30 years of Lewis

What would the world do without Lewis McCarthy? I have no idea. He has blessed me with 3 of the most entertaining, busy, and beautiful children God ever created. I'm blessed God chose him to be my husband. So to celebrate those 30 years, and many, many more, I made him my first cheesecake. I was so intimidated by some of the recipes and steps in them that I never even bothered to buy enough cream cheese to make one. I figured 30 years was a big enough occasion to give it a whirl. Here is the recipe...

Crust

3 cups finely crushed Oreo

3 tbs butter

mix and pat in bottom of spring form pan

bake 350 5-7 minutes

Filling

6, yes 6 blocks of cream cheese
Whip until fluffy

1 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Whip again until fluffy

4 eggs

add one at a time and mix until incorporated (do not over mix)

1 package of crushed Oreo cookies, yep, that's what I said

fold into cream cheese mixture, pour into 10 inch spring form pan

Add additional Oreo on top to make it pretty

Bake 350 45-60 minutes depending on oven

Take out when top is golden brown and center still jiggles (very technical hu?)

Jack the Naturalist

I love the sound of locust in the summer. Its such a soothing sound that takes me back to a simpler time. I remember finding the shells on the tree, but I honestly never knew what one looked like until Jack turned 3 and began hunting for bugs. I think that year we had 10 shells in a bucket, set aside for a collection. He is such a boy. Since that time, he has continued finding these lovely creatures. Just yesterday he found one just laying in the grass. We took the opportunity to take a photo with his new little buddy. He even showed it to Ella and let it crawl up her arm. Eww!!! She isn't girly enough yet to know that is disgusting.

Two years ago we found a praying mantis in our front landscaping. Jack had it crawling all over himself. I was surprised how hard it was to detach it. Those things have sticky grippes on their feet. We kept it in a jar for a few hours, but it was so big we didn't want it to die, so we let him go.

Then today, after our 7 inch rainfall (see pictures below), we were at the park checking out all the water and we found a little frog jumping through the wood chips on the playground. I had Jack catch him and put him in a paper bag. We went home and made a "habitat" for him. We discussed what that meant, and we even looked online to try to see what kind he is. From what I can tell he may be a chorus frog, but now that I look at the photos he may even be a little toad. I told Jack what he ate, and he went to work collecting bugs for him to eat. Good thing for the frog, Jack is an expert at this.

Here is a view of Falls Park. Simply amazing, and it was even higher then when this pictue was taken.

Here a few shots of one of our favorite parks, lovingly called "stinky park". But that is just by our family. That bridge usually leads to our city wide bike trail system. Its currently out of order. The tree above is usually about 5 1/2 feet off the ground, and about 15 feet from the waters' edge.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

As Ella has gotten older, a whole 12 1/2 months, there are distinct differences from her and the boys at this age. She is talking a lot sooner then they did. She has been saying mama and dada for months and is getting really good at saying "uh Oh" and "puppy", which sounds more like bubu, but we know what she means.

The last week she has been practicing her "Oooh" sound. She will pick up her baby doll, hug and kiss it and say "Oooh". Its the cutest thing ever, she is already learning to be a mommy. I was honestly a little worried when we gave her her birthday baby doll and she threw it to the ground. But now she is feeding it with our pretend bottle, which happens to be a ketchup bottle. Her feeding it looks more like gentle beating, and maybe not even so gentle; but it is so much fun to see her maternal instincts kicking in at such a young age. I love my boys, but it is just something else to have a girl.

I'm officially done nursing. She was only nursing once a day, and she wasn't very interested and there was hardly anything left anyway. A little happy dance, and a little sadness all in one. I'm so glad to be able to wear whatever I want without having to worry about access to my boobs, but its also sad to know that that special connection to my daughter is gone. She also won't let me rock her before I lay her down for nap or bedtime. She just wiggles and squirms until I lay her down. Then she rolls over, snuggles her baby, sucks her fingers and off to dream land she goes. I mean its really easy and no fuss, but I don't even get to snuggle her and sing to her. I guess it all goes with growing up.

Celebrating Ella's First Birthday!

We started off the morning doing what else? Taking pictures. She is so full of life, I can't help but want to capture every moment and hide it away so I won't forget these precious days that are fleeing so quickly. This one below was taken bright and early on our front stoop. She was having a grand old time eating the flowers. I don't know why, but I think it is her daily goal to see how many things she can put in her mouth in a single day.
After her morning nap the kids and I rode our bikes to Rotary park where the boys played and Ella ate a snack while I took more pictures. Its a much better back drop there than the deteriorating neighborhood we live in. She is always so animated, she makes for a good subject.

