blog format help!!

Ps, I am having major blog drama! Anyone who knows me knows I am no good with computers. I cannot figure out how to change the color or font of the writing or headings on my blog. I changed the background but can't get the labels and such to change. Every time I look it up online it has this like 10 step process that might as well be in Chinese of all these codes and things. Surely there is a way to just click "edit" and change the color or font right??? Anyone who uses blogger that can help a sister out?!!

Christmas 2013

 

 

 

We had such a fun Christmas with our sweet boys and family. This was Cash Walker's 1st Christmas, it's hard to believe this little guy hasn't always been apart of our family. He seems like he has always been here! Cash was almost 9 months and Sawyer will be 3 in 3 months. Very fun ages for Christmas. Sawyer is just at the age where he is starting to get what Christmas means and gets excited anytime he sees Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Christmas lights, a snowman, Santa. We took our tree down and he said "I no want Christmas to go bye byes!" I hear ya kiddo, I wish the Christmas season lasted longer too! Everyone has been asking us if we do Santa or not, I never realized there was such debate around the big jolly man! Our number one emphases on Christmas to Sawyer (and ourselves!)is that it is Baby Jesus' birthday and we are so thankful he was born because he grew up one day to save us from our sins on the cross. We get gifts for people we love to celebrate the joy of Jesus's birthday. We tried to really make the joy and excitement of Christmas be about the joy and excitement of our King being born (Sawyer thought it was pretty cool that Jesus is a KING!). Sawyer definitely knows who Santa is though, he sees him everywhere we go, along with frosty the snowman and Christmas lights and Christmas trees. It's fun to see his eyes light up and get excited over these fun things he recognizes. We didn't run with the Santa story of "he's watching you all the time to see if you are good, he brings you gifts if you are good.." We got excited with him when he saw Santa but we tried to always bring it back to the joy of Jesus being born. I grew up leaving cookies and milk out for Santa until well into my teenage years because it was a fun tradition we did but I knew he wasn't real by 4 years old. I don't run and hide my kids from Santa and the Santa story but we also don't want Christmas to only be about him. So we tried to find a fun balance of the two for our 2 year old!

David's family spent Christmas week with us, we had so much fun! The plan was to go to Disneyland with them but I got the stomach flu right before and my mother in law was getting over a nasty head cold and we just weren't up to braving the crowds. Instead we had breakfast with the Disney characters in downtown Disney. It was SO fun and cute! All the food was shaped like the Disney characters and they had 6 characters walking around to the tables and signing their autograph and giving hugs. Sawyer couldn't believe he was getting to eat with his buddies. He is still talking about it. A big thanks to David's parents for that very special treat. We also went to the live Nativity Scene here in Ladera Ranch. We did this last year too and it was so special. They have real camels and donkeys and sheep and goats. People dress like wisemen and Mary and Joseph and an Angel and baby Jesus. It was really special to see after 3 weeks of talking all about the Nativity, Sawyer's eyes lit up! I'm so thankful we have our 2 sweet boys to make these fun memories with. I really feel like my faith has grown in new ways since becoming a mom. Specifically this past year as I have been explaining a lot of things in a way a 2 year old would understand, I feel like things are clicking for me at 27 years old! I am seeing things through my kids eyes and realizing just how precious the gift of salvation is! I am so thankful for God's grace on me and for the birth of our Lord and Savior!

 

 

At the live Nativity with David's parents and his brother's fiance

Grammie (David's mom) with the boys

I mean really. Such a fun Dad. He is a kid at heart. Playing Star Wars.

This little ham is SUCH a Mama's boy. He wants to be with me 24/7

"Goofy's Kitchen"

Sawyer has a little Pluto he sleeps with, when Pluto gave him a hug,
he snuggled right in like he was ready for bed!

Cash wasn't too sure about the giant characters...

One tired boy, resting his head on Opa after a long day.

We were all taking our picture in front of this huge Christmas tree.
When we were done, Sawyer came running up and plopped down
on one of the gifts and said "you pease take my picture?" haha such a ham!

Doing our Christmas felt Nativity Scene before gifts on Christmas morning.

Opening stockings (I made Cash's stocking!)

