Brodi's haircut

Brodi has has haircuts before however it has always been more of a trim than anything else. With summer approaching a joint decision was made that she would be a lot happier with some of her beautiful hair cut off. We donated 10 inches to locks of love. Brodi is just as beautiful with her cut new bob (which I must admit is SO much easier to brush).

Ice Cream

I do believe that this was Hannah's first taste of ice cream. She was a fan.

New phone

I just got a new phone and in the process of transfering everything I came across these pictures I forgot I had. Worth a share I thought.

Family Pictures

Last December we finally got professional family photos with the 5 of us. Jared McLain did them for us and we think they turned out super cute.

There is an app for that...

Ok this is the coolest thing ever! There is an app for Blogger. I may just be more diligent in blogging because I really would like to have one of those blog books for our family, but I guess I actually do have to post look I will even post a picture...happy day!

This is Hannah this morning who decided to empty the salt container all over the counter...Stinker.

This is just as easy as posting on Facebook. I think that there is hope here people.

New Beds

After waiting for our tax returns this year we decided that it was high time for Sam and Brodi to graduate from their toddler beds and upgrade to big kid beds. We have been looking around for a while and finally decided on these Ikea beds, hard to beat for $99 per bed frame. We had a mistaken belief that the kids were going to be so excited about having new beds. While they were spending time at a grandparent's house we went and got the beds and were trying to set them up before the kids came back home. We were really under the impression that they were going to be so excited to be able to sleep on their new big kids beds, however, we were wrong. For some reason Sam likes to sleep on the floor. He had for a couple of months before we bought the beds which partly prompted us to get the new beds. He slept in the new bed for about a week and then started insisting to sleep on the floor (oh to have young bones again). Seriously if he came and crawled in bed with me in the middle of the night and I brought him back to his bed. He would wake up just long enough to get back on the floor. He wakes up and had carpet indentions on his arms and face. I don't get it. You would think we bought a bed of nails. Brodi on the other hand loves her bed. We find all sorts of her treasures hidden under the covers.

Sam's new bed.



Where Sam actually sleeps.

Brodi's newbed. I got this comforter for $10. Score!!

Preschool Field Trip

Sam and Brodi went on a preschool field trip to Basha's Grocery Store with their preschool class. They had a lot of fun learning about the different jobs that grocery store workers have. I learned several things too such as, at Bashas you can have them cut open a watermelon for you before you buy it to see if it is any good, also they have a daycare at the store. I PROMISED the kids that I could we could go back to the grocery store sometime so that they could go into the daycare. I don't think before I had kids I thought I could spend 90 minutes at a grocery store, but now I really think I could, just walking slowly though the isles enjoying the fact that no one is whining. Ah bliss.

Sam and Brodi getting ready to go.

Everyone on the tour had to wear a hair net or hat including Hannah. I just hadn't put mine on yet.

Sam and Brodi watching a baker decorate a cake.

Silly Brodi.

Silly Sam.

Blessings

Today we blessed our sweet little Hannah. We are so grateful for her. She is such a wonderful addition to our family. She is kind of the superstar at our house Sam and Brodi absolutely adore her. I often wonder if because there were so many miracles that took place to get her here if she came with a little extra sweetness. She has been such a delightful baby. She is very easily contented and such a good sleeper. She generally only gets up once a night (knock on wood). We feel so blessed to have her.

