Kori Danika Swavely

Mommy and baby Kori enjoy some quiet time together. Kori was born today (12/29/08) at 17:26 at the LGH Women and Babies Hospital in Lancaster, PA. Kori came out quickly and was somewhat upset at what was going on but she eventually calmed down.She weighs 7 lbs 3 ozs. She will be measured for length in the nursery (sometime tonight). It appears that Kori will have lighter colored hair than Haley. Kaylan and I were both surprised that she did not have the long eyelashes that Haley was born with.

Kori's footprints. She went along with about everything that was going on.

Grandpa and Grandma Miller fresh in from Oklahoma to see their new granddaughter.

We feel very blessed to have Kori born healthy and to have Kaylan and Kori doing well recovering. Family and friends, thank you for your love and support.

Christmas Day

Here is our beautiful Christmas tree! Santa did come and he brought some great gifts! As you can see there are a few books, a farm set, wooden blocks and a box of brand new crayons!

Haley found Elmo right away in the farm set and was thrilled!

Then Daddy helped Haley build with her new blocks!

Mommy scored some great deals at Gymboree a few days before Christmas and Haley ended up with some new shirts that weren't bought at yard sales!

Haley and Daddy looking a book about Jesus.

I can honestly say that the theme this year was books! She got a ton of great books that I got at discount stores and then she got oodles of coloring books to go with her new crayons.

Here is Haley coloring with the wrong side of her crayon in her new coloring book :)

The Swavely grandparents decided to give all of the grandkids these great wagons for Christmas. They are Amish made and very durable. They can hold up to 800 lbs.! They are a little on the heavy side to pull around for too long but if you only have one kid in it then it's very do able.
Here is a great picture of the cousins all going for a spin the wagon. We had to bundle them up because it was in the 30's but they didn't seem to mind one bit! From the back to the front we have Natalie, her brother Everett, Haley and then Zac is pulling the wagon. We hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as ours. Nothing beats being together as a family for the Holidays.

Sorry. I couldn't resist! It was such a cute picture of Hales. This is mostly for the Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles! Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

Well, we had a lovely Christmas Eve this year despite the fact that Zac had to work. I took a few pictures of Haley in front of the Christmas tree and I think they turned out great! I made dinner and we watched "The Nativity" with Haley. We tried telling her who all the characters were and she really loved seeing baby Jesus. She has since requested the "Baby Jesus Movie" more than a few times and of course we have obliged her.

Christmas Eve morning was fun because I was able to get Haley excited about Santa coming. I told her who was coming to our house tonight and she said, "Santa coming?!". Then she proceeded to tell me that, "Santa coming on firetruck!". She saw Santa on top of a firetruck in her cousins neighborhood the weekend before and kept thinking he was going to come to our house in a firetruck. It was so precious!

It is nice to start our own family tradtions and to teach Haley them too. Although Santa is great I love that we celebrate our Saviors birth even more. When I think about being pregnant and having another child I am grateful I get to do it in a clean and sanitary enviornment. When I reflect on the Saviors birth it was so humble. Born in a manger and brought into this world so simply doesn't seem fitting for such a blessed event. But of course the life of our Savior was that of simplicity and not of the finer things in life. It is very suiting for him to be brought forth in such a humble birth and my gratitude for him deepens at this time of year.

Gearing up for Baby and Christmas

So, I thought I would take a few minutes to update everyone on how we have been doing these past few weeks. Christmas has come to the Swavely's but only in small amounts :) I am not spending a whole lot of time decorating. I would have to take it all down only a few days after I have given birth and that is not really what I feel like doing. These are some pics from when we decorated the tree. Haley is enjoying the tree and having the lights on as much as possible. Zac has been logging plenty of overtime these past few weeks and we are grateful he has plenty of work to keep him busy at his job. He will be working Christmas Eve but like I said before better to be really busy than to have no job at all. Plus, he is taking about 10 days off after Christmas for the delivery and spending time with my Dad and his wife Christie who will be in town for the baby's arrival. Zac took about one day off the last time I delivered and it will be nice to have him home to help out for a while after the baby is born. Haley is a busy body! She has been seeing her Grammy at least once a week now that I have had my appts. closer together and she loves it. She knows who Santa is and she knows who baby Jesus is. I drove past a Nativity that was on the roof of a church and she saw it and said, "Baby Jesus!". Of course I was little shocked that she pointed that particular Nativity out and not the many other ones we've seen at closer proximity around the neighborhood but it was cool none the less. We have been enjoying the Christmas Cards that our friends and family have been sending our way! It's so nice to see how everyone is doing and to catch up on the past year.

As for me and the pregnancy everything is quite here in my belly. No contractions or braxton hicks for me. I am dilated to about 2cm and feeling pretty good. The baby has not dropped by text book definition but she is low. My midwife will schedule my inducement for the 29th of December and if the hospital is not busting at the seams with people in natural labor then I will be able to be admitted. My Dad and his wife Christie will be coming in the 28th and that is a reason I am in no rush to get this kid out. It would be nice to have part of my family here for the delivery and I know that this little squirt will cooperate and wait till the absolute last possible minute to have to be delivered. I make nice little homes for my babies and they seem to never want to leave unless they are forced out :) I am assuming that I will be blessed with another 6lbs. baby this time around. I am not really far out there and my midwife and Dr.'s have both said she will probably be about 6 1/2 lbs. It will be interesting to see how much she weighs and if she looks like her big sister Haley! Haley is understanding a little bit about my ever expanding belly. She has her own baby that she takes to bed and is now calling it "Baby Sis" since that is how I have been referring to the baby for a while now. Yesterday she pointed to my belly and said 1 baby and then pointed to her baby and said 2 babies! I think there will be some adjusting for her but I know she will be thrilled with having a little baby in the house. That's our update for now and we will post anything more if anything happens (which it won't). Take Care and Have a Merry Christmas!

