Flashback Friday

On the eve of our mid-winter trip to AZ, I'm taking a minute to remember my very first trip to Arizona to meet the Bradshaws 13 years ago this month.

We flew down to meet the family around Valentine's Day 1996. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Fortunately, the Bradshaws were all very kind and I felt very welcomed. Zach and I celebrated Valentine's Day with dinner at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, finished off with a stroll through some very beautiful gardens and a gondola ride around the lakes. The weather was beautiful, and the company was even better. It's hard to believe it's been 13 years since the first trip. I don't remember much else of the weekend, except that Zach's mom asked me what my wedding colors were going to be and I said the first thing that came into my head. (We hadn't really decided yet, as we didn't get officially engaged until March of that year.) So burgundy and navy they were. (There's a walk down memory lane for you. Those wonderful 90's colors. What were we thinking? Seriously. . .)

Tell All Tuesday

I've done this off and on and am making up my own topics now. I stole this off facebook notes and am posting it here for all of my pregnancies. Feel free to skip this one. It's on here for journaling purposes.

1. Was your pregnancy planned?
1st-Yes, 3 ½ years later than we planned, but yes!
2nd-4th -yes, yes and yes

2. Were you married at the time? Yes

3. What were your reactions?
1st-absolutely ecstatic and completely disbelieving. I took 3 or 4 pregnancy tests, and went to the doctor’s and insisted I take another one there. I had that fluttery excited feeling everyday for the entire pregnancy.
2nd-4th- So, so excited. I was always worried that the medication wouldn’t work for me each time, but it did for every single baby.

4. Was abortion an option for you? No way

5. How old were you? 24, 26, 28, 31

6. How did you find out you were pregnant?
1st-Again, lots of pg tests. 2nd-3rd-Home tests.
4th-Zach knew on this one before I did. I’d been taking loads of ov. tests and it’s only positive if you get two very dark lines. (I’ve NEVER gotten a positive on those things.) I was exhausted and misread the pg test because I was looking for two very dark lines. (It was very late at night while I was waiting for Zach to get home from NYC.) I chucked it and Zach found it after he got home. The next morning he mentioned it and I realized I'd misread it. Loss of brain cells started early that time.

7. Who did you tell first?
1st-Zach, then Ben & Becca. We told our parents when they came out for Conference in April of that year. They thought we were going to announce we’d gotten chosen to adopt a baby. 2nd-4th Zach, of course. Don’t remember what order next.

8. Did you want to find out the sex?
1st-2nd-Yes.
3rd-Decided since we had 1 boy and 1 girl we’d be surprised. Unfortunately an ultrasound tech accidentally gave it away hours before I delivered.
4th-Yes and I was completely shocked. I was 110% sure it was a girl.

9. Due date? Nov. 21, April 27, March 24, Oct. 13

10. Did you have morning sickness? Ummm, yes. I still can’t eat some of the foods I threw up during my pregnancies.

11. What did you crave?
1st-Taco Bell, watermelon, cucumbers, lettuce, etc.
2nd-Subway
3rd-Hamburgers
4th-Lots of random things: gummi bears, graham crackers with peanut butter, anything I didn’t have to make myself, Sonic ice chips.

12. Who/what irritated you the most? Unfortunately, with each pregnancy my irritation has grown. I mostly feel irritated with myself that everything annoys me. (But at least I don’t weep bitter tears about absolutely nothing, like I do while on clomid. Well, not very often anyway.)

13. What was your child’s sex? Girl, boy, boy, boy.

14. Did you wish you had the opposite sex of what you were getting? Again, I was shocked #4 wasn’t a girl, but I wouldn’t trade the little man for anything.

15. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? Ummmmm, 19, 18, 19, 18. I have small babies with IUGR.

16. Did you have a baby shower? Yes with #1 and #2.

17. Did you have any complications during your pregnancies? Yes, the babies generally stop growing around 32-34 weeks, and my blood pressure skyrockets. I went into early labor at 32 & 34 weeks with #3 (hospitalized) & #4 (thank goodness it stopped on my own.) I get put on bed rest and when my blood pressure gets too high, they finally take the babies.

