THE LASHLEE FAMILY

Lucys First 6 months

2010-09-11T13:37:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Our Little "Big Girl"

2010-06-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Our baby girl is now 1/2 a year old and has started eating solid foods! She is very much enjoying her rice cereal and loves practicing standing and learning out to sit up by herself :)

Daddy's Little Girl

2010-03-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

Some of daddy's favorite pictures with his little girl!

Family Photo Shoot :)

2010-03-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here are the favorites from the family photo shoot... Lucy wasn't as happy about sharing the camera with mom and dad but they're still very cute :)

Lucy's 3 month photo shoot

2010-03-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Mommy found a coupon for a free portrait session (including an 8x10, 2 5x7s and 8 wallets) at the Olan Mills studio so we went to K-Mart yesterday and these are the resulting pictures! We have another session scheduled for Saturday to do family photos! $15 for a huge package including a 16x20, 10x13, 8x10, 2 5x7s, 16 wallets and 6 greeting cards! Can't wait to share them with you!!

Lucy Anne Lashlee

2010-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

I had to add one more pic :)

Lucy is one month old!

2010-01-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that one month ago our little angel had just been delivered and was in our arms for the first time! Here are some of our favorite pics from the first month!!

Lucy's First Christmas

2010-01-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

Well... this was an extra special Christmas season for our family... and to make it even more special we got to celebrate Christmas four times with our families! We started with a celebration on the 19th at Oma and Papa's (Phil and Astrid's) with the Nichols family... and to the kiddos' surprise Santa made a pre-Christmas appearance to deliver treats to all of us! Lucy loved sitting on Santa's lap for the first time, and mommy and daddy had fun too! Then we celebrated Christmas Eve at Oma VanWingerden's, Christmas day at Grandma GG's and on the 27th Geno's family came to celebrate here at our house!

Lucy Anne Lashlee's birth story

2009-12-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

We have been thanking God every moment for the blessed labor and birth of our baby Lucy Anne at 4:42 pm Friday December 11, 2009! She was delivered in the birthing tub at Ventura Birth Center, weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and measured 21 inches long.

Our labor went something like this... Friday morning at 12:30 am I was awoken by the first contraction but fell back asleep until 2 am. From then on I had steady but light contractions about every 15-20 minutes and just breathed through them with deep relaxation breathing. Around 4 am I realized that my breathing was keeping Geno awake so I went to the living room and kept breathing while checking e-mails, writing thank you cards and resting as much as possible. At 6 am I took a long hot shower... when I got out I couldn't help singing "This is the day that the LORD has made" knowing that our baby was going to be born that day! Geno woke up and told his boss he wasn't coming to work, and we called the midwife to let her know what was going on. We had an appointment scheduled for 8:30 am so we decided to go anyways and get checked, but we didn't take our bags because we knew we still had a while to go.

At the birth center I was checked and told that my cervix was 4 cm dilated, I was fully efaced ("paper thin") and could be stretched to 5 cm. My bag of waters hadn't broken yet and I had a contraction while being checked so they could feel it bulge out on the left of the baby's head. I was also "loosing" my mucus plug, but there was still a lot in there. We were told that I was doing great, but not to get too excited because it could still be anywhere between hours and weeks 'til delivery. So, we picked up a Blender's and headed home.

At home, I laid down and tried to rest between contractions and drank my Blenders. Then Geno suggested that we go for a "brisk" walk, so we headed down to Santa Claus beach. By this time contractions were definitely getting stronger and I was starting to moan a little through them, sway and bounce side to side, and put my hands on my lower back and massage the small of my back with my thumbs (I did not want Geno to touch me very much at this point). When we got to the beach I had a very strong contraction getting out of the car (transitioning from sitting to standing or vice versa was very uncomfortable at this point) and was hit by a wave of nausea that made me throw up about 1/3 of my Blenders. But I felt good enough to still take our walk, so we walked for about 30-40 minutes with me stopping every 7 minutes or so to work through the contractions.

Once we got home the contractions were beginning to come closer to 5 minutes apart and Geno called the midwives and was told to start timing them. It was getting harder and harder to find comfortable positions, but I ended up on the medicine ball for the next hour or so while we watched the contractions stay 5 minutes apart and last for about one minute or more, sometimes even with a smaller "piggy-back" contraction in between. Geno called the midwives again and we decided it was time to head down to Ventura.

