My reason for this blog…

Living in California means living away from our family.  I never want my family to miss a beat as our children grow up; as long as God has us here in Southern California.  It is so important to me that they know every milestone, every step of their growth like we’re not even apart.

There are so many things that I want my children to have and one thing is a diary of their childhood. When God one day blesses them with their own, they will be able to look back and get hairy details and hopefully God-given wisdom that he has blessed me with.

I also want my friends and family to be encouraged through my struggles of parenting and life and see Christ working through me, changing me to be more like HIM.

But mostly I pray that this blog glorifies the Lord in my speech, in raising my children, in being a wife, mama, daughter, sister and friend.

So Enjoy!

All my love,

Staci

Dakota just turned BIG 6!!!

Wow!  I look at my little baby girl and she is not such a baby anymore… There are so many things I can be thankful for when it comes to our family and Dakota is a biggie!  I see such a willingness to love on her brothers and help mommy all the time with Chase and will randomly take Chase on a walk through the store so that I can concentrate on shopping or whatever (within my vision, of course).  This year has been a  year of so many firsts……  She lost her first tooth and has been so excited.  She has been waiting for this to  happen and ran into us when her Dad and I were taking a Sunday nap and had an amazing excitement in her eyes as she showed us her tooth!!  That night we broke the news that there wasn’t really a tooth fairy, that is was just Mommy and Daddy, she seemed okay for it and was just excited and called us Mr. and Mrs. Tooth Fairy the rest of the night.  We sprinkled fairy dust all over her pillow and filled her tooth box with a couple dollars that she decorated with stickers and put in a note: Dear Tooth Fairy, Can you please take my tooth.  Love, Dakota….

She began kindergarten and went to school for the first time and did an incredible job most days working 5-6 hours/day on homeschool days–not by my choice.  She began her journey this year at Northridge Community School – sort of like a Homeschool Christian co-op, but she is actually taught at the school 2.5 days/week and then I would homeschool her the other 2.5 days.  It was a grueling year for me and truly for her too.  We went from light structured days to grueling  hard full school days.  Spent way too many hours for a poor little kindergartner to have to go through.  But her willingness to push through many days without a complaint, dealing with a mother that was not always the best teacher and not always excited as we would embark on are 4th hour as my other two little ones are going nuts.  It was a difficult year and she shined through and is an amazing reader and has great initiative to become better at everything she struggled through, phonics, coloring, penmanship, math.  It did not matter if the standard was hard, she was determined to do amazing.  She made great friends, as I did as well and loved her teachers so much!  Mrs. Mersch and Mrs. Hixson were her kinder teachers and she absolutely loved them!  She would come home often with such excitement about her day at school and what new thing she learned or got to do.  She took many field trips and had lots of class parties with me as room mom- a tough job for a new homeschooler-  part of the intense year. She loved it when zero the hero would come bearing gifts for the class- a little yellow happy faced man who always left gifts on every 10 days of school all the way to 100!  She loved going to lunch with her teachers when she finished all her sight word lists.  She won 1st place in the Speech Meet for her kindergarten class as she recited “Three Guests by Jessica Nelson North”.  She was one of the few that represented her class in the spelling bee, only to get out on the first try- very sad moment.  I think the word was “drip” and she spelled it with “t” instead of “d”.  She had opportunities to dress up in a chicken costume for Harvest Day and an indian girl on Thanksgiving Feast Day.  She was mentored by one of the graduates, Hannah Mersch which she loved.  She got to run her first Jogathon with a few laps with both Mommy and Daddy but mostly holding hands with Amelia the whole time as they ran.  Christmas, Teacher’s Bdays, Valentines Day, Easter Parties, End of Year Parties GALORE!!  I know she will miss NCS for first grade, but we recently broke the  news to her that she would  not be returning next year so we can give homeschooling full time a shot.  I thinks she is most dissapointed that she won’t be with her friends and that she doesn’t get to buy a roller bag for first grade next year- something she has greatly looked up to the 1st graders for all year and not have to take naps as well.  Most have told me it will be much easier than what I endured this year and so I am open to trying it and seeing.  I am not  excited that she will miss out on fun times and moments with her friends and teachers and opportunities that will be missed by not going to school.  I am just praying that I be faithful to be the best teacher for her that I can be and be sure she has playdates and is involved in sports and outside activities with other children.  So Dakota has graduated Kindergarten with flying colors and a true hard worker and determination awards along the way.

