And then there is Stellar, I can't leave him out. He is my boyfriend. I know that sounds weird, but seriously I love this kid. I want to kiss him all day.I want sink my lips in his soft baby squishy skin. Everytime I tell him he is cute he corrects me, "No, I a big boy!" I Love it! I love it when he runs around with his arms in front of him, pretending to fly like Buzz lightyear or Astro boy or SuperWhy, or who ever he is for the day. I love it when he kisses me. I love it when he picks out his own clothes.I love it when we get to spend the mornings together when Rainy is at school. I love the way he talks, I love the way he walks, and smiles and frowns. He is Fantastic.

Oh and did I mention he is potty trained now? Yeah, he is

amazing!

2nd- We blessed Serene on October 1oth.

We blessed Serene in Josh's Parents ward here in Washington.My parents and sister came up.Josh's two brothers, brother in law(well almost;) ), Dad and My Dad stood in the circle.Josh gave her a beautiful blessing.Things that stood out to me were that she would be able to serve a full time mission if she so desired and to listen to her mother, because I would always have her best interest at heart. She looked fabulous! Karen(my mother in law) bought Serene a beautiful blessing dress, it was VERY long, very simple, elegant and had a bonnet with it, it was perfect. My mom bought her a locket, we all have a locket, all the girls in the family. My grandma sent her a bracelet and some cute little satin shoes that we jazzed up with some flowers we made. She looked great , we had great food and it was all around a great day. I missed having my Brother there though, I will admit that. I am so glad he will get to meet this sweet little girl in a few months.She is such a blessing to us. I feel like she has been with us forever.She is so lovely, her smile is amazing, she puts up with a lot from her older siblings(they love on her a bit too hard sometimes and Rainy wants to play with her like a baby doll.) I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father entusted me with this little sweet Spirit.

Catch up! Or is it Catsup, I prefer Ketchup...

A lot has happened in our little world since Miss Serene has entered into our lives, and therefore I am here at the computer tonight getting you all caught up.

1st, Rainy started preschool.Now this is not just any preschool, Rainy rides the bus to and from. Yeah, I did okay on the first day sending her, but when she got off the school bus, on her own and had made it safely home to me. I got a little choked up and realized- she can do it without me. She doesn't need me for everything anymore. I wanted to ball my big eyes out. Rainy goes Mon-Thursday to the Elementary School here, it is basically like a half day Kindergarten. This school district does all day Kindergarten.She eats breakfast and lunch at school. She has PE and music and they do centers. She has little girlfriends that she sits with and giggles with. She loves it.I am so glad she goes.I am glad she is becoming more and more independent. But wow has time flown. Here are a few pictures of her very first day, when the whole family got to go and spend the day.

Headed to school! Woo HOO!

Some of the kids from her class. Having breakfast. Stellar having breakfast too. Being a good big sis...

And then this is the second day of school, the first day to ride the bus-

Waiting in the car for the bus- totally excited!
Waiting outside for the bus.
Now crink your head to the side, cuz I dont want to flip the pic-
There she goes, with help with some of the other kids at the bus stop,

looking at this pic now, makes me get a bit teary.

and now this is what really got me on that day, besides Stellar peeing his pants and undressing himself on the side of the highway, at the bus stop - Keep crinking your neck to the side.

She made it home.

Yep, I got a lump in my throat.

Serene Birth Story part 4- the grand Finale!

I bet you thought this day would never come, well it has, the stars have aligned and here I am this evening bringing you the 4th and final installment of... Serene's birth story- the GRAND finale! So where did we leave off ?... aah yes me, peeing in front of the elevators.


So the Elevator FINALLY comes, Josh pushes me in, then we go down one floor to Labor and delivery, I am still screaming. He pushes me to their(L&B) door, just as the door is closing behind someone, I yell "LET ME IN!" I am a dork, I know. Then I use my hulk muscles again and pry the door open before it closes completely. All the nurses at the nurses station are now completely aware at this point that I am there, I have made quite the entrance. One says who are you- I tell them my name and Josh tells them we have called ahead, they acknowledge they know who I am and then I am surrounded by nurses.One tells me to sit down so she can push me to the room.Bless her sweet sweet heart, I yell at her too and tell her I can't.(She ended up being one of my favorite nurses throughout my visit there.) So I am in the room, they tell me to get on the bed, I climb up and as I do that they(being the nurses) remove the lower half of my clothes. WARNING: THINGS MIGHT GET GRAPHIC AGAIN- READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.I stay on my hands and knees and am moaning and groaning and screaming.There is a nurse there telling me to breath- I yell at her too and tell her I can't. Screaming works just fine for me thank you.She checks me. She tells me she is going to check me to see how far I am dilated- this is the moment of truth. This is the moment where I find out if I am a big baby or if I have reason to feel like wonder woman. She declares I am a nine! YES a 9! Freaking Amazing! All I think is get this baby out of me and NO FREAKING WONDER THIS HURTS SO FREAKING BAD! Sorry about all the freaking out. So then she tells me that in a matter of minutes my water is going to break and not to push yet and that I am too far along to have an epidural.Which I have never NOT had. A little scary.Okay A LOT SCARY!I can hear Josh in the background talking about how we tried to have the baby before now, no one would induce me, we have big babies, I have torn severely with our other babies.I know he was just worried, but I finally said something to the effect of " It doesn't matter anymore, we are here and we are just going to have to do it." My mother in law agreed.And Josh said "Okay."( Okay like whatever you say, you have to push this baby out, not me.)I was surprised I was able to say something that made sense, because up until now, I was acting like a crazy woman.A new doctor comes in and when I say new, I mean this little lady has only HELPED deliver a few babies. She is young and nervous. The more experienced doctor, the one from my doctors office that is on call that night is sitting, literally sitting back in a chair, in the back of the room observing. I am still on my hands and knees on the bed. Josh is holding my hands, my mother in law is rubbing my back, it was so comforting.Josh told me he had to let go for a second, I knew what that meant, he needed to take of his sweatshirt, which meant he was getting hot, which meant he felt like he was going to pass out. He always feels like that when I am having a baby, right before his adrenaline kicks in. I am only getting glimpses of what is happening behind me between contractions and screaming into my pillow. I then disregard what the nurse told me and push with all my might, because it was the only thing that relieved the pressure, but she was right, my water did break. And Josh informed me later that when it did it, literally went ALL over that poor little Doctor lady and up and over her head. Josh said the look on her face was priceless. So then, I am assuming that as the new Dr. is getting somewhat cleaned up, the old experienced Doctor comes and checks me, I am a ten, I can push.The nurses help roll me over to get in a better position. I push maybe 10 times and then I heard something that always melts my heart, and that is this little chuckle/laugh from Josh. I only hear it when he is completely excited or proud.I have heard it every time I have pushed one of our babies far enough he can see their dark hair, or when our kids accomplish a milestone such as smiling for the first time, crawling, walking, talking, or writing their name.I love this sound and after about 10 pushes I heard it and I knew he was proud of me, I knew he could see our baby. He gives this great smile along with the chuckle and that was smeared all over his face.My mother in laws eyes lit up, I was almost done.I pushed a couple more times and then it was over. I had this beautiful baby on my chest.Serene was born at 4 o' clock A.M., She was 7 lbs11 oz. and 19 inches long.Perfect. I kept saying to Josh and my MIL "I did it, I did it!" And they agreed "You did do it." I called my mom and dad.I told them all about her.I told them that she had my ears, and that she has TONS of hair.The next few minutes was kind of a blur. I just know how proud I felt, how that getting this sweet little baby after all that work was the greatest gift. I remember one of the nurses saying "Now that is how you have a baby!" I think that was after we had determined I was only in labor for about 2 hours!Yes, all of this happened in two hours!And yet in took me over a month to write about it- sorry. Before they wheeled me to my room they got me checked in. Weird. They kept saying how silly it felt to be getting me checked in after the baby was born.It was a great moment when they wheeled me to the room I would be staying in, baby in my arms and then they played "twinkle twinkle little star." They play that every time a baby in born through out the hospital.So cool.

So here is the little beauty herself, born on a very Serene morning in August:

Miss Serene Hemming - 1 month

Happy Happy Momma

Very TIRED Daddy

Very Happy Bro&Sis

Happy Happy Family

Serene's birth story part 3

Sorry it's taken me so long to write this and sorry to leave some of you hanging, its been a busy week or so.
So we live on a Peninsula, the Key Peninsula to be exact, and we have to drive up this Peninsula, over a bridge drive through Gig Harbor over the Narrows Bridge and then we are in Tacoma and the hospital. So we are in the car and we are heading down the highway. Josh puts on his caution lights, as if to excuse himself from the speed limit. At first I say oh you don't need to do that. Yeah, so i quickly changed my mind. The contractions are now getting so I can't just breathe through them. Josh tried to help me breathe through them for as long as he could, then I started getting testy and told him he was breathing too fast. I started moaning through them and clinching my teeth a bit. The kids are now bright eyed in the back seat, probably thinking they were in the middle of a very bad dream, ripped out of their beds and in the car going VERY fast through a dark tunnel of trees with their mom moaning.I think that sounds pretty freaky to me. So once we get to Gig Harbor I am feeling like I can't sit down on my bottom.I am pretty sure that is not a good sign. Oh and at some point on this journey we have called my brother and sister in law, who were supposed to take the kids, but there kids are sick- so they can't. Dang it!Then we call my mother in law she says to bring the kids to her house.Bless her heart but Josh quickly informed her that wasn't going to work, like really wasn't going to work. So she said she'd meet us at the hospital.Thank goodness.So we are now going through Gig Harbor reaching the Narrows Bridge and about at that point I am screaming.It actually helped.I felt silly, It was Loud, it freaked out the kids even more(bad dream getting worse), but it actually felt better to scream through the contraction.I started apologizing to the kids.Josh told me they were fine and to worry about myself.Rainy has now covered her head with her blanket-duck and cover!We reach Tacoma, By now I am pounding on the arm rest, holding myself up, cause it hurts to sit down, contractions are back to back and I am pounding on the arm rest(not sure why.) I argue with Josh for short second about which exit to take to the hospital as if he hadn't lived there for 20 years of his life.I am now officially turning into raging lunatic. We reach the hospital. Josh starts ringing the doorbell to let us in.The lady at the front desk just sits there, with her back to us, mind you I am still screaming and now I am pounding on the windows of the hospital too.Still she sits there. Two of my sister in laws pull up right behind us, with my mother in law. They got the kids, the little lady at the desk finally opens up the door, she says as if its any consolation- "I kept pressing the button to let you in." Well obviously it wasn't working because, I still wasn't inside yet! As the automatic doors slowly opened I helped pull them apart,I felt like the Hulk. Josh pushes me in the wheel chair( he is mumbling all kinds of things about how frustrated he is with lady upfront and the hospital), I am standing in the wheelchair, still can't sit down.We get to the elevator, I tell Josh or maybe yell , "have to pee!" He says something to effect of do what you gotta do. I pee right on the floor of Tacoma General Hospital, right in front of the elevators. Weird moment for me, not my finest. Oh well, do what ya gotta do.

Serene's birth story part 2

I laid in bed having some contractions,they were pretty mild. I figured I'd fall asleep, they would go away,just like they always seem to, maybe this night I'd have some wicked diarrhea or puking to liven up my nightly bathroom ritual, but that's about it.I drifted in and out of sleep as I listened to Josh's Rocky movie in the other room, I think he was confident in his idea of Castor oil and felt like there was no reason to go to bed. Then I felt it, this pang of pain. ouch. Definitely felt like a real contraction.But who was I kidding, nothing was going to happen tonight.About ten minutes later, it happened again. I called Josh in. He told me to start timing.I tried to time, ten minutes seemed so long. There definitely couldn't be something going on with contractions this far apart. I gave up at about seven minutes timing. Labor and delivery would definitely send me home if I came in right now. Pang.Another contraction.I called Josh in again. He laid in bed with me, for the next two contractions, which were now seven minutes apart and about a minute and a half long. Seven minutes apart was what we had decided was the point we would call Labor and Delivery to tell them we were coming in.Which we were instructed to do being as we live so far away, so they would be ready when we got there. Josh called, they said come in. And then I got up.Josh grabbed the kids, put them in the car. We grabbed last minute items we needed. All the while my pain is increasing with every contraction which are happening closer together.
From this point on the story might get somewhat graphic and some might get grossed out by my details, just sayin' you might not be able to look at me the same way after reading this.
Then came the smell. I farted and even though Josh and I were in a dark room together we both felt as if we could see a fog coming from me.I couldn't hold it in. Josh compared the smell to the dark sand underneath the top sand at the beach, the layer where all the decomposing sea life was.I guess I have never dug that deep at the beach to be familiar with that smell, but whatever. We both starting laughing, a defense mechanism against gagging or dry heaving. Thank you Castor oil.Then I rushed to the bathroom. Pretty sure I don't need to go into any explanation of what happened in there.Contractions are worsening. Pain increasing.I then head to the car.
We started our long journey to the hospital. And when I say long journey I mean our 45 min car ride to the hospital, which felt like an eternity.

Serene birth story part 1

Well, I am done complaining, my sweet sweet baby is here, and perfect and wonderful, and I couldn't be more happy. We named her Serene, I know, it wasn't even an option on our poll.It was something we came up with after we set that up, and we thought it was so good, we'd keep it a surprise. So I think I should tell the story of her birth, to me it is quite remarkable, definitely almost could have been a scene from a movie and it was completely unexpected, fascinating and has a very happy ending. So, here goes...

I had my membranes stripped on Thursday the 5th of Aug. I had my parents come up that day, because the last time I had my membranes stripped I went into labor within hours. This time NOTHING happened. I lost my mucus plug on Friday so I thought maybe there would be some progress, then nothing happened.I even went to labor and delivery thinking that with the plug gone and mild contractions maybe something might happen, nope. This went on until Tuesday, when my Dad had to leave town for work, I was so upset he had to go, and I hadn't had the baby. I went to a Dr. appt, begged them to induce me. Nothing. Went back to an appt. on Thursday, begged them again, nothing. So then my mom and I came to the conclusion, nothing was happening, and no one was gonna make anything happen and walking wasn't helping and my little contractions didn't mean anything and I was probably going to stay dilated to a 4 and 25% effaced until it was time to deliver and lastly my mom would probably miss the birth of this baby.My mom went home Friday. Sad. Friday night and Sat were mellow. We hung out. I was very emotional. I told Josh on Saturday morning I felt worse than normal.He said to keep him posted,then he headed off to work.That night Josh and I took the kids to the park, it was perfect. Then Josh took me and the kids to dinner. It was really yummy. They ate all their food, which is amazing and then we walked to Walgreen's. We bought some evening primrose oil which is supposed to soften the cervix and help prevent ripping, I was skeptical but feeling desperate to have the baby, so I was ready to try anything. Then we went to Albertson's and bought some Castor oil, yep, I was desperate. We came home after that.The sky was filled with stars, Josh even saw a shooting star.This was one of the nights of the meteor showers.We Bathed the kids, they laughed while in the tub, deep belly laughs, it made Josh and I laugh, its one of our favorite things is to hear them laugh together. We said prayers with the kids.I said if this was the last day of me being pregnant I would be very happy. Then we left the kids.
Josh made me a Castor oil cocktail(he had been wanting me to try this for weeks and I wouldn't, he asked a bunch of women at work and they all swore by it.My mom and mother in law told me not to, they thought it would just be gross for one and two it would just make me sick,)the Castor oil tasted like I was drinking melted chapstick mixed with orange soda. I then used the evening primrose oil. I took a shower, because in case I did go into labor I wanted to be clean(is that a weird thought?)Josh told me he thought I was closer to having a baby because I was very emotional and was acting like I did before I had our other two. I was excited when he said that.Then I went to bed, it was about midnight...