Amelia's blessing

What a wonderful Christmas we had! Every year we take a picture of all the grandkids in front of my parents' christmas tree and usually it is such a stuggle to get all the kids, especially the little ones, to sit in front of the tree with presents they know they get to open. But this year they were all so good! There was no crying, screaming, or trying to get up before all 6 cameras went off 100 times (or so it seems). It was wonderful!

In years past, after the pictures, we would have all the kids open their presents and then we would send them downstairs to play with those presents. This was mostly done because they have such a hard time sitting there watching EVERYONE (23+ kids and 13+ adults) open presents and they have no patience to wait for one for themselves. But this year it was so calm and everyone, kids and all, sat and opened gifts. This year many people made gifts for the people they had and all they gifts had so much thought and love put into them. Again, it was wonderful!

I was especially excited for Joey to open the blanket that I made him. It was hard for me to decide what to get for him this year since we didn't have a lot of money to spend and we were going to have a new baby. I started the blanket about the beginning of November and I didn't get it done until Christmas Eve morning, mostly because I didn't plan on having Amelia so early. A nursing baby takes a lot of time out of your day. Anyway, it was probably a bigger project than a beginner should have tackled, but I had my mom to help me so that's mostly why it turned out the way it did. The best part was when he opened it and saw what I made and that it was for him. We were truely blessed this year and it is a Christmas I will never forget!

My brother and his family were here for Christmas and so we decided to have Amelia blessed so he could be a part of it. She was blessed on the 29th by Joey so she is now offically Amelia Naomi. It was a beautiful blessing and she was just as beautiful! We looked for a blessing dress for her, but those that we found wer $60 and more! It's amazing what they charge for such a little dress. There was no way we could afford that so my mom offered to make her one. With Christmas and visitors we forgot about it until the day before. Thank goodness there was a fabric store open and that my mom is a genius when it comes to sewing! (Just to let you know, I made the headband. Not as difficult as the dress by far, but I did it, flower and all.)

A call to Santa

So last week sometime Joey and I were trying to get the boys to pick up the toys in their room. Well, they were having nothing to do with it, so we told them that we were going to call Santa and tell him to not come to our house this year because we have some naughty boys that won't listen. Noah started to freak out......."I want Santa to come! I want presents!" I told him that if he wanted presents and Santa that he better listen and clean up his room.

*I'm not sure how much kids actually comprehend things........if you want this, THEN you need to do that........I don't think that Noah gets it. I know that Elias doesn't get it 'cuz he's young and in 'Elias-land'.*

Well, for sure Noah didn't understand because he picked up a few toys and then started to complain, so I "called Santa" on my cell. *Ring, ring* Noah started crying, "Don't call Santa! I want to be good!". *I couldn't help but giggle a little bit and try to keep a straight face.* 'Santa' answered the phone and I told him that we didn't need his services this year because we have 2 naughty boys who don't want to behave. 'Santa' wanted to talk to Noah so I handed him the phone.

The look on Noah's face was priceless while talking to Santa. He looked so pitiful...... it was cute. When he was done Elias talked to Santa too. He was funny because you could tell he had no idea who he was talking to, but he held up his end of the conversation perfectly. After the phone call they went a picked up their toys and Santa called back.He told them that he knows who is good and bad and that he knows they are good boys who listen to their parents.

The lesson was learned, but not quite absorbed because we still have to threaten them with santa every once and a while. Oh the fun things that you get to do as a parent! I think messing with your kids has to be on top of the list. I love Christmas!

Sunday Blues

So I never realized how much I liked Sunday and church until I can't go, with no fault of my own. I am perfectly healthy, willing, and wanting to go, but there are people that aren't in their best health that go that makes it hard for those of us that have new babies. Doesn't always seem that it's them who come right up to you to congratulate you first?! Maybe it just seems that way to me.

