Mayan loves olives

Sorry its a little jumpy. Enjoy

video ( i hope)

Mayan

I can't belive my baby is 10 months old and I never write about her.. (or anything for that matter. First thing every morning she searches for her Daddy... She yells "dad" or "Seth" as we walk around the house and when he comes home after work she doesn't leave him alone until she gets her daddy time. Mayan is growing up so much. She knows how to say "hi" and wave. She can say "mom" "dad" and tries to say "lily". She loves her big sister, but really loves her time without her too :) She is so different than Lily. She loves to sit alone in our toy corner and just figure things out. She will practice opening the doors on Lily's kitchen and putting toys inside for the longest time. She is our thinker and she is very good at figuring things out. She knows how to climb onto and up our slide (I've tried to get a video, but no success yet) She also knows how to use things to climb onto our couch and get things off the table, then she can turn around and climb down without falling! She can also climb up and down the stairs. I don't know how she figured out how to climb down, but she can! She is still a terrible night sleeper, but we are working on that. She'll start sleeping well and then she gets another tooth. She has 5 now and number 6 is almost in. Overall she is quite the joy. She is funny and has a ton of personality! Here's a video of Mayan taking a few steps... yes that is a piece of licorice I am using to bribe her. She can take a few more steps than this, but she was distracted by the camera and her favorite person in the world (Daddy) Shoot the video will NOT load.... It tried for hours... any suggestions? Here's pictures instead... or not, they won't load either!

The last year

We have had alot of excitement over the last year... alot of joy and even more tears. Here is a quick overview.
June 14- Found out we were expecting Mayan
June 17- Seth lost his job at Arid (very unexpectedly)
June 25ish- My parents move from Blythe to NC and stop in to say farewell... its hard to see them go.
June 29- our 3rd anniversary and the day we move into our current house. We have lots of problems with the move (esp with our landlord being very inconsistant).
July 22- I find out I am actually 2 weeks more pregnant than we previously thought. July 22 Lily gets stung by a Bark Scorpion. The Doctors in the ER talk of her needing anti- venum and having to send her to a Children's hospital across the valley in an ambluance. We have no insurance. A dose of morphine and a Priesthood blessing later and she is sent home. (4 hours later) Half an hour after she got stung Seth's Mom and sister fly into the Phoenix airport to help his other sister. She is having surgery the next day while we watch her 1 year old son.
Lily remains in pain over the next several days and doesn't sleep well for over a month. She wakes up often screaming in fear of scorpions.
July 30th- Lily and I fly out to Charlotte to visit my parents and siblings. Seth flies to bakersfield- where he meets his grandparents and flies with them to a funeral in Salt Lake.
August 11th- Lily turns 2. Seth starts his job at TLC after being unemployed for almost 2 months.
August 20(ish) Seth spends the weekend at a Bachelor party in Orange County for our close friend Mike.
September 3- we find out that somehow Lily did not qualify for medicaid which leaves us with the entire hospital bill. We were blessed to find out the hospital paid most of the bill through their financial aid program.
September 24- We find out we are having a baby girl.
September 25- I fall down a flight of stairs and break 2 bones in my foot. In the emergency room I am told I won't be able to put pressure on it for 6 weeks.
September 28- I find out the break isn't as bad as previously thought and that I will be in a walking boot and soft cast for 4 weeks (that weekend was one of my hardest emotionally.. 4 months prego on crutches and my leg was swelling into the cast sending shooting pain through my leg, which would only go away if i hobbled around the house )
October 5 -I find out that I have tendonitis in my other foot from the combination of a broken foot and my growing belly. I cannot take the needed medication for this because I am pregnant, so it just gets worse. By week end of week 4 it is not healed, so the doctor has me take the boot off one foot and put it on the other.
October 20 -Seth is the best man in our friend Mikes wedding. We spend the weekend in Orange County. I get lots of funny looks and questions since I am quite pregnant and have a huge black boot on my foot. The wedding was beautiful and the couple is very happy.
Things slowed down as much as possible through the holidays. I got bigger and bigger.
Thanksgiving was spent in St George with my aunt Di and my aunt Pat. We took a day trip up to Provo to meet with our friends Jacko and Jason (Jacko now has a baby 6 weeks younger than Mayan so it was fun to be pregnant together) Christmas was spent at our house and then at Seth's sister's house in tuscon.
January and the beginning of February were spent waiting... and waiting... and waiting.. for Mayan to arrive. My parents came in the end of January in order to be here when Mayan arrived. They spent much of their time in Blythe and LA while we waited.
Several false alarms later and Mayan finally came the day before her due date. February 9th.
February 15 (the day after my birthday I went to the ER with some severe pains in both hips. I spent 9 hours in the hospital only to be told it was probably a bladder infection...
February 16 we find out Mayan has RSV. The doctor decides to let us monitor her at home instead of sending her to the hospital. He sends her home on a sleep apnea monitor. She recovers in about a week.
February 21 was Mayan's baby blessing.
March Seth's parents come to meet Mayan. Seth's dad spends much of his time installing our backyard. (thanks so much Bryant)
Middle of March we are released from our primary calling and Seth is called as Scout Master for the deacons.
March 17-I wake up to the downstairs phone ringing at 5 am. Seth is in a pretty serious accident. The car is totalled, but again we are blessed to find out Seth is just sore and bruised.
Early April we get a new corolla (we figure it saved Seth's life in the accident we're sticking with it)
Mid April- we decided on a friday morning that after Seth got off work we were going to hop in the car and head west. We got to Yorba Linda at about 2 am and stayed with Mike and Wendy (the friends that got married in october.) We spent Saturday at the beach and got to spend some time with my brother Aaron and his wife Jamie.
April 30- Seth goes to a landscaping convention -with his company-in Vegas for the weekend.
May 14 Seth goes on a campout with his Scouts.
May 18th I fly out to Charlotte with both girls without Seth. I get to see all of my siblings except one. All 21 of my parents grandchildren were together. It was wonderful. While I was in Charlotte with the girls Seth was in Houston helping his parents install their garden.
Somewhere between the time we moved into this house and when Mayan was born we had a total of 21 people (and 4 dogs) staying with us at various times for various amounts of time, many of them multiple times.
Now we are preparing for another crazy anniversary. Seth will be at scout camp for the actual anniversary so we are hoping to get a date the weekend before the actual day.
As I reflect on this last year I see ALOT of trials, but I also see the amount we were allowed to grow through these trials. We are so blessed to have made it through so many trials as a family and we are much stronger because of them. Here's to another year (hopefully this one is a little calmer)

