I just have to say that Lydia is a sweet little lamb.







Although I'm a little confused by her paws. I was under the impression that lambs had hooves?! Oh well.

So it's nearly midnight, and I'm sitting in my very quiet house listening to the dryer tumble. Kurtis and the girls are sleeping and I'm waiting for the dryer to buzz so I can switch the laundry over so Lydia will have clean, dry diapers tomorrow. Yes, we use cloth diapers, but no, they're probably not the kind you're thinking of unless you are up to date on the cloth diapering world. Here's a few pics to show you what I mean.



Anyway, back to my original train of thought. I was just sitting here listening to the dryer and thinking about how much has happened in the last two months. Two months ago, almost at this exact same time(I think it was around 12:30AM so I'm about a half hour early), I had just climbed out of the birthing pool, put on a nightgown, tennis shoes with no socks, and coat to go walk outside. Keep in mind that the temperature was in the single digits, ice and snow was covering the roads, and the wind was blowing. Even though I don't think it was technically snowing, the wind was blowing the frozen ice crystals from the top layer of snow so that I could see it swirling and dancing in the light from the street corner. I remember thinking that my midwife was nuts as Kurtis opened the door and a gust of wind came rushing in, freezing the water that was still dripping down my legs, and thinking that I was nuts for listening to her. I was stalling around 9.5 cm dialated, which is where I stalled with Emmy, and my midwife thought it would be good for me to get out of the house, get a change of scenery. I had agreed to at least try any suggestions she had if this situation came up, and I didn't want to end up with another ceasarean, so I stepped outside.

At this point my contractions were coming fast and hard, with less than 20 seconds between the end of one and the start of another. I honestly did not think I was even capable of walking, much less outside in what felt like subzero temperatures with the wind chill. Boy was I amazed when I not only could, but I actually found it refreshing. Yes, it was cold...very cold, and I was only able to stay out there for about ten minutes with the wind blowing ice up my nightgown, but it helped. Both the cold and having to focus on not slipping on the ice forced me to not concentrate quite so much on the contractions and how painful they were. When Kurtis and I got back inside, I was ready to get back to work.

It's so funny for me to think about that now. On the one hand, I have a hard time believing Lydia is already two months old, but on the other it seems like ages since Kurits and I took that arctic walk outside together in preparation for bringing her into this world.

Well, that's it for my crazy middle-of-the-night rambling. Just wanted to get down my thoughts. Hopefully the dryer will buzz soon.

Emmy got her first invite to a birthday party for someone who isn't family this week. So she is off this morning partying and hopefully having a good time. Lydia is getting sick, though, so I decided it would probably be better if I stayed home with her, so Kurtis is with Emmy. Hopefully Emmy doesn't have too hard of a time actually giving up the little girl's present. She kept calling it "my present" and we would tell her it's for Keyana because it's Keyana's birthday now, not Emmy's, so we'll see how that goes. Thanks to her older cousins and her uncles, Emmy has learned to go after what she feels is hers, so I'm hoping Kurtis is on the look-out and prepared to step in when Emmy decides to go for Keyana's hair. :)

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous here! The sun was shining, blue skies all around, hit the mid-70s, and just a slight breeze. Once Lydia fell asleep after lunch, I took Emmy outside, and she had a great time running around in the grass with Koda and Blaze and trying to figure out how to peddle her new tricycle. Here's looking forward to more warm weather, even though I know I'll regret saying this later when it's hitting the 90s and we don't have central air.

7 weeks!

Wow! Time sure has gone by fast! Seven weeks ago we were we just getting ready to for our first night with Lydia. It's amazing how fast they change when they're this little. I feel so, so blessed to have our two beautiful daughters.

Lydia is doing great! She think she is just over 12 pounds right now, and I realized today that I'm going to have to pull in the box of 3-6 month clothes and get them washed. She's already not fitting into some of her 0-3, and I bet she outgrows the rest in the next week or two.

Lydia is very social and loves trying to talk to me and smiling. She's been smiling a lot since whe was about 3 weeks old, and she even tries to laugh out load now. It comes out as either a high squeal or a soft heh, heh and it's pretty dang funny to hear.

Speaking of time flying by, my niece Anya turned four today. Happy Birthday, Anya! We wish we were there to party with you!

