Happy Birthday to ME!

Yesterday was my *gulp* 27th birthday. It was also, Mr. Owen's 2 week birthday! We celebrated with a party at the pediatrician's office. No seriously. It was like a party. Julian, Gabe, Owen, me, the doctor and the doctor's medical student. Like I said, a party! A week ago, we went for a weight check and Owen was still weighing in at 8lbs 3 oz, which was his discharge weight. The doctor said he hoped Owen would be at his birth weight by next week, aka yesterday, and guess what? He was! He was 8 lbs 15 oz! Chunky monkey! He has also grown almost an inch, 22 1/2" already! Holy smokes. No wonder those newborn clothes haven't ever quite fit him right!

So, in honor of my many, many, many blessings, that's what this post is going to be.

27 things that I'm thankful for. One for each year I've been alive.

1. My health. Seriously I feel wonderful for being 2 weeks post-partum. Healing great, sleeping as well as can be expected. I'm just blessed to be extra healthy this time.

2. Barry. I'm not quite sure how I would survive this crazy journey without him.


(The following three are in birth order...)
3. Julian. He is such a sweet and kind kid. I'm so lucky to be his mom. While he does frustrate the bejeezus out of me sometimes, in the next second, he's warmed my heart to the max!


4. Gabriel. Seriously. He made me cry at preschool the other day. It was mommy day, and his teachers had asked him what he likes to do to help mommy. His answer? "Help with baby Owen." I cried. He is the most generous, kind, and sharing 2 year old I've ever met.


5. Owen. Nothing like snuggling a baby fresh from heaven. He is the sweetest little guy ever. I am so smitten. And I'm such a baby hog.
(2 weeks ago, while we were still at the hospital)


6. Cake. It was my birthday, so it only stands to reason I had cake last night! Yum! It was even pink.


7. My house. I know we're only renting, but I love having a feeling of permanence.

8. The Army National Guard.
(and men in uniform...)



9. My family. I've been so blessed to have such wonderful and caring parents. My mom came and stayed with me for 2 1/2 weeks. And my dad came to visit for the weekend. So wonderful to be able to spend time with them, and that they were able to meet and snuggle Owen.
(seriously, how cute is this?)


10. Knitting. It's so nice to have finally found something, some way to channel my creativity. I've tried SO many things, and failed. I'm glad there's something I'm kinda good at. I also love being able to make things for my kids. How cool is that? (Even though Julian refuses to wear anything I make him...grumble, grumble)

11. My sewing machine. Again, I can't SEW, but I can applique. It's fun. And it lets me be creative without too much risk.

12. The Internet, and my online friends. I seriously have been so blessed, online. I'm so lucky to have met such wonderful people on numerous message boards. If you're reading this, you know who you are :D

13. My camera. I'm so happy to have a way to capture life's little moments. It helps I have some cute little subjects to take pictures of.

14. Books. How else could I visit Sweden, or Hogwarts, or The Arena. Seriously. I'm thankful for books and authors, and that I can read whatever I want, whenever I want, as long as my little dictators say it's OK.

15. DMU. I'm so happy that Barry is able to follow his dream, and DMU has made it a reality.

16. Facebook. I know I already said the Internet, but because of facebook, I've been able to get back in touch with tons of friends that I've just lost touch with along the way.

17. Uggs. Best, most comfy shoes ever.

18. Hulu, Netflix Watch Instantly, and My DVR. I love being able to watch my favorite shows when I have time. Especially with a new baby, I can't always stay up late to watch them. Most days I'm ready to crash by 7.

19. My favorite shows. I don't like drama in my real life, but I sure do like it in my tv shows. And hot guys, and girls.

20. Clearance Racks. I'm a sucker for bargains. I love saving money, but don't know, or care to know how to coupon. I'm not into that. I just love clearance racks, and buying my kids cute clothes for little $$ :)

21. A garage. It's wintery. True, we haven't had snow, but I'm so thankful that I can pull my car into the garage, and that I don't have to get my kids piled into the explorer in the elemnts. (At least not while I'm at home.)

22. Cloth Diapers. I've not been so diligent in my cloth usage with Owen as I'd hoped. Partly because he was so squirmy and curly. Partly because Barry has no idea how to use prefolds, but I love not seeing our garbage full of disposable diapers. We've been using cloth exclusively for the past 3 days, and I love that my garbage isn't exploding! (OK I take that back, he did wear one disposable today, when I only left prefolds downstairs with Barry, and I went to take a nap)

23. The gospel. I love it. It fits me perfectly. I'm so thankful to know my Heavenly Father, and to know that he knows me, and loves me. Even though I'm far from perfect.

24. Music. Nothing can change or set a mood like music.

25. My Bed. We recently got a new mattress, and it's glorious. GLORIOUS. I love crawling in there, especially with the hint of winter, and just snuggling in. Love.

26. Wonderful friends. I talked about my online friends, now I'm giving a shout out to my BFFs IRL!
(Some of the besties right here!)



And last but not least...

27. My in-laws! So lucky to have married into such a wonderful family. &hearts

And just so you and I know. This, is what 27 looks like. (PS, why yes, yes I am quite tired.)



I promise my next post will be chock full of pictures of my new baby, and a birth story!

Introducing...

Owen Barry

Born November 4th 2010 at 6:40 pm

He weighed in at an astonishing 8 lbs 11.9 oz (I'm gonna call it 8 lbs 12 oz, because seriously.)

And 21 and 3/4" Long






I will post my birth story, it was CRAZY intense, and some more pictures soon! My mom just left, (cry, cry, cry) and I've got to learn how to balance three crazy little boys on my own!

And I need to figure out who was the closest for the guessing!

Anxious!

We're still anxiously awaiting the arrival of little Owen.

I had a doctors appointment today. While I am progressing, (I'm now 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced, and he's -2 station) I'm still pregnant :)

One of my best friends had her 3rd baby on Thursday, and she was due the same day as me! So I'm a little envious, and pretty ready to be done.

My mom flew in today, so I would realllllly like him to be born soon! She's here for two and a half weeks. The boys have been ridiculously excited for Grammy, and seriously won't leave her side.

I have an induction scheduled for Thursday, but if you can spare some prayers, I'd really like some eviction notices for little Owen!

Thanks!

Six Years!

Today is my 6 year wedding anniversary! Six whole years! I honestly can't believe it's already been a year since my last anniversary!

Who knew that in 6 years we'd go from this



To this


To this


To this


To a family of *almost* 5!

I love you Barry Palizzi! <3

Full Term, Baby.

Yesterday, I hit a monumental time in a pregnancy, the magical 37 week mark. This means that my baby is officially 'full term' and is given the go ahead by most medical professionals to come out and meet the family.

Friday I had an ultrasound to gauge where exactly Mr. Owen's growth is. Now I use the term 'exactly' loosely, because ultrasounds can be off up to a pound +/-. On Friday they estimated his weight to be around 7 lbs. He's approximately 65% in his statistics, EXCEPT for the dreaded one. His head. His head is measuring at about 41 weeks. You do the math. It's big. My doctor assured me though, that his head, while giant, is still smaller than Julian's was. So that's a relief.

As of Friday I was 1.5 cm dilated and 70% effaced (and that was before I was 'full term').

Here's a picture of the littlest Palizzi.


Oh, and looking at this picture, his head is on the right, looking right at you. He has huge cheeks, and you can even see his lips.

So here's what I want you to do. If you read my blog. Comment, and tell me WHEN you think he's going to be born. How much he will weigh. How long he will be. And last, but definitely not least, what time you think he will be born. The winner will get something fabulous. Not sure what, yet, but I assure you. Fabulous it will be.

So comment info (on the blog, not on facebook)
When
Weight
Height/Length
Time

Obviously this contest will be over when I have the baby. Whoever is the closest will win said fabulous prize.

For the record,
Julian was born on his due date, weighed 8 lbs 2 oz, and was 20 1/4" long/tall. He was born (I think) at 6:26 pm.



Gabriel was born at 38 weeks 2 days, weighed 8 lbs 3 oz, and was 20 1/4" long/tall. He was born at (I think again) 6:38 pm.

The Most Beautiful of Weekends!

