California

Thomas, Garrison, Josiah and myself boarded a plane on December 14th and flew to sunny Palm Springs, California to visit with Thomas' parents. It was an awesome trip. The temperature was in the 70s the whole time and even hit 83 one day. I did not want to leave.

This was our first time taking the boys on an airplane. I was super nervous about doing this too. Since Garrison and Josiah are both under the age of two we didn't have to buy them a plane ticket and instead they were able to sit on our laps. I wasn't sure how Garrison would do. Would he want to get down and run around? Would he be able to sit in our laps for 3 1/2 hours? Have you ever seen the Bill Cosby Himself comedy act about little Jeffrey on the plane? (If you don't know what I'm talking about click here)That's what I didn't want to happen, everyone wishing that could get off the plane. But I'm happy to say that both Garrison and Josiah did wonderful on the flight there and back.
If you were wondering, yes, we had 6 seats to ourselves there and back. It was glorious! We were able to spread out and enjoy the ride so much more. What was I worried for?

We had a great time hanging out with Thomas' parents and his grandma. We don't get to see them that often so it's such a treat when we do get to spend time with them.

We did all sorts of fun stuff during our week. We went to the ocean, Garrison and Josiah met Thomas' aunt and uncles, Harry, Bridgett, Eric, Tammy, Marie and Dave, went to the living desert, Thomas and I went on a date to The Cheesecake Factory, went golfing, went and saw a whole street lite up with Christmas lights, the street is called Candy Cane Lane.

On Tuesday we spent the day getting settled in and relaxing after traveling all day on Monday.

Wednesday Thomas and I went golfing together. The last time I've been golfing was 6 years ago. I was pretty rusty. Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory for a little date while John and Sharon (Thomas' parents) watched the boys.

On Thursday we headed to the ocean. Thomas' uncle Harry and aunt Bridgett live only a few miles from the ocean so they took us to some of their favorite spots along the ocean. Garrison liked running in the sand until he got wet from some of the waves. Josiah slept the whole time.




Thomas spent Friday golfing with his dad, while Garrison, Josiah, Sharon and myself went to a little dinosaur exhibit. Then that night the whole family went out to eat and then to a live nativity scene and went to see Christmas lights.On Saturday, Thomas, Sharon, the boys and myself went to "The Living Desert" and saw all kinds of different animals. The highlight of the day was when Garrison found some drums to bang on. He had such a huge smile on his face. It was a beautiful day to go "The Living Desert", it reached 83 degrees that day.Sunday we went to church and Thomas' aunt Marie and Uncle Dave came over for lunch. It was nice hanging out with them.

We had an awesome time in California. I would go every year if I could afford it. Thank you John and Sharon for the wonderful time.

Tis the season...

... for cold and flu.

Yes, it has been traveling through our family this week.

Garrison started it!!

The end of last week he started having a runny nose. That was it. I thought maybe it was teeth coming in, but then he woke up one morning with a really runny nose, coughing, sneezing and drooling. The whole day he wouldn't eat or drink anything. I was getting worried that he was going to become dehydrated. The one thing that I didn't understand was why he was drooling so much. I mean, if he wasn't getting teeth then why so much drool, to the point of soaking his shirt. Then I realized he must have a sore throat and didn't want to swallow.

It was rough couple of days for him. He couldn't sleep, couldn't breath (from having such a plugged nose). He was miserable. Thomas did an awesome job taking care of him. Garrison wanted his daddy to cuddle with mostly and Thomas was more than willing to do whatever Garrison asked him to do. (I think Thomas really enjoyed taking care of Garrison, but don't tell him I told you that.) However, the downfall to that is a few days later Thomas got sick. He woke up one morning and could barely talk.

Josiah even was coughing and sneezing for a few days.

I, however, have not gotten it yet. Don't ask me how. Garrison was sneezing and coughing in my face almost the whole time he was sick. I thought that I was going to get it. For a few days I felt like I had no energy, but it wasn't the aches. It was weird, but I never got sick. Knock on wood.

The other three are either over it or just getting over it. Garrison is pretty much the only one still with a runny nose.

So that's where I've been the past week. Taking care of my three sicks boys. Hopefully, I won't get sick because soon we will be heading to California and I really don't want to be sick for that.