Our Little Entrepreneur

We are so proud of our Sam. As everyone knows that have been around him for at least 5 minutes knows Sam is obsessed with trains. At first he became converted to Thomas Trains because that is what is out there the most, however, we also recently discovered Geo Tracks. As a mom I will have to tell you I like Geo Tracks way better than the Thomas brand. For one thing they are cheaper and are really sturdy and the tracks stay together way better. Sam also loves Christmas. He kind of celebrates Christmas all year long and watches Polar Express quite often. At Toys R Us we found a Geo Tracks Christmas Train Set that was on clearance sale instead of being $130 it was $79. Although it was $50 off there was no way we could actually justify buying it for him even as a Christmas Present because we have SOOO many trains at our house already. BJ and I have been trying to figure out a way to cut down on our train sets so we told Sam that if he sold his Thomas trains he should be able to have enough money to buy his Christmas train set. He actually really liked this idea and begged me for several days to get the ad posted on Craigslist. I finally did and in 1 day we were able to sell his trains for $70 a little short but since Mommy made the deal I figured I could put in the last $10. He was so cute about it and the people that bought them from him were really great about it too and made sure to give him the money. He didn't cry at all when they left and he was all grins as we took off to Toys R Us almost immediately to buy him coveted Christmas Trains. I think he feels he is on to something as I jokingly said this evening when he asked for an Ipod touch that maybe if he sold all of his Geo tracks that he could use the money to buy an Ipod touch. He actually liked that idea. No way Sam, you can't have an Ipod touch when I don't even have one. Hmm...what could I sell?

This became.....

this... It is really a cool train set the light posts light up as the train goes by and the trains station and the bridge play music. You can arrange the track so that it can go around a Christmas tree. I plan on hanging onto this set long after Sam has out grown it.  We'll have grandchildren, right?

Brodi's Wedding Dress

A couple of months ago our nanny Miranda got married. Ever since then Brodi has been very excited about everything wedding. Last night Brodi came running out of her room and announced that she has selected her wedding attire. It is quite lovely we had to share.

Hannah is here!

Our little Hannah has arrived! She was born March 22, 2011 at 12:06 PM. Even at birth Hannah seems determined to prove doctors wrong. All during March at my doctor's appointments I hadn't dilated and was only about 50% effaced. On March 21 I had been having contractions all day but they weren't very regular and nothing really all that new. We had our weekly doctor's appointment at 4:30 that afternoon and I started to have some contractions in the waiting room and also with the doctor. During my pelvic exam I was still not dilated at all and still only 50% effaced. My doctor thought that her head felt lumpy (not what a nearly 10 month pregnant mom wants to hear) so he decided to do an ultrasound to make sure that it was her lumpy head he was feeling and she was not breach. Sure enough she was head down. He noted that the placenta was starting to look a little old and didn't want me to past the weekend. We started to talk about the possibility that my funky reproductive system might not be capable of dilating so we started to make plans of having a scheduled C-section the next weekend if she did not decide to come before then. We left the office pretty excited that we had an end date and we were going to have little Hannah by the weekend.

We were having dinner at BJ's parent's house and during dinner my contractions that started at the Doctor's office were still coming pretty regular. I told BJ that maybe he should at least practice timing these contractions. The contractions were coming pretty consistently at 3 min apart. After an hour and a half of the contractions coming at 3 minutes apart we decided that we should probably at least get checked out at the hospital even though we were pretty convinced that they would just send us home.

In triage when the nurse checked me I had dilated to almost a 1, so we knew that at least I was making some progress because a few hours I wasn't dilated at all. An hour later I was dilated to a 1 and ½ so they called the doctor and decided to admit me. I had decided about the time that we found out that we were pregnant that with all of the many possible complications with my labor that I was definitely going to have an epidural. Our anesthesiologist suggested that I get the epidural sooner than later because contrary to popular belief there wasn't a time limit that I could have it placed and it was easier to place when I wasn't in a lot of pain. By that point it was about 11:00 pm and decided to have it done so that we could all try to get some sleep before the big moment.

With all of the controversy about epidurals I became completely converted to them after mine was placed. I don't think I really could appreciate how uncomfortable my lower half was until I couldn't really feel it anymore. I was completely relaxed and felt better than I had in 9 months. I was able to sleep for at least several hours during labor. I continued to progress throughout the night and by about 10am was completely dilated. There was a bit of a problem though, both of my cervixes (or is it cervi if you have 2?) had dilated and it looked like Hannah was coming right down the middle. The nurse wanted to wait for the doctor to arrive before I started pushing. Normally when a woman has 2 cervixes only one will dilate and when the baby is delivered the other one will push out of the way. The doctor took longer than he thought to get there so about 11am the nurse checked again and with my natural contractions during that time Hannah started to go down one cervix and the other cervix started to be pushed to the side. She had me start pushing just to see what would happen and Hannah continued to come down the way that we all wanted her too. After about 20 minutes of pushing our doctor arrived and he agreed that everything was going just how we had hoped.

