June 29 2011

I herby claim this day as my daughter's birthday

It was a dark and stormy night, just kidding it was hot and clear as usual, June 28 the day I had hoped she would be born only so the days of the kids birthdays would be consecutive 26th, 27th, 28th. I had my prenatal appointment with the midwife and because I was 41 weeks pregnant an ultrasound to make to sure baby was still doing just fine, which of course she was except for facing sunny side up instead of down which is why I probably hadn't gone into labor yet. Renee my midwife said I was already dilated to a 5 and very ready for labor, I had high hopes. As I went about the rest of day not in labor and now fearing if baby is going to be too stubborn to be born within the next 7 days I would no longer be able to give birth at the birthing center and have to transfer care to the hospital (who wants to be in the hospital if they don't need to be, not this lady) I was getting more and more sad and tired. I gave up hope of going into labor that day and went to hang out in my bedroom with Billy. Suddenly I feel a contraction a real contraction and it hurt it was 11:30 pm and then a few minutes later another and so on. I thought what a stinker of course my child waits until the last minute. I called the midwife to let her know and she said to go ahead and come down to the birthing center if I wanted to, it was a 45 minute drive and not one I wanted to make in hard labor. Billy took the kids to his parents house which took 40 minutes by itself considering it was midnight and they were both sound asleep, he left me at home so I wouldn't have to drive the bumpy dirt road, he got home and we left right away. We got the the birth center at 2am I walked in the door to the smiling face of our midwife instead of the metal detectors and security guards and then a random administration person followed by another random nurse we would have had to meet at the hospital. It was wonderful the person who had been taking care of me the last 6 months was still the person taking care of me now, it's so much easier to stay calm and relaxed when you know the person asking you take your pants off. She checked me and said I was at a 6 and that she wouldn't need to check me again unless it takes a really long time, and then she said OK now we just hang out and wait, and helped me get comfortable in bed, Billy made himself comfortable laying next to me in bed thankfully he only snored a couple of times. A little while later contractions started to get more painful, Renee came in with her back up Tiffany and they rubbed my back and helped me breath slower, it was amazing having someone actually help you in labor instead of just offering medication. Once I started moaning they knew it was getting close, I asked if I got in the tub if it would help and of course they said yes and started running the water. Once I got in the tub it felt so much better, and then Tiffany the back up midwife/doula started rubbing my shoulders and back as I leaned on the front of the tub I had another contraction and I buried my face in the towel and tried not to moan to loud, she talked so sweetly and softly helping me to slow down my breathing. Luckily for me I didn't have anything to tie me down no IV, no silly band around my belly to keep track of contractions or the baby's heartbeat, Renee just listened to her heartbeat with her handheld doppler when she needed to. No pitocin to keep contractions one on top of each other, just my body doing a good job all by itself, which also let my contractions still be several minutes apart so I could catch my breath and refocus and relax my body before the next contraction came. And with the next contraction my body started pushing all by itself I was sitting on my knees with them apart still leaning on the front of tub the baby just started moving down, I don't see how she couldn't move down with me sitting in that position so much better than laying on my back legs in stirrups (who invented that anyways, they should get kicked right in the pants). And with the next two contractions my body pushed a little more and a little more, no need to check me again my body knows what it's doing. Renee said lets have a baby and was guiding her head out and it hurt like nothing I can ever describe some call it the ring of fire I don't think it needs a name it just hurt but was so quick I couldn't believe when they said OK her head is out, all I could say was " what?" Renee thought I was so funny. Apparently after the baby's head comes out they turn their body to the side so their shoulders are now vertical so thier shoulders comes out one at a time, well not my little angle she turned completely around backwards and now her shoulders were horizontal and not very easy to come out I barely noticed until Renee told me I needed to stand up and I again I said " what?" and her and Tiffany helped me stand up so she could get her shoulders out, this was no problem to me I had no idea I just thought she couldn't reach the baby and Renee had to climb in the tub to get to her I guess I'm only the second person she had to climb in the tub to get to, that part was pretty funny. My water never broke she was born in her sac of water, that hardly ever happens. Meanwhile Billy was standing behind them and hadn't seen the other kids being born he was at my side looking at my face and definitely not going to look down, but this time there was nothing he could do all of the sudden I stood up and the baby's head was already out and then the rest of her came out and I just grabbed a hold of her and pulled her up he saw the whole thing, and after everything was over he told me and I laughed so hard and said well at least you've seen one of your children being born. She was in my arms and I sat down, she started crying, the pain was immediately gone and the flow of endorphins starting flowing all I could do was smile and when I looked over at Billy and he smiled back at me. I of course checked to make sure she was in fact a girl I would have felt awfull had she tricked the ultrasound technician twice and came out a boy who now had to come home wearing a dress in a girly car seat, I was relieved she was indeed a girl, born at 3:37 am June 29, 2011 an hour and 30 minutes after we arrived at the birth center, only 4 hours of labor and 7 minutes of pushing and I felt amazing. I guess gong to 41 weeks has it's advantages after all. Billy came and picked her up and went to snuggle on the bed while Renee and Tiffany helped me into to bed and got me cleaned up and delivered the placenta, they made sure baby latched on well and nursed and of course was breathing well and had a good heartbeat and then they covered us up and let us rest for an hour or so, all 3 of us went to sleep and felt so peace full. A little while later they came in to do baby's assessment, she was 8Lbs 15 Oz's, 20 inches long, and beautiful. The name we choose for her was Irelynn and Billy choose her middle name to be Grace, she was perfectly healthy in every way. We both got dressed and then headed home at 6:30am, we picked up some breakfast on the way and I scarfed it down. I told billy your welcome for giving birth in a timely fashion so we can pick up the kids and get back home before the day had even started, he just laughed. Billy took us home and tucked us into bed and then went to pick up the kids I woke up a little while later to see two huge smiling faces coming in the room so happy to meet their little sister, both were so giddy and politely took turns holding her.