I am, however, sick in my own way. (Wait that makes me sound crazy!) I've been diagnosed with postpartum depression. Today I had an appointment with my doctor to go over different options that I can do about it. I will be starting on some medication and going to see a counselor to try and help me.

I think a lot of it has to do with the holidays and dealing with my parents divorce, but at least I'm starting the process for some help. We'll see how things go.

Christmas tree

I have found that I really enjoy blogging. When I started this journey I was really nervous. I wasn't sure how I wanted to go about doing this blog. Yes, I knew that I wanted to tell about my family, but at the same time I knew that this was a place that I could share my heart. I've realized that I enjoy writing ( I might not be very good, but I enjoy it anyway). Sometimes I get a little nervous that I might be sharing too much, but I guess you're seeing me for who I am.

Since starting to blog I've found so many other blogs that I enjoy reading. (I have a list on the side of ones that I read regularly. Some I can't get to post there, but I'm working on it.) One such blog that I read is from a lady named Jill Savage. You may or may not recognize her name, but if you're at all familiar with Hearts at Home you will for sure recognize her name. If you'd like to read her blog click here.

Right now she's doing 25 days of giveaway. Each day she is asking us to respond to a question that she has posted. Today's questions is: "How does your personality or priorities show up in your (Christmas) tree?"

Have you ever thought about that before? I know I never have, but once she asked the question I can see how my tree totally reflects my personality and priorities.

Our Christmas tree is organized, yet simple. Just like Thomas and I are. We like things organized and uncluttered. (Clutter drives me crazy and being unorganized drives Thomas crazy.) Funny how our tree reflects that without us even knowing it.

We have simple white lights, and matching bulbs. This must be the simple, cuteness that we like. However, the ornaments reflect our priorities. The only ornaments that you'll find on our tree are ones that show us the fun we've shared each year together as a family.

We enjoy looking for a new ornament each year that represents something big we did sometime that year. The first year we were married we got a "Our First Christmas" ornament. The year we got Aza we also got a "Chocolate Lab" ornament. Each year we've been blessed with a baby we've gotten them first year ornaments. We also have two ornament that we knew Garrison would enjoy and reflect the boys in our family, a baseball ornament and soccer ball ornament. And we have two ornaments that remind us of the reason why we have this season, a little manger scene and a nail.

I think that I would like to start buying the boys there own ornaments as well. To show them what they did as individuals that year. Then when they move out and/or get married I can pack up their ornaments so that they can share them with their family. (I'm getting tears in my eyes just thinking about them being grown up. What a sap!)

I'm glad that Jill asked this question today. It shows me that, even though we didn't do it on purpose, our tree shows us who we really are and what is really important.

Does your tree reflect you in someway?

My boys

I love these guys so much. I thank God everyday that they are in my life.

Thank you, Thomas, for being a wonderful husband. Thank you for all your hard work, for your commitment, for your help, your love and your smile. I'm glad that you chose me to marry. I love you!

And to my two little men. Thank you for brightening my day with your smiles. You are two very special little boys and I'm so glad that I was chosen to be your mom.

I love my guys!

Our Thanksgiving & Josiah's appointment

Our Thanksgiving festivities started with Josiah going to the doctor. Nothing serious, just his two month check-up. We had everything packed up so we could head to St. Cloud and the cities immediately after the appointment.

Josiah's appointment went well. He weighs 12 lbs 4 oz and is 23 inches long. At this appointment he received his first set of shots. Not fun! I felt so bad for him. He had just drifted off to sleep when the lady gave him his first shot (he ended up getting 3 shots total). I felt like I needed to wake him and prepare him for the pain. He wasn't too happy about it, but didn't cry as bad as I had thought. What a trooper. Garrison was also very well behaved while Josiah received his shots. He just sat in Thomas' lap and watched the whole time. I'm sure he was wondering if he was next.

Once the appointment was over we were on our way to St. Cloud. (Oh... if I didn't mention it this was Wednesday morning, not Thanksgiving day.)

It's interesting having parents that don't get along and are in the process of getting a divorce. Who do you hang out with for the holidays? This year we ended up having breakfast with my dad at Perkins and then went to my parents house (I call it my parents house because it's too weird saying "moms house" when it's the house that my parents once lived in together) to have Thanksgiving with my mom.

It was nice getting together with my family, but an adjustment realizing that nothing will be "traditional" again.

It was great getting to meet my new little niece, Adeline. She is such a doll! And I have to say she looks just like her mommy. I couldn't see any of my brother in her. Maybe as she grows.

We attempted to get some cousin pictures, but with three small children and basically two of them brand new, it was pretty impossible. We did, however, manage to snap some, but had to have every camera ready and snapping as fast as the cameras could go.
Garrison was actually willing to sit and "hold" his brother so that we could snap some pictures. Aren't they adorable? Or is it just because I'm their mom and love them so much?
This is my favorite picture of Garrison and Josiah. Every time I look at this picture it makes me smile. Josiah looks a little concerned that Garrison's hand is approaching his neck. While Garrison has this I'm-taking-care-of-my-brother pose (arm around Josiah and hand "supporting" him from flopping forward).
Josiah was not happy in this picture. I think Uncle Tom was making fun of him. Which has nothing to do with why he's crying, but Josiah timed his crabbiness just right where it seemed like he was sad that Tom was making fun of him. Love the lip though. (Not sure why Josiah's hair looks red in some of these pictures. He does have brown hair.)
Here Uncle Tom and Josiah are finally on good terms. My brother couldn't get over how big Josiah was, but he's used to holding his little peanut.

My little niece, Adeline. Isn't she beautiful? This is such a great picture of her. I'm telling you she's a doll.
Oh, now she looks like her daddy. My parents have a few pictures of my brother like this. Only he has about three chins and drool hanging. It's hard for those little eyes to adjust to things.
And what a way to end the festivities, but with a nap. (Although, I think that this was taken after our Thanksgiving breakfast with my dad.)
After we had Thanksgiving with my family. We headed to Minneapolis to have Thanksgiving with Thomas' family. Thomas' brother James and his wife Shana had everyone over to their house for roast beef. Shana's a great cook! We spent Friday afternoon with them (Thomas' brothers Nate and James plus their wives Kathy and Shana and Nate and Kathy's two boys, Brody and Andrew.)

We headed home Saturday morning.

It was a nice time away, but it's good to be home now. It's hard on the boys to be away from home that long and be out of their routine. What am I saying? It's hard on me too.

Now it's time to put up the tree and get ready for CHRISTMAS!!

He's already 2 months!

Josiah is already two months! He's growing so fast that I call him my chunky monkey. I'm not sure how much he weighs. I'll know tomorrow after his two month doctors appointment, but he's mostly in 3 to 6 months clothing.

It so much fun having him in our family. He keeps Thomas and I on our feet. Just when we think we've got him figured out he goes and changes something on us.

The first few weeks, after he was born, were pretty rough on all of us. Josiah cried a lot. He cried almost the whole time he was awake. He didn't like anything we tried: swaddling, pacifier, bouncing, swinging, walking, patting his back and on and on. We ended up buying some gripe water, which seemed to really help him... for awhile. After about a week or two of the gripe water working he started crying often. I thought that maybe he was allergic to dairy, so I took dairy out of my diet. (That was incredibly hard for me. I drink milk all day long and have a bowl of cereal before I go to bed almost every night. It was one long week.) I'm back to having dairy and he's not fussy. I think that his digestive system just needed to mature a little. During this time of trying different things he was very gassy and now he's not.

Josiah is a pretty good sleeper... once he falls asleep. Getting Josiah to fall asleep is somewhat of a challenge. I've been working on trying to get him to go to sleep on his own, but it hasn't been working all that well and I'm not really forcing it too much. He likes to fall asleep in your arms or on my chest. A pacifier normally soothes him until it falls out. I'm trying to build up his sucking strength by lightly pulling on the pacifier once he's got a good suck going. The past week he has been sleeping 8 hours or more at night. The last two nights he's slept for 11 hours. It has been very nice to have a sleeping baby, but Thomas and I still get up a few times during the night just to make sure he's breathing. I think I'll do that for a very long time. I still get up and check on Garrison.

Josiah is a talker. He loves to talk to you and smile. He's been doing this since he was two weeks old. I love having "conversations" with him. His little coos are so cute and his smile melts my heart every time. I wonder if he'll talk early.

Josiah is also a strong little buddy. He can hold himself up pretty well while you hold him and he's been able to lift his head since he was about 2 weeks old.

A lot of people say that Josiah looks just like Garrison. That may be true, (I've said it many times myself) but he also has his own look to him and personality. It's going to be so much fun watching him grow and develop his personality as the years go by. We cannot wait, Josiah!

Welcome to our family, little man. We love you!

My 22 month old

Garrison is 22 months! Oh my goodness. Where has the time gone?

Every stage that he's been in is my favorite. There hasn't been a time in his life where I was longing for him to get to the next stage. At every milestone he amazes me and makes me so proud to be his mother. (not that he could do anything that wouldn't make me proud)

At 22 months he's starting to express himself way more than ever before. He makes me laugh with some of the things he comes up with, while at the same time making me so frustrated. I love that kid!

Garrison is starting to use some words. Here is a list of what he says: dad, mom (but doesn't say it very often), Aya for Aza, go-go or car-car for car, vroom when he plays with his cars, oof oof for dog, on, off (although on and off tend to sound the same), choo choo for train, oose for juice and if you get him in the right mood he can say book and other words if he concentrates on it.

He can also tell you where his head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, belly, hands, fingers, feet, toes and back are. He also knows where his arms and legs are, but sometimes gets confused.

Garrison loves to listen to music and dance. He has a move that we call the "chicken dance" which makes us laugh. It's hard to explain, but he flaps one arm while he does some kind of sideways hop thing. Maybe I can catch it on video sometime. Garrison also loves to drum. At church he loves watching Uncle Shane play the drums on stage. He takes the pens from the pews and pretends to drum with them.

Garrison also loves helping me bake. He's a great helper at putting the ingredients in the bowl and always wants to stir.

He's also becoming very independent and gets mad when we try to do things for him. He likes to brush his own teeth, eat on his own and sometimes gets mad when we dress him, put his coat and shoes on or wash his hair (he wants to put the shampoo in and scrub his head).

Garrison's favorite movies are Cars, anything Veggie Tales or Thomas the train. The kid can sometimes be obsessed.

He also has to have his duck when he goes to sleep and lately his favorite bedtime stories are "Old MacDonald", "Humpty Dumpty and friends" and "If you give a pig a pancake." Garrison has always been a good sleeper and lately he goes to bed between 7 and 8 and sleeps until 6 or 7. When he wakes up the first thing he does is yell for dad. I love it!

Garrison is also a big help when it comes to his brother Josiah. He loves trying to share things with him, but doesn't understand why he won't take them. When Josiah cries he likes to run over to him and either pet his head or pat his back and give him kisses. He's so cute to watch with Josiah. He's very caring and loving with him.

Garrison is very curious about life. He points at all kinds of things and asks us what it is by grunting. Sometimes he tries to say what it is and sometimes he doesn't. The other day he was standing on the couch leaning over the back looking outside. We live on a busy road and have vehicles going by all the time. Anytime a vehicle drove by he would say car, car, car, car, but then when a big semi would drive by he'd stop and stare. It was entertaining.

I'm so glad that God blessed me with him. I'm so proud to be his mom. I love you tons, Garrison!

Tom and Dawn

My brother is about to become a daddy!!! Tom, my brother, and his wife Dawn are at the hospital right now having their little baby girl. The last I heard (at 10 this morning) was that Dawn was at 5 centimeters and having back labor. Yuck! She went into labor at 10 pm on Monday night. That means she's going on 39 hours of labor (I'm writing this at 1 pm Wednesday). Oh, that poor girl.

If you could take a moment to pray for them that would be wonderful. I talked to Tom yesterday and he said that they hadn't slept much since she went into labor.

I'm so excited! I can't believe that my brother is going to be a daddy. I'll keep posting as I hear more. I can't wait to meet baby girl Williams.

update:
She has arrived!! Adeline Mae Williams arrived here this morning at 7:10. She weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. Congratulations Tom and Dawn!

dancing is so much fun

I love listening to Michael Jackson's music. Especially if I'm not in the greatest mood. Blasting some Billy Jean always makes me smile. You can't listen to it without moving your feet a little. When I was younger I loved dancing in front of the mirror and pretending I was performing. Guess Garrison loves to do that too.

outside fun

Here are some pictures from our time outside yesterday. It was nice to be out enjoying the fresh air. After we played in the leaves for awhile Garrison took out his new blue tricycle. He was having fun on it until he started down our driveway, which goes down hill, and the bike started to go too fast. As it started to pick up speed it rolled and he ended up hitting his head on the tar and scratched up his hands a little. That was the end of our outside time.

I also couldn't help sneaking inside to take a picture of Josiah sleeping in the swing while we were outside playing. He was so peaceful.

I'm back

We are finally back as a family and starting to get into a routine again. Two weeks ago we all left for the cities to hang out with family while Thomas took his classes at Bethel again. Thomas' mom, Sharon, flew in from California to help me out with Garrison and Josiah while Thomas was in school. We had a blast with her and I'm glad that Garrison and Josiah got to spend a whole week with their grandma because we don't get to see her that often. Thank you SO much Sharon!

Then the second week that Thomas was gone Garrison, Josiah, myself and Aza stayed home and my sister, Jackie, came to visit and help. We had a lot of fun with her too while she was here. Garrison and Jackie became great buddies while she was here. They hung out the entire week. Thank you for ALL your help Jackie!

Now, today, is the first day that we are back together and settling in. Doing wash, catching up on our week, daddy getting his boy time in with his sons. The bonus is that today it's 60 some degrees. So we are heading on out to go enjoy it.

look alike

I can't believe how much Garrison and Josiah look alike. Can you tell who's who? (I'll give you the answer soon...)

Answer: Garrison is the top picture and Josiah is the bottom picture.

It was hard, wasn't it?

Thomas looked at the pictures and said he only knew who was who because he'd seen the picture of Garrison before (I took the picture of Josiah and posted it when Thomas wasn't around.) Otherwise, he said he would have had no idea.

Garrison's first black eye

On Sunday, Garrison took a spill in the youth room at church and received his first black eye. We're not sure what he hit, but whatever it was he hit it just right. When Thomas first brought him to me I kind of freaked out (oops) which freaked Garrison out. (the pictures were taken hours after it happened and some of the swelling had gone down) I thought at first it was broken, but Thomas assured me that it was too high to be broken. Garrison hasn't even been affected by the ordeal. I'm sure they'll be many more events like this in the future.

birth story

I can finally tell Josiah's birth story. For nine months I wondered what Josiah's birth would be like. Would it be similar to Garrison's or completely different? The birth is the one thing that makes me nervous during pregnancy. It's one of those things that you can't control no matter how hard you try.

It all started on Wednesday. I had a doctors appointment that day. (You'll remember that I was 3 centimeters dilated and my doctor thought that I would go into labor on my own. But we had scheduled an induction, just in case.)

After my appointment I had been having pains, but nothing that was consistent. I tried to get some sleep Wednesday night into Thursday morning, but it wasn't very easy. Somehow I managed to fall asleep for a little while. I woke-up at 4 am experiencing very consistent contractions. I began writing down the times and tried to fall back asleep, but it was pretty impossible to do.

I woke Thomas up around 6 am and told him that I was in labor and that we should probably start getting ready for the day. I went to take a shower while Thomas went and started getting Garrison ready for the day.

I called my sister at 6:30 and asked her if she could come over and spend the day with Garrison. Then we started packing. Yes, that's right. I hadn't packed yet. Luckily, I made lists of everything that I needed to bring so I wouldn't be scrambling trying to figure out if I got everything.

My sister, Joanna, showed up at 7:30 and Thomas and I headed to the hospital.

By 8:30 I was in my lovely gown and ready for Josiah to arrive. I met my nurse, who was the same nurse that helped deliver Garrison. That was such a relief for me because I was not a fan of the first nurse that came in. By this point I was having contractions about 5 minutes apart and I was at 4 centimeters.

Since I had group B strep my nurse needed to start me on antibiotics right away. I had to have the entire bag of antibiotics enptied before they could start the drip that you get normally during labor. And until I emptied half the bag of the drip I couldn't get an epidural. So until about 11 am I squeezed Thomas' hand as hard as I could during every contraction. The contractions were coming so close together and so intense that I was having a very hard time concentrating. All I could do was squeeze Thomas' hand and close my eyes.

At around 11 am the epidural lady came in and gave me the greatest drug ever. She also gave me the strongest dose of it and my legs became instantly heavy. To the point where I could hardly lift them. At the time of the epidural I was at 5 centimeters. The drug worked so well that I was able to take a small cat nap while Thomas made phone calls and looked stuff up on the internet.

At 12:15 my nurse and the resident came in and checked me. I was a 10!! It was so funny. Thomas and I were not ready for it to happen that fast so he was still on the internet. (I had gone from 5 centimeters to 10 in only an hour.) As soon as they said they were going to call the doctor Thomas started putting the computer away as fast as he could.

Mu nurse had told me that I probably wouldn't need to push that much with Josiah since with Garrison I only pushed for 42 minutes. While I got ready for the doctor to come my nurse told me that they were going to wait until the doctor came before I pushed at all because they were pretty sure that I would only be pushing a few times.

When the doctor came in and got all ready she told me to try and push on the next contraction. I was a little afraid because I couldn't feel anything and I was afraid that I wouldn't know if I was pushing or not. With the next contraction I pushed, feeling absolutely nothing. Everyone kept telling me that I was doing a good job, but I thought they were kidding because I didn't even know I was doing anything. Then we waited for the next contraction and on that one he came out. It was so fast!

When Garrison was born I wasn't able to have him put on my belly because he had pooped before he was delivered. Which meant that he would be have to go to the incubator and get his mouth and nose suctioned before he sucked up anything yucky. With Josiah he didn't poop so as soon as he was born they put him on my stomach. That was so weird. He was so slimy and the darkest purple ever. I didn't want to let him go because I felt like he was going to slip right onto the floor.

At 12:49 pm on September 24, 2009 we had our handsome little man, Josiah Thomas Bush. Here is the first picture of Josiah.

Our first week

I'm not sure how I'm finding the time to get on here and update everyone, but somehow here I am.
Josiah is doing great. We had to take him back to the birthing center on Sunday to test him for jaundice. I couldn't get him to wake up for his feedings and he was very limp most of the day. Thomas and I wanted to make sure everything was ok, so we took him in. After they tested him they found that he is in the normal range for jaundice. To get him to eat they sent us to a lactation nurse who worked with me so that Josiah would have a easier time nursing. It has been so much better since then. We're learning that Josiah would sleep all day and not eat if we let him. So I have to be intentional about getting him to eat. Somehow we have two very laid back boys.

When the lactation nurse weighed him, on Sunday, his weight was 8 lbs. We had an appointment with the aftercare department on Tuesday and we were going to be seeing the same lactation nurse as we did on Sunday. She wanted to see that Josiah had gained at least 2 ounces from Sunday to Tuesday. When we took him in on Tuesday he weighed 8 lbs 6 oz. He had gained 3 times what she wanted him to gain. Yeah! That was super exciting for me because I didn't want him to get dehydrated like Garrison did. Yeah! We are doing things right!

Other than that we are all trying to find time to sleep and get into a routine. I must say that I'm very thankful for a husband who has a job that is flexible. He was able to take 2 weeks off and has been an absolutely amazing help. I think without him I would have had a break down by now. He still goes to youth group, church and today he's going to be heading to soccer practice, but for the most part he's around all the time.

Garrison is loving Josiah. He wants to help get his diaper, push him in the swing and hold him. He loves giving him kisses and putting his head against Josiah's. There are moments that he doesn't care for Thomas and I, but that's understandable. It's an adjustment for everyone.

He has arrived!

Welcome Josiah Thomas!

God has blessed us with another beautiful and healthy boy. Josiah Thomas Bush arrived on September 24, 2009 at 12:49 pm. (12 days after his daddy's birthday). He weighed 8 lbs 9.5 oz and was 20.4 inches long. (I love it! Garrison was 8 lbs 9.5 oz and was 20.2 inches long)