Christmas Love

I was looking through my month of pictures and found this gem!



We put Winni's HUGE bow in Maeli's hair, and it stayed! It almost looks like a hat! I love it! I hope her hair stays, at least for a little while.

This little girl LOVES to help with her baby sister! She wants to hold her all the time and will even burp her for me. I'm so impressed with her baby handling goodness. I just have to keep reminding her that she can't stand up!



This little man kinda likes Maeli, too! Anytime he sees her he has to give her a kiss and asks to hold her. If he sees me without her he is all questions about where she is and with who and why!



And, we finally pulled out our plethora of Christmas decorations. It took all of about 10 minutes to decorate. Someday I'll add to the collection, but I'd like to make the decorations, so it might take some time. Oh well!!



Good News!! So far, the trees have only fallen over once. yeah!!

Black Friday

So, instead of getting up at the awful crack of dawn to save a few bucks, I decided to shop online at midnight instead! Well, it sounded like a good idea. Anyway, I went online before 'go time' and found the things I wanted/needed. Some stores don't start their midnight sale until 12 Central Standard Time, so I had to wait until 1. That was OK and all cause I was hungry anyway...

So, 1 AM hits and I start shopping away. Apparently, so did everyone else! I could not get Kohl's.com to work! It was killing me. Finally, by 3 AM I had all 13 items in my cart. I went to check out and 1 item had sold out. So, I tried to remove it from my cart and it didn't work. I had to keep refreshing the screen, but the site was too overloaded. Finally, at 440 I opened a new window and was able to find my stuff again. However, another thing was sold out. BUMMER! By 5 AM I was even more poor, and tired! So, I finally went to bed. My kids were up by 730 and we were in the car, heading home, by 9. Did I tell you I'm tired today??

Of course we couldn't just drive straight home. First, we stopped for some HORRIBLE breakfast. We decided to go to Burger King so we could be quick, and cause I've always enjoyed their french toast sticks and little cinnamon rolls. Not so much anymore. They were blah!! I'm also a Hot Chocolate lover, so I had to get one. Can I tell you how disappointed I was when they handed me this??



For real?? Did you know Swiss Miss is almost ALWAYS on sale. You can get a box of 10 envelopes for $1. FOR REAL! Oh, and it takes 1 packet/every 6 oz of water. Pretty sure that cup holds more than 6 oz. So, I proceeded to pour out at least 1/2 of the water and MIX MY OWN HOT CHOCOLATE! I'm really not a snob, but really? I paid how much for this? Let's just say McDonald's breakfast and their gourmet hot chocolate are going to put Burger King out of business all by themselves! FOR REAL! Just a tip to BK, had you mixed the hot chocolate for me, with the right ratio of water/powder I wouldn't have known how sad of a hot chocolate I was getting. You know, Hot Chocolate is consumed by more than just 12 and unders, just FYI! I'M STILL HUNGRY! And, I've got a full day of shopping for things I didn't know I needed!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today started out with an exciting Turkey Bowl.



What was so exciting?? Walter caught the ball!



He actually did really well. He caught the ball a few times, took some good hits, and even ran a touch down! He definitely earned his Thanksgiving feast!

While he was running around screaming like a girl, we were in the car watching a movie.



Well, some of us were watching a movie, some were watching football, and some were too busy on their I-Pod to notice the rest of the world around them!



We got to spend Thanksgiving with The Gardner's. Davis is my mother's cousin. We sure are lucky to have the so close, well 1 1/2 away, but that's close out here in the middle of nowhere!

So, after the Turkey Bowl at the church (45 min away) we continued on (45 min) to their house. We had a great time!





Julie, remember when Gardner's came to visit us way back when and brought their bagillion kids?? OK, just 9 kids, but one of those kids made up for the rest of the bagillion. He climbed Mark's book shelf and drank his Japanese Coke? Yeah, some things never change!!



But, my kids love Trevor! He is lots of fun!