18. Where did you give birth? UVRMC for #1,#3,#4 and Desert Banner for #3

19. How many hours were you in labor? #1 (induced)=9 hours, #2 (the only time I wasn’t induced)=I didn’t really know I was in labor because it wasn’t textbook, but I think 5 to 7 hours? I was only at the hospital 2 hours before I delivered, #3 (induced)=5 ½ hours, #4 (induced)=2 ¼ hours.

20. Who drove you to the hospital? Usually Zach. With #3 I met him at the hospital for an ultrasound and they sent me right over to labor and delivery, so I drove myself to that one.

21. Who watched you give birth?
1st-Zach, his mom, the doctor, a nurse, some nursing students, and the whole respiratory team at the hospital.
2nd-4th-Zach, dr. & nurse.

22. Was it natural or c-section? Natural

23. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Epidurals

24. How much did your child weigh? 4 lb 12 oz, 5 lb 13 oz, 6 lb, 6 lb 1 oz. (seriously a chunka munka!)

25. When was your child actually born? 1st, 2nd, 4th =3 ½ weeks early, 3rd= 3 weeks early.

26. What did you name her/him? Lucy, Kye, Isaac, Adam

27. Was he/she named after anyone? Middle names are all family names (except Kye, who shares his first name with his dad.)

28. What would you have named your baby had they been the other sex? Lucy would have been’ Adam.’ Never considered for Kye. Lucy wanted to name Isaac ‘Princess Aurora.’ Adam would have been ‘Kate’ if he’d been a girl and I could have convinced Zach in time.

29. How old are your children today? 8, 6, 4, 1 (well, they will be those ages within a month.)

Flashback Friday

March 2006:

I miss baby chubs. The kids have lost all theirs, including Adam (I'm pretty sure because of his atrocious eating habits). They're growing up so fast.

A Year of Dates: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5: A little of this, a little of that. First we went to the temple, then we went to play a little raquetball. Three games, one of which I won! Can you believe it? I KNOW! I won. Of course, Zach was playing left handed, and even then I just squeaked by . . . but still. We finished off with a little dinner at Mimi's Cafe.

Week 6:

went with
to a fireside: An Uplifting Evening with

at the

on BYU campus.

Can I just tell you how thoroughly impressed I was? Every BYU football fan should hear Bronco Mendenhall speak. He's worth listening to. We enjoyed a little music from VocalPoint as well. I had a picture all ready, too, but I don't want to have to redo the blog post to get the picture in the right spot. So imagine it, will you? After the fireside, we had a little tomato basil soup at Ottavio's. Yummmmm.

Flashback Friday

I had a bizarre dream last night. My neighbors handed me this adorable infant with a ton of dark brown hair and told me I had had another baby and given it the name of Jarad (that's how it was spelled in the dream) Fifty Bradshaw. I was a little upset I hadn't remembered having another child, but even more upset that my friends would allow me to give my child the middle name of "Fifty" while I apparently had amnesia. Seriously disturbing. So if I ever tell you I'm giving my baby a numbered middle name, in the preservation of our friendship, please stop me. Thanks ever so much.

But it did get me thinking about my babies. Man, they were cute. They had progressively less hair as they came out, though, so I know the dream of a baby with lots of brown hair isn't prophetic. . . . ENJOY!

#4

#3

#2

#1 (I realize this doesn't show her hair, but I was remembering that she was so small they had to put 2 newborn shirts on her to keep her warm in the hospital.)

#1 Again. Here's all her dark hair.

Flashback Friday

I realize I've already posted these pictures somewhere on this blog, but I was thinking about my siblings today and wanted to share. And really, this is the latest picture we have of the sibs. I mean, how often can 9 adults spread across the country really get together?

Fesler siblings

Fesler siblings in age order
Crazy Fesler family

Fesler family, October 2006

Top Pics from Jan

I have like 10 total pictures from January, so there's slim pickings for the best from the month. But you do what you can.

