The Gardiner's Garden

Well, while I have been MIA, a lot has happened!  I don't even know where to start... So I guess we will skip the details and just say that in June:  Tazia got engaged to the Mr. Chad Prows!  We are all so excited for them and so glad to be adding Chad to our family. It feels like he has been in the family for so long already anyways, we are happy for it to be official.  They are getting married the end of August.  Tazia already has her dress and most of her wedding planned and it is going to be fabulous!  I'm very excited for her.  

We also had Heather's actual wedding.  My dad's cousin married them and he did a wonderful job.  Aside from the wind it was very nice.  I got to do Heather's hair and makeup, I love doing that.
Heather also found out that her baby is a girl!  I'm so excited, and Blake is looking forward to having a cute cousin to play with in October.

We went to Idaho for Ben's family reunion.  This year we went to Steadman's, which was really fun, they have 2 giant water slides and a zip line and skeet shooting (which I am not so good at...).  We found Lake Cleveland and my nephew Clayton skunked Ben out of his fishing spot.  Blake loved being outside fishing with his dad and grandpa.

Blake started rice cereal... he isn't quite sure how he feels about it, but he is good sport and always eats good for me.  He is also obsessed with his feet and is very good about getting them in his mouth, a habit I hope dies eventually, but its cute for now.

July:   on the 4th we had a BBQ with some of our friends here in our neighborhood.  We had our own little firework show after we ate.  Blake slept through most of them (which surprised me), but its better than crying through them.  One of our aerial fireworks tipped over and started shooting in all crazy directions.  it finally started making its way towards where we were sitting and we all started scrambling a little too late.  I had Blake in my arms and saw one land right in front of us!  I turned just in time to save Blake but my hip took the brunt of the shell and I sported a nasty bruise for quite a while.  We felt like we had been in a war.

A week after we got back from the reunion we headed back up to Idaho for a funeral.  Ben's Grandma passed away, which was unexpected, but a very nice service.  She was an amazing woman.  I don't think anyone was worried about Grandma, but it was hard to watch Grandpa. That is always the hard part about funerals, is the ones left behind.

Tazia moved out.  She got a fun little apartment, I know she is excited and loving it.

Heather had her reception on the 13th. She let me make her wedding cake, which was a new thing for me.  I really enjoyed it. We had lots of family in town.  My aunt and cousins stayed here with us, we had a full house!  It was nice to see family and friends that we don't see often.

Blake started rolling over and is getting quite good at it, which makes it harder for me to do things... he is not so stationary anymore.  We spend a lot more time on the floor now.

Now to explain the title.  We started a garden in our backyard with the help of Ben's sister Audri and it is doing so well!  I went and picked a ton of veggies this morning and there are tons more coming.  The garden was seeming like so much work, its hard to find a time that isn't too hot to weed.  Picking the produce was so fun and super satisfying though

Almost ready to start picking ...

Long update!  I will try and blog more often so they are shorter.  til next time

Recap

Wow, it has been a long time since I've been on to blog!  I can't believe my little guy is just about 3 months old now!  The time has flown by.  Blake is so big now, Its crazy how fast he's grown!  He is quite the little jabber jaw.  He likes to talk to me in the mornings... He always wakes up between 5 and 6 to eat so at that point I just keep him in bed with me.  We like to snuggle.  He likes to put his hand on my cheek when we fall asleep. By 8 I wake up to this cute little face looking right at me just talking away.  I love being home with him, being able to witness all the cute things he does, not having to worry about missing any firsts!  I am so grateful to be a stay at home mommy!  Blake has also become... well for sure become such a momma's boy.  My mom was saying that its weird that he is so aware of where I am already, that usually its not for a few more months that they get this way.  I can't even leave the room without him knowing, and if he is left with someone unfamiliar he freaks. Even if I am right there in front of him, its not good enough until I am holding him.  He even makes a ma ma sound when he cries.  Oh boy, I better figure out how to break him of this or I will never be able to date my husband again!  That said, he is an amazing baby.  He is so good and so chill, I just love it.    Anyway aside from Blake getting enormous, here are some pictures of what we have been up to:

Blake's first time to church:  Easter, My Young Women just eat him up

Easter Sunday

first Easter!  

Auntie Audri even gave him his own basket so he could hunt eggs with cousins :)

This was a few weeks ago, Blake is huge and thankfully, mommy is almost not huge.  YAY!

oh, and we got a piano ;) double YAY

We Blessed Blake on the 6th, We hope we didn't offend anyone but we only invited family, and that was enough!  My yard was swarming with people!  We're glad to have so much support.  Blake looked so handsome in his little outfit.  It's the one Ben wore when he was blessed.  I especially liked the shoes.

Big Thanks to Maggi for letting us have it

My Grandma wanted a 4 generation picture, which is very cool.  There a few others we need to get.  One in particular that I think we absolutely need is with great grandpa Golden, Grandpa Gardiner, Ben Golden, and Blake Golden.  Since there is so much name sake, it would be nice for Blake to see who he was named after 

We have been so busy lately, I guess that comes with a baby.  It makes me appreciate the down time I have with him even more.  It also makes me appreciate my husband even more, he does so much for us and I'm so so thankful to have him.  We are so incredibly blessed and are grateful for God's hand in our lives.