Cash is obsessed with Sawyer's special blanket so Sawyer wanted to make Cash his own. I of course forgot to finish it until the last minute, so I was sewing at midnight on Christmas Eve finishing it haha
Sawyer was so excited to give this to Cash on Christmas morning.

I made Sawyer a Santa pancake and a Reindeer pancake on
 Christmas morning. He thought it was pretty cool!



All Sawyer wanted for Christmas was a spray bottle and candy canes hanging on his tree.
 He has been obsessed with this spray bottle. Best 89 cents I ever spent. (Spraying the fountain with Grammie)

Sawyer and David have a cute connection with the show/books "guess how much I love you?" Sawyer calls David "Daddy nut brown hair" from the show and he will always so sweetly tell David "guess how much I wub you Daddy? To moon and back!" So we got him a "Guess how much I love you" box filled with little things from Sawyer. Sawyer insisted on putting FOUR rocks in the box. Sorry hun!

Cash opening his gift from Grammie and Opa (excuse the paci in all the pictures.
We had to keep it in because he kept trying to eat all the wrapping paper and small pieces of plastic!)

He loves banging on his new toy Grammie and Opa!

Soy got a T-stand from Uncle Dan

Cash is a little bit obsessed with Elmo. It's very cute!

Mommy is one happy lady! That is a silver box under the tree for me!
A little Nordstrom love from my boys!

Since it was 82 degrees out on Christmas day we headed to the park
 to play with our new toys and practice some Tball

I had to get in on the fun too!

This is about as good of a family picture as we can get these days. Sawyer's laughing because he kept sticking his stinky foot in my face, David always has his eyes closed, and Cash can't take his eyes off his big brother! I'm the only one looking and smiling! hahaha but this depicts our crazy life beautifully! Love from the Mansdoerfers

Cash Walker - 6 Month Pictures

I am extremely late in posting these, but here are some cute pictures my sister took of our Cash Walker at 6 months old. I'm having major blog troubles! I can't seem to rearrange them so they are out of order but still very sweet. Love my little blue eyed boys!

3 months in...

I get asked almost daily, "how is life with 2 kids going?" I am only 3 months in, but so far I would say it's going great! Is it easy? No! Is it busy? Yes! Very busy!! Is every moment of every day "great!"? Definitely not! But overall I have to say I am absolutely loving having these 2 boys. I was so anxious my whole pregnancy about how hard it was going to be and I just thought I would have to plow through and it would eventually get enjoyable but I am happy to report it is enjoyable (almost) every day! We had about 2 rough weeks from weeks 7-9 where Cash was demanding to be held 24/7 (stinker!) and would scream his head off the moment I put him down. That was hard for Mama and Sawyer! (Poor Sawyer gets totally stressed out when Cash screams haha sweet boy!) During those 2 weeks Sawyer's testing me was at it's peak and he also got the stomach flu. That was when I realized "oh my gosh I have TWO kids!" haha But I am happy to report Cash is happy as can be out of my arms now and is finally taking good naps during the day instead of 20 minute cat naps. He sleeps from about 9:30pm until anywhere from 7:15-8:45am. I am blessed. I know this is not to be taken for granted. Thank you God that both my boys love sleep! And he takes one long 3 hour nap and two 1 hour naps (in the morning and evening).

Cash has so much life and personality to him that he just makes the day to day life so fun amongst the crazy. We joke that Cash insists he will not be forgotten, this kid is loud and talks non stop and goes from happy as a clam to screaming his head of in an instant! He may be little but he has a lot to say! Sawyer has really settled into our new normal and has been such a joy. He has just been so sweet and taken all these big changes very gracefully. Of course we had some really tough days in the beginning and a few weeks of some testing and adjusting but the last month or so he has just really settled in and seems very content with his brother around. He has recently gotten so excited about Cash and loves to kiss him, share his toys with him, soothe him, and his absolute favorite big brother task is to alert everyone when baby Cash goes "BIG BIG POO-POOS!!!" Nothing like a farting, pooping, burping baby to make a 2 year old boy laugh! I guess I better get used to it, with 2 boys in the house, the farting jokes are just beginning!

