He's Here!

I had my baby yesterday evening. We have decided to name him Mitchell. He was 6 pounds even and 21.5 inches which is really big for being that early. I had an easy labor and delivery and I'm grateful it went so smoothly. As soon as I had him, the doctor handed him off to the NICU through a window and they started working on him. He is doing really well all things considered.

He has red sores on his face from where they had to tape the tubes to him. He is not really ready to nurse but he is trying. I'm pumping and he is getting my milk through a tube. I think it's going to be at least 2 weeks in the NICU and I don't know yet whether I'm going to try to stay at the hospital with him or come home and drive back and forth. It kind of depends on if he starts nursing.

I love this little animal:

P.S. Check out my new header! Thanks to my super talented friend Heather who had this ready for me the day he arrived! Heather is doing a full Iron Man triathalon tomorrow. She's amazing.

Big Kitchen Reveal

I figured out a way to get my photos uploaded onto my laptap at the hospital. So I'm posting way too many photos of my new kitchen. I will post more photos of the family room and mantel later. I love the new kitchen even more than I thought I would.

Every time I would tell Sam I wanted something for the kitchen, he would jokingly say "and then we'll be happy." He doesn't believe things can make you happy. The truth is, I was happy before--but my new kitchen sure does make me happy. Without further ado:

As much as I love my new kitchen, I'd give it all back to be assured that I will be bringing home a healthy baby boy in a week or two!

Club Med

Surprise! My water broke last night. With friends over. On one of my new barstools. It wasn't pretty but we all got a good laugh until I started to freak out about having a baby born at 34 weeks.

My friends were so cute--they immediately started cleaning my bathrooms even though it was almost 10:00 at night. I called Sam and told him the bad news and he came home right away (he was watching a game with a friend.)

We headed to the hospital and they immediately gave me a steroid shot for his lungs. (Now I really am on 'roids!) I had contractions on and off and then they stopped. My doctor decided not to induce me yet so I can continue to get antibiotics and more steroid shots. At first, I dreaded staying in the hospital for two days before even having my baby (knowing full well he will be in the NICU for awhile after he is born) but they I figured out this place is Club Med.

I'm alone in a nice room, lying in bed, watching movies (Australia was worth watching just to see Hugh Jackman coming out of the water--that man is so ripped.) They brought me chocolate covered strawberries, all sorts of food and treats and here is the kicker--a massage therapist showed up and gave me a free massage.

Now I don't want to have my baby. I just want to stay here forever! Thanks to my awesome mom for swooping in and taking on my kids and house. I basically had NOTHING prepared and no food in the house. Once my water broke, I just wandered the house not sure what to even put in a bag.

On another note, the kitchen is done and I was planning to do my big reveal last night but here I am lying in a hospital bed with no way to upload photos so the reveal will have to wait. I know the coming weeks are going to be hard--when Ryan was in the NICU, it was the worst days of my life. I've just got to sit back now and enjoy my babymoon until Thursday.

Disneyland in 2010

We returned home on Friday night from a week in Southern California. Most of it was spent at Disneyland with one day at Legoland. Like I said in a previous post, I like Dland in small doses. Sam could go there every day for the rest of his life and be happy. We compromised with the four day pass. I survived but barely. For my recap, I decided to go with the Best of Times, Worst of Times format again--at this point in the pregnancy, I'm lacking originality.

1. I loved seeing my kids get along so well.


I didn't love telling them to be quiet in the hotel room at 6:00 am for the bazillianth time.

2. Sammie, my niece Kate and I had a wonderful time at the Princess lunch.




They brought this dessert platter to our table and I felt obligated to eat the entire thing myself (this was after the tri-tip, mashed potatoes and two other courses!)


3. After four years of attending Dland's Star Wars Jedi training, Luke finally got picked to go onstage.


We have twenty long minutes of video footage of him rubbing sunscreen out of his eyes.

4. Ryan was really cute on the trip and developed a love for Mickey, Dumbo and It's a Small World.


He also developed a love of churros, hot dogs and diet coke.

Yes, he ate the whole thing.

5. Being hugely pregnant, I learned to love the rides like Pirates, Small World and Jungle Cruise where you sit in a cool environment and take a load off.


