Big Sunday

Every May our church closes it's doors and goes out to help the community. We have never done it as a family before because it just seemed difficult with the ages if our kids.

This year I signed us up to collect food at Teader Joes. We stood outside, both kids in the stroller and asked people to donate food for a local foodbank. It was fun and nice to see how giving some people were. It made me check my heart a bit to see how giving I am.

I don't think Courtney really understood what we were doing, but she had fun saying hi to all the people. Both girls did great considering they were in the stroller for 2 hours. Coco got a cookie as a reward for her help.

She was super sad that we didn't go to church that day. She cried for a while saying, "I want to go to church!". I love that she loves going to church. She would be devastated if we ever took that from her.

No Wonder I Went Into Labor

The night before Caylee Love was born was incredibly stressful, no wonder I went into labor. Here is the recount, for Caylee:

Thursday afternoon Courtney started getting sick. Our dog Romo had been sick (pooping blood, nice!) for the last 4 days. So I had been fixing him gourmet food and he wasn't getting better. I had a doctor appointment and Courtney was not being good. She didn't feel good and was just being bratty. The doctor didn't have any good news. I hadn't dialated anymore (was at 2-3cm) and he said see you next week, meaning the baby isn't coming anytime soon. This was actually somewhat good news. Ben was on call that night and for the next 3 days, so having a baby in the next few days was just not going to be convienient if Ben was to be there.

That evening we went to our friend's house to watch baseball and then as I was putting Courtney to bed, she did not want to go down (which is very unlike her) so I let her actually watch TV in our bed for a long time. I figured since she was sick she could snuggle with us. Meanwhile, Romo had another pooping episode and I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the carpet and spraying room freshner. Fortunately I was able to get her to bed about 11. Just as we were about to settle down for the night Romo pooped again. Ben was so frustrated that he kicked both dogs outside for the night. They had only been out for about 15 min., but long enough for us to be sound asleep. We woke up to furocious barking by our two dogs, Ben looked out the window to yell at them and saw a giant coyote about to jump into our patio. He yelled, "A coyote! Go get the dogs!". So nine months pregnant I sprint down the stairs and let the dogs in.

Settling down again for sleep, I wake up to hear Courtney crying for me and not feeling well. I held her for a bit and got her back to sleep. Then she woke up again. Back into her room I went. Meanwhile, I was having contractions and they were slowly getting closer. I fall back to sleep and wake up to a horrible stench in our room. I get up to find Romo had pooped blood and poop all over our nightstand, wall and chair. So back on my hands and knees to scrub the carpet, the wall and the chair. Just as I finished, I hear crying in the monitor. Ugh! Will this
night ever end? I locked the dogs in our bathroom and lay back down, iphone in hand as I start to track my contractions. They were getting closer and closer. But I wasn't sure how real they were. Was it the fact that every time I got up I had another contraction, or the gas from my Taco Bell lunch, or the stress of the evening?


I prayed that the Lord would give me wisdom. I didn't want to be that pregnant woman who shows up at the hospital only to be sent home. I also prayed that the Lord would comfort Courtney so I wouldn't have to get up anymore. I kept counting the contractions, they were getting closer and closer. Once they were 3-5 minutes apart for an hour I was starting to get concerned.
It was 4:15 am and I didn't want to gave to wake anyone, especially Courtney who had finally been asleep for a few hours. So I let it go another 30 min just in case. After 30 min of them being 3-4 min apart I figured it was time to call the on call doctor. I called him at 4:45 then woke up Ben and called my friend Katly to come stay with Courtney. Fortunately Karly lived just a few doors down. I grabbed my packed hospital bag and We were on the road by 5 am to the hospital.

Once we were admitted they checked me and they said I wasn't dialated enough to go into labor but they would check with my doctor once he did his rounds in the next hour. So we waited. Once he came around he confirmed that since I was still two weeks before my due date, I was too early to induce and he needed to send me back home. But just to double check he suggested taking a walk around the hospital for an hour and then have me re-checked and if I hadn't progressed much then home we would go.

Fortunately it was a shift change and I got a new nurse. Dr. Capobianco had the new nurse check me so she had something to go by when I returned. After checking me she looked up at me with a puzzled look and said, "How far along did they measure you?", I replied, "2-3 cm". She said she needed to check with the doctor because either she is wrong or I was in labor. So he came and checked me again and sure enough I was 5-6cm. What a relief! In the bed I stayed and medicines began pumping. Since I was diagnosed with Strep, I needed to have medication for a minimum of 5 hours for saftey of the baby, so they slowed me down quite a bit and waited for the 5 hours to break my water.

