Tis the Season

'Tis the Season to be JOLLY! and we sure have been jolly around here! I just LOVE LOVE the Christmas season (who doesn't!) and we've been having a great time whipping out all of our decorations. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed to Lowes to pick our our Christmas tree. Piper had been sick all weekend but we managed to get that in so we could decorate it on Monday for Family Home Evening. It was a blast! It's so fun to get out the ornaments and take a stroll down memory lane with each ornament. I always quiz Curtis on where we got each one (since most of them came from our honey moon it isn't too hard!) Piper mostly like the Christmas music we had playing and busied herself by dancing her little heart out. She LOVES Jinggle bells. Of course after we decorated it was picture time. I WISH I was a photographer! this is the best I got. And to finish off we had homemade cinnamon rolls - yum! Actually I think Pilsbury makes them better:) Anyway it was so fun and we're still having fun preping for big festivities!

I figured I'd add some recent pictures of Bailey while everything was working for me (computer wise) So here she is...

She is the HAPPIEST baby I've ever seen! REALLY! and totally SOCIAL - not like anyone else in this family! She talks to everyone and smiles at everything! She has an ear infection right now and last night she was getting fussy while Curtis was holding her but she was trying to smile through the cries that were coming on! It was so cute and so sad.

So I always put her in her bouncer when we eat dinner - so she can be included- and the other night this is what she did.

"hey guys - what's for dinner?"

Today Piper and I decided to start BAKING! HOORAY! I love ALL the yummy Christmas treats everyone makes (looks like I won't be loosing any of that weight too soon - Who cares though right! You just CAN'T pass up Christmas treats! I'll start after Christmas...haha famous last words right!) Anyway, we made the dough for mom and gramma's famous icebox cookies! oh DIVINE! Bailey woke half way though and I didn't want to stop so she got strapped on to help. Piper took this picture - good job Piper.

Bailey is so excited for the delightful treats - little does she know she can't eat them yet

I ran to get the camera and this is what I came back to. She TOTALLY got caught with her hand in the cookie DOUGH!

Well, hope y'all are having just as much fun getting ready for Christmas! We're so greatful to have such good friends and family - we love you!

Bailey

Just thought I'd update the blog with some new pictures of Bailey. Here she is sucking her thumb. It's so cute! She sucks her left thumb and grabs the back of her head with her other hand. I took this one today. Don't mind the messy room - Piper and I had to work today (at the Y) and I didn't have time to make my bed:( Anyway Piper wanted to hold her "baby sister". She LOVES her sister so much and Bailey LOVES her big sister soooo much. It's fun to see them interact. Piper can really get Bailey to laugh!

This is Bailey in her SUPER cute dress! I LOVE THIS DRESS!! Piper grew out of it so fast! So i'm SOOO excited to get to use it with Bailey. Isn't she SUPER cute!!! Loving the eyes!

Too fun. She got wear her cute dress shoping on saturday. She was the cutes baby at the mall!

Had to get a picture with the shoes! Thanks Carole!

We took Piper mini putting for Labor day. I thought this picture was supper precious. She had such a blast and we had so much fun doing something different. Curtis and I haven't gone mini putting in FOREVER!! We were able to go with our friends which made it even more fun for us AND Piper! Piper just LOVES her friend Emily and of course had a ball getting to play all day with her. Swiming with Dad

A very chill baby

my attempt at a home photo shoot - didn't go so well but I still caught her super cuteness

Sisters

Best friends

I've been wanting to put up new pictures of the girls for a long time now but every time I try, the pictures take FOREVER to upload so I give up. Turns out these saved from my last attempt so HOORAY! Piper is just LOVEING having a sister and LOVES Bailey SO much. She loves to play mommy and helps out tons with changing diapers and fetching burp rags. Crying doesn't ever seem to bother her and usually when Bailey starts to cry Piper will start singing her the rock-a-by song. Story time with daddy is a favorite. Piper is in HEAVEn - not so sure about Bailey! Piper doesn't care about the screaming though, she thinks this is the BEST!

I kept forgetting to put these pictures up of Bailey's blessing day. Bailey did great, although I was SURE she would scream through the whole thing (she was hungry). She didn't make a peep though and daddy gave a great blessing. Piper was just done by this point and was sick of the camera. Don't you love the pout and the folded arms. What a personality!

So I know I totally wrote a NOVEL! I just did that so I could print it and put it in my journal - (kill two birds with one stone) so don't read it all just enjoy the pictures!


