Home Again, Home Again Jiggetty Jig

I can't believe we've been home a whole week and still I haven't gotten anything posted yet. Every day I think maybe I'll get a chance but then life hits again and I have to go nurse a baby. But slowly and surely things are getting back to normal (although your old normal never returns after a new baby) and we're getting into the swing of things. Here's a quick run down of the last week.




Elias McKean Genho decided to honor us with his presence at 3:59am (why are babies never born in the daytime?) on June 6, 2008 - three days late and obviously well cooked since he came out a whopping 9.6 lbs and 20 inches. Elias is after John's great-grandfather, Elias Asad Alid Genho from Lebanon. We decided not to go with the Asas Alid part so he didn't randomly get checked at every airport screening. McKean was my grandmother's maiden name and somewhere back there we're related to Thomas McKean, who signed the Declaration of Independence. Nathan has been calling him "baby Lias" so we've all started leaving off the E. Ava likes to remind him that his name is Lias McKean. We thought maybe we'd call him Eli but so far that hasn't taken. Who knows what will stick.

We made it to the hospital in Culpeper, which is about 25 minutes away, with only about 25 minutes to spare and he was born in the Labor/Delivery triage room, where they take you to decide if you really are in labor or not. Luckily, they decided pretty quickly that I could stay and were even nice enough to call in the doctor (and it was the doctor I wanted to deliver me-yeah!). She made it for the last 5 minutes of labor, caught the baby, fixed me up and was back in bed within an hour. Not bad, if you ask me.

Hot, Sweaty and Finally Not Pregnant Anymore

Unfortunately, my mom wasn't so lucky and walked in about 5 minutes after the birth. This was the first time that John and I had done it alone (although I do remember about 5 nurses telling me to breathe, not push) so it was a pretty cool experience - even if it only lasted about 30 minutes. If we have another we may have a chance to really do it alone if these babies keep coming as fast as they do. Nathan's labor was only 2 hours, and Elias shaved 45 minute off of that one.

After all the technical details of weighing (9.6 lbs), measuring (20in long and 14.5 inch head), and bathing (lots and lots of fat rolls)........

Meaty Forearms...

Backfat a cattleman could be proud of...

Chunky Thighs

All we wanted to do is sleep......




But lucky Elias - he has older siblings to make life interesting!

Wanna cookie???

Chubby cheeks

Ava's real live doll

Three kids?? Am I crazy??

Stop touching me!!!

Things calmed down after awhile when the kids realized there was a TV in my room that played cartoons. Hence the not looking at the camera shots---

Now that we're home we're having fun just loving him.

Here at last

Here is Elias at last. He was 9 lbs 6 ounces. We walked into the hospital at 3:33 am this morning and he was born at 3:59 am. All that waiting paid off.

Elias is a very calm baby. He's perfectly content to sit and look around at everyone.

Nathan's happy to have a new little brother. He keeps on making a crying noise for Elias then saying "Elias no cry."

Ava was a little disappointed to not get a little sister at the ultrasound, but she's very happy to have a new little brother now.

No End In Sight.....

So here I am, 2 days overdue and no end in sight that I can see. I went to my doctor yesterday, who had a decent prognosis but I think they have to act cheerful. After her exam (and 3 tablespoons of castor oil earlier that morning) I had a good 3 hours of contractions, hard enough that John and I didn't head home. We walked around town and had the contractions coming at a good 3-4 minutes and hurting. There was a huge, awesome thunderstorm so we sat in the parking lot of Lowe's to wait for it to end. When the contractions got down to every 3 minutes we decided to head out to find a phone to let my mom, at home with the kids, know what was up. We quickly realized that the only place in town with power still on was the hospital so we headed there, even though I didn't think I was quite ready to check in. Then I realized everyone I know has a cell phone (we had left ours a home) so I went to a friends instead and used her phone. But as I was talking to my mom I didn't have any contractions and even for an hour after that nothing. So we just went home and went to bed and here I sit still, with nothing happening.