So I don't know if you remember, but last year, this same weekend, in Des Moines, it SNOWED. Like snowed, snowed. And I was not at all prepared for this. If you want you can read back, here. This weekend? High 80's. Sunny, no wind. Just, perfect.

This rotation has been kind of crazy for Barry. Some days he's home by 5, others not until 7. It just varies, depending on the nursing home they are visiting, the patients, the doctors. Oh yeah, he's doing geriatrics. Friday afternoon, I got a call from him at about noon, which isn't completely unusual. He sometimes calls before he goes to the nursing home. This time? He said, "Doctor gave me some orders. I have to come home and spend time with my wifey-poo." The boys and I had a lunch date planned with the ever-wonderful Sandy, and he decided to meet up with us! It was such a nice treat not having to chase around the boys 100% by myself. Don't get me wrong, my boys aren't that wild, or out of control (most of the time) I'm just getting big. And tired.

Friday night I had my first 'official' not my kids, photo shoot. I'm still in the process of editing the images, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Saturday morning, we got dressed and drove out to Winterset for the Covered Bridge Festival. Then we saw how busy it was, and didn't have a stroller for the beasts, and I got all panicky and decided I wasn't up for the crowd at this stage of my pregnancy. It looked like a ton of fun. But we ended up going to Howell's Pumpkin Patch. It was so cute and fun, though a bit pricey, I mean $24 is a lot for kids to play in a corn pool, swing on tire horses, and slide down this weird huge slide. It was fun, but there were WAY too many people for me. I have kind of an aversion to crowds as of late.

There were chickens


Pretty Fall Leaves


A cute mini horse?




One of those funny face-things


The swings were a lot of fun!




We learned how tall the boys are




The giant slide, I referenced it earlier.


Gabe was a little freaked to go by himself, though only slightly comforted by daddy taking him down.


Gabe wasn't so good with the steering


Neither was J.




I <3 Iowa


Here's a cool self pic


And just the beautiful weather we've been having!

So lame with the blogging

I wish I had some great excuse as to why I haven't been blogging. I just haven't.

So here's a little September recap.

For drill weekend, Barry's unit had a BBQ! It was really, really fun, and some of our best friends, The Hubbards were there. I actually remembered to bring my camera (shock!) and was able to get some cute pictures of the kiddos.

Now I'm just going to say. I do not love Gabe more than Julian. He is just such a poser that it's SO much easier to take photos of him!





Cheeseball


Gabe looooves watermelon! (That's my boy!)


One of those rare moments that Julian cooperated with me.


Gabe was so excited to be in the tree, like J.


Gabe and his 'cute flower'


Julian has preschool on Mondays, and Gabe and I have been enjoying our dates together. We usually do something silly like go to Target, or play at the park. But I really love spending that one on one time with him, and he really does too. This last week though, he cried because he couldn't go to preschool. I definitely take that as a good sign!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant, as of Monday! Holycow! Gabe and I went to the hospital on Monday to drop off my pre registration paperwork! Owen is considered full term in just less than 2 weeks! Freaking me out! The room is almost done, I should take pictures for it. And we ordered the swing last night. I do need to wash the car seat fabric, cover, whatever it's called, but then I think we're good to go.

I want to show you the swing. I am sooo stoked for it, and I have a few pregnant mamas that might read my blog.

It's called a MamaRoo.
http://www.4momsonline.com/mamaroo

And I can thank my super talented friend, Jackie for introducing me to it. I'm so excited. I got the silver, in case you're curious.

We also went to Jackie's little boy, Brogan's birthday party a few weekends ago. It was really fun, and Brogan was so lucky to get a train table. It was a Thomas themed party, so I got the idea to applique a shirt for the birthday boy.


I think it turned out pretty cute! Jackie also made the most spectacular cake I have ever seen.

Seriously. She made this.


And not only is it beautiful, but it was DELICIOUS. The first part was chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. Are you kidding me? And the bottom was almond cake with white chocolate ganache filling. (I didn't eat two slices of cake, I've had her almond cake and white chocolate ganache before! Delish!)

September was a busy, but good month for us! October is proving to be just as busy! Today the boys have preschool, and I'm the mom in one of the classes! The Waukee fire department is bringing by a firetruck, and I know a certain two year old who is going to be ridiculously excited!