Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. My parents and little brothers came up and spent the holiday with us. My family has always taken a family picture of the kids on Christmas morning and we always were dressed. Ryan's family does pjs so at least for this year we got dressed. And I love this picture of me and C in the bathroom getting ready. I love my little boy.

Grandma (we tossed around the idea of Oma (German for Grandma and since Jeffrey and Andrew and my Dad seem to speak German often they think it's a good idea.) and Landon-6 days old.
Ryan had the fire going and when Carter came out he was not very interested in following our leads. instead to the fridge for milk was his request. Than he felt more interested in looking in his stocking.
My brothers passed out the presents. Carter actually sat in his high chair the whole time. He had a few food items under the tree that he got to open and eat first.. Turned out rather well to have him in the high chair.


and Landon slept through the whole thing. :)

Landon's Birth Day

This whole pregnancy I have thought that Dec 18th sounded like a much better due date than Dec 31. :) I was wrong. December 19th we welcomed Landon Slade into our arms and hearts. I was so proud of myself for not getting an epidural last time when I delivered Carter. And this time I am so proud of myself for getting one!

Friday I was getting regular contracts but they were not very strong. I was very annoyed because I wasn't sure if they would add up to anything or not. We went to dinner and than for a walk (at walmart) and I was still having them. Ryan was over the top excited and I was just unsure because I didn't want to go and than get sent home from the hospital. We called Mountain View and they told me to take a warm bath and see how things are going in an hour. I figured my contracts were about 3 minutes apart and each one was about a minute long. But they were not painful so I was still very unsure. I called and they told me to go ahead and come in. We took Carter over to Grandparents and told him he was going to sleep over there (he is such a good boy he was like "yes please" He really likes his great grandparents.)

So around 9 pm we checked in at the hospital and I was 4 cms and 75% (wed i was checked at 3 cms and 50%) so this was good news. They monitored me for 20 mins and than let me walk over and over. Every hour they wanted to track progress for 20 mins. My contracts continued but again mostly not painful she called them "irritations". She checked me at midnight and I was almost 5 cms and than again at 3am I was almost 6cms. So I was not progressing contraction wise but I was progressing. Since I wasn't 39 weeks she was pretty sure they would not put me on pit. But since I was progressing she would talk to my doctor and see what he thought. He agree to start me on pit around 5 am. I told her I wanted my epidural at the same time. (I was starting to remember Carter..)

I was trying to sleep from about 1-5 very unsuccessfully. I think mostly because I was afraid they would send me home. I got the epidural which hurt a little (but the guy who gave it to me was AWESOME very explanatory and kind(Mike)). Overall this delivery was so much better than my last. I wanted a different experience this time because last time seemed to lack- I choose different doctors, different hospital, and different method (i.e. epidural) and this time was so wonderful I can't even explain. It was amazing. Last time the doctor and the nurse and Ryan were all talking at once and I was so confused and than they held C up in the air and than took him to the corner and weighed him and cleaned him off and than gave him to Ryan. This time the nurse told me what to do and the doctor made helpful comments, than the doctor just immediately placed Landon on my stomach and as I held him and cried the nurse cleaned him off and patted him and she asked if she could take him to weight him or if she should wait and I told her to wait. (stats 7:51 am (i was on the phone with Melissa at 7:42 am) 7lbs 2 ounces, 20 inches long) It was so amazing to get that moment with my baby. That moment I didn't get to have with my Carter. I even got to go to the nursery a little later to witness his first real bath. I didn't miss anything with this delivery. And I am so glad.

I immediately notice his long killer fingernails.

Carter was able to come and meet Landon a little while after he was delivered and he just is so grown up. He came in and sat on my lap and than sat with dad and Landon. He made comments about the baby and than when it was time for him to leave with Grandma he just turned and said goodbye to us.

He is adjusting well and is such a happy boy

It was wonderful. So wonderful. I thought my sister was crazy when she told me she cried when Austin was born and now I think I'm crazy that I didn't get to do that with Carter. I hope my next doctor and delivery are as wonderful as this one was. Oh and epidurals.. they rock.

Look at his beautiful hair... reminds me of me.

Overall I really liked Mountain View Hospital. Here are my pros and cons of both Idaho Falls Hospitals.
EIRMC-I had an awesome nurse, lots of help with nursing, good job with IV, wonderful dinner for me and Ryan, cute picture of Carter given to us, wheeled to the car.
Mountain View-Lots of nurse changes (normal 7-7 but then sometimes random too), seemed to give us lots of privacy, not pushy with nursing, dvd player in my room, great bathtub, good storage in bathrooms, lots of help yourself snacks and juices.

See Carter got to enjoy some of my goods.. oreos :)

Overall if I had to pick I would rather my next baby experience to be more like Landon but either way my boys are great and I am so blessed to have them.

