Growing So Big- One Month Old

For a baby shower gift I received some onesies with these little monthly stickers on them.  The idea is to take the picture on her "monthly birthday" and see how much she changes.  I also thought it would be fun to include these little stuffed animals in the pictures for comparison.

So here she is at one month old on May 4th.

So Sweet!!!

Fun With Grandma Lillian

Grandma Lillian came up for a visit- and we were excited to have her.

She was so much fun and she even walked Hunter to the bus stop on the last day of school.

 Grandma gave Natalie her first doll, and it was a Cabbage Patch doll named Emme Reese.

(I never had a REAL cabbage patch doll, so I was so excited!!!)

After not seeing Grandma for 3 whole years, the boys BOTH warmed up to her rather quickly which was great.  She was very energetic and kept the boys busy with games, stories, and silly tricks.  She was very helpful doing dishes, folding laundry, putting sheets on beds, finishing sewing projects for me and anything else you can think of.

We took her panning for gold and out to Korean food.

Thank you Lillian for being such a great support to our family and loving our kids.

Blessing Day

Natalie was able to blessed by her Daddy on April 29th in our home

It was a special treat for us to have Bishop Putnam and his counselor Brother Wright come and assist with the blessing.

We Love Our Geek!

We were blessed to have Marianne aka "Geek" come stay with us after Natalie was born.

We LOVE her so much and appreciate ALL she does for us and the time she spends in Fairbanks even though it isn't her favorite place.

I guess it is a good thing she loves these kids so much or she may never come for a visit!!

She was so sweet with Natalie, and she bonded with her as she gave her "leg massages" at night for some relaxation.  I also have to mention how great she was to do dishes again, and again, and again, and make meals, pack lunches, get Hunter out the door to school, IRON EVERY ITEM OF CLOTHING THAT KELLY EVER WEARS TO WORK, held babies, put up with teasing from all three of the boys in our house, and dealt with ME.  She is awesome!

Cheers to the best Mother in Law ever!!  I couldn't have hand picked a better one for myself!!

Natalie Anne is Here!

The day of April 4th was just a normal day at home.  Kelly was off of work, we did chores around the house, I made dinner and stuck it in the fridge so it would be ready when we came home from wrestling, and then I took an evening "nap".  Well, my nap was pretty lame because I had so much pressure (which I had had quite a bit of for the last several weeks) in my abdomen- I must have fallen asleep for a minute or two because I was laying in a puddle of  drool.

I looked at the clock and if I was going to go to wrestling with the boys and Kelly I needed to hop into the shower.  So, I willed myself out of bed and into the warm shower- which felt nice.  Then I got myself ready in a hurry and into the truck.  As I got into the truck, I thought, "this pressure is pretty intense, maybe I should take my hospital bag just in case."  So, I went ahead and grabbed it and put it into the truck.  By the time we got to wrestling I was thinking that I may be having contractions, but I also thought they could be Braxton-Hicks- you just never know....

We piled out of the truck and into wrestling practice where I sat on the bench next to my friend Mandi, whose husband Mike told me that I looked VERY PREGNANT today.  I just smiled as I proceeded through another bout of pressure and minor pain.  As the hour practice went on Mandi and I talked and Kelly kept rubbing my back and asking if I thought they were REAL contractions.  I still really wasn't sure- they were enough to take my breath away, and to make me stop talking for a minute but then I was fine. 

As we were leaving practice- the pains were about 4-6 minutes apart.  We were still up in the air about whether or not to go to the hospital. I didn't want to get there and have them tell me to go home- or tell me I was a 2 and then be there for a million hours.  Besides that, I was HUNGRY!!!  So as we were pulling out of wrestling we were trying to decide what to do.  Ultimately I decided that I didn't want to get all the way home and then have to turn around and drive back into town.  So we rolled the dice and went to the hospital.

I felt pretty silly going into the hospital, like I was faking labor or something.  I think it is because I was pretty calm and not in too much pain.  Anyhow, the believed me and admitted me.  Then of course they checked to see how far dilated I was.  I was an 8!!! So, I was relieved that I didn't look like an idiot and I WAS in labor :)

*As you might note, the boys are still with us in the delivery room- we called our friend Melanie and her husband and they came and picked the boys up right before the Dr. broke my water.

The Dr. broke my water and said she wanted to give me a few minutes to let the baby come down a little further, so I stood up and walked around the room and had my contractions standing up.  This lasted 15 minutes or so and then I told the nurse I was ready to push.  Dr. Hogensen came in and we started to push.  Apparently I forgot how to push because the first push was a waste of time and I was pretty embarrassed by my "lazy push"  the Dr. reminded me to keep on pushing with the next contraction- so I did.  All in all, I went through for contractions of pushing and she was out!  There was some meconium in the amniotic fluid so I didn't get to hold her for a few minutes, but she came out screaming and healthy.