Some pictures just because, and no, I didn't technically get caught up on all the housework, but I decided that wasn't really possible, so...

Emmy at her birthday party



Our beautiful girls


Lydia after her blessing


And a smile


Goodnight!

Somewhat of an update

I appologize now, but there aren't going to be any pictures. I can't count the number of times I have signed on to blogger the past month with the intention of doing a new post, only to decide that I either didn't have the time or the energy to upload the pictures to the computer and then onto the blog. And since I felt like it wasn't really worth looking at if there weren't any pictures, I ended up not posting. But now I figure something...anything is better than nothing. So here's a short update just to let everyone know that we're still alive and doing well in our little corner of the world.

Valentine's Day weekend Kurtis' parents came to visit, along with Katie and Kelsey and Chris. Emmy was very excited to see everybody again and didn't know what to do with all of the loves she was getting. Then Kurtis left on the 21st of February for training with the Guard and didn't get back until March 3rd. Being left alone with a four week old baby and a not quite two year old, I ended up basically living at my parent's house while he was gone. Emmy's birthday was on Feb. 27th, but because Kurtis was gone we waited to have a party until after he got back. The morning of the day he did come home, my parents left bright and early to fly back east to see my mom's brother and go to Florida.

Lydia's blessing was on March 8th, and while I'm sad that my parents weren't there, I'm glad they got to go have a much needed vacation and just relax. A lot of family was able to come for it, including all of Kurtis' family except for Kristina and David and their girls because they're in Maryland. Lydia started crying the second Kurtis put her on her back to start the blessing and cried the whole way through. After he said amen and sat her back up, she immediately went silent and looked out at the ward like she hadn't been upset at all. It was actually pretty funny.

We finally had Emmy's birthday party on the 10th after my parents got home from their trip. She had a Cinderella cake and had to wear her "princess dress". She blew out her candles all by herself and is the proud new owner of a pink and purple tricycle with tassles in the handle bars. Part of the decorations were four balloons filled with helium, and she had to take them with her everywhere the three of four days after the party until they didn't float anymore. She even liked to have them tied to the back of her chair while she was eating and they had to be tied to the towel rack in the bathroom while she was in the tub. They were very good friends to her for those few short days.

The other big news is that I'm not watching Audra anymore. Mother Goose had a few openings come up and was wanting some more kids, and I've just been feeling so tired and stressed trying to take care of all three girls by myself during the day, so we felt it was the right time for the change. It's going to be weird not having her anymore and it still doesn't feel like it's sank in fully. This week is Spring Break, so I was already planning on not having her right now. Maybe when next week starts it will seem more real. I know Emmy's going to miss her a lot, so we're going to start having to let them have playdates.

Well, it is now midnight and my hubby and girls are all sleeping peacefully, so I'm going to go climb in bed soon. I promise that once I get caught up on housework and paying the bills I will find the time to get on here and post some new pictures. Notice I said I had to get caught up on housework first, though, so I wouldn't hold your breath! :)

PS I'm not going to read back through this to proofread so please overlook any typos. Thanks!

Crazy

It's so weird to me how quickly time goes by. I can't believe Lydia is almost three weeks old. We've been doing pretty good. Lydia and I had some problems with breastfeeding at first but I'm hoping now we've got all the kinks worked out since she's gained really well the past week. She's a really good baby as long as long as she's not in the car. She hates her carseat and absolutely refuses to take a pacifier so if we go anywhere she screams at the top of her lungs for most of the ride. Emmy is still doing great and loves being a big sister. She hasn't been jealous of Lydia at all which I am so happy about, and she loves helping me with her baby sister.

Lydia at a week old.


This is how I found Emmy after nursing Lydia one day. She fell asleep watching a movie. She didn't even wake up when I moved her to her bed.



Our two girls. Emmy was so excited that Lydia held her finger.



I love this picture! Not sure why but had to share.


Emmy with her pink purse. Aunt Kelsey gave it to her after Lydia was born and she carries it around with her everywhere now.


Lydia ready for Church at two weeks old.



More of my girls.



Thanks for looking!

PS Yes, Becky, that was me who ate the dill pickles in Mother Goose. Apparently it's in my genes since Emmy loves them, too!

Lydia

Just thought I would get on real quick and post a few pictures. Hope you enjoy!