Sweet Henry

I was 39 weeks and 4 days pregnant, but I felt like I was 2 weeks past due. 

I got my membranes stripped twice that week in hopes that the nurse would accidentally pop my water. When that didn't happen, I finally set an induction date. 

I chose December 6th. An even number. 

Lauren arrived late Tuesday night, just in time to get ready for the big day. We made our grocery list for the week and headed to Target Wednesday morning. I got all my last minute essentials, like a plethora of snacks for Annabelle. And a jar of nutella. For me. :)

Then standing in line I suddenly felt my heart speed up. I knew it was happening, but kept telling myself it wasn't. My water was trickling. Ahh. Not here, not in public. This is supposed to happen in the middle of the night in the comfort of your home.

I kept bracing myself for the big gush. What would I do? It's just water, I could probably still check out. I mean, I needed these groceries. 

Luckily Lauren had checked out in another lane and was done, so I handed her my wad of cash and quickly waddled to the restroom.

Nothing. No gush. False alarm, I guess.

Then I started cramping.

And in my head I knew I was in labor, but I kept telling myself I wasn't.

(Which is crazy, cause an hour before I was praying to be in labor!)

I was scared.

I casually texted Jake:

"Hey, so I'm kind of leaking a watery substance. But no worries. It's probably nothing. Keep you posted."

He immediately called me insisting I call a nurse. Turns out it wasn't just "nothing"...

He raced home, threw our bags in the car, and we headed to the hospital.

I wasn't in any crazy pain, I was just really scared. And not scared to give birth. Or to get a giant needle shoved into my spine.

I was scared to have a son.

I felt so unprepared and inadequate.

Tears streamed down my face the whole way to the hospital and I just kept praying that I would be a good mom for my boy.

Once I was all situated in the hospital bed, the nurse checked my cervix. I was dilated to a 4. (Did you know that's the size of a Ritz cracker? You're welcome!) :)
Jake gave me a sweet blessing, most of which I've forgotten now. But what I do remember is him blessing me with the comfort and knowledge  that I would be an adequate mother for this boy.

Shortly after that I got the epidural, during which Jake almost passed out. Haha. All of a sudden he was leaning over my bed and the nurse was rushing him over to the couch. His face had gone completely white, and if she hadn't grabbed him some soda he probably would've been a goner. Haha.

Oh, but getting that big needle in my spine was no big deal. ;)

I actually almost passed out like 15 minutes later from all the medicine in my body and the lack of food. I kept begging my nurse to let me at least chew on flavored ice, but she was kind of a beast about it. Luckily there was a shift change and my new favoritest of all time nurse let me drink Sprite! :D

Her name was Terah. And I love her.

After a couple hours and only progressing to a 5 they started the pitocin. And 30 minutes later I was at an 8. And then 15 minutes later I was dilated to a 10. 

So I pushed through 2 contractions and he just slipped right out. And immediately peed on the doctor. (He had been holding it for a long time!) 

My Henry was here. 

8 lbs 1 oz. 20 inches long.

Born at 12:12 am. December 6th.

They immediately placed him on me and the very first thing I noticed were his adorable lips.

He was so perfect and finally in my arms. 

I just cried and cried while thanking my Heavenly Father for this precious baby. 

I have never felt so overwhelmed with gratitude. 

My perfectly healthy boy was here.

And he's mine forever :)

Cousin Loves

We just got home from our Seattle trip last night.

It was so fun!

The perfect mix of relaxing and accomplishing :)

We made a list of things to do and did every single thing:

Make bow-ties

Take pictures

Eat yummy food (i.e. nutella)

Go on 30 min walks every night

Have a girl's night

Start: Project-Flower-Shop-Beautification

(OK, so potty train the girls was on that list too, and well... 

it didn't quite happen!) ;)

But really, just having precious cousin time was enough for me.

We really love you, Washington cousins :)

Like really.

A lot.

Press Pause

My baby is getting really big and old and it makes me sad. :(

We're almost to her 2nd birthday (!!!) and I kind of just wanna skip over it. She can stay 23 months forever :)

I wish I could film every second of these toddler years and then show her later on how happy she made me every day. Where's my pause button? 

I catch myself watching her, thinking: She's really mine? I am so blessed.

She tiptoes. Everywhere.

She thinks my belly button is named Henry...

She can jump. Really high.

She just started potty training herself and says: "Mama, pot-tay"

And then she says: "Treep, mommy. Treep." (treat)

She could watch Finding Nemo all day, every day.

She says "Good job, mommy" when I wash my hands.

When we read books she points and asks "What's that?" to everything...

She refuses to say the number seven. Instead it is always "nemy". (idk??)

When daddy walks through the door she immediately says "Watch this, daddy!" and does a little hop and a skip. 

She would jump off the table if we'd let her.

She thinks the main purpose of our computer is to look at googled images of puppies.

She gives me this look out of the corner of her eye when she's doing something naughty. It's her "I'm- not-doing-anything-suspicious" face.

She loves "aipwanes & hewicoptoptuhs"

(yeah, that last one's "helicopters")

She says "yeah, sure" in a raspy voice to just about any question.

And I love her.

And she loves me too.

Cute Little Buddies

Grandpa stayed with us for a week and it was like heaven. I loved hearing Annabelle say: "Gwampa" anytime she saw him. And watching them play and laugh together made my heart so happy. 

He took us to get milkshakes almost every day, and during church he tickled her face with his pen. 

Just like he used to do to me when I was little. :) 

During our outings he'd always help her out of her carseat, push her in the stroller, or carry her on his shoulders. They became such cute little buddies.

This past week was such a perfect memory, I wish it could have lasted forever.

He left this morning, and it's always sad to see him go. This time especially since Annabelle doesn't understand where he's gone...

Thank goodness for timeless photographs and beautiful memories.

We really loved having you, Dad!

Can't wait til the next time.

"Happy D Day!!"

French Toast with fresh blueberries.

Waking up to 18 balloons with 18 reasons why I love him.

(apparently there's some sort of helium shortage, say what??, so I couldn't get him the full 27) 

Breakfast in bed.

Annabelle singing "Happy D Day" down the hall.

Lunch at his favorite wing joint with his girls.

Annabelle gifting him a new chapstick since she always loses his.

And cake with good friends to end the night.

Those are some of the highlights of Jake's 27th birthday :)

It was a really fun day. He got a coupon book from me and already cashed in on his 10 minute back tickle last night. Haha. I have a feeling it's gonna be a long year with all those coupons.

He reminded me that one of them says THIRTY minute back tickle.

What was I thinking?!

Happy Birthday, honey!

We love you so much :)

Lemonade & Cookies

My activity day girls had a lemonade/cookie stand the other day. They all brought a plate of cookies and I made the lemonade.

It sounded like a fun activity, as long as we could sit in the shade.

I had no idea it'd be a BLAST and they'd put on a full-blown show for all of Carterville road!!

Seriously, they dressed up in costumes, and sang, and danced. They screamed at every passerby.

Which is probably why they made bank! 

One guy even bought a whole plate of cookies for like $5.00. Haha. Most expensive couple o' cookies ever.

The girls had a lot of fun, and I loved watching them rack in their $32.00! Which is going towards next week's pizza party with rootbeer floats and a water balloon fight.

I really love my calling :)

Locked Out!

We got locked out of our house last week. It was about 100 degrees outside and my car AC has gone MIA. 

Again.

Luckily Jake's co-worker was coming to drop a key off. Except they're working 100 miles away so it was still gonna be at least an hour. So first we shared a nice chocolate shake at the mall. And walked around Tai Pan day-dreaming. And after Annabelle's 5th fruit snack and her pretty much owning my shake we went home to wait. And wait.

Until I remembered we have a hose.

A hose with cold water.

Oh, haleluja.

She got drenched.

The key arrived.

And I snapped some photos.

And grabbed her a popsicle... ? 

Now that you have a food diary of my child for that day I'm starting to question my parenting. Holy moly.

I'm pretty sure she only got spinach for dinner ;)

Picky Eater

It's probably because I've been an awful cook lately.

Or she's turned into a little bird.

Either way, she's picky.

I was just going over a list of things that she will eat:

and half of them don't count cause any kid will eat these.

quesadillas. spaghetti. mac n cheese. ramen. oranges!! beans. tomatoes. eggs w/ spinach. cheese. and rice.

and this week we added one more: corn on the cob.

I think she mainly likes it because of the way you eat it, and I'm pretty sure there's hardly any nutritional value.

But hey, it goes on the list!

Fun with Papa!!

During our last visit to Junction, Annabelle got to spend an afternoon with her Papa. He took her out front and played with her in the sprinklers. 

She loved it.

While there, both Jake and I caught a bug and were down for an entire day. 

So baby girl got some good quality time with her Nana and Papa.

And once we got better, she wanted nothing to do with us. Apparently they're much more fun than we are...

Guess they're doing their job right. 

Lucky girl. :)

It's Only Chalk!

I was just telling Lu yesterday that Annabelle's hit 

the Terrible Two's already. 

And her response was: 

"Oh Emma, you've been saying that since she was 12 months old!"

Oh, we have arrived.

Officially. 

At first she would just stick her little arm through the side and color on her chalkboard whenever her screaming wasn't getting her out of nap time. 

Which is great - I am all about expressing your frustrated baby feelings through chalk art.

Oh, but this?

We have entered a whooole new world.

I was sitting at the computer when I heard a weird scratching in the other room. It sounded like a toy car being driven up and down the wall. 

Wait, but my baby's a girl and doesn't have any toy cars??

Chalk.

Thank goodness it was only chalk.

PS: Notice her backwards pajamas? Yeah, we're still playing that game too. :)

Family Vacation

We got back from our 1st real family vacation this week.

It was so lovely :)

Jake had just gotten done working on a 4-week long night shoot  when we decided to go. Mainly because we hadn't seen him for pretty much an entire month.

So a week long vaca was the perfect remedy :)

We drove to Vegas and did every kid-friendly thing there.

Like go to the Coke Factory. 

Which is where we learned that Annabelle loves shiny floors. And feels the best way to express that love is to get on her belly. Luckily we caught onto her, cause she tried to do this everywhere!

This next part is a really bad mommy-move. Ugh. I know. 

It's awful........

We let her try some Coke. 

From the Coke factory. 

Because it seemed fitting?

(I'm sorry, mom!!!!)

She hated it. And we paid for it later when she was eating napkins and crayons at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Sugar. Overdose.

We also went to the m&m museum. And my little Jakey-boy got a whole bag of expensive mini m&m's. Haha. 

It's worth it on vacation, right?

We hit up buffets, a shark reef aquarium, and did some shopping. We also took a nap everyday around noon with our girl.

We loved the fountains at the Bellagio. And shared banana splits in our hotel room. And went to the theater to see "Brave". 

It was Annabelle's first movie that she actually sat through. May have had something to do with the popcorn too :)

We learned that baby tans instead of burns. Haluluja. And also discovered that I will never go back to 108 degree weather while pregnant. It's just too yucky.

Luckily we had a nice pool to cool us off though.

Family vacation, I think we'll do you again :)