Annie's Cake Smash

I literally haven't blogged in a year.

I will do my best to add some pictures from the last year sometime soon, but for tonight, I wanted to share an experience we had in our family with you. Our little girl turned one nine days ago and we celebrated with a cake smash.

Andromyda has been such a joy to have in our family. She literally never cries, unless she is pooping. She loves to be held, she loves to snuggle, and she loves to laugh. She will mimic everything. Right now, she says "wow" "mama" "uhoh" and "dada". She is my little buddy. Her snuggles bring me peace on hectic days. She's exactly what our family needed and we feel so blessed to have this lady in our lives.

Andromyda's Birth Story

I know I'm going to kick myself for not writing this earlier. Andromyda is now 7 weeks old! and I still haven't written a thing about her birth. So, I'm going to write down what I can remember now and hope I don't forget anything!

So, I was schedule to be induced with Andromyda on May 1st (my due date). I was dilated to a 2 before I went into the hospital. Andre and I showed up at the hospital around 6:30. I think we were the only ones on the maternity ward, which was awesome. LOTS of attention from the nurses.

So, by 7:30 I was all hooked up to Pitocin and started having contractions. I had been having contractions for a couple weeks, but pit contractions are so much worse than normal contractions. So by noon I was having some hard contractions. The dr came in and broke my water right around 12:30. I was at a 4 by that point. Not quite far enough for an epidural, but far enough for my water to be broken.

After the doctor broke my water, things picked up. I asked for an epidural right around 2. The anesthesiologist was not at the hospital, she was about 20 minutes away so I had to wait a little while. I think I got the epidural around 3. And I needed it by then.

After the epidural was placed, I felt a lot better. The epidural was placed a little bit to one side, so I had a spot right on my right side that I could feel every contraction, which is kind of nice because I was able to know what was going on with my labor (it's not fun when you can't feel ANYTHING).

Right around 7 I believe, I felt like I needed to push. But I didn't tell anyone. I wasn't quite ready to have the baby yet. I waited a little while.. maybe 10 minutes, before I told the nurse I thought I needed to push. She didn't believe me becuase I was at a 7 just half an hour earlier. She check and realized that the baby was coming!

She called the dr in and everyone got ready. Once everyone was ready, I pushed once and they told me to stop. The baby was coming TOO fast. So I waited a little while, pushed one more time and Andromyda entered the world!

She was perfect. No cone shaped head or bruises. She was a BEAUTIFUL baby. But, she didn't have a name. It took us until the next day to finally pick a name. Andre is the one that came up with her full name -

Andromyda Kol Rainier Corpus.

Don't ask. I'm not exactly sure where it cam from.

But it fits her perfect. We call had planned on calling her Andi, but we have been calling her Annie instead. She is such a GREAT baby. Amazing eater, great sleeper. Loves to be held but is perfectly content to be in the swing. She has been a perfect fit for our family. I feel so blessed that I get to be her mother.

Andre filled this birth certificate out as a joke, thinking I'd NEVER agree to the name :) I did.. we just changed the spelling a little bit :) 

SOOO thankful for this lady! My mom came and stayed with us for a week or so and was a HUGE help. She then took the older kids to Sheila's (Andre's mom) house where they stayed for 2 weeks, which was also a HUGE help. I'm so grateful for such awesome family members. 

Latest News

I just wanted to write a few things down while I'm thinking about it. The kids are growing up so quick and I know I'm going to be sad if I don't write more often. So tonight, as Andre was scooping French cut green beans onto Aika's plate, she had a total meltdown. We couldn't figure out why she was so mad until she finally stopped crying long enough for us to hear her say "No grass! No grass!" haha I would have been pretty upset too if I thought my parents were trying to feed me grass. That girl is amazing. She is fearless and crazy, but loving and kind. She is so adventurous, but is aware of how cautious her brother is and tries to keep that in mind during her adventures. Those two love each other so much. They get along well (most of the time) and when one is gone, the other is sad. Having two kids so close together has been awesome (hard too, but awesome).

