Haylie's Artwork

Haylie is becoming quite the little artist. My favorite is when she draws our family.


This one is Daddy, Haylie (and Haylie's hair!), Anna, and 3 moons. I am not in this picture because, according to Haylie, I was at the store.


This one she drew at church in her Sunbeam class. In order from left to right: Mommy, Daddy, Haylie, Anna. And at the top she was trying to write her name - she knows how to write her whole name if I tell her what letters to write. But on her own, apparently all she could remember was H and E. Soo cute.


I got her to write all our names on this one. This time me and Eric got the crazy hair!

Part Three from our Trip...

...this should be the last post from our trip...I took 200+ pictures so I had to break it up! After we spent a week at the cabin, we then spent a week at my parents' house in Fallbrook. We didn't do anything too exciting - mostly hung around the house. My mom, sister, and I went and got facials one day (my aunt does a FABULOUS job) and another day we went to M&L Fabrics - a HUGE fabric store near Knott's Berry Farm. We also had a get-together with extended family - my mom's parents, her 2 sisters, and some of my cousins came. Very fun!

This is one of the tiny frogs we caught in the creek across the street from my parents' house.

This was an attempt to get a picture of ALL the cousins with their great grandma and grandpa - as you can see, getting 13 kids ages 5 weeks - 14 years to cooperate is not easy. But it was super fun to have them all together.

My sister-in-law asked about the snails in a previous post - here they are. You all know that Haylie has a love for animals much like my own - hers may even surpass mine...anyway, she went around the back yard collecting snails and putting them in this container. Then, she let them all run wild! Most of her cousins were freaking out - but she was totally content playing with them.

These are my nieces, Taylor and McKaylynn, drawing on my legs. What can I say? They were having fun.

Cousin Cami and Haylie playing in my parents' fountain. Shortly after this, Haylie slipped and fell in the fountain and hurt her bum. Fun times. ;-)

After 2 weeks of playing, though, I think we were all ready to be home. I love coming home and appreciating my home and my family after being gone for a while. And the best part was - Eric was bored without us so we came home to a spotless, clean house. Ahhh.

As always, click here to see more pictures.

More From our Trip

After we went to Disneyland, we headed down to Fallbrook. Eric took the train back to Fresno on Sunday and I went to Big Bear with my parents to meet up with my sister and her family. My sister has 4 kids ranging from 14 down to 6 years old. The girls adore them. It was so fun because the kids just ran around together and I didn't have to be so "vigilant" - you know what I mean - I didn't worry about Anna getting into stuff as much - and Haylie was so busy she didn't talk my ear off like usual!

Anna enjoying a waffle LONG after breakfast was over!

That's Anna's little face in the upstairs window (my niece was right there with her). We were out on the deck and McKaylynn called out to us and when we looked up this is what we saw. She looked so cute up there - click on the picture to make it bigger.

Taylor would sit down against the door and Anna would go up to her, turn around and scoot back and sit right next to her.

Haylie and McKaylynn on the rope swing

McKaylynn and Haylie chillin' on the hammock.

On Thursday, my awesome dad drove all 6 kids back to Fallbrook so my mom, my sister and I could have our girl time at the cabin and sew, sew, sew! (We missed you Jenn and Launa)

We had a great time and I finished FOUR projects in 2 days! Here are some pictures:

My mom gave me a "kit" to make this bag - I LOVE IT! It is the perfect size to hold coloring books and snacks for church - oh - and my hymnbook too for playing piano in RS.

I needed some summer pajamas - all I had were flannel PJs and they were just too hot. So I made these. They kinda look like clown pants but they are comfy!

The next 3 pictures are of my friend Erin and her girls. I made matching aprons for all of them for Erin's birthday.

Erin and Cami

Erin

Elora

The fourth project was a "Nursing Nook" (a name that I am going to try and register - for whatever it's worth) for my cousin Tiffany who just had a baby. I don't have a picture of the one I made - but I'm going to be posting some pics soon of some others I've made. I'm going to start selling them (I've already had one customer!) so I'll be "advertising" shortly.

I have one more round of pictures that I'll be blogging about

soon but in the meantime, click here to see more pictures.

Precious

My niece snapped this shot of Haylie one day when we were at my mom's house. Couldn't resist posting it.

My 30th Birthday at Disneyland!

Wow, so my birthday was almost a month ago but I am FINALLY getting around to blogging about it. I was gone for 2 weeks, then when I got home, my hard drive crashed so I have not been able to upload any pics or anything!

I had the BEST birthday - quite possibly the best ever. What better way to celebrate the big 3-0 than by going to Disneyland and acting like a kid?? I got in to Disneyland free, of course, they gave me a button that said "Happy Birthday Kristie" and every employee in the park, upon seeing the button would say "Happy Birthday Kristie!" We took the girls and my parents came too. The weather was FABULOUS - could not have been better. It was fairly crowded, but we used RideMax and hardly noticed the crowds - aside from being run over a few times...

Haylie was in awe, of course - it was her first time really experiencing Disneyland - she went once when she was 14 months so that doesn't really count. She was such a good girl all day. I was noticing around 2 pm that she had not thrown a single fit - had not whined - nothing. Just a perfectly content girl enjoying everything around her. At 6 pm she got upset because I wouldn't buy her a balloon. I told her I would buy her one when we left so we didn't have to lug it around with us - so after crying for about 1 minute, she stopped and we continued on our merry way. She was so unbelievably well-behaved - it made the day THAT much better. And, Haylie went on her first real roller-coaster - The Matterhorn!! She was actually tall enough and I asked her if she wanted to go on a really fast train and she said yes!

Sidebar: When I was little and went on the Matterhorn for the first time, the Yetti scared the snot out of me and I did not go on it again until I was 14 years old - and even then I only went on it because I was with friends and didn't want them to think I was a wimp so I let the peer pressure force me into it! So I felt the need to warn Haylie about it so she would not have a similar experience.

So I told her there was a white monster like the one on Monsters Inc., and that he was not real so don't be scared. So she's sitting in front of me and she's belted in and I've got my arms around her. Well, the beginning of the ride is pitch black - so she got pretty tense and was holding on to my arms pretty tightly - but once we got going, she was so giggly! We laughed through the whole ride. So when it was done, she said, "Mommy, that was scary!" and I said "Do you want to do it again?" and she said, "YES!". So it seems we have a thrill-seeker in our midst!

Anna was really good - she loved looking around at everything - but we have discovered that she is probably not going to be a thrill-seeker - at least not anytime soon - despite the fact that she loves to climb on everything. The first ride we went on was Alice in Wonderland and she did not like it. Now, it could have been that it was a little dark, but I think it was the sensation of moving along that she did not like! She got a little better as we went on more rides - she LOVED "It's a Small World" - I got video of that so click the link at the bottom of this post to see it!



This is Anna on "Finding Nemo" - the submarines - she had her face plastered to the window almost the whole time!


Haylie took a little nap while waiting in line for Finding Nemo - we waited 40 minutes to get on it - the longest wait we had all day!

Anna snuggling with Grandpa Garry on Pirates of the Caribbean

Haylie riding the carousel - look at that smile - could she be any happier?

We got one family shot - and right before we took it, Anna spilled water all over herself so that is why she is not happy.

That evening, my parents took the girls to dinner at downtown Disney and Eric and I went over to California Adventure by ourselves! We had never been on California Screamin' so we went straight there and stood in line. Well, right when we got close enough to see people getting on the ride, it broke down - and they made everyone leave! So, I guess we are just not meant to ride that ride. So we went on a couple others and just had a good time being together. Okay - another sidebar: I'm not trying to be rude here, but this is something that MUST be shared. While standing in line for California Screamin', we saw a girl, who I'm sure is a lovely girl, wearing an outfit that was...well...interesting. We couldn't resist. I pretended to pose for the camera while Eric captured this shot:

No, her shirt was not ripped like I had originally thought - it was SUPPOSED to be like that. Poor girl. She must have terrible friends - I mean really - would you let YOUR friend out of the house like that? Again, I'm not trying to be mean here so please don't think I'm horrible. But come on. Seriously.

Ok - moving on...

Me and Eric waiting in line for "Soarin' over California" - an AWESOME ride that makes you feel like you are flying over different CA landscapes.

I found myself, several times during the day, getting choked up - I guess just because it was so fun to see my girls enjoying something so much. I don't know. I have noticed since I stopped taking my Cymbalta that I'm more emotional - but the good kind of emotional - I feel things more deeply now - so maybe it was just that I was enjoying myself so much - there was nothing to do but cry tears of joy!

I took a TON of pictures and they are all so cute - and a couple videos too - so you'll have to go check them out here.

