On your mark, get set, go....

We officially have a 2 wheel bike rider! We are so proud of our big girl. She had lots of help learning from her daddy, her aunt Aunna, her uncle Phillip, her Papa and her Gigi. Mommy did NOT help because I decided that learning to ride a bike was a job best taught by her "daddy" (what I really meant by "daddy" was anyone but me because I had absolutely none of the patience needed to teach her how, nor did I have any desire to do it. I figure I do all the homework, piano, and never ending questions during the day while he's at work so I should get out of this one thing).

Poor Hunter was so distraught over Madison learning to ride a bike on 2 wheels that he kept saying "bike, Hunter's bike, bike" over and over. I don't know if he wanted me to push him, put his bike on the pavement, or take a picture of him on his bike? Or maybe he thought this bike would turn into a two wheeler? Or maybe, my best guess yet, is that Madison would not let him on the pavement when she wanted to ride her bike. I can't confirm that, but I that would definitely be something Madison would do.....

Going, going, gone....

Getting a baby to sleep without rocking them, or placing them in the swing to do the job for me, is a tough one. Presley is super tough because she's a snuggle bug and she loves to be held, and I love to hold her, so we are finally starting to figure it out to where it is a little less difficult for both of us.

The problem is that once she is asleep she is so dang cute that I want to pick her up and hold her.

Yep, I bet you are still wondering why we have had issues........

Ready for Church

A week or so ago I finally got everyone ready with enough time to get a picture of the kids before we left. This was the best of the lot, but I still think Hunter has a goofy face. He's starting to get tired of me getting pictures of him. I'll get one picture, barely, and then he goes "All done." Nice.

Aren't they cute? I love, love, love Presley's dress. You can't really tell, but it is so floofy (not a real word, I know, but the only way to describe it!). She absolutely hates it and it is next to impossible to get her buckled into her carseat, but it is so dang cute! I hadn't put her hairbow on yet for the picture, and that does complete the outfit.

This picture is my kids and their personalities to a T. I love it. They crack me up with their funny faces.

Whatever it takes.....

You know how every kid has something that makes them so happy and for the life of you you can't figure out why?

Hunter likes to floss his teeth.

Seriously, the kid loves to floss. He would do it all day long if I let him. Whenever he goes downstairs to forage for food while I'm getting ready I yell to him that he can floss his teeth and he'll come running back upstairs.

He does a really good job too.

I think he takes after his Aunt Alyssa... she flosses 10 times a day.

Sibling love

Here are all three of my kids together.

Sadly it's the only picture I have of the three of them without anyone else in it. The great thing about blogging, especially when I am semi caught up, is that I am able to know where I am lacking in my picture taking....I will be getting more sibling pictures from here on out.

Madison loves being the mom of Presley...Hunter and Presley are going to grow up thinking they have two moms. I keep telling her that certain things are mommy jobs but it just makes it worse, she wants to be the mommy so bad. She'll tell me, "But mom, I'm the big sister, I want to help." We'll see how she feels when she's older and I start expecting more things from her.

Hunter still gets so excited when he sees or hears her. When we are in the car and she fusses Hunter will tell me, "Mommy, baby Presley crying." Yep, I hear it too, dude. Thanks for the heads up.

He still doesn't know what to do with her. He'll come up to us and ask to hold her, so we let him and he'll just look at her for a minute and then poke her. Then he says "All done."

Mostly they love giving Presley kisses. This little girl gets a million kisses a day. The kids will come up to her when she is sleeping and wake her up to give her kisses. I get it, I do, I love kissing her cute little cheeks too, but sometimes I need to get stuff done and I need both hands to do it. If it was up to me I would sit and hold her all day long. As it is I do that most of the day anyway. I get a short amount of time where my baby will love me unconditionally, when that time is over I can get all the housework I want to do done.

St. George 2010

Every Martin Luther King weekend we meet some of our favorite people in St. George for a long weekend. I always feel guilty because we only have to drive for 2 hours to get there and they have to drive for 5. Unfortunately there is no better "middle" to meet in. Plus we are able to use a family house so we don't have to get hotel rooms. It works out really well.

We have a few traditions that have developed over the last 4 years. Amy and I always get a day to go shopping, we always get a babysitter and drive to Mesquite one night for a crab leg buffet, and we play as many games as we can fit it. Funny enough, as the kids get older it's harder to get enough distraction free time to play, so we end up staying up all hours of the night playing Mexican Train, Blokus or Settler's of Catan. We LOVE to play games with these guys. We will forever be in their debt for introducing us to Settler's, it has become our favorite game to play.

We actually got a group shot this year....of course we had to pick THIS year, when I was 7 months pregnant, to finally get said group shot. Go figure.......

Madison and Adi are the only girls between the two of us (well, now there is Presley too, but at the time there were just the 2) and they had so much fun playing together this year. They are a few years apart but ended up doing really well together. Other than playing with Adi's Barbies their favorite activity of the trip was playing "Airplane" in the golf cart at the house. It was hilarious, but we didn't mind a bit. We took the battery out so they couldn't go anywhere and they played to their hearts content. Amy and I got such a kick out of their game that we snapped a bunch of pictures while they played.

Amy and I both had little boys in November of 2007, we were actually due the same week but Amy ended up having Davis a few weeks earlier than I had Hunter. It's always fun to see how similar/different they are since they are so close in age. Here is a picture of Bennett, their oldest boy, Madison, Hunter and Davis. Bennett is so helpful when we all get together, it makes it a ton easier on us parents.

Carson, their second boy, doesn't like his picture taken so I snapped one when he wasn't paying attention. He played really well with the younger kids too. Madison gets a kick out of playing the older boys and being introduced to the games that they play since most of her boy friends are her age or younger.

Here are our two little guys. They have grown up so much over the last year. I was a little worried about how Hunter would do with another kid his age, but he was nicer than I thought he would be.

We can't wait until next year! When we were leaving Bennett said to all of us that he wishes that we could get together like this more often. I think so too. If only we lived closer to each other.....

Disney on Ice

Now that I have finally finished 2009 I can move on to some of the fun things we have done in 2010. Whoo Hoo!

Back in January we took the kids to Disney on Ice. Madison was so excited. We had taken her to Princesses on Ice a few years ago, so she knew just what to expect.

Here is a (semi) family picture. Ryan was taking the picture so he wasn't able to be in it.

We got to the Thomas & Mack Center an hour early so that Madison could meet the live princesses. We were quite confused by the advertisers definition of "Come early to meet the Princesses" that was put on the ads. This is what they actually meant by "meet the princesses":

We waited in line for about 20 min, snapping pictures along the way of the princesses dresses and such (anything to keep Madison from complaining about how long it was taking).

Once we got to the head of the line this is what we found.......

... A roped off area where one of the princesses stood and waived to the kids. I'm sorry, but this is not my definition of "meeting a princess." She was so disappointed! You can see her off to the left of the picture waiving to Cinderella.

Once the show started Hunter was enthralled. He liked it more than Madison did. She was such a stinker so I didn't get any pictures of her during the show, plus she was sitting next to me and so I couldn't get a good angle with my huge ol' tummy in the way.

He kept pointing to the show and laughing, he was captivated. It was fun for him. I still think he liked the princesses more than the Cars characters.

The light up spinny toy that the kids got provided much of the entertainment. They both loved to light the toy up when it was dark. Hunter kept his finger on the button almost the entire show, it was funny.

At the end he clapped away for the performances. He is so dang cute I can't even stand it.

Madison is cute too, but I didn't get very many pictures of her. That's what she gets for sitting next to me and being a grump.

A Milestone...Farewell 2009

I have hit a milestone on our blog.

I have finally caught up enough to say farewell to 2009.

It's about time.

Sledding

Over Christmas we were able to go sledding together as a family at Rock Canyon Park. Now, as a family that meant that everyone got to sled except for me. I finally get Ryan to go sledding, which I have been begging for at every opportunity-anytime we were near snow I would tell him how much fun it was and beg to go. I LOVE sledding, it's awesome. Anyway, I get the family to the sledding hill and of course I'm pregnant and therefore not allowed to have ANY fun. Well, I guess taking pictures was fun, but come on, really????? I did go down the baby hill once, I couldn't leave without one run. Ryan, of course, now loves sledding and talks regularly about how we are taking the kids next time there is snow in Utah and we are there.

I just roll my eyes. What else can I do???? I married a Cali boy and introduced him to the world of snow skiing (the one time he went in high school doesn't count, I've heard the story, he didn't ski, he slid down the hill and thankfully didn't kill himself).

As a general rule he hates the snow and cold (I think it's hilarious that he served his mission in Canada- Heavenly Father does have a sense of humor).

I took a ton of pictures, so this posting will be full of them.

Here is our little guy all bundled up. He makes such funny faces at me. He was quite excited, he just didn't know what to make of all the snow we had during Christmas.

I got this one of him at the top of the hill and I can't resist it. He was pointing to the hill wanting to go down. He just melts my heart, he has me wrapped around his little finger. He is such a monster but he gives me a sweet look and I melt. I'm such a sucker.

Here the sledders are, getting all settled in and ready for some fun.

Madison could not get enough of the hill. I'm pretty sure she cried when we left. She is such a daredevil and had no fear at all. She went down from the top and didn't even think twice about it.


We even had a baby sled for Hunter. He was 2, but he didn't know how to hold on so we used this one which buckled him in so he couldn't get hurt. He LOVED it. He laughed the entire way down. His entire face lit up. It was awesome to watch.

But of course we had to pull him back up the hill. The one good thing about being pregnant was that Ryan had to do all the hauling. There was no way I was going to slip and fall and lose my baby over sledding, at least that was what he told me. Who am I to argue???

Those of you who know me well are very well aware of my lack of coordination. I can't walk without tripping over my own feet.

Ryan even took Hunter down a few times with him on the "Big" sled. Hunter loved that one too, but it made me a little nervous.

There were a few wipe outs, but thankfully no one got hurt. I think Madison even liked wiping out a little bit.

The smile and laughter tipped me off

The kids were so sad when we left that Ryan used a shovel and made a ramp in the back yard of his parent's home when we got back. The kids were in pure heaven. I wouldn't let Hunter go on this one, it was not safe enough.

Madison and Robbie got a good amount of air on the jump Ryan made. The first few times they went down they couldn't land it and got a little hurt so he had to make it a little smaller.

I think their favorite was going down the hill together. I think Madison cut off Robbie's oxygen. She held on for dear life.

Poor Hunter had to find other ways to amuse himself while his sister and cousin sled at the house. He got nice and wet in the snow......

....and he found the John Deere. He'll "drive" for hours.

We had so much fun that day. Hopefully next time I can sled with them.....and maybe we can find a sledding hill with the tow rope to take us to the top....that's how I like to sled :)

Hunter's 2nd Birthday

One of the things about having family all over the country, and seeing them as much as we do, we get the opportunity to celebrate our kid's birthdays on several occasions. It will be a sad day for them when they realize that not every year they will get 3 or more birthday celebrations. Until then they are enjoying lots of treats.

Hunter turned 2 on November 23, 2009. I couldn't believe how fast his first 2 years went. I can't wait for this year to fly by simply for the "terrible 2's" to be over.

For his actual birthday we got him a cake from "Nothing Bundt Cakes," you can't go wrong with them. I picked Red Velvet since it's my favorite and he'll eat anything.

We had some friends in town on November 22nd, so we went to Serendipity to meet up with them. Aunna had come in town for the Thanksgiving holiday so we split a mini-banana split and shared with Hunter. I still don't think we finished it, but it was awesome! Hot fudge, whipped cream and ice cream, how can you really go wrong???? As you can see Hunter LOVED this. What you can't see from the picture is that he is standing up in the highchair, as much as the strap would let him, trying to get us to give him another bite. It was hilarious. He really enjoyed it. I so rarely let my kids have treats so they take full advantage of it when they get them, I figured it was his birthday the next day so what the heck. It's not like I could have eaten it in front of him and told him no.

We drove up to Utah the day a few days after his birthday and as soon as we got there he opened his present from Ryan's parents. He was so excited, he got to tear paper so he was in heaven. He even gave us his "look of concentration," i.e., his tongue hanging out of his mouth. It was awesome. He has been sticking his tongue out of his mouth since he was tiny, I still love it.

We even got to go to Grandma Ainge's house that weekend for more presents. He loved his bucket with Lego's. His favorite thing to do with it now is dump out all the Lego's, get in the wagon and make Madison pull him around. As much as Mads is a mini-Ryan, Hunter is a mini-me. That is totally something I would have done as a kid. He thinks it is great fun.

Madison is cool with it most of the time, but she gets sad because she is too little to get in and be pulled around. She doesn't mind playing with her little brother, but she is all about fair (that is one of the few things she gets from me. I don't know if Ryan was that way, but I sure was/am).

We were able to get a great picture of the two kids and Grandma Ainge before we left. She is so good to our kids, they just love her.

Hunter's Story

Like I said with Madison's birthday post I keep this blog as a journal of sorts, so here is the story of how Hunter was born.

Hunter was born at 6:36 pm on November 23, 2009 in Henderson, Nv at St. Rose De Lima Hospital. He weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz, was 20 inches long and was 6 days early (he was actually due on November 29th).

He was so much different to deliver than Madison was. I was truly expecting a similar experience, maybe a little shorter but that's about it.

We had had the pleasure of spending the day before he was born, Thanksgiving day, with Ryan's aunts and their families (it was such a fun day). About 1:30 am the next morning I started getting contractions every 3 minutes. They didn't hurt that bad and I was able to sleep pretty well through most of them so I didn't think that much of it. About 4:30 am I figured that the contractions coming every 3 minutes for hours on end meant I should get to the hospital. I had to get IV antibiotics and I wanted to make sure I got enough before the baby came that he wouldn't end up with Strep B, that would have been awful!

I got up and showered and put the rest of my stuff together for the hospital. We called Ryan's aunt, got Madison up and ready, took her over there and headed for the hospital figuring the next time we saw her we would have her baby brother with us.

Since my water hadn't broken the hospital didn't admit me, they just wanted to monitor everything to see if I was really in labor. Finally at around 10 am they sent me home since I wasn't "in labor," even though I was having contractions every 3 minutes. They even had me walk around the hospital for an hour to see if that would get me going. It didn't.

They told me to go home, maybe go shopping (it was black Friday after all), eat, take a bath, take a nap, whatever. But they figured they'd see me again that day or the next.

We tried to go shopping, but after standing in the Old Navy line for 30 min, having contractions every 3 minutes and not being able to sit, I went to the car and had Ryan finish checking out without me. Needless to say we didn't go anywhere else....I think it's the only time I have passed up an opportunity to shop. It just wasn't worth it.

We picked up Madison from Pam's and grabbed lunch. I think I ate all of 3 bites....I had no desire for food (again, another first). We went home, I took a bath and a nap.

About 3:30 pm I woke up having much harder contractions. I got up, took another bath (the nurses said it would help me get going) and called Pam again.

At about 4:30 pm we got everything ready to go again and as we were walking out the door my water broke. I knew we weren't coming back home at that point.

We dropped Madison off and returned to the hospital (it was about 5 pm at this point), I was actually admitted this time. We got situated in the L&D room and Ryan got settled in to wait it out all night like we did with Madison. I was expecting a lot more hours of pain and was in serious pain, after about 15 minutes I asked for an epidural. There was no way I could have made it hours longer with the contractions I was having.

By the time I had an IV bag and they got the anesthesiologist in it was about 5:50 pm and I was already starting to push. I got the epidural and by the time it kicked in it was a little after 6. I almost said not to do it since I was starting to push anyway, but they kept telling me not to push since the doctor wasn't there yet. Plus I was getting a little hysterical and hyperventilating a bit-it was painful! I figured the epidural should stall the labor a little bit and then I wouldn't have to have the nurses deliver Hunter instead of the doctor. Apparently I went from a 6 to a 10 in about 10 minutes. That would explain the extreme pain. He was an easy, easy delivery. It took no time at all and he came out perfect. Hard to complain about that.......

During the labor Ryan turned on my IPOD and we listened to a playlist I put together for the hospital. I think it is hilarious that he was born to the song "Queen of Memphis" by Confederate Railroad. Well, he was born during the end of "Resolution" by Nick Lachay, which is one of my favorite songs ever, and then "Queen of Memphis."

Judging from the times of the songs I was in the hospital just over an hour for him to be born. It was fast and painful.

Some special things about him when he was born:

He likes to sleep by himself. From the first night he wanted to sleep in his bed, by himself. He was not a cuddler. It worked great for me because I was able to take care of Madison and the house easily.

He almost never fussed. He has always been a happy, content kid. He goes with the flow with no problem. Madison was always a stress case and has had to have a schedule. It's amazing how opposite they are.

He LOVES his older sister. When she came to the hospital he heard her voice and looked right at her. I couldn't believe it, but he has been enamored with her from the beginning.