My baby is one!!

Wow where has this year gone?!?! I still feel like it was yesterday when I found out that I was
pregnant with Dru, now my youngest baby just turned one years old!! Dru has been the biggest blessing (as are all of my children) in my life and I honestly can't imagine my life without him. He has always been such a happy boy and has added so much joy and happinesss into our family. I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane so here it goes!
All 3 of my pregnancys before Dru have been different. I went a week over mydue date with Brooklyn before they started me, Austin came SUPER fast the day before I was scheduled to be induced, they induced me a week early with Talon, and Dru came 2 weeks early. Ben found out a few months before I had Dru that he was going to have to go to California for 1 week 2 days after my due date, come home for 1 day and then leave for Singapore for 3 weeks. I was super nervous I wasn't going to have Dru by then so 2 weeks before my duedate, explained our dilema, so the doc decided to strip my membranes and see if that would do anything. Everyone I talked to said it didn't do much for them and it was super painful so at first I wasn't going to do it but then decided it wasn't going to hurt anything to try so we did it! (it wasn't really that painful by the way) I don't think Ben has called me more in his life during that time. "Are you ok?" "Any change?" "How are you feeling?" But nothing had changed by the next day so we were a little discouraged. The second day after having had them stripped I woke up in the night having lots of contractions but they kept going away so I kind of ignored them. Ben had a metting that night that he really didn't want to go to so called me around noon that day and said he was coming home and we were going into the doc just to see what the doc said and it would give him an excuse to get out of his meeting..ha ha! ON THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL, I started having pretty hard contractions. Once I got into the doc I was at a 4 and the nurse admitted me in...good thing Ben jusd "decided" that we were going in or it could have been another "Austin Birth." They gave me my epidural and after they did that everything kind of stopped. I went HOURS of having no contractions and being so done with the whole waiting game. I know that is SOO normal for most girls having their babies, but the longest birth I have ever had was Brooklyn and it was only 4 hours..and this was my FOURTH!! By 8pm that night they decided to break my water and see what happened...sure enough right after they did that it was go time!! Something I have never had happen happened though and I had the WORST labor shakes ever. I guess it's when your body is in shock and i just started shaking like a leaf! They put blankets on me to see if the warmth would help but nothing worked. My teether were chattering, my hands, legs, whole body was shaking like crazy..so weird. I don't know if it was because I had never had that happened or what but I got super nervous/scared and wanted my mom!!! haha! My parents were out of town during this time (which they were super upset about) but Ben parents were on their way from Idaho so I told them to come on up and I wanted them there!! I'm really close to Ben's family, and even though some thought it was weird, Ben's mom was the best comfort during that time (besides my husband of course!!) and having a mom there with me was so nice! Right as they got there i started pushing and here he came!! The doc made me super nervous because I guess the cord was wrapped around his little neck and his heart rate started going up like crazy, so snip snip and out came my baby boy...BRIGHT BLUE!! Oh my goodnes it scared me to death when I first saw him. I kid you not my first reaction was pure panic, I had NEVER seen a baby look like that and he wasn't making any noises. After a few rub downs and patting and flipping over a few times I finally heard the best sound in the world...my little man's first cry! I only got to hold him for a few short seconds and then they rushed him off to get him some oxygen. Of course that worried me and I made Ben go with them so he wasn't alone and would know what was going on. About a half an hour later they brought him back good as new..I was the happiest mommy in the world. He was perfect. TONS of black curly hair!! None of my babies had hair so this was new for me and I was so excited!! 6lbs 14 ounces 19 in. long, so my smallest baby as well! He was adorable and I cannot put into words the joy of holding the newest member of your family and how much happiness I had with just me, Ben and our new little Dru during that moment. This is FOR SURE something I will soooo miss about having babies. The hospital experience is my fav for sure. The other kids of course loved him and LOVED having a new brother in the fam.
You would think after having 4 kids I would have the whole "baby thing" down pat...wrong. I kid you not, it is like starting over all over again with every single one. Up all nights trying to figure out why they don't sleep, trying every bottle in the box along with 5 different binkies, nights and days mixed up, pure panic going out in public for the first few months, a few panic attachks here and there etc...I don't know if it's because I knew this could possibly be our last baby, but I did have a lot more patience and was able to get through the rough nights/days alot better this go around. I actually even enjoyed that time most nights to be honest. After a few months he started to get the hang of it and we worked it out!! And NOW..he's ONE!!
For Dru's birthday we just did the simple cake and ice cream, a few gifts and called it a night! It was pretty funny actually because I was trying to get him to rip the presents open and instead all he wanted to do was crawl away and attack my bows I had just made for Brooklyn. He's walking all over the place now, getting into EVERYTHING, and is quite the little destoryer. BUT, he takes 2 AWESOME naps a day, hardly ever wakes up at night, laughs and smiles constantly, and loves his food so he has been tons of fun.
Thank you for being such a good boy Dru, mommy and daddy love you more then you can EVER imagine. You make my mornings the brightest with that huge smile and jumping up and down in the crib as soon as you see me. You make daddy's night every night when he comes in that back door from work and you speed crawl while laughing hysterically until you get to him because you are SO excited to see him. And you make Brooklyn's day EVERY DAY when you let her cart you around like her little doll and chase your brothers around grabbing at their heels while they laugh cosntatnly. You have made our family complete and we love you so so much!!!

