She's Here!

Meet Annika Scarlet back at home last night!

Baby Annika arrived yesterday, February 12th at 9:04 a.m.! She weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and is 20.5 inches long. She beautiful, just as we imagined she would be! There are more pictures to come, our camera battery was dead (oops) when we got it out of our bag to take pictures, but my Mom supplied me with some of hers and we'll add more as we get them!



It was a wonderful experience, wish I would have had the same with the other three! My midwife stripped my membranes Monday afternoon just hours before my baby shower that night. I was in labor at my shower, went home to try to rest, then things really picked up! We ended up at the clinic at 4:30 a.m. and she was born at 9:04 a.m. It went so amazingly well, I loved all of the options there for laboring. I spent time in the jacuzzi tub first, then on the birth ball, then on the bed, then ended up in the shower for an hour and a half until it was time to push! (little did I know!) Judi, my midwife, told me to try and stay in the shower until I couldn't stand up any more, and that's just what I did! Jeremy and Judi helped me back to the bed and I knew it was time to get her out of there!!! She was born 5 min. later. HOLY SMOKES, it was intense! It was SO cool though.

Auntie Jenny, getting her snuggles in before she flew home last night.

We stayed and rested through the day until about 3:30 p.m. and came home and slept SO well last night. (The kiddos are out at Grandma & Grandpa's house!) We're so thrilled to finally meet her. She's so precious.

Morgan hugging Baby Sissy for the first time!

Judi, my amazing midwife, here this morning for a home visit! She even brought me a dozen roses!

hmmm..

Now that I've reached my due date, I'm wondering what this little thing to the right of this is gonna say tomorrow? +1 day over?? We're due in: yesterday?

So no labor so far! My baby shower is tomorrow night, and we planned it that way so that my sister could come (she leaves Tuesday!) and figuring I'd have the baby last week like I usually do! But, I've recently thrown all expectations out the window. It's been a great lesson for me, a hard one, but a good one. I have so many starts of "labor" that I now think that I'll believe she's coming when I see her with my own eyes!

This is the first day that I haven't wanted her to arrive, because we'd have to cancel the shower with all my buddies! But God has a great sense of humor and a knack for teaching lessons, so stay tuned for it to happen in the middle of the night tonight! :)

just in case you were wondering...

I thought I'd give any of my far away friends an update on my still pregnant condition! :)

I am about 4 days from my official due date, and am ready to have a baby! It is frrrrrrrrrrrreezing cold here, I don't blame my little sweetie for staying put! It was -20 today at one point! BBBBRRRRRRR! But I did have an amazing prenatal massage this afternoon that was 1 hour long. It was so wonderful. She did the labor-stimulating pressure points on me to see if it would help things along at all. I've been contracting consistently since dinner about 3 hours ago, but I tend to do that all the time! I might have to be ready to push before I believe I'm really in labor when it comes!

So I'm at 2 cm, as of yesterday and am ready to roll when the time comes. My Mom arrived yesterday and my sister arrives on Thursday.

We've been in contact with my sis this evening, their town in Tennesee was hit by those tornadoes tonight. She said one rumbled by their house, they felt the shaking and things moving. So as of an hour ago, they were waiting for one more system to come through, then hopefully they'll be done. She said they've been hiding out in a central closet with bike helmets on the boys. :( Be praying for the Howells. Morgan prayed at bedtime that the "tomadoes" would stop and be put in a box. Well put, little one!

Sleep, where are thou?

Okay, so I know insomnia is so normal especially at the end of pregnancy, but it's driving me a bit crazy because I'm SO incredibly tired by the end of the day!

(And there's absolutely no reason for the polka dot teapot and cup... just thought it was cute, and red is my favorite color!)

Last night I was up from 1:30am-3:00am just laying there until Annika started kicking and punching like crazy that it hurt so bad I had to get up! Then all of the sudden I was starving! So I went out in the living room, plopped down on the couch in the dark and ate Oriental Chicken Salad and a ginormous Valentine sugar cookie covered with frosting and sprinkles. Then I laid back down and finally fell asleep, until I had this intense dream and woke myself up with my thumping heart!