Biggest Spider I have EVER seen!

Um, so I was reading an article online about a woman who took pictures of a python trying to devour her chicken and I came across another article that said, "Spider Eats Bird". I was curious and figured it probably wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before on those Nature shows so I looked it up. And this is what I saw....

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2008/10/23/11601_local-news.html

This is exactly the reason why I will never live anywhere like Australia where everything is huge and poisonious. I am going to have nightmares about this I just know it.

Will your Husband be in the Doghouse this Holiday Season?

So my friend Kristen always sends me great forwards via email. She just recently sent me a commerical that is by far one of the funniest that I have seen in a long time. For any woman who has ever felt wronged by her husband at some point or another this commercial is for you! Enjoy!

http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/videoPage.aspx

Calling All Mommies!

So in my desperate attempt to get ready for baby girl number 2 I am pulling out all of Haley's 0-3 month clothing from bags. I am finding plenty of stains on the collars of her onesies and shirts from spit up. I know most of these stains weren't present when I put them away but have heard that this happens when you bag up baby clothing. Any tips on how to get the stains out or make them less apparent? I plan on washing everything again but before I put it in the wash spraying with Oxy Clean first and then washing with detergent and Oxy Clean in the wash. Let me know if you have any great tips or ideas for me! Thanks!

STARFALL

This post is for all of my mommy friends out there! My sister-in-law Petra introduced me to this great website called STARFALL. It is a website designed at teaching kids their ABC's, vowels, reading, writing, shapes, colors etc. It is a fantastic site! I love it because I am planning on teaching Haley at home with her pre-schooling and this website is already helping her to learn her ABC's. Also, when I teach Haley her ABC's I plan on teaching the Alphabet in Sign Language as well as her learning "Whole Word" and "Phonics" for her letters. This website encourages and teaches all of that! YEAH! We try and get on the computer with her to work on this at least twice a day and for about 15-20min. at a time. She absolutely loves it! She asks if she can play "Mark". There is a section where they teach you to read with short stories and sound out every word in the sentance. One story was about a girl named Carla and a boy named Mark. She literally learned how to say Mark from that story and hearing the named sounded out a few times. It was amazing! It is so fun to watch her learning with this great tool. Please check it out for your kids and let me know what you think! It is for all ages up to at least 3rd or 4th grade. Then I think they have other sites for other age groups and other areas of learning such as math. Check it out and have fun learning with your kids!

http://www.starfall.com/


In honor of Thanksgiving coming up this week I am also posting a quiz you can take to see how much you know about "Thanksgiving" :) I only got 10 right out of 20. Let's see how well you do!

http://home.aristotle.net/Thanksgiving/trivia-index.asp

My Summer of "Twilight"

So this summer I was introduced to the world of Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight series. What a great time I had reading and enjoying good books! I now know that I enjoy reading more than ever and will take a good book any day over tv. I am sure most of you have seen the previews for the movie that comes out today! YEAH! But in all honesty I can tell you without seeing the movie that the book is WAY BETTER! After finishing the book that I had borrowed I knew that I had to have the entire series for myself. I have read the series of four books at least twice now and it gets better each time I read it. If you haven't read the series yet then borrow a copy from a friend and belive me there are plenty of people out there with a copy. This is not for just "Young Adults". I know plenty of mom's in my church who are older than me and LOVE this book series! When our church has had this as a book club reading it has gotten the highest turn out than any other time! People who don't go to church or haven't seen in forever are coming to this event just to get together and talk about the series they love so much! It has good morals and the leading man in the book is a very respectful guy. No wonder we all love Edward!

Well, I get to go out with a bunch of woman who have read the series tonight and see the movie! I am looking forward to talking with them about the books and anticipating the movie! It will be a great time! So far all of you who haven't experienced "Twilight" yet it's time to meet Edward! Enjoy!

Fall in Lancaster Pennsylvania

Halloween at the Swavely's

Fall and Halloween are my absolute favorite time of year! It doesn't get any better with the changing of the leaves, cooler weather and the gearing up for the Holidays! We were more settled this year in our home and it made it a lot easier to enjoy the season in our house. Here are some pictures of pumpkin carving, our pumpkins and the Halloween Party we went to! Enjoy!


On Halloween Night we went to our friends Brad and Amanda's house for a Halloween Party. These were my Halloween cupcakes that I brought and they were so fun to make!

Our dear friend Rasheed dressed up for the Halloween Party and he came as none other than Joe Paterno (Joe Pa) Penn State's Head Football Coach. I love Joe so this costume was my favorite of course! He looks great!

Looking good Joe Pa!

Haley and Addison before Amanda and I took them out trick or treating! We lugged these little ones all over the neighborhood and got our exercise for the night! Phew!

Haley outside on our doorsteps before we left for the party and after we went trick or treating around our neighborhood.

This was my pumpkin lit up at night. Pretty scary!

Here is Zac's pumpkin! Way to go honey it looked great!

Here is my cute pie right before we left to go out trick or treating around our neighborhood.

I LOVE this picture!

Here is my Halloween flag in the yard.

Haley helping mommy scoop out the pumpkin guts!

The Monday before Halloween we decided to carve out our pumpkins. It was our Family Home Evening activity. For those of you who don't know what I mean by Family Home Evening it's just one night during the week that you get together as a family and have a lesson or activity and plan out your week ahead. Here's Haley helping Daddy out!

Haley was a big help scooping out the guts and throwing them in the garbage. As daddy put it..."At this rate Haley you'll be done by Halloween." or something to that nature.

Check out how much she got on that scoop alone! Now you understand what Zac meant by the comment :)