So my family and I go down to see the Mormon Miracle Pageant. Bryce and I had such wonderful hopes for this trip. Our plan was to start down on Thursday, stopping briefly to visit with an old friend. Then we were to make it to Mayfield, where we have access to a house for visiting the area, getting set up for the weekend and then relaxing, maybe watch a movie that night.  Day one went as planned.

Day two—Friday. The plan: to get up and have a nice relaxing breakfast. Then bike 8 miles to Gunnison to the park, play at the park, then bike back and eat lunch. After lunch prepare ourselves to go to the Pageant. Leave for Pageant around 6 or 7 pm, get a spot, eat our packed dinner, and watch pageant. Go home and go to bed. 

What really happened—Biked 8-9 miles to the park. Got attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes. Had to bike to the nearest store to get bug spray. Biked back to the park. Played, and then Katie threw a tantrum when her friend she just made went home. So we biked 8-9 miserable up hill miles back to Mayfield. Totally exhausted from our hour and a half ride, we prepared ourselves to go to Manti. Unfortunately we had to get there by 5 pm to make it to a store before it closed to get some unmentionables that had been forgotten.  Leaving plenty of idle, disruptive time for the kiddos before the pageant started. And by time I mean 4 1/2 hours. Katie had some sort of bladder problem during this time so had to make several trips to the potties while there. Bryce gets to chase a restless baby around while I get into a screaming match with a Jehovah’s Witness about abortion on my way back from getting Bryce a hamburger. Bryce gets to eat his cold hamburger while I then chase the baby and take Katie to her 5th trip to the bathroom. This was right before the pageant when everyone is at the restroom so I get to stand in line for 10 minutes while Katie holds herself jumping up and down and crying that she is going to pee her pants. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me but if I saw a kid in that state, I would let them cut in line. No luck for us though.  Finally the pageant starts, about half way in the kids are both asleep and we are wondering how we are going to  walk two blocks holding two kids and all our crap. We did it, but headed out before the pageant was over. We were done! Home and sleep went as planned.

Day three-Saturday. The plan: wake up, take a run, eat breakfast, go for a swim, eat lunch, come back to Mayfield and relax.

What really happened—pretty much what we planned, but now I am suffering head to toe from dozens of mosquito bites and really sore muscles from the bike ride. The run was not as fun with complaining children so we ended up at the park which turned out to be really fun. The swim was not as much fun as we thought with both children afraid of the water. At least Katie would let us peel her from us and smiled. She even played if we were at the wading end of the pool. Lizzie was just scared and plastered herself to my body while ducking her head to my chest.  We lasted about an hour. Which was long enough for Bryce to get a sunburn on his back and just his back because I forgot to put some on his back after he made sure I was completely covered. Good thing he got the rest of himself or he would be a lobster. Lunch at a diner with slow service while we were starving. Katie falls asleep at the table, but wakes right up once we get into the car. We took the rest of the day and relaxed. We needed it.

Day Four-Sunday. The plan: go to church and go home.

We did just that. It was a really good day and I am glad we went to church. It was nice to sit with Bryce again. The only thing that would have made this day better is if we were not burnt, bitten, sore and exhausted. And did I mention Lizzie was teething the whole weekend?  Yep! popped her first tooth. We were so glad to be home were we can relax from our vacation!

And that was our trip!

This is where we begin.  From our kitchen a door separates our warm cozy home from the creepy, cold dungeon. When you first open the door, you see a large storage closet (total waste of space. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside.) and broom closet. The descending stairs to the right.

The Second picture is what you see as you begin the journey down the stairs.  This next picture is a view of it from below coming back up.  You can see the first set of stairs from here.

Here is what it looks like now, same views in the same order…

Here is the next set of stairs. View going down and then coming back up.

The wall jetting out was taken back and the top two stairs widen. The landing there at the top was leveled and a new back door put on that didn’t scrape the floor and actually opens all the way now.

Now we are down the stairs and in the basement. This next picture shows the landing in the basement. There is an unfinished closet on the right.  (this closet used to be a shower. A very nasty shower.  You really have to wonder with these old houses sometimes)  You can see in the bottom right corner of the first picture the cement half wall.  The second picture is a shot of the unfinished closet.

The cement wall was taken back to the full wall and the wall next to the stairs was also taken back a bit.  The closet is now finished. 

Continuing into the actual basement.  here is the view from the landing. Notice the wires, pipes and duct work everywhere.

We got new duct work done and you can see a door to the new closet where the washing machine used to be. If you look closely on the bottom of the ‘before’ picture, you can see where the half wall used to be.

Now into the first room of our basement. There is a cement platform, of sorts, and there used to be a toilet in the corner.  We decided to make a second bathroom.  On the left of the big black pipe we put the bathroom and laundry closet. Our washer and dryer are now side by side instead of opposite sides of the room.  On the right of the big black pipe is the storage closet you see above.

Here is the bathroom and laundry closet.  We call the bathroom Bryce’s “manly bathroom”.

In this first room there was only one light for the whole room. The windows were busted out and had not been replaced since long before we owned the house.  The walls were cement with plaster on top.  The plaster was falling off.  No ceilings to hide duct work or wires and pipes.  There were two big sinks next to the freezer that we never used. There were no outlets so we powered the washer, dryer and freezer through extension cords that went up through the ceiling to the upstairs outlets. You can kind of see those.

New windows, new duct work, 2 lights plus the light in the bathroom and the laundry closet. And we have

outlets!!!

Now for room #2. I decided to put the before and after shots side by side for this room. It’s the same story with duct work, wires and no outlets. Plus this part of the house is a rock foundation so the walls were literally falling apart. The walls had to be patched to keep the rocks in. There was also this weird window deal where you could see the stairs and first closet through it.  On the other side of the room there was a wall that was half brick and half cement. It was also falling apart.  Our furnace is in this room as well, and we had a closet built around it.  This room also had only one light in the middle of the room. Now we have four. This will be our new entertainment room ( TV room).

Last room. This room was much like the second room. The rock walls had to be patched and there was another window looking into the laundry room (first room). The window to the outside had been broken out. This room housed our water heater and again a closet was built around it.  This room could be used as a small bedroom but we are still debating how to use it. It used to be our storage room, but we love it so much we want to use it for something else.

Well, that’s it.  Lots of pictures, but then again, lots of work.  Thank you Innovative Construction Remodeling for our lovely new basement.

Katie turned five years old the 13th of October.  I can not believe I have a 5 year old.  She is so smart and wonderful to have around.  She is so photogenic.

We went to McDonalds for her birthday lunch.  We don’t go there often so it was a big deal for Katie.

Katie had a Halloween party for her birthday.  It was so much fun! Bryce helped out by doing a treasure hunt and his mom was great letting  us use her house as well as making the cake.  We also played games. Her friends came in their costumes.

And then there was Halloween…

My Supergirl!

Of course while Katie was celebrating her birthday, our other little girl was doing some growing up as well.  She didn’t like getting her pictures taken.  I finally got a few good pictures but WOW…what an ordeal!

This is my favorite picture.  I think she looks like Curious George.

   Little sweetie.

My girls!  Just had to add it.

November brought us a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  We spent Thanksgiving with my sister, her family, Bryce’s parents and his Brother and Sister in law.  It was so much fun. Tried to get a Christmas Card picture, and this is what I got.

I should have used this one–

Love those girls!  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  It is really nice to be with family.

December has been a very busy month.  First- our most exciting news—we are doing our basement!! I will post pictures of that project when it is all finished.  We just got our sheet rock up today.  I am so thrilled I about cried when I saw it all put together.  Now we just have to tape and mud the sheet rock, paint, put in the bathroom toilet and sink, and flooring.  I can hardly wait to see it done!

Katie was in a few performances for Christmas and Bryce played one on the three wise men in a nativity at church. I made his costume in 2 days.  That was a busy week!

Christmas was a blast.  We went to a family dinner at Bryce’s Aunt Ramona’s house for Christmas Eve.  Later that night my parents came into town.  It was a nice surprise for Katie to wake up to not only presents and a stuffed stocking but Grandma and Grandpa too!  After opening gifts and eating candy to our hearts content we headed down to Misty’s house for Christmas dinner and family frivolity. The day after Christmas we were able to support Jacob, my nephew, in receiving his Eagle at his Court of Honor.  It was beautiful.

The next day was Sunday and we rushed home just in time to get ready for church.  It was a stressful day because we were blessing our daughter, Elizabeth that day.  I was so worried that she would poop in the dress that she only wore it for 10 minutes.  I worked on it for about a month.  There you go.  Let that be a lesson to us all.  I didn’t get any pictures of the dress or the family that day, but I did get some later with help from Bryce.  The blessing was beautiful and now I realize that the most important thing about a blessing day is not the dress, but the blessing.  I will still make my kids blessing outfits, but maybe I won’t be so concerned with it the day of the blessing.

That being said—here is the dress!

Wow! That’s it.  Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year to all!

Here is the whole story of Elizabeth’s birth.  At least from my point of view.

About 2 am on September 15th I started to feel some strong surges. (Surges are what we hypno-birthers call contractions.)  I had been having them strong on and off for a couple of weeks so, I thought this was one of those early mornings that I probably wouldn’t get any sleep.  I decided to go to the bathroom to see if that would help, then tried to lie down again.  They still kept coming but they didn’t hurt or anything.  They were just uncomfortable enough to not let me sleep.  I tried going to the bathroom again but nothing helped.

2 & 1/2 Weeks before arrival

I looked at the clock and by this time it was about 3 am.  I debated waking Bryce but thought I should give it about an hour.  About 3 surges later I changed my mind and put my head on his chest.  He patted my head and asked what was wrong.  I told him I couldn’t sleep because I was having strong surges.  He didn’t really respond.  I realized he went back to sleep so I woke him again telling him I was having strong surges and they were coming quickly.  He immediately got up and started to time them.  They were about 3-4 minutes apart. I still was not convinced I was in true labor because they didn’t feel strong enough and I thought it might just be false labor.  Bryce had me take a shower to see if that would slow things down, but it didn’t.

