May – July 2015

The first five months with our sweet little Ella have sped by.  In the last couple weeks I’ve found that I’m starting to feel more fully recovered and more myself.  When I find myself thinking about new recipes to try and following through, including cleaning up my kitchen mess, I know I’m feeling better.  Or when I decide to cut Ben’s shaggy hair and it’s no big deal, I know I’m feeling better.  These sorts of things had been put on hold since I started feeling ill from the pregnancy.  It’s been a long time of living with doing just the highest priority things.  I’m happy to start having brain space and energy for doing more.

2 Months

At 2 months old, Ella is doing well overall.  I'm pretty sure she's on the verge of smiling.  I can't wait!  ❤ We're loving our little girl.  She had her first cold and is wheezing and coughing, poor little thing.  It’s delayed getting her immunizations, but I’m good with that.  She's in the 88th percentile for weight and the 97th percentile for height.  We sure make big babies!  She does great in the car, which is a relief because both boys screamed in the car when they were babes.  She is eating on a consistent 4 hour schedule and has been going 8 hours at night since she was 6 weeks old.  Her sleep is worse than it was before.  She really seems to need to suck and she can't keep her binky in for long.  She's just found her thumb if she's on her tummy, but we're trying really hard to keep her on her back.  Both boys were tummy sleepers and thumb suckers.  I was so much younger then and hadn’t known anyone who’d had a baby die of SIDS or suffocation.  Now that I have, I’m a lot more cautious.  Our nights mostly end up with one of us holding her and popping the binky in her mouth repeatedly.  I have to remember that we've made good progress overall with her eating and awake time.  I remind myself that she is a different person than the boys and doing things the exact way I did with them maybe isn’t what Ella needs.  She really seems to need that extra comfort of being held at night and needs assistance to suck her binky.  I have never slept with a baby in my bed before.  It’s taken some thinking for me to decide I am okay with this unexpected development.  She is still going down easy for her morning nap.  I just need to figure out her sleeping and self soothing for the rest of the day.

Kat, Anna, Laurie, & Becky - My Girls ❤️

Ella and I got to sneak off for a quick California trip to go wedding dress shopping with my closest college friends.  I’m so happy for Laurie and her new marriage to be!  It was wonderful seeing all my friends and introducing Ella to her surrogate aunties!  Traveling with a 9 week old while recovering from a c-section was definitely a huge undertaking for me and I would not put myself through that for just anyone.  These friendships hold such a close place in my heart and it was a really meaningful trip for me.  I’m so happy I could be apart of Laurie’s special event.  I love the moments captured in my memory of all of us sitting in the beautiful showrooms waiting for Laurie to come out in each dress and contemplate her thoughts about each one, adding accessories to complete each look.  I loved when she found “the one” and the dress shop brought out a bottle of champagne.  How fun!

  

Sentimentally, I looked over at Ella sleeping in her stroller next to designer wedding gowns with a window view of downtown San Diego, and dreamily hoped that I might get to wedding dress shop with my daughter one day.  I really enjoyed watching each moment with my friends as they snuggled and played with Ella.  It really touched my heart.  Ella did so much better than I anticipated.  She didn’t cry on the flight at all on the way out.  She had just learned to sleep through the night in her own bed before my trip and splendidly, she continued to do so.  She and I shared a hotel bed and she looked so cute on her half.  On the way home, I had a funny moment.  I had Ella strapped onto me in the baby carrier.  I was pushing the stroller, which I had loaded up with the carseat and the diaper bag.  I unlocked the carseat from the stroller to streamline the process of folding it all up before boarding the plane.  My plan failed and the carseat toppled off the stroller, knocking the stroller and its contents over in the process.  As I’m struggling to get it all picked up (remember I’m still recovering from surgery, the floor seems miles away, and I’m carrying a floppy newborn) a young man walks right by me onto the plane.  I couldn’t believe he didn’t offer to help me at all!  Well, I’m awesome, and I got it all under control on my own.  I got everything folded and ready to be picked up by the crew, and I got my baby and diaper bag onto the plane.  I looked over and saw that I was sitting across from the unhelpful young man.  He totally gave me the “Oh great, I’m next to a baby,” look.  Then Ella started crying and I was super worried she would cry the whole way, but the devious side of me was like, “Serves you right!  You’re stuck next to a crying baby and I don’t even feel bad for you, muahahaha!”  I did feel bad for everyone else on the plane and thankfully her crying didn’t last long.  She was done before we even took off.  All in all, a super successful trip!

Great Grandma Jean & Granny

We’ve had so many wonderful visitors in the last few months.  Granny and Grandma Jean started the summer lineup of visitors.  It was so enjoyable introducing Ella to these special ladies.  It was so fun showing Grandma Jean all the improvements we’ve made to her house.  It was her first time back since she moved to Hawaii 4 years ago.  Both kids will probably remember all of the puzzling that occurred with Grandma Jean.  She loves her puzzles.  There was always one going while she was here.  Granny kept the kids busy, helping her in the kitchen, making all sorts of yummy things.  Caleb will forever remember grating millions of lemons and limes for the wedding cake Granny was making for Aaron and Kara’s wedding.  Grandma Jean did her special great grandma magic, captivating the attention of our sweet little baby.  I love watching how Grandma can still any child with her deep gaze and speaking sweet compliments and affirmations to them.  It’s so powerful and tender and I’m thankful to have witnessed it with each of my kids over the years.

Hawaii Family

They stayed with us for a week and then we all went to San Marcos to wed our lovely cousin Aaron to his beautiful bride Kara Rhodes.  We got a cute little house rental that had a stocked pond for fishing, a relaxing hammock, and peacocks roaming the grounds.  It was a great mini vacation and it was so wonderful seeing all the Hawaii family that flew in for the wedding!  We were all very involved in helping set up the wedding and rehearsal, so we spent lots of time working on that.  I felt really proud of myself for overseeing the reception set up with a 2 month old baby.  Caleb got asked to be a kitchen helper during the wedding for the caterer.  He did a great job and the head chef was so impressed with Caleb.  He gave us such uplifting and encouraging praise about Caleb, praising Caleb’s humble work ethic and wishing Caleb was older so he could employ Caleb.  That feedback is so good to hear for Caleb and for his development into adulthood.  It warms our hearts as parents.

