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04.15.10

Update from Kenny #2

Hi Everyone,

It’s Kenny again. Just wanted to give you another quick update about Erin. She is now home from the hospital. They let me bring her home last night. Her blood levels reflect that she has about a half a “tank” of blood so she has very little energy and is pretty pale. She will be on the couch for the next 10 days and in recovery mode for the next six to eight weeks while she heals and her body regenerates her blood levels. The good news is that the worst is definitely behind her and she is now on the mend.

She should feel well enough to post in a couple of days so this will be the last time you’ll hear from me. That said, I keep teasing Erin that maybe I should just take over this blog. Judging from the number of comments from my last post I clearly have the gift of prose. Erin seems to think that it was the content of the post that resulted in the number of comments but we all know the truth, right? :-)

On a serious note, Erin and I want to thank you for all of the flowers, dinners, phone calls, emails and comments on her blog, Twitter and Facebook. While Erin was in the the hospital I read to her several times all of the blog comments you left and each time it brought tears to her eyes. We have been truly overwhelmed by the amount of love and support that we have received during the last week. There are a lot of good people in the world and Erin’s blog friends are definitely among them. Thank you so much.

xoxo, Erin
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Uncategorized
04.12.10

Update from Kenny

Hi everyone,

This is Kenny. Some of you have already heard that yesterday was a traumatic day for our family. We’ve been receiving lots of calls from friends who wanted to wish Erin well and who had questions about what happened so I decided to hijack Erin’s blog and let you all know what’s up.

Yesterday morning while I was downstairs I heard a scream from upstairs and ran up to our bathroom to find Erin hemorrhaging. She had Kole in her arms and handed him to me about 10 seconds before she fell on the floor and passed out. Her mom and I quickly called 911 and five minutes later about 10 paramedics were standing over Erin in our bathroom. They couldn’t stop the bleeding and Erin kept going in and out of consciousness so they ultimately threw her on a gurney and we headed to the same hospital that we had just left a week earlier when we had Kole — only this time to the emergency room.

Once we got to the emergency room the surgeon told us that she had already lost about half of the blood in her body and needed to go immediately into surgery or she would likely lose her life. As you can imagine, we were both extremely emotional learning the gravity of the situation. The doctor told us that he would try to do a simple D&C to stop the hemorrhaging but that given how quickly she was losing blood he might need to go directly to a hysterectomy if the D&C didn’t work. They then whisked her away to surgery.

After three long hours the doctor emerged from surgery and told me that the D&C hadn’t worked. They had determined that she was dangerously close to losing her life as a result of the hemorrhaging and had elected to perform the hysterectomy. The hysterectomy stopped the bleeding and, after giving her transfusions of an entire human body’s worth of blood, they had been able to stabilize her. That was the only news I needed to hear.

Erin is recovering in the hospital now. She’ll be here for the next several days and will be recovering at home for weeks after that. She can’t sit up yet and she is in a lot of pain but the worst is definitely behind her. She appreciates all of the thoughtful texts and emails she has received and all of the wonderful friends and family who always go out of their way to stand by her.

Experiences like these remind you never to take what you have — especially your health and the health of your family — for granted. The overwhelming sensation that has overcome us after having gone through the events of this weekend is complete and total gratitude.

We’re so grateful to our Heavenly Father for answering our prayers. We’re so grateful that Erin’s mom hadn’t left town yet (she was hours away from flying home) so she could be with our kids while I looked after Erin. We’re so grateful for the members of our Church and community who were so quick to reach out and offer to help. We’re so grateful that this hysterectomy didn’t happen until after we were able to have three healthy children. And I, for one, am extremely grateful that my beautiful wife is going to be around to grow old with me.

If I know my wife, she’ll be posting updates again as soon as the nurses unhook the 35 IVs and miscellaneous other tubes that would slow down her typing. She’s never been one to let a life threatening illness keep her away from a good blog post.

xoxo, Erin
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home decor 2
04.09.10

Bringing the Outside In

Spring. Does it get any better? I so love all of the flowers that bloom this time of year. San Diego is simply stunning. Even my little yard is blossoming like crazy and it makes me happy every time I step outside.

So I decided to bring a little of the outside inside.

I found these cute little vases at Pottery Barn, filled them with flowers from my yard and set them on my stove because, well, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be cooking much in the near future (I don’t cook much without the newborn excuse, let alone now). The stove seemed like a practical place for my flowers.

Then my mom came to town and I figured my stove just may get used. So I moved my flowers into the family room.