In the land of many firsts, she learned how to ride her bike the same day her little brother Chase began to walk.  She comes running inside and says Mommy, I rode my bike all by myself!  I asked her where her training wheels were and she had gotten a wrench out of Daddy’s toolbox and took them off herself and had been practicing out front until she could do it!  She just got a new shiny bike for her 6th bday from Grandma and Grandpa.  Days before her bday she would remind Mommy and Daddy that she really hopes she can get the Barbie one because that is her absolute favorite, but if we have to get her a different one, she guesses that will be okay giving us few options of which bike should we get her?  She first learned how to read and write all by herself this year and is a great reader!  She even came out one morning so excited that she had put her very first ponytail in her hair- and it sure did look cute!!  She first learned  how to swim this year as well at her swim lessons this summer with Mrs. Casey.  She learned how to tumble and dance at the YMCA.  She learned to count to 100 even.  Its all the things we already know how to do, but so precious seeing her do it for the first time and get this sweet excitement in her eyes that she did it!  This truly has been an exciting year for Dakota.

I am truly excited that I see a desire in her to learn and know more about Jesus. She will ask her Dad and I questions all the time and ask us to read the bible to her- pretty amazing!  I pray that she will come to know the Lord at a very early age!  She is so faithful to pray for others all the time whether it be Grandpa or a friend at school or even me.  The other day Hudson and Dakota were at the table eating and after she prayed, he said, “you did not pway for me to obey my swim teachaws”.  As you can see she even prays for Hudson to “close his eyes while she is praying” and often prays for Hudson to do the right thing.

She makes me want to be a better Mom because of the amazing daughter she is to me.  She loves me so unconditionally and serves selflessly all the time doing things to help me even when I don’t ask her to.  She has such joy in her and the cute giggles we get when we tickle her or play with her is so fun.  She is a sweet special gift to her mom and I love her so much. I can’t imagine the joy that will be missing when she is off on her own one day, I ache for that day already.  She makes heartfelt cards for new friends, some that she barely even knows.  Like when we went to the Chea conference last weekend and she saw two girls from a bday party she had gone to last month and met for the first time.  She made them a cards on the way to the conference the second day. I asked her why she was making them cards and she said because she was so sad that she would not see them again after the conference was over.   It took her 45 minutes to make them cards on the drive and wrote them each a a sweet note.  She did the same for Sophia and Samantha Eisman because she felt sad that she would not see them as much since we were moving.  In the card she wrote “I love your family” with lollipops taped onto the outside of each card that she took from her own little candy stash.  With her bday money she bought herself a remote control car and one for her brother so they could play together.   I love her heart and her desire to love her family and friends so preciously and tell them how much she loves them as  if tomorrow  may never come.

Lately I love how when I tuck her in she gives me eskimo kisses with her nose crinkled like a little piggy.  I love it!  I love how she has to give me hugs and kiss me goodnight at every single naptime.  I love how forgiving she is even after I yell at her in anger.  I love that she will remind me to reconcile with her when it is needed.  For her bday she got a guitar so she could learn to play like Daddy and she asked on the way home from Toysrus…. “Daddy can I use one of your toothpicks when I play my new guitar?”

In the lists of favorites: Favorite movie of the year: Repunzel- 1st movie I have ever seen her cry at….Favorite song:  Repunzel soundtrack, favorite food: “juicy chicken” otherwise known as tempura chicken, favorite dessert is always candy, favorite toys: Loves to ride her bike, play legos, play repunzel, play barbie and she would make woodsy salads outside a lot, slipnslide, lincoln logs, read books, color, play plethora of games with her Daddy for sure.. Her most favorite is computer time playing PBSkids.org or the bunny, mystery game, or even mario cart.

Dakota is 5 and movin on out!

