Dairy Farm

I grew up on a dairy farm. Yes, the kind that milks cows 365 days a year, rain or shine, on birthdays and holidays. My childhood was amazing. I played in mud, climbed on hay bales, swam in Red River, fed baby calves... we didn't walk out the door without our "play clothes" on!

This past week I took a day off work and went to visit my parents for the weekend taking Jordan with me. Ali couldn't go with us because it wasn't our weekend with her--she was so mad at me. I shouldn't have even mentioned that we were going down there but me and my big mouth... We kept her Wednesday night and as I was tucking her into bed she started crying. I said, "Ali what's wrong? Can I get you something?" She said, "The only thing you could do for me is to not go to Gigi's without me!" Ouch... I almost cried too. :(

Thursday after work I gathered up our things and headed to the dairy. It's almost a two hour drive but (lucky for me!) Jordan slept the whole way. Friday morning we helped my dad (the grandkids call him "Daddy Coy") with all his chores. Jordan loves the fourwheeler. "Beep beep! Beep beep!" is what he calls it. He cried every single time we got off it.

I took a ton of pictures on my camera but, of course, I can't remember how to get them off the camera. So here's a few I took with my phone:

This kid is a BED HOG. And he kicks me in the face a lot.

Two bowls of mac and cheese

Gigi, Jordan, and Daddy Coy

It was an awesome weekend!! Now we'll have to write Santa Claus and ask him for a toddler four wheeler... Thanks a lot, Daddy Coy!

***Updated Photos!!***
I know this post was weeks ago but I finally got all my pictures off my camera! Yay!!

Mmm.. bananas (Notice he's sitting on a case of chili??)

He loves being outside... We have to lock the door to keep him in.

This is the facial expression he made when he first saw the cows! HA!

Mommy and Jordan riding the four wheeler.

I can do it myself, Mom.

Watching Daddy Coy fill up the babies' bottles

My favorite pic... 

I challenged the bull to a headbutt and he backed down, HA!

Big bull

I wanted to know what a honey dew melon tasted like.

It was gross. Peanut wouldn't eat it, either.

My horse (actually Ali's horse, now!): Ty Altivos Mongolio. 

If only Jordan had his eyes open!

Jordan wanted to have his blankie on him exactly like Carter. So cute. 

My name is Jordan and I do what I want cuz I'm cute. 

Ali Weekends Are the Best

So as anyone who reads my blog probably already knows, my daughter isn't technically  my daughter. She's my stepdaughter and so we don't see her a whole lot. Our schedule in a nutshell is: Every Friday night until Saturday at 9:00 AM, every other weekend (Friday after school through Monday morning), and the first Wednesday night of the month. Other than that... we rely on holidays and summer visitation to see her.

Because of this our weekends with her are sacred to us! We try to make the best of them and this often leads to spoiling her rotten, I'm sure! This past weekend one of her friends came and spent the night with her.  We went to the park Saturday afternoon and then to the movies that night (Wreck-It Ralph was SO good!). Then the girls got to stay up late playing games and watching TV. We basically let them do anything they wanted (shun the bad parents) including eating almost a dozen chicken nuggets each, a giant tub of popcorn, a king size box of Skittles, and soft drinks. At 2 AM Sunday Ali comes into our bedroom crying. "Destiny," she says in between sobs, "I threw up in the floor!"

Awesome.

So I cleaned up the puke and then rubbed her forehead until she fell back to sleep.

The next morning the girls woke up super early so they could play. Ali felt fine and we blamed her midnight sickness on eating too much junk food. They played in the backyard before church for almost an hour. Jordan, who has now figured out how to open our front door, joined them for about 3 minutes before we caught him. He had went outside, in the COLD, in nothing but a diaper and one sock. It didn't bother him one bit and he screamed bloody murder when I carried him back inside!

After church Kris took Jordan home for a nap and us girls went out for lunch. I let them order whatever they wanted (as long as it came off the kids' menu!). We then went to Hastings to look at books. Ali's Gigi got her a $50 gift card for her birthday and she hadn't spent it yet. The girls were obsessed with the Junie B. Jones books. I'm not really a fan of Junie B. Jones. She's mean, selfish, and has horrible grammar! But when your kid wants to spend all her money on books... you let her. And so I did, all $50 went towards 10 different Junie B. Jones books. You're welcome, Barbara Park. They spent the rest of their time together reading and harassing Jordan. :-)

When Ali's friend went home Ali said, "But I don't want her to go. Having her here felt like I had my very own real sister!" Was that a hint?

Pumpkin Patch

Today was Jordan's first ever trip to the pumpkin patch! The bus left half an hour late, and then we waited another half hour for all the activities to start, but he still had a blast!

On the bus

The Cornerstone Kids' Ranch plans out the whole trip, breaks the kids into groups, and then sends them to different stations every 15 minutes or so. Our first activity was taking a hayride to the pumpkin patch! I didn't get any pictures of the hayride though; it was bumpy and cold and had started to drizzle. BUT, I did get lots of pictures of him picking out which pumpkin he wanted to take home! He was very indecisive...

"Which one of you little round orange things will be mine?"

"THIS ONE!" 

He didn't understand that a pumpkin is not the same thing as a basketball and kept throwing it on the ground and saying, "Ball? Ball?" I'd say, "No honey, that's a pumpkin, not a ball," and he'd just look at me like I was an idiot.

Next they got to play on the bouncy houses. This was by far his favorite part! He was hilarious, bouncing all over the place, falling, face planting...

"OMG, Mom, best day EVER!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay."

He didn't want to leave the bouncy house :( We then watched a movie called the Pumpkin Circle (or something like that, I don't know). I've already seen this 15 minute video about pumpkins twice already with Ali, and I will be seeing it once more in a few weeks when her school goes again. It's not exactly the best video for a group of toddlers, though. Kids were crying and running all over the place. Jordan threw a small tantrum as well until I dug in my purse and found a pair of 3D glasses; he was fine after that. They cut the video short (thank goodness!) since our kids weren't at ALL interested and they just went outside and played on some hay bales. 

"Oh Mama, I'm just so hungry... Please feed me."

 By this point the kids were all getting pretty cranky but we still had several stations to visit. We took them inside this giant barn-ish building where Jordan pushed around a tricycle for 15 minutes.

When it was time to move to a different station Jordan was ticked. He really has a weird obsession with pushing things with wheels. He screamed, kicked, and then bit me. He has never bit me before. Other people, yes. We've had to sign lots of incident reports at daycare from him biting his "friends," but this was the first time he took a chunk out of me. He got spanked and stuck in time out.

After kissing me and telling me he was "Wowwy," we got to go into the petting zoo area! Jordan wasn't too fond of the animals... they scared him. Can you blame  him? Mean ole goats.

Watch out, you're about to receive an old fashioned headbutting. 

He didn't really want to get very close at first...

But he finally got curious enough to pet the pony!

And then he kissed it. 

After petting (and kissing) the animals, we applied a generous amount of germ gel to our hands (and Jordan's mouth...) and went down the slide 900 times. Mr. Independent wouldn't let me go with him. I mean, come on, all his friends were going down the slide without their mommies so I couldn't make him look like a baby in front of them.

After all that we were supposed to go on a mini train ride but by this point all the kids were cranky and crying. It was half an hour passed their usual lunch time so the teachers decided to head back to daycare for some food. Everyone was so exhausted; some of the kids fell asleep during the 5 minute ride back to the daycare. Not Jordan, though. 

A Few Videos...

He does this the entire time... even if we're there for an hour:

And this is what baby road rage looks like:

Here's Ali being little Miss Talented and showing off her skills: 

Jordan on a rainy day:

Birthday Money

It has almost been a whole month since Ali's 7th birthday party and we are just now getting around to letting her spend all her bday cash! She accrued $165 altogether. That's a lotta dough for a seven year old! She's been wanting a 3DS so bad; I don't know why. She already has a DSI and how different are they, really?

DSI:

3DS:


Well, it's what she wanted it is her birthday money, anyway. She'd been bugging us for weeks about taking her to get it but if you know anything about me then you know my last few weeks have been really busy! This past weekend she said, "Destiny. I know you're really tired of me asking about when we can go get the 3DS, so I've been thinking: What if you just let me take the cash and I can get it on my own? That way I won't be bugging you anymore!" Hmm, sorry kid, you're too young to be carrying around that much dough!

So finally we had time to go yesterday after school and get it. I told her she couldn't open the box until we got home and you know what she said?? "That stinks! I should probably do my homework first, too." And she did. As soon as we got home she dug around in her bag, pulled out her homework, and took care of all of it before tearing into her brand spankin' new midnight purple Nintendo 3DS.

She played with it nonstop for the rest of the evening.

All about Ears

***Keep in mind that during these events my husband has a fractured radius (forearm, dominant hand, of course) which happened on Sunday. He can't lift Jordan out of his crib, sleep with him, or basically do anything with or for him right now because all he has on his arm is a splint. So if you read this and think, "Why isn't Daddy doing anything to help!!??" that's why!!***
 
   We woke up at 6:00 AM on Tuesday, September 25th, and put on our comfy clothes. We didn't sleep any the night before; Jordan tossed and turned and cried and kicked and wanted a "dink"... but he couldn't have anything to eat or drink after midnight and he was MAD! I expected him to be a cranky boy when we got up but he was surprisingly giddy.

    We arrived at the hospital a little before our appointment time at 7:00 and checked in. They took us back and took his blood pressure, heart rate, the whole nine yards. He even had to wear a little tiny patient gown--he looked way cuter in his than anyone else I've ever seen, though! They even brought him these little special non-slip socks to wear! The nurses were so nice and reassuring. When it was time to take him back he was one mad little boy. It was hard for Mommy, too. I went back to the waiting room and looked at my watch every 5 minutes.

   After half an hour, the doctor came out and and told me that everything had gone smoothly. Jordan had an ear infection in his left ear when they went in but it didn't complicate things too badly. They said it took longer than usual because they had to drain both his ears and then put a little bigger sized tube in his left side because of the infection.

   They took me back to see him and warned me that he would be very fussy and would most likely be crying. They also said that he wouldn't let any of the nurses hold him without screaming except for the male nurse. When I walked in I understood why: the male nurse looked a lot like his daddy! As soon as he recognized me he came to me and gripped me so hard like he was afraid I would leave again. It broke my heart! We sat down and rocked and sang and he started to calm down.

   After changing his clothes and filling out some paper work we went back home and just chilled the rest of the day. After a nap he woke up much happier. He even got a surprise package from one of our favorite people in the whole world! He was so excited to see it, he jumped up and down and clapped his hands. The lady from the flower shop who dropped it off said, "Well that just made my whole day!"

   That night I half expected him to sleep better, but he didn't. It was just as exhausting as the night before. He was all over the place and even fell off our bed so we moved to the couch. The next morning his poor little cheek and lip were swollen on his right side. I assumed he'd hit it when he fell off the bed so I explained to the daycare what had happened. .

   I went to work. Exhausted. And then the daycare called after a few hours and said his swelling was getting worse and so it might be an allergic reaction to the tubes. NO!! Please no! So I called his doctor and he said that Jordan could be allergic to the codeine in the Tylenol I had been giving him. Ummm... what? I don't have Tylenol with codeine in it, just regular ole Children's Tylenol. "Hmmm," the doctor said, "Now that is strange isn't it? Well, you'll have to make a judgement call. If you think it's serious then take him to the ER." I called the daycare back and asked how he was feeling. They said he acted just fine and didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, so I made a judgement call and didn't take him to the ER. When I picked him up that afternoon he looked almost back to normal. Yay!

   We gave him some Benadryl just in case it was an allergic reaction and that made my little boy hilariously sleepy. I laid him down at 8:15 expecting a peaceful night of sleep for the first time in two weeks. To make the night even better I got to talk to Ali! She wanted to check on brother to make sure he was okay. Isn't she the sweetest? At around 10:00 I said a prayer for rest and fell to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

   At 10:30 my little rascal woke up crying. Oh please, no, not again! I thought. I seriously didn't think I could handle another sleepless night without having a meltdown. My poor husband... he tries to help but it's useless with that splint on his arm. So I got Jordan out of his crib, gave him a sippy cup of milk, sat down in the rocking chair, and sang to him. He drank all his milk and then laid his head on my shoulder. I don't know if it's just me or what, but I seriously get nervous when this happens. I think about laying him back down in his crib and wonder if he'll cry again. It absolutely tears at my core to think about it! Why is that!? So I always hesitate and just sit there rocking him back and forth weighing the possibilities. Finally I decided to lay him back down. I knew I couldn't go another night without sleep, I just couldn't. If he cried, he'd have to cry himself to sleep. It always breaks my heart to do that but sometimes it's the only way.

   He didn't cry. He didn't fuss at all. I went back to bed, my heart literally pounding at the mere thought of him waking up again. I kept expecting it to happen (as it usually does) but it didn't. I woke up this morning all on my own, without an alarm, and realized I overslept! My phone had died during the night and so my alarm didn't even go off. Coincidence? I think not! I didn't feel rushed though. I got up, put on some jeans and a t-shirt (which, luckily, my boss doesn't mind me wearing to work occasionally!!), got Jordan ready, and went to work, walking in only 5 minutes late!

   I don't know if tonight will go smoothly again or not. I pray that it does but I honestly believe with my whole heart that God will never ever give me more than I can handle. He knew last night I was at the breaking point. Today I'm well rested and if Jordan stays up all night tonight, I can handle it.

***Update***
Not even 5 minutes after I finished writing this Jordan's daycare called and said he was breaking out in hives. I took him to the doctor and they said he was having an allergic reaction to the anesthesia from when he had the tubes put in. So... now he's on steroids to help with that! He doesn't act like any of this bothers him one bit... I could hardly keep up with him at the hospital. He doesn't have time for this, he wants to play. 

Wait, She's How Old!?

My little girl is now seven years old. Where has the time gone? Has the story of how Ali came to be in my life ever been told?

How we met

The first time I ever really met Ali was way before I fell in love with her dad. I had seen her with Kris a couple of times but hadn't talked to her or anything. One day she came in to where her dad and I worked with her "Gmo." I tried talking to her and asked her questions like, "What's your name?" and "How old are you?" but she didn't say much; she was so shy! Then Gmo asked me if I had any kids of my own. I just laughed and said, "No way, not yet!" and then I remember looking at Ali and thinking about what it would be like if she were mine. 

A few months later I fell in love with Kris. Up until that point I hadn't been around Ali very much because we didn't want to make things complicated in case things didn't work out. I went to his house one day during my lunch break and there she was, little miss Ali, running around the house in nothing but her panties! She wanted me to play with her so we went in to her bedroom and made up some crazy card game where we flipped the cards over as fast as we could. We only played for maybe 30 minutes and that was the longest I had ever been around her.

Instant connection

Soon Kris asked me to meet his family. I was a nervous wreck. What if they don't like me? What if they think I'm too young for him? We went to Santa Fe. I wore a black shirt that had white polka dots all over it. There were quite a few of us so we had to wait a little while before being seated, so we all sat there shelling peanuts and it was surprisingly not as awkward as you'd think! Ali had come with Sherry but as soon as we got there and sat down she walked over to me, climbed up in my lap, and asked me to help her with her peanuts. Everyone looked really shocked. It was unlike her to just gravitate and open up to someone like that, as Kris told me later. Ali spent the entire dinner sitting on my lap. After dinner Kris said, "I have never seen her do that before. She's usually so shy. She must really like you." Score!

She became very, very attached to me from that point on. Poor Kris... he had to take a back seat for a while. Everything was Dessstiny this and Dessstiny that (she always held the "s" on my name, it was so funny). Every single Sunday at church she sat on my lap the entire time. When we stood during the songs I held her. I remember sometimes wanting to put her down because my feet hurt so bad in my high heels, but I didn't want to ever let her go at the same time! So I'd stand there and hold her until we sat down again, every single time. Some people had no idea she wasn't really mine. They'd say, "Is this your daughter? She looks so much like you!" It was so funny. 

Becoming a "family"

Kris asked me to marry him in June 2009. We told Ali we were all getting married and would be a family soon. I asked her to be my flower girl and she was so excited! I had a hunch she would end up being too shy to walk down the aisle by herself but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine carrying her! It was the only way we could get her down the aisle without her crying, but it couldn't have been more perfect. That one little act represents us so well: She loves and trusts me completely and I would do absolutely anything for her.

Four years later here we are. Our relationship is beyond what I could have ever imagined. She feels so comfortable with me, still wants me to hold her, still wants me to play with her, and still loves me the same. I can't even imagine our relationship being any stronger. I used to struggle with her not being "mine" but I think it has actually made us better. She isn't just my stepdaughter, she's one of my best friends! Just the other day we were talking and I told her that I could talk about almost anything with her. She said, "What can't you talk to me about, Destiny?" I told her that there's some grown-up stuff I didn't talk to her about because she wouldn't understand it or it would be too boring to talk about, like money. She said, "Des, you can talk to me about money anytime you want. I may not get it, but I'll still listen." She melts my heart! When I think about how different my life would have been had I not met Kris... I can't even fathom it. Everything has worked out so perfect and I know and believe with all my heart that this was all God's doing. 

She's now seven. She's seven?? It's so hard to believe! We had her birthday party at Lazer Zone the weekend before her birthday and the kids had a blast! They each got like 20 tokens to use in the arcade, we had cookie cake, cupcakes, Dr Pepper, presents, and Ali and Kris played laser tag before we left. Talk about a successful birthday party! 

Now let's take a stroll down memory lane... pictures of Ali starting from the time I met her until now: