Christmas!!

Christmas morning this year was long!! The girls didn't wake up until about 8:15 and we even had to wake Addie up. She was not happy. By the time we got up and checked out what Santa had brought and had breakfast, it was time for church. Church was only supposed to be an hour....an hour and 45 minutes later everyone got home!! Painful! Especially on Christmas day!! Right after church we blessed Camden and then finally got around to opening presents. It wasn't until about 1:30 that we were actually done. The girls were pretty patient and were so overly excited when it was finally time to start opening presents. Addie was hilarious to watch. She would open a present, look at it, and throw it into her pile..and when I say throw...I mean throw. It was pretty funny. They were totally shocked to see that Santa had gotten their lists because everything that they asked for Santa brought. Macie was particularly excited about this. All in all Christmas day was great and we will always enjoy the memories of another Christmas season.The gifts and tree Christmas morning.Macie waiting to go out and see what Santa brought. She was sooooo excited. It sure made Christmas alot of fun this year.Addie with grandpa trying to wake up. Macie checking out what Santa brought her. She got a barbie and dog training pool, barbie car, hula hoop, and a walking dog.
Addie, Grandma, and Macie checking out her new kitchen. Addie got the play kitchen and a hula hoop.Camden in his new bouncer. He got the bouncer and a little sock monkey.A little picture of our Christmas baby. Best Christmas present ever!!!Opening presents. Macie showing us what she got.Her new hello kitty shirt!!Addie sitting in her pile of stuff, showing me what she got.At the end of opening presents we had one last surprise for them. Here they are "opening" it up.and the reaction..... Let's just say that this is the best investment ever!!!!! It has already provided hours of nonstop play!!!

Camden's Blessing

My parents and younger sister came into town over Christmas to help out with the girls and the new babe. It was so nice having them here! While they were here we decided to bless Camden. We did it on Christmas day right after church at our house. It was small and nice and worked out perfectly. It was so nice to have some family present for it. I was sure that the blessing outfit would be huge on him, but it actually fit and he looked so cute! I am so grateful for a husband who holds and honors his priesthood and that he was able to do this. We are so blessed.
The family. The girls were so done waiting to open their presents. It was all we could do to get them to say cheese!!!

Baby Camden

On Friday, December 16th our little Camden was born. He came a little earlier than planned. I was feeling not so good for about the last 2 weeks. I was constantly dizzy and in a lot of pain all of the time. I had my Dr. apt. on Friday morning and in talking to him about how I was feeling, he said that we could decide what we wanted to do as far as having the baby. I called Geoff and after talking it over with him, we decided that it would just be best to have this baby and be done with all of the pain and everything else that was happening....so...after a phone call to the dr., we were headed to the hospital. It all happened pretty quickly. Our families didn't even know about it until we were getting prepped for the c-section. It was definitely the best c-section that I have had yet. It went really well and very smoothly. The Dr. was quick and we were in out of surgery before we knew it. We got to the hospital around 4:15 and Camden was born at 5:55 pm. He came out screaming loud and clear and would not stop! He was not happy!! He weighed in at 6lbs. 12 oz. and is 18 1/4 inches long. It was a different experience where our child was not wisked off to NICU right away. Geoff got to hold him and bring him over so I could see him. It was really nice.
Next it was off to recovery. While there, the NICU Dr. came in and told us that they were going to be taking him into NICU because his breathing was to rapid and he was straining more than they liked to see, so off to NICU he went, however he was only going there for observation with no intent of admitting him and the high hope that he would pull out of it on his own before midnight. They were going to give him 6 hours to try and do it on his own and if it didn't happen, then he would have to be admitted to the NICU. I was very vigilant in calling the NICU to check on him, I am sure that they were annoyed by me....but I wanted to make sure that we didn't have to go this route if at all possible. Every time I called he was doing good and they were planning on moving him back into the normal nursery. Around 2 am I FINALLY got to see him and hold him and feed him. He was healthy and good and got to be in the room with me the rest of the time. It was such a different experience. How nice to have the baby in the room with me all of the time. It has been nice to be able to feed him and change his diaper and hold him whenever I want.
I have felt so blessed throughout this entire experience. Everything that I prayed for was answered and I have felt such love and peace throughout the whole thing. I am so thankful for a Heavenly Father who is here for us and watching out for us and hearing our prayers. We are so thankful for this healthy little baby boy in our family and can't wait to watch him grow.