So Joey went to the first half of church and then came home to watch the kids (Noah & Elias have this lingering cold) so I could go to Relief Society. Everyone wanted to see the baby and really wanted to show her off, but flu season and it's about 5 degrees out today.

I'm glad I went. The lesson was about the birth of Christ and it was wonderful! I had to bring the calendar for the month as well(since I am the secretary) and I also got to find out why no-one from the Relief Society or the ward for that matter didn't bring meals or didn't call or didn't do anything when Amelia was born. The RS pres was gone for Thanksgiving, but she did call the Compassionate Service people when she found out and.... well .....yup. I'm just going to make sure that the next family that has a baby gets extra special attention. Do I sound bitter? I hope not, cuz I'm not. Just a little sad.

Here are some of the latest pictures of our little Amelia:

Pretty in Pink

In this picture Joey actually caught her "dream smiling". The picture on the bottom left is me loving to dress her up. I bought this outfit a while ago and it's looks adorable on her even though it's way too big. The picture below is her all dressed up for church today, but she didn't get to go. She looked adorable anyway. She's like my own little dress-up doll. I love it!

IT'S A GIRL!!!

So for those of you who don't know........I had the baby! Amelia Naomi was born 3 weeks early on November 24th at 5:43PM. She was 6lbs 6.5oz and 20 inches long. She is beautiful!! So people don't have to keep asking me over and over what happened and because I love hearing others' birth stories I shall share mine.....

It was just another normal Monday(23rd) night. I actually slept fairly well, for once, and then Noah woke up around 4AM and crawled in bed with us. About an hour later I woke up to put him back to bed so he wasn't fully woken up by Joey's alarm for work at 5:30.

Well, I put Noah in his bed and went to go to the bathroom, cuz that's what pregnant women do all too often, and it felt like I peed my pants a little bit right before I got to the bathroom. I thought that was a little strange considering I wasn't laughing or doing anything to provoke my bladder. I finally decided that my water broke and went back to bed and,unsuccessfully, tried to go back to sleep. I was really unsure if it was my water breaking because: a) I was 37 weeks along THAT day and b) I wasn't having any contractions. (Usually when my water breaks the baby is born in about an hour.)

So excited and a little nervous, I told Joey that I think my water broke and he sat right up and said, "Really?!?". I told him not too worry too much since I wasn't having contractions and to go to work and I would call him if we needed to go to the hospital. Funny thing is is that I had a doctors appointment that morning at 9 so we decided that Joey would take me just in case my water did in fact break and I was staying at the hospital. Unable to sleep and the boys asleep, I took a shower and got ready for the day fully expecting my contractions to start any moment.

Well, the time came for me to take Noah to preschool and to head to my appointment and still no contractions. So we dropped Elias off at grandma's and headed to my appointment. Walking back to see the doctor my nurse asked me how I was doing and told her I think my water broke. She said, "What?!? Well, we need to check you then". Sure enough I was right and I was about 3 and 1/2 centimeters and 60% effaced, still no contractions! So over to the hospital we went and was sarted on Pitocin to get my contractions going.

I have never had Pitocin and let me tell you that I HATE the contractions induced by it!! They hit you (at least me).....hard! I was getting less than a teaspoon an hour, but that was enough to put me into full blown labor. I had a lot of back pain labor with this baby, so I sat on the labor ball which helped, but after a little while I just couldn't handle it anymore. My nurse also realized when she checked me that I still had a big bag of water. I guess that when my water broke at 5 that morning it was just a little trickle and not a full blown break. Well, as she checked me it broke.......Bring on the Epidural!

I got an Epidural around 4:30PM......*sigh of relief*......the doc showed up at around 5:30 and I was ready to push. About 2 and 1/2 pushes later little Amelia was born and 5:43! The doctor thinks that I went into labor so early because of the kidney stone that I had. And I will tell you what, I would rather have a baby than another kidney stone! They are just such a different pain with no satisfaction at the end of it all.

This picture makes her look chubby, but she is TINY! At least to me and compared to her brothers. She is like her momma and is good at hiding her double chin unless she puts her head down. ;o)

She is our "litle sweetpea"!

Her brothers just love her and always want to hold her! The only bad thing is is that they are both sick right now. They have colds and are all boogery so they can't get too close to her for very long. When Noah found out that she was born he asked if they "punched the baby out of my stomach". LOL! Elias is always coming up to me, "I want to hold her!". It is kind of strange having something so small and pink around the house, but she is a wonderful addition to our little family!

Can't sleep

So the last couple of nights I haven't been able to sleep. And, no, it's not due to having any contractions. That would be nice. I think that I could live with having the baby 3 weeks early..... Anyway, I thought that I might try to actually update my blog since I was awake and everyone else in the house is still asleep. Let's just hope that the clickety-clacking of the keyboard doesn't wake up the boys. Darn kids and their super-sonic hearing! *Mom put her feet on the floor....I heard it.....it's time to get up!*

First I want to thank my friend Amanda for helping me find some super cute backgrounds for my blog! I thought I would go a little festive even though I know that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. My dad always had a rule that there was no Christmas music or decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving and here I am listening to Christmas music on Pandora and decorating, my blog at least.

I also thought that I would mostly put some prego pictures on here. Since most people that read my blog live nowhere near me maybe you would like to see how "fat" I am. Here we go.....

This is our dog and our cat. For some reason they both love to lay on me. Mostly while I am sleeping, but we caught this rare occasion. Here I was just trying to relax and read my book and they thought it the best opportunity for a nap on my lap. Jack is our dog (and, yes, I think he is full grown) and Zoey is our cat. Jack was supposed to be Joey's dog and Zoey was supposed to be my cat, but they opposite has happened. The dog follows me everywhere, literally, and the cat loves Joey even though he is mean to her. You can kind of tell that I am pregnant in this picture. Joey said that it really emphasized my belly, but I don't see it. I guess that's what I get for seeing myself pregnant everyday.

This next one is a tradition in our family. We have one with all our kids. Joey thought that we should have taken it with me standing forward. He says that it looks like I am wearing a fake belly. Well, it sure doesn't FEEL like I am wearing a fake belly! And of course Noah is trying to steal the show. *The camera is out?!? Look at me! Look at me!*

I will try to get more pictures on here. I want to take one with the whole family showing their bellies. I think it's only fair that if I have to show mine they have to show theirs. Noah and Elias wouldn't have a problem with it. They would go everywhere naked if I let them! For a little while there Elias thought that he had a baby in his belly too. I would pat my stomach and say they baby was in there and he would procceed to pat his belly and say "baby". Too cute!

Well, only 3 1/2 weeks to go! Oh time, please speed up! I want to be able to lay on my stomach again!

My New Blog

Ok, so I changed my blog address. Mainly because I didn't like the decorating options of the other blog site and I made the address of this one a little easier to remember.

So life is good right now. Last week was a little scary with the whole passing a GIANT kidney stone and the possibility of having an emergency C-Section. (Man, was I freaking out when I heard that!) But now my kidneys are fine and the baby is fine so I can breathe a little easier. At least for a few more weeks or less....hopefully less.

Well, Noah is loving preschool and Elias still hasn't gotten used to the fact that he goes there every day. Every time we get in the car after taking Noah to school he asks, "Where's Noah?". I always tell him he's at school and then he asks where 'Joey' is. (He is on a 'calling Joey Joey instead of daddy' kick.) Too cute! Noah comes home from school just rattling on and on about what he did at school. And even though he just ate lunch there he is "starving" when he gets home.

So, 36 weeks and counting until there is finally another female in this house! I'm still wierded out that we are having a girl. I'm not going to know what to do with her! Except dress her up and put cute little bow-bows in her hair! Can you tell I'm excited?!?