Naomi's Princess Party! (5 yrs old)

This is the cake that consumed my life. (alright a few days of my life) Naomi wanted a princess party so when we saw this cake set I thought I could figure it out. Why I thought that I don't know. Let me put the disclaimer out that I am not a cake maker, nor do I have a talent in this field. So I stressed myself out over this silly cake for a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. Needless to say it came together, not as well as I had hope. I was literally putting the sprinkles on the cone tops while kids were arriving. So all the fun details like flowers and stuff didn't even come to pass. I don't know why I thought I would have a few hours of time to decorate a cake with a new born, a 2 yr old and a 5 yr old at home. The kids liked it and it tasted good. I guess that's all that matters.
Naomi blowing the candles out.

Even though it took forever to make it took minutes to destroy. Again why do we do these things to ourselves?

This was a really cool pinata. For those of us who feel it is actually dangerous to place a baseball bat in the hands of a 5 year old, blindfold them and let them start swinging than this is the pinata for you. It has a bunch of curling ribbon at the bottom and one is the special ribbon that releases a trap door where all the candy is stored. So the kids line up and take turns pulling their string. It's safe, it's fun, and they can see what's going on.

One of the games that we played was the infamous egg on the spoon game. But this game was with plastic eggs and a bean bag egg inside. The egg is designed to break open when it hits the floor. Great Target find. It was fun.

Musical balloon. Instead of them fighting over a chair we passed a balloon around. When the music stops whoever had the balloon was out.

Present time!

Princess Naomi had a great time with great friends!

And you wonder why Grandpa has a bad back. 3 of the grandkids got their piggy back ride from Grandpa who came up for the party.

Ashes, ashes we all fall down. Or his back gave out? No I think this is where Malachi and him were wrestling.

Tooth Great Firsts, I Mean Two Great Firsts!

Malachi received an academic achievement award in reading. His teacher picked him and did cute little write up on him that I listed below:

"Malachi, I think I want to call you Sponge Bob Reader Pants because every time you read a book you soak it up like a sponge and want more to read!

Malachi has made a tremendous amount of growth in reading thus far in First Grade. I'll tell you it has not come easy for him but through his hard work and perseverance he now is a successful reader.

Malachi is passing his sight word list each week, scoring 100% on his spelling tests, and keeps reminding Mrs. Medina his Phonics book is too easy!

Malachi, you are a wonderful reader and I am so proud of your efforts that I guess I will have to give you that second grade Phonics book, is today okay? Excellent job!" Mrs. Medina

(Picture above is Malachi with Mrs. Medina)

This was so fun for him because the kids don't know that they are getting the award and the letter is read in front of the whole school. We're so proud of you Chi!

We were at Pat and Oscars last night for dinner and Malachi keep telling us he had some chicken caught in his teeth. When Darren looked he told him it wasn't chicken he had a loose tooth. Malachi hasn't lost a tooth yet so this was a little scary and exciting for him. He keep wiggling away at it last night and finally went to bed. This morning it was pretty loose after breakfast so he got a tissue and mommy pulled it out. The first thing he said was "Yea now I can eat fudge bars again." (Darren ate one when we got home and Chi was afraid to have one because of his tooth) Now he's ready for the tooth fairy to come tonight.

Horton!

I grew up on Dr. Seuss and loved it. My mom would read the books to us all the time so I have fond memories when I see all the Seuss movies coming out or when the kids celebrate Dr. Seuss week in school. One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is: Horton hatches an egg. So when Horton hears a who came out I loved it, being he is one of my favorite Seuss characters. It may have to do with the fact that elephants are my favorite animals too "who" knows? Well the kids got the movie for Christmas and are loving it. We keep it in the van so when we drive the freeways they get to watch it, which lately seems often. We even bought Naomi the Horton hears a who game as seen above. She loves that too. Well I have to say as much as we love the movie it always makes me cringe when they name call in children's movies. Examples "The mayor is being a moron", "The mayor is an idiot", "You boob". I think we get the picture. Well I really got the picture when Malachi came downstairs one night after I put the kids to bed. They were talking and started arguing over something. Sure enough Malachi says, "Naomi called me a boob." I settled the situation and made sure they knew not to name call. I did however go downstairs and had a good laugh over it. Out of all name calling names that is the one she picked up on. Well I thought the name calling was over til Darren came home yesterday from taking the kids to the park. He told Malachi to come and tell me what he called his sister. Malachi softly says "a moron". I then realized that even though the kids don't hear us say these things they pick up on everything. I really wish movies would not put name calling in cartoons where kids find it ok to use. Maybe I shelter my kids a little, but let them be little as long as we can!