I was mortified when I accidentally sneezed on the people in front of us on Pirates. They turned around to glare at me and I couldn't even blame it on one of the kids.

6. After walking for three days through Dland and Lego land, I resorted to this beauty for the fourth and fifth day:


I felt pretty smug tooling around on it until Sam and Luke both started referring to it as "the fatty cruiser."

7. We had the most beautiful weather of the trip at Legoland.

Pretend this is Legoland. I'm having temporary problems with my Legoland pics.

That is, until we were hit out of nowhere with a torrential downpour at 2:00 pm that ended our day. Side note: Legoland is really clean and fun but not for the under four crowd. Ryan couldn't ride anything and it was a total bummer for him.

8. I enjoyed seeing Sam love every minute of Dland. He lives for the magic. Here he is enjoying watching a barbershop quartet called the Dapper Dans perform. He will hate this picture and it is my payback for subjecting me to four days in the park.


Every night, I collapsed into bed with the kids by 8:00 pm. Sam would head back over to Dland to ride the big rides and watch fireworks and basically partake of the magic.

9. I loved people watching more than anything. I started taking photos for a "People of the Park" type post but then looked down at what I was wearing and realized the hypocrisy of doing so. But I will give you a taste:


Though I didn't wear a kilt with combat boots, I did wear the same pair of camo capris the entire four days at Dland. Before you pass judgement, let me just say, they were the only pants I had with pockets and thus I was forced to continue to wear them.

10. I returned home to find my cabinets painted!

No pictures yet--I'm making you all wait until I can present the finished product.

I made Sam promise that we will not return to Disneyland for at least two years. Let's see if he keeps his word.

Nesting on Roids

So I still haven't done anything with the baby clothes or crib but I think the house project makes up for it. The wood floors are done and my kitchen has looked like this for the past week:


As a side note, I've always loved the look of open shelving in kitchens in magazines but never could understand how someone could pull it off in real life. My doors have been off the cabinets for weeks and it looks terrible. I know that people with open shelving would only display nice bowls and china but where do they shove the sippy cups and ugly stuff?

Here is my lovely family room area:


This project is almost done. The appliances are coming, the granite is on its way and the cabinets and mantel will be done shortly. I can't wait for the big reveal!

Prayer for the End of Pregnancy

This is not a prayer to end the pregnancy--I still have at least 6 weeks to go, but this is a prayer to help me survive the weeks to come.

Please let me not gain any more weight from this point on (who am I kidding?) Okay, just please don't let me weigh more than Sam.

Please bless me to find a comfortable sleep position that doesn't strain my back.

Please help me to not slit my wrists from wearing the same two outfits over and over and over and over...

Please Please Please bless that this house project will be completely done before Jr arrives.

Please forgive me for swearing at my kids all day every day.

Please forgive me for cursing my husband for putting back an empty container of cookies into the pantry. (You should never taunt a hungry pregnant woman.)

Please make it so there is no reason for me to pick up anything off the floor, or get up off the floor for any reason.

Please forgive me for sneaking home from church and napping the second two hours while the kids and husband gain spiritual guidance.

Forgive me for getting a pedicure and completely forgetting to shave my legs...when it hadn't just been a few days.

Bless me to drink more water and less diet coke.

Please, help me to find a name for this child.

Finally, bless me to develop the nesting instinct so I can find the will to dig out the baby clothes, breast pump, and crib bedding.

amen.

My Birthday Girl

My Sammie turned 5 this week. I was kind of dreading this birthday for her because I know that with each passing birthday, she is growing up. She has been so much fun this year and I have enjoyed her so much.




A few days ago, we were driving and she pointed out a building that was under construction near our home. She said, "That baby sure went up fast." It totally cracked me up. She talks like an adult, or at least a teenager most of the time. She is also very funny. A few weeks ago, I got lost taking Luke to a birthday party. As I got back in the car to leave, she said, "You think you can get us home?"




Sammie has very expensive taste in food. Her favorite place to eat is Kneaders and she orders the turkey bacon avocado sandwich on focaccia (not a grilled cheese like most kids.) She eats the salmon taco at Cafe Rio and begs me to buy relish trays every time we go to the grocery store.


