tooth extraction

Last night Kaden lost his first tooth. Both bottom teeth were loose. One was more then the other. Last week I noticed that the adult teeth were coming up behind the baby ones. We told Kade he needed to work harder on getting the tooth out. Sunday morning before church we told him we were going to try the string method. He was ok with it till we told him what we were going to do. Papa Gregg tried to video it. He was scared. Yesterday morning Grandma Debbie told him she would bring home a tooth treasure box for him and she did. When she gave it to him I told him now we needed to take it out. He was all for it. That sucker popped right out.He just wanted mommy to do it. String method works. He even went to school today telling his friends it didn't even hurt. Oh and he wanted to keep his first tooth with the string that pulled it out. The tooth fairy brought him $5 for his first tooth and even left his tooth for him. What am i gonna do with that?

Again?

And here we are again trying to get this darn blog thing started. I figured if i spent so much time on Facebook then i had time to do our family blog. I love reading everyone elses blogs and catching up with what they have been up to. I have so much to catch up on for our family. My goal is to get as much done as possible while Kaden in still in school for the next 2 weeks and Brandon is home to help with the other 2 boys. I have been pretty good about taking pictures so this will be fun. I cant wait to look back at this in a few years and read about the things we did

New School Year

Kaden Started Kindergarten and was so excited. I was a little nervous cause its a full day program and I wasnt sure if he could handle it. Daddy gave him his first Father's Blessing before the year started and boy was I wrong about how school was going to be for him. The first day of school I sent him to our neighborhood school and I went to for orientation. When they split all the kids up with there teachers we got a tour of the school. Kadens teacher asked if anyone in the group only spoke english and i was the only one that did. She said she would do it all in spanish and then translate it to english for me. When we got to the classroom and she was going over the parent packet I looked at the kids in the class and Kaden was the only blonde haired blue eyed kid in the class. He stuck out so bad. Tear started to well up but i told my self i couldnt cry cause it would make him have a hard time. I could tell that the teacher was not translating everything for me and it proved to be right when all the parents were filling out a paper and i had no idea what was going on. This made me even more upset. I left Kaden there till school was out but called Brandon, my mom and a few friends cause i didnt know what to do. When i picked him up i noticed that he was one of three white kids in all four kinder classes. I didnt want to set him up for failure. I knew something needed to be done. Brandon had an idea of putting him in one of the Elementary schools by his work and we were lucky that one still had open enrollment. The school he is now at is the one that I went to for Kinder and 1st grade before my family moved to Simi. Kaden got my moms and brothers favorite teacher of all time Mr. Santa Cruz. He taught my brother in fourth grade so that was twenty some odd years ago. Kaden is loving school and has made a new best friend. This has turned out to be really good for him and im so thankful i listen to my gut feeling and moved schools for him.

Summer drama

So Brandon got displaced from the junior high school he was working at last year due to cut backs. He was told that he was going to have a position some where but they didn't know where yet and that they had to place a bunch of other teachers who had seniority over him first. Well he kept getting the run around from the district and the end of July i found out they terminated our insurance while i was at the dentist because he hadn't been pick up by a yet. Weston was due for his 2 month check up but i had to cancel that cause there was no way we could afford a $200+ doctor visit plus immunizations. I found a free clinic in Simi Valley that was actually very nice and got all his immunizations for free. Monday the High Schools started out here so i asked him to call and when he did he was told that 2 High Schools were hiring. I drove him around because he worked a graveyard shift at the Marriott so he was very tiered. The first school was walk in and right back out. The second we were waiting in the car for a little over an hour. While we were waiting Kaden said the cutest little prayer for him. He got offered the position at that school and they wanted him to start the following day. We just needed to head down the the main district office to do the paper work. He is really excited because he is helping with the water polo team and the coach will be retiring in the next couple of years so he may be taking that over. Our insurance should kick back in the 1st of September so everything is starting to look up again.

Its Been Two Weeks

Wow how the time flies. The past two weeks have been super busy since Weston was born. I'm not sure where to start. Well at Weston's 2 day check up the Dr. told me to only have the older 2 kiss the top of his head or his feet. She said if he gets a temp of 100.4 that its no joke. They will hospitalize him for at least 2 days, do lots of blood tests and take a spinal. I wasn't worried at all cause the boys had been healthy for a long time. Not only was my nephew around him with a temp at not even a week old do to my in-laws taking care of him but a few days later Kaden starts to having a cough with stuffy nose and sneezing. Then a day later Gavin gets a fever of 103.0 for 3 days and after the fever he starts waking up in the night crying in pain. It was so hard keeping the two of them away from Weston because they love him so much and want to touch and hold him all the time. Luckily Brandon was able to take care of Gavin but i still woke up every time he started crying.

Other happenings have been Kaden graduated from preschool and is now getting ready to head to kindergarten. As i said time flies. I have been so lucky to be able to work at the same school he went to for infant care and now stay home with the kids. Its important to not only me but Brandon too that I'm able to stay home with these guys and we are willing to sacrifice whatever is needed to do so. Brandon has worked so hard to make this happen and still is. He also does so much at home too. I'm so glad that we will be able to spend more time with him this summer since he doesn't have school or teaching and is only working part time at the pool. Summer fun here we come!

Weston Ray Arrives

At 5AM Monday May 31st I woke up with some pretty strong contractions. I walked around for awhile and then took a shower to see if this was really time to go in, or if they were going to stop like a few other times. They were very inconsistent but i called Labor and Delivery and they told me i needed to come in since it was my third and i would go really fast. I was admitted about 8AM and the contractions slowed down a lot so i thought they were going to send me home. If i would have known this was going to happen i would have not gone in. The Dr. checked me out and decided to keep me. The contractions came back and were now stronger so i asked how long it would take to get the anaesthesiologist in for the epidural and they had just gone in for an emergency c-section and couldn't be there for an hour. I toughed it out and as soon as i got the epidural my body must have relaxed and did its thing. So at 2:50PM Weston Ray Stephens was born weighing 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. He is perfect and doing great.

I tried nursing again with him even though i couldn't do it with the first 2 but then realized the stress it was causing me wasn't worth it. I was going to pump and the first couple of time i tried that Gavin was into everything so that was vetoed. I have to say though, that making this decision and not letting it make me feel like a bad mother has made the baby blues almost non existent thus far. I am actually feeling like a better mom because I'm not stressed out.

As for Kaden and Gavin... they are doing great. They love their little brother so much, I couldn't ask for it to go any better. When Weston is crying Kaden goes up to him and will touch him softly and say "its OK big brother is right here" Gavin is telling people who come over "that my baby, not your baby." Also on the first night home Weston's pacifier came out and Gav said "uh oh baby mustache fell off." I guess he watches too much Toy Story.

Baby update

Today i went for my last Dr appointment. I am two days past my due date and was told today that if i don't deliver on my own then i am scheduled to be induced on Wednesday June 2nd at 8AM. I'm sad because I'm not going to be able to make it to Kadens Open House/Moving on Celebration that night from preschool. This will make me 41 weeks along if i last that long. I didn't make much progress this week though. Today i was still 50% effaced and she was able to stretch me to 4 centimeters dilated. Not much but she did say that she has had women walking around 5 centimeters dilated for a week before they delivered. She is hoping that since i am dilated that all they will have to do is break my water and not have to use any other methods to induce me. I am so ready for this little guy to get here this waiting game is killing me.