Entering a giveaway

One thing I have always wanted but didn't wanna spend the moulah on is one of those PowerMats that charge your iPhones with NO CORDS!! Well I found a blog (Life of a Sippy Cup Mom) and she is having a giveaway for one of these. So i am entering :) Hopefully I WIN!

Been awhile...

Yeah, been like 10 months or so. Things have been crazy, hectic, overwhelming, and physically/emotionally draining. No I won't update on everything, with the exception of the very few important things. For instance, my little man has turned 4. Where in the world has the time gone?!? I feel like I got married to the love of my life, blinked, got pregnant, blinked, had Blake, BLINKED, had my Abby Lou, BLINKED AGAIN, and am here today, with a 4 year old, counting down the days till he starts school, and a little girl who is almost done potty training, and is moving into the roll very comfortably and smoothly of Princess/Drama Queen/Ruler of the house. Daddy doesn't know this yet, but soon enough will realize he is no longer king of the castle. This castle is run by the 1 year old.

Blake is enrolled in school. His first official day will be August 11th, the hubbys birthday. So hopefully he can get some slack to go in work a wee bit late, and take his little man to school.

Speaking of school, I have enrolled as well. I start Monday...EEK!! Little scary, but then again, I am a mom of 2 toddlers, nothing should scare me, except maybe 3 toddlers, but that's still a coin flipping in the air, with the answer unknown for another few years. I'm taking a mandatory online learning class, and then Introduction to Ethics, which I am excited about. Going for a BA in English, so hopefully all the LIT classes won't be overwhelming.

Not many more big things to report, so I'll end this with some pictures of the kids :)

our most recent family pictures taken











Now some recent candids

MOVING!!

Lots has been going on lately. Steven got transferred, so we are heading to North Carolina. I am a little iffy about it, just because EVERY time I tell someone that is where we are going, they tell me one of 2 things. A - "I'm sorry!" or B - "Well I hope YOU like it there." Both of which are telling me Fort Bragg SUCKS! We shall see. I am an optimist so I am trying to think of the good things. For instance, new place, new life. New people, new job, and i can finally go to school. Like I said though, we shall see how it goes.

We got a house out there. Today they called us and said that our application was approved. I figured it would be. It is a nice house. 3 bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms. It has a formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen, and a fireplace. To top that, it is 1/3 of the price of our mortgage we are paying now. I will see if I can post a picture to the side.

Today the packers came to the house, so we are about half way packed. They will be back here on Monday morning, bright and early to finish up. The movers are also coming Monday morning to pack everything up. Tuesday morning we are OUT OF HERE!!!!! We are going to make a quick stop in LA, before heading to our new home for AT LEAST the next 3 years and 1 month. Hopefully it isn't as muggy and filled with mosquitos as people say. Don't get me wrong I know that it will be, I just am hoping that people are over-exaggerating JUST a little bit. Casue people are making it seem like you have to take a shower is bug spray and then keep one of those stupid candles on the top of your head just to keep them at bay. That is just another one of the "we will see" situations.

Last but not least, the house we are moving in to, is exactly one mile from the preschool I will be sending Blake too. I am still a little unsure about how he will do, but he needs to learn sometime I guess. I will be putting Abby Lou into daycare and then getting a job. We will see how that goes :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!!!!

My little princess is 1 today *sniff*
She has gotten so big, and is such a stinker. She has been walking since she was 10 months, talking since she was about 8 months, and has been a spoiled brat since she was born! She is a very independent little girl, and VERY headstrong. She doesn't back down from anyone, myself included. She will fight Blake to the death over a toy, and then turn around and give you the sweetest smile so you don't yell at her. I just couldn't imagine having another little girl who I can love as much as I love her!

I thought I would share Abby's birth story, just cause :)

Tuesday morning I woke up at 4:20 on the dot with some tightening in the belly. Thought to myself Abby leave me alone and let me finish my sleep. Just as I fell back asleep another ctx. They were coming 4 minutes apart, but it didn't scare me or anything cause 2 weeks ago I had been having them every 2 minutes and then just as I was gonna go in, they stopped. Well They didn't stop. DH woke up an hour later to me downstairs timing them drinking some water. At 5:15am Blake woke up, and then DH did. I put Blake in my bed with cartoons on, DH left to work with me pushing him out the door saying I was fine and I would call him if anything. At about 6:30 I went to the bathroom and there was blood on the tp, and ctx were still every 4 minutes. I called DH at work and said come get me we are going in! He laughs at me and says alright and came and got me. When he got home he asked me again if I was SURE I wanted to go in, I said yea, and we got Blake dressed and went in. I was 3 cm and 90% and was having ctx off the charts the doc said, but I was handling them well. They sent me home at 9 saying to go walking and come back at noon if they haven't stopped. Well I got home and did all kinds of things, like took towels upstairs, walked my driveway 25 times, and so forth. I went back in and she checked me and she said I was a stretchy 3. Then said well I'll strip your membranes and see if that does anything. While she was stripping, she broke my water..Apparently I yelled out Holy Shit when the water went down. Well the ctx started to get pretty intense but not to to bad. I was so set on NO drugs! Anywho, I got to my room and I was already at a 4. By 2 I was at a 5. By this time they said I needed some help progressing and gave me some pitocin. WOW...does that shit hurt!!! All of a sudden I was in so much pain, and just wanted to cry. Ctx were coming every 90 seconds, and I was bout ready to yell out HUCKLEBERRY!! That was our code word for when I really wanted the drugs. I went from 5-7 in an hour, and then by 7pm, I was at an 8. I stayed at an 8 and didn't go any further. At about 6 though I had some bleeding which is when they think Abby broke through my placenta. At about 830 her heart rate started decelerating with contractions. It was going from the 150's to about 86 bpm. So they would make me change position, and that would work for awhile, Then about 9 EVERY ctx no matter how I laid, was dropping her heart rate. So they decided to do a c-section. The c-section ended up taking over an hour to get the baby out cause of the complications. The doctor said that if we had gone through with the vbac, her coming out and the ctx would have continued to put so much strain on me that I most likely would have started to hemorrhage, and could have died. So...OBVIOUSLY...the right thing to do was to get the c-section. Apparently my placenta ruptured, and Abby had her elbow and shoulder out and kind of well just "swimming" around. But she was healthy and happy, and just as beautiful as any other baby I have ever seen!

Abigail Louise Betancourt was born at 10:37 pm on July 15th and was 7 pounds 8 ounces, and was 19.75 inches long.

4th of July!

4th was fun! We went to my dad's house. The kids had a great time! We played volleyball, me and Sarah won, unless you ask Steven and Ryan! We BBQ'd some chicken and some sausages. Had some bomb diggity potato salad (note to self: get recipe for potato salad from Bev) and I had soda for the first time in over a week. I missed it lol, although I have yet to go get some for us, not sure if I will. Now I am at home, and have water. Pfft who wants that! Abby of course refused to nap the entire day, even when daddy put her in the car and drove around for 15 minutes trying to drive her to sleep. Blake was as crazy as usual, running around, doing sparklers, and just having a good time like always at grandpas house. We did a bunch of fireworks at the end of the night, apparently my dad isn't "the man" because he didn't pay the 400 dollars for the 6 foot by 3 foot package of fireworks that was conveniently titled "you the man" package. Oh and the "FINDING NEMO" firework, which was, according to the salesman, supposed to shoot up in the air things that looked like fish. Blake claimed he saw finding nemo, I on the other hand, saw a crappy ass firework which my dad paid to much money for. Eh, it was all fun though. Since Washington is stupid, it didn't get dark until after 9, so we didn't end up getting home till around 11 or so, maybe later, and kids were passed out, and I was DONE! I was so tired, although I still had enough energy to check my facebook lol. Priorities!! I forgot my camera so I only got a couple of cell phone pics!

Just realized my cell phone is in my room where a sleeping princess named Abby is. Pictures to come tomorrow!

Trip to Los Angeles

It was fun, although now I am home and SICK! 9 times out of 10 I, or the kids, end up sick when we come home. Kids still have runny noses, but I am coughing up a lung and have a faucet for a nose...NICE! Other then that the trip was a little too long, but fun nonetheless. We celebrated the kids birthdays down south, granted it was 2 months late for Blakes, and 1 month early for Abby Lou. But we were home so we celebrated it. It was fun, and very worth the time and headaches it was worth. Kids got a bunch of clothes, and most of the family came. It was nice to see the cousins, and all the kids together. I also took Blake to Disneyland for half a day, which he loved. He always asks to see mickey Mouses house again, so we made a point of going there again. Took the kids to Wild Rivers with Stevens sister and kids, that was fun, although I got a mild sunburn. OUCH! Lastly after a lot of hanging with the families, we celebrated my 25th birthday! YEA!! But I am driving with an expired license now until the DMV stops taking their sweet time and sends me my new card. Anyway, we went to Muchos where my brother is the bartender, and we had a great time celebrating. Pics are on my myspace. We also went to the beach, and it was Abby's first time touching the Pacific Ocean. She loves the water, any kind of water. I would not be surprised if she joined some water sports when she got older. Picture above is of us when we where there.

Now we are home, sick, and are getting ready to move out to North Carolina! 30 days and counting...

Last week in photos

This is gonna be something new I am gonna do. Hopefully Mondays I will be able to find the time and the drive to take the last week of pictures off the camera, (and the hard part) upload them to photobucket and then post them on here.

Some recent ones of my 2 angels (monsters) this passed week. We went to a BBQ on Sunday and had some good times playing with the kids and eating some really good food. Rest of the week was spent hanging out at the house with the kids and the husband.