What Happened In July

Not a whole lot happened in July. This is strange to me, because we normally have a TON of stuff to do in July. Normally it's a fun filled 4th with parades, bbq's, and a firework show. Then we would have a Family Reunion or 2 and celebrated the 24th. This year we did have a good 4th, it was just different. We also celebrated the 24th at the church with a lot of fun rides and junk food.
Things here in SA have been, HOT, to say the least. It's hot all day and night but cools off in the mornings. The kids have been at eachothers throats, up until this past week, now they are lovely. We have a season pass to six flags, fiesta Texas, and plan to go there this Thursday. This will be the first time I have taken all three kids to a swimming pool alone and I'm a bit scared. I am hopeful that they will listen and be the good kids that I know they are.
Here are some things about everyone that I want to remember, sorry if they are TMI or strange, but this is my journal..

A- She is another K. She acts so much like her sister, as far at the attitude goes. She has been an amazing sleeper and eater and an all around joy. I'm so thankful we have been so blessed to be able to have her in our family. She is so cute, she has been dancing to music since she was VERY small, I'd say 6 months old. She loves to dance and sing and play with babies. She follows her brother and sister around and bugs them all day long. She has been my climber and climbs on the table whenever she has the chance. One day I got out of the shower to find her sitting next to the computer on my desk! A also likes to draw and has been drawing for a few months now. She is almost 16 months old and is starting to say more and more words. She can say sister, ah oh, ni ni (for night night and bye bye), STOP she screams at her brother and dad when teasing her, she signs more and says peeeeeeease for please, she sings her abc's by singing abcde and then the rest of the song is not understandable, but at the end she throws her arms in the air and says YAY!! She is a lovable little girl and I couldn't have asked for a better last child.

Z- He is a character. Z has always been into balls and cars. Ever since he could crawl he's been pushing things around and making car sounds. When his grandma Smith showed him the movie cars for the first time, he was in heaven! He calls Lightening McQueen "Chow" and would carry around a little "baby chow" everywhere until he was 3, now he will just play with him every day but will leave him at home. He used to have a big and little lightening mcqueen and called them his daddy chow and baby chow and the daddy used to take care of his baby, so cute. Z has a hard time making the r,s,l, th, and a few other sounds, so I'm sure others have a hard time understanding him sometimes. He says the CUTEST things. I will make a list of some very cute things he has said. When he was just starting to talk (he was a late talker so he was closer to 2) he would say "Mom, mom, mom, I too cold" He would say this whenever he had nothing more to say. The other day, as he was going potty, he was a little backed up (which isn't normal since he has a milk protein allergy and pretty much only eats fruit) he was straining a bit and said "Oh dis is da hardest poo eva" then he gasps and says in a seriously shocked voice "Oh di have a horn!!" haha he said his poo had a horn and I laughed and laughed but he didn't understand what was so funny. One Sunday morning Z came running into our room and said he had to go potty so I helped him take off his bottoms and he ran into our bathroom and turned on the closet light by mistake. I heard him open the toilet and within a mili second he was on and going. I hear him say "ahhhhhh Pwoof, dat was a cwose one!!!" then he franticly says "Ahhhh di moving all by itself! A animal with a tail!" So, I run in thinking maybe a cricket or cockroach or mouse or rat... all of which I am dreading. I couldn't see anything so he gets down and searches and points out something between the wall and toilet brush. It moved too quickly for me to tell what it was so I just closed the door and told Gavin to take care of it later. He then explains to me what it was. "Wew, di have four wegs, a tail, di wive in a twee..... it was a a a WIZARD! Ya dat what it was a wizard!" Sure enough, Gavin caught a little geko in our bathroom that K wanted to keep as a pet and then it died the next day. Z is a super sweet and loving boy. He has had a hard time communicating and would use hitting and biting when he got frustrated but is doing so much better now that he is getting older. He's such a joy to be around and makes his mama smile on a daily basis. He is now 3 and a half and is growing up way too fast.

K- Oh miss K, what can I say about this amazing girl. We have butt heads quite a bit during her lifetime. We are both short tempered and like to go at it yelling at eachother. I, recently have learned to control my temper and things have gotten so much calmer around here. K was a very early talker, saying 5 word sentences by 18 months. She has been 3 going on 13 kind of girl. She is SO smart. She loves animals and dinosaurs and playing video games with her daddy. She is one hundred percent daddies girl. Ever since she was born she has just adored her dad and they are best friends. K takes care of her younger siblings and is very caring. She has been a singer since she was just a baby, she used to sing in her crib and in the car. K is our snuggler, she used to love being swaddled really tight until she was over a year old and still wants us to lay by her every night and snuggle her. Her brother and sister are the opposite. K is very caring and such a great older sister. She misses all of her friends from UT and her cousins, but she makes friends so easily Im sure she will have many within the first few days of school.