Update

 Cutest baby in the world!  I tried to upload a video... but it wont work, I will try again later

A little update on life... I love being a mommy!  Best job in the world.  Blake is such a good baby!  I feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a sweet little baby!  Don't worry everyone, I'm not crazy...and I may be singing a different tune later on... But I can't wait to see what the next one is like!  I love Blake so much and it will be so fun to watch him grow up.  Although he is growing up so fast.  Tazia got on the scale with and without him and the difference is 10 lbs!   I don't know what happened to me but as soon as she said he was 10lbs, I started crying haha.  Aw man those hormones creep up on you sometimes.  I guess if it makes me look stupid sometimes its ok.  I have been very blessed again as far as those hormones go. I've had bad days for sure, but I can count them on 2 fingers... and thats it!  I've just loved every minute of this experience so far.  Baby blues have yet to get ahold on me, and I hope they dont.  I love my little family!  Life has never been better :)

Blake Golden

Happy Valentines Day surprise to me!!!  Blake was born a day early (or an hour early really) when we thought he would be almost a week late.  Talk about timing!  This baby has always, from his first ultrasound at 8 wks, measured right on to the day.  The 15th was the due date no questions asked.  He was text book throughout the whole pregnancy!
As you know my Dr. told me since I wasn't progressing we would see where I was at on the 13th and maybe move the induction back to the 20th.  So on the 13th at my appointment, my Dr. confirmed that I was still only 50% and a tight 1 cm.  I couldn't believe it! Thats 3 weeks that I sat at the same spot!  So she said I would be going into the hospital on the night of the 20th, they would give me a pill to soften my cervix and start me on pit the next morning.  I left there a bit discouraged to say the least.  That night, or more like Tuesday morning at 2 am I woke up for the usual...Pee and didnt quite make it to the toilet.  That was my initial thought anyway. I ran the rest of the way to the bathroom and to skip the details I called my Dr. and she said I better go to the hospital and have them check it.
We grabbed our stuff and took our time going in, it was sort of surreal and we both thought we would be sent home.  I couldn't get past all that fluid though!  I knew it was not pee.  At the hospital, we checked in and headed to Labor and delivery where they put me in a room, dressed me in a robe and hooked me up the external monitors.  They came in after a bit and checked the fluid, claiming it was not amniotic fluid!  What the heck was it then???  I did not pee my pants!  OK, so I was left to be monitored for a bit longer when I finally felt my first contraction!  and a giant gush...gush...gush!  We called the nurse in and she checked the fluid and said we would be staying.  Ah ha!  I knew it wasn't pee!  I didn't feel any contractions after that although I was having them.  By 6 o'clock they finally put us in a room and started my IV and PIT.  It took a while but I was finally starting to feel contractions...and they got worse pretty quick!
By 10:30 contractions were 1 min long and anywhere from 2 to 3 min apart.  The pain was manageable, however even between contractions it never left my back.  Even though the pain wasnt too bad, I was hungry and exhausted!  I had been up since 2!  Needless to say, I was having a hard time mentally staying on top of the pain.  Ben suggested we talk to the nurse and after doing so we decided to go ahead and get an epidural.  That was in place and working nicely by about noon.  PS it was a piece of cake!  I hardly felt a thing.
The nurse decided to go ahead and check me while she was placing the catheter and she said "oh hun, I think you made a good choice, you're still only a 1!"  Oh my!  So from that point on its really pretty boring... numb legs and ice chips (cause that's all you can eat)  They checked me again at 3, I was a 3.  Again at 7 I was a 5-6, again at 10...I was a 10!  Hallelujah!!!  My Dr arrived shortly after, we pushed and had a baby!  Easy Peasy!  Seriously, it was long and boring for the most part, but after he was out I looked at Ben and even said "That was a breeze!"    I thought the pushing was the hard part...
Baby was perfect! 7lbs even, 19.5 in long, and Super cute! 

 This is Blake on our way to his first Dr. visit.  Dr. was well pleased with him.  He didn't even bother checking his jaundice, because it was so minimal.  He is already back up past his birth weight too!  He's seriously the best baby!  Only whimpers when he's hungry and Cries when you change his bum.  He is not a fan of anything cold.  Wipes especially.

I love this little guy so much!  I must admit, I am a baby hog.  I could hold him all day long, and sometimes I do ;)

Suck-o-la

Suck-o-la seemed an appropriate blog title for two reasons:

1. I suck and have not posted for a long time, and I suck again cause even though I am posting now...still no pictures of new couches or baby bump.  Don't think I will be posting them til after baby comes because my camera is packed in the hospital bag and I don't want to forget it so it stays in the bag.

2. The biggest reason for suck-o-la-ness is my last Dr. visit.

OK everyone, here is the update on the boy.  Still no official name and honestly I don't even like to talk to Ben about it anymore because he knows it is now a good way to push buttons and I end up mad.  We do have some options still but they have changed since last time.  I wont bother giving you the new ones because they will probably change again.  However, I am insistent that Chet remain on the list.  So it is.

