Thursday, June 13, 2013

MISS PAISLEY

Our due date was actually December 7th but since both boys had been C-section we were scheduled for December 3rd to have our little girl.  On the first (Saturday) I was running some errands getting ready for the baby to come on Monday and I got home and had kind of a sharp pain in my right leg.  It was kind of annoying and I thought maybe I had climbed in and out of our big bronco too many times and maybe pulled a muscle.  Well all night it kept getting worse and worse.  I didn't get any sleep, I was in tears by the time Caleb woke up at 6 to go to ward council meeting for church.  He said call the doctor and see if there is something we can do and text him with when I got to talk to him.  So I called while Caleb went to his meetings (he had 2 back to back) and my doctor was on call so he said to go to the hospital and have them monitor the baby and see if everything was ok, he was kind of worried I might have a blood clot.  So I texted Caleb and told him that we were going to the hospital and I was going to find someone to watch the kids because Dr said we would be there a couple of hours.  Well Caleb got my text and told the ward mission leader that it looked like we were ditching church and going to the hospital.  The second meeting was about to start and the RS Pres asked Caleb if he was excited to have the baby the next day and the ward mission leader laughed and said 'they might have it today" and she looked puzzled and asked why he said that, and he announced to the whole ward council 'Caleb's sitting here in ward council while his wife is at home in labor!' So everyone chuckled except the RS pres and she gave Caleb and the bishop a stare down until Bishop Goodman finally got uncomfortable and told Caleb he needed to leave!  LOL

So while Caleb was at his meeting I called my cousin to see if I could send my kids to church with her and her family.  Got them ready and when Caleb got home we dropped them off and headed to the hospital.  Once at the hospital, the nurse called my doctor and told him I was having really consistent contractions so he came down to check on us.  He decided that since I was already there and he was there and I was hurting, there was no sense in sending me home for 24 hours just to come back, so if it was ok with us he would go ahead and take the baby that day!  So, I make a call to my mom.  She was planning on going to church then heading down to help take care of the boys Monday morning when we went to the hospital.  When she answered the phone I said 'Hey mom, um... guess what...I'm at the hospital.' She said she had a dream that night that I had the baby early!  So she loaded up and headed straight down and made it to the hospital just as they wheeled me into the recovery room!  So Caleb went and got her and she got to see Paisley when she was only about 30 mins old!  The nurse was grouchy so my mom left and collected the boys and brought them to meet their new sister later that evening!  Paisley Gloria Cate.  She was 6 pounds 15 ounces.  She was so itty bitty!  My tiniest baby!  She was instantly loved by everyone, and she shares a birthday with her cousin Tyrel (will and carries oldest).  He claims they are twins 10 years apart!  Its sweet that he is so excited to have a birthday buddy! 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013


2012 IN REVIEW
Cliff notes again!

January - work started to pick up for Caleb.  He also was introduced to a friend of a friend around Christmas time who needed some maintenance done on his new house.  Caleb ran over to help and he made a great friend almost instantly.  After only a couple of weeks of meeting this friend, he came to our apartment and asked us if we would like to get out of our apartment and house sit for him until his house either was able to short sale or foreclose.  Later I found out it would be a nearly 4000 sqft home with the most amazing back yard and play set for my boys!  He told us it could be a year or maybe 2!  After talking to a member of our stake presidency and getting a boundary exception to stay in our awesome ward, we packed it all up and moved a half mile down the road! 

February - Lehi Days.  We thought it would be fun to go watch.  I love Pioneer days so much, maybe we would enjoy Lehi days.  We LOVE IT!  Luke tried his hand at Mutton bustin'.  It ended in tears!  He got stepped on when he fell off and said it really hurt to fall, and I think maybe his pride was bruised as well!  But he recovered quickly!  Ryan really wanted to catch a little baby chick in the chicken chase but with 200 kids and 4 little scared chicks he wasn't successful....this ended in tears too!

March - Luke played spring little league, coach pitch.  It was a lot of fun watching him play!  Luke is a natural at everything!  He has such a desire to learn new things and picks it up so fast!  He was on the A's.

