Tomatoes tomatoes and more tomatoes!

So its that time again. Time for canning! Every year my mom and I work on canning peaches, stewed tomatoes, salsa, and pickled red beets. My favorite is of course the salsa. I love tomatoes. They are definitely one of my top five favorite foods. Yum. So yesterday we did 7 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 7 pints of stewed tomatoes, 8 pints of salsa, (which turned out excellent), and when I left there were two big pots of tomato sauce simmering on the stove. This is the first time we did sauce. We used a Victoria strainer, which is really nifty, it peeled the skin off and squished the seeds out only keeping the juice and pulp like stuff. So that had to of made 10+ jars of tomato sauce. Today we are going to try and make tomato juice. Yum! The girls ended up napping at the same time (yay, luv when that happens) and we got all but the sauce done in 4 hours. It was a successful day! When Noni woke up from her nap she wanted to help us so we gave her the job of rinsing the dirt off of the tomatoes. She really was a big help!

*Nonah Mae's Birth Story*

Peter and I could not have been more ready for the birth of our first child. Everything was done that needed to be done and all we could think about was holding our little baby in our arms. My due date came and went and all we could do was wait in wonder of when the day would come. One week and a day past my due date my midwife Kate came to see me for my usual check up. I was barely a centimeter dilated. The rest of the day I had some sporadic contractions. Then at about 6pm they started to come more frequent. At 8pm we started to time them and they were about every 5-8 min. So we called Kate to let her know and she said to try and get some sleep while I could. I was way too excited and nervous to sleep. I thought “this is it, the time has come, wow can I do this?” By morning the contractions had lessened and were very sporadic. Peter made me some breakfast and we called Kate. She said to do the usual things to bring on labor. Walk and ya know. So that we did and then just waited. And waited and waited. I tried to rest but it was hard. With twenty four plus hours of contractions there was a lot of time to think and I was feeling all kinds of emotions. Confused, anxious, nervous, excited, scared, happy. I tried to focus on the positive, “my body knows what its doing, baby will come when it’s ready, I need this time to prepare,” etc. I also tried to not think about it at all and just watched a few movies and read. My husband served me every meal which was so nice and we walked a lot. I tried nipple stimulation and even ate some hot sauce straight up. The contractions were every 4 to 10 min apart all day. Then on Thursday throughout the day the contractions began to last longer and slowly got much stronger. They were 3-5 min apart and lasted 50-70 seconds. I tried to get some sleep and just couldn’t because I was so uncomfortable. So we called Kate. Her and Jill came at 10 pm and checked me and I was only 2 cm and fully effaced. She said next step is to either walk or sleep and since I already tried to sleep we decided to walk. Peter and I walked around our yard talking about what its going to be like once this little one is here and how ready we were, pausing between contractions. We walked for an hour or two and then I tried to rest. Some how I was able to rest between contractions which were very strong. I sat upright on a recliner with pillows everywhere. Peter took a little nap in bed and I got myself some yogurt. Kate checked on the babies heart rate every now and then and at some point Peter and Kate worked on filling the aqua doula. At 6am Kate checked me again and I was 6cm dilated. We decided to break my water in order to progress quicker. By 7am labor was in full force. Every position was uncomfortable and there was pressure every where. So it was time to get in the aqua doula. The aqua doula relieved the pressure and felt wonderful. I still felt the contractions but it definitely helped ease the intensity of them. I rested my neck on the edge of the aqua doula and justed floated in order to relieve the pressure. It felt amazing. Soon after getting in I felt the urge to push and did push a little bit but not full force. Kate told me to do what I felt was right but she couldn’t see anything so if baby’s head was out to let her know. She checked baby’s heart rate and it was up to 180-200 which was too high. The water was too hot for baby so she suggested I get out. I specifically remember saying “oh no” because I didn’t want to move. Eventually I got out but couldn’t go any further so I stood there leaning on Jill for a while and pushed with my contractions. It was tiring to stand so I sat on the birth stool which was actually very comfortable. I pushed and pushed and got to feel the slimy head and so did Peter. Danielle got there at some point and was rubbing my back with a wet wash clothe. I was so sweaty. Peter and Kate were patiently waiting to catch baby and telling me what a good job I was doing. “That’s the way” Kate kept saying. I was in such a zone and didn’t talk to anyone. Or look at anyone. Then the BIG push came, I let out a scream and our sweet little baby fell into Peters hands. Peter announced that we had a baby girl and I announced her name, Nohah Mae and they handed her to me. Surprisingly I didn’t cry but Peter was a little teary eyed. I just felt so relieved that she was out and so amazed to have her in my arms. I was soo happy. She had swallowed some miconium and wasn’t breathing right so we quickly moved to the bedroom and Kate was checking her out. Kate was a little worried so we had to cut the umbilical cord sooner than planned but the blood had all pumped through so it was ok. Kate gave her some oxygen. Peter laid his hand on her and prayed for her. Jill called our doctor to see if we could bring her in to get checked out. I then held her close to my breast and she latched on all by herself. It was incredible to see my baby nursing for the first time. An hour after she was born she was breathing well and her color became normal. We thankfully did not have to go to the doctor. Nonah was born at 9:04am on Friday August 21st. She was a healthy 10 pounds 1 ounce and 20 ½ in long. After the girls helped Peter clean up and got me a snack they left. Peter and I stared in amazement of our sweet baby girl and then took a nap. We are so thankful for all that Kate and Jill did to prepare us for a safe, healthy and natural homebirth. I could not imagine giving birth any other way!!!