The car ride was difficult because I couldn't move around much to get comfortable, so my moaning and groaning got much longer and louder... but low tones through every contraction really helped my body open up and get through it. When we got to the Birth Center it was about 2:45 pm and I was checked and found out I was 7 cm dilated. I labored in the bedroom for a little while, sitting on the medicine ball, sitting on the toilet or standing leaning against the counter, but it was really hard to get comfortable now so I asked Geno to tell the midwives I was ready to get in the tub.

It took about 15 minutes to get the tub ready, but when I got in at 330 pm I had about 5 minutes of the most comfortable warmth and relaxation I have ever had. But at the end of that 5 minutes I had the strongest contraction I had had yet... I stayed in a seated position with my legs stretched out and head back for a few contractions, but then I felt like I needed to try another position. I tried to get on all fours, and in child's pose, but neither seemed to bring much comfort. The midwives had been checking baby's heartrate all throughout the day and she was always right on track in the 140s to 150s. They asked me to move into a different position so they could check her again and I ended up with my hips open and both legs bent to the left... which actually brought some relief finally so I stayed there for a few more contractions. I was definitely moaning and groaning loudly at this point, and since my bag of waters hadn't broken yet I started feeling a lot of rectal pressure with each contraction.

The midwives checked me and but the bag was bulged in front of my cervix so I had them rupture the sac and I cannot tell you what a relief that was! However, the contractions got stronger and longer and within about 10 minutes I was feeling the urge to push. Since I was fully dilated the midwives said to go ahead and try and although it was scary at first, when I listened to my body and didn't worry about possibly going poop I was able to push hard and start working the baby out. I was grunting deep in my throat with every push and tried pushing on all fours but once her head was down a little further I turned back around, sat against the side of the tub with Geno leaning in and holding me up with his arms under my armpits so that I could pull my knees back, tuck my chin and curl around my belly for the most effective pushing.

The best thing I heard all day was when the midwives told me my baby would be here in the next few pushes... I kept saying aloud between contractions "soon... soon... soon." Her head was soon crowning and I felt the "ring of fire" and told the midwives that I couldn't do it... but they reminded me that the only way to get through that was to get her out and with Geno they told me "you can do it", "you are doing it", "keep doing it." I pushed through that and delivered her head and felt so much relief it was incredible! She was still in the water and it took another two minutes to deliver her shoulders (she had one hand on her shoulder!)... and while her head was out we could see her turning it from side to side!

Once she was delivered the midwives put her straight onto my chest and covered her with a warm towel and let Geno and I spend those first few amazing moments just taking it all in. We left the umbilical cord attached until it stopped pulsing and then had it cut before delivering the placenta. The placenta was still pretty strongly attached, so the midwife had to give my uterus a "massage" (that was as painful as the active labor contractions) until it detached and delivered.

From there, Geno took the baby and sat with her for about 15 minutes while the midwives checked me... they had to remove a little bit of the amniotic sac that was left behind, but I had no tearing that needed stitches... just a few small lacerations that would heal on their own.

Geno brought Lucy in and joined us in the bed where we spent several more minutes just enjoying being a family... Lucy had been very alert since she was first placed on my chest so we wanted to spend as much time as possible bonding with her before her newborn exam. Once she started to get sleepy she was weighed and measured and checked thoroughly, but we declined the eye ointment, vitamin K shot and PKU. She was then handed back to me and nursed for the first time... at first she only latched on to the tip of the nipple but we released and tried again and she latched beautifully and has continued to since.

We stayed at the Birth Center until about 7:15 pm and then loaded up the car, put Lucy in her car seat for the first time, said a prayer with the midwives and headed home with our two and a half hour old baby. Both sets of new grandparents met us at home and visited from 8-10 pm, then Aunt Denise and Uncle Jimmy stopped by for 15 minutes (they had just made it in from San Diego), and we were ready for our first night's sleep in our own bed. Lucy slept soundly between us the whole night and didn't even wake up when I tried to feed her, but Geno and I were very restless, soothing her every little coo and noise and checking to make sure she was breathing all night.

Since then each day has only been better than the one before and we continue praising God for placing His Mighty Hand upon our entire pregnancy, labor, delivery and especially this precious baby we now have! I have chosen just a few of my favorite pictures, but there will be tons more on my facebook and I would love for you to find me there and make me your friend if we're not already!

I pray for each one of you may enjoy this special Christmas season as we all remember the birth of Christ and the miracle of new life both physically and spiritually!

It's Lucy's Birth Month

2009-12-04T08:37:00.001-08:00

It is officially Lucy's birth month and we are so excited for her to come out and play!!

Still Growing :)

2009-11-04T14:17:00.001-08:00

This is the early November update... we have six weeks left and are getting very excited about Lucy Anne's arrival!

Growing Belly #2

2009-10-06T17:07:00.001-07:00

Well... here it is... it's only been a couple weeks but the belly has definitely grown. According to my midwives I am right on track... my belly measures 29 cm at 29 weeks :)

Growing Belly #1

2009-09-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well... now that my growing belly is impossible to hide I realized that I need to start tracking it's growth! Here is our mid September shot... I'll be sure to add another one at the end of the month or early October!! ENJOY :)

Lucy's ultrasound

2009-08-03T14:56:00.001-07:00

Also... here is proof of what's in the belly bump... this is Lucy's 3d ultrasound pic! It's a facial profile... she's sleeping with her chin on her hand and facing to the right :)

The Belly Bump

2009-08-03T14:50:00.001-07:00

I have been asked to post pictures of my growing belly bump so here are the first shots... these are from Denise's birthday celebration on Thursday... a great day at the beach and an awesome dinner at mom's!!

Lily's Adventures

2009-06-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well... now that we've had Lily for a week we are starting to let her out for supervised adventures... and she is loving it! She stalks all around attacking weeds and leaves, and she even climbs our little avocado trees. She went up on really steep branch and had fun exploring up high in the tree, until she realized she didn't know how to get back down. Luckily she was only about five feet high so when she finally meowed that she was ready to get down I could just pick her up and put her on the ground. Today she climbed an even steeper branch, but when she was ready to come down she just turned around and slid right down... she's a quick learner! We're very hopeful that she will be a good hunter too!

The New Lily

2009-06-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

As most of you know... even after our month of convincing her she had the best new life with us, the first Lily cat was just too independent and left us to go have her own adventures. But since we still have rodents on the ranch, we still needed a little hunter, and we found her yesterday. This is the new Lily (since Geno and I liked that name so much we didn't want it to go to waste :) ). She is a six week old calico mix we adopted from my aunt Dorine and she is the cutest kitten!! Here are a few pictures and a short video... sorry there's no sound, I didn't want to distract her :)

Lily

2009-03-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

We finally got our new "barn cat" and she is adorable! She was on her own, surviving in the wild for the first nine months of her life, so adjusting to her new home is a slow process, but it's going great! She is getting more and more comfortable with Geno and I every day and is loving snuggling in her bed, being pampered and cuddles... always on her terms of course! We know she's going to make a great addition to our home and hope she is willing to meet you when you come visit!!

Piru Motocross Park

2009-02-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

Geno and I decided to spend the morning at Piru motocross park and had a great time!

Jumping Goats!

2009-01-19T17:29:00.001-08:00

And in more recent news... lol... Geno built a play structure for the goats this weekend and I'll let their reaction to it speak for itself! They're ready to put on a show next time you come visit!!

P.S. Yes... they already christened it with their droppings!!

Yosemite

2009-01-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since I posted anything here... but it's a new year and I'm going to try to keep this updated more often... starting today :)

Here are our favorite pictures from our New Year's in Yosemite... snowshoeing, ice skating, dinner and dance party, and snowboarding... that's what I call bringing in the new year!!

An eventful day

2008-06-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well... today was my last official day of teaching, and luckily for me it was crazy hair and mismatched clothes day... so I got to go out with a bang! Then, after work, Geno and I found five baby swallows that fell out of their nests onto our garage door. We rescued them and found out that they can be adopted into other nests, so we carefully found them new homes. And the cherry on the sundae was bringing the turtles home and releasing them into their brand new pond. Today was definitely a great and eventful day!!