G is loving his Rehab Director/ Occupational Therapy job. He deals with numbers and money, which he is very good at, and also manages a team of therapists. G is an amazing person to have working for you and his company is lucky to have him. He never wastes time, is never sick or late and gets the job done. I love my man, he is the best friend I have ever had. I'm so blessed to have the kind of husband that puts his family first. G will come home from work and do the laundry or dishes and take care of the kids. G loves his kids and shows it every single day by playing with them and taking care of them. The kids LOVE to wrestle with daddy and he loves to tease them. There is a LOT of screaming that goes on at our house :)

ALl in all, I love my cute family and couldn't be happier. I feel like we are exactly where we are supposed to be right now in our life and I thank God for that.

She Can Swim!

Kalista has grown so much just in past few months. Not only is she physically getting bigger, but she has grown up mentally as well. She is, and always has been, very strong willed. She was quiet scared of water about a month ago when we moved down here to San Antonio. Living in Salt Lake City her entire life, she didn't really have the opportunity to go swimming much. I'd say that our children have probably only been swimming maybe 10 times, in their entire life! Well, now that we live in an apartment complex that has a swimming pool, and we live in a place that sees 100 degree weather for over three months out of the year, we have been going swimming 2-4 times a week. Kali started out very timid, not wanting us to let go of her. Then, last week she started jumping into the pool and letting her head go under. Well, today she was with her Dad and Grandpa M and she SWAM all the way across the pool! I am so proud of that girl.
Zachary is growing as well. He is getting so tall and less "chubbers" (not that he was ever fat or really even chubby we just call it chubbers on his belly). He is one of the kindest, sweet hearted little boys a mother could ask for. The morning, as I was helping him go potty (at around 3am) he wispers, "Mom, you is da best mom eva, you is so pwittaful, and nice and special." and then gave me a hug and a kiss.
Anniston just said the word "Tree" today. She wants to talk so bad and gets frustrated that she cannot express what she wants. I have been trying to teach her some signs since she was born, more and drink, but she never caught on. Well, unless she wants a chocolate chip, then she signs more more more over and over!
We are really enjoying living here in Texas and being close to G's parents and brother.

I never posted my "Birth Story" with Anniston. So, here it is, a year later.

My due date was always up in the air, but I got an official due date of April  4, 2011 after my ultrasound.  I was very excited at the possibility of having her a few weeks early when all of Gavin’s family would be in town the week of March 18^th. So, when March 18^th rolled around and nothing happened I was a bit disappointed. The next week was Gavin’s Spring Break and was thinking how great it would be to have her THAT week, but alas the week came and went with tons and tons of false labor but no baby. I was frustrated a bit, but realizing my due date was still a week away, moved on.

Gavin’s mom came into town on April 8^th and I really wanted there to be a baby when she got there. So, after hearing I was at a 3 still and not much more I was frustrated. I was a few days past my due date and desperate for labor to start. I called my midwife asking her to break my water or do SOMETHING to speed things up. My amazing midwife told me to come to her office and we’d talk. So, I took my 2 kids to her office and she told me she could induce me and we’d end up with a LONG labor just like Zach’s (my OBGYN pretty much broke my water before I was ready and I had some very unsupportive doctors and nurses pushing for an epidural). Sandae, my midwife, knew I wanted a “natural” birth and for things to go differently this time around. She said once I pass 41 weeks we would talk Induction. So, we decided I would go into the hospital the morning of the 12^th around 6am.

So, the evening of the 11^th I wanted to prepare in EVERY way. Since I was a little “backed up” I decided I wanted to take just a tiny bit of castor oil, I had taken it already three times and all it did was cause tons of contractions and lots of trips to the toilet. So, I took one small dose and waited for the fun to start, but by 10pm nothing had happened so I figured nothing was going to happen.

Around 2:30am I rolled over in bed and felt a small gush and knew it was my water. I was trying to decide if I should just go back to sleep and wait for labor or if I should get up and shower and get ready to go. I remember that with Zach I completely jumped the gun and went straight to the hospital and ended up there for almost 24 hours in “labor” most of which I was being pumped full of drugs and was on my back. I attribute this to the reason that his shoulders got stuck. So, I got up and used the restroom, water was somewhat coming out and then the castor oil kicked in and I had some very intense cramping along with some BM’s. I got in the shower after sitting on the toilet for about 20 min. While I was in there I had to get out to use the bathroom and was having super intense pains (I thought they were just pains from the castor oil but they were labor pains) By 3:30 I called the hospital and asked them if I should come in or just wait till 6:30 when my midwife told me to come in. They said since my water broke to just come in. I lied and said my water had Just broken, but it had been over an hour by then. So, I quietly woke Gavin and told him my water broke and I was in labor and we needed to go to the hospital, to which he sat up and asked if he had time for a shower or not. I told him sure but that things were pretty intense so make it a quick one. We left around 4:30am and drove slowly to the hospital. We parked in the garage and walked around to the ER entrance. During that walk I had like a million contractions that kept getting more intense. The only thing that grounded me during the contraction was Gavin grabbing both my shoulders and putting pressure on them, almost like a hug. I realized this when I knelt down to wake him and I had a contraction and he grabbed my shoulder… it was like all of my pain escaped my body through him.

I finally got into the ER and walked slowly to L&D. I was given a gown and put into room 12  and given an nurse that was almost done with her shift. She was young and inexperienced. Then the dadgum IV!! They tried and tried and after lots of gushing blood the expert came in and put it in the WORST spot.. right on my bone on my right wrist. This was more painful than giving birth. Between contractions I’d complain about it hurting, throwing my midwife off thinking I wasn’t as far along as she thought. When I got there I was a 5 at around 5:30. When Sandae got there at around 6am (she came in an hour earlier than her shift, she was so sweet) I got a new nurse that had given birth naturally and was AMAZING. I was about a 7. I labored on the toilet for another hour and she checked me again at I was still a 7. She told me that I still had water and that she was going to break it if I wanted her to, by 8am my water had broken all the way and she told me that the babies head was pushing on the front of my cervix not down on it and she’d need to hold my cervix down during a contraction while I push or we could continue to labor and I’d make no progress. Well, the thing is, whenever I had to lay down to be checked I would completely lose it, like I was possessed or something, it was SO painful. So I fought it for another hour and by 9am she told me that she promised that if I let her do that I’d be ready to push and have my baby. So, I squatted on my bed holding onto the top half of it and let her hold me “open” while I pushed.. it was VERY painful and I screamed and pushed and felt my babies head come down and I was ready to push. I originally wanted to deliver squatting but felt uneasy and wanted to be on my back, strange, but I did what felt best. I pushed for 20 min and she was out. Oh my goodness, I was SOOOO tired. They plopped a hot, gooey little baby on my belly and I could barely put my arms on her since I was so tired.  After about 2 hours I perked back up and was just on a high. I had not only had another successful VBAC but to an ever bigger baby than before. Anniston Marie Metcalf was born at 9:30am April, 12^th and was 9lbs 6oz 23inches long (though I think it was more like 21 inches) If we ever are blessed with another baby, I will for sure have another natural birth, it was an amazing experience that brought me and my husband so close together. I’m thankful for the experience I was able to have and for my 3 beautiful children. 

Well, we have moved to SA Texas! It was something I never thought would happen, let alone be happy about it. But, here we are in hot, humid Texas and I couldn't be happier. I will miss all of my friends and family, but know that we will be up to visit often and love the family and friends down here.
My kids have had a hard time transitioning, since they have gotten 0 attention from mom and dad because of all the moving stress, but are finally starting to adjust. Apartment living is not super fun, especially when you go from a place that has a million kids to a place that has only a handful of kids and about a million ugly little rat dogs that bark and poop all over. We got a complaint from a neighbor because Z was out on the balcony crying.... heaven forbid! She was afraid he was going to fall off...  I went and talked to the management and the lady kept saying "Well, as a mother I would never let my kid be out there alone blah blah blah"
I was very angry and upset at first, but decided to be thankful people were looking out for my children and will leave it at that.
I have started working out at the gym every day and am LOVING it! G's mom is a "Gym Rat" for lack of a better term :) She is an amazingly strong woman physically and spiritually and I look up to her. Gavin passed his National boards and should be starting work next week!! I will post a lot more soon...