6 months ago today

I was in a lot of freaking pain right about now. I had labored (induced) all night long and had been throwing up from the pain of the foley bulb catheter and the pitocin. Tonight at 11:04pm Skyla will be exactly 6 months old! She was born by c-section after a 25 hour labor. I remember it all like it was yesterday. I don't know how it's possible that she is already 6 months old! As of 2 am tonight she will have been nursing for 6 months (they wouldn't let me have her in recovery so I didn't get to hold her and nurse her until 2 am). She hasn't had a drop of formula which is so big for me! I had supply issues with my son and had to start supplimenting with formula at 5.5 months. He ended up deciding at 9 months that he no longer wanted to nurse and that broke my heart. Skyla is the exact opposite. She refuses a bottle (we are trying to talk her into taking ebm from a sippy cup) but really I would prefer this to the other. I totally see Skyla being a late weaner and that is totally okay with me!!!

Happy 1/2 birthday Skyla!!!

The mom of two minus one

One of my little ones, namely Chip the 3 year old is visiting his mema and papa right now in Georgia. It's amazing when you have your first child the infant stage seems so hard!!! Then you have a 3 year old and in infant and you learn about hard. Then you send your 3 year old to visit relatives and just have the infant to take care (well and your first baby .. namely your DH) and it feels like you are on vacation. This infant stuff is so EASY compared to taking care of a 3 year old AND an infant. I miss Chip , but at the same time, I think this break is good for both him, Skyla and myself. Me because he's EXHAUSTING (he is more energetic than 3 average kids put together .. just ask all my friends who ask "How do you do it?") and I needed a break. Good for him because my mother and stepfather, aka Mema and Papa, are spoiling him ROTTEN! But only in a good way. He is getting lots of attention right now which he is eating up. And Skyla is really loving being an "only child" for just a little bit and getting some one on one mommy time and lots of floor time to crawl and roll with out me having to worry that her brother is going to run over her or leave a toy in her path she can choke on.

Anyone who says "It's just as easy to have 2 kids as to have one" LIED!!!! Not that I don't love every minute of it, but goodness it takes alot of physical, mental and emotional energy.

I have no freaking clue how moms of like 4 or more kids do it .. but my hats are off to them!!!

Tantalizing Tuesday (and yes I realize it's actually Thursday)

So this weeks assignment from Jen *Three shades of Blue in my blog roll* is football food. Here is my contribution

Steff's sweet and spicy meatballs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion chopped
1 large green bell pepper chopped
black pepper to taste
garlic powder to taste
1 16oz bag of frozen meatballs
1/4 cup Texas Pete Hot wing sauce
1/4 cup Hunts Hickory Brown Sugar BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Kraft Thick N Spicy Honey BBQ sauce
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup grape jelly
1/4 cup orange juice
1 can of diced tomatoes

Saute your onion and bell pepper in the olive oil in a large skillet until soft. Sprinkle with garlic powder and black pepper. Add frozen meatballs and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well. Bring to a boil for a miute or two then lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve over white rice.

Skyla's first hair clip. Grow hair Grow!!!

Skyla 

This was just too sweet not to post. 

Baby feet! 

He looks so grown up to me in this pic!!! My baby boy is growing up way to fast. 

Up Close and Personal! 

Such a good big Brother!!! 

Holding hands 

Like Brother Like Sister 

They love each other so much. 

Don't they look so much alike ???  

Chip 

She really loves to crawl these days. It's still an army crawl at this point but she gets where she needs to go. 

She's getting sooooo big!!! 

Skyla's New Magnolia headband 

A puzzle for you!

Need a good cry?

My friend Jill is married to Kristian Bush (guitar and mandolin player for Sugarland) and they have done an amazing tribute to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The song was written by Kristian and Kristin (the female guitar player) for the lead singer Jennifer when she was going through a rough spot in her life .. but it totally works perfectly with the stuff going on in LA and Mississipi.

You can view it here.
http://www.standbackup.com/


If you haven't heard Sugarland yet you are totally missing out!!! Here's a link to their website.
http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/start.asp

Kudos to Sugarland!!!!

Hurricane Ophelia

Toni you are so sweet to worry about me, especially since your are taking care of a newborn and a toddler. We are fine for the moment. We are about 2 hours from the coast of NC. We are getting plenty of rain but so far not really not much wind. Charles got sent home from work (he installs cable east of here) and the c omppany won't let their guys out in this weather until the storm is over. When it's over the real fun will begin because they will be fixing downed lines and such but they can't get started until the power companies give them the all clear.

Tantalizing Tuesday Assignment : Chicken

So my friend Jennifer http://jenadk.blogspot.com/ assigned us the task of coming up with a chicken recipe to share for this Tuesday. I posted mine over on her board .. but wanted to share here too.

Stephanie's Salsa Chicken and Rice (crockpot)

Place an entire pack of boneless chicken breasts in your crock pot.

throw in a whole large yellow onion diced.

add a whole green or red (really any color) bell pepper cut up into hunks.

a small jar of your favorite salsa.

add a cup or so of water how ever much it takes to cover up the chicken and veggies.

