle or grandpa or brother...

We don't find out what we are having, which is a lot of fun- and I recommend it to everyone. We've gotten by on getting clothes after the baby is born, and just deal with gender neutral jammies until then. I don't feel any less prepared for the birth by not having a decked out nursery or closet full of clothes. Since I have one of each, this transition will be a little easier.

I hope that everything goes well for the duration of the pregnancy. We had a scare last week which I'll share in another post, but have learned so much from it. Knowing that Heavenly Father is allowing Scott and I to take care of another one is overwhelming and wonderful.

Thank you for all your love and support! We love each and everyone of you! :)