Happy Birthday America!

I love all things fourth of the July! Here is proof...

These were so fun to make and easy too!

We had so much fun at the Windsor Heights parade!

 We were blessed to find these great friends as we walked up to find a spot. 

I didn't expect our favorite fast food joint to have its own spot in the parade

Seeing our Church's Ark float loaded with more friends was the highlight!

This little one thought snoozing in style was the way to enjoy the day.

We got colorful when making our eggs for our BBQ dinner at Papa's

Cousin JaKyla meeting Khloe for the first time

Kayla loves her Aunt Jaime

We had a whirl of a time at the Urbandale carnival

The joy of owning a home

I had so much fun decorating Khloe's nursery! This is the first baby that has gotten to have a nursery because this is the first home we've owned. I am so grateful for the blessing this house has been to our family. Here are some before and after photo's.


Hello sunshine yellow, you are bright and cheery but you gotta go!

Hello mellow calm and pretty

Khloe Grace Scherb has stolen my heart

God has made me a mother for the third time and I am so grateful for the life He has entrusted me with.

Khloe Grace Scherb was born Tuesday May 27th at 5:32pm.

This is the account of how the delivery of my sweet Khloe went so if your not into birth stories just scroll through to see the photos of this darling girl!

Bye bye baby bump, its go time!

Proud Daddy

Due to my second daughter birth complications (shoulder dystocia) my pregnancy with Khloe was considered high risk. That brought about many changes to the way this pregnancy was handled medically.

When I was 37 weeks pregnant I was measuring 40 weeks and by ultrasound baby was weighing 8lbs 14oz. So I was allowed to have my membranes stripped early. And when at 38 weeks 1day I had not gone into labor on my own, we had a amniocentesis test done. After the test we headed to the hospital to wait on the results and be monitored. Around 11am the test results showed that babies lungs were mature and we checked into our hospital room knowing we were going to have a baby that day!

My OB decided to break my water at noon, knowing I didn't want to be induced with pitocin if I didn't have to be. Shortly after Josh and I began to walk the hospital halls. We did a total of four laps during which I was having slightly painful contractions.

As soon as we got back to my room (this is when everything gets a little hazy and times may be inaccurate) the contractions really began to change. Not only did they began to get more painful but started coming every 2mins as well. Within about a half hour the contractions were no longer bearable.
Let me pause a moment on exactly what I mean by unbearable! I have NEVER had contractions(or anything else) that painful and this is my third delivery. I literately couldn't sit down due to the pain, even when I wasn't having a contraction it felt like baby was breaking my tailbone when I would try to sit. The only way I got through a contraction was to be silent and absolutely still while wrapping my arms around Josh's neck and hang there attempting to take the pressure off my body and put it on his. It was all I could do to remember to breath.

And that is when I caved, it was epidural time! Not that it really helped! Getting the epidural was horrible this time because I had waited to get it until the pain was unmanageable and like I said sitting was outrageous!
It did two good things; it made it so I could sit down for the first time in like three hours and it gave me at least an hour pain free. But then.... around 4:45 they checked me and I was 9cm and fully effaced. So my wonderful nurse asked me to lay on my side...bad bad bad. Suddenly it was like I had never had the epidural and all the pain came rushing back. After 2 or 3 contractions on my side I told the nurse I couldn't take it and rolled myself, numb legs and all, back onto my back! And that's when they said it was go time.

 Some special visitors

Papa Rod

Big sister Kiara

Uncle Chris

Aunt Amanda

Mommies friend Rachel

I want to take a minute and note that through all of this I was praying begging God to help me through this take the pain away. But if I am honest I really really struggled with fear. I typically am not somebody who struggles in this area. But with this delivery I was terrified! Now it may be due to the birth complications and pain that came with my last delivery but none the less I was so frustrated at myself. I just wanted to trust God and not fear, as Psalm 56:3 states: But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. Even though I struggled, God was so good to me and made this another super fast delivery! (good thang cause if it hadn't been I would have been askin for the c-section!)

Again due to my last delivery they were taking extra precautions and hyper flexed my legs right away. This is when things got a little overwhelming for my darling husband and the nurses asked him to take a seat in the chair next to me. When everything was set up to push this baby girl out, I backed out! Yep that's right! After one push I was in so much pain and so terrified I said "NO". I had decided I was not going to push this kid out and they couldn't make me! But I was wrong, all three of them began to yell at me. Saying things like "this is why you came to the hospital today, to have a baby!" "yes you can" "if you do this right april, you can have this baby out in 2 pushes!"