Hangin with Hudson

Wow.  She is five years old.  I cannot believe she is starting school!  I am going to have such a hard time on August 31st!!  She will say to me… its okay mommy, you don’t have to be sad, I will be home soon.  She is so much fun and challenging me all at the same time.  We have been working on the heart of obedience.  We have learned to obey right away, all the way, without grumbling or complaining. Her attitude can be the most gentlest and sweetest and then she can turn completely around.  She loves to get her brother in trouble and so we have been dealing with the tattling by explaining there are certain times when it is okay to tell mommy or daddy when Hudson is endangering himself, property or you are unable to reconcile on your own.  We have been teaching her Matthew 18- to go to him first and then if he still does not listen or say sorry or if she cannot get him to do the right thing then she can come to us.  Then sharing strains came along.  Everyone wants the same toy at the same time.  So we started saying that they had to go to each other and ask when the other is done, may they play with that toy- 1 corinthians 13- love is not rude.  It would be rude to take the toy away from Hudson while he having so much fun playing with it.  It has worked tremendously well.  I praise God he gave us wisdom on what to do in these areas of training and discipline.  Sharing a room has been a bit of a challenge.  Hudson will keep Dakota up at night and one of them wakes the other up in the morning- which is hard!  I don’t know what it will be like when Chase and Hudson share- Yikes!  I love watching Dakota and Hudson play so much more now- it is such a joy to have them so close.

Quality time with Chase

She loves her brothers and constantly says “oooh I don’t want to Chase to grow up, I want him to stay little, he so cute!”  So what does she love these days…. she is very excited to start school, she has been working on her letters a lot lately.   I think her love language is quality time which we still have faithfully every time Hudson is doing his therapy.  Lucky her, we will have a lot more when she starts homeschooling part time on her off school days.  I got to take her out school shopping the last couple days and she is so much fun to shop with.  I am so blessed to have a little girl.  She picked out a bunch of dresses!  The things she loves… movies, strawberry shortcake, Kelly dolls, lincoln logs, that crazy dump truck that she played with at Joey and Vinnie’s house two years ago and they got it for her 5th bday.  She loves to play with her friends at playgroup.  She loves to play with her Daddy- especially video games and PBSkids.org.  She still dresses up and dances around the house.

For her 5th bday we did a beach party at the beach of course and played beach bingo, beach ball hot potatoe, ate sand pail castles and beach relay- it was fun!  She played in the sand and opened presents with a few select friends that she really wanted to be there for her big 5th birthday and it was a blessing!  Praying to the Lord that he would call her his own as we prayed over the food was a joy as well.  We anticipate that day.

Dakota at 6 months old- Chase's age

Dakota at Chase's age- 6 months

Today we went to a bday party and she slid down a water slide and some how bumped her bottom on something and told me later the afternoon that she hurt herself and now there was a hole down there.  I said oh honey, that is suppose to be there, that is where the poo poo comes out.  She said but mom there is two holes!  Funny how these things happen when Daddy goes out of town for the weekend!  She thought for sure that she had made that hole in her body by bumping herself on the water slide as she slid down!

Other postings I posted on facebook over the last few months of funny things she says..

At the Dodger game we went to a couple months back we sat down and she says….. “I don’t want to sit so close to the sky!”  Zach and I just about died- we were of course in the nosebleed section- she explained it right!

Dakota to Zach:  “Why are barbies legs so fat, I can’t get her clothes on!”

Dakota at dinner: “Daddy why does your fur (whiskers) grow so fast?”

In a test Dakota took to start kindergarten: they ask: what growls… she says “my tummy”. I am sure they were expecting cat, tiger and so on….

Dakota- praying at lunchtime….. Thank you for this food and God can you pwease pwease please help Hudson to be quiet and fold his hands when I pray. amen.

Dakota taught Hudson how to pray the other day, she said; “okay hudson repeat after me….thank you God….” I am sure Hudson meant the prayer from the bottom of his heart…

She says the most amazing things…She is so intense and she is God given to hold me accountable with my patience toward her and her brothers.  She will often remind me that I need to ask her for forgiveness because I was yelling at her or her brother.  The other day she knew we were having people over for dinner and so she told me she and Hudson are going to go clean up all their toys in each room so the house would be nice for our company.  I was stunned I did not need to even ask her.  She took the thought from we are having friends for dinner and that means mom wants a clean home and so lets help mommy by even involving her brother cleaning up with her- giving him small jobs to do.  That was not even the best part- the most awesome part was as she was making the bed in the guest bedroom from her nap time she was singing as she cleaned- what an incredible blessing that God gave her to this family to be able to watch and be an example of joy and love and obedience!  Her joy is infectious!  I love her so much.  I cannot believe she is going off to school in a couple weeks.  Hudson, Chase and I will miss her.