More Pictures

My sister is begging for more pictures, and I do not blame her. New babies always make family excited. Unfortunately she did not specify of what, I know she wants pictures of Landon...but since she was vague here are some random pictures.First our Christmas tree. I decorated it this year. The duck Nicci sent us. It had a ugly nurses hat on, but last night the nutcracker lost a bet between the two of them and now sports the femmy hat. Joking aside, the flowers were a great gift.Speaking of flowers...our solarium smells wonderful, I have never seen a lemon tree with so many fragrant blooms.

Ok,now on to what she wanted:
I am sure Liz will do a much better job at posting and taking pictures, but for now the blog is stuck with me. She will probally post more after his checkup today.

Early Christmas Present

Mom and baby are doing great, in fact she looks great for being in labor for so long. His name will be Landon and he is 7.2 pounds and 20 inches.

Trim work

Tonight we finished the last of the door and window trim in the kitchen/solarium area. I was a little unsure how the kitchen window would look without the trim on the bottom to even it out, but it turned out ok. Now all we have left is the cabinet doors and to get rid of the last pink door (this room used to be pink with vinyl roses on the walls.)

37 weeks and 5 days

I am very near the end of this pregnancy. I am getting very anxious to meet my little boy and have my body back.. I think I am much more anxious with this baby than with Carter. Maybe because Carter was early he came at 38 weeks and 2 days and I am hoping that this one will be early as well. But babies are not all the same so in my head I am thinking this weekend but of course it could still be 3 weeks. or maybe it's because this baby makes my body hurt in ways Carter never did. hmmm. I guess we shall see.

Just call me..

...Amelia Bedelia.

Seriously I have like lost my brain. Check this out.

Ryan was painting some trim in the garage and was quickly bringing items up to the sun room to dry (where it is much warmer than the garage). Some of the paint was freezing mid air as he painted so he wanted me to help improve the results.

"Liz will you get a brush and smooth out this paint?"

"What kind of brush?" (thoughts in my head: Brush= hairbrush, no that wouldn't work must mean a brush with bristles. broom.. well that's not very clean, tooth brush too small.. kitchen sink brush that would be wet and horrible.. what in the heck am i suppose to use? )

"Just a clean brush."

"Seriously Ryan what do you want me to use?"

"Just any ole clean PAINT brush."

(thought in my head: Oh that makes since.. duh I am such an idiot.. I think this baby must have taken my brain from me.. I hope it comes back)

35 weeks.. maybe 36

Wednesday, December 3, 2009

Ryan took these pictures last night. So I was 35 weeks but this morning I am 36.. You decided. (I don't have photoshop right now or i would have fixed the red eye and tiltiness. maybe I will come back and fix it). So do you think I look bigger now or than? I think it's hard to tell really with this picture being tilted. I feel bigger and more uncomfortable much more uncomfortable.

Balloons

Carter is scared of helium balloons. Robert's Craft store offers balloons to all the small children that come into their store. We got one a few months ago and he did not want it tied to him. He let go of it in the store no big deal I was able to get it. When we got home he let go of it in our entry way and I couldn't reach it. I told him we would wait until Dad came home and he could get it for him. Once he got it again he wouldn't trust anyone with it and was so scared that it would get stuck on the ceiling again. It was ridiculous. He was crying and refused to let go of it to eat or anything. We ended up just sticking it in a bedroom during dinner and didn't give it back to him. Anyways so a few weeks ago we were at Robert's again and I thought maybe we could try to get another balloon but I guess he remembered how stressful balloons are and started saying No over and over again. We quickly gave the balloon back to the nice lady.

What silly things are your kids scared of?

baby presents

I made this for my unborn child. It was very hard. and it is very much not perfect.

I got the idea from a friend except I have a 5 point car seat and wanted something that i can remove and wash without taking a part my difficult to put together carseat. So i went and drew some ideas and than I had the brilliant idea to look up car seat blankets on etsy and i found this one and this one. Anyway I also happen to open my mouth at church and a lady told me she has one that I could use as a pattern. Anyways again mine is not perfect (one legs is longer than the other and the hood.. eeekk and I think it's a little on the huge side..) but I made it for my baby so I am hoping he doesn't complain about it too much. :)

This is what I finished creating today.

Bloated Fish Phase.

I feel like I have reached the bloated fish phase of pregnancy. And according to my ticker I still have too much time to already be here; at this place of being too big. 6 weeks and 3 days until December 31. I am hoping for December 18 I don't know the day just sounds right.

Swimming

I really miss swimming.. That is one of my favorite things about the south, having heat and water! Too bad we don't live there yet. Ryan took us swimming a few weeks ago (I think it is high time we went again). We had a lot of fun. Lucky up here in South East Idaho there are a few hot springs that make swimming outside a possibility in our cold climate.

