Wow! A Beautiful Birth Story

(My baby Girl, born at home 2002)

(My baby Boy, born at home 2005)

(My baby Girl, born at home 2008)

Okay, by now, most of you know that I have home births, right? (And most of you think I'm crazy. I'm okay with that. As long as you're still my friend anyway.) :-)

Well a few nights ago, I was trying to catch up with some of the blogs I follow in my Google Reader and I saw CJane's blog and remembered that the last time I read her blog, she was pregnant and due any day. I immediately clicked on her blog to see all about her new one! I guess she had her a few weeks ago. And, I really didn't know that she was planning a home birth! Okay maybe I had read that once before on her blog, but with a brain like mine, I probably just forgot.

I was so excited to read her birth story. I laughed and cried. Happy cries as well as sad. Such a beautiful birth story. All births are miracles, but natural births really are indescribably amazing.

So, if you're interested, here's her story in four parts. Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

*Just making sure you caught the fact that those cute baby pictures are three of my four kids (moments after they were born), not CJane's cute baby. You'll have to head on over to her blog to see her gorgeous baby.
P.S. I feel bad not posting a picture of my first-born. But, I just couldn't easily find a newborn baby picture of him, it was just too long ago... plus, he wasn't born at home, so in a way, I feel it doesn't fit in in this post. (Though I love him just as much!!!)

Have you ever wanted to...

Have you ever wanted to:

• Be a fly on a wall in someone's house (or life) that you think has a really great family, because you want to find out how to do the great things they do?
• Home school your kids just to have the freedom to go and explore the world like a child again (and for so many, many other reasons), but you have a hard time wanting to take your kids out of a pretty darn good public school (as far as public schools go)(and you also lack the confidence in teaching your own kids)?
  
• Throw almost everything out of your house and start all over again, with a more simplistic approach?
• Paint almost every room in your house and add a back-splash and a chair rail, all in a six month period while pregnant?
• Take a month long road trip with four kids, not including your husband?
• Completely get rid of your TV? (No more movies again... unless you watch them on the computer)
  
• Get rid of your Wii after only 4 1/2 months of owning it?
• Rent a big motor-home and tour the country with your kids?
• Completely change your family's way of eating? (go from eating out occasionally to cooking only from scratch and go from occasional junk food to no sugar, no processed junk, etc... you get the idea)
• Work really hard at living frugally so you can pay off your house in a few short years?
• Run a marathon while pregnant but you are so tired all of the time, so it is hard to find the time to run when you should?
• Take a spontaneous, fun trip with just your husband? Maybe a cruise? Maybe surprising your spouse with it?
• Throw away almost all of your kids toys while they weren't around? (Ya, I'm crazy. And a mean mom.)
• To be in four or more places at once?
  
• Pack up and move, to have a new adventure in a new place?
• Have a lot of money, so you could secretly help a bunch of people in need?
• Live out in the country with a lot of land for you and your kids to explore and have a mini farm? (But still close enough to a decent sized city, so you don't go insane).
• Be way more organized but don't know where to begin?
• Spend hours and hours uninterrupted, blogging, sewing, photo organizing, etc., etc., ??
• Go on a sisters trip without any kids? (That may happen someday - if I EVER stop having kids - ha!)
  

Well, I have. I've wanted to do all of those at one time or another (or maybe all right now... kidding - sorta). Some of them are more thoughts or dreams, some of them can become a reality. I just wanted to share some of my random thoughts from my head lately. There are many more that I just can't think of right now, because I have a pregnancy brain right now. (I love that excuse. And I really, really believe it! It is so true, especially this fifth time.)

What are some things you have "wanted to do"?

Disneyland 2010

*This picture was not taken at Disneyland. It was taken by my 7-year-old daughter, at a park in San Diego, the day before we went to Disneyland. I just thought it was a fun picture of me and my kids. And I was also so impressed with my daughter's photography skills. We'll be sending her out to make her own money soon. ;-)

I really do need to get better at posting more often. I used to blog a few times a week. I don't know what happened. Oh wait, yes. Yes I do. I got pregnant. I got tired. Oh, so tired! When I used to blog at night after the kids went to bed, now I zonk out. So here I find myself spending the morning hours blogging, instead of doing laundry and dishes or playing with my kids!!

Oh well. Let the guilt go, right? Maybe I will be less tired soon... in the 2nd trimester. Or, when I stop training for a half marathon. Or... no longer have little kids. Well, since I can't wait for the last one, I'll just have to do the best I can for now.

So here's some pictures from our Disneyland trip on April 2nd: (They are in no particular order, and with no captions, because I am too lazy... or tired.... But, I figure if you really want an explanation about something, you can just ask and I'll respond. Sound good? Thanks.)