Me and ma-ma Fullmer with Talon
















Here he is!


















Look at those little feet...not so little anymore!

















A few newborn pics

First day home from the hospital TRYING to wake up

Talon, "Mom, when is this baby going back to
the hosptial?"..we did deal with a little sibling

jelousy with Talon but he did pretty good.

Brooklyn helping Dru open a present

Dru's first haircut!! Grandma McSpadden dida great job!

Mom was sad to see his curly locks

go, but he looks like such a big boy now!

Ben and Dru..daddy loves this kid, and LOVES

that he's a daddy boy...for now!

Mommy helping me after having demolished my

birthday cake!

Dru LOVES my cell phone. Every chance he gets

he holds it up to his ear and just yells at the top

of his lungs, it's pretty cute.

Yum!!! So I mad this cake for Dru that was

just one of those cheap box cakes because

our family isn't a huge cake fan and I knew it

would just go to waste. Well while I wasn't looking,

after I gave him a piece on his tray, he grabbed

the WHOLE pan and started going to town. I

took it away from him because I thought he

was going to make himself sick. Oh boy...

screams and tears like you have never heard

or seen before!!!

Did I mention he gets into EVERYTHING. In

this pic he managed to pull out the broom, dump

out a whole sack of Swedish fish, eat some, and

look cute doing it.

My little sister the state champ!!!!!!