We have been taking advantage of our pool in our complex and I take the boy swimming a few times a week right after breakfast. It wears them both out nice and good before naps. Cash will either sleep in the stroller while I get some good one on one time in with Sawyer, or if he is awake, he joins in on the fun with us. Cash is a MAJOR water baby. He is so happy in the water, even if it's freezing cold it doesn't seem to bother him. I have a feeling he and Sawyer will get along just fine ;) My sister and mom got Sawyer and me a Pretend City membership so we have been spending a lot of days there too. It's fun having a membership because we can just go for a few hours here and there and not spend the whole day. That has been an AWESOME place for Sawyer to get his energy out while I nurse Cash. It breaks up our day and is fun for all of us.

I know once Cash gets mobile our lives will get much much busier (yet again!) so I am just trying to soak up these precious snuggly moments while they last. There is nothing sweeter in the world than having a sleeping baby in your arms! Our little Cash has brought so much joy into our family after a really hard and exhausting year from my mom's health. He has been so wonderful for all of us. He is so incredibly social and will smile and talk to anyone and everyone who will make eyes with him. Sawyer is a lot like David's personality. He is more even keel and go with the flow. He isn't super happy or super sad, he just does his thing and laughs along the way. Just a happy little guy over all. He loves his family and cousins but is not overly social. He would much rather stay home and just play with the people he loves than go out every day. Cash seems to be more like me from what we can tell so far. He has a little more fiestyness to him than Sawyer ever had. When he is sad, he is SOOOO sad. When he is mad, he is MAD, when he is happy, he is laughing and squeeking! David claims he gets this all from me haha!  It's funny because Sawyer acts and looks just like David and Cash acts and looks just like me! Cash has much more extreme emotions than Sawyer ever has had! It's fun to see the differences in the 2 boys. I wonder all the time what it will be like when Cash is older and how the boys will interact. What things will they bond over? What things will they fight over? I love just picturing their lives together in the future. Siblings is one of the best gifts here on earth and I'm so thankful the boys will always have each other!

David and I are doing good. We are busy, we are tired, and we are figuring out our new normal! David picked up a free grill for us and has been BBQing almost every single night since we got it. Husband of the year award. I can still not seem to figure out how to keep the boys alive and happy AND have dinner on the table and the house clean every day. Some days I get it done, some days it's a lost cause! He has been such a sweet help since we had the baby, especially with Sawyer. He is loving his job still and I am loving seeing him somewhere he is happy. Plus we love having him home every other Friday! Such a blessing! The boys are both waking up from their long "swim naps" as I call them so that's all the recap I have time for! Hopefully I can get some pictures up here soon of the boys and life. My camera is broken so I only have pics from my phone and I haven't put any of them on my computer yet...another project for another time...

Cash Walker's Birth Story!

Wow it has been 10 months since I wrote on the blog...coincidence that the timing coincides with when I got pregnant? Definitely not. Pregnancy takes it out of me people. It zaps every ounce of my physical and mental energy for 39 long weeks! I am SO happy to not be pregnant any more! With that being said, I will move on to the birth story of our precious Cash Walker. I apologize in advance for how long this post will be. Feel free to not read it all! I like to have a place where I have all the details written down and I can go back and read it because my pregnancy/mommy brain is no good these days! I will forget all these details if I don't get them down!

I feel like my labor story should start at 35 weeks pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy I would get contractions and cramping any time I got sick or over did it and would just have to take it really easy (which is so easy to do with a jumping, climbing, crazy 2 year old boy right?!) But right at 35 weeks I started getting painful contractions every single night around 5:00pm. They would always go away when I would lay down for about an hour but would pick up if I even stood up to go to the bathroom or do anything. I had preterm labor with Sawyer starting at 35 weeks but with him, laying down wouldn't stop it. It would only stop with complete bedrest and medicine. I was really hoping to avoid that route this time with a toddler so each day was a balancing act of keeping Sawyer entertained but not putting myself into labor. The weeks kept ticking by and I was still pregnant. I was so relieved when I got to full term and I wouldn't have to stress about stopping the contractions.

