out of the mouth's of mama's

Another installment of one of my favorite themed posts!! 

"Really? A pogo stick? All you could ever want and wish for is a pogo stick? Well, alrighty then."

"Why do you guys keep asking me about our next baby? Who says we're having another baby? Let's just enjoy Everleigh. It's not like I can just produce a new baby seasonally......"

"Please stop trying to shove cheez-it's in her mouth. She does not have teeth, and the only person that needs to feed her is Mommy. Thanks, though."

"Where did you hear THAT? No, I am pretty sure daddy did NOT say that. He would never tell you that you're allowed to ride your bikes to the store to buy some Lucky Charms. You're 5 and 6!!!!"

"Honey, can you please come check the baby's mouth. I think she just gnawed my nipple off.  I am totally not being dramatic."

"No, sweetie, the part of the jellyfish that can hurt you is called a tentacle. A testicle is something completely different. I don't think you need to watch out for jellyfish testicles."

"For the thousandth time, THERE IS NO GRENADE IN ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS. It's called rock, paper, scissors. Rock- Paper- Scissors. Those are your only 3 options."

"Kaiti, I'm not doing anything wrong, so there's no reason to say 'uh oh' when you see a policeman. We're fine, we are not in trouble. Honey, he is not 'gaining on us', he is just driving the same speed as me. No, I'm not going to try and 'lose him', but thanks for that sound advice!"

"Huh? Honey, the little girl is just looking at you, no big deal. Why do you think she is going to try and take your shoes? Has that ever happened before? I know your shoes are really cool, but I don't think she's going to try and steal them from you. Fine, yes, I'll keep my eye on her."

"Go put some pants on. Sorry- even if your legs are super hot, you still have to wear pants. No, you can't go ask Daddy- that's my answer for the both of us. I am not worried that he will say that you don't have to wear pants! It is not appropriate to walk around in a shirt, shoes, and just our underwear!"

"How am I 'making you headache' Kait? By asking you to clean your room? Really? Well, looking at your room is making me a headache, so clean it. Nope, not waiting 'til your headache ends. Now, please!"




"Tell you all the secret passwords I know??? Why?? Tyler said what??? TYLER!!! She does not need to give you a secret password to get into the bathroom, so get out of her way, or you can clean up the mess when she wets her pants!!!"

found treasures!!

My mother-in-law was here with us for a couple weeks, and we had an incredible time with her! I miss my mom like  crazy, but I know that I've got one mom loving on me from Heaven, and a mother-in-law loving on us here on earth!

While she was here, we put her memory card in the Wii to see what photos she had taken, and lo and behold, found some pictures that we'd never seen from last summer!! So here they are!!! Crazy to see the changes in my kiddos in less than a years time!

off-center, an amateur effort!

I love the Idea Room! Tons of tips on things from sewing, to treats for the kids, and photography tutorials!!

I saw the post today about the 'Rule of Thirds' and thought I would give it a whirl in the editing stages of a photo. I would have run out and shot some photos, but I have a baby girl sleeping on my lap...which, by the way, has made typing this quite difficult.

Here are my results.....not awesome, but a start, at least. More importantly, though, I will keep this little rule in mind when shooting pictures and see what kind of photographic gems I can drum up.

As you can see, we beach it a lot around here.....

There you have it! A bit excited to put this to work, and a big thanks to Kristen Duke for a simple tutorial!

not enough arms, more than enough love

This week is my first week with my children on my own. Truthfully, I was a teeny bit nervous Sunday night. But then I remembered what I've learned many times over- that the anticipation is usually much worse than the actual event.

I calmed some and decided to just embrace it. The day started well. I got to sleep in, because my 2 littles slept late and I woke long enough to feed my 2 bigs breakfast, then slipped back in bed for another 45 minutes.

When I woke, I showered, got my littles dressed, fed, and went into Jack's room to play with him. After a bit, I decided I needed to accomplish something- something that would make my husband's eyes bulge with surprise and pride.