I loved being able to give birth to her in the birthing center in such a peace full natural way and then being able to come home right away and recover in the comfort of my own home, no nurses coming in constantly waking us up to check our temperature I can do that just fine myself. Just staying in my nice comfy bed cuddling with my new little one and Billy and the kids being able to climb in the bed to snuggle too. So today she is 4 days old aside from my very sore and enormous new boobs I feel great and she is healthy as can be not a touch of jaundice and already back at her birth weight, a nursing champ and sleeps well too. I feel so amazingly blessed for being able to have such a great experience and that both of us are so healthy.

look at this perfectly round head

sorry I don't wear make up to give birth especially not at 3:00 in the morning.

the big 3

Ashlynn is pretty much the same as she has always been, her favorite food is the same, her personality is the same, and she makes me laugh the same if not more, she still sucks her thumb (against my advice) she still steals my shoes, she still screams, she still sneaks in our bed to snuggle every once in a while, she still tries boss Holden around, and she still wants to so things her own way, but most importantly she is still my sweetheart.

I'm sure for the rest of her life most of these things won't change she will probably always love chicken the most and always try to steal my shoes. Hopefully some will change, the screaming and thumb sucking, but I hope she will always make us laugh and always be my little sweetheart. I hope in the future she will be loving and kind and a good example to her younger siblings like Holden has been to her. I hope she will use that blond hair, blue eyed, dimpled cheeked, tall, and skinny physique of hers for good and not evil, I hope she will continue to do things her own way hopefully making good choices in her life and not following in others not so good choices. And I hope that she always knows how much we love her.

Happy Birthday my darling, I hope three is a good year for you!

getting to know you through Facebook.

Things you would learn about Mrs. Mandi Dassler from her facebook profile

Mandi Dassler is married to Frederick Dassler

she has worked for Mr. Dassler for the past 10 or so years as a hit man, her professional duties include shopping, cooking, cleaning , child care, and being sexually harassed on a regular basis

she went to Lancaster High School

she is LDS

Gerard Butler is her favorite actor

she loves sewing, recycling, capoeira, and singing in the shower

she no longer lives in the ghetto

and she is afraid of strangers

If you're board and take a look at her photos you might learn

that her husband is pretty silly

she has a son and a daughter who are also silly

her Christmas trees are usually of the construction paper variety

she lets her daughter ride on her back while she mows the lawn

she likes to decorate her kids birthday cakes and make their Halloween costumes

she was very skinny in high school and ditched a lot mostly to do ridiculous things

she always has a blast hanging out with her brother's and their families

she is extremely excited to own a dishwasher

And then if you have even more free time on your hands you could look through some recent activity on her wall and learn

her husband enjoys posing for pictures with big guns

her friends know she can sew and enjoy when she shares her talents with them

she hates when it snows in Lancaster and germ spreaders

she rarely gets out of the house by herself

she is tired of hearing people announce their pregnancies (only because there are a million of them a day)

