Easter Fun

I wanted to give the kids the most normal Easter as possible. After having the new baby, the kids had their spring break and I felt awful because I really couldn't do much with them. I don't think they noticed as much as I did, but we did have some fun with all the Easter festivities. Cedric took them on a Easter egg hunt with some friends and we had one at our home as well. We also had some good times dying Easter eggs. Hopefully they will forgive me for a boring spring break!

Hunting for eggs in the backyard...



Easter baskets!

M thought the dye tablets were Smarties and tried to eat the orange one, hence the stained shirt...


T with her favorite egg...

Picture with the Easter Bunny...can they sit any farther away?

Another egg hunt!

Being silly with some friends...

From the Home Front

This is a late post, but we wanted to give you an update now that we are home, from a sleep deprived mom. Everything has gone more than smoothly. B is the best baby we have seen. He eats well, sleeps well, and of the two weeks that we've had him with us, he's cried maybe a handful of times when he was getting changed and starving or bathing. He is the best kid we could ask for! We feel so blessed because I don't know if I could do it if it were different. In a sense, I think we deserve it because G man cried enough for all four kids!

Our sweet kids spent several days with my parents at our home. They wanted to have something special for us when we arrived home. They made my mom go out and get some balloons and a cake for us and they taped this cute note that they had decorated and colored to the door. Here's what it said:

"Welcome home, mom, dad and B. We love you. Dear B, your nose is very cute. Dear mom, I know your belly still herts. Dear dad, I know you have to help mom."

We heard all sorts of giggling behind the door and as we opened it, all the kids yelled "surprise!" It was the cutest thing.

Here are a few shots the kids at home. It was nice to be out of the hospital...it was a little depressing being there, if you ask me! We actually came home a day earlier than planned because we were sick of being there. It's nice to be home!

We're already starting him early on baseball attire...

He's a great sleeper...

Proud brother...every morning the kids run in to see if he's awake yet. Sometimes this starts some contention in our home as to who gets to hold him first.

The girls and their little bro...

Our New Addition

We just wanted to post pictures of our new little guy. Braden Tyler Moran was born on Saturday, March 28th at 12:15pm. He was 7 lbs., 8 oz., and 20 1/4 inches long. Both mom and baby are doing very well. He is the most mellow baby yet. Please enjoy some of these pictures and we will post more soon!

Prego Update

It's been such a busy two weeks, I know you all know the drill. I just wanted to give you an update on where we are at with this baby.

About a month ago, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. With two out of my three previous pregnancies, I was pretty much borderline, but never actually went over the score to be diagnosed. This time, I did. It was a little difficult, at first, to take. I have to follow a strict diet of six smaller meals a day and check my blood (by pricking myself) four times a day. I bruise easily, so it was not fun. However, I have quickly adjusted, and actually, my scores have stayed well below the ranges and my doctor has given me the green light to only prick myself twice a day now. Yippee! The major concern for gestational diabetes is that the baby will get too big. However, I highly doubt that because all my babies were between 5-6 lbs. each and with this pregnancy, I've gained a total of 7 lbs.! I must say, however, that I do feel like I have a lot more energy now that I am watching the clock and forcing myself to eat at certain times. I used to be so busy from running around that I wouldn't eat my first meal until 1pm and then binge and then feel awful afterwards. I only have a few more weeks to endure this! It normally goes away after the pregnancy is over because it is caused by the placenta and pregnancy hormones. Then I can go back to eating my chocolate cake :)

To top it off, I found out last week that the baby is breech. For those of you that have talked to me regularly, I have wanted more than anything to be able to deliver this baby naturally. M was a c-section baby and the recovery was horrendous. Things you take for granted, like lifting your head up for some water, or walking upright, or even going to the bathroom were tough, painful chores. This little guy has been hanging out in the same position this entire pregnancy and I'm afraid that with tight space, he will not move on his own. I have tried to push the doctors for an external version (where they try and move the baby from the outside to vertex position), but I was just told by all the doctors that it is too risky because of a possibility of a uterine rupture, since my last one was a c-section.

So that means that my c-section is set for March 28th, unless this baby decides to turn on his own (cross your fingers and say a prayer for us)! I have less than 3 weeks to get my house in order and everything else I've been needing to get done! Do you hear the panic in my voice? :)

We'll keep you posted as things come along! Don't be surprised if the next post will be announcing the new baby, though!

Our Beautiful Trooper

I'm hesitant to share this, because I'm not one to get very personal on my blog. However, I decided to just so you know what's going on with us and maybe to give someone hope who is going through the same thing.

