Braddock Benjamin Heiner

Our fourth child was born September 17th, 2012 at 5:16pm.  I'm going to tell his birth story so if you don't want to know (it really isn't graphic) then I'd suggest just skipping down to the pictures.

We found out about 3-4 weeks before his due date that he was frank breech meaning his head and feet were up in my rib cage which is not the correct way.  Doctors are hardly ever taught how to deliver breech babies any more and besides it's suppose to be insanely painful and more risky to deliver breech.  My options were a c-section or they could try to turn the baby around manually on my stomach.  Our previous baby, Bracken, had also been breech.  We choose to do the ECV, turning baby, with Bracken and were successful so we decided to try the same with this baby.  This time was much more painful.  It took a lot longer to turn him around.  He was far to content being wrong side down.  But he did turn!  It was decided that I would be immediately induced to reduce the chance of him turning back around.

We had wonderful friends taking care of our kids for us.  Inara and Bracken stayed with my visiting teacher and her kids while Entegra was at school most of the time but then went to a friend's house after school.  Entegra and her friend were absolutely thrilled about.

For the first 2-3 hours after being induced, I slept and Benjamin watched his cartoons.  After that things got more painful and I eventually asked for pain killers.  I don't do epidurals because they scare me to death, but if I'd known he wanted to come out ear first, I would've given it more consideration.  Yeah, the Doctor said, "Oh wow, baby wants to come out ear first!  He must have a flexible neck." Ugh.

After about 3 more hours of labor, it was time to push.  That was horrible.  Worst then all the other babies, or at least it seemed that way.  I'm so glad Benjamin was able to be there.  I really needed his support this time...and his fingers, I think I crushed them.  Finally he was out and I was done pushing...THANK GOODNESS.  They plopped him on my tummy and the first thing I thought was, "There really was a baby in there," the second thing was, "He's so small."  I know, I'm a goof ball.

What a beautiful baby he is.  His brother and sisters took to him instantly.  Bracken was constantly looking into is hospital bed to get a better look at him.

Valentine's Day 2013

The kids all enjoyed their Valentine's Day.  Inara was able to pass out valentines this year and thought it was the best thing ever.  Bracken bought the girls flowers, Carnations, sadly I never got the picture taken.  Bracken handed the flowers to them really fast and I couldn't get the camera out fast enough.  Inara had a huge smile and a, "Aww, Thank you, Bracken."  Entegra thought of me during her class party and brought home a cookie.  She said, "I didn't like it, but then I thought about you, Mom, and thought you might like it."  It was really nice of her to think of me during her party. :)

St. Patrick's Day 2013

This St. Patty's Day, we decided to enjoy pancakes, but not just any pancakes.  Rainbows, pots of gold, and 4 leaf clovers.  We also enjoyed green smoothies made with collard greens, a banana, half an apple, and a bunch of frozen pineapple. YUMMY!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

New Year's Resolutions 2013

Many people make new goals for the New Year.  This year I decided to give it a try.  I usually don't participate because there are ALWAYS things I have goals for throughout the year.  This year, however, Ben really wanted designated goals and steps on how we were going to achieve those goals (he went to a seminar and came home really pumped about the lecture, something about attainable goals).

#1- Like everyone else in the USA we want to lose weight, but more than that, I want my kids to eat healthfully also.

1. Read Eat to Live and Disease Proof Your Child By Dr. Joel Furhman and follow it.  (This new eating plan is basically vegan and more fully a veggie and fruit based diet.  I'll explain more fully in a different post.)
2.  No junk in the house, if we're going to not follow the plan, it'll only be outside of the home
3.  Always have sliced veggies available for after nap (when the kids just can't wait until dinner).  At that point, who cares if they don't eat dinner, they've likely just eaten carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, celery, radishes, or whatever else I've put out.
4. One smoothie per day.  I can add spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, or whatever else so long as we add          fruits it tastes delicious and we drink it up, most the time you can't even taste the greens.  It ensures   we get at least some greens and berries (both of which Inara claims to hate) into our bodies.

#2 - Attend Church Meetings on time.

1. Thankfully, church is now at 11AM.  We eat a late breakfast, get dressed right after and leave 10-15 minutes early.  
2. Make sure kids are fed a filling breakfast before church.  Keep TV off (works a whole lot better now that it's down stairs).  Make sure church bag is ready to go.  (Church bag:  Living Scriptures coloring books, crayons, maybe a little doll or car, mini hymnal, all class literature, tiny notebooks with a pen. -That's it.  We're not there to play around, we're there to listen and learn.)

#3 - Aside from special details- finish left side of basement.