We wrapped up the end of the school year and somehow we stayed on schedule with our homeschooling despite having a new baby.  I’m so happy and thankful for One Day Academy, where the boys each take a class one day a week.  Ben had a blast going to school this year.  He loved his science teacher and he loved all the fun projects and experiments they did in class.  He especially enjoyed the new friends he made this year.  One of the moms would take the boys out front to play each week and bring different fun toys to play.  He really looked forward to that time with his friends.  I worked at the front desk as head supervisor until the week before I had Ella.  I just dropped the boys off the tail end of the school year.  It was nice to have an afternoon off of my normal homeschooling duties and having the house mostly to myself once a week for a few weeks.  I still had Ella with me, but it felt like a reprieve nonetheless.  Caleb did outstanding in his English class.  English is not his favorite subject, but he applies himself and I’m proud of him, especially because I know how he feels about the subject.  His teacher is excellent and he’s learning and retaining really well.  His composition writings and poems this year show a greater skill than I would expect at his age and I’m impressed.  At home this year, Ben has made great progress with his reading and math.  I’m very proud of him.  He has come so far with his reading.  I often find him reading Calvin & Hobbes comics or Captain Underpants books to himself.  He also has a fondness for the Amelia Bedelia books.  It’s a big deal to me when my kids start developing their own love of reading.  I love reading so much and I’m happy Ben is discovering that love too!  Caleb’s main interest this school year has been computer programming.  He spends most of his free time learning Java or creating video games in Scratch (a program developed by MIT to teach kids block programming).  There is a lot of complicated math involved in both kinds of programming and Caleb often goes to bed with an unresolved math problem and wakes up with it solved.  He thinks about math so often and I love it!  It cracks me up and is so far from what I thought about as a child.  He is a smart cookie and I feel the pressure to make sure I give him the best education I can; to give him his best chance of success in life.

Summer brought a lot of friend time for Ben!  Ben is spending countless hours playing with the neighborhood kids.  It’s so cute to see Ben and his band of little boys ride up on their bikes, being tailed by all the dogs that live on our street, done with their adventures outside.  I often have a herd of kids playing in the living room or working on their fort in the yard.  The kids work so hard building their fort, weaving branches, and clearing an open space in a copse of trees.  The girls add their own special touch repurposing odds and ends they found to make it homey.  I love all their imaginative play!  One of the neighbors has an above ground pool and often invites Ben over to swim.  He has so much fun.  I love that Ben is building magical summer memories and that special feeling will become part of his long term memory that he can fondly recall.

Caleb has spent a majority of his summer time programming.  He loves it so much!  He also participated in a BETA summer robotics program with the local homeschooling team.  He participated in weekly two hour webinars, taught by an expert, to begin to learn the MathWorks programs MATLAB and Simulink.  Many other teams participated in the webinar sessions as well.  It was a very interesting learning experience and I appreciated the webinar format.  If anyone had a question after the session, they would get to ask the expert.  It was very productive for Caleb.  After the webinars, each team had a programming challenge to complete.  Our team would work independently at home and then meet together once a week to work out the kinks in their programming to make their robot accomplish the assigned task.  This experience will really help them in the BEST competition next fall.

3 Months

At 3 months old, Ella’s found her smiles.  She’s been giving them out for the last couple weeks and it always melts my heart when she smiles a huge joyful smile after she sees me!  She's been sleeping through the night in her own bed for a few weeks pretty consistently, which is such a relief!  Just after she turned 2 months, Jon and I nervously made the decision to put her to sleep on her tummy.  It’s helped her sleep much better.  She's also been getting her hand clumsily to her mouth to suck her fingers in bed, which is helping her start learning to soothe herself to sleep.  Perfect timing because laying her down for naps had been getting harder and harder.  We've turned a corner now and naps have been getting a little easier again.  She just started to bat her arms at her hanging toys on purpose.  It's so cute seeing her start to learn to control her little limbs.  I also noticed that her hair is beginning to rub thin where her head lies down on her bed.  I was hoping we had escaped the bald baby syndrome with her, but no such luck.  She’s also enjoying the adorable handmade blanket Great Grandma Jean made for her!  What a special gift!  She sleeps with it every night.

One day we had a very severe summer storm.  Our creek rose about 15 feet, flooding our road over the bridge.  The next road washed out completely, rendering it impassable.  We were trapped at home until the waters receded over the bridge and the city came out to rebuild the other damaged road.  Even once those roads were passable, our two main routes to town were still flooded and impassable for days.  I was shocked at the speeding flow of deep water that consumed the roads.  There was still one very out of the way route to town.  I think it took me about an hour to get to town instead of the usual 15 minutes.  I’m thankful there wasn’t any damage to our home.

Ella meets Uncle David

Our next visitor was my brother!  It had been 3 years since we'd seen him and we loved our time with him!  We took him to Schlitterbahn Waterpark first.  It was a great day!  It was adorable to take Ella “swimming” for her first time.  She looks so cute in her little swimsuit.  She didn’t react at all to being put in water, not a single indication that anything different was happening.  It was a heated pool, so maybe that’s why?  Jon and I took turns staying with Ella in the shade at our picnic table so the other parent could enjoy the rides.  It was a fun and relaxing day overall.

The guys spent one morning working to repair the damage in our yard from the big storm.  Jon borrowed a tractor and fixed our driveway.  David worked to cut up our dead trees with our chainsaw and the kids hauled the heavy pieces to our woodpile.  It was hot sweaty work and they got a lot accomplished.

I love that Uncle David timed his trip to be here for Ben’s 9^th birthday.  That was really special for Ben.  He had such a fun evening playing at the pool and the park with his friends and family!  I'm so thankful for all the people who loved on my boy!  I felt really fortunate that Uncle David, Grandma Jean, and Tia Val were all in Texas and able to celebrate with us!  He played so hard and completely exhausted himself!  He was so worn out he could hardly open his presents!  I love my fun, affectionate, and imaginative 9 year old!