April - Just before Easter this year, we got a little surprise!  We found out we were going to be adding another little one to our family!  We were really shocked and excited! 

Luke won the spring poetry contest!  He got to recite his poem at the schools 'spring sing' event.  He didn't have a microphone and it was outside on the grass and I think the people couldn't hear and were loud and he couldn't remember it and messed up a little and had a long pause in the middle.  But recovered nicely!

May - we were just a little scared when we met with our awesome OB and he took an ultrasound on our first visit!  He scared us when he mentioned he saw something strange and there might be 2 babies!  Caleb about ran away!  Later, at another appointment he confirmed only one baby! 

I got a new nephew!  Orin, Minette and Sadie welcomed Jake into the family!  And boy is he cute!

June - Ryan turned 4!  Caleb made him a captain America piƱata (that nobody could break, so the adults had a great time too!)  He had a swimming party with his Cate cousins and got 2 fishing poles!  He was in heaven!  He loves to go fishing with Uncle Jeff and Uncle Steven at Tempe Town Lake.  (he is such a nice brother that he lets Luke use the other one!)

July - On July 2nd, my Grandma Flakes 94th birthday, early in the morning, she passed away.  She had been blind for over 10 years, it had been 15 years since my grandpa had died and she was not in good health.  We knew it was coming and were prepared but I was still heartbroken that my grandma had left us, but yet so happy for the reunion with her sweetheart and her 2 children who had passes away at young ages.  Maybe I was just a little jealous of the party that was going on in heaven! 

The day before heading to Snowflake for Grandmas funeral we found out we would be having a GIRL!  We were really excited (caleb was scared) to see what this new flavor was all about!

The boys and I were able to make it up to Snowflake twice in July.  Once for Grandmas funeral and then we went again for the Pioneer day celebration (my favorite holiday)!   It is always fun to see so much family and teach my little guys about our ancestors who were pioneers and obeyed the prophet when he sent them to settle Arizona!

August - Luke started 2nd grade at Benjamin franklin.  We didn't know what to expect, we loved loved loved his kindergarten teacher but didn't know anyone else!  Ryan started Preschool at the Lehi elementary school.  I got him tested for his speech.  He was having trouble with stopping his letters (f would come out as B, stuff like that).  His class was a small class.  He was one of 5 kids, the other 4 were hearing impaired.  Also in August, Calebs brother and his girlfriend had a stillborn little boy.  He was 28 weeks and just passed away and they couldn't figure out why.  It was very hard for them and I felt guilty being pregnant when she lost her baby. It was tough.

October - I turned 30!  yikes!

December - We welcomed the most perfect little girl into the world on December 2nd.  (Story to come later). 
Luke turned 7, and had his school Christmas concert on his birthday!  He won the school poetry contest for his grade (again) and preformed his poem in front of the audience before the concert started and they announced it was his birthday and everyone clapped!  He was pretty proud!
We had a fun Christmas.  Its always fun to have a baby at Christmas time! 
2011 AT A GLANCE

A lot has happened in the almost 2 1/2 years since I have neglected my blog.  Here is a quick run down and possible picture over load!

January 2011 - Caleb started his first semester of his apprenticeship for insulation.

March 2011 - We got tired of being a long distance family and found an apartment in Mesa and ended up living in the most amazing, friendly fun ward!  It happened to be the same ward one of my cousins was in, so that was nice to have someone I knew already.  But our first sunday there, more than half the ward came up before church started and introduced themselves and several people took us under their wings and showed us around and made us feel welcome!
                      
Caleb started with a new company in his local union, KMI (Karber Mechanical Insulation) the same week we moved down!

June 2011 - Ryan turned 3!

July-August - We spent a lot of time playing in the water.  Discovered Butcher Jones (saguaro lake).  Luke learned to swim and earned a fishing pole by swimming across Grandma Cates swimming pool all by himself!  It was really hot and miserable and I REALLY wanted to move back to snowflake.

August - Luke started school!  That long awaited day had finally come!  We enrolled him in Benjamin Franklin Charter School because it was the only one I could find with half day kindergarten!  And we loved his kindergarten year, what a wonderful teacher he had!

