Little Leelee

I'm finally getting around to posting our baby story. Around the first week of July I was starting to get excited for Leelee to join us and as the dates started to roll by I kept hoping I'd go into labor. July 7th would have been cool since her sister's birthday is 8/8, or 7/8 would have been fun too, or lucky 7/11, or 7/13 (my birthday), 7/15 (Michelle's birthday), 7/17 (I just like the numbers), 7/20 (my grandma's birthday), or 7/21 (Kris' grandma's birthday).  Pretty much any day in July would have worked. My due date was the 19th so I was praying that whatever day she did decide to come it would be before that date.  I was going out of my mind crazy being super pregnant in the middle of this hot summer with all the kids home. Out. Of. My. Mind. Crazy. Just ask Kris or the kids. On second thought, don't ask them as I'm sure they would be brutally honest and I'd rather pretend like it didn't happen.

I had lots of contractions starting around the second week of July thus feeding into my furious desire to go into labor. I dragged Kris on many hot summer night walks around the neighborhood trying to get them to progress into something serious.  We had an unfortunate trip to the hospital after having several hours of regular contractions that were getting seemingly stronger and were less than five minutes apart. We dragged the kids out of their beds in the middle of the night and hauled them to my mom's only to be sent home from the hospital after 5 hours of being monitored and walking the halls. I don't dilate early and I was too far from my due date for them to "help" me along so they sent me home and of course eventually the contractions stopped. That had never happened to me before, I felt so dumb. Here I am having my sixth child, I KNOW what it's like to go into labor for crying out loud! I thought for sure I would not leave that hospital without a baby.  And to top it off Kris wasted one of his precious vacation days that would've come in handy when the baby actually got here!

Further into the month I began to get increasingly discouraged but eventually came to the realization there was nothing I could do to speed things up. So we waited and waited. We watched her due date roll by (the kids were certain she would be born that day since it was her DUE DATE after all!) At my appointment that day the doctor left it up to me, whether I wanted to be induced or not. At this point my frazzled brain and hot, heavy laden body could handle no more. Induce me! Please! I was SO ready!

I really wanted to go into labor on my own but I don't think she had any intentions of coming out anytime soon so on the 22nd we headed to the hospital to help her along. We had an awesome nurse, same one that had been there the night we had the false episode and she remembered us. We laughed and joked the whole time. She has a son named Rush, how cool is that? Everything went so smoothly. The anesthesiologist jokingly asked us if we were going for the big family discount, buy 6 get one free.

Me, moments before changing into that lovely hospital gown.

Kris moved his chair across the room so he could sit next to me in the rocker. This is the scene our nurse walked into and she asked us for our camera. We were like two little old people sitting in our rockers watching TV. Reminds me of my great-grandma and grandpa, they had two recliners together in front of the TV.

The labor and delivery were great. Once my water was broken she was born quickly. In fact, we had been watching Wheel of Fortune, my mom was there and if you know my mom she doesn't miss Wheel, not even for a grandbaby :) and Leelee happened to be born right during the middle of it. Not that we were watching or anything (well, Mom might have been) and we joked about naming her Vanna. Such a happy, wonderful time. We are so blessed.

Our Little Leelee

July 22nd

8 lbs. 15 oz.

21in.

(2nd biggest, I can't believe I thought she would be my smallest!)

It's good to start life off with a few good leg rolls.

Finally a sister!

Big Bro Colbs

Daddy and daughter

Meeting Grannie, part of her namesake. (Actually, she'd already met her the day before...)

A family portrait for me at the hospital by Owen

Big Bro Matt

Big Bro O

Big Bro Rex

(this little girl is going to have some serious protection)

Our happy family

We feel so blessed and happy to have Leelee in our family. She has a sweet and calming presence. She is loved by all. Colby has his moments of picking on her but mostly he loves to hold his little Weelee (as he calls her). I am just trying to savor the days of her newborn babyness, I know they will be gone far too soon...

It's Been a Busy Month...