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The room switcheroo

Well we finally did it… we put Dakota and Hudson together in her room and moved Chase out of our room!  He is over 4 months old and we decided it was time.  Hudson took his first nap in there but was not happy, he had a huge tantrum and cried for awhile but eventually fell asleep.  Then that night Hudson cried and did not understand why he was going back to sleep in Kota’s room.  So Daddy explained and we tucked him in and he went to sleep right away.  Then 30 minutes later we tucked in Dakota.  Successful right… until we hear Hudson crying, probably woke up a bit disoriented and I would hear Dakota saying… “its okay Hudson… Its okay buddy…. your alwight….”  SCORE!!! She calmed him down all by herself I did not even have to go back in there.  They both went back to sleep.  But the next morning they were both up at 6:30am when Dakota normally wakes up around 7:30-8am.  Then… the next day.. he would not take a nap, instead he played- bad boy….. That night we put Hudson down and when we brought Dakota in he was not asleep yet.  We went in there after we heard a big thump and Dakota and Hudson were in the Dakota’s bed and she sits up and says…. I told him to go back to his bed but he wouldn’t ( this was a couple hours after we put them to bed)… So we put Hudson in his bed and they go to sleep.  The next morning was more successful we propped the door open so that he would not wake her up getting out of bed and leaving the room and she was able to sleep in more which was great.  So last night Dakota comes out and says Hudson needs some water and takes him a sippy of water and then we go in after we put them to bed about an hour ago and Dakota is sitting in Hudson’s bed reading him a story after we just had the conversation for Hudson to stay in his bed…. so funny.  So tonight we put them to bed at the same time because it was late and we go in almost 90 minutes and I hear little voices…. STOP!!! and then crying and so I go in and she says… Hudson is kicking the wall and talking and waking me up….So I talk to Hudson and tell Dakota to ignore his talking so she can go to sleep- tonight was the hardest by far in this transition.  Chase looooves having his own room and finally being in his crib with his mobile- he is a happy camper!!  Daddy is happy that we have our room back and now if I can just get Hudson and Dakota to go to sleep at night.. that would be great!

Our First Vacation with three kiddos….

Well, it definitely had its moments.  It was a bit tough having three kids in a hotel room with us.  We didn’t know what to do with ourselves once the kids were down at like 9pm.  We sat outside our door on the beach for one night which was nice but it was so cold we couldn’t sit for long.  We stayed at Paradise Pier Resort in a bayside room which was fun to stay on the beach.  We were a bit dissapointed in the room itself.  The only thing that faced the bay was the door.  We did not overlook the bay from our room.  We had to go outside our door to see the beach.  A bit of a let down when you pay so much for a room.

We began our trip to San Diego and headed to LegoLand.  It was fun for Dakota she was able to ride a lot of the rides but poor Hudson could only go on about three rides because he was not tall enough to go on most of them.  So he sat out with Chase and I most of the time.  It was a beautiful day and the park was not too packed.  We left Legoland and went to get dinner and head to the hotel.  We go takeout and then went to our room and ate.  That night the kids were so excited to sleep in the same bed and Dakota could not understand the “hotel” aspect of the trip.  Why were we staying in a hotel, what would we do there??  So her and Hudson were watching us wide eyed from their beds while we whispering a conversation to eachother- pretty cute.  We got some cute pics of them snuggled together in their bed.  Chase slept in his bouncey seat because he caught a cold shortly before we left for vacation.

