The Aztecs, By Amy

 

In 2015 my parents went on a trip to Mexico for my grandma’s birthday. They came back with stories and pictures of the pyramids, buildings, and ruins that they had visited. It made me want to learn more about the people that lived there. These people were the Aztecs. They were an interesting people who farmed, built cities, and were religious.

The Aztecs were a wandering tribe from northern Mexico and were one of the last great Native American civilizations. “Aztecs” means “someone from Aztlan”. They were famous for their agriculture, temples, hieroglyphics, calendar system, and famous pyramids.

The Aztecs farmed on floating gardens called chinampas which were used to produce the city’s food. Squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and maize were the most common foods grown in the gardens. The farmers main tool was the digging stick. The digging stick was a long stick with a half diamond on the end. The Aztecs would cook on a round stone placed over a fire, it was mainly used to cook tortillas. The Aztecs favorite food was maize. They could grind it into flour and eat it cooked.

The Aztecs built large cities with many important buildings. The Aztecs temples were a giant pyramid with two smaller buildings on them, one for each god. They built their pyramids, temples, and homes using stones, chisels, and blades. They had to build on strong foundations because the ground would sink. They had ball courts in their cities as well.

No matter what rank they had, the Aztecs would all sleep on a floor mat. Even the king did, but his was nicer. There were religious festivals every month with singing and dancing, music was very important at these festivals. The Aztec civilization was highly developed socially, artistically, and intellectually. Rank was very important to the Aztecs. Farmers, peasants, and slaves were the lowest rank.

In 5021 the Aztecs were conquered by Spain. When Spanish explorers arrived in Tenochtitlay, an Aztec city, the Aztec people thought they were gods and trusted them which was a bad idea. Many Aztecs also died from European diseases.

The Aztecs were an interesting people to learn about. They had unique lives and a fascinating history. I hope to someday visit the area where the Aztecs lived and learn even more about them.

Bird On The Loose

By Wyatt Andersen

It was the usual morning at the dairy. I had fed the calves, given the cows shots, and trapped gophers. I came home and was very hungry so I got a lot of rice pudding that was on the stove and ate till I was stuffed. After I ate, I went to my room to gather my laundry to wash it. I was in the laundry room and my mom opened the garage door. All of a sudden a black starling burst through the door and flew right into our house. It first flew into the office and got wedged in the blinds so we lifted them up and it shot off into the living room where it hit the window. The saying that birds don’t see glass is true because it hit our giant window with a powerful force. Right when it made contact, it dropped to the ground. It looked like it had been ran over by a semi three times. It lay still on the floor and it didn’t even flinch. I went to go get the snow shovel and take it out, but when I hot back it was gone. I scouted all over the living room but there was no sign of it. I picked up the shovel and the starling hopped from under the couch. It scared me like crazy so I smacked it with the shovel and the bird flopped over with it’s beak wide open and it was shaking like it had just been on a roller coaster. I picked it up with the shovel and tossed it outside. It looked like it had brain damage so I went to get my pellet gun to put it out of its misery. I  went outside and as I turned the corner where I tossed it out it wasn’t there. I think it must have shook off its trauma and then flew away. I was glad that it wasn’t injured too badly. After all that excitement, I was ready to start school so I sat down and just hoped that this didn’t happen every day.

THE END

Amy's story

Tom and Sid

By Amy Andersen

Tom and Sid are best friends. Tom is tall and thin, and Sid is small and skinny. They love to pretend that they are pirates, knights, and super heroes.  “Let’s go to the ship” said Sid. They walked to their wagon in the grass. The wagon is red with a green star on each side. They pulled the wagon up the biggest hill they could find. Then Tom and Sid jumped in the wagon and zoomed down the hill. “Wheeee!” Tom and Sid raced down the hill going faster and faster. “We’re going to hit the tree!” Tom cried at the same time Sid yelled, “abandon ship!” The wagon hit the tree, but Tom and Sid were safely on the grass. “Well, our ship sunk” Sid said. “It’s okay” Tom said, “and a good thing too because the town of ants are being attacked!”  So, Tom and Sid put on their super hero masks and pulled the wagon up the hill and zoomed back down to save the town of ants which were under a rock.

The End

I'm Still Here!

I'm a horrible blogger these days.  I'm just not finding time in the day (or week or month) to sit down and update it.  I am much better at posting pictures to Instagram though since it's fast and easy.  So if you would like to still see pictures of some pretty cute kids, follow me there.  Look for gwegs.

Don't give up on me completely though.  I have plans to keep this blog going since it's the best journal I've ever had.  Just don't expect weekly, or even monthly updates.  I'm shooting for quarterly at this point.  However I know life will get to a point when the blog can be bumped up on the priority list again and I can update more often.  Time and season.

He's Here!

 Corbin Neil

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

4:49 a.m.

8 lbs 4 oz

21 inches

 1 day old

 1 week old

 I'm in love!  

He's been such a good little baby so far...so much better than our other four.  It's been a very nice, and much appreciated surprise.

Here's the story of his birth

(I document this mostly for myself to help me remember)

My doctor left on vacation on my due date.  He would have been happy to induce me before leaving, but we had our county fair to get through so I told him no.  I asked him if I could have the on call doctor induce me over the weekend, but he suggested I wait to see his P.A. the following week and then he promised I could be induced then.  When I went to my appointment with the P.A. on Tuesday, I almost fell off the exam table when she checked and told me I was dilated to a 4.  I've NEVER been dilated until I'm actually in real deal labor and I hadn't even been having any major contractions.  A few Braxton Hicks, but nothing worth noting.  She talked to the on call Dr and he agreed to having me come in that evening to be induced.  When it came time to call labor and delivery that evening, they told me I needed to wait because they were too busy.  It was a long evening waiting for them to call back and finally, at 10:30 I called back to see if I should just wait til morning.  They told me that I could come right then, so off we went.  Luckily we had taken our traditional family picture earlier before the kids went to bed. (one perk to being induced)

last picture as a family of 6

When we got to the hospital, I was dilated to a 5...another shocker since I thought I was only having Braxton Hicks contractions (no pain whatsoever) and they were very irregular.  It took until about 1:00 a.m. for them to finally come to start the pitocin and at that point, I was dilated to a 6.  Still no pain, but it was obvious that baby would have come that day either way!

The nurse started the pitocin and I was reminded very quickly what real contractions felt like!  About an hour later I requested my epidural which was the most painful part of my whole labor.  The first one was inserted wrong.  Greg almost passed out while watching (which he's never had a problem with) cause he could tell it wasn't going in right.  I could tell it wasn't right too....YOWZERS it hurt!   They pulled that one right away and got another one in and then it was smooth sailing (except for the 30 minutes after the batteries went dead in the epidural machine and it started wearing off).  By 3:45ish I was dilated to a 10 and tired from not sleeping at all.  The baby was still pretty high and after a couple practice pushes I could tell we were going to be at it for a while, so I decided to rest a little before starting to push.  At around 4:30 or so, we decided to go for it and at 4:49 our beautiful baby boy arrived.  I expected him to be a little bigger since he was overdue, but because he was much longer than my other babies, he still looked skinny to me.  I thought for sure he was going to be a 6 lb baby like the girls, so it was a surprise to hear he was over 8 lbs.

It was such a fast and easy delivery.  We spent the rest of the day at the hospital and came home that night around 9:00.

He really has been amazing.  I keep waiting for him to turn on me, but so far, he's been such a good baby.  He's eating well, gaining weight, sleeping 4 hour stretches at night, sleeps well during the day....everything I've never had in a baby.  It's been great!  If he didn't look like all our other babies, I would wonder if they accidentally switched babies on me at the hospital.

The only problem we've had is that even though I had normal blood pressure all through my pregnancy and delivery, I somehow managed to develop high blood pressure after pregnancy.  So, that's been a complication we've been working on for the last two weeks and trying to find the right medications and dosage to keep it under control while still nursing.

We're so glad he's here and we love and adore out new little baby boy!  And because the number one question I've been asked is "How's Dallin doing?" I thought I would include this picture...

That pretty much sums it up ;)

"Baby Come Out!"

That's what we've been teaching Dallin to say to my belly.  He is super cute saying it and has NO IDEA how it will rock his world when the baby finally decides to listen to him.

But seriously...

I'm 40+4 today.  It's time.  I've spent the day doing laundry, packing bags, mowing the lawn, and cleaning the house from top to bottom.  We've even decided on a name (which is a pretty big thing).  I feel like I've been pretty pleasant the last couple of weeks, but if one more person says "you're STILL pregnant?" or "are you SURE it's not twins?" I may say something quite regretful.  I'm ready.  So really....

BABY COME OUT!!!

Family Reunion - July 2013

The whole family (minus baby Kendall and the three on the way)

Yes I am 9 months pregnant in this picture and yes, I had to switch Greg shirts to get it to fit....the things I do for my mother-in-law.  She's lucky I love her! :)

We spent a couple days at Sunrise over P on the river, swimming, boating, playing games, and enjoying being with family.

Lydia's 4-H Projects

 Lydia and ReaAnn

Lydia and Milton

(she named her pigs Walter and Milton because those were Greg's two favorite names for our baby...she wanted to make sure we wouldn't use them ;)

Lydia's Apron

Making cookies for her baking project

Pioneer Days - July 2013

Paige, Cameron, Wyatt, Addy

My favorite pic from Pioneer Days this year.  Wyatt and Cameron were so excited that they both caught a fish (by hand) in the fish pond.  They must have worked hard for those fish because they were both soaked afterwards.  I love that Addy has the biggest fish and her little tutu skirt isn't even wet!

Caught Up!

Whew!  I'm finally caught-up on this blog (for now).  You have my little tease of a baby to thank for it.  At my Dr. appointment on Tuesday we found out that he was breech.  My doctor recommended trying to turn him by this Thursday because by next week it would be too difficult to get him turned.  They scheduled an ultrasound yesterday to check the actual position of the baby and then we planned to go back today to turn the baby, which would take place at labor and delivery where they could monitor the baby the entire time.  There is the risk of it putting the baby in distress and an emergency c-section, but it's a very small risk.  My Dr. didn't seemed worried, but this DID happen to my friend Sarah (same hospital, same Dr.) so that didn't make me feel any better ;)  I decided to be extra prepared (because I'm very much a type A personality), so I kicked into high gear Tuesday night and Wednesday morning making sure most everything was ready JUST IN CASE I ended up having a baby by today.  WELL...I went in for the ultrasound yesterday, and my little guy is head down.  The little tease turned overnight on his own.  YAY!  So now since I got everything else on my list done in the last two days, I actually had some time today to dedicate to the blog.  And hopefully this little guy will stay in place for the next two weeks!