1st trip to the Wild Animal Park

Auntie Sina and cousin Sophia with Malachi, Naomi and Cassidy

Naomi's hand on a Gorilla inprint

We finally took the kids to the Wild Animal Park and met Darren's sister Sina there and her kids Sophia and Samuel. The kids had a lot of fun looking at the animals. We can't wait to go back.

Expression of my Gratitude

No picts on this one. Just want to say thank you to everyone for how wonderful you have been to me and my family after having the baby. I don't even know if I can express in words how thankful I am for all your friendships and our dear family. The phone calls, the meals, the gifts, the visits... really more than we deserve. But we are so grateful for it all. It really made us feel warm and fuzzy inside. So thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of our lives and going above and beyond for us. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

She's a keeper!

What fun this baby is. I wasn't afraid of what it would be like to have 4 kids and now I know why. Liberty is such a sweet baby. The first week she did have her days and nights mixed up so I was a little sleep deprived, but that is to be expected. I love having a new born around. It was funny (yet not funny ha ha) today I found a bunch of pre-children pictures of myself. Even though I was in pretty good shape at the time I still wasn't satisfied. Boy now after 4 kids what I would give to have that body back!

Our kids are not good... their AMAZING!!!

Sometimes I feel like pinching myself to see if this is all real. Malachi, Naomi and Cassidy have been so amazing through this whole baby process. They can't hold her enough, bring me enough diapers, help throw away enough diapers, even picking out her outfits is fun to them. We were concerned the most with how Cassidy would do with her, but she has been sweet as pie to the baby. I never thought I'd be the mom that asks, can you kids go get me her blanket, or her binky.... but as busy as things get I've done it and they are the biggest little helpers. So here's to you kids!!!

"Mom, Dad said I did outstanding!"

I've come to the resolve that sometimes we are just lame parents. This is one of those times. We cleaned out the garage the day before I went to the hospital. We realized that since we got the kids scooters they have not been riding their bikes. So Malachi still had his training wheels on. Ok he's 6 1/2, so Darren took Chi and Naomi down to the park today and took their training wheels off. Malachi just took off. He was ready. He's riding like he knew just what to do. (well he should by now). Malachi was so excited and can't wait to go ride bikes with his buddy Eli.

Liberty has arrived! (finally)

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Liberty's first day home.
Darren holding Liberty minutes after she was born.

Malachi holding Liberty at the hospital.

Naomi holding Liberty at the hospital.

Cassidy holding Liberty at home.

What a long haul that was. The pregnancy actually seemed to go pretty fast. It was the delivery that seemed never ending. I was scheduled to go in for an induction Sunday the 28th at 7pm. Well wouldn't you know there were a lot of women going into labor that day. (They all probably wanted their tax write off too) So they pushed me back a day. I called twice on the 29th and they said they were over full and there was no way I was going to come in that day. So they told me to call back the morning of the 30th and I should get in. I called that morning and they said to call back in a few hours. I had played the game, but now was becoming pretty anxious. I finally got a call from them that they had a bed for me. I told them I was on my way. I got in there a little after noon. At 1:30pm they started the potosin. They say that by your 4th child you should be able to sneeze and the kid would come out. So I assumed that evening I would have her. Never assume anything. I was not progressing very fast and the baby was still really high up. The doctor came in at 9pm to see if he could break my water. I was only at a 3 1/2 at this point. When he checked he said the baby was too high up. He feared if he broke my water the baby's cord would drop before the baby and I would end up in an emergency c-section. So he said we'd see how things went through the night and he had the nurse call him every 3 hours for an update. At midnight I was at a 4 1/2 and that was the last I progressed to 6:30am. So she called the doctor and he said he would come in and check me. He told me we may want to go over some other options that we spoke of the night before. Which meant a c-section. I used to be so afraid of this scenario. Going through a long labor only to end up in a c-section, but for some reason I was almost ready for the c-section. I think I just knew that's what had to be. I was disappointed that I would have to stay another 4 days in the hospital. Darren would be back at work when I got to go home. But you do what you have to do. Well my doctor came in at 7:30 and I was almost ready to tell him go prep and let's get this done. He checked me and said I was at a 7 1/2. He broke my water and seemed optimistic. I was shocked. Here I hadn't progressed all evening and with in an hour I was 3 cm further along. Well 2 hours later I was ready to push. My nurse had me do one push and realized I was ready to deliver. She called my doctor whose office was across the street from Palomar Hospital. He said to give him 5 minutes and he'd be there. I looked at her like she was crazy when she told me that. You can't stop a bullet after you pull the trigger. So here I am trying to no push waiting for my doctor. Let me tell you. Even though I had an epidural. That was excruciating trying not to push. I held her 10 minutes and said forget it. I warned the nurse I'm pushing, I can't hold her any longer. A few minutes later Liberty was delivered by my nurse. 3 minutes after that in walks my doctor "I'm here!" I said "Yeah and so it the baby." He was shocked. He said he would have ran if he knew she was coming that fast. I was so disappointed that he didn't deliver my baby, but she was fine and we felt blessed it worked out the way it did. He did help deliver my placenta, but we didn't name it and weren't going to keep that either. She was as they called it "sunny side up" when I delivered her so that made the pushing more uncomfortable and may be why it was hard to get her to drop? She was born on Wednesday December 31st at 10:12 am weighed 7 lbs 7 ozs and was 20 1/2 inches long. Her full name is Liberty Jean Drago. Liberty is a name we found in our genealogy from the very early 1800's. All our kids have 3 syllables in their name so that worked great. We'll call her Libby for short. Jean is my middle name and my grandmothers name. All our children have a grandparents name for their middle names. So she's a new years eve baby. I'm actually really excited about her b-day what a fun way to celebrate her birthday every year. She'll get a big party every year on her b-day. It's the best I could do with a December birthday. Plus she made it for the tax write off! She was so calm and alert when she was born. She just laid there and looked at us. It never ceases to amaze me the miracle of child birth. It truly is a miracle. She is healthy and so perfect. We are blessed!!!