From 37 weeks on I would wake up with horrible period like cramps and contractions. I am not exaggerating when I say every single day for 2 weeks I would have hours of painful contractions and cramping about 2 minutes apart, lasting for 3, 5, 8 hours and then everything would just completely stop. These were not "uncomfortable" Braxton hicks, they were full on, "can't walk, talk, or think straight through them" contractions. They felt identical to my true labor contractions I had with Sawyer. I would call all the family to set up for child care for Sawyer and let my sister know since she was going to be in the room with me. We would get in the car to go and then everything would stop. This happened so many times. It was physically exhausting but also mentally exhausting wondering each day, "is this it?". I was so tired! I did this for 2 weeks until I finally had him at 39 weeks exactly.

I woke up on Thursday morning with my usual bad cramping and contractions. I didn't even bother timing them because they always fizzled out in the past and I just didn't even want to think about it. The contractions were really really painful but were pretty far apart and I honestly didn't think it was anything. I dyed easter eggs with Sawyer that morning and then went over to my sisters house to watch her 2 kids while she took her middle son to an Easter party at school. When I got there I was bending over from the contractions and my sister said "I feel like I shouldn't go, I think you are in labor" I assured her this was no different than any other day, in fact the contractions were only in my lower tummy and they were super far apart. Definitely not active labor, just more false labor. My mom came over later to give Taylor piano lessons and she saw how much pain I was in and made me start timing them. They were 6 minutes apart but then every now and then would be 9 minutes apart...again not true active labor. Still pretty sporadic. After about 2 hours there they got so painful that I couldn't really think straight and I didn't want to talk to anyone or listen to anyone so I told my mom I was going home to put Sawyer down for nap and asked her to stay with Laura's kids. I called David on the way home and said I don't know if this is it or not but I need help with Sawyer, so he left work a few hours early and came home. At this point I started thinking this might be it, started getting kind of excited. I went for a walk to try and get the contractions closer together but they were just getting farther and farther apart. I called the nurse and she said, "sounds like you are in early labor but you could do this for a while. Call back when they are closer together". I came home from my walk, sat down, and EVERYTHING completely stopped. Not a single contraction, braxtion hicks, nothing. I was seriously SO mad. Poor David. I was so grumpy and could not believe after a full day of being in so much pain everything stopped again. We went to the mall to just walk around some and get some jamba juice to cheer me up. I had a few contractions at the mall but nothing regular. We got home and put Sawyer down and started watching a movie and I had a few more but they were seriously about 15 minutes apart. Around 9pm my oldest sister Laura called me and said she thought I should call my dr back and she was worried about the baby being in distress since I had been painfully contracting for so long with no progress. Poor thing, she later told me she had herself so worked up and was so worried about me and the baby. Had she not called me and urged me to call the Dr again I would have not gone in. I felt so dumb for crying wolf so many times that I had decided I was not going in until I KNEW I was in labor. Thank goodness my sister urged me to go because things got pretty crazy really fast!

I called the dr and she said she wanted to check on the baby and make sure it wasn't in distress. Since this was my second kid and I was already dilated she wanted to see me but that I was probably going back home after they checked on the baby. My dad came over to watch Sawyer and the last thing I said to him was "we won't be staying, I will be back home soon". We got there and I was 4 cm dilated (I was a 3 at my last drs appointment) and the baby's head was so low she could feel it. She said "You are not going anywhere until you have this baby". So I called my sis to have her come to the hospital. They admitted us at 11:00pm and I had Cash at 12:30am. That is 1.5 hours from the time we got to the hospital. Like I said, thank goodness my sister urged me to go back in...this kid would have come in the car had I waited!

They admitted me and let me start walking around to try and get the contractions closer together. They pretty quickly went to about 2 minutes apart but if I ever sat down or got on all 4s to try and help my back pain everything would completely stop again. It was just like all the false labor I had in the past. Even when I was in active transitional labor, if I laid down the contractions would stop. This was the strangest labor ever, so different than my experience with Sawyer. My mom, sister, and David were taking turns walking the halls with me. David was trying to convince me to let them break my water to speed things up but I really didn't want them to. I knew I wanted to go natural with no epidural and I remember from my labor with Sawyer, as soon as your water breaks the pain gets SO intense. I didn't want to be in that pain for hours and hours if I didn't need to be. David was worried about my body wearing out from being there all night and kept urging me to let them break it. I decided to let the nurse check me and if I  had made no progress I would let them break my water. Trying to walk back to the room from the hall took me about 5 minutes because the pain got really really intense and I couldn't move through them. (This is probably the moment I would have KNOWN I was in labor had I waited at home...and I had Cash about 20minutes, if that, later. Our hospital is 15minutes from our house and we wouldn't have had to wait for someone to come stay with Sawyer. Don't think we would have made it honestly!)