She saw a dog on a nearby picnic table. Have I mentioned how much she LOVES dogs? Well she does. So much so that is where we took her after we ate her cake.

After her afternoon nap we went out to play in the slip and slide. Jack and Ella love it. Will could care less, but Ella gets right in there. Another priceless expression on the beautiful face.

She wasn't quite sure what to do with her cupcake until I took a bit of frosting on my finger and put it in her mouth. "oh!" It was like a moment of enlightenment. All the worlds problems were solved with one taste of whipped chocolate heaven.

After we were done we packed up and headed down to the dog park. Jack was less than thrilled, but we reminded him it was Ella's birthday not his, so we were doing something she enjoyed, watching dogs. She screams and makes the funnest faces. We stayed on the outside of the fence for safety. I'm not worried about the dogs, but like I mentioned before, she loves to put everything in her mouth. Dog poop looks a lot like a chocolate cupcake. I didn't want to confuse her.


The last shot of the day with her "old standard" baby and her new birthday baby. She will poke at the new one's eyes since they open and clothes, but then goes back to holding the pig tails of her baby Abby. She just loves that thing, it is defiantly a source of comfort.

The next day she woke up and I got her out of bed. She was really stinky so I was changing her diaper and she was trying to say "uh-Oh". It was more like "Uh-Eh", but she is trying. Then when we were done I told her "all done", and she said "a-dun". This is the first time I remember thinking "wow she just grew up overnight". But I guess she isn't a baby anymore.

Eleanor's Birth Story

As Ella's birthday approaches I'm left reminicing about the days leading up to and her birth. Its an experience most women only experience a few times and I look back on it with joy and a sence of accomplishment. Here is Eleanor's story...

Monday July 13, 2009
I had my appointment with my Midwife Terry at the usual time, 4:30 p.m. By this point, it’s my only sane time during the week. An hour of pure sweet alone time, I cherished every minute. She did the usual routine. I was dilated to 2cm, 50% effaced, and baby was at 0 station. She was locked and loaded as I like to say. We were planning on inducing naturally by July 30 if nothing had happened by then, since Lewis wanted her to be born on his birthday. My midwife didn't expect anything to happen too soon, so we kepts on waiting.

Tuesday July 14, 2009
Just another day of waiting, knowing that nothing would be happening soon just trying to keep myself busy and my days full of activity so I wasn’t just sitting around obsessing over when Ella was to make her entrance. That morning I remember finding my favorite shirt, putting it on and looking in the bathroom mirror admiring my full round belly. I was feeling pretty good, I can do this for a few more weeks I thought. Little did I know that was the last morning I would wake up, get dressed, and see that round beauty.

A little later I took the boys to Walgreens for some milk, and was so tempted to pick up some evening primrose oil. This is supposed to be a natural labor inducer, but at $9, I decided against it. I was so glad I passed on the primrose oil, because when I got home I noticed some bloody show, a sure sign that labor was immanent. Could it be today, tomorrow, or in two weeks? No one knows for sure, but it was getting much closer, closer than I even knew. But I was so relieved to know there was an end in sight. A few hours later we headed to the park for Bible study. A good chance to chat with my friends and keep my mind busy.

As soon as lunch was done and Will was in bed for nap I took a few laps around the block, hoping to get something started. I was looking for signs of regular contractions but there was nothing, just the normal “practice” contractions. I had them all the time, every day for months, so it was nothing new. After nap we played water balloons and a friend stopped by. I needed something to distract me. As they were getting ready to go home at 3:30 p.m. I felt a couple stronger contractions. This perked my sense of curiosity.
After dinner, around 4:30, I was cleaning up the kitchen and was very uncomfortable, very crampy and sore. I couldn't’t tell if they were contractions or just pain from the strain of a big, protruding belly. I tried to rest on the couch for a bit but I was getting worried since the pain was so strong and wasn't going away.