Gorman

2008-06-01T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well... as of this weekend I am officially a dirt biker!! Geno and I headed out the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area in Gorman on Saturday morning and enjoyed dirt biking all through the desert until Sunday afternoon. It was amazing! Here are just a few pictures to share our experience with you!!

Penelope

2008-05-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Meet Penelope... the pink moped! Thanks to Geno, she is all put together and running great. She was an early birthday present to myself and went for her first outing today! We had a great ride to Summerland and back and look forward to many more!

San Diego Wild Animal Park

2008-03-24T08:09:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Geno and I headed down south to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. If you haven't been, you need to! This time of year they have lots of baby animals and the weather is perfect... warm, but not so hot that the animals sleep in the shade all day. Check out the pics! The last one is when we went out to dinner with the Castanedos...

Dusk and Dawn

2008-02-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest members of the Lashlee household... or should we say petting zoo? We bought a rabbit hutch a few months ago and Geno built an amazing exercise pen last weekend.... and today we picked up our new bunnies! We adopted them from Bunnies Urgently Needing Shelter (B.U.N.S.) and are excited to make them part of our family! They look forward to meeting you next time you stop by!!

Big Bear

2007-09-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last week was our first week of school and we were lucky enough to spend it in Big Bear! Here are some of my favorite pictures!!

Last real weekend of summer...

2007-08-25T18:50:00.001-07:00

Geno and I are having a great last weekend of summer and I just wanted to share our pictures with you.

Yesterday we got to go hear Jill Marie play at the House of Blues on Sunset! Chris and Louie played with her too and it was an amazing night!! And then this morning we went on a fun hike in Montecito... we didn't get a chance to ride the natural waterslide... but we had a great time catching salamanders and enjoying the view!

Gabriel House

2007-08-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hello and happy last day of summer! I can't believe how fast this summer has gone, but I am so thankful for the time I've been able to spend with so many of you and hope to see the rest of you very soon! I just wanted to let you all know that I had a great trip down to Maneadero, Mexico earlier this week and am now home safe and sound... but don't ask about my border crossing!

Four of us ladies left on Sunday and drove down to the Gabriel House, where we were blessed to stay at the "Angel Wing" hospitality house just a few houses down from GH. We settled in among the mice and lizards and scoprpions (all IN the house!!) and headed out to La Buffadora (The Blowhole) for some dinner. You can ask Geno to wear the authentic Nacho Libre mask I bought him next time you see us... he's thinking of becoming a professional luchador!

But the best part of the trip started Monday morning when we got to hang out with the kids at GH for two and a half days! It was so encouraging to see how well all our friends are doing there and hear about the ways God is working with them. For those who don't know, GH is one of, if not the only place in Mexico that cares for disabled orphans. There are about twenty kids there right now from just a few months old to somewhere around 20 years old. There are babies crawling around, toddlers born with HIV walking around, boys with Downe's syndrome running around, and many children in wheeling around in their chairs... or asking to go for a walk. We were blessed to spend time with these angels and got to do crafts, puzzles, and go for many walks/runs on the dirt roads around the house. The boys especially like to be pushed "rapido, rapido!" in their wheelchairs and have races... so we got our cardio in for the week for sure. We also got to cool off though, when we took Alejandro and Jose for a dip in the new pool! What a blast that was!!

I would love to tell you more so make sure to e-mail me or call and I will share all my stories... but I think that's it for now. Enjoy the pictures and please continue to pray for these inspirational kids and their amazing care givers. We hope to go back for a weekend in October and definitely for a week during Spring Break... so please prayerfully consider joining us! You will be blessed and be a blessing too! LOVE YOU ALL!

My 25th Birthday

2007-05-30T08:23:00.000-07:00

Well... now that I am 25 years old and the proud mother of two beautiful goats, I thought it was about time I got my own blog. Geno spent the three weeks before my birthday coming home after work and building a corral and stable every day until sundown. Then, on Friday May 18th he put the finishing touches on his beautiful craftsmanship and we drove to Santa Ynez to pick up our new goats. They are both pregnant does and have been named Sheila and Betty! We are so excited that they are already well adjusted to their new and improved home and they love being our pets as much as we love having them!

On Saturday May 19th we had a small gathering to celebrate their arrival and my 25th birthday... thanks to all of you who were there with us and to those who weren't... we missed you and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Until next time...