The nurse checked me and to all our surprise I was 7cm dilated! I was very encouraged and stood up to keep walking. As soon as I stood up my water broke. I grabbed my sisters arm and said "oh my gosh I have to push. I have to push right now". The nurse said get back in bed, let me check you! She checked me and I was an 8 (seriously less than a minute from being 7cm). I had a contraction while she was checking me and she said "you are a 9". Things got absolutely crazy from this point on. I was saying I have to push, I have to push and the nurse is yelling back at me "you can't push, you are not 10cm yet". It was physically impossible to NOT push at that point. My body was pushing for me and there was nothing I could do to not push. The nurse ran into the hall and yelled "I need some help in here" and about 3 nurses came flying in. They start trying to set up for the delivery and tear the bed down and I am yelling at this point "I AM PUSHING. I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BED. I HAVE TO PUSH" My poor sister, I grabbed a hold of her and was using every ounce of my being to concentrate on her and not push. The nurses are yelling "listen to your sister, do not push" and Laura is whispering in my ear "you are in a hospital Megs, if you need to push then push, it's OK" hahaha love her. Just what I needed to hear. The baby was pushing and there was nothing I could do to stop it. The nurse kept yelling into my little phone attached to the bed that she needs the Dr, where is the Dr, I am yelling I need to push. It was insane! The Dr literally ran into our room, someone threw gloves on her and she sat down. One nurse had the nerve to tell me "you can't push, I don't have the bed set up" and I looked at her and yelled "I don't care about your bed". The dr was there, it was fair game in my book! I remember the nurse still trying to set the stirrups up and trying to put plastic under me as his head was coming out haha a little late sweetie! As soon as the Dr sat down I just relaxed my body and the baby's head popped out. I didn't even really push, my body was already pushing for me. I just relaxed and Cash did the rest. It felt SO good to be able to finally let my body push. His head popped out and then his shoulders slipped out and I immediately felt such relief. Just like that I was in NO more pain. It was crazy. We didn't know if it was a boy or girl and apparently when I was in transition I kept saying over and over that I wanted David to be the one to announce it (haha I don't really remember that part!). There was no announcement needed, she held him up and I immediately saw he was a boy! The first thing I said was "I knew you were a boy sweetie, I knew it". He was just perfect. They laid him right on my chest and he calmed down when he heard my voice. He was so beautiful and perfect. We all were laughing at how round he was! He is just the roundest little thing. They took him away to clean him up and he started screaming again. I told David to go talk to him and as soon as he heard Daddy's voice he calmed right back down. It was such an amazing and crazy experience. I was able to do it natural like I wanted and I'm so thankful I did. It was absolutely crazy and the most intense pain ever but I'm so glad I did it. By far THE most painful part of the whole experience was the last 7 minutes when I needed to push and they wouldn't let me! I think it would have been less painful if I could have just pushed when I was ready. What's funny is when we first got there, my mom told the nurse "just so you know, I have 3 daughters and all of them go really fast once they hit 4 cm and I was the same way with all 4 of my kids." The nurse was sweet but just said "ok, sounds good". After the labor was over she came back in and said "wow grandma you called that one! I wish I would have listened to you more!" haha I still cannot believe I had him within 1 1/2 hours of getting to the hospital. Things went from "this might be it" to me holding him in under 2 hours. It was so inane and intense!