As we said farewell to Uncle David, we found ourselves having extra time with Grandma Jean and Tia Val.  They extended their time in Texas after Aaron’s wedding and stayed in a nearby house rental.  We tried to get together as often as possible.  I loved watching Tia Val read books to Ben.  I enjoyed extra puzzle time with Grandma, afternoons at their pool, watching both ladies snuggle Ella, and having family meals together.  There were some really sweet moments and I have fond memories of our quality time together. 

Anna & her kiddos

My dear friend Anna and her kiddos came through next.  It had been a few years since we’d seen her kiddos and I love all being together.  I love our kids playing together!  I love seeing how they’re growing up!  I wish we lived closer to each other.  It was great catching up and just living life together for a week.  We took the kids to the pool one day and I learned a lesson, wear appropriate pool clothing at the pool.  Summer was just starting to rear its ugly hotness and I really regret my decision to wear pants while sitting outside in the afternoon.

4 Months

At 4 months, Ella is cooing and trying to talk to us and it's so cute!  I'm pretty sure the boys didn't talk to us like she is.  This is a whole new fun adventure with a baby girl!  She smiles all the time and sometimes we can get her to laugh.  She is on a good schedule and that really helps me be okay.  She seems to get pretty upset if she messes her diaper while she's sleeping, thus ruining her nap.  Otherwise, she is napping well.  I'm sooooo thankful she has been sleeping through the night steadily since she was about 9 weeks old.  Her daily dose of screaming like a banshee once a day seems to be over with, Hallelujah!  She's following movement a lot more and turning her head towards sounds now.  She loves to stand assisted.  It pretty much guarantees a laugh.  I love dressing her in cute little outfits and then showing her cuteness to Jon.  Each morning, she hangs out in my lap while I drink my coffee and we have special Ella and mommy time.  Time is flying way too fast with this little bundle of sweetness.  I'm trying to soak it up as much as I can.

We celebrated the Fourth of July with our usual traditions at our neighbor’s pond.  Sadly, Kara and her little guy Jude couldn’t make it this year and we really missed them.  The men and kids shot off a never-ending stream of fireworks.  It was a really impressive display and I enjoyed it.  I didn’t think I’d be able to join in the festivities because I figured it would be too loud for Ella.  But she went to bed and wasn’t disturbed by the distant booms at all.  I tried out our monitor for the first time and, wonderfully, it got reception at the pond.  So I relaxed and enjoyed myself!  Yay!

Becky is here visiting meeeee!

My friend Becky was our next visitor!  I was so happy!  We took her out for some legit Texas BBQ and some pool time.  Mostly we just stayed home and talked and talked and talked!  I'm so thankful for our special time with Becky and I love that even though Ben didn't remember her from his CA life, he still took to her right away and easily called her Auntie.  It warms my heart.  Auntie Becky, you're the best!

5 Months

At 5 months, Ella is starting to bring anything she can to her mouth.  Her favorite things to suck on are her to two middle fingers, a handful of her shirt or a nearby burp rag, and just recently, her toys hanging on her playmat.  She started preferring some upright time each day, so she gets to bounce for awhile each day in her Johnny Jump Up.  While she's in it she loves twisting and bouncing and having a good view of all the happenings in the house.  She loves watching Ben and his friends playing.  She is free with her smiles, which is stinkin' adorable!  Right after she turned 4 months she started sleeping 11.5 hours straight at night, which was amazing for Jon and me!  It threw her daytime naps off for a few weeks and she's finally just getting back into regular daytime sleeping patterns.  Ben is getting more and more interested in her as she continues to become more interactive.  It's so sweet hearing him talk to her.  I love it!  I think Ben is really going to bond with her this month while Caleb will be gone on a solo trip to Kauai.  That’s right, Caleb is getting to go on a solo trip to Kauai to have amazing adventures with Granny and the rest of the family there!  He’s so excited!  He leaves the end of July and returns the end of August, just before school starts.

CLICK ON THE LINKS HERE FOR PHOTO ALBUMS:
MAY 2015 PHOTO ALBUM

JUNE 2015 PHOTO ALBUM
JULY 2015 PHOTO ALBUM

Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns

Ella’s Journey (Feb-April 2015)

Ella’s arrived!!!  We’ve had a long journey leading up to this sweet little girl’s birth.  She is adorable and we’re so thankful for her.  She’s a gift and we’re so in love with her!

Having a daughter has been the deepest desire of my heart for close to 10 years.  If I thought about it, I would start feeling tears welling up with longing.  I kept laying my desire down at the Lord’s feet and trusting Him with it.  God is good.

When I was trying to get pregnant with Ben, God was very clear with me that I was not to learn anything about the science behind increasing your chances of having a boy or a girl.  I had to trust God.  I obeyed and had to shush any of my friends who were reading the books and bursting full with wanting to share that info.  I had to check myself constantly to make sure I was content with having a boy or a girl.  I even ended up acquiring some beautiful baby girl bedding in case my baby was a girl.  A few months later, we got our sweet Ben, who has brought so much fun and joy to our family!  I’m so thankful for him, so thankful that the Lord made sure I was good with either a boy or a girl, and so thankful that the Lord knew what He was doing in how he built our family.
 

I kind of assumed I would only have two children, so I thought I was done, buuut...I kept my favorite practical baby stuff...just in case, like the Moses basket, the changing table Jon built with its baskets, and a few favorite blankets and toys.  About 6 years ago, God took me through a time where He was teaching me about “giving freely” and He required me to give away all my saved boy clothing and to do it with a generous heart.  My nature is to plan and save.  I attach so much sentimental meaning to my kids’ clothes, so this lesson was not the easiest for me.  Ever since then, I pass along our kids’ outgrown clothes to our friends with younger boys.  I have to say, I was very surprised to find how much joy I got from seeing the clothes on our friends’ little guys.  A burst of sentimental memories of my own kids at younger stages comes back to me in those moments.  I love it!  I see now that God knew I wouldn’t need those clothes at all and that they should be used and enjoyed instead of wasting away in storage indefinitely.  Let’s say it again, God is good.
 