A doctor came in around 12 to break my water, and then my nurse said she was going on lunch and to have her back up nurse page her if there was progress. She hadn't been gone for 2 minutes before I said, "Uh? I think something is going on, can you check me?". She checked and sure enough Caylee's head was crowned! There was a flurry of nurses and action going on in our room as they prepared for Miss Caylee Love. The doctor was paged and was on his way. I wasn't allowed to push because she would have been born without the doctor there, which I was fine with. It was so painful waiting. It seemed like an hour that we waited, but it was only about 15 minutes. Once Dr. Capobianco arrived, he scrubbed up and told me to push. I pushed 3 times and she was out!


Caylee Love McKinsey
Born September 24, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Weighed 6 lb 11 oz 18 inches long

Picnic by the Lake

On Wednesday nights Ben helps out with the youth. Every so often I try to do something special for the girls while Ben is gone. So this week I took the girls thru the In N Out drive thru and got Courtney her first hamburger "hamger". We took the food to the lake in Woodbridge. We set up a little picnic and ate our hamgers, fries and a chocolate shake. Courtney loved it. She kept saying how much she loved the hamger. She was calling it chicken.
To her everything is chicken. Caylee had fun just sitting in the grass and watching all the action.

After we ate we walked over to where the ducks were. Thanks to Courtney and I the ducks were well fed that night with out leftover stale bread. She laughed and giggled and ran back and forth. Once we ran out of bread I put the girls in the stroller and walked around the lake in an attempt to get some exercise for the day. We ended the evening at Barnes and Noble searching for a book for me and ended up buying 3 books for Courtney. A fun evening with my girls.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last week was so busy that I have made the last two days mellow and in our routine.

Tuesday: I took the girls to Disneyland on my own. We had a great time, the girls were perfect and it was just a great outing.

Friday: Ben's dad got here in the morning and we hung out and then went to lunch. Courtney was so excited to see Gak Gak, she practically ran into his arms when he got here. Friday night, Ben's mom, sister, her husband and their baby arrived. We visited for a bit and then headed off to bed since we had to be up early.

Saturday: I was up at 4:45 am to get the girls ready and out the door by 6:30. We headed to Riverside to Auntie Elisabeth's graduation at Cal Baptist. The girls did ok, considering the circumstances (college graduation with 750+ graduates). Once that was over we met all the family at the graduation party for Elisabeth and her sister. Then off to the Angel's Baseball game. The girls had so much fun at the game. Daddy bought Courtney popcorn and put M&Ms in it, then he bought her cotton candy in which she absolutely loved. She held that pink sugar in her hands until it literally disinigrated. She bounced between family members and was on a pure sugar high. When the Rally Monkey came out "Easter Monkey" she was completely enthralled. Daddy bought her one and she bounced it and danced with it. She cheered and loved every minute. Fortunately the day was surrounded by family which kept Courtney and Caylee busy and their minds off our crazy schedules. By the time we got home it was 10:30 pm.


Sunday: Mother's Day: We went to church and then to lunch. The girls took turns trying to be the worst child of the day. Caylee was cranky because her day was off yesterday and again that day. She finally went to sleep but then was woken up by Courtney who bopped her on the head. Courtney was just being crazy. She was a mess, she was throwing food, screaming, rocking her high chair, etc. Just being plain rude. I finally had to take Courtney to the car as she screamed and kicked her way out and then continued to scream in the car. I didn't get to eat my lunch and was not a happy mommy. We went to South Coast Plaza with the family and fortunately Courtney fell asleep in the car and slept almost our entire time at the mall (4 hours!). Caylee took much longer to fall asleep and screamed her head off for the first 10 min at the mall. She eventually gave up and we had both kids asleep. So we shopped around with the family until it was time to wake Caylee to feed her. An exhausting day even though we didn't do much.

Monday: Disneyland! The family all left and as our little family we had decided we would do the entire day at Disneyland. We have never done a full day like this before. We were there from open to close. We had a lot of fun. The girls did pretty good, but Courtney didn't nap again. At one point, Ben was taking a break and I took the girls around to look at the sights in Disneyland and we arrived just in time as all the characters were coming out. We stood in line for Donald Duck, then we saw Goofy, next Pluto. She had brought with her a Pluto stuffed animal and a Donald stuffed animal. She brought the Pluto stuffed animal up to Pluto and he was really sweet to her and was acting goofy. She laughed and laughed. He even came and gave Caylee a kiss in the stroller. Then he spotted her Donald and grabbed it. He then grabbed Courtney's hand and ran with her all the way down to see Donald. The two characters danced with her and played around. It was so cool! All the while both had long lines waiting to see them.