Ward Halloween Carnival

Our ward did a Carnival. The invite said to dress up but umm Ryan and I wear two of the three adults that dressed up. Seriously even some of the teens didn't dress up. Oh well it was fun for us maybe next year the adults will join us in the fun!

19 months

19 Months

Dear Carter,

I stopped writing you monthly letters when you turned 12 months. But I figured I would still write you sometimes. So here we go 19 months old. Wow how much you have grown. You are no longer a baby, good thing too because your little brother will be here so soon.

Every night before bed we sing the clean up song and put your toys away. We have family prayer and you are so good at folding your arms (and reminding me at meal times to pray). You say 'thank you' sounds a lot more like "bah bah" but you are signing 'thank you' when you say it.

You have two sentences that you say "mor mil" which means "more milk" or "more of whatever you are drinking" and then you say 'wa da' which means "I want my dad". You love your daddy so much. The other day me and you were in your room playing and dad was working in the kitchen you just went to the door and cried and screamed "wa Da" over and over.. Then of course I was crying because it makes me so happy to see how much you love him and he loves you too because you see he came and played with you.

We have lunch with dad once a week and as soon as we get close to the parking lot of work you start saying "Da" and then when we go back to drop him off you start saying "buh bye" (sometimes a little too early I tease Dad that what you are really saying is 'okay I'm done you can get out now and walk the rest of the way mom and I are gonna go take a nap.')

You love taking showers and you jump right in the water you stand facing the wall with your left ear to the water. If I move the water you move in to it. You also will shut the shower doors and say good bye to me because you think you can shower just fine with no one watching. You told me the other day you wanted the water warmer. You pointed to the knobs and did the sign for 'help' and then said 'thank you' when I had adjusted the water to your pleasing. I try to get you to play in the water by plugging the drain and then turning off the water when it gets to the right depth but usually you are all done when the water is turned off.

You do the silliest thing when you want a hug from me. I guess you think that cuddling is only for when you get hurt so you get down and hit your head on a toy then look up at me with a cheesy grin and then start fake crying so I will hold you. I think it's cute, but you can just come up and hug me I will not complain.

I love you,

Mama

P.S. I miss writing you I should do it more often. You are growing up so fast.

Kitchen Update:

For those of you who want pictures of our current project (mom...) here are two shots. The cabinets are going up well, takes a little bit to make the boxes. As soon as they are all up they will be painted and then the doors will be installed. I would have posted a picture of the undercabinet lighting but the picture came out looking like a light-bright screen.

Apples

Carter wanted an apple...

Found someone to help...

Got a few more...

and enjoyed the fruits of his labor.

Meanwhile the tree got a shave.

9/18/09

Ryan took us out to dinner. I love going out for dinner no dishes to do no mess is made (that I have to clean up). I can't believe that Carter was wearing shorts such a short time ago. It seems like we missed fall here and jumped right on to winter.. but I am so excited for winter this year! Christmas is going to be so wonderful!! Christmas guests and a new baby!

My Hardworking Man

I think our neighbors think we are crazy. We always have a project going on, besides the kitchen.. This was two weeks ago.

Can you see Ryan?

He is there, just look close.
Ryan cut down this pine it took all day he climbed up (like a bear caring a chain saw) cut off limbs one by one, then chopped off 5 foot sections of trunk. He was super tired but we have more light and more firewood.. it just needs to be chopped up.

Ryan also changed out our porch lights.
From old and ugly to

nice and new.
now if we can just get everything done before the baby comes.. or at least the big things.. like the kitchen.

I am sad.

If you know me and my guilty pleasures.. you know I love to eat KitKats with peanut butter. Last night I bought a KitKat and today i opened it up and there are bite marks on my candy bar! I am sure that Carter did not touch this and I don't think Ryan is crazy. So for all you moms and dads out there if your child bites a candy bar at the store please buy it as to not ruin a pregnant gal's treat.

I think I will forever buy the candy bar that is not on top because of this. eww.

Nicci's Wedding

In August we flew down to San Antonio for Nicci and Johnny's Wedding. It was super hot and super short but so worth it. I love to see the Temple!

pregnancy

9/18/09
25 weeks
-morning after sleeping on the ground
-aka not the best picture..

I feel huge and then I look at this picture and I think I'm not that big.. I mean look at what I have to look forward too! I am so excited to meet our new baby and to feel skinny again.. not just because I am slightly vain (I guess) but because i miss the ache-less, painless daily life that is not pregnancy. Don't worry I am doing fine, pregnancy is relatively easy for me compared to others but I still prefer not to be pregnant but at the same time am glad that I am.. Does that make since? Anyways.. forget yourself and go to work right?