Ben is leaving for his MISSION!!!

I am so excited for him!

He will be speaking in Monica Ward this Sunday at 10:00 am.

Then he will be at my house that afternoon so come by and say good-bye if you haven't had a chance to see him yet, it all happened so fast!!

Oh, btw, he is going to Fiji!!

Austin Stats

Austin's 2 Month Old!!

12.7 lbs
head: 40.5 cm
24 inches long

3 Months:
14.12 lbs

Blessing

Chad & Katelyn's Wedding

Randomness

While I was taking pictures of Austin today I snapped a few pictures of the girls as well. Madelynn couldn't wait to be in one herself and Katherine was doing her own thing as usual. Notice Katherine's swimsuit? It is on backwards!! She has been doing it 'herself' lately, she is SO FUNNY!!!

3 Weeks Old

Emotional Day!!

Today has been a very emotional day!! First of all it is our Eighth Anniversary and I keep thinking about the awesome man that I am married to!! He does so much for me. He is thoughtful, patient, observant, and such a good daddy!! I am so lucky to have been married to him and look forward to ETERNITY with him!!!!

The other reason I have been emotional is that for the first time I actually miss being pregnant - I have NEVER felt this way before! I cried when I found out that I was pregnant and this has ended up being my easiest pregnancy so far. At the end of my pregnancy I was so in love with my belly and now that he is out I am so in love with him. But I still miss the tiny baby being inside me. I think part of the emotion hit when we went to the doctor today for his checkup and he weighed 8 lbs 11 oz, the weight he was supposed to be when he was born!! I could have been, and probably would have been, pregnant for two more weeks!!! I wasn't even tired of being pregnant yet, but I was so afraid of pushing out a 9+ lb. baby that I took the option of being induced.....(big sigh!) I also think it is funny that after Madelynn was born I never wanted to do THAT ever again!! Then after Katherine I decided that 4 was a perfect number!! Now that I have three, I figure I am only half way done and want lots more kids!! I LOVE being a mommy!!

Baby crying, gotta go!!

Park Day!

I didn't get a picture, but we made it to the park this morning!! We dropped Daddy off at work and then went to the park. We were there from 7:45 until 9:30. The girls played, Austin was awake the entire time and is now sleeping soundly. It was so nice to get some fresh air before it got too hot and to let the girls run and play. It was a pretty successful, much needed outing!!! I would say that our first two weeks have been pretty successful and pretty smooth getting used to!!

8 YEARS!!

Today is 8 years since I married my best friend!! Cheesy, yes...but very true!!!

(Look at how young we look then!!)

Birth Story

Not complete, it is going to be long!!

My baby is two weeks old now and I am so in love with him!! He smells so good. He sleeps so good. He eats so good. He is VERY good at being a baby!!

Austin Estill Pollock joined our family on the 4th of July!!! I was supposed to go into the hospital on the 3rd to be induced, but everyone in Bakersfield wanted their babies out before the holiday and so there was no room for me.

We had a very eventful week as Uncle Sam passed away. The funeral was on Friday so Jacob had the day off!! (It was actually the week of June 30th, the County's fiscal year end, so Jacob had been working until 9:00 or later all week!!) But it was now Friday!! We had planned on going to the Ventura timeshare with Bruce and Kathy from Friday until Sunday, but since Uncle Sam passed away and Dr. Lewis wanted to induce on the 3rd, we weren't sure how the weekend was going to go!! After the Funeral, we decided to head to Ventura anyway and I am so glad that we did!!!



Friday night we had dinner in the hotel room then headed to the beach. Katherine wanted to swing on the regular swings (of course!!) but Jacob convinced Madelynn to go on a zip line that went from a big boat to a pole about 60 feet away and she LOVED it!!! He finally got Katherine to go on it too and she thought it was great as well!!


The on Saturday morning we went to a swap-meet, which was pretty cool and to lunch at.........Snapper Jacks, could we have gone anywhere else.....NO!!! It was quite tasty too, although I tried to eat light because I was planning on being induced later on that evening!! Then we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the beach. It was still pretty overcast, so we didn't know how the girls were going to like it, but it didn't seem to bother them. There were a million people there because of the holiday weekend, but Jacob and the girls found a place to build sand castles close to the water while I laid on the blanket in the sunshine!! It approached 3:00 and was time for me to call into the Hospital to see how things were going which is when I found out there was no room at the inn, so we decided to stay at the beach...oh darn!!! We headed home late that evening with the girls and went to bed. I slept really well and woke up at my usual time 5:00 AM and called the hospital to find out they had delivered all of the babies and wanted me to come in at 7:30. We arrived around 8:30, no rush!!

We got all situated really quickly as they were waiting for us. Dr. Lewis came in and we chatted some and he informed us that we weren't going to be using Cervidel we were going to be using something different that should work much faster, and it proved itself to be so!! I was given the first dose at 9:45 and within two hours I was in early labor. I got a second dose at 12:45 and the contractions started to be really strong and about 1 minute apart so they started my IV to slow it down a bit.

Baby Austin

Austin Estill Pollock

Born July 4th, 2010
5:29 pm
7 lbs 15 oz
20 inches

His sisters love him so much!!!

Here are some pictures to enjoy!!

Last Month!!!

Only one more MONTH until our little baby will be here!!!

Right now his name will either be:

Carter William Pollock

OR

Something totally different ;D

We shall see!!!

Wish me luck and limberness these next few weeks....I am so excited!!!!

Visit to the Farm

Here are some pictures, documentary to come!!

Productive Day

Today was a very productive day!! I want to show that I do have days like this, they are few and far between, but they actually occur!!