Everything went great with Bailey's delivery. We decided to get induced on monday (my due date was the thursday before) which I was NOT excited about! I kept hoping I would just go into labor on my own over the weekend but it didn't happen. So we went to the hospital at 7 am on monday and they started the petocin at 8:30am. At lunch time they broke my water which made contractions TOTALLY SUCK! But I was insistant on holding out on getting the epidural because I was so scared it would hurt like the last one. So I waited and Curtis and the nurse thought I was CRAZY (and I was). I opted for the IV drugs which did absolutely NOTHING!!!!!! NOT ONE THING. Everyone said it takes the edge off or it makes you not care about the pain - yeah right! I sure as heck didn't 'not care' about the pain and it took no edge off - they killed. At one point Curtis grabbed my hand to try and keep me from pulling my hair out litterally. Finally the nurse asked what my big problem was with the epidural and i told her i didn't want it to hurt. Ha! She was probably laughing inside thinking 'HELLO you already hurt!' Anyway she offered to have the anesthesiologist come in and talk to me about it and i agreed. He was a supper nice, crazy guy. He has Curtis' sence of humor. He told me the name for what had happened to me last time I had an epidural and said he couldn't promise it wouldn't happen again. By that point I was DESPERATE to stop the pain so I gave him the OK. I just could NOT stop shaking and was SOOOOO worried it would hinder him and finally was able to suck it up and hold still just long enough for him to put it in. It went great! I won't say it didn't hurt but it was TONS better than last time. When he was all done he asked if i had had the shots of pain this time and I told him no. He was like - huh, I thought you'd have them again. I'm thinkin' well thanks for telling me! ( I guess really i'm glad he didn't or I wouldn't have gone through with it) So last time i had an epidural it hurt like HECK but it worked almost instantly. This time - that was not the case. It didn't hurt as bad but it took a good 45 min to an hour to kick in. Again, I thought i was going to die waiting. I think the anesthesiologist was even stumped at why it was taking so long. At one point I think he thought I might be needing to push before it would kick in which I was soooooo going to be bugged about - I kept praying it would kick in before I had to push. I just CANNOT imagine pushing through that and feeling EVERYTHING - YUCK!!!!!! FINALLY it did kick in and I got a good hour nap before it was time to deliver. It was the BEST rest I have EVER gotten. I was SO happy. Anyway, just before 5 a nurse came in to check out everything ( I had been at a 10 but they were just having me wait till the doc got done with work and do the whole rest and decend thing) She had me push twice to see where it got the baby to. When she was done she said 'looks like you'll be having a baby in 15 min.' Curtis and I both were like YEAH RIGHT! She obviously does not know how long i pushed last time (3 HOURS) but sure enough, the doctor came in - I pushed 3 times, a grand total of 4 min35sec and Bailey was out! I could feel the pressure leave my stomach! It felt SO good! So that's Bailey's birth story. She was born at 5pm on Monday July 27,2009. Weighed 8lbs 2 oz and 20 in long. dark brown hair like her sister . She came out rooting (not like her sister who wanted nothing to do with nursing) and nursed like a pro from the begining.

Piper got a new baby too. She LOVES Bailey AND her new doll. She thought it was so fun that her doll laughs, crys and makes sucking noises on her bottle.

I felt a TON better after this delivery than I did with Pipers

Here we are at home with the beautiful flowers Curtis' parents sent.

Piper helping me hold her new baby sister.

Piper is the BEST big sister ever! She loves her new baby sister and is so protective of her. I just love how sweet she is with her and am SO glad she accepts having a new body in the house!

Bailey Jane

Hey everyone! Sorry it took so long to get pictures up. There are more to come but this is all I had patience for this time around (my comp. is slow). Anyway, Bailey was born July 27th at 5 pm and weighed 8lbs 2 oz. 20 in long. She's healthy and has been SO much fun! Piper just ADORES her and has been SO good. I'll update you on more later.

Curtis' Surgery

So on Wed Curtis had his ACL surgery. Here he is goining in - happy. And here he is after - not so happy. Poor guy threw up all night and was not feeling good - how could you I guess! Anyway, Curtis has been such a trooper and is always so happy - He's such a good example to me and Piper. He is SO set on getting his knee back in shape fast and is doing good on his therapy (relatively - there hasn't been much yet just because he JUST had the surgery but I heard him in there today really trying hard to do the few excercises they have given him. It's really amazing what muscles you loose. For example... the quad stops working because of the nerve damage and you have to re-teach it to listen when you want to use it. It was amazing to see at the doctors. When he first said to lift his leg Curtis COULD NOT no matter how hard he tried and his leg would do little spasms but after a couple tries in therapy, with the coach guiding him, he was able to get it up by himself. Good job Curtis!) Anyway, the day after surgery Curtis was bound and determined to walk - so there's my cripple hobbling down the street at 7:30Am thursday morning. It was funny - We decided that the nerve block hadn't worn off yet. He hasn't really done that again. It will all come back at it's own pace but i'm proud of him for being so dedicated and not being a big weenie. He really has been taking care of himself and has such a good attitude! Hope you feel better soon dear!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend camping in N. Carolina. We thought it would be fun to take Piper out to give it a try and it was. She loved it. She got to play on the "beach" all day with the other kids (which she though was heaven), ride a paddle boat with her dad, eat smores (actually she didn't like them!), cook by the fire, and sleep in a tent. She's STILL talking about sleeping in a tent. Curtis and I had fun although I think Curtis liked it a little more than I did - I think I bring bad weather with me when I camp. I have yet to have a good weather camping experience (minus NV). Last time we went in UT there was snow on the ground and I didn't sleep a wink because of the cold. This time it rained the whole weekend! So we were pretty wet. I was done with it by monday and ready for my dry bed at home! Anyway we had lots of fun and we're glad we got to go! Here's a pic of Curtis going down sliding rock. The water was FEEZING!!! He did it a couple times and loved it. I tried it once but once I saw the picture Curtis took of me (in my swim suit all fat and pregnant) I decided I would put my shirt back on and never put a swim suit on for the rest of my LIFE! It was fun though and I'm glad I did it - don't think the little baby liked it too much, I think the cold got all the way to her!

Piper and her fun Dino camping chair.

Helping dad with the fire.

A busy April

Wow! I'm just realizing how busy a month April has been!! There has been so much going on in the fam!! New baby Wayatt was born - hooray! We can't wait to see him (who knows when though:( John graduated - congratulations John! We have a lot picked out for you next door. And lots of birthdays- Piper's and Curtis'!! Happy birthday! Curtis' birthday was thursday so we got to have presents and cake AGAIN! How fun! Piper was about jumping out of her skin when she saw the presents for daddy. I kindda felt bad that what he opened was so boring to her. Oh well, she benefited from her present to dad. Piper got Curtis a family set of camping chairs for our upcoming camping trip. She LOVES her green dragon? chair and can't WAIT to try it out at the camp site.

Saturday we decided to enjoy the awesome weather at the beach. It was Way fun but WAY windy. Piper loved it though! Curtis and I decided on a new hobby we need to take up - wind surfing! It looked SOOOOOOOOOOO fun! So we'll have to see about getting into that! Here's a picture of my LOVELY belly. I know - i'm a COW ! This is the only picture that will ever be posted of me pregnant for the rest of this pregnancy and probably any other for that matter but I had to show off my new swim suit! I NEVER thought in a million years i would buy a maturnity swim suit because HELLO I would NEVER put on a swim suit while pregnant BUT... The timing didn't work out quite right with this pregnacy so I HAD to get one if to survive the upcoming summer. Luckily I found one! Let me tell you I was worried for a while there - the suits I was finding were pretty rough! Anyway, that's all the fun we've been up to. Happy April!

Happy Birthday Piper!

Last thursday was Pipers 2nd B-day and we had so much fun celebrating all weekend!! Piper's favorit present was the tea set Julie and Donald and the kids gave her so Thursday morning we had Piper's little friend, Emily, over for a tea party. I made Mini cupcakes (which they both could have cared less about - that's ok Carole and I ate them all!) and they had lemonade in there little tea pot. Piper and Emily both LOVED pouring each other a cup. Piper hasn't quite figured out that when the cup is full you stop pouring - so our patio was pretty sticky! They had a blast though - Thanks Emily for playing with us!Dad Brought home balloons for Piper which she LOVED! She's obsessed with balloons and that was a present in itself for her! After dinner we let Piper open our presents and it was so fun to see her get in to opening them. She got a little keyboard which she jammed to all night, some butterflies and a net for the bath (needless to say she insisted on a bath that night!), and a lawn mower that blows bubbles. We has so much fun! Just like last year, Piper could have cared less about her cake. She loved blowing out the candle but was SOOOO not interested in eating it! Crazy child!!

Then we got to celebrate again on saturday with Piper's friends at the park! We had pizza and cake and tond of fun playing in the water!
Piper LOVES "swimming" this year and just couldn't get enough of the "sprinkler".