Our Miss T has had a very tough few months. She had a stye on her eye that started around Thanksgiving that got bigger and never went away (see Christmas post). It has been about three months and it has been hard for her to have this each day. Some people are just not tactful, and say really loud, "What happened to your eye?! You still have that?" She has been very strong about it. She looks people in the eye and tells them it is a stye, which is a bump and it will go away. However, there are times that I can tell that it hurts her a bit and she hangs her head down.

I took her in to the eye doctor last week to see if there was anything else we could do to get this to go away. As the doctor was checking her, he said that the stye was the best thing that happened to her. He found that she has very poor vision in her left eye (20/150). I was told that we are all born with poor vision; but later, the brain develops signals with the eyes and the vision gets better. However, in T's condition, her left eye stayed blurry and then what happens is that the brain shuts down the use of that eye in response. The great news is that it is something that can be corrected and fixed because it was caught so early. If she had gone in after the age of 8-9, the brain already sets in and it cannot be corrected.

We feel that the stye was a blessing in disguise. We had to get her glasses that she has to wear all the time while awake. I have to patch up her right eye (the good one) four hours a day to force her to use the bad one. This will help build up the bad one and make it stronger. It will help her eye and brain connect and get more use out of it. I am very confident that she will be able to correct this problem. There have been very many success stories. Whether or not she will regain 20/20 vision is in question, but she will regain most, if not all, her sight back in that left eye. I actually had a similar problem at the same age. I wore glasses for most of my early life, but am now without them and can see better than most people that wear glasses. My glasses were literally coke bottle glasses, probably about 1/2 an inch thick. Also, in T's case, her eye has not crossed or turned in, which is good. Mine did and it straightened out.

She has been a great sport about all of this. I couldn't be more proud. I try not to let her see how bad I feel for her. I am trying to make it fun and exciting for her. I took her to pick out two pairs of glasses. She looks beautiful in them. She is so excited to have them. For the patches, I ordered some really cute ones with cute designs on them to keep her excited. I am going to try and have her play computer games, card games, draw,etc. while she is patching so that she looks forward to it and also so that she can use her eye better to focus during that four hours per day. As a mother, I hate that she has to go through this, and want her to be as happy and confident as possible. I know how mean kids can be out there and I know I need to prepare her for it. However, she is a very strong girl and realize that she can handle more than I think. She has had her glasses for one full week now and has been great about keeping them on. So far, so good. Everyone around her has been very positive. I am thankful for everyone's support! We will keep you posted on her progress.

Here's our T at her ballet/tap recital the morning before we picked up her new glasses.

Here she is with the new glasses, with her happy, cheesy smile...

My Latest Obsession

After we got home from the monster truck jam (see below posting) we were feeling pretty ambitious and decided to start a "girl's room" for M and T at midnight. We have been back and forth on where to put everyone before the baby comes. The design and colors had been laid out and prepared for weeks in the making. The hardest part was taping up the room. I had decided to do two tones of pink, with a white stripe in the middle. The wallpaper border matched the two pinks and we did green on top, with flowers spread out. It was actually fun to do and rewarding to see the final product. We even did a bathroom with a castle and a carriage mat to carry them to the ball. It took us several days to finish everything. The girls love it and spend a lot of time in there playing dress up and dolls. In a sense, it is the girly room that I never had! We are so glad we got it done!

Snow Dance

We've been doing the snow dance for quite some time now. This winter has been pretty pathetic, as far as snow fall. We had a dusting a few weeks ago. This past week, we had about 3-4 inches. Not too much, but in this area, when a snow flake hits the ground, the city shuts down! The kids got two days off of school and a two hour delay out of it. It did ice over, which is the reason for the second closing day and delay, so I guess it was ligitimate. I just want one BIG storm where we don't even have to check if school is canceled, we just know by looking out the window. I want to make snowmen, snow angels and snow forts...in the mean time, we have enjoyed what we've gotten so far.

Monster Truck Jam

Last weekend, we took G to a monster truck jam in DC. We are closet fans (we meaning Cedric and I). G has loved monster trucks since he was about two. The girls spent the night at my parents and it was G's special night with us. He loved riding the Metro into the city and really enjoyed the jumping and crushing that was going on. The noise was pretty loud, but very bearable with ear plugs.
G was so excited...

Here are some shots of us this past summer where we visited "Digger's Dungeon," home of the Grave Digger. See, we have been closet fans!