Also in August Caleb got sent out of town for work.  He went to Nogales to work for a week at the border crossing station.  While he was there he wrecked on his bike.  He was pretty scraped up and messed up the bike.  We were trying to figure out how to get him home with a motorcycle that couldn't shift down past 3rd gear.  Luckily, our prayers were answered.  There was a truck driver staying at the same hotel as Caleb and had to drive through phoenix.  Luckily Caleb is a likeable guy and this truck driver and his wife were very friendly and offered to bring Caleb home and put his bike on the empty trailer they had!  I had planed to go pick him up somewhere on the I-10 but this kind man brought him all the way up to our house, and dropped him off in the frys parking lot about a block away from us!  Caleb tried to get them to come to our apartment to shower and have a meal but they declined.  They thought I would not appreciate smelly truck drivers in my space.  How wrong they were!  I (having smelly truck driver brothers) would have LOVED to offer my thanks and show them my appreciation for saving my husband! 

December 2011 - Luke won the poetry contest at his school!  He got up on stage at the school Christmas program (that happened to be on his 6th birthday!) and recited his poem 'naughty little soap song" and got a medal!  He was sure excited!  I was SO nervous for him!  But he was a pro!

From about September until the end of the year construction slows down.  This year was no different.  Infact, to me, it seemed like it was worse than it should have been!  Caleb was only working a 2-3 days a week (if we were lucky)!  I was so beyond stressed and didn't know how I was going to provide much for my little boys to put under the Christmas tree.  We knew it would be small and tried to really focus on Christ and make it special for our boys.  Then one night (exactly 12 days before Christmas) we got a knock on our door.  Someone had left the boys some toys.  The next night, same thing!  And this happened for a few nights and the boys had a great time!  Then, one night, there was no knock...the boys were getting antsy so they opened the door to check and there was our treat of the night!  Our sneaky Santa's didn't knock.  It was a plate of goodies with an envelope taped to it.  While the boys dug into the treats Caleb and I opened the envelope and there was $200 cash and some gift cards.  We both had tears in our eyes.  Then that same night my 'Uncle' and his wife came over and brought us a little gift in a bag that Luke grabbed and pulled out some kitchen towels and hot pads.  They left and it was a little while later I noticed they had included a Christmas card with the bag, inside the card was $100.  At this point I was beyond tears.  Caleb was getting just a little concerned.  He is a proud man, and takes pride in providing for his family, and this generosity was starting to bother him.  He felt that people thought he couldn't provide for us.  I tried explain to him that it wasn't because he couldn't provide, it wasn't that he was turning work down, he just had no work!  Well a few more days went by and it was Christmas eve.  The boys were inside watching movies and I was out helping Caleb work on our truck.  We went in the apartment because it was getting dark and as we walked in the back door we realized some one was in our apartment!  I stopped in my tracks and realized these people had their arms full of wrapped Christmas gifts!  They smiled and said 'Merry Christmas'!  I told them they must have the wrong house but they said 'no, we have some gifts here for Luke, Ryan and some for you and brother Cate.'  oh boy!  I had no idea who these people were!  I said who is this from?  And all they said is they were Santa's helpers.  They must have brought 50 packages in!  We were absolutely stunned!  All we could say was thank you! 

There were clothes and toys for the boys, gift cards and cash and a couple of gifts for caleb and I, it was so surreal!  To this day I can not even think of this Christmas without tears coming to my eyes!  Someone saw a need and took action.  our kids were not going to go without, they had a few simple gifts that I had found on sale months earlier and would have had fun with them but WOW!  We didn't know who to thank.  Christmas was on Sunday.  When we went to church Caleb found our wonderful bishop and asked if he knew what had happened and he just gave us a smile and said he didn't know what he was talking about.  We told him, to tell whoever was involved how much it ment to us and thank you.  He gave us a huge smile (like only he could give!) and said he would relay the message.  It was truly one of those moments where I knew I wasn't forgotten by our Heavenly Father.  It also made me realize how genuinely loving our ward members are.  I will NEVER forget this.  EVER.