We decided that since we were in 'the big city' we would stay the night so we could get in on the Black Friday shopping. It was nice to just hang out and enjoy ourselves today. Instead of rushing off to get home. The Gardner's are fun! Crazy, but fun!

Britta be gone...

So, back in the day when Walter and I were 'just friends' he dated another girl! I won't go into too much detail, because I'm really not trying to remind my husband of how lucky he is that I've blocked that out of my memory....

Anyway, her name was Britta. She was a sous chef at The Lion House. She would supply Walter with Lion House rolls, which I totally appreciated! I ate a lot of those! So, I decided that the only way to get rid of her was to make her rolls. Honestly, that was the only reason he liked her...I'm sure! This was 6 1/2 years ago. Since then I have been trying to replace her, via her rolls. While she is long gone, I can finally say so is our need for her rolls. Because our Thanksgiving miracle this year was that I got the rolls right! Woo hoo!!

Here is their beautiful-ness...



And they even look right





The were soooo good! I also made Raspberry Honey Butter to go along with them. Let's just say the first batch of rolls ended up being devoured, so I had to make more. MMmmm MMmmmmm GOOD!! So, we can finally cut our ties to Britta, even though we haven't seen her in 6 years, and enjoy life again. I might even pull out our Britta water filter again. OK, let's be honest! I haven't really had a problem with that one. While it is named Britta, it eats the gross stuff out of the water so I don't have to. Somehow that makes me feel better about myself! :)

And, for the disturbing picture of the day...



Winni 'snuck' down the stairs with this and 'hid' in it so we wouldn't know that she was out of her bed. Hmmmm....kinda funny, kinda not. I put the container back away, in the top of my closet!

Sleep Deprived

Today Grady is still fighting naps...



until he loses! Pardon the backdrop, but he didn't want me to hold him. He wanted to sit on the floor and lean against my chair. What a ham!

Lately...

Grady fought me like crazy when it came time to take a nap. I didn't care to fight with him any more so I let him stay up. Well, mom always wins...eventually!



So, once he was asleep, we decided to do some baking! I found a recipe for homemade pretzels and we decided to have some fun.







They look promising, right? Well, at least until they went into the oven. They came out looking like this...



If you are my husband, then you would liken these to a pile of poo! Thanks hunny! Also, if you are my husband, you quickly learn to not say such things! And to just be grateful I baked something. They pretty much just tasted like a roll. Nothing exciting. If only I knew how to make them crispier on the outside and chewy on the inside, then we'd be in business!

ALL WORK?!??

or was it ALL PLAY?

Now, don't tell her kids, but I think it was a little of both!



She is a HEAD BANGING ROCK STAR!!


Don't call it a comeback! She's been here for years!


And here is my favorite Rock Star! He taught her everything she knows...

He's a sezzy beast! :)

More

So, I got in trouble for not posting more pics from yesterday. So, here are some more for your enjoyment!

 

Today was a big day for us. These people said their good-byes...





And we are hoping we survive without them. It has been so nice to have all this help! I'm so thankful that Becky was able to come out and take care of the troops! She had my house back in working order within the first 3 hours she was here. What a LIFE.SAVER! I haven't eaten and slept so good in years. Now, if only I could poop! :) I know you wanted that bit of information!!

Today was definitely a picture day. I took over 180 pics, Becky took about 50, and my mom took about 20. So, we have TONS of pictures! This post might be a little all over the place, but it has one common thread...MAELI!

I just realized that I hadn't shown you Maeli's room. It's so cute, I love it!!

And, of course, my beautiful girl in her cute bed!


At lunchtime today I found Trae reading to Maeli. He loves that girl so much! He's got a permagrin all day long. He wants to hold her every chance he gets!



I sat down to change Maeli and found that a nice...ummmm....explosion had taken place. So, I went ahead and stripped her down. Grandma suggested we take pictures, and I'm glad she did!


Grady, getting in on the action...

