Easter 2013 and recent happenings

I read peoples blogs pretty much on a daily basis and wonder why they are not blogging way more often...and then I look at my blog and move on :-)

First up, Mark was offered a job with the St Anthony Police. We couldn't be more excited for this new adventure and even more grateful for this opportunity. We went through more unemployment than we would care to think about, but we are grateful for family and friends that have helped us along the way and to really see that the Lord has a greater plan for each of us, though it may not be "our" plan.

Mark was officially sworn in on March 11. He likes the people he is working with and already has some interesting and crazy stories. 

With this, we needed to be closer to work. It is required that you be within 10 minutes of city limits. We saw some great houses and some not great houses. Our realtor called me one day and said she had a house for us to look at, it wasn't on the market yet, but we could check it out. So we did. And thus began negotiations. A tiring process, but so worth it in the end. They accepted our offer and we will close on our first house at the end of the month!

This house is 4 bedrooms, 2 bath (the master bath has a jetted tub-a dream come true!), 2 car garage and a fenced in back yard! We again are so grateful to family and friends who help us keep the faith and encouraged us.

Easter. Easter this year was really run. David is just a fun age for these type of things. We went to an Easter Egg hunt in St Anthony. Definitely much better than Rexburg and a little less crowded. 

Emma spent the morning sleeping her stroller. 

One parent per child was allowed on the field. Mark braved the crowd with Dave

Mark was on call that day and ended up getting a call. So I took the kids on a long walk. When we got back, Dave needed to relax. It is slightly ridiculous how much he looks like Mark, but so cute!

Sunday morning, David was super excited when I told him the Easter Bunny had come. He kept wanting to see and play with the Easter Bunny. I couldn't get the video to load of David coming down the stairs. 

My mom got the kids adorable outfits for Easter. Emma is literally growing like a weed and I may or may not have had to turn her on her tummy to button her dress. 

That mostly catches us up for now. Have a great a week!

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!

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)

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.