Aside from the name game, Before my Dr. appointment on Monday I was 50% effaced and nothing was said as to whether or not I was dilated, but we were all happy cause that meant things were looking good and baby was still right on track...I was still on track.  So Monday at my appointment, she measured and we listened to his heart beat and she also did an ultrasound and everything is looking perfectomundo!  His head is down, he is moving down, he looks and sounds great!  Baby is doing wonderfully.  So we reach the point of "go ahead and scoot down"  and she says I am still only 50% effaced and barely dilated to 1 cm.  UGH!  So basically she said that (because my cervix is stupid)  She will not be inducing me by the 15th unless something big happens by my next appointment.  Bummer.

She then asked me if I was still having intercourse and that that could be really helpful in moving my cervix along.  Ben must have called her with a sweet bribe or something.  When I told him later what she said, his response was "well, how do you think she gets her referrals?"  Some feast before the famine I guess... anyway so my Dr. said we're looking more like the 20th.  I am having a hard time with this.  I felt so ready and excited about the 15th, I felt good and ready... its only 5 more days but for some reason it is the END of the world!!!   I am grateful that baby is doing perfectly, and I should not dwell on when he comes, but its stupid.  My mom then informed me that she was 5 days late with her first.  I never thought he would come late, the Dr. said she would induce me by his due date if he wasn't here already.  I guess thats what is hard, I had not thought of it.  So its kind of a curve ball.

I am glad he is doing good, I will just think happy cervix thoughts and maybe it wont hate me any longer!  Pray for me people, and a soft cervix :)

Good find

I just ran into this on good 'ol Facebook and decided it would be a worthy goal for the year.  My mom's cousin posted a link to a blog:

http://youcanbethebestyou.blogspot.com/

Its the Best you challenge. I like it because its not just about being fit, it has goals to help you be a well rounded person.  Aside from eating right and exercising it has goals like reading, journaling, and other personal goals.  This woman has others pay money and at the end of a few months there is a winner, she distributes the money that you pay to those winners.  I am not going to send her money, or even keep track of points this year.  I thought that I would have the list somewhere I will see it as a reminder and just work on creating new healthier habits.  If it goes well and I like it, I may try Her next challenge where I pay the money and what not.  As for now here is the list of Daily habits that are on her challenge that I hope to use:

Drink 48 oz. of water
45 min. of exercise
2 servings of fruit/2 servings of vegetables
no soda or alcohol
no sugar
no fast food or unhealthy snacks
no eating after 8 pm
read 15 min.
write in your journal/blog
one personal goal

These are DAILY goals.  She does a point system, which is how she decides who wins at the end of the challenge.  I will be using them daily, not using a point system, just as guidelines for how I plan my day ;)  Give it a try, it may work out better than the bunches of other goals we make and fail at.  haha  I like that this is a nice bundle deal and its an everyday goal. Plenty of chances to succeed!

Farewell 2011

Well, 2011 was an awesome year!  Ben and I were briefly discussing all the wonderful things that happened and 2011 truly was a year to remember.  Aside from many smaller blessings, Ben was blessed to find a great job (great as in good benefits, not necessarily as in he loves it... cause he doesn't), we were able to move into our first home at an amazing price, and I spent the majority of my pregnancy in 2011 and might I add that it has been  such a wonderful breeze ;)
This year is going to bring a lot of change to our family.  First and most obviously we will be first time parents as of Feb. (so excited!  Can't wait!)  My cousin from California is moving in with us.  Yes Tazia is still here, and yes pretty much we're a boarding house now.  Sorry to any others looking for a room, but we're officially full.  And, I'm not returning to work after the baby.  Being a full time stay at home mom/wife will be really new for me.  Its the way I always wanted it to be.  Working wife, stay at home mom. But I've been working since I was 14, sometimes 2 jobs, sometimes school and job ( always school and job come to think of it).  So being at home taking care of my little bundle will be very different.  I'm really excited for the opportunities it will give me that I don't feel I had before, it will most assuredly be an adventure.  I'm thinking 2012 will be a good year for us as well, I can't wait to see what it has in store for us!

updates...  Christmas was awesome!  Ben bought me the couches for my living room that I have had my eye on for 2  years ;)  I designed my whole front room with them in mind, and they look beautiful!  It worked out the store had a buy one get one for a dollar, so we got both couches for the price of one!  BOOYAH!  I also got an awesome crib that I  am dying to put up.  Still haven't been able to start on my nursery.  We're doing a lot of other renovating at the moment.  Trying to get the basement ready for my cousin, and the bathroom upstairs done so we can finish refinancing. Which if all goes well will save us quite a bit on our monthly payment (super awesome).  Ben's dad was a saint and came down for a very long weekend to help Ben knock out the majority of the project, it looks so good!  They did awesome work.

Sorry no pictures this time, I will charge my camera and give you a follow up with bathroom and living room pictures, maybe a baby bump picture as well.  I didn't gain anything this past two weeks though, so honestly I probably look the same.  I'm curious what this final month of pregnancy will bring, besides a baby, I'm pretty sure it will bring that ;)  yay!