I....
- washed all the dishes from having a broken-down sink all weekend (loaded, unloaded & reloaded the dishwasher and hand washed every pot I own)
- washed all the bedding and remade the beds
- called the bank regarding title on our car
- got Madelynn all set up to start preschool this fall
- got Jacob an appointment with the ENT
- went shopping to Costco and FoodsCo
- stopped by Stef's to give her her Costco groceries and see her garden
- paid bills (PAID OFF OUR CREDIT CARD!!! only one more to go!!)
- did the prework on all of our meals this week:
*baked potatoes for potato soup
*baked & shredded chicken for chicken enchaladas
*made red beans & rice
- cooked dinner (sloppy joes which were super YUMMY)
- folded and put away 3 batches of laundry
- planted flowers for FHE

It has been a very productive day, and by-the-way I am officially on the single digit week countdown until baby is here!!!! I feel wonderful and tired. Now to put the kiddos to bed!!!

Photo Shoot

So a couple of weeks ago Amanda did a photo shoot with Madelynn. Though not traditional favorites, I really liked these ones!





Timeless memories!!

March

I guess that instead of going private I should have just shut down my blog with the way i have been ignoring it lately. I do have good excuses though, not that we haven't been doing anything, but we have been so busy. So hopefully here goes a HUGE update!!

First, and most exciting to me, is our goal update. We have been working very hard on getting out of debt and I am proud to say that we are 2/3rds of the way there!!! Jacob mentioned the other day that it is only April and we have Katherine potty-trained, off the bottle and we are getting close to being out of debt, not a bad year so far!!!

Katherine will be 2 on Sunday!!! My baby is getting so big!! She had her 2 year check up on Wednesday and we discovered that she followed suit with her sister....tiny!!!! She was 24 pounds and 33 1/2 inches tall, which put her in the 10% for weight and 50% for height!! She passed all of the tests the doctor gave her. She could identify and tell you bird, horse, cat, dog (she didn't care so much for the picture of the man, it wasn't an animal!) Anyways, all of the tests on the paper she passed. I was supposed to keep asking her the questions until she got 3 of them wrong and she only started getting them wrong when she was in the section for 3 year olds. I was very proud!! Her little personality has been growing so much lately. She is so cute and fun to be around.

Madelynn said the other day "We're not arguing, we're talking!" WHAT....when did you start analyzing situations like that??? And whatever you want to call it.....STOP IT, I don't like the way you are speaking to each other!!!! SHEESH!! It was pretty funny though!!

Easter was lots of fun!! Madelynn and Katherine spent the week before Easter with the Estill side of the family. My mom, Amanda, Carlos and Hollie took all of the grandkids for the entire week!! They went to the zoo, the park, the beach and traveled from Fresno to Bakersfield to Ventura, CA!!! Therefore on Easter we planned on staying home and taking it easy. That didn't end up being what happened though......We were invited and spent the morning with the Ray family. We had an Easter egg hunt in the morning with a very yummy breakfast and then watched Conference. We had so much fun and very much enjoyed the company!! Then we went home, had some lunch, and got a phone call from Auntie Liz. She was traveling through Bakersfield in about an hour and needed a potty break and some lunch, which we were very happy to provide!! So we got to spend the afternoon session of conference with them. Then, as soon as they left and conference was over, we debated...to go or not to go!! Well we decided to go to the Pollocks for dinner...so we loaded in the car and headed to Taft. Yes, we didn't leave until 3:30, putting us in Taft at 4:30 and making a very late evening, but we ended up being so glad we went. Oh, did I mention we had an addition? Ben hitched a ride to my parents house which meant a pit stop on the way. When we got to my parents house the front lawn was covered with easter-eggs and about 4 cars pulled in behind us. We showed up just in time for the festivities to begin! So we got another, unexpected egg hunt and got to spend some unexpected time with my entire family!! It was so much fun!!! Then we finally made it to our destination and some leftover Tri-tip sandwiches which were amazing!!! It was very nice to visit with GG, Mima and Grumpa!! GG had bought a bunny that is twice as big as Madelynn that came with 5 dress-up dresses. Madelynn was so thrilled. She kept wanting the bunny's outfit changed and in the end, put on some of the dresses herself!! She LOVED the dresses and still talks about GG's bunny and the 5 dresses!!!

We still have no name for the little boy, but we still have 10 weeks to go. I am starting to feel like a baby balooga, but keep reassuring myself that in about 4 weeks I will be the momma balooga, so just wait, I will still get a LOT bigger!!!!

(My pictures aren't uploading, I will have to add them later!)

BIG NEWS!!!!

Today I had my 21 week, 5 day check-up for the baby, which meant.....ULTRASOUND!!!

The baby is super healthy and very active. The tech had a hard time getting some pictures of his heart, but we managed.

And I guess I just gave it away......He is a BOY!!!

We came home with 3 ultrasound pictures. Only one of which was a profile shot, the other two were proof that he was a boy, and he made sure we knew it too!!

We are very excited!!!

Maddy's First Broken Bone

On Friday, February 12th, Madelynn decided it might be a good idea to climb on top of one of her toys in the back yard. She quickly learned that wasn't the case when she slipped and fell onto her elbow on the cement and broke her arm. I, of course, won the "Worst-Mother-of-the-Year" award when I figured she was fine and proceeded to leave town for the weekend. We later had to end our trip early to return home to go to the Pediatric Urgent Care to find out she had a slight fracture to her bone (bad x-rays were taken because when we went to the Ortho Doctor the next week, they got better x-rays that showed it was cracked thru the entire bone!)

So now she has a beautiful green cast and gets lots of sympathy everywhere we go!! (If you didn't know, green is her FAVORITE color)


Here she is being quite the little poser with her cast, she insisted on posing with the vacuum!!


Mommy and Maddy at the Ortho Doctor.



Maddy in her splint and sling.