About 4:30 am Bryce called our midwife Chris. I told him to tell her that it would probably be awhile since I could still talk through the surges but we think it might be labor.  She told us to time how long the surge lasted and if it was longer than a minute then it’s a good bet I’m in labor.

Bryce timed the length of the surges and they were longer then a minute, but I was still convinced it was false labor because they were not unbearable.  I labored on my ball for awhile and then decided I needed to lie down on the bed.  Bryce thought it was time to get the pool ready.  We had done a “dry run” the night before to see how long it would take to get it ready when the time came. We joked later that we should have just left it up since we used it 8 hours later.

(Bryce and Katie breaking down the pool the night before labor started. Also the very spot Lizzy was born.  That’s right, in the middle of the kitchen.)

I relaxed through each surge for awhile while he was getting the pool ready. At 5:30 am he called our midwife Chris, our doula Michelle and told them things were getting serious and they should probably come over.  Then he called my sister, Misty to tell her to come get my mom and Katie.  She lives 2 hours away but we thought we still had plenty of time.

I got into the pool just before 6 am and things really picked up.  I was having trouble with the surges in the position I was in.  I had the “bear down” feeling and wasn’t sure if I was really ready to push.  I changed positions and it was a lot better.  My doula showed up just about 6 am and I told her how I was feeling.  She told me to just go with it.  I was still unsure if I was completely dilated, but I trusted in my body and went with it.  Michelle told me to reach inside to see if I could feel anything.  I felt the bag of waters bulging and my sweet baby’s head right behind.  I couldn’t believe it!  She was really coming.  That gave me all the confidence in the world to get the baby out.  With one push the bag of waters released.  Second push she crowned.  Third push her head emerged and last push she was born.  Bryce caught the baby and brought her into the world.  It was very exciting!

Our midwife walked in the door just a minute after Elizabeth was born and did all the new born stuff that needed to happen. Elizabeth was born 6:32 am at 9 lbs 21 1/2 inches long !  My labor was a total of 4 1/2 hours!  It was the most beautiful thing I have done in my life!  Very empowering!  I wouldn’t change anything about the birth and totally believe in hypno-birthing!

Bryce woke up Katie and had her come down stairs and meet her new sister.  Misty showed up an hour later and after making sure all was well, just took Katie for the night so Bryce and I could get some rest.

I can not say enough about my midwife and doula.  They were both awesome!  And my absolutely fantastic husband who was supportive through the whole pregnancy and was amazing at the birth.  I am so very blessed with this family and all the support I have had.

Thanks again for all the prayers that were coming our way for this baby. The lord was watching over us that morning and I know her brother is watching from heaven too!

Welcome to the world Elizabeth Anne Beattie!!

Birth day

One week old

Here is the little hand waving at big sister Katie.

Cute little profile!

It was hard to get  really good 4D picture.  The placenta is right in the way!

Any guesses?

We are so very excited about having this new addition to our family!  Katie can’t wait to be a big sister and change the baby’s diaper!  Got to love it!

Here is Sophie and Katie.  They love to play together.  It is so fun to have a cousin Katie’s age.

We had an Easter Egg Hunt with the city on Saturday, but we were 1 minute too late.  Katie did get some eggs from some nice kids who shared.  Sunday we had a hunt at aunt Misty’s house.  This was more fun for Katie.  Not as many kids, and way more eggs!

Bryce stayed home to get things fixed up but was able to come down on Saturday after a sealing and Baptism.  He got there about dinner time.  Misty cut his hair and then shortly after dinner he passed out.  We decorated eggs Saturday night.

Sunday we went to church with Misty’s family.  After church, lunch, and a nap for Katie, we opened baskets and did the Easter Egg Hunt.  It was so much fun.

We headed home that night.  Our power was on, but still so heat.  We finally got the furnace working this morning.  Yeah!  Warm showers tonight.

My dad came out for a couple of weeks to help me with it.  He did most of it, but I still helped so I am taking some credit. Bryce helped too!  It was a family project, even Katie got to mud and paint a little.

Now on to our stairs and then to our fire place!  Hopefully then we can put the house up for sale.  Here’s hoping!

I will be sad when my parents leave.  I actually got to talk to adults during the day.  Katie is fun to talk to, but still just four.  I will miss them.

We had a great Christmas!  Katie had a Christmas concert for dance.  She was so cute as always.  After her concert she got to sit on Santa’s lap.  This is the first year she wasn’t scared silly of him.  She ran right up, jumped on his lap and told him what she wanted for Christmas.

We decided to make this Christmas a little more relaxing.  We only gave 3 gifts for each person to represent the wise mens’ gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  It made Christmas shopping so much easier in some ways, and little more difficult in other ways.  There was so much I wanted to give Bryce and Katie.  I ended up stuffing their stockings pretty full of gifts!

Katie’s favorite gifts were her new doll house and rocking horse.   Bryce loved his new holster for his gun and his concealed carry permit that came in the mail the day after Christmas!  My favorites were my snow boots and camera, but the ring Bryce got me has to be my absolute favorite!  He is always telling me that I am his ruby and so he got my a ruby ring.  He is so romantic!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday!