Videos from Stella's concert!

As many of you know, Stella is now a member of the Texas Girls Choir. It's a very big deal. It has definitely consumed my life, haha! She practices every Monday after school until 6:30 pm and then again on Saturday mornings from 9:30 until 11:00 am. They have a strict wardrobe and go through dress checks before each concert. They start off in the Prepratory Choir for the first semester, then they move up to the Main Choir and so on. The higher level choirs do travel and go on tour which will be a possibility for Stella later on if she decides to stay in. Stella loves to sing and has a talent for it, so it's nice that she is able to find a wonderful organization to be a part of that aligns so well with the standards of our family. I am sure this is a first post of many about this great choir! :)

(I had the edit the= post and take the videos out - apparently the person did not have permission to post them on youtube) Probably most of you saw them.

I am hoping the following videos work. I found them on youtube. Thank you to whomever for catching the videos. I had given my camera to Ray for his scout campout and he forgot to bring it when we went to the concert. The video quality isn't too wonderful, but the sound is fair. You can at least get an idea of what it sounded like. We are quite proud of our Stella. She has only been in the choir for 3 weeks. In fact the entire middle section of the choir is the Prepartory Choir and they started 3 weeks ago. That is a lot of music and movement to learn in such a short time. But they were all wonderful!

He's 4!!!

Yep...my baby turned 4 last Sunday. Not sure how it happened, but pretty sure there was nothing I could do to stop it. LOL! Kyle is an interesting kid. He reminds me a lot of Stella, and yet he's so different because he is definitely all boy!

He's stubborn! Not sure at all where he gets that from, hee hee! Actually, I do. Our poor kids get it from both sides. :) He pretty much refuses to potty train! He knows HOW to use the potty. He will use it on occasion. Just, mostly doesn't want to be bothered with it. Stella was JUST like that! I struggled for years with her on the potty training issue. So, after her I vowed to be more relaxed with potty training with the other kids. It worked like a charm with Cambria. I just waited patiently and when she was ready at 3 1/2 she trained overnight. Never looked back, hardly any accidents. It was bliss! So, I figured I learned my lesson. Well...here is Kyle at 4 years old showing NO SIGNS of being willing to do this. So, I'm trying to "encourage" him without showing that I really care. Not so easy to do. Ha ha! In my sane moments I know he will figure it out eventually. You know that moment where it becomes "worth it" for them. But, during those insane moments where he poos in his diaper at the most inopportune time, I get really frustrated and think he will NEVER be out of diapers. I have afterall been dealing with diapers for over 9 years straight. I feel sooo done! I think it's harder to be "so close" to being done, yet not done, then it was when the end wasn't even in sight. Ha ha!

Anyway, enough about that! Kyle wanted to celebrate his birthday at Chuck E Cheese. He loves this place with an insane passion. It's quite funny. Our friends the VonNiederhausen's joined us last Thursday night and between our 3 kids and their 5 kids and the 2 grandmas. We had a great party! He got some really GREAT presents and has white cupcakes with blue frosting. Blue is his favorite color and he's not big on chocolate cake. So, just like that my Valentine baby a day late turned 4.

I dont' think I've ever written down his birth story, so I thought I would so that it is written down somewhere. Feel free to skip this part. :)

Ray and I always planned on having a large family. We wanted 5 children and just assumed it would be 5 girls. We were completely fine with that. Stella came after a somewhat short wait and then we had a terribly loooong wait for Cambria. I felt somewhat satisfied after Cambria because I had waited so long for her. She was also a very colicky baby, so I was ok with waiting for a bit after her. When we finally decided to have more, it was a very exciting time for us. We got pregnant rather quickly this time, but the pregnancy was very different. I'm usually sooooo sick with my pregnancies. I threw up literally every day of each pregnancy. Except this one. I knew before I even went to the doctor that the baby wouldn't make it. I miscarried at 10 weeks into the pregnancy. At that point I really didn't know if we were going to be able to have any more kids. I was approaching 30 and it seemed the odds were against us having a large family. We decided to just not "prevent" any pregnancies, but not to worry about it. Well....2 months later we were pregnant again. I was very sick again, and as crazy as it sounds, that comforted me. The due date was Valentines Day, February 14th, 2005. I'm a planner so I always liked to know what sex the baby is. We took the girls with us to the ultrasound and it was a boy! I was sooo shocked, yet soo excited! I started having strong contractions on Valentines Day, so we went into the hospital and were admitted. I don't ever progress enough on my own and so always need pitocin to help me along on my labor. This was no different. We got in the hospital in the afternoon and it easily went into the nighttime. The nurses checked me often and I vividly remember one nurse overnight having fake fingernails. And, it bothered me so much to think that those "things" were touching my baby! Well, it was definitely not good becuase when Kyle came out his face was facing outward. So, instead of them touching the crown of his head, they were touching his face. He came out with bruising all over his face. :( The doctor finally came in the morning and broke my water when I was dialated to a 10. Water went everwhere! It was crazy! When the doctor realized that Kyle's face was facing outward, he was worried about getting him out safely. He was on the verge of doing some sort of emergency help when he told me to push as hard as I could because we needed to get the baby out NOW! So, I did just that and Kyle came out! He was absolutely beautiful! He looked right up into his Momma's eyes and spoke volumes to me in those first few seconds. He still is the sweetest little boy there is and it is such a joy to be his Mom! :)

Happy Birthday my lovely son! :) You're the best ever!