11 Years

Today is our anniversary!  11 years and 3 kids later.  I drove the Rav4 the other day - kidless, and thought about when I bought it.  At the time Kendra was 1 1/2 years old.  She sat in the middle and I was done.  I loved my sporty mom car.  I would have never thought at that time that we'd have two more and I would drive a minivan.  How life has changed.

I loved Mark 11 years ago, but love him more now.  He's a good husband and a good daddy.  I am so grateful, as I was young and naive when I got married, that I married a good man.  It has made all the difference in my life these last years. 

This was when we lived in California; a year before Kendra was born.

 

 

 

This pic was taken when we were dating.  See - I look the same.  Okay, not exactly the same, I have bags under my eyes now.



More Pics

Pics

Here's baby Kylee in the hospital.  She has a washcloth under her head because she kept spitting up amniotic fluid.  The pediatrician there suggested putting a tube in her stomach and siphoning it out, but the lactation specialist told me to encourage gagging and throwing up and that it would stop at 24 hours.  24 hours later she was fine and super hungry.

Kendra loving her baby sister:

Look at all that blonde hair!  

This is Kylee in my belly cast...how in the world did she fit in me?!?!?!

When we are outside we let the chickens out of the coop.  Here's Megan tackling and choking our Rhode Island Red.  Good thing I got calm chickens.

I was shocked to see Kendra actually pick a chicken up.  She was so scared of them at first.

Not sure what Megan was doing.

So friendly.

Kylee

Kylee Ann was born on January 31st at 4:00 pm.  Mark and I went to the hospital to be induced at 8:30 that morning.  They had to monitor me until almost 10:00, then my doctor put the pill in my cervix.  Between 11 and 12 I had regular contractions but they stopped by noon.  I walked the halls for an hour, but nothing.  When my doctor came back in I told him I wanted to have contractions (let's get this thing going already!)  So he suggested he break my water.  At this time I was dilated to a 3, 60% effaced, and Kylee was at a -2 station.  I had a long way to go!  I didn't really want to have my water broken as I knew the contractions would be super intense, but I wanted to have Kylee so we proceeded.  This was at 1:30. 

By 2:45 I begged Mark to let me have an epidural.  I have decided that natural child births just aren't for me!  I had to wait a half hour for a bag of IV solution to drain into my body before I could get the epidural.  The pain was so intense that I clung to the bed rail for life.  It was like I was paralyzed in that position.  Finally the anesthesiologist came in.  The relief felt so good.  Kylee almost pushed herself out and was born at 4:00.

Even though her hands were clasped together (maybe she was praying on her way out?) and came out with her head (which tore me and made recovery longer) it was my easiest and best birth ever.  I'd do it again if I wasn't so old!  I'm too old!  My body takes longer to recover than it did in my twenties.

She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long.  Largest kid I ever birthed.  There is a huge difference between a baby that is under 6 pounds and a 7 pounder.  I think that is why I'm enjoying Kylee so much. 

The girls love her.  As soon as we walked in the door it was, "she's so cute!"  "Can I hold her?"  They just dote on her and love to show her everything.  Megan puts things right in front of her face to make sure she can see them.  They love to rub her head and tickle her feet.  Their voices are so cute and soft when they talk to her. 

I love snuggling her and feel she just wants to be loved.  She's so precious and we're so happy she's finally here!

I'll add pictures later.

Two Miracles

Can I ask for two miracles?  Is that too much? 

Here's little Kendra.  She has the influenza virus.  Along with a 101 fever her right eye became swollen.  Poor thing.

So here are the two miracles I would like.

1.  No one else in our family gets the flu until March.  Look, I'm 40 weeks pregnant and will be induced on Thursday.  This flu has bad timing for me!

2.  No emergency c-section.  I had hoped to give birth naturally, but with an induction I know I'm more likely to get an epidural.  I also have never been this big or gone this long being pregnant, so I fear I might actually have a normal size baby.  I'm not sure my pelvis will allow it and I'd hate to go through labor just to have a c-section.  Not to mention the recovery for a c-section.

So that's it.  The two miracles I'm praying for.

This and That

Sometime during the Christmas break...


We made dozens of sugar and gingerbread cookies.  Megan piled on not only the frosting but the toppings too.

We bought the girls brand new bikes for Christmas.  Kendra's is a monster high so she was ecstatic.

Megan wanted a princess one.  She's still getting use to riding a bike and not a tricycle.

And she somehow managed to get her hair stuck in her comb.

And then Kendra wanted to try it.

I finally posed for Mark for a prego picture.  I think Megan looks super cute in this picture.  My belly measures 38 cm which is the biggest I've ever measured.  AND this pic was taken in January.  Love our weather.

Baby Bump

Mark really wants to take a picture of me in my gihugic self.  I'm bigger than I've ever been, but will stay under my 170 weight limit I set for myself. My belly continues to grow and I have acquired too many stretch marks to count.  I did get an awesome belly cast out of this big o bod of mine, and I love it.

I'm 38 weeks and hoping baby Kylee will come this weekend.  Here are some belly pics:

 Objects are larger than they appear.  The bump looks tiny but from the front view you can see how I'm spilling over the sides.  There just isn't any room left in me.  Poor Kylee has to be squished. 

This is my coat I bought when Mark and I were at BYU.  It was on clearance and that's why I bought it.  It's a size large, and has always been too big for me.  I can't zip it anymore or even button it up as you can see from the picture.

So there you go.

Happy Eggs Come From Happy Chickens

Now my chickens are fun.  We found our first egg three days ago.  It's like a treasure hunt and the girls always want to hold them.  Mark gave Megan one egg and said, "don't drop it."  Two seconds later she dropped it.  Kendra was in tears because she didn't get to hold that egg.

Now check this baby out.  The white egg is a large white egg so you can see how big the brown one is!  No wonder that chicken was clucking like crazy!

Here is why:

A double yoker!  So cool.  I hope we get more of those.  Also take note of the dark orange yoke compared to the yellowish yoke from the white egg.  I'm telling ya, farm eggs are good eggs.

Christmas Eve

We have a tradition of reading the Luke story on Christmas Eve.  This year we decided to include the girls more.  Mark drew or print out pictures of the nativity scene.  The girls colored them and cut them out and then they became the actresses as we read.

They chose what they wanted to be.  Here we have Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem.

The angel came to the shepherds while they were with their flocks.  (I didn't realize Megan was showing her belly, the little stinker!)

Then the wise men came to worship baby Jesus.

It was really fun and the girls enjoyed the story more this year than in the past.

Santa

This is the first year Kendra sat on Santa's lap!  She must really want that Merida doll with the horse.

 Megan was going to ask Santa for an Ariel doll, but then she saw a big tub of candy canes on the floor next to him.  So instead she asked him for a candy cane. 

 

Someone in nursery took this photo of Megan.  It is the cutest picture of her.  I don't know how they got her to smile like that!  Bless their hearts for taking it.

 



Little One

Kylee (which is the name we've chosen thus far) does not like ultrasounds and detests having her picture taken.  This is the best photo we've had:

At my last perinatal visit we learned that Kylee actually grew.  Amazing.  This time I hoped for her abdomen to be 11%.  My belly has grown astronomically the last few weeks so I had hoped Kylee was the reason.  Well, she was.  Her abdomen measured 31%.  I thought the ultrasound tech was lying to me.  I might actually have a kid that is over 6 lbs. this time, how exciting!

Our Little Elf

Last year we bought an 'elf on the shelf' for a new Christmas tradition.  He is such a rascal.  Look what he got into last night!

Kendra is now convinced that he is real because he ate our chocolate!