Once we were in Texas for about a year, I had a moment where I realized that the big roadblocks to having a third child had been removed, namely that we had gotten ourselves unburied from a lot of debt.  I also wanted to have all my young kid stage child-raising days behind me before I started working towards becoming a counselor, a direction I feel God is leading me in.  God also released me to learn about the science behind increasing your chances of having a boy or a girl.  I started getting excited that God was finally going to give me a daughter!  It took Jon awhile to agree to having a third child.  I knew he was really okay with going forward when he pulled me aside at Christmas time to give me his present in private.  It was a sweet little pink polka dotted baby girl onesie with matching shoes and a note that read:
 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Dear Rebecca,

        I love you so much!  You are such an amazing woman and blessing to me and the kids.  I want you to know that I am on board and excited about having a baby with you.  How could I deny a child the blessing of having you for a mother?  You are the best!
 

XOXO,

Husband
 

His gesture really meant a lot to me.  So I read the books and began tracking my temperature and charting my cycle.  I did not enjoy doing that, so I just stopped after awhile.  I knew God was in control ultimately anyway. 
 

One day the Lord told me the meaning of the name for my daughter; bright, shining light!  It was such a clear and specifically worded message from the Lord.  Can I say it again, God is good!  I looked up names with that meaning and wording, and the one I loved best was “Ella.” 
 

It took much longer to get pregnant than I expected.  I miscarried and it broke my heart.  God named that baby Alex, which means defender of mankind.  I’m pretty sure he was a boy.  It took awhile until I was ready to try again.  Once we started trying, it took a really long time to get pregnant again.  I was wondering if it was meant to be or not, but I kept trusting God, no matter the outcome.  Although it seemed like giving me a daughter was His agenda, I just didn’t know anything for sure.  Trust, trust, trust.  I finally got pregnant.  This time around I had to really keep my emotions in check.  I didn’t want to dwell on fearing another miscarriage.  But I also didn’t want to start making plans and buying baby stuff, just in case.  We kept our good news on the down low until we had a confirmed ultrasound that all was well.  Insurance ended up being a ridiculous nightmare to get situated, so my first doctor appointment was much later than normal.  Once we got everything worked out with insurance, we were so happy to find out that all was well with this baby and we could share our good news!  I kind of knew in my heart that she was a girl, especially since I felt the Lord had already named her, but had to wait to find out for sure.
 

We endured a very difficult pregnancy.  I had awful morning sickness and a crippling fatigue in the first half or so of this pregnancy.  Some symptoms improved with the second half of pregnancy, but they were replaced by other frustrating symptoms.  On top of the normal pregnancy fatigue and discomfort, I had gestational diabetes, insomnia, a crazy overwhelming hormonal or nerve based itchiness at night that would leave me a sobbing mess, and Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction – a common pregnancy condition where the prego hormone relaxin does its job too well, making the ligaments around your pelvic bone during pregnancy too loose too soon, which causes instability and severe pain in the pelvic joint.  I had to only try to get done the bare minimum each day throughout the whole pregnancy.  I kept up with homeschooling and paying the bills, but that’s about it.  I gave up trying to cook for my family or keep the house clean.  It was even hard to delegate because my brain couldn’t handle thinking of what needed to be done in the house.  Little by little, I regrouped and got the boys busy keeping the house clean.  Jon took over all the cooking and shopping.  I am so blessed with a family who will do what it takes.  I’m very thankful for a husband who is so supportive of me and such a great and engaged dad.  We ate a lot of tacos, spaghetti, and chicken caesar salads, we ate out a lot, and we made it through.

The day before Ella's arrival



 

On the morning of Ella’s birth, we dropped the boys off at One Day Academy, where they each take a homeschooling class, and drove to the hospital.  Prepping me for surgery & setting up my IV’s ended up stressing out my body that had been fasting food and water for 12 hours.  Jon said my head rolled back, lost color, and my eyes were fluttering.  The nurses checked my blood sugar and said it was way too low.  They gave me an IV with sugar in the drip and gave me oxygen.  That started helping some. 

 

 

Before I knew it, we were headed to the surgery room.  They gave me the spinal block and then let Jon in.  This surgery ended up being drastically more traumatic for me that the previous two c-sections.  They used the minimal amount of drugs to keep me from pain, they put a large blue sheet up directly in front of my face, and they tilted the surgery table back so my head was lower than my feet.  My arms were laid out perpendicular to the sides like I was making a capital T.  I felt a lot of pain in my shoulders, arms, and head.  I could feel every little touch from the doctors and nurses.  In previous c-sections I was completely immobilized from the spine down, could hardly feel any pressure, and had enough morphine to feel pretty good.  This time I could wiggle my toes through the whole surgery.  The weight of the baby and the angle of the table really increased the stress on my body.  I was having a really hard time and felt really stressed out from the discomfort.  I asked them to level the table and to give me oxygen.  They did and it helped me a little bit.  Then it felt like the doctor was pushing on my ribs over and over and over with all his weight.  It was just too much and I started to cry.  Soon they pulled the baby out and held her up for me to see.  I couldn’t really see much from my position.  The nurse thought I was crying from joy, but it was from how overwhelmed I was, physically mainly, but I’m sure emotionally too.  As soon as the pressure of the baby and the doctor was off of me, I instantly felt physical relief, I could finally start breathing better, and I began to feel less distressed.  After they weighed the baby, the laid her on me, but there wasn’t any room because the curtain was so close to my face, so they pretty much laid her under my chin.  I couldn’t really see her, but I gave her a kiss.  I wasn’t quite ready to take in the joy of my new baby because I was still so overwhelmed from the surgery.  I recognized that lack of joy and connection and felt disappointed.  I wanted to be filled with joy and love.  I just had to take one thing at a time.  I knew I’d get there soon enough.  They took Jon and the baby to another room while they sewed me up.  I just concentrated on breathing in the oxygen and trying to recover.