1. Put TV downstairs so as to have nothing keeping us upstairs during evening hours (the only time to work on basement).
2. Clean right side of basement so kids can be watched easily while we build on the other side...and just so it's clean.
3. Builders permit- by end of February
4. Install electrical- by end of April
5. Put up walls and finish building the closet wall- by end of May
6. Install insulation in ceiling (walls already have insulation) and put up ceiling drywall (or whatever it is)- by end of July
7.  Put in flooring- by end of October

 (This does not include trim, painting, or other special details, although I hope to have it painted before flooring, and trimming shortly after flooring.)

#4 - Garden

     This one will be a little more difficult.  We've always wanted a garden but we have many trees and very   few spots of full sun that are not on our drain field.  There is a space out back that we believe will work (I watched it all last summer) so we will try there.

1. Determine which fruits or vegetables to grow.
2. Green house or fenced in or convertible green house.
3. Build short raised beds, maybe one 2x4 high.
4. Constantly read up how to grow my garden and tend to it.
5. Involve kids or they will be bored to tears and I'll accomplish nothing.  :)

    

Oh Forget it.

I keep trying to do new things, which is not a bad thing but it can cause a lot of confusion, stress, and then I have the whole- other people think I'm crazy because I start and stop whatever that thing is fairly quickly.  I've noticed that I'll tell someone in my family, "Oh we're trying this new thing because of all these great reasons," and then a month later I've stopped.

Now, I just need to put it out there that it isn't always because I'm lazy, although that has been a reason, I won't deny. :)  A fair amount of the time I stop because it didn't work for us.  It took too much time, energy, money...whatever.  Other times, it just failed.  I tried, it failed.  Other times, it's too hot, too cold, something came up (like becoming pregnant and having a new baby).

So, now I'll attempt to do what everyone is always saying.  Don't worry about everyone else's opinions. How are you going to know if you never try?  Just because one way works for one family, doesn't mean it'll work for mine.

Some fails:
http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/08/35-challenge-redo.html
   *yeah right, who can manage $35 per week with 5 people, well good for them!

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/07/evening-schedule.html
    *Chore lists and evening schedules are constantly changing now we have a new one that is a little more            permanent only because it's screwed into the wall and not falling down and getting lost.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/2011/05/great-cloth-diaper-change-for-our.html
    * We still use cloth diapers but it's an on/off thing and we've learned so much about what works and doesn't work for us.

Some successes:
http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/dinning-room-chair-project.html
    * This was a fail and success.  The table cloth covers easily tore but I've since recovered the chairs with a more sturdy wipe off-able fabric.

http://heinerhouseholdhappenings.blogspot.com/2011/09/home-made-baby-food-pears.html
    * I make most of the baby food and it is always successful.

http://heinerhullabaloo.blogspot.com/search/label/Family%20Outings
    * Our family outings are always a success, because we have fun.  Just because someone fell down or was super cranky from being tired, does not make it a failure.

With all this in mind, I plan on shutting down the Heiner Household Happenings because why shouldn't I put all my stuff on one blog as though it's a family journal of all or most things that go on.  I enjoy hearing peoples responses to things we've done and tried.  I like a visual place for me to see what we've done.  It's so much easier than having a million journals lying around or printing out pictures, cutting, pasting...blah, blah, blah.

Alright, now I'm babbling.  So, in honor of our favorite book The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales...you can stop reading this now.  Really, there isn't anything left here but a bunch of filler.  I'm just writing more to make me look smart.  I only had 2 paragraphs and that is hardly worth a post.  Besides I didn't say anything more than what I've already said (you know, the links, because I already wrote those).  So, stop reading now.  Seriously.  There isn't anything else to see here folks. :)

Snow Day

It has finally snowed!  Thank goodness because it was starting to get really cold in just the last few days and I hate cold weather with bright sunshine.
Inara woke up first and loudly proclaimed to the rest of the house, "IT SNOWED!!"
Entegra could barely wait until after breakfast to get out in it.  As soon as Bracken saw the girls playing in the snow, he had no problem keeping his clothes on and putting on the snow suit.
A BIG thank you to Benjamin's co-worker who gave us the snow suits and some coats.

After the fun in the snow, the kids warmed up in a bath, watched Scamper the Penguin while eating popcorn and hot chocolate, then tons of fun playing dress up after lunch.  Entegra crashed :)  That was when I decided it was nap time for all four children, giving Mommy some much needed rest time.  

(I know the collage is extra humongous, but I like being able to see faces in the pictures.)

Happy Snow Day!

Sick Day

Well, Bracken may have Strep throat, Inara may be coughing and getting a rash from a runny nose, and Entegra may have a cough, sore throat, and missing school because of it but that doesn't stop them from finding ways to deal with their boredom.
After cleaning their room they played some kind of boat game.  Riding a yoga mat boat, paddling with a wrapping paper roll, "eating" health treats as they rafted down a rapid river.

A little while later they decided to push each other over.  See movie to understand.  I've decided they are crazy-silly!