Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Associates/Blessing

All of our super fun visitors have left, a ridiculous amount of laundry has been done, Santa has come (thats a whole different post), so its time for an update on the blog.

Mark received his Associates Degree on December 14. It has been a long road, but we are proud of him! Emma was there, just not for any pictures apparently. Haha. We are still waiting on the background check for the job back in DC, here's to hoping it wont take the whole 9 months!






Since Marks mom and my Dad were able to come out, we also decided to bless Emma. My cousins, Reggie, Rex and Holly were able to come from Provo for this. 

But first we had to have play time, talking, eating, and just having fun. David really wore them out :-)







Then Sunday was the blessing. In the circle we had Mark, my dad, Jake Dustin, Jake Hargrave, Reggie, Rex, Ellis Johnston (HT) and John Smart.






We had a lot of fun and our sad everyone has gone. Here's to hoping we move closer to family soon!

Monday, December 3, 2012

One Month

I know everyone says it, but I seriously can't believe Emma is already a month old!! She is such a great baby and we are so glad she is here on earth and in our family. I took her in for a weight check today, she weighed in at 9.15. She only wakes up between 1 and 2 times at night, eats like a champ, and I think we finally have the projectile vomit behind us




David is a great big brother and is so sweet with Emma. He loves to "grab a kiss" and read to her (I wish I could have gotten the whole book)


On Sunday, we attended Marks units Christmas Party. It was catered by Gator Jacks and was a lot of fun. We really needed to attend because we missed the military ball. Normally it would be no big deal, but I was nominated and awarded the Molly Pitcher award. But, I had just had little miss 2 days before, so we were excused. Anyways, it is a great honor for this.

Santa also made an appearance. It was such a different experience with David compared to last year. I asked David what he wanted Santa to bring him a little over a week ago and he said Buzz. It was hilarious when Santa came in, because David started yelling "Hi Santa!...Santa, I want/need Buzz" over and over. It was so funny. 




Here is our first real family photo as well as a few others



                                                        


I also took David in for his 2.5 year check-up and it was confirmed yet again that he is tall and skinny. He is just under 3 feet (97%) and 28 pounds (25%-he has not gained weigh, just height)


Thursday, November 22, 2012

She's here!!!

Little miss is here and we are absolutely loving her. Here's how things went down...

About 32 weeks I started having contractions, Dr. Jones checked me at 34 weeks and I was 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. He didn't want to put me on bed rest because he didn't want  me to get blood clots; and lets be honest, how do you do bed rest with a toddler? Anyways, we started doing weekly checks, and I was hopeful that she would come on her own, but she had plans of her own. My body pretty much just stopped progressing. The Doctor offered to strip my membranes at my 38 week appointment. But I chickened out at the last minute. Literally the last minute. So, we went ahead and scheduled my induction for 39 weeks (Nov. 1)

I woke up on the first at 5:30am and called up to the hospital. I had already prepared myself that I was not going to go in until later that afternoon. Of course, they did not have any beds available and told me to call back about 9. So thats what I did. Again, at 9 they were waiting for one other person to deliver and told me to call back at 12. In the meantime, Mark had come back from class and we went to the store. My mom was here and needed some ingredients for meals. While at the store, Janell called and said to come lunch with her and Jessica at McDonalds. So thats what we did. I ate a big ole nasty burger, which made me nervous I would throw it up during labor. Anyways, I call up to the hospital at noon and they gave me the go ahead to come up about 1. Woohoo!!!

We finished lunch and went home. I put David down for a nap, wrote some things out for my mom and we were off to have this baby! We checked in at 1 and things got moving shortly after.


Last pregnant picture at 39 weeks. Dr Jones came in and broke my water at 1:30pm. I was 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Having my water broken was the most weird feeling...ever! With David, it broke in the bathtub, so I missed out on that feeling. Because I was strep B positive this time around, I had to have 4 hours of medication. The nurse got it going about 2:20. At one point my arm felt like it was on fire and I could no longer feel the contractions or anything because my arm hurt so bad. I paged the nurse, she came in and told her what was going on. She then proceeded to go "Oh, I forgot..." She was putting straight penicillin in my arm, instead of mixing it with the IV fluid. She flushed my arm and after a few minutes, I was okay. Seriously, that hurt so bad. About 4, I decided I wanted to walk around. The nurse went to get the mobile monitor for me. As she was hooking up the machine to the computer, she noticed the little prongs were bent and took it out in the hallway to see if they could get it working. After a half hour, I said forget it and asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came a little after 5 and started working his magic.

During all this, we are still working on a name. I have wanted to name a daughter Paige since forever. But it just wasn't connecting. I kept hoping if I said it enough/told enough people that that was what her name was going to be, that it would. But it didnt. Our second name was Emma. I really liked the name, but still was hoping she would look like a Paige. We were however set on the middle name, Mae. It is my Grandmas middle name. 

I was pretty nauseous towards the end. After getting the epidural, my blood pressure went crazy so I had to get some oxygen. Surprisingly though, I did not throw up once. Absolutely amazing.

Mark went about 5:45/6 to do the David thing and my mom came up. Things started moving rapidly and at different points they had to slow me down so I could all the medicine in. Dr. Jones came in, Mark came back and up and it was go time. I started pushing, Mark told me when she started to crown she had hair, I was glad. After just a few minutes of pushing, she was here! And just perfect.


 

 Little miss Emma Mae was born at 8:23pm. She was 19.5 inches long and 7.8 pounds.


She's got some diva in her already. Haha. David came the next morning to meet her. Because I was sure her name was going to be Paige, we had to do some work and reteach him a new name. He thought sister was cool until I went to put my bed up and then he just wanted to ride mommys bed. Haha.



She is such a sweet baby, and awesome sleeper (at 3 weeks old she is just waking up twice a night!). I think David is a little bored with her because she is too small to run with him, play with his toys/trains with him. But every morning he wants to go say hi to her. He likes to hold the bottle and help feed her.







We took her in at 4 days old for her newborn check up. She weighed in at 7.11 and had grown to 21.5 inches. She loves her food! We are so glad she is here.

Friday, September 28, 2012

First Day of School

David started Toddler Lab today up on campus. I was so nervous that he would have a meltdown when I left, but instead he was in Heaven with all the different things he could play with. He did however have a meltdown when it was time to leave, and kept saying "2 minutes...I play 2 more minutes."

We started off the morning by meeting up with Mark and enjoying a donut. 


Then it was time. He was so excited to go to "school."


Had to have his backpack. He really couldn't wait to go in.


He was so focused on all the different centers. Dinosaurs, vacuum, baby dolls, blocks, etc





He'll be going twice a week for an hour and a half until the end of the semester. I'll sure miss him but am excited for this new adventure for him.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

A few more

I have some pictures on my phone that needed to be shared with the blogging world, so here we go.

On Saturday, we went to "Rexburg Unplugged." There were tons of vendors, deals at the local business that were on the blocked off and crowded street and lots of freebies. David was loving having a cookie in one hand and popcorn in the other. 


Last week, Janell and I went walking while Jake watched David. When we got home, we were all chatting. Janell put all of her girls hair clips in David hair. I sure hope baby girl has plenty of hair!


The other day I was getting ready for the day. I left to go get a shirt for David and came back and he had climbed up on the toilet seat. 


We love the library! New books, story time, and computers. Im not really sure if David gets the whole concept of what it is happening on the computer, but he has started to climb up in the chair and just sit there.


While Marks mom was in town, she and I took David to a "Thomas & Friends Playdate" There was suppose to be coloring (yes), lots of trains to play with (yes) and story time...not so much. Either way, David had a great time, and because he was their biggest (and only) fan he got 2 trains (instead of 1) for free! 


At the end of August, we all went to Maryland for about 5 days. It was fun and hot. Mark had a job interview, medical screening, psychological testing, etc over the course of 2 of the days we were there. David and I stopped at Target to pick up some diapers, and some popcorn before taking Madeline to work. 


Didi I mention it was humid too? We took David to the fountains. He loves water and didn't hold back.


My mom has 2 nice sized german sherpards and 2 cats. When we skype with grandma, he always asks to see Hunter/Liesel. She has this huge crate, David thought it was perfect. He would go in and out, bring toys in for him and the dogs to play.