Sweet angels of mine

First Photo Shoot with all three kiddos.

Love these.

I am one proud mama!

Happy Thanksgiving Baby!

Yesterday was awesome.  I got a text message around 1:40 pm saying "I'm having contractions can you call me?".  M has been out to lunch with my family and had been having contractions since about 11:30 am.  After lunch M and G went home to take a nap but the only one who napped was G.  Our little one was getting ready to be born.

I headed home from work around 2:30 pm and arrived home around 3:15 pm.  I grabbed all my gear and we loaded up the car and headed to Dr. Harvey's office to be checked out.

M was having contractions every six minutes but needed to be dilated to a 4 to be admitted to the hospital.  Dr. Harvey gave us the only bad news of the night saying M was still a 3 and would need to walk around for a couple of hours before checking into the hospital.

After making 6 or 7 laps on the skybridge between 1101 Madison and Swedish Hospital and a trip to the parking garage we were ready to try our luck again at triage.  And this time there was good news.  M was a 4+ and heading toward bringing our baby girl into the world.

All of the doctors and nurses that we worked with were so amazing!  They were funny and personable and made us feel very welcome.  Nurses Heather, Tina, and Kristen, and Doctors Ian H.Wright and Dr. Judy Kimelman.  You guys were awesome!

M's first hour was spent getting settled in and getting and epidural.  Dr. Wright was awesome.  He was very professional and very nice hooking M up with some pain relief.  That was around 8 pm.  Dr. Kimelman came in around 9 and broke M's water.  From there the delivery was off like a skyrocket.  M's contractions started closing in on one every 2 minutes or so and it was only a couple more hours before the baby would be born.  In the mean time we got to know our amazing nurse Kristen who took good care of us and was super attentive to all of M's needs.

Around 11 pm M was checked again and was an 8.  They put her in a new position and within a few minutes  the baby had dropped and it was time to start pushing!  M started pushing around 11:35 pm and within 1 1/2 mighty pushes little C entered the world!!  11:42 pm was her official entrance time weighing 7 pounds 0.5 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches long.
Mom and baby got a bunch of bonding time and little Baby Clara was loving it.

Clara already looks like she is content in her new environment.  She is looking around and is the cutest thing we have seen since T and G.  She is going to fit into our family so well.  We are so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers.  This little baby is a miracle and we are so happy to have her as the newest, coolest, kid around.  MDTG&C....  There is a lot to be thankful for this November!

Princess Potty

She may hate me one day for taking these pictures. 

But I can't help it...Mama is so proud.

G's potty training experience has been a lot different than T's.

I learned a couple of things and have tried not to repeat them.

This all began back in August when D and I went to NY for 7 days.

While gone Grandma thought it would be a nice "present" to potty train our little peanut. 

I laughed and thought, "okay Grandma good luck".

To my surprise she did surprisingly well.  

The first few weeks she did great. She stayed dry both day and night.

She told me when she had to go.

Until....she just stopped.

And with this girl you can't make her do something she is not into.

I tried goodies, prizes, stickers and other motivations.

No luck. She eventually said one day, "Mommy I don't like to go potty in the potty"

And after that it was over.

She went back to pull ups and diapers.

I knew that I wasn't going to push it, I learned that from training T.

It has to be her decision. G knew she was in control so I had to accept it.

I gave up.  Then two weeks ago she showed signs that she was interested again.

So we tried... with no big expectations.

And I happy to report she is doing super well (again).

Back to staying dry (with a few accidents here and the carpet) day and night.

I am trying to make it her choice and just encouraging it.

It hasn't been too stressful or too aggravating.

She is happy about being the "potty princess" and so am I!

So here's to hoping this continues, and I get to enjoy no diapers for a few more days until our new little girl arrives.

32 Weeks and 3 days

It's hard to believe that my first little girl was born at this point in my pregnancy.

Trying remember just how little she was is difficult.

But since I have held a baby at 32 weeks old

 I know what she could feel like if she were here.

Since we know what this experience is like, we have been trying to keep 

this little girl in as long as possible.

I got some help from a great friend to find a awesome doctor.

She has been very calming of all our worries.

I go in every other week to check my status.

I get a Ffn (Fetal Fibronectin Test) and she checks my cervix.