The next day we got up and went out to the beach and the kids played.  Chase was not a fan of the beach.  He hated the wind.  He would gasp for air every few minutes so I put him in his carseat and covered it with a blanket and faced him inland so he would not get he breeze.  He did amazing the entire trip.  He is about 4 months old and spent the 4 days pretty much in his carseat with all the traveling to Legoland and walking around everywhere.  Then we took a walk after we showered around our beautiful grounds at the resort.  It was very lush and green and had beautiful pool areas.  We went out for lunch and then took a drive around to Coronado and around San Diego and then we went and got some dinner and after dinner we stopped at this little kids park on the bay while I nursed Chase and we saw about 30 boats all lit up lined up one by one taking an eve cruise through the bay and then we saw this monster Army ship come in- you could not even see it until it was right up in front of us, it was so cool.  The kids played on the playground while we just sat and watched all the boats.  That was my favorite part and it was not even planned.  We made a lot of stops for nursing- it is just the season we are in…

The next day we played at the pool (definitely Hudson and Dakota’s favorite part of the trip) and ate lunch there.  We got cleaned up and went on a Harbor Cruise which was hard because Chase was at his end and by now we were so tired of the kids disobeying, we were not able to discipline them as we normally would be consistent at doing so they became very overly tired and constantly melting down.  After Chase settled down the cruise was pretty neat.  I have pics of Dakota and Hudson all snuggled under blankets with Daddy.  We got takeout at Anthony’s (our favorite place on the water) to eat because the kids were pretty much done by that point.  We took it back home and then took the kids out for some smores at the firepit.  They enjoyed that but Hudson decided he did not want a hot marshmallow, he just wanted a cold one- easy enough!  We got them in their jammies and that made for another day.

Our last day we played a bit on the beach and then we went to Legoland and SeaLife Aquarium.  We had another incredible day and headed home.  As we were loading the kids in the car, Dakota asked for the map so she could look at it and see all the rides we went on.  It was to be her souvenier, but Daddy accidently threw it away.  So he drove me back to the entrance and asked me to go get the kids a souvenier to take home.  I went in and we looked through the whole gift shop but Dakota only wanted a bag of cotton candy and a penny that says Legoland on it along with a map of course…. AAHHHHH how easily satisfied our kids can be at this age.  So she made a penny to give to Hudson and we bought Daddy and I some ice cream and Hudson his favorite rice crispie treat and headed to the car to head home.

It was a fun-filled vacation which was very interesting and frustrating at the same time!  Zach and I would often look at each other wondering if it was worth it all the times of meltdowns, tantrums, crying, whining. And…. you call this a vacation?  So Zach decided we weren’t going to travel with our kids again until they turn 18!