New Christmas Tradition

We spent Christmas Eve with the Drago side of the family. The kids had a GREAT time and got way more than needed. The funnest part of the evening was the jammie gift. I thought it would be fun to start a tradition every year of the kids all getting the same jammies and changing in them before we go home. Then they wake up in their cute matching jammies. All the cousins looked so cute together. We're so happy to have family close by. Christmas morning we spent at our home where my mom and Uncle Bob and his friend Jason joined us. It was a Wii fiesta.

Candy Cane Toes!

I went to get a pedicure today and thought it would be fun to treat Naomi to one as well. We got a little Mommy/Daughter time together. Her face was so sweet. This was her first time getting a spa pedicure and she loved it of coarse. The best part is she got a snow flake and candy cane painted on each toe. I felt this special experience to be blog worthy since her excitement was priceless. She can't wait to show her toes to the family over Christmas.

Drago Family Christmas Party

Every year since we've been married the Drago family gets together with our extended family and has a family Christmas party. It's great to catch up with everyone, see who's changed, or the new additions.

Santa came to school!

We have a friend "Santa" who so kindly came to Malachi's school on Friday to surprise the kids. He sang songs with them then called each one up and gave them a candy cane and stocking from the teacher. He was wonderful. The kids loved it. He also reminded the kids at the end that their parents love them very much and they should go home and give them a big hug and kiss. Talk about sweet words to remember.

Once a Pirate, Now a Cougar!

Darren is officially a staff member of Temecula Valley Charter School. Their Spanish teacher was moving so the position opened. After much prayer and talk he applied and was offered the job. He taught 9 1/2 years at Oceanside High School. It was bitter sweet for him to leave there. He will miss his good students, but the Charter is an amazing school and will easily compensate for those feelings. He will now be teaching 3rd-8th grade. The school is 2 miles from our home compared to the 50 miles he drove each way to Oceanside. He can sleep in 2 more hours in the morning. The best part of all it is where our kids attend. The school has the highest middle school API scores in the county. The staff is great and the atmosphere couldn't be better. We feel so blessed right now. His first day was Friday (right before a 2 week Christmas break). He was introduced to the students at their morning assembly. It's going to be great.

Oh Holy Night!

Darren and I go to the San Diego Temple together once a month. My mom lives in La Jolla so we are fortunate enough to be able to bring the kids down and have her watch them while we are there. However it's usually late by the time we're done so after visiting with my mom we take off and go right home so we can get the kids to bed. Well when we were at the temple this month I felt it to be important to bring the kids to the Temple grounds and see the beautiful Nativity and amazing lights they have up. The kids loved it. It gives me such great joy to know I am sealed to my family forever. They are wonderful!