Archimedes is growing so fast (not as fast as Aika.. in fact, she has passed him in weight and clothing size). He is learning a lot of words and is starting to try to have conversations with us. His favorite things to say is "brother is working here" and "I'm listening to you mom." Today, I was talking with Atrayu (Andre's brother that lives with us) And the following conversation took place:

Archimedes interrupting: MOM! Stop! Stop! I'm listening to Hopper! (Hopper is Atrayu's nickname) - I'm listening to actually means I'm talking to btw -

Me: "Okay, talk to Hopper"

Archimedes: "Um Hopper?"

Hopper: "Yes?"

Archimedes: "Look at all the rocks!" (pointing to our entry way, made of stones)

Hopper: "yup, there's rocks there."

Archimedes: "So many rocks! That's pretty cool, huh?"

For whatever reason he figured that was important enough to interrupt the conversation we were having haha.

He also says "yeah sure" all the time when I ask him to do something. And every time someone leaves both him and Aika have to shake their hands and give them a hug before they are okay with that person leaving. Even if it's just for a quick trip to the bathroom.

We (the kids and I) recently got to go to Idaho Falls for a visit. It was so great to see everyone that we got to see. We had a great time with cousins and friends and family. I'm always so sad that I live so far away every time I leave. Here are a few pictures from the visit:

Aika dressing up with things she found in the toy drawer

Grandpa trying to read a bedtime story to Archimedes, Aika, Sage and Riley

Aika enjoying the bouncy house

And some other random pictures from the last month or so: 

Her hair is finally long enough to do something with!

I don't know why but I love this picture

Aika playing at the Children's Museum on Bainbridge Island

She is a daddy's girl all the way. 

And me! 32 weeks pregnant (I'm 33 weeks now I think!) Crazy to think that baby is going to be here so soon!

Christmas Sunday

I love the Sunday before Christmas every year. I love the musical program that each ward puts on. Nothing helps me remember Christ and really get the Christmas spirit like Christmas music. This year, it was great.

Andre sort of got voluntold to sing in the program this year. We have a small ward and the choir needed some help. He is also the first counselor in the Young Men's program, so he got to sing two songs with the youth as well. The first time he went up to sing with the men's choir, the kids were pretty mad to be left behind. When he went to sing with the youth, they, again, were upset. After they sang their first song, there was a short talk by the bishop then they were going to sing the closing song. So they staid on the stand while the bishop was talking. When the first song of the last two was done, Archimedes ran up to the front of the stand and yelled "daddy daddy!" Of course, the whole ward laughed at that. Andre motioned for Archimedes to come sit with him on the stand. Aika got mad about that so I took her out while the bishop spoke. When they started to sing the second song, I went back in the chapel and stood in the back so I could watch. Right after they started singing, Archimedes ran down to the front pew (where we had been sitting). I thought maybe he got scared or something. As I watched him, he grabbed a hymn book and ran back up to the stand to stand next to his daddy and sing. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen and it brought me to tears knowing how much this little boy wants to be like his daddy. I love moments like that. It makes all the rough parts about being a parent totally worth it.

I thought you might all like to see a pictures of my kids all dressed up on that Christmas Sunday.

I'll be sure to update after Christmas with more pictures :) 

A new house plus some

So much has happened since the last blog post I wrote. It seems crazy that all this stuff has happened so quickly.

So Andre had been looking for a full time job for awhile. He had been taking a few classes working on his masters degree, but because he already had a bachelors degree and he hadn't actually been accepted into a master's program, funding was extremely limited. We decided it would be better for him to work full time and take a few classes at a time rather than going to school full time. So he began putting in applications.

He got an interview for a company on Bainbridge Island. The company is called Ozone International. So, we took a trip to the island (which is just a short ferry ride from Seattle), Andre did great in the interview, and they offered him the job. So, we took it. We had about three weeks to find a place to live (that we could afford!) get out of our lease in Moscow, pack up all of our stuff, and move.

I am amazed that we were able to accomplish all of this in such a short amount of time. It seemed that we had gotten out of our lease really quickly. but the people who were supposed to take it backed out last minute (like three days before we were supposed to move). I had had a lot of interest on it when I posted the lease takeover on Craigslist, so I emailed everyone that had emailed me about it and told them that if they could come the next day and look at the house and sign the lease, they could have it, first come first serve. We had someone come at 8:00 am and say they wanted it. So that all worked out.

Finding housing seemed like it was going to be impossible as well. Everything is so expensive in the area. We found one that seemed perfect, but the guy renting it didn't really want us there with kids. We thought we were going to end up in a really expensive apartment (but it had free tanning!). Then, the Saturday before we were supposed to move (we were planning on moving on Wednesday), we got a call from a lady we had talked to earlier. Last time we talked to her, she had a house for rent but had already found someone to rent it. This time when she called, she said that she had a bad feeling about renting to the other people (three 18 year olds that weren't sure they could pay the rent), and felt like she should offer it to us first. The only problem was that she wanted us to see it before we signed any papers. We were visiting my sister, Brooke, in Coeur D'Alene, so we drove from there to Moscow, and from Moscow to Boardman on Saturday night. We left the kids with Andre's parents and took another quick trip to look at the house. Andre's brother Atrayu and his Aunt Jessie came with us. We had an awesome time, even though it was just a quick one night trip. So we drove from Boardman to Sequim, Washington (where the house is) on Sunday night, looked at the house Monday, and drove back to Boardman to drop of Atrayu and Jessie and drove to Moscow Monday night. We got to Moscow around 1 am. We left the kids with Andre's parents so we could pack up the house quickly. We packed up the entire house Tuesday, picked up the moving truck and packed it up. We finished packing it up on Wednesday afternoon and drove to Sequim Wednesday night. We got to our house around 9:30 pm and slept on the floor that night. We unpacked the truck (with the help of two sets of elders) on Thursday and unpacked boxes Friday. Saturday we drove about 2 hours to meet Andre's mom with our kids. It was so nice to have them with us again. All this while dealing with being 16 weeks pregnant!

Our house is HUGE. We got so blessed with this place. It is a 5 bedroom farm house on about 7 acres. The best part is that it's only $900/month. The same amount we would have paid for a small 2 bedroom apartments. The downside is that it's about 45 minutes from Andre's work. But, he gets off of work at 3:30, so he's still home by 4:30. We're hoping to find someone he can carpool with the cut down on gas. But its nice to be a little outside of town. The town we are close to, Sequim (pronounced Skwim), is a decent sized town but not HUGE at all. It has everything I need (Costco, Safeway, Walmart, etc). It is close to Port Angeles, which has a few more amenities. For those Twilight fans out there, Port Angeles is mentioned in the first book (where Bella and her friends go dress shopping), so they have lots of Twilight festivals and dumb stuff that like. There is even a restaurant where Bella and Edward ate that you can order the Bella and Edward Spaghetti if you so choose.

Here are a few pictures of our house & our travels:

The kitchen does have a stove now :) 

Jessi & I having fun at Claires

Jessie and I on the Ferry 

Andre and I on the ferry

Andre, me, Jessie, & Atrayu on the ferry

The four of us on the ferry again

Another ferry pic. Jessie is trying to squish the space needle

The four of us at XXX Rootbeer in Issaquah on the way home. They make their own rootbeer and it is delicious

What the kids are saying

I haven't blogged in a long time! I don't have any pics to add right now, but I do want to document a few things so I don't forget.

Things are a little crazy here at the Corpus house. The kids are growing up so fast. Archimedes gets smarter and smarter every day and amazes me with his curiosity. He is such a good helper and loves to be wherever his daddy is. One of my favorite things he does is every time someone leaves the house he has to shake their hand. He talks all the time. Sometimes it's still super hard to understand him, but most of the time when he makes noise, he's actually talking instead of gibbering. He loves to tell me about his trains and his cars. His favorite song is Happy Birthday and he wants to sing it every time he sees a fire. And, every time we sing it we have to sing it once for everyone in the house, sometimes once for his blanket and a random toy, too.

We've had some really funny conversations lately. Most of the time they are so funny because of a little miscommunication. My favorite was one night, he was refusing to eat his dinner. This was our conversation:

Me: You need to eat your food, Archimedes. It's either that or nothing.
Archimedes: (really excited) Okay! Okay!
Me: Okay?
Archimedes: Yeah! Muffin!

