Last Day of Kindergarten

It is funny to me how big some days can be. Especially when in the past I would have laughed at anyone who oozed about the amazing accomplishment of a child finishing Kindergarten. This year and all of our struggles as a family have given me a nice big helping of Humble Pie. Now I do things like get emotional about the last day of Kindergarten!

Addie had such a great year. It was hard for both of us and I still have inhibitions about school starting again, but the good outweighed the bad. I worked through missing her by spending as much time at the school as possible. I love having her at home, but I really love the look on her face in the middle of a school day when I walk in the room. Ahh. Talk about an ego boost. That smile may not always be there when I show up at school, but it is so great right now.

The strains of school have brought us closer and I couldn't be more grateful for the way so many people up at her school took extra care of her while I was in the hospital this year. Her teacher was wonderful, always updating me on how Addie was doing and helping me arrange rides for her. She even offered to let her stay after school with her if needed. As the school year came to a close, I asked Addie on several occasions who she would miss the most this summer. Her answer was consistent, "Mrs. Moss!" She hugged her teacher every morning when she saw her & really loved her. I don't think we could have asked for a better year.

Locks of Love

Addie was a brave girl this Saturday. We were letting her hair grow long until her ballet recital and then the plan was to cut it. A friend of hers at church donated her hair to Locks of Love a few years ago and Addie decided to do the same, so instead of a modest hair cut she took the plunge and chopped off the needed 10 inches to donate it. Here is her before shot. Her hair was SO long. It was very hard for me to let her do this having suffered most of my childhood looking like Orphan Annie. It took a lot of work on my part to not look nervous for her.

This part here was not for the faint of heart. I see a little worry in her eyes and I think my hairdresser, Amanda, was even a little nervous. The hair looked pretty crazy from being cut in a pony tail so Addie was very concerned when she saw the dry cut.

After a long hair washing and reassurance from Amanda that she would fix her hair and make it look pretty.

Happy girl at the end! The cut took forever because of all the "fixing" she had to do from cutting it off in ponytail form. It was hard for Addie to be still so long, but she made it and it appears to be pretty even.

If you are not familiar with the Locks of Love organization, you can visit their website at locksoflove.org. The process is really simple and the donations go to making wigs for disadvantaged children who have lost their hair from illness. Addie felt really good about doing something for other children who do not have a head full of beautiful hair.

Rainy Day Creativity

Friday was suppose to be the annual Father and Sons campout with our church, but some much needed rain decided to show up and ruin the fun. It was also suppose to be Field Day at Addie's school, but the rain canceled that as well. I still picked Addie up early since I had promised her I would and Anthony came home early so we all enjoyed a low key, quiet afternoon at home while it poured. Anthony and I were watching TV in the living room while the baby was sleeping when we realized how quiet the house had gotten. Upon opening the front door, this is what we found.


They had SO much fun. It's so interesting to watch these two evolve. Two years ago there is no way I would have found Addie outside playing in the rain by herself. Add Jack to the mix though and who knows what they will be doing. They play so well together and even find mischief together. It reminds me of my own childhood and I'm happy they are making such good memories.


After the rain and some early showers, Anthony set up the tent in the office & the kids "camped" in there for the night. They were so excited as they set up the tent. Jack was bouncing around saying, "this is going to be AWESOME!" Don't know where he hears "awesome" but he uses it often and it's really funny. They watched "Dumbo", ate popcorn, stayed up too late, woke up with tummy aches, cried all day Saturday... you name it. Memory making at it's best!

This past weekend was Addie's ballet recital. Once again we were impressed with how far she has come. She still loves it and wants to take ballet again next year. My friend, Melissa, is her teacher. She is so gifted with the girls and really makes each girl feel special. I love it! As long as Addie wants to do ballet, we will be up for it because of Melissa's influence. Here she is after the performance with her flowers. One of the nurses who works with Anthony made her this lei, which she thought was so cool.

The line up. I loved the vintage looking costumes this year.

One smart mom brought Candy Land for the girls to play while they waited. Very smart! There was a lot of waiting.

Here is a video of her performance. She is second from the right in the front row.

Easter Sunday

My brother, Mike, and his family joined us for Easter this year and we all had a great time. I didn't get pictures of the Saturday activities and I should have. The kids played outside all day. Water guns, popsicles, and tree climbing were involved. The weather was great and the adults could just chill out, enjoy the breeze, and listen to the kids playing. It was a great day. We got a few pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. Good looking crew, if I'm allowed to say that about my own people! :)

I love this picture of Jack having a meltdown. Priceless. Let's just say 3 may be a little bit early to try sleeping in the same room with a 5 and 10 year old. He had a little too much fun the night before.

Miss Addie spreading Easter cheer.

Matthew seemed excited to hold his baby cousin. He is such a good cousin to my kids and a great example to them.

Here is a little smile from Millie.

About 10 minutes after Mike and I hid a LOT of eggs, it started pouring. Really pouring. That didn't stop these kiddos though! As soon as the rain let up they were ready to hunt.

Addie and her spoils. She wore this dress last year on Easter Sunday. I promise, she is growing like a weed. Her mother just buys clothes really big.

Porter was especially excited when he found an egg with money in it. Here he is shaking a money egg. Cute kid.