I guess babies just come when they want but those 3 hours of contractions last night made me very aware that I'm not too excited for the real deal, even though I want this kid out. What a choice: be miserable and huge or go through labor. Isn't there some other way? I'll keep you updated........

Living large.....

Since I've had this attitude from about 7 months along (which is when this picture was taken), I can't imagine I'd be any happier with life now that I look like this:

Technically, I've got 2 days left to go to get this baby out of me, but since the ultrasound date was May 31st I feel like I'm already overdue. I've been trying to ignore every little pain and contraction but it's hard when anytime after the 37th week you think it could happen any day. We've been trying to tempt fate by scheduling all kinds of things. We went 5 hours away to the beach last weekend and happened across a cool U-Pick strawberry patch on the way home. John picked, I ate and the kids played and picked green strawberries.

Ava was into posing and showing off her strawberry and new hairdo. Nathan was into the strawberry picking. He filled up half a bucket by himself.

There was a huge storm a few days before we got to Ocean City and it washed a bunch of the beach out and created a big sandbar a little ways out into the water.

One of the few bad things about the beach: it’s impossible to get all of the sand off your feet.

Ava is feeling a little camera shy and cold. The week before Memorial Day is great for beating the crowds but still a little chilly. There’s our hotel and our classy camo camping chair in the background.

Nathan got a John Deere birthday cake. We didn’t tell him it was a redecorated cake leftover from the baby shower the night before.

Nathan’s new fishing pole. It didn’t take him long to figure out how to crank it.

Here’s the catfish Nathan caught on his birthday. He’s set up for a disappointing life of fishing now since he caught a fish nearly as long as him the first time he went. It’s all down hill from there.

Shaggy and Short

April Showers bring May Flowers

We're trying to get more into the yard and garden stuff now that we've been in the house for almost 2 years. Well, I should correct myself- John's getting more into the yard and garden stuff and I'm huffing and puffing along behind trying to give my opinion but not willing to actually do much. Though I must admit that a baby on the hip or in the belly doesn't really make for a great gardener.

Last fall we actually thought about putting a few flowers in before it got too late, and this spring we were rewarded with about 20 beautiful white tulips in front of our brown barn. Ava thought they were pretty cool and had fun posing in front of them.




Here is the normal Ava we all know and love- shaggy hair and all.

After looking at these pictures I realized that Ava really needed a hair cut so off we went to the local cosmetology school, where she got a fancy new hair cut. She loves it because it doesn't get any "knotties" or tangles and she can brush it herself. I love it because I don't have to fight her on fixing her hair anymore and it's out of her face. Win-win!

Meanwhile, what does one naughty little boy do while his mom is having fun doing girlie things with his sister? Why, make messes of course.


Ava decided to paint the other day and I realized Nathan's never been given the chance so I set him up too. Now I know why he's never been given the chance. Although it bought me 15 minutes of computer time, it took at least that long to clean him and the table up- not to mention the health effects of sucking on paint.

And my thanks for letting him have this fun?


A dirty, twerpy look when I told him we were through. My nice little toddler is morphing into a naughty 2 year with an extensive vocabulary overnight. I'm just glad I only have 3 more weeks until this next baby comes out because Nathan's to the point that I have to physically remove him from situations and he's quite a brute.



But sometimes he's so sweet too........

Since a few people are actually looking at our blog......

Here's a few more recent pictures of the kids and life here on the farm in Virginia--

Riding in the truck wait for Dada to move cows- they look deceptively happy about this



Fancy Schmancy in their Easter finery. John bought me a fancy camera for my birthday last year but since I haven't figured out how to work it I'm still getting their pictures taken.


Suave Nathan at 22 months. He's quite the little man and loves to talk and repeat anything I say- good or bad. His latests are "knifes for mama, no nasin" while nodding his head enthusiastically since he's gotten in trouble a few times for nabbing a knife when he shouldn't. He's also mastered a little funny hop in circles when he's really excited about things. If I knew how to You Tube I'd post it but I'm not quite that good.