Quick Update

This is just a post to let you know we are doing well, just as busy as ever. In my haste to try and get everything in before the baby comes, I'm afraid I may be in over my head. I have days that I am literally home for a total of 40 minutes the entire day. On top of picking up and dropping off kids at school and preschool, I signed the kids up for a gazillion different activities. I just know that after this baby comes I will not be able to let them do the things they'd like to. So...I've got Miss T in tap/ballet once a week, G and T in private swimming lessons once a week, G in basketball twice a week, and M in a gymnastics once a week. So our daily routine is to come and go...15 mins. of homework here, scarfing down a meal there, jetting off to a class, then something else, then home for dinner, baths and bed! So sorry this is a quick post with no pictures, but I am seriously in need of some down time!

We attempt to have a normal family night on Monday nights. However, I'm not sure how much the kids got out of it. We started out with singing "I am a Child of God." T ran off somewhere saying she needed to get something in the middle of the song and came back with some Q-tips plugged in her ears because she said our singing was awful. Then during the quick lesson, we lost M, who went off into the kitchen. We found out later that she had pulled out all of the tupperware onto the floor. G tried to act like he was listening, but kept saying, "I already know this stuff, when are we going to have the treats?"

So this is what's been going on with us. Every day is an adventure, to say the least! We'll be posting again later!

Anniversary and Day Trip

In all that was going on (see previous post) I forgot to mention that Cedric and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary that same week (thanks to my brother and wife for watching the kids). We went out for a nice dinner and did some more Christmas shopping...yes, we aren't as adventurous as our earlier days. We had hoped to go on a nice trip, which seemed feasable 6 months ago, but now with a new baby on the way and the economy the way it is, we decided to take a rain check on that! Check back with us in a few years, maybe we'll finally make a trip to Hawaii or Australia! So here's to 10 years with a wonderful husband. He's my eternal companion and best friend!

On another note, a few days ago, since we had healthy children again, we decided to take the kids on a trip up to Hershey, PA. It was nice to get away for a bit and get out of the house. The kids were getting a little stir crazy from being sick and doing NOTHING during their break. Here are some shots from the trip. We had a wonderful time. The weather was in the 40's, but we bundled them up pretty well and there was no wind, so we lucked out.

All I Wanted for Christmas...

Were three healthy kids! Here is a little glimpse of what we had going on in our house leading up to Christmas...


Patient #1: Little M...She had constant fevers that ran up to almost 104 all day, for 8 straight days, a nose that ran every two seconds, and vomitting. She was not herself at all, not eating, talking, or even playing. After taking her to the doctor, we were told it was a virus and all we could do was wait it out. Here's a picture of her with a cool rag on her head, trying to smile through it all...

Patient #2: Miss T...Poor girl had a stye on her eye that started over a month ago and got progressively larger. All we could do was keep putting warm compresses on it and wait for it to do it's thing (not to be gross or anything). She also came down with a low grade fever, but was in good spirits.

Patient #3: G Man...He had been coming up to me all week and telling me that his ear hurt and I kept brushing him off because he didn't have a temperature. Finally, one night, the poor guy was in so much pain that he broke down in tears and I checked his temperature and it was high. I took M and G in for a "two for one" check up and found out he had an ear infection.

We were blessed to have all of their symptoms clear up by Christmas (for the most part). Cedric and I keep talking about how lucky we are to have such good kids. They never once complained and were always trying to stay positive. It gave us a whole new perspective on Christmas and how thankful we are for our family and little things that we take for granted (including health). We ended up having a great Christmas Eve dinner with family. I cooked up a turkey and a ham and 12 different dishes. It was nice to be able to celebrate with people we love. Here are just a few shots of us.

Christmas Eve...Aunt Tera made the girls little red riding hood towels and G was the big bad wolf.

Opening some family presents on Christmas Eve

Cousins...

Breakfast with Santa...

Christmas Morning...Santa put some Slim Jims in the kids' stockings. I know, our family has great taste in food!

The girls got a baby Chou Chou from Santa that gets a fever and its face lights up and it stops crying once you take its temperature and give it the medicine. Isn't that so suiting? Santa must have had "sickness" on his mind when he brought this!

M in her new dress up clothes...


We hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

Jumpstarting the Season

A shot of the temple taken by G

The girls in front of one of the trees decorated from around the world

Us (minus Ced the photographer) in front of the temple

I'm sure I am speaking for many of you, but Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. This year, we are trying to keep things more simple and enjoy the memories with our family and friends. Every year, we go to the annual temple lighting ceremony at the DC temple. My ex-boss' wife (follow that?) is the Director for International Relations for our church. They usually put on a good show and have general authorities speak. It is by invitation only and we are joined in the crowd by Congressmen, ambassadors, etc. The kids always like to see the "castle where mommy and daddy were married." It's fun to tell them how they were just a twinkle in our eye when we were married there. The lights are always beautiful at the temple and it's such a great way to kick off the season.