What kind of title can you come up with to categorize a few random pictures covering a years worth of living? I don't know either, hence...

Bath time is always a party

I don't teach her these things.

Madelyn plays in the potatoes every evening while I am preparing dinner. I find them on the floor throughout the house on a daily basis. I haven't tried dirt for a while but Madelyn sure likes it.

Sisters being sisters

 

Madelyn had her first birthday and is no longer a baby. She is developing into a full fledged little girl who loves to get into everything she can reach. She loves playing with her older sisters and she loves to eat, eat, eat. I'm not just talking about food either; dirty raw potatoes, pencil erasers, cardboard. If it can be torn off and chewed she eats it.

I just love all of the cute little things Annabelle does that gives me a chance to laugh.

Talon and I were excited to celebrate our sixth anniversary in the Caribbean. We boarded a cruise ship in Galveston, TX and spent five nights aboard a Carnival cruise line. Snorkeling in the clear water was amazing as was our visit to the Uxmal Mayan ruins. It's always fun spending some time (and money) alongside my husband.

After a visit to see our cousins in Aberdeen, all of the girls fell asleep on the ride home and each one of them made me laugh.

Hopefully I will be able to post a little more often in the future (so you can remember what your grandchildren look like mom), but until then I hope your days are happy and that you are drinking lots of milk.

Partying hard

 Talon has been working very hard on and off work this summer. One project that he took on was building this playhouse for the girls. There is a large sandbox beneath a landing, a tall slide, and two swings. The girls love to have their friends over to play on their new playhouse. I am so thankful for a husband who is so talented and willing to give the girls (and me) all they need and want.

Our family vacation this summer consisted of going north on a camping trip to red fish lake. The girls had a blast helping Mom and Dad set up camp, cook dinner over a fire, and sleep together as a family in our tent. We spent some time at the lake the next morning and visited a few places including a fish hatchery, an historic gold dredge, and viewing the amazing sights of the beautiful scenic Idaho. One of my personal favorite stops was bathing in a hot spring that merged into the snake river. It was cool sitting in a small pool with water mixed with the freezing river water and searing hot spring water. It felt like we were part of the river and the beauty that surrounded us.

 

One more exciting event of the summer was Talon's birthday. 28 years old, yeah! (In case you are wondering, his birthday cake says "Dad is great! we made him a chocolate cake!" sort of a family joke). We love Dad and are so grateful for all he provides for us. Life is good.

We call her smiles

 

 Madelyn at 3 months old

 

Wide eyed beauty 

 

 

4 months old

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the naked shot but I just have to show off her chunkiness.

 

 

5 months old

 

 

 

 This is the smile that she gives me every morning when I pull her out of her crib. I can't help but smile every time I see it. My baby is growing up so fast. I sure love this smiley girl.

 

Madelyn Janelle Nelson

My due date was the 17th of February. Like many expectant women, that date came and went with nothing to show but an extremely huge midsection. This was my first overdue baby and I now understand the depth of misery of my fellow overdue mother's. It's rough.

An inducement date was then scheduled for the 20th of February. The doctor told me to call the hospital at 5:30 in the morning, and they would schedule a time for me to come in. Instead, they told me they were full and that I needed to call back in a few hours. Let's just say this happened the entire morning and afternoon, me calling in every few hours and them telling me that the inn was full (poor Mary). It was difficult watching the clock all day, the whole time anticipating something as exciting/painful as giving birth. At 2:00pm I decided to go to my doctor because if the hospital 'wasn't going to let me have my baby', then I was due for a doctor's visit anyway. (Secretly, I was hoping he would break my water and then the hospital would have to admit me). No such luck. I was just going to have to wait (the dreaded word) one more day. I was admitted the next morning at 6:00.

The doctor broke my water at 7:00 with hopes that that alone would start my labor. After two hours of nothing, they started me on Pitocin (also known as oxytocin which Talon has down in the barn for the cows. He kept telling me that next time he could just stick me with a needle and start the labor himself. Stick me with one of those huge cow needles, no thanks.) Anyway, It took about an hour and a half for my contractions to start becoming regular, another half an hour before they became painful. At this point, I was dilated to about a six and the nurse told me that it was now or never for an epidural if I wanted one. For curiosities sake, I opted out of an epidural.

Quickly the contractions became very painful and soon enough I was telling the nurses that they needed to get the doctor. They weren't quite sure I was ready because although I was dilated to an 8.5, the baby still wasn't dropping into position. Fortunately, my doctor came to the hospital everyday at noon, and came to check on me. I was dilated to a 9, but he said my cervix was so stretchy I could probably start pushing. My first push, my thoughts were, "Now I know what that burning feeling is." My second contraction, my thoughts were, "I will not do this again, this baby is coming out NOW," and I pushed so hard I'm pretty sure I ruined my stomach muscles forever and I'm pretty sure I know what it would feel like to internally combust. My final thoughts of the ordeal were exactly, "That was horrible." but were immediately followed by tears of complete joy when I first set eyes on the third member of our family, Madelyn Janelle Nelson.

She was born about 12:15 in the afternoon weighing 8 lbs. 2 oz., 20 in. long. She had a full head of dark hair and was overall very healthy. It wasn't until later that I learned that she had had the cord wrapped around her neck three times (perhaps the reason she didn't drop for so long and also the reason it took the doctor a while to get her through the birth canal (of course prolonging the horrible burning sensation). The nurses asked me what I thought about a delivery without an epidural. My response, "I like epidurals."

 

They brought me lunch in bed immediately after the delivery.

 

 

Both mom and baby are showered and moved into their room for the night.

 

We are so blessed to have another beautiful and healthy daughter in our family.

Merry Christmas!

Who would have ever thought that in order to distract myself from things weighing heavily on my mind, I would turn to thinking on my kids. 

After looking through some pictures, I couldn't help but smile and remember some of the times my kids made me laugh recently.

Annabelle's new favorite toy is the clothes dryer. One day, she spent half an hour inside playing with her dolls while I was folding laundry. 

 

 Look at that cheesy grin. I love catching moments like this that encompass your child's personality so perfectly. I never want to forget it.

(So since there is really no point to this post and I may not get to Christmas cards this year) I would like to make this my Christmas wish to you... may you all enjoy the small moments that make life grand. 

My Birthday Cake!

My baby girl turned three. However, she apparently didn't turn three on her birthday, she turned three on her birthday cake. Leah was so excited for her "birthday party/cake" this year. For a month she had been asking for her star sprinkles and strawberry cake mix. The night I made her cake, she was so excited, she kept sneaking out of her room to come look at the cake on the kitchen counter saying, "I just want to smell it mom."

I think her face in this first picture says just how excited she was. 

Even the 25 cent pony I found at a yard sale got a huge excited reaction. 

 Aunt Tiff bought her a tricycle. What an Aunt!

Like all kids, she loved having all of the attention to herself for the day and couldn't wait until her next birthday cake. 

Pregnancy update

 Leah loves taking pictures, so I figured that she could take some pregnancy update photo's for the blog. This is what she came up with... Not so great.

Awesome picture of my messy house.

 So then I decided to try to take a better picture of myself... I think they turned out worse. This is the only picture I took that doesn't give you a close up view of my entire armpit. Your welcome.

I am currently 26 weeks along. Our little girl weighs about 1 3/4lbs. and is around 11in. long. All of her senses are mostly developed and she is kicking and somersaulting more than ever. 

I am feeling pretty huge but pretty happy to be starting my third trimester in the next week. I'm to the point that I reach for something in the kitchen cupboards and knock down everything on the counters below. Oh yeah... I have a huge belly.  

The girls are excited for their sister to arrive. Leah always wants to feel her sister move and Annabelle just really likes to sit on and thrust her elbows into her sister (or better said, my stomach). 

Wish us luck in the next few months.