It is so fun to have a baby again (minus the exhaustion), she is really sweet and we love her to pieces.

Natalie Anne

April 4, 2012

8:56 pm

8 lbs 3 oz

21 inches

Big Brother Chance

Loves her more by the minute and can't get enough hugs and kisses

                                                                   
                                                                       Big Brother Hunter
                                                       Loves to snuggle her, hates when she cries

                                                            Our Bigger Happier Family

                                                          Good work Mom and Dad!

You never know what this kid will say next!

I have had the privilege of staying at home for part of everyday this year ALONE with Chance. He truly is a wild card and you never know what he will say or do. With that being said, I love this guy to pieces and wouldn't trade him for the world. I have a couple of little "stories" that I have to share so that they are documented somewhere for us to remember.

Story #1

Occasionally in the morning instead of putting on exercise clothes, I will just throw on some socks and tennis shoes with my pajamas. On this morning in particular I had on these purple flannel shirt/pant pajamas with bright colorful polka dots all over them. I did my walk on the treadmill and then had a full day planned. I was hosting book group at my house that night and so I had some vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping etc... planned. Rather than get showered and then cleaned I just kept my jammies and tennis shoes on. Chance helped out a little and then played and watched cartoons. After I was done with my work, I needed to get the refreshments made and in the fridge. I invited Chance to come sit on the counter and help me run the kitchen aid mixer and dig out the marshmallow cream for the fruit dip. (He loves to have licks of anything with sugar in it.) So he plopped himself on the counter and he turned the mixer up and down the different speeds, taste tested a little for me, watched me cut up some fruit, etc... We were laughing and talking...then he says to me,

"Women are worthless!"

I laughed to myself a little wondering where that statement would come from. KNOWING that Kelly would never say anything like that- and I replied,

"What? Why would you say that?"

He looks me up and down and says,

"I mean, take a look at yourself!"

I just laughed and laughed.

Of course then I said, "What do you mean, is it because it is after noon and I'm still in my pajamas with my tennis shoes, and I haven't brushed my hair OR teeth.

Chance said, "Ya!"

I had to call Kelly and immediately he was laughing, he asked the same thing I did. "Where did he get that from?"

We've been laughing and joking about it ever since then.

Story #2

We were on our way out the door to go pick up Hunter from school. Chance stepped out into the garage and was hanging onto the door jamb while he reached for his coat. I saw that he was out, and didn't even think to look at his hand and I pulled the door shut. Immediately he is in tears, but then he turns to me and says, "See, I told you you were a bad Mom!"

My Little Leprechauns

It was spring break week, and we had fun the first couple of days but then we got sick. So, on Friday instead of going to the ice park (as planned) we stayed home and did St. Patrick's Day arts and crafts.

It had been a while since I had done anything super crafty with the boys. I guess just because we have been busy with other things, and Chance is doing "reading lessons" everyday, so it just has become A LOT to do the extras. (For both of us!) AND Hunter is really thinking he is TOO COOL for stuff like that anymore. However, I persuaded them that it would be fun.

I asked the boys to smile for these pictures and this is what I got from them. I guess this is their "happy leprechaun" look. They thought they were funny!

I was so proud of myself because I actually came up with this rainbow project on my own, without any prompting from someone else's blog. (It has been a long time since I've come up with my own ideas!)

I guess it was a mosaic of sorts. I just cut lots of squares of each rainbow color and had them glue the squares on the corresponding color line.

Then we added the cloud and the pot of gold. Taa Daa!

I did get the leprechaun idea from a blog...couldn't tell you where. But the boys had lots of fun with them. The hair was supposed to go all around the face and chin to be a beard too, but neither of them had that in their game plan. I like how Chance (above) put bangs on his guy.

This is Hunter's rainbow (above) and leprechaun (below). It is also fun to see how they did the faces on their leprechauns. Chance's originally didn't have teeth on it, but when he saw what Hunter did- he decided that his needed teeth as well.

We decided after the fact that we really needed a stick on the back so we could have masks.

Turned out pretty cute if you ask me.

On St. Patrick's Day the boys found our "magic treasure box" hidden in Natalie's room full of fun green stuff. They had Green pringles, Green Skittles, Green Wintogreen mints, sugar snap peas, and a big box of Lucky Charms.

Lucky Charms is the breakfast of Champions, and that is what we had.

This is a picture of our annual "green dinner" (these guys can't just smile they have to be goofy. It's fun!) We had broccoli, and ALL GREEN salad (only green veggies in it), and Chicken Pesto Pasta. For dessert we had our Rolo "Pot O' Gold".

Always a fun day for our family!