Wherever they are, they make me smile. Spring. Does it get any better?
xoxo, Erin
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Kole
04.07.10

Lately

I don’t want to do laundry.
I don’t want to clean or organize.
I don’t want to entertain the girls.
I don’t want to run errands.
I don’t want to do homework with Ellie.
I don’t want to give the girls baths or do their hair.
I don’t want to fix meals and snacks.

Lucky for me my mom is still in town and is taking care of all of the above. So I can do exactly what I want to do.

Which is to hold and love this little guy.

I adore him when he’s asleep.

and when he’s awake.

Kole loves his turtle crib. I always start with my newborns sleeping in a bassinet next to my bed and it always lasts about two days before I move them into the nursery. I can’t sleep with them next to me because they make so many little newborn noises that keep me awake all night long. The nursery is right next to my room so I can only hear him when he’s hungry. Kole doesn’t even really cry when he’s ready to eat. He just kind of squawks. I know he’s only a week old, so maybe it’s too early to say, but so far he is the BEST baby. He hasn’t been fussy at all. He’ll have a little awake time and then if I set him in his crib he puts himself right to sleep. He’s a great eater and at night eats every couple of hours and then goes right back to sleep. My girls did not make things this easy for me when they were just days old. So far he has been a little dream.

I’m actually not surprised that he is such a good baby. Kole and I made a deal during pregnancy.
I promised him that if he would be a healthy, good natured, easy baby (my easiest yet!) that I would spoil him rotten for the rest of his life.

So far we’re each holding up our end of the deal famously.
xoxo, Erin
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Kole
04.02.10

Meet Kole

Early in the morning…heading to the hospital.

Time to get started! Everything went really well. I’m a big fan of being induced and an even bigger fan of epidurals. I checked in at 7:00 am and had the baby at 2:44 pm. He was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. Oh…and he is perfect. Absolutely perfect.

Picture soon after delivery with my sweet doctor. She has delivered all three of my babies.

The girls were so excited to come and meet their little brother. When my mom told them to get ready to go to the hospital they were in the car 45 minutes before it was time to go.

I really can’t believe this picture. It seems like last week Kenny and I were in highschool making out and riding around on his bullet bike driving my parents crazy. Now here we are three kids later. A family of five.

Grandma and Grandpa were pretty excited to meet their first grandson.

And now Kenny’s pretty glad I convinced him we needed ONE more baby.

Kole is the sweetest little boy. I could just sit and stare at him all day.

Getting ready to leave the hospital.

Kenny always orders a stork announcing our new baby. I tell him it’s so great he does it for the kids but really it’s just as much for me. I love seeing it when we get home from the hospital.

Everybody is doing great. We feel so blessed to have this sweet little boy home with us. He is such a doll and we are all completely smitten with him.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

xoxo, Erin
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Family
03.30.10

Getting Ready for Baby

One more quick post before I head to the hospital! This has been such a fun weekend and I am so excited for tomorrow! Here are some pics from the last week. I finally finished my “to organize before baby” list. My mom just asked why I’m posting pictures of my organized drawers right now. Well I’ll tell you. They make me happy. Organizing them made me happy and seeing the finished product makes me happy. And I LOVE to see pictures of the way people organize on their blogs. My mom thinks I’m weird. Am I weird? Does anyone else get just giddy over this stuff? Well, regardless, here are some pics for the maybe two readers like me who like to see a little organization. :)

Girls’ homework drawer

Spice cupboard (see Shari…I do have one. I have a feeling this cupboard will stay organized for a very long time…)

Miscellaneous cupboard. Cleaning supplies up high away from little hands.

On to my bathroom drawers! (Note to self: stop buying lip gloss)

I always keep a notebook in this drawer and I can’t tell you how much I use it! When I’m upstairs and the girls say something funny I don’t want to forget, when someone calls and I need to take a message, when I’m laying in bed at night and remember things I need to do the next day… it’s a handy place to have it.

These drawers will all have to be re-done once Kole is on the move, but thankfully I’ve got awhile until then. :)

I switched out some pictures and artwork in the playroom and that finished my list!

Work was done just in time for the weekend. Saturday my parents arrived. YEA! Reinforcement is here! My girls were beyond excited to see grandma and grandpa.

It’s always such a nice break for me when my parents are in town. The other night Kenny was putting Addison to bed, my mom was reading with Ellie, my dad was cleaning up dinner, and I was chillin’ with my feet up. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Today my mom and I went shopping and bought a few things for the girls.

And a few more things for little Kole. Finally getting into the boy groove! Then we got pedicures and came home and I took a nap while my mom bathed the girls and fed them dinner. I could really get used to this whole pamper the pregnant lady thing.