Cook on low for 5-6 hours until the chicken is just falling apart

about 30-45 minutes before you are ready to eat add in a cup of dried rice and stir the dish up and cook until the rice is done.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream and sliced black olives for garnish. It's AWESOME and very little work. throw it together in the morning and that night you have a no fuss dinner.

Feel free to post your favorite Chicken dinners here too. I would love the recipes as I love to cook.

SUPER Chip to the rescue!

Chip decided yesterday he is a SUPER hero. He started calling me SUPER Mama and Skyla is SUPER Skyla and Daddy of course is SUPERDaddy.Everything at our house is apparently SUPER. The water, the cheese even down to the peanut butter is just plain SUPER. Oh and Peanut butter gives him Powers he informed me. When I asked what his SUPER Power was he told me with glee it was painting. (This would definitely explain the crayon on my walls). Everything was going along just fine until I gave him a kiss and he told me, "SUPER Mama your kisses are SUPER gross!"

My dearest Stella

It seems its been 2 years ago today since we sent you to Heaven. How that's possible I don't even know. It still feels like yesterday to me. I promise you that while our family has had to move on, and we even added your baby sister to the family, I think about you every day. I wonder what you look like, although looking at your big brother and your baby sister I can pretty much guess since they both look so much alike that you probably look quite a bit like them. You should be almost 18 months old right now and I swear sometimes I can imagine you toddling along beside your big brother, or petting your little sister's head and saying "baby". I miss you so much Stella. You may have left this earth but you will never leave my heart. I carried you in my body for such a short time, one day shy of 12 weeks but I loved you from the moment the stick had two lines. Actually even before then, with your pregnancy some how I knew I was pregnant with you from the moment you were conceived. Your daddy thought I was crazy when I cride for two hours after the first test said I wasn't pregnant. I knew better though. You were and will always be my little fire cracker, conceived on the 4th of July. I know though that you are in a wondrrful place and are well loved by both your Grandpas. I never got to your grandpa Charlie because dided when your daddy was just 13 but I hear he was a really great guy and I am sure he loves you very much. Your Grandpa Jamie is probably spoiling you rotten! He was the most wonderful father a girl could ask for so I know he is an amazing grandpa to you and will keep you company until we finally met one day. When your brother and sister are old enough to understand we will tell the about their sister Stella and how she is a special guardian angel watching over them.

Love and kisses
Mama

Stella Rhiannon Haynes - Heaven Sent 9-12-2003

I had to do it :(

Turn on word confirmation for comments. I hate it but the spammers were driving me CRAZY! I don't have acne, or irritable bowel sydrome nor do I need a loan at this time, or any other thing they are selling!

She's crawling!

Ack .. it's an army crawl at this point ..She's on her knees and elbows, but I am sure it won't be long and she will be up on her hands and knees. She's 5.5 months (almost) so I did get one extra month this time seeing as she waited longer before crawling than Chip did.

Update on the formula companies

Called and talked with the companies

Ross is sending over 2 million dollars of products to the affected areas.
They said they are very involved with the recovery effort.

Nestle is providing both financial and formula to the America's Harvest year round. They wouldn't tell an ammount though.

Enfamil has sent over 100,000's of ready to feed bottles, cans of formula and bottles nipples and and other feeding accessories and their parent company has sent alot of medicines and their first truck load left the day after the hurricane hit. she said they will continue to help the america's harvest or whatever the name of that organization is.

A friend of mine also suggested calling the diaper companies .. couldn't find the phone number to any except for Huggies and they let me know that they are sending diapers, wipes, training pants and their parent company Kimberly Clark is sending medicines. OH and a monetary donation as well. Not sure how much.

Give Formula makers a call

And let's ask them to donate free formula to help the babies that have been victims of Katrina!!!

Here are some #s

Ross



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I am ashamed

I have to get this off my chest. I am so ashamed to see how some of the folks down there in NO are acting. It's just abissmal and makes the jobs of the resue workers that much more dangerous.

In the superdome there have been rapes and murders and when the drs. got in to start treating the sick and the injured they were putting their lives at stake. It's awful and I have never heard of people acting like this after a natural disaster any where else and it really makes me humilated that other people across the world are probably thinking yet again what sorry excuses Americans are yet again.

I am so worried that these hooligans are preventing other people from getting treatment they need.

People have tried to take nurses hostage so they can get rides on medical helicopters transporting the sick. It's just insane. The shooting all night at police officers .. the city is under siege. It's just horrific.

A friend of mine told me she saw a report about a man who shot his own sister over a bag of ice.

Now some of the NO police are handing in their badges because they just can't take any more (and can you even blame them?)

Oh and now there are fires .. fires so bad that if they can't get them stopped the whole damned city may burn. It's like a hell on earth. WTF if going on with these people?

Praying for all the good people in that area that are being sieged by not only the flood waters and destruction but now the criminal element and hoodlums. It's a sad and dark day for American history. I am praying especially hard for the babies and small children going hungry right now. This is all just so horrific I can't stop crying over it.

Being that my brother is a police officer I am also praying for all of the polie, rescue workers and military personel trying to save these people and this city.