Ugh, then I was up until after Jeremy left for work at 4:30am and finally konked out again after 5:30 sometime! I think it's really just God's way of getting all of us pregnant women ready to take care of a newborn in the middle of the night! But I woke up semi-refreshed after 8am sometime when Miss Morgan came in. Then came the boys who are supposed to play in their room until 8am if they're already awake before then. At least they all cooperated this morning! I might have turned into Monster Mom if it had been earlier!

So here's to sleeping through the night for this mama. Getting up to go to the bathroom 3 times doesn't exactly help matters either!

Wow, she's Full Term!

My pregnancy has reached full-term at 37 weeks! I'm now "legal" to deliver anytime from now on at the midwifery.

Last night I had the most vivid (and strange) dream about baby Annika. In the first part of the dream, she was born yesterday (I might add) and we were home and she looked like she was only 30 weeks gestation or so.. and I looked like a skeleton version of myself! We were getting ready for church (yes, the day after she was born) and my biggest concern was that she was too small for all of her clothes! Then all of the sudden, she was bigger, WAY bigger! But it was still the day after she was born! She had a full head of hair that already had a haircut, bangs and all. And my new concern was that she was way too big for all of her clothes. I was so disappointed that she was going to have to wear a pair of jeans and a pink Elmo t-shirt her first Sunday at church!!! It was SO real! I laid her down on a blanket so I could finish getting ready, and she sat up all by herself, stood up, and proceeded to walk to me! Wow, what a newborn!

I woke up laughing and telling Jeremy about my weird dream, and he told me that he had a dream that he was a Jedi Knight killing everyone in sight with a light saber!!! Yikes! He has had a bad neck all day from the stress of his dream and tensing up in his sleep! I think it was started by Drew coming into our room at 5 am this morning with a nightmare. He gave us a good idea, I guess!

The next couple weeks are gonna fly! My Mom flies in on the 3rd, two weeks from today and my sis, Jen flies in on the 7th for 5 days! My Mom is able to stay for a month, which we're thrilled about... can't wait for Grammy to come and stay! She's the best at "middle of the night baby holding and rocking!" Thanks, Mom! She's got lots of experience... :) And I'm praying that the baby isn't even 2 days after her due date, then Auntie Jenny will miss her!

Baby Annika is still in a funky posterior position, would you pray she decides to do a little roll so her face is facing my spine? She has the back of her head against my tailbone, etc... and it's not feeling to hot! I know God has an exact plan for her birth already, but since pain meds aren't an option this time, I'd love for her to be in the best possible position! If she follows suit, she'll arrive in my 39th week like the others...

I've been "nesting" like a madwoman. Cleaning, dusting, getting baby things all washed and folded, and packing the diaper bag with all of her newborn essentials to take with us to the birth. Morgan and I set up Annika's bed in our room this week. Now, that feels really real having her bed set up! Next up? Getting myself a bag packed.

Be watching for news of our sweet baby girl!

Bunko!

Another Bunko night down! Last night Bunko was at the home of your's truly. It was supposed to be Pajama Night... but only a few of us "got the memo!" :)

Here are some pics of our fun bunch!

One picture I really wanted to get last night was a lineup of all of us pregnant gals and our tummies or lack there of... There were 5 of us there last night! Allison is due in just 1 week, I'm due in 4, Janeen is due in 8, Rachel is due in 12 (sense a pattern?), then Elizabeth throws everything off by being due in August! :) She is the newest member of the pregnant Bunko girls.

To answer your question, Ashley & Julie!

Hi guys...

Okay, to answer your question about my pregnancy! I do feel so much better this time around than I did with the other three! I have a funny answer for you!! I attribute it to my Kitchen Aid breaking this last summer! (and I told Jeremy I don't want another one until after I have the baby!)