 

 

They wheeled me into the post-op room where Jon and Ella were waiting.  Jon said the time he was in the room alone with Ella was really sweet.  Moments after I arrived in the post-op room, my cousin Kara and the boys arrived.  She had driven from Missouri and picked them up from school.  It was a big relief to me to have Kara there.  I needed that extra measure of love and support and friendship.  Plus, knowing she was in charge of the boys, freed me up to be completely unconcerned about them the whole time I was in the hospital.  That was a big weight off my mind.  I was still needing some time to regroup, so I feel like I missed out on seeing the boys meet their sister.  The nurse came in to see if I was ready to nurse for the first time and I had to ask for a few minutes to collect myself.  This is all within 5 minutes of being wheeled into the post-op room.  The nurse came back a few minutes later and we nursed.  The nurse gave Ella a bath and got her all snuggled up.  A while later they took us to the maternity room. 

 

 

The trade-off to the more traumatic c-section was that I recovered much more quickly!  I had no drug haze to come out of immediately after surgery since they used much less medicine.  I was on my feet and regaining muscle strength much sooner than I have in the past thanks to my fantastic surgeon!  He sewed up a lot more layers internally than they did in my previous c-sections.  He did a great job!
 

 

The next few days are kind of a blur.  Feed the baby, doze, eat, wait, visit with friends and family, and celebrate each little milestone: standing, walking across the room, walking down the hall, getting unhooked from the IV, being allowed liquids, being allowed jello, being allowed solid food, etc.  Kara brought the boys to visit about twice a day.  She kept up their homeschooling, fed them, and even made extra food to leave in our freezer!  She was a Godsend!

 

 

It took us awhile to settle on Ella’s middle name.  We were still at the hospital before we officially decided.  Early in the pregnancy God told me “joy.”  I didn’t know if that was supposed to be her middle name, but I felt like it could mean that she would be a joy to us.  We considered naming her Joy, but we decided to name her Ann.  It’s my middle name and my mother’s middle name.  I was really attached to the idea of continuing that tradition.  Ann means gracious one.  I love her whole name together and its meaning, Ella Ann Hartshorn –a bright, shining light and gracious one, who brings joy to our family!

 

 

My mom was able to come once I was home from the hospital.  It was so nice having her around.  She and Ben got a lot of good time together and she changed a million diapers for me.  She got to visit for two weeks and we really enjoyed her!
 

Over the next 6 weeks I had a few extra complications.  My incision got infected and I had a bad cough and cold.  It is pretty difficult to sneeze or cough when you have a fresh incision.  That on top of the usual sleep deprivation and a nursing baby sucking the life out of you is a lot to take at once, but we made it through.
 

As I expected, Caleb wasn’t very interested in the baby, but what can you really expect of a 13 year old boy.  He held her when he first met her, but he’s never asked to hold her since.  He doesn’t ooh and aah over her or really pay her any attention.  He’s much more interested in his own hobbies.  Ben is 8 and is much more willing to hold her if it’s offered to him, but he doesn’t ask to hold her either.  Ben is more interested in looking at her from time to time.  He thinks the little facial twitches that cause her to smile are smiles she’s giving just to him.  It’s super cute!  He likes to count how many times she smiles at him.  I think Ben will especially love playing with her when she can interact a little more.  Both boys will give her a binky in the car when she needs it.  It makes me happy to see them try to keep the binky in her mouth when it keeps popping out.  I like that they’re interacting with her when normally they wouldn’t and sometimes it’s just funny listening to them while I’m driving.  Caleb will load and unload her in her car seat for me, which is a huge help while I’m recovering from the c-section and can’t lift that much weight.  Jon loved to trap Caleb on the couch under Ella.  He would just set Ella on Caleb and then Caleb would be stuck because he didn’t know how to move Ella.  It was hilarious!  We finally taught Caleb how to move Ella, so that trick doesn’t work anymore.  Jon also sneak attacks Caleb regularly.  He gets Ella and makes her swoop down to give Caleb relentless kisses.  It’s adorable!

Ella is a super sweet little baby girl.  It’s so captivating to just look at her.  We’re really enjoying her little expressions and movements.  Snuggling her is the best!  She had her nights and days mixed up for her first 3 ½ weeks.  Now at 6 weeks, we’ve mostly got her little body regulated to a four hour schedule of eating, awake time, and sleeping with just eat and sleep from late night to the morning.  We’ve just about got her sleeping through the night the last couple nights.  My body is mostly recovered from the c-section and my energy and stamina are increasing each day.  I’m getting back into the swing of things and adding back in cooking and cleaning little by little.  I feel so much better than I did when I was pregnant!  The more I sleep and recover, the more I move out of survival mode.  Now I am really appreciating and cherishing moments with Ella.  I’m so excited to see what the next year brings with this sweet baby girl!

CLICK ON THE LINKS HERE FOR PHOTO ALBUMS:
PREGNANCY PHOTO ALBUM
ELLA'S BIRTH PHOTO ALBUM
ELLA'S FIRST MONTH PHOTO ALBUM

June 2013

June has been a big month.  Ben turned 7, lost his first teeth, got a kitty, and we had lots of special visitors!

I love that my mom flew in to visit just for Ben’s birthday.  While Ben and I were picking her up from the Austin airport, Jon and Caleb were secretly hunting the town for a kitten for Ben’s surprise birthday gift.  I’m so happy with the cute little guy they found.  He’s a red tabby from the animal shelter, which is nice because the $5 adoption fee also covered a few shots, microchipping, and the neutering costs.  He was 2 ½ months old.

When we arrived home we gave Ben his early birthday gift in a Happy Birthday gift bag.  Ben was so surprised.  He grinned so big, for so long.  Ben asked repeatedly why we put kitty in a gift bag.  That detail was very disconcerting to Ben.  Kitty was pretty nervous the first day, but started settling down quickly.  He slept and snuggled for the whole first week.  Then he started getting bigger and more adventurous.  Ben named him Billy Fuzzy Hartshorn and he's completely in love!