She is all-girl, which pleases me to no end, since she will be my only girl with three brothers. She loves pink and princesses and baby dolls and glitter and perfume and lip gloss and make-up, etc. She told me the other day that she dreamed that she and I slid down a rainbow and instead of finding a pot of gold, we found a pink and purple striped chest with all girl stuff on the inside like nail polish, high heels and cupcakes,etc.


She loves to dance and sing and knows all the primary songs. She also loves to color and can spend hours each day coloring pictures for me. On each one she writes "To Mom, I love you, Love Sammie." She loves preschool and has already learned to read quite a bit. She loves to go in her room and read books or play with her dollhouse. She is a very easy child and is very sweet to Ryan. However, she constantly bosses Luke around. He takes it because she makes him laugh with her potty humor.




I love her to pieces and often say she is God's gift to my life. She is the splash of pink and glitter in my otherwise bleak world. I love you Sammie!

Easter Eggstavaganza

Easter is becoming as crazy as Halloween around here. Not really, but it felt like it the last couple of days. Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love the spring weather (not this year!), I love the pastel colors, I love Easter decor and candy and I love celebrating our Savior's resurrection.

Last year, my kids came home from church on Easter complaining that no one talked about Easter. I didn't believe them and pressed them on it. They said "All we talked about was Jesus--no one even mentioned the bunny!" So this year, I got the brilliant idea to tell my kids there is no Easter bunny--it's just me!

My plan totally backfired. From that moment on, they pestered me about what they wanted for Easter and begged for certain items for their baskets. Sheesh. Just for the record, I didn't buy them a single thing they asked for just on principle--you don't ask for stuff from the Easter bunny!


Easter festivities started on Thursday when my awesome mom picked up the kids and took them to her house to dye Easter eggs. I am so not into doing this so I'm grateful my mom picks up my slack:


She also built an Easter snow bunny with them--how cute is that? The weather here in Utah is so crazy in the spring:


Thursday night, I took my kids to the mall to do a return just to get them out of Sam's hair while he worked on the floors. They ended up sitting on the Easter bunny's lap which I'm totally opposed to--once again, too much like asking for stuff from Santa...


Friday I took my kids to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur museum along with every other family in the greater Salt Lake area. Crowds give me claustrophobia and I had to bail pretty quick. I think we were there for a total of 30 minutes and then enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the cafe:


Saturday was Sammie's birthday. We woke up early and went to not one--but two Easter egg hunts. This was my first time taking my kids to something like this. The first hunt was amazing and really well organized. There were clowns making balloon animals for kids and really great prizes for the kids if they found tickets inside their eggs:




The second hunt we went to (at Farnsworth Farms) was a total disaster--muddy, crowded, disorganized, chaotic and squashed plastic eggs everywhere. I was ticked off (mostly at myself for trying to do two on the same day.) Lesson learned. I didn't even get a picture at this one because I was up to my ankles in mud and carrying around a 30 pound toddler.

Saturday night, I filled the kids' Easter buckets after they went to bed. I kind of went overboard but I justify it by telling myself it is all stuff I would have bought for them anyway like flip flops, an electric pencil sharpener, workbooks for our trip to CA, etc. They were totally thrilled with their loot this morning:


Our day was nice. We have no kitchen and when I say no kitchen I mean we have no appliances, no sink, no counter tops and only a few cabinets, none of which have fronts. It's really fun. I put my range and microwave on KSL last night and some people came and bought the microwave this morning so I can't even heat up stuff from the fridge. Maybe I should have thought that one through a little more...

We hung around in our pjs all day and watched conference.

This evening we went to my mom's for Easter/Sammie's b-day dinner. My mom always decorates the table so cute. Sammie loved the princesses:




My mom had an indoor egg hunt for the kids where she hides little presents in addition to eggs:


Sammie got everything she wanted for her birthday. While the adults were preparing dinner, she and Luke literally combed my parents house until they found Sammie's bike hidden in a closet. classy:


That was our Easter. Glad it's over. Is anyone still out there? Sorry this turned out to be the world's longest post. How was your Easter?