Usually I crave anything baked, especially cookies fresh out of the oven and baked them regularly through my other pregnancies... and I think I ate most of the batches myself! So no baked goods this one....

But since summer we've also added tons more fruits and veggies to our diet. I think the combo of no Kitchen Aid (who wants to hand mix cookies? It's just not worth it to me!) and adding more fresh stuff to our days has helped me gain just 23 lbs. so far!!! I feel so much better than I did at the end of my last pregnancies, so call it the Kitchen Aid strike diet! hee hee

more Sleepover fun

(see the next post for more sleepover details)

Here's a shot of our newly opened socks from our Sock Exchange! I think this is the 3rd time (or maybe more) we've done this as a group... Everyone brings a wrapped (new) pair of socks and we do it like a White Elephant gift exchange! Even Morgan got new socks that night! Thanks Cathy!

It was so fun to hang out and catch up on the lives of these girls that have been a part of my life since they were in 9th grade!

Sleepover Baby Shower!

Last Friday night we planned a reunion sleepover with all of our college freshman girls while they were home for Christmas! But, they all showed up at the door with pillows stuffed under their shirts for a surprise baby shower!! They were the most adorable and hilarious bunch of pregnant gals around! I kept cracking up everytime I looked at them... and I made them keep them in for a while! I heard all sorts of funny comments like, "It's so hot having that in my belly!" and "it's hard to hug people!" and "I can't bend over and tie my shoes!" Feel my pain, girls... :)

Caiti, one of the super talented girls in the bunch makes and decorates cakes as a hobby and made this beautiful cake for our party! It was SO yummy too.. we finished the leftovers off last night! It was chocolate with fluffy creamy raspberry filing! YUM!

Thanks so much you guys for a fun and memorable night! We laughed hard into the wee hours of the morning. And our little Miss Annika received some adorable and tiny pink things!!! Some of which is in the bag waiting to go the midwifery to welcome her!

So thank you Anita, Elizabeth, Erin, Caiti, Johanna, Emily, Cathy, and Diana for a fun and sweet evening with you all! (Diana missed out on our belly photo shoot!)

5 weeks left!

today at 34 1/2 weeks

in October at 25 weeks

I thought I should take a current belly shot to record how big my belly is growing!

So here I am today at nearly 35 weeks.... and then the picture I posted a while back when I was at 25 weeks! I wore the same shirt for effect. hee hee

my fake Pottery Barn ornaments!

I had posted a while back that I was going to attempt to copy some ornaments that I saw in a Pottery Barn store in November. They were $6 each and I just couldn't spend that kind of money on one ornament!!

We're getting ready to take our tree down, so I thought I'd post pictures of my finished products. I ended up making about 20 of them. They were super easy to make and fun too!

And they were definitely cheaper than $6 a piece, they ended up being around $1-$2 each.

Pottery Barn's version (below) ... I was a little picky at first picking out ribbon, I wanted mine to look JUST like theirs, but it wasn't happening. So I settled for the ribbon I could find, and I

love the way they turned out!

New Year's Eve!

Our New Year's Eve was spent at home enjoying family time together! Jeremy's sister Heather was spending a couple days with us during her time here in Alaska. By the kids, she has been called everything from Uncle Jennifer to Auntie Heatherfer! The kids get a little confused by all their Aunties and Uncles! Their favorite thing to do with Auntie Heather is playing hide and seek! She's such a fun Auntie.

We spent about 10 min. outside with sparklers and some small fireworks! Miss Morgan wasn't crazy about the loud popping noises or the sparklers. So she watched from a distance or from inside!



We watched a few movies, played some games, ate some yummy food and had ice cream at midnight! Have you know that the adults fell asleep crashed in the family room just shortly after midnight while the kids finished their movie! It was so nice to stay home and not have to drive anywhere after the new year.

Ashley & Sarah

We had an impromtu visit with our friends the Browns during the day on New Year's Eve for brownies and ice cream! It was the first time we'd been in their beautiful new home! Our kiddos had a great time running around playing spies with Charlotte while Mr. Liam was napping.