Flat Abby

My niece Abby is in the 3rd grade. I guess her class just read this book about Flat Stanley. A boy that ends up flat and is mailed around the world. So her class all made flat selves and mailed them out to family or friends. So Abby sent us her "Flat Abby". We were asked to take it along to places around our town and get pictures with it. It was accompanied by a journal that we can log our happenings in and paste pictures as well. Our kids loved this idea. So far we have taken Flat Abby to the beach, the temple, to see Santa, and we're going to get a picture of her with her newest cousin due this month. We then asked our cousin in Samoa if we could mail it to her so she could give Flat Abby the Polynesian experience. We're trying to get Flat Abby to see as many places as possible around the world before April 1st. How fun will it be for her to read the journal and look at the pictures with her class when she gets her back.

You got me good!

Ok so the pieces to the puzzle finally fit together. My girlfriend Beth tells me a while back that she wants to throw me a shower. I tell her no, no it's my 4th kid, 3rd girl I'm good. We talked about it a little after that, but I thought that was that. Then she finally says well we want to do a small dessert night with just a couple friends at least. I say ok that I can do. So she comes and picks me up with 2 other dear friends. We go to dessert and are walking across the restaurant. I then see a table with a bunch of our friends. The first thought that came to me is oh how funny they are probably doing a group visiting teaching dessert night. Funny we see them all. Then I realize there is my girlfriend Su from Pauba area, Andrea Profancik my dear friend who now lives in Orange county and others that couldn't be here for that. My mom then peeks around the corner. I was shocked. How Beth do this? How did she get these people out here? How did she get my mom's info? While wondering this I get a tap on my shoulder. It's my little sister Kim from Arizona. She flew her out to surprise me. I was speechless. She is a true master mind. I had no clue. Darren didn't even spill the beans. Come to find Darren told them don't tell me anything because Sarah will get it out of me. He said, "She'll ask me who was that that called? And he would answer Oh it was your sister Kim. The she'd ask what did Kim want. Darren would then say oh she just was saying hi. Then I would say to him, No she must have called because Beth is planning a surprise baby shower and she is planning it with you!" (Darren's got a great sense of humor) So needless to say he was afraid he couldn't keep it from me so he just told my family to keep him out of it. He said that way he'd be more surprised when they showed then I was. We had a great night. We laughed, ate and opened the cutest little gifts. I'm so grateful for good friends and family. I feel so blessed! Even today I'm shocked at all the planning she did for months and I couldn't have been more in the dark about it. She truly is a friend forever! It was one of the funnest surprises I've had.

It really was kidney stones!

Every pregnancy I have had I have passed kidney stones. I always end up going to the hospital they do the routine ultrasound which tells us how many there are and then they drug me up and I wait to pass them. Well sure enough I'm 9 months pregnant and I feel the pain and by now the 4th child know it's a kidney stone. So I go to the hospital and expect the "standard procedure". Well my ultrasound comes back and the doctor said that the kidney stone is still high up in my kidney, but there is fluid around it. So he felt that the pain was actually from the pressure of either the baby on my kidney or the fluid. With that said he gave me 2 options. He first told me they were admitting me to the hospital. I would stay the night and in the morning I would have an amnio. If the babies lungs were developed they would induce me and that would solve the pressure on the kidney. If they were not developed then they would take me in for surgery and place a stint in my kidney to drain the fluid. To me a lose lose situation. I was terrified of an amnio and did not have anything ready to take a baby home. No bags packed, no baby clothes washed, no car seat out yet... I also did not want to go into surgery 9 months pregnant. I talked it over with Darren and he said we just do what we have to do. So 2 minutes after they admitted me and moved to to a delivery room I decided to use the bathroom before they re hooked me up to all the baby monitors. The nurse told me to filter my urine just in case. Sure enough 2 large kidney stones came out. The pressure almost instantly left and with in a 1/2 hour they released me from the hospital. Stinking kidney stones. I oddly enough was grateful for them and not having to have an amnio or surgery. I felt like I knew my body and knew that was the cause of the pain. So here they are world my 2 kidney stones. I was given them to take to my doctor and get them analyzed. So I'm waiting to hear back on those results. In the midst of this that evening we were supposed to get together with a bunch of old friends from Escondido who were throwing me a couples shower. Needless to say I had to cancel, but encouraged them all to continue on with the festivities. While getting ready to leave there shows up 2 of my dearest friends who drove down from Temecula with beautiful orange (my favorite color) flowers. Talk about good friends! I just felt bad they came down probably expecting me to have a baby shortly and come to find it was kidney stones. They got the raw end of the deal. A baby would have been much cuter to look at then the stones!