Next we set up all of the baby gear and I did some laundry. Look at all of that blue! Something I’m not used to seeing in my washer. I packed for the hospital while my parents and Kenny put the girls to bed. Now we’re all hanging out watching New Moon (per my request of course). It’s been a great way to spend my last day before baby arrives. With my girls I was so nervous the night before, but this time around I’m just excited! Can’t wait for tomorrow. Thank you so much for all of your sweet comments and well wishes on my last post. I was extremely touched by all of your support. I’m heading to the hospital tomorrow feeling very loved.

Off to get my Edward fix before the big day. Next post will be pics of Kole (not more organized drawers). :)
xoxo, Erin
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home decor 2
03.26.10

Kole’s Nursery

Finally finished Kole’s nursery. I had my last doctor appointment today and will be checking into the hospital next Tuesday, March 30th. Cuttin‘ things a little close. :) Here’s the before:

and here’s the after:

A bit more boyish. I ordered the turtle crib bedding from Baby Gap on-line. After this post when I asked for help finding bedding, my mom and several of my blog commenter’s recommended Baby Gap. I didn’t even know they sold crib bedding! Thanks again to everyone who gave me on-line sites to check out. It was so fun shopping for this.

I kept the frames up and just put new pictures in them. I’m sure I’ll replace them with pictures of Kole at some point. Time to turn my scrapbook table back into a changing table!

I found these cute little green bins to hold diapers and books.

Bought all the baby supplies and organized the drawers. I’m finally feeling prepared!

I can’t get enough of these Newborn Pampers. They are so tiny and smell so good!

Of course, the other half of the room is still a scrapbook room.


Half of the closet is mine. Full of scrapbook supplies.

And half of it is his. Full of clothes and baby supplies. Kole will learn the concept of “sharing” at a very young age. :)
xoxo, Erin
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Mom Adventures
03.23.10

A bit of mom randomness



(Lovely picture. Addison was being…well…Addison.)

We moved Addison from her toddler car seat into a booster seat this weekend. I don’t know why that was the change that did it, but all I’ve been thinking about since then is how big she is all of a sudden.

Didn’t she JUST look like this? Like yesterday? Every mom says…”it goes by so fast” and
when you’re in the everyday trenches of being a mom to little ones – no – it does NOT feel like it is going by fast. In fact, some days go by painfully slow. But, alas, one day you move your baby into a booster seat in the car and there you go. All of a sudden she isn’t a baby anymore. And it suddenly feels like it IS all going by fast. Too fast.
I’ve been remembering a lot of things lately as I get ready to have another baby. Things like how good Pampers Newborn Swaddler diapers smell (before baby wears them of course), how much STUFF babies require, and how NOT fun the last month of pregnancy is. Mostly though I’ve been remembering things about when my girls were babies. I remember being so overwhelmed with love for Ellie that I was nervous about having another one. How could I ever love anyone as much as I loved Ellie? It didn’t seem possible. And then I had Addison. I’ll never forget the first night I spent with her in the hospital. She was sleeping next to me on the little rolling table bed and woke up and started fussing. I began talking to her and she just stopped. And her little head turned toward my voice. It was so obvious she knew me. And right then and there I was smitten. Completely overwhelmed with love for her. I cried and cried. And it was then that I totally understood how women can have six or more children and love each and every one of them more than life itself.

There are a lot of challenges that come with being a mom to little ones – the sleep deprivation, the constant clean up, the sibling rivalry, the struggle over every little thing from getting the kids dressed in the morning to getting their teeth brushed at night. But in between all of that you have these wonderful little moments. Quick fleeting moments when you make a connection, when your kids are laughing together, or when they say or do something so incredibly sweet. And you know it’s all worth it and you remember how much you love being a mom.
I love sharing these happy moments of my day with Kenny each night. So fun to have someone else who gets it. The other person who loves your kids as much as you do. When we’re hanging out each evening we always talk about what Ellie said that was so funny or what Addison did – that most likely wasn’t funny at the time but now that it’s over – is pretty funny. ;) We talk about things we’re worried about – Addison is a horrible eater – is she getting any nutrition at all? Ellie has a hard time staying focused in school – is she picking up on everything she needs to learn? Then we talk about how proud we are of them, how close the two of them are to each other, how much we love them and want the best for them.