We really did have a blast at Disneyland. It was everyone's first time, except for me. It was fun though, because I hadn't been for about 13 years. Many things have changed. We managed to only spend $135 for admission (total for a family of 6), $14 for parking, and $0 in the park for food! I really loved that we could bring in our own food! And since I never take my kids to McDonalds, we told them if they didn't ask for any souvenirs or food from the food stands, etc... the whole day, that we would take them to McDonalds for happy meals on the way home from Disneyland. It totally worked! Except the kids were all asleep before we left the parking garage at 11pm. We ended up going to McD's on our drive home to AZ two days later. That was good enough for them! :-)


















P.S. I also thought I should mention that the reason why I look really frumpy in all these pictures is because I was trying to hide the fact that I was pregnant, so I could go on all the big rides. I was approved by my midwife, to go on the big rides, if I was feeling okay. Since I don't usually get sick during my pregnancies (yeah, I know, lucky me.) I was good to go. I wanted to wear something that would hide my growing belly a bit better. The shirt I wore did the trick. I felt bad a few times, when I'd see the signs that said, "Expectant mothers should not ride this ride." But then I reminded myself that I was only about 10 weeks along. If I was more than about 15 weeks, I would not be riding them. Right?

Has anyone else been on roller coasters when they were pregnant?

Our Easter Surprise!

We were visiting my grandma, in California, for Easter. Easter morning my kids found some surprises in their baskets.


The first surprise was that there were five baskets out (we have four kids).


Then they found the shirts and figured out the surprise!


Yep. The Andersons are adding a version 5.0 to the mix. :-)


Another surprise we had on Easter was to be there, sitting at my grandma's table, when we felt an earthquake that lasted about 40 seconds. It was a 7.2. It was centered near Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. About 120 miles away from us. It was the first time anyone in my family had ever felt an earthquake (except for my family that lives there, of course). My kids were all hyper and excited. Made for a very exciting Easter.

We also had another "first" over the weekend. We went to Disneyland for the first time. I have been many times in my life, though not for about 15 years. But my kids and husband had never been. It was sooooo fun!! I will have to share more about that later!

Winner of the "Shoes"!

Yay! The next lucky lady of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes is: Crystal of Semi-Crunchy Mama ! It's funny, even though she was the only comment, so she totally wins by default anyway... I was secretly hoping she would win because I loved her comment. I think it would be so fun to have a Girls Night Out planned, to wear these shoes to. What fun!

I'm so glad you get to have these for a visit in the New England part of the US, Crystal! They've sure been fun to have in AZ! Email me at alenajo[at]gmail[dot]com with your full name and address and I will get these beauties out to you ASAP!

Thanks for playing, Crystal, and enjoy the shoes! It will be fun to see where you wear these shoes and to see where they go next!

The Traveling Shoes Need a New Home

Wow! Has it really been ONE MONTH since my last post? Why do I do that? Now I need to catch up a bit!


First item of business: a giveaway (of sorts). It's time for the Traveling Shoes to say goodbye to Arizona. They need a new home. I need to have a Giveaway for the shoes! I should have been done with them two and a half weeks ago, even though I have loved them and wish I could keep them forever! :-) The last time I wore them was Saturday, March 6th, to the Saturday night adult session of Stake Conference. Such a good night. Nice date with my hubby. I wore the same outfit as I did here. (If I had these shoes for keeps, I guess I'd need to go out and buy some more shirts to go with them...)

So, if you'd like to have a chance at winning these beauties to wear around for a month, then leave a comment about yourself and where you'd wear these shoes and how you found my blog. Thanks, and good luck! I will leave the comments open until this Friday, March 26th at 10pm PST. Then I will draw a name. If you leave another comment letting me know that you referred friends or other bloggers here, then let me know and I'll put your name in the drawing twice. If you put a link to my blog, on your blog, let me know and I'll put your name in three times.

These shoes are super cute, comfy and fun to wear and blog about! Who wouldn't want to win a month with them? I guess if they aren't your size, you wouldn't want them. But, maybe a friend would!

Thanks for stopping by. Good luck!

Outing #3 & 4 with the Shoes

Friday night is date night. We were planning to go running together last Friday. My husband and I are both training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in June. We rarely get to run together, and since I'm also training for the Ragnar Relay Del Sol, this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to run our scheduled 10 1/2 miles together. We can only do that when we have a baby sitter.

Earlier that afternoon, my sister-in-law asked us if we wanted to go to see the movie, The Lightning Thief. Originally I said no, because we were running. When I told my husband, hours later, he said, "I think we could go, and run later. Maybe Saturday." So that's what we did.

I wore the shoes (and the same, matching shirt) to Cafe Rio and the movie theater. The movie was great! That's about the perfect level of scary/suspense for me. I was even tense enough through the whole thing, that my husband's hand hurt and my neck could've seriously used a massage after wards. My 9 y-o saw it a week ago (before me) and he LOVED it. My 7 y-o would have had nightmares for the next year, had she seen it. It was my second time at Cafe Rio (I can't believe I've lived here for 5 years, and never went until a few weeks ago)! I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio! (I'm so grateful to some friends who introduced us to it!)

The fourth time I wore the shoes was two days ago, to church. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend, Amy, gave my ugly toes a beautiful paint job. (Thanks so much, Amy!) (I should still take pictures of them, soon.)