Jack in his rain boots. He loves boots of any kind. Especially with shorts or pajamas. 

This was a great weekend! I am ready for more easy going, fun weekends with the pool now that the weather is warming up. Bring on the good times at home while the baby naps!

First Smiles

After about 10 weeks we finally started getting some smiles from Amelia. This tired mom was VERY happy to see them! I love those first smiles! Amelia smiles with her whole body. She shrugs her shoulders, squints her little eyes, makes fists, and throws herself back when she smiles. I can always tell she's smiling at someone over my shoulder because she gets difficult to hold.

The doctor told us to expect her milestones to run about a month behind what we experienced with our other two children and so far, that has been exactly right. It's funny how much difference those little four weeks make. Every time we start wondering when she'll do something new we just check the calendar and she's right on schedule for her premie age.

Baby Blessing

On April 8th we blessed Amelia at church. It was a beautiful day. All of our brothers and sisters from both sides of the family came as well as most of their families and we loved it! 17 Adults and 11 children total. Such a fuss over such a tiny little girl. :)

We managed to get a family picture of the Berg family before everyone hit the road to go home.

It was such a good day. We are so grateful for our three children and the family members who came to be with us on Amelia's special day.

Crazy People

So, I'm going through all of the pictures on my camera and doing posts in chronological order. These beauties showed up amongst the other pictures of the new baby, her blessing, Easter, etc. This is what Jack and Addie do when they sneak away with the camera. Couple of nuts, those two.

Big Brother & Big Sister

Addie and Jack have had a great time with Millie. They both dote on her and beg to hold her. These pictures are from their first time holding her. Jack is definitely the proud big brother.

Addie adores Millie. She tells her friends at school all about her & is always very excited when I show up to school with the baby so that people can see her little sister.

Newborn Pictures

My talented friend, Sandra, took newborn pictures of Amelia (whom we have nicknamed "Millie", by the way). I loved them all, but here are some favorites.

Millie's hair makes a perfect swirl on the back of her round little head. So cute!

Amelia Park Berg

We had a baby! It was only three months ago, but it seems like forever. This sweet little girl, Amelia, was born on January 30, 2012 and it has been one crazy ride for sure!

To somewhat explain my long departure from blogging and update friends who may have received Anthony's very benign email announcement that the baby had been born and "everyone was doing well", I will give a little detail on her delivery. I have found more than a few people have not known what happened and wondered why I dropped off of the face of the earth or even thought they had offended me because they hadn't heard from me. Not so, just trying to keep my head above water. :)

I went into the hospital with complications on January 11th. Our doctors here in Rockwall suspected a rupture was happening and wanted to deliver the baby right away. That would have meant a 33 week old baby, which made us really nervous. After a great deal of prayer and a priesthood blessing, we decided to request a transfer to Presbyterian Dallas where we would at least have access to a NICU if the baby required it. After more tests in Dallas, the doctors concluded that I had a rare condition called placenta percreta. I won't give details, but just Google it if you are interested. In short, it was very dangerous and I ended up staying in the hospital to be monitored while we let the baby grow as long as possible inside of me. We are so glad we transferred to Dallas, though. We are fairly certain that the inspiration to change hospitals saved my life and possibly Amelia's. Surgery without my percreta diagnosis would have been a mess.

So January 30th was my goal date and we were so happy to make the date without any emergencies. The surgery was difficult, but we survived so all is well. Amelia spent just 2 days in the NICU. I was so worried about having a 36 week old baby and asked to be awake for her delivery before they went into the more extensive part of my surgery. I will never forget my first sight of a very tiny, but healthy looking baby girl! She was 5 pounds and 13 ounces but you wouldn't have known it by listening to her strong healthy cry & seeing her sweet cheeks.

I spent the first 24 hours in the ICU because of the mass transfusion I had received. It was a strange day knowing I had a baby somewhere in the hospital but not being with her. The sweet nurses from the antipartum floor where I did three weeks of bed rest brought me some pictures of her to hold so I just sat there staring at them. On February 1, after my release from ICU, I was wheeled down to hold my little girl. I'm so glad Anthony took this picture because I barely remember this. I mostly remember feeling really bad so this picture paints a different scene. :)

This is Anthony's finger with her feet. So tiny!!

Amelia's birth was a whirlwind that we will not forget. People in our community and our family jumped to help us immediately and we managed to keep things together through a crazy time. I think we had six straight weeks of someone living with us. Three before her birth and three after. While I was on bed rest, I was blessed to have a lot of visitors. Really, about every time I got a little lonely I would look up and someone would be there. I think of the three weeks I was there before the surgery I only had a couple of days without a visitor. Those were lonely days missing my family and I was grateful for every visit. I kept a log of all of the people who served us during this time and I was a little overwhelmed when I sat down to start writing thank you notes...there were almost 40 people to thank for meals, child care, gifts, visits to the hospital, flowers, care packages, books...it goes on and on. One of my friends put it nicely when she visited one day and saw my room full of gifts and flowers. She said, "This is the next best thing to attending your own funeral!" :) We certainly know we are loved!

I am recovering as well as possible and I'm happy to be able to sit at the computer comfortably now so I can get busy documenting our family's life again!