I was planning on going out as a family to the McKennan family night at the park. Something I had never gotten to do before because I was always working every other year. But as the time neared to leave I just couldn't’go. I was in a great amount of pain, it was the worst gas-type cramps in my life, and couldn’t tell when a contraction stopped or started. Everyone has heard the stories of fast labors and dropping the kid on the floor, at this point I was concerned that may be me. I decided to call the midwife and she advised that if they got closer over the next few hours to go in, and if they spaced off, then it wasn’t real labor.
I decided to lay down in the tub to try to relax a bit. This at least allowed my body to relax and then I could tell the contractions were about 7 minutes apart. As I was lying in the tub I realized I hadn’t packed a bag yet. At only 37 weeks and 2 days I wasn’t expecting to need it already. So in a bit of a panic I jumped out of the tub and scurried around the house getting everything together, charging cameras and such. It wasn't an easy task being bent over the bed an hunched over every few minutes.

At about 6 I called my mom to give her a heads up, and told her to call after her meeting to see if she needed to come up or not. But by 8 when the boys were in bed and mom was ready to leave the contractions had annoyingly spaced out to around 15 or 20 minutes. It was very aggravating to think that this is it and then have everything halt like that. I wasn’t sure what to do, but just decided today must not be it. By 10:30 that night I had no contractions at all. So I told Lewis to plan on going to work in the morning and we all headed to bed.

Wednesday July 15, 2009
After a confusing day on Tuesday I woke at 12:30 am, after just 2 hours of sleep to feel the crunch of contractions again. I thought I’d get more sleep than that, but I guess my body had other ideas. I got out of bed and headed downstairs to time them. They were again at 7 minutes apart. It was going to be a long lonely night. I wanted to allow everyone to sleep as long as possible. It’s not so much fun being up in the middle of the night in labor by yourself. But I was able to still manage through them.

(Here are two photos I took while in labor that night, I knew they would be the last pictures of my pregnant body)

I timed them for a few hours and by 3 am they were 4 to 5 minutes apart. By that point they were getting more painful and I knew this was likely it. I called my mom around 3:30 and told her to come up, apologizing profusely. Then I called my midwife and asked when to come in, she said to just go up, I was going to aim for 5 am once my mom had arrived. I went upstairs and woke up Lewis telling him we’d have to leave in about an hour. Thankfully he decided to get out of bed sooner because at about that time they began coming 2-3 minutes apart when I was standing and walking. I called my mom again at about 4 to ask for her location and she was just leaving. I couldn’t wait another hour and a half. I was in pain and afraid of things going to quickly. Luckily I had put one of our babysitters, what a saint, on backup just in case my mom wasn’t able to make it up in time. I called Bekah and asked her to come over until my mom arrived. She was here with in 15 minutes. We packed up and were out the door by 4:30.

Since it was so early we had to arrive in the ER. Some place I had never been before. I remember walking in and the guys at the front desk jokingly said "let me guess, you have an ear infection?" Haha, but I'm SO not in the joking mood. I filled out a little paper work and we were being hauled off to Labor and Delivery within 10 minutes.

They wheeled me up to the triage section and I changed into a gown and took one last belly picture(above). I was able to manage a smile in between contractions. The nurse asked several questions and check me. I was at a 5, half way there. I don’t really remember the pain level at this point, but I don’t think it was too bad, it was mangable anyway. I do remember having to get on all fours during a contraction and messing up all the monitoring equipement. Oh well, I wasn't going to suffer for their convenience.

At about 5:30 we were in the room where I would be meeting my baby. By now I remember not being able to lie on my back for any amount of time through a contraction. I had refused an I.V. and asked if I could stand up during the monitoring of the baby. My nurse was very kind and worked around what I could tolerate. I was exhausted after laboring all night, so I decided to climb in the tub so I could try to sleep between contractions for a while. It was pure bliss until contractions started coming hard and strong, or what I thought was hard and strong at that point. I had to really focus and remind myself the first 10 seconds were the worse. I was blowing hard breaths out and counting down the first 10 seconds...Oh was this really worth a natural birth? The epidural I was so determined to not get was looking quite appealing. But I told my nurse I would be mad at myself if I broke down. She never mentioned it again.

At about 6:30, time gets fuzzy from this point on; the on call midwife, Mary, came in to check on me. We talked about my progress thus far and my wishes for a drug free birth. I decided to stay in the tub a bit longer. I think I finally crawled out about 8 am. I can't believe how fast that hour and a half went, but the next hour was the slowest of my life. I was rested enough and knew lying in there was just stalling the inevitable since my contractions were still 5-7 minutes apart in the tub and I think I was still at a 5.