And that is where I went HORRIBLY wrong.

Instead of just figuring it out bit by bit- and by 'it' I mean how to mother 4 children, 2 of whom are pretty needy at this stage, and to make the day count- I set a goal bigger than my energy/mind/patience/back could handle.

I decided I would tackle all the laundry, clean the kitchen and dining room, AND clean the kids rooms- from the closets (putting outgrown clothes into bins and arranging hangers nicely), to under the beds (making piles of to-be-donated, to-be-trashed, and to-be-put-into-the-correct-bin), to the toy baskets, drawers, etc.

As I did laundry, I got the Dining Room cleaned up (it had become a game center, card table, lego building space, sewing spot, and drawing nook for the past few weeks), the kitchen in ship shape, and even cleaned the great room for good measure. Then I moved on to the kids rooms- my Everest.

About 20 minutes into room #1 (Tyler's), Everleigh started crying. I got the moby out, wrapped her up in it, and wore my baby girl back into Tyler's room. In the 5 minutes it took to get Evie taken care of, Jack dumped out Tyler's newly sorted Lego's onto the floor. Sighing deeply, I plopped my behind down onto the floor, and continued. After nearly an hour and a half, the room looked much better. So I moved on to Kaiti's room.

Another hour and a half plus, with Everleigh still in the Moby and Jack undoing about a third of what we did, and my back and head were starting to hurt. Bad.

But I still had Jack's room. The easiest. I was sorting toys about the time Evie woke up and started crying, pretty intensely. I rocked, patted, bounced, and she still screamed. Then she started getting sick. Like, getting sick with such force that it literally shot out her nose. She's been battling this reflux since she was a week old and it seems to be getting worse. Yesterday, it came to a head. Within minutes, myself, my baby girl, and my moby were drenched, completely soaked with curdled breast milk. And she was still howling.

I left Jack's room, set the baby down, and started cleaning us both up. I hate hearing my baby's cry, and as she was gagging on spit up, I felt the first major piece of my strength/resilience/confidence slip away.

That was about the time I heard Jack screaming down the hall. I grabbed the baby and ran to Jack, only to see a large bump forming on his head. Again, he dumped out the legos, and I am guessing he tripped on one and rammed his head into the corner of the wall molding as he fell. Then,  Kaiti started screaming from the bathroom-- she had a tummy ache and wanted me to come check on her.

Trying to comfort 2 crying children and calling out to another, the doubt crept in.

Here I was, on day one of our new life, and I felt like I was not enough. I was tired, sore from all the morning chores, head pounding from the proximity of two screaming children to my ears, and I wondered if I'd be able to give my kids all they'll need.

Then, as I was taking some deep breaths to calm the nearing storm in my head, I lowered myself to the floor- with a child on each hip- and my foot slid out from beneath me. I started to fall and tried to regain my balance, which was tough since each arm was cradling a child. I leaned back, and in doing so, banged my head pretty good against the wall- but I stopped the fall. Just as I was about to scream, Jack started laughing. Hysterically. Turns out, a mama banging her head and flailing about while trying to save 2 babies from a fall is pretty funny to a 20-month-old.

With his sweet little laugh, he brought me back to good. I realized that I was starting to doubt myself over some spilled Lego's and a little girl with a poorly-timed belly ache.

I won't be able to give my kids all that they'll need-- and I don't have to. I just need to give them all that I can. Some days I will have more to give than others. Some days, banging my head against a wall, accidentally or not, will be enough for them.

I won't be able to wrap all my kids up at the same time with hugs, but I can do it one by one. I won't be able to rock a sick baby, comfort a clingy one, and cuddle a sick one all at the same time, but I can tell them I love them a million times over. Some days, that will have to be enough.

Thankfully, yesterday it was.

Not Me Monday!!! (and also confirmation that we are alive and well)

We are alive and kicking in the Nelson home, in case you were wondering! I've been a little blog-quiet, and since y'all were flooding my inbox just beggin' me to write a post, I pulled up my boot straps and dusted off the ol' mac-top. Here I am. You're welcome!