she is in fact pregnant herself

her best friend Annie misses her

her daughter hides her shoes for 6 months at a time

she can belch louder than any of her brothers

she likes power tools

and she starts projects and then procrastinates to finish them thus turning Christmas dresses into new years dresses and then again into birthday dresses

snowboarding lessons for the boys

We all went to Mountain High last week (Holden got to skip school) and the boys took snowboarding lessons. Billy hasn't been in over ten years so he took a little refresher course he also hasn't used those muscles in over ten years and was worn out before lunch to which of course I made fun and called him an old man. I didn't get any pictures of Billy because he was up too high on the mountain for me to walk/waddle to. This was the first time Holden has even tried snowboarding and did so well and he loved it. I was so surprised how well he did, after class when I picked him up his instructor said he was great and such a good sport he never complained or cried not even saying it was too cold, when he fell he got right back up and kept going, which isn't typical for Holden so I was very happy to hear, he tried something new without being afraid I was so proud of him and no bribery required.

now that he is a "pro" he gets to spend his day off of school with his dad and uncles and cousins snowboarding next week, I think I'm going to relax in the lodge and read a book while sipping hot chocolate.

I can't believe it snowed here again

I got one smile out of her

It was warm enough to wear flip flops for a little while in January and then there was talk of a storm on its way but you never believe that kind of talk. That is just how it is in Lancaster one day is hot and the next it's snowing. After an hour I knew they were going to cancel school the next day which was suppose to be the first day back from winter break. Ridiculous!!!! Holden had a great time and Ashlynn hated it she didn't even want to step in it she played outside for 20 minutes before coming inside, she also hates having to wear gloves and a hat and a big coat she though it was awful, but Holden played outside for a couple of hours before he got board.

2011

Is going to be such a big year for our family.

Ashlynn turns three and hopefully so will her attitude

Holden turns eight, the big eight, that's right baptism time and so happily for him (and me) his dad is going to be the one baptising him.

and sometime this summer we will have another member in our family. I'm not going to lie even though this little one was planned and very much wanted I was scared when I realized what I was in for. Thankfully the fear has worn off and the excitement has set in, it feels right like this was always how it was suppose to be, I knew I bought the car with a third row seat for a reason and I knew I left an empty wall in Ashlynn's room for someone, I just didn't know it at the time, good thing I trust my decision making skills.

So now as our family grows so do our goals, some goals we just carry on from year to year and hope they eventually can be met, kind of like roll over minutes.

Mandi's to do list for 2011

(in no particular order)

-sew an incredible amount of diapers to save an incredible amount of money

-still learn how to play the piano

-still plant a garden

-teach my kids to clean up their toys

-get out of the house a lot more often (by myself)

-buy an awesome camera and learn how to take awesome pictures of my kids

-give birth naturally and unmedicated in a free standing birth center with a midwife

-avoid having to visit the hospital for any reason

-learn how to make the perfect textured home made beef jerky

-think of a beautiful and meaningful name for our child

-finish decorating my house

-find jeans that actually fit my kids, the kind that aren't baggy or too short or too long or leave their butt cracks, or coin slots as we like to call it, hanging out for the world to see.

-enjoy another year happily married to my love

There is always more to do, more to learn, more to experience but I find it hard to do in just one short years time, hopefully time will be my friend this year.

What the heck happend to December?

It came and passed and I barely noticed.

Here is what Christmas morning looked like this year

For Christmas this year the kids got pillow pets. I have no idea why any kind of pillows would be such a must have for every kid but they just had to have them, good thing Santa thought they were good this year.

Billy got me a really really nice nail gun set and a new compressor, what more could a girl ask for, and I'm very excited to use them. I already know what I am going to build now I just need to time and energy.

And in Billy's opinion the very best gift of all come from my very kind brother Zach, a new 9mm Smith and Wesson hand gun.

I was really looking forward to hanging stockings by the fire for the very first time in our home but apparently you should have the chimney sweeped in order to prevent a fire and I felt like it was more fun to spend $150 on presents than a chimney sweep so I guess it will just have to wait until next year, maybe.

My favorite time of year

Lombardi Ranch is the place to go just in case you guys didn't know

I was too tired to carve pumpkins this year so I had the kids color them instead they still thought it was fun.