At around 3 We met up with our friends Gaddiel and Karly and they were with their friends. So as a group we traveled together. We took Courtney on the "Big Ferris Wheel", we rode with Gaddiel and Karly. They were screaming, Sadie was scared and so was Ben. Courtney freaked out. She was so scared and of course was being held by daddy who was also being freaked out. It was pretty funny. I think that ride is great. They were going on bigger rides and I think Courtney was getting pretty bored sitting in the stroller, so she was really acting up at the end.

We got home late again. So many crazy days we spent the next several days at home doing the bare minimum. It took Caylee about 4 days to get back to normal.

A Royal Wedding Tea Party

Well today Prince William and Princess Catherine got married. I hadn't even thought Courtney might be interested in watching until she saw part of the movie "Enchanted" this week and loved it and then a friend mentioned she was going to have her daughter watch. So I set the DVR to record and first thing this morning we talked about what had happened. I turned the TV o. And we started to watch, and we watched and watched. She made various comments like "Too much music! Where's the music? Where did the Prince go?". I told her it was time to go down and have breakfast and for the first time ever, she didnt want to. So I said she could watch the wedding in my room for a bit longer. She stayed another 20 min watching it.

Later that morning, once Caylee was down for her nap, I had noticed a friend posted on facebook that they had a tea party. I thought what a great idea and Courtney loved it. We laid a blanket down, got all out Tupperware, and some stuffed animals. We used Cherrios as our tea and she poured us all lots of tea. Even Romo joined the fun.

We had to stop because she started a meltdown while I talked to a friend on the phone. After dinner she wanted another tea party and more wedding coverage. Just when I though she had had enough, after bath time I asked what she wanted to watch and she said "The Wedding". So she continued to watch it. Of all the TV she watched, way more than usual today, he only thing she wanted was the wedding. Funny girl! It was cute to see her so excited.

My Girls are Growing Up

I've been looking at my Caylee lately and she is getting so big. I love seeing her get so big and learning new things, but it makes me sad. I just want to freeze her and absorb everything I can. I have so much to do every day and I need to just stop what I am doing and play with her. She is just so cute right now. She is grabbing at everything, starting to sing and I just love her laugh. Tonight Courtney, Caylee and I were dancing in the kitchen and she was just cracking up. It made me want to keep going. I usually don't let her fall asleep in my arms while feed her, but I did tonight. She was so sweet.

Caylee is already eating 3 different yellow vegetables and loves them. She eats so much. Last week I really worked on her taking the bottle and I pumped every day and worked on giving her the bottle. We did it 6 out of the 7 days. The whole process takes over an hour, but I know it will pay off in the end. This week, I am doing every other day and she even drank quite a bit out of the sippy cup today too.

Just like Courtney she gets so much attention while we are out. She is smiley, easy going and goes to anyone.

Courtney has had a really good week. I don't know if it is because she is growing up or if we just had a good week. But she seemed older this week. She seemed as though she understood more and I could trust her a little bit more. Going from the car to the house was easier and I was able to get by taking the stroller less.

I have been doing a lot of positive encouragement for her and she loves it. On Tuesday we went to the beach as a family. She was having a hard time and was not listening. We told her she wouldn't get to go if she kept that up. I started praising her for good behavior and her attitude turned. We continued to point out what she was doing well and complimented her a lot. Today we went to the pool with her friend Haley and she did great just playing on the stairs and I could tell she was trying to listen and do the right thing. Of Course we have definitely had our moments, but now when she gets in trouble it seems to impact her more because it is not just another time out.

Waste Management Field Trip

Today we got to go on a field trip of Waste Management with my Mom's Group. It is pretty close so we walked. I thought walking there would be a good idea, Caylee could nap and I could get some exercise. Well Caylee didn't nap, oh well. It was a great walk and Caylee napped in the Ergo during the tour.

They led us thru the area and we got to see where the trash goes and we saw the trucks dumping it. We all had to wear safety vests and hats. Courtney did great wearing it. We also looked at the recycling area and got to tour a truck. Courtney loved it. It was stinky and kind of boring but the kids loved it.

On our way I noticed an El Pollo Loco and Caylee and Courtney needed to eat, so we walked over there. We ate lunch and walked home. Courtney did great Caylee did great, the walk felt great and the weather was great. Great morning!