Come to think of it, the whole flooding-my-inbox-beggin'-me-to-write thing could possibly be a sleep-deprived hallucination, I'm not really sure, but still- you're quite welcome ;)

We have been kept pretty busy with 3 children wanting to make the most of every splendid summer day, and a newborn that makes every trip quite the excursion.....and speaking of excursions, we seriously might need to get one of those bad boy's because our Expedition is barely enough room to pack our kids in with equipment.

Wait, what was I saying??? My thought process is one big string of tangents lately. I start telling Jeremiah that we need baby wipes, and before I finish the thought, we are discussing what Floridians did before the invention of the air conditioner, and debating if ice cream from an ice cream maker at home is really better than Cold Stone.

Okay, back to Not Me! I am focused. Ready to spill.....

I used to be a tried and true Huggies buyer. Then, child #3 arrived and my wonderful friend Carrie introduced me to Target diapers. I was hooked. They worked and they were loads cheaper than Huggies and Pampers. So, with Evie, we bought a few packs of Newborn diapers before her arrival. But the hospital had these new Pampers, with an awesome little stripe that turns BLUE when there is moisture (aka, pee). Really, I get how silly this is, because whenever you check a baby's diaper, it is almost always full of something, making the blue line sort of pointless. So, it was NOT me who was so wooed by this thin blue line that I loaded my cart with packages that cost $2 more than the Target brand we'd been using for almost 2 years.

On a day out last week, it was NOT THIS MAMA who started whimpering and crying when I realized that not only had I forgotten to pack the changing pad I keep in my diaper bag, but I was also fresh out of nursing pads. The tears did NOT start spilling  about the same time my milk did. So, it was NOT me who was walking around the Town Center, head down and cheeks red, with two rapidly spreading spots on the front of my shirt.

Like most of the east coast, it is BLAZING HOT here right now! Like super-duper, suck-your-energy-out, sweating-buckets kind of hot. But you know me- I'm super woman, and I don't let a little off the charts heat index change my plans or slow my family down. It sure WASN'T ME who listened as my kids asked me to go on a bike ride with them, only to wait for them to finish and say 'What about candy and a red box movie??' NOPE!! NOT ME! I would never encourage indulging in a little couch potato action over some good, healthy exercise.

I did NOT milk this c-section for all it was worth while my husband was home on leave. I certainly have NOT used it as an excuse to avoid: changing Jack's diapers ('he's too heavy too lift, honey....'), pick up the kids toys ('I really don't think I should be bending, babe'- said as I have my hand over my incision), and going outside to feed the cats (I don't think I offered an explanation for this one- I just walked away quickly as he was saying something about them being 'my' cats).

In the past week, I did NOT spend some time drafting up a post titled "WHY I WANT TO GIVE MY HUSBAND'S SQUADRON THE MIDDLE FINGER, by Shannon N.", but subsequently deleted it when I read it and realized it was in bad form.

We did some shopping in Target while my mother-in-law was still here with us. She had the big kids, Jeremiah and Jack were picking up diapers and wipes, and Evie and I were shopping for baby wash and other necessities. When I was all set, I walked over to the toy section (where my mother-in-law was spoiling the heck out of my children). I saw Tyler and walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. The boy all but jumped out of his skin, paused a moment and then breathed a sigh of relief. This is NOT what he said : 'Oh, that's you Mom! I didn't recognize you with your hair out of your clip.... I thought you were a stranger, cause your hair was down.'

Finally, today was  first day with my brood of 4 with no one else around to help me. My husband called me a couple hours ago to say that he had to fill in for someone and would be flying late-- after being at work since sunup. I am up to the task and strong as can be, so it was NOT ME who whimpered 'Okay, we'll be fine' into the phone, while silently giving myself a little pep talk and going over the local restaurants that deliver in my head!