Kitty will be an outside kitty, but he has to stay inside until the cold he caught at the shelter is better and he gets fixed.  Kitty lives in our bathroom for now, unless we're snuggling him.  Caleb and Jon are both allergic to cats.  Caleb has to take allergy medicine anyway, so he's doing okay.  Jon is doing mostly okay.  I think kittens aren't as bad on the allergies as adult cats.  Jon and I are counting down the days until the kitty can stop living in our house.  He quickly learned to jump the barrier we made between our bathroom and bedroom.  Kitty thinks it’s totally fine to hang out in my bedroom.  He also meows non-stop at us if we walk by, go to bed, or go to the bathroom without spending every second petting him.  His baby kitty meows are pretty cute, but after enough of them, they become tiresome.

I'm loving our little kitty as much as the kids.  He's uber snuggly.  I'm kind of shocked at how much Jon and Caleb are enjoying kitty.  I’m really surprised!  I thought Jon would totally shun kitty and I thought Caleb would be indifferent.  I sure hope kitty lives a long happy life because we're all getting attached.  Outdoor kitties in a rural area often don't make it into adulthood.  Getting him fixed will help a lot with him not running away at least.  Jon and Ben made Billy an outdoor shelter and we’re trying to teach him that shelter is his home.  We even put a covered porch on it so we can put his food and water up there, out of reach to the neighborhood dogs that always wander into our yard.  It has an entrance and an exit so kitty can’t get cornered in there by wild animals. 

After two weeks of medicine from the vet for his cold, we took Billy back to the vet.  The vet said he looks really healthy now.  He got neutered and got his rabies shot.  After a week of recovery, we started the transition to Billy living outside.  He seems to like it so far.  We found that we couldn’t put his food or water outside because it drew hordes of ants, so we decided to just call Billy inside for meal times.  He found an access hole under our back porch to open space under our house.  He spends his hot summer afternoons there.  When he wants back in the house, he sits on the ledge outside our living room window meowing at us.  We sometimes take pity, let him in, and snuggle him.  He’s learning to come running when we call him for breakfast and dinner.  Xena and Billy are really enjoying playing with each other now too.  It’s very cute and entertaining to watch.  Billy bats at Xena’s fluffy ears and tail and Xena tries to play bite Billy’s ears and legs.  It’s adorable to watch Billy sneak around a corner to pounce on Xena.  Both animals love having a playmate.  It’s so sweet to see Xena’s happy dog smile after a good tussle.  All in all, he’s turning out to be an awesome addition to our family!

Ben had a super fun 7th birthday party!  We're very thankful for our Texas friendships!  All the kids had a blast playing water balloon games.  We did rounds of hot potato and played egg toss with the water balloons.  Then I had a kit for each child to build their own marshmallow guns and to decorate their own shields.  They each had a bag of ammo to wear around their necks.  They spent a lot of time running around the park attacking each other.  It was so fun!

On Ben’s actual birthday, we went swimming!  It was the first swim of the summer.  The boys had been counting down until the city pools were open.  They had a super fun day swimming and Ben especially loved swimming with his new birthday flippers, goggles, and snorkel he bought with birthday money from Auntie Dar & Uncle Darrel.  Thanks!!!  We topped the day off with breakfast for dinner with homemade cinnamon rolls and presents.

I love that my mom has gotten to be here with us when big changes have happened in our family.  This time it was getting a kitty!  Both boys love special time with Grandma Cheryl.  They did a lot of crafts and puzzles together.  Ben knows she’ll almost always say yes to reading a book to him.  She even came swimming with us one time.  Caleb loves solving Grandma’s puzzle books.  That’s something special they do together.  Jon and I loved getting a night off for a double date when Grandma blessed us with watching our kiddos and our friend’s four kiddos.  We all love Grandma so much!  Thanks for everything!

Ben finally got his first loose tooth!  It was a bit unsettling to him and he mentioned quite a few times that it hurt.  He had the shortest turnaround from loose to lost that I’ve ever seen.  His first tooth got loose on the 6^th and he lost it on the 11^th.  We were checking out a fabric store in Austin after dropping Grandma Cheryl off at the airport when he lost his first tooth.  It was quite bloody, but all the young hipster ladies working at the store congratulated him and found me a tiny bag to put it in.  He then lost his second tooth a few days later, on Father’s Day.  He noticed it was lost at the end of the movie we went to see.  He didn’t feel it come out, so we don’t know when he actually lost it.  We didn’t see it anywhere in the theatre.  I love his toothless grin!  He is one adorable boy!

We had a great day celebrating Jon for Father’s Day. He's an amazing father to our boys!  We took the day off from working on our projects and relaxed.  He caught up some on his favorite show, The Deadliest Catch, we went out to see the movie Epic, and we ate out at our favorite local burger and ice cream restaurant.  Oh, and he spent the morning with Ben building the cat house for Billy’s outdoor shelter.  Even on his day off, he still got something we needed done.  He’s amazing!

I'm excited about the fabric I bought in Austin and the time for summer projects!  The 2 school years I've been here, homeschooling took most of my time.  Last summer I babysat my neighbor's 4 young kids, which took all my physical and mental energy.  This summer is the first time since I've lived in Texas that I can call bigger chunks of time my own!  I haven’t bought fabric in the 2 years since I moved to Texas, and that is a big deal.  I’ve sketched out a design I like for a purse.  So far it’s very tricky trying to turn a sketch into a pattern when I’ve added so many complicated details, like pleats on curves, into the design.  Hopefully I can pull off making the fabric into the awesome purse I’m imagining.

It’s been really nice not having to water my garden now that I’ve got the automatic watering system.  There is lots of good growth, but I have encountered quite a few new problems that I’ve never dealt with.  It’s a big learning curve and I’m definitely learning!  So far I’ve learned how awesome diatomaceous earth is.  It saved my squash, green beans, and cucumbers from the destruction of hundreds of pill bugs/rolly pollies.  They had reduced the plants to almost nothing.  Now that I’ve dealt with the pests, the plants are finally getting a chance to grow and they’re looking good so far.

