Loving. . .

Him,

her,

this,

those,

& these!

One Year Old

I can't believe my baby is 1!!! What a great year we have had, not to mention short- it seems to have flown by! She has changed so much, and is progressing so well!

She got her first "girl" toy for her birthday- a pink dolly and two baby bottles. She plays with Benson's toys all day, and loves them, so we thought it was time for some pink things to nurture.

Benson, like the good big brother he is, stepped in to help Alison unwrap her gifts. He was so excited to wrap the gifts we got her, and was mostly happy to let her have the presents. He kept saying, "when I turn 4, then I will have another birthday."



Two shots from the birthday party- smaller than we planned because Benson has had a fever for two days. So we just had our little family and Grandma Nielson to celebrate. But we had a great time anyway!

Love you, baby girl!

225 lbs

I am starting a new blog. It will take the place of Weight Watchers in my life, since I can't afford it at this point. I need the nice little lady smiling while she writes my weight down on my card at the weekly meeting, and since I don't have that right now, I figure a public display of my weight will work nearly as well. The blog is posted on the side bar, but you can click here to go directly there. In case that doesn't work, the address is www.itisnotworththeweight.blogspot.com

So, 225 lbs is not my current weight. I will be posting the current weight tomorrow on my other blog. (Wednesday will be the weekly weigh-in day.) 225 lbs is my heaviest weight, besides pregnancy. That was in 7th grade. Yup, you read that right. I used to be afraid of telling people my weight, because I thought they wouldn't like me anymore if the knew how much I weighed. Silly idea. My thigh and arm circumferences will still be the same if you know my weight. I will still look the same. Nothing will have changed, except the idea in my head that maybe, if you don't know "the number" that you might perchance think I am a size 6, and this will somehow make me feel skinnier. Once again, silly idea. My weight is part of who I am, and always has been. It won't matter if you know the number. Still, though, there is something motivating about posting the number, because if it stays the same or even goes up week after week, I will feel the appropriate amount of dumb and work harder, knowing somebody in blogland may be thinking, "hello, isn't she supposed to be losing weight?"

This may not interest you. Personally, however, I love reading success stories of weight loss, recipe ideas, inspirational thoughts, and the grueling day in and day out emotions of the trouble of it all. So, I will probably post that stuff too. If it helps someone, awesome. If not, great. It will help me, and in turn I will be able to help others personally.

So, on with the journey.

Legs

She will probably hate me for this one day:-) That is what I call HEALTHY! (Is that what I am too?)

We are working on bearing weight/ standing up. At Alison's nine month appointment, her pediatrician and I discussed the fact that although she is progressing, she is behind on her gross motor skills, and so he is going to refer her to early intervention. Funny, because Benson just graduated, since he turned three, and we were just starting to miss our wonderful Occupational Therapist, Melinda. Now she'll come again!

Alison was also diagnosed with Ocular Motor Apraxia, specifically because she needs to thrust her head to get her eyes where they need to be. Her head thrusting is MUCH less noticeable than Benson's, and because of that the pediatric opthamologist thinks this may be an X-linked trait. Meaning some male on my side of the family would have had to have it. Grandpa Hill? Who knows.

Benson is walking, jumping and some-what running, and has taught me that even if those skills come late, they do come. So I don't worry about Alison like I did with him. It's nice to have done this once already, to know to some extent what to expect. She is not as delayed, and is already sitting wonderfully, bearing weight, and catching herself with her arms when she leans, so her progress will probably take a different time table than Benson's. One way or the other, like our O.T. has said from the beginning, when they walk into Kindergarten, no one will know the difference.

Birthday Fun

. . . And then he was three.

I can't believe three years have passed since Benson was born. He has blessed our lives in so many wonderful ways, and we are so grateful he is in our family!

We went bowling for his birthday, because we haven't been bowling since he was born. SO FUN!

The ramp and bumpers really helped. Benson, of course.

Alison and Grandma hung out while the rest of us bowled.

That night we had the grandparents and some cousins over for dinner and birthday cake. We love our family.

When I asked Benson what kind of birthday cake he wanted, he kept telling me that he wanted a vanilla circle cake. I asked him what color it should be, and he said it should be orange. (It looks yellow in the picture, but it was light orange.) I was gearing up to make a truck cake, or a bike cake, or something like that, and he wanted a circle. I can do circles. Vanilla circles, no less. He was happy, so it all worked out.

Great birthday, great day, great little boy! Love you, buddy!

Babies

I love my babies! We went on a walk today- OUTSIDE- in the beautiful weather. This was the first time that Alison has gone in the BOB stroller without her carseat. She loved it!

Benson wanted to go outside and ride his "walking toy" but he said he needed his "hoodie" on. He is too big for this toy, but he loves it!




Our sweet baby girl is 8 1/2 months old! She was loving her yogurt, so I thought I would get some good smiley pictures while I could. She smiled so much about the yogurt that even our slow camera captured the moment!

Love those cheeks!

At-Home Posting

Well, it's official! We finally have the internet! 4 1/2 years without it, and now it feels like perpetual Christmas- we are giddy with the next fun thing we can do on the internet- request and hold a Redbox, blog, facebook, check email, look up recipes, look up potty training info, research sunday lessons, find out what the heck is going on in the world (we don't get TV either), and a host of other fun things, like Pandora, Hulu. . . the list goes on and on. My goal is to not be an internet junkie, and to limit my time. I am currently limiting chocolate, so if I can succeed there, I am certain I can limit the internet. So.

Here are some pictures of my babies. Our camera is slow, and doesn't always get the shot i meant it to, but its good to have some moments caught, one way or the other.