We decided to wait to name him until the next day (we did this with Sawyer too). I needed to be able to try out a few options on him and see which one stuck. We knew we were using the name Walker because it's my grandma's maiden name but we hadn't decided if it would be his first name or middle name. I was leaning towards Walker as his first name but David really wanted Cash. He did look more like a Cash to me but I just couldn't decide. David came the next day and asked me what I thought and I said "I still don't know. I like them both" So David said "then let's name him Cash Walker" and that was that! I think his name just fits him perfectly! We absolutely love it! Cash walker was 7lbs 15oz 21inches long. He was born just after midnight on March 29th which just so happens to also be his cousin Jesse's birthday! (some of you may remember when I had Sawyer 2 years ago my oldest sister Laura was also in labor at the same time! Sawyer and Luke were born 2 hours apart but on different days b/c Soy was just before midnight and Luke was just after). My kids are destined to share birthdays with their cousins! Cash was an amazing nurser right from the beginning and has just been the sweetest best little baby. He had a lot of mucus and choking episodes at the hospital because he came out so fast, his little body didn't get to squeeze everything out of his lungs. My mom spent 2 nights with me and David spent the 3rd night (We had to stay an extra night b/c Cash was jaundiced) and we each just took turns holding him upright and suctioning him out all night long. If we laid him down at all he would start choking and sputtering and throwing up tons and tons of mucus. It was so sad. He finally cleared it all out of his system and has been so easy since. From the day we came home from the hospital he slept 4 hours at a time at night and the last few days he has gone 6 hour stretches. He is gaining great weight and nursing great. He passed his birth weight at 5 days old so I'm not worried about not waking him to feed anymore.

Big brother Sawyer loves his little Cash. He loves to hold him and asks for him first thing every morning. Anytime he leaves the room he says "come baby Cash". He is having a bit of a hard time not having so much of me. The first few days he cried a lot and wanted to be IN my lap or arms 24/7 but he seems to be settling in more the last couple days. Sawyer also had pink eye, ear infection, sinus infection and a fever when we came home from the hospital, so he was extra weepy those first few days. Overall he is adjusting pretty good. It's tricky when I'm nursing Cash and Sawyer starts getting pretty rowdy but we are figuring it out as we go. Today is my first day alone with the 2 boys and we have had a fun day so far. We did breakfast together, ran some errands, and both boys are napping now. Hoping to go to cousin Bo's Tball game later today if I am not too worn out. I did get a uterus infection again (I got one after Sawyer's birth) so that has slowed down my recovery some. With Sawyer I also got a kidney and bladder infection so I'm thankful for just the 1 infection this time. The first week was really really hard because I felt so miserable and Sawyer felt so miserable and poor David was keeping the house and all of us going. But I am starting to feel better each day and am just so happy to not be pregnant any more! If you made it this far, I applaud you! Future blog posts will no be this long I promise!

Summer Swimming

Our swimming boy! Sawyer LOVES the water, it's been so fun having a pool in the backyard and taking him every day! Some videos of our little swimmer...we need to work on kicking those leggies but he is very comfortable in the water which is the 1st step! He is 15 months old in these videos!

                                                                Swimming to Daddy

                                    Doing "Humpty Dumpty" into the pool and blowing bubbles

                                                   "jumping" off the step to Daddy

15 month catch up!

Sawyer is 15 months as of yesterday...how on earth did that happen?!!! I have let way too much time pass since blogging. What is new with our little guy? Well since the last post months ago, LOTS of things haha but I will just cover the basics! He has mastered walking and is starting to figure out running and jumping. It's so fun to watch his eyes light up as he takes off and giggles towards something. He is a very focused little guy, he is busy, busy, busy and knows exactly what he wants to be doing and cannot be deterred. I love seeing his personality come out more and more, he is SUCH  a mix of David and I. He has my focus and (unfortunately) my patience, but has David's sense of humor and personality. He sleeps anywhere from 15-18 hours straight every night, such a Blessing with a capital "B"! We call him our sleeping Giant! God has blessed me with a great sleeper during this difficult time of life, he's such a good little baby (I may be bias though! haha)! 

Word count at 15 months is:  Mama, Dada, Nana, Hey, Hi, Night night, "gagalalala" (which means Mowgli hahaha), Baba (ball), Bbbbbbbbbb (Cousin Bo), Broom, and Bubble. He will mimic sounds and words after us but the above words are apart of his everyday use! 

Soy LOVES his Cousin Naomi

He reminded us of  Tom Cruise in Risky Business walking around
the house in nothing but his button up white polo! 

Such a Daddy's boy

Every meal he puts his feet up at the table to eat

Sitting JUST like his daddy!

He is obsessed with sweeping! 

Craft time with the cousins