The Ffn test is a cotton swab on the cervix to see if I may go into labor in the next 3 to 13 days.

So far I have had one positive and three negative tests...and I am still prego.

I am also taking weekly progesterone injections...given to me by my sweet husband in the rear.

Those injections will last until 35 weeks.

 Though this has been a more precautionary pregnancy...it has been relatively normal.

As my doctor said last week...

" If I didn't know your history I would think this is a regular boring pregnancy."

I am getting very excited and anxious as we get closer and closer to meeting this girl.

Having two little ones to chase around makes me more tired than I have ever been.

But it is also so fun to talk about the baby and get the kids prepared for her arrival.

We talk about her so much she already feels apart of the family.

We are getting close to deciding on a name she will probably 

Clara

 but still working on the middle

I am in complete nesting mode.

I feel like I am always looking for things to do around the house.

And nothing stays clean enough.

I have been working on her room.

My next big project is to get all her clothes out, washed and organized.

Then take out all the baby stuff...car seat, swing, bath tub, bottles and so on.

I am hoping for another month to prepare.

I think we will all be ready in November.

We are all shooting to get past 36 weeks.

And after that we will be anxiously awaiting for the day to meet our sweet angel!

Princess G!!

My little girl is 2 and 1/2.

She has changed so much it's hard to recognize her some days.

Her personality is coming out full force and she is tough.

T is my sensitive one and G is my stubborn tough one.

She will tell you no and walk away.

Time out and punishments tend to not be a big deal ( T still screams when he is set to time out)

She bullies her big brother, with hitting, screaming, biting and tackling.

She can take pain pretty well and doesn't cry unless she really got hurt.

I have no idea where she gets it from.  People tend to laugh when they hear it and don't believe me.

Because she is so little and adorable.

Despite her little "evil" side to her.  She is princess through and through.

For the most part she is a sweet smiley little girl and definitely my little side kick.

I love my one on one time I get with her while T is at preschool.

She loves to go shopping with me and always make sure she brings her purse.

She is really into bags and is fun to see what she puts in them.

Like rocks, crayons, (fake) food from her kitchen, random paper she finds around the house.

She loves to sing and dance. 

She loves PINK!

She loves Princesses and Strawberry Shortcake.

It a great Mom to her babies.

And she loves animals.

We play beauty shop and paint our nails together.

She is my little girly girl and I eat it up.

She is super excited to be a big sister and loves to kiss my belly and give her sister hugs.

We talk all the time about how she is going to share all her stuff with her sister.

And I am trying to do my best to prepare her.

But I know she is going to be in for a big shock.

 She loves being the baby and still wants me to carry her a lot.  

So I am hoping it is not going to be too challenging when 

girl #2 comes.

I am super excited to be a mom to two girls and all the fun girl stuff we will get to do.

Preschool

T is now a big preschooler!

He is loving it! 

He has made new friends like Malaki and Frankie.

He is learning new things that excited him everyday like letters, numbers, songs, books and more.

He has definitely surprised me on what he picks up.  By the second week he had memorized the whole "Brown Bear Brown Bear" book.

He loves learning knew things and sharing what he has learned with people.

For Mama, the first day of preschool was a little more emotional than expected.

It is the first time (besides church) that he spends time on his own away from me.

It is only just the beginning.

He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-12.

It is at Shoreline Children's Center and is run by the Shoreline School District.

It is set up just like a school with 16 different classrooms, a library, a gym, a music room and a cafeteria.

So when I dropped him off the first day, it felt like my little boy had grow up.

He is changing so much it's a little hard to handle.

I am so proud of him but I tell him everyday that he needs to stop growing.

And I make him pinkie swear with me that he won't ever leave me.

Despite that he has a whole plan that when he turns 18 he is going to move out and live with

his Uncle DJ and be a doctor or a race care driver (depending on the day).

I wish I could bottle these years up and relive them when ever I want.

Vacation and a Wedding

D and I spent last week here...NYC!

We went because of these two wonderful people.  They were married in the Manhattan temple.  

We were so excited to be there for them. It was beautiful!  

Congrats my Brother and his new bride!

Since I had never been to New York City and my whole family with us:

all my brothers, sister in law and my parents,

we made it into a wonderful, busy, sightseeing vacation.