Halloween adventures

This year my sweet hearts had their very own ideas of who they wanted to be for Halloween. Holden always changes his mind several times before the big day so we always wait until the last min to actual set it in writing but little miss Ashlynn knew the minute I asked and never changed her mind she could be no one else but Snow White. Holden's mind changed from a ninja turtle to karate Elvis to a vampire and finally to an 80's punk rock vampire as in the movie the lost boys their current favorite movie thanks to Dad.

Billy went to a concert that night that he just couldn't miss so I enlisted Sarah the great to help us trick or treat and to keep us safe she knows tae kwon do and is a kick boxer and punched a guy in the face while in the MTC (jokingly of course but everyone heard it and turned around to stare in shock and he never joked with her again about punching him in the face) Nobody messes with Sarah

No one in my house is shy of strangers when candy is involved


After about half hour of this neighborhood Ashlynn batted her eyes and made Sarah carry her, but the almighty Sarah picked her up and kept on trekking only to turn around to tell me I'm a slow poke good thing she came cause I wasn't going to carry her

The kids had a blast and so did Sarah and I and then we had fun checking the candy after the kids went to bed.

Holden's first day of 2nd grade

My Birthday Present

Yes I know it was in August.

Holden's birthday is three days before mine but it just so happened we celebrated his birthday on mine which is fine by me I really don't like making a big deal just a nice dinner with my hubby is all I need but this year Billy gave me a beautiful surprise before Holden's party. Oh he knows me so well, I need new hobbies to keep me sane and he is all the happier supporting my silliness. This year I decided to try my hand at carpentry and it turns out I'm actually pretty good so he decided to add some more pieces to my collection, it even has a laser level. I already have a skill saw but this one makes me so happy, the first thing I built was a couple of chairs for the kids table which they enjoy every day.

Next I need to get my hands on a jig saw and a nail gun and oh the possibilities. I suppose I'll need to be building a couple more chairs to match

I don't have time for this

I'd rather be taking a nap since this is the last while I'll be able to, it won't be long before Ashlynn gives up on her nap time. If stupid blogspot didn't take so long to upload pictures I would be up to date on my blog but alas I don't have time so all my updates are late.


There I'm done complaining now, stay tuned for fun adventures

Family portraits

I don't know how long it's been since we've had family portraits that I actually like. I mean the studio kinds are nice but just not my style so thankfully Greg lent us his time and took some really good pictures, ones that I can be proud to hang on my wall and it's about time too we have lived in our new house for 7 months now and still don't have any pictures on the wall just empty frames that everyone always asks if they are empty on purpose as decoration, no I just haven't found the pictures of display in them. Thats what I get for being too picky.

beautiful

How dare I make them wear nice clothes and pose for pictures .

My brother Greg was nice enough to take some family photos of us and these are just the funny ones he got some really nice shots too.

I feel old now

2555 days ago I reluctantly faked being in labor and to my surprise it actually resulted in a baby being born. Lucky for me I was only in labor for 8 hours, pushed for half an hour and out came a perfect little person/creature with red peach fuzz weighing 8 lbs 6oz who was now my responsibility, his name, William Holden Dassler!

Over the passed 7 years my darling son has been nothing what I had expected I foolishly assumed he would be mellow and calm and always stay right by my side afraid to leave the security of my leg, I thought he would be shy and need my encouragement to go play with the other kids and have fun, but oh how I was so very very wrong. He is exactly opposite of everything I imagined. He is confident and outgoing, he makes friends very easily and never sits still, he has more energy than I thought was humanly possible, and quite the little ladies man apparently, he's already had two sweet young ladies plan their future nuptials. I love his personality and I wish I can say he gets all these great qualities from me but alas it's his Father with the personality and confidence in life that has giving him such a good example and inspired me to help him become such an awesome little man. Here's to you El Guapo even though you make me feel old.

Dear Holden, you make me smile and laugh everyday, you wear your shirts backwards or inside out or both on purpose just because you want to, when I say thanks for behaving so well today you tell me it's because your starting to act like a man now, you want to be just like your dad and think he is so cool. You like to wear deodorant even though you don't need it, you love your vegetables and get excited when the bread they pass in sacrament is wheat bread, you ask for green smoothies with lots of spinach, you love your family especially your Oma you can talk her into almost anything, I don't know why but you want to go to China and ask me several times a week when I think we'll be able to go there. You never clean your room, you take your sweet time to do things which is pretty annoying when we're all waiting to leave and you still don't have your shoes on or have brushed your teeth. You tell me that snakes are God's creatures too so I have to like them, you hold them up to my face even though you know I'm scared, you shout where to go and what to do when I'm trying to play super mario bros. You can always talk your Dad into getting you Slurpee's you usually start by saying oh dad it's such a hot day don't you think, maybe we should get something to cool us off, Slurpee's would cool us off how bout we head to 7-11 real quick. I love you very much and I hope you never change. Love Mom.

thanks for the info

As if I wasn't self concious enough about the weight I've put on my son informed me yesterday that I was probably going to have another baby and when I said I"m not pregnant why do you say that he responded because you're getting fat and last time you were fat you were having a baby. And only because I love my son and know he wouldn't have said that if he had know it was hurtfull I didn't cry.