Mayan's Birth Story

Mayan is almost 3 months old so it's about time I wrote this, while it is still fresh.
Disclaimer, this post contains many "womanly issues" if you don't want to hear it then don't read it.
If I could title my last few weeks of pregnancy I would call it "The Waiting Game". Lily was born 3 weeks early and in the back of my mind I always thought Mayan would come early too. My parents flew in from Charlotte 2 weeks before my due date and we all waited.
The day before my due date I went in for my 40 week check. My cervix had not dilated any more since my 39 week appointment. This was despite the fact that I had my membranes stripped and 12 hours of contractions for 5-6 minutes through the night. My doctor told me that the position of my amniotic sac was blocking Mayan from putting pressure on my cervix thus allowing it not to dilate properly. He said I should have gone into the hospital the previous week when I was in labor. He stripped my membranes again and told me to wait an hour and then go to the hospital.
I called Seth and told him to hurry home. He was working an hour away and had a crew of men with him, so this was not an easy task. He hurried as quickly as he could and while he did my Mom helped me prepare to go to the hospital. The whole time I was contracting every 5 minutes or so.
When I got to the hospital it was packed.It was about 1 in the afternoon. There were 2 women waiting in front of me and before I was taken back 2 more came. I knew that since my water hadn't broken I could be sent home. I was taken back into a room and checked again and I still had not progressed past the 3 cms I was at a week earlier. The nurse stripped my membranes again and told me she would check on me again in an hour. The nurse that hooked up the heart rate monitor put it on too loosely, so every time I moved (which is impossible not to do while laboring in a very uncomfortable hospital bed) Finally the nurse called my doctor and he told them to admit me and he would come to break my water. This was at about 245. They checked me again and I had only progressed to a 4 even though I was in active labor.
As my luck would have it, I got a "nurse in training" to put in my IV. She splattered blood everywhere and left a nasty bruise.
This whole time I was in the triage department of labor and delivery. There were no open delivery rooms at the time. I finally got into my room at about 430. The anesthesiologist was waiting there to administer my epidural.
The epidural worked wonders- at first.... Then my blood pressure started to drop.... and then it started creeping up my right arm and through my chest.I could not lift my right arm. Then the left side started to wear off... (which is what it did with Lily also)
At about 530 my doctor arrived and broke my water. I was still only at 4 cm. The next time he checked- over an hour later I was still at 5 cm.
40 minutes later I had alot of lower back pain and pain on my left side. This really worried me because Lily was born "sunny side up" (which is why I pushed for 3 and a half hours with her)and knew that lots of lower back pain could indicate that Mayan was face up also. My doctor came and checked me again to find that I was was 10 cm dilated and ready to push. 3 contractions later and Mayan was born. 6 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long.
Seth noted that she was blue and my doctor's response was "Don't worry- she's not an Avatar" I really liked my doctor. I again required no stitches. The nurses let us enjoy our little girl for a good while before they even took her to clean her up and weigh her. It was a very calm and relaxed birth. Nothing was rushed and I felt very peaceful. We were discharged within 24 hours of the birth. We wanted to get home in time to introduce her to Lily before bedtime.
Overall I would say it was a very easy birth. From the time the doctor broke my water to Mayan's birth was about 2 hours. My labor prior to that was painful, but not unbearable. It was all worth it for my sweet little girl.

The Backyard and garden

Here are a few pictures of the backyard. It was hard to get a good picture of the whole thing. We put in 22 tons of rock around the edges. 2 garden L shaped beds that are 12 feet long and 4 feet wide and 18 inches deep. We (well, they) also put in curbing and sod. The whole yard is set up on timed irrigation including lines laid under the rock for future plants. (Citrus trees are soon to follow) The garden is doing well. We have probably 80 tomatoes between 10 plants that are waiting for a little warmer weather to turn red. We also have several peppers. This weekend Seth also planted 3 different kinds of melons, cucumbers, yellow and green zucchini and way too much okra. Lily planted every seed this weekend. She loves being in the garden with her Dad.
The flower picture is one Seth asked me to take for specifically for Katie. It is from one of our Passion vines.

Easter in the Morris home

Yes I know it wasn't actually Easter, but for a few reasons (mainly that I thought it was Easter) we decided to celebrate today. Here are a few pictures of Lily's egg hunt... and my attempt at a pretty sister picture on the new grass. Overall a good day, except that I found out Lily is now the nursery bully... wonder who she got that from :)
Lily thought I had to take a picture of every egg she found. Note that she is wearing the same dress she wore last year for Easter. I would put a little link to it, but I don't know how and I still want to blog about our backyard.