I’ll be honest. I’m really nervous to have a third. Not nervous about the same stuff that I was nervous about with my first two. Not at all nervous that I won’t love this little one more than life itself. Not even nervous about having a boy (although maybe I should be!). Just nervous about the juggle. Will I be able to handle three? To keep it together? Will I still have enough time to be a good mom…and have a little time left over to be me? Will I ever organize, scrapbook, exercise, or blog again!!?? Sounds silly I know. But it’s doing those little things that I love some of the time that allow me to be a good mom the rest of the time.
My goal is to just take it one day at a time. That’s really all we can do as mom’s, right? Focus on and remember the good. Be grateful each morning for a new day to spend with my little ones who mean so much to me. Life is good. Being a mom is great. And if remembering this doesn’t help me survive, at least I won’t be pregnant anymore!!! (Cue the cheers in the background…) :)

xoxo, Erin
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Holidays
03.19.10

Easter Fun

Last Saturday morning the girls were playing so nicely together upstairs that I didn’t want to call them downstairs to the table for breakfast. I just didn’t want to interrupt the flow. Nothing like a calm, drama free morning. Plus I was too lazy to make much for breakfast.

So instead, I pulled out this Easter tin I bought for sugar cookies…

and filled it with “breakfast.” My girls love to have blanket picnics so they were delighted to be eating breakfast upstairs for a change. Saturday’s should be less structured, right?

The Easter tin was especially fun because they loved guessing what each Easter picture was under the food. And don’t forget the toothpicks. What is it with kids and toothpicks? If I give my kids a tooth pick, food is suddenly MUCH more interesting. A little trick I use to get them to try all kinds of stuff they wouldn’t normally eat.

See. Gotta have the toothpicks.

Speaking of Easter and food, my little candy arrangement is long gone. I was tempted to buy more candy, but thought better of it.

so instead I bought this festive little Easter tree. I’m loving the sequined sparkly eggs! Can’t wait for Easter this year. Since it’s right around the time I’ll be bringing home a new little chick. :)
Here’s wishing everyone my favorite kind of weekend. One that’s lazy and drama free!
xoxo, Erin
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Addison
03.18.10

Mermaids and More

So have you all seen the new Barbie in A Mermaid Tale movie? No! Really? It’s been out for like 5 days now. ;) It’s of course all the rage at our house. My girls got all the mermaid dolls for Christmas this year so they have been patiently waiting for this movie to come out since December. We bought the movie last weekend and since then they have been busy watching the movie, acting out the movie, begging for baths to play with the mermaids in the water, pretending to surf on my furniture, begging to go to the beach, and drawing pictures of the surfer/mermaids.

Gotta love a good Barbie movie. I know we all do. :)

Speaking of tub toys I finally got around to organizing ours. I have a “to organize before baby” list I’ve been slowly working off of when I find a minute here and there.

I found a minute the other day by throwing Addison in the tub to play while Ellie was at school. She happily splashed around in the water while I hauled to get their toys straightened.

Ahhh. Much better. I should have taken a picture of the ‘before’ because this cupboard was a sad sight.


Cleaning their bathroom cupboards felt so good that I decided to tackle our closet – Kenny’s side. My side stays pretty orderly. Kenny’s needs to be re-organized…well…too often. Addison got out of the tub, but continued playing with the mermaids on dry land while I worked.

Goodwill garbage bags at the top of my stairs are always a happy sight. :) About five more areas on my list left to tackle. Tomorrow – the spice cupboard. Bring it on.
xoxo, Erin
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Addison
03.16.10

Project Life – Addison’s Book

Just wanted to share the beginning of Addison’s book. I decided to start her book in May of 2009 because I wanted to include her third birthday party. We celebrated it during our family trip to Cancun which made it an extra fun celebration. :) I wanted to include some 5×7’s so I decided to do a few traditional layouts to include in her Project Life book.

Those are the birthday layouts. Here is her album so far…

Her cover page is the same as Ellie’s.

I had so many Cancun pictures, but didn’t want the trip to be ten pages in her album so I developed a lot of collages (I used Picasa to make them) and just cut them up and adhered the small pictures to the journaling cards. I rounded the corners to keep the look of the vertical pictures the same.

Here are the scrapbooked layouts integrated into the album. I know I’ve said it before, but this is my favorite thing about these albums. I can add any additional memorabilia and it all works. If I have time and am in the mood to scrapbook something, I can just add the layout to the album and then go back to just inserting pictures. Perfect solution for busy scrapbookers!

Fun to add some of Addison’s quotes. (Once again – just printed from my blog)

And that’s where I’m at so far! Only caught up through August. I have two weeks until the baby comes and six and a half months of her album to do. Hmmmm. We’ll see if that happens. You should see Kole’s nursery/my scrapbook room. The room is full of baby stuff that needs to be put away, half way decorated, with scrapbook supplies all over the place. Looks like a total bomb went off. When I’m not in the room messing things up even more, I just close the door because the sight of it is a bit overwhelming right now. Crossing my fingers for some extra energy to come my way. Real quick! :)

**Update – You can see how I document “school days” here.

xoxo, Erin
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