About ½ way though pushing my vaginal septum was getting in the way and my doctor decided to just remove it. Just so you can get the mental image here (if you really want to) there I was in the middle of pushing with my legs in stirrups while the doctor is cutting away flesh and stitching me up when BJ got a call on his cell phone. Of course normally he would not even consider answering the call in a situation like that but it was our nanny and she never calls. He handed the phone to his mom who after talking to her for a few minutes handed it back to BJ and said you better talk to Miranda. Apparently Sam had accidentally eaten some banana bread which had a walnut in it of which he is highly allergic too. Sam was having a major allergy attack and Miranda needed to know if she should use the epi-pen. Are you freaking kidding me? We couldn't believe that we got the call at that exact moment. We had a bunch of extra nurses in with us just in case I had to be rushed into surgery if something went really wrong during delivery (and probably for educational purposes as well, it's not every day that someone with my anatomy comes around) so they were all telling BJ was he needed to have Miranda do. He got the epi-pen by the way and was just fine. The doctor said that he couldn't believe that I was so calm under that ordeal, but really what in the world was I supposed to do? I was truly in a situation that there was NOTHING that I could do so just had to accept that Sam was going to be just fine without me 'cause Mommy was a little busy.

After they removed the septum Hannah came pretty quickly. With all said and done I had only pushed for about an hour and that included my little mini surgery during it. Against all odds she came out perfectly. She was even a pretty big baby at 8lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. I have to say that pregnancy was so hard and I was so sick though out it that the delivery was probably the easiest part of pregnancy. Until the last week I threw up on an average of 2 to 3 times a week though the whole thing including twice while in labor. Everyone assured me that as soon as I delivered I would feel so much better. It is a little hard to believe when throwing up becomes a way of life, but it was true. The nurses pulled BJ aside and gave him the assignment of making sure that I started eating and getting enough calories. They ordered lunch for me before I left the delivery room and I'm not sure if food ever tasted so good. I was just shoveling it into my mouth, and now my appetite is back with a vengeance. It is so wonderful to enjoy food again.

We are feeling so incredibly blessed that our Hannah is here. She is truly a miracle from the fact that she was conceived against all odds and that I was able to carry her full term to her miraculous delivery. After it was over my doctor told me that my delivery was truly a miracle. When we were in his office the day before he had mentally only given my about a 10% chance of delivering vaginally, not even he expected the delivery to happen so smoothly. Our little Hannah is just such a little angel baby. She has such a sweet disposition. Only parents can truly appreciate the fact that since we brought her home she only wakes up about one time a night. Heavenly Father knew what we needed and we feel so blessed to have our 3 wonderful children. Each is such a miracle to us. We feel so humbled to be the recipients of such incredible blessings.

 

PS. Hannah has a perfectly round head with not even one little lump on it.

Hannah is here-pictures

37 weeks

By the 3rd trimester of pregnancy the women in my family tend to become very large. I am crediting it to my lack of appetite but I didn't gain too much weight any were except my belly. I have become somewhat of a spectacle because total strangers can't help but stare at me as I walk by. It has become amazing to me how many conversations about pregnancy will start up around me. It has been such an interesting experience being pregnant because every one feels the need to talk to me and ask me when I am due. I have never gotten the courage but have always wanted to say to someone when they asked when I was due, "Oh I'm not pregnant." just to see their reaction. I don't think that I could fool anyone though. Here is my front view. You can't quite tell how big I am until... I turn to the side and POP, I am much wider sideways than I front facing. And there you have it, me at 37 weeks pregnant. Only 3 more weeks to go. Ugh.