The even BIGGER adjustment

Wow!  I cannot believe Chase is almost 4 months old.  He was sleeping through the night at about 7 weeks (7:30pm-6am) and this time around, I was able to educate myself even more with a couple of good books that helped me through the process.  Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and Babywise are my two resources that has helped Chase (By God’s Grace) become completely scheduled and super content! He is definitely a third child.  He sits in his bouncey chair or on his playmat and plays while I do things around the house or tend to the other two.  I am so excited to have three.  The kids are absolutely amazing and have shown no signs of jealousy and I thank God for that!  He began to giggle last week when we were on a roadtrip to AZ to go to Uncle Matt’s graduation and I was so excited he did it for Daddy first!  He smiles all the time at us and my time with him is precious, usually after he wakes up from a nap, he nurses and then after I change his diaper,  he and I have special bonding time together every time!!  I sit and talk to him and he smiles and kicks his legs around and tries to touch my face with his precious little hands.  He coos and talks to me which keeps me truly entertained.  I always thought… been there done that.. but it is truly brand new with each child and just a precious as if it were your first.  I tickle and kiss him to death, I just love him so much.  I truly feel like we still  need one more to complete our family.  Dakota and I joke about it with Daddy all the time…. we need another little girwl in our family Daddy.  Zach would love to adopt but I would love to have another of our own minus the awful pregnancy.  Post pardon has been great, I have been loosing baby weight quickly and gaining sleep quickly.  Now we are at a crossroads of what we should do with little Chase.  He has been in our room the whole time and we are ready to make the move, but moving Dakota and Hudson together would mean Hudson waking up Dakota too early and putting the baby in with Hudson would get him up even earlier so we continue to contemplate what to do…. I had a couple of scary moments this past week.  I got him a little lovey blankie because it relaxes him when I put him down to sleep, he holds it close to his face as he falls asleep but this past week I went in when he was crying harder than usual and he had it over his face.  As I quickly moved the blanket off him and picked him up to calm him down, he was incredibly hard to calm, he was so freaked out because he was having such a hard time breathing.  SO SCARY!  I just think how fragile life is and how I am so thankful he did not suffocate.  My other two- this never happened.  I always read about SIDS but always still kept blankets in the crib.  Well now I know that I cannot do that with Chase.  Every day I have with these kids is a gift and I was truly reminded of that after this happened.  This transition has been such a blessing.  This was the transition I was most fearful about- balancing three.  God blessed my heart and mind as he helped me acclimate by giving me an amazing family to pull me through the adjustment.  Dakota is the biggest helper and best buddy for Hudson as they entertain each other when I am busy with Chase and she loves her little brother and reads and sings and talks to him all the time.  Hudson just in the past weeks will go over to Chase and rub his head sweetly when no one is looking.  He is really starting to not be so intimidated by Chase and know that he needs love and attention too.  They will both calm Chase down when I am cooking dinner.  Daddy is most helpful in caring for the older ones or taking Chase when he is fussy.  He is such an intricate part of caring for all three.  He got 3 weeks off from work when we brought him home and that was such a help and blessing.  Now that he is back to work, he cares for all three of them often so that I can get out of the house or bless another mommy with planning a baby shower or just go get a pedicure.  I am definitely much more at home than I used to be, but oddly enough- God has given me even more grace to deal with the isolation.  Not having family around makes life lonely- I can’t just run to parents or sisters house to just get out and I don’t have others to enjoy Chase, Hudson and Dakota with Zach and I.  I would say I was able to bounce back much quicker with this third and have enjoyed this one the most with no complications or nursing hangups.

What an amazing gift- thank you Lord for easing my fears and anxiety about how will I handle this.  I guess I have handled it well because God is putting new things on my plate in a few months.  Dakota will begin school at Northridge Community, a private Christian School were she will go to school 3 days a week and I will home school her 2 days a week.  When I found out she made it in after the family interview and her kindergarten test, I had such mixed emotions.  I felt like I would be loosing my little helper and poor Hudson would not know what to do with himself without her around and I am gaining the load and blessing of being a home school mommy.  I already feel like I have a heavy load just trying to take care of the three, but now here we go.  I will be crying that first day I take her to school and maybe even a few days after!  She even says.. Mommy you are going to miss me when I go to school, but its okay I will be back..

Dakota and Hudson are best buds and love to play together.  I am trying to teach them to work through sharing and arguing on their own.  I felt so convicted that I did not have “playtime” with Dakota and so I started to use Hudson’s therapy  sessions to have some one-on-one time with her twice a week and that has been going great.  It helps me to stop doing work around the house and just be with her.  As a stay-at-home mommy I would always justify not “playing” with the kids and now I feel much more balanced.  For a while I would ready a book anytime Hudson brought it to me no matter what I was in the middle of.  I realized that just being at home with them did not give me the time I needed with each of them because I make myself so busy with life.  I am also still working on great patience and realized the reason I loose my patience with them is my lack of consistency with first time obedience.  Hudson has definitely been a struggle with his strong will and when he is disciplined it usually escalates the situation so we have learned that each child needs different disciplinary measures for sure.  I press on trying to get wisdom on how to best handle each little bundle of joy and just feel blessed God gave them to us.

I am humbled…

Okay so I need to take some lessons from my daughter… Yesterday her sunday school teacher told Zach that a new mommy and daughter came to our church and she was dropping off her daughter in Dakota’s sunday school class which is hard for any new 4 year old to be in an unfamiliar place and Dakota came right up to her and said Hello and took her hand and began to introduce her to all her sunday school friends and this moved the mommy so much, she began to cry.  It may of been a big step just to come back to church, but the welcoming heart of a four year old could of made her desire to come back again to hear God’s word or maybe even the gospel if she is not already a believer- then…. I realized wow, I did not even say hello to the new girl that came into our young marrieds class.  I am humbled… again….Then today at dance class there was a little girl that was upset because she did not have a pink streamer wand and after the teacher told her they only have so many wands Dakota blurted out… “She can have mine!” and walked over and gave it to her and then walked over to the pile of wands leftover and picked one up.  I was deeply touched, especially as I was driving home yelling at the driver that just pulled out in front of me.  Again…. I am humbled

—-Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Philippians 2:3

Hudson is on his way!!!!

