Bella

Because the last few days I've noticed how much she's growing up and I can't get enough of her pouty lips, amazing hair and beautiful blue eyes. She's just so beautiful to me and changing too fast.

October 2010

It's amazing to me that October is gone and we're nearly half way through November.  Just after Charlotte was born we went to the Pumpkin Walk with my parents. It's such a creative thing and the displays are so amazing.

We had to get a picture of Cooper in Yoda again this year. This time he didn't get his head stuck! :)

We went to Sandy for Halloween to meet Caroline's new boyfriend and celebrate Ma's bday. It was fun to go trick-or-treating with all the kiddos.

Without discussion, all the boys were superheros. Fun.

Liz was Tinkerbell, Caroline the tooth fairy and Bella was a witch. I couldn't come up with anything for Charlotte. Oh well.

We blessed Charlotte in our home this past Sunday. We had our family and good friend Travis and his wife Bree come too.  We had some great soup and desserts afterwards. It was a nice time.

Apparently Elizabeth's lesson in church was on doing secrect services so she raked the leaves...

and changed Charlotte's diaper.

We also had a great visit with Bri's parents. They were here for 4 days (not long enough as usual) and we really had a great time. Aside from the kids being of the devil the last day, it was a real enjoyable visit and we wish they would have stayed longer. All is going well with Charlotte and the kids and we're just taking it one day at a time!

October 24, 2010

Well, so far we've made it just over two weeks. Granted, my Mom just left on Friday, so we've only been on our own 1 day, but we made it. :) My Mom was a huge help. She did all the laundry, which seriously NEVER ended, and to add to that, the washing machine broke down just about every 2 loads. Someone, who we won't mention (jk), gave us this idea to flush our water heater and since then Brian's had to take apart many pipes to unclog whatever came out. Anyway, she did all the meals, calmed the kids, got them breakfast and ready for school and lots more, so thanks Mom! You were amazing. My Dad came up for a few days here and there and fixed the doors, cleaned and helped with kids too. No wonder so many countries have multiple families living together. Makes running a house so much easier when you divide it all up! Mom and Dad even had the kids at their house for a couple of days which is my favorite. I love that little bit of one on one time with my babies. I don't get it for very long, but I love just waking up to them next to me and just watching them sleep. So peaceful. I also took the time to try and get a few pictures of me and Charlotte 'cause I knew it'd be a lot harder with the kids around. It was a lot harder than I thought 'cause I would take a picture, stand up, go look at it and adjust for where I needed to be or whatever, hence a few with my head cut off. But I'm pleased with the ones we got.

 

 I thought maybe I was falling behind in taking pictures, but looks like I've taken 747 so far. I haven't weeded out yet though, so it'll be less than that at some point. The kids are really taking to Charlotte. Bella even went in my room yesterday and pulled her out of the bassinet. I heard Charlotte crying and yelled, "who has her?" 'cause Liz and Caroline were with me and I thought Bella went downstairs. I don't think she dropped her though 'cause she wasn't hurt crying and as soon as I picked her up, so I'm hopeful there was no permanent damage. They all love her though. I even caught Cooper trying to read her a book.

Brian has been crazy busy with all the repairs we've had popping up. The other night I was laying down with Cooper and I noticed a spot on the ceiling, so I called Bri in and had him turn on the light. I said, "is that a wet spot on the ceiling?" and he went to poke it to see and his finger went right through it. Yep... a leak from upstairs. We thought at first that it was from a time when I opened the tub before the water was below the door, but then I realized it wasn't in the right spot, so we realized it was from the toilet in the hall bathroom. Brian had taken the toilet up to tile the floor and when he put it back on he wasn't sure he got it back on the o-ring. So he went and bought a new one, saw it was the wrong size, went back out and got another one and then a few hours later realized it was the pipe leaking, not the toilet. Lots of wasted time there! Oh the fun of fixing up a house. So then yesterday he was working in the downstairs bathroom where we had the mold and he saw there was another leak in the laundry room from the sink. AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Bri said, " well, now I'm a plumber!". I think he's enjoying it for the most part and he says he likes learning all this stuff. I'd just rather spend the money on decorating than repairs! He's making our downstairs bathroom look awesome! I'll put up pics of the latests soon.

He's also done a lot with the garden...digging up his beds and trying to get rid of the raspberry and red currant roots. You should feel his arm  muscles. GGGrrrrrrrrrrrrr! :)

We also picked our apples yesterday since it's supposed to snow tomorrow. Yuck! The kids, well, mostly Liz and Caroline, were great helpers.

Other than that, we're just moving along with life and are so happy to have Charlotte with us. So far she's been a great baby! We just had her 2 week appointment and all checked out well. She's 50% for weight (8 lb 2 oz) and 75% for height (21 in). Same as the others. So, here are a few pics of this sweet baby!

The tell all

So there I was... 5:30 in the morning thinking, "okay, I could try to go back to sleep, but then I have to wake up in 30 minutes." It's really a dumb way of doing it if you ask me. Making us call so early in the morning. So I called at 6:00 AM they said be in by 7:30 AM. That was good at least, but then here I was again thinking, "ok, I could try and fall back asleep for 45 minutes and then get up" but I ended up just getting out of bed, making a good breakfast and getting ready to go. We got there and they put us in the room and checked everything. I was no dilation and no effaced, so it was a start from scratch. We got going on the petocin and just hung out .... FOREVER. It was the longest labor, but I didn't mind for 2 reasons. One, I could just lay there uninterrupted and I wasn't in pain, so it wasn't a big deal for me. Brian sat there on the computer and played games all day, even when the nurse was talking to him. We rented 3 movies from the redbox, Iron Man 2, Letters from Juliette and Last Song and watched 2 of those. Time went by and finally around 5:40 PM they had me push through 2 contractions and she was here. Piece of cake!

 

We were in Labor and Delivery for about an hour and then they moved us up to Mother Baby and Brian ran home and grabbed Liz and Caroline to come see Charlotte. They were so excited. I think Caroline might have been more excited about my food though. She said hi to Charlotte then asked if she could eat my brownie and she wanted to sleep over because she could eat my food. I thought that was pretty funny. It was love at first sight for the girls. They just adore her.

They were there for about 20 minutes then Brian took them home (thanks to Jill for watching and taking care of our kids for us!!!) and then when he came back he walked in with my favorite, Sweet Cream with raspberries from Cold Stone.  Some women get flowers or balloons or trinkets, he brought me my favorite ice cream and he didn't even know that I was thinking about it all day since I couldn't eat all day. He knows me so well.

It was a good sleep that night. We had her in the nursery and then they brought her out every few hours for feedings. The next day Brian brought all the kids 'cause I thought it'd be great to get a picture with all of them and let Bella and Coop meet her, but after about 5 minutes I was ready for them to leave. Bella climbed up on the bed, smashed my stomach, almost ripped out my IV, Cooper was putting his shoes all over the bed, Liz and Caroline were wrestling on the couch, so needless to say, it was a short visit!

This was as good as it got to get a picture of all of them. Sad.

After he dropped them back off again he came back with some beautiful flowers and some chocolate.  So sweet.

I stayed again Saturday night, which was nice. Brian had to go home with the kids, so it was just me and it was a good night. Very peaceful and only minor interruptions. I came home Sunday morning and the kids just love her. Charlotte seems to be a good baby so far. Caught a quick smile this morning. I see a slight dimple similar to Isabelle's. It's amazing how much their faces change each day. She was born posterior so she has a bit of swelling and red marks, but each day her face changes. Here are a few pictures from today. We're so happy to have her in our home!