Where to begin

Well i'm not sure where to begin as it has been so long since we posted. Over Christmas my good friend Leatrice was sent to the hospital with a bunch of serious problems and ended up in the ICU for awhile. Well thankfully God works miracles and she was able to come out of the ICU better than most expected. Due to her being forced to be bedridden for so long she lost most of her abiltty to move, function and take care of her kids. She is so amazing that only a few weeks from being out of the hospital she was pretty much back up and running however taking care of her kids was still a bit of a problem. I volunteered as soon as i could to come and help her take of her family. So off to Arizona i went for a week, lucky for me i left when Wisconsin was haveing horrible snow and cold storms. So while i was in the sun and wearing t shirts and flip flops, Wisconsin was stuck inside dealing with the cold.

I had a truly great time, being able to just hang out with Leatrice and talk to her after I thought i would never see her again was the biggest gift i could ever receive. John and i are going to make it a priority to see her, tony and their family at least once a year so either they come here or we are going there.

While i was there Leatrice kept me super busy doing crazy amounts of shopping (can you say fun!), book club (which i read about half of before the meeting), MOPS (mothers of preschoolers, very inspirational and informative), girls night (never have laughed so hard) and of course watching the growing Embry and the beautiful little Nola.

Going and watching 2 little girls (a two year old and a 3 month old) right before i have my own little one could not have been better timing. I feel so reassured that i may actually be able to do this whole parenting thing. True, Leatrice and Tony were both around to always be there for advice and of course help. I feel like i can now change a diaper (couldn't really remember what i was doing the first time, so Tony and Leatrice talked me through it), feed a baby a bottle (and make the formula bottle) and even change little ones outfits. Nola is a very calm baby so she was easy to take care of and it doesn't hurt that she is so cute. Embry is definitely a 2 year old, everything she said was i NEED this, and i do it myself and everything i asked her to do she would of course do the opposite. But even when she is being a 2 year old she gives you this cute look and you can't really be mad at her.

Couple of funny stories of taking care of the kids from my trip:

• I was dressing Nola one day and Leatrice told me to put her socks on, so i put these tiny little sock like things with a ruffled rim on her feet, however they kept falling off when Leatrice informed me that i had put her mittens on her feet. Guess that is why there were so small, and who knew babies wore mittens that look like socks.
• Changing my first Nola poopy diaper was gross, how does a kid who only drinks formula poop so much green goop? And no matter how hard i tried the poop was in every crevice of her tush.
• Changing my one and only Embry diaper though was a million times worse, as it was still green but it was chunky and the smell was so freaking strong that i couldn't help but gag.

I can't wait to see Leatrice and her girls again as I hate that every time i see them they will have all grown a ton. I am so much more ready to see my little boy, it probably doesn't hurt that Leatrice helped me buy a ton of little boy outfits YAY.