It took me awhile to get across the fact that I wasn't saying muffin, I was saying nothing...

He has learned his name (I know.. a little late, but he's got a hard name, okay). He calls himself Armenes. Aika calls him Army.

Speaking of Aika, she is learning words super fast! Every day she learns new word. Most of the time I think she's just mimicking me, but a lot of times she knows what the word means. She learned the word "more" which is awesome because she no longer screams until she wants milk. She just brings me her cup and says "more." She does gradually get louder if I don't listen, though.

She said "I love you" today but I'm pretty sure she was just repeating me... still loved to hear it :)

She loves to be tickled and love her daddy. She also really really likes one of our friends, Andrew. If he comes in the house, she is following him every where saying "androo, androo, androo" until he'll pick her up. Luckily, he's a real nice guy and love that he has a fan.

She also has decided she would rather use the toilet than her diapers. Not every day, but a lot of days she tells me "potty" four or five times a day. She will even come and tell me "dry dry dry!" Not bad for a 16 month old, right?

Andre has been busy with school and I'm keeping myself busy with my church calling and baby sitting some kids. I love this crazy life and I love my little family.

Fourth Of July& an update

I've been so bad about blogging here. I really want to write a little about the kids birthday party that we had, but I don't have pictures here... They are at my mother in law's house... and you know, if I don't have pictures, it didn't happen, right? I'll have to add those later...

We've been doing a LOT of stuff lately. We moved (twice) and Andre made the HUGE decision to start school again. He's working on prereqs for a nuclear engineering degree. He started classes about a week after we decided he should go back. He finished his first summer class already and is about half way done with his second one. He has two or three semesters of pre reqs and then he'll start the masters program... so we're going to be college students for a LONG time! (When I say we... I mean he..)

So we're excited to be back in Moscow. We moved into a small apartment for three months and just this week got to move into a house. It's two bedrooms, but the living room is MUCH bigger than our apartment living room, and it has a downstairs that isn't quite finished, but is perfect for storage and even has one room that makes a good office for Andre to do his studying in. It's a really old house, but it has a TON of character (like a mail slot on the side of the house. Cool, huh!)

So I thought I'd post a few pictures form the Fourth of July. Moscow doesn't really do anything at all to celebrate this holiday, so we went down to Lewiston for their fun day and car show. The kids had a good time being outside and playing at the splash park. Aika LOVED the splash park and wasn't afraid at all. Archimedes was a little more hesitant and actually only liked it if Aika was right there with him. I guess she makes him feel braver. Then, we went to a friends house for a bbq and came back to a different friend's house and lit some fireworks in his street. Archimedes thought the sparklers and snaps were pretty awesome. Aika mostly just slept (hard day for a little lady!)

Here's a few pictures from the day! Enjoy!

The splash park in Lewiston.

Check out that face :) That's our good friend Andrew on the left.

Real quick, I just wanted to write down a few things that Archimedes has been saying. I love that he picks up new words every day. It's so fun. 

~I did it! (my favorite. He gets so excited when he does things by himself)

~c'mon 

~harmonica (that's a hard one!)

~shake a hand (anytime anyone comes in or leaves)

He also knows how to work our kinect (if only the dumb thing could understand him!) He runs up to the TV and yells "XBOX" trying to get it to turn on. He'll stand in front of it and wave his hands frantically trying to get it to work.

He loves his daddy. He'll follow him anywhere.

He is currently potty training and is REALLY good about keeping dry all day, but doesn't hardly ever use the toilet... I think I need to start giving him LOTS of juice.. that boy can hold it!

Aika Dawn is doing a lot of new things, too! It seems like she learns things faster than Archimedes did, but I'm sure that's because she has Archimedes to look up to. She says uh-oh and mama. She LOVES shoes. We tried some on the other day (like 10 pairs!) and she laughed every time I put a new pair on her. She loves girly things like bracelets and hair bows (to hold, not to wear), but she also loves her brother's cars and tractors.