Alison is constantly talking, spitting, and usually smiling, although this picture suggests otherwise. She is 8 months old, and has started experimenting with waving and clapping. She is sitting up, rolling, and very motivated to reach everything, so these are all good things, developmentally speaking. Benson is such a good brother, and he is loving that Alison is interacting with him now. He is starting to have a little playmate! Hurray!
There will be more posts now. Many more. I have the internet. It's about time.

Blessings

I can't believe so much time has passed. We blessed Alison at the beginning of August, and it was wonderful to have so many friends and family there in support. We are truly blessed.

This is a picture of Alison the day we came home from the hospital. The outfit was huge on her tiny little body. Three months later, she is huge! Way to grow, girl!

We dumbly didn't get any shots all together in our Sunday clothes. But oh well. Great day!

Similarities?

Benson, about 7 weeks

Alison, 7 weeks

Benson, about 8 weeks

Summer Fun

Here are a few pictures from our fun ward swimming party. Benson loved the water and learned to put his face in it safely (that is key!). Alison and I hung out in a comfy camp chair and nursed and played- great family time.

Alison at 7 weeks old. My how the time has flown. She is sleeping about 6 hours at night, so that is good for everyone!

Our adorable little buddy. He loved the swings after Phil showered off the chlorine and got him in his jammies. Two babies are busy, but very fun!

You Tube Meg's Song Video

So, I secretly like writing music, which some of you know, and a friend of mine recently let me use his equipment to record one of my songs for a contest. He videotaped it, and put together this cool video found here . If you watch it, keep in mind that I had a baby 5 days later. I wouldn't usually post something like this, but I would love feedback- for instance, if you think its cheesy, let me know. If you like it, let me know. I love writing music, but I want to know if there is a market for my style- it's obviously a Christian/ Inspirational genre, but I hope in my heart of hearts its not cheesy. But if it is, it's better to know now. (The second verse is based on words spoken by Gordon B. Hinckley)

More pictures. . .

Here are more pictures. Check out the post below for more details on the birth.

Here is the first picture of baby Alison. You can't take pictures of the actual surgery, so let's hope this one isn't too detailed. Kind of cool, though.

Since they were hard core on all possible details/ complications, these hands are the NICU nurses doing their thing, rather than regular nurses. Phil said they were crazily efficient.

Baby Alison. . .

. . .and one more makes two!

This is Benson's personality, "oozing joy" as I call it. I love this boy, and I love our new little girl!

Baby Alison

Hello from the Baby Cave! We had our little Alison Claire last Tuesday, and she weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz, 19 1/2 inches long, and her head was a nice and average 35 cm. (That is important when she comes from the genes of large craniums!)

I was super nervous about my C-Section, which had been moved to the main O.R. at St. Marks because of a scare of my having an accreta, which means my placenta had grown into my uterine wall, which has a much higher risk of hysterectomy. We got there at 6:00 a.m., got a spinal, and 10 minutes later they pulled out Alison. THEN, out came my placenta, perfectly! We had prayed and fasted so dang much, and felt prepared for whatever the outcome might be, but it all went so smoothly that even the doctor commented, "if I didn't know any better, I would have thought this was just a routine C-Section." I then, in a state of drugginess, called out, "Thanks Heavenly Father." Maybe cheesy, but very true. We didn't really want to be done having kids just yet. SO!

This was my first glance at Alison from after they delivered her. AND, this is the all time most non-flattering head shot of the afore-mentioned large cranium, aka Meg's forehead, so just ignore that! Phil looks pretty good.

Benson liked "baby girl Alison" right from the start, but it was the parents that he was struggling with. We got the impression that he was confused at why he hadn't been with us for four days, and only could see us at the hospital. The minute he walked into our hospital room, he would start throwing tantrums, so we tried to give him little tasks to help him feel important, like push his "baby sistoo." He did awesome, and now is adjusting really well since we are all home together again.

Sorry this one is sideways. This gives you a good picture of her hair.

Fist-eating glory!

. . .And, last but certainly not least, the proud big brother!

Thanks for everyone's prayer and thoughts! We couldn't have done it without all of you!

Baby Update

So, I have marginal placenta previa, and therefore have a C-Section scheduled on May 19th. At this point, that is only a week and 5 days away, and it seems crazy to think that the pregnancy #2 adventure is almost done! My very brilliant sister-in-law Heather made this car-seat cover for a Graco Safe-Seat and sent it down from Washington. I chose the fabric, and she did all the work. I am completely in love with it!

Heather makes custom car seat covers, so check out her blog here.

Benson apparently likes it too!

What we've been doing. . .

I haven't blogged for a while. Christmas happened, 37 weeks of pregnancy happened, and our house happened, and now it is May. Here is a tiny taste of our life during the past few months. . .

Phil has a great new addiction/ addition to his life called Cross Fit, which is a type of cross training workout that our neighbor set up in their awesome garage. These guys live and breathe the weight lifting, the running, the lunging, the box-jumping, and all sorts of other intense things. And now we eat a lot more protein, which is probably good one way or the other.

Benson turned two a couple of months ago, and this is a picture of his Bus Birthday Cake, which was not supposed to look like a "short bus," but oh well. At that point, Benson loved all kinds of transportation vehicles, but could only say "bus." So, a bus cake he got! Very homemade, but it turned out alright.

Two days before Christmas we had carpet installed, and all through the Fall we finished walls like crazy to make that happen. Here is a peek at our living room, with half of the doors molding up, but painted and finished, one way or the other. Now I am spoiled and hardly ever have construction tools laying around, and lounge around in thick carpet all day. Carpet definitely works wonders on walking babies and happy mommies!

AND, of course, cooking a baby! More to come on that. . .