Check out that hair! Seriously! Braids anyone??


Love this face!

Then, we figured since she was already naked, and her chord had fallen off, it was time to dunk her!

I think it's great that my kids chords have all fallen off within their first week of life. What a blessing! That nasty thing scares me, and I'm not that good at sponge baths.

She didn't exactly love it. But she did enjoy some of it!




She really is perfect! I think I'll keep her! :)

She's here!!

She's finally here

 

and we love her so much!!

And now, for our little story.

Friday morning I was scheduled for a Prostaglandin Gel application. I wasn't sure I wanted to do this, but as time kept going along I was ready to be done! There was no promise that this would work. Prostaglandin will either give you strong menstrual cramps and send you into labor, or give you strong menstrual cramps and stop in 6-8 hours. I figured this was my best chance at getting things moving, without being induced via pitocin. So, I went for it!

I actually started having some good contractions Thursday night, which kept me up most of the night. But, the closest they got to each other was 15 minutes apart. So, I tried to get some sleep, but didn't really succeed. By morning they had pretty much stopped, so we headed to the hospital. My mom stayed home with the boys (she got here LAST Friday so she wouldn't miss this event, not knowing she had a whole week to wait!) and we took Winni to a friends house for a play date. We got to the hospital and went forward with the gel. After about 30 minutes of monitoring the baby and I they said we were free to go. I didn't have any contractions while sitting there, so we decided to head to the mall to walk around. As I stood up I realized something was very different. My butt hurt! It hurt bad! It was my glutes. I could barely walk. I felt like my hips were falling apart. As we were walking out to the parking garage I started having some good contractions, but mostly lots of pressure, in my glutes. It was the weirdest thing. I told Walter to just get me to the car. So we headed to the mall. It was 11 AM and I was hungry so we went to the food court. My contractions were getting worse, so we headed to the family bathroom instead. The people in the bathroom were a little surprised to see Walter and I walk into the actual 'toilet room' together. Everywhere we went all I wanted to do was sit down. We sat on a couch in the middle of the mall and had some fro-yo. It was good, but I kind of felt like throwing up with each contraction, so I didn't enjoy it like I would have liked to. Walter got some Panda and I helped him eat a little, but again, didn't want to taste it coming back up. While Walter went to get the Panda Express, a lady from church walked by and talked to me a little. Luckily she didn't stay long, because she would have witnessed the beast I was becoming. Poor Walter! He refers to this labor as 'the time when the demon was released!' All I have to say to that is, 'I held back, I really did!' However, I still thanked him afterward for sticking around. During this time he really couldn't do anything right. While I was in a contraction he would 'shhh shhh' to show support, I took it that he didn't like the scene I was making. I almost beat him for it. After about 1 hour at the mall I decided I didn't want to be there anymore. I told him to take me back to the hospital. We went to my midwifes office and had her check me. Every time she would check me, the baby would do a flip, and this time was no different. She said I was at a 3 and should walk around the hospital. We went out in the hall and I kept sitting down. Just for the record, I know that wasn't the best way to get through a contraction, but my glutes killed and I was tired. I even tried laying on a bench in the hallway, but that didn't last long. Whenever someone came by or we were close to someone, Walter would talk to them and try to be light and comical. I wanted to beat him. I didn't think he was funny. So, after about 15 minutes I made him take me back to my midwife. She checked me again and I just about kicked her in the face. I was so loud! I felt like the baby was going to take the northern route out! Well, thankfully I was at a 4. She told me I could head to the hospital. I told her to tell them to have my epidural ready! During a contraction while I was on the table I asked Walter to hold me. I wanted him to hold me laying back, cause I felt like the baby was coming out. He started to push me forward, folding me in half and I yelled at him! We left her office and headed across the parking lot to the hospital. On the way up the elevator I had another contraction. It was time for us to get off the elevator, but I was still mid contraction. He kept trying to get me to get off the elevator and I screamed, 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!' Everybody just stopped. He told the people waiting for the elevator that it would be just a second, and that we would get off soon. By this point my contractions were about every 2 minutes! Some guy got on the elevator and pushed the button for his floor. He looked at Walter and said, 'sorry, I'm late for an appointment'. Luckily, Walter said to him, 'you couldn't wait 30 seconds?' I say 'luckily' because if he hadn't said anything, I think I would have unleashed the demon on this guy! As soon as the doors closed, my contraction was over, but we had to take this sorry guy to the top floor. We finally got back to our floor and I knew I was due for another contraction. I hurried up and got off and ran for the bench. Someone offered to get me a wheelchair and I said 'yes!' So, I get in the wheelchair and Walter wheels me across the tile floor, out the door, across the cobblestone parking lot, in the door and along another tile floor. Apparently they didn't ask a woman in labor what kind of flooring to use! It was the worst ride of my life. I don't remember blaming Walter for the discomfort on this one, but I wouldn't be surprised if maybe I just blocked it out. While on the elevator going up to L&D, Walter was tapping my wheelchair. I asked him nicely to stop the first time, then I just got angry.

They got me to my room and I ripped my clothes off as I ran for the bathroom. Once I was on the bed they started up the monitors and began my blood work. While they were doing this, Walter called my mom and told her to take the boys to our friends house and come straight to the hospital. While he was doing this I had a big contraction and told him to come hold me. He didn't. He came over after he was done with his phone call and I ripped into him for not coming when I asked. For the record, this is so not like me. I usually just take the crap, bottle it up, and cry later. Maybe labor is good for me! Finally the anesthesiologist came and saved my life. They checked me just before he started, I was still at a 4, by the time he was done I was a 6! Things were moving quickly. The time was now about 3-ish. Once the epidural took full effect we all sat back and pulled out our cell phones and ipods and started facebooking! hahha My midwife checked me again and I was at a 7 and she could feel my bag of waters. We decided to not break it, but to wait until my mom got there. My mom made it, and at about 430 they checked me again. We were almost to a 10 and my water was still intact. By about 450 or 5 my water had broken (unnoticed by me) and we were ready to start pushing. Then my contractions slowed up a ton! I'd have a contraction and push, then wait about 3-4 minutes. It really didn't feel like I was in labor anymore. I think that's because I was expecting more of a beating like what I got from Grady! It was just too easy! We were all just sitting back and talking and relaxing and then I'd push a few times. Her little head slowly came out and then it was all over with. She was here and smaller than expected! She was born at 5:24 and weighed 7 lbs 15 oz. She was about 1 lb smaller than we had guessed. She was 20.8 inches long, which explains why it was so hard to push. She was stuck up in my ribs the whole time she was coming out. Her head was 34 perfect centimeters, covered in lots of black hair. I don't know why I'm still surprised when every child of mine comes out with a head full of dark hair, but I am. We took some pictures and got all cleaned up and got to just sit there and love on this baby. The room got very quiet as we all went back to facebook and texting pictures all over the place.

As we were enjoying her first few moments, my mom decided to head down to the ER to get her cough checked out. She had done great in the delivery to stay back and didn't cough at all, but since we were there and weren't going anywhere for a while, she decided to get checked out. She called us after about an hour and said she had been put on oxygen and that they had ordered chest x-rays and blood work. They decided she had pneumonia and would be staying in the hospital for a few days. Well, Sunday came and Walter came and got me to take me home. My dad flew in Saturday night to be with my mom so we headed home. Finally she was released today and will be able to fly home to Utah in a couple of days. She is not contagious, so she will be staying either with us or with her cousins. We are just glad that everyone is getting healthy and we can move forward. My sister Becky flew out tonight to help me out. I'm so grateful for that!

Today

I feel like this...



I have so much to blog about! I'll start tomorrow! :)

hmmmm....

I wonder if she'll be anything like this...



cause dang, I was cute!!