I was getting blossom end rot (BER) on some of my tomatoes, so I sprayed a lime/water mix and we’ll see if that helps.  BER is caused by a calcium deficiency.  It was probably due to too much rain.  My green beans are turning yellow and I thought it was from too much water also, but more recently I noticed a whole bunch of brown bean bugs.  I saw ants on the plant and thought they were harmless.  I’ve since learned that the brown bean bug nymphs look like ants, which have now matured.  Some other pest destroyed one of my blueberry plants.  Powdery mildew appeared and quickly took over my zucchini.  I’m using a homemade insecticide/fungicide to solve these problems.  The main ingredient is neem oil and it seems to be doing the trick.  I love that it is a safe and organic solution.  Hopefully the plants can recover from the destruction.  On a different tomato plant I found and hand picked off some potato beetle nymphs.  That seems to have fixed that problem.  One pepper plant got infested with leaf footed bugs.  I hand picked those off over a couple weeks and haven’t seen any for a few days.  It’s so gross having to identify and solve these pest problems.  Hopefully my hard work will pay off and we’ll get lots of delicious produce.

The month ended with a visit from my cousin Kara and her little guy, Jude.  We love having them here and are so thankful they drove out for a visit all the way from Missouri.  I love our new tradition of 4^th of July in Texas with Kara and Jude!

 

Click HERE for June 2013 Pictures

Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns

 

May 2013

May started with Caleb’s trip to California.  He flew solo to spend time with his best friend Sam and to take the CA STAR test.  Caleb didn’t have an ounce of fear about the trip and was nothing but excited.  He was gone for 9 days.  Ben did a lot better this year with Caleb leaving.  He was still pretty sad, but he handled his emotions really well.  I let Ben have the week off school.  We vegged out watching a lot of movies and I taught him to knit.  He’d been asking for awhile.  It was a very sweet time knitting with my Ben. 

Caleb had a great trip and got to reconnect with a handful of good friends.  Juan and Tracy did a lot with the kids.  They got to go to Disneyland, the beach, Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, and they got to explore a battleship.  Thanks Juan and Tracy for pouring love into my boy!

In an effort to form better deep cleaning habits for myself and the kids, we started following the Fly Lady's zone plan for 15 min per day. 

 

I also implemented a new laundry system inspired by the idea of doing 1 load of laundry a day.  Jon put in the shelf that made it all possible!  The kids and husband are adapting quickly to learning to sort their clothes into the appropriate baskets.  The space used to be home to 2 tall hampers.  I'm so excited to not have to do the weekly big laundry sort and 2-3 days it took to process the laundry.  I love that I can see at a glance what basket is filling up and is ready for a wash.

Lighting struck our house one night!!!  It was an intense experience!  It was super dramatic, super loud, super bright with lots of sparks and bursting sounds.  We're so thankful that nothing caught on fire!  I'm also extremely thankful I woke up a few minutes before and felt prompted to get out of bed to unplug our computer. Thank the Lord for that!  Sadly, the lighting fried our television, internet antennae, router, some inputs on the back of our reciever, some of Caleb’s video game systems, my lamp, some cables, and my expensive Tivoli speaker that I use to listen to music.  Our house is grounded and everything was plugged into surge protectors, but apparently the electrical surge came through the internet line and the cable attached to the television antennae when both antennas were hit by lightning.  From now on we’ll have to unplug those 2 cables anytime there is lightning overhead.  As an extra precaution, we’ll also unplug the important electronics.  At least we had Grandma Jean's old TV in storage. One electronic problem solved.  Jon jimmy rigged a few other things to get the antenna connected again and to get Caleb’s Wii working again.  We bought a new digital converter box and a new router.  I contacted the Tivoli company and I can send the speaker in for repair for $75, so I’m going to save up for that.  We’re back in business for most of our electronic needs.
 

I weeded and mulched my garden beds on the weekends this month while Jon was working on other projects.  Hopefully my work will prevent future weeds and help with water retention.  It was so much more work than if I would have done it before planting.  Putting weed fabric down around growing plants was very tricky!  I'll be more organized, prepared, and timely next year.

We finished our homeschool year the last day of May!!!!!  I'm so proud of myself and the boys.  Ben is now done with 1st grade and Caleb is now done with 6th grade!!!  It’s sooo crazy that I'll have a junior higher next year!   I’m looking forward to taking a summer break!  This mama needs it!  I'm so thankful for CHEP, our homeschooling partner in California.

Click HERE for May 2013 Photos

 



Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns

April 2013

What an amazing April!  My mind goes straight to my amazing weekend in Washington DC with my Laurel May.  I don’t think I’ve ever had that much quality time and quality conversation packed into such a short amount of time.  I flew out on a Friday and returned on a Monday.  I was so happy to get a tiny glimpse of her DC life.  We ate exquisite food and drank delectable drinks the whole weekend.  I think gourmet food is officially ranked as my second most important love language right behind quality time.  We also got to prep and plant Laurie’s plot in a community garden she is part of.  I’ve always wanted to participate in a community garden and loved that she shared that with me.  We walked a lot and enjoyed fun little spots all around DC.  The cherry blossoms were blooming and the weather was perfect for all of our meandering.  I love, love, love my Laurel May and I cherish the time with her. 

Meanwhile, my gang of boys went camping with our Texas friends.  Caleb’s friend from robotics class, Lucas, came along so Caleb would have a friend.  I’m pretty sure that camping trip will be a big memory in both Caleb and Lucas’s minds when they reflect on their childhood!  Caleb is rarely as animated as he was driving to and from Dallas for the camping trip.  The boys were nonstop with their chatting and fun.  It made my mommy heart so happy to see.  They dropped me off at the Dallas airport and then continued on to their campgrounds.  The first night camping was just the Rusch family and the Hartshorns; that equals to 2 dads for the adults and 7 kids!  The next day the Ericksons and Hamiters joined in.  There was good rock climbing, but sadly, the lake was too cold to enjoy despite the hot weather.  The boys did manage to corner an armadillo for awhile.  After they picked me up on Monday from the airport, we took a detour at Dinosaur Valley State Park before heading home.  It was so neat!  There were actual preserved dinosaur tracks in the riverbed!  We were so excited that the water level and clarity allowed us to see the footprints.  They are not always visible.  The kids even got to put their feet in the tracks.  The river temperature was ideal and we all had a good swim.  It seemed like too much effort to go all the way back to the car after hiking down to the river, so we just swam in our clothes.  It was the best finale and really made the camping trip complete.