Addie holding Camden for the first time. This little girl loves this baby, but does not love that she doesn't get to be held all of the time now. She has been replaced!!! And we can already tell the next few weeks are going to be alot of fun with her!!!! We tried to prepare her, but I am not sure that she really understood how changed her world would be!!

Geoff and the kids. Everyone is so happy....

Here is Macie holding Camden for the first time. This little girl cannot get enough of Camden. She is constantly asking to hold him and touch him and wants to see him all of the time. She gets so excited everytime he opens his eyes and when he cries she rushes to see what it wrong. She is going to be such a good helper!!

Camden with the girls. They are checking him out seeing how little he is.

Me and my kiddos. Let the fun begin!!

Geoff and Macie checking him out. I love this picture!!

In this picture, Camden is grabbing Macie's finger and that is about the coolest thing ever!!! See the pure joy in her face!!

Pilbrits and Mainflower

Tonight Macie wanted to sing a song for us that she has been learning at school. It is about the pilgrims and the mayflower. Here are is my favorite part:
"The pilbrits sailed the ocean blue in 1492. They sailed here in the Mainflower in 1492."
I was really trying not to laugh, especially since these lines repeat and we kept hearing this over and over, and Geoff was laughing....She gets done and Geoff says "it's pilgrims and mayflower". At this point Macie and Geoff start getting into an argument. Macie says "those words just don't sound right to me" and proceeds to tell Geoff that he is wrong!!! SO funny especially because neither of them were going to back down.

Ear Booger

Macie cleaned out her ears tonight. She pulled the Q-tip out of her ear, inspected it and when she saw ear wax on it, this is what she said:
Macie: "Ewww, mom look...Ear Boogers."

All I could do was laugh!!

pregnancy

Here is a little update on the pregnancy. It is going well. I am now 31 weeks along and ready to be done. I have officially hit the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy, you know when it is hard to bend over, hard to sleep at night, hard to be comfortable...ever. It is alot of fun! We are continually getting ready for this little guy to arrive and are still trying to think of names. If you have a boy name that you like feel free to pass it along. He is a VERY active little guy....makes me nervous for when he actually arrives. I do NOT do well with super active boys. He is constantly moving and you can see my stomach move in all different directions several times a day. It is a lot of fun to feel and watch this happen.
The other morning I was holding Macie on my lap trying to wake her up and she was not waking up, then all of the sudden this little guy kicked her sooo hard that we both jumped. She was then wide awake and won't stop talking about it. She is always asking if he is awake and trying to feel him move. She says "I just love that baby". It is so cute and she is so excited for him to come.
Addie is getting warmed up to the idea of having a boy instead of a girl. She still says that she doesn't like boys, but when I tell her that the baby is going to like her and love her and want to play with her and be her friend, she says "ok, I will be nice and like the baby." She is so funny about this whole boy thing.
We have set the c-section date for the 22nd of December. So in about 6 weeks, this little guy will be here and we can't wait!!!

Science experiment and sprinkler

I have been trying to do some fun project with the girls once a week after school and thanks to pinterest, I have been able to find some way fun ideas. This past week we decided to do a baking powder and vinegar experiment. So, I got the pan ready with little mounds of baking powder and the girls squeeze bottles full of vinegar and we headed outside to see what happens. They chose some colors to add to the piles of baking powder and then they squeezed out some vinegar to watch the bubbles and "volcanoes" flow. It was fun and they really enjoyed it. The pan all ready. I love Addie's face in this. She is impressed with just the piles.Squeezing out the vinegar and watching the bubbles. So cool!!Then they wanted to play in it, so I let them.We then decided that it was pretty warm out and that the sprinkler would be fun. The grass here is pretty prickly, so we put the sprinkler in the driveway. They loved it. I thought for it being the end of October, it was pretty fun!They then found some balloon ends that floated. Then they realized that they could race them in the crack of the cement. So fun and so cool that they can float like that. The girls were loving this and it kept them busy for quite a long time.Ready, set, go!Here they are telling their balloons to go!!! and Win!! It was a fun little afternoon. I just hope that the girls can remember these fun times, because I sure do!