8 day, 7 nights...the kiddos stayed home with Grandma.

We did things like...

Took my first subway ride.

Probably looked like the biggest idiot trying to figure out the ticket machine and where we needed to go,

but we survived and best of all there were no muggings...yay!

We saw an amazing view from the Top of the Rock.

I only had my phone so no amazing pictures were taken...but I thought this was a funny view.

The weather was 90 degrees and almost 100% humidity and being 6 months prego, I spent as much time sitting where I could.

We paid our respects to Lady Liberty via a water taxi. 

She is amazing to see!

Checked out Wall street.  

On a Saturday this place is dead...the whole financial district was a ghost town expect for the tourists.

We also took a quick 5 hour drive with my parents and brother down to the capital.

Good to know about the east coast...it costs money to drive on the highway.  

We probably paid $40 in tolls from NYC to Washington DC.

Jeez...next time we'll take a train.

We took a wonderful bus tour of DC. 

Still a lot of walking but a least I could have a little a/c break once in a while.

First stop...

The Capital Building.

Next...World War II Memorial.

I heard this is beautiful at night.  

When we come back we'll have to check out all these sites at night.

The Washington Monument. 

Interesting..this is the tallest building in DC.

It is beautiful. 

And I love how it is the center of all the important monuments and buildings.

Then we stopped and saw this guy

Thomas Jefferson.

D and I sat and talked about the architecture.  Are those columns Ionic or Doric?

It brought me back to my art history days...loved it.

President Lincoln.

Bigger in real life.

I enjoyed how most people are real quiet around these memorials,
lets you really be able to take it in.

Ended the day at the White house.

This was way smaller than I thought. 

Who would of thought that 55,000 sq. ft. would be smaller in person.

I think the Obama's were out of town.

By the end my feet were ready to fall off.  

And we had only just begun to see DC...so we will definitely be going back again.

There are many favorite things about this trip,

but the top of the list by far was spending time with my hubby.

Life is busy and we don't have much alone time anymore.

Eight whole days was awesome!

 I am so excited for my brother Jake! I hope that he can have that in his life now.

Nothing beats a vacation with your best friend.

Amazing trip!

4 years old!

My little four year old.

He is a boy threw and threw and has been from the day he was born.

He is hilarious, smart, super friendly, sensitive and makes everything fun!

He is a great big brother to G.

They are like two peas in a pod and he is always concerned about her when they are apart.

(which is not very often at all)

His favorite thing is (still after three years) Cars. 

He has three different types that he likes to play with, "eyes car" (which are character cars from Cars the movie), Hotwheels and Nascars.  Sometimes they race together but most of the time he rotates through his collections. Yesterday for his birthday we went to the Disney Store and he got to pick out a toy (new Lightning Mcqueens of course).  They also put on Cars for him and gave him a mini celebration he was in heaven.

He is very excited to be four!

 When is party was coming to an end on Saturday he looked at me with complete excited and said,

"Mom now I get to go to preschool!" 

Because when your four you get to go to preschool.  He is so excited!

He loves to play with his friends.  And often plays pretend with them when they are not around.

G and T play really well together and makes my heart swell with joy when I see them having fun.

He is all boy but will play babies with G and do the girly stuff that him and his cousin Hadley like to play.

He loves to have his toenails painted and likes the color pink.  Two things that makes me laugh but some men in my family give me a hard time about.

One of his favorite new activities...riding his bike! 

He still loves to play with my shoes when I am getting ready.

It's hard to believe he is four.

I don't know how I got so blessed to have such an amazing kid.

I thank the Lord everyday for the blessing he is and that I get to be his Mom.

He is my world and my heart.

Love you T-man!

Happy Birthday!!

My baby boy is 4!

It's hard to believe.

But we did it right on Saturday and threw a great carnival birthday for the guy!

He invited all his friends and family over to enjoy the festivities.

There were games, prizes, popcorn, snow cones and hot dogs.

He loved it! He chose the theme himself out of a Oriental Trading Magazine.

Probably his favorite part...the new toys!

All his friends were excited to see what he got too.

It was a perfect party!  Not too stressful for Mom and a lot of fun for the kids. 

Happy Birthday Buddy!