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Now, some pictures:

sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters 

(for the 3 people who know what that means)

before my moby arrived.....LOVE my moby!

on the air mattress when we were fresh outta beds

sweet child o' mine

splash park at the zoo

see-- blazing hot!

her dance recital program- like a treasured possesion

we love grandma!!!

he be swingin'....

at fort clinch!!

grandpa meets grandchild #7

Wordless Wednesday

pure love

that's all there is here.

you may say I'm a dreamer

I wasn't the girl who dreamt about having a huge wedding with a ton of people and a fancy princess wedding dress.

I wasn't the girl who imagined herself living in a super big, brand new, top of the line home filled with the latest gadgets and doo dads.

I wasn't the girl who dreamt of the future and saw herself as a high-powered career woman, dressed in a suit carrying a spiffy leather briefcase with a super impressive title.

For as long as I can remember, all I ever wanted, all I ever dreamed of, was a worn in home filled with the noise of  children- the more, the merrier.

Everleigh Diane

She's here! Our 4th beautiful blessing is here, wrapped in her daddy's arms at the moment, with an older brother and sister chomping at the bit to get to her.

So, the short story......

I went in for a regular appointment on Tuesday, June 29th. I had been having a lot of discomfort the couple days prior- mainly a lot of pressure between my legs that would not go away. So I was eager to see my OB and see if she had any easy fixes for me. (I had chatted with a couple friends- Lisa & Annette, and both told me they felt the same thing right before their babies arrived- which was weird to me because I was 38 weeks and I've not ever had a baby attempt to come early.)

At my appt, my doctor said I was dilated to 2! That was super exciting to me, because, again, that has never happened. I still felt sure that she would hang out for another week, until my scheduled c-section on July 6th. She sent me upstairs to do my non-stress test, something I had been doing for about 5 or 6 weeks.

When I was upstairs, I kept having these weird cramps. After a few, an OB whom I had only met a couple times came in and told me that I needed to stay put. The cramping I felt was regular contractions, coming about 4 to 5 minutes apart. They said that if the contractions continued they might end up delivering Evie that day. I immediately called my husband, stressed and a little uneasy.

Can I just say, we were totally unprepared. We had grown accustomed to the scheduled c-section and had all sorts of plans and things to get done before  July 6th. So, he was at home with the 3 kids and was asking me whether or not I would be home in time for him to get to work. He was not believing that I was having her, because- like I said- I don't have baby's early.

Barely a minute after I got off the phone with him, monitors started going off and a team of people rushed in. Evie's heart rate went from about 125 to 50 and was not climbing back up. After about 5 seconds, it did, but they all stayed put and seemed concerned- which freaked me out. The OB started talking to others about getting an IV going- just in case- and told me that he needed to make a call. Right after he left the room, her heart dropped again. At that point, he came back in and said they needed to do an urgent c-section-- not emergent, which I guess meant that I did not have to have general anesthesia. They told me to call my husband and have him come immediately, but that they would not wait.

Well, he got there JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME. And thank God!! I was a mess and worried about our little girl but tried to stay calm. I felt worlds better once I saw my husband's calm face.

And then she was born. At 1:44 pm on Tuesday, June the 29th, Everleigh Diane* was born weighing 7 lbs 5 oz, and measuring 20 inches long.

It turns out, the reason her heart dropped is because her cord was wrapped around her neck- something that's pretty common. In fact, that is the reason Tyler ended up being an emergent c-section. But the doctor's who performed my c-section said they thought that even had she not gotten snagged in her cord, she would have been born based on my contractions and her position in the pelvis. 

She is healthy and beautiful and sweet and eats like a champ! She took about 12 hours to figure out breastfeeding, but man- once she did, she REALLY did, and I am thrilled!

That's it for now.....I'm going to get back to breathing this sweet child in! Thanks for all the prayers and sweet words, and for loving on our sweet little Miss!!

*A few weeks ago, I started mulling over other names because Evelyne didn't feel right to me. I loved the name Everleigh, my husband still loved Evelyne. We thought about it A LOT, and my husband told me to choose....so I did!