Ava Mava in her fancy clothes. She picked the dress out herself and was very excited that I let her wear a cool necklace. She's only 3 but she acts like she's 6. And she's about as big as a 6 year old too! She's become very independent since I've gotten lazy and fat with this next baby but she still likes cuddles and hugs (mainly only from her Dada though!). But don't let looks decieve you: her favorite things right now are wrestling goat babies (we have 50 in the field behind our house) and dinosaurs (she's currently obsessed with them and is dead set on having a dinosaur party for her birthday in July).




One of those adventures you get into without really knowing why. Chickens. We started with about 10 last fall and then I lost track when I started the morning sickness. Next thing I know we have about 40 laying hens and 45 baby chicks (we heard there was a very high incident of death among baby chicks but we must have done too good a job since all but 1 lived). So everyday we get eggs galore. We used to sell them to a local store but now we're too lazy to wash all of them each week so they're just accumulating in the fridge. Anybody want some dirty eggs?

Sad Day for Carlos

So today we came home from church to find the horses fighting and sure enough, who was in the middle of it but Carlos, the big dumb horse who doesn't know enough to stay away from the mares. This is the third time that it's been the mares "time of the month" which makes Carlos a little wild and crazy. (These pictures are from last winter- not May in Virginia!)



This time he broke down two wooden gates to get to them and John, to put it mildly, was NOT HAPPY. Each time Carlos gets out or does something dumb (which seems to be happening frequently) John marches into the kitchen and announces to me, great with child and usually in the middle of making dinner, that I "have to do something with that horse or he's getting rid of it". I've learned to just listen quietly as he raves, then I usually catch Carlos and things move on.

But today I think he might have reached his limit and so we're now in the dilemma of trying to figure out what to do with a naughty horse who is too big for his britches and who we just bought a very fancy cart to use him with.




Our options are: sell him, breed him to another horse and keep the other horse and baby and sell him, or geld him (remove his boy parts in the hopes that he would forget what fun it is to court those mares- this probably wouldn't work anyway, since he's 15 and isn't likely to forget easily). So I'll keep you updated on what actually happens but let's hope it's a happy outcome. Remind me again- why do I have a horse when I have (almost) three kids under the age of 4? Yeah, that's what I thought.

The Day Has Come.....

So probably no one will ever read this anyway, since it's been almost 3 years since we moved to the country and lost touch with civilization, but I just thought I'd let the world know......that WE HAVE HIGH SPEED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, I'm sitting in my bedroom typing, rather than tethered to the computer downstairs in the kitchen. We've been trying for months to get some sort of high speed internet out here but have hit dead ends everywhere. Until today, I have been dialing up at the lighting fast speed of 9.8 sometimes and 28.8 at the very fastest. I kid you not. It was enough to make me give up internet, all except checking emails and CNN which occupied an hour of my time just to do that. But not anymore, since my wonderful husband just got us Sprint highspeed. I can now actually see your email pictures, open your blogs and (gasp) watch things online!!

Anyway, we'll see if this makes me a better blogger or if my excuses just change. Hopefully, you'll hear more from me!

Try this again!!

So my great friend Chelsea is here and teaching me all about blogs- her's rocks - and I'm trying to post to mine again. We've been having a blast the past week staying up late, making projects and driving around the farm. We bought a huge Christmas tree the other night and then realized why it was so cheap. It was massive and never trimmed so I spent the night trying to get it managable. It fills the entire corner of our dining room. But it looked such a treat for our farm Christmas Party on Friday night. It was really fun. We let all the kids eat their ginger bread father from the ginger bread house...rather funny!



Chels and I did a bit of arty farty stuff last night till 2 am while the boys played cards. Here's the finished product. An old window found in a barn here on the farm, filled with jazzed up black and white photos. We probably spent 30 minutes admiring it after we had made it. Cool!!!



And a cute pic of Nathan and John..... love my boys!

Happy Halloween

Here are our farm animal kids- Nathan got shoved into Ava's old calf costume and Ava got to be a donkey to go along with her Shrek dad.