So I know this is old news to alot of you, but I never was able to post on my blog about it so wanted to make sure I did real fast!
Yes, that is right, my amazing little sister is officially a state champ!!! Kyli May McSpadden placed first in THREE events during state track this year! The 100, the 4x1 relay, and the 4x4 relay. Not to mention she placed 2nd in the 200m!! She's seriously amazing and it blows my mind how athletic this girl is!! I think my biggest dilemma this year was having to miss state and was not able to watch these races live. I had previously signed up for a marathon that was the SAME weekend as state track this year. If I hadn't been training all year long then I would have just dropped it and went to state instead. I even had plans to still go to state because it was Thursday/Friday and my race wasn't until Saturday. The problem was getting back in time to check in for the race Friday night, not getting into Utah until around 1 or 2 am and having to wake up at 4am to catch the shuttle for my race up the canyon. I actually was going to do that and then came the back problems. 3 weeks before my race I was in the midst of switching out winter/summer clothes for my kids and pulling bins out of the garage. While my kids were watching a movie I went out in the garage to get some bins, bent over to lift one and had the SHARPEST pain radiate through my entire back like I have never felt before. I couldn't stand up, I couldn't sit down, I couldn't move!! Brooklyn walked up right after it happened and went and grabbed the phone for me. I called Ben and just started bawling that I was seriously hurt, and I don't know if was so much the pain or knowing I had a marathon in 3 weeks and had been training forever for it and now might not be able to run it that made me so emotional. He called my friend Jilll and told her to run over until he could get home, and during that time my other neighbor called to ask me a question and all I could do was cry so she ran over. Along with my neighbor across the street seeing all of this happen she ran over as well, so I had 3 wonderful women helping me until Ben got home. ( i know, I have the best friends/neighbors in the world!) I just sat on the end of my couch and could not believe how bad I hurt. During this time Jill decided to call one of our paramedic friends for advice who lived just a few houses down and he ran over to check it out. I WAS SO LUCKY HE WAS THERE!!! He showed up just a few minutes before Ben and was describing what it could be and what he suggested I should do. Right as he was doing that Ben walked in and knew I was in bad shape. As soon as he walked up to me I started feeling super light headed and dizzy, said so, and the next thing I knew I was waking up to Ryan and Ben leaning over me in my living room trying to wake me up. I started panicking and hyperventilating, couldn't breathe, started shaking like crazy, and my hands started doing this weird thing where i had no control over them and they were cramping up. (guess that's what happens when you're body isn't getting enough oxygen.) I then heard Ryan yelling to Jill to call 911 and before I knew it I was being injected with Morphine, and being carried out onto a stretcher. The guy in the ambulance was super nice, gave me some oxygen and calmed me down to where I was somewhat coherent. He started talking to me about my kids, Ben, my life out in Saratoga...but after a few minutes I started thinking about my marathon, who had my kids while this was all going on, what if this happened or that happened, etc...and I started hyperventilating again. The ambulance guy gave me some more oxygen, calmed me down and all was good again. So weird.
So off to the hospital we went. I was hooked up and given all sorts of weird drugs which I HATE! The feeling of not having control over my own body is the worst to me and to tell you the honest truth, the only thing I really remember about the hospital was the nurse asking me if I could be pregnant, me freaking out and saying, "I better not be!" Crying to my Dad about what was going on with him trying to calm me down on the phone, and Ben and Jill visiting with me until I passed out from all of the drugs. The next few days were a blurr. My mom came and stayed with me but I can't remember most of it. I was brought dinner every night by some wonderful friends, but still wouldn't be able to tell you who brought what or when then came, etc..I guess I pretty much just slept and stared at people with a blanke look for 3 days, ha ha.
Anyways, I ended up going to a spinal doctor who said I have something super common which is called degenerative disc disease? I guess a ton of people have it that don't even know they have it and it doesn't even affect most. It's when the spaces between your vertebra's are to spaced out so it causes back pain and some back spasms. He told me I probably wasn't going to be able to run and of course I cried like a baby the whole way home.
The next morning I went to the physical therapist and he was my saving grace. He had me lay down on my back and put both of my legs out to where my toes meet...wow, my right leg was like 5 inches longer then my left. He had me do a few stretches, pushed and pulled on me here and there and before I know it I heard the LOUDEST pop I have ever heard in my life. Yes it killed, but it was like INSTANT relief all of the sudden. Come to find out I had a SI joint come out and along with the disc disease, the joint that popped out had caused me to have a hard core back spasm. He told me to come in every day that week and we would see if he could get me running by the end of the week. The thing I liked about this guy is he is a huge marathon runner so he totally knew where I was coming from so said, "I'm not going to tell you not to run anymore, that would be like telling you not to be happy anymore." I knew right then and there he understood and I had hope. By the end of the week it was like night and day difference and I attempted running. Funny thing, but it actually helped my back to loosen up and it felt great! I got alot of bad looks and some not very nice comments from people seeing me attempt to still do this after having been taken out on a stretcher..especially my family. My Dad made it very clear that if he got another phone call like that again he was going to be super upset, haha. But I survived and did it anyways!! If you're not a runner and didn't train for something for a year then you won't get it! I did it and was very happy I did it, I would have so regretted it if I didn't.

Anyways, back to my little sister, wow sorry for that tangent! Because of the whole back issue, I was nervous what my body would do on such little sleep with this now back problem I have to deal with so I made up my mind not to go. Let me tell you, I love my sisters more then anything in this world and knew before state even occurred that Kyli would probably win it all, so this was a big big deal that I wasn't able to go watch. Kyli has all of my old high school coaches and everything and I was so sad I wasn't going to make it. You can ask my parents, that phone call telling them I wasn't going to make it was pretty dramatic. I'm a pretty calm person until I hear either my dad's or Ben's voice...then it's all over if I'm upset about something. I couldn't even talk I was crying so hard. Kyli totally understood of course, but i was heartbroken!
The nice thing is i was still able to watch her run live online through idahosports.com, so I still got to see her kick everyones trash!! I don't think I have ever been so neverous for any races in my entire life, counting all of my high school and college races!! She did so awesome and I was the proudest sister in the world. Good thing she still has a year in high school so I can come watch her take home 4 golds next year!! She already has college scouts all over her and I love even more that they are all right now from Utah so I can come watch!
So So proud of you little sister, you truly are amazing!!

Here is Klyi recieveing her first gold metal and getting her picture taken by the Idaho Sportsman. They even had a reporter come and interview her after and posted a pretty sweet artcile in the paper about her. I could on and on about this girl!!