We're SO glad they are back in Alaska!!!

Sledding with the Novaks

Last Friday, we spent the afternoon sledding with our good friends the Novaks! It was perfect: not too cold and plenty of snow in the mountains! I was the official photographer, I wasn't exactly in the sledding condition! It was enough to walk (I mean waddle) up the slope to park myself on the hill. We ended our day with a yummy meal of chili and cornbread at the Novak's house. Such fun!

Neopolitan Sundae hats!

I finally have my Neopolitan Sundae hat pattern finished and perfected! It took me a few tries to get it just like I imagined... but a few of them are now delivered and being sold at Pitter Patter! My first one sold while I was standing there in the store after dropping them off! I have 3 more to drop off this week.
Thank you, Olivia for being my adorable model. :)

new family photos

At the beginning of December, we had some top secret family photos done! We were giving them as gifts to all of our family... But now we can share them! Here are a few of my favorites! Some of them were included in our Christmas letter and picture card.

I've never been pregnant in a family picture before, that was so fun! We were long overdue for a family shot, it had been since Drew was 3! He's now 7! Gavin was just a baby in our last one, and Morgan was a twinkle in God's eye!

I had no idea!

Yesterday, the boys and I were playing Upwords. Which is like scrabble, but you can change words into new words by stacking letters on top of each other... Well, I taught the boys to play and helped them form words from their letters when it was their turn. We had gone around a few times and it came to Gavin's turn. I leaned over and said, "Alright, let's see what letters you have!" He said, "Mom, I got it. I want to do it all by myself!" I said, "Okay, go for it!"

Drew and I watched in anticipation. He changed GOD into BODAH. I asked him what a BODAH was and without missing a beat, he replied, "Oh, it's a type of camel!"

Drew and I about busted our sides open laughing! And I about gave birth right there. What a little nutty guy. Good answer, Gavin.

more Christmas fun

Drewy and his new cap gun

the Christmas ballerina

Nice cookie rolling!

Hmm.. so many cookie cutter choices...

Here are some more pictures of our time in Willow... the kids opening presents on Christmas Eve morning and decorating sugar cookies with Grandma.


Our camera mysteriously disappeared after that on our way home, or so we thought! So we have no pictures of Christmas Day on our camera... those will come soon... Heather took loads of pics for us on her sweet camera. Jeremy and I each searched in the overnight bag we brought out to Willow twice and it wasn't there! But after Christmas was all over last night, and we got home from my Dad and Marla Kay's house for our last Christmas celebration, Jeremy checked that bag one more time and there it was!

I ended up with 4 new CD's this Christmas... all of which I was dreaming of owning!

Pride & Prejudice soundtrack (new version)

Sound of Music soundtrack

Louis Armstrong

Ella Fitzgerald

We've listened to a lot of new music today around our house! You know that I've watched Pride & Prejudice too many times, when my 3 yr old daughter says after hearing the soundtrack for the first time... "Is this the part where she is running in the rain?" hee hee

Gingerbread House!

Our family spent Sunday the 23rd in Willow with Grandma and Grandpa! We attempted this gingerbread house, but it came out hilariously funny. The icing was running and melting off the roof and the candy was sliding off. It was a sight to behold. But we sure had fun doing it!

We spent the night there and spent a fun evening and Christmas Eve morning there before we headed home to our house with Auntie Heather for some quick down time before going to a Christmas Eve Service in Big Lake.

Our most memorable moments from the service...

When they were passing communion, Gavin leaned over to Morgan and said, "Morgan, they have crackers here!" Morgan then leaned over to me and said, "Mom, they're doing the Nutcracker here tonight!!"

Then... during the candlelight portion... Gavin was warily holding his own candle and decided to hand it to Auntie Heather and let go of it before she had a handle on it! The candle, of course, flipped upside down and landed flame down on her leg! Thankfully no damage was done, except a little wax on her jeans. But Gavin sure let out a gasp for all to hear!