Every Memorial Day weekend Talyor, AZ has something called Trapper days. The have a Veterans memorial salute, a rodeo, and a dog show. Last year we won first place with Red in his age group. We knew the competition this year was going to be tough though. So we took Red, Uno, and Onyx, except we took Red straight off the couch (no conditioning what so ever) Onyx is only 1, but he was not in shape either. The only chance we had at winning another blue ribbon was with Uno, who actaully looked pretty good. Well, Onyx didnt even place, neither did Red, but thankfully Uno did win first place in his age group. He would of had a good chance at winning for best male if he could of just stayed still for a second so the judge could actually look at him. At least our trip wasnt all for nothing.
A couple of weeks ago Laura, one of my best friends, was in town. She, her husband Joe, and their son Hudson were on their way to Virginia from Hawaii. While they were here, some of us girls had a little shower for her and the twins at The Vig.
Miss you Laura, see you in 7 years...j/k I need to get over my fear of flying so I can come see those special twins of yours!
May 18th, Justin turned 8 months old....
Some of his 8 month markers:
1. He started crawling and pulling himself up on anything that will support him
2. He jumps up and down in his crib
3. He has 3 teeth with a 4th on the way. One top, and two bottom.
4. He has hair!!!
5. He repeats sounds and expressions
6. He is eating a lot more real food
This little boy is amazing and I adore him to death.
For Cody's last day of preschool the teachers had breakfast for all of the families. They also handed out all of the kids portfolios and volunteer certificates. I even got a rose from the teachers...I guess I was a special volunteer (I'm just kidding, I was the parent president for the classroom and chair person for the policy committee for WESD headstart)...look out PTA :)
Cody had a great birthday party! Thank you to everyone that came and helped out. Special thanks to Auntie Rachel for making Codys alligator cupcake cake.
Be prepared!!!! I have my computer hooked up and running (finally!), I have oodles and oodles of pictures to share and stories to write...Get ready for updates galore.
Cody has had a great couple of days! He had an awesome birthday party at the park on Saturday, sang a Mothers Day song in church on Sunday, got to go shopping with Uncle Nathan today, and then the park again afterwards with mommy. Cody is very excited about 5 and is very excited about kindergarten next year.
5 things I love about Cody
1. The way he says "I love you mom"
2. His never ending thirst for life
3. His sense of humor
4. The way he takes care of me when I should be the one taking care of him
5. He's a great big brother
We are so proud of you Cody. We LOVE You!
Love Mom and Dad
Cody's turning 5 on Monday!!! AAAHHHHHH, where has my little baby gone? Oh that's right, he's a big boy!
We're moved!!!...(almost) Still a couple boxes left at the Litchfield house, but that's about it. Nothing is organized here but we have beds and cable set up, you know, the important things :) I know a couple people have let me know my email isn't working. I guess it's because I don't have MY computer set up. I have to settle for Greg's sweet laptop. Hopefully next week sometime I can get that up and running.
And in between moving, still renovating, taking care of 3 boys, a lot of dogs, a husband who is in tons of pain from throwing his shoulder out during the move, I'm also helping plan a wedding!!! Yup, my brother-in-law Nathan is getting married on October 16th to his girlfriend of almost 4 years, Jenna. I love Jenna. We get along really well and although I dont miss living out in Litchfield, I miss living next door to them :( Jenna asked me to be a bridesmaid and Greg is going to be Nathans best man. And best of all, all 3 boys will be the ring barers which I can't wait to see!
Hooray hooray! We start the move today! Granted nothing is 100% complete at my moms, I'm so excited to start moving over there. Big things hopefully go today and then the smaller stuff thru the weekend. I know I'm going to be stressed to the max but in the end, it's worth it.
April 2nd marked mine and Gregory's 12 year anniversary together! We started dating when we were just 15, and for the most part have been inseparable. Despite all of our faults, we love and adore eachother for who we are.
After Cody was born...
Right after we got married...Trip to Vegas
When Gregory got back from Iraq
Gregory's 20th bday in the barracks
Our first date after Cody was born...
I'm sure everyone is like this, but I can look at every single picture we've ever taken together and know everything about that day :) I cherish every minute with him.
Shooting up in Parks, AZ
17 years old
Easter 2006
Trip to Greer, AZ
Thank you to everyone that called and sent text messages to me today! Your thoughts and prayers are still greatly appreciated.
We actually stayed the night at my moms lastnight and it was very comforting to be there. I guess if I made it through the first year, I'll survive...
So remember before when I said Onyx was better? Well, he wasn't. He came home from the vet and wasn't getting any better. 3 days later we decided to try and treat him ourselves at home, still wasn't getting any better, took him back to the vet, where you guessed it, still wasnt getting any better. After 14 days, they took another x-ray. This one showed a forgein body in his intestines. He had to have immediate surgery and they took out 6 inches of his intestine. Dogs usually die after 5 days of having parvo....Onyx was sick for 14 AND had a blockage in his intestine. I still have no clue how he pulled thru? That little man has heart!
We finally found out that we have to be out of our house in 27 days...Im pretty much relieved at this point just to know whats going on now. Greg is stressed to the max and I'm having fun packing (ya right). But I am excited to finally make the move back to my childhood home and have that great big backyard for my boys....and dogs :)
Speaking of dogs, we just found out yesterday that one of our females who is pregnant and due any day now is expecting 9-10 puppies!!!! (We had an x-ray done) If you can't tell, my husband love his dogs. And no, as my friend Laura asked me yesterday, we do not sell our dogs. We will give some away to some of Gregs friends around the country who have given us dogs in the past, but that's about it. We finally decided to name our kennel Enduring Freedom Kennels, or EFK (we have fancy-shmancy shirts made to wear to the shows we go to, LOL, not fancy just kidding).
The end of April is when we will be registering Cody for Kindergarten!!! Seriously! Where has the time gone? I decided to put him in a different school district too...one where most kids speak English. I know thats kind of harsh, but it's true...Haven't decided on which school yet, but we will be doing a couple of tours over the next month and meeting some teachers to see what the best fit for Cody will be. I'm excited and sad at the same time, but I know Cody will do great!
One week from today will be the one year anniversary of my Moms untimely death...I can't believe its already been a year. It still honestly feels like it was yesterday and the pain and sadness and anger and tears are all still so fresh when I think about her...now I just need to figure out what building to jump off of.
Justin turned 6 months last Thursday and today he had his Dr's check up. He was 27.5 inches long (75% range) and 17 lbs (50% range). He only had to get two shots today, but he has to go back next week and get the other 3. 5 just seemed like way to many shots for a baby.
Justin is still doing wonderfully (is wonderfully a word?) He is eating lots and lots of baby food, sitting up on his own, laughing, cooing, and just being his own awesome self. He's still bald and still toothless. Anything he gets a hold of goes straight to his mouth. He thinks its very cool to hold his own crackers and eat them. He loves his big brothers. Cody makes him laugh all the time!!! I need to video his laugh because it's very contagious.
Getting kisses from Daddy
All About The Kiddos
Cody was born in Yuma, AZ on May 10, 2005. He was born at 2:54 on a Tuesday morning. He was 7lbs 2oz and was 19 inches long... I think back on it now, and all I really remember was being in pain for the whole day. I had a Drs appointment Monday morning and my Dr stripped my membranes. Yes, it's as painful as it sounds. After my appointment, Greg and I went and walked around Wal-Mart. Sounds funny, but it was the middle of summer in Yuma and Wal-mart was the only cool place to walk. I had been having little contractions here and there but nothing substantial. After walking, we went home and waited a while. Finally by 8 o'clock that night, I was ready. The hospital was 30 minutes away. Once I got into triage, I wasn’t dilated enough to be admitted so 2 more hours of harsh contractions walking around the hospital. I do remember Greg being a wonderful coach though. It seemed like the only thing that would help was to sway side to side. Im sure it probably looked like we were dancing. Finally around 11:30 they admitted me. I had my epidural and I was set. They called my Dr around 12. Too bad for me it took her 2 and a half hours to get there!!!! I always wondered what took her so long. I think I had to push maybe 5 times and there he was. My mom and Greg’s family made it just in time. They drove down from Phoenix just in time to see sweet Cody Boy. Cody was a colic baby which made for long nights and hard days. I think he was pretty much over that by the time he was 3 months. He has always been very expressive about what he likes and does not like. He makes it very clear when he wants or needs something. There is really no ignoring him, b/c he'll find a way to get what he wants. He is also very stubborn and hard-headed, but at the same time he is so cute, it's hard to be mad at him. Ever since he was a baby, he had to touch my hair in order to fall asleep. He still does that. He's a mama’s boy when it comes to cuddling, but he also has to get in his wrestle time with Daddy. Cody loves all animals and animals seem to love him (could be he always has some sort of food on him). He loves to play cars and trucks. I think he must have 100 hot wheels. My mom got him a spring horse that he loves to play on, especially when Gregory is watching Westerns. He gets his cowboy hat on and his play gun stuck in the back of his diaper and just goes to town being "Cowboy Cody." It’s so much fun just to watch him play and use his imagination. He is such a wonderful, free spirited little boy. He is also turning out to be an awesome big brother.
Just a quick tid bit...My best friend Kate and I found out were due a day apart last March. Her due date was November 19th and mine was the 20th. Well, Kate had baby girl Riley the same day I had Trevor! What are the odds right?
Trevor was born on Wednesday November 21, 2007 at 10:19 in the morning. He was a big boy at 8lbs 12oz and 21 inches long. I was induced with Trevor because there was no luck with stripping the membranes (twice) and I never had any contractions. I was supposed to go in early morning on the 19th, but the hospital was too full. So, I was put on a waiting list. Finally, around 11 at night on the 20th, I was called in. I had sent a text to Kate to let her know I was on my way to the hospital and her husband Cody text me back to let me know she was already there (we delivered at different hospitals). Once I got there, they gave me patocin to induce me and an epidural a little while later. It was great! The delivery part of it was nothing. I had to push maybe 3 times and he was born within minutes, healthy as could be. However, a little after he was born I started to feel nauseous. I ate some yogurt and sure enough it came right back up. I sat up in bed and saw white spots everywhere and heard ringing in my ears then blacked out. They took some blood work and it said I was anemic. I was having lots of blood clots coming out. The Dr ran in and started cleaning me out and pushing on my stomach and let me tell you it hurt like heck. I like to think I have a pretty high pain tolerance too (2 kids before this, 2 tattoos, and a couple of piercings with no complaints) but this sucked!!! I was shaking uncontrollably; I thought I was having a seizer. I guess I was going in and out of it, b/c I woke up later and Greg had put a rose on my chest. I remember waking up and asking him if he thought I died. It was probably one of the scariest times of my life (besides Greg leaving for Iraq). Im so glad my mom was there to explain to me in English all the Doctor lingo. I did get to go home for Thanksgiving with a beautiful, healthy baby boy. This was a big deal because I had some scares early on in my pregnancy. On the first ultrasound, we found out that my placenta was sitting way too low so it was squishing Trevor’s kidneys. They were way too small. That was terrifying for both Greg and me. After a couple more ultrasounds and a visit to a perinatologist (sounds serious right) we found out everything was fine. I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was for having small kidneys. I mean, there are two of them. Turns out after some research, it can be a sign of Down Syndrome. It was very scary!!!! We are so blessed that Trevor is healthy! Trevor is turning out to be an angel baby. He rarely cries and sleeps all through the night. He smiles all the time and loves to look at the color blue. He loves to watch Cody and always smiles when he gets to take a bath. Trevor just seems to love life. It is so much fun just to sit and cuddle him. He makes the cutest cooing sounds. I can’t wait to see more of his personality. It just goes by too fast. Greg and I are so blessed and we are reminded of that every time we see our beautiful boys.
Justin Gregory Tieman was born Friday September 18, 2009 at 9:11 in the morning. He weighed in at exactly 7 lbs and was 19.5 inches long. Everything in a time period of about 36 hours happened so quickly. I had my Dr’s appointment at 2 on Thursday and when I was there, he asked if I wanted the 12 am or 4 am spot to be induced. I took the 12 am spot. Gregory and I made it to the hospital around 12:30, checked in, and then went up to Labor and Delivery. I was given “the gel” around 2:15 am and by 2:20 I was already having small contractions. My nurse had me get up and walk the halls for about 40 minutes. I’m not sure what time I had my epidural? It was with the first nurse I had, so sometime between 3 and 6 am. I got a new nurse around 6:15 and she let me sleep for about 3 hours to get some rest. She came in 8:45-9:00 to check on me and see if I had dilated at all. To my surprise (and hers), I was fully dilated!!! I had slept through all of my contractions! It’s a good thing my Dr was just down stairs getting ready to come up and break my water. I felt so bad for him. I pretty much shot my baby out at him. I pushed 3 times (for about a minute) and he was out. They did have to use to vacuum on him because I already had some abrasions and was starting to bleed. Luckily I got all the medicine I needed and then some to help with the bleeding and everything went really well. I was able to leave the hospital the next day, feeling pretty good. Justin is only a couple of days old, but he is already such a blessing for our family. He is a wonderful baby and absolutely beautiful. Cody and Trevor can’t seem to get enough of him. They love getting to help feed Justin. They are such good big brothers! With Justin now here, I feel our family is complete. Gregory and I couldn’t be happier to have 3 wonderful boys in our lives!
Onyx
Uno
Justin checking on Red
Dog pile on Daddy!