Maybe my brothers are the ones with bad karma

It's awful, every time a member of my family comes to stay with us our plumbing decides it's not going to be help full to our bathroom and laundry needs. The very first weekend we lived in our new home (new to us no where near new) and my brother and his wife and kids come to visit, our main sewer line choose to let an enormous amount of tree roots infiltrate it and clog it completely causing it to back up into my bathtub and shower fun to clean up right, because it was a weekend we couldn't get anyone out for two days which means going back to our other house, which was thankfully still our house, to shower and take care of business all other bathroom needs and for those little ones that couldn't hold it long enough to drive across town had to be taken care of at the gas station up the street or walmart, fun weekend right. The second plumber was finally able to clear the sewer pipe of the roots and said it needed to be replaced as soon as possible before the roots overgrew it again. Of course I assume my darling husband is going to take care of this problem and oversee that it gets fixed, stupid me that's what get for assuming you think I would have learned over the past 9 years that when I want something taken care of it's best to just do it myself and save the frustrations and possible anger. FYI it only takes about six months for roots to takeover an eight inch sewer pipe and I'm talking six feet of roots down the pipe. So this is the pleasant surprise we got when we got home from camping with my brother Zach in tow who is on vacation from being an embassy guard in Peru, the man deserves descent plumbing! At least it was a week day and we were able to get the plumber out right away so we could at least resume bathroom and all water supplying functions within a few hours but now we need to get the pipe replaced ASAP and at a price of an estimated $1800 who would pass that up. And since it usually makes me feel better to blame things I can't control on other people I'm just going to assume it's my brothers that bring bad Karma with them.

Just a funny picture

she weighs 30 lbs and thinks it's fun the "help" I don't know how much longer I can keep carrying her in slings but they still work so well when she is sleepy or not feeling so well or I just can't have her running around and need both hands like mowing the lawn or buying lumber at the hardware store and yes the guys at Home Depot think I'm all sorts of fun. FYI Billy has terrible allergies therefore I mow the lawn since he bought me a car and had to cut back on gardening expenses, so I guess I really don't mind because while I'm putting away the lawn mower I get to look at my beautiful durango that I love so much.

so sad

My poor Princess Buttercup died yesterday. I guess it was from the heat stupid global warming. The hardest part was hearing Holden start to cry when Billy came home to tell him, I didn't have the heart to tell him myself. I think it was a good lesson on the facts of life for him that all living things must die at some point and it wasn't anyone's fault it was just an accident. I don't think it took very long for him to get over it though, and by that I mean it didn't take very long for him to start talking me into letting him have a pet snake his reasoning was that they don't die for a really long time and it would stay in his room and snakes are God's creatures too so I can't hate them. I don't know what I'm going to do when he's a teenager, his reasoning skills are just way too advanced for what I am prepared for. I haven't desided if we will get another bunny or not we still have another one that was givin to us but I liked Buttercup way better she never bit me. So long buttercup sorry we accidently killed you .

don't tell mom I'm drinking coke

My cousin's daughter kacie is in town for the week and wanted to take all the kids in the family bowling it was fun they got to drink sodas and eat pizza and licorice. We would set the ball in front of the lane for Ashlynn to roll down but she thought kicking it would be more fun it didn't get very far they had to go down the lane and rescue the stranding ball. Holden did a pretty good job he even got quite a few spares. Ashlynn didn't last very long she was over it after 2 frames so Holden got to bowl for her so she got a pretty good score too. In the last frame she finally let Kacie help her and right after they rolled the bowl she laid down on her stomach with her head in her arms up on elbows kicking her feet back and forth watching the ball it was the cutest sight but of course I didn't have the camera out. Holden was so excited to get to drink soda just like all the other kids and somehow talked me into letting him get candy from the vending machines I told myself it was ok since it was a party and it's ok to do that every once in a while.