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween!! Here is a run down of what we did for Halloween this year. First a few days before Halloween we painted and carved our pumpkins. Here are the pics for proof!

Macie painting her pumpkin. I don't know what the face is for.

Addie painting her pumpkin.The end result. Addie's is the black one and Macie's is the colorful one with a stem.

After painting pumpkins it was time to carve the big pumpkin. Geoff doesn't really enjoy the whole seed/gut part of the pumpkin, so I took over making sure that the girls partook...I feel like they need to know how much fun it can be to get messy and play inside of the pumpkin.Here are the girls checking out the insides and what it looks like. I love Macie's face.Here she is taking out the guts! SO fun!! And for those of you who want to see me prego...here is the pic. I am 30 weeks along in this one. Macie with the guts...seriously though, I don't know what is with this face.I love this picture!! I got up to take a picture of Geoff carving the pumpkin and immediately the girls swarmed in and took over, leaving him no room to work and the girls basically on top of him. SO FUNNY!!! So, when I told him i was taking a picture, this is the look that I got!! Awesome, no...Here they are hard at work.The finished face.Checking out the candle inside of the pumpkin. Here he is all lit up.We also have these fun potato head pumpkin pieces that the girls love, so they put those around the other edges of the pumpkin that we weren't carving.

Halloween this year was alot of fun. The girls were both old enough to understand it and want to participate. They chose their costumes and told me what they wanted to be. Macie at first found this cute costume in a magazine that was supposed to be a cute/scary fairy. It had the wings, a witch hat, and a cute little skirt to it. I thought that I could replicate it for fairly cheap and I did...and then she got vampire teeth from school and told everyone that she was now a vampire...with wings...and she never wore the teeth with her costume.....everyone was very confused to say the least, but she was happy. Addie was a bumble bee, with the same costume, for the 3rd year in a row. That costume has now been used for the past 5 years and still looks good. Awesome is all I can say. It was a good Halloween with a few festivities on Saturday that we went to and then trick or treating on Monday. They had fun and now have a TON of candy! It is quite disgusting. It was weird not being with our friends in Cleveland this year. It is the first year that we have gone by ourselves. Not quite the same or as fun. The girls missed their friends as well. Here they are in their costumes. Addie the bumble bee and Macie the "vampire". (She is trying to be scary! AHHH!)Here they are trick or treating.

The Farm

On Saturday we were invited to our Bishop's wife's family farm. They hold a Halloween party there every year and have a ton of fun things to do. When we got there the girls headed straight for the tattoo and craft table. They got a couple of tattoo's and decorated a Halloween bag for the pinata. Then we basically didn't see them for the rest of the night. The Bishop's daughter and her friends took the girls and played with them and took them on all of the rides and everything else that was involved with the night. The girls had a great time and cried when it was time to leave. They can't wait to go back!Addie going for a horse ride. Not sure what to think. The only way she would get on this was if her friend Addie rode on it with her. (Yes they have the same name.)Loving it! She was so cute the whole time with this perma grin on her face. She got off of the horse and said, "I want to do that again!"Macie waiting her turn for the horse ride. She had already gone on her first one by the time we got down there. So, we have pictures of her second ride.She just hopped on with some random girl. I am pretty sure that she rode the horse about 4 times throughout the night.Addie waiting for Macie to be done.

Then the girls went on a hay ride. It really was so nice to basically have babysitters the entire night. These girls were so great and the best part is that they wanted to take my kids and play with them and show them a good time!! After the hay ride and horses, it was time for the pinata!Shortly after Macie, the pinata broke off of the string, so everyone else got to hit it on the ground. Which worked out great for the little kids. It was such a fun night, on such pretty property and the girls are already asking when we can go back. I think that we might have to own some horses in our future!!!