And that is exactly what I was afraid of, that she was going to come out all at once. And that is just what she did! All 9lbs 1oz of her came out on the next push!!! And I felt all of it! And then...

There she was, gently placed in my arms. And that is when she stole my heart!

More visitors at home

Aunt Amy

Great Aunt Lisa

Big sister Kayla is in love


God answered so many prayers! No pitocin, no shoulder dystocia, she was placed right on my chest after birth, no birth complications at all, weighed less than her sister did, I was able to be up and moving during labor and female OB delivered her! I am so thankful for his mercy.

She has been the sweetest baby these past five weeks. I like most momma's want time to slow down so I can soak in all things newborn.

Chicken Fried Rice, the right way!

My whole family loves Asian food! One of my personal favorites is Chicken fried rice. However over the years I've never wanted to make it at home because it just never tasted like they make in the restaurants. That was until I discovered sesame oil and a new recipe. I'm telling you if you want to cook Asian cuisine at home than sesame oil is a must. You can find it at most chain grocery stores but if you don't want to over pay for it, hit up your local Asian market.  

So here it is my version of amazing Chicken Fried Rice! You could easily make this a veggie fried rice! Just omit the chicken and teriyaki sauce. 

Ingredients
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast (diced into bite size pieces)
1/4-1/2 C. teriyaki marinating sauce
1 small onion (diced) 
1/2 cup soy sauce
4-5 cups cooked white or brown rice
5 eggs
4 large garlic cloves (minced)
4 tbsp sesame oil (divided)
1 pkg of frozen peas and carrots

I love a lot of veggies in mine so if I have these others on hand I use them and adjust the amount of peas and carrots by only using half the bag. 
Extra veggie suggestions
1 C fresh broccoli (diced)
1 can bamboo shoots (drained)
1 can water chestnuts (drained)
1 can mushrooms (drained)

1. Dice chicken and mix with teriyaki marinating sauce. I just use enough to cover the chicken. If I happen to get this done well in advance then I will let it sit in the fridge and marinate but most of the time it only gets about 5-10 mins. 

2.  Prepare your rice. I use a rice cooker.

3. Add 1 tbsp of the sesame oil to a wok and let it get good and hot before adding your chicken. Cook till no longer pink inside. Remove from the wok, set aside. 

4. While rice and chicken are cooking prepare your onion, garlic and any other veggies you are adding. 

5. Once chicken is finished and removed, add the remaining 3 tbsp of sesame oil and heat on med-high

6. Add your onion and garlic. Stirring continuously to keep your garlic from burning. Cook until onions are clear and soft.

7. Add your veggies, cook until hot and crisp.

8. Move the veggies to the outer edges of the wok making a empty space in the center. Add the eggs to the center and scramble. Cook until set

9. Mix eggs and veggies together. 

10. Add chicken to veggies.

11. Add cooked rice to wok with out mixing in.

12. Pour soy sauce over rice and mix everything together. 

This makes a lot of food! It feeds my family of four and then lunch for a least 2 of us the next day.


 




This is my adaptation of a recipe I found at http://rachelschultz.com/2012/07/14/better-than-takeout-chicken-fried-rice/

Mothers day

After church on mother's day it was a wet soggy mess and the forecast for the rest of the day didn't seem much better. But I remained hopeful. See, I had this delightful day planned in my head. It went like so... 
1. Church 
2. Return home to make a picnic lunch 
3. Enjoy said lunch while delighting in the smells and views of many many lilacs!

A little known fact about myself is that my favorite flowers are, yep you guessed it, lilacs! But somehow I didn't know about Ewing park and the lilac arboretum until last year and didn't make it out to see them before the blossoms died off. So I have been looking forward to making it out there this year! And in my mind mother's day seemed like the perfect day!

Well even though the weather didn't cooperate for a picnic, we just did lunch at home and when the clouds parted and the sun began to shine I jumped at the opportunity to get my family out there. 

And we got some amazing family photo's! If I had thought to grab my tripod we may have actually gotten an entire family photo but non the less we still got A LOT of really great one's!

We began by smelling that wonderful aroma, oh its so good!

And then we took a stroll through what they call the children's forest. We talked about the names of the different trees with the girls and Kayla began her collection of dandelions.

Baby Scherb #3 enjoyed the walk as well

Then we returned to the lilacs and enjoyed finding a sweet robins nest and taking more photos.

I have never seen a sweeter photo of these two!

Here you can see my true love for this flower

I felt so blessed to spend the afternoon enjoying the great outdoors and most of all my favorite people in the world! God has blessed me in great ways and I am thankful! Which makes me think of my memory verse for this week... Psalms 16:5-6 says...Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!