On the bus going to the Draper Temple open house:

Sunday morning reading:
On the bus:

Adam fell asleep during his breathing treatment one night:

Our future concert pianist:

Thrilled with his performance:

Back to work:

Little A's new favorite seat:

Top Ten--January 2009

The younger my children are, the funnier they seem to be. They start at birth and seem to peak at age 5. (Or perhaps I just miss all the funny stuff because they start going to school.) Anyway, I’m enjoying it while I can, because eventually I’m going to run out little kids. So kudos to Adam and Isaac for providing the majority of our top ten. Thanks for giving mommer something to write about.

10- We may perhaps be a little too comfortable when we gather for family prayer at night. I knew we’d run into a snag teaching our children how to pray when Zach asked Adam to come in for prayer one evening. I said, “Adam, what do we do during prayer?” He came into the room, immediately laid his head down on the couch and closed his eyes, ready for a quick snooze. Perhaps we should encourage the children to kneel up for prayer?

9-Beautiful, beautiful rain. Frankly, I was ecstatic when the rain came and cleared out the nasty inversion in the valley. Adam’s breathing had taken a bit of a dive, the air was so bad we couldn’t see the mountains, and they issued an advisory not to let your children outside for extended periods of time. Gross.

8—I: Mom, where are my kids?
M: Your kids? Do you HAVE kids? (thinking, perhaps, he meant cousins, friends, classmates, etc.)
I: Yeah, I mean . . . are they in heaven?
M: OH! Yes, Isaac. Your kids are still in heaven.

7-Superhero tendencies displayed by Schmootzy (that’s Adam, for those of you who don’t know). Supersonic hearing: he was in the living room laying on his blanket on the floor when Zach opened the pantry door and (while still inside the pantry) quietly opened a piece of candy. Adam’s head popped up like a marionette, he jumped to his feet and sped in the kitchen, “Uh? Uh? Uh UH UH UH?” (I’ll do you all a favor and translate that for you. Ahem. “Dad! I heard the faint, whispered unwrapping of a piece of chocolate. Could I please have some? I want some, please. GIVE ME SOME RIGHT NOW!”) Superspy eyesight: out of a tray full of food, he can identify and eat those things with sugar in approximately 2.5 seconds. It’s not pretty. And incidentally, wouldn’t Schmootzy be a great superhero name?

6-I: Mom, how does babies cry in English?
M: Wa, wa, waaaa!
I: Oh! Now how does babies cry in a different English?
M: Ummmm, wa, wa, waaaaaa? (How do different languages portray crying? Does anyone know?)

5-The “dead thing” house. My kids display a certain morbid fascination with a house a few blocks away from us. Every time we drive by, we slow down and count the number of dead animals on the walls of the living room and kitchen. On our last drive-by, we counted 17 heads/bodies on the walls. Ewwwww. . . and yet, we can’t stop doing it.

4-Adam’s future career, based on current interests: temperamental concert pianist . . . one who will cry bitter tears when he doesn’t play the right notes or with the right expression. Isaac’s future career, based on current interests: architect or Zach, Zach, lego maniac. Kye: video game geek (argh!). Lucy: piano-playing librarian-gymnast.

3-Desparate to save myself precious time, I’ve resolved to dump Adam’s food directly on the floor during mealtimes. He can continue to play in his room, I can sweep the floor right after meals without begging him to eat, and I won’t have to spray him down afterwards. See? Everybody wins.

2-Isaac, our new little Sunbeam. Last week, his paper said, “I can pray to Heavenly Father and thank him for Runts.” Ahhh, yes. The necessities of life.

1—False accusations abound. Soooooooo I was looking through my phone bill the other day and noticed an unusual charge. I know Adam likes to play with the phone, but still, he called Iran. Yes. . . IRAN, for crying out loud. It costs $2.68 per minute to call Iran. Fortunately, the call was only1 minute long and I vowed never to let Adam play with the phone again. THEN I noticed the number: 987654321123450. Wait a minute. . . no baby can dial in order. KYE!!! (I wonder what the time difference is to Iran. They can’t have liked that.)