It all began on July 17th when we fed the fish at Warm River

trying to take advantage of some of

our favorite scenery in Idaho

luckily the fish were happy to see us

and we're gonna miss them and the
beautiful drive through Ashton...

The next day we celebrated my (ahem) 33rd birthday(it's ok, I'm not sensitive about my age but sometimes I think, wow, it's kind of weird how old I am!)

and also my wonderful sis, Michelle's birthday (she's lucky- she's only 23!)

we miss these guys! (a whole bunch!)

On July 19th we took one last trip to Yellowstone for awhile (sniff, sniff)

and had a perfect day
we visited my favorite part- the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

and did something we'd never done before-
swam in the freezing river by the hot (really, really hot)
springs and created our very own hot tub!

and had so, so, so, so much fun!







(here's the part where we moved back to Arizona and it was so stressful and crazy and total mayhem for about a week that we just want to forget most of the things that happened (like cutting my toe and having to get stitches or leaving a day and a half later than we planned on) and I didn't take any pictures the whole time and we're just glad it's over so we can forget the whole thing except for the part where we had so much wonderful help from all our lovely ward members and friends (but I'm kind of still embarrassed they had to see our home in such a state.) We were only in that ward for 10 months but it is going to be hard to beat!)






Moving on to AZ...




The kids built a Lincoln Log town (they took about a hundred pictures and it's pretty funny to see them from their vantage point, like looking out the windows from inside the buildings, etc. But we don't have time for all of them here...)

chilled (as much as we can in this heat) with Grannie and Otter Pops

Rex' went to his first day of preschool

(his shirt was all wet cuz he got toothpaste on it:)

Gracie celebrated her 9th birthday

(seriously, is she only 9?!?!?)

(Krispy Kreme's was a huge splurge and that won't be

happening again anytime soon, but it was seriously so good!)

She received all things girly,

which included tons of earrings that she has been coordinating

with her outfits and wearing to school every day.

(Those flowers are for her hair, not her ears.)

played at the splash park to have a little fun before the first day of school

(All five of them are in this picture, can you spot them? It was the best I could do.)
had their first day of school

(Thankfully all went well.)
and played in the sprinklers!

Whew! Now, I bet you'll agree we've had one crazy busy month and this wasn't even all of it. We also had a visit from my sister Tara and her family, cousin sleepovers, too much school shopping, family dinners, played in the wonders of the irrigation, AND Kris went to Rexburg and back to retrieve the rest of our belongings that wouldn't fit in the giant moving truck in the first place! I'm exhausted just thinking about all of it. Hopefully now things can calm down a bit around here and I can get back to blogging!

Happy Birthday To You!

Happy Birthday Dear Mother of mine!

It is hard to imagine that just one short year ago we were celebrating your birthday in the hospital wondering if you were ever going to be the same. Your head was shaved, your feeding tube was inserted and you were obsessed with the color pink. I kinda wanted to post a picture of you at your last birthday party but then I thought you might not forgive me. Remember when Tara and I came to speech therapy with you and she asked you to see how many of the United States you could remember? She said most people could only get 20 or so and you said "I can get all 50!" Oh how hard we laughed when you started singing "50 Nifty United States"! The past year has been challenging and difficult as we have watched you heal and work and challenge yourself to be well. I could not be more proud to have you as my mother. I could not be more grateful to still have you here, calling to check on me and see if I"m doing ok. I love how you are still doing singing telegrams. You are a wonderful, shining, loving, spiritual example to me. I am so sad to not be coming down there this week. But I don't want to cry at your party! I hope you have a wonderful birthday and many, many more!!!


A little message from the kiddos:




P.S. Earlier today when we were looking at Tara's post Owen said "Awww man, I really wish Grannie was here right now. She knows how to make everyone's smiles light up!" Too true!

P.P.S. Your birthday present is on it's way. I took a picture just so you could see. I finished it, I really, really did (It only took me about 3 years!). And here's proof. I hope you like it! And I think we can deduce from this board that the months of March, June, July and August are off limits for any more birthdays. Haha, just kidding!