She's 3!!

Nonah Mae Wright is 3 years old. I am saying it and I know it but I am not really believing it. I remember her birth-day like it was yesterday. I remember preparing for her and the excitement of having our first baby and all the unknowns of what to expect. I remember the adjusting and struggles of that first year as parents and I remember the pure joy that we both got out of seeing our little baby make noises, then roll over, then crawl, etc, etc... This little girl amazed us, changed us, taught us, and has brought us soooo much joy.

And she still amazes and brings us so much joy. This little 3 year old is so sweet, so smart, so cute, and changing every day! She already has such a personality. She is strong willed, a little stubborn, creative, and already has an opinion that needs to be heard.

Noni loves to create things. She is really into doing crafts right now or coloring, drawing, stamping, anything. She loves being outdoors (as long as its not too hot, she didn't use to mind the heat but this summer she didn't handle it to well) Hiking and walking in the woods with daddy is probably one of her favorite things. Collecting things for her nature box. She has become very observant, she notices birds, bugs, leaves, all kinds of things and points them out to us. I love when she says, "mom its a beautiful day today."She loves running. Its fun for her to just run around the house 5 times in a row or more. Shes very active and is hard to keep up with.

Noni loves playing with her friends and cousins. She loves her sissy (yes I say sissy, don't make fun) and can't wait til she can actually play with her. She loves candy and all things sweet. She loves pickles and olives and would eat them at every meal. Oh and she loooves singing and dancing. She is always singing something even if she is just making up the words and shes always spinning or jumping saying "watch this mama watch this." She loves reading books. We go to the library once a week and pick out 5 or 6 books, and she loves story time.

We are so in love with her it hurts. So proud to be her mama!

Here is Nonah Mae's Birth story, if you are interested.

PaRtY TiMe!

We have been celebrating my Noni girls birthday for a few days now. Today is her actual birthday. We had her friends and cousins over on Saturday for a little party and then on Sunday had a party with my side of the family. For Saturday I made cupcakes, for Sunday I got a cake so today we are going for ice cream. Heres some pics from our fun and busy weekend!

a little side note; I made this banner and am very proud of it. It is not perfect that's for sure but I don't mind. It will be able to be used for all of our birthdays, well maybe not Peters. I plan on making one for almost every holiday. I can't take all the credit, this is where my inspiration came from. Art to go

Gotta love Tie dye!!

Tie dying was so fun. I had been planning on doing it for weeks and it took a while to get all the right stuff. In the past I have tie dyed and it always faded. Like extremely faded. So I wanted to do it right this time. A friend told me about the 2 important ingredients to use inorder to prevent fading. Soda ash and urea. So we got the ingredients and bought some white shirts for the whole family and Peter did some research online for some techniques. We did a peace sign shirt for all of us, spider pattern and reverse spider, and spirals. Noni had a blast although couldn't do a whole lot. We are very happy with the results and are already thinking about our next tie dye session. Fun times!!

Family photo session!

It took a week of trying and talking about it but I made the family do a photo session. We hadn't had a good family photo since Evey was born so it was time. And they turned out good enough for me. Its fun, its us and my hubby only complained a little bit. :) -I didn't remove the pacifier because Evey had just woken up and was a little cranky.

2 year Dreadiversary!!

Ive been meaning to post about my dreads for a week now. August 1st was 2 years. I can't believe its been that long. I remember the day I got them done like it was yesterday. They are really doing great. Some people I have met who have dreads really struggle to get them to lock up but mine are pretty solid now. I have been working on blunting the ends (which is pulling the ends up into the dread to make a rounded end) with a crochet hook for a while now. Its quite a process and little hairs are always falling out. I have found a guy on you tube who has been really helpful and has great advice. (ryanOriley, if you're interested. I still love them but this summer has been rough with the heat. I never wear them down. Everyone asks me how long I am going to keep them and I originally wanted to make it to the 3 year mark and I'm almost there so we will see. I can't imagine myself without them! :) This is them at One year!

Round here!

My blog has been having issues with spacing and doesn't do what I tell it to do so I am going to just write about the pictures down here. hope its not too confusing. 1. we picked our first tomatoe yesterday. We have 10 tomatoe plants and they are loaded with green tomatoes so soon we will have an endless supply of them. You know what that means? Tomatoes for breakfast lunch and dinner. Tomatoes are one of my favorite vegetables or fruit or whatever. I especialy LOVE to make bruschetta and salsa. Mmmm! 2. I just love that this is what Noni's room looks like. Pink, dress up stuff, girlie stuff everywhere. If I would have had a little boy I would love the boy stuff but I just am so in love with the fact that I have 2 girlies! so blessed! 3. shopping. Every time we go to Old Navy she has to count the manicans and talks to the little girl. :) cutey :0 4. Noni and her girlfriends!! We went to her friends birthday party this weekend. Its so neat that she has friends that she is growing up with.

Petey and I celebrated our 7th Anniversary on Monday! Craziness. We had a quick and simple date to our favorite date-place, Starbucks and we looked at our wedding album. So nice to have some alone time. Thanks again to my sis-in-law who watched the girls for us!

Evey Girl