Haylie's TB Test

Haylie had to get a TB shot for Preschool orientation. She is such a shy girl, and what human being likes getting shots? Well, I am so proud of her - I had to tell everyone. We went to a "clinic" at one of the local elementary schools cuz her pediatrician can't get us in for a very long time. The nurse was so clever! She drew a little cat face on Haylie's arm with a pretty sparkly pen and said "Now the cat needs a nose - I'm going to give him a nose." She asked Haylie to close her eyes, but Haylie just watched the needle go in and didn't even cry! She said "Mommy, that hurt." But she was so calm and didn't shed a single tear. So, I took her to McDonald's afterwards and got her a cheeseburger and an ice cream cone. I love seeing her grow up and turn into a "big girl".

The kitty on her arm is sorta' hard to see - but you get the point.


I think she was just as proud of herself as I was!

Update on Depression

So I just stumbled on this blog today and I've really enjoyed this woman's thoughts on depression. http://www.confessionsofamoodymommy.com/ She is actually bi-polar, but many of the symptoms of bi-polar are the same as depression. She has a lot of really great information and statistics and advice to help people to better understand depression. Anyway, check it out - if you look on the right side of her page she has listed "topics" that she blogs about - click on the one that says Depression for the bulk of her posts that I have enjoyed. She is on Cymbalta too and it's very interesting to see her day-to-day documentary of how she did on the drug in the beginning - very similar to my experience. I now wish that I had documented the day-to-day improvements. Oh well. A small warning: she does use a bit of language sometimes and her grammar stinks - but her message is great.

For those of you who have not been following my blog for the last several months click here and here to read a little bit about my struggle with post-partum depression.


Anyway, I haven't said much about it in some time - but I am pleased to announce that I (for now) am officially off Cymbalta. I've been slowly weaning myself (under Dr. supervision of course) for the last couple weeks. I started out by halfing the dosage and continuing to take it every day. Then took it every other day - and it has now been 4 days since I have taken anything and I feel great. Now, 3 days from now I may hit a wall - who knows - I'm totally open to going back on it if I need to because wow - it has made such a HUGE difference! Monday I had a really bad day and I was a little scared that it was because I was not taking the usual dose...but I had to remind myself that even people who are not suffering from depression have bad days - it's ok to have bad days!


I just can't imagine where I would be now if I had not made the decision to see a therapist and get help. Our lives (i.e. Eric, me, and our girls) have improved times 1000 over the last 5 months:

I have a newfound passion for my children that I treasure. Again, this does not mean that we are all giggles all the time - but I am able to be patient with them - and play with them. AND, I'm not sure if I said anything about this before...Haylie's attitude and even some of her potty troubles improved steadily as my mood improved. I did not realize how bad I had gotten - but she sure did. Even today, if I get upset with her for something, she will say "Mommy, are you happy?" She is obviously very in tune with my moods - and notices when I am happy. And because I am happier now - so is she. I have to be very careful with her - she obviously has a very sensitive soul. ;-)

Eric and I reached a new level of understanding through this process that I don't think we could have reached any other way. To have him support me 100% - no matter what - to know that he was totally on board with me and my decisions meant the world to me.

I have more energy than I've had in YEARS...yes, YEARS, people. Now, unfortunately that energy has not translated in me wanting to clean my house any more than before - but I don't think that's EVER gonna change! The point is, when I do decide to clean - I have the energy to do so.

When I have a bad day - like Monday - I don't lie in my bed and cry. I get through it. I deal with it. I do what needs to be done. I go to bed and wake up the next day feeling rejuvenated and ready to tackle whatever else comes my way. You know - one bad day in several months is pretty dang awesome. I used to have one good day in several months. WOW!

I sleep. That was one of the worst parts of this whole thing. I used to sleep through anything - now, of course that changed after having babies, but I still slept well even after they were born. When my depression hit full force - ugh...tossing and turning and WEIRD dreams that made me toss and turn even more...like...really bizarre dreams...Now...peace. Sleep. Rest. Ahhh.

I feel like such a better person now than I did 6 months ago. I am proud of myself. I am proud of who I have become. I am grateful for my trials because they truly have made me who I am and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Clearly there is still work to be done, but I am so glad that I am mentally and emotionally stable so that I can continue to pay attention to the things that matter - and continue to learn the lessons Heavenly Father is trying to teach me. And because this is my blog - I have to reiterate what I said 5 months ago. Sometimes faith is not enough. Sometimes Heavenly Father asks us to do a little bit more. Sometimes we have to trust our intuition and find a new doctor when the one we have tells us something we don't want to hear. Sometimes we have to put ourselves out there and do something uncomfortable - even if it means that some people might not agree.

I'll keep ya posted. ;-)