As soon as I got out I had 2 really strong contractions in a row, but standing was so much more comfortable. I wanted to go walk a bit; but after walking to the bed I decided that was enough walking and things began to pick up. At 8:30 she checked me and I was at 8. I knew I could make it now. Almost over I kept telling myself. As each contraction got stronger I seemed to sway my hips and squat down lower moaning with every wave of pain. There was so much pressure and pain. I remember at one point just wanting to rip out my hips. Agony, there was no way I could not have done it alone. The midwife was amazing!

It was time; I could feel my body pushing, it was the only sense of relief. I stayed standing as long as I could to let gravity do its work in pushing the baby down farther. I remember looking up at the clock around 8:45 and thinking, I sure hope this baby is out by 9:15. The midwife had me get on the bed on all fours since this was still the most natural feeling position. After I started pushing I could tell that wasn’t going to work. At 9 o’clock I turned over the best I could, she checked me again said I was complete and then my water broke. Mary, my midwife, told me this baby could be out in 2 or 3 pushes. She didn’t have to say it again. I got to work and after only 3 pushes and a lot of pain she was out, lying on the end of the bed crying at 9:09 am. She was my beautiful baby covered in white cakey cheese. They laid her on my chest and I felt relief. Ahh, it was over and I had accomplished what I had set out to do.

My first look at my little girl, relief and complete awe.

Just a few minutes after she was born, I was exhausted but exhilarated!

Lewis couldn't get enough of his daugher. Our tiny little surprise, a little scared, but mostly in love.

Eleanor Jane McCarthy entered our family on July 15, 2009 at 9:09 am weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces, and measured only 18 3/4 inches.

Where do they come up with this stuff?

The other day I was doing something in the kitchen when Jack walked up to me and said, "hey mom", then blew his cheeks full of air so they were all puffy, then continued "pretend I'm a fire fly and my face is my butt". What? Okay? Sometimes kids are so wierd.

For as long as I can remember he has had a fasination with motorcross, instilled in him by his father. But more recently he has loved to jump his bike, and has started to gain better balance on his skateboard. Today I took the kids to the skate park and Jack brought the skate board for the first time. I was impressed at how good he is getting. He is far better than I have ever been. Considering I can't even really stand on one, its not saying much. But he was driving it around and was able to stear it, and even went up a few ramps and rode back down. I'm so glad he found something to keep him busy. Now its God's part to keep him safe.

Black Hills Vacation....Comming Home

On the way home we stopped west of Murdo at the 1880 Cowboy Ghost Town. I just love those places. This one is very well done, besides the same old creepy music they have streaming. I guess its for ambiance, but its more cheese than anything.

We bought the boys cap guns before we left Rapid City and they had gun fights in the street. Although, I didn't know kick boxing was allowed back then.

This is the bank from Gregory, SD. Lewis Grandma lives just one town over in Burke. We've been to Gregory lots of times, it was neat to see pictures of how the town used to look.

Of course this train depot was a big hit with Will. He just loves anything to do with trains. After the Cowboy town we ate lunch in an old dinning car, he really got a kick out of that.

Jack and Ella had fallen asleep and apparently the long drive was getting boring for Will. He decided to make a tent. Ella was running a fever the whole way home. I felt so bad that I couldn't just hold and snuggle her, but its just not worth the risk.

As we were passing Kadoka we started hearing weather bulletins that there was a storm building as we left. Lewis has his handy Blackberry pulled up the radar about every 5 minutes. We watched the skies darken from the west, south, and north. It looked like everything would stay clear of us for the time being so we decided to stop in Mitchell for a quick stretch and potty break.

When we left and got in the car, the weather had changed significantly. There were tornado warnings north and south of us, but they were all heading east, so we gave it a shot.
Here is a Photo of the leading edge of the storm, just east of Mitchell.
The clouds were very dark and ominous.

The plan was to break through the storm since it didn't look that wide, it took us longer than we expected. The rain slowed us down to the pace of the storm at about 30 mph. We had on our flashers and it was a little worrisome. If a tornado came now, we would have NO idea.

Just look how dark the sky was, and that is 5:00 on June 26th. Its the longest week of the year!

We were able to make it out of the storm only to come home and go through it all over again. But when it blew through Sioux Falls, it was much stronger and we had 2 hours of constant thunder and lightning. Our power was off for about 5 minutes, in which time Will and Jack shot the storm with their cap guns.