2015 Begins

A quick run down at life in the Pitre house for the beginning of 2015.
Stuart has been at his job over 5 years and will finally become a certified bridge inspector this spring, something we have been waiting 5 years for.  He still loves his job, and can't wait to do more diving all over the country (he is still gone a lot).  If they win the Alaska job again he can finally go do that job (they required 5 years of experience) and he is really hoping he gets that job.  Last March he got cute by an oyster shell and was in the hospital for 4 days with a very serious infection.  It was very scary and I don't ever what to forget it so I remember how important he is to this family.  He thinks he wants to live in Alaska off the grid, I just laugh and shake my head.
I am currently in school at UCF working on a degree in health sciences.  I'm still not 100% sure what I am going to do yet but I really want to finally finish and although it feels like it is never going to happen, every semester I do get a little closer.  It's fun to be going back and learning new stuff, and working really hard, but it is hard with the kids and I feel torn all the time.
Grace is 7 in second grade and loves her school.  Her teacher is her favorite and I sometimes think she would go live with her if she had a chance.  But I never have to fight with her to get up in the morning, so that is a win.  She just started piano lessons but isn't thrilled about practicing everyday.  She loves singing, is a little obsessed with Frozen and wants to work at Sea World, Disney, the movie theater and be a teacher when she grows up.  And she is already talking about when she has babies and she wants to live near me so I can hold them all the time (good girl).
Zach is 5 and is in kindergarten this year.  He still is a little hard to understand sometimes, but only when he is excited and talks fast, so it is so much better then it was a year ago.  He has a very nice teacher but he is not as thrilled about school.  Mornings are very hard for him, he is like me.  His favorite things right now are snakes and guns.  He is my most snuggly kid, but also loves to play fight with Dad.  His favorite colors are black and green.  I'm trying to convince him to become a pilot so I can fly free, but he said planes go to fast, but I'm going to keep working on him.
Katy is 3 and fierce.  We joke all the time she is mean, and people don't believe us but she is sassy.  I don't feel like we have parented her differently, but she is definitely more independent that the other 2.  She loves my little pony and frozen toys right now.  We got her a kitchen for Christmas and she really likes that too (it was a joy putting together christmas eve).  She just started sunbeams yesterday and wasn't upset about it, she was ready to move on.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple and she would eat candy all day if we would let her.  Her favorite person is Stuart for sure, so we are always so happy when he is home for a while.
We bought our house in Florida a little over 2 years ago, and we are almost done paining the entire interior and Stuart is still working on the outside yard.   It may never ben done because we are constantly fighting with our grass to grow.  The kids love the pool and would be in everyday if we had a heater.  We have some really awesome neighbors, so we are very lucky.
We still have sweet, old Max, he is over 9.  I always knew we would be lucky to see him to 10 but you can say that all you want to prepare yourself, its not going to help.  My heart is already hurting seeing him slowing down.  I'm not sure now we will get through his dying, and I know we will but it is going to be rough, we are all very attached.
I hope this year brings some changes, but not too many.  Stuart said recently that we are in a good place and he is happy where we are, so lets hope we will feel the same way at the end of 2015.

Not blogging resolutions.

I'm not going to blog about my resolutions, I'm not even sure I have locked-in ones for this year.  I have ideas of course that are ongoing about how to better myself and our lives, but I don't need to put them out there to look at in a year and think "what a loser".
  I am currently in school right now (just in case in 40 years when I am reading this I forget that, ha) and I'm constantly learning new things and I love that.  And I am back in relief society and I learn a lot in those lessons as well about the gospel.  And I love that, I love learning, and I love that my parents were such a good example about always learning new things.  My parents are always reading, and not fluff stuff, real stuff.  My dad always reads at least 2 books about the place they are living in before they move there and took up birding in his 40's.  My mom is continuing her education right now after taking 38 years off and reads every genre of books out there.  But that is just a side note about how awesome they are.
I once heard my mom say that she has a few questions for the Lord when she gets to see him again, and of course she said this lightly and was not seriously questioning his great plan, but since hearing that I sometimes think about what I would ask too.  So here are somethings I would just love to ask because my meager mind just doesn't get it.
Why do some people struggle with infertility?  It seems so cruel when we are taught to go forth and multiply.
And along with that, why mis-carriages? It's like you don't feel like it was a real pregnancy, and most people don't give the opportunity to morn for the loss that is so real.
How come some people can eat whatever they want and look amazing, and some have to cut out food groups before they start losing weight?  (I'm not oblivious to that fact that most people that are in really good shape do eat right, and I eat like a cow, but still...)
There are some people out there that no matter how hard to try to be close to them just won't reciprocate.
What are we supposed to learn from our bodies getting old and not working how we want, especially our minds.
I don't understand how anyone can do anything sexual to a child, it is beyond disturbing.
It's not Aristotle stuff, but just stuff that makes me go huh?  And I will probably never get real answers, but who knows, in 40 years maybe I will.

Time flies

Why does time have to go so fast.  I was just talking to Stuart the day after Thanksgiving and I said "Christmas is going to be here before we know it", and now it is over.  Although my kids would disagree, they thought it took forever for Christmas to come and now they think it will be "forever" until the next big holiday which they think is Easter.  They have conveniently forgotten how important my birthday is...
My babies are getting big, and that is fun and exciting but also makes me sad.  But I guess that is life.  And of course, time flies when you are having fun, so we will keep having the time of our lives!

So Sweet...

Kathryn's blessing

I am so lucky, my family was able to come into town for Kathryn's baby blessing in October.  This is actually not easy since my brother-in-law is a teacher and my Dad works in Australia, but miraculously it all came together (minus my brother who is on a mission).  It was so fun to have all the cousins together to play, they are getting to a great age where they really like playing and spending time together.  Wish we lived closer.

 I am so grateful that Stuart was able to bless our new baby.  She was quiet thru the whole thing which is always a huge gamble with such a small baby.  We were also very happy that Stuart's brother as able to make it with his daughter.  What a great family we have.

 This beautiful blessing dress was handmade by our sweet friend Cheryl Green.  It is so beautiful and kind of her to do this for my sweet girl.

Kathryn joins our family!

After waiting 38 weeks, we finally were blessed with another sweet baby girl! I wanted a girl pretty bad because I just kept remembering all the cute dresses Gracie had as a baby and wanted to get them out again. And I guess we haven't got our fix of princess yet. Both Stuart and I liked the name Kathryn, but it doesn't come from anywhere special, just felt right. We call her Katy too, which confuses the kids a little but I think it is growing on Gracie(mind you she wanted to name her Rapunzel Bubbles). Her middle name is Jean, which is my mother-in-laws middle name as well as my maternal grandfather's name, so didn't that work out great!

For some reason our girls want to keep us on our toes, Kathryn had to have a dramatic entrance into this world. (Here comes the birth story, so if not interested...might want to move on) After not feeling any movement almost all day Stuart and I decided to go to the hospital just to check her out. All I wanted to hear was a heart beat and oh what a beautiful sound it was. As they were monitoring me for a a little bit, the nurses saw I was having contractions but she was not reacting to them as babies are supposed to. So although her heart sounded good they wanted a more active baby, so the Dr. decided it was time for her to come out. So the dreaded pitocin was started (I wanted to go natural again like my other 2) and we were hoping that since this was my third baby this was all I would need to kick start things. After six hours of pitocin I was still at a 1cm and she still wasn't responding like they wanted so the Dr. decided to do a c-section. I was so amazed at how fast everything went from there. It was about 4 in the morning but those nurses are used to moving quick. It was scary and daunting to think that I was going to have my first surgery ever, but I just kept telling myself that I would be able to hold her in 10 minutes. And it was very fast, and the spinal block it pretty crazy and amazing how quickly it works and my sweet baby was born. She had pooped in utero and they think thatthat may be what caused her to slow down, and after they had her out we discovered she had inhaled some of the merconeum. So she got put in the nursery so they could observe her while I went to recovery, which is a very lonely place at 5 in the morning and I couldn't really rest because I was pretty loopy after the surgery and they kept checking on me. Weird feeling being numb and loopy and tired and worried all at once. The pediatrician decided he didn't like how she was breathing and so she got transported to another hospital to be in the NICU. I was very lucky in the fact that I healed quickly and was able to get out of the hospital by the next afternoon, usually you have to stay 2 days after a c-section but my Dr. was very sweet and said that it would be better for me and baby if I got to go be with her. I finally got to go and hold Kathryn on Friday night for just a few minutes for the first time, the nurse that night was not pleasant at all and we decided it was best to rest and come back the next morning. We had a heck of a time convincing the nurses and doctors that we could care for her at home, by this time she was breathing on her own and starting to eat very well from a bottle. We learned a lot about hospital time tables dealing with Gracie's illnesses and it is very frustrating. What a glorious Sunday evening when she finally came home and met the whole family. Gracie was lucky enough to see her and hold her while she was still in the NICU but Zach was too young and Max needed an intro as well. We are so blessed that nothing really serious or with long term effects happened to either me or Kathryn.

Some things I never want to forget from this experience...I had a very specific plan for this birth down to what I wanted to wear during labor and not one of those things came to pass. I have now experienced 3 very different kinds of child birth and I really hope that all my "stories" will be able to help someone someday. And just because I had everything go different then I wanted I would not advocate not having a plan, just be ready for diversion. It was a little heart breaking to me that I was not going to have a beautiful, natural birth like I had with Zach and I really considered paying for a home birth out of pocket so we could have that, but for some reason I always hesitated and now I know that the Lord was watching over us and making sure we were where we needed to be for our safety. Like I said before I think that I was able to stay calm and rational because I have had some practice with uncertainty at hospitals. But the biggest blessing of all thru this was our friends. We had a very sweet friend that spent the night with the kids that first night and then took the dog the rest of the weekend so we didn't have to worry about him. After that night some other friends stepped in to care for the kids and drive them places and care for them so I didn't have to worry and Stuart could stay with me as much as possible. I also had some special visitors at the hospital and lots of phone calls and texts to check up on us.  I very much appreciate each one of these thoughts and prayers.  While Gracie was at her friend's house she told her "Kathryn really needs to come home, she needs me". It is so easy during times like these to get angry and ask why this is happening, but just as you are getting down and feeling discouraged it is amazing how the Lord steps in and someone will call or come visit and you forget those thoughts. I am so blessed to be reminded of the Lord's tender mercies and to have this beautiful new baby in our lives.

A quick run down...

Wow time flies when you are busy. A quick run down of some fun stuff that we were able to squeeze in at the end of summer. I really wanted to go see my Mom one more time before Gracie started school, because there go the days of just taking off for weeks at a time to get away. Plus we love her house and visiting with her. The kids were so excited to see the kitties, but Zach was always tormenting them and therefore got bit. He still to this day says all kitties bite, but he deserved it. Good thing they are de-clawed or it would have been a whole other story. We also found out that not only is Max good with the cats, but he let Gus bully him around the house, it's kind of a sad day when a 170lb dog is being cornered by a cat, but I am glad he was being his usual gentle self.

As I mentioned before Gracie started school this year. It is a pre-kindergarten class every morning for 3 hours a day. She loves it! She got into the same class as some of her friends from her dance class, so what more could a girl ask for. I am so happy with all the stuff she is learning, so that is a plus. I don't need to have the smartest kids, but I am so happy she is picking up on all the letters, numbers, shapes and rhyming. I really hope that her enthusiasm for school stays strong for years to come.

Gracie and I were able to go on a Mommy and Gracie date to the princesses on ice. It was so fun, and I was so impressed by the whole thing. I let Gracie wear one of her princess costumes of course and she was so excited to see Rapunzel in the show. It was the perfect night. I have been so blessed with such good kids and I love them so much!