 

 

One weekend, we impulsively decided to try Frisbee golf out for the first time.  We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to go again.  It was a good mix of challenge, being outdoors, and family bonding.

 

The month started off with a trip to Houston.  We woke up at 5am to make it to Houston in time for Ben’s first appointment at 9am.  We were supposed to confirm Ben’s diagnosis of neurofibromatosis (NF1) at the eye specialist at this appointment, but complications came up with Ben's insurance, and we didn't get seen.  We were frustrated because we jumped through a lot of hoops to get the appointment and to get it on the same day as Ben’s other appt.  Additionally, Jon took work off to be there and it would be difficult to repeat everything.  We found ourselves with a few hours to ourselves, so   we headed for the Gulf Coast.  We explored an area new to us, the Kemah Boardwalk.  It was still closed for the morning, so we had the place all to ourselves.  We got to walk around the boardwalk and watch the seagulls diving for their breakfast.  We enjoyed our little family and the salty sea air.  It’s always so refreshing to gaze at the ocean.  We made it back in time for Ben’s next appointment at the pediatric dermatologist at the Houston Children’s Hospital.  We are so impressed with the whole hospital system.  It’s organized and efficient.  They have cared so well for us.  The final result is that Ben's skin spots have now been diagnosed as mastocytoma by the pediatric dermatologist.  It’s benign and the dermatologist believes that it has already peaked and should clear up on its own by puberty.  They drew blood to see if the spots are internal as well.  They were not, which is great, and avoids extra complications.  The dermatologist said we do not need to worry about it being NF1 and no further testing is required.  She wants to see Ben again in 6 months for a checkup.  Praise God!

 

Click HERE for April 2013 Photos

Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns

March 2013

Our 12th Happy Saint Birth-a-versary begins!  I am so blessed to get to walk through life with Jon!  I love him so much!  Happy 12th Anniversary to us, Happy 35^th Birthday to Jon, and Happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone!!!!  Italian wine and a dish of homemade Italian Cannelloni's with Walnuts and Fried Sage started the fun off.  It was so amazing!  It had better be after more than four hours of active work.  Good thing I did the bulk of the work a day ahead of time.  I love trying new recipes and I especially love when they taste like a little old Italian grandmother made them.

We had a great celebratory weekend.  The kids got their first Texas sleepover and Jon and I got a whole night and day to just be together!  It was so perfect!  The highlight of day 1 of our 12th Happy St. Birth-a-versary was a wine tour and tasting of Messina Hof Winery.  It was very informative and we got to taste four of their wines.  Before tasting each wine, our host instructed us on how to properly taste, including trilling for white wine and clucking for red wine.  That was fun and surprisingly effective at enhancing the tastes.  I was impressed by the facility, the tour, and the wine itself.  I loved finishing up our last glass lounging by the lake with my husband of 12 years!

We topped our night off with dinner at a little local Italian eatery.  We even brought our own bottle of wine and paid the corking fee, which was a first for us.  That was fun and a dollar saver.

The next day we meandered around a cute garden store and enjoyed their tea room.  How lovely that the tea house serves complementary tea and pastries before you order your meal.  Plants and fancy food are some of my favorite things and I love that we got both in one place.  On our way home we happened upon a very Ranchero swap meet.  Watching a family chase down an escaped rooster sticks in my mind the most.  It was a very strange and entertaining swap meet.

For Jon’s birthday we had a calorie laden dinner with friends.  It was a good time.  The evening was topped off with some fantastic news!  The IRS accepted our offer-in-compromise!  We now owe only a small fraction of our outstanding tax debt that we’d gained from being self-employed in California.  We feel tremendously blessed and know it is the hand of the Lord!  Only with His grace and covering could this have worked out.  We’re another step closer to being debt free!

The good news kept coming.  I was asked to be a moderator at a new homeschool program being set up for the Fall.  I will give 4 hours of my time per week to this job and Caleb will get two free classes in exchange!  I was going to sign him up for the middle school science class anyway, so now that will be free.  I will also get to sign him up for an English class with a very dramatic and passionate teacher.  I’m very excited because Caleb loves science and I’m so thankful to find someone to pour this knowledge into him in a way I can’t.  I’m also thankful for finding someone who is truly in love with English to teach Caleb, as English is the subject that is most frustrating and difficult for Caleb.

Even more good news is that we got a truckload of parts, all FREE, to set up a watering system for my garden, from a craigslist post!  I’d wanted a watering system so badly this year, but we just couldn’t put our money towards that expense yet.  Thank you Lord for working it out for me!  God just keeps letting me know His care and love in tangible ways.  God is good!  Extra awesome is that we used our anniversary gift money to buy an automatic timer for the watering system!  Thanks Melanie!  We got it all set up and we got all the little plants hardened off and transplanted.  I was too sick to do the transplanting myself, so the boys did it for me.  I sat outside to oversee and am thankful I was able to do that much.  I’m very excited that I won’t have to hand water all the beds through the horribly hot summer!  This will be a huge time and effort saver for me!

We had a nice Easter, although we missed our usual California traditions.  I was very sick, so we just stayed at home.  Jon talked with the boys about the meaning of Easter and told the Easter story.  Then we had a fun Easter egg hunt in the yard.  Ben raced around with glee.  He is such a delight!  Both boys had fun and especially enjoyed eating their spoils.  We topped our day off with a family movie and popcorn.  Caleb is really into the Harry Potter movies right now.  We’ve watched one a weekend for the last four weekends.
 

Click HERE for March Photos

Blessings on you and yours!

Love,

The Hartshorns