Hudson is two years old and making massive headway on his developmental progress!  I am so proud of this little one!  He began about a year ago showing slow developmental delays in crawling, walking, eating and his speech.  We were having regular appointments with his pediatrician and neurologist because they were following up on him from his Infancy Myoclonus.  He began therapy almost a year ago at about 15 months.  By then he was not crawling, just scooting on his bottom and no speech yet and having a very hard time eating solid table foods.  So we began our journey with the regional center.  There has been such progress that has been made.  He began seeing a physical therapist, Paulina once a week and an occupational therapist, Millie once a week and when he was 18 months he began seeing a speech therapist, Dana and now  Carmela twice a week.  He began to walk in July, he was 20 months when he began to take steps on his own and he has been improving his strength and coordination  since then.  His speech has been the area of most improvement.  He went from not saying any words just pointing, signing to talking and singing up a storm these past few months.  He say full blown sentences and now we know all the things he was thinking for so many months, but just did not know how to communicate them.  The neurologist and pediatrician and recently, a genetisis does not know why he has been delayed, but I praise God that he is improving and has pretty much caught up to where he needs to be in the last year.  I don’t know if I can fully credit early intervention but I do know that many people have prayed for him and I am thankful that the Lord has brought him this far.  Hudson has so much personality that I did not see before, because now he can express himself so much more.  He is going to be a class clown when he grows up.  He makes silly faces and at the most random times and is super goofy.  He loves “money and cheese”  which is macaroni and cheese.  His favorite activity is reading books and loves swinging, blowing bubbles and watching what he calls EIEI oohhh- that is short for Baby Einstein- Old Macdonald.  He of course loves to play with his sister and loves playing with his daddy too.  He is so much more confident now, rough housing, climbing all over daddy, when he was so subdued before.  He still has a sweet temperment and disposition- very mellow, obedient and sensitive.  He is much more sensitive than his sister.  He is a real brute, a thick boy!  Zach and I joke that he will be bigger than Daddy when he is 16 years old.  He is completely different than his sister in size and build.  He walks around and says “cuuuute” thats “cuuuuuute” as he points to his little brother or a picture of a doggie or something of his sisters.  When Zach was his age, they look exactly alike!  Now his new thing is “I need hep, I need hep”- this is I need help and is said at almost every task or play.  I think it is his way of getting attention and adjusting to a new baby and also just his personality.  I think he is always going to need a lot of encouragement and spurring on until he realizes he can do it on his own.  I think for so long he has needed help doing almost everything and now that he has the capability to do things, he is timid, intimidated and scared to do things.  He was once the little boy that we would put in a sandbox or on the grass with his legs straight in front of him and he would win for “babies best abs”  because he would hold his legs up in the air right in front of him to get them off the sand/grass and his hands too until we would lift him out of his misery.  Now he plays in the grass and sand but still have some sensory issues, especially eating.  “Pizza-pie” “pizza-pie” he would ask at dinner time over an over again and I would say no, not today “oh” he would say and ask again.  That and money and cheese are his favorite foods.  He loves balls more than anything, he especially loves basketball.  His favorite sweet treat is “pops”  short for lollipops.  For awhile before Chase was born he found his will and it was strong!  We started with first time obedience training him and he has improved tremendously with his obedience.  For awhile, he would scream and hit his head on the floor when he was sent to time out or if he was disciplined.  We wondered what should we do, the disciplining is actually making him more upset and mad, but now he has mellowed out and knows his limitations much more.  We have hit a bit of the terrible twos with him but they have been short lived days, once the boundaries are set, he realizes what he can and cannot get away with.  He has been throwing tantrums the last couple weeks and I have been working with him on that.  I just look at him today and can’t believe he is mine.  Now having Chase, he is such a big boy and our family would never be the same without him.  He is such a smart, cute  and funny little boy!  We are so blessed to have him apart of our family.

Baby Chase is born!

So wondering why I have not posted in almost a year?  The past year has been interesting with the pregnancy of my third child.  I was sick for the first 5 months of pregnancy, not to mention just emotionally struggling through the pregnancy as well.  Hormones and high dosages of ginger helped me get there.  By the 6th month I wanted to do everything I was unable to do the first five months and towards the end I was so tired from taking care of Hudson and Dakota I never got online except to check my email.  So here I am on the other side of pregnancy in my third week of postpartum.  I went into labor praying my way to bypass my bday so my little one would not have to share a bday with mommy every year and God was gracious and Chase made his arrival February 3rd, 2010.  He came into the world at 10:13am on that morning.  I labored the whole eve before and into the night and finally had him 12 hours later.  I was hoping for a shorter labor and delivery since Hudson was 10 hours and that was from Dakota being 20 hours.  God was so gracious to provide an amazing couple to take care of our kids, we called Mark and Pam over that eve as my contractions started coming stronger and closer together and had full arrangements for Dakota and Hudson for the night until my mom arrived the next day.  Chase William Volker was  a healthy 7.5 lb baby.  I was so thrilled he was not 9.5 lbs like his brother.  I went into the hospital that night and I was at 3cm.  Then they let me labor through the night with a wonderful epidural  and I rested as my body worked.  By next morning I was progressing but not quickly so they gave me petossin to speed things up, but it was too fast so they took me off of it and then I was ready to push.  My postpartum was much easier this time around, I did tear, but with the epidural I was able to still feel my legs so I was up and around a lot quicker this time around.  I was not as weepy and sad with this one. After I had Chase he layed on my chest for 45 minutes just resting contently.  I nursed him right away and he latched on immediately and my milk came in quickly.  He nursed all the time and he latched on wrong so I was pretty sore at first but then he got better and so did Mommy and he has been doing beautifully since then!  I just took him in for his appointment at two weeks and he has gained back to his birth weight and more, so he is doing wonderfully.  Slightly jaundiced, but the doctor is not worried.  He is doing great on a three hour schedule for the most part and sleeping partially through the night, but that differs each night.  I will start to schedule him more after he has a growth spurt which should happen anytime now.  He is a very content baby and this one not having any complications has been amazing !  Zach and I have both enjoyed him much more this time with nursing issues and our newborn Hudson being in the NICU, God was so gracious to bless us with a normal healthy child.  I got to go home from the hospital after 24 hours which was a blessing to walk into our home with Chase and get the kids reactions.  Life has not quite turned back to routine yet.  We had my mom out for about a week, then a couple days on our own and now we have Priscilla out for this week.  I will be back to reality of doing it all myself this next week.  Zach was home for over two weeks as well, so with all this help I am not going to know how to do it on my own.  That is when my weepy-ness will set in I think.  Dakota and Hudson have been truly amazing, showing no signs of jealousy towards the baby, only love.  Dakota will read to him, Hudson will say “wakey wakey baby chase” as I am feeding him and he falls asleep.  He will say shhhhhhhh baby Chase sleeping.  Hugs and kisses to Chase from both Dakota and Hudson, they are amazing big brother and sister.  Dakota is a huge help and a blessing to me as I adjust.  Hudson and Dakota play so well together now that it relieves me some time to spend with the baby when I need to nurse.  This has been a joy and difficult with little sleep, but we realized how big Dakota and Hudson are now and how short this time really is.  I thank God that he has given me joy and bonding time with Chase and pray that I can balance everything.  I pray I will know when to judge when the home is clean enough and my children are played with Chase is cared for and my husband is loved.  God please grant me that wisdom and discernment.  Thank you for this blessing of a new little boy in our family, may Zach and I glorify you as we raise this child to know you.

Bathtime with Hudson

Here was a fun bath…

Dakota’s First Ballet Dance Recital!

So for the past few months we took Dakota to the Parks and Rec to a ballet class.  She loved it and they had a recital at the end of the class.  After her recital she had some special moments with Daddy dancing around the living room.

watch Dakota-her tape was missing so she did